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hyunjilicious · 3 years ago

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summary: there's no plot, this is just porn with boyfriend!Bucky. SMUT 2.3k

warnings: smut, oral (m receiving), face fucking, spit play, cum play, breath play, slight Daddy kink, light subby/dom vibes but not established dynamics. also unedited I'm lazy. Also 18+ PLS THANKS!

(Also I'm posting from my phone so if the readmore isn't working pls let me know!)

The sound of Bucky washing dishes was audible throughout the whole apartment, even reaching your ears as you laid in bed. Instagram was getting boring, and the fact that he had been gone for more than 15 minutes started to annoy you. Of course, you could have allowed yourself to think rationally and it would have been really easy for you to understand why ignoring household chores for days wasn't a good idea, but you refused to do so. You wanted him back in bed. And when he told you for the 4th time it would still be a while, you decided to take matters into your own hands.

Jumping out of bed, you shuffled out of your shorts and let your hair down, before heading for the kitchen. When you spotted him, he had his back turned to you, his muscular back only serving as a reinforcement when it came to your idea. He seemed absorbed, with his mind miles away, as he failed to hear you walk up beside him.

Placing a soft hand on his back, you reached around his frame and turned the tap off, lowering yourself to your knees by his side.

"Y/n, what are you..." Bucky started mumbling, but eventually trailed off when he saw you settle on the marble floor.

He sighed and shook his head, but he didn't stop you.

And then, the games began. You started with an innocent pout, looking up into his eyes as you licked along your bottom lip. Your brows furrowed into a confused and playful frown and you started wiggling your body, pushing your ass back.

A reaction from him wasn't slow to materialize, as he chuckled in disbelief and leaned back against the counter - a sign for you to keep going. And you did.

The further you went, the easier it was for you to come up with new ideas to tease him. Poking your tongue out and closing your eyes, you brought one hand up and pawed at his thigh. It wasn't enough to get him to comply, but the grunt that forced its way past his lips told you you were on the right track.

You licked your lips and sucked on your thumb, pushing two fingers knuckle deep into your mouth as you looked him in the eye. The first light gagging sound that reached him broadened his grin, but he still refused to give you what you wanted. Judging by the darkening stare in his eyes and the way his chest rose and fell, he was enjoying this too much.

By now, you were already tingling all over. Opening your mouth and tilting your head back, you bend forward, giving him a view you knew he wouldn't resist. Your almost naked ass, on the floor - too far for him to reach, and your awaiting tongue, millimeters away from his hardening cock.

But it still wasn't enough. You were sure it would be, but it wasn't. He remained motionless in his spot, watching you put on a show. But it was supposed to be more than that - you needed him to take part in it, and you wanted to do it on his own. You wanted to see him snap, to see him unable to control himself.

Running out of ideas, you pushed yourself back and leaned against the counter, spreading your legs. The eye contact wasn't dropped as you started fiddling with the cotton of your panties, your fingers slowly finding their way inside. Just a small brush against your clit was enough to elicit a moan from your damp lips. It was exaggerated, yes, and you pushed your chest out as you whined out loud, begging him with your stare to join in. And there was no way he'd resist that too. He was too tightly wrapped around your finger, too weak for you and whatever you did, and this was the last straw.

"Fuck-" Bucky errupted, prompting his hands against the edge of the counter behind him. His head fell forward, and he sucked in a deep breath through gritted teeth.

Proud of yourself for getting him to this point, your eyes drifted lower to his jeans, specifically the area where his cock struggled against the material.

"I managed to get you hard!" you cheered, innocently.

At that, Bucky seemed offended. "You thought there was a universe where you could whore yourself out on the floor in front of me like that, and I wouldn't get hard?"

"I hoped there wasn't" you smiled, crawling closer to him and planting your hands on his massive thighs. His hand instantly came into your hair, petting it a few times before moving lower to stroke your cheek with his thumb.

"Such a good, little kitten" he hummed, "Couldn't wait for me to finish up here..."

"I'm sorry, Daddy" you whimpered.

"No, you're not"

"No, I'm not" you laughed out loud, making Bucky do the same.

"Then get to it, doll" he urged you, "finish what you started"

"What's the magic word?"

You were pushing it. "Finish what you started. ??Now" Bucky made himself clear, and it was even better than what you initially wanted to hear.

With his hand back in your hair - his fingers loosely wrapped around your roots, you unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them down his thighs. In your eagerness, you grabbed his underwear too, getting rid of it at the same time. His almost rock hard cock all but sprung out, and you didn't waste one second before taking it into your mouth.

You didn't even bother to use your hands, instead you just lowered yourself and sloppily closed your lips around his tip.

Taking him as deep as you found it comfortable, you started bobbing your head up and down against his cock, hollowing your cheeks as your eyes slowly traveled up.

He was already looking down at you, awe visible in his stare, his lips slightly parted as he struggled to conform to your teasing pace.

Bucky did his best to let you work your magic in your own way, his thumb stocking your hair as the perverse sounds of you sucking his cock easily covered his rugged breathing.

Taking him out of your mouth, you wrapped your fingers around his base and moved to lick your way along his length, making it easier for you to pump into your hand. Working him up with lazy strokes and soft touches of your thumb against his slit, you shuffled closer and buried yourself between his legs, taking his balls into your mouth.

For whatever reason, he didn't see that coming and in turn bucked his hips into you, his head falling back in absolute bliss. "Holy fuck- doll, so, so good-"

You sent him a hum of approval as you lightly sucked, applying that specific amount of pressure you knew would drive him insane.

His thighs were shaking around your frame, and you were ready to lick your way back up his cock when he tightened his grip on your hair and pushed you away.

Filled with panic, you gasped, "Did I-?"

"You're fucking perfect" Bucky cut you off, bending down to furiously kiss your lips. His tongue forced its way inside your mouth before you even managed to register what was happening, but you complied sweetly, melting under his touch.

And you wanted to gush and to let yourself get absorbed, but at the same time, you weren't the type of person to leave a job halfway done - especially a blow job, and especially with Bucky.

"Come on, baby, back to it" he urged you, straightening his frame as he helped guide you back on his cock, "Take me all the way in, doll. The way you always do"

And he didn't have to ask twice. You eagerly resumed your spot, welcoming his already licking tip on your tongue. You sucked softly, moaning against his cock, even whimpering every now and then, all of it for the sole purpose of making him lose it. Taking him out of your mouth, you swirled your tongue around his tip a few times, smiling up up him, "Do you like it, Bucky? Am I doing ok?"

"More than ok, doll" he weakly huffed. His hand fell from your hair, as he brought his thumb to your lips, rubbing them softly as you sat and waited. When he pushed his thumb into your mouth, you obediently welcomed him in.

He did taste like dish soap but you didn't care. You had only one thing in mind, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the chores that was previously doing.

"Suck, baby" he urged you.

Bucky squatted down in front of you, his finger still in your mouth as he did so. You obediently watched him, closing your lips around his thumb and starting to suck - maybe a bit too shily for his liking.

"Come on, baby" he laughed, "I know you can do better than that"

But he didn't give you a chance to show him. Instead, he pulled his hand back, his pointer and middle finger replacing his thumb. He shoved his fingers inside your mouth, knuckle deep, pushing down against your tongue. With each passing second your eyebrows would slightly raise as the need to cough only grew stronger.

"That's it" he cooed when the innocent sound of you gagging against his fingers reached his ears. "A bit more, doll, for me, come on"

Despite your increasing need for air, you kept calm, struggling to choke down every cough and gag that threatened to erupt from your throat. When you reached your limit, he let you go, only then to hurry to kiss your lips before you'd get a chance to breathe properly.

He had you so weak for him, so eager to do absolutely anything he'd ask. He knew it and loved it.

The kiss was rough and passionate, but way too short. You couldn't help but moan in disappointment when he pulled away.

"Shh" he urged you, "Open up"

You listened to him in a heartbeat, parting your lips for him. Bucky grabbed ahold of your neck, keeping you in place as he spat on your tongue. Your jaw was shaking with eagerness, but you waited for him to place his thumb on your chin and close your mouth himself.

"Swallow, baby"

You did so with an innocent bob of your head. "Tasty"

"Is it?" he laughed, "Got something better"

Of course you didn't have to ask what that was. Bucky straightened his back and you didn't waste a second before picking up his cock into your hand. However, he stopped you before you could to work, as he cupped your cheeks in his palms.

"Take me down your throat, beautiful, yeah? I don't want you breathing for this one"

You shook your head yes, and pumped him in your hand a few times, before taking him in your mouth. No matter how much you wanted to, your body refused to let you take him all the way down on your own. But he knew that, and loved the way he always needed to help you.

With his fingers tightly wrapped into the roots of your hair, Bucky forced your head down his cock, keeping you in place. The way your throat convulsed against his tip was heavenly, accelerating the approach of his high. With precum and spit dripping down your chin, you sat in place. You concentrated on your grip on his thighs, on his heavy and strong muscles and the little hairs that tickled your fingers. But no matter how much you tried, tears did eventually build up in your eyes, soon cascading down your cheeks.

"Take it easy" he whispered, not loosening his grip in the slightest. "Relax, baby. I know you can take more"

You wanted to nod, but that was out of the question. Instead, you just wiggled around, curling your toes and sinking your nails into his toned thighs. It was very easy to tell just how close he was, the way his hips bucked and all the sweet little moans that escaped his lips. You struggled to hold on, choking and gagging on his cock, waiting for his release and for that breath of fresh air that would come with it. And it didn't take much longer, it didn't matter how big and buff he was, or how much of that supersoldier serum was still pumping through his veins, he never managed to resist you for too long.

Before you knew it, you found yourself harshly yanked back. Bucky's metal hand held your hair tightly as he fisted himself into his right hand, breathing heavily as he looked down at you.

"Turn around, doll" he commanded, "Ass up for me"

You followed his words in an instant, spinning around and laying down on the floor, your ass on full display for him. In one swift and rather painful motion, he ripped the underwear off of you, proceeding to cum all over your ass and lower back.

"Fuck, fuck- yes-" he panted as he finished, holding onto your hips as he did so. Before telling you to stand up, he gathered a few droplets of cum on his thumb, "Come here, baby, look at me"

When you turned to face him, Bucky stuck his finger inside your mouth, barely managing to also get it out before attacking your lips with his own. The kiss was rather sloppy, with him being so out of breath and you so taken aback, but it worked. You both stumbled back, the kitchen floor cold against your skin you rolled over and dragged him with you.

"And you did this just to prove to yourself that you could do it?" Bucky questioned, staring at the ceiling as he caught his breath.

"Basically"

"Then why the fuck am I praising you so often? Might as well call you useless every now and then and see where that gets us"

"Ha" you giggled, "Kink unlocked"

For a split second, Bucky laughed along, but when realisation hit him, his face fell. "Wait what?"

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes smut #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan smut #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x you

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aquato-family-circus · 3 years ago

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I have enough Otto's Brain DLC sketch visdev/brainstorming that it'll hit the tumblr image limit so seems like a good time to share it. Wanted something that looked more put together but if you worry abt being presentable all the time the art feels bad 😔

Follow me under a cut for it all and hope the readmore works. Sorry in advance if the handwriting is a little hard to read

First is some pre-mind context of Helmut being concerned abt his good friend Otto

Next is some Otto's Observatory/Automations part one of the mind stuff. Smashing Computers, Epoct, and the 62 World's Fair together until I find something I like

Something gets messed up and Otto gives Raz very clear instructions on how to help but the problem is the instructions are impossible to follow so Raz messes things up by accident. But don't worry! Otto says its fine :]

Inbetween the halves of Otto's Mind I think Raz would spend the day talking to folks and you plot progress to Otto's place blowing a fuse when you go talk to Helmut & Lili at Lili's little garden

Raz can Ottobon, Helmut can too, but help doesn't really arrive until Ford teleports on in and can connect between everyone psychically if needed. help out old man

And lastly some 0tt0-Mech and the inevitable boss fight form. I'm thinking 0tt0 is the manifestation of the mental tax Otto's put on himself to keep things in his brain from burning out. Just a funny little robot guy who is not so secretly actually doing more harm than good because his psi-core uses up mental energy.

and then the boss fight uses his inventions of course. I think it needs a certain something else than what it has rn. looks too much like the diebrarian in terms of stage set up

thank you for joining me on this wip mind journey

#otto's brain dlc #sketches #cospn2 #otto mentallis

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aye-write · 4 years ago

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Summary: Research student Isla Reid has been fascinated with the legend of the Kildonian Chessmen - a trio of mythical Pokemon rumoured to have lived centuries ago on the remote region of Kildo - for as long as she can remember. So, when a museum exhibit on the Chessmen is set to open in Kildo’s Hydrogate City, coinciding with her independent research project, she packs herself and her trusty partner Furret onto the long ferry journey bound for this new region.

However, when she arrives in Kildo, thoughts of her research, new friends, and an entire Pokedex’s worth of new Pokemon, are quickly dashed. Kildo is a troubled place, beset by natural disasters and fierce rivalries among its people. Isla suddenly finds herself at the centre of a centuries-old plot to invoke the wrath of the Chessmen, and is set on a race against time to stop them, before it spells destruction for the entire region.

Other Links: Read it on Ao3!

Tags: OC Pokemon journey, OC region, Fakemon region, bisexual main character, found family, ace main character.

If you are not interested in these posts, especially as I know Pokemon journeyfic is fairly niche, please blacklist the tag #Checkmate. Most of the story will be put under a Readmore anyway!

