#seriously stop hoarding them Prime

[meraki-yao]

It's been five months since the movie's been released (happy anniversary<3), I'm still obsessed as ever, and at this point I want to turn into an eldritch demon and screech at Prime for still hoarding all the deleted scenes while still posting old RWRB stuff on their socials (they better be saving up for something big)

But on the topic of deleted scenes

In Matthew's podcast interview with Tommy DiDario he said, and I quote, "There's a whole other version of this movie that I could assemble out of alternate takes, and it would be a different movie"

Now don't get me wrong, I am absolutely in love with what we got in the end

And with every new footage of a deleted scene surfacing, I keep wondering what the fuck that sentence means

Like, how different would "a whole other version of this movie" be? Would the plot itself change? Would the characterization change? Does he mean just adding the deleted scenes or also using alternate cuts of the pre-existing scenes (like the NY kiss, they shot the version we see with Alex responding and one without Alex responding)? How many deleted scenes or moments are there? We made lists but we didn't even know the Paris morning scene existed before the bloopers, how many other scenes are we unaware of? The music director said there were seven versions of Paris? How many fricking versions of the movies are there????

WHAT DO YOU MEAN MATTHEW?????!!!

So yeah I'm going insane 🫠

[numberonecameraman]

📢 unova gym leaders

Unlike the Champions, I haven’t spent an extended amount of time with the Gym Leaders. But, I have fought most of them, so hopefully this will do.

Chili, Cilan, and Cress are a weird bunch. They do this thing where they speak at the same time and finish each others’ sentences. They think it’s funny, but I think it’s creepy. Their teams also suck. No wonder they got replaced.

I helped with a special about Cheren and his two friends after the first Team Plasma incident. He’s a quiet kid and really wanted to get the interview over with. His responses were all a couple sentences except the ones about Hilbert. I saw him at the PWT a few years later and he appears to be doing well. If his team there was anything to go by, it must suck to fight the Aspertia Gym.

Lenora’s genuinely intimidating. She’s a sweet person overall but never get on her bad side. Her team can mop the floor with you and her husband can throw a decent punch. Beyond that, she’s opened a restaurant in Nacrene after retiring. The food is delectable. Check it out if you can.

Burgh is kinda like Wallace but replace drama with art. Everything’s about paintings to him. He makes great art, but his real talent lies in interior design. His Gym should be all the evidence of that you need. I struggled battling him but that’s mostly because my team sucks against Bug types.

I’ve had to record some Elesa’s modeling videos. She’s probably the most sensible of the stuck up rich celebrities. She treats her crew like people and usually doesn’t give outrageous demands. Usually. That Emolga strategy she uses in battle makes me seriously question my opinion on her thought. No kind person could do that to someone willingly.

Clays also a little weird. He makes a lot of weird jokes and his accent makes it impossible to understand the punchlines half the time. I appreciate what he did for the Driftveil community and actually investing money in the town instead of hoarding it like some other CEOs I know. His battle was an interesting one. I think he threw the fight. He primarily lost to a Maractus. I love him, but he’s not the strongest.

Skyla’s really annoying. Though part of that might be because I had to wait three days to battle her since she was doing some deliveries in another Region. She loves her job and I’m glad she does, but she made being a pilot her entire personality and it bothers me. Kinda like Lance now that I think about it. The difference between them is that she can actually get serious if the chips are down.

Brycen is the Gym Leader I know best since I worked on the modern Brycen-Man series. He takes acting deadly seriously. He’ll stop entire scenes if something’s slightly off. It’s annoying in real time, but I appreciate the dedication. I battled him at his prime so the fight was a really tough one. He spent half the battle in exploiting my weaknesses then teaching me how to avoid them while fighting him. It was an awesome fight.

I’ve only met Drayden once. He’s terrifying. He’s almost 7 feet tall and the rumors are true. He wrestles with fully grown Dragon Pokémon and I’ve never seen him lose. I’m not ashamed to say I lost to him twice before I beat him. Despite that, Drayden is awesome. He let me crash at his place while I was in Opelucid and really cares about the people. He and Alder are good friends, so that’s a barrier to entry, but I try to look past that.

I already talked about Iris in the Champions post.

[void-tiger]

Yet another reason why murdering Jiro to harvest Shiro a body:

It’s the same mentality so-called “parents” have when they birth another child just to have that second child be harvestable for their first, sickly child.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Sympathy

So apparently there was a Ukranian ambassador at Prime Minister’s Questions today.

So, like, this poor guy from Ukraine is watching his country get bombed and listening to this rumpled pile of horse crap bigging himself up while not actually answering any questions. Or outright lying. Or both, at times.

Sanctions?

“We will have the best sanctions!”

When? ‘Cos, I mean, last we heard you were still waiting on a list of Russian oligarchs despite both the US and the EU being willing to let you copy their homework and along with all the Russian property owners and Tory donors, one of those Russian oligarchs owns one of the most famous football teams in the Premier League, so...

“We will have the best sanctions!”

Okay then. Refugees?

“We will be very generous to refugees!”

So how about dropping the visa requirements for Ukranians like a whole bunch of other countries have?

“Oh, but they’re all Schengen visa countries; we can’t do that!”

Except Ireland’s not a Schengen visa country and they’re doing it, so...

“We will be very generous to refugees!”

And the multiple stories we’re hearing about refugees being turned away at the border despite having family here?

“Priti Patel says they might be Russian extremists!”

...So nothing about the oligarchs you’re still giving time to move their assets somewhere safe, who are way more likely to be pro-Russian than a refugee fleeing their war-torn country with everything they currently own stuffed in a small bag.

“We will be very generous to--”

Oh for fuck’s sake. Okay, what about the decreased average life expectancy of people in certain spots? Like, people are likely to die twelve years sooner than they would in other parts of the country? Are we going to do something about that?

“New hospitals! Forty of ‘em!”

...Okay, first of all, most of your “new hospitals” aren’t new hospitals at all, but new wings or refurbishments. And no one can seem to tell us whether their refurbishment qualifies under that vague umbrella or even when the work is happening.

“But according to our definition of new hospitals--”

Also, for fuck’s sake, that doesn’t help actual life expectancy. Maybe a better standard of living by, I dunno, scrapping the National Insurance hike so people can actually live, or really helping with people’s suddenly hugely inflated gas and power bills instead of giving them a loan that they’ll be even less able to pay back when they have to than they are now, or maybe stopping the power and gas companies who are making millions in bonuses for themselves from gouging us price-wise, or stop the cuts to local services - again, all in service of letting people actually live and keep money moving in the economy instead of having people who haven’t earned it sit on it like a dragon on its hoard...

"New hospitals! By our definition of ‘new’, and eventually!”

Fucking hell...

I mean, seriously, he not only showed how little he cared about the Ukranian people, but how little he cared about his own! It was all waffle-waffle-waffle, thoughts-and-prayers but no concrete help, staged gobbledygook to big himself up. He knows that this is not the time to force a leadership challenge, and he’s taking full advantage of it to try to make himself look big and important and all he’s doing is reminding the world that he has zero respect for anything or anyone. Everything from his stage-managed rumpled look to his pretenses at having actually benefited from his Eton ‘education’ (because just because the asshole went there doesn’t mean he learned anything, and his teachers there will confirm that all he learned to do was trash fancy restaurants and bully the poor) just...

