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receiptpaperfanfics · 8 years ago

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Kovntag WWF AU Thing

Here’s a drabble! Because I’m disappointed in the lack of wrestling au stuff.

Lawrence has locked himself in his dressing room, and he is seething. He’d known that Adam was going to be out there today. (Not fighting him, of course. No, that sweet chance at vengeance would have wait until another day.) What he hadn’t been counting on was the last minute promo speech that Adam’s manager had apparently been able to push for. He’d heard something about needing to stall for time while Sami Zayn located a missing music track. But he hadn’t been planning on walking out to the viewing booth just to see Adam, of all people, taking the stage.

He should have just high-tailed it out of there as soon as he’d realized what was going on. Instead, it was like he was rooted to the spot. He’d been paralyzed with anger at just the sight of the man, watching as he’d stuttered his way through yet another flippant speech. He’d thrown the name Authority around no less than three times, pacing and running a hand through his hair when he’d lost track of his words. All the while, women had cooed and men had screamed his name. By the time it was all over, Lawrence could see nothing but red.

He’d barely heard James calling out to get his attention and try to calm him down as he’d whipped around to storm back downstairs.

He’s pacing, snaking tendrils of energy slithering just beneath his skin. He catches his reflection in the overlit makeup mirror, sees the black ink that covers his left arm shifting and shimmering restlessly. His mind is a cacophony of hissing whispers that just seem to be thrumming louder and louder the more he walks.

He knows he shouldn’t be doing this right now. He has a match with James in less than an hour. But he’s already run up enough of a bill with all of the dressing room furniture he’s smashed in the last month. The destruction of inanimate objects does nothing to alleviate the burn, anyways. The only real way to quell the hunger would be for him to march over to Adam’s door and break it down. And then break him. Shatter him into a thousand shards, make him a bleeding bed of fine glass.

It would be a glorious sight.

It would also lose him his job and land him in jail.

He doesn’t understand what it is about Adam specifically, but any time Lawrence so much as hears his voice, the spirits nestled deep in his marrow just sing for blood. Maybe it’s that stupid smile that’s almost always on his face, or the ease with which he carries his confidence. The easy answer that sells tickets has to do with their divergent views of The Authority. Lawrence suspects it might just be Adam.

He bristles initially when a knock raps against the opposite side of his door, before realizing that it has to be James. He catches the reflection of his tattoos and notices that they seem to turn translucent green for a moment before solidifying. By the time he wrenches the door open, the marks have settled.

“Are you going to be good to go?” James asks without giving Lawrence a chance to speak. He has one pristine eyebrow raised in a sharp arch and his eyes rake over his partner where he stands in the doorway. His expression is doubtful. “You know we’re on in less than a half hour, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” Lawrence huffs out. He takes a deep breath. “I’ll be fine. Just give me a few more minutes.”

James tilts his head to peer into the room beyond Lawrence’s shoulder, checking for any damages. Seeming satisfied, he nods.

“Ok,” he says. “If you, y’know, need to vent to somebody… I’m here. So is Bruce.”

“No, just-” Lawrence shakes his head. “Ten minutes. I’ll be out.”

James is opening his mouth to say something when Lawrence closes the door on him. He walks back to the table that holds an assortment of snacks and beverages and pours himself a double shot of whiskey.

Their match doesn’t go well at all. Lawrence can’t get to James to tag him in right away when he needs to switch. He gets some time to recover on the sidelines, but it’s not enough. James does what he can. It all goes downhill anyway. By the time it’s obvious they have no chance to turn things around, their opponents are just taunting them.

Lawrence knows it’s his fault. And James is pissed.

When they get backstage afterwards, he doesn’t deck Lawrence, doesn’t yell, doesn’t do anything that he has every right to do. He just levels Lawrence with a look, shoulders rising and falling with his still laboured breaths. He is very calm when he does speak, his voice quieter than usual.

“You need to figure this shit out.” It’s not a request. The way he frames it makes it a requirement. The stakes don’t have to be stated - it’s clear that there is a jeopardy to their professional partnership here. Lawrence knows he can’t be letting his recklessness put someone other than himself at risk out in the ring.

But it’s also not something James expects him to do on his own, or right away. Just… soon.

That much is clear in the way his voice softens when he pointedly says, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

He waits for Lawrence’s nod to confirm before he goes, even patting his shoulder when he passes.

Lawrence nurses his whiskey at his makeup table for a long time before he finally gets up and wriggles out of his shorts and boots in favour of his infinitely more comfortably street clothes.

After he grabs his gym bag, it takes another couple minutes of staring around the room, vaguely checking to see if there’s anything he’s forgetting, before he has to motivation to leave. When he gets to the door, he breathes deep before opening it.

He is immediately met with the sight of soulful, big, brown eyes and a tentative smile.

Lawrence slams the door in Adam’s face. Loudly.

A noise like a growl comes tearing out of his throat. He crosses the scant feet over his dressing room floor that it takes to kick the vanity chair to the ground. It lands with a crash, wood clattering against tile as the offending piece of furniture skids.

The split lip that he’d earned in his earlier match his apparently reopened, if the taste of warm metal on his tongue is any indication. The symbols on his left arm burn and voices pound the drumbeat of a dead language against his temple. He’s on the edge of bursting.

He squeezes his eyes shut until he sees galaxies, holds his breath, counts to three.

When Lawrence lets the air out again, all his rage is expelled with it. His shoulders sag under the weight of a bone-tired defeat that is just now truly settling in. Really, all he wants right now is to go home to his shitty apartment, sink into his futon and watch cartoons, or maybe play Final Fantasy. And as much as he prays that the living incarnation of his bane won’t still be there when he tries to leave again, he knows better.

He still has to brace himself when he opens the door again.

Adam flinches when the door swings open. He’s standing the tiniest bit farther away, Lawrence notices, but, nope, still there. When he seems positive Lawrence isn’t going to deck him right there, his hand raises and he waggles his fingers in a little wave.

“Uh, hi,” he says. The smile is still timid, and it seems against the laws of physics for such a broad man to look so compact. When Lawrence doesn’t move. Adam takes his chance to continue. “I wanted to knock earlier but, uh… I was kind of scared?”

“What are you doing here?” The question is more tired than irritated.

Adam’s tongue flicks out to swipe across his lips. His eyes wander toward the ceiling and he’s rubbing at his left wrist with his opposite hand.

“I watched your fight,” he says. “I wanted to come by and see if you were doing ok.” He shrugs nervously.

Lawrence sighs, a heavy sound that resigns him to his fate. He shoulders out into the hall and Adam moves with him, waiting just over his shoulder when he turns to lock the door behind him.

He’s still standing there, folded in on himself and looking expectantly at Lawrence. It’s then he realizes that he has yet to say anything.

“Have you been waiting this whole time?” Lawrence blurts.

The halls are dim, light concentrated to the secondary fluorescents embedded into the ceiling only every few feet. The distant hum of an industrial vacuum reaches their ears, muted and far-off. Other than that, it’s quiet - almost eerily so. The usual buzz and clamor of hundreds of people filling the seats just beyond the walls is strikingly absent. Everyone went home long ago.

Except Adam, who stuck around to… what? Check up on Lawrence? Make sure he wasn’t choking on pills and drowning in liquor?

“Why?” Lawrence presses, fingers tingling as he balls them into fists at his sides.

Adam looks a little surprised at that. He shrugs, and then, like it’s the easiest thing he’s ever been sure of: “That’s what you do when you care about people.”

Lawrence’s stomach churns at the admission and he isn’t quite sure what to make of it. There’s a swirl of emotion in his chest and it’s impossible to put a name to the conflicting feelings. The whole thing is confusingly endearing, and Lawrence doesn’t know what to do with himself.

“Do you have a car?” he asks, mouth moving before his brain can fully catch up.

Adam nods.

“Let me walk you out.”

The stupid smile that Adam gives him manages to illuminate the hallway more than the lights.

Lawrence spins to start marching down the hall and he hears Adams footsteps as he scrambles to catch up. When he does, he easily falls in step at Lawrence’s side. His presence is impossible not to notice. He’s almost the exact same height as Lawrence, but his shoulder to waist ratio is something else entirely. It’s an exaggeration to say Adam’s shoulders take up half the hallway, but damn those biceps are ridiculous.

It’s a fairly short walk out to the small, close parking lot that they share with the staff, most of it indoors. There’s a faint early spring chill in the air and Lawrence stuffs his hands in his hoodie pockets.

“Can I ask you something?”

Adam actually jumps a little when he speaks. Lawrence somehow resists the urge to roll his eyes and makes himself finish the question.

“Why do you keep doing this? Trying to make conversation with me, hell, even being nice to me. We’re rivals.”

Adam stops, and the action is so abrupt that Lawrence tenses. He has to quell a spark of dark energy that threatens to leak through, ready to lash out at the first sign of danger.

“Just because people want to see us fight doesn’t mean we can’t be nice to each other,” Adam reasons. He sounds so convinced of the fact that Lawrence is almost ready to believe him.

“I attacked you backstage before you even knew who I was,” Lawrence reminds him, hands flailing in the space between them to emphasize his point. “You should hate me.”

He doesn’t even mention the fact that Adam seems to be scared of him on top of that.

Adam shrugs, head bobbing with the movement of his shoulders. “You didn’t know me either.”

He just walks away after that, scratching his head and mumbling to himself in confusion while he stretches on his toes, looking over the aisles of cars. Lawrence is frozen in place. Adam is so frustratingly, infuriatingly calm, and it’s driving him to the edge. Lawrence wants to scream, wants to tear his hair out, wants to grab Adam by his shoulders and shake some sense into him. Either that or just puree his brain and be done with it.

Because how does Adam not get this? How can he smile shyly at Lawrence every time they pass in the hall, or send him cards when he wins, or wait at Lawrence’s door long past when he should have left just to make sure he is emotionally stable? When all Lawrence wants is to take Adam’s face in his hands and slam him against a brick wall. Repeatedly.

Except, this is his chance. He could tackle Adam right now, while his back is turned. There would be nothing to hold him back - no ring, no rules. And instead he wanders forth through the moonlit dark, wondering what kind of car Adam drives and hoping there is nothing (or no one) waiting at home that Lawrence has kept him from.

“Oh, there it is!” Adam exclaims, stretching his chin to peer over the scantily filled aisle of cars to their right and into the rows beyond. He turns back to Lawrence and his eyes widen in remembrance. “Where did you park?”

It’s Lawrence’s turn to shrug and he makes a fleeting gesture in the same direction Adam is already facing.

“Great!” Adam says enthusiastically. He waits for Lawrence to catch up before bouncing onward with renewed vigor.

They cut through a pair of adjacent empty spaces and directly across a couple more painted rows to get to the farmost edge of the lot. There are only two cars parked against the line of dry grass that meets the pavement. One is Lawrence’s black Nissan, and the other-

“This is me,” Adam says, waving at the red Accord that sits next to Lawrence’s car with only one space between. “Actually, I’m glad you came out here with me. I was kind of worried I wouldn’t be able to find my car. Where’s yours?”

Lawrence gestures forward. “Right there.”

Adam looks between the two vehicles, then at Lawrence. “We parked right next to each other. That’s funny.”

Lawrence has to snort out a laugh at the stupidly obvious comment. Adam apparently takes it as some kind of agreement and smiles over at him. He crosses his arms over his chest a moment later and that’s when Lawrence first realizes he’s wearing nothing to ward against the cold other than a tight t-shirt. But he stays standing in full, open exposure to the weather, watching Lawrence carefully, almost expectantly.

It actually makes Lawrence shift on the balls of his feet. He’s unused to such close scrutiny, and it doesn’t help that he has no idea what Adam is anticipating, or how to either fulfill or contradict it.

“Well,” Lawrence says, swinging his arms. His voice is strained, clipped, and he knows he sounds awkward, but he feels awkward, too. “Good night.”

Adam looks surprised - disappointed? - and for a moment Lawrence fears he’s going to try and say something to prolong this encounter. But he nods and his hands lips into the back pocket of his jeans to retrieve his keys.

“Drive safe,” he tells Lawrence. The note of finality gives Lawrence a means to escape, and he takes it. Quickly. In a flash, he has his own car keys out of his bag and is opening his door to take shelter inside. He gets one foot through before Adam’s voice is interrupting him again.

“We should talk more.”

Lawrence stills, looks back over his shoulder. It’s Adam’s turn to sound awkward. The suggestion - request? - isn’t nearly as easy coming as his conversation from earlier. He’s looking down at where his hands are connected, taking turns bending individually stretching fingers. The soft clicking of his joints is too loud.

“Yeah,” Lawrence says automatically, uncertainly.

As soon as the word is out of his mouth, he is slamming his car door closed and peeling out of the parking lot, the only thought in his mind to put as much distance between himself and Adam as possible. As quickly as possible.

Even he’s not sure what was behind that ‘yeah’. Whether he was actually agreeing in some form or if it was an empty response because he didn’t know what else to say. Bits and pieces of the brief words exchanged between them drift into his consciousness the whole way back to his apartment. The entire thing was jarring, almost unreal, and it all makes something stir within Lawrence’s chest. Something like anticipation, maybe fear.

Both of their parting words lie heavy on his tongue. They felt far too much like a promise.

#kovntag #shiphaus #wrestling au #i have more of this #if anyone is interested #headcanons and shit #hit me up #works #ps i just edited the italics into this #cause i'm a dumbass #and tumblr formatted them out

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mapsontheweb · 2 years ago

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Meaning of the stems of the words for "rainbow" in the languages of Europe.

by u/nickanc

'Rainbow' is typically a compound word in most European languages. Generally, speaking, a part of the word comes from words meaning bow, belt, ring, circle or arc in their respective languages or ancestor languages. The other one varies and is the main concern of this work.

Some incomplete notes on the meanings and the etymologies I gathered while making the map:

'sky god' + 'arc/bow':

Arabic from Quzah, a pre-islamic deity of weather

Maltese from Maltese alla 'god', from Allah, the islamic deity,

Karelian from Ukko, Finnic sky god

Lithuanian from Vaiva, goddess of Baltic mythology

Armenian is uncertain, supposed to derive ultimately from PIE *dyew- 'shine'

from PS *dǫga "bow". they all are not compounds, except maybe for Russian

'rain/flow'+'bow/arc':

Germanic ones but faroese from PG *regnaburô 'rainbow' obvious compound, *burô comes from PIE *bhewgh-

Faroese æla means shower (as in weather), formerly "flow quickly", from PG *ēlaz "eel"

Finnish from Proto-Finnic *satadak "fall, rain"

Irish and Scot Gaelic are compound words in their very language, there are many other interesting Irish words.

'arc of the old lady' and 'circus bibit', 'arcus bibit'. In some ancient folklore tales, that appear in various IE families, various weather phenomena are especially linked with magical or religious figures that assume the form of old ladies. In Italian and Romanian folklore there are the 'giorni della vecchia'/'zilele babelor' that are the days 29th-31st of March, when the cold is expected to return. In Romania an old lady is Baba Dochia that brings forth the spring and various other Babele populate the Romanian folklore; in the Gallo-italic folklore of Italy there is a folklore fog spirit named Borda that is an old lady personifying the fog, Gaelic mythology has its weather old lady Cailleach, the Indian summer is called in German Altweibersommer lit. 'old women's summer'. The rainbow is no exception: Plautus in the Curculio hints at a folktale of an old lady that drinks "like" the rainbow does or maybe is the rainbow itself, hence also other etymologies for rainbow related to expressions like "circus bibit", "arcus bibit", "arcus imbibens" etc.that give etymologies in various languages. Venetian arcombé and Ladin ergabuan come from arcus imbibiens (source), whereas Romanian curcubeu likely from curvus bibit and Neapolitan arcovevere from arcus bibit. Note that expressions containing the rainbow and the old lady or the act of drinking exist in many languages in this map and their dialects, just they are not the common word for rainbow. For example, in Moldovan there is brîul babei that means 'rainbow' (source), Slovenia has the dialectal word pijâvka 'rainbow' from PS *piti 'to drink', while in Spain and Portugal dialectal expressions that are cognates of the Galician one are apparently common, in Czech there is an idiom pije jak duha that means 'drink like a rainbow', i.e. being a drunkard. Ultimately all what I found points to a 1952 article of Gerhard Rohlfs, Romanischer Volksglaube um die Vetula, which however I was not able to find. EDIT: The Hungarian word is linked to the image of drinking the rainbow too, see below.

'thunder'+'arc' or 'arc'+'thunder':

Estonian is apparently cognate with Livonian pit'kiz kor(?) 'rainbow', lit. 'thunder bow', according to this source, though this comment offers more insight on the origin of the word.