Author’s Note: This is a mammoth chapter (over 5k!) but it wouldn't have felt right ending it at any other point. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! I am hoping to keep up a bimonthly update schedule to give me plenty of time to focus on work and my other novels, so I'm aiming for February 7th as my next update date! Anyway, here we go with chapter one!

*****

Chapter One

Isla Reid stared down at the churning ocean and wondered what would happen if she fell overboard.

It could happen, she reasoned. The railings felt flimsy and only came up to her waist. With no ferry staff nearby and only a handful of other passengers too preoccupied with puffing on cigarettes, or watching their Pokemon, would anyone even notice if she did fall? Someone’s Snubbull careened past and Isla could have sworn she heard it cackle. That was another thought. A collision with a Snubbull could easily launch a full-grown person six or seven feet. At least. More than enough to send her over the railings and down into the roiling ocean below. It wouldn’t be pretty, no, but she would have taken anything over what was coming next.

Over my dead body, her mother declared when Isla gave her the news, will my daughter be going halfway around the world alone. As if she’d conveniently forgotten the past four years Isla had spent working and living independently the moment that inter-regional travel was more than a fragile possibility. Before she knew it, her mother had taken over, sitting at the telephone with the air of a military general and a dog-eared phonebook that hadn’t seen the light of day since Isla was a child. Banging the phone down ten minutes later, her mother announced that if she really must go all the way to Kildo (but you really should reconsider, darling, it’s ever so dangerous!), she would be collected from the ferry by her cousins. Cousins they’d had no contact with in years. Cousins that, if she was being honest, Isla had forgotten even existed.

Isla fixed her gaze forward. The ocean unspooled in every direction, slate-grey water in a haze of mist. The ferry ploughed on, swaying like the rocking of a newborn baby, kicking up fans of white foam. A man hanging over the railings made a funny burping noise as they cleared a large wave. Soba mewled and pushed her head into Isla’s clenched hands until she relaxed them enough to pet her. They were getting closer. And she definitely wasn’t in Johto anymore.

A stir of movement behind her and she was pulled back from her percolating thoughts. A group of men shifted through a cloud of sweet-smelling smoke towards the seats. The youngest, who couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fourteen, had a Pidgey perched on his shoulder and a frown deepening his face.

“Shouldn’t we go inside?” he prompted the older men, glancing up at the leaded sky. “It looks like it’s going to rain. I saw on the news that another storm is coming.”

“Don’t be daft!” a man with a wiry beard laughed. His accent was thick, heavy on the vowels, and took Isla a moment to understand. “We’ll be docked well before any bad weather hits.”

“You hope,” the younger boy muttered, but it was drowned out by laughter. “Dad, I’m serious! Remember I was telling you about ADoomWithAView – that streamer? He said that all these storms and stuff are because the Vitalities are angry with— Dad? Dad! Dad, I’m trying to talk to you.”

“Son, you would do well to stop listening to that brainwashing drivel.”

“It’s not brainwashing! I’m serious! Humanity’s dependence on technology is what—”

The rest of the boy’s protests were drowned out by a prolonged blast of the ship’s horn. In the distance, something loomed out of the thinning mist. Land. They were approaching land. Soba squeaked as a ding-dong-ding rang out and a voice, in that same thick accent, crackled over the speakers.

“Good afternoon, passengers, we will soon be arriving in Port Glen. Passengers are reminded that all personal belongings and luggage must be removed from the baggage area, communal spaces, and all outer decks before disembarking. For those disembarking via the gangplank, a reminder that all Pokemon – with the exception of service Pokemon – must be safely stowed in Pokeballs and not released until you are safely onto the harbour. To repeat, we will soon be arriving in Port Glen. Passengers are reminded—”

Isla’s heart tightened in her chest. This was it. They were here.

She let her Furret bump against her hands, Soba’s soft fur instantly soothing. “I guess it’s time to face the unknown, eh?”

“Fur!” Soba squeaked.

Isla waited until nearly everyone else had disappeared down the gangplank before braving it herself. She’d travelled as light as possible, much to her mother’s disdain, but the backpack still felt she like she was hauling around a bag of rocks instead of a few changes of clothes and a laptop. Anxiety prickled over her skin – or was it just the cold? – as she faced her first tentative steps into Kildo.

She was almost disappointed when she looked out onto a perfectly ordinary little port town. Tucked into an alcove of beach, Port Glen’s harbour was filled with people and the dreamy hues of blue and green. The town lay ahead in a generous curve, bordered by a strip of sea that already looked darker, almost black, under the deepening sky. A thin wind roused the hair on the back of her neck.

Her mother had given her a reference photograph of Rhona, the cousin who was supposed to be meeting her. Related by marriage through some obscure aunt, Isla struggled to notice even one iota of family resemblance between them. The woman in the photograph had pale skin and a shock of red curls, but not much else in the way of distinguishing features.

At the bottom of the gangplank, Isla swept her gaze around, desperate for a sign of her chaperone. But there was no-one waiting. And as the last few passengers sidestepped her, heading towards the town, Isla suddenly felt very small and very alone. While she hadn’t been thrilled at the prospect of staying, even temporarily, with strangers, being alone in a new place hundreds of miles from home was an entirely different brand of anxiety.

Panicky thoughts looped through Isla’s head. Where was Rhona? Why wasn’t she here? Had she forgotten? Had she somehow missed her? Or maybe she just hadn’t seen her yet. But who was still here? She could see a sailor tying ropes, a child wailing at a dropped ice cream, a woman arguing with a… what even was that?

The Pokemon looked like an ordinary Wingull at first, so much so that she nearly skipped over it, but the longer she looked, the more she saw that was wrong with it. This Pokemon was much rounder, a body like it’d swallowed a bowling ball, and its wings were shorter and rimmed with black, rather than the traditional blue. Isla delved for her battered old Pokedex and lined it up with this new Pokemon.

“Wingull, the Seagull Pokemon. Facing competition from Chibber for natural resources, Wingull have resorted to stealing food from witless tourists instead. As such, it has gained weight over time, as well as a more deceiving nature.”

So it was a Kildonian Wingull! That made sense. Isla was the first to admit that her knowledge of native Kildo Pokemon was lacking – a poor decision in hindsight – but she really should have been able to work out it was a regional variant. A flush deepened her cheeks as she imagined her professor’s scowl.

With no guardian in sight, Isla watched the scene unfolding in front of her. The Kildonian Wingull screeched as it dove at the offending woman at the end of the docks, the sound rippling over the wind. There was something in the woman’s hands, something that the Wingull seemed intent on, certainly enough not to be deterred at the attempts to fend it off. Isla let her bag fall and released Soba from her Pokeball.

“Soba, go and help! Use Quick Attack to chase that Pokemon away!”

Soba bulleted towards the struggling woman, squashing herself flat against the ground like a snake, rising into a fierce, full-body strike when the unsuspecting Wingull’s back was turned. With another ear-splitting screech, the Wingull went down like a sack of potatoes.

By the time Isla caught up, the Wingull was gone, dropping into the water of the harbour with an indignant squawk. The woman it had accosted looked harassed as she tried to piece together a ripped plastic bag brimming with wrapped sandwiches.

“Are you alright?” Isla asked, patting her thigh to call Soba back to her side.

“Oh, I’m fine, chick, but I can’t say the same about my lunch! Those Wingull are a terrible nuisance. These tourists think it’s funny to feed them and then it’s us locals that have to live with them. Oh shoot,” she cursed as one of the sandwiches slipped out of her grasp.

Isla ducked down to retrieve it. “Here, let me help you.”

“Oh, thank you, chick,” the woman said. “I have a spare bag here. Gosh, I can’t thank you enough for stopping to help. Usually when a Wingull gets its sights on your food, it’s a foregone conclusion.”

“They definitely seem a lot more, uh, food-oriented than the ones we have back home!” Isla laughed as she helped drop the sandwiches into the new bag.

“Back home?” the woman’s eyes brightened. “Oh, I thought your accent wasn’t local. You’re Isla, right? I can’t believe I didn’t realise it straight away. You’re the spit of your mum, so you are.”

Isla tried very hard not to mind being compared to her mother, but she took a small comfort in the fact that her waif of a mother would be far more scandalised. Was this woman really her cousin? Rhona, if this was her, was pleasantly round, much bigger than she was in the photograph. And while she was still small compared to Isla, it felt like a comfort to finally see another woman in their family that looked like her. And Rhona was pretty, her red curls pulled into a modest bun and her plump skin pebbledashed with freckles. She met Rhona’s eyes and they filled with warmth. Instantly, Isla felt soothed.

“Yes!” she said, barely able to hide her relief. “I’m Isla. And you’re Mrs—”

“Now, chick, you’ll call me Rhona. We’re family after all.”

“Rhona,” Isla corrected herself shyly. “Thanks ever so for letting me stay.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem, dear. Always happy to have visitors! I’m just sorry I’m a bit late, I’d stopped to pick up lunch and that blasted Wingull got a sniff of it. Chased me all the way down from the road end! If it hadn’t been for you and your lovely, uh… what Pokemon is this, dear?”

“This is Soba,” Isla stroked Furret and she purred appreciatively. “She’s a Furret. I’m not sure if you have them here. We’ve been partners for years.”

“She’s gorgeous!” Rhona said. “Don’t leave her alone with my daughter, though, she’s obsessed with all things Pokemon. She might try and adopt her!”

“You have a daughter?” Isla asked, frantically wracking her brain to try and remember if her mother had ever mentioned that.

“Yes, my Skye. She’s thirteen and Pokemon daft. And there’s my son, Blair. He’s the same age as you, give or take. They’re both very much looking forward to meeting you.”

Isla felt like something had just severed her at the chest. Why hadn’t her mother mentioned Rhona had children? Living with one stranger had been a scary enough prospect, now there were two more cousins to contend with?

“Come on, chick, shall we head off?”

As the harbour decking melted into gravel path, Rhona’s questioning amplified – How’s your mum? How has she been getting on? Does she still see Great Aunt Florence? Does she enjoy working for herself? – as if she were trying to make up for ten years of missed conversation. Even though Isla could only give short answers, Rhona still nodded and responded as if she’d just given her the secrets of the universe.

“So, what about you, Isla?” Rhona eventually asked as they turned away from the streets and approached a dirt road, littered with pebbles. “Your Mum said you needed a place to stay for a while, but she was a bit hazy with the details. What brings you all the way to Kildo?”

By the time Isla finished explaining her final year thesis proposal, Rhona oohing and ahhing the whole way through, they were coming up on the Whispering Pines Croft. A weather-beaten cottage sat beneath the shade of a looming forest and sloping hills. Fencing laced through the land like thread through fabric, bordering off sections of patchwork ground in brown and green and the occasional flash of vibrant purple. If Isla squinted hard enough, she could make out a field full of Miltank grazing in the distance. Another field to its left was occupied with the puffy, cotton-wool silhouettes of Wooloo. The whole place smelled of earth and mud, with a tinge of salt, wafting in by the ocean-bound breeze.

Rhona paused to catch her breath. “The Whispering Pines Croft has been in our family for generations. Every generation, we seem to find something new to build.” Indeed, the cottage looked like a mishmash, a Frankenstein’s monster of building expansions. “We do all sorts here. Livestock, farming, everything. The soil isn’t as forgiving as it is in other regions, it’s full of salt from the ocean, but we manage.”

Rhona didn’t take her shoes off when they clomped inside, but Isla slipped hers off, conscious of the mud clinging to the bottom of her soles. She put Soba in her Pokeball for the same reason. Rhona led her through to a kitchen with a low ceiling, steamy with condensation, and thick with the smell of baked apples. Like the house itself, the kitchen had a hodgepodge feel, a cosy mismatch. A proper family place, a life centred around a kitchen table.

“You can throw your stuff anywhere,” Rhona said, but Isla, totally out of her depth and wishing very much she could shrink to half her size to accommodate herself in this tiny, bustling place, just slotted her backpack in the gap by the fridge.

“Can I help you with anything?” Isla asked, the pressure of standing there like a stubbed toe eclipsing every other feeling.

“No, chick, you sit yourself down. You must be tired,” Rhona said as she laid the sandwiches down on the table. “Here, you take first choice, but be warned, if there isn’t an egg and cress left for my mother, she’ll fall out with you.”

Isla’s hand froze. “Your mum lives with you?”

“Yes. She went with my Dad to assisted living for a while, but when he passed, well, it was easier on everyone to have her here. Does her the world of good to be around people and have a little independence,” Rhona said over the clatter of plates. “She’s got more hobbies than I do, in fact! She teaches classes in the old Kildonian language on the weekends too. Keeps her out of mischief.”

“Really?” Isla’s heart leapt to her throat. “The Kildonian language is something I wanted to look into for my report!”

“Well, that’s a happy coincidence then. I’m sure she’ll be happy to go over some of it with you. Oh, hang on a moment,” she said, reaching up to pull a Pokeball from an apron hanging on the kitchen door. “I’m just going to call everyone to the table.”

Isla’s mouthful of cheese salad sandwich almost ended up splattering the table as Rhona tossed the Pokeball to the ground, and the kitchen was invaded by a flurry of grey and red feathers. The Pokemon – whatever it was – came up to Rhona’s hip, had a squat body, long muscular legs, and powerful wings that it beat to great effect as it noticed the stranger. Isla yelped as the Pokemon cocked its head, its movements quick and jerky, like the ticking of a clock.

“Ruchter, calm your feathers,” Rhona said, tapping the Pokemon on its haunches. It clucked and crowed, shaking its head fiercely. “This is Isla. She’ll be staying with us for a bit.”

The Pokemon relaxed, but still fixed Isla with a withering glare. Isla consulted her Pokedex.