I hate him. I hate him so much. And I had so much sympathy for the poor Ukranian dude who had to sit there and watch this waffle-merchant spew inane bullshit with his high-class rowdies doing the Greek chorus bit behind him. We are a joke. We aren’t leading the way on anything except possibly contempt.

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

With the second half of chapter 11, I am ready for people thoughts / questions / comments on the opening arcs. Were there favorite parts of it? Parts you wish had had a little more to them? Who’s your favorite / least favorite of the characters as shown so far? Anything you found particularly interesting about certain scenes / panels / etc. that you want to share? Have at it! 

I’ll probably be doing some of that myself as I go back through for any little moments I liked, and sort of summarize my own thoughts on the opening arcs. Then, of course, we get to get into the USJ, and see some real action! <3

[No. 11 - Bakugou’s Starting Line]

We come back to the nurse’s office, where Toshinori is awkwardly hovering by Izuku’s bed while Recovery Girl tears into him for Izuku’s third time in her office despite the school year only just starting, and why he hasn’t prevented that damage from happening. Toshinori apologizes to her, and she tells him it’s not her he needs to apologize to. 

(Also, man he’s swimming in his hero costume - really gives a sense of the size difference between the two forms to be honest.)

She notes that Izuku’s come to her both that day and the day before completely fatigued, and that this sort of damage isn’t so easily healed. He’s on an IV drip and has gotten emergency first aid, but all that can be done now is wait for him to recover on his own. 

Which brings me back to chapter 4 with her managing to heal him while he’s completely unconscious and in way worse shape - I really do believe at this point that she CAN use her own stamina to help a patient in critical condition who doesn’t have the energy to heal themselves, but it’s not as effective and, well, drains HER to the point where she won’t be able to help others who might be in need. Ergo, in situations like this, she sticks to hoarding her stamina and letting kids heal their own reckless behavior. (She probably could do a lot more in her prime, but alas.)

She states that she knows Toshinori gave Izuku his power, but regardless of favoritism, Toshinori has to stop indulging Izuku. Toshinori scratches under his ear in embarrassment and says she’s right - he was sympathizing too much, so he hesitated. He then goes on to hesitantly ask her to keep it down while at least discussing One For All. 

She huffs and turns away, mocking him with his ‘natural born hero’ and ‘symbol of piece’ titles. He goes on to explain (for audience benefit alone tbh) that while the staff of UA know about his true form and injury, only Recovery Girl, the principal, an old friend of his (who will later be revealed as Detective Tsukauchi), and Izuku know about his quirk. To everyone else, it’s a secret.

(We know from later on that this isn’t quite true - there are a few others who know - but I suppose that this is the ring of people who he interacts with at this point in time, which is… really fucking depressing. 

Of course, Horikoshi might not have come up with either character beyond vague thoughts and outlines at this point, so I suppose he didn’t want to box himself in on a character design before he was sure they fit his needs. Gran probably was outlined vaguely at this point? But I think Nighteye might not have been created until around Kamino.)

Recovery Girl asks rhetorically whether that talk is just him resting on his laurels, then a bit more seriously asks whether it’s really that important that he be a natural born hero and the Symbol of Peace. We get another up-close shot of Toshinori’s intensity as he states that without him, superhuman society would fall to evil.

(A bit egotistical there, much? But I think it’s also a bit of the toxic mindset he’s had build up over the ages - that he’s alone in being able to hold things together, that there’s no one to fall back on, that he can’t afford to be ‘helped’ even as he keeps falling apart.)

Toshinori then goes on to explain that this is the responsibility that wielders of One For All must bear. Recovery Girl contemplates this quietly for a moment, then says that it’s then all the more important for Toshinori to learn how to guide Izuku properly. 

We transition to after school… which does end up leaving me to wonder whether I was off about heroics being the last class of the day, but at the same time, I don’t see how the teachers expect the kids to be able to focus on academics after two hours of heroics training, not to mention that the kids do need time to digest lunch, so,,, eh. I’m going to presume that here it’s more that with the battle trials ending a bit early, there was time afterwards for discussion before the school day ended.

Anyways, Izuku is just trudging back to class, still in his damaged costume and wearing a sling for his right arm. He’s slouched over, thinking about how Aizawa-sensei is ‘really gonna let him have it’ - which says a lot about his expectations for teachers at this point. He opens the door to the classroom, and is surprised when Kirishima notices him and announces his return, as well as welcomes him back. 

Izuku is quickly surrounded by several classmates (Kirishima, Mina, and Sato), all of whom are excited to talk to him, much to his confusion. Kirishima says that even without knowing what was being said, the battle was wild. Mina complements Izuku’s dodging (which makes sense now that I think about it - she does a lot of dance and incorporates it into her fighting, so she might have thought Izuku was similar? Maybe?) Sato says that everyone was pumped after the crazy first round.

Kirishima, Mina, Tsuyu, and Sato all then introduce themselves in order, with Kirishima saying that they were discussing battle training, Mina restating her admiration for Izuku’s dodging skills, Tsuyu that she just prefers to be called Tsuyu. Izuku is a bit overwhelmed. To the side, Tokoyami grumbles about them being noisy while sitting on the desk - much to Tenya’s concern as he demands Tokoyami get off of it. Someone else tells Tenya to not get bent out of shape. 

The true crack ship - KamiChako. Which is immediately ruined when Ochako makes her way over to Izuku, noticing and worrying over his arm and whether he’d gotten it healed. Izuku says it wasn’t quite healed, since he was so worn out, and then he apologizes and says he has something to do. That something being rushing after Katsuki.

(Literally, that boy walks in, looks around, sees Katsuki isn’t there, and immediately goes ‘sorry I have to go immediately’. Like, I know this is a shounen, but at the same time…)

Izuku catches up to Katsuki on the way to the gate out of the grounds, and is, uh...

Not looking that great, captain. Those bags under his eyes have really seen some cultivation in the time since the battle trial. 

Izuku’s internal thoughts note that where everyone else wanted to talk to him, Katsuki just clammed up and went home. Or maybe it’s Izuku’s memory of Toshinori recounting the aftermath of the class? But Toshinori left right at the end, so uh… I have no idea. 

Anyways, Izuku catches up and gets his attention, drawing Katsuki’s shadowed stare (it’s not quite a glare? So yeah.) Izuku is looking down a bit, narration noting that he hasn’t even told his mom his secret as he states that he can’t say much, but that Katsuki should know this. Izuku thinks about Katsuki’s comments during the battle trial about tricking him, and then…

Well that was a face adventure Katsuki went through. It’s a really good thing he was also too distracted by his own existential angst to really think about Izuku’s words.

But to dig more deeply into this, we can start from the top - literally. Starting at all that space at the top, and then the empty panel (asides from the two) where Izuku states he got his quirk from someone else. It really sort of gives a beat before such a weighty reveal, and more so how, in that moment, Izuku is only focused on Katsuki as he says it.

Izuku goes on to explain that he can’t say who it’s from, and that it’s a bit like a conversation out of a comic book, and that on top of that he can’t even really use it yet, so the borrowed power is pretty useless to him, which is why he tried to beat Katsuki without it… only to fail and be forced to rely on it. While this is happening, Katsuki’s expression goes from confusion/what the fuck towards outright pissed as Izuku rambles on, seemingly nonsensically from his point of view. Izuku states that he has a way to go, and then looks up and meets Katsuki’s gaze as he states that he’s going to make that power his own someday, and then overcome Katsuki with his own power. 