Italian arcobaleno where baleno means flash, thunder, apparently from balena, 'whale', due to a popular habit to make many phenomena zoomorphic or anthropomorphic (the map I posted for fog in northern Italy presents a similar case with she-wolves). Alternatively, there is an article supposedly connecting the words of the 4. with arcobaleno: they suggest that, at some stages of the languages and the sociocultural development, the old lady was an old lady of the sea, thus a whale and their witness would be Galician vella 'old lady' which - according to that article - is a word that could mean also whale. The article is aimed ultimately to strengthen the Paleolithic Continuity Theory, so probably there is little to no scientific consensus on it, though at least I hope their examples are not as disputed as their conclusions.

color: teal. from word meaning "rain":

Polish from(?) OCS тѫча 'rain' and cognate with Russian ту́ча 'rain cloud'

Northern Sami related with Northern Sami arvedálki 'rainy weather'

Basque: 'horn of the sky' or 'sky god's horn', from Basque Urtzi

'arc'+figure of Christian religious figure (Saint John, Saint Martin, Saint Mark, Noah, the Virgin). The choice of the figure seems related to the days of these saints (St. Martin is during the Indian summer, related to 4.), though I have not that much experience on the topic to ascertain that. Noah is clearly linked with rain.

color: green. literally 'arc'+'holy woods', from Proto-Celtic *nemētom, cognate to Latin nemus 'wood' from PIE *nem- 'give, take' source, apparently suggesting a sacred role for the rainbow in Celtic traditions.

Curiosity, not sure if or how it is related to 9. and the other words conveying a sacred meaning for rainbow: in southern Italy, the rainbow was superstitiously considered the cause of jaundice, as màlë du uàrchë is jaundice (source]

#maps #words #nickanc #rainbow #europe

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chemicalbrew · 2 years ago

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2021 game list

aka 'I finally got tired of having to scroll really far to edit the 2022 list because I wanted originally to fuse two years in one, like a fool'

I'm pretty sure the bulk of this was made in... spring\summer 2021, but there were a bunch of games I didn't write anything for until this year, as will be evident later. This is long as hell, as you would expect.

'Veronica, why didn't you have a 2021 list ready in time???'

A question that nobody asked, but one that really needs answering, because in 2021, I gamed too much, in addition to other things. I'll make additions to the behemoth of a document that never saw the light of day in time in italics.

A lot of things have happened this year. I learned how to swim, for one! I graduated high school, too, and got into my dream university (though, honestly, it's just about as messy as any other uni in the end). I got a reasonably powerful and fully functional PC all to myself (it doesn’t even compare to the old husk I had to use in my school days!) (this year, I finally got a good phone as well, which influenced the current year's list a fuckton). And I could finally fulfill the one dream I held on to for the past two and a half years and get a Switch for myself (insert bittersweet laughing here)!! As a result, when it came to gaming, the possibilities became nigh endless. Instead of praying that a game I kinda like even manages to launch, I could dive headfirst into anything that catches my eye with confidence and no hesitation! I had so many options, in fact, that I ended up making a Backloggd account to assist myself. (yup, still helpful, though I'm much more loose about keeping track of shit now) Almost anything I played that isn’t on this list can be found there, if you’re curious! This, however, turned out to be a double-edged sword. More options means more garbage to wade through, and yet the best games tend to draw you in quicker than you think. (so true bestie)

After this, a list of games that did nothing but disappoint me that year followed. I don't want to dwell on it too much now, but I'll still mention their names:

Night in the Woods (PC, 2017) - I was way too old to be their target audience and came out thoroughly disappointed, especially in the character cast and soundtrack.

Children of Morta (PC, 2019) - the progression is too slow, the cast isn't appealing enough, there's a lot of redundancy to the point where I dropped the game. However, it was fairly pretty and I liked the narrator enough to listen to his extra works.

Spiritfarer (PC, 2020) - best described not as ‘a cozy management game about dying’, but’ as ‘much ado about nothing’. These two reviews give voice to some of my frustrations better than I can. PS. Love lighthearted ableism!

Aria's Story (PC, 2018-2019) - A very little game that has nothing of value to tell you (that hasn't been done to death already) and has cheap jumpscares every five minutes.

Hyper Light Drifter (PC, 2016) - I don’t get this one. The idea of telling a story without words seemed appealing at first, until I realized that I actually need words in my stories!

Moonlighter (PC, 2018) (confusing gameplay, boring music and plot)

OMORI (PC, 2020) (I think I have an allergy to this game)

Yume Nikki (PC, 2004) (sorry, but nah, I don’t get it)

Long Live the Queen (PC, 2012) (more like Long Live the Guide)

Owlboy (PC, 2016) (why would you do my boy Otis like that? Also, my apologies to Rads)

UnderMine (PC, 2019) (should have been called UnderGrind)

Baba is You (PC, 2019) (actually not bad, but brain is fry)

Hand of Fate (PC, 2015) (the font hurt me, there’s nothing really good here other than narration)

Minute of Islands (PC, 2021) (should have been a picture book, otherwise it’s a neat interpretation of ‘no man is an island’)

...'okay, but surely not everything you played was garbage?'

Right you are, hypothetical reader! And this is how I would like to introduce what once was the 'honorable mention' section of my record. These notes have actual substance to them and are formatted similarly to my 2020 list! There is a game that is of particular importance (because I ended up playing its sequels in 2022) at the end of this section.

Hades (PC, 2020) [♪ House of Hades]

Yes, I get to put the game of the previous year here again, because it is my list. All things considered, I love Hades too much not to use the opportunity to mention it again! I played it till March to wrap up some of the tasks that are more… out there (learning to play without god mode, chasing extra dialogue, and climbing up in ranks), and it was fun pretty much the whole time. Streaming it was a grand time while it lasted, as well (not very long at all). All the mediocre roguelikes I touched this year fail to measure up to Hades in any capacity. 💖 Still true - my interest in roguelikes\-lites has naturally dropped since then, but Hades' excellency was a major factor in this.

Sayonara Wild Hearts (PC, 2019) [♪ Doki Doki Rush]

Kiss Your Ex And Lie About Your Genre On Steam: the game. The only thing preventing this from being a game that is barely worth mentioning is its really good soundtrack. (I played it about a quarter of the way through before realizing that a far better option than standing still and letting the music play out would be to just watch the whole thing.)

I also like the general style of it and find it pretty unique (even though Katana ZERO did something similar in a much more cohesive and enjoyable fashion), but playing it was an exercise of frustration that prevented me from appreciating the awesome landscapes. Parallel Universes is a pretty incredible level concept, yeah, but I did NOT handle it well.

I didn’t jive with any of the symbolism either (I guess it’s gay though. Good for them), however, I am still glad something as creative as this exists, even if it is clearly not cut out for me. Can’t believe I let this game gather dust for months, when I could have just given up. lol

A Hero and a Garden (PC, 2019) [♪ Shop Bell]

A clever little mix of visual novel and clicker game that manages to have an interesting story, despite starting out with the oldest of cliches (hell yeah, there's a princess!). Music is really sweet too, and even in a runtime as short as ~2 hours, you end up feeling for the protagonist. If you don't have much free time, spend it on this for a complete experience.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! (PC, 2021) [♪ Dreams of Love and Literature]

PM died for this.

Ohhh… A horror VN classic… Yeah, sure. It’s actually not that great, but some of the music is downright incredible (i.e. the linked song and about half of the songs added in the new edition), and it was a game that undeniably helped and inspired many people. I can’t say I regret spending time with it, but it didn’t impress me, either. The scares got ever so slightly more predictable over time, and it became clear that all they were aiming for is shock value. This game reminds me of Night in the Woods in the way that it had been severely overhyped by contemporary teenagers.

At least Yuri was pretty, I guess?.. But really, all the girls did was represent some overdone anime -dere cliche. It was very likely done on purpose, which is something to be respected for sure, but the fandom ran with it anyway, cause fandoms be fandoming. Shame! (Monika is the obvious exception, but the way they built her up was through the simplest of text dumps, oh, and they also gave her a Twitter account or something. Come on, get creative!)

Rhythm Doctor (PC, 2021) [♪ Rollerdisco Rumble]

Healing hearts and minds with the power of rhythm, hell yeah! Absolutely incredible concept! Combine that with amazing pixel art and animation that makes the small world come alive, the incredibly flashy aesthetic that draws attention from the outside and utterly fucks with your performance on the inside, and an overall message that both promotes peace and showcases humane struggles of a medical profession… the way it ends up going places you wouldn’t quite expect is just so good. And through all that, the game retains its charm and positive vibe! I want a bigger scope, though – it was over far too quickly. Oh, and a little more accessibility options wouldn’t hurt.

The flashiness of this game reminds me of Rhythm Heaven trying to mess with the player, but pushed to an extreme, which is delightful. I had to clear most of the later levels with my eyes closed, and rewatching them later was quite an unusual and fun experience!

Coffee Talk (PC, 2020) [♪ Come Closer]

Pretty (the pixel art reminded me a lot of the PC-98, which is never a bad thing. Oh, dithering, my beloved!) and has an atmosphere, but not nearly as impactful as a game from later on this list with the exact same premise.

Can be good for a getaway\escape kinda game, and the decision to focus the soundtrack on the lo-fi genre is wonderful, but the story has no staying power, and not even the ‘make your own latte art’ gimmick ended up working out, because the process would always feel… either too realistic or too finicky, I wouldn't be able to tell. I’m no barista! Oh, and I guess there was some message about overworking employees?.. I literally forgot.

Ys: Memories of Celceta (PC, 2012-2018) [♪ Wise Man]

So, this was my… *checks notes* fifth Ys? I started with Oath (okay… I guess…), then I played I&II (and wrote about that in 2020) and dabbled in Origin (it was… exhausting to play, but well-written), and I played VIII this year before this (more on that later). So I thought I had enough experience (and understanding of the fandom’s general opinion on Celceta) to know what to expect when I began my journey in this game. Boy, was I wrong! But still, it's obvious that the earliest iteration of the party system would be worse than VIII's, and playing the games in the order that I did may have screwed my impression.

First, the good things. I actually grew unreasonably attached to the artstyle of this game. I loved the fresh take on a younger Adol just starting to give in to his lust for adventure, and the other party members had quite good designs too (especially Duran. I dunno, I can’t help but love that husk of a dude). Some of the locations were endlessly charming (I loved running laps around Casnan with its upbeat music and fun NPCs, and was awed by how pretty Danan ended up looking for a Falcom game). The world was decently fun to explore overall, but I think most of that fun came from seeing what is an early draft of what would later become Lacrimosa of Dana.

The music is absolutely lovely! Everyone loves Ys for constantly offering hardcore rock guitar bangers or whatever, and while Celceta isn’t without a couple of these, I ended up appreciating far more how much calmer it sounds as a whole. There are plenty of tracks that offer you much needed downtime, and the sound of the game feels more mellow than your usual Ys soundtrack.

The gameplay\battle system was overall serviceable, with a few nags in its way - movement felt more restricted than before, and breaking enemies’ guard felt more tedious than necessary. But hey, there’s no raids in this game! hahahahaha-

That ending single-handedly ruined a decent game and is as bad as everyone said it was. I broke down in hysterics when it actually happened. Also, I am still mad about getting only 99.3% map completion! That part of the game is crazy!!

Ib (PC, 2012) [♪ Uneasiness]

My memories of this are quite scattered, but I really enjoyed it, so have this heap of thoughts!

Aria’s Story, but good enough to leave an impression on you, since Gary is an actual character. He serves as a great mentor figure – even without coming across as stiff or all-knowing, he has a lot to give and teach Ib, which makes for a good dynamic that contrasts his disheveled looks well. It’s clear he cares about the girl, but is reluctant to show it clearly enough for her to understand fully, but she clings on to him as her last hope anyway. It’s pretty damn beautiful, actually. also the handkerchief in the true ending omg

The other girl with the yellow rose… Mary… good contrasting character, but her betrayal could be seen from a mile away, which, I guess, is the point, but still not satisfying.

Music is somewhat good too, and the game nailed the aesthetic of an art gallery (including successfully subverting expectations).

The jumpscares rely more on the physical suddenness of it all rather than psychological pressure, and it works out really well – even if you’re cringing, your body is affected. Plus, they fit well thematically, given the protagonists’ age. Speaking of which, the ??? thing (if Ib doesn’t know a word, you won’t know it either, basically) is clever, but gets old a little too quickly.

The idea of linking their life energy to fragile but sharp roses is somewhat creative and executed very well, especially regarding Gary’s blue rose.

The chase sequences were kinda annoying, but not nearly as awful as Aria, thank god.

Basically, this was the game that, alongside OFF, convinced me I might be into RPG Maker games, but, unfortunately, I've yet to find anything else that matches Ib and OFF's energy in this niche\'subgenre'. (And of course, this is talking about the version available as freeware, and not this year's rerelease, which I am curious about, but have no plans of playing.)

Butterfly Soup (PC, 2017) [♪ Thought Projection]

The most wholesome VN I have ever seen. The art is very pretty and expressive without being overwhelming (and of course, the focus on purple\pink is extremely satisfying to me personally). Music is cute and never gets annoying; it may be royalty-free, but it was chosen with clear care.

This game, in my opinion, is genuinely funny without coming across as insincere, and I don’t feel inclined to agree with those who tend to say its ‘uwu humor’ did not age well, because I personally laughed at most of it (the Zero Escape reference got me, man)! And even if I hadn’t, it would still, ironically, fit well with the overall message (which is that growing up and learning new things about yourself is good, and it’s fine not to know what you’re doing for a while, as long as you stay true to yourself and your friends)!

Some of the impact was lost on me due to the focus on America as a setting/baseball, but it's fine, since this focus was chosen with intent. Ultimately, the game carries the same message and does similar things to Night in the Woods, except successfully, without having to rely on random gameplay changes or ‘hip’ artstyle.

Evan’s Remains (PC, 2020) [♪ Whales]

The best thing about this game is its pixel art – just detailed enough for you to appreciate it, but not excessively so. The backgrounds in particular are nothing short of stunning.

Unfortunately, nothing else in Evan’s Remains manages to match that standard. The music, for the most part, is just there, the puzzles, while creative, can be somewhat irritating and repetitive, and the story, while starting out decently, has an ending that might be worse than Celceta’s and ends up making about as much sense. I would recommend you to watch footage of this game, but only if you like pixel art. It won’t take long, I promise.

Platform fighters I tried to give the light of day to

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - fun for just messing around in classic modes like the SSE and Multi-Man Brawl. Really, you can't ask much more of it.

Rivals of Aether - the most polished one that isn't Smash by far, really pretty and fun in general, but a little small in scope. I owe its soundtrack my life (or more accurately, one track. It's legit amazing to study to...)

Brawlhalla - as usual, don't trust a free game to be good. That's all.

In general, the copycats simply fail to capture the charm and spirit of Smash Bros, and Brawl is as much of a casual's game as one would expect. :)

All the idle\incremental games that ate up my time this year (yes, I like these too much, I know)

Namely, these, ordered from best to worst:

Kittens Game (actually amazing for killing boredom. the flavor text is extremely cute and the resource management is quite advanced)

Cookie Clicker (the classic. I lost my garden due to mods, and so shall never speak of this wretched curse again)

Tap Wizard (ironically, the only one on the list I'm still playing - now side by side with the sequel. Though the praise I gave to Kittens is still deserved.)

Trimps

Grimoire

Liquids

Exponential Idle

Shoutout to r/incremental_games for enabling me to dive deeper into this toxic, awful, beautiful genre of timewasters :)

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (DS, 2007) [♪ Trial]

AKA ‘the one where Phoenix done fucked up’. First AA I played the Android version of, and it held up pretty well (certainly better than emulating DS via RetroArch)! The remastered graphics annoyed me less than expected, and the gorgeous OST (best in the series so far, unless you count Investigations, and overall a glow-up and joy to my ears [< Still true. I might be ready to shill AA6 music any day, but nothing can top the excellency of AJ music even now.]) has remained intact.

I don't think this game ever reaches the highs that AA3 did, but it is certainly not for a lack of trying. I can understand the sentiment behind 'being done with Phoenix', for sure, and him still being here proves to be a sign for the beginning turmoil of the series and the struggles that Takumi is only now beginning to see the end of with GAA.

I didn’t find myself exactly attached to any of the main characters (okay, maybe Klavier awakened something or other in me, who can say [so valid, but girl... your personal prosecution turmoil is far from over]), but that has been the case for basically the entire main series as well, so that’s not surprising to me personally.