“Ruchter, the Farmer Pokemon. The evolved form of Chickter. Able to precisely work tough soil with their talons, Ruchter can cover a small field in minutes. Despite looking old and frail, they are tireless, and can work for hours without a break.”

Rhona ruffled the Pokemon’s tail feathers. “Ruchter, please go and fetch Blair and Skye from the fields.”

The Pokemon was off before Rhona could even finish her sentence, barrelling out the door with all the grace of a drunk Tauros.

Rhona poured tea into a flowery mug and arranged one of the sandwiches on a matching plate. “Isla, I’m just going to pop up with this for my Mum. I’ll be right back. There’s lemonades and sodas in the fridge, so help yourself.” Rhona was halfway up the stairs when she called back, “And if my two come in tracking mud everywhere, make sure they wash their hands before sitting down!”

The tightness in Isla’s chest squeezed harder. Any moment now she was going to be dropped into a meeting with two new mystery cousins. What would they be like? Would they like her? Would they think she was weird, as most people did? The memories of barbed stares resurfaced like a Sharpedo’s fin breaking the water. Strangers, her peers, her friends, even her own family, all of them silently judging her, as she tried to navigate life being both big and invisible.

No, she needed to calm down. Spiralling wouldn’t help. She repeated it like a mantra inside her head. She hadn’t even met them, and she’d already decided they wouldn’t like her. She had to get better at this.

All the same, her stomach stayed knotted and eating felt like the last thing she wanted to do. Though maybe she should wait until her cousins came in anyway, do the polite thing. She paused and went to the fridge instead, opening and draining half a can of fizzy lemonade. The bubbles pulsed through her twisty stomach, prickling like pins and needles.

She heard the voices before she saw their owners, one deep and droning, the other light and lilting. Then the door swung open, Ruchter scrambling inside in a skittering of talons on wooden floor, two people bringing up the rear.

“Skye, take off your shoes! Mam will go mad if you track mud in.”

He hadn’t seen her. Neither of them had. She didn’t know if that felt better or worse. As the two of them tromped towards the sink, she cleared her throat.

The oldest – a young man with long red hair tied in a ponytail – stopped in his tracks. “Oh, hey! You must be Isla? Nice to meet you,” he extended a hand covered in mud only to retract it when he saw Isla staring. “Maybe later, eh? Skye, make room at the sink please.”

“It’s nice to meet you too!” Isla said over the sound of running water. “Blair and Skye, right?”

“That’s us!” Blair shook his hands off at the sink. “Nice to have you here, cousin. It’s quite something having family coming from all the way in Johto, isn’t it, Skye?”

Skye moved like a ghost, silently staring under a canopy of brown fringe. “Do you have Johto Pokemon?”

Isla blinked. “Ah, yes. Just one though.”

“I want to see.”

“Oh,” Isla looked at Blair and then to Ruchter. “Is that okay?”

“Go ahead!” Blair took a savage bite out of a cheese and pickle sandwich. “Let me just put Ruchter out so the two don’t end up in a scrap.”

After Ruchter went haring out to the garden in pursuit of scattered pellets, Isla let Soba bounce out of her Pokeball. Her younger cousin’s eyes lit up.

“She’s so pretty! What is she?”

“She’s a Furret. They evolve from something called a Sentret. They’re kind of common around where I live, I’m afraid,” she added with a nervous chuckle, then wondered why on earth she was apologising.

“What type is she?”

“Normal.”

“Is she strong?”

“She’s not super strong, but we’ve been together for seven years. She knows how to handle herself.”

“What moves does she know?”

“Quick Attack, Fury Swipes, Rest, things like that.”

“What’s her nature?”

“The lady at the Pokemon Centre thinks she’s Bashful, if I remember right.”

“Does she have any TM moves?” And before Isla could answer, Skye kept going. “What’s her favourite Rock flavour? Where did you get her from? Does she—”

“Hey, easy up, Miss Missy,” Blair nudged his sister. “Come on, let Isla relax and eat her lunch. You need to get something in you too. Keep your strength up for the big day.”

Skye rolled her eyes but did as she was told.

“Big day?” Isla asked, desperate for something to fill the silence.

“Skye is going to Aberdrip City in a few days to get her very first Pokemon,” Blair said proudly.

Isla smiled encouragingly but the fact that her younger cousin was a year late in getting her first Pokemon didn’t escape her attention. She decided not to ask as Skye chattered on about Aberdrip City and how she still hadn’t decided which starter she wanted. By the time Rhona came back downstairs, Isla felt fuller and warmer than she had in days.

“I see you guys are getting acquainted,” Rhona smiled, collapsing into the chair next to her daughter and dropping a kiss on her head. “Here, what did you leave me? Ugh, cream cheese and cucumber. I don’t know why they keep it in the multibuy deal, no-one likes it.” She took a bite anyway. “How are you, Isla?”

“I’m good,” Isla said, and she meant it. “Thanks again for having me. It’s a real help.”

“So, what are your plans for Kildo?” Blair asked, nibbling on a crust. “Seeing anywhere nice?”

“I’m here for a research trip,” Isla said. “I’m doing a project on the legend of the Chessmen Pokemon, so really, what I want to do is visit the places that the Chessmen were rumoured to live, and then finish up with the exhibition in Hydrogate City.”

“Hydrogate is a long way to travel,” Blair said seriously. “Especially with all the… complications.”

Rhona shot Blair a fierce look. “Now, Blair, don’t go terrifying the poor lass! There’s nothing wrong, chick. Just a bit of funny weather.”

“And the rest, Mam! There was a landslip near Auchtermelty the other day. They reckon it could take days to clear. It’s totally stopped trade and deliveries; they have to go the long way around. Wee Arthur – that’s Auchtermelty’s Gym Leader, Isla – has been trying to dig it out single handed with his Pokemon but even he had to stop because it was too dangerous.”

“Arabella’s mother says it’s because the Vitalities are unhappy,” Skye interjected.

“Arabella’s mother needs to take a long walk off a short pier,” Blair said, and Skye let out a snort of laughter.

“Blair, watch your mouth,” Rhona said, without looking up.

“Well how stupid can you get?” Blair said. “The Vitalities aren’t to blame for this.”

“Wait, what’s all this about?” Isla asked, confused.

“Just an old legend, chick.” Rhona said. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them, considering you’re interested in the Chessmen tale.”

“Of course she hasn’t,” a voice rasped from the doorway and Isla nearly dropped her can of lemonade. Standing in the door’s alcove was an elderly woman, skin deeply lined, and grey hair styled into a candyfloss-like perm. She was tiny – maybe a whole foot smaller than Blair – but her voice was sharp and crisp like every word held a pointed edge. “Incomers don’t make a habit of learning our secrets,” the woman said, fixing her gaze on Isla. “Then they wouldn’t be secrets, would they?”

“Mum!” Rhona said, her voice tight. “What are you doing up?”

“You think I wouldn’t get up to greet our guest? Especially one who has such a vetted interest in our local legends?”

“Oh, here we go,” Blair stood up. “I think I’m going to get the Miltank in. Looks like a storm on the horizon. Skye, are you coming?”

Isla glanced out the window. The sky had turned granite-grey, swirled with black. When Skye and Blair left, a thin wind send the temperature plummeting. Rhona fiddled with the thermostat and the heating clanged into life, but it didn’t make a difference. Icy fingers had worked their way up Isla’s spine the minute the old woman had spoken.

“Isla, this is my mum, Morag. You can call her Nana Morag though, as my two do.” Rhona said. “Mum, why don’t you tell Isla about the Vitalities while I wash up?”

“Why not?” Nana Morag said, settling herself into the chair that Skye left empty. “The Vitalities legend dates to round about the same time as the Chessmen. Think of the two as intertwined, rather than separate. The Vitalities, made up of Voltean, Burnach, Creakrone, and Liathsong, were said to be able to give – and take – all forms of energy from the world around them. Legend has it that the earliest settlers, who came here centuries ago, were given gifts from the Vitalities that allowed them to heat their homes, harness the ocean, work on the harsh land, and even have some form of electricity hundreds of years before it became common use. Now, the Chessmen, they were different. They were said to control—”

“I know this,” Isla couldn’t help herself. “They’re known as the Progression, Expression, and Protection Pokemon. They gave early Kildonians the means to develop industry, arts, and security.”

The old woman nodded approvingly. “You know your stuff. Very good for an incomer.”

“Mother,” Rhona said warningly.

“You know how the legend ends, yes?” Nana Morag checked. “The Chessmen, enraged with how humans squandered their gifts, tore the region apart and set humanity back hundreds of years. The Chessmen became dormant and the Vitalities were banished, leaving the humans to rebuild alone. Many people believe the Vitalities are responsible for all the natural disasters—”

“They’re not disasters, Mother.”

“—because they’re still furious about being banished all those years ago.”

“Fascinating,” Isla breathed out. “Is there anything else you can tell me about them?”

“I think, for now, we’ll get you sorted in your room, shall we?” Rhona interjected hastily.

“Oh, of course. Thank you,” Isla said, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.

As she manoeuvred her backpack out of the gap by the fridge, Nana Morag caught her by the elbow, her thin, bony hand proving a surprisingly strong grip. “I have some books that you might find interesting. I’ll drop them off for you later.”

And then Isla was climbing the creaky old stairs, ready to try and slot herself into this strange new home with these strange new people.

The rest of the day passed slowly, like petals of a flower unfurling in the sun. She met Kenneth, Rhona’s husband, who split his time between the farm and the market in town. He was frighteningly tall, too tall for the cottages’ low ceilings, and he walked with a noticeable hump even when there was enough space. Rhona was a mean cook, serving up a vast pot of bubbling stew, and Isla had to banish all thoughts of whether the meat too was “home-grown” from her head in order to enjoy it.

Tiredness swept in the moment she laid her knife and fork down. The night came in so much faster in Kildo than Johto, and it felt somehow thicker and darker, like she was swaddled in a large black cloak. She was glad when Rhona took one look at her when the family was doing the final storm checks on the farm and sent her straight up to bed.

Maybe it was the fresh air, maybe it was the excitement, maybe it was the long journey, but the second her head hit the pillow, Isla was dead asleep.

Hours slipped by, or maybe it was minutes, until her world was split apart by a huge bang! She sat bolt upright, cocooned in slippery blankets, and it was all she could do not to topple headfirst out of the bed. As the world phased in around her, freezing cold air gusted into the tiny room, causing goosepimples to erupt on her bare skin. The window, left on the latch before she fell asleep, had blown open. The storm had hit.

Slamming the light on, she untangled herself and grappled with the slippery latch. Eventually she shut out the wind. Outside, everything was pitch black like the swirl of spilled ink, and the rain lashed against the house, sounding like bullets. Isla pressed her face to the window, her breath misting the glass. Something bobbed in the distance, a single pin of light, moving through the velvety dark. It looked too small to be Blair or Kenneth. But who else would be out there during a storm?

The light moved closer. Isla scrubbed impatiently at the fogged glass, terrified that if she took her eyes away, even for a moment, it would disappear. It grew, doubling first, then tripling in size, then a crack of lightning split the sky. Isla let out a gasp as her entire room plunged into darkness. The power was out.

The light in the garden was growing brighter.

Or was it really a light? It looked almost solid now. Like a real living thing. Or maybe not a something. Maybe a someone. Something behind the light looked like the silhouette of a child.

It intensified, burning so bright that it seared Isla’s eyes and for a moment, all she saw was white. Then it faded and was gone. The lamp on her bedside table flickered back into life. The winds seemed to calm. The rain simpered to a stop. And Isla was alone, aside from the impression of a pair of wide, childlike eyes burned into the back of her head.

As we have a full Pokedex (130+ Fakemon), we decided to provide more details about each new Pokemon as it's introduced, especially as we may not always be able to give full details for each one. These aren't necessary to enjoy the story but it's here for anyone who is interested. So, here are the dex entries for Kildonian Wingull and Ruchter!

Kildonian Wingull Number: 041 Type: Water/Flying Evolution: Kleptern at Lv25 Abilities: Keen Eye/Pickpocket. HA: Rain Dish Stats: 50/55/30/30/30/75 Dex Description: Facing severe competition from Chibber for natural resources, Wingull have resorted to stealing food from witless tourists instead. As such, it has gained weight over time, but has also gained a more deceiving nature.

Ruchter Number: 090 Type: Flying/Ground Evolution: Evolved from Chickter (Happiness, Male-only) Abilities: Early Bird/Tough Claws. HA: Vital Spirit Stats: 100/125/55/50/55/90 Dex Description: Ruchter, the Farmer Pokemon. The evolved form of Chickter. Able to precisely work tough soil with their talons, Ruchter can cover a small field in minutes. Despite looking old and frail, they are tireless, and can work for hours without a break.”

