#or the tank is half a second faster and my heal hits right after a DRK living dead | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dirty-brainrot · 4 years ago

Text

(Not like him ²)

Here's the 2nd part to this!

Pairing(s): Stardust Crusaders x Reader

After traveling for weeks and days with the crusaders, all of you have finally reached Cairo. You helped them track down DIO to the best of your abilities. But you were able to only scout the area for them at night and kept an eye out for any stand users under DIO's influence. (And yet with all of your efforts, your relationship with Jotaro hasn't changed. He's still wary of you.)

Iggy had been wounded. None of you were there to see what happened so you could only guess that the boston terrier was attacked by a stand user. On the brighter side, Kakyoin returned fully healed after the incident with the water stand.

You all wasted no time and headed straight for DIO's mansion. Although, you had a hard time keeping up because of the thick clothes you wore to protect you from the striking sun.

The time you had there was excruciating. Your allies had a near-death experience at the fight with Vanilla Ice but good thing you were there to prevent that. Although, they had sustained heavy wounds, making them unable to help further, and had to fall back.

DIO's minions were able to stall you all until sunset. Forced to fight DIO at night, you discarded the heavy cloak, also gaining the upper hand. And all of you fled away thinking of a way to figure out his stand's powers. Jotaro chased after the vengeful Polnareff while you, Kakyoin, and Mr. Joestar figured out the body-stealing vampire's stand.

Currently, you were on the trunk of the truck, gripping tightly on the edges so you wouldn't get thrown off. You screamed to Joseph on the wheel. "DRIVE FASTER!! HE'S GAINING ON US—" You looked back at the car that DIO was in but you were only met with a corpse hurtling towards you at great speed. Startled, you jumped off and rolled around the pavement. The car slammed into a building and exploded with debris flying all over. Worried for your companions, you ran towards the car. The corpse sat there but they were nowhere to be found.

Relief washed over you once you saw them swinging from buildings to building and calling your name. You glanced behind you to see DIO's silhouette in the smoke, calling out to you. "Y/N... Join me..." Not wanting to handle him on your own, you ran after Kakyoin and Joseph. Jumping from buildings to another as your stand had no swinging abilities like theirs. "Joestar!!" Catching up to them, you spoke in panic. "What's the plan?! He's going to catch up sooner or later!"

"Don't worry Y/N!" Kakyoin grabbed your arm and pulled you away from Joseph. You both hid behind a building. Confused, you looked up at him waiting for answers. "We made a plan. I will set up a trap while Mr. Joestar distracts him." Provided with little context; You nodded slowly, unsure. He quickly made a platform with [Hierophant]'s tentacles for you and him to stand on. You stood beside him, watching the Joestar struggle to keep DIO away.

Once he was in the designated spot. He was finally able to entrap him in place, kakyoin used his splash move. "Emerald Splash!" Trapping DIO into his 50-meter Emeralds Splash web.

"Smart..." 'With this... we can get DIO to use his stand..!' You mumble and he flashes you a quick, small smile. "Hmm... Y/N... This will be the last chance I give you a chance to join me—" You interrupted him, growing frustrated with his repeated words. "Just stop with that already! After what you put these Joestars through... I'll never join your side." You growled at him and he laughs, mocking you. Kakyoin fired emeralds at him, making him halt his laughter.

As Kakyoin stated, nobody can deflect his emerald splash but DIO was able to do it with his bare hands. "That won't hold him for too long, Kak... Will this work?—" And right on time, DIO finally decided to reveal his stand's true power. "[The World]'s true power is, indeed, the power to reign over this world!"

A loud echoing noise, then suddenly, everything stopped. 'His stand...' You didn't get the chance to finish your thought as he starts to cut Kakyoin's trap while flying in your direction. "Dear Y/n... My beloved half-blood... You could've ruled the world with me... But it's too late for that now." 'This is no good... My secret weapon is the same as his too..!' [The World] pulled back his arm, getting ready to strike a punch. But it wasn't directed at you, it was directed at Kakyoin's stomach.

As [The World]'s fist was halfway through the air, you moved through stopped time, surprising DIO but that didn't stop him. You grabbed Kakyoin's arm and pulled him away, taking the hit through the stomach. Unlike DIO, your [The World] can only pause and move through stopped time for a second or two. Making it slightly weaker.

DIO was still caught off guard by your stand's ability, his own stand's arm still plunged into your stomach as time started ticking again. Your hair wildly slapped against your face as you flew through the air until you felt yourself hit a water tank. Kakyoin and Joseph called out to you but you weren't able to hear them due to the ringing from your ears from the metallic impact.

Feeling numb, you tried getting all your senses all together but it was to no avail. Slowly, you tilt your head up. you could see Kakyoin's silhouette swinging on buildings trying to get to you. Being strict by drinking anything but animal blood is giving you a huge withdrawal. Your regeneration isn't as fast as it was before... "-N...Y/N!" You snap your head back up to see Kakyoin looking at you with concern. "Y/N, are you ok?!" You cough out blood and weakly spoke. "Same stand... DIO can stop... time.." Kakyoin glanced back behind him and back to you. He avoids looking at your stomach, feeling sick that he can see through the hole.

"Wh—why aren't you healing?" He stutters and helps you get out of the water tank. You collapsed on top of him and he gently sets you down on the floor, kneeling beside you.

"Need blood..." His eyes widen and you shook your head. "Tell... Joestar that.. DIO...can stop time.." You croak. Your body is regenerating but it wasn't as fast as how you wanted it. Kakyoin nodded and stood up, expecting him to leave you and help the elder Joestar but you were wrong. He called out his stand and shoot the large clock, breaking its hands.

"Fool..! Just go find Jota—" He stops you and grabs your arm, pointing it to his neck directly at the carotid artery. "You said you needed blood right?" Kakyoin said with a stern face. Your eyes widen as you tug your hand away from his neck, failing due to lack of strength. "Yes... but I don't need it- I can manage." you croak out while Kakyoin kept a firm grip on your hand. "Y/N, you saved me. You need this to be able to fight DIO." 'He doesn't even know if I actually saved him... He has this much trust in me..' Biting your lip, you hesitantly shoved your sharpened nails in his neck. You only needed a small amount...

He visibly winced but it disappeared quickly. You drank a small portion of his blood while your wounds start to regenerate at a quicker pace. Slowly getting your strength back, you rose from your sitting position and quickly removed your fingers from Kakyoin's neck. He stumbled a bit but you helped him regain his footing. "G-go..." You nodded and prepared to jump through buildings to catch up with Joseph and DIO but before you did, you glanced at Kakyoin. The guilt slowly rising within you, he notices your look and smiles. "...thank you." You mutter and with that, you searched for DIO and joseph.

Jumping from buildings to buildings again, time would often stop but thanks to Kakyoin's offering, you learned that you could stop and move through time for at least 5 seconds or more. Following the trail of bloodshed, you saw Joseph's dried corpse in the distance. "Oh no..." No time for grieving, you continued. Getting closer, you start to feel the presence of your damned brother.

"ROAD ROLLER!" There they were, on the bridge with Jotaro losing to DIO. Quickly, you made your way to them. "DIO!" You screamed before freezing in time. He laughs and throws the road equipment towards you, it gets stuck in time after it was inches from you. At least Jotaro doesn't have to worry about getting crushed.

Once time started ticking, you evaded it by punching it with your stand. Given the opportunity, you stopped time. DIO froze due to his stand's ability cooldown. You gave him a hard punch in the stomach like what he did earlier. Your stand's hand goes through him then you slow down and freeze while DIO starts moving again. He starts laughing at your attempt. "Foolish Y/N.... I am stronger than you." He pushes you. You flew back and your stand's hand went out of his stomach. It regenerates as nothing had happened.

DIO approaches you, your body tilted as it was frozen in time. "Why couldn't you just let me kill the Joestar's bloodline?" [The World] raises its arm, ready to decapitate you as DIO spoke. "Just for this, I'll make you suffer to what I had to go through just to get this body—" Then suddenly, he froze too. Behind him, you could see a towering Jotaro. "It seems like you can only stop time for 9 seconds..." He glances at you and nods, as a way of thanking you for distracting DIO to help him regain his strength.

"Now, it won't take even a second to finish you off!" Jotaro shouts and points at DIO. He approaches him from behind. Jotaro starts his monologue and kicks DIO on the legs, breaking them. "Time has begun to move again." Time starts and you dodged the falling DIO. He falls into the concrete, his legs bleeding. Jotaro hops off the road roller. "How long will your legs heal? Two seconds? Three seconds?" He stood in front of DIO. Ready to give him a beatdown. "The moment you heal. I'll throw [Star Platinum] at you."

DIO elevates himself, his knees shaking. He seems to be mumbling something. "-How I do it, does not matter!" He splurts out blood to Jotaro's eyes. 'He's playing dirty-' You jumped into action, helping Jotaro counter [The World]'s leg attack. You and Jotaro both punched its leg. [Star Platinum]'s hand starts to crack as well as your stand's but it healed quickly. DIO smirks at Jotaro but it instantly switched as the three of you heard another crack. [The world] starts cracking and falling apart. DIO screamed in agony. "WHAT?!" He starts splitting apart while yelling. "IMPOSSIBLE! I-I AM DIO!" He repeats his words and explodes into pieces. Body parts flying around and his blood tainting the floor.

That's it. It's done.

You sat down and sighed in relief. "Glad he's gone. He always stole my food..." Jotaro chuckles but abruptly stops. "Do you think... The old man's blood can be retrieved back?" You look at him with wide eyes. He looked determined and from his question, you could guess that he had a plan. "What do we have to lose?" And with that, the two of you called the Speedwagon Foundation.

Everything went well in the ambulance, Jotaro nearly punched his grandfather and you laughed at their antics. Avdol and Iggy gained prosthetics, Polnareff was mildly injured (comparing to Iggy and Avdol.) And Kakyoin is gaining some of his blood back.

You stayed with the Joestars while the others flew back to their home country.

But you can't help but think about the sweet warm blood that Kakyoin offered you. Maybe drinking a few more human blood wouldn't be too bad...

126 notes · View notes

askkrenko · 3 years ago

Text

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Moltres

It’s the Phoenix, but Copyrighted.

DESIGN:

It’s the Phoenix. Look, there’s all sorts of Phoenix designs over the years, but ultimately Moltres is just one of them. It’s a bird on fire with talons and a sharp beak. Moltres just happens to be a bit more yellow than Phoenix usually is, but really that just allows a bit more contrast to the red flames. And that’s a later development, too. Frankly, my favorite Moltres design is gen 2 where the wings are entirely made of fire.

Galarian Moltres is basically just a palette swap as most alternate forms are, but the black and pink really lends itself to a different mood entirely. No longer does it just feel like a Phoenix, but instead some sort of waking nightmare with an indistinct, somewhat shapeless form. I’m not saying I like Galarian Moltres ‘better,’ because I do appreciate them both, but it’s certainly a great take on a form that’s otherwise very generic. Still, after seeing Galarian Zapdos it’s hard not to be disappointed by what’s mostly a paint job.

TYPING:

4x Weakness to Rock is a hell of a drug. Overall, Moltres’ typing is weak offensively (Flying and Fire share too many strengths) but good defensively, able to withstand hits from seven types and basically able to ignore Ground, Grass, and Bug attacks. The problem is that 4x Weakness to rock is a huge hole that enables it to be one-shot out of nowhere and makes Stealth Rock ruin it. This isn’t a deal-breaker, but it is important to keep in mind. If your strategy allows it, I strongly recommend giving Moltres “Heavy Duty Boots” specifically for Stealth Rock.

Galarian Moltres has fewer defenses overall, but it’s only 2x weak to rock and it gains full immunity to Psychic. Also, Dark/flying can be a bit better offensively than Fire/Flying, though not necessarily by a huge amount.

Either way, both type combinations round out to be good ones.

Art by JC Porcel

STATS:

Moltres has a great special attack of 125, but it wastes a lot of points by having its second highest stat be physical attack. After that, it’s sitting on a pile of slightly-above-average 90s. 90 is still decent, of course, but when you’re looking at a Legendary Pokemon you do expect a bit more oomf overall.

Galarian Moltres rearranges to have its highest stat be a 125 Special Defense, with a 100 in Special Attack. This makes it more durable by the numbers if weaknesses and resistances aren’t factored in, but it does do less damage.

Art by Kanizo

ABILITIES:

Moltres’ default ability is Pressure. If using Moltres as a tank, Pressure can be fine whittle down a foe, though the usual caveat that this only works in a heavily tanky build applies.

Another Moltres option, also tanky, is its hidden ability Flame Body. Flame Body penalizes contact-making attacks with a chance to burn the foe, which then lowers physical attack. This is an entirely solid ability that works great on anything with good bulk. Also, it’s warm and cozy and makes your eggies hatch faster.

Galarian Moltres’ ability is Berserk, which increases its Special Attack by one stage (1/3rd) when it’s knocked to half HP, bringing its offensive power up above Kantonian Moltres’. If it heals mid-fight, this ability can trigger more than once.

Art by MrRedButcher

MOVES:

Moltres’ only flying attack worth using is Hurricane, so most Moltres will take it. For Fiery offense, it basically has its pick, with most of the Fire special attacks at its disposal. Flamethrower and Fire Blast are usually the right offensive options, but Mystical Fire works great for tanking as it lowers the foe’s special attack.

Galarian Moltres also takes Hurricane, but for its second type it has its signature attack, Fiery Wrath. Fiery Wrath is just Dark Pulse with 10 more power, which makes it literally the strongest Dark Special Attack in the game. At some point, Dark will probably get a 100+ power attack with poor accuracy or another drawback, but that doesn’t exist yet.

Off-type attacks aren’t much of a thing here. Kantonian Moltres can learn Solar Beam to use on a sun team, and Galarian Moltres can learn Shadow Ball, but Fiery Wrath is already supereffective against Ghost and Psychic so why would you?

Kantonian Moltres can pick up Roost, a solid healing move that lets it ‘dodge’ electric attacks, and a tanky Pressure build can combine this with Substitute and/or Will-O-Wisp for added safety.

Galarian Moltres, on the other hand, learns Nasty Plot and Agility, which allow it to set up into a powerful sweeper. Moltres’ speed is such that it can make good use of a single use of Agility, but might have trouble sweeping without it depending on opponents.

Art by AnnitArt

OVERALL:

Moltres is just straight good. It’s not doing anything unique or special, but it has great stats, solid coverage, and its weaknesses are balanced out by resistances and immunities. Both forms of Moltres are extremely powerful Pokemon that can work well without support. Galarian Moltres is probably a bit stronger due to its ability to set up with Nasty Plot, but having the turn available to use that is often a luxury anyway. Meanwhile, the combination of Mystic Fire and burn can make Kantonian Moltres extremely hard to take down.

It’s interesting looking back at the birds and noting how they compare to modern Legendary Pokemon. Power creep is a real thing, and these best-of-the-best Pokemon from the early days are now much more in line with other ‘good’ Pokemon. Still, Moltres has always been perfectly usable, and its Galarian form has seen some serious top-tier play.

Well, almost top tier- we’re not quite yet at the only original Pokémon in the Uber format.

Art by Andcetera

#Krenko's Pokemon Guide #Moltres

22 notes · View notes

tigerkirby215 · 4 years ago

Text

5e Rakan, the Charmer build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Happy day after Valentine's Day friends. I wrote this build in August, and a lot has happened to my little bird twink during that time. Along with a damn good new skin (and you know: new season) he’s become one of the more sought out supports in pro play. Also I got him to Mastery 5 at time of writing (December 13th, 2020.) Who knows: I might update this little blurb to say I got him to a higher mastery.

Sadly I don’t have a Xayah to duo queue with. But I’m always ready to be the support that you need~ 💓

GOALS

Am I not magnificent? - Rakan’s title is literally “the charmer.” Of course we’re gonna need some charms.

War is in the dance - With an ability called “Battle Dance” we’ll need to be quick on our feat, dashing around our foes and popping them up with a Grand Entrance.

Nothing's fun without risk - While he may not be the best enchanter Rakan has a ton of heals and shields for both himself and his allies.

RACE

Rakan is half bird, but he doesn’t do a lot of flying which leaves Aarakocra out of the picture. He’s also incredibly chatty (holy shit have you seen how many voice lines Xayah and Rakan have?) so Kenku is definitely not an option. So when in Rome as a furry look no further than a Shifter.

All Shifters have Darkvision and their Shifting ability to gain temporary hitpoints, but everything else is determined by their subrace: to be ever quick and ever charming go for a Swiftstride. As a Swiftstride Shifter your Dexterity increases by 2 and your Charisma increases by 1. You are Graceful and have proficiency with the Acrobatics skill, and your Shifting feature lets you get down with The Quickness, moving 10 feet faster and being able to move 10 feet as a reaction if an enemy ends their turn within 5 feet of you, all while not provoking oppertunity attacks!

ABILITY SCORES

15; WISDOM - Rakan is all about the spirit of the wild and the subtle magic of nature. Wait Nature and Arcana are Intelligence skills? Uhhhhh...

14; INTELLIGENCE - Rakan certainly doesn’t show that he’s smart but Nature and Arcana are Intelligence skills. That, and this is a requirement for a very particular class.

13; CHARISMA - A charmer of course needs to be charming. (Feel free to swap this with CON if you want more health but worse RP.)

12; DEXTERITY - Even if Rakan is normally shirtless this is enough for good ol’ Medium Armor thanks to our Racial stat increases.

10; CONSTITUTION - Even though Rakan plays up close and personal he’s certainly not a tank.

8; STRENGTH - You wouldn’t risk ruffling your feathers by doing heavy lifting.

BACKGROUND

While Rakan didn’t start out a rebel like Xayah he gladly joined her cause, and while a background like Entertainer might make more sense for him he’s without a doubt a Freedom Fighter now... unfortunately there’s no Freedom Fighter background so Faction Agent is the next best thing.

You get proficiency with any Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma ability and naturally we’ll be going for Performance. You also get proficiency in Insight but we’re actually going to be replacing it with Arcana for knowledge of the magic of the wild. Additionally you can learn two languages of your choice: unfortunately Aarakocra isn’t an option but Auran (or rather Primordial) is. And to learn the ancient language of Ionia I’d recommend Sylvan.

As a vastayan rebel you can gain access to a Safe Haven for you and your allies. By using secret signs and passwords you can identify other rebels who can bring you to a safe house, give you a free place to stay, or assist you in finding information. They won’t risk their lives for you but as long as you remember the password they’ll be willing to help. You... did remember the password, right?

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - CLERIC 1

Starting off as a Cleric, the king of supports. As a Cleric you get proficiency in two skills from the Cleric list: this is actually where we’ll be grabbing Insight proficiency from along with Medicine to keep Xayah safe.

Clerics get to choose their subclass at level 1 and there are obviously a lot of options to go for: Peace to bond with Xayah, War to better your battle dance, Nature or Arcana to further your connection to natural magic... Bet you wouldn’t expect the choice to be the Order Domain from Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica! (Also reprinted in Tasha’s Cauldron.) (I’ll go over why Order whenever we get abilities important to the build.)

For a start Order Clerics get proficiency in Heavy Armor as well as either Intimidation or Persuasion; Xayah’s got the scary part down so go for Persuasion, since someone’s gotta be the smooth talker! You also get Voice of Authority, letting you set up for an ally with a Grand Entrance. If you cast a spell with a spell slot and target an ally they can use their reaction to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice. You have to be able to see the enemy you want them to target, and if you target multiple allies with a spell only one of them can use their reaction to attack. But setting up for friends to cut through foes is what you do best!

Speaking of spells and set-up Clerics get access to Spellcasting! You can learn three cantrips at level 1: for a Gleaming Quill grab Sacred Flame which does Radiant damage (not Fire damage!) to a foe. If you’re getting surrounded however Word of Radiance will let you shine on your foes for more Radiant damage! And to be a good support and help your allies out of combat Guidance lets you add a d4 to ability checks.

You can also prepare a number of spells equal to your Wisdom modifier plus your Cleric level. As an Order Domain Cleric you have Heroism and Command as part of your Domain Spells, meaning that you don’t have to prepare to be the hero and force your enemies in line. For a close range heal look no further than Cure Wounds. For a shield grab Shield of Faith to make it harder for enemies to kill your allies. And to set up for your friends grab Bless, making it easier for them to hit and survive.

LEVEL 2 - CLERIC 2

Second level Clerics can Channel Divinity once per short or long rest, invoking the power of the gods to help them. All Clerics can Turn Undead, forcing undead within 30 feet to make a Wisdom save or run away from you. However Order Clerics can charm their foes with Order’s Demand. You can charm (yes charm!) anyone of your choice within 30 feet until the end of your next turn, or until they take damage. Additionally you can force them to drop whatever they’re holding so they don’t shoot Xayah!

This is one of the many abilities I wanted out of Order Domain. A big AoE charm that also stops enemies from hitting you and your friends is right up Rakan’s alley.

You can also prepare another spell and while Rakan doesn’t have a ranged heal in-game Healing Word is just too good to pass up on as an Order Cleric. Bonus action let your friend whack an enemy!

LEVEL 3 - WIZARD 1

Didn’t take Rakan as the bookish type, did you? Well, he isn’t, but we need some abilities from Wizard that we can’t get elsewhere except Clockwork Sorcerer which makes even less sense for Rakan. Regardless Wizards also get Spellcasting. You learn 3 cantrips from the Wizard list: for a more direct autoattack grab Firebolt because I like having a variety of damaging cantrips, to add some pizzazz to your dance Prestidigitation will let you add a bunch of funky visual effects as you please, and for some coordination in Team Chat grab Message! "Did you notice the sky?" "It's lovely." "Not as beautiful as you."

You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Wizard level plus your Intelligence modifier, but when you multiclass into Wizard you can learn 4 spells to put in your spellbook. You can only prepare spells in your spellbook is the long-and-short of the class. Anyways: to bedazzle your foes grab Color Spray and blind them with your beauty. For a little owl companion take Find Familiar. To run when you need to Expeditious Retreat will help. And finally to detect the magic of the world take... Detect Magic...

Wizards also have Arcane Recovery, letting them recover a spell slots of a combined level equal to half their Wizard level rounded down. In short every spell slot counts the same number of “points” as the spell’s level, and you can recover a number of spell points equal to half your Wizard level. So a third level Wizard can either recover a 2nd level spell or two 1st level spells. Oh and you can’t recover spell slots past 5th level.

LEVEL 4 - WIZARD 2

Second level Wizards can choose their Arcane Tradition, and to protect yourself with Fey Feathers the School of Abjuration is here for you. Along with being an Abjuration Savant (letting you learn Abjuration spells in half the time for half the cost) you have an Arcane Ward to shield you: when you cast a leveled Abjuration spell you can also create a magical ward on yourself that lasts until you finish a long rest. The ward has a hit point maximum equal to twice your Wizard level plus your Intelligence modifier. (So currently 6 HP.)

Whenever you take damage, the ward takes the damage instead. If the damage reduces the ward to 0 hit points, you take any remaining damage. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell.

You also learn 2 more spells so how about some Abjuration spells? Shield is a reaction Abjuration spell to protect you from melee attacks, while Absorb Elements is a reaction Abjuration spell to protect you from magic. AR and MR!

(Artist unknown. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 5 - WIZARD 3

3rd level Wizards can learn second level spells but I’d actually suggest learning Alarm back at 1st level. Why Alarm? It’s an Abjuration spell you can cast as a Ritual, so you can just cast it continuously to refresh your Arcane Ward even without preparing the spell. For your other spell Mirror Image is a quick and easy way to keep the baddies from whacking you.

LEVEL 6 - WIZARD 4

4th level Wizards get an Ability Score Improvement but I’m actually going to suggest the Observant feat to increase your uneven Wisdom score. Every Support’s gotta pay attention to their wards!