4-1 was more fun than I expected it to be based on popular opinion, and I got a good chuckle out of the ‘’’Russian’’’ waitress and the mental image of hobo!Phoenix eating borsch, but it’s still no 3-1. 4-2 and 4-3 especially were less than impressive, and overall the game got steadily worse over time.

I still appreciated it for trying to pave a new road for the series, for, again, having a fantastic soundtrack, and for making Phoenix into a lovable utter failure (should have stayed that way, his days were indeed over), but… AJ is not the best Ace Attorney by a long shot. 4-4 was pretty damn good though, and I loved how the jurist system was integrated in both story and gameplay, even if the threat it tried to present fell way short. Also, Vera Misham is the cutest girl we’ve ever had to defend.

PS. Klapollo have bigger gay energy than Wrightworth do, fight me. 2022 me here to report that I no longer want to fight anyone, because in the end it turned out I'm the loser who got somewhat into Blackmadhi. And also I now think the two ships in question are about equally good.

Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS, 2012) [♪ Chaos]

I actually had barely played the game throughout either year, but it still deserves this spot.

A game that aged better than expected. Really fun to play on an actual big screen (and with savestates – the Mila's Turnwheel of yore). Music is still godlike after all these years. Still haven't gotten far enough to marry Chrom, but I was almost there, I swear!! (If you think I care a lot about much else after so many years, you're a fool.)

I don’t have much more to say because a passion for this game has burned within me for years now, and playing it now just matches every expectation of it I used to have. It’s very dear to me, and it’s very good, and that’s good enough.

The actual 2021 list

Rhythm Tengoku (GBA, 2006) [♪ Iai Slash] + Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii, 2011) [♪ See-Saw]

Rhythm Heaven is a very special, fun and wonderful little series, and I'm happy to say that spending more time with it was the first thing I thought of when I got my new PC.

I played through both Tengoku and Fever this year, but I believe the former is more remarkable because... It's my first time! And the game is honestly a little brutal compared to Fever (thank god for savestates), but it looks somewhat impressive for the GBA, and the music is fabulous, and it's just so exciting to properly see the origins of the best rhythm game series ever. If the ranking system was just a tad less strict, I would have loved to get to know it fully.

However, keep in mind this is the game that has Quiz and an endless game as original as Mr. Upbeat. You can’t have your cake and eat it?..

Anyway, Fever I actually managed to complete without much issues (Working Dough 2 aside. My god, that game can go fuck itself.), which was another longtime dream of mine! Yay!! In my opinion, Fever hits the perfect sweetspot between being so strict you can’t pass a remix and being so forgiving that you don’t feel accomplished unless you get a Perfect (looking at you, Megamix). The games are well-varied as well, although overall they rely too much on holding A+B together… I suppose that is better than motion controls, though!

More about the games themselves: most of them are solid. If you haven’t gleaned this from the first paragraph already, I think See-Saw is actually a classic. My favorite remix has always been the fourth one (kinda obvious if you bother scrolling through the wall of shitposts on my ‘about’ page), and I have a soft spot for all games on that set, too. Love Rap, while not outstanding, actually gave me a lot less trouble than anticipated (following cues out loud helps), and you just can’t have Karate Man beat!

Even some of the more obscure games, like the two-player Pirate Crew (which I played on my own, while emulating two controllers. It’s fun that way, but quite tough!), are well-made and fun! I’m so glad that even… roughly four years later for me, the game managed to deliver.

Trials of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 3 (PC, 2020 / SNES, 1995) [♪ Meridian Child]

Ah yes, the second-to-last good Mana game with a soundtrack that at times outshines Chrono Trigger! (only at times, though.)

Disclaimer: I have only played the remake, and I only did it once (Riesz\Kevin\Angela was my party). However, I watched two playthroughs that covered the other routes, and one of them was of the SNES version of Trials. Yeah, that took a lot of time!..

(Surprisingly enough, that was all past me had left me with. This is where the list in general shows how it ended up unfinished in time! Time to wrestle with my own memories!)

Here's the thing: for the mid-90s, this game is impressive as all hell. And as someone who has considered herself a casual fan of the series for a few years now (Secret being one of the few games I had a good time with on the SNES Classic, and Legend leaving me with a warmth of fondness in my heart), I was unusually, but unsurprisingly, excited to see this allegedly wonderful work come to us in its full splendor. The favorable reviews of the remake when compared against the sheer mediocrity that was their first attempt with Secret didn't help when it came to quelling my hype either.

And then I booted the game and was greeted eagerly with the wonder of a song that is Meridian Child. You bet I looked forward to it!

In the end, though... even the best Mana games just aren't enough to compete with most RPGs of the modern day, or even some contemporary ones. That's not to say I didn't have fun, but you can't deny how basic this game's story, structure and gameplay feel in the 2020s.

I wasn't disappointed with my choice of characters (they made a very cohesive and satisfying team together, based on almost all-out offense), but I did feel like there wasn't much of anything done to make them feel like a well-thought out party narratively. I mean, the team in Secret didn't have that much reason to get together either, but considering how much the game and its fans tout how 'interconnected' the stories are... I think I have a right to feel let down. The gameplay system itself is pretty bare-bones, too - it doesn't feel all that different from the predecessor (I mean, yes, you no longer have to wait to strike at full power, but does that count as an actual change?), and playing it in 3D made me realize how much the charm of the excellent 2D sprites had carried the series all along.

The character designs are... very 90s, for all the good and bad that entails. Angela in particular deserves the small degrees of infamy she got upon the game's release. However, in a complete vacuum, they're quite pleasant (Riesz especially - doubly so in the Star Lancer class she ended up with on my playthrough.), and the way they change together with the classes (the whole idea of a class change in a game that's not strictly about classes like Fire Emblem is great!) is spectacular.

The music is absolutely wonderful, and unlike Secret, the remade versions don't ruin the SFC sound's charm either. Trials was one of the few remakes where I actively made use of the soundtrack version switch! It's still hard to pick a single favorite, even when my excitement about this game has long since quietened. Walls and Steels, Powell, the cheekily-named Secret of Mana (ignore the video title, lol - SE seems to have gotten greedy with copyright strikes in the years since I started this list) and Damn Damn Drum are just a few pieces I have enjoyed for years - both the original and the remade versions.

The logical conclusion here is that in this day and age, this game is nothing more than eye candy, accompanied with Kikuta's finest work. But hey, sometimes that's just what you need, and I enjoyed what it had to offer!

Wandersong (PC, 2018) [♪ Sailing with the Coffee Pirates]

The one thing Wandersong became particularly well-known for is its… energy, in my opinion. On their own, the colorful visuals, charming writing and welcoming music wouldn't amount to nearly as much as they do when they all come together. Fitting for a game whose message is all about the whole world coming together to accomplish what no one could on their own, huh?

This, believe it or not, is the solution to basically every problem - big or small - that plagues the world of Wandersong. Good thing singing is basically all our adorable protagonist* can do! You'll never guess what they end up doing for the world they live in, either!! (save it. they save it.) ...but what matters is that they don't do it alone. (and that they're not the eternally cheerful bundle of energy they always seem to be.)

*I lovingly named them Bong as soon as I saw the opportunity to do so, but I know their actual name is supposed to be Kiwi. I doubt I'll address the character themselves much while writing, but if I do, I'll probably end up calling them the Bard anyway, for simplicity. 'Bong' was funny while it lasted, though!

Call it cheesy, call it overdone - it doesn't change the excellent execution of the ideas brought to the table. Playing this game is like looking back at your younger self who believed in fairytales, and telling them 'no, it's not always like those stories, even if sometimes it seems that it will be. But what you can do is be yourself, and like-minded people will flock to you. And others will have something to learn from your example!'.

Also, you can dab and play Megalovania (if you know how to) in this game. 10/10 meme potential. ...I'm honestly struggling to put my impressions in words - it really is just a warm cup of coffee brewed the right way. It can barely be described any better than a warm way of sunshine. My rambling doesn't do justice to how adorable it was.

Va-11 Hall-A + KIDS! (PC, 2016 + 2018) [♪ Base of the Titans + Her Noise]

Screw it, I don't care what this inclusion says about me. I recognize this has similar pitfalls to the previously shat on Night in the Woods (Jill is barely any better of a protagonist than Mae, only more grounded; the amount of stupid and/or immature jokes is similar, if not worse; the Julianne minigame is super dumb), but listen! I just heard of a visual novel that was inspired by PC-98 graphics and immediately drooled and had to find out more.

The pixel art is indeed immaculate, if not too varied. The music is really good. Might not be something to listen to much outside of the game, but while you play, it ENHANCES the experience ♥ [this is so funny to read to me, considering I Still consider this to be a phenomenal score and have come to enjoy it a ton in 2022, even finding it genuinely inspiring at times. Don't listen to past me, this game is full of bangers.] Not to mention how diverse it can be sometimes — i.e. the track above vs. Snowfall vs. Showtime! [my personal current favorite] That, combined with how you're in charge of what you're hearing most of the time, makes for a very chill experience that manages to reflect what you're feeling impressively well.

The idea of the story changing depending on the drinks you mix is interesting in theory, but the way it plays out in practice is just a lot of basic win/fail branching that doesn't ever seem to change more than a few lines most of the time. The script is actually quite robust when you look deep into it, but it's hard to witness while you actually play. This game could benefit from a flowchart to encourage players to explore. (However, Alma acknowledging you're trying to cheer her up with her favorite drink despite her ordering something entirely different – that's good! I want more of that!)

Other things ruining the drink system are:

the fact that the recipes are easily accessible, so unless Jill gets distracted and/or the order is obscure, it's impossible to screw it up or experiment;

it's all revealed at once, which makes gameplay more repetitive than it had to be;

you need a LOT of money, especially if you're buying as much furniture as I did, which further discourages you from experimenting on your first playthrough

A lot of the jokes are (im)mature, hit or miss, and reliant on recent internet culture. There's too many dogs and they're not even funny, either. This is not going to age well, but the game still made me chuckle reliably, dang it!

The world gets a surprising amount of development thanks to Jill's phone apps and exposure to all manner of clients. It's really a shame you don't get to see any of it aside from her bar and room! And despite what I said earlier, it's hard not to get invested in Jill's struggles to live and make peace with herself.

This is far from a masterpiece, but to me it's clear that it's not what it wanted to be – you can feel the developers striving for more, which is a good thing. It makes for a great time with a chilled beverage of your choice and it looks great, I couldn't ask for more!

KIDS! is a fabulous spinoff that is way too good for an April Fool's joke! The art is inspired and cute, the music is just as good as the original and even better at times, and the decrease in mature jokes is honestly refreshing.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PC, 2018) [♪ Royal Capital Aigius]

I'm soooo conflicted on this one.

The character/flashbacks artwork is really amazing and I loved it all immediately... but I really can't say the same about the game's actual graphics. They're serviceable, but I wish there were more chances to show off the gorgeous artwork!

Dana might be the best character in the whole series and I fucking love her, but the way she exists in the same game as Sahad is a travesty. Dogi needed to switch places with him and be playable.

Exploring the island is pretty fun for the most part. The way everything's marked on the map makes it rot a little, for sure, but I won't refuse a nice distracting checklist! After all, I play Trails! Unfortunately, the locations don't vary, like, at all (aside from Eternia, which was great), so if you binge this game, you're guaranteed to get sick of greenery and dinosaurs :(

Some of the music is as good as you would expect from an early 10s Falcom game (everything to do with Dana/Eternia, Alone on the Deserted Island, Gens d'Armes, etc). Key word is 'some'. Despite what I just said, I think Iclucian Dance is uh... Flawed. And all music for raids/hunts can die in a fire. In addition, aside from these clearly bad tracks, I have bias against the kind of music Ys uses in general, so in total my OST impression is one big fat 'meh!'.

I like the general idea of abandoned island/castaways, getting them back together and having to figure out what's going on before stumbling onto Dana... Why did this get diluted with thematic clashes ghost pirate ships and silly assassins?

Getting the castaways might be fun, but their actual personalities are unimpressive. I don't want to blow this flaw out of proportion - this is Ys, after all, and it's about as good as I would expect for Ys, but still. The feeling of the whole village bonding is greater than the impressions from its individual residents. Not to mention, it devolved into yet another save the world plot near the end, when I would've preferred something that focused on Dana more than it already did.

Moving on to gameplay... wow, an Ys game that has a party instead of a single playable character works? Kinda. The bare minimum is done to distinguish between characters, and the Flash system trivializes most differences anyway. In the end, only Adol and Dana are actually fun to use. Unless you count spamming the same skill over and over.

Sanctuary Crypt was a very fun optional dungeon with the best boss to boot. Block puzzles soured my impression, though. Meanwhile, most of the other levels are nothing to write home about, if not outright terrible.

And since I have nowhere else to put this: raids/hunts as a whole are unnecessary, grind the slow pace of the game to a halt and are not fun. Also, giving Adol binary and meaningless dialogue options won't make him a nicer character, the outside narrator explaining his thoughts in the older games was better.

Cosmic Star Heroine (PC, 2017) [♪ A Conspiracy]

What do we have here? A very unique battle system that is greatly enjoyable, but really, only in short bursts (a huge part of why I almost burnt out on the game was playing it on Hard / Heroine – made it drag). What makes it stand out is how it elegantly limits your abilities - you can only use each of your equipped moves once, before you have to recharge them by defending. It's a refreshing take, to be sure, but when you play the game for hours on end, it turns into something that feels more like padding than actual mechanic.

There's also a unique soundtrack, which should not really be a surprise, given the composer, but still, you just don't hear stuff like A Firebrand, An Agitator in your everyday RPG! It can feel a little off and cringe-inducing sometimes, but it's honestly just very awesome overall.

The pixel art in this game can be hit or miss, but luckily, it never missed in its most important moments, and character portraits did not fail to please.

That's about where CSH's strengths come to an end, however. When it comes to personalities, everyone is pretty dry and feels like cardboard, but it felt fair to me, since I knew what I was jumping into. And the gorgeous presentation, battle system and decent jokes all outweighed the forgettable plot!!! It was a good time ♥

Pyre (PC, 2017) [♪ Surviving Exile]

Near flawless given what it sets out to do, discounting the slower pacing near the second half. For a pitch as uniquely strange as 'visual novel where you have to play a game of sports-lite about a dozen times', Pyre manages to be incredibly compelling and welcoming to nigh everyone that approaches it, thanks to having what can be graciously called an open-ended story that is, in a way, completely independent from the 'sports'-like parts of the game (you can lose every match and still reach the end), and yet, in a lot of other ways, bound together (hehe) with it so intricately that it might as well count as a gameplay\story integration masterclass. The fates of characters you love riding on your shoulders and the performance you're willing to deliver is a simple, but elegant way to set up the narrative.

And the gameplay itself is... well... it's everything you could want it to be within reason, I guess. On the surface, it's not particularly complicated - you control three characters one at a time to score goals while preventing the AI from doing the same - but the amount of choices given (and supported by the narrative) when it comes to composing your team and letting it grow is surprisingly high. In addition, one of the defining features of Supergiant's games is the freedom they give you when it comes to difficulty, and Pyre is no stranger to this. There's the previously mentioned freely available option to lose, but if that's not enough, Pyre has an always accessible difficulty toggle and the (by this point expected) extra difficulty modifiers.

Of course, one of the biggest reasons Pyre saw success in the first place was its ingenious presentation - it's pretty without being overwhelming with details or feeling pretentious, the character designs stand out on their own while also conveying a much needed feeling of unity... and the soundtrack is one of the best I've heard in a game, period, managing to tie plenty of rather diverse styles, from the gentle vocals used in something like Mourning Song to the appropriately abrupt metal track that is Thrash Pack, together neatly, without clashing or betraying the game's intentions.

And that's without going into how dynamic everything sounds - there's the obvious changes, like the theme song of the Liberation Rites and the (wonderful) ending song changing lyrics depending on who you faced and\or what the outcome was, and the more subtle ones, like Surviving Exile (and most other tracks) having different layers to them that show themselves appropriately, with that track in particular doing a splendid job of both setting the game's overall mood and, well, setting, as well as providing a thematic foundation for three of the game's more important characters.

That's not to say they're given more time than the rest or anything like that - all characters, at least the ones that band together for your cause, are well-written given the short runtime (I always looked forward to talking with the kind and resolute Hedwyn in particular :) ), and even those that face off against you carry just enough intrigue to be interesting and have their own place in this strange little world. Therefore, Pyre excels at selling you the found family narrative, if you're willing to stick to it, not in the least because your role as the Reader in particular is handled so well.