#Checkmate #Pokemon #Pokemon fanfic #Pokemon fanfiction

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ankhisms · 4 years ago

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ok..... overall thoughts on like.. all of guardian as a show and the end under a readmore

alright im a lot happier with the ending than i thought id be i thought that it was going to be a lot sadder than it was but it ends with the scene of shen wei and zyl reuniting and promising to meet each other again and i do really love hopeful endings where you get a sense that even if these characters go seperate ways theyll see each other again and im really happy that zhu hong got to be the leader of the demi humans because i was like.. wanting her character to have more development beyond her just being the girl with a crush on zyl yknow i loved her..

also gcc!!!! gcc i was so proud of him he was so brave and so good and strong enough and kind enough to be able to resist ye zun and you can see in the end even if hes anxious on that blind date hes still grown and is a senior and respected part of the new special investigations!!! he did so good!! im also glad that lin jing and da qing both lived i was worried that they were both going to die even though da qing is the only cat now :( but also the one lab girl got to be the head of the lab and i was like yes!!!!!! good for her. was sad that special investigations resident ghost couple was gone though i loved them.. it was a bittersweet ending but i still feel like satisfied with it and its clear that both the underworld and the human world are in a safer space by the end of the show.

it does make me sad to know that zhao yunlan is seperated from his special investigations family even if like his body is there and being inhabited by the undergrounder that was in his dad and he made a huge sacrifice in order to save literally the entire world so like it was worth it but also its just! sad that theyre seperated and i hope that theyll all get to meet again just like shen wei and zyl meeting again. i did like how this ending has an open and hopeful positive note while still not leaving too many loose ends

also i was really emotional over the part where ye zun is defeated and shen wei comes to him and ye zun finds out that his brother never actually abandoned him and that the one guy lied to him and that shen wei was looking for him all along.. and then shen wei takes his hand and says lets go home.. that killed me that murdered me. also zyl holding onto shen weis pendant.. ow

overall this was a show that had its flaws but i really enjoyed it and the plot and characters really hooked me it was very engaging and i kept wanting to come back for more to find out what was going on and it kept me guessing i felt like i could sometimes see foreshadowing in parts which was cool but then there other parts where what happened was out of nowhere for me plot wise but enjoyable... i really love the group of characters in this show and weilan as a couple kill me. theyre so in love and their characters compliment each other so well theyre partners and equals and i just (laying down and crying) anyway. very emotional about this show im glad i watched it im hopefully going to read the book when i can

#guardian lb

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exalok · 4 years ago

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whaddup my dudes!!!

i am tired and wired and this means brain no writey but brain VERY focused on absolutely all the fic i have going on at once that aren’t prompts (prompts will be incoming, no worries dissociation anon)

and THAT means y’all get to hear about my many. many. MANY projects, or at least the ones that make my heart go pitter patter when i think of them

a few examples: demon!corvo and priest!daud with extra worldbuilding ; the naptime cuddles AU ; corvo doesn’t come to dunwall so jess and daud end up arranged-married for profit (more info..... under the readmore..... i’m gonna get rambly)

also feel free to ask questions, i love questions and they get me thinking even more in depth about the world and specific instances of characters and that is the entire POINT

LIKE OKAY SO MY BRAIN PRETTY MUCH CONTINUOUSLY THROWS IDEAS AT THE WALL AND ABOUT 95% OF THEM STICK BECAUSE I’M A HOARDING RAT BASTARD i love my ideas they are my precioussss

i might have about. 25 fic more or less active at the moment? which sounds like a reasonable number but those are the ones i have an actual plot for as well as the will to get them out into the world

let’s put aside the ones i have actually posted on tumblr or ao3 (teen!daud, domestic zombie apocalypse, bondageverse, knife!corvo) in favor of those you have either no or little idea exist. begin:

I MEAN OBVIOUSLY I MADE FANFIC OF MY OWN FANFIC or as i call it parallel/companion fic, because at some point in the past a prompter inspired me and i was deep in the prince!daud fic at the time and i thought what if high chaos. what if void monster corvo? what if horrifying yet human creature of the depths!!! what if EVERYTHING was TERRIBLE and daud killed corvo as a last ditch and vain attempt to get his people out of burrows’ clutches, and it all went to shit from there??? also they’re bound by marriage contract and the vagaries of magical intention and daud becomes corvo’s life battery, in essence, which you can imagine leads to a very unhealthy relationship i think it’s not spoilering much to tell you it does NOT end well, and i’ll be writing it as a sort of foil to low chaos prince!daud

i have quite a few high chaos fics actually. high chaos is depressing to play but the story outcomes are DELICIOUS and the degrading world and character motivations are a lot of fun to play around in

weirdly enough another one of these high chaos fics is the naptime cuddles AU!!! i won’t lie it’s the one i am currently on and i want to talk about it to everyone so bad constantly. in short, corvo doesn’t kill daud and the whalers because he’s trying to get out and currently too fucked up to fight, and when he doesn’t manage to save emily despite his best efforts he comes back to daud for some kind of symbolic execution. meanwhile thomas convinced daud to take a goddamn nap with him there because daud, despite his paranoia, does sleep better with people around, and this is entirely an excuse for semi-platonic daudthomascorvo cuddles in bed followed by whaler puppypiles when the gang catches on that this is a thing they can do now I LOVE PUPPYPILE WHALERS I LOVE NAPS I LOVE REDEMPTION THROUGH THE POWER OF RESTORATIVE SLEEP please i’m so tired and i can’t actually fall asleep next to people let me live my dream vicariously additionally: this will be my contribution to the absolutely wonderful whaler vineyard of old fanon

there is also what i feel should be a classic and ISN’T though a couple of fics were written around the concept and one in particular is /chef kiss, and the concept is: high chaos corvo meets low chaos corvo!!!!! i made it a threesome with daud because no one can stop me and i fucking LOVE the idea of daud ending up capable of telling them apart through tiny details even when high chaos corvo, bastard that he is, tries to impersonate low chaos corvo, who is a bastard in much more subtle ways and would probably be better at impersonating hc!c than the other way around but finds it distasteful; also i added intense body horror because that’s how i roll and there are eventual magical CONSEQUENCES to hc!c being in the low chaos world and regularly in contact with what is essentially his narrative double when he doesn’t belong there, probably ends in a tragically bittersweet way, i’m not completely clear on it yet though i do have ideas

and oh man......... the time travel corvo fic.... the one where high chaos corvo ends up in his own seven-year-old body........... fuck i hashed out so much of the general worldbuilding for that one and ended up going way too far and imagining a sequel like i always do where corvo learns how to walk universes and gathers people he cares about from places where he can actually save them from their eventual tragic futures and the dissolution of their timelines once the outsider is ousted from the void and a new void avatar is made and SHENANIGANS YO!!! SHENANIGANS AND CAMPING!!!! SELF-CROSSOVERS!!!!!!! I COULD HAVE HIM MEET HIMSELF IF HE HADN’T TRAVELED BACK I’M CRYING I HAVE SO MANY EMOTIONS

the one where corvo is a fae child is probably a lil bit high chaos though it isn’t determined yet, and he has all of these instincts with regards to possessing and exchange and deals, and assumptions as to how other people must work approximately the same, and he is so wrong. then there’s the really creepy bad touch possible sequel that i won’t get into unless someone specifically asks because it’s a lil bit much really

oh MAN oh SHIT speaking of bad touch there’s another dead dove do not eat one where i grabbed an entire handful of granny rags’ apparent fucking around with magical arrays and rune creation and general spellery and threw it at corvo post-interregnum and he sees “ghosts” and doesn’t understand what the FUCK is going on and things go really badly for him, and one ghost, soon the only ghost, is daud, and corvo doesn’t know if he’s real, if he’s seeing things, if he’s NOT seeing things but daud is some kind of void demon, if he is and also having psychotic breaks he doesn’t remember because he ends up with some hellish bruises, but the real daud is actually still out there just hiding out and corvo will eventually meet up with him and real daud will meet fake daud and even more shit will happen

god, the demon!corvo AU gets pretty fucked up as well if i remember right; corvo is both some dude with a wife and kid and the demon that inhabits him, jess is his wife and the demon that inhabits her (to be clear, separate characters but both based on either jess or corvo oh my GOD what if i switched the demons that would be amazing but no, calm down, maybe for a short what-if scenario that will inevitably turn into its own thing), daud is the overseer with the really good exorcism record trying to get the demons to fuck off except he thinks there’s only one of them and the other takes him by surprise; cue daud being hunted by that demon, furious that daud shattered his favorite pupil, and some revelations about what exactly lives inside the abbey and also under it

on a somewhat lighter note, the one where corvo never comes to dunwall (i think his mom gets sick and he doesn’t win the blade verbena at sixteen?) is also where jess keeps losing her royal protectors to assassination attempts because the first one was decent and died protecting her and the second one was decent and had an accident and people start believing there’s a curse on the position or a curse on her, and she’s like okay so how do i make sure i don’t die now that no one is willing to become my protector since it’s pretty much a death sentence, and she arranges a meeting with the best assassin in the city and suggests an alliance -- protection and some commission overview, all secret, versus funding and housing -- in the form of a marriage and daud ends up agreeing; then later duke abele visits and corvo is among his personal guard and he gets to meet the empress, and the assassin, and there are ot3 shenanigans

oh my GOD also the kids in karnaca AU. obviously. fuck you may have seen the (dis)armingly charmed notefic but this would be them meeting as actual kids, in karnaca, just tiny babies, daud recently kidnapped and corvo doing his best to make this cool older kid into his friend and also maybe hiding him from the people who want to train him to do Illegal Things, and there are dumb childish arguments and daud goes on the run to avoid capture and there is an exchange of letters that at one point stops and corvo is Devastated and there is a REUNION and they are ADORABLE but also INCREDIBLY STUPID, AS IS RIGHT AND CORRECT, and i don’t know what happens later but it gives me warm fuzzies okay

then i have a NUMBER of oneshots that are more or less plotted out, like the one where jess has a kind of groundhog day because Heart reasons but over months and starts out not quite remembering what happened in past attempts and OF COURSE it ends with royal ot3; and there’s the one where Daud becomes the Outsider and is very temporally confused and OF COURSE it ends with corvodaud who do you take me for (including Very Perplexing arguments where daud doesn’t know at what point in this relationship’s development he is and corvo is angry or very patient depending on where he accidentally time travels to, and i make some assumptions about the non-linearity of the void avatar’s existence); and there’s the one where corvo catches the plague and gets through kingsparrow to get emily out then to people he trusts, ie the curnows and sam beechworth, then crawls away to die, but daud finds him and sighs and rolls up his sleeves and sends whalers to the Tower and emily thinks the Tower is haunted then, when it becomes very clear the Tower is not, demands one of these assassins teach her how to stab a bitch; AND THERE’S THE ONE WHERE CORVO AND JESS ARE GHOSTS AND DAUD IS A REAL ESTATE AGENT AND THE WHALERS ARE THE KIDS HE TRIED TO HELP OUT AS A SOCIAL WORKER and yes it’s ot3 and yes he buys the ghost house and ends up being filmed by the whalers to do cooking videos and fancy knife tricks and asmr because his voice is insanely soothing when he’s not being ornery; oh fuck and there’s the one where i wrote an unrequited corvodaud prompt and my brain grabbed it, smelled it, and decided that corvo very reluctantly falling for daud was necessary to the health of my feelings, and there is at least one (1) sleeping beauty coma while corvo yells at the outsider about the Heart; also there’s the one where in D2 billie was evasive about the old guy living with her on her boat and em finds daud rather than sokolov in jindosh’s basement and they have long, emotional discussions; and for the character building hell of it one that would span the outsider’s beginnings and growth and how the void tries to welcome him in

okay........................ i think i’m done rambling now

i love fanfic y’all

#dishonored #writins #so many writins #gonna have me a nap now

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rosetainted · 5 years ago

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announcing her royal highness, sabina teodora czartoryska, the twenty year old princess of poland. some say that she is perfectionistic and cautious, but she is actually devoted and benevolent.

hi everyone !! i’m cami, i’ve actually been here before and i’m more than ecstatic to be back <33 under this here readmore you will find a bit on my baby girl sabina and her childhood, all that good stuff !!

however, by clicking anywhere on here you may be redirected to the somewhat messy pinterest board i’ve made for the visuals ! promise to fix it sometime soon <33

sabina teodora czartoryska [ sah-bee-nah te-oh-door-ah chaar-toh-riss-kah ] best known as ina by her loved ones and the occasional friends that don’t call her sabi. her name, sabina, is a polish take on the italian name sabine, one that her dear italian mother was very fond of. thus, with the mutual agreement of the loving couple - they decided on the polish take. her middle name, teodora, given to her by her father due to its meaning “ gift of god. ” the polish king had found it more than fitting for their miracle baby.

growing up, she was very tender and kind. energetic but collected, something that made her a perfect fit for dance. that, and the clear interest that the little princess had shown in the art of dance. her siblings were all a great amount of years older than her which made it difficult for any of them to want to actually share her interests considering that by the time sabina could walk her sister was planning shopping sprees.

this is not to say that her siblings don’t love her, that is not the case at all, in fact - sabina loves them and is fully aware that they have responsibilities to take care of. a little headcannon of mine was that they speak regularly at least once a day, the ones that don’t live in poland fly in occasionally for holidays or birthdays and if not, sabina, their mother and eldest sibling visit them.

back to her childhood !! she did begin dance lessons when she was just old enough to do so. her father paid for a private teacher, the best in poland to train his baby girl. soon enough, she very much fell in love with the art of dance and would grow to earn important roles in the dance world.

sabina was basically an only child for the vast majority of her life considering that she was a toddler when her siblings were sent to study in a boarding school. because of this, her parents were very on top of her. she’s very eloquent, studious and educated in many topics that maybe she should not be. taught to be very political and tactical, she remains out of the negative press for the most part very well able to count the times any rumors have spread regarding herself with one hand. pristine, at best. or well, in her parent’s opinion. and even in the eyes of poland.

her people adore her, not for nothing, because she regularly attends charity events. volunteers at hospitals, animal shelters, raises funds for orphans, animals and the cleaning of oceans. yup. she’s... active. though, very laid back and collected. her personality adds to her appeal, or well, the physical one. at least, that’s what people say.

while she loves her parents with every bit of her being and then some, she is more than aware that they did more harm than good by raising her on such a short leash. any sense of independence that she has, was self-taught when she finally went to boarding school at the age of sixteen.

in addition to her dance career, she also models. her modeling career is not big but she takes pride in it considering she’s covered for magazines because of her taste in fashion and ability to dress ( i did that task + her living quarters and pet ! )

her world basically stopped for a good few months when her father passed away. the biggest daddy’s girl to ever breathe, because, well... yeah. her mother’s well being is one of her top priorities which is probably why she calls her so often. so much so that her mother has to threaten her to get sabina to ease off.

as far as wanted connections and plots go, i’m open to anything and everything !! we can work and figure just about anything out <33

ps. a hopeless romantic and yes she does want to get married and oh to be in lovee

#hshqintro #here we go #my lame little intro #reposted #for all of you <3

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nofacednerd · 6 years ago

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A JSE community project idea!