This seems to derail Katsuki’s anger for a moment back towards shock - possibly for the sheer boldness and earnestness of the statement. Izuku’s a bit embarrassed at his rambling reveal, thinking that he’d just meant to tell Katsuki he hadn’t been tricking him, but, well. 

Katsuki wobbles a bit in place, likely to keep himself from instinctively going after Izuku for being, well, Izuku. He repeats Izuku’s comment about borrowed power, then says he has no idea what Izuku’s talking about, but that Izuku is clearly determined to keep making a fool out of him. His anger boils back up as he grits out another swear, and then gets into how he lost to Izuku, and then if that weren’t enough, there was another student - Shouto - who he knows he can’t measure up to. He slaps a hand to his face, nails digging into his hair as he swears again and notes how ‘ponytail girl said it all’. He snaps his arms back down, swearing more, and demands a mostly rhetorical why from Izuku - likely in response to his fear of being able ot measure up to someone he had until then looked down on. Katsuki then declares through tears - and some repetition for emphasis - that from there on out he’s gonna beat everyone. 

He then spins back around and starts to walk off, rubbing at the tears while telling Izuku to enjoy his win, since it won’t happen ever again. Izuku holds himself firm a bit longer, then sighs and seems to lose whatever energy he’d dredged up for that conversation - methinks it’s also a bit exasperated with Katsuki? I mean, I have to admit trying to have a serious convo with the kid has to be a struggle sometimes.

Incredible. Thanks, All Might. And I can’t help but cackle at Izuku swaying in the wind created with All Might rushing right past him to get to Katsuki, as well as that ‘ow!’ from Katsuki. All Might is latched onto Katsuki’s shoulder as he kind of greets the kid, with Katsuki looking about five seconds from turning around and biting the man in the arm like a semi-feral cat.

All Might is wheezing a bit in holding this form while rushing to catch up, starting to offer some advice - that Katsuki’s self-respect is important, and that he definitely has the makings of a pro, just so long as he-

Katsuki cuts him off by telling him to get off, since he can’t walk. He then goes on to say that it’s without question that he’ll be a hero who surpasses even All Might. All Might is surprised at that rebound, taking his hand off while thinking that the usual egomaniac is back. All Might mutters about how being a teacher is tough while watching Katsuki stalk off.

Izuku’s narration notes that Katsuki’s fuse had been lit, but his own goals hadn’t changed - that he would keep chasing after him. While he’s staring dramatically after his childhood friend, All Might starts asking what he said to Katsuki.

We have a last transition to a few days later, the narration noting that the class learned an important lesson that All Might had warned them about - about how they should fear the cleverest of villains. The scene is set in a different area, with the frontmost building being a bar. Someone is shown reading a newspaper article about All Might teaching at UA, as well as his temporary leave from his hero agency. 

The person sets the newspaper down folded neatly, noting how All Might is a teacher now. The voice then goes a bit raspy (or maybe it’s a different speaker) as they wonder out loud about what would happen if villains killed the symbol of peace. 

Whoo boy, what a first introduction to the main antagonist of the series.

It seems like he has all five fingers on the newspaper in those panels? But it might just be the weird angle that keeps us from seeing how careful he is to not do so, which might have given away his quirk before it gets shown in the next arc. 

Also, hello misty character who definitely doesn’t have some deeper, tragic backstory we eventually learn about. 

About those hands… you know, I know what the ‘official’ story behind them ends up being, but like, they all look the same, so I wonder if those are just… random hands from his victims over the years. ...while the design is suitably disconcerning, it also makes sense that Hori would eventually chuck them aside thanks to how much extra drawing and detail they all need. 

Anyways, that closes out the chapter and the opening arcs, so again, open for any sort of thoughts/questions all of you have. I should have my own out in the next few days, I think.

[daugtherofgreed]

Little observation about the deadly sins as I'm on my work break

Envy, Gluttony, and Greed all involve wanting and taking. Yet all for very different reasons. Envy is taking and wanting because it's what others have, often due to wanting to feel included or just as special. Gluttony and Greed are very similar since it's about taking more than needed, but Gluttony is about consuming simply for pleasure.

There's a reason gluttony is mainly about food. Mainly eating too much simply because the food tastes good, you want to eat that much, Ir simply because you can eat that much. It can also apply to drugs or generally anything you can consume for fleeting pleasure. Not caring for how much you take or the side effects of taking it simply because it makes you feel good.

Greed is about keeping. Though having a lot of food, drugs, and alcohol is nice, greed is mainly about keeping large sums of money, nice things, and land all because you can. The dragon hoarding gold and not letting anyone else touch it because it simply cares about keeping the gold is a prime example.

Wrath and Envy both share brutality. Being the majority of crimes are caused by wrath and envy, spouses murdered in a blind rage, and several poisoned, betrayed, or treated like shit out of pure envy. Both of the sins tend to escalate things greatly and often result in more getting physically and/or mentally hurt rather than anything else. Having your money get sucked away by a greedy corporation is bad but would that hurt more than your friend yelling at you during a heated argument or your friend hurting you simply because they wanted something you had? These sins are not only the most brutal but also the most personal

Pride and Sloth both share a lack of care and a lack of need to act. But both for very different reasons. Pride is due to the fact that you refuse to put anyone else above yourself, Sloth meanwhile is just not caring in general. Pride is apathetic because to them they are the most important and Sloth is apathetic because in short nothing much matters to them. Not even themselves.

Lust is kinda the odd one out. Like out of all these things there's generally nothing wrong with being lustful as long as it's kept under control. Maybe lust itself is just inherently sinful but I seriously doubt it. Without lust, we have no want to reproduce, cause case in point without lust rarely anyone would have sex. And no sex means no babies. So in that sense, he's the only sin we really need when you think about it. Like if all of humanity stopped being greedy, prideful, or envious things would be different but it is hard to call that a bad thing. Meanwhile, if no one ever experienced lust things might take a turn for the worse.

[catradoramma]

Day 20: “You could talk about it, you know?” and “Yes, I admit it, you were right.”

This is finally the last instalment of my love potion au!!! This part takes place directly after this one. If you’re new here, you can read part one here!

(now on ao3)

|  Buy me a Kofi  |

Adora caught Catra after dinner before she could disappear. “Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?”

Catra turned to Adora, her ears dropping down, flat against her head before she caught herself and straightened them again. “Sure, what’s up?” Catra asked lightly, but Adora heard, What did I do?

“It’s nothing serious, relax,” Adora said with a little smile as she affectionately tapped Catra’s shoulder. Catra visibly relaxed and Adora at least hoped it wasn’t serious. She let her hand fall down to hold Catra’s hand and gave it a little squeeze before she asked, “Has something been bothering you? Like about me?”

“What?” Catra asked, sounding genuinely confused. “What’re you talking about?” Adora sighed and pulled Catra out of the main hallway and into an abandoned study. Catra tensed up and pulled her hand away before she said, “Hey! I thought you said it wasn’t serious!”

“I didn’t think it was, but you’ve been hiding things from me all day!” Adora exclaimed, feeling a little stressed out.

“What?” Catra exclaimed back, her hair visibly standing on end. She took a deep breath to calm herself and Adora tried to follow suit, but she was too keyed up; too afraid of what Catra might be hiding. “Adora, what are you talking about? I don’t hide anything from you okay?”

“Okay, you say that, but the mind-link thing tells me otherwise,” Adora said, trying to stay calm, but failing as her anxiety showed through. “You keep starting thoughts and then stopping them, but not in a, like, you getting distracted about something way. Like in a trying to keep something away from me way.”