You can also learn another two spells along with a cantrip: take Dancing Lights to set up a stage! As for spells you’re the loud and proud sort so to make a Grand Entrance grab Knock to make way for your party! Meanwhile if you want to keep yourself and your allies safe from ranged harm Warding Wind will do just that and more, but it will also make it harder for Xayah to hit. "What the hell were you thinking?" "Back there?" "Yes." "I wasn't. I never think. Ugh... thinking."

LEVEL 7 - WIZARD 5

5th level Wizards can learn third level spells so it’s time to grab our first mass charm: Hypnotic Pattern, which isn’t an Enchantment spell but in fact an Illusion spell (which will be important later.) If you want to get down with The Quickness however there’s nothing better than some good old-fashioned Haste.

LEVEL 8 - WIZARD 6

6th level Abjuration Wizards can finally protect their party and their girlfriend thanks to Projected Ward, letting you use your reaction to reduce the damage an ally takes with your Arcane Ward. “Thank you honey!”

You can also learn two more spells from the Wizard spell list. Xayah need to call someone? Help her with Sending. Want to go full AP for the traditional D&D Grand Entrance? Fireball.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 9 - CLERIC 3

We’ve spent enough time down in Nerdsville so how about some more Cleric levels? Third level Clerics can prepare second level spells like Aid to boost up your teammates with a Knight’s Vow. Speaking of Knight’s Vow Warding Bond will let you bond with Xayah so you take some damage for her.

Additionally as an Order Domain Cleric you have Hold Person and Zone of Truth innately prepared. Keep enemies at bay and let them know the truth!

LEVEL 10 - CLERIC 4

4th level Clerics get an Ability Score Improvement and I’m going to suggest further increasing your Wisdom, as it’ll help us more with our Cleric abilities which will be important later.

You also learn another cantrip such as Mending to keep your outfit in check. Additionally you can prepare two new spells with your increased Wisdom: Lesser Restoration can give you or Xayah some Tenacity when needed, but I’d suggest holding off on the other slot.

LEVEL 11 - CLERIC 5

5th level Clerics who use Turn Undead now Destroy Undead of CR 1/2 or lower. It’s unlikely that you’ll be fighting CR 1/2 enemies at level 11 but hey: it’s still useful!

What’s more useful however is that you can now prepare third level spells! As an Order Cleric you have Mass Healing Word for Redemption, or Slow to... slow the enemy. Maybe you grabbed Righteous Glory? Who knows.

Regardless the important thing is your charms so grab Fast Friends to charm single targets and Incite Greed to get a whole crowd to follow your Fey Feathers!

You may be asking why we’re grabbing Enchantment Spells of all the spells that Clerics get a third level. Well for one it’s because you’re The Charmer, but more importantly...

LEVEL 12 - CLERIC 6

At 6th level you become an Embodiment of the Law as an Order Domain Cleric. The law of dance that is! If you cast an Enchantment spell of first level or higher you can choose to make that spell a bonus action instead, and can do it a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier. You regain these fast charms after a long rest.

This was the main reason I went into Order Domain. Being able to quickly charm foes is textbook for Rakan, which made this subclass ideal for this build.

You can also prepare another spell at this level: Dispel Magic with Mikael's Crucible in case of any strong debuffs. Also more Abjuration spells for your shield!

(Artwork by Yusuh on DeviantArt. You have no idea how hard it is to find solo artwork for these two.)

LEVEL 13 - WIZARD 7

7th level Wizards can learn 4th level spells like Confusion; something that fills my allies whenever I take Rakan into the jungle. For your other spell I’d actually suggest hopping back to third level for Counterspell to keep your allies safe with more Abjuration. Trust me it’ll be important later.

LEVEL 14 - WIZARD 8

At 8th level you get an Ability Score Improvement and despite being a Wizard we’ve kinda been ignoring Intelligence: let’s fix that with a +2 so our Ward can be stronger as can our Wizard spells.

You can also learn two new spells: more Charms? Charm Monster, so even the mighty Volibear can’t resist you. Other than that there are tons of great Wizard spells but I’m never going to say no to Dimension Door.

LEVEL 15 - WIZARD 9

9th level Wizards can cast 5th level spells like Dominate Person for charms on-par with mind control! (Because it is Mind Control.) For more combative 5th level spells Synaptic Status will let you bedazzle everyone in a 20 foot radius sphere, making it harder to hit as they’re stunned by your beauty. Rakan can have some AP; as a treat.

LEVEL 16 - WIZARD 10

10th level Abjuration Wizards get Improved Abjuration, letting them add their proficiency bonus to any ability check to Dispel Magic (such as with Dispel Magic or Counterspell.) If you wish you can also have Bless active on yourself for a d4 + 5 to any counterspell check. When you consider that the DC is equal to 10 plus the spell’s level and you have up to a +9 to the check it’s more than likely that you can be a Guardian against any dangerous spells!

You also get another cantrip at this level: do you already have too many cantrips? Yeah probably, but to get more props for your dance take Minor Illusion.

As for your two new Wizard spells Hold Monster is like Hold Person, but it works on Baron! And how about something to keep Zoe in her dimension? Banishment is a 4th level spell that works like a super CC that knocks an enemy out of the fight completely. You can’t attack them while they’re on another plane, but if they’re not native to the plane and spend a full minute Banished they go back to their original plane.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 17 - WIZARD 11

11th Wizards can prepare 6th level spells. Want to keep Xayah safe from a falling temple and shadow ninjas? Globe of Invulnerability blocks all spells of one level lower than you used to cast the spell. In general. The globe surrounds you but you can dive in to protect Xayah. But what if you just want to dance? Look no further than Otto's Irresistible Dance! It’s a spell that forces everyone to dance; that’s all you need to know! But seriously read the description of your spells.

LEVEL 18 - WIZARD 12

12th level Wizards get another Ability Score Improvement: seeing as we are going deep down the Wizard path it only makes sense to get a bit more Intelligence.

You can also learn 2 more spells: Contingency will let you cast a spell in case of emergency. Choose a spell of 5th level or lower that can target yourself and a trigger for the spell: when the trigger happens the spell activates. Backup plans are more of Xayah’s thing, but something like “Banish myself if I’m about to die because Xayah would kill herself if I died” is a good plan.

There are tons of other good Wizard spells; so many that I can’t choose any that would particularly fit Rakan or the build as a whole. You have a limited number of prepared spells anyways so take something you think will be useful.

LEVEL 19 - WIZARD 13

13th level Wizards can prepare 7th level spells: want to do a conjoined recall? Teleport will let you and up to 8 willing creates teleport to a location, such as your fountain. There’s a table of places you can end up which I suggest looking at for the full details of the spell, because it’s a rather overwhelming spell to explain without copy-pasting the description. But because I further suffer with what spells to give you in a high leveled Wizard build how about a fancy light show? Crown of Stars lets seven stars orbit your head which you can shoot out at enemies or light up the night!

LEVEL 20 - WIZARD 14

Our capstone is the 14th level of Abjuration Wizard for some much needed MR. Spell Resistance lets you resist all damage coming from spells and have advantage on all saving throws against spells!

Speaking of spells you can learn your final two but... pick for yourself this time! Xayah will love you despite all your faults, and I’m sure that you can make a choice for yourself. This is my way of saying I’m sick of picking Wizard spells.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

You will see my dance - You are the master of keeping your friends safe with charms to keep fights from happening and both shields and heals to keep your allies from being hurt.

Look at me now! - You are incredibly elusive: 18 AC (Scale Mail + Shield) you can bump up with the Shield spell, a 32 HP ward to protect you and your allies, and even Shifting for Temp HP and more dodging.

You put us in a cage? I put you in the ground - And of course as a caster with full caster levels you are more than capable of putting down the hurt, especially due to the added efficiency of being able to cast two spells in a turn (well a leveled spell and a cantrip) thanks to Embodiment of the Law.

CONS

I don't have to remember the plan if you do - You are essentially mixing two spellcasters who want you to use extremely dedicated spell lists. Abjuration spells to make Abjuration Wizard work and Enchantment Spells to make Order Cleric work. Sure you don’t only need to cast Enchantment and Abjuration spells but there also aren’t that many Abjuration spells to power up your ward.

I can't die looking this good! - The vast majority of your levels being in Wizard combined with a 0 Constitution score results in a health bar that’s easily under 100. You may have advantage on all saving throws but Power Word Kill has no save.

Woo! You animals are dumb! - The other problem with mixing two full casters together is that you can’t get the best of both worlds. You aren’t getting 9th level spells in general (even if you get the slots for ‘em) and both your Wisdom and your Intelligence aren’t maxed out. Sure if you aren’t using Standard Array that isn’t an issue but you’re bound to drop something.

But if you were perfect why would you need Xayah? She completes you, and you complete her. Fight along side her and together you’ll be unstoppable. There’s nothing you can’t defeat with the power of love... But a plan would also probably be good. "I think Xayah told me to improvise. At least, that's the only part of the plan I remember."

(Artwork by Riot Games)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #valentine's day #dnd wizard #dnd cleric #League of Legends #League of Legends Rakan #xayah and rakan #love

27 notes · View notes

isawrightless · 5 years ago

Text

I’ll Drown When I See You

Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira After escaping Raccoon City, Carlos offers Jill some shelter.

set directly after the events of resident evil 3. Rating: M -----

Finding herself homeless and directionless after Raccoon City’s destruction, Jill kept clinging to the only real leads she had: Chris was somewhere in Europe, and Barry was helping from the background, prioritizing the safety of his family. She’d be meeting them soon. But she was tired and hurt. There was not a part of her that didn’t ache, mentally or physically, and for now she needed a place to rest.

Checking in at a hotel proved itself to be a difficult task. For all she’d been through, all the tragedy she had endured, Jill Valentine couldn’t stand the glare and the whispering about her reasons and the state of her body; Why does she have so many bruises? Why is she limping? Is she on the run from something? Is it even safe to be here? Did she come from Raccoon City?

Those questions lingered on the eyes of anyone who even glimpsed at her. Sure, the blood and dirt were gone and the clothes were new (she’d made good on the promise of burning the old ones), but the situation remained the same. She had just escaped from a city that had been wiped out from existence and her own figure was a walking reminder of that.

Then Carlos; sweet, compassionate Carlos, all battered and bruised too, offered shelter. Asked Jill to stay with him in this small rented cabin he’d found.

And now here they are.

She’s not allowed to worry about anything else besides her own healing, that’s the deal. When the topic of buying new clothes and some other necessesities comes up, Jill’s adamant that she’ll buy them herself with whatever money she still has stored somewhere but Carlos stands his ground. She’s his guest, after all. And he’s taking the couch, no problem, she gets the bed. She needs it more.

When she tries to reason with him that she doesn’t mind the couch, it falls on deaf ears.

“Don’t worry, Supercop,” he says. “Just take it easy.”

And she does. Or at least tries to. The second her head hits the pillow, she can’t close her eyes. Whenever she does, that thing shows up, or the corpse of another teammate. Joseph always makes a guest appearence in her dreams. The first real death she’d witnessed at the start of this entire nightmare. He always stands there, half-eaten, limbs missing, speaking through a hole in his face, asking her not to leave him there. It’s cold. It’s cold and he’s alone. And she wants to scream, to tell him she did try to save him, she tried to save everyone, she really did.

She always wakes up before she can hear an answer and spends the rest of the day haunted and frustrated.

Which is why she’s more than confused when she sits up on the bed, sweaty amd startled, looks out the window and finds out it’s night time. A glance on the clock tells her it’s 22:00 PM.

She doesn’t feel rested at all.

Spotting a bag near the end of the bed, she leans over and brings it to her lap, looks inside to find some toothpaste, a toothbrush, soap and a body moisturiser. A couple of other bags are neatly placed on the floor, next to the bed. Inside them, she finds tank tops and t-shirts, two pairs of sweatpants, shorts and brand new underwear. It makes her smile, her first moment of true relief afer all that hell. But the thought of Carlos trying to guess and pick which kind of underwear she’d like is almost too cute.

On the nightstand there’s a water bottle that she opens and drinks in small sips even though what she wants is to drink it all in one go to quench her thrist. When she’s done, her lips feel softer, something she appreciates immensily. Ignoring the aching muscles, she picks some of her new clothes (a pair of sweatpants, the tank top and her brand new cotton panties), stands up on unsteady feet, takes a few steps foward and realizes she needs to brace herself against the wall to get some support.

Heading to the bathroom, she refuses to look at herself in the mirror while setting the clothes she’s going to wear on top of the sink. Undressing, she holds herself when a chill runs down her spine. It’s fine. A false pretense, perhaps, but it’s fine, it’s a worthy delusion. Let her drown in it’s fine it’s fine it’s fine.

Starting the shower, she rests against the tile wall as she waits for the water to get warm. The cold tile against her skin makes her gasp in surprise. She stretches a hand out to check the water’s temperature and then steps right in.

She can barely move her arms without feeling them burn, but she scrubs her body and washes her hair until her skin is red and her scalp hurts. Something needs to be done, something needs to happen, but her chest feels broken and she’s got no home, no plan, no instructions to follow now. Only ghosts that haunt her at every corner.

Calling her out.

Daring her to go on living while they remain dead and frozen in time, wiped out from existence as if they never even mattered in the first place.

As the water runs down her body, she realizes the extent of her injuries. Her right shoulder is bruised, left arm stinging as the soap clings to that wound, her thighs are purple and yellow on different places, and if she squints she can almost pretend they’re something pretty and delicate, like little glaxies on her skin.

There’s a cut and a bruise just above her hip that probably need more attention than she’s currently showing.

She stands under the showerhead for a while, letting the hot water hit the back of her neck, easing her strain. The urge to cry is strong, eyes already rimmed with tears, but she’s way too stubborn to let them fall. Not the smartest choice considering all the words she refuses to say out loud are choking her, chest tight with agony as she swallows back a sob.

She’d give anything to disappear right now.

Taking a deep breath, she finds the courage to cut off the water and step out of the shower. She dries herself with a towel, biting her bottom lip to keep the discomfort that raising her arms brings, and puts on her new clothes, feeling at least a little bit refreshed. She brushes her teeth with her brand new toothbrush and when she’s done, she stares at object for a moment.

He’s thought of everything.

Back into the bedroom, she can hear him pacing around the main room, and she tries to prepare herself to go meet him. She doesn’t know why she’s so nervous or why her heart is beating a little faster and she refuses to think too much on it.

But that’s Day 1.

Day 2 is quiet.

She’s siting on a worn out couch, body finally giving in to all the injuries it sustainted just a few days ago and it’s hard to move. Her arms feel like they’re about to fall off and she’s sore all over. Some wounds are still tender, and speech doesn’t come easily without the presence of a headache.

Carlos goes out again, brings her painkillers, helps her chase them down with a glass of water. She smiles at him because she can see how worried he is, can even guess what he’s thinking.

Maybe the vaccine didn’t work.

“Do you wanna watch TV?” he asks, voice giving him away. “The reception is, uh, pretty bad but there’s gotta be something good to watch.”

She shakes her head no, still eyeying him like a hawk, and he moves back to sit next to her. “You hungry then?”

“Not at all,” she manages to say.

“You sure? I don’t mean to brag but I’m a great cook.”

“You are?”

“Best one around.”

“Hit the jackpot then.”

It takes a second for her words to sink in and when they do, Carlos gives a boyish smile and says, “That’s my line.”

She tries to laugh and move but that ache pulls at her strings once again, making her flinch. He draws her closer to him, and she lets him.

They fall into a routine by day 4.

Carlos cooks for them and does some errands and no matter how much Jill protests, she’s told she needs to stay still and heal. She does point out how flawed that train of thought it considering he went through hell too but he always ends up making an excuse.

To say that her heart is free from all that agony from before would be a lie but by now the only thing that truly bothers her-physically- is her left arm. It aches from time to time, a jolt of pain that stings and keeps her awake at night, completely alert, a reminder of what could have been.

She looks at the wound that monster left her, a little gift, exames it again and again, and it’s closed and healing but the pain is still there and Jill knows, she knows that it will never go away.

Carlos comes back that day with some new blankets (the ones at the cabin are simply awful and prickly) and some pepperoni pizza.

This sort of domestic bliss, where they function on pretending the outside world doesn’t exist and they won’t have to figure out what to do about all they’ve been through carries on through day 5 to 6.

On day 7, Jill gets out of the shower, puts on a t-shirt (blue, as Carlos assumed that’s her favorite color), a pair of panties and some shorts and heads to the kitchen to help with dinner.

He smiles when he sees her, a beer in hand, and jokes he’s got a great taste for clothes.

Perhaps it’s the sense of peace that has fallen over them, even if temporary, or maybe it’s just the carefree way he makes her feel, but Jill sticks her tongue out, steals his beer, takes a sip and smirks at him.

She expects some teasing, some kind of silly payback. Instead, he steps closer, leans in and kisses her. Just like that; no warning, no nothing, as if the two of them have been doing this forever, like it’s a habit they’ll never grow out of. And she responds eagerly, kissing back, arms going around his neck when he deepens the kiss, his tongue on hers, hands firmly placed on her hips, holding her steady, afraid she might slip away.

The tenderness is almost alarming. He’s taking his time, enjoying every sensation and she can’t help but press against him. He gets the hint, smiling in the middle of the kiss, sliding his hands down her body, grabbing her ass and squeezing, drawing a moan out of her. She steps back to catch her breath, already missing him. He brings a hand up to cup her face, thumb swiping across her bottom lip as he rests his forehead on hers, staring right into her bright blue eyes.

There’s another kiss before he drags his mouth away to focus on her neck, gently biting and sucking, leaving his mark on her soft flesh. She gives in to him so easily, mind racing with need. Reaching down she tries to unbuckle his belt but the action proves to be a bit too much for her sore shoulder and she ends up hissing in pain, wincing as the burning sensation flares up then goes all the way down to her hand. The wound on her left arm stings like crazy, and she tries not to think too much about it, despite the ache.

There’s no running from Carlos’ sweetness, though, and he stops everything he’s doing, stepping back to look at her. She can feel a slight blush sweeping across her face and she hates it.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine,” she says.

The last thing she wants is to ruin the mood, especially when he’s got her all worked up already and she’s been waiting for this, been needing this for a while. Carlos shakes his head, “So stubborn,” he breathes out before picking her up. She doesn’t really know his plan, but she hooks her right arm around his neck as he takes her to the bedroom. His scent is intoxicating and by the time he gets her inside the room letting go of him seems like the hardest thing in the world. But then he sets her down on the bed, all handsome and sweet, shaggy hair all over his face, that crooked smile still plastered on his lips and she can hardly wait for what’s to come.

Sitting up, she adjusts herself a bit and watches as he takes off his black t-shirt, takes a second to admire his hairy chest and toned abdomen and then goes back to watching, biting her bottom lip while he unbuckles his belt, kicks his shoes and socks off before climbing on top of her, diving back in for her lips, hands working on taking off her t-shirt, helping her out of the sleeves. He discards the piece of clothing by throwing it across the room and draws back to take a good look at her. She’s at his mercy, breasts exposed, nipples hard, scars spread across her skin; some are rather large and faded, gifts from that cold, horrible mansion; some are new, pearly white and glistening around bruises and light scratches still lost in the process of healing. And she’s beautiful.

“Oh, c'mon,” Carlos starts, licking his bottom lip. He leans down, right hand fixing up a few strands of her hair. “You can’t be real.”

Jill chooses to hide how much his words mean to her in a small smile and a scoff; she was never one to open up properly and she’s not about to list all the reasons why she has been avoiding looking in the mirror, at least not now. Thankfully, Carlos goes back to kissing her and that suits her just fine.

She trails a hand down his torso before reaching his unbuckled belt and then going further, palming him through his pants. He’s hard and she’s soaking wet and anxious and the little grunt he lets out in her ear doesn’t help things. All hope of self control goes out the window the second he kisses his way down to her breasts, bringing a hand to cup one of them while his mouth works on the other one, the tip of his tongue circling a nipple before sucking on it, making her arch her back and moan. He steals a quick glance at her, wishing he could frame the moment forever, as cliche and cheesy as that sounds. But she’s gorgeous, she’s absolutely gorgeous, and to have her unguarded like this, for him, it sends him into a state of euphoria that he can’t quite explain.

He alternates between one breast and the other, enjoying her gasps and moans and by the time he’s done, when he comes back up for a kiss, her breasts are glistening with saliva, a slight flush covering them. His actions serve only to encourage her, demolishing any kind of hesitation or worry. She wastes no time unzipping his pants as he kisses her long and good, reaching inside his boxers to pull his cock out, holding it in her hands firmly; he is big and thick, smooth, veiny and throbbing, precome trickling down his length, and she starts stroking him slowly, up and down, pressing right against that sweet, sensitive spot under the head of his cock with each upstroke. He groans, mouth open against hers, closes his eyes and lets himself fall into her touch, hips thrusting into her hand, trying to set his own rhythm, showing her how he likes it.

Jill doesn’t see or hear anything that isn’t him. It’s impossible to think of anything else when he’s so handsome, throwing his head back and moaning only to stare at her with those kind eyes of his. She thinks she could stay like this for a long while, just watching him, her hand wrapped around his cock, feeling him hot and twitching, begging for something else.

He doesn’t give time for her to improvise though. Panting, he grabs her wrist, ceasing her movements. Grinning, he leans back, hands sliding up and down her legs until he hooks his fingers on the waistband of her shorts and pulls them down along with her panties. She can’t help the small smirk as she lifts her hips and bends her knees to help him take them off.

He’s stealing kisses, dragging his mouth down her body, marking her here and there, being careful around the bruises, fighting the need to just have her every time she lets out a shaky breath. He grabs one of her thighs with his right hand, the other one staying firmly on her hip, his mouth not once leaving her skin, and she gets the hint, spreads her legs to accomodate him further. That’s when he glances at her, finds her staring down at him, her short hair framing her face, and he almost loses it. But he carries down with his mouth, teasing and kissing her inner thighs, his beard tickling her, soft licks against her skin, breath ghosting over the spot between her legs until she gasps out his name.

And then there’s this moment, a fraction of time in which he realizes that this is happening, this is really happening and she wants him, too, she wants him and she’s waiting and so he runs his tongue along her slit, feels proud when her hands goes on on top of his head, fingers tangling in his hair. He licks her slowly, explores every inch, every fold, wants to taste every bit of her.

When she moans he changes the pace, teases, circles her entrance with the tip of his tongue, presses it flat against her and licks like a hungry, needy man, eats her out nicely, takes his time. Then she begs, asks for more and he swirls his tongue around her clit one, two, three times, moves his head up and down, his nose adding a much needed friction and then he sucks on her clit, keeps going until she’s arching her back off the bed and grinding against his face. He follows her rhythm, the one she imposes, eyes closed, voice cracking.

“Carlos,” she says, sill holding on to his hair, desperately lifting her hips, rocking on his mouth. “I’m gonna come-” It’s the way her voice cracks at the end of the word ‘come’ that drives him insane, eager to taste more of her, to have her melting on his tongue.

He hums in response, increases the pressure and holds her tighter as she squirms and writhes, moans his name again and again until it turns into a soundless cry, until time stops and she tenses, comes on his tongue, muscles spasming and toes curling while he helps her ride out her orgasm. She tries to pull away, it’s too much, she’s too sensitive, but he can’t help himself, he wants just a bit more because maybe he’ll never have her like this again, maybe this is just a one time thing so he wants every drop of her, he wants to be a little selfish here, make sure this day will be burned in his brain forever; she’s honey scented, holy in every way, and so he gives her one final lick and stops when she starts shaking.

The sound of her breathing echoes through the room, her chest rising and falling rapidly as he backs away and looks up at her, a satisfied grin on his face when he sees the state she’s in. He’s got something to say, a little joke to make, but it fades to nothing the second she grabs his face in her hands and pulls him into a bruising kiss.