You're basically half of the reason these beings of different walks and ways of life could have banded together instead of resigning themselves to their fate in the first place, they owe a lot to you in that sense, and yet, they make it a point to make sure you stand as an equal among them. They're willing to stand up for you just as much as you are for them, though some might need a little convincing first. It all makes for lovely interactions that enhance the cast and the world around them, while still making your place in it feel unique. Never have I felt so good about being literate, which is a plot point that ends up enhancing the worldbuilding in rather impressive ways - helping you feel closer ties with everything that's happening, since obviously you can read, and making the world around you take shape and feel more real thanks to the Book of Rites. (And of course, the small detail of being able to choose the Reader's pronouns and that change being reflected everywhere, including the music, is just about the cherry on top - I like it because you can use it both to increase immersion and to distance yourself from the narrative as much as you want.)

So yeah! A refreshing experience that never quite falters from start to finish, with a powerful and positive message to deliver... it would have been the game of the year... were I not a Trails fan...

Katana ZERO (PC, 2019) [♪ Katana ZERO]

Yes, I did pick that track to do the 'Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist.' thing. But it's also genuinely really good! Although my big faves are Sneaky Driver, Full Confession and Overdose. The soundtrack in general, while hit or miss sometimes, overall has an incredible sound that would resonate very well with younger me, methinks. The heavy reliance on bass and repetition is exactly what I'm here for, and it's a flawless fit for a game that has you spend a lot of time perfecting the execution of each of its challenges – it draws you into the setting and the mood without having an overwhelming presence. I also love the little detail of Zero actually turning it on every level – I admit, it got me pretty pumped across the whole game.

The aesthetic/presentation is top notch, I enjoyed every second of it. Zero's movement looks and feels very fluid, the overall color scheme is just my absolute favorite, and the way it all reminded me somewhat of the glory days of vaporwave was great too. Not to mention that in general, 2D art in games is my jam... I was SOLD!

The gameplay is far from my comfort zone, but I ended up enjoying it more than expected (it almost gave me the worst case of hand cramps I've ever had, that's how addictive it is, lmao). It's a huge shame that I can't think of any other similar games off the top of my head that I would truly get interested in, without having to wrestle with heavy-themed plots or anything similar (because let's face it, this was one of the few games where I didn't bother with engaging with the story. I was here for the spectacle, and boy, on that level it delivered.).

I loved the general cycle of 'start the level, die immediately, start actually plotting a strategy, die as soon as that strat fails you, develop a fully functional plan, spend some more time executing it... wait, I did it! And didn't realize I was holding my breath the whole time! PHEW, time to watch the tape!'. The last level in particular had me feeling like I was pulling off pure miracles just with my guts and reaction, and it's a fantastic feeling! ...and then I watched the speedruns of the game, which show perfectly how tight the execution in this game has to be, and lost my mind, it's crazy.

The dialogue system in KZ, while undercooked, is intriguing nonetheless, and some of the optional dialogue can be pretty funny. (Pinkachu, anyone?) In addition, I found it ridiculously hilarious to see СУКАБЛЯТЬ multiple times across this otherwise clearly-not-supposed-to-be-russian-at-all game.

And, despite just saying that I did not care for the overarching story, I have to admit, I was drawn in by the sheer mysterious, yet human-like, presence of Zero as the protagonist. This is a game that's not afraid to be itself, and, for better or worse, it had all the right elements to undeniably suck me in. Playing it even a year later is a feeling so specific and good that I'm stuck yearning for more of it. Maybe one day it'll come in the form of DLC?

OneShot (PC, 2016) [♪ On Little Cat Feet]

This game genuinely was a touching little experience (and you know me, I love me some toying with the fourth wall), complete with adorable pixel art and one of the sweetest protagonists known to RPGs. I know usually people tend to rave about this game (and rightfully so, most of the hubbub is deserved), but personally I'm like 'yeah! I played it! It was fantastic!', and I don't really want to preach to the choir beyond that. I do want to point out that this will probably remain one of my favorite 'meta' gaming experiences, though - this game does not try too hard to appeal to the player (and therefore, it never feels like the narrative is falling flat on its face), and the simple story hook of a lost child like Niko trying to find their way with your help is lovely and effective at keeping you invested. It's just... nice, okay? Sometimes it's enough for a game to be nice.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure (PC, 2011, tr. 2021) [♪ Heavenly Chariot]

There are a couple of points to make about this game:

1. The music in Azure is beyond incredible, and showing off but a single track would be an unforgivable crime. At the same time, it's very easy to just point to the entire damn OST as an example of RPG music excellency. I guess they were not kidding when they said Falcom peaked music-wise right around the time this game came out!! When I talked about Zero, I mentioned that, despite how much I liked that soundtrack, I felt like it lacked consistency to a certain degree, which had hurt it, in my opinion. Azure, looking back, managed to strike the balance between having distinct memorable tracks and staying cohesive as a game soundtrack, which is what, deep down, I was looking for in Zero the year before. I remember laughing to myself about how different my opinions on Trails music tend to be from what seems to be the norm established in the fandom, but playing through Azure was the first time I found myself agreeing with 'the masses'. It's impossible not to adore this soundtrack.

2. The main reason this will never be the greatest of Trails to me is that I believe Azure marks the point in the series where the time put into the game (as a completionist who fishes for everything each Kiseki has to offer) starts to become disproportionate to what you actually get out of it.

To explain: while the main storyline is as well-written and exciting (though in a different way from Sky or even Zero - this game is famous for pulling out all the stops, and starting with a bang while finishing with a series of even bigger bangs) as always, this very likely came at the cost of the usually outstanding dialogue of the NPCs. Each time you go on your routine laps around the region, in any way you can, 90% of the time you will only see characters say one-liners about the current situation. That you just witnessed during the main quest from the perfect viewpoint. With your own eyes. It gets, uh... annoying?

And in addition to that, Azure is crazy about locking DP behind random things. Some of them are easy to figure out, naturally, but you will not be reaching first (or even second) rank without guides. And the biggest reason for this is the combination of ridiculously well-hidden quests and unwinnable battles that give you 5 DP in exchange for burning out on your item stash!! >:( You can be smug about this point, given that this is part of what the whole series is known for, but attaining max DP rank here is definitely more of a challenge than even in its prequel.

If that wasn't enough, there are eleven characters Lloyd can get bonding events with, drastically up from Zero's three for like no reason? Which is clearly designed to entice you into doing multiple playthroughs of a 100+ hours long game! I am not against getting more of beloved protagonists, but this is a very bad way to go about it. [laughs in CS1]

The gameplay here is also something I came to appreciate more a year later, after getting to know CS1. As the saying goes, you don't know what you have till it's gone, and this applies perfectly to the changes made to the battle system, particularly Orbments, over the years. When I played Azure, I didn't think too favorably of the addition of Master Quartz, but it ultimately made for an excellent fit, further emphasizing the combat roles the characters are made to fill while giving you an improved sense of progression with the MQ being able to level up.

All this, combined with the fact that I had been stubborn enough to use Hard instead of Normal (lose-lose deal – on Normal regular encounters wouldn't be as fun, on Hard I get my ass kicked by ultra-strong bosses harder. Retry Offset, I miss you...)... Yeah, that is why I almost broke the game with debug mode during the finale (that boss fight was over-reliant on Burst, I swear), and I have no regrets :p

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, 2018) [♪ Main Theme ~ Piano]

This GIF is actually an accurate summary of how my time with this game went.

I feel like, despite past me claiming that Azure was rightfully the spotlight of her year, the true game of 2021 was this all along. Partially because '21 was the only year when I could enjoy it to the fullest. I don't really want to talk about it much, which is funny when I try to look back at the huge rant I had half-prepared about my love-hate relationship with this game (bring back shielddropping! and good singleplayer! and give us good online!), rife with comparisons to Smash 4 and small things only true nerds semi-competitive players care about, but now it all just reminds me of the Smash Ball-shaped hole I have in my soul.

Maybe in another world, I'll be able to enjoy Smash again. For now, I have to thank Ultimate for making 2021 feel like something I earned. For the greatest soundtrack a game ever could have. And of course, for the Palutena buffs. I still remember when I thought she would never appear again, much less be empowered like she was. 💚

In conclusion, this is a game that can be painful to love, but love persists nonetheless, because there is nothing like Smash Ultimate in the world. ❤ - 2021 me, who was right

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formulaonedirection · 2 years ago

Note

hi!! is it it ok if i ask how you add text to your gifs?? i’ve been trying to get into making gifs for a while but haven’t figured out how to add text yet. it’s okay if you don’t want to answer !! <<3

Helloooo yes of course, it's really easy don't worry! I use photoshop but I'm sure it wouldn't be dissimilar to any other PS dupes out there

Okay first you're gonna wanna edit/colour/resize your gifs. I always do text last. So once you're ready to add in your text, go to the sidebar here and click the Text box

Check your font at the top here to make sure you're using the font you want. I usually use Myriad Pro in Bold Italic but Arial works too. Any sans serif font is probably fine.

Then you're gonna want to click on your gif and type in your text. It's gonna look like this at first

Then on your right side where your layers should be you should see a text layer like this

Right click on your text layer and it should give you these options. Click Blending Options

You're going to want to click Stroke and Drop Shadow. These are my usual settings but just play around with how thick you want your stroke line to be and how heavy the drop shadow. It might differ with different fonts. Press okay and there you have it!

And then lastly while you're still on the text Layer, just ctrl/command + shift + T to move the text box around and there should be a guiding line to tell you if your text is centralised. You can use this to make your text bigger or smaller as well.

Hope that's helpful let me know if anything is confusing!!

#i'm a true PS novice too honestly just shout if you need any help!#<3 #asks #i hope you see this i'm sorry this got replied so late!!

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kpop-cakepops · 4 years ago

Note

I will gladly read any Wonwoo fluff you would give us be it snuggle donation or otherwise! But if I can be more specific in requesting, how about a missed connection sort of thing? Like the reader and Wonwoo have similar circles of friends who think they’d hit it off, but somehow they just never manage to be at the same events, but then they end up meeting separate from their friends and do hit it off, only to be a couple before their friends even know they’ve met? If that’s too specific, totally do whatever you want with the idea. Welcome to Wonwoo brain domination (my friend incepted my mind last year too and it’s been all Wonwoo all of the time since!)

omg this is actually such a good prompt?!?!?!!? What the hell?! Thank you anon!!!

So this one actually took way longer than expected because I knew what I wanted to do but I didn't know how to not make it confusing? So the best I could do was use time skips in this one, anything in italics are flashbacks.... I HOPE IT'S NOT CONFUSING! Anyhow, I had so much fun writing this! Enjoy! (PS. I didn't edit so excuse any grammar mistakes LOLz)

Warnings: None

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 1,863

Meant To Be// Jeon WonwooXfem!Reader

"There he is again... I wonder if he's single." your older sister said as she struggled to keep your baby nephew from running away from the bench the two of you were sitting at.

"Probably not," you told her as you bit into your popsicle. "He's handsome. Probably has a bunch of girls lining up to get his number"

"He's playing video games at a park, I seriously doubt that" your sister added.

"I think it's kinda cute. At least he comes out because he wants to" you looked over at your sister who was now too busy chasing after your little nephew to even listen to you. "Aaaaand I was talking to myself. Cool."

You huffed and looked over at the man sat two benches over. He seemed to be having fun on his Nintendo switch and you were sure you weren't having fun babysitting your sister while she tried to babysit her own son... so you took matters into your own hands and walked yourself over to the man.

"Hey, mind if I sit here?" You asked.

The stranger looked up from his game and moved to the side making space for you to sit down. He didn't talk at all but didn't show himself to be rude either. You took the chance to take out your own console.

"What are you playing?" You asked.

He turned around and looked at your hands, his eyes widening a little but the look of surprise was replaced by a smile almost instantly. "Super Smash Bros."

You didn't know what you expected his voice to sound like, but it certainly hadn't been the deep tone you had just received. "Damn, nice voice" you blurted.

He let out a laugh, "what's your name?"

"I'm y/n" you introduced yourself putting your hand out to shake his, "and you?"

He took your hand cautiously, "I'm Wonwoo"

***

"How does this dress look?" You asked as you twirled in front of your now boyfriend of 3 months, Wonwoo.

He smiled approvingly, "baby you look just as amazing as you did in the last dress. You really don't have to worry too much about impressing my friends, they're all a bunch of idiots."

"Well, yes, but... what if they don't like me? I'm the reason you refused all those blind dates they kept setting you up on." You told him.

"And I'm the reason you refused yours, the time will come when I have to meet your friends, too. I promise you there's no reason for us to be worried." He pulled you close and kissed the top of your head.

"I'm just excited to finally meet your friends," you told him. "I want to make a good impression."

"The way you make me smile should be impressive enough, no?" He brushed a strand of your hair behind your ear.

"Getting a little cheesy there, aren't we?" You poked his stomach and pulled away. "Anyways. We should get going or we're going to be late!"

***

"You should come up. Some of my friends are still up there. We could hang out" said Wonwoo as he pushed his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. His tall frame rocking back and forth as he watched you wistfully.

"I really wish I could, but I actually have to go back to work in a bit. I just didn't want for your birthday gift to get to your hands after your special day" You shyly admitted. He held his hand to the necklace that was now hanging from his neck. The pendant hanging from it depicting the Smash ball from the game's logo. Something about him immediately putting the necklace on making your heart race.

"I really wish you could stay, but I guess, you'll just have to make it up to me some other day." He said.

You reached out your pinky and he wrapped his own with yours. "I promise" You told him.

He smiled and you waited expectantly for his nose to scrunch up like you'd learned it would in the last 4 months of knowing the guy. It was weird how after fighting off cheesy romance and dates, you ended up developing a crush on some random guy you'd met at the park.

The both of you stood there for a moment, pinkies linked together as you let the sparks envelope you both. It was obvious you liked each other, however, neither of you seemed to know who should make the first move... nor did you know when.

***

You and Wonwoo arrived at the large hotel his friends had told him to meet them at. A shiver ran down your spine making you take a nervous deep breath. Your boyfriend grinned at your cuteness and squeezed your hand softly before guiding you towards the entrance.

"Oh, God... Maybe I should've brought a gift?" You grumbled as you followed Wonwoo into the hotel. A sudden feeling of guilt taking over you as you remember your own friend, Jihoon, was having a graduation dinner that you couldn't go to because of this. You'd managed to drop off a gift for him days before, but it still bugged you. Jihoon was one of your closest friends after all.

"Honey, it's totally fine. I promise Jihoon won't mind that you didn't bring him a gift" he assured you as he held the door of the fancy restaurant open for you.

"Wait, what did you say?" You asked as you stopped in your tracks. Your boyfriend shooting you a confused look.

"Y-N?"

***

"I don't know, I think my favorite has to be biographies. I'm just nosy" you laughed, Wonwoo following along.

"Hmmm, I mean, biographies are nice, but I've been into humanities lately. It's interesting" He shrugged and licked at his ice cream cone happily. "I used to hate it in high school but I think as I grew up a grew more interested in the way people live... outside of just myself."

"Wow..." you mused.

"What? Was that sexy?" he joked.

You shook your head, "No, you're such a nerd" You teased.

"Hey!" he quipped bumping his shoulder into yours.

"Watch it! I almost dropped my ice cream cone!" Your attempt to seem angry failed by the big smile on your face. It seemed that was all you did around Wonwoo anyways. Smile.

"What flavor is that?" he asked as he eyed your cone curiously.

You put the cone up to his lips, "Butter pecan" You didn't know what exactly you were expecting when you put the cone up to his lips, 75% of you had thought he'd playfully push your hand away while calling it a grandma flavor as he usually did, while the resting 25% of you thought he'd just ignore it and keep walking... but both assumptions were wrong. Wonwoo grabbed your hand with his free one holding the cone in place before getting a taste. It was absolutely insane how much that made your heart race. "Hey! what was that all about?"

"I want to get a taste... but I can't... taste it... maybe I should-" He froze mid-sentence. Wonwoo was nervous. His face was a deep pink as he eyed you closely.

"W-Wonwoo. Are you trying to kiss me right now?" You asked. You wanted to scream and run away but you also wanted to stick around and see if he would.

"I was supposed to be at a blind date today" He admitted.

"Me too," you told him.

"But all I could think of was you" He continued.

"Me too," you agreed once again.

"Y/N, I like you."

***

"What the hell is going on here?" Jihoon's face was twisted in confusion as he stared between the two of you.

"You know each other?" Asked Wonwoo.

Jihoon blinked hurriedly before finding his voice again, "Uh, I think I should be the one asking you that!"

"My head is about to explode" You murmured.

"Yah, Jihoon, Dokyeom just spilled- Oh, Y/N? What are you doing here... with Wonwoo?" Yet another one of your best friends walked out of the restaurant, Jeongyeon's large eyes looking at you and your boyfriend with the same confused expression as Jihoon.