So since some people seemed interested in the original post I decided to make a more clear one lol. So what is the idea? Well I’ve noticed the trend in the community that artists have been drawing fake comic book covers of Jackieboyman (Myself included) and thought, hey wouldn’t it be cool to make those fake covers into real covers? My idea is that a bunch of community artists could collaborate to make a “comic book”! More info under a readmore:

What will it be about? While initially I wanted all the artists to work together on a plot, I had a few ideas of the overall plot of the comic. One of my ideas was an origin story comic that takes place right after the events of cool patrol (This comic is 100% not going to be canon but I want to try and keep it CLOSE to canon and people’s headcanons. Cool Patrol origin story is one of the most popular origin headcanons I’ve seen so it would be cool to make it that :D). This is the main idea I’ve had, but I’m open to whatever else ideas people have! The rest will be co written by the artists (and writers) that join in. I want everyone to be able to collaborate so I’ll probably allow people to throw ideas into a discord channel or something and we can all figure out what ideas stick and what don’t :)

Who can join the project? I originally wanted just artists, but writers are 100% welcome to join as well! Artists are a main priority here though. I want to have enough for everyone to make 1-2 pages of it. Both digital and traditional artists are allowed to join! My only requirement is that if you’re a traditional artist who is interested, please be sure to line and color the page (if you can’t and are comfortable with it though, you can always send the sketch to me and I can try and do it for you).

I thiiink? that’s all the info needed? If you have any questions feel free to send them my way and if you’re interested in joining the project, I’m making a discord right now so don’t hesitate to send an ask or a dm asking for the link!! :D Very excited to start planning this project! (And please reblog! I want to reach out to other artists but I don’t want to feel like I’m bothering them so this is the least anxiety inducing way of getting people interested haha)

(tagging some of the people who seemed interested, sorry if you didn’t want to be tagged! @anneliis18 @its-ravyn626 @littleluversblog @alsoluci-morningstar812 @bunchofdoodlesinspace @musingsofa2yearold @pellmelproductions @megasepticfan @peribloke @rediculous-art )

#jacksepticeye #jse community #project idea #I'm like real excited for this!!#tysm for everyone who was interested!! :D

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saltine-kakyoin · 5 years ago

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my jojo fic recs

I deleted the actual post because I am an idiot, but I was able to recover most of it! This is all copypasta, but the readmore actually works on this guy :D (hopefully it works on mobile as well...)

Admittedly, I have only read a handful of jojo fics 💔 I used to read fic all the time, but things started getting Litch Rally Mad at my job around the same time i really got into jojo, so I haven’t had as much time to dedicate to it :(

I have a total of like 3 to recommend, but bro I cannot recommend these 3 enough. ngl I stayed up until like 5am on a workday reading all of these, went to work, and then came home just to finish reading them lol. They are all jotakak, so I do apologize if that’s not your cup of tea! ; J ;/

I tend to ramble so I will put these under a readmore just in case. c:

Nessun Dorma, which I always misspell as Nessum Dorma

bro this is where it all Began. It’s set in a universe all on its own, in which Jotaro is just a Struggling doctorate student. He meets Kakyoin, a nonbinary ballet dansuer, by chance while having a smoke in a back alley. The fic follows the development of their relationship from strangers repeatedly sharing a smoke break in a back alley to something More, as well as Kakyoin’s journey from a corps dancer to more of a lead dancer (I don’t know the term, I apologize! 💔) and Jotaro’s struggles with his thesis. This one is written with such tenderness and care towards the characters and the setting, my heart grows fond just thinking of it. ; J ;

Watch out for an unsavory relationship between Dio and Kakyoin- Dio is a really good choreographer but also a terrible human and he’s no stranger to using his status as choreographer to leverage his will over Kakyoin and get What he Wants, if you catch my drift. This imbalance also occurs while Kakyoin is a minor, but we never get any scenes between minor Kakyoin and Dio. They just vent to Jotaro about it. Additionally, there are many parts where the disordered eating of dancers is described, so please steer clear if you need to. All triggering content is tagged! Overall, this fic is one of the best ones I’ve ever read. The life of any performer trying to make it big is fr fr nitty gritty, and this fic gives that whole issue the gravitas it deserves. Aside from that, though, this fic captures the behind the scenes and backstage process beautifully- as a choir + theater nerd, I am incredibly enamored by that. Beyond that, though, this fic is just Wonderful to the characters. So much of Jotaro and Kakyoin’s dynamic in the SDA was inspired by how they are written in this fic. A real 10/10 banger. (For the love of GOD watch out for yourself bc this fic is addictive and it is not finished and has not updated for some time :( We will all pop bottles when the next chapter comes out)

The Libertine, Destroyed

This one was actually recommended to me (unfortunately I forget by who ; - ;) when I was going through Nessun Dorma withdrawals lmao. This was one of the first fics I encountered when I started reading Jojo fics, but I passed on it bc I wasn’t a fan of Phantom. After I was recommended it, I gave it a shot and holy FUCK thank god i did, it’s very good also!

So, like I said, it’s a Phantom of the Opera AU! Kakyoin takes centerstage as our gorl Christine, Jotaro fills in for Raoul, and Dio is the Phantom. I was SUPER apprehensive of this because Dio POV fics give me the Shivers and Phantom POV fics fill me w intense middle-school dread. This fic, though.. This fic gets it. I am not wholly familiar with the Phantom’s full plot, but I know enough to say that this fic does not follow it 1 for 1. One huge change is that Kakyoin knows Dio behind the mask, but isn’t aware he’s the Phantom, which!! Ahhh it fills me with such dread, but it is very well-written dread! I kind of ?? liveblogged my read-through of this one a month ago and you can Feel the mania in my tags, ahh.

This is another one that’s still in the works and hasn’t updated for a bit, and as such, I haven’t read it in a bit 3 Due to this, I don’t remember if there’s anything outright triggering, but of course anything can be triggering, so please take caution of the tropes synonymous with Phantom before diving in. This fic includes a varied cast of characters from the first three parts, with varying degrees of respect for canon- ie Baron Zeppeli is still Caesar’s grandfather (or father? Uncle?…they are family…), but the first 3 Jojos are all brothers. That normally isn’t my cup of tea, but this fic does it in good taste, and we get a lot of chapters/mini-chapters dedicated to fleshing out their childhood and Kakyoin’s involvement in it!

I’m more partial to Nessun Dorma than this one, but they are both lovely reads! I really like HasturIsMyCopilot’s writing style, and their other Jotakak fics are really nice as well! c: Ode to the October Sky is super fluffy and *chef kiss* Paradidiomi is also a good read about the power imbalance in Dio and Kakyoin’s relationship, but there aren’t too many chapters for it.

Summer Lovin’

Ahh, this one. This was my first fr fr Jojo read, and god it’s such a fun read. Jotaro and Kakyoin are stupid teenagers, Jotaro is a man of few words, and Avpol is beleaguered by their stupidity. Joseph is Joseph, and Iggy is… evil..

This fic is set in a modern, Dio free universe, which is a1 in my book! Jotaro spends an entire summer trying and overthinking how to confess to Kakyoin, with his friends and family both helping and hindering him. I forget exactly where this fic goes, but I’m 98% certain Kakyoin gets jumped and ends up in the hospital at one point? He recovers well enough, but watch out for that- it’s in the later chapters. Also, watch out (but in a good way!) for the horrific Jotakak kiss!! It made me screech at 1 and bury myself in my blankets, they are just… horrible at romance. which is relatable but ahhhhmy GOD

Overall, a very fun rollercoaster of a fic! Kakyoin beats up Steely Dan at one point! :D It’s a very fun read! ^^

Another Man’s Son

I WAS WRONG! This one came back to me when I was writing about The Libertine, Destroyed. This one is just a chapter, but god it’s so wonderfully written. Dio POV (which.. y’all know how i feel about that lol. but this one!! this one is so good!), in which he encounters Giorno and has Thoughts and Feelings. It’s been a very long time since I’ve read it, so I don’t remember it very well, but I do remember it deeply endeared me to Giorno before I had any idea who he was.

(Also check out this beautiful piece Toffee Arts was inspired to make because of it!! Beware though, it has Saturn Devouring His Son in the bg D:)

Those are all of the ones that come to mind at the moment! I’m really sorry I basically only have Jotakak ones. ; - ; It’s a ship I really enjoy, but I know that not everyone is keen on it. Hopefully I will be able to update this in the future with a more diverse selection! I’d love to read more Avpol fics, and 10000% more fics about Polnareff and Sherry (she’s polnareff too… uh oh spaghettios..)

#ahh i recovered it ; u ;#i will not type the tags again bc ya girl is SPENT #but #they're on the last versions of the post #long post #(for mobile gang.. just in case the readmore doesn't work. :(#i'm sorry ily guys and i will try to figure it out)

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laylainalaska · 6 years ago

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Good Omens TV

So I watched the Good Omens TV adaptation, and my reaction was decidedly mixed. Parts of it worked for me, and parts really didn’t. If you loved every minute of it, there may be squee harshing under the readmore, but I really did love parts of it! So YMMV.

FWIW, I haven’t read the book in a really long time, and had actually forgotten a lot of the specifics of the book plot, which was a good way to watch the miniseries! So a lot of the plot was effectively new to me, while I also remembered it as it went along from the book, and that was really fun. I actually thought some of the scenes were new for the movie and then rediscovered that they actually were in the book, it’s just that I never paid much attention to anything going on with Newt and Anathema and most of what happened with the kids. Oops. >_> (I actually found the kids’ scenes a lot more engaging in the movie than in the book. The child actors were really fun.)

I guess I’ll just get what I didn’t like out of the way first -- the way the entire series was filmed and acted in such an OTT, stage-acting kind of way was really, really not my thing. This is entirely down to personal taste because it’s not like I can say it’s out of keeping with the book, but I think the version of the book in my head had a lot more ... gravitas? solemnity? It’s hard to say -- whatever that quality is, this adaptation didn’t have nearly enough of it, and I found parts of it so cringey that I had to look away (e.g. the possession scene with Madame Tracy). And I think this largely comes down to the book being more dramatic and less silly in my head, which I was never going to get from an adaptation, so that’s fair enough.

But even leaving aside what it did to the gravitas of the show/book, the humor, I felt, was also undermined by the extreme hamminess of the acting, as well as by the adaptation’s need to explain the jokes or hold up a big sign saying THIS IS FUNNY. It would’ve been more genuinely funny if it had been underplayed a bit. Some of the jokes still land really well, usually the ones that are delivered in deadpan or not actually explained. The book is so funny in large part because the humor is so downplayed.

But the over-explaining ... it’s things like, for example, the scene with Agnes’s skirts blowing up everyone was darkly funny all on its own; it didn’t need an immediate explanation in the narration that there was dynamite in her skirts. It worked great in the books because you couldn’t see it, but the explanation becomes redundant and just feels like we’re getting the joke explained. Or the bit with the unicorns running around in the background in the Noah’s Ark scene, which is a lot funnier when you just notice them on your own and it’s this low-key silly thing happening behind the characters, but gets a lot less funny once the characters notice them and start pointing out the unicorns running away. It wasn’t just one or two instances; a lot of the humor in the movie was like that. I was rereading bits of the book last night and noticing all over again that I really prefer the book’s style of deadpan, underplayed humor.

And since I’m being salty anyway, I gotta say, I am going to be forever salty, or at least baffled, that my very favorite scene from the book isn’t in the movie -- baffled, in large part, because it’s an important scene and a very cinematic scene, and they just ... didn’t do it? It’s the bit during the climax when Crowley and Aziraphale are just like “fuck it” and spread their wings and prepare to throw themselves at the Powers That Be of heaven and hell even though they’re certainly gonna die. I mean, it was kind of in there, but they took that doomed-last-stand image that I loved and instead had a scene with the two of them coaxing Adam into changing things. The wing-spreading scene and the sword flaming up were just so dramatic in the book, and maybe it was more dramatic in my head than it could ever have been in the movie, and I guess the entire “willing to die for their cause” aspect is already implied by everything Aziraphale and Crowley have done up to that point, but damn it, I wanted that.

Okay, so you’re probably wondering now what I actually liked about it, but the answer is, quite a lot! I appreciate that it was such a close and faithful adaptation of the book; sure, they left out a few things, and some of the ways they imagined it into life were not at all how I’ve imagined it all these years, but that’s not the fault of the adaptation. I still feel like Sheen and Tennant’s Aziraphale and Crowley are not quite my Aziraphale and Crowley, but I was way more sold on them than I expected to be, and in particular, Tennant’s Crowley, while not precisely book Crowley (rereading the book last night reminded me how much more low-key he typically is), is a really delightful Crowley. I still think I might prefer the book’s more buttoned-down Crowley, but I ended up appreciating them both a lot in different ways, and particularly loved how much emotion and conflictedness TV!Crowley has with his relationship with Hell and falling and Aziraphale and generally being a decent person doing demon things. I think a lot of what’s there subtextually in book!Crowley is right out in the open in TV!Crowley, which goes along with the TV version being a lot less subtle in general, but this is one of the places where it really worked for me.