Too many things hide in that kiss, from little trinkents to precious jewels, that kiss changes everything the second she tastes herself on him, the second he grabs hold of her again and deepens said kiss, finds all those treasures hidden in each soft breath, and he feels her hands tugging at the waistband of his pants, “Take these off,” she says through gritted teeth and he does as he’s told, moves away from her for one second that feels like forever and slides out of his pants and boxers, cock twitching, missing her hand, wondering how her mouth would feel on him, knowing that there’s no way he can let her do that to him now otherwise he won’t last, he won’t last at all.

“Come here,” her voice is low and demanding in the softest way possible. He gets back on the bed, sits in front of her, kisses her again, and they stay like that for a while, just exploring each other’s mouths until she can’t help herself and grabs hold of him and he grunts in her mouth because he’s been hard for so long now, been needing her for so long, and watching her orgasm a few moments ago, knowing he provoked that almost made him burst right then and there, and now her hand is on him again and he can’t control himself.

“You’re the sweetest thing I have ever tasted,” he confesses, breathless, “Jill, you’re the sweetest fucking thing.”

And Jill nods, not really knowing how to respond to such a bold statement, her face flushed, she nods and flattens a hand against his chest and pushes him down on the mattress, straddles him and although her plan is clear, she winces and hisses in pain the second she tries to move her other arm and as much as she tries to play it off, it doesn’t go unnoticed by Carlos.

He’s quick to sit up, to cup her face, eyes scanning her frame. “You alright?” and his words are a bit rushed, stumbling in his own want and worry. “Wanna stop?”

“No, don’t even think about it,” she adds quickly.

“You sure?”

“Wait, I’m not Supercop anymore?” she says with a smirk. “I’m just a little sore.”

“Then let me take care of you,” he says, caressing her face, robbing her of a kiss. “If it’s still okay.”

The concern is endearing, the implication of his words even more so. “Of course it’s still okay.”

Another kiss, he lowers her onto the mattress, runs his hands up and down her body until he stops them at her bent knees. She spreads her legs for him again, and he’s so consumed by her he feels almost tipsy, everything goes hazy for a minute. He’s been hard and aching to the point of desperation even, but he swears, he does, that if she asked him to just go down on her again he would, oh god, he would, no doubt about it.

Except she’s waiting, the gleam in her blue eyes making him fall in love with her, because yes, that’s what he’s feeling, love. He’s known for days and she’s changed his entire life and he won’t stomach it when she leaves. She’s worked her way into his heart, growing around it like a vine and he doesn’t want her to let go.

“Carlos,” she whispers, but there’s urgency hiding behind her tone.

He grabs her legs, bringing her closer to him, holding his cock by the base then gently guiding himself inside her; just the tip first, to see her reaction, and then he moves an inch more and she bites her bottom lip again, looks down at him, expectation written across her face. Then he goes all in; she’s so wet, so ready, there’s no resistance. They both sigh in relief at the feeling, her little moan contrasting with his grunt, and she’s grateful for the time he gives her to get used to him; it’s been a while since she’s been with anyone but even then she had never felt as complete as she’s feeling right now.

He fits so perfectly, stretches her up good, and he’s looking at her as if she’s made of diamonds, searching for any sign on discomfort on her face and honestly, having someone care so much like this is bringing her to the edge of tears.

This is not a quick fuck. This is not a we made it out alive kind of celebration. There’s more here, there’s so much more, she can see it in his eyes.

He leans forward, his body covering hers as he props himself up with one arm on her side to keep from crushing her. Staring right into her eyes, he kisses her lips and starts moving. It’s a steady pace at first, as if he’s trying to understand her, trying to see what drives her crazy, what she likes.

Can he be rough?

Can he hold her a little tighter?

Those silent questions are answered when she urges him on, her hands on his shoulder, bringing him down on her so her breasts are flush against his chest and his face is an inch away from hers. He kisses her when he starts moving, feels her breaking into a moan but then respond, moving her hips in accordance to his, but even so she’s letting him lead; he’s the one in control this time around.

So he thrusts slowly, long strokes that make her want to just push him down again and ride him because she thinks he might have made her a little insane here, a little too obsessed. She watches him, his handsome face and its perfect features, then darts her glance down to where they’re both connected, sees him move, sees and feels him pullig back until just the head of his cock is inside, and then he slides in again, repeats the motion again and again until she can’t take it anymore, wraps her legs around his waist and says, “Faster.”

“Yeah?” he asks, still set on that same rhythm, looking for permission, focusing his gaze for one instance at a huge bruise near her hip.

“Please,” she begs in the middle of a kiss. “Please.”

He increases the pace gradually, watches the changes on her face, and when she throws her arms around his neck (all the flinching and wincing still there but to hell with them to hell with them, this means so much more), he finally lets go. His thrusts grow harder and faster, so much so that he accidently slips out, and when that happens he drives her mad by grabbing his cock and rubbing it on her clit for a few seconds, a small tease that earns him some more pretty little moans, his name spilling out of her lips like sugar.

He’s in trouble, he concludes, he’s in trouble. This woman may as well be his everything.

He will drown himself in her if she asks him to.

Lodge himself into her bones.

Never let her go.

If she wants him as much as he wants her.

(and he hopes she does he hopes she does)

When he thrusts back into her, he wastes no time, no more teasing, he moves, feels her nails digging into his flesh, little red moons forming all over his skin, she’s clenching around him and he’s pounding into her so fast and hard the slap from skin against skin is loud enough to reverberate on the walls. Throught it all, he doesn’t break eye contact, no, looks at her as if she’s meant to be worshipped.

Jill is lost in a trance, feeling his cock in and out of her, he’s so big and hard, he’s so perfect, so good, she could stay like this forever and then he hits that spot, that little spot and she clenchs around him and moans, which in turn makes him groan. “Right there,” she says, “Right there, don’t stop, please, just like that.”

Carlos nods, he’s mesmerized, trying to hold back his own release, showering her neck with kisses, licking the salt off of her skin, hips working nonstop. “Fuck,” he says, voice hoarse. “You feel so good. You have no idea what you’re doing to me.”

She clings to him as if her life depends on it (and god knows it did), she clings to him, their hearts beating in perfect synchrony.

This is meant to be, she thinks, this is meant to be.

His thrusts are even harder now, rocking them back and forth on the bed. He buries his head on the crook of her neck, muffling his groans. She gives up on trying to follow his rhythm, gives up completely, this is too good, too fucking good, she can only take it. She’s so close, he knows, she doesn’t even need to tell him with the way she tightening around his cock, the way her moans are turning into almost sobs, her shaky voice trying to utter a warning, one that he loves so much.

He keeps up the pace while sliding a hand down her body, finding her clit, still a little swollen and sensitive from his earlier ministrations. This time she does cry out, holding on to him. It’s overwhelming; she’s right at the edge and she doesn’t want it to end, fuck, don’t let this end.

He’s losing control, pumping into her, his warm breath on her skin, and when that wave hits her, when her face gets hot and her breathing heavy she asks for one thing, just one tiny thing. “Come with me,” she says. “Come with me, please, please, come with me.”

“Inside you?” and such simple question should sound a lot more like caution than it does in that moment. In that moment though, that simple question is about trust above anything else, and she nods, all desperate and pretty, she nods.

“Inside me,” she orders as he kisses her. “Inside me, it’s okay, fill me up, let me-” her voice breaks when he speeds up the pace. “Let me feel you, I need to feel you.”

He places a hand around her neck, doesn’t apply pressure, just keeps it there and stares at her and fucks her and kisses her and says “I’ll fill you up then, I’ll do it, you’ll be all mine, right, just mine?” he asks in between pants, voice rough and brash and still laced with adoration.

“Just yours.”

She means it.

He thrusts into her with hard, fast, long strokes, and she’s clenching around his thick cock, coming with such intensity that she bites the inside of her cheek to keep from truly screaming.

At the same time, his movements grow erratic, his grunts and groans a lot louder, and then he’s burying himself into her to the hilt and coming deep inside her, breathing so hard he feels like he might pass out.

She holds on to him as they both wait until they can breathe normally again, but he can’t resist kissing her, not when she’s giving him that look, not when he’s so scared of never seeing her again after this that he can feel his bones trembling. After a moment, when the world goes back to existing, he slips out of her and rolls to her side, brings her with him. She’s curled up around him like a cat, and he’s smiling, stroking her hair idly.

“You’re not in pain, are you?” he asks.

Shaking her head, she chuckles. “Sex is one hell of a drug, you know.”

“You’re one hell of a drug.”

“Oh god,” she laughs at the line.

“No, I’m serious. Got me screwed up for life here,” he admits. “Pretty sure I’m addicted.”

It’s quiet for a moment, Carlos is already cursing himself for ruining this. Too blunt. Too blunt and they don’t even know what they’re going to do tomorrow.

But then she looks up at him, and says: “For life is a big commitment.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a man of my word,” he says.

“That’s good to know,” she smiles at him, rests her head on his chest and closes her eyes.

Carlos wraps an arm around her then, holds her tight and close, the stupidest smile decorating his face.

And for the first time in months, Jill sleeps peacefully.

--- a/n: i’m rusty as hell but writing this brought me joy. i dedicate this to my lovely friend @passionedance because holy shit she put up with me gushing about these two a lot. <3 also, i hope everyone is okay and taking care of themselves. <3

#valeveira #jillxcarlos #jill valentine #carlos oliveira #carlosxjill #resident evil 3

81 notes · View notes

lousimusician · 6 years ago

Text

Pierced (Part 2)

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: You let Peter take a closer look of your new piercings

Word Count: 1546

Warning: Smut

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the way up to your hotel room, Peter ran to his own quickly so he could change out of his wet swim trunks and so that you could change as well.

Now you sat waiting for Peter in your pajama shorts and tank top, which you conveniently forgot to wear a bra with so you could see the piercing through it.

You were buzzing with nerves and excitement as you waited for him in anticipation, not quite believing what you said to him. You felt your heart leap when you heard the rather frantic knocks on your hotel door, and you quickly jumped up to answer it, seeing a nervous Peter in sweatpants and a t-shirt. You pulled him into the room, letting the door shut before anyone could spot him outside the room if they had been happening to walk by.

"H-hi." He stuttered out breathlessly, smiling nervously as he shifted on his feet.

You smiled back. "Hey Pete." You said sweetly, a slightly teasing tone underlying your words.

"So...um- h-how is this- uh- how are we doing this." He cleared his throat awkwardly, a dark blush covering his cheeks as his eyes drifted down to your chest.

Your heart jumped at how nervous he was, finding it completely endearing. "Well." You started. "When you hit a home run you don't go straight to second base you..." You trailed off, waiting for him to complete the thought.

His eyebrows shot up in realization, "...Y-you go to first?" He phrased as a question and you silently nodded. "S-so I can kiss you?"

You laughed lightly, "I asked you up here to go a little farther than kissing, so yes Pete we can kiss." You grasped his wrist and pulled him with you to your bed and the two of you sat down on the side next to each other, knees touching.

You placed a hand on his shoulder in attempt to calm him down, since he was fidgeting so much. "Relax Peter, it's just me."

"That just makes me more nervous." He mumbled quietly.

You couldn't help but blush at his words. You slowly moved your hand to the back of his neck, gently playing with his brown curls. The two of you sat in a tense silence, eyes flicking between each other's eyes and lips, before you finally leaned in.

You pressed your lips against his tentatively, his own responding to yours clumsily.

Admittedly it was a very awkward, very teenage kind of kiss. Both of you weren't very experienced in this area and it showed, but nevertheless it was perfect. Because it was with Peter and no one else.

Your lips continued to move with each other, finally finding an okay rhythm that didn't have your noses and teeth bumping every two seconds. His hand came up to gently cradle your jaw, his thumb gently brushing your cheek and you sighed blissfully into the kiss.

Neither of you had any clue as to how long you had been kissing but you eventually pulled away, Peter's lips following yours before you pulled away completely.

"Now, although I wish we could continue doing that, it wasn't the only reason I invited you up here." You said, biting your lip.

Peter swallowed nervously. "Um- before we continue, I-I just wanna say that I really really really like you."

"That's good." You smiled. "Because I really really really like you too." You said with a giggle, making Peter sigh in relief as he grinned back.

You moved farther onto the bed, sitting criss cross, Peter following your movements as he sat the same way across from you now, close enough so your knees touched each others.

You watched how his eyes continued to flick from your face to your chest, waiting for you to do or say something.

"I guess it's now or never." You chuckled nervously to yourself, your hands gripping the bottom of your tank top. "So uh- you ready?" He silently nodded, not trusting his own voice.

Peter held his breath and unconsciously leaned in as you slowly started to pull your tank top upwards, revealing more and more skin. You stopped for a second as you were just under your breasts, gauging his reaction and also preparing yourself to get half naked in front of the boy you've had a crush on for a while. After a second you finally tugged the tank top completely off, throwing it onto the ground.

Peter's eyes were wide as they were trained on your breasts. He was redder than ever and he was sure he forgot how to breath. He shifted slightly as he felt himself harden. You had two straight barbells in your nipples, with two shiny white rhinestones on either end of the barbell.

"...They're r-really pretty." He said, voice coming out higher pitched than he would have liked.

"Thank you." You giggled.

Peter's fingers twitched as he thought about touching them. "Um..c-can I..." He trailed off.

"Touch?" You finished for him.

"Y-yeah." He nodded. "It won't like... hurt, right?"

You shook your head. "No, they're healed. They're um- they're actually more sensitive now that I got them done, so it'll feel good." You said, biting your lip as he nodded in response.

You watched as he shifted again and raised his hand, leaning closer to you. You chose to watch his face, feeling as his thumb lightly brushed over your nipple lightly, making your breath hitch.

He bit his lip, focusing all of his attention to your breast. He then lightly touched it with his pointer and middle finger before feeling a little more courageous, tugging lightly on the bar.

You hadn't expected him to pull on the jewelry making a whimper fall past your lips. His eyes snapped up to your face, and he pulled his hand back. "S-sorry, did I hurt you?"

You quickly shook your head, "No, it was good, d-do it again."

Peter's eyes lit up and he returned his hand to your breast, beginning to play with the jewelry and your nipple again.

You felt your body heat up at the pleasure as you felt yourself getting wetter and wetter by the second. Peter watched in awe as your head tilted back and eyes fluttered shut as quiet moans left your lips, and he suddenly wanted more of you.

"C-come here." He said quietly, lightly pulling on one of your legs with his free hand.

You understood what he meant and uncrossed your legs, Peter following suit to make room on his lap so you could straddle his legs.

His lips latched onto your neck and began leaving wet kisses in their wake, as you tilted your head to the side. Peter brought up his other hand to play with your neglected nipple. You whimpered louder this time at the feeling of his lips and how sensitive your nipples felt as he continued to pull and lightly rub them. You could feel how hard he was as you were now seated on his lap and it made you bite your lip to hold back another wanton moan.

He kissed down your neck and over your collar bones until he reached the space between your breasts. Peter looked up at you admiring how much pleasure you seemed to be in and he couldn't help but feel prideful knowing that it was because of him. He glanced back down at your chest and felt an urge to wrap his lips around one of your nipples.

So he did just that.

Peter's lips ghosted over your breast until he reached the nipple and he quickly replaced his hand with his mouth.

"Fuck Peter!" You moaned again, pressing yourself down on his cock, pulling a groan from him. His free hand went down to grip your hip, to get you to move against him more to which you easily complied.

Your hands tugged on his hair as you felt his tongue swirl around your nipple and flick at the jewelry. Both of you moaning as you sped up your hips against him. "Holy fuck Peter, that feels so good." You moaned out in a high pitched voice.

Peter looked up at you again and quickly unlatched his lips from your nipple and muttered. "You look so pretty (N/N), you're such a pretty girl." You whimpered at his praise, and grinded against him faster as he reattached his lips onto your nipple, and you felt a knot forming in your stomach.

"I-I think I'm gonna cum Pete." His grip tightened on your hip as he guided your movements better, lips and his free hand still stimulating both nipples. And you could tell that he loved the piercings.

Peter groaned louder, hinting that he wasn't too far behind cumming either, but just as you were about to fall over the edge you both heard three knocks from your hotel door.

"Room check." You both heard being said from the other side by one of the chaperoning teachers.

The two of you stopped immediately, Peter pulling away and looking up at you with frightened eyes as you looked down at him with the same expression.