Catra stood there, visibly shocked speechless for a few beats before she was back in full action, her fury rippling over her like a wave. “I’m not hiding anything from you, Adora! Some of us like to have some private thoughts! Not all of us are broadcasting idiots!”

“Oh, so now I’m a broadcasting idiot?” Adora asked, a little too far on the mean side of sarcastic.

“Yes!” Catra burst out. “You’re driving me crazy! I never thought it was possible for someone so air-headed to think so much! You’re so annoying!”

It was Adora’s turn to stand there, visibly shocked speechless. After a few beats of this, where Adora just got closer and closer to wanting to cry, she schooled her features smooth, kept her mind carefully blank, and said, “Alright then,” before walking out, her shoulder brushing Catra’s as she passed.

-- . --

Adora wasn’t sure how she got back to their room, but the next thing she knew she was curled up under the covers and wrapped around Catra’s pillow. The pillow was wet below her cheek.

Adora tried to keep her mind carefully blank, but she couldn’t. All she could think about was Catra and this big secret she had and the fact that her secret would pull them apart.

Adora hadn’t heard a thought from Catra since their fight and Adora didn’t know what to think about that. Was Catra just that good at blocking her thoughts or was there some sort of effectiveness radius on their mind-link? Was Catra okay? Was she as upset as Adora was? Or...or was she totally fine? Was she happier without Adora hanging around constantly?

Adora turned, covered her head with a pillow, and let out a long groan of frustration. She really did just need to see Catra again. To know she was okay. And wallowing here in their bedroom was not going to make anything better.

With a large gusty sigh, Adora sat up. Catra, are you okay? Adora asked, sending her thoughts outwards towards Catra.

It took a few minutes to get a response, but when she did all she got was, Yeah. Then a second later, I’m alright.

Good, Adora couldn’t stop the relieved breath she let out. I’m sorry I cornered you...Can we talk or do you need more time to cool off?

I’m sorry I called you a broadcasting idiot, and an air-head, and annoying, Catra said. We can talk. If you’re not still mad at me.

Adora huffed out a little laugh. I’m not mad. Are you?

Not really, Catra said. I’ve been meditating.

Adora smiled fondly. I’m really glad. Where are you?

The atrium, Catra said, It’s the only place I can really focus.

Would it be alright if I joined you? Adora asked.

Yeah, I think that would be alright, Catra agreed.

-- . --

It didn’t take long for Adora to find Catra. She was sitting on a low branch in one of the taller trees in the atrium, her back against the trunk, one foot dangling off the branch, as the other acted as a sort of headrest.

Adora jumped and caught the branch before hauling herself up to sit next to Catra. “Hey,” she said once she got situated.

“Hey,” Catra said back.

“Look, Catra, I don’t know what’s been bothering you, but...you could talk about it, you know.” Adora asked softly, broaching the topic a lot more openly than before.

Catra sighed softly and hugged her knee closer to her chest. “Yeah,” she said. “I just...I guess I wasn’t ready.”

Adora bit her lip. “I’m sorry I pushed you. I just got so scared you were upset at me, or thinking about leaving me,” she admitted. “I just freaked out.”

Catra batted Adora’s hip with her foot. “I know,” Catra rolled her eyes. “I guess...what’s been bothering me is that I’m worried that you’re going to wake up one day and realize I’m not what you want,” she admitted. “I mean, I know that you crossed the universe to save me from Hoard Prime or whatever, but like, I’m still worried that even with all this healing and growth, I’m still going to be too broken for you to really love.”

Adora sat and listened to Catra, and when she was done, Adora placed her hand on Catra’s ankle. “Catra, I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember loving anything,” Adora said seriously, her thumb smoothing across the ball of Catra’s ankle. “I love all of you. Your broken bits and sharp edges and all,” she said with a little smile. “The fact that you’re putting effort into your healing process and your own personal growth, only makes me love you more. I’m so proud of you, Catra. I would never just wake up one day and realize I didn’t want you. I love you way too much for that.”

Catra looked away and sniffled a little. “Really?” She asked, her voice thin.

Adora smiled warmly at her. “Really.” She leaned over and wiped away Catra’s tears. “Is that what’s really been bothering you so much?”

Catra nodded and leaned into Adora’s hand. “I know in my rational brain that you love me, but sometimes the part of me that was really messed up by Shadow Weaver comes back and takes over.”

Adora caressed the side of Catra’s face. “You should talk to me when that happens instead of letting it build up like this. Then we don’t have to fight before you feel better.”

Catra sighed. “Yes, I admit it, talking it out is nice. You were right,” she blustered, but in a way that told Adora that Catra was feeling better.

Adora smiled. “Can you believe that even with a mind-reading potion we still managed to misunderstand each other?” She asked with a little laugh.

“Gods, who are we? Absolute idiots, is what,” Catra rolled her eyes and let out a laugh of her own. Adora joined in, leaning against Catra’s leg as they both laughed together.

part 1 | part 2 | ao3

[brazenautomaton]

Fixing Afterlives: Bastion, Pt. 1

As it is, Bastion doesn’t work. The Forsworn don’t just have a point, they are obviously, objectively correct. Kyrian discard all their memories and attachments in a way that is horrifying, in order to perform a job that a robot could do, in order to aspire to be something lame and boring. There is nothing cool about what they do and nothing good either; every single time they tell you about what they do it’s supposed to make you sad, not proud. A little of that is fine, it’s Death. But come on. The anima diverter daily for Bastion is a test where you judge if souls should pass on or not, and on WoWHead, the adequate summary of the right answers is “If one of the answers seems more evil or horrible, that’s the one you pick.”

In fact, Bastion can’t work as it is right now, because of Maldraxxus. The Maldraxxi are the defenders of the Shadowlands, right? So all the courage and martial prowess and avenging angel-ness Bastion wants to have cannot be what they are About, the presentation wants them to be glorious and valorous warriors but they don’t have to fight anyone. And the presentation wants them to be wise and impartial but their job requires no discretion, they’re ghost UPS. They can’t be About anything cool, and to be wise and impartial, they can’t be DOING anything at all!

So here’s the fix to their concept: Maldraxxus is the afterlife of warriors, the endless skeleton war, the unending conflict where there are always an infinite supply of fighters willing to leap to the defense of the Shadowlands. Maldraxxus is the Shadowlands’ defensive team. Bastion is the offense.

Bastion does not engage in army-against-army conflict, they have individual heroes. And they are out there in the mortal world, invisibly, serving as guardian angels, inspiring as muses, fighting invisible forces, tipping the scales of Fate to have the right outcomes. Fighting extra-dimensional beasts who prey on the mortal realm to invisibly protect them, fighting down incarnate ideas of malice and ruin, but also influencing things directly or by subconscious example. Every Spirit Healer is from Bastion and they are the ones who decided “your time is not yet up”. When we get really lucky to allow ourselves to triumph over the Legion or the Scourge, it’s because Bastion was ensuring it happened, fighting for us. Bastion is supposed to be affecting things out there, making things turn out Right, instead of being powerless observers. They are the muses of artists and the muses of battle. They inspire. They lead, invisibly.

That’s why they need to be wise and free of bias -- you cannot favor one side of mortals over the other. Mortal beings need to beat the Scourge, but the Horde does not need to triumph over the Alliance and vice versa. Your job is not to punish mortals for being bad, you damn well need to be boosting both sides when there are champions and the valorous in both. You cannot go out there and say “these Orcs up here in Redridge are all evil and shit and the Alliance deserves the win so I’m just gonna go all in on defending them,” that’s not how it works, you reward individual valorous efforts on both sides. How Fate Should Go does not include taking sides in purely mortal conflicts.