"They got here together," Jihoon announced.

"You two know each other?" Asked Jeongyeon.

"Yeah, Wonwoo's my boyfriend"

"Yeah... we're dating" Wonwoo agreed.

"WHAT?!"

***

"Y/N, pleaseeeeee? I promise you're going to love this guy. He is such a sweet person, he will literally blow you away, and he's handsome! Did I mention he's handsome?!" Jeongyeon's hands were clasped together in front of her chest. It was once a month that she begged for you to go on a blind date with that guy she always talked about, but you shook your head.

"No."

"Why not?! What is it this time!?" Your pretty friend exclaimed as she crossed her arms across her chest.'I have a boyfriend now' You thought, a small smile coming to your lips at the thought of Wonwoo.

"I'm not interested in dating Jjeong. Please, can't we just let it go?" you asked with a soft huff. "We have better things to do anyway. Come on, why don't you let me take a look at your thesis so far."

Jeongyeon huffed and started to pull out her laptop from her book bag. "I can't wait till you meet him. You're gonna regret it"

***

"Wait, pause... so you mean to tell me that we spent ALL THOSE MONTHS trying to set the two of you up... only for you two to meet at a random park and fall in love?!" Soonyoung was being his usual dramatic self again as he glared at you two from across the table.

"I mean, we didn't fall in love right off the bat... but yes. You could say that" Wonwoo answered.

"Wow! I just got chills. I JUST GOT CHILLS!" Dokyeom added as he dramatically hugged himself.

"I just don't understand why neither of you guys told us you were dating! Like... How did we miss it? Where did you hide each other?" Asked Jisoo with a confused frown.

"We didn't. We were friends for about 4 months before we started dating. I even went to drop off his gift at his apartment on his birthday."

"The necklace! I knew I'd seen it somewhere!" Seungcheol exclaimed with wide eyes. "You sent me a picture of the thing and asked if you should get it black or purple!"

"I also asked you for tips on how to confess to a girl over ice cream and got me laughed at." Wonwoo huffed under his breath.

You laughed and shook your head. "You were right, Woo. Your friends are indeed a bunch of idiots"

"Wow... You guys are meant to be. You guys are seriously meant to be. There is no doubt in my mind. I guess when soulmates are meant to meet, they will." chirped Jihoon who kept picking at his plate. "Now that that's all out, I'd like to take a moment to talk about how if Y/N hadn't been dating Wonwoo, she would have missed my graduation dinner for a man. What have you got to say for yourself, traitor?"

"Uh..."

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winchestersworld4 · 2 years ago

Note

A masterlist is going to start off as a regular post. It's easier with two or more tabs open so you can copy links from one page and have the masterlist you are working on open on the other. On one of the tabs pull up your stories so you have their page in the address bar.

Here is the one for Crazy Girls winchestersworld4.tumblr.com/post/685913888414416896/crazy-girls-on-planes

Copy that then go back to the tab with the masterlist.

When you add the story title, or whatever you want to be clickable, highlight that text (left click and scroll over it). Then some symbols should appear over that Bold is first, then Italics, the H says it Headlines. I've never used that one. The slanted infinity looking symbol adds a link if you click on that then you will paste the address and click done.

Repeat that for each of the stories you have.

I hope that makes sense, it's after 1 am now and the brain isn't firing on all cylinders. 😂

There is a way to make your masterlist a link at the top of the page, but I don't currently remember it. It will take some googling. You can pin the post for now. After you are done and have posted it to your page, if you go there at the top of each post should be 3 dots. If you click on those the top option is to pin a post to the top of your page.

I hope these have helped. Good night.

Seriously, if these don't make any sense let me know.

AHHH!

THANK YOU SO MUCH! That was all incredibly helpful and I just built a list to help get things organized as well as I was able to put a 'keep reading' line in the next chapter of "My Only Sunshine"!

Seriously I am just giddy! I was also able to pin the masterlist. I still have to build a series masterlist for a couple of things and then edit to link them on the main one but it all makes so much more sense now! I can't thank you enough for that! Have a wonderful night and thank you again for stopping and reading and chatting with me. You have honestly made my night once more!

PS... did you watch the season finale for The Boys and see our man?!?!?!?!? AHHHH!

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stressisakiller · 4 years ago

Text

Forgive Me Sunflower

Bucky Barnes x Reader Soulmate AU

(Hello Sunflower Part 10) EDITED

Summary: What happens when Bucky wakes up to your bed empty and a strange note on your pillow

Warnings: refences to torture. Murder. cussing

Word Count: 4 k

A/N: Can you figure out what her secret message was? Let me know what you think and if you have any requests for future chapters! Thank yall for reading!’

Thoughts are in italics

Series Masterlist

<< Previous Next >>

Life in the tower fell into a peaceful rhythm. Waking up before the sun, heading down to the training rooms. Beating the shit out of Bucky, occasionally you let him win, then breakfast with everyone. Steve and Bucky always made sure to go for a run together, while they were out you went upstairs and sat in the lab with Tony. You may not have had a normal childhood but you “father” hadn’t let your education suffer, we believed that knowledge was everything. So, you were able to help out occasionally with the problems that arose.

While he worked Tony enjoyed telling you stories, about himself and your parents. You quickly felt as though you got the chance to know them. As much as you loved these stories it broke your heart that you were the reason they were no longer here.

Tony was finishing one such story when he noticed the dejected look on your face, he quickly switched to telling you about how he became Iron Man. He explained the cave and the fear he felt while stuck there, although he would never admit that to anyone else. He told you of the man who helped him and saved his life, of his sacrifice and the change it caused in Tony’s life. He told you about being betrayed by the man he had trusted the most, you could relate to that.

Life was good, really good. You felt safe with the people around you, you felt loved and trusted. You felt like you had a family. But of course nothing lasts forever.

You lived in peace for two months. Two months of happiness and tranquility, or as much tranquility as a group of superheroes are able to have. The tranquility was shattered one morning about a week before the avengers were to go to trial.

Waking up that morning Bucky got ready as always, he headed down to the training rooms and was surprised to see that you had yet to arrive. Weird, you always arrived before him. He went back to the elevator and headed to your room, some nights you liked to sleep in a space that was your own. Opening the door his eyes fell on your empty bed, it was still made, as if you never made it to bed last night. Worried he hurried over to your bathroom and knocked,

“Hey sunflower, you in there?” the silence that answered him was overwhelming, you weren’t here.

Where on earth could you be? Upon closer inspection of your room his eyes fell upon a note laid purposefully on your pillow. He carefully made his way over, watching closely for any trip wires. Lifting the card from your pillow he cut open the top with one of the knives on his belt. His eyes scanned the note, he felt the breath leave his lungs, was this some kind of sick joke? He took a deep breath trying to calm himself down before rereading the paper in his hand.

Bucky,

Hello, I'm sorry that I must tell you this in a letter, sunflower. But the time has come I must leave before the sun is up. I can't follow your dreams for us anymore. I have my own and they don't involve you right now. We are done my sunflower. Don't try to find me

Your star,

Ps forgive me

There was something off about the way the note was written. It was worded strangely, it didn’t sound like you at all. Not to mention the fact that you would never leave your soulmate like this. He thought back to the night before, you had been just as cuddly as normal, you had fallen asleep on him during the movie that you were all watching. He had gently woken you and walked with you to your room, you had given him a quick kiss and a smile before walking through the door. Bucky shook his head, bringing himself back to the problem at hand. He examined the wording carefully, looking for anything that would explain where you were. There it was, oh you clever, beautiful woman. Of course that would be your message, there is only one explanation as to where you are. Fuck. His face paled as the meaning of your message sunk in. You had been forced to write this message and yet you had found a way to tell him who it was. Hydra.

Your day was going well, you had a great time training this morning, you had pinned Bucky no less than three times. Tony had been in a good mood while you sat with him, his newest project was going smoothly and he was excited to see it in action. The best part had been the movie night that the group decided to have. You fell asleep on Bucky, how could you not, he is just so warm. He had taken you back to your room and you had kissed him at the door before parting ways. That is when it all went to shit. A hand closed over your mouth and a gun pressed to your temple. Your brain was still fuzzy with sleep, putting you at a disadvantage, it was quickly clearing but not quite as quickly as you needed. As the fog began to clear you began debating the best way to incapacitate the guy who currently had his hand on your mouth. So focused on the man behind you, you almost didn’t notice when a shadow moved in the corner in front of you. Almost, the moment that the movement registered in your tired brain you froze.

“Please don’t try to escape, we need you to come with us.” The disembodied voice was eerily familiar although you couldn’t figure out why.

You struggled against the iron grip of the man behind you, at the prompting of the man in the corner, he slowly lowered his hand from your mouth allowing you to speak.

“And why the hell do you think I would do that?” you spat at him.

“Simple,” his calm demeanor was starting to give you the creeps, how could he be so calm right now? “If you don’t we will kill every single person in this building and maybe their families too while we are at it.” your eyebrows rose at his statement,

“Just the two of you?” disbelief evident in your voice.

He laughed, a humorous thing, it sent chills down your back.

“Of course not, stupid girl, there are more of us in this building right now. If you cooperate then they won’t need to be used, they will leave as soon as we do.”

How could you trust him to keep his word? But if you didn’t go with him then there was no way for you to protect everyone. You head swam, you knew he wouldn’t wait long for your answer.

“Fine, but you have to swear that you and your men will leave everyone else in this building alone.”

“You have my word, he only wants you right now anyway.”

“He?” your curiosity got the best of you

“Hydra, of course, now I need you to write a letter, one that explains your absence. One that explains that you don’t want anyone looking for you.” His voice was firm, and you knew that you had no choice.

You nodded your agreement, and the man behind you loosened his grip, but the gun stayed trained on you. You walked to your desk and brought out a pen and some paper, taking a second to figure out how to let Bucky know that you were in danger. The solution popped in your mind and you jotted down your note, hoping that he would understand. As soon as you were done they tied your hands together and pulled you to their escape route. With surprising speed and ease they got you out of the building and thrust you into a car. You fought against your bonds until a needle was shoved in your neck, blackness filled your vision and your eyelids felt like lead, the last thing you heard was a man barking directions before sleep took you.

Cold. All you can feel is overwhelming cold. Whatever you were laying on felt like ice. Fighting against the weight of your eyelids struggling against the darkness that held you. Voices, you could hear voices in the background. Trying to focus on their words but unable to understand what they meant. Wake up, you thought. Wake up! WAKE UP! Forcing your eyes open you flinched as a blinding light forced you to snap them shut. Breathe. Slowly opening your eyes, you take in your surroundings, it looks familiar. Fuck. You were back, they had you again, and you walked right into their arms. Tears welled up in your eyes causing your vision to waver. No, you would not cry, you refuse to cry. They don’t get to see you break. A voice brought you out of your thoughts, eyes shooting to the door. No, no no no no. Not him, anyone but him. But his voice was unmistakable, your heart dropped, your father. No you remind yourself, not your father, just an asshole that stole you from your family and forced you to become a monster. You would not let them break you. The door swung open and the face that has been haunting your nightmares since you escaped walked into view, a cold and calculating smile on his lips.

“Well, well. It is so good to have you back, my daughter. I so missed having you here.” fake sincerity that made your toes curl laced his voice. The gag in your mouth kept you from spitting on him, all you could do was glare. You felt so helpless. He always made you feel so fucking helpless.

“Now now, sweet girl, no need for anger, you must have forgotten that all I have ever wanted is the best for you. You lost yourself these past two years, but don’t worry we will soon remedy that.” He stepped towards you, a rope in his hand, you looked up at him, eyes widening in fear and anger, this was going to hurt.

Bucky ran into the common room, eyes scanning the room widely, gone was the cool calm and collected Bucky. This Bucky had just lost his soulmate to the very people that you had finally been able to escape. He will do anything to get her back. His eyes fell on Tony pouring himself some coffee into a mug you had recently bought for him. Bucky stalked over to him, trying to keep his overwhelming fear from showing on his face. Tony looked up at him as he walked closer, giving him a smirk,

“Hey there grizzly bear, someone steal your honey and piss in your cheerios?” His smile fell as he studied the soldier, Tony had never seen him like this, something terrible had happened.

“What is it? What happened?” Going from playful to serious in a split second. His eyes scanned the room and noticed the lack of his sister, “Where is Y/N?”

Bucky couldn’t seem to answer, he just held out the note. Quickly reading it Tony ended up even more confused,

“there has to be a mistake, she would never leave like this.” desperation coloring his tone and he looked back at Bucky. Bucky shook his head,

“She didn’t, she was forced to write it. She left a hidden message, she was taken by Hydra.”

“Fuck!” Tony had to stop himself from throwing his mug across the room, it was a gift from you and he would hate himself if anything happened to it.

“Ok what can we do, we need to find her.” He started to ramble about all of the things he could do and how they could get to her before Bucky held up a hand to quiet him.

“I think I know where she is. There is a Hydra base in upstate New York, they don’t know that I know about it. I was supposed to be under their control when they took me there but I was slipping, more of myself than the soldier at the time.” He spoke quickly, he wanted to get to her as soon as possible. Tony nodded and called for Jarvis to gather everyone in the mission room. They filed in confused as to what was going on, Steve was the last one to sit down.

“Y/N has been taken by Hydra and we are going to get her back.” Bucky was clear and concise as he explained the plan to them. If everything went according to plan they should have her back in the next two days.

Time meant nothing to you. You couldn’t tell how long you had been back in the clutches of the asshole you used to call father. Has it been a day? A week? A month? All you knew was pain. Your thoughts felt fragmented. Like dandelion fluff in the wind. Bucky would come. Keep Bucky safe. All that matters is keeping him safe. Don’t let them see you break. Your head lolled to the side when you heard the door open. He was back, couldn’t he just leave you alone? Freezing water was thrown over your battered body, you bit your tongue to keep from gasping. Cuts stinging from onslaught, the deeper gashes on your tattoos making the water run red.

“Hello, sweetheart, I think you’re ready to be our soldier again.” His eyes were filled with glee at the prospect of being back in control of you, he had so many ideas of what he would have you do, who he would have you kill. He paused, letting the news sink in before continuing.

“There is no way you can hold out this time.” Your eyes slid from his face, too tired to focus, too tired to fight. The scientist minions unstrapped your limp body from the table that had been your home since you arrived. They dragged you, feet scraping against the floor, to the machine that you had hoped to never see again, the blender. They threw you into the chair and strapped you down, removing the gag and shoving a rubber piece into your mouth. You wanted to fight but you couldn’t feel your arms. They placed the helmet on your head and turned the machine on.

Bucky, forced himself to calm down, they would have you back soon. It had taken them a day to confirm your location and get ready to leave. Now he sat impatiently in the quinjet with the rest of the Avengers, wondering what awaited him at the base. Praying that you were ok, that he wasn’t too late. A voice came over the intercom letting them know they were 5 minutes out. He stood keeping his hands busy with getting ready, pushing aside his worry and doubt. You needed him and he wasn’t going to let his fear get in the way of saving you.

The plane touched down and the soldier was on the move. Ruthless and concise the soldier cut through the guards and anyone who got in his way. The only person that matters to him is his soulmate, the one he is here to save. He made his way through the base quickly, his steps never faltering as he moved towards the room that he knew they would have you in. The room that was the scene of every one of his nightmares. He busted through the door and stepped into the room, the one with the blender, the one where they brainwashed him.

For the first time during the mission his steps faltered, the soldier was devastated by what he saw. You, alive yes, but battered and bruised, face pale and blood running from multiple cuts. A dark purple bruise obvious around your throat. Your face was full of bruises and cuts, your arms were the same. You were staring straight forward, eyes void and he knew he had failed you. He moved to step towards you but your fathers voice caused him to stop.

“Soldier, are you ready to comply?” Bucky wanted to punch the grin off of his face but all he could do was watch.

“Ready to comply.” your voice was ice, lacking any of its usual warmth and emotion.

“Kill the winter Soldier, I have no more need for him.” You snapped to attention, turning to your enemy, deciding the best way to attack. You charged. Bucky brought his arm up in time to block your attack, moving quickly to protect himself without hurting you. You quickly flipped him on his back, standing over him, he looked at you with defeat, he couldn’t hurt you, not this time. A twinkle came to your eyes that hadn’t been there a moment before, and you did the last thing he was expecting, you winked. Bucky moved quickly rolling out of your grasp, keeping up the ruse and noticed that your blows were softer than they would be in a normal fight, you were still there. You yanked his pistol out of his holster and pointed it at him, finger on the trigger.

“Well,” came your father's voice, impatience coloring his tone,

“what are you waiting for? Shoot him.” Bucky saw your trigger finger twitch before you moved, a shot ringing out in the otherwise quiet space.