"Shit." You both hissed.

~~~

A/N: Sorry for cockblocking Peter and Y/N

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Permanent Taglist:

@Spiderdudeparker @peterparkers-waffles @smexylemony @ultimategalaxyprogram @xxxxdelenaxxxx @chonisberonica @meaningoflifeisfandoms @aegis-s-s @Just-random-stuff-18 @etherealhollandd @yourwonderbelle @roi-yang @ironspiderstark @runningoutofwordstosay @retroparkers @marvelismylifffe @marvelhoeingismyhobby @thebadtruth @loud-binch @cosmicparkerr @thechickvic @magiclolipopqueen @httpmcrvel @parkeroffline @yang-seubinnie @lou-la-lou @all-of-the-fandom-trash @lovesaweed @your-1up-girl @kels-xoxo @spidermxnstan @zicoskokoro @tastyarreaga @etudaire-writes @heartbeats-wildly @stuffandstuff-stuff @ixchel-9275 @tra-gicx @drama-llama-04

@marvelrreigns @sargentjamesbarnes @capsassx3000 @xximaweirdoxx @r-wooooosh @swagsoulpenguin @sunflowerhollland @littlegreenpill @pastelpinkbubbles @tomxdaya @hiss-undying-fidelity @mama-jeonghan @hell-yeah-peter-parker @tommyhollandaisesauce @importantfireeaglefish @megabobtastic

Peter Parker Taglist:

@i-alyssa @justkeepdreaminganddreaming @alyssaaaas-stuff @desia2

Pierced Taglist:

@deansbbysblog @eridanuswave @carry-on-my-wayward-spiderboy

2K notes · View notes

mnthpprt · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter 8: Of Treason And Friendship

After changing back into my own clothes, I easily find my way to the training room, backpack and skates strapped to my shoulders. It is the middle of the night, so I am thankful to find an electric light switch has been installed in the deserted room. I don’t even bother to close the large door before sitting down in a corner and rummaging in the bag for my tools and spare set of indoor wheels. I am thankful for having decided to visit a local rink before my adventure in the Louvre, or my skates would be rendered useless in the uneven streets of the 19th century. Not that I would be able to skate outdoors, anyway, since it would be too odd a sight in this time.

I effortlessly swap the wheels, and proceed to fish out my wireless earbuds from a pocket. Soon, I am gliding across the polished wood, spinning and jumping to the tempo of an old playlist from my competitive days. I have not done a routine like this in years, but I find it to be the kind of thing you never forget how to do once you learn it. It is easy for me to let muscle memory take over. I successfully try a few camel spins to regain practice, and subsequently get too confident and fall while attempting to land an Axel.

Once again, my body takes the hit and reminds me how much faster than my mind it recovers. I get back on my feet and keep working on it, momentarily forgetting the past few hours. I become so completely absorbed by my routine that I am oblivious to the pale sunlight that begins shining through the large windows. Hours have passed without me knowing, and I suddenly catch something out of the corner of my eye during a spin.

I almost fall, startled, when I spot two men by the door, watching, completely mesmerized. I have no idea how long they have been there. I quickly regain my balance and skate over to them as I pull out my ear buds.

“Napoleon,” I greet the one I remember. My eyes trail down to his left hand, no longer bandaged. It appears to have completely healed overnight. “I, uh...” I stammer, consumed by the awkwardness of our last encounter. “I’m sorry I bit you yesterday. Took someone else trying to bite me to understand what you were doing. Thank you for... trying to help me, I guess. Even though it became a big misunderstanding. Now I get it.”

I apologetically extend my own hand to him in an attempt to clear the air, and to my surprise, he shakes it with an amused smile. His grasp is delicate, all too used to this time’s etiquette. It is somewhat nice that he still thinks of me as ladylike, after the way I acted.

“It’s all forgotten, Anaïs.” I return the smile, pleased with this new start. “What was it that you were doing? I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like you were floating, carried by the wind!” The wonder in his voice makes me chuckle. I keep forgetting how different my time is, compared to now.

“Oh, just roller skating,” I explain, and lift up one foot so he can see better. “It’s a sport from my time that I used to compete in when I was younger.” His eyes widen, earning another chuckle. Of course, women participating in sports is not widely accepted yet, let alone competing in them.

“I was sorry to hear about what happened with Isaac. Have you been here all night?” The tinge of worry in his question makes me turn to the window. My eyes squint when I glance at the sky, the early morning sun directly in my line of sight.

“Oh, no, I lost track of time!” It is then that I see the swords in each of their belts. They must have waiting to use the training room. I turn to the other man, much taller than Napoleon. He wears an eyepatch over his right eye, with long strands of hair half covering it. “Sorry to keep you two waiting. You must be Jean, I believe you are the only resident of this mansion I have not spoken to yet.”

Jean’s face has scandal written all over it as he stares at me, his visible eye wide and a pink blush dusted over his cheeks. It takes me a second to figure out what his problem is. A quick glance at myself explains it: I am even more exposed than last night. Without the sweater, skin tight jeans and a tank top short enough to leave most of my midriff visible are all that’s on me. The visible ink all over my body certainly doesn’t help. I shoot off in the direction of my backpack, snatching up the sweater right next to it as I spin and come to a sudden stop in the exact same spot I started in, a couple feet from the two men.

As far as I remember, Jean d’Arc was an extremely devout Christian accused of heresy in her - I mean, his - time. I hastily pull the sweater over my head, and as soon as most of my skin is covered, I hear Jean cough.

“A-Anaïs”, he finally stutters. “I have been told about you.”

“Well, Jean d’Arc,” I say with a friendly smile, “it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

I retire to the side to let the two soldiers use the space, and take a seat on the floor by my belongings, where I change back into my shoes. For the next hour, I watch the men spar as I eat a cereal bar I found in a pocket and drink what’s left of my lukewarm smoothie from the previous day at the musée.

After a while, they decide to take a break from their intense combat training, and Jean practically runs out into the hallway as Napoleon walks over and sits beside me on the floor.

“Did I do something to offend him?” I wonder out loud.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Napoleon reassures me. “Jean is not very sociable, and well... your appearance is something new for all of us. But I understand it is normal in the future, to dress so scandalously.”

“Well, in that case...” I take off my sweater. It is much too warm to be wearing it here, and I only kept in on for Jean’s sake. I sigh in relief as the cool air touches my skin, and lean back against the wall, only to notice Napoleon observing me with curiosity. I let him, and after a short silence he finally asks what’s on his mind.

“Do people in your time paint their bodies like this every day? It must have taken you ages!” The innocence in his question makes me laugh. Immediately, he looks away, ashamed to have stared at me that way.

“It’s fine. It’s not paint. See?” I rub the skin on my forearm to show him the ink won’t budge, and then shift closer to let him do the same. “These are tattoos. They are permanent.” Napoleon’s fingers trail shyly over my skin, and soon he is holding my hand, moving my arm to better see it from different angles as I continue to explain. “It is ink, but it was injected there with a needle. It’s under my skin forever.” Napoleon gasps, prompting me to smile.

“Did... did it hurt? Why did you get them?” He has not let go of my arm yet, but his gentle touch does not bother me.

“They do hurt, but it mostly depends on the placement,” I explain. “These just felt like a surface scratch when I got them done.” His puzzled expression reminds me of the second question he asked. “As for why I got them, well... some of them have meaning or remind me of things, like this one,” I point to the stylized flower on my upper arm, encased in a perfect square. “It’s the symbol of my hometown. If I remember correctly, this tile will be designed in about ten years. In my time you can see it all over Barcelona. Which reminds me...”

I pull my arm away and turn to face him, a playful grin making its way onto my face. I can’t believe this man is the same Napoleon I studied in history class.

“You might have been perfectly nice to me, but don’t think I’ve forgotten about the Treaty of Fontainebleau and your little treasonous stunt.” He raises his eyebrows and looks away, but does not say anything. “Yeah, I learned about it in school. I guess you’ll have to make it up to me for invading my country, huh?” I joke, letting out another chuckle.

“I guess so.” Napoleon scratches the back of his head and joins me with a laugh of his own. “I learned the hard way not to mess with Catalans. You have a lot of fight in you, Anaïs.” As he says that, he massages the part of his hand between his index finger and thumb. The spot where I bit him.

“I am so sorry about that.” I blush, embarrassed, and smile awkwardly. “In my defence, I thought you were trying to kidnap me.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He smiles and lifts his hand in front of me. “It’s all healed up. One of the perks of vampirism, apparently.”

“Oh!” I perk up, suddenly remembering something. “I’ve been meaning to ask... If you’re a vampire too, why did you try to help me escape?”

He becomes serious and lets out a deep sigh.

“I am just a demi-vampire.” I look at him, puzzled, and he continues. “That means I am more human than the others.”

Before I have time to ask more, Jean returns with two bottles of blanc and hands one to Napoleon. They both drink it and immediately begin sparring again. I can tell this conversation is over. Resigned, I gather my things and walk to the door, announcing my goodbye as I leave.

#ikemen vampire #ikevam #ikevamp #ikemen fanfiction #ikemen #ikevam fanfic #ikevamp fanfiction #ikemen vampire fanfiction #ikemen vampire napoleon #ikevamp napoleon #ikemen vampire jean #ikevamp jean

22 notes · View notes

clan-sayeed-fic · 5 years ago

Text

Let me earn your trust (Kamilah Sayeed & MC)

Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Book: Bloodbound (property of Pixelberry Studios)

Pairing: Kamilah Sayeed & MC: Amy (I do not own those characters, they're the property of Pixelberry Studios as well) Warnings: a little smut? (we are getting there, I promise haha) Rating: Mature Author's note: I'm not a native English speaker, I'm sorry for any mistakes (feel free to correct me).

The last chapter turned out pretty dark, but can you blame me? I remember writing it during exams time and finishing multiple projects. In this chapter, on the other hand, you'll get more interaction between Kamilah and Amy.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

~ 2000 words

--------------------

Chapter 6

The first thing that hit her consciousness was the smell of lavender.

Next, she felt her body being covered with a soft cloth.

Then, she heard her weak breath sounds.

Finally, Amy opened her eyes slowly, taking the surroundings in. Her head was spinning. It hurt badly from the fall, the same as her right shoulder and hip.

She found herself in someone's bedroom. The room was designed with a good taste, modern but cozy at the same time. At the core of the room was the bed, that Amy was laying on. Wooden walls and carpeted floor, with a large wardrobe with a mirror on it. She looked in it, seeing her own reflection. Pale skin, bags under her eyes.

With a sigh, Amy lifted herself on the elbows.

She looked over her body. She was left in her underwear, her left wrist bandaged. Confused, she took off the bandage to see healed skin under it. Amy shook her head, trying to clear her mind full of questions, but it made things even worse, sending stabbing pain through her whole body.

Within sight, she found clothes laying on the chair near the bed. She reached there and quickly put them on. It was white, tank top and sweatpants, surprisingly fitting her shape.

Amy stood up from the bed, leaving the bed linen messed up on the mattress. She got closer to the door, reaching for the door handle, but the sound coming from outside the room made her stop. Amy leaned on them instead to hear better the conversation.

"I can't understand, how could you keep this from me for so long," she heard men's voice full of disappointment.

"I gave my word," the woman said calmly, "you know what that means to me."

"I know, but this is such a discovery," he changed his tone to more enthusiastic.

"We should better focus on the reason why we were attacked by newly turned," she stopped for a moment, then added louder, "Amy, you can get out now. I can sense that you're not asleep anymore."

Amy's heart stopped for a second. She was reconsidering her options. It would be much easier if she had any.

Finally, after taking a deep breath, she opened the door, slowly getting out of the room. She walked through a short corridor, which ended with a view on a living room.

She saw there Adrian sitting on the couch, and Kamilah standing near the window. From the view behind the window, Amy could deduce that it was still night.

"I can see that the clothes are fitting you," Kamilah met her gaze. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm about to faint," Amy said, running fingers through her hair, slowly getting back her memories.

"Maybe you should sit down," Adrian stood up, pointing at the couch.

Amy looked into his blue eyes, and then the first memory hit her. How she met them at Priya's party.

"Oh my god," Amy's breath quickened, making her lose balance as she steadied herself by the wall with her left hand.

Amy looked from Kamilah to Adrian a couple of times.

"You are..." she couldn't believe her own thoughts.

"Yes?" Kamilah stared at her intensely.

"You are vampires," she said quietly as the whispering would help somehow.

"I didn't see that coming," Adrian raised his eyebrows in surprise, while Kamilah was standing in the same place, unmoved.

"It's just a bad dream, Amy," the girl told herself. "You will wake up any minute, and..."

"I don't think so," Kamilah interrupted her.

That triggered Amy's mind. She remembered the last night, the party that she worked on, it wasn't going so well. She switched tables with Lily, and then.

Lily!

Vampires attacked the hall, her best friend disappeared. Everything came back to her mind in an instant.

"Lily," she groaned in pain after making a quick step toward doors, her head hurt so bad.

"This is not a good idea," Adrian stopped her, gently holding her arm.

"I need to find her," Amy said, hurting mentally.

"Was that your best friend?" Adrian remembered her name and the waitress serving at their table.

"Yes, I came back for her, I couldn't find her," she lost too much blood, even this small talk tiring her.

"There are small chances that she survived the attack," Kamilah said, looking at the window, taking a sip of water from the glass that she held in her hand.

"No!" Amy's eyes glowed with anger, her body sending electricity to Adrian's hand, making him step back, "she survived, I know this."

Kamilah saw Amy's reflection in the window. She remembered a small note from one of her books.

"Rarely, Bloodkeeper can make her eyes glow on purpose. It can happen when she is angry or want to show domination over vampires."

Kamilah turned from the window to face Adrian.

"Go, find this human being," she knew how dangerous it was. "Be cautious."

When he disappeared outside the apartment, she added.

"And you better hope that he will come back, safe and sound."

***

It's been nearly half an hour since Adrian left. Amy was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. Her chest lifting and falling slowly. She kept looking ahead on the painting, hanging on the wall. It was an abstract forest emerging from the fog on it.

Kamilah was moving around the kitchen to pass the time. Both of them silent during those long minutes.

Finally, Kamilah decided to speak.

"You would be more comfortable on the couch," she didn't look in human's direction, filling herself a cup of tea.

Amy broke out of her thoughts.

"I'm good here," she lied, afraid that if she stood up, she would fall apart.

"Then, I suppose, I will have to carry you on my own when you faint again," Kamilah said emotionless.

That motivated Amy enough to prove her wrong. She stood up, steadying herself by the wall with her hands, and made her way toward the couch. After she reached it, she collapsed on it with a loud sigh.

Kamilah smirked to herself before turning around and sitting in the armchair in front of the couch. The vampire put a cup of tea prepared for Amy and took a small sip of her own.

Amy curled up on the couch and started thinking again. Loud ticking of the clock on the wall making her nervous.

Kamilah sat there, staring at the girl. Her brow furrowed as she saw Amy's eyes shifting uncontrollably from green-ish to golden.

"Have a drink, it should help you relax," Kamilah pointed at the cup.

Amy did as she suggested without much thinking. She took a sip, feeling warm liquid, spreading peace all over her body. Sweet taste in her mouth.

"Is it with honey?" Amy asked curiously.

"Don't you like it?" Kamilah answered with a question, wondering.

"I do, a lot," the girl ensured by taking another sip, it made tension leave Kamilah's body.

Amy's eyes stayed green, and Kamilah could hear her heartbeat becoming steady again.

"Don't you have questions?" the woman wondered.

"Not so much," Amy whispered, then added more confident, "there's a lot about you on the internet."

"Oh, really?" Kamilah smiled with irony.

"Immortal, fast, bloodsuckers," Amy started pointing out, "you can't show in the daylight without a covered skin. You can hear better than any creature on Earth. You are impossibly strong and hungry all the time."

"I can see," Kamilah didn't correct her, everything that Amy said, was on point.

"As much information I could find about you," Amy said unsurely, "there was nothing about someone like me."

She is smart, Kamilah thought, losing herself in Amy's eyes. It was unusual for her to have this high opinion about mortal.

"You're a Bloodkeeper," Kamilah decided to share this information with the girl.

She started telling Amy what she found out about her. That she was the only one walking on Earth at this time. About her precious blood and how it affected vampires.

For a moment, she had second thoughts if she could share this much with a human. Kamilah wasn't naive, she knew that those pieces of information were valuable enough to make an enemy of the girl. More than that, she wanted to see how it would come out if vampires and the Bloodkeeper tried to cooperate for once. There was always a fight between them, and it never ended well for each side.

Kamilah wanted to believe that it was possible to gain this girl's trust and learn more about her abilities. Moreover, she knew that Adrian would have the same intentions.

"So, my blood is extra precious for you," Amy took her time to adjust to new information. "I'm like a superhuman with tender senses, and my eyes are my weakness."

She said all of that with a furrowed forehead.

"And I'm the only one," she summarised.

"Yes, you are the only one Bloodkeeper," Kamilah said, "but that doesn't mean that you have to be alone."

Amy smiled at her softly. She put the empty cup on the table. When she did so, Kamilah saw something strange on her wrist. It made her stood up. She went around the coffee table and sat down near the girl. Kamilah sensed Amy's lack of confidence as she watched the vampire's moves closely.

"May I see your wrist?" Kamilah extended a hand.

Amy slowly did the same with her right palm.

"The one that was wounded," Kamilah didn't wait and gently reached for girl's left wrist.

She looked at it with confusion in her eyes. She could still see the scar of cutting.

"I don't understand why it's not healed," Kamilah said her thoughts aloud, "as the Bloodkeeper, you should be recovering faster."

Amy lost herself under the touch of Kamilah's gentle strokes on her scar. That's when she realized what was going on and tried to take it away, but the vampire increased grip just a little bit. Enough to keep her in place.

Amy's breathing accelerated, just like her heartbeat.

"It's um..." she could feel Kamilah's body leaning closer, "it's an old scar."

Amy could feel the heat burning inside of her. Kamilah's mouth dangerously close as Amy's eyes dared to glow again, she managed to stop them just in time.

"Are you afraid?" Kamilah whispered, eyes piercing through Amy.

"I..." she kept on stammering, "I'm not sure."

Kamilah's free hand reached behind Amy's body under the pillow, unbelievably slow. She picked up a soft, grey blanket.

"I can tell," she said with a smirk, sitting further from Amy, letting her catch a breath. "You should take a nap, you're not fully rested."

Kamilah left the blanket on the couch, and stood up, making her way to the other room, the one that Amy hadn't seen yet.

"What about Lily?" Amy asked, trying to sound natural.

"I will wake you up if anything happens," Kamilah said without turning around, disappearing behind the door.

Amy sighed, overwhelmed. She took the woman's advice and curled under the blanket.

As Kamilah shouted the door of her office behind, she felt the tension leaving her body. She poured herself a glass of gin and drank all of it with one sip.

What was that, she asked, confused. Kamilah didn't feel this way around anyone for a long time. And she was clearly shaken up by the reaction of her own body. By the fact that she was losing her self control while being near this girl.

It made her wonder if that was one of Amy's abilities that she was not aware of.

***

After nearly an hour, Kamilah heard someone parking in the garage a few floors beneath. The next thing that she heard was the sound created by the elevator.

She could sense Adrian's presence and one slow heartbeat of someone who he dragged with himself.

Damn it, Adrian, she shook her head with annoyance.

She left her office to wake Amy up.

Next chapter: 7

--------------------

tag list: @onyxgaytrash

#kamilah sayeed #kamilah x mc #kamilah #bloodbound kamilah #bb kamilah #adrian raines #bloodkeeper #bloodbound #choices bloodbound #choices bb #choices stories you play #choices fanfiction #choices fic #smut

65 notes · View notes

redfoxwritesstuff · 5 years ago

Text

Of Dust and Ashes (Chapter 16)

Happy Friday!

Clint x ofc, Series rating: M

Chapter warnings: None

So- I’m going to be traveling next week and there will be up update next week. I’ve been blessed enough to get to see Betrayal on my birthday (12/4). So while there is a chance for a Coffee update on Tuesday, there will be NO DUST on Friday next week.

Want to buy me a coffee? I do live off of coffee.

Check out the Masterlist for Loki, Tom Hiddleston, Steve and other Clint stories.

Chapter 16: Home sweet home?

Deanna had forgotten how good it felt to have clean clothes. Yeah, she had done the washing in creeks and they got clean...ish. But now that was nothing compared to how good if felt to slip into a pair of sweatpants still warm from the dryer. The moan that slipped out of her was borderline pornographic.

With a fresh shirt, socks and pants on, the dirty ones went right into the wash. All in all, with the bedding included, there was a good solid four loads of laundry. But boy, once it was done everything felt and smelt amazing. It was easier to be positive, or at least as close to positive as is possible in this new world, when everything was soft and warm.

Still, when Clint helped her back into her camper there was a weight off of her shoulders. It was as if the ghost of the family that had once inhabited the house was still there. She felt like they were watching, judging her for imposing on what should still be their home. She didn’t want to replace them. That wasn’t her goal.

There was no questions asked when she started making dinner in the RV kitchen, carefully balancing all her weight on one foot. If she let the boot rest on the floor and avoided trying to bear weight with that foot, she could almost stand normally.

“Bed’s all made up.” Clint announced as he walked by and plopped dramatically on the couch.

“Thanks.” The word sounded flat coming from her lips.

Clint noticed and pulled himself to his feet and wrapped his arms around her. “Hey, you know- just because I made the bed, we don’t have to sleep in here. We can sleep in the house, in the guest bedroom, we can sleep in...” the words died.

“I’m not sleeping with you in your wife’s bed.”

“I wasn’t going to-”

“Yeah you were. You didn’t want to but you were going to offer it anyway.” She turned in his arms awkwardly, shuffling and hopping to manage it. “It’s okay.”

“I-”

“I’m not wanting to replace her. I don’t want to sleep in her bed. I don’t- Look, I don’t know what we are doing but if you want to sleep in your own bed, that’s fine. I like not being alone but I have Trust, I don’t need you.” It was a lie and she knew it. She needed him more than she cared to admit to anyone, to herself.

“But... I think I need you.” Clint admitted what she could not, resting his forehead against hers. “And it’s wrong but.. I think I need someone to need me too. But I won’t sabotage you to make you need me-”

“Clint, I do-” He talked over her, wanting to get the words out before the will to speak them was gone. She had no choice but to swallow her backpedaling.

“When your foot is healed, I won’t force you to stay with me. I won’t do anything to make you need me. But maybe… you’ll need me the same way I need you.”

“What way do you need me? I’m just a burden.”

“You’re not. I need someone to rely on me. Let me have that, at least for now? And-” Clint looked out at the farmhouse through the window then closed his eyes. It was so much easier to focus on her. “If when you’re healed you want to go, you can. But if you don’t, that’s fine. Or if you do but want me to go with, that’s fine too.”

“Clint?”

“I’m over thinking, I know. Just- how about this? Let’s stay in here. Unless you don’t want me to stay with you? We can use the well and I can rig something up for the gray water to drain into the septic and-”

“One day at a time.” She took a shaking breath before starting. “I don’t know what we’re doing. What we are. Let’s just take it one day at a time? I- I don’t want to sleep in there. I like it in here. I would rather you stay in here with me but that is your home, you can sleep where you want.”

Clint reached around her, turning the stove off and moving the pan onto the other burner. No one liked overcooked chicken. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

That’s all it took for the topic to settle itself. They found themselves into a routine of sorts. Each day was peaceful and blended into the other. Clint would be the first to wake and would sneak out of bed to start the coffee. Somehow, she would sleep through this and him climbing back into the bed.

They took turns making breakfasts, much to Deanna’s dismay. She wanted to do as much as she could for him and every time she would try to do more than Clint thought was fair, he would smile and argue. More often than not, he could outlast her.

He would tend her garden as her ankle healed. It was rare that she ventured into the farmhouse. Mainly, she would hobble inside to shower or wash dishes, not wanting to fill her tank with dirty water any faster than needed.

As the first week came to a close, Clint had rigged up a drain from the RV’s gray water tank into his septic system. He was far more proud of the simple set up than he she expected. A hose was secured over the drain pipe and running along the ground to the drain in the shop. While she looked on, he made a show of turning the valve open and standing back with his arms wide.

“How do I know it works?” She asked.

“I… I can show you the tank, if you want to see it? I mean- it’s not-”

“No thank you.” While she had been a mother and changed plenty of diapers, the idea of looking at a tank full of mostly human waste wasn’t high on her list of things she wanted to do with her day.

The next day he set to work hooking the garden hose up to the fresh water tank. Just like that, Deanna’s home on wheels was connected to the water and septic system. Running from the RV to the house sat the brightly colored hoses with the extension cord providing power to the RV from the farmhouse’s generator.

The second week bled into the third as her ankle began to heal. Soon she was hobbling easier and feeling more at peace in her place at the farm. Clint was dutiful in taking the laundry inside for washing and returning the to the RV, warm and dry.

The trees were beginning to turn as September began to roll passed them, not that they were paying the passage of time any mind. They were too busy harvesting produce and strengthening her healing ankle. Clint had painted a target to the back of the shed and as soon as she could stand on her healing ankle, he had her outside and learning to shoot arrows.

She wasn’t really very good at it. Terrible at first and if she was forced to tell the truth, she hated it. It took a week to get an arrow to do anything more than fall at her feet let alone hit the barn. Actually managing to hit the target seemed like a distant dream. Still, Clint seemed to enjoy teaching her more than she enjoyed learning. If it meant keeping that smile on his face, she would suffer through lesson after lesson.

While she didn’t see the point in learning to shoot the arrow, she had to admit her arms were getting stronger, drawing the string back again and again. It wasn’t much, but after the second week of lessons, the string was easier to draw back, just in time for Clint to replace the bow with one even harder to pull.

Turns out, the one he had her using at first was designed for older children. When Clint told her, she was half tempted to smack him with the bow. She didn’t resort to violence purely because she was pretty sure if she had started with the bow she was using now, she wouldn’t have been able to draw the string back.

As time passed, she was better able to walk and with that came the freedom to do more for herself. She would bring the laundry into the house and do the washing every few days while he went out to hunt. It was strange, being in the farmhouse while he was gone and she never lingered inside.

One day, Clint returned earlier than she had expected and was far too proud of himself for her to not have questions. In the back of the truck he had acquired in one of the nearby towns, was a carcass of a deer. There is a flurry of angry squawking from the truck and on a trailer pulled behind, a stack of boxes.

“What the hell?” Deanna could only laugh, standing on the pouch watching Clint climb out of the truck.

“Guess what, Babe?” Deanna watched on as he scurried around the front of the truck with a wide grin on his face. Opening the door to the passenger and back seats, he revealed three cages with relativity angry looking chickens inside. “I found a farm about fifty miles to the south and he had chickens!”

“How did you convince him to give you chickens?” Deanna laughed as the birds protested to their cages being moved but it did nothing to take the pride from Clint’s face.

“So- Jesus these guys are kinda heavy- You know how I take a few bottles of pills with me when I go out hunting? Shit- ow, Tony, don’t bite!”

“You named a chicken Tony?” She deadpanned, watching as he stacked cages on the ground.

“Yeah! I mean, I didn’t, he was already named but I’m not changing it. And Tony’s a rooster.”

“I’m not killing chickens.”

“We’re not! I mean, not all of them at least. The hens are egg layers. If Tony’s naughty we can eat him.”

“Where are we going to keep them?”

“I’ve got a plan, Babe. Don’t you worry.”

“Mhm.” Deanna hummed as Clint swept up the deck stairs and wrapped his arms around her. His hands were cold and his nose was a bit red with the chill in the air. They shared a quick kiss before Clint jogged back down the stairs and around the trailer.

Deanna left him to his task and carried the laundry back inside the RV. There was a chill in the air that kept her running the electric heater most of the time now. She wasn’t even aware that there was an electric heater in the RV until recently. She thought all she had was the propane heater but that was just one of the ways Clint had saved her.

Humming, she set to work making a pot of coffee. It was only a matter of time before they ran out of grounds. Clint was having to travel farther and farther from the farm to find supplies. For now at least, with the chill in the air and Clint clearly having a long day of hard work ahead of him- he deserved a cup of coffee.

While the pot brewed, she watched from the kitchen window as Clint wrestled the deer out of the truck. He had already gutted it and for that, she was thankful. It wasn’t something she wanted to watch him do. After running into the farmhouse, Clint returned and made short work out of carving the meat.

While he worked, Deanna pulled out a pot and set to work cooking rice. It was something she was doing more and more. One of these days, she planned to go out with Clint and try to find a rice cooker or instant pot. Something like that, that she could use to make some easier meals. Since they had access to electricity, why not make use of it?

While the oven heated, she grabbed out some snap peas and tossed a few small handfuls onto the baking sheet that she balanced over the sink. It would have been easier to cook inside the farmhouse but she couldn’t stomach the idea, even now. She wasn't sure she would ever be able to cook in Laura's kitchen.

She grabbed some broccoli and tossed a cutting board onto the dinette table behind her. Once she cut the heads down to smaller bits, she tossed them onto the pan as well. Next went a handful of cherry tomatoes. A quick toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and she slipped the baking sheet into the small oven.

When she next looked outside, Clint had the deer skinned and dismantled. Most of the meat was already inside the farmhouse for storage. It would be good to have meat- they had almost run out and were making what they had stretch. Clint would supplement by hunting wild grouse but they were not very meaty birds.

By the time the vegetables were tender and the rice had finished cooking, Clint had almost gotten everything off the trailer. She made up two bowls and two mugs of coffee and slowly worked her way outside.

The cool weather made her healing ankle feel stiff and she still favored it. He told her it wouldn't be much longer at all until it finished healing.

“What’s all that?” She asked, coming up to his side. There was an ache in her ankle that was telling her that she really needed to sit down and call it a day soon. At least she had accomplished something today.

“Chicken coop.” Clint twisted his back and the sound of cracking filled the air.

“Backs aren’t supposed to do that.” Deanna joked, holding out the two mugs, carefully held in one hand.

“Babe, did you make me coffee?!” Cling moaned, taking both mugs and setting them on the trailer.

“And lunch too.”

“What did I do to deserve such treatment?” He smiled, taking to bowls and sitting on the trailer.

“Brought meat,” She said. “and chickens too. We needed meat.”

“Yeah, noticed we were running low.”

They ate in silence for a bit, each thinking of how strange it was to be here. Not really here, in this physical place in Missouri but here. Building up a self sufficient farm with someone who had been a stranger not very long ago at all. They were figuring their path out. While they supported each other, they were making small steps toward moving on.

Clint leaned to the side, fishing the small satellite phone he carried but rarely used out of his pocket. “Can you put this on the charger for me when you go inside? I need to check in with Nat before she sends a search party for me.”

Deanna nodded, “Sure.”

“Now! Time to show this chicken coop who’s boss!” He stood and stretched, arms reaching toward the bright midday sun and shirt riding up some. “We’ll have eggs before you know it.”

“I’m holding you too that or Tony’s going to be a Thanksgiving turkey.” Deanna laughed.

“Oh!” Clint turned, wide smile on his face. She wondered why he always felt the need to put on a jovial show. It was okay for him to not smile during the day. He didn’t have to hide his pain until night, not with her. “I saw some wild turkeys! Gonna try to get one for us.”

Deanna sat in the sun, watching Clint work for a bit. It didn’t take long for him to wrestle his shirt off as he hauled boxes and polls off the trailer. It was mesmerizing, watching him work in the sun. With skill and precision, he set about building the coop. Power tools whirled to life in his hands as Clint Barton demonstrated that he was so much more than just a sharp shooter.

It was nearly sun down when Clint had the coop finished and the large fence circling it erected. The door latched and locked. Dinner was simmering inside as Clint spread hay along the ground.

Deanna watched from the window over the sink as she stirred the large pot. It would be lunch tomorrow as well. The stew wasn’t very good on it’s own but she had done what she could to perk it up, adding extra carrots, celery and tossing in a small handful of herbs.

In the oven, a small loaf of bread cooked in a silicone loaf pan that Clint had brought home a week prior. Before that, she'd been struggling with a old loaf pan of Laura's. It took more than a few tries, but she could almost make a decent loaf of bread now.

The first few batches she made turned out terrible. So bad that they were sitting in the fridge inside the farmhouse. Clint said it would make some nice supplement for the chicken food at least. A few days ago, she managed to get a loaf to come out tasting right.

Clint showered her in praise that night but it was short lived. Tears had rather unexpectedly gathered in her eyes and before she had a chance to even process why, she was sobbing. Clint was quick and held her tightly in his arms as she wept into his chest.

It was a dumb thing to cry over but he hushed her when she said it. The bread stuck to the pan and while it finally came out of the oven looking and smelling right, it didn’t come out of the pan. They had to break it apart and eat it in pieces- there wasn’t another option.

As Deanna pulled the newest loaf out of oven and sat it on the covered sink to cool. It would pop right out of the new pan without any effort. No more sticking loafs.

The phone on the counter pinged. It was so rare that it ever made noise. In a moment that felt so strangely normal, she picked it up and looked at the notification on the screen.

“Message Received” It read. Below the title, it read “Nat: Will you please let me know you’re okay?”

In a moment, the message faded from the screen. Before she could set the phone down, her eyes were drawn to the date displayed where the message had been. November 7th.