So obviously you cannot be biased. You are something Beyond the mortal realm which means you can’t take sides. You actually do have to discard these attachments, and while we’re here, we need to actually make that process empowering. Right now all it does is show you “hey, happy memories, well, fuck you, gotta get rid of them.” Make more than zero effort to make this make sense. Show the aspirant in pain and yearning because of those memories and the fact they can’t come back. Don’t make them forget who they were, make them become at peace and move on.

Now obviously that won’t be convincing to everyone. And that’s fine. It just means there’s some ambiguity instead of the Forsworn being obviously right about everything.

There are four races/types in Bastion: Kyrian, Forsworn Kyrian, Stewards, and Constructs. Only two are represented in Soulbinds: you have two Kyrian and a Steward. 

Kyrian are the expression of what Bastion IS, so we already covered their changes.

Constructs are anima robots. Why are there anima robots here? It’s really bad in the current version because the Kyrian job can be done by a robot so why not just make them do it? Instead, we take that idea and we make it About something: these machines aren’t Constructs, they are Principles. A Principle is a robot made of rules and ideals, the things that are thought by mortals but bigger than any mortal. Codes of honor and ideas that work beyond any of us as individuals. There, that’s it, that change of presentation is all you need to do to justify why robots are there. The changes to Bastion’s fundamentals are what makes them fit in.

Stewards are creepy. Really creepy. They serve the same role as dredgers, but the fact that dredgers bitch and moan and complain all the time lets us see them as individuals with goals and not creepy brainwashed victims. A dredger isn’t a slave, they are a worker; but work sucks and they wanna be at the pub. A steward, with one exception (Forgelite Prime Mikanikos who is busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest and also by far the best Bastion character) appears to have no personality and is a brainwashed slave. 

So, first off, make it clearer that they are helpful because they are The Desire To Aid, that’s the thing they’re About. With the way they speak and act, I think what they are supposed to be in story terms is lightly comic relief, also similar in role to Dredgers but with opposite implementation. The creepiness and one-dimensionality make this fail, all their hoots and hoos and silly talk isn’t funny. They need to be cheesier. They need to be 90’s Saturday morning cartoon sidekicks. They need to be a (much) less obnoxious version of Snarf.

They need to tell awful, awful dad jokes. Just the worst. The kind that are so bad they loop back around to funny again but you’re still groaning and they’re just there like “Eh? Eh? Geddit? Geddit?” By doing something that is helpful, that we recognize as an attempt to help and that some Steward characters can explicate to us really does help (it dampens anger and fear because all of your negative emotions are refocused to that HORRIBLE pun), but that clearly NOBODY would brainwash them into doing, now we can trust their helpful efforts are borne of sincere desire and carried out to the best of their ability by their own personal interpretation.

Forsworn Kyrian, right now, are only antagonists. The ideological change of giving up on the law of Bastion makes you turn a darker indigo color scheme (which is actually really good because these are creatures of Beyond, creatures who are on a fundamental physical level About something, their beliefs changing their physical makeup makes sense!) and then become a bad guy. Forsworn are all only antagonists. We’re going to change that. Kleia is going to become Forsworn. And still be a heroic character and your Soulbind, even though this isn’t a game balance thing and so Pelagos will still probably outclass her in every way seriously that Mastery buff is fucking bananas for anyone who cares about Mastery.

Not when you meet her, though. The existing storyline of Bastion is you go there because “hey what the fuck are these Kyrian doing in the Maw serving the Jailer” but in Bastion itself nothing much is happening other than kicking pebbles down the street. You get the intro from Kleia, you go see some very low-importance things, then the Forsworn attack for the first time, and you spend the rest of the zone quest on hold with the Archon’s hotline to tell her “hey there are Forsworn this is a problem”.

Now, when you get there to ask “hey what the fuck”, Kleia is still not doing much more than kicking pebbles down the street, bored off her ass, extremely enthusiastic about someone new so she can DO something. But the Forsworn conflict already exists: it’s just not relevant to her because she stays out of it, figures that it’s above her pay grade, and she hangs out at the Welcome Center which nobody gives a shit about because there’s nobody to get welcomed so it isn’t relevant. She just knows there’s been some discussions. 

We get the anima drought reinforced the first time we enter Bastion because we have to power down the other cores to get enough juice for the greeting machine, but then it isn’t really a good way to sell it because that’s the kind of thing we do all the time even when there’s no shortages of anything, that’s how WoW PCs interact with machines. So we have the player scrounge up anima from the other Principles to power up the greeting machine, and it’s not enough, it runs out of juice halfway through, and Kleia gets embarrassed and tries to finish the rest of the process by reciting it from memory (and not getting it all quite right, which is another chance to show us things about her).

Kleia is excited to have someone to run through the orientation process, and she explains that FIRST there was an anima drought, and then as if that wasn’t bad enough, THEN the Arbiter got conked out and the flow of souls to Bastion stopped. This is important, because in the story as is, the anima drought appears to be completely explained by the flow of souls all going to the Maw, since they are presented at the same time and the flow of souls is the flow of anima. When you find out the drought is because of ol’ Denny hoarding it, you go “wait how does he have any to hoard when it all goes to the Maw?”

So for right now you need to walk the Aspirant’s path to get an audience with the Archon because right now things don’t seem desperate and urgent. You go to Aspirant’s Rest and get the flight point, and you go to meet Kleia’s soulbind, Pelagos. Two things need to change right here.

One: something more needs to be happening here than “Pelagos was a dipshit and tried ascending alone despite that being not how it works at all, go in there and fight the monsters,” so do something instead of almost-nothing.

Two: Loath as I am to say something actually needs less representation compared to its original, Pelagos can’t be transgender. You find out later on, in the Kyrian covenant quest line maybe? That Pelagos’s mortal body was a woman, but his true spirit is a man. That’s great, that’s something that should come up. The problem is, Pelagos is also the fuck-up, the one we see fail all the time so he can (ostensibly) show resolve and get back up again. But Blizz didn’t show barely any details about Pelagos’s life for fear of backlash -- we don’t even know who played him -- and whether or not it is valid or invalid or that was a cover to avoid admitting this was to not offend China, Blizzard still won’t DO it. So we have this character who is battling this doubt and failure in his past but we’re not allowed to know what they are. Pelagos is cisgender so we can go into detail about what he fucked up. Kleia might be trans instead (why she is so gung-ho about Ascension), or we can have Kleia sell the Ascension process as good by mentioning that the Paragon of Wisdom, Thenios, was born a woman in life but Ascension made him into a true ideal. This can also justify a bit more screen time for Thenios and then something for Tim Russ to do. He was already Tuvok, he doesn’t need more humiliation. But whoever it is, their gender only comes up once and never again because now they’re the right way around and the former body doesn’t matter.

So what’s happening at Aspirant’s Rest? It’s a holding pen for souls. See, as it is now, you find out about the flow of souls into the Maw right away, but then all the way through the main quest and into the Kyrian campaign quest they apparently don’t know, and you don’t tell them, and then it’s a surprise when you finish the quest where you follow the guy in Redridge and have to take him to the Maw, and that’s dumb, they should know, you should have told them.