And just in general, getting so much more with Aziraphale and Crowley, so many new scenes actually written by their (co)creator was absolutely delightful. It really felt like getting, if not a whole new novel, then at least a new novella or a series of short stories about them, focused on them and their relationship in the best possible way. I think knowing the adaptation was written by Gaiman made a lot of difference here, because things like Crowley calling Aziraphale his best friend, and his utter distress and misery when he thinks Aziraphale is dead (and it’s not even dead dead, just gone and on the opposite side), is an extra gut-punch because of knowing that this isn’t just someone running off with it in filmed fanfic; this feels like the actual characters doing it, part of the bookverse creator’s view of their relationship, and that does matter to me. “You killed my best friend” - I just never would have thought we’d ever get that much emotion between them, and it kills me in the best way.

The new stuff at the end was also extra delightful because of that same “this could potentially be book canon and not just TV canon” feeling, and because it was new, so I didn’t know where it was going, and then the trickster-ish swap was so good.

I also remember reading beforehand that Sheen had said he tried to play Aziraphale being in love with Crowley, and I, er, wasn’t expecting it to be so obvious. The fact that he absolutely loves and adores Crowley is vividly clear in every scene they’re in, even if his words are saying something entirely different.

I mean, I had my problems with the adaptation and they were significant ones, but the entire thing was basically a big ginormous love letter to Aziraphale and Crowley and the fact that, whatever form that love might take, they absolutely love the hell (and heaven) out of each other. That aspect was not only not downplayed in the adaptation, it was absolutely its core and its heart. And whatever problems I had with how it was done, at the end of the day I got my live-action Aziraphale and Crowley Show that I’ve wanted for 20 years, and it made me feel really good and rekindled my affection for them in the best way.

#good omens

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asoue-sideblog · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on the grim grotto?

I think it was my favorite of the S3 episodes. I really enjoyed it and there were a ton of things I was super happy to see adapted. There was a great moment where Olaf challenges the Baudelaires’ morality and says “I thought you Baudelaires always put your siblings first” which I especially want to highlight.

I thought Netflix Fiona was a much weaker character than the book version, but I liked her a lot.

In the context of S3, I think it contributed to absolutely gutting all of my favorite themes, motifs, and morals of ASOUE, so there’s a lot of relatively minor changes that in a larger context I find very frustrating. If what had happened in the rest of the season was more palatable, they wouldn’t be a big deal.

More detail under the readmore. Warning: pretty long. Also contains spoilers for episodes / book details beyond The Grim Grotto.

Fiona

I’m really glad they showed how the ways that Fiona acted like her stepfather were because of how he mistreated her and how she didn’t really understand what to do, rather than her simply being an obnoxious person who had decided on her own that that was a cool way to behave. That was exactly what I hoped for and I think that part of her characterization was done really well. However, unpleasable bitch that I am, I actually think they went too far in making Fiona sympathetic. To quote tumblr user atwq:

The overall theme of the show, however, seems to be that ‘when desperate, noble people can do things that look to others like wicked acts but are actually justified’ rather than the actual chef’s salad philosophy.

Book Fiona did seriously messed up things. She threw the Baudelaires in the brig for real and made them try to bribe or bargain their way out. Book Fernald wasn’t a reluctant villain who was with Olaf against his natural inclination to kindness - he was cruel and violent and had to be begged to spare a baby’s life and offered Count Olaf the Medusoid Mycelium for no reason with no hesitation - and that’s the brother Fiona was loyal to above all else. Klaus wasn’t just heartbroken because they had to part ways - she really did him wrong. Despite that, she wasn’t evil. As a reader, I could sympathize with her and forgive her for what she did. That made her a strong character and a great precedent to the Baudelaires sinking to similar depths in The Penultimate Peril.

I really like Netflix Fiona. Great acting, really fun character. Still weaker than book Fiona. Same with Netflix Fernald.

Also they simplified Captain Widdershins’ mistreatment of Fiona down to just him not telling her enough, lying about Fernald, and leaving for mysterious reasons, rather than like… him belittling her interests and making creepy statements about rewarding Klaus with her hand in marriage and leaving her in the middle of a life-and-death crisis without even a lie as an explanation. And then Fernald and Fiona reunite with Captain Widdershins happily ever after in The End - yeah, that doesn’t fix shit.

I didn’t like the direction Netflix went with Anwhistle Aquatics, but I loved how it contextualized Fiona offering the MM to Olaf as like… Fernald’s worst nightmare. I thought that was great.

I actually kinda liked Netflix Fiona/Klaus. The age gap doesn’t feel as present because Louis looks so much older than thirteen… of course, it still is present, so it’s still not really great. But Louis Hynes did a really, really good job playing Klaus as goofy and lovestruck. I think they had the most chemistry out of all the kid ships in Netflix.

I guess the rivalry between Fiona and Violet was okay-ish. The implication was reasonably clear that Violet thought Fiona’s mission was a bad idea (slash was trying to debunk Fiona’s mission so she could run off and meet Quigley instead) and Fiona didn’t want to admit that yes, it totally was. But it wasn’t really written great and it had a really strong vibe of “two similar strong-willed women will always fight at first” which is just such bullshit.

Weakening the themes of the book

In the book, Fiona and the Baudelaires did everything right. They found out where the Sugar Bowl would be. They went on a daring mission to risk their lives to recover it. It wasn’t there. Everything started going wrong and they never got to find out why. They never learned if their calculations had been wrong or if someone else had removed it. The reader learns it is the latter, but we never get to find out exactly who took the sugar bowl. The Baudelaires’ story fails to reward their effort with the expected result, because of the chaotic interference of the larger world outside of them, and not even the readers get to fully understand it. The world does not make sense; the world is not fair.

In Netflix, the Baudelaires see what happened to the sugar bowl, and it’s due to another important character. Both the Baudelaires and the readers understand everything that happened and it’s all part of the Baudelaires’ story. The feeling of cruel and incomprehensible randomness and complexity is gone.

(Although at least Kit sending Quigley was like… the one example of Netflix Kit showing the moral ambiguity and manipulation of book Kit. Sending a child after the sugar bowl, where he’d be trapped alone and helpless on the burned wreck of Anwhistle Aquatics - yikes, Kit.)

Likewise, the Anwhistle Aquatics story is stripped down to a basic version, which is explained in its entirety, and relates to characters that the Baudelaires and the readers know and care about. Burning AA is pinned entirely on the morally ambiguous Fernald, rather than casting doubt on ~super cool and noble~ Kit Snicket and a larger plot within VFD. We don’t get the implication that VFD was publishing propaganda stories to lie to the general public. And later, there’s no vague and concerning connection between the Baudelaire parents and Anwhistle Aquatics, because the planned tunnel in The End is not mentioned.

Furthermore, the villains are simply given a submarine by the gruesome twosome, rather than taking submarines that VFD had created. An extremely minor detail, but part of a larger trend of diminishing how VFD had created and empowered the firestarting side and all of their weapons.

Fernald’s statement about “there is no right side of the schism” comes across as one troubled man’s mistake rather than (as I interpret the book version of Fernald saying that, or whatever equivalent dialogue he’d said in the book) a terrible truth coming from a villain who’s right for all the wrong reasons.

#Anonymous #asoue #asoue spoilers #asoue s3 spoilers #asoue meta #fiona widdershins #the grim grotto #fernald widdershins #asoue s3 #long post #asoue netflix critical #negativity

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jewlwpet · 6 years ago

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Space Pirate Mito, overall impression

This is a shounen anime from 1999. It’s sci-fi, as you might expect from the name. It has a wacky sense of humor, an endearing cast of characters, a fascinating and unique storyline, and some deeply affecting emotional scenes. It also featured numerous LGBT elements, the execution of which was... so-so. Could’ve been much worse, but also could’ve been much better. I do think it tries to present a positive message, and it isn’t always effective, but it is certainly memorable. There are numerous things that could’ve been improved, but I think the show as-is has a lot of value mainly coming from its uniqueness.

If you live in the U.S., it’s available for free (both seasons) on youtube from Nozomi Entertainment, just like Revolutionary Girl Utena is. Season 1 is also on both Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime; I don’t know what other countries this applies to. Piracy sites have this show too, of course, so you have options regardless. It’s also available on DVD for a surprisingly reasonable price, 22.49 USD from rightstuf, and that’s if you get it new.

Here’s the synopsis I like best for season 1, the one from animenewsnetwork:

Mito isn't just another space pirate, she's a three foot tall childlike alien with enough guts to outshine a supernova. She's known as the galaxy's most dangerous pirate, a wanted criminal who destroys a dozen police space cruisers every day before breakfast. But all she really wants is to be called "Mom."

Incidentally, Mito is voiced by the late Tomoko Kawakami, who also voiced Utena Tenjou! This was shocking for me to learn; they sound nothing alike, which just shows the versatility of her talent.

Wikipedia gives the following synopsis:

The first series of the farcical sci-fi title mainly revolves around the small space pirate Mito and her fights with and flights from the galactic police force, as well as her relationship with her half-human Earthling son Aoi, initially largely ignorant of his mother's spacefaring life.

This is basically accurate; however, there’s also a complex and compelling story that begins to unfold in the later episodes.

It’s in the unravelling of this story that the show’s LGBT themes are first introduced. I’ll insert a readmore here, because this post is getting long, so I might as well cut off before getting into plot spoilers: But if any of you goes off to watch it based on the above, there is a high chance you’ll end up checking back here at some point to determine if it’s worth sticking with.

If you’ve watched Simoun--another LGBT-related series that I adore and appreciate for its originality despite some serious flaws--this’ll sound familiar to you.

For Mito’s species, “sex differentiation” happens once a person is 10,000 years old. It’s not something that happens by itself, though; it is undergone by “choice.” I’m putting that in quotation marks because it certainly isn’t a free decision. Children are allowed to be flexible with their gender presentation, but “growing up,” in the eyes of society, means to become either a man or a woman, by fixed, preset standards. Those who don’t are socially ostracized.

In Simoun, at least, if you have your heart set on one role or the other, you can be sure to get it. Here... it’s not really clear, it seems that there is no such guarantee (I’m not sure if it’s just random, or if it’s arranged by one’s parents). Hence, it’s easy to imagine why some would find such an event absolutely horrifying.

One of the characters has a backstory that involves resisting this; I was really impressed with how this was established, except for the fact that this character did happen to be a villain. However, he (the character is shown saying “I’m a boy! I’ve already been differentiated” in his backstory, so that’s what I’m going with) joins the heroes’ side in the second season and is never made to conform, nor are the show’s protagonists ever anything but respectful.

However. For plot reasons that really do make sense in context (...sort of. it’s still contrived), Aoi ends up having to undergo sexual differentiation even though Aoi had been following a human pattern of physiological development up to that point. Aoi has no control over the process, and when it ends, everyone is shocked to find that Aoi is now “a girl.”

...Well, the humans are shocked. The aliens mostly take it in stride.

Aoi is also queen of the galaxy now, because sometimes that just happens.

For the record, this all happens in the final episode of season 1. This means that we don’t get to see the initial period of Aoi adjusting to this new role. Ultimately, I think that’s probably a good thing because it leads to many of the usual uncomfortable tropes being glossed over, but it also limits our insight into Aoi’s thoughts and feelings about this, which is pretty important. There are some mixed messages.

Something decidedly Bad is the way that the viewers are clued in on what happened to Aoi, which is... a couple of girls accidentally seeing under Aoi’s clothes and being shocked... and then the teacher wanted to look, ugh. That’s as bad as it ever got but it’s Pretty Bad for sure.

Onto Aoi’s reaction.

This is going to require some context. What first happened was that Aoi’s body became impossible for the aliens’ machines to detect as male or female, which led Mito to realize and explain that Aoi must be going through Sex Differentiation now. Only, the one weapon that could defeat the villain requires the user to have undergone it and be recognizably one or the other. This was the villain’s plan all along; he did “experiments” on Aoi to induce this, not out of a desire to cause suffering but for pragmatic reasons which still sound extremely contrived (though I was pleased to find that season 2 actually addressed why the weapons were built like this, whose decision it was, who was benefiting from it and how).

Consequently, Mito was demanding that Aoi “become either a man or a woman immediately.” Because Aoi had no idea how to control the process, the decision was made for Aoi’s (female) love interest to kiss Aoi and potentially “turn him into a man.” The reason I’m bringing this up is because notably, Aoi is not necessarily very keen on this idea, saying, “What about my feelings?” But it happens, and even, annoyingly, works long enough for the weapon to be used. (Not gonna lie, I was totally hoping that the opposite would happen and this would be the catalyst for Aoi taking on her True Form as a lesbian. That would’ve been epic). That said, it doesn’t last, and s2 leaves absolutely no room for the idea that kissing girls is inherently a “male” thing, so I don’t consider it a big deal on the whole, just such a missed opportunity.

Mutsumi, Aoi’s love interest, said in the end that her feelings for Aoi were the same regardless of what happened, but then ruined it by adding “Besides, I’m sure I can turn him back into a man.” (Aoi had not said a single word this point; she just thought that was something she could decide on her own, ugh--Mutsumi has clearly gotten over this by season 2, though; it never comes up again). At this point Aoi ran away “to find a planet where I can become a man,” according to the note left behind. It’s very possible Aoi just wanted to escape from everyone’s incessant comments and questioning, but that’s only speculation on my part. The next thing we see is Aoi being crowned queen, appearing somewhat exasperated and resigned.