~~~~~<3

Tag List: @usedtobegoodfriend96, @winterisakiller, @tnystrk-exe, @0-0-0-0-0-0-0-7, @theoneanna, @alexakeyloveloki, @toozmanykids, @j-u-s-t-4, @missaphrodite23, @bambamwolf87, @nonsensicalobsessions, @tinchentitri, @carissime72, @xoxabs88xox, @queenoftheunderdark, @myoxisbroken, @wegingerangelica, @coyotesongwriting

Want in on the tag list? Feel free to drop me a line.

#clint x original character #clint barton x reader #Clint Barton x Female Reader #clint x reader #clint barton x oc #clint x ofc #clint x oc #clint x original female character #clint barton x ofc #clint barton x you

30 notes · View notes

justkending · 6 years ago

Text

Used to Be Overlooked. Chapter 20.

Summary: Steve Rogers was walking down the streets of Brooklyn after finishing a mission. The goal was just to take some time to clear his mind along the city streets, but when he runs into a gorgeous young lady that looks extremely familiar… How can he go about moving on? Who is she? What does he know her from? Was that memory even from this decade?

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader (Rosalyn Ember/ Y/N ?)

Word Count: 3200+

Warning: SLOW BURN. Soooo slow, but sooooo worth it...

A/N: Ya’ll... I took a major twist in this chapter. I was thinking how I wanted this story line to go, and figured I’d spice it up a bit. Well, here you are. Send me your thoughts. I really want to know what you think about it...

Chapter 20:

“Well, good morning sunshine,” you greeted Bucky as he came into the kitchen.

It was just you and Wanda in the kitchen so far. Everyone else was still sleeping or realizing they had a hangover, and found themselves not wanting to get out of bed quite yet.

“Ugh,” Bucky grunted waving you off as he made a b-line for the coffee pot.

“Someone’s not having as nice of a morning as us Rosie,” Wanda giggled taking a sip of her coffee.

“That’s what you get for drinking the amount you did.” you laughed with her.

“You drank just as much,” he mumbled.

“You had the rougher stuff, “ you lied since Wanda was there. “And hangovers don’t really affect me,” you said walking over and refilling your mug. You leaned in whispering to him once you were closer. “Plus, I heal faster remember. Kinda making hangovers non-existent.”

“Lucky ass,” Bucky groaned sending you a playful glare before taking your spot at the table. “Where’s Steve? I figured he’d be up at the same time as you.”

“Not sure. His door was shut so I thought he was still sleeping,” you answered taking a sip of the sweet sweet caffeine juice.

“Steve doesn’t sleep in,” Bucky said raising an eyebrow.

“He went for a run, I think. I saw him out and about before coming in here,” Wanda spoke up.

“A run sounds nice actually,” you said standing up from where you were leaning on the counter. “Wanda, do you have a tank top I can borrow?”

“Yeah. There should actually be a couple of extras in the guest bedroom you were staying in. They may fit better.”

“Perfect. I’m going to finish my coffee and then I’ll go.”

“Go where?” Steve said coming in taking out his headphones. He sent you a sly smile that made one instantly appear on your face. He was wearing a new pair of sweats and a zip up sweatshirt that was opened showing off the extremely tight, dry-fit shirt underneath.

“For a run. Heard you went out for one, and it sounded like a good idea,” you smiled putting the mug down, now forgotten.

“I can come with you if you want,” he said getting closer and standing on the other side of the island you were against.

“No, no. I’ll be fine. I don’t want to make you run any more than you already have,” you waved him off coming around the counter.

“It’s fine doll. I think I can handle it,” he smirked placing his hands on his hips.

“Really? You up for another 10 miles?” you said mocking his posture and standing in front of him.

“10 miles!” Wanda and Bucky both spoke up.

You turned to look at them over your shoulder.

“What? I like to run. I’ve built up an endurance,” you shrugged sending a smug grin before turning back to Steve who was just grinning knowingly back at you. “I’ll be fine,” you laughed.

“I have no doubt in that. Just figured you would want the company,” he shrugged grabbing an apple.

“Eh, I usually start the day off with a quiet run. Helps get me started for the day. Besides, I’d like to see the grounds for myself,” you said crossing your arms.

“Whatever you say. I could be your personal guide if you want though,” he said smiling.

“You’ll be too much of a distraction,” you winked before heading for the doorway. “I’ll be back in 40 minutes,” you waved.

“40 minutes?” Bucky said almost spilling his coffee. “10 miles in 40 minutes?”

You just rolled your eyes playfully and laughed at him. “I’ll be back later.”

___

Sure enough, there was multiple tank tops to choose from in your guest room. You kept your leggings on from last night, threw on a light running jacket that was slightly cropped and zipped it up halfway. You also found a pair of headphones in the night stand of the room and quickly plugged them into your phone. Tony Stark sure knows how to accommodate his guests.

You did a few stretches before taking off playing your 70’s playlist. That was one of your favorite music decades. Especially for pumping yourself up and getting a good energy for working out.

You decided to take the more scenic route since getting out and running in areas with as many trees as the compound had was hard in a city like New York. Ok, not too hard, but it sure as hell didn’t feel like you were running in the city.

There was a nice forest area that had a wide running path. Most likely for the trainee agents, and maybe even The Avengers themselves to run along.

It was nice and calming as well as safe feeling. Nine and a half miles in and you hadn’t even realized you were breaking a record with your time at 38 minutes because of how at peace you were in this environment. I mean you were in the Avengers home. No one could get in unless they were invited.

At least that’s what you thought until you saw something move out of the corner of your eye along the tree line.

You slowed down your pace, and removed one earbud from your ear turning to the blur that you saw. You squinted wondering if your eyesight was messing with you. Tilting your head and taking a single step closer, you didn’t notice anything weird, and shrugged it off. You went to place the headphones back in your ear and hit play on your phone and took a few steps forward ready to start your stride back up.

What you saw standing in front of you about 30 yards up is what made you freeze all over again.

You let out an audible gasp, and dropped the headphone bud making the wire that was attached to your phone fall towards the ground.

“No,” you whispered to yourself in a breath that was knocked out of you at the sight.

“Hey, is Y/N back yet?” Bucky asked coming behind Steve who was looking out one of the large glass windows into the yard where you had left out of.

“No, not yet. She should be back soon though. If not in the next few minutes,” he said never breaking his concentration from the view.

“I don’t know man. Maybe she was bluffing about that 40 minutes,” Bucky joked.

“I run 13 miles in 30 minutes. She’s not too far off from me,” Steve smirked at his friend before looking back.

“Ok, but you have super serum, she just has-” Bucky said trying to come out winning the argument, but just getting a look from his friend. “Ok, fine. She probably can do it.”

“You jealous Bucky?” Steve chuckled.

“I’m not jealous. I-I, I’m-I’m-” Steve sent him another look. “I’m not jealous, I think I’m just shocked.”

“Yeah, well. She tends to do that to people,” Steve nodded at the window. “But really though, she should be done soon. It’s been almost an hour. Even if she were bluffing, I think she would still be done by now.”

“Yeah you’re right,” Bucky said looking out the window, and concerned now. “Maybe she did a few extra miles. Should we go find her?”

“Nah, I’ll do it,” Steve waved off making his way to the elevator. “Go ask Tony to see surveillance so I can try and figure out where she ran off to. It’s a big piece of land. She could be anywhere.”

“Are you sure that isn’t just another way of asking me to stalk her via video camera?”

“That’s exactly what I’m asking you to do, so yes,” Steve said stepping in the elevator and send his friend an annoyed look.

“You know what I mean-” Bucky started, but the doors shut. “Screw it. He knew what I meant,” he waved off headed to find Stark. “What did I mean?” he asked himself.

“No.”

The figure in front of you took a step forward, and an evil grin appeared on his face.

As reflex, you took a step back, but didn’t get far as there was a wall-like body keeping your from retreating.

Instinctually, you whipped around ready to fight, but two hands grabbed you quickly on the forearms keeping them from being used as weapons. You grunted against the hold and tried to wiggle free, but it was useless. The giant who had a grip on you wasn’t using just impressive human strength. This type of power was inhuman.

“Let me go!” you shouted wiggling and successfully kicking your legs just far enough to hit his knee cap and making his hold lessen as he fell to the ground. He grunted in pain, and you immediately took the opportunity of weakness to run around him.

Once again, you didn’t get far as another strong hand grabbed your arm pulling you back hard to where you fell to the ground with a thud. Without a second thought, you kicked again and started moving to get up again.

What you weren’t expecting was a needle to be pushed through your skin, and injecting something cold into your veins. You hissed at the pain as you turned back to see where it came from.

You made eye contact with the same man you were originally running from. You had come to know him very well, and not in a good way.

Fear filled your eyes, and as reflexes started taking over, you pushed to get up and run again. This time no one fighting you.

You got about 15 feet out before things started darkening, and feelings in your muscles started to disappear.

“No, no,” you mumbled as your legs started giving out, and you stumbled trying to move forward. “No, this can’t be happening.”

You collapsed to the ground on your knees and started breathing heavily as the fear and realization of what was to come washed over you.

Soon everything felt heavy, and you couldn’t hold up your body anymore. Everything went limp including your eyes, and you couldn’t move.

For a few seconds you could hear still.

“Grab her quick. We don’t have much time before they notice her absence,” a deep voice that you remembered all too well spoke up.

“Yes boss,” another voice you knew spoke up.

“And don’t injure her anymore. I need her completely stable for later,” he commanded.

“Of course boss.”

You felt someone pick you up and throw you over their shoulder. You let out a huff of air at the movement even if it was involuntary. So much for not injuring you. That toss was going to leave a bruise for a minute even if your body healed itself at a fast rate.

“Dear sweet Y/N, I told you I would find you,” the first voice said, and you could feel them raising your chin with their finger. You couldn’t open your eyes, but you didn’t need to know who the monster behind this was. You could feel the smug grin on his face just by the tone in his voice. You knew that voice from your nightmares.

He dropped your face gently, and next thing you knew. Everything was black. No sounds, sights, or feeling.

___

“Hey, any luck?” Bucky asked running up to Steve who just ran around basically the whole compound in search for you.

“No. Nothing. Not a single trace,” he huffed placing his hands on his hips as he turned trying to examine his surroundings hoping you would just appeared behind him.

“Well, Stark said he ran surveillance, and he’s just waiting on the video. Said it was something we need to look at, and he needed to see us pronto.”

“Why? What’s going on?” Steve asked now even more concerned.

“I don’t know, but by the way Stark acted… It isn’t good. We need to hurry,” Bucky sighed walking back to the compound with Steve close in tow.

They reached the meeting room Tony told them to go to and found him, Nat, Banner, Sam, Wanda, and Vision there.

“Why is everyone-” Steve started taking in the company.

“It’s bad Cap. Come look at this,” Tony interrupted raising a tablet.

Steve didn’t hesitate and rushed over to watch whatever was pulled up.

It was you running along one of the trainee paths on the forest line. You were going a pretty decent speed when you stopped suddenly, and looked sharply to the side. He saw you hesitate and take out a headphone as you leaned closer to look at whatever caught your eye. When you turned back around he saw you freeze completely. You dropped the earbud and it looked like someone had sucker punched you in the stomach. You took a step back in fear.

“What’s she looking at Stark? Where’s the other angle?” Steve commanded in Captain mode now.

Tony took the tablet and clicked a few buttons that pulled up a double screen that showed the other angle of what you were looking at.

“Who is that?” Bucky mumbled looking over Steve’s shoulder.

“Keep watching,” Nat instructed making the men look at her nervous. She nodded, and they looked back at the screen.

You stumbled back as the other man made a subtle advance. What you didn’t see was the ginormous man that had snuck behind you waiting for you to do that exact movement. You smacked into him immediately turning around. You didn’t hesitate to defend yourself, and Steve felt a little relieved at that. That was until he watched the man catch your arm making it harder for you to move. But you quickly retaliated and started kicking, and knocking the man as you caught him really hard in the knee. He fell to the ground, and you started running the other direction.

Hope sprung in Steve’s heart as he thought you were out trouble. Yet again, why would Tony still be stressed about it if this ended well. He kept watching waiting and hoping for you get in the clear, but he saw the man you had frozen from earlier was already close behind. He came up behind you pulling you back so forcefully that you fell to the ground causing dust to appear around you.

Steve wanted to reach in the camera and fling that man so hard against a tree, and show him how he felt about that small little act. Of course that anger only grew when he was him inject you with something that made you cringe. You pulled away quickly, and started making yet another run for it. Once again, you didn’t get far. This time, you were your own downfall as you stumbled to the ground trying to grasp what was happening.

“What happened? What did he inject her with?” Steve growled watching the screen knowing no one had the answers, but that didn’t stop him from asking.

“We don’t know yet. Keep watching,” Banner sighed running a hand through his hair as he watched from another tablet.

Eventually, you went completely limp and you were no longer conscious. The giant you kicked out earlier came over and threw you over his shoulder harshly. Making Steve glare harder at the screen. A smaller more fragile looking man came over and started talking to the taller man who injected you.

Steve could tell who was calling the shots in this, and it was clearly the man you showed the most fear toward. His blood started boiling even more when he used his index finger to lift your head and whisper something to you. No one laid a hand on his girl. No. One.

He hadn’t realized he was breathing heavily and clutching the tablet so hard it was seconds from breaking until Bucky took it out of his grasp.

“Easy there bud,” he whispered handing the tablet back to Tony before patting Steve’s back. “Breath-”

“Where’s the rest of the video? Where did they go? Where did they take her? What other cameras do we have in that area?” Steve started spouting ignoring his friend.

“They somehow knocked out any cameras that lead them to where ever they took her. I’m assuming the only reason they didn’t have these one’s taken out, was because of how hidden in the trees they were,” Tony explained.

“There has to be footage of something leaving the compound that wasn’t supposed to. That or-” Steve started.

“We know. We’re working on it,” Nat sighed.

“Well work harder! We don’t have time!” Steve shouted getting wide eyes from everyone. Nat just giving him a look telling him to take it easy and not to try her. “Sorry,” He apologized easing his tightened shoulder just slightly. “I-I don’t know what-”

“It’s fine. You care for her and you’re worried about her,” Wanda spoke up. “Hell, we care for her too. That’s why we are going after her and are here to help,” she said sending a reassuring smile.

“What’s the next move?” Steve sighed loudly sending a nod to Wanda before turning to Banner and Stark.

“I think as we wait for further intel, we may need to let everyone else in on…” Tony dragged out hoping Steve caught on.

“No. That’s not our story to tell,” Steve refused immediately.

“It may not be, but if they don’t know the background on it, they can’t really help Y/N if they go in blind,” Tony slipped, but not unconsciously. Steve sent him a warning glare that could kill. “They need to know everything if they want to help her the best they can. I have a feeling this has to do with her ‘little secret’,” Tony whispered the last part as he stood closer to Steve.

Steve still standing strong and sending daggers at Tony. The rest of the room quiet, knowing something was up, but not pushing the tension that was building. That is until Sam spoke up oblivious to the body language Steve was giving Tony.

“Who’s Y/N?” he said quirking an eyebrow.

Steve, Tony, and Bucky looked his way. Tony sighed looking back at Steve who held eye contact with Sam.

Bucky placed a hand on Steve’s shoulder giving a small squeeze.

“Tony’s right. They need to know. Y/N can figure it out when she gets back, but if we don’t let them in… There may not be a Y/N to tell the story,” Bucky said sadly, but truthfully.

Steve was now staring at the wall contemplating it. Then he realized he didn’t have time to really think about it. Time was of the essence. This video was from over 20 minutes ago so that means they could be far gone by now. He shook his head out of his thoughts and looked down before looking back and forth between Bucky and Tony.

“Fine,” he huffed. “But keep working on those surveillance videos. The faster we find out where they went, the faster we get her back.”

He turned to the group who all had their mission faces on. They knew something was up, and their worlds were likely to be changed. It was part of the job. All you could do was take it, and learn how to work with it. Steve stood a little taller as he started to address the team.

“Avengers. There’s something you need to know about Rosie.”

Chapter 21

Used to be Overlooked Tag:

@xa-dia @losersunitetonight @fashionlive15 @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan@steverogersxreader@laneygthememequeen @lauravic @shreddedparchment @iheartsebastianstan@almostelegantfire @manymaria111 @carol-damn-vers @angelkurenai @squirrelgirl67@stevieboyharrington@deaniebeanieandsammywammy @demon-doggo @badassbeckettswan@blueenemy24

Other Tags:

@shamelesslydean @sleepless-sin @sandlee44 @gripmetight-raisemefromperdition@spnwoman @ravengirl94 @carryonmywaywardcaptain @ezilyamuzed@thosekidswhohuntmonsters@purpleskiesandcherrypies @anise-d-castle6 @tailsoflightning@spookycowz @eve05glee@snffbeebee @deans-baby-momma @natura1phenomenon @tftumblin @gh0stgurl@screechingartisancashbailiff @kersumgen @herscrunchiehairtie @dreaminemz@monkeymcpoopoo @a-girl-who-loves-disney @andthatsmyworld @greenarrowhead@savio-the-depressed-moose @awesome-badass-cafeteria-sauce @greyeyedsmile14@adoptdontshop-blog@casper57 @rainflowermoonlibrary @traceyaudette @luciathewinchestergirl@almostelegantfire@thefaithfulwriter @deansgirl-1968 @a–1–1–3

If I tagged you and you aren’t normally on my tag list, I thought you would enjoy the story. Fair warning, it is a slow burn so we will get to the bottom of the issue later, but the burn is what makes it soooooo sweet. I’m really excited for this series, and would love your feedback:) Thank you!

If you want removed let me know.

#mcu #MCU fanfiction #steve #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x reader series #steve rogers fanfiction #Steve Rogers #captain america fanfiction #captain america series #captain america x reader #Captain America x reader Series #captain america #justkending #reader insert #Long Reads #marvel #marvel series #marvel fanfiction

96 notes · View notes

bryyo-data · 6 years ago

Text

What if Samus had Metroid powers: design for a hypothetical game

I got this ask the other day and my answer was a bit of a ramble, but I've come back to it with a clear head. I decided to have a go at hypothetical game design, for a Metroid title set post-Fusion in which Samus Aran gains Metroid-like abilities due to her DNA changes! Some of the stuff below is rehashed from the ask reply itself.

Be warned! Bit of a long post, and I apologise in advance for mobile users for whom readmores don't always work.

Premise

I tried to stay vague with the story details because I was more interested in writing about the gameplay, but I failed at that and wrote a lot. Story has it's own section at the bottom. However, the basic idea is that Samus, now an enemy to the Federation and probably on the run, ends up on a world where the environment triggers the manifestation of strange powers. Metroids are known to adapt when introduced to new worlds, and Samus is essentially doing the same- her Metroid DNA, previously doing little more than sparing her from the X, is now active and granting her abilities.

New abilities

This isn't solid ideas so much as a brainstorm, but I tried to come up with a few ideas for what Samus might be able to do with Metroid DNA. None of it has any scientific basis but that's okay, there's dragons in this franchise.

ENERGY DRAIN: This is the first ability you learn, perhaps one you start off with. Samus starts the first area trapped, maybe after a ship crash, and is told how to shoot and jump etc. by the game. Or alternatively, maybe she doesn’t shoot. Let's say her weapon is down for now, hence being more trapped than usual, and she's stuck using a melee move to break through the surrounding rocks. While doing this, she comes across a biological barrier. But as she goes to use her melee attack, something unusual happens... The barrier turns to dust, and the health she lost during her crash-landing is replenished.

Henceforth, that melee thing becomes a drain attack. This power allows Samus to drain energy, killing a foe quickly and restoring some of her own health, but it isn't unlimited or easy to perform beyond the starting portion of the game. With mobile and aggressive enemies, it requires very precise timing to pull off. I would personally make it so that the game relies on this move much less than Samus Returns relied on the melee counter, but have it function in a similar way. Samus can still blast quickly through enemies like she could in Super Metroid/Zero Mission/Fusion, but if she wants to absorb health she can coax enemies into a specific position and with the right timing, perform a drain move.

If the move is a success, it will insta-kill a low-level enemy and is more rewarding than a standard kill. This might even replace normal energy drops from shooting, or at least would give much more health back than a standard drop. If she fails, she opens up to the enemy attack and risks taking more damage than usual. So if a skilled player is at low health and might die, they can take the risk of draining from an enemy. They may either stabilise themselves, or take double damage and die instantly.

If we don't replace normal energy drops altogether, this becomes less of a thing. In fact for the sake of health grinding and general convenience it's probably better to keep regular drops in- this would just become a fun extra which allows you to get past certain points in the game, like barriers, and can let you heal up quicker if you've learned how to pull it off without fail.

Regardless, this allows for OPTIONAL bullshitting past segments and sequence breaking; for example, you might be able to just get past a standard too-hot-without-Varia region by energy draining the whole way through.

Most bosses would have opportunities to use this if you position yourself right, but I'd personally cut down on flashy cutscenes when it happens. They're fun but I don't want to sacrifice the flow of the game for cinematics too much. Just a quick draining move, steal a bit of health. This move wouldn't work on mechanical enemies, because it relies on life energy specifically.

As you go along, this ability might power up, perhaps triggered either by the environments Samus moves into (since Metroids introduced to new environments will alter accordingly). Perhaps there are ways to power up every Metroid ability, or even an item that allows you to enhance one at a time by channelling your energies-something like that. An enhanced Energy Drain may steal more health and even fuel your weapon ammunition or something like that. Plus, it would make it easier to insta-kill some stronger enemies with the move.

I kinda like the idea of using an item to power up one Metroid ability at a time. To add a bit of challenge to the game, so you can't just switch to the most convenient one at any given time, maybe have it so that you can only change your powered-up ability in certain areas? Special Chozo statues? Interfacing with the other half of whatever this technology is, maybe a computer system found in a couple of rooms across the planet (with all except the first one or two being in hidden and slightly hard-to-find locations? Is that being too mean?)