So now the Kyrian know that everyone is default-judged to the Maw. And they know this is what has to happen, this is the machinery of fate that drives the universe, but they are compassionate and know these souls do not deserve it. So they’re scamming as much as they can. Whenever possible (which they lament is not often enough, not nearly often enough), they find some loophole or corner case to count someone as not ready to be judged, and stick them somewhere in Bastion so they can wait until the Arbiter’s awake again to judge them. They can’t do much, but they can do a little, so they do that.

This guy, okay, you died, BUT, there’s a necromancer just two zones over, and your body is still intact since I dragged it to safety, and, I mean, he’s PROBABLY going to call back your soul and bind it to your body in service, so there’s no point in having you judged, you’re just coming back, right? And you, Night Elf! Okay, you got your head blown off, but, remember that angelic voice shouting “NIGHTELVESEVOLVEDFROMTROLLS!” a moment before your demise? And you know, Trolls who worship Bwonsamdi go straight to De Otha Side without being judged. Maybe you would have wanted to pledge yourself to older gods, but you never got the chance to make that decision, so, hey, you know, it would only be right to let you make that choice before you are given your judgment! And you, guy, did you know that all those patrons from the Slaughtered Lamb across the street who came into your business were warlocks? Yup, all of them, and they didn’t wash their hands either. Fel contamination. Can’t, ooh, you know, hey, might be a demonic stain on your soul, demons don’t have an afterlife like us, gotta be reborn in the Twisting Nether! Going to have to consult some demons to figure out where you go. Better wait here.

Aspirant’s Rest and the temple beneath are a soul refugee camp, and the souls within are scared and angry and don’t know what is going on and the Kyrian can’t explain it or they will all completely flip out. The Kyrian are trying as hard as they can in the limitations they have and this sells it. 

Pelagos is down there. The risk is not that he will be killed -- he is not mortal, he does not die -- the risk is that his well-meaning attempts to keep things calm might ignite the powder keg down there. And those souls can’t die but they WILL go directly to the Maw if fatally injured, which is why they have to be kept penned where Larion won’t eat them and Principles won’t drag them off. Pelagos fucks up here and you have to fix it but it’s not a suicidally stupid error while doing something that has no relevance to the player, it’s an understandable mistake biting off more than he can chew while doing something the player understands. Player, Kleia, and Pelagos go down to Aspirant’s Crucible to get certified as an Aspirant and get in line to talk to the Archon. 

In the existing story, you go and peer into a memory flame thing and have echoes of your heroic battles drawn forth, and you fight them while a character narrates your heroic deeds. They might be based on what expansions you played in, or might be random? Anyway, in this case, you gaze into the flame of memory, she starts to narrate your heroism, and… nothing. “Ah, there are supposed to be visions conjured here, so you can display your valor against them once again. It… it doesn’t… hang on, I might know what the problem is…”

A voice comes. “Then how about you display your valor against me, champion? A little sparring wouldn’t hurt, and I’m eager to see what you can do.”

It’s Uther, hell yes it’s Uther.

[razieltwelve]

Quarantine Post #1

Quarantine: Day 17

We're running low on toilet paper. I might have no choice but to make another supply run. I can only hope it goes better than the last one. Twelve of us went out on that last supply run. Only seven of us made it back. Those bastards from up north have started hoarding supplies, and they're in no mood to share. They've got some real firepower too. I don't know where the hell they got a grenade launcher, but I was damn lucky not to be on the wrong end of it.

Quarantine: Day 19

The toilet paper convoy got hit on its way to the supermarket. It must have been the northern crew. A couple of our scouts say there is still some toilet paper in the wreckage. Maybe they didn't have enough trucks to carry it all off. We'll wait until nightfall and then make a run for it. If we're lucky, we can snag a couple of rolls each.

Jameson suggested using leaves. After all, there are plenty of gum trees. I'd almost forgotten he only joined us around Day 10. I told him what happened to Simmons. The damn drop bears got him. With the fires burning so much down, they haven't got anything to eat out in the bush, so they've been getting closer and closer to the cities. Simmons, the poor bastard, was wiping his ass with some eucalyptus leaves when they caught him with his pants down. By the time the screaming stopped, the only thing left was his pants.

Quarantine: Day 20

It was a trap. Those jerks from up north were waiting for us. They let us get right up to the toilet paper before giving us both barrels. We lost Wilkins and Chan to snipers before we even knew what was happening. Felton and Hassan went down a couple of seconds later when they opened fire from all sides.

I don't know how I got out of there. I grabbed as much toilet paper as I could, threw it in my backpack, and screamed for everyone to fall back. It was chaos, and then they started shooting that damn grenade launcher. My ears are still ringing. Somehow, I made it out of there, along with half a dozen others. We're all pretty banged up, and we've been picking shrapnel out of Cuthbert all night. I don't know if he's going to make it. I hope he does. He's a good man, and he's handy with a rifle too.

Quarantine: Day 27

I don't know what the hell those northern bastards have been smoking, but they just torched the Coles. That was one of the biggest supermarkets in the area, and one of the only ones still getting regular supply drops. Now, the damn thing is on fire, and we can see the smoke from kilometres away.

Patel thinks it's a power struggle. He says the northern group has gotten big enough to support multiple factions. He might be right. There were a damn lot of them shooting at us when they sprang that trap with the toilet paper. If it is a power struggle, I'm hoping they wipe each other out. It means more toilet paper for us and less trouble all around.

Quarantine: Day 30

I begged Smith not to go out at night. I begged him. I said it was too dangerous. There are a lot of trees out here, and night time is drop bear time. But he wouldn't listen. He figured he could hit the supermarket around midnight, maybe sneak out some extra supplies.

He'd only been gone five minutes when I heard the screaming. It was... it was awful. He must have screamed and wailed for at least an hour before they finally put him out of his misery. That's what drops bears are like. They know how people think. They know if they hurt one person that others will come running to see what's going on. One person can't feed a pack of drops bears - but a whole group of people? That'll do nicely for them.

There wasn't anything we could do for him. All we could do was listen until finally they must have realised we weren't going to come. Poor bastard. I wish I'd been close enough to put a bullet in him to make it quick. Hopefully, nobody else tries anything at night. There are a lot of trees here. Too many.

Quarantine: Day 37

We got a bunch of refugees from down south near the centre of the city. We had to check them all for any sign of infection. There have been rumours the Infected aren't just getting sick anymore. We've heard they're changing. We got lucky. Far as we can tell, none of them are Infected.

I talked to their leaders, a man and a woman. Claire said they'd come from one of the hotels near the harbour where they've been putting people in quarantine. It worked well enough the first few days, but she said once the Infected started changing it all went to hell. She and her husband, Rob, got out of there as quick as they could and grabbed anyone else who could keep up.

She couldn't really describe what the Infected looked like, but she told me I'd know when I saw them. After what happened to Smith, I figure there's not a lot left in this world that can scare me. But, hey, what do I know? I figured this whole thing was going to blow over in a couple of weeks, and here we are.

Quarantine: Day 40

We finally got word back from the Old Folks Home. I was worried they'd been wiped out, but apparently, they've got a militia going. Good for them. I went over there with a few other people to talk. I know their leader, a tough, old fella who cut his teeth fighting in Vietnam. I used to drop by and help with the garden down there, so I was hopeful he'd hear me out.