Blinking Bucky turned to see the body of your father fall to the ground, bullet lodged between his eyes. Shaking off the sense of deja vu he looked back towards you. Although your actions showed that you were still at least sort of in control of your body, he could tell that the soldier was at the controller. He took a cautious step towards you. You spun, and pointed the gun at him, a glimmer of recognition in your eyes before you slowly lowered the gun. Bucky reached for the gun keeping his movements slow as he released your hold on it. Gently grasping your chin, he turned you to look at him.

“Hello, my star,” His voice was soft, “It’s your sunflower, it’s time for you to come back to me.” Your eyes seemed to focus for a moment before you spoke,

“I have to finish my mission.” your voice was firm

“What is your mission, my star?” he asked, keeping your eyes trained on him.

“To keep my soulmate safe, that has always been my mission.” you looked confused at his question as if the answer should have been obvious. He smiled, cupping your cheek in his hand.

“I am safe, my star, your sunflower is safe. Your mission is complete, you can let go.” At his words, your eyes rolled back and you collapsed. His arms wrapping around you before you could hit the floor. Bucky picked you up and began to carry you out of the godforsaken base.

You wake for a moment as he carries you towards the exit, seeing his face, you were able to relax for the first time in days.

“Bucky?”

“Hush, little one, I have you now, we are heading home.”

The next time you woke up you were in the tower hospital, feeling weak but better than you had when you passed out. Your eyes were drawn towards the hand that currently engulfed yours, it was connected to the sleeping form of your handsome soulmate. Reaching across yourself with your free hand you ran your fingers through his hair. The soft feeling, waking him up from his sleep. Raising his head Bucky looked at you. Tears forming in his eyes as he noticed you were awake.

“Hi,” your voice was rough from screaming. His eyes softened, his metal hand coming up to rest on your cheek.

“Hi yourself, little one, you scared the shit out of me.” you chuckled at him

“Wasn’t my intention love, they got me to go with them because they threatened you. I promised that I would take care of you. I didn’t mean to cause you pain.”

“No, sweetheart, you don’t need to apologize, I am just happy that you are back with me and that you are safe.” he rested his forehead against yours as he spoke, as if he could force the words into your head. You cleared your throat, a question at the forefront of your mind.

“What day is it? Did I miss the trials? Knowing them they took me when they did to keep me from testifying, they wanted me to forfeit my right to be heard.” you anxiously awaited his answer, worried that you had ruined everything.

“No, little one, we still have a couple of days before the trials start. You were gone a total of two days, and out of consciousness another. You will still be able to make it to the trial. I have a feeling that your injuries might just swing the jury in your favor.” His lip turned up, but there was pain in his eyes, he drew his hand from yours and gently rested it on your hip where the cuts were the deepest, they had cut you to figure out which tattoo was your soulmark.

“Well I’m glad something good came out of this.” sarcasm evident in your tone as you tried to make light of the situation.

“Well that and the death of the asshole that took you from your parents.” Bucky didn’t try to hind the venom in his voice as he spat out the words. Your eyes widened,

“Wait what? He’s dead?” Bucky looked confused at your question before understanding washed over him.

“Little one, he turned you into the soldier and told you to kill me. You pulled your punches and when you stole my gun he ordered you to shoot me, but you shot him instead.”

You could tell that he was a little worried about how you would react. As much as you hated the man you had still believed him to be your father for the majority of your life.

“Good, the bastard deserved it.” you looked away from Bucky’s face as you spoke, shame prickling behind your eyes because of the sadness you felt.

“I do have a question though, how were you able to fight his control? Why didn’t you shoot me?” You looked at him surprised by his question.

“They haven’t truly had control over me since I got my tattoo.” Your eyebrows furrowed as you thought back to it. “When they tried to activate the soldier after the mark showed up I was able to talk to her. We agreed that you were as much her soulmate as you are mine and that we would both do whatever it takes to protect you. You became our mission.” you took a deep breath before continuing, pulling your eyes from Bucky’s face.

“The soldier and I are one, as much as I hate a lot of the things she did, she had as little of a choice as I did. She takes control when they activate her, but I am no longer trapped in the backseat. I’m able to talk to her, and most of the time, she listens.”

Bucky looked down at his hands in confusion, wondering if he would ever be able to say the same about himself and the winter soldier. Could they ever work together? He let the thought go as he watched you yawn.

Picking you up, he took you back to his room, you were well enough to sleep in a real bed tonight. Heaven knows you needed it. He laid you down and pulled you close, smiling at the feeling of you nuzzling into his side. Those questions could wait till later, for now, he would enjoy sleeping next to his soulmate again.

Tagged users: @calwitch @writerwrites

#winter solider fanfiction #winter solider x reader #james buchanan barnes #james buchanan bucky barnes #bucky x y/n #bucky imagine #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes imagine #hello sunflower

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skvaderarts · 3 years ago

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Hiraeth Chapter 81: Jumpstart

Masterlist can be found Here!

Chapter Eighty-One: Jumpstart

Note: I don't know about you but I think 5k is a good way to start our first chapter of the year! I hope you had a good holiday! Don't worry, I'll get to your comments soon! I didn't get a chance over the break, but I did read them and they certainly put a smile on my face. Thank you for that. I needed it.

PS (a few hours after the first paragraph) Google Docs decided to duplicate what I wrote like 100 times so the chapter ended up being 111 pages instead of the 10 or so it had been before, so I had to sit here and copy and paste each individual chapter into a new document because the backup override the current version, and undo wasn't working. It also got rid of all my bold and italics! And it changed my font and my page layout and font size! And it undid all of my spellchecking! And I just realized that it undid any edits I made so many words I had added today are gone, too! FFS!!!! How is that even possible?! I’m so PISSED. I just spent another HOUR fixing FORMATTING on a chapter that was already done! I can’t find the words for how irrationally angry I am. I’m honestly not even happy with this chapter anymore because I know it’s probably a giant mess.

Honestly, I’m so pissed that I might need a few days to fix all of this bullshit. I’ll let you know on Friday. What an awful start to the year… I hope you find some way to enjoy it because I just can’t now. Fuck.

(-~-)

In retrospect, the docks might not have been the best place to schedule a meeting.

By the time that Patty had arrived at her destination, she had come to the sudden realization that everything had taken a turn for the worst during the last few hours, and it wasn't just in her neighborhood, either. Around every corner was another mob of people moving up and away from the water, dropping their bags and screaming as they quite literally ran for the hills. She couldn't catch most of it over the cacophonous sounds of fleeing, screaming townsfolk, but from what she was able to gather, something was after them and the military was only barely keeping things under control.

She should be driving in the opposite direction, but she had to make it to the harbor.

If something that bad was on the loose, then the last thing that she should be doing was going towards it. But unfortunately, she had very little choice. Well, at least choices that she was willing to live with or even consider. She wasn't going to leave them there alone and at the mercy of whatever demon was going on, even if they were in the van and could probably get out of there themselves. No, she had come this far. She wouldn't leave them when they needed her most. All she had to do was meet up with the others and get out of here.

Rounding the corner and coming to a momentary stop at a side exit to the harbor, Patty looked around in a hurry for the van. She could see that the ferry had arrived already, and several of the other vehicles that had been on board had either been abandoned in favor of just making a run for it, or were caught in traffic trying to vacate the area. But much to her dismay, she didn't see the one vehicle that she was actually looking for. How typical. Wasn't that always how these sorts of things worked?

Making the split-second decision to drive down the path and see if she could locate the van, the young blond was careful not to hit anyone. There was so much going on, and the unpredictable movement of frightened pedestrians made this entire situation so difficult to navigate. But just as she was starting to lose hope that she would be able to make any headway, she caught sight of a familiar young woman with long, reddish hair waving at her as she tried to grab her attention. They had parked by what looked like some sort of utility shed. She'd actually managed to find them. Patty almost couldn't believe it. For a second she had been worried that she wouldn't actually be able to find them.

"But we're not out of the woods just yet. Keep it together and get out of here as fast as we can." Patty thought to herself as she squeezed past several of the cars, trying her best not to get in their way as she nearly had to pull up onto the sidewalk to make her way into the narrow space that the van occupied. Well, narrow in comparison to the rest of the area. It looked like the sort of spot they would park utility vehicles in if they still had any. The one upside of the situation was that there was a gap between the buildings that led to the outside of the area. Admittedly there was a metal mesh fence in the way, but something told her that Nico probably didn't care about that sort of thing. She had heard about the way that the plucky young mechanist drove around Redgrave City. This was probably just an average day for where driving was considered.

"Patty! By golly you made it! I was startin' to think that something bad had happened to ya on the way over here! Everythin' alright?" Nico called over her shoulder as she seemed to frantically examine something in the van's engine, the hood up and clearly visible from where Patty stood. Kyrie headed over towards her as she exited the car, seemingly eager to assess for herself whether or not the young blond was okay. Anyone with the capacity to so much as take a passing glance in her general direction could tell that she was worried and visibly shaken by the events unfolding around her, but she was holding it together admirably nonetheless. She probably didn't want to make the children worry about her. Patty had to admit that she felt bad for the situation that Kyrie was in right now. She could never just worry about herself. Poor thing.

"Just some traffic I ran into on the way over. Didn't realize everyone was literally running for their lives until I hit the road." She hugged Kyrie, the young brunette woman clearly happy to see her and relieved that she had managed to arrive here safely. It had been a stressful morning for all of them. From behind her, she caught sight of the children sitting inside of the van. They seemed to be able to tell that something serious was going on, opting to just remain quiet and wait where they were. Well, except for the littlest one. He seemed to be toddling about, probably giving Kyrie something to personally worry over. "What's the hold-up?"

"You're not gonna believe this but I think the battery died," Nico said as she shook her head in disbelief, hurrying back around to the side of the car to open the door. She jumped inside and ran to the back before the sound of metal crashing could be heard from what Patty assumed to be the spot where Nico was searching. She seemed to be just tossing things to the side in her rush to find what she was looking for, landing spot be damned. And she couldn't say that she blamed her for it, either. They needed to get out of here. Whatever was going on wasn't good. "Looks like we're gonna need a jump. It's a good thing that ya didn't walk here."

Realizing that they could probably get out of there sooner if she helped look for the jumper cables before she went to pull the car a bit closer, Patty made the executive decision to climb on board and look for them. Four eyes might just be better than two in this case, even if she only had the vaguest idea of what she was looking for. She'd seen jumper cables before. That wasn't the issue. The problem was the sheer amount of cables and wires in this part of the van. "Do you remember where you saw them last?"

Nico glanced up at Patty from behind her workbench, pausing for a moment and crunching her brow in a manner that made it clear that she was trying to recall something that she hadn't had to think about in a very long time. After a minute or so she started to slowly shake her head before suddenly pausing, pulling a box off of the shelf in front of her, checking it, and then quickly turning her attention back towards Patty. She seemed to have recalled something. "Nero had em! We were working on the van the day he got his arm ripped off! But he knows better than to come back here because he doesn't know how some of this stuff works. Check the front!"

Glancing around, the young woman with the blond hair took a second to orient herself. Her mind was running a thousand miles a minute, and despite the fact that the layout of the van was very straightforward, it took her a second to find the front. But as soon as she did she raced over to it and started searching for the jumper cables. Now that she thought about it, Patty remembered Morrison telling her that something bad had happened to Nero a few months back, but she couldn't remember if he had told her that his arm had been cut off. Maybe she had simply forgotten. Either way, she was curious as to how in the world it had seemingly grown back. No one had a prosthetic arm that was that realistic!

"Okay Patty, think. Nero isn't even as close to as messy as Dante is. He probably just put them somewhere that would make sense. Somewhere straightforward… " Patty looked around in front of her, taking a second to stop and consider the likely areas. They couldn't be under the seat or on the sides of the doors. She hadn't seen anything hanging out of the backs of the chairs when she'd been heading over. A cursory inspection of the storage area hanging from the ceiling above her in the form of a mesh roof compartment revealed nothing. But there was one place that she hadn't looked, and now she felt a little silly for not thinking of it sooner. "Like the glove compartment! Bingo!"

"I found them!" Patty yelled excitedly as she nearly tripped in her hurry to get out of the seat and get them to Nico. She tossed them to her companion who caught them, untangling them from the slight knot that they had been tied in as she headed towards the van's side door. These would do her little good inside of the van. They had been fortunate indeed. Nico had half expected them to spend the next hour just searching the van for the cables. That was normally how these things worked when you least needed them to.

"Thanks, Patty! I'll get these hooked up in a jiffy! Your car might be a little bit too far away, though." Nico said, running for the side door. She hopped out with Patty just a few steps behind her, the eager young blond more than happy to do what she could to help. As soon as they got this van working they could get out of here and head out of town. They had been fortunate that the van had broken down right here and not in the middle of the road or something.

"Don't mention it! I'll pull the car closer!" Patty called over her shoulder as she ran towards her car, practically leaping into it as she took the car out of park and pulled a few yards closer to the van. She got as close as she could manage given the position of the van. Hopefully, that would be enough. She couldn't say that she'd ever seen jumper cables used at an angle like this before, but then again, she hadn't really seen them used more than once, so she was hoping that this was pretty commonplace. "That's as close as I can get. We're kinda at a bad angle."

Nico brushed off the comment, unconcerned with the placement of the vehicles. She had done more with less. Much less. At least this time around she actually had the right kind of cables in the first place. At least she didn’t have to jerry-rig it. That was honestly sort of a first for her, if she was being entirely honest. As bad as everything was right now, certain aspects of their predicament were actually looking up. They were no longer stuck in Fortuna for one thing, so that was a good start.

"It'll do. I just hope that cute lil car of yours has enough voltage to actually-" Nico was cut off mid statement by a loud, reverberating boom that caused the ground beneath them to shudder and shake. Small cracks began to form in the concrete around them as all of them froze in place momentarily. Another rumbling boom could be heard just a few short seconds after the second, only this time it was more akin to a vocalization than the last one had been.

And then there was a roar. One so hard that they could feel it in their chests and the brick buildings around them rattled as the glass in them cracked and broke depending on its proximity to the source of the sound. Several groups of people suddenly jumped out of their cars and started running for their lives, screaming at the top of their lungs as about two feet of briney seawater came washing across the ground towards them, soaking their feet and making the ground beneath them wet. It receded after a moment, but Nico was still hesitant to clamp the jumper cables onto their respective mounting points. She definitely didn't want to be touching this when Patty threw the switch.

Something big was coming. Nico could feel it. They all could.

Just then, almost out of nowhere, a trio of almost amphibian-like demons leaped out of the water and landed on the tops of the nearby cars, immediately sending everyone into a bigger panic than they already had been moments before. Two of the demons scattered and went in towards opposite ends of the pier, but one made a b-line for the van's open door, much to the panic of Kyrie who was standing just a few feet away.

Before either Nico or Patty could say or do anything, the horrified brunette rushed towards the van door, shouting for the oldest child to close the door. He attempted to do as she asked, but he simply couldn't get to the door quickly enough, instead opting to grab his two little brothers and attempt to shield them from the demon instead. Kyrie reached the door just in time, jumping into the van and slamming the door on the demon's arm just as it attempted to grab the two children.

Kyrie attempted to hold the door shut, but realized quickly that she wasn't going to be able to hold the demon at bay for long. She searched around, desperate to find something, anything that she could use to defend herself and the children. "Run to the bathroom and lock the door! Hurry!"

Carlo looked confused, being far too young to understand what Kyrie was telling him. Kyle and Julio on the other hand had a much better understanding of what was going on and they immediately grabbed their little brother, carting him off to the relative safety of the bathroom. They were too scared to say anything, and being as they were, they weren't really sure what they could say in a situation like this to start with. The best that they could hope for was that once the bathroom door opened again that they would all be alright. If they stopped to try and think or thank Kyrie it might be too late for all of them.

With one last sad, frightened look Julio closed the bathroom door, clearly scared for his adoptive mother's life. He wasn't sure how high he would rate her chances without Nero here, especially with Nico outside. He just didn't think she could win a fight with a demon like that. She didn't even have anything to defend herself with!

Kyrie glanced around the room frantically for something that she could use to fight the demon, or at least keep it at bay. It took every ounce of energy in her entire body to hold the door closed, and she was rapidly losing her grip on the door. If she could at least hit it with something, maybe it would give her the chance to close the door the rest of the way. Frantically searching the interior of the van, she realized that there was nothing around that was easily within reach that she could use to fight the demon. She was going to have to let the door go.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door as hard as she could towards the closed position before diving towards the front seat and grabbing the only thing that she had available to her. She just hoped with every fiber of her being that the few times she'd seen Nero use one of these things had taught her enough to be able to do the same.