(Btw just to get retro, we're giving this hypothetical game cheats- one of which is the ability to switch power at any time. Among others like immortality and fun suit colour changes.)

One thing I considered is that, similar to Aeion, Samus might have a power meter for using other Metroid abilities. This would give more function to the draining move outside of just health, and could explain some of Metroid biology too. It would imply that they specifically have to feed on life energy in order to do the things they do, and normal food wouldn't power them up the same. For that reason, Samus could power up her energy meter by draining. The amount of power she absorbs would be proportional to the enemy difficulty.

This could make certain segments trickier; for example, if there were a region similar to the end of Metroid 2 (not Samus Returns) where Metroids have killed off most of the life in the area, Samus would have to use her powers sparingly. The player might find it a bit trickier to traverse the area if they run out of power. Enemies here might be easy to kill and give a lot of power back on easier modes, but harder to kill and less rewarding on hard difficulty.

An alternative is that Samus's powers are fuelled directly by her own life energy, i.e. her health. This would essentially work like Phazon, but not in bursts; each time Samus activates a power, she sacrifices a bit of health, either continually or at once (again, same as how Aeion works, but depleting the health meter instead of a separate one). This makes it vital to locate energy tanks, which could prompt more exploration and may lead Samus to interesting locations that have hidden lore and such (see the section below for more on that). This might also be interesting from a lore perspective because it explains why Metroids are so aggressive as predators- they waste so much energy on simple things like flying, it means they have to near-constantly feed.

Which brings me to the other power-ups. I imagine Samus wouldn’t pick these up traditionally like items. There would still be items in the game, including several brand new ones not directly comparable to those in previous games in the series (obviously we can bring back some old favourites but copy-pasting the exact same items over and over again can get a bit dull even with new abilities). Most normal items would play to the normal Metroidvania game design, of “can’t access area -> locate pickup -> move to new area. These abilities might be triggered by moving into new environments, or if Samus is under stress i.e. during a specific boss fight. So you wouldn’t necessarily be hunting for them, but they could still let you get to new areas or items.

FLOATING: Samus floats, draining power continually until she stops or runs out. This one would require significant limitations; for example, perhaps as you move further away from the ground, you drain SIGNIFICANTLY more energy. This means you are welcome to try and sequence break, or get an item that you were meant to get with grapple beam, but you're wasting a LOT of energy doing so. Maybe gravity is still trying to pull Samus down once you lift off, so you have to actively fight it, and each ascent drains energy faster the higher you go. Sort of like a built-in jetpack. With that said, this would have interesting applications in world traversal.

An enhanced float may have a significantly lower cost for ascending or just maintaining the float. Because we all love some Aesthetic(tm), maybe Float+ gives Samus a faint wing-like aura when she uses it- especially if we go with the above idea that Samus uses Chozo tech to power it up. Imagine the sick fanart that could come out of that.

SHIELD: A fairly standard one ripped off of Samus Returns' lightning sheild. By sacrificing some energy, Samus can temporarily keep up a shield that will mean she takes less damage. If we go with the function of sacrificing health for Metroid abilities (rather than a separate power bar) it would require some careful balancing as well as player learning- for example, trying to ensure that (at least for stronger enemies) it's worth turning it on at all, and that the energy loss to create the shield is less than the theoretical energy loss if you took hits from the enemy.

Maybe this would be a pulse thing rather than an ongoing one; you activate it, and it lasts maybe 10-30 seconds, taking a defined amount of energy. During that time, you get an opportunity to pummel the enemies around you while not being knocked back or stunned when they hit (though you might still take e.g. 1/2 or 1/4 damage from incoming attacks). Of course, it could also function to protect Samus from things like lava, allowing her to access subsurface items if the game never gave her a Gravity Suit or equivalent.

A powered up version would obviously be something like a stronger shield, or a less costly one, or longer lasting if it's activated in pulses. Or a mix of them all. Maybe even a lightning shield effect where things that come into contact with Samus take damage, possibly even feeding her a bit of health (in TINY amounts, not comparable to the drain ability). Visually, so it looks as pretty as the powered-up float, it could maybe have an effect similar to the traditional big-shoulder Varia suit (assuming Samus is still in some form of the Fusion suit by this point).

SENSE/METROID VISION: I'm ripping this one off Samus Returns as well, but I'd change it. This would allow Samus to detect the life energies of all creatures in the area by focusing. It would also indicate how the larval Metroids, lacking eyes, locate their prey. Sensing would either come as a pulse like in Samus Returns, or a toggle on-toggle off ongoing thing, which you can't keep up indefinitely due to energy waste. Like in Skyrim where you can use the Aura Whisper shout or Detect Life/Undead etc.

Key differences include that this ability doesn’t show you hidden entrances by default; it would just indicate that "something is living in this wall" and you have to make judgements based on that info. Is this an enemy that will jump out and kill you (hence, you can avoid it)? Is it a hidden room with enemies in, and an entrance nearby? Thus, it keeps in a little challenge and exploration work.

A powered up version might be able to show other things too, including nearby items, entrances, or breakable blocks- like scan pulse from Samus Returns. That would make it useful for players who don't want to spend hours bombing every wall, or 100%ers like me who are at the endgame and getting frustrated because they can't find the last two missile upgrades. Obviously it's offset by the aforementioned fact that if you choose this ability, you can't choose another without going back to one of the set locations.

TELEPORT: I'm hesitant to include this one because it was fairly signature to Phazon Metroids, but I guess it could be passed off as "a hidden Metroid ability that Phazon unlocked". This would allow Samus to do short-range teleports for an energy cost. I dunno who's played Axiom Verge here, but there's an item which (spoilers if you haven't played it) lets you teleport through walls, and once upgraded it lets you go through bigger and bigger gaps. Samus's teleport would be more instantaneous than that one, and available to use from any position, but costly to perform.

The teleport could help her dodge enemy attacks (though like energy drain, success would rely on timing, and Samus might still take damage just before she teleports assuming there's a slight delay from inputting the command to actually jumping). It would also allow Samus to get through certain walls, though there may be some which are inpenetrable due to the material they're made of. I don't know how it would work in terms of control schemes, but maybe the player could choose their jump distance, with smaller jumps needing less energy.

A powered up version might be able to take Samus further or even have her emit an energy burst when she leaves/emerges from the jump, damaging nearby enemies- though with a greater energy cost.

METROID COMMAND: I can't think of a lore reason why this one would cost energy, unless it's some weird energy psychic thing that specifically resonates with Metroids. Anyway, let's assume Metroids aren't unique to the end-game Tourian-esque area in this game, and there are several locations where you can encounter them throughout the world. This ability would allow you to communicate with them, actually stopping their attacks and saving yourself or other nearby innocent creatures.

Maybe these Metroids are communicating with a "parent" who is actually an evil enemy (i.e. intelligent species that bonded parentally to them- see lore section below) which may result in more co-ordinated attacks than you see from wild roaming individual Metroids. But Samus can use this ability to stop their coordination, or even turn them on their handlers!

An upgrade of this... Maybe Samus turning the Metroids on their allies, including each other and the enemies commanding them? Keep it up long enough and you might be left with just one Metroid standing for you to take out. That could lead to some dark stuff as well. I can imagine Samus needing to be ruthless by using this ability for survival, but feeling baaaad about it.

The upgrade may also include things like asking local Metroids to affect the environment; bringing inaccessible power-ups to Samus, such as ones on high ledges (if she doesn't want to waste energy floating up there) or opening new passageways that Samus herself couldn't get open, either via draining or using brute strength, depending on the Metroid form.

SOMETHING TO DO WITH SHAPE CHANGING: This is one that, cool as it would be, would be REALLY hard to implement because I cannot think of an idea for how it would work. Especially because Samus is in the suit, and we're presuming that the suit itself can't really change shape along with her. But the basic idea is that Metroids famously mature and change, so what if someone with Metroid DNA could undergo controlled, temporary form changes? Or just change certain body parts? I'll come back to this one in the plot section but I'm not convinced Samus could use it herself, though it would be really cool, if potentially OP. Why have a Metroid Vampire when you can have a METROID WEREWOLF kinda I guess.

Just going for bullshit here, perhaps Samus could unlock this one close to the end in a Zero Mission-esque sequence where she's parted from her suit. She seems vulnerable and really has to rely on her Metroid abilities while being extremely energy-conscious, because she's no longer got extra energy tanks to keep her alive (going by the life=power method anyway; slightly less relevant in the separate-energy-bar method except for the fact that energy refills require enemy draining, and that move is much riskier without the suit, since it already increases damage if failed.)

At the end of the segment, she starts growing claws and being able to slash through thick wires or whatever un-drainable thing is in her way. Then she grows bigger and gets more hunched, scaled, and armoured, until she's starting to look like a warped variant of an Omega Metroid. Maybe even a Queen. Luckily she gets under control of it and reverts when she finds a power suit to fit into, something most Metroids can't do but luckily she's a humanoid protagonist and can't stay monstrous forever. Also gives a reason for her to replace her Fusion suit with a cooler classic Chozo suit!

(For real, would Nintendo even do that? Use their sex-sells tiddy out game section as the scene where Samus becomes the most un-fuckable monstrous body horror dragon alien in the game? Probably not but I can dream.)

Maybe the player can't really control this one, or there's a huge cost to doing so but when you do you become SICK AWESOME POWERFUL and take up half the screen and the final boss attack that should've one-shotted you just slides off your back. Maybe. Maybe I just think monster aliens are cool.

Ideally I would like to have maybe 4-5 unique abilities in the game. With drain as one and four others, it would be fairly similar to Aeion and could act as an off-SR388 Aeion replacement. The above ideas are by no means the limits of what could be done, but I can't think of any others at the moment. To work nicely with the game lore, ideally there would be some powers that Samus hasn't seen Metroids use before. Not only does she learn to use them herself, but the Metroids on this planet start using them too, making for some new and unique Metroid battles.

I would leave as much leeway as possible- there's a lot of ideas here, and while new abilities are fun to play with, I don't want it to be over-complicated or inaccessible. This is very much just a brainstorm! If this were a real game, the most important things would be letting the player have fun, feel badass, and tackle challenges their way so they can feel a sense of achievement from finding items or beating puzzles.

Plot

Okay I wasn't originally going to go into plot, but I got carried away. Because this is a sidescroller in particular, you don't have the advantage of Prime's scan system to pile on lore. I wouldn't do too much heavy plot and dialogue, at least not more than Fusion. If anything, LESS than Fusion to decrease dialogue time. But I might adopt Prime elements, specifically stealing the idea of scan downloads from Another Metroid 2 Remake. These would activate at key times, including new boss encounters, entering new regions, or when the player stumbles upon something interesting. In that regard, I'd hide secrets around the world; little rooms which may or may not contain items, but which add an optional lore entry to your logbook as you enter.

Some plot/gameplay stuff I would include:

So this post-Fusion game would probably be where you'd pick up the thread hinted at by Samus Returns' Chozo memories- there are evil Chozo, and either they still exist, or have left a dangerous legacy of bioweapons and robots. Perhaps there's only one or two commanders left alive, and they will stop at nothing to stay that way.

Adam exists, but his dialogue with Samus is limited. This is intended to create isolation, but also hope. When all feels down, you might stumble on a way to communicate with your ship and with Adam again, getting a bit of reassurance. Adam may be able to help direct you during these moments, but I wouldn't go to the same extent as Fusion itself (or Zero Mission's Chozo statues). He might not be able to point out direct target locations, at least not later in the game. Regardless, I don't want to totally sideline him in the title where, post-reveal in Fusion, his character really ought to be emerging properly.

Metroids have new, previously unforeseen abilities locked into their DNA. The planet this game is set on is a Chozo haven with a perfect atmosphere. It has been selected by the evil Chozo for Metroid breeding in order to bring out their full potential. As Samus arrives here, the environment starts affecting her DNA as well, and she begins unlocking her own hidden abilities, one by one.

She runs into evil Chozo, most of whom are hostile to her. If we permit some dialogue at designated points (otherwise implying that Adam and Samus's communications are largely disrupted, keeping the isolated feeling in place) she might confess to Adam that she feels horrible killing what might be the last of her kin. Though I wouldn't write a plot around pushing a theme, there may be an underlying theme of identity, with Samus's human vs. Chozo vs. Metroid identities coming into conflict. The conclusion of which might be "actually, who cares, I'm just Samus. And whatever Samus is, she's an awesome galactic saviour who won't ever be truly alone in the universe."

The main boss Chozo are not initially hostile- they may coax Samus in, pretending to be her ally until it becomes apparent that they want to use her as a pawn for their greater plans. Again, I'd minimize dialogue here. Instead, Samus's communications with these Chozo may be through things such as wall scrawlings or messages left on abandoned computers (readable through the logbook). When she actually meets them, the dialogue would be vague as to whether she read those lore snippets or not, but the players that did read them will have a deeper connection to these mysterious Chozo and greater understanding (though it may be a completely false one) of their motivations.

Adding to that, there may even be a good Chozo among the ranks, one whose wall scrawlings etc. are harder to find, implying they have to hide them. Maybe even taking the Axiom Verge route of having them in an untranslatable language, until Samus picks up a required cipher and can go back to her logbook and read them. But they give Samus reason not to trust the others. You may or may not ever meet the individual(s) leaving these messages, implying they have been taken care of since you arrived but before you met them.

This could actually give the players plot advantage- maybe at some point, Samus is offered a choice of direction. Evil!Chozo says "Meet me at the pool where we will perform the ritual to revive all the dead Chozo." but Good!Chozo's scrawlings said "If he tries to take you to the pool, you're gonna die and the Metroids will be unleashed again. Sneak in via the overhead pipe and drop some bombs on his machine, destroying it before he even gets a chance to start it up." (Something you could optionally do anyway, if you the player finds the pipe entrance and decides not to trust this Chozo. It gives you a bit of free reign to interpret the characterisation of Samus and what she would do.) In the latter case, it might prevent you from taking some initial surprise damage from the boss, or let you skip sections of the boss fight.

Evil Chozo are breeding Metroids, and forging parental bonds to them. This means the Metroids will defend them to the death just as the baby Metroid did for Samus, and also they have trained them to follow commands, mostly battle-related ones. Maybe they have figured out what SR388's Chozo could not- how to remain friends with Metroids after puberty. Thus allowing them to use matured Metroids. It would be lazy to include Alpha-Gamma-etc again because this isn't SR388, so I'd design new Metroid forms, which in-lore are supposed to be upgraded and more powerful according to the design of the Chozo that bred them here. They might superficially resemble Alphas etc. at first, but their developmental pathway ends up very different and unique.

The big ending twist is that the final boss Chozo is modified like yourself- you couldn't have guessed! Lore-wise, perhaps they were one of the ones who originally created the Metroids, not starting as one of the murderous Chozo seen in the Chozo memories. They knowingly turned on the other SR388 Chozo in order to side with the bad guys, and worked their way up the ranks once that trust was earned. Their Metroid DNA could then be explained by them having, like Samus, come off SR388 with an X infection that needed curing. Or maybe they just happened to be an expert in Metroids and thought it would be awesome to use Metroid DNA to get stronger.

Gameplay-wise, this means they can use powers like yours, but also a variety of others because they're a final boss. One of these might be a refined form of the shape-changing that I'm not convinced Samus could use. Metroids mature into new, bigger forms, and perhaps our villain has figured out how to do this in a controlled manner.

Remember the Chozo tech Samus might use to power up her Metroid abilities? Our villain upgraded theirs so all their abilities are powered up. But you're Samus Aran and you're still winning. In desperation, they use it to mutate into a giant monster, like some kind of weird bird-dragon-alien with hundreds of eyes and bioluminescence. Awesome! This is their final form, but it's not as brief as the mutant SA-X's appearance; maybe you defeat their normal Chozo form in the penultimate boss fight, then have to go up against this version of them at the very end.

Of course, they're still a Metroid-based monster. They have VERY potent draining abilities, which they will use more often on , so you have to use a combination of items you've picked up on your adventure, and your Metroid abilities, to prevent them from making the fatal strike, because if they hit you with that attack you're gonna lose between 1/2 to a full energy tank and they're gonna gain a chunk of health back. It's a mean boss design, but on lower difficulty settings it would be toned down.

Sequel potential

I’ll give this one it’s own section to break up the text walls a bit.

The idea behind having this SR388 traitor Chozo character in particular is that they are NOT the initial wave of evil Chozo. This means that whoever "turned them to the dark side" might STILL be out there. Thus, the plot is not over yet, and there's even more sequel opportunity to be had! It could essentially begin a new arc. I wonder how the next game's final boss could compare to "giant intelligent bird-alien-dragon-lamprey" though?

The game discussed so far might make no mention of the Federation at all, because that would overcomplicate things when the plot focus is on Samus, Chozo, and Metroids. A sequel could easily reunite Samus with the Federation, and let trust be regained on both sides as she saves them from the evil Chozo that are now trying to destroy and dominate everything for evil reasons.

Though we don’t want to sacrifice too much traditional fast-paced Metroid sidescroller gameplay time on plot stuff, maybe have a sideplot where the corrupt parts of the Federation are cut out? No doubt those who wanted to breed Metroids, no matter how pure or evil their intentions, are the most likely to accept help from a band of evil Chozo who have lots of Metroids and need help breeding and improving them. It could end up being a dialogue-heavy thing but it would be fun to see this subplot played out without any dialogue whatsoever; Samus just doing her thing behind-the-scenes to stop or expose these people, while they send threats after her.

One reason why I bring up sequel potential at all is because Samus is now part Metroid and the Federation know it- but they don’t know about her abilities. Now she’s saving their asses and they’re gonna have to learn about it. That might lead to a whole bunch of new conflict potential, which could either be explored in-canon or by fanfic writers afterward. Fun either way. May even lead to MORE sequels where the Feds are creating superhuman bioweapons because they learned it worked with Samus.

What happens with Samus's powers between the two games? Will she go into the next game being super OP? Probably not. So how will that be resolved? Theoretically this first game in the “arc” could be the only one, and could actually end the timeline, but it would be a bit of a shame to do that.

One possibility is that Samus has to suppress or lose her powers. Maybe they start getting out of hand, beyond her control, especially if the shape-changing thing comes into play. She may use a reverse form of the power-up technology to tone down her abilities to nothing for safety reasons. She may even use the final-boss-guy's DNA modification equipment to strip herself of her Metroid DNA. Perhaps she decides that it's not something she wants to be a part of herself any more, and takes it out.

Here's a fun tangent off the last one- what if the DNA mod goes wrong and she does something else... Like damage her Chozo DNA? What implications might that have for a future game, and for Samus's own perception of herself? What if we were left on a cliffhanger, where Samus knows she has to rush off to her next battle with the evil Chozo but when she steps into her own suit, her own second skin, it rejects her?

As an alternative, maybe something off-world- or even just the act of BEING off-world- means she loses her abilities because her body "settles down" and suppresses them outside of that world's environment. While this may seem like a cheap ending, it depends on how sequels go. Because in theory, Metroids adapt to their local environments, which means Samus might be able to unlock a plethora of brand-new and previously unseen abilities in the next game owing to her arrival in another new environment.

Conclusion? I have too much time on my hands. It's been an interesting one to think about. Aside from "Chozo will return as villains" I couldn't really speculate what will happen in Metroid 5 at this point, though I'm very tempted to say it will be made eventually. Unfortunately, word-of-god says that Metroid Fusion's ending rectified Samus's DNA and took out the Metroid stuff (hence her losing cold weakness at the very end) so it's unlikely that any of this kind of thing would make it to canon, unless they're happy for to retcon what was already a fairly unclear thing in game.

#Metroid #Game Design #Chozo #Metroids #Samus Aran

35 notes · View notes

duhragonball · 6 years ago

Text

Dragon Ball Z 040

Last time, Bulma got captured by aliens. The good news is that it’s not that kind of anime, but the bad news is that it’s still anime, so she spends the whole episode stealth cosplaying Ellen Ripley in Alien.

Also, the aliens holding guns on the gang are all frightened children, so that makes things a little awkward.

They narrowly escaped a bunch of space invaders, and they think Krllin, Gohan, and Bulma are part of that group. This assumption gets dumber the more we find out about the bad guys. For openers, I’m pretty sure alien marauders wouldn’t wear a knit shirt that looks like it came out of my little brother’s closet back when he was five. Bulma’s not dressed at all, which seems pretty un-menacing, and Gohan’s even younger than all of these refugees.

Krillin tells Gohan to power up, since it looks like they’ll have to fight their way out of this, but then a little girl runs up and kicks him in the shin. Who’s the real alien monster here, I ask you? Not Krillin, that’s for sure.

The boys in charge decide they have to kill their prisoners, since they must be working for some guy named “Frieza.” Typical filler episode, introducing characters and concepts that’ll never get mentioned again.

Despite all the guns, the kids are reluctant to actually kill anyone, and then an alarm goes off. Turns out the ship flew into a field of meteors. Okay, I don’t want to sound like a killjoy, but stuff like this bugs me in outer space stories. Space is huge, and so are asteroid fields, meteor showers, whatever. Typically, every fictional spaceship has a seemingly all-seeing sensor array, which can detect anything that happens outside and throw an alarm. But the damn thing never actually alarms until they’re already in danger. If you think about the guy designing the ship, wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to alert the crew before they got close enough to hit something? Because, again, space is huge. However they ran into this obstacle, they’ve been heading towards it for a long time.

On the other hand, the bridge is being staffed by more frightened children, so that probably explains a lot about their crappy protocols. Someone probably put the red alert klaxon in silent mode because it interrupted their screening of “Frozen”. Kids, am I right? Well, this isn’t one of your video games. This is real life, and you only get one life in this “stage”. So I suggest you unlock a new achievement by putting away your smartphones and doing some hard work for a change.

Sorry, I was trying to mock grumpy old people on Facebook, but I ended up disgusting myself. What frightens me is that there’s probably people younger than I am who will eventually talk like that. Hell, some of them probably already do. Some idiot at my job put a printout on the bulletin board that had some quote about working hard, and it was attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and it took all my willpower not to write on it “Jefferson owned slaves. He literally forced other people to do his work for him.” But chances are he never even said the quote.

Anyway, these kids are clearly out of their depth, is my point.

Back on Earth, Goku’s in the hospital, and he’s freaking out because the doctor’s going to stick him with a needle. The doctor gives him that horseshit about how Goku’s being a baby because he hasn’t even stuck him yet. Yeah, he knows that, stupid. He’s upset because you’re going to stick him with a needle, because he doesn’t like needles. If you had already done it, he wouldn’t care, because it would be over.

I mean, seriously, fuck this guy. Goku got crushed half-to-death by a giant ape. The pain isn’t the issue here. He doesn’t like the idea of having a thin piece of metal jabbed into his veins. It’s the idea of it, that’s the problem. Honestly, for me, the worst part about giving blood is when they prep my arm, and then later when I can feel the tube laying on my arm, and it’s warm. Would it kill them to put a towel or something under it so it wouldn’t feel as weird? Has that been an option all along and I just didn’t know to ask? Maybe I could move it over myself, but no way in hell do I want to look in the general direction of that arm while the business is happening. Would I pass out at the sight of the tube? Maybe not, but I refuse to find out the hard way. I’ll ask God when I die. Is that weird? A lot of things in life just don’t have answers available, and I console myself by thinking I can just do a Q&A with God in the afterlife. The Almighty might refuse to tell me, but at least then I’d know that it’s just impossible for me to find out, and that’s sort of comforting in a way.

Chi-Chi shames Goku in public, but that’s totally different. The doctor’s supposed to show some compassion and make Goku feel better. Chi-Chi, on the other hand, is clearly doing some sort of kink thing that only she and Goku know about. Look at that face. That is a thirsty man, right there.

Back in space, Bulma wants to bug out while they still can, but Krillin and Gohan want to help the kids.