It went pretty well. It turns out they've been self-isolating, trying to keep clean of the infection and everything, but they're running low on supplies. We made a deal. They've got a generator and access to washing machines, and we've gotten good at hitting up supermarkets and other depots after supply drops. We get them the supplies they need, and they get all of our stuff clean. It's a good deal. I can't wait to sleep on clean sheets that don't have blood all over them.

Quarantine: Day 45

Someone tried to raid the Old Folks Home. They gave us a call over the radio, and we came running. There was a whole bunch of them in cars. I didn't recognise them. They must have come from someplace else. I think a few of them were flying Vaucluse colours, though. They were about to break through when we got there.

We gave them a good beating, and the old folks did their bit too. I've never seen a granny with a flamethrower before, but damn if she wasn't good with it. We took a couple of prisoners. It turns out things in the city are way worse than we thought.

The Infected are everywhere. Surry Hills is gone. Bondi is burning. And that last they saw of it, Darling Harbour was being overrun. There's nothing left down there, so they're heading north, trying to get someplace safe, and most of them don't care who they have to kill to get there. It's a damn shame. If they'd just told us they were planning on passing through, we'd have let them go, so long as they didn't try to take any of our supplies.

Quarantine: Day 48

We got a message for the military today. They're pulling back to defend Canberra. Sydney, Melbourne, everywhere else... they're lost causes. We're on our own. It sucks. But they've got to defend the capital and what's left of our government. On their way out though, they left us some satellite communications equipment.

It's pretty grim.

We got into contact with them, and they told us about the situation overseas. Italy is gone. The Infected just overran the place. Spain is fighting, but they've got a week, maybe less, before they go under too. China claims they've fought back the tide, but I don't think any of us believe that. They wouldn't be buying up every weapon they could find if things were okay.

Britain is... we don't know. We haven't gotten much word from them in more than a week, apparently, and the last we heard the Prime Minister was one of the Infected. As for the United States, well, they're still fighting. I figure if anyone can fight off the Infected, they can. We'll have to hope they can manage it. If they go down, I think we're just about finished.

Author's Notes

In all seriousness, it isn't actually this bad in Australia although the toilet paper shortage is a real thing. Anyway, I hope everyone is staying safe. Take care of each other.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

You can find my original fiction on Amazon here

[writingsofmyimagination]

MARSHMALLOW

So this was for the BangtanArmyNet Writer and Content Creator Summer Exchange ‘19.

My Partner was the amazing @painfulbutsweet​ who created the amazing gifs and footer you see before you. Was truly a pleasure collaborating and I hope I gave you the Dom Jimin you deserve :P. WE SMASHED IT!

Our Scenario/keyword was: SUMMER CAMP

• Pairing: Jimin x Reader • Genre: Summer Camp AU

Warnings: Smut (Dom Jimin), BDSM themes (restraints, orgasm denial, spanking) , swearing, drinking games|

• Words 4697 • Please Enjoy!! You too @sibbyjin

“Are you ever going to have me on your team” Jungkook whined playfully at you

“Are you ever going to stop trying to convince me to sleep with you?” you served straight back, your response halted his growing smirk. The smirk carried on, but across Jimin’s face who was stood next to you.

When Jungkook told you that one of his friends wanted to apply for the team leader role opposite you, you were hesitant. Jungkook as amazing at dance he was and as brilliant as he was with the young teens at the camp he was still a bit of a cocky shit and the thought of having ‘one of his friends’ working with him seemed like the ingredients of a chaotic concoction you’d rather not willingly drink. 

All those doubts however, disappeared within minutes of Jimin of walking into the hall. Instead of the minimal swag Jungkook holds himself with Jimin walked in with nothing but grace and such a soft smile illuminating the flawless skin he was blessed with. His hair scruffily parted just off centre, the dark fringe hung over his olive skin with perfect contrast. The fluidity through his body when he danced was un-matchable, a delicate flower allowing the wind to take it where it dictated. It was mesmerising. His face was also incredibly expressive when he danced, you definitely saw hints of a duality; when his moves were more of the erotic kind, his kind eyes definitely flashed with a primal nuance.

Even talking to him he was polite. While everyone was setting up the camp for a few days before the kids arrived you learned he was incredibly attentive to very small shifts in people’s moods or behaviour. You ended up telling your friends he was an absolute marshmallow and now that was his nickname in their mind and yours and it also suited his hair colour which had changed to a pastel pink since his interview.

“Right guys!” you spoke loudly to be heard over the murmuring of 30 youngsters.

“Now you’re split into teams I’ll take the left group and Jimin you can take the right group” he nodded.

“One of the goals this week is to create a dance piece which will be performed at the end of week in front of your parents and the best choreography group will be chosen by our guest judges; more importantly it’s about making friends and enjoying the activities which we will be running when the dance practice and workshops aren’t”

“As many of you know there’s quite a tradition for pranks here, and while it’s amusing to prank the other team or its counsellors please make sure you have run the idea past the counsellor or leader for your team. For my team it will be myself or Hoseok” you motioned to him and he flashed his huge smile which easily could infect everyone with his positive bubbly energy. He waved to the kids, their faces buzzing with the fact that pranking is actually encouraged here.

“And for team B it will Jimin and Jungkook”.

“The other counsellors will be around to assist with the non-dance related activities as well. Any problems or worries you can come to any one of us understand?”

You received a unanimous mumble of yeses and nods.

“Right lets split up then, first task is to come up with a concept then we’ll re-join for dinner.

“Don’t think that just because you’re sweet you’re not on my radar for pranks” you warned Jimin with a sugary smile.

“Oh don’t worry just because you’re pretty doesn’t mean you’re off mine either” he countered with a devils grin.

 Your kids chaotically agreed on the concept of Day of the Dead. Quite a few of the kids are on their 2nd or 3rd time here so they quickly settled when they’d reacquainted with familiar faces. You were always surprised at just how focused the kids were when they needed to be.

The first of the two studios was on the left as you headed to the main camp area. On the outside it looked very much like a temporary classroom, tainted pale blue slats lining the building horizontally. A museum of moss was exhibited up the sides running through the flat top of the building. Inside it was like it had been fast forwarded 10years, soft wood flooring lined at your feet mirrors lined one wall. You’d also managed to bring in two fair sized flat screens and mounted them on the opposite wall; it’s always helpful to film and play back for the kids to evaluate their own form. There was also a generous cupboard which was home to some fitness equipment and assortment of mats. You and the others had brought in some classroom chairs and intermittently scattered them around the outline of the room; the other studio was a perfect mirror of the one you’d be working in.

//

 “Here” Jimin had wrapped you up in a blanket and offered you a hot chocolate delivering all of the comforts you wanted, including his company. You were drenched, the latest prank victim; well it was more a kidnapping than a prank. Jungkook had steam rolled you across his shoulders while you were on a break and launched you into the lake like you weighed nothing; and fortunately for him you was wearing a white tank top and you knew he enjoyed every second of it. Once you’d retrieved your breathe back from hilarity you made definitely made sure his arm was dead for a little while.

“Thanks” It wasn’t particularly cold, the sun was set high in the sky, rays gloriously drying of the excess water from your skin. The lake on the other hand was freezing, the blood running through your vein slowed the moment you were submerged.

Jimin plonked himself down next to you as your back rested up against a tree stump.

“Your face when he chucked you” he blurted out erupting into a restrained giggle. You halfheartedly slapped his arm as a smirk emerged at your lips.

“You two need to just hurry up and sleep together already, you’re already like a married couple”

Your eyes grew offended, you inhaled deeply lungs filling with a sense of insult.