Moments later the door to the van slid open and in stepped the demon, its huge claws extended and eager to sink themselves into their target. It looked around and didn't immediately see her, the brunette having pressed herself as close to the seat as humanly possible. She then took in a silent gulp of air before spinning around and pointing the gun in the direction of the demon.

Patty and Nico rushed over to the side door, unsure as to what else they could possibly do to save her. Neither of them was armed, but perhaps they could drive the demon off? At this point, it was as good of a plan as any. But just as they reached the door they heard a loud, blood-curdling scream and then a loud bang before the demon suddenly dropped motionless to the ground, not making a single sound. Both of them were wary of approaching it, but after that, they needed to be sure that Kyrie was alright. But as they stepped near the demon and noticed the gaping hole in its skull for the first time, they were both collectively shocked to find Kyrie holding one of the guns that Nico had been working on for Lady in the van, and she was still holding it out towards the demon, ready to fire again if necessary with her eyes closed. She had probably been too afraid to even look at it when she’d fired the gun.

Both Nico and Patty just stared at the young songstress in utter disbelief as she opened her eyes and dropped the gun and let out a sound somewhere between a huff and a disbelieving laugh, but too short to truly be either. She looked down at her hands in shock before looking up at both of them again, seemingly searching for something, anything to confirm that what she thought had just happened truly had occurred and that she wasn't imagining things. Had she actually just shot a gun? Had she really just killed that demon?

The wiley mechanic started, unsure as to what else she could even say. She couldn't imagine what Kyrie was probably thinking right now. One thing she was sure of was that the cheerful songstress had probably never envisioned herself killing anything, let alone a demon. But she had done it. And she had done it to save herself and her children. She'd managed to save all of them without even trying to, and as far as Nico was concerned, she had so much to be proud of. But she was sure that either way this was a lot for her to try and process right now.

"Kyrie… are you alr-" Nico started but she didn’t get to finish.

None of them had even a second to say anything further before a loud, rumbling screech could be heard from the direction of the harbor. Patty and Nico jumped up and hopped back out of the door, coming face to face with the sight of a massive demon rising out of the harbor, one of its massive clawed hands crushing the side of a nearby car. The girls each took one look at one another before running back towards the van, Patty making a sharp right towards her car. They needed to get this van working. NOW.

"Okay try starting the engine!" Patty called over, her own car running. Nico waved back in conformation before attempting to start the van. It jolted for the second before, making a noise that signified that it was attempting to start before cutting off again. And when she tried to start it again, to her dismay, nothing happened. Nico felt anxious, unsure as to what more they could do. She couldn't imagine why this hadn’t worked.

"The clamps are on the right terminals! Your battery must not be strong enough!" Nico called back, obviously unsure as to what to do. Maybe they could all squeeze into Patty's little sports car? It wasn't the safest idea, but right now, nothing was. Even still, she didn't want to just leave the van here to be flattened by a giant demon. And they were certainly safer inside of a larger vehicle. Kyrie had just proved that. But she was also pretty certain that Patty's car and the van didn't use the same battery, so there was no way that she could swap them. They were going to have to figure out something and fast. This wasn't good.

While Nico was rapidly considering every option available to her (not that there were very many), a loud boom suddenly rang out and something exploded near the huge demon's head. It revealed back in obvious pain, clearly displeased with whatever had just occurred. And not long after she caught sight of something unexpected but entirely welcome.

It was Lady. And she had Trish in tow.

The blond demon seemed to notice their presence as the devil hunter with the short black hair rained a volley of bullets down onto the other two demons that had accompanied the bigger one, shielding the fleeing townsfolk from their unhindered attack. Trish then jumped across the roof and landed in front of them gracefully, easily clearing what had to be at least a fifty-foot gap without any difficulty.

"What's the hold-up?" Trish asked, surveying the area around them. Clearly, they were in the middle of something. She could tell just by how worried everyone looked. And was that a dead demon turning to ash in the van? Clearly, they had missed something. She had just come here because of the noise, but from what she could tell, she and Lady had been right on time. "Is something wrong?"

"Um, the… the van needed a jump, and the car couldn't do it." Nico just stared at her, really processing for the first time that Trish wasn't human. She'd known that for a long time now, but there was just something so strange about seeing her jump the distance of several school buses and land without so much as bending her knees. It was strange, to say the least.

Trish made a face that signified her relief that car trouble was all that was going on here before putting her twin handguns away and unclamping the jumper cables. She then placed her hands together and rubbed them, seemingly concentrating for a moment as she did so. Small golden sparks seemed to jolt outward and away from their source, the blond demoness seemingly charging up her lightning with ease. Before Nico could ask what Trish was doing, she placed both of her hands on either side of the engine and the entire car jolted momentarily before shuddering to a stop again. Kyrie yelped in surprise from within the vehicle, but there was little risk to her actual safety with Trish working on the van. She knew what she was doing and was in total control.

Looking over at the young brunette as she approached the front window of the van, Trish then glanced over at Nico. The mechanic seemed to still be in mild shock as to what she'd just seen the blond devil do, but not so much shock that she couldn't tell that she was being silently addressed. She liked to think that no matter what the one thing she could count on about herself was her ability to at least focus on the task at hand, especially when it involved demons.

"Are the keys in the ignition?" Trish asked, peering over at the side of the van. At least the door to the van was still intact. From what she could tell the demon had tried to pry it open. She was surprised that it was still attached to the van at all. Demons didn't exactly have a reputation for being gentle with vehicles, after all. Quite the opposite, actually. In fact, was the van magic or something? How had it managed to survive that encounter unscathed? Had they just been lucky? It seemed that the van's reputation for being indestructible was once again proven correct.

"Y-yea, they are," Nico said, staring up at the blond demon as she attempted to finish processing the fact that she had just seen Trish do that. Part of her wasn't sure she'd actually seen what she thought she'd just seen, but she was also aware that she knew someone who had literally come back from the dead, someone who had basically come back from the dead, and someone else who had grown back their arm after having it ripped off, and Dante, so she wasn't sure why this concept seemed so strange to her. "So… you can shoot lightning out of your hands, too?!"

"Dante didn't tell you about that? I'm surprised." Trish closed the hood of the van before turning her attention back towards the huge demon that was trying its best to make its way out of the harbor. It had clambered its way onto part of the ferry now, and the water it was sloshing haphazardly onto the docks was going to become a problem very quickly. They needed to get as many people clear as possible. Lightning was conductive, and she didn't need any of these people standing in something that would make it easier for her to accidentally kill them. She just hoped that Patty, Nico, and Kyrie would be safe inside of the van. She'd give them a little time to get away while she did what she could to get as many people out of here as she could. "You know what, it doesn't matter right now. We can talk about that once this is all over. You have to get out of here. Kyrie, start the van. We need to know if it worked."

Trish looked away from Nico and over at Kyrie, the nervous brunette seemingly hesitant to start the ignition after that much electricity had just been shot through the van. But after taking a deep breath to help steady her thoroughly frayed nerves she did and the van thankfully roared to life. After much trial, error, and struggle they could finally get out of there! It almost didn’t feel real given everything that had just happened.

Lady came running over a second later, yelling what few people remained to get clear. She didn't really need to at that point though. Most of them had decided to do that when a demon the size of a small building had suddenly opted to climb out of the harbor. She caught sight of the others and waved them down, having overheard some of what was being said but not enough to consider herself fully in the know.

"We're gonna borrow your car, Patty. Sorry in advance if it doesn't come back in one piece." Lady said as she ran past Patty, waving at her in the process. Hopefully, this would be fast enough to get the job done. They had somewhere to be after they finished up here.

Patty couldn't say that she cared honestly. All she cared about was getting the door to the van closed before any more unwanted passengers hitched a ride. The last thing they needed was for poor Kyrie to have to try and shoot something again. She still seemed pretty shaken up about it the first time around. But hey, at least she had managed to actually hit it. Patty wasn't sure that she would actually be able to hit anything. "Not my car anyway! I think my mom has insurance on it! You stay safe! We're gonna see you again sometime soon!"

With that, Nico jumped into the driver's seat and floored the gas, hoping to send them rocketing forward through the gap between the two buildings and out of the path of the rising water. And not a second too soon. They were quickly losing traction, and this would probably be their last chance to try and get out of here. The tires spun uselessly for a few seconds before the van finally managed to get a grip on the pavement and pull them forward and towards the gate at the end of the alleyway. None of them had any qualms about driving through a mesh fence. It would be silly not to at a time like this.

Lady and Trish watched the van go before turning to look at one another. Patty had just nabbed a car from a garage that wasn't hers and drove it down here in the middle of a demonic attack with reckless abandon? Now that was the girl Dante had helped raise. They were so proud of her. The little girl they had known when they had first met her would have probably been the first to warn against something like that but now? Now it seemed that she was truly ready to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Consequences and financial ruin be damned.

They grew up so fast…

"Alright, let's finish this thing off and get the hell out of here!" Lady said as she readied her rocket launcher, ready and willing to send it back to whatever pit in hell it had crawled out of. She watched as Trish pulled out her own twin pistols and charged them full of her golden lightning, taking aim at the demon's head. If aquatic demons worked the way that she thought they did then that wasn't going to feel very good.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Trish said, ready to finish this fight once and for all. They needed to finish this thing off as quickly as they could and group back up with Lucia. She and some of the Ludwig girls were holding things down on the opposite side of town, and they were both willing to bet that they could use an assist. But still, it was exciting to get to fight something this size. They didn’t get to do that very often anymore. Dante normally beat them to the really fun fights. They were going to do their best to enjoy this! "We've got work to do. Let's send this guy back where he came from and get out of here. We have a whole city to save."

(-~-)

I had an entirely different end not here originally, but now it just feels disingenuous because of what just happened. Fuck google docs, and thank you for reading 80+ chapters of this fic. I’m genuinely shocked that so many people like it and have been reading it for so long! Thanks for the support. I will (hopefully) see you on Friday. Sorry for such a shitty start to the year.

#Hiraeth #Lady #Trish #Patty #Nico #Kyrie #Kyle #Carlo #Julio #DMC #DMC5 #DMCV #Devil May Cry 5 #Devil May Cry #Devil May Cry V #My Post Devil May Cry 5 Fics #My Post Devil May Cry 5 AU #My post Devil May Cry V AU #My Post Devil May Cry V Fics

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phoebehalliwell · 4 years ago

Note

I need some kind of a photoshop lesson for this aesthetic of yours

okay i’m gonna do a tutorial real time for a picspam type aesthetic that will look like this ⇣ a photo i will put here once i make it.

step one. open ps : )

welcome : )

okay so dimensions r a thing tumblr compresses photos like hella so i do all my still img aesthetics 900x900 is you’re trying to do this for say insta i would actually recommend jumping up to 1080x1080. pixels, obviously. idk if i have to clarify that.

so click ctrl+n or create new i’ll be doing 900x900

these r the rest of my settings i personally do not think they matter my resolution stays at 72 the only thing i’ve detected this affecting is font size. (side note notice how this pic looks all fuzzy? that’s bc it’s a ss with a boatload of pixels. and if there’s one thing tumblr hates. it’s pixels. and then it’s users. but who’s counting? tumblr is. i recommend keeping ur still images 900x900♥)

step two is collecting ur images i personally use pinterest for these bc quite frankly it’s really nice & easy to find these types of photos esp if you’re looking for a canon character bc if you type in [character name] aesthetic you’ll get stuff if you don’t quite frankly even just type in aesthetic you can scroll until you find an image you like click on that and go through like images underneath it and keep burning thru. like u probably know how to work pinterest. but i am being thorough and covering my bases. searching [color] aesthetic is also nice or even searching a character that isn’t the character you’re doing this for but who’s kind of similar that also works. i recommend esp for charmed bc their pinterest gets bogged down with screencaps and then like. charms like jewelry searching “charmed aesthetic” or “phoebe halliwell aesthetic” really just doesn’t cut it so what i’d recommend is instead of going through pins, go through boards.

bc like. big difference. other pro tips if you see a board you like, go to the person’s profile and check out their other boards bc odds are you’ll find more you like. another protip if you’re specifically doing ocs typing in oc aesthetic will get you a lot even going to the boards on that as well. yields.

so. you’ve gathered ur images. u need five. open em. i’m making an aesthetic 4 myself which you’ve probably already guessed from the fact i’m putting the finished piece at the top, but it’s not ready yet so it’s still a surprise for me.

cropping. if ur doing a 900x900, use these setting exactly. 1080x1080 use 1080/2 x 1080/3. i’m not doing the math 4 u ♥

most important part? Delete Cropped Pixels. otherwise ur not really doing anything. crop all five images.

but them in ur document. document? psd? ur thing ♥ place them places. u do not have to commit now. leave one middle one blank. it does not matter which one. i personally like to alternate my text pieces if i’m doing a long post like what i did on my ncwotng set. some people keep them all on the same side. this lowkey bugs me i feel like it throws off the Balance but i imagine some people like The Consistency. i don’t. but w/e. it’s up to u as this is gonna be ur set. also like. as you’ve cropped these to x/2,x/3 settings they should fit nice like puzzle pieces : )

the next step i personally like doing is creating by text box with The Color™ do this bc simply duplicating one of ur images, shoving it in the empty slot, and converting into a sharp object. edit contents.

now. obvi i selected these images w a color scheme in mid. i recommend u do the same. even if it’s just vague. they don’t all have 2 fit. this is my example of my sheridan piece b4 or after. tweaking is possible. layers w masks r ur friend. i can talk about them more if need be.

But. back 2 the smart object. brush tool. paint it.

♥

the text i used was times new roman all caps 40pt font 0 spacing for the title and times new roman 14pt font 0 spacing italics for the subheading. here’s my dency b4 and after for comparison

next step is after you have your text in alright, shove everything into groups. mode on “normal”

then you can start editing. the groups let you edit things like lighting and color without touching any of the layers below it 👍

i’m not gonna do a Major coloring tutorial, for lighting i’ll usually tinker with exposure, levels, sometimes brightness/contrast. for colors, color balance + hue/saturation. i rarely touch anything else.

i’ll bring u along 4 the coloring of this one bc i’m gonna add a layer mask.

so the first thing i’m going to do bc the paper itself is already close to the vibe is i’m going to color it normal and just ignore the background

something like that. then i’m going to add a layer mask (square button w the plus sign)

and then i’m going to eye dropper a color off from somewhere else

now i was talking about the “normal” blend mode stops ur color settings from bleeding over onto other images? does not apply to painting on layers but you’re already masking this bad boy, so it doesn’t matter. just don’t say i didn’t warn u

i’d recommend using a really ridiculous blend mode to clean up ur thing at first, i’m using darken which isn’t that wild but like whatevs.

add a layer mask using this button.

select and mask

use this thing to clean up ur mask

okay so i did a lot since we last spoke

but if i impart any lesson to u. it’s: fuck around. find out. that’s literally how i’ve basically done everything. nothing’s ever really gone horribly wrong. click things. see what happens.

okay so now that you’ve kinda gotten everything figured out. change ur text box color again. i’m introducing u to ye ol trick that is not the paint brush. but. hue/saturation on colorize more yeah babyyyyy

ahaha yes. love this bad boy.

Now. Trick To Make Everything Super Cohesive™. put things above All of your groups.

yeah boy.

reorganize ur thing bc u don’t like how it looks.

fuck around w a lot of stuff.

it’s still cluttered.

fuck it. grab a new image.

something like that. never let the fear of striking out keep u from playing the game : )

fuck around a bit more.

vibes♥

save ur image bc u literally Have Not Done That Yet

& then remember the other thing u forgot to do

eyedropper what ur text box looks like move the whole thing to the tippity top and recolor

this is just bc u’ve fuck around a lot w a lot f different settings. this ensures that the text stays the same color u set it as.

okay final step.

turn The Whole Thing into a smart object, smart sharpen

leave out the text box tho. the sharpened text can look weird. it’s ur choice, but with these settings,, cronch.

and wallah. ctrl+shift+s save as png and bada bing bada boom baby. aesthetic

#like i cannot stress how much of this simply is. fuck around. find out.#like just have fun click on things #go ape #like there's no right or wrong way to do this #anyways i used to make these for harry potter on canva ♥ remember ur roots #tutorials #ps tutorial #aesthetic tutorial #ogwork

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heartxclouds · 4 years ago

Text

Diabolik Lovers: Wrong Blood-Prisonned Bridal;;Part 1

[C]♡. Hello! Welcome to this blog..