Of course, there’s not a whole lot martial artists can do in a situation like this, but the boys can lift stuff, so they do.

Bulma then gets frustrated with the ship’s pilot and takes over for him.

Kid, if looks could kill...

She mostly works out the controls on her own, and snaps at a kid whenever she gets stuck.

For some reason the helm control looks like a keyboard, which seems a bit complicated. It looks more like Bulma is coding a program instead of directly controlling the ship. Anyway, her fingers are just flying on that keyboard. Definitely a rare hero moment for Bulma

Meanwhile, Gohan shoots something with a Masenko. Not sure how that’s a good idea on a spaceship, but good hustle, Gohan.

Then, after Bulma flies them to safety, the kids still draw their guns on her, and accuse her of working for Frieza. Look, the thing is, Frieza doesn’t even have any women on his team. Unless this is some fandom AU where he’s surrounded by OC consorts, in which case I guess a blue-haired lady in her undies would fit right in. “Yes, you certainly did an.... adequate job piloting this vessel, my dear. However, I have other duties for you now... of the bedroom variety.” “As you command, my lord.” You still don’t need to hold a gun on her, though.

Can I just say that Bulma looks ri-friggin’-diculous in this episode? Who was this for, exactly? I mean, she looks normal for the style of this show, but that doesn’t lend itself to fanservice at all. Like, her left arm looks okay, and the rest of her is all boxy and weird. It’s like a self-hating hentai dude commissioned this. He wanted to see Bulma in her underwear, but he didn’t want to enjoy it. Oh, and I just noticed her weird baby hand. Yeesh.

One of the kids is convinced that Krillin and Gohan are bad guys because they have super powers, but the ones who saw them help out know better. I guess Bulma looks a little closer to the “sexy cartoon woman” style here, but I don’t think the fanservice crowd would settle for a shot like this.

So now that everyone’s friends, the kids explain how their planet was invaded by guys working for some dork named “Frieza”, and their leader was apparently Cui, who we’ll meet a few episodes later. Krillin finds the story similar to how the Saiyans operated, but the kids say their attackers didn’t have tails. To be fair, Vegeta has no tail either, at the moment, but whatever.

The adults on the planet were slaughtered to clear the land for Frieza��s use, but they managed to evacuate the children onto spaceships.

But Frieza’s men chased them all down, except for this one, which was chrome-plated. Apparently this was all they had to do for camouflage? Seems a little fishy to me.

I don’t understand why the parents sent their kids off in spaceshps without sending at least some adults along to take care of them. They just tossed them on a ship full of guns and booby traps and no one knows how to fly it, and that was their plan? Maybe there was an adult pilot, and he got killed at some point. The Earthlings ask them where they’re headed, and they explain that there’s another planet where they think they’ll be taken in. You’d think Bulma would offer to double-check their heading, or at least teach them how to fly their own ship so they don’t run into any more trouble, but nah.

When he finds out they’re going to Namek, the refugee leader gives them coordinates for a shortcut, and Bulma rushes off to make use of it. You know these are just children, right? Their own shortcut took them through an asteroid field, so maybe you shouldn’t be following their advice too closely.

Then we cut to Planet Frieza No. 79. Is this the same planet the kids came from? It’d tie things together nicely, I suppose.

Frieza’s men detect Vegeta’s ship coming in for a landing, so they send out guys to meet him. One of them is a dog, and the other looks suspiciously like Sam Guthrie from the New Mutants.

But he doesn’t get out of the pod, and this raises some questions. First, where’s Nappa? Second, who wrecked Vegeta’s shit?

So they slap him in a regeneration tank. It’ll heal him faster than the treatment Goku is currently getting, but let’s remember that it took Vegeta 18 days to get here, so he’s probably in even worse shape than he was in when he left Earth. Also, the healing tank isn’t exactly a quick process.

Get used to this shot, is what I’m saying.

In space, Bulma takes the ship on the shortcut to Namek, and this leads them into the opening of a Looney Toons short. I hope it’s not a Foghorn Leghorn one. Those aren’t as good.

There’s some space turbulence, and Bulma ends up landing in Krillin’s lap, so she slaps him for copping a feel. Why is she still undressed?

Doesn’t matter, because they’ve finally reached Namek! And it looks... a little paler than usual...

Bulma finally puts some clothes on and it looks like we can finally get this thing started.

But in her haste to check out the planet, she never notices the ship’s computer, which has a flashing red warning. Aw, probably the check-engine light. She can take it to an Auto Zone on the way back.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #bulma #krillin #gohan #cui #vegeta #the orphans had names but i'm not bothering to look them up #goku #chi chi #namek saga

28 notes · View notes

dzamie-oc · 5 years ago

Text

9: Broken

“Alright guys, I’ve just scouted ahead under Stealth (Active). The dragon’s two rooms ahead, so we should be able to rest up and recover here.” The leather-clad man leaned back against a nearby wall, propping his foot against it; as his skill’s Passive kicked in, he faded into a nearby shadow, still visible but harder to see. “You all remember the plan, right?”

“Healing Zone! Yeah, yeah, Stabs, we’ve all got the guide. I won’t have my mana back in full for another five minutes, though, so something tells me you’re gonna insist we go over it anyway.” The pointy-hatted, unrealistically-busty woman left her crooked staff standing on end, emitting green, healing energy to the rest of the party in the room. She took a step back and drew her legs up, sitting criss-crossed in mid-air, floating up and down a few inches at a time. With her eyes closed, the mage was soon surrounded by the rising blue rings of her Meditation skill. “Stabs sneaks in and around the derg’s aggro range, Vinny takes a step forward to pull it, and I throw a Fireball at the big rock thing over its head. That’ll put it into a stagger, cut its attack, cut its defense, cut its health, all sorts of lovely things. Stabs jumps out for backstab city, and the rest of us throw as much DPS as we can at it. Easy-peasy.”

Stabs rolled his barely-visible eyes and shook his head before speaking up from behind his mask, “yep, that’s pretty much your end of the fight. Vinny, Weeb, you two remember its attack patterns? If we can avoid Sultra having to rez any of our asses, this goes over all the easier. Behind the dragon, I’ll have to watch out for its Tail Sweep, keeping a Dodge Roll off cooldown for that, and its Rear Crush attack should be easy enough to see coming.” He pointed at his heavily-armored companion clad in more metal than the average bomb shelter, then at the fourth member of their group, a swordswoman dressed in a high-cut, light purple kimono and dark purple thigh-highs and keeping a fighting-ready stance with her long, curved blade in front of her. “And this one goes for you two as well: its Seismic Wave activates in expanding waves, so back off and come in after the rocks start to disappear. It’ll start to kick in automatically once it’s down to thirty percent health, so eyes open for the red rings around then. Oh, and Sultra, you’ll be out of range for that one, but with the falling rock, it’ll hit half health pretty quick, and that’s when Icicle Rain starts. It’s a slow attack, but it’s constant and can hit anywhere in the room, so-”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Don’t get hit by the freezy bois, they’re just there because you martial suckers got buttmad cuz I could otherwise mash my big spells and not have to even look at the fight!” Her calm, relaxed pose was at odds with the smug, taunting tone of her voice. “Don’t worry, you lot. You’ll all go down way before I even take a hit. Look, this dragon’s a piece of cake when you’ve got Sultra the Enchantress on your side!”

Weeb sheathed her katana, bowed, and drew it again, returning to that same active stance. “Hai, Sultra-chan, we’ll beat this ryuu-kaiju faster than Tsukino Usagi late for school, and th-the... and then...” she stuttered as she shuffled towards the Meditating mage, her sword inches from the magic-user’s face, “and then we’ll be the most sugoi yuri couple around!”

The floating mage’s staff returned to her hand, and she put her legs down, opening her eyes and standing back up, then turning her body to face the other woman; her breasts continued bouncing for a couple seconds after she had stopped moving. “Weeb, I’m a guy. You seem to forget a lot, mostly cuz of these wonderful funbags on my chest, but us together isn’t you-ree.” She brought her free hand to her mouth and laughed a haughty laugh, the motion of which did absolutely nothing for her bouncing boobs. “In fact, it would be the opposite entirely! Now, to get out of this shitty conversation, I’m all topped up. C’mon you meat sponges, let’s get us some loot!”

When Stabs moved, he faded back into focus, no longer a half-visible shadow. The four filed out of the room: Stabs, followed by Vinny, then Weeb and finally Sultra. When they neared the door to the dragon’s lair, Stabs drew two knives, dropped into a low stance, and vanished entirely from view. Vinny pulled out a massive tower shield almost as big as he was, as well as a similarly-large, gleaming broadsword. Weeb simply moved forward in her battle-ready pose, brandishing her long, curved blade at whatever she happened to be looking at at the time. Sultra held her crooked staff upright, rather than down at her side, and all four entered the final room, staying as close to the door as possible until absolutely necessary. What they saw, though, threw them for a loop, and Stabs even turned off Stealth (Active).

The dragon at the opposite end of the room wasn’t snarling as it jealously guarded a veritable mountain of glittering gold, trinkets, and baubles. It wasn’t lashing its tail as it waited for some unprepared bastard to step more than a few feet into its lair. In fact, it wasn’t even standing, toned leg muscles tensed to spring forward at its human prey. Instead, it laid on its belly, resting its head atop its scaly paws and gazing at the party dispassionately. Its wings drooped to the ground, and while its tail moved, it was only small, lethargic taps against the stone floor. “Oh, hello there,” it called to them in an emotionless voice, “are you here for the treasure, or for one of my ribs? I need to know if I should drag myself under that big rock up there.”

“Uh, this isn’t... that’s not what’s supposed to happen.”

“Hm?”

“N-nani?!”

“Lol, dragon’s bugged. Well, gee gee easy, go grab the jewel!”

Stabs smirked at the mage. “What, why not get it yourself? You’ve got a thing for getting first dibs on loot, right?”

Sultra crossed her arms, squishing up her bountiful breasts that probably only stayed in her robe by magic, and harrumphed. “As far as we know, it could go into attack mode once we’re in aggro range! And you need me to stay alive if you want to stay alive!”

The kimono-clad swordswoman nodded. “Sultra-chan is right! What if this is part of dragon-san’s keikaku?” She giggled, then stage whispered to the others, “translator’s note: keikaku means plan!”

The dragon spoke up again. “Send the armored one. He’s got a big enough sword, it should be able to Coup de Grace me alone.”

The party looked at each other, surprise growing into a slight sense of concern. They pushed Vinny forward, and he slowly walked a clanking gait up to the dragon, who did not move. When he was face-to-snout with the dragon, the two of them stared at each other for a minute. Finally, when one of them broke the silence, it was the dragon again. “Well? Let’s get this over with. People don’t challenge this place unless they can win handily, so why should I bother with theatrics?”

Vinny switched his sword to reverse grip, brought his closed hands up by his chest, put his thumbs together, and pushed his hands outward a few times, nodding for emphasis. The dragon was silent for a few seconds, then sighed. “Look, you think you’re the first ones to ever make it this far? Adventurers run this place all the time; there’s a ruby back there worth fifty gold twenty-seven silver by itself.” The great, scaly beast lifted its head to look back behind itself at the massive trove of valuables; when it swiveled back around and laid its head down once more, the armored human took a few, courteous steps back. “Sure, I put up a good fight the first couple hundred times or so, but... well... my victory rate dropped to around literally zero, and the whole process... look, have any of you ever died?”

The rest of the party, who had been slowly creeping forward, shook their heads. “No, death is rather permanent for us. Not the case for you?” Stabs stood next to Vinny, performing an exaggerated shrug to highlight his confusion.

“Ah. Well, I wouldn’t recommend it if you can avoid it. The sensation of your soul departing your body...” it shuddered, wings shuffling along the ground. “It’s utter misery, and you never get used to it. It’s permanent for you? Heh, enviable.”

Sword still out, Weeb shuffled towards the dragon’s side; if he cared about the live steel next to his scales, he didn’t show it. “Momentai, dragon-san. Do the other adventurers ever just go for the gold?”

The dragon shook its head, then cast its eyes around the group. Weeb was by its foreleg, still in that battle stance, while the others stayed a few meters in front of it, Stabs by Vinny’s side and Sultra behind the big, armored tank. “Just about never, aside from the four-Rogues groups who just Stealth behind me. I’m a big chunk of experience, I suppose, just-”

Several things happened at once, all courtesy of the dragon. Its forepaw grabbed the swordswoman, making her Pinned under its scaly digits. It cast Seismic Wave, forcing the other three to step back away from the imminent rock spikes. And it blew a fireball at the very same rock designed to injure it when it moved too far forward. The rock fell, as designed; but instead of falling on the dragon, it fell on the trio instead, crushing them instantly. Batting Weeb between its paws soon sent her sword out of her grip, leaving her Disarmed as well. With renewed life and a smug smirk, the dragon picked her up, dangling her by the leg over his head.

“Th-that wasn’t very sugoi of you, you baka dragon!” she shouted, waving her fists at the large reptile, “and all those attacks at once? How were we supposed to defend against them?!”

“Oh, I know,” the dragon said with a grin, “the mechanic is quite broken, don’t you think?” And with that, he dropped her into his awaiting jaws.

#dragon #writing #rpg #smaugust in november #text

1 note · View note

vulpinmusings · 6 years ago

Text

Ski-tar and Friends part 7: Junk Race

Picking up right where we left off, Vemir and 6 remotely participate in the junk race while Ski-tar kicks back to watch the mayhem.

Where be began

Where we just were

Vemir, Sixer, and I were nearly to our seats before I hit upon a solution for our One Remote vs. Three Users conundrum. Rat-rod had designed his course to fully embrace the “Junk” in Junk Racing, so there was a bunch of scrap and half-broken thingies everywhere. I spotted a device that wasn’t too dissimilar to the remote Laboni had shoved at us and enough loose wires and other bits to turn the device into a functional wireless extension of the original remote. My thing could only handle a fraction of the functions the actual remote could, but that was enough. I set it up to control the weapons on Laboni’s junker and handed it to Sixer. As our team’s official pilot, Vemir would take charge of keeping Laboni on the course and up to speed, and I took upon myself the noble duty of watching the race and occasionally giving the other two advice. I would’ve stayed down by the track to handle pit-stops, but since the race was only going to be a single lap there wasn’t much call for that.

The big draw of Junk Racing is the unpredictability. The racers are allowed to shoot one another with disabling weapons, and even the best of the vehicles on the circuit was cobbled together from scrounged scrap. This makes predicting the outcome of a race more difficult than normal, and so even bets on the favored racer can pay out well and, of course, simply watching the race brings its own level of excitement.

That said, you’ll never convince me to actually get behind the controls of a junk racer.

Our race started off with a major upset to the general expectations. While Laboni and two other racers got off to a roaring start, reigning champion Rat-rod stalled out before even crossing the starting line. He managed to get going a second later, but it seemed like the damage was done. Our biggest rival after the first turn was Orsus, the Lashunta with the glitzy hot-rod, while the gnome technomancer who had promised to help us against Rat-rod was a couple places behind us. Since Vemir had agreed to help the gnome place second, Sixer tried to shoot at Orsus to slow him down and give her space to move up. The shot went wide, and Orsus didn’t return fire, to my confusion. Shooting at each other is half the point of Junk Racing.

As the racers zoomed down the first straightaway, Laboni remained fairly solidly in the lead while Rat-rod struggled to catch up while under fire from the gnome, us, and the tank-like racer Vemir had failed to stick a detonator on. Rat-rod was struggling so much that I briefly suspected that someone else had done some sabotage, until he finally got his systems in order and started working his way up in the pack. As this was happening, the last racer, an android, caught up to Orsus and rear-ended him, unwittingly helping with my minor goal of damaging Orsus’ beloved vehicle. It was about at this point that I realized that Orsus wasn’t participating in the constant crossfire at all because he didn’t even have any weapons on his vehicle. The fool was Junk Racing without a gun and still keeping pace with Laboni. It was impressive.

Just before the racers reached the big turn that marked the halfway point of he track, the tank driver made the mistake of turning an energy weapon on Rat-rod. The champion took the hit with glee and poured the energy into a speed boost that brought him up to threaten Orsus and Laboni. He then made good on the threat by shooting Laboni and pulling into the lead. Meanwhile, our gnome friend and the tank both suffered engine troubles and fell so far behind the rest of us that they were effectively out of the race.

Orsus fell back a bit in the turn while the android moved up, and between it and Rat-rod we suffered several hits. In a moment of desperation, I grabbed the remote from Sixer with the intention of turning our energy weapon on the android, but in my haste I dropped the device and somehow sent a signal that interfered with Vemir’s controls and caused Laboni to stall out for a second. I sheepishly returned the secondary remote to Sixer as he and Vemir both gave me hard looks, and instead tried to link my augment rig to our control net so I could shoot the guns without disturbing Sixer.

Laboni was in fourth place going into the second straightaway, with Rat-rod in first and Orsus and the android jockeying for second and third. Vemir got on the comms and reminded Laboni that the Starfinder Society’s reputation was hanging on her. Laboni dutifully stepped up her game enough to get up past Orsus. Rat-rod suffered a glitch as we neared the final turn, allowing Laboni to pull into the lead.

The pack tightened up in the last turn, and the shots started flying out faster and harder. With the sudden desperation of an overly proud rat being facing imminent failure, Rat-rod decided to turn one of his own weapons on himself to get the power for one last speed boost, winding up neck-and-neck with Laboni for first place as the finish line came into sight. The two rivals jockeyed the entire rest of the distance, until at the last second Orsus swooped in to steal the win and knock Rat-rod back enough for Laboni to get second.

Not a total win, but Laboni did beat Rat-rod, so mission technically accomplished.

It took a few minutes for the gnome and the tank driver to limp over the finish line. The tank driver was quite upset at her vehicle’s performance, and everyone wisely decided to just giver her space. The gnome wasn’t upset about not getting second place, shrugging it off as poor luck and simply glad that at least Rat-rod hadn’t won. Orsus was so proud of pulling off a win despite not having any weapons that he barely noted the damage his vehicle had accrued, and I just didn’t have the heart to try and make a fuss over it. The android racer was also a good sport, and quickly struck up a friendship with Sixer, swapping comments about their chosen names (they call themselves Velocity, appropriately enough), appearance, and possibly other android flirtation topics. I was a bit too focused on Rat-rod and Laboni to pay the robots much mind.

Laboni tried to be the bigger person by offering Rat-rod an apology for the statements that had gotten her into this whole mess, and then very nearly spoiled the apology by insinuating she’d be able to beat Rat-rod again. Rat-rod accepted the apology with much grumbling and disappeared into the junk, complaining about possibly losing his precious track to some pretty-boy Lashunta.

For coming in second place, Laboni won a set of carbon skin armor that didn’t fit her, so she passed it on to Vemir, and a bunch of credits that she split with the three of us. Then, we hiked back to the Eye to report to Ratazan.

Naturally, Ratazan had been watching the Junk Race on the vids and so already knew that we’d saved the Starfinder reputation. He didn’t let Laboni off the hook for causing the situation in the first place, though, and assigned her to clean out his tadpole aquarium as penance. As for the three of us, we were just dismissed to return to the Lorespire Complex and get our next initiation job.

Back at the complex, the hologram Guidance told us our next assignment would come from Historia-7 of the Dataphiles, the archival arm of the Starfinder Society. Historia-7 is apparently new to the position, since Historia-6 was among those lost in the Scored Stars Incident. I’m putting even bets on Seven being an android or another hologram like Guidance.

We decided to wait and relax a bit before going to the Archives, and Vemir ran off to the market to pick up more healing serums. We hadn’t used any serums since our last big shopping trip, so I was little concerned why Vemir suddenly wanted more. Still, he’s an adult (at least in terms of chronological age), so I didn’t think it was worth following him since I didn’t need to buy anything myself. I did find it strange that he took a lot longer than it should to complete such a simple errand, but when I asked him about it he just said the marketplace was a madhouse from everyone reacting to the recent upset on the Junk Race circuit.

That made sense, so I put it out of my mind.

#ski'tar #Starfinder #Vulpin plays

1 note · View note

geisterwrites · 6 years ago

Text

And the medicine goes down

Happy Valentine’s Day @meythecat ! You were my giftee for the @alteasvalentinesexchange . I hope AUs are your thing, because when seeing the ships you wished for, I couldn’t unsee teachers Kolivan and Coran and Coran taking care of a cold having Kolivan. So here a bit of ill h/c.

Rating: G

Wordcount: 1720

Pairing: Kolivan / Coran

Kolivan might be ill.

As he sits in his office with an almost empty tissue box on his table and a hill of used tissues in the bin, he is in the process of admitting that he might be ill. That a cold might have him in its grasp. A cold.

Kolivan snorts and reaches for the next essay on the top of the neat pile. As if that would stop him. He has no fever, he is clearly not dying, he can power through this and finish grading the essays.

Except his head is spinning as if he is rolling around the room and he should figure out what to do after his two last tissues are gone. Because they will be soon.

Something tickles inside his nose and he grabs a tissue just in time before he sneezes. With half closed eyes and a vein pulsing on his forehead with pain and annoyance, Kolivan stares at the last tissue hanging out of the box. Last one and he feels like he is counting minutes before this one will be gone too.

A knock on the door startles him and breaks his impromptu staring contest with the tissue. His eyes flick to the wall clock and then to his planner. Today are not his office hours and there is also no appointment scheduled. Normally the only person who dares to come along unannounced…

Kolivan watched the door open and a mop of red hair peek inside.

Coran.

The last person he needs right now.

“Hello dearest.” Coran waltzes in like this is his living room and he had just walked in from the kitchen. “I was just passing by and thought I might see how you are doing with the essays.”

Kolivan rubs at his forehead before he forces on a smile. He hopes he doesn’t look to snotty.

“It’s going well.”

A ‘I’m half done’ dances on his tongue, but he and Coran have been together long enough for Coran to know his habits in and out. The right pile is the finished one and it’s the smaller one, so there is no fooling Coran.

“What about a lunch together, it might…” Coran leans down to press a greeting kiss on Kolivan’s lips, who is hard pressed not to lean back – that would be too suspicious. But his hope that Coran won’t notice something is off dissipates into thin air when his partner’s eyes go wide after the kiss, and after his cheek rubbed against Kolivan’s.

“Oh cricket!”

A chilly palm is slapped onto Kolivan’s forehead and against his better judgement, he closes his eyes and leans into it.

“You are like a bloody furnace. You should be in bed right now.”

“I’m fine, Coran. It’s just a bit of runny nose.” Kolivan tries to convince him, but when he opens his eyes and sees the look Coran is giving him, squinting at him like he had just caught a child stealing a lollipop from his store, Kolivan knows he is doomed. Well, he did knew that since the moment the door opened, if he is completely honest, but he was still hoping.

“Nonsense.” Coran grabs the essay Kolivan had just opened, and puts it back on the left pile. “This can wait. Right now you need to go back home and lie down. No discussion.” Coran cuts Kolivan off, when he opens his mouth, so he only lets out some air in a wheezing sigh.

“I can still… finish…”

There goes his last tissue, as Coran grabs it and presses it against Kolivan’s face before he can sneeze all over his student’s essays.

“You were saying, dearest?” Coran’s voice is dripping with thick-liquid sarcasm right into his ear as Kolivan blows his nose.

This is the worst. His next lesson in this subject for this class isn’t until next week, so he has plenty of time to finish grading the essays, but he wanted to be ahead of time because there is always too much to do and too little time. And now he will be out of commission for the rest of today, because no way is Coran letting him out of the bed earlier than tomorrow. Given he looks well enough then, of course. God damn. And he might also… Kolivan shudders when he remembers.

“We will go back home now and I will make you my grand-grand uncle’s secret recipe soup. It’s the best remedy one can wish for a cold.”

There it is. And no chance to run away, with Coran already holding Kolivan’s coat in his hands. Cursed be this cold.