Now onto season 2! Things get better... a lot better. Season 2 has its own unique and compelling story arc, with a new, more powerful villain. But the first thing to talk about how it opens, with an OP that seems to show a typical romcom with a scifi twist, one that happens to be about two girls. I love it.

S1′s OP centers around Mito, with this one centering around Aoi; because of that, it doesn’t feel like “now that we have a Female Protagonist we must make it a Love Story.” Just in case that was on anyone’s mind.

What the song tells us about Aoi’s perspective is interesting, but it can be hard to connect it to what’s shown in the show itself. It starts out with the line, “I’m a happy but lonely girl,” and includes the line “Hey, can you understand a maiden’s heart?” but Aoi certainly makes no such pronouncements withing the show (this would really make the show more comfortable to watch, because then it would certainly be Good and Right that everyone considers Aoi a girl now) and in my opinion would probably not feel comfortable doing so. I can imagine Aoi listening to a song like this and secretly strongly identifying, but that’s just speculation on my part.

I’m probably taking it more seriously than it was ever intended, but I will say, I don’t think it was made to be a mean-spirited joke. It doesn’t feel ironic. The visuals match the lyrics and melody rather than contrasting with them, and the upbeat tone is the same as that of the first OP. My best guess as to the motivation behind making it is that it’s to really bring the point home to the viewers that Aoi is a girl now and that that wasn’t just a silly joke ending to the first season but represented a major change in the status quo.

Early on in the season, Aoi has a dream about becoming a boy again and being with Mutsumi. If you want to believe the OP you could say that this is because Aoi feels that being with Mutsumi (romantically) would necessarily require being a boy. And this is a worry that Aoi canonically had, early on, but I think that most viewers would take the scene at face value and it might not be any deeper that that.

There was one other scene in the season that suggested Aoi would prefer to live as a boy, this one towards the end. In fact, Aoi shouts outright, “I would go back to being a guy if I could.” That said, the context is that a villain is torturing Aoi in an attempt to make that happen. Considering Aoi had already surrendered to that villain to save others (don’t worry, it all works out in the end), this could be as simple as “I would do what you wanted if I knew how.”

What I was hoping for, and what I think would have been awesome, is if at the end, Aoi would get a choice and would choose staying queen of the galaxy over becoming a man. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that. We do see that the experience has made Aoi a stronger person, more confident and expressive, and the show does end on a good note: The galaxy has been saved, and Aoi is free to be with the girl she loves, and looking as happy as in the OP for the first time ever, and has taken control of her life in general at last.

I didn’t mention this, but there’s another girl who has a huge crush on Aoi in season 2, and I was worried she’d be a “predatory lesbian” stereotype, but to my relief, this was not the case, and she ended up being one of my favorites.

She’s just like Nanami (from Utena--the director of this show actually directed Utena’s third ep, On The Night of the Ball) but openly gay and I LIVE for that. She has some great character development too.

#space pirate mito #uchuu kaizoku mito no boukugen #stellar buster mito #aoi mitsukuni #mito mitsukuni

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imaginedmelody · 6 years ago

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I think I’m finally ready to try and write my “The Magicians” season finale reaction post.

I’ve been collecting my thoughts on this for the last almost-week, because I knew that this post would be a difficult one; it’s hard to sort through all the opinions and feelings and put them down in a way that makes sense. I’ll try to hit on my major takeaways under the readmore. Bear in mind that my reaction is mixed. Conflicted is the word I’ve been using. I really sympathize with the pain that much of the fandom is feeling, even if I don’t feel it on a level that’s the same (or perhaps comparable) to theirs. I’ll try to dig into that in this post a bit.

I’m a new viewer to this show, as I’ve said many times before. I tried to watch it two years ago, and found it confusing in that I felt like it failed to resonate with me even though I still felt strangely drawn to it. I would watch an episode, feel unsatisfied and only barely interested, but then the next day I would feel oddly compelled to watch the next one. After about 5 episodes of season 1, I gave up. I picked it back up again about 9 weeks ago; I guess I was one of the many viewers who came along because of 4x05, although I didn’t realize that was why I was pulled back in- I just started seeing more and more about the show on my social media again, and it was enough to make me want to give it another try.

This time, I was hooked. I marathon-watched the whole show in probably 4-5 weeks and loved almost every moment (except for a couple of the really distressingly disturbing ones). I was so moved by 3x05, “A Life in the Day,” that I wrote this post about how the show felt like a missing piece had slotted into place at the end of that episode; like a photo that you don’t realize is slightly out of focus until someone adjusts the resolution and it just resolves. I got caught up enough to livetweet somewhere around episode 7 or 8 of season 4, and have been enjoying my integration into the fandom, although I’m still very peripherally a part of it.

I say all this because, as a new viewer, the fallout of 4x13 has been...confusing. Not confusing as in “I don’t understand why this is happening,” but in the sense that the fandom’s collective grief can feel kind of alienating to new viewers. That’s not intentional on the part of seasoned fans, and it’s not something that anyone should feel responsible for or obligated to change. It’s just difficult because we have only just invested in the show. We may be devastated at the loss of Quentin, many of us for the same reasons longtime viewers are (the loss of queer representation, for instance, or the way it seemed to counteract the positive development of a mentally ill character). But at the same time, a lot of us are more positive overall, even if we think killing off that character was a bad choice. We’re still kind of wrapped up in our enthusiasm, so that our grief just feels like another strong emotion we’re feeling, rather than a betrayal. And it can be awkward because we don’t want to express that too boldly or strongly, because we don’t want to appear to be trivializing the grief of other fans. I think that’s an unfair position that the show, not the fans, puts us in. We’re already new to the community, and now we feel less engaged in what is very much a communal emotional response. Positivity feels like rubbing salt in other fans’ wounds. So we’re not sure where we stand.

I was in shock when the show killed off Quentin. Like most viewers, I couldn’t believe it. I waited for them to find a way to reverse it. It was like a hole forming in my heart when they didn’t. I mentioned on twitter later that night that I cry all the time when I watch TV and movies- literally, if something is in any way beautiful, or sad, or exciting, or happy, I’m getting teary-eyed. But once the credits roll and the story is done, my emotional response is usually finished too. If I’m gonna react to it in any other way, it’ll be intellectual (through meta or fanfic) rather than emotional.

But when this episode ended, I finished my cup of tea, went upstairs, and got in the shower. And all of a sudden, before I even knew it, I was crying. It had been 15 minutes since the episode ended and I was still emotional enough to cry. Since then, because I’m a glutton for emotion who likes to lean into anything that makes me feel strongly, I’ve rewatched the episode once and the “Take On Me” scene like eight times- and every single time I’ve cried, even if it’s just a little. It touches some raw emotional place in me that very few shows get to. And I think I’m in awe of that as much as I’m in pain because of it.

I never quite got to the outrage that other fans did, though. That could be for a number of reasons- less prolonged attachment as a new viewer (although I feel very attached to the show and characters); greater privilege to not feel personally attacked by the loss; just having more emotional energy to engage with the scene. But I felt simultaneously anguished and energized by the episode, including the death. It broke my heart, but it also pulled me in. It’s very confusing. I’m angry at how things increasingly seem to have been mishandled, and I’m disappointed at the fallout this has for the show and the fans, and I’m in disagreement with the validity of the choice. But I still feel engaged and almost excited by it. That’s a hard balance to reconcile.

It really does seem to me like the writers dropped the ball. The fact that they knew they were killing Quentin off bothers me, but actually, the thing that I find most galling is that the other actors weren’t in on the plan. We have it on good authority that they filmed a fake scene, where presumably Q comes back somehow, and all the actors were led to believe that was what was in the episode until two days before the finale, when they were told the truth for the first time. My question is: why? Did they not trust the actors to keep the secret? I can kind of understand faking out the audience, but why play that mind game with your actors, who are part of the creative team and should know what’s going on? Why deprive them of the chance to say goodbye to Jason Ralph as a fellow cast member? So far, in every interview, no one has really explained what the point of that fakeout was. If I was an actor on the show, I’d feel really upset about that.

The other thing that’s really been grinding my gears is something that I saw mentioned in comments before I ever saw it in context in the article (and thank you to everyone who helped me find the source). It’s a quote from John McNamara, one of the showrunners, from an article in the Hollywood Reporter, in which he says this about the decision to kill off Q:

“... in a way, I'm not sure what we would have done with the character had he lived.”

I took issue with that statement for two reasons. The first is from a writing craft perspective. I understand wanting to take risks and shake up expectations, and I understand that “kill someone off” is common writing advice when you get stuck in a project. But it’s my firm belief that the main character (and even on an ensemble show like this, yes, there is a clear lead character) should pretty much always be safe. Because the premise of the show is structured in some essential way around him; that’s why he’s the lead. And that’s why almost every show that gets rid of its main character, either by recasting or just removing and replacing with other characters, goes downhill in quality- because that original character was integral to the story.

I’ve said before that literally the only story I can think of that is better for having killed off its protagonist is friggin’ Julius Caesar. When I teach that play, we discuss at that moment in Act 3- and then again at the end of the play- what it means for the narrative if your title character dies halfway through his story. What it means that Marc Antony is the lead for the rest of the play. How Caesar is still so central to the plot even though he’s dead. Part of the reason this doesn’t work on TV- the reason the plot can’t still centralize the character they killed in the narrative- is because a play is a single self-contained entity that you consume all at once, and a TV series is, well, serialized. The show can’t keep centering a character who’s no longer present, because it wouldn’t resonate in a long-form narrative that you consume in small installments. That’s why shows that kill off characters don’t keep bringing them up. They throw in a couple of heartfelt moments that directly or indirectly reference the character, and then they move on and you’re supposed to let them go. A protagonist has to live to keep being important to the story.

So I am of the firm belief that if your main character has outlived his usefulness, the problem is with your narrative as a whole, not with that particular character. If you can’t think of anywhere meaningful for that character to go, you don’t need to kill him off- you need to restructure your whole story so that it’s responsive to him again. It doesn’t have to revolve around him all the time- the show has frequently centered around other characters prominently and effectively, and Q doesn’t have to be in the spotlight all the time- but if he’s no longer relevant? Your whole story has a problem.

But the second thing that aggravates me about that comment is this: not only do I think Q should not ever become decentralized and disconnected from his show’s narrative, I don’t think he has. The events of this season provided so much room to develop that character. He learned his discipline (minor mendings), which has tremendous practical usefulness as well as symbolic significance. “Escape From the Happy Place” reopened a potential relationship that contains a whole wellspring of emotional resonance as well as complication. His father died- you can do a lot with the grief related to that. His reconnection with Alice felt hollow to me, but even that could be useful narratively (especially if she goes on to lead the Library, which could create a layer of separation and potential for either teamwork or conflict of interest that could sustain several intriguing narratives). Even his tendency toward suicidal self-sacrifice could have been brought up; the conversation he had with Penny about whether he was trying to be a hero or just finally finding a way to kill himself could be had after a failed self-sacrifice attempt just as meaningfully as a successful one.

Quentin has been filled with potential this entire season in the storyline. All of this plus his emotional reckoning with Fillory in the scene where he brings the garden back to life... it seemed like the writers spent the whole season re-establishing all the potential Q had. It didn’t read like a season in which the writers didn’t know what to do with him any more. So the decision to kill him off does seem purely like an effort to challenge themselves as writers and wrong-foot the fans. Which I don’t think is enough of a reason to do it.

Because here’s the thing: I’m a writer too, and I understand that the dichotomy of pursuing your own writing vision and capitulating to the fans’ wants and needs is a delicate one. Writers hate being told what to write, and with social media and fan conventions and other very close forms of engagement, fans have more ways to make their desires known than perhaps ever before. They have every right to make the choice that supports their creative vision, and to do things that force them to stretch their limits as creators. But this feels like it went wildly off its mark. It feels less like an experiment and more like a careless move, and I think they could have approached it a lot better.

I wouldn’t rule out seeing Q again on the show one day. I think if they’re willing to fake us all out once, they’d do it again. I’m comforted by the fact that they appear to have consulted the author early in the process and gotten his blessing, although his comments since then seem to walk back his involvement or contradict what the showrunners have said. (Whether that’s because they’ve overstated his involvement or enthusiasm, or whether he was involved in the decision and is now trying to distance himself from the fallout, it’s impossible to say.)

What is less heartening for me is that some of these writers/creators come from Supernatural, a show that has gone on for far too long and has been retreading tired old ground for years. I only watched to about season 8, but it just feels like an endless cycle of similar plot arcs and killing off and resurrecting the same characters over and over again. The Magicians, admittedly, feels a lot more well-crafted, so I don’t think they’d get as lazy as SPN seems to be- but it’s still a worry, all the same.

(Side note: I am often adamant that unless it’s a legacy franchise like Doctor Who, most shows should intentionally be constructed to be a maximum of 5-7 seasons. I think a lot of broadcast shows are less high-quality because they are just vague pitches that get riffed into a show; the writers and creators don’t come into it with an endpoint in mind, so the show goes on as long as they can add any material at all to it or until they get cancelled, whichever comes first. That means that the plot feels aimless and unstructured. The difference between “prestige TV” and “regular TV” is not just better writing and acting overall- it’s that those shows tend to have a very defined arc, and they know where they’re going, so everything is in service of a common idea. Not just a vague and easily sellable premise that can have a ton of stuff derived from it with little effort. I think The Magicians sits above most broadcast shows in quality, but this is where it is starting to show its weak points. And that’s why I think the creators need to be very deliberate about making sure everything going forward contributes to a very defined arc.)