This is my first try on writting my DL AU, which is called Wrong Blood-Prisonned Bridal if you are new to it! I think that I am experienced enough in writting so this is why I took the courage to write it! I do hope that you enjoy and follow the instructions clearly because yes, I have a rules in here- It isn't forced but you still need to view the rules. 📄

Rules;; {+ Instructions}

If you click on a OST link, you can hear the music ^^

When something is written in italic, it means that it's a wisper.

I would appreciate it if you have enjoyed the story, that you comment or like! Like that it makes me want to continue! If you need to give me constructive critism please send me a PM (Private Message).

In here there will be some spooky things so if you dislike that a lot, please proceed with caution. PS: Niko is a gypsy, that isn't meant as a slur. Niko is a girl that travels, does fortune telling and dances. So don't worry. I'm not here to offend.

If you see a edit with subtitles, read the subtitles! And if you can't see a image clear? Click on it!

Some edits are old or come from friends! I will credit them don't worry, they will be credited in the section 'Information'. And for the old edits, I'll put old in the end of the post in section 'Iformation'.

Thank you for reading the rules! I hope you enjoy this now. 🎃🍂

...

It was afternoon, at this time.. Many kids were playing. Screams of joy because of hide and seek, sometimes pain because they fell and even tears or joy because they were laughing so much. But there was one little girl that wasn't in the mood for playing. She would rather read books at this time of the day, she had secretly picked out some books out of the small library of her mother. Vampires..What were they? Monsters- Bloodsuckers- Creatures of the night... The little gypsy girl was amazed by these stories but also terrified. Welcome to the world of the small Niko Riverdale.

Winter.. It was cold but fun, Niko turned six years old not long ago. She felt like she could be a adult any second. Niko loved to play as the little adult.. But to be honest, it was scary. People always had some type of disgusted look when they spotted a gypsy, and it was like this everywhere. But on the possitieve side.. Some people could be nice and accept them, even enjoy they're dances. A gypsy was never meant to have a bad view.. Being a gypsy was seen as some kind of culture too. The priest always said that God hates gypsy's.. That if you were one, that a spirit will haunt you.. Kill you.. Destroy you. All kids from Niko's age knew the dark reality already, God? Hah.. When did God help? That's what they were thinking.. But Niko thought otherwise, she believes that God is good.

-"Mom.. Why do people hate us?"

Niko was holding the hand of her mother while they were walking back home. Reading hour was finished and Niko had hidden those vampire themed books in her bag before her mother got to see it.

-"Ah.. Don't worry about that honey.. You know.. In this world there are people that can hate you without a good reason.. That is why we need to be strong."

Her mother had felt some un-easy feeling.. Excactly, why did people hate them? She didn't know the answer herself... She held the hand of her daughter slightly tighter, they would go to the cathedral before getting back home. She entered the building and went to the small praying spot that was there. She looked at her daughter, she would need to pick a different one.. Niko went to the Maria statue that wasn't too far away from her mother.

-"My God.. I'm here to ask you questions.. I hope that I don't bother you at this moment but..Do you hate me? Or my mom..? My gypsy people..? You know.. Today some kids didn't want to play with me.. They're parents didn't want that.. Even if it was my birtday.. Hmph.. And God, I'm 6 years old now.. That's a lot, right? Hehe.. Will you please answer me..? I now pray this in the name of our saviour. Amen.."

Niko did the quick cross sign before walking back to her mother, that seemed to have finished her praying. Niko held the hand of her mother.. Did God hear her? Will she get the message..? Who knows.. Maybe God, had a surprise.

After getting home, having dinner and having a bath.. Niko was relaxed and ready to read some more about the nocturnal horror creatures.. Curiousity really killed the cat.. And Niko was clearly the cat in this example. The moon was up.. The beautifull blue moon that shinned in Niko's room, Niko could observe those beautifull night skies forever.. She didn't realise that is was already 2 AM, Niko would be in trouble if her parents found out that she was still up.

{[OST|https://youtu.be/9xWi_RkqYiM]}

But strangely a sound ruined the silence.. Crying.. Rather disturbing. A fenale voice? Calling out for help but it all sounded like a echo. For a kid this could be creepy looking, but for Niko.. She was worried.. Not about that sudden visit in her house of a crying voice but she was actually concerned about the feelings of the person.. Did they need to escape? Was there a killer outside? No.. Not at all. Niko got out her room and walked down the hallway.. The wood plancs made a creak sound. The more Niko approached.. The more the crying became louder. She could see now.

A woman with pretty long white hair was sitting on her knees on the floor. Her clothing was white too- She also had some kind of long blue see-through scarf, she also had white gloves, pretty ones that people always wore when they were from a rich family.. Her skin was pale, as pale as porcelin.

-"Umm.. Miss..? What's wrong? What is happening..? Are you hurt..?"

Niko was a child with good manners but it was kinda weird.. How did that woman come in? The door was locked, the windows too.. Who was this woman? Or what is she? The crying didn't stop but when Niko placed her hand on the shoulder of the beauty, then she turned around and held Niko's shoulders tightly.

-"Where is h-he?! WHERE IS HE?! I NEED HIM-?! MY CHILD.. HAVE YOU SEEN MY CHILD?! AHHHH!!!? I WANT HIM BACK! I WANT HIM BACK?! HE NEEDS TO BE FIXED.. HE NEEDS TO BE HAPPY!! WHERE IS HE?! AHHH?!!?? TELL-?! TELL MEEEE AAHHHH!?!"

Niko felt paralyzed.. A random woman just came here and was finding her child.. Her child is broken? He needs to be fixed? That woman didn't look normal at all either.. She was way too pale for a human being.. It was dead skin colour.. She had long fangs too.. And also you could see through her..? A ghost-? A spirit?! Niko's eyes were tearing up- God, can God explain?! Why don't Niko's parents hear this?! Was she crazy?! Niko just got out the grip and ran to her room and locked it, she got on her bed and hid under the covers.

-"God please.. Make it stop.. Make it stop.. I'm scared.. Don't give me to Satan.. Not the devil, I beg you.. Do you hate me? Is this my curse now?"

This was a bad experience for a child, it could be traumatizing.. Niko was praying for this to stop, but then she heard the loud banging against her door- She was screamed.. The woman was still crying and screaming.

-"FIX HIM?! YOU CAN FIX HIM!! FIND HIM!! YOU MUST FIND HIM!?? DO IT PLEASE!!!"

Niko hugged her knees, she was way too scared to say anything or open the door. Niko cried in her sleep.. In the background she could still hear the crying.. The crying of a female vampire ghost..

...

[{OST}|https://youtu.be/NvMROvgMOz0]

[C]...

It was night time, a few nights have passed since that incident and that woman always kept her awake- Screaming and crying.. Niko was hidding under the covers- Hoping that it would stop soon. She held her bunny plush close, it was a white bunny with red buttons as eyes.. It clearly was a old design, but she loves it. The banging on the door soon stopped.. But it replaced with a wisper. Was Niko getting crazy? Hearing wispers in her head.. That made Niko just hug her plush tighter.

-"Go to the forest.. In the forest you'll find a mansion.. I need you to fix him.. Please"

Niko looked down- She letted out a sigh.. Even if her parents forbid her to go out at night- She would do it- Like that the nights without sleep will stop..Maybe. Niko puts on her small brown boots and then got out the house after grabbing her plushie and wearing a yellow jacket, it matched her eyes perfectly. Now, Niko got in the dark forest.. Why did she forget the flashlight?? She hugged her plush tighter.

-"It's you and me mister carrots.. We will finish this.."

You could hear in Niko's voice that she was scared- She planned to get back home and get the flashlight.. But it already was too late- Her house wasn't visible anymore. Was she lost-? Niko started to tear up, she felt stressed and she could sense that there was danger close by. Niko didn't trust the sound of breaking twigs and leafes that were being crushed.. Without further hesitation, she started to run- She didn't care that she could see nothing- Her mind told her to run. And she was lucky that she started running now, because the hungry wolves were out now, howling and groaning, they wanted the eady prey that was there now.. And the prey was Niko. A girl her size and her age was as easy as catching a mouse.

{ [Wolf howling|https://youtu.be/66HKBdZe_WA]}

-"HELP!! PLEASE SOMEBODY!! WOLVES!! HELP!!"

Niko was screaming while running- But nobody was there to save her- But God must have heard her wish.. The mansion- It was there- Right infront of her! Niko quickly openned the door and got in. She heard the wolves outside, they were howling and sniffing where she was hidding. There was a moment of silence soon.. Were they gone? Niko peeked through the window to see if those carnivores were still there and it seemed that they dessapeared.

-"Hehe!! No dinner for you guys!"

Niko giggled happily, she was happy to stay alive- But soon after her short victory dance, she felt something.. No.. Someone behind her- She gulped and then slowly turned her head to see a tall man.. His eyes were some type of dark pink and his hair was purple- He also was wearing glasses. Niko stepped back as her eyes were wide from how scared she was- Will he hurt her..?

-"Entering the house of someone like that is really dissrespectfull. You need to learn some manners."

The male was getting straight to the point- His expression was serious and he clearly wasn't happy with Niko's action from before. Niko quickly openned the door and ran out- This was unexpected. She never knew that someone lived there.. No wonder that it looked so clean.

The man with glasses sighed as he watched a albino with the corner ofhis eye.

-"Oh.. So you did decide to come for dinner. I am waiting for your apologize. The dinner is cold and everyone is back to their rooms."

The purple haired man walked away, slightly annoyed. He puts his gloves on in a more comfortable manner as he was walking. The albino narrowed his eyebrows as he gave off a 'tch' noise, he just got back from the garden not long ago. Who was that girl though? How did she find this hidden mansion? He wondered.. But he won't think about it too much. He went to the dinning room.

Meanwhile, Niko had ran away from the mansion.. Fear was described in her eyes. But then- Her house, she saw it.. And yet, she didn't run far away from the mansion. Magic? How? She turned around.. Only trees were seen. How in the world? The small brunnette ran quickly to her home and her parents waited for her.. Crying tears of relief and ordering her to never ever do that again but.. Will she keep that promise-?

✧.*ೃ༄9 Years later...

The sound of the flutes and tambourines filled the streets, the gypsy's were there.. And it seemed that Niko and her sisters were the ones to dance. The same thing happened once again, for some the disgusted look and for some others there was the look of enjoyement. The gypsies how flexible and gracious moves- They always had a beautifull performance in mind. After the dance performance, niko and her sisters earned some money.. They will use this for food and clothing... And for Niko's mother, Rei. She was doing fortune telling to get money for the small house that they have.

The golden eyes of the brunnette spotted a animal..A cat..A white one to be specefic. She stared at it for quite a while- The cat looked at Niko and purred before walking away. Niko sighed a bit as she furrowed her eyebrows. Then Niko realised that her siblings were already going back home- She better quickly catch up with them.. Niko openned the door of the house and watched her father, he was laying on his usual dark blue couch.. She sighed and went to him, seeing that he was sleeping for bow. Niko smiled softly and puts a blanket over her father.. You could sleep better if you were cozy and warm. Niko remembered that she needed to handle something quick- She went to the door and openned it.

-"Where are you going?"

Her big brother John saw that she was planning to leave..Even if it was almost dinner time. He placed the wood in the fire, it was spring and yet it felt like it was still winter.

-"I'm going to the church.. I'll be back home soon though, see ya..!"

Niko got out once more and step by step made her way to the holy building..To be honest, the church was scary.. All dark colours and paintings of suffering- Even some god statues were scary. But Niko always felt much calmer when she saw the Maria statue. She closed her eyes and held her hands together.

-"God.. It is already nine years and three months that this ghost is haunting me.. The cries, they scare. Please help me..Give me a sign to freedom. In the name of our saviour. Amen.."

Niko could not live forever with this kind of ghost that visits her each night. Each time begging to save her child more specefictly her son.. What was this all about? She letted out a sigh- A sad one.. A concerned one. Was this all in her head? Was Niko getting crazy? Her parents and siblings didn't realky believe her.. Her mother did but she didn't know what to do. She rubbed her forehead and just went back home after doing the little cross sign. Niko really believed that god exists.. That someone is watching you.. Sins, Actions, Desires..Wishes. It was scary and yet so releaving in her opinion. After having dinner and a family talk, it was time to prepare for bed. Niko took a shower to refresh herself, she brushed her teeth, got in a fresh nightgown and then finnaly got in bed.

{ [OST|https://youtu.be/aG-39UWA4u0]}

Niko knew what will be going on tonight, she just hoped that it will stop. Each time, she repeats that hope. 12 pm.. It's almost time, Niko's eyes stayed open- She probably won't be able to sleep this night again. This was a punishement.. Was it really though? Niko didn't know but it was horrible to go through.

-"Go..Go.. Go back to the mansion.. He needs you.. You need to make him happy. Please. That's my only wish.."

-"W-Why can't you just leave me alone?"

-"Go..Go.. Go back to the mansion.. He needs you.. You need to make him happy. Please. That's my only wish.."

This repeated over and over again. Niko tried to get a other answer but it still was the same the "Go..Go.. Go back to the mansion.. He needs you.. You need to make him happy. Please. That's my only wish.." was always repeating. Niko had enough, she will go back there, early in the morning to not get wolves or other wild animals after her.

And she really did this plan. In the morning, around 5 am, she got up and got in her red gypsy dress and she wrapped a yellow scarf around her waist, she also puts on her yellow bandana after that she had brushed her long brown hair. She took a quick toast from the kitchen and frowned. She will return back home like last time, she was sure that it would happen as planned.

-"Let's get done with this"

Niko mumbled after getting out and going to the forest. Niko could see now where she was going. It wasn't dark, it was sunny already. The brunnette tried to find the mansion, but it was nowhere to be seen. It really annoyed her, she wanted to not be haunted by that woman anymore, she didn't want to struggle anymore with it. This was going to be the end. Did she really need to wish for the mansion to appear out of nowhere??

Niko ran through the bushes but that caused her to trip, she shook her head and got up after wiping some of the dirt away. But then.. When she lifted her eyes back up to normal. It was there- The mansion that she searched for for hours long. Niko stepped towards the gates-

Niko gulped when the gates went open on it's own. This was..Magic? No way. She must be dreaming. Niko slapped her cheeks with her hands.

-"Gah.. Niko-chan.. Wake uppppp..! Owie-"

Niko stopped slapping her cheeks and took a big inhale before taking the courage to enter the territory of the mansion. A certain stress overwhelmed Niko, it was uncomfortable... As if she was going in some type of haunted mansion. The crows were watching Niko, some letting out their loud bird noises.. These type of birds were mostly around graveryards. Which made this give more of a creepy atmosphere. Niko knocked on the door and waited- She learned last time that shouldn't just enter a house/mansion out of nowhere.. But hey she had no other choice. Niko saw that the door openned.. But weirdly nobody was behind it. Anyone would be running away from this already..No? Niko would have loved to do that but she really wanted to get the spirit away from her. So- Niko got in and looked around..

-"Helloo?? Someone here..? Uh.."

{[OST|https://youtu.be/_iF7lkXKHlA]}

Niko wanted to check first of course. And yet, there was no reply.. Maybe they weren't home? The brunnette wanted to know what the woman meant. 'Make him happy' 'Fix him' 'He needs you', her only wish. The spirit meant a person? Of course- Niko facepalmed. The brunnette still felt that same uncomfortable feeling, that feeling of being watched. This place wasn't safe.. It wasn't safe at all!! Niko had shivers running down her spine. Blood.. Blood running down the walls, Niko's visions made her think that.. This mansion.. It had bad secrets.. Secrets that nobody should ever know about.

Run..

Niko's mind kept telling her to run. Run for your life. Run for you freedom before-

Niko had ran back to the front door, it won't open?! No no- This wasn't the plan. God, what did Niko end up into?! Tears ran down her cheeks as fear took her over once more, was she trapped? Was this a prank??

Niko felt a hand on her shoulder.. She hesitated to look behind, but after some seconds she did. A albino man, right there..Glaring down at her with his intimidating look. Niko could not take it anymore.. She fainted. The man catched her in time and groaned.

Run for your freedom before it's too late..

It's too late...

He snarled when he saw her exposed neck with her black chocker necklace. He seemed to hold back something- He seemed to control it for now. The man openned his lips to speak out his words;

End of episode 1... 🍂

Information section:

Time taken: Started on 6 oct 2020- Finished on 14 oct 2020.

Credits;; Story (@me); Edits (@Me) Niko at the gates (Old edit)

I hope that you enjoyed! And I also hope that you would like to follow my journey of Wrong Blood!

See you soon... 🎃

I had posted this long ago but I wanted to share it here too♡

#oc story #anime #diaboliklovers #diabolikloversoc #au #wrongblood #prisonnedbridal #story #fanfiction #ocxcanon

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