Kolivan feels his nose running again, but all he can do is pull it back, because he has no more tissues left.

“Are you warm enough, dearest?”

There isn’t much but the tip of Kolivan’s nose peeking out of the blankets Coran had piled on him. When Coran started to gather these together after they came home, Kolivan pressed his lips into a thin line. Such amount was unnecessary. Aside from the runny nose and a slight head pounding, he was feeling fine.

But now, dressed in a tank top, a t-shirt and a hoodie, he is happy he has a pile to bury himself under. Because he is still feeling cold, his body wrecked by one shiver after another. That is definitely not warm enough.

Fingers curled into the layers of blankets, Kolivan pulls them tighter around his chin, sealing all of his body heat underneath.

“Tea…” he whispers, barely avoiding biting into his tongue. “Tea would help.” He forces out with difficulties, looking up when he feels a palm on his forehead.

Coran’s eyes are concerned.

“I’ll go and make you something much better than tea. And then you will take a long, healing nap. You will be feeling all better in an instant, then!” Coran’s smile is meant to be encouraging, but it just grinds in how pathetic Kolivan feels.

His body is sweating, but he is still cold and his eyelids are so, so heavy. Again and again they flutter close, but are pried open by some unseen force right after as Kolivan seems not to be able to keep them closed. He resigns and keeps staring at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of Coran busying around in the kitchen that spill into the bedroom.

The rooms are right across each other, but the sounds are muted, like they are fighting their way through a thick curtain. Kolivan wishes the curtain was real, made out of a thick, warm fabric and he could wrap it around himself atop of all these blankets.

He doesn’t notice when his body starts to buzz, but when realizes it does, he can’t unfeel it anymore. It’s like his body wants to crawl out of its own skin. It forces him to toss and turn when he wants to stay still, because every movement makes him feel colder.

Kolivan misses Coran’s footsteps as he returns and startles when he sees him standing right next to the bed.

“Shhh, it’s just me.”

Fingers stroke messy hair loosened from his braid from his forehead.

“Tired,” Kolivan mumbles, his lips dry and cracking. How did his state got so bad so quickly?

“Just do me a little favor, alright? Drink this small cup all empty and then you can sleep all you want. You will feel plenty better after you wake up.”

Needles dig into his back when Coran nudges him to sit up. Kolivan is sure he is leaning against him more than he should, but Coran doesn’t say even one word, just lifts the cup up to Kolivan’s lips. A faint whiff of lemon and garlic hits him and he is suddenly happy his nose is clogged up, otherwise the scent might have knocked him unconscious right here and now. The liquid burns down his throat and for the span of one second, Kolivan wonders if it’s because it’s hot or because of something else. Then he closes his eyes and just swallows, one large gulp after another until the cup really is empty.

“There, see. That wasn’t so bad, right?”

A nod is the only answer he can muster enough energy for before he slides back under the blankets, curling together in search of warmth.

His eyes fall closed and this time his lids stay down. It still takes him a while before he falls asleep. The only thing he is aware of before he drifts off are the shudders of his body and the cooling palm on his cheek, with the thumb slowly stroking over his cheekbone.

The first thing Kolivan notices when he wakes up is the dark. The second thing he notices is the absence of the shivering and the cold; his body temperature seems to be evened out again.

The third thing he notices is the sliver of light under the door. He has no clue how late it is, if it’s still afternoon, evening or night, but either way Coran has to be still up. With careful, slow steps he slips into the hallway.

“Coran?” Kolivan finds him in the living room, curled in his favorite chair. With a blanket tucked around his legs (they still had any blankets left? How?), with a book in his fingers and with his reading glasses on. He looks up when Kolivan enters, a smile spreading over his lips.

“Kolivan. I see you are feeling better.”

“Plenty better.” Kolivan uses his exact words and smiles back. “Seems like your magical remedy helped.”

“Of course, it always does. You shouldn’t be up yet, though. The remedy is not as magical as to cure you completely with just a few gulps, after all.”

“And I was sure I could get dressed and head to finish grading those essays already.” Kolivan leans down to press a short kiss on Coran’s lips, who accepts it before patting Kolivan’s arm.

“Hardly. It’s almost one in the morning. What you should do instead is head back to bed.”

“That seems like a good idea. But I think with someone at my side instead of in this chair would help me sleep better and get well faster.” His fingers sneak down to pick the book out of Coran’s hands.

“How right you are, dearest. How right.”

#vld #alteasvalentinesexchange #vld coran #vld kolivan #corivan #geisterwrites

11 notes · View notes

dememarquette · 6 years ago

Text

Office Raid

I heard a knock on the door, flaring my temper. I'm not usually this impatient, it's just that time of the year. Tax Season. My primary line of work is in Greed. Meaning, I pitch businesses, get them started, and hand over the keys. I do accounting in the background, ensuring my clients maintain their wealth so they can enjoy it. That, unfortunately, includes managing their accounts. I know every tax break in the book. It's all a matter of playing Tetris with finances to keep them happy- for, say...hundreds of people. If not thousands. Because of this, everything between January to April is a nightmare. I have hateful quotas, and my free time is sank into inane questions like 'How can I claim my employees as dependents?' The batshit accounting of my multi-million dollar clients doesn't happen overnight. My schedule is clean of new patronage until April 12th, but lot of good it does when they still arrive at my door. I wanted to put up a sign, 'Come back in May.' "Come on in." I say instead. Julia would kill me if I turned down anyone, regardless if I was up to my eyeballs in W-2's and Form SS-4's. "But make it snappy." I said snappy- I know I did- but I think he heard 'blast my goddamn door open.' The seven foot panel blew off its hinges, sailing across the room at an flawless horizontal angle. I stared as it smacked against the wall, cracking the already-unstable structure. I gave the curious incident the benefit of doubt. This is Hell, after all. I couldn't jump to conclusions to accuse my guest- But the moment one armored boot stepped into the room, it became a safe assumption. The forth circle isn't known for its sturdy craftsmanship but he was still pleased with himself. He sauntered in like he'd receive an ovation. I did stand, but it was scantly out of reverence. "Hello." I said, at a loss. "Why don't you make yourself at home?" "Demetrius Marquette," He announced, standing grandiose just inside the entry way. Decked out in red and gold, the familiar uniform took such majestic inspiration from the Romans that it'd be impressive if it wasn’t set off by a swampy water cooler in the background. "I am Arodeus, and I have orders bestowed upon me by the 6th Choir to terminate you immediately." I don't know how one is normally supposed to oppose a declaration like that, so I did my best. "...Not guilty," I reasoned. "Of which part, exactly?" "...All of it." His head canted. One arm eminently held a thick document to his chest like he was here to strongarm a petition on climate change. "The dozens of counts of violating your celibacy vows? Sacrilege? Fraud? The hundreds of documented instances of simony during your time as a member of the clergy? And all of the Hellish transactions that succeeded it?" He posed. "All of that?" I considered carefully. Yeah. Checks out. "Hey, uh- listen. It sounds awful when you word it like that, but my application was fifty pages for a reason. By the way, who let you in-?" "Consider it rejected." With practiced dispassion, his wrist flicked. The ream of pages scattered across my office floor in a manner about half as cool as he pictured it. I recognized my giant letterhead anywhere. Alone, it presented a very large problem but in the category of 'will kill me now' versus 'will get me killed later,' the angel was in the former. "You know what?" I took a generous step backward. "Totally understood. Thanks for stopping by." "Not that easy." His wings snapped, and he shot across the floor. I had a split second's notice to move. That manifested as a genius two foot teleport to the side. His reflexes were faster. My tail was yanked a sharp pull to the left. All 200lbs of my weight was shifted off center, rocking my balance. I fell forward straight into his fist as he lobbed an uppercut at my ribs, working with gravity to double-team me. 'Fuck-' I folded as the air was forcibly vented from my lungs. Retaliating in that instant, I wrenched my elbow to his gut, but he was prepared. Agile, he suspended himself to take the force out of the blow. My hit simply guided him in the air of where he'd float next. I stumbled with his weight gone suddenly, while he touched ground for a graceful landing. "Did you even read it?!" "Oh I read it. We all did." "It wasn't your mail!" "No-" He pondered. "No it wasn't. Not until your name was flagged as a repeat offender. At which point, yeah. It was ours. Good read though." "Thanks?" I combusted to appear at his side. I learned that the hard way what his answer to that was. My hand connected, and if I had taken Tak's punching class I was sure it would have cracked. The moment he lost sight of me for the barest of seconds he threw up a shield. My knuckles skinned where it graze off the surface. I had no time to re-evaluate before the wall disappeared, priming him to deliver another kick. This one rocketed me into my bookshelves. They tipped, threatening to crush me with the likes of the Intradimensional Exchange Rates and the Necroeconomicon, but held steady. Arodeus was already closing in for a second round, but I could already feel the air tense for a second shield. Knowing better than to go on the offense close range, I lifted my hand to fake out a hook. It worked, long enough for him to to summon a defense just for me to spark a fire inside it. It flared bright, a globe of flames that ignited him like a goddamn lava lamp. He howled out a sharp note of agony before it popped. The blaze released, and the forcefield burst in a wave of Holy heat. His wings flared wide, putting out the unassuming fires in one pump of his wings. His feathers were left dusted with ash, frayed so thin it looked like he hadn't used conditioner in two years. Still, even if he looked like a BP oil spill duckling, he was more humored by my counter than threatened. As someone who was actually proud of that maneuver, that was actually very concerning. I threw my hands up, making it clear I never intended to cause the damage I didn't actually reap. "Listen guy, I don't want to fight!" "Ah, great! You don't have to!" He grabbed my client chair. I reared back into the wall behind my desk. A moment too late I realized that it happened to be against the most priceless fixture of my office. I couldn't tell if it was out of spite or sudden inspiration, but he held the chair over his head. My eyes widened- "NO! No! N-NOT-" And hurled it into the glass. "-the fish tank!" I cried. "You ASShole!" A torrent jetted from the top, breaching my office with an aggravated geyser of mineral treated water and glass. Katy perry's Last Friday Night sputtered into distorted gargling as the damage claimed everything. The atmosphere of Hell turned my desk into a grill; my gobies and angelfish fried instantly. The rest erupted into a veil of steam, obscuring me long enough to crawl under my desk. I yanked open the drawer, hand blindingly reaching for anything of use. Scissors, letter opener- I'll take a Montblanc if it meant not being defenseless. The angel rounded the corner, tearing shit up as he passed. He couldn't see clearly so anything vaguely smart and stylish was destroyed in his warpath. My lamp shattered against the wall, and my accent table overturned, with my artisanly selected selfies lost to the destruction. I very much doubt his memo for my extermination today included office renovation. He was being a dick, and my neighbors on either side were complacent jackasses too. They throw a fit if Lady Gaga was belting it too hard but you bet my asskicking was music to their ears. And because my intuition stops short of fisticuffs, he found me too soon. Cornered, I blasted him in the face. The inferno lasted all of two seconds as the shower behind him put it out and doused me in turn. He reeled back, leaving my hand to fizzle out in a thin line of smoke. "Shit-!" Arodeus drew a reedy breath through his teeth. He cradled his face, one palm to a shiny, fleshy cheek. It healed in a glow of white, alighting the skin until there was no trace of trauma at all. His grimace of pain turned into a cheerful 'ta-da,' showmanship for my benefit. I hadn't ruined even one of his perfect eyebrows. On my very short list of lines of defense, that was it. "Oh come on!" I angled to take a shot at his kneecaps but he got me first. One kick to the spine of my seat, and he tipped it on its wheels. It bashed into me one, two, three times in rapid succession. Defending myself meant getting a hand caught in the metal bars and slammed into my face. The collateral damage from my elbows alone drew blood. I was crushed up against the wall of my desk like a 1980's nuculear drill. An attempt for freedom put me in the perfect spot for a forth blow knocked my knee into my jaw. I slid to the ground, favoring my side. My world blurred- a smear of reds and oranges- as he snagged my collar, and fished me out to the open to be salt-waterboarded. "You do realize I'm just an accountant right?" I croaked. A stream was still cascading over the jagged glass, spilling directly onto my face and the nape of his neck. His charred wings were being weighed down, but he made up for it in the delighted posture of a man about to finish the job. Borrowing his words, it would not be that easy. "389 hostage souls say differently." "What? Hostage-?!" I squinted through the burn. "They're not hostages. They're legally attained!" "Gee, I hope you kept the receipts." (For the record: I did, but he wasn't here for semantics.) The heat of a holy fist charging up was unmistakable. My vision was still flickering through static but his power presented itself as a flare of white in my retinas that'd be debilitating had I not had protection. Just before the hit would land, I was reminded of a prior engagement. My office phone beeped- the antiquated hunk of plastic, too ancient and powerful to be bothered by the sizzling fish carcasses and water damage. "Mr.Marquette, your 2PM?" "Yeah!" My head lolled. "Send them in!" My attacker snapped toward the door, and I disappeared under his weight. - - - Cross-planar, and thousands of miles away, I hit the sidewalk in a limp. I had moved without thinking, landing in a pleasant suburb bathed in spring's afternoon sunlight. It served as a delightful contrast to how I was feeling- which was shit. I was screwed. I was so fucked. If the angel was worth his salt, I'd be tracked right after he dealt with whoever walked into my office, no matter what corner of the globe I popped to. I was running on borrowed time, and with all my options exhausted, I turned to my phone. My contact list spun like a rotary. Demon, demon, demon- Why am I friends with so many demons? The thought was counter-intuitive to me before 2013, now they made up half my friendslist and are completely useless in the face of celestial opposition. I slumped against a tree as I searched for alternatives. I recognized the neighborhood as upstate Washington, a personal spot for me. It shouldn't be the first go-to in an emergency, but I was concussed and apparently craving foie gras. Down the block, surrounded by a beautiful lot of imported cars, Chez Tzaz stood tall. No other spots were coming to my bruised brain when I needed them most. But it was as safe of a spot as any when it came down to it. At least there I had a bouncer. Not only that, but it sparked a sudden moment of clarity. I jerked the scrollbar back up to the top. Adria. I shot off a text. It was unfortunately less than polite. [2:03 PM] do u mind calling rock me amadeus off my back!! Her response was instantaneous. [2:03 PM] WHAT?? WHO?? [2:03 PM] the angel sent to my office!! said he was there to kill me?? i thought you said you'd warn me!! [2:04 PM] ARE YOU SERIOUS?? WHERE ARE YOU?? I twitched my thumbs volley a text back but arguing in the distance caught my attention. Someone without a reservation had made it to the door and was causing a scene. Sure, I was still seeing stars, but it was hard to miss the glaring refraction of light off their heels. That damn uniform again. My heart fell to the pit of my stomach. [2:05 PM] they are at my restaurant too??? That has to mean my apartment has already been raided. And my vacation home. And who knows what else. I'm not modest with my brand. Anything that has my involvement is emblazoned with my logo- I've plastered it everywhere I could make my mark because nuance isn't my strong suit. The unsaid consequences of this made my head pound. [2:06 PM] IF YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO SEE THEM, YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH FOR THEM TO SENSE YOU. GET. OUT OF THERE. I wanted to. I truly did. But all of the locations I could visualize in my mind belonged to that of other demons. Archer's apartment just thirty minutes away, Niko's office who already suffered a remodeling this year, my favorite cafe- I didn't want to drag my trouble to them. Especially not when it was looking inevitable. Meanwhile, in the distance my dutiful hostess was patiently and condescendingly explaining the dress code policy just like I taught her (armor is NOT formal-wear post the 1700's, please see the handbook). The distraught angel launched into full riposte about her obstruction of justice, so much so that I ignored my phone for ten whole seconds. By then, Adria already had an essay, surmised with a frantic, 'What are you going to do? I'm serious, where are you?' rephrased a spectacular three different ways with various usage of caps lock. [2:08 PM] im at chez tzaz. washington [2:08 PM] WHAT? WHY? WHY ARE YOU STILL THERE? [2:08 PM] why are THEY here??? The text bubble popped. The three ellipses disappeared with her abandoned thought, and I was left on read. I couldn't tell if it was a bust. Not until I heard the timely flapping of wings behind me, noticeably less toasty than Mr.Arodeus. The sound should have made me panic, but I had no doubt who it was. "What did I say? Are you an idiot?!" She hissed. As a cordial 'hello,' she shoved me into a tree. "Go!" "Ow?!" "You can 'ow' when you're safe!!" "Well?? Where do you want me to go, huh? They can find me!" I thought about jumping to whatever I could think of. Maybe to the first thing Google maps would suggest, but for it to work I had to seriously think about my location before going. At that moment, I wasn't sure if it was possible. It felt like my mind was jumbled to the point where if I tried again, I'd end up in the exact same spot. Did I also mention I felt safer by her? Because that too. She combed her bangs back, stressing as she craned around me and the tree to view the angel at the door. Looking between the two of them, they matched. How narrow was the chance that she'd be on my execution team? "Friend of yours?" "I told you to stop pushing it! They definitely have a kill order on you now." "What fantastic information that would have been earlier." "I. TOLD. YOU!" She shot back, barely restrained. Scratch that- her voice was kept low so she had dibs on killing me first. "I told you this would happen! You have friends right? Go to them!" "And endanger them too?" "Go to someone, I don't know, capable!" "You?" "Not me!! I have to deal with this." My hostess was now calling security. And in the face of one haughty college student, the angel apparently felt the need to as well. Now there was two of them, and the arrival of the second seemed to register on Adria's radar. She turned around at the same time- -And looked like she was about to blow a gasket. "Oh my God- you need to go NOW." "And what are you going to do?" "This isn't about me Mr.Sends-My-Lifestory-to-the-people-who-want-to-murder-me! LEAVE! Now!!" "I can't-" "NO! No more talking! LEAVE!" I couldn't argue any more. Our bickering caused two heads across the way to snap up. She gave me one final, violent shove, and I disappeared to the last place muscle memory remembered her pissed at me. The cowboy strip club was a start. - - - Six hours later, I was across the United States and checked into a motel. After my headache faded, I broke up my trail into pieces, ranging from teleports, taxis, and one distressing trip aboard public transport. Under the assumption that no angel would dare subject themselves to the general populace on such intimate terms (see: wedged between the lunch rush and earlybird boozers), I felt safe. Adria did not. "This is my fault." She said, for a third time, pacing the floor. I looked up from the pages of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine, spoon in mouth. The first time we had this conversation, I was covertly panicked. By the second, I wore myself out. And by the third? I have more productive things to talk about. "I knew it was a bad idea. I knew they were doing raids-" "Do you always do this?" It couldn't just be me noticing it, that there was something egregiously wrong with this picture. She was an angel- a Power, a soldier of Heaven's prestigious battalion- worrying this hard over a demon she met two months ago. Don't get me wrong. I get it, I'm charming, I'm suave, and maybe in the right light my atoning adds a tragic depth to my character that may drive the angels wild- But I was still just that. A player on the opposite team, who made a huge mistake that got me booked in the first motel who'd take cash instead of card, until I was sure I wasn't being followed and I looked presentable enough to see my friends again. And she was here with me, inexplicably, trying to make my screw-ups her own. Why? I had no idea. "Do what?" "Overthink." "This is not overthinking!" She said, denial in gusto. I began worrying a lot less when her catastrophic thinking began siphoning all the energy in the room. That left her fretting on her own, while I examined Martha Stewart's upcoming Spring line. I much preferred being told how to pick the perfect counter-top than conduct my own life. "I should have been the adult. I shouldn't have sent the letter knowing what was going on upstairs." I snorted, flipping a page idly. "Don't take credit for my plan." "I'm not taking credit, I'm taking responsibility!" "And why would you do a thing like that?" She rolled her eyes. "What are you going to do now? Tell me." "Easy. I get Dr.Nikolai to write me a doctor's note." "Really?" She stopped, sudden. Her tensely folded arms fell loose. Taken off-step of our normal rhythm, I almost didn't have the heart to issue a reality check. She caught up to me in the next beat though, defeated with a heavy sigh. "Aren't you afraid..?" "Yes and no." I shrugged. "I need this to wrap up. I already miss my shower and my kitchen, I mean look at that-" I waved a hand at the sad, sad kitchenette through the door. One half-wall was fencing it off from the living room. It sounds trendy in theory, but the execution here had bar stools doubling as coffee tables, and the bite-size microwave trying to hop the border. The whole layout was claustrophobic, and pretending that this was the biggest of my problems worked for me. Not her. She plunged onto the edge of the bed, her head in her hands. Her bangs fell over her eyes in a tousled mess that matched her fringing braid. My busted up face didn't hold a candle- looking at the two of us, you would have thought her life was the one turned upside down. "You aren't taking this seriously." "I'm taking it seriously, Adria. Are you just trying to admit you are afraid?" "Yeah! Yeah, I am actually! It's like every time I try to help I only make things worse!" "Well that's funny because I refuse to do anything but believe you helped me." I shut the magazine, scooting to her side, with Ben & Jerry's in tow. "I wanted my name up there. Guess what? Now it's there. What's a little clout?" "Clout," She spurned, tired. "Would you call what he did to your face clout too?" Her hand delicately lifted to assess the damage but I ducked away. Not today, ma'am. I shifted my shades like it'd cover the bruise bleeding down into my cheek bone. It wasn't the worst of it. I imagined my chest to be a blotchy bovine pattern by now, but I sensed her concern for what it was: another way for her to feel worse about herself. Another way to be a failure. "No touching." "Yeah, well. Here's the rest of your things." She tossed me a bag. They were necessities I requested. The woman had yet to get herself an iPhone but had no problem grabbing my shopping list of moisturizers and specific detergents. The Green Giant wasn't on my list (it was her own addition to my list of demands, which she loving refereed to as 'shit you ACTUALLY need') but she grabbed that. Punching the bag into submission seemed to give her reprieve when just saying she helped didn't. I watched her pulverize the frozen vegetables, under the guise of breaking them up for me, until it was just sad and vaguely terrifying. The Quick And Easy Dinnertime Medley didn't deserve this, nor did she. Something bad was going on in that head of hers- guilt. I didn't understand it, but I know I didn't need to because it was ridiculous to begin with. "Hey. Heeeey," I leaned into her shoulder. "I don't know why you're so broken up about this but it's fine. I'm the one who should be worrying right?" "But you're NOT. I am! And I can't help it, okay." "You helped me, alright? You did," I rescued the bag, putting it against my sore ribs like she originally intended. "You did something for me no one else could. And for some reason that wasn't enough, and now you're here!" "Yes." She admitted, biting her lip. "Doing nothing." "Nope- nope. You're leaving out the cool part. You're here breaking three heavenly laws in the process." "Definitely." "Like a rebel. Like a spy. And my hero~" "And getting you putted on a most wanted list by mail, and delivering frozen peas? They should make me a saint, too." "Yup. Saint Kyriakoloupoulos, Patron of unconventional assistance." I said, mocking prayer. "And fists. If only I invoked you then." You could tell she wanted to answer something else melodramatic and guilt ridden, but her gaze fell to my hands.

The beginnings of a smile tried to set in, trickling in through the recesses of her totalitarian 'No Fun Allowed' conscious. "...Did you even get a hit in?" I grinned, quickly concealing my bare knuckles behind my back. The worst of it was healed to superficial scrapes, which regrettably looked a lot less cool when trying to impress a girl with non-existent fighting prowess. "Depends. Are you rooting for my side?" I pretended like I wasn't expecting a specific response. That the wrong one wouldn't disappoint me, and that this bag of groceries may be the last piece of divine intervention I get out of this woman who already followed me down to the strip clubs of 2nd, and was now tagging along my fugitive romp across America. But she didn't. She pulled her legs up onto the bed, trying to mull over my question as if the answer wasn't clear on her face. She always was a bad liar. "Maybe." "Thought so. Ice cream?"

#office raid #towns #adria #story

3 notes · View notes