So that’s where I am right now. Emotionally a wreck; disappointed in the process of this choice and feeling the grief other fans feel; strangely invigorated at the same time? Unsure where to go from here, really. Still committed to watching the show as much as I ever have been, but wary at the same time. It’s complicated. But I’m ready to embrace the complexity of it.

#the magicians #the magicians spoilers #imaginedmelody writes meta #(although i don't know if this is really meta?)

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hufflepirate · 6 years ago

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Hospital Alley Nights - Critical Role

Too tired to format this fic I wrote about Beau and Caleb and Nott being too tired for posting on AO3, but not too tired to put 2.5K-ish words under a readmore to save y’all’s dashes. Ayyyy. This is almost certainly getting a new title tomorrow, but... it’s 1 AM so since I wrote the thing I had the plot bunny for, I consider myself absolved from all future responsibility for this fic until after I have slept.

Beau, Caleb, and Nott drop their friends off at a hospital after a risky cross-country race only to find themselves suddenly without direction, energy, or any good way to stay near the hospital other than sleeping in a nearby alley to be closer to their friends.

It was a relief to come to a sudden halt 15 feet outside the hospital doors. Beau knew she should be making better sense of this, making better sense of all of this, but she wasn't, and when Nott stopped in front of her and Caleb stopped behind her, it was all she could do not to just plop down in the middle of the street and sit with her head in her hands until she could work through it all.

The drive here had been a nightmare. They'd pushed their stolen horses faster than they should have, keeping their stolen cart rolling well into the night without stopping until they were afraid the horses might drop dead or they might fall off the cart, themselves, from exhaustion. But with so many people with the Firbolgs and their friends so badly injured, this had been the only way. The nearest town with the nearest hospital and hours and hours to get there and a race against time and now - and now -

Nott was staring down a small alley, just staring, and Beau finally managed to say what she'd wanted to say several minutes ago. "Fuck visiting hours."

"Yes," Caleb said behind her, his eyes looking a little hollow when she glanced back at him, "Fuck visiting hours."

He'd been thinking clearly just minutes ago, when he caught her around the waist and whispered in her ear that they couldn't get in a fight in the hospital if they wanted their friends looked after, and he'd been thinking clearly enough after that to guide her out the front doors, but now something in his gaze was blank and empty, and not in the flickering Frumpkin way she was used to.

Nott turned back to them. "I know they told us where the nearest good inn is," she said thoughtfully. "But nobody said we had to stay in an inn."

Nott was getting at something, but she'd slept in the cart and Beau and Caleb hadn't, not when the cart was so full of their friends and their friends were so badly off and they'd needed both of them together to drive so long. Beau tried to make the connections, but she couldn't.

"What are you thinking?" Caleb asked, apparently not following, either. A bad sign.

"I'm thinking we don't go to an inn. We stay here. We - we sleep here. It wouldn't be the first time we slept outside, in an alley. And then you can send Frumpkin to look after them and if anything goes wrong, we're right here. We can break in. We're ready."

"You want to sleep outside in an alley," Caleb repeated back, his voice light and hazy, unreadable.

"Yes," Nott answered.

"You want to sleep out in the cold and the wet in early winter, where we might be found by crown's guard who chase us off as vagabonds."

"Yes," Nott answered.

"Ok," he said.

"Oh," she said, and both of them turned to her.

Caleb's forehead furrowed. "Oh, Beau. Yes, we should have asked you. You can stay with us, if you like, or go to the inn."

Beau's brain felt like it was wrapped in heavy wool, and she wasn't even sure what she was going to say until the word came tumbling out: "Stay." She felt good about it, anyway, so she repeated herself. "I'll stay."

Caleb nodded, and Nott's face slid into a grin. "Good," she said. "We'll take the cart somewhere, or one of us will, and then we'll find a good place tucked in this alley - maybe there's a side door and we can use a doorway - and we'll be right here as soon as the sun is up and they're taking visitors again."

Beau groaned. The cart. She'd forgotten completely about the cart.

"Can we take the cart anywhere closer than the inn?" Caleb asked.

"How should I know?" Nott asked.

Beau didn't have an answer either, but exhaustion was pulling at her and being so close to their friends only to be separated again weighed even more heavily against her, and she didn't know anything as surely as she knew she did not care what happened to the cart.

"Let's leave it," she said, "It's not really our cart anyway."

She wasn't sure what she meant by that. It wasn't anyone else's cart, because its original owner was dead. They weren't getting their old cart back, not with it left days and days and days behind them, before nearly all of this. But she felt empty, like her well had run dry, and all she had left was the idea of crawling into the alley with her stinky hobo wizard and her tiny goblin girl and falling asleep until they could get in to see their friends.

Caleb was staring at the cart, which was behind them at the entrance to the hospital, but he didn't seem to be able to think it through, either. He was silent, and his arms draped at his sides like he was too tired to lift them.

Nott stepped past her, taking Caleb's hand gently, and he turned to look down at her. "It's alright, Caleb," Nott said gently, "I'll find a stable. You two drove long enough. And I'll come right back."

Caleb nodded, and Nott turned back to Beau. "Did you hear that?" she asked, louder, "I'll be right back."

"Yeah," Beau managed, "I heard."

Nott climbed up onto the cart, a process that always looked challenging, but drove off competently enough. Beau watched her go, standing as still as Caleb, but as Nott and the cart rounded a corner, a yawn reminded her that she couldn't stand here forever. She'd been pinching herself on the cart next to Caleb to stay alert, and now that she was still, she wasn't sure she could stay awake if she didn't move.

Caleb turned at the sound of the yawn and she nodded to him once she'd finished it, turning toward the alley and trusting that he'd follow.

As soon as her face was turned into the wind, she realized her eyes had watered, and she wasn't sure whether it was from the exhaustion or the cold or the yawn or the fact that they'd just stood over their friends' unconscious forms and been told they had to leave. Either way, she didn't like it, and scrubbing her sleeve across her eyes to clear the tears gave Caleb time to raise his arm up and slip it around her waist again.

Usually, she'd be a jerk about that, because it wasn't exactly ideal, but she'd needed the guidance in the hospital when her brain wasn't working so well, and it only took one step toward the alley for her to realize Caleb needed it now. The wizard's weight was heavier against her shoulder now, and she put her own arm around him in return, angling them toward the small alley and hoping he would be able to find them some cover, even without Nott.

She'd slept in plenty of uncomfortable beds, and she'd done plenty of camping, but this was new, and other than the instinctive knowledge that they needed to get out of the wind, she wasn't sure what they were looking for.

Caleb's head moved back and forth, scanning the alley as they entered it. They weren't sure what these buildings were, other than neighbors to the hospital, but the building on the right had several large barrels up against the wall. Beau couldn't tell which of them was steering anymore, but they went toward it together.

The two barrels were full of ice, and Beau copied Caleb as he looked up toward the roof. A gutter ran along the roof, with a small piece of piping jutting out over the barrels. "Rainwater," she said, filling in the gaps.

"Yes," he agreed, "We can't light a fire for warmth, but at least they will shield us."

Beau nodded. "Should we move them?"

Caleb leaned a little harder into her as he stared at the barrels again, like just thinking made it harder to stand. Beau leaned back, using what was left of her brain this late to keep them both upright.

"Only a little bit," he concluded, "A foot or so. The back one. So we can make a little bit more cover, but anyone used to these being here won't notice from the street right away."

She grunted in agreement, taking a few more steps to get behind the two barrels.

She had to take her arm off of Caleb to grab the barrel and found herself leaning into it for stability as soon as the contact with Caleb wasn't as even. A moment later, he gripped at the edge of it, too.

It was solid. Stable. Undoubtedly heavy.

"Maybe it's fine," she said.

Caleb kept leaning. He was silent for a moment. For another moment. For long enough that Beau started to find it hard to stay standing, again.

"Caleb," she said.

"We will wait for Nott. If Nott says it should move, we move it."

Nodding was almost disorienting, but Beau didn't mention the increasingly real possibility that they might both be asleep before Nott made it back.

Caleb used the barrel rim to stabilize himself as he rotated around to get his back to the wall, and Beau followed behind him, more sure with every step that this barrel wasn't going anywhere tonight.

They both sat down carefully, leaning against the wall, and she felt her eyes drifting shut almost immediately.

She was still just barely awake when Nott came back, her limbs pressing heavily into the hard dirt of the ground when she heard a sudden sound beside her. Her monk training was effective even without her brain involved, and as Nott tried to step over her to get to Caleb, Beau opened her eyes just in time to see her own hand punching the tiny goblin square in the gut.

Nott doubled over, gasping.

"Shit," Beau said.

A ball of light shot out of Caleb's hands, familiar but still shockingly bright in the darkness of the alley, and Beau had to blink against the suddenness of it, her eyes watering again.

"Nott, are you ok?" he asked, sounding foggy, but upset.

The goblin grinned, another familiar sight that was still somehow creepy in this light. "It's ok," she said, after a deep gasp of breath, "At least we know if the crown's guard finds us, Beau won't let them take us away."

Nott climbed the rest of the way over Beau and settled down straight in Caleb's lap, tucking her head against his shoulder and the side of the barrel next to him.

Beau reached over to wrap a hand around her nearest body part, ending up with Nott's ankle. "I'm sorry," she said.

"It's alright," Nott said again.

Caleb put his hand over hers and nodded, reaching up to vanish the floating light instead of meeting her eyes.

She nodded back in the sudden darkness, and couldn't be sure he'd seen it.

"You just need sleep," Nott said, "Come on. Snuggle up."

Beau shook her head. "I'm ok."

"It's going to be really cold."

"I'll be fine."

She didn't remove her hand from its place between Nott's ankle and Caleb's hand, but she didn't move closer or lean on them, either. It didn't matter. The punch had taken more energy than she had left to her name, and she slipped into sleep anyway.

Another noise woke her, but this time she didn't lash out until after her eyes were open, and then not at all. Frumpkin had something in his mouth and she reached absently for it, realizing only after he dumped a dead mouse into her palm that her hand was numb. She dropped the mouse into her lap in surprise and Frumpkin meowed grumpily.

Her other hand was warm, still cradled in Caleb's and still wrapped around Nott, so she extricated it carefully and used it to pick the mouse up and toss it back out of her lap. Frumpkin pounced on it, and she left him to it, putting her numb hand inside the other one and rubbing it to try to warm it up.

Next to her, the other two stirred faintly and she stilled, trying not to wake them. After a moment, she turned to look and found Nott's yellow eyes staring into hers. "It's alright," she whispered, "Caleb won't mind if you use him as a heater. He's very warm."

For a moment, she considered her options, but flexing the numb hand in the cold made the answer obvious. She scooted closer, and by the time she realized Caleb was partially awake, too, it was too late and he was adjusting his position to get an arm around her.

For such a skinny man, he did put out a surprising amount of heat, and his bony shoulder wasn't quite as uncomfortable as she'd expected. Nott reached out and grabbed her colder hand, whispering a soft "yikes" as she wrapped her other small hand around it, too.

Fine, then. It wasn't the first time they'd cuddled, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Caleb tried, awkwardly and with little success, to drape the edge of his ratty coat around her, then managed to get a little bit of his scarf around her neck, too, and she let him because it was better than having it exposed to the cold night air.

The next time she woke up, it was because Caleb had gasped loudly in her ear. He breathed heavily, and Nott woke up, too, letting go of Beau's hand to cup his face with her hands instead. Caleb closed his eyes, leaning his forehead into Nott's, and Beau closed her eyes again, trying to pretend she was still asleep instead of having to figure out what to do in this moment.

"Frumpkin," he whispered.

"Ok." Nott's voice was soft, almost more breath than whisper, but Beau opened her eyes, anyway. Caleb was gone, the flicker in his eyes indicating that he was with Frumpkin, now, wherever that meant, and Beau yawned, pretending she'd just woken up, before she adjusted her position against Caleb.

"Sorry, Beau," the wizard muttered, and she almost jumped. She knew he could feel them, but since he couldn't see or hear them, it hadn't occurred to her to worry about it.

He wasn't gone for long.

"How are they?" Nott asked.

"They're alright. They're sleeping, but they're not - the breathing was steady, and I think their color might be better. It's hard to tell in the moonlight. But they are in beds, and the nurses are not right there, so probably they are alright."

Nott nodded. "Good." Then she snuggled back into Caleb's chest, and Beau wondered, if she weren't here, if Caleb would have pulled into the cuddle in response.

Giving in to an impulse she would have checked in the daylight, she grabbed his hand. "Thanks for checking," she said.

"Bitte," he whispered, but she was too tired, still, to worry about understanding Zemnian. She took the opportunity to rearrange, getting even closer to Caleb, and then Nott was helping and all three of them were tangled up, but that was alright. It was warmer this way. She drifted back off to sleep with her head on Caleb's shoulder and her legs draped across his, Nott's heels digging just slightly into her side as her feet stretched past Caleb's space and into her own.

It was too cold, and the inn would have been more comfortable, but as Caleb's breath slowed against her, confident that their friends were alright and Frumpkin was close enough to communicate with to check on them, it was still worth being here.

#Critical Role #fanfic #Beau #Caleb #Nott #fluff #but like... slightly angsty fluff?#spoilers #I guess?#set in the FUTURE after everything WORKS OUT FINE from where we are now #I need things to work out fine from where we are now #hurt/comfort #almost certainly

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aye-write · 4 years ago

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