“What? No way! The only reason he’s like he is with me is because I’m the only one that probably rejects him, he can’t have me and his ego hates it. That guy will be nothing more than an annoying friend to me”

Jimin’s faces was creased with amusement, his eyebrows raising at the response.

“Well glad someone’s strong enough to friend zone him, even at Uni he’d always get what he wanted”

“Yeah? And what did you get? You’re easily on the same” you hesitated a beat “attractiveness level” you asked genuinely curious. He gave you a sideways glance accepting the compliment as you waited for his response.

“Why thank you, and I have much higher standards than JK, I like to actually have a connection with the people I sleep with” Your eyes must have glazed over

“What? He asked amused

“How are you even friends you’re complete opposites”

“Someone’s got to make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble” he chuckled. There was short comfortable silence which was filled with calm contentment that relaxed you enough to just be at peace.

“You going to come to the fire pit later? The guys who have tomorrow morning off are dragging me to play drinking games, so this is me trying to drag you down with me”

“If it’s you then I’ll be dragged anywhere” he toyed childishly. You slapped him again with much more force this time.

“Seriously you’re such a dweeb!”

//Last class of the day//

You were engulfed in darkness yet you were almost vibrating with heavy excitement. You were doing your best to keep still, trying to avoid knocking anything and making a sound to indicate your presence. A thin strip of light crawled in from under the door as the room off from where you were came to life, you heard the scuffling of a hoard and muffled chattering noise.

Here we go you thought. You pressed your ear to the door for better audio quality.

“Mikey will you please set up the audio system” The indistinguishable chatter continued for a few moments until Mikey spoke

“Jimin it’s not working” Mikey whined.

“Okay let me have a look” You waited, patience shining through as your most redeeming quality; you heard the class steadily quieten into stillness.

A shot of loud music shocked into the room before it was snuffed out, instantaneously Jimin’s high squeal overtook the silence with the laughter of 15 knowing kids further taking over his noise. Your lips curved up, happy with the result.

He was primed

“Okay you guys settle down, are there any mats in the cupboard?” Jimin inquired.

“Yeah” a few voices answered.

Light footsteps closed you down. Your blood was rushing round so fast your head began to spin. The handle clicked and moved downwards as soon as the light hit you leapt from where you’d crouched.

Jimin’s body instinctively jumped backwards as his adrenaline spiked, the cry that you stole from his lips filled you with nothing but satisfaction, and a hell of a lot of amusement of course. His foot couldn’t quite find the floor he fell backwards cushioning his fall with his hands. Your hand shot to cover your mouth from revealing the extent of your laughter.

This was even better than you’d hoped.

You reminded yourself to massively thank Jungkook for telling you how jumpy Jimin was. The kids erupted into uncontained hysterics, you scrambled over to Jimin and took his hand and supported him as he got to his feet.

“Are…you… okay?” you managed. At this point he was chuckling away with you.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine”

“I would say I’m sorry but I’m really not as soon as Jungkook mentioned you scared easily I just had to” you explained.

Jimin face distorted slightly when he turned and was faced with multiple phones recording the whole thing. He turned to you face even more quizzical looking for an explanation

“They knew, I asked them to scare you first, I’m kinda sorry for turning your kids against you”

“Betrayed Guys!” He shouted to the kids recovering from their hysterics.

You threw your arms round him as a form of peace, he quickly tightened the embrace accepting happily the apology.

“You are definitely going to get it now” he whispered bittersweet in your ear before letting you go.

“Counting on it” you countered, smugness brimming from your cheeks while sticking your tongue out provoking him.

 The night crawled in, the crickets sprang into their chirping which was being harmonised by the crackling on the fire burning away in the middle of a triangular layout of logs.

You slumped down next to JK, you were protected from the cooling air in your grey jogging bottoms and an oversized maroon hoody.

“So how is it I’m the only girl here tonight” you inquired taking a cool boxed  cider from Jungkook. Observing your company of JK, Jimin, J-hope and Jin. All looking slightly alcohol flushed.

“Chloe just went to get the marshmallows”

“Thank god, so where are we at?”

“Never have I ever” Jin replied. Your eyes rolled instantly.

“Of course”

Chloe made her way back crinkling the marshmallow bag open, and like bee’s to pollen hands flew and began to empty the bag.

“Okay erm Never Have I ever given a lap dance in crotch less underwear” Hoseok put to the group, his eyes were fixed on yours cheeky smirk burning into you knowingly.

“You’re such a dick” you scolded as you swigged your drink and swiped his arm. He knew you too well. Everyone’s eyes widened, curious.

“Never have I ever…fucked in a swimming pool” you countered with an equally devilish stare in response.

Game on

The laughter was thick through the night as the fire grew to embers.

“Truth” You requested.

“You can’t have three truths in a row it’s gotta be a dare” Jungkook blurted.

Was worth a try

“Fine, dare” you huffed, too intoxicated to put up an argument which you’d lose anyway.

“How about you give you Jimin a lap dance” Jin suggested.

1. This was a terrible idea

2. You’d learnt way too much about Jimin this evening, apparently the little cutie was way less innocent that his saccharine appearance let on

3. This was a terrible idea

4. You were going to give Jimin a lap dance

“Who doesn’t want a lap dance by a girl smelling of smoke in trackies” you joked standing up

“Someone get some music” Hoseok demanded, you and Jimin shared a glance of unreadable intention, his face was so neutral you knew he was compensating for one thing or another. The others were all clapping like amused seals waiting for the show.

🎵I'm just a bachelor, I’m looking for a partner, someone who knows how to ride🎵 (Pony – Ginuwine)

“Seriously? This isn’t magic mike!” you chuckled making an unsure way over.

“Magic Y/N” Jungkook quipped.

Your eyes grew dark focused and held onto nothing but Jimins as they shimmered with an abundance of anticipation. Other than the intermittent giggling you would say you looked pretty serious.

When your body allowed the music to direct it and your hips swayed everyone else around you bled away into nothingness. You edged closer nudging his legs open and stepped in over one his thighs, you loosely grinded and teased your hoody up exposing your stomach and stopped at the peek of your bra before erupting into reserved laughter as your cheeks flushed.

You slithered back to your seat consciously avoiding Jimins reaction, the rest clapped and wolf whistled as you held you a bottle up in acknowledgement.

“Okay JK tongue away, Jimin it’s your go truth or dare?” Jin began.

“Truth, I do not trust Jin and his dares at this point” Unanimous agreement across everyone.

“Why do you have to attack me like this” he whined in response through a laugh

“Jimin how do you feel after that?” Chloe asked

“I am not answering that” reverting back to the sweet guy everyone’s accustomed to.

“Ahh he loved it” Hoseok wailed pushing Jimin off the log, sending his drink flying and everyone into a fit of intoxicated laughter.

 Well your early morning run was out, the grogginess saw to that. You’d manage to avoid any hangovers thanks to the couple of pints of water you’d forced down your neck before completely crashing in the tight single bed in one of the counsellors cabin. Sunbathing in your secret spot it is.

Your tie up black bikini was partially covered by a thin blue crop top and loose beach shorts, your hair was messily up in a ponytail freeing your neck to utilise the cooler breeze.

A brief knock.

“Come in”

“And how are you feeling this morning?” you asked a rather dopey looking Jimin.

“Surprisingly fine actually” he still sounded surprised, his blue Hawaiian shorts sat just above his knees, his sleeveless shirt gave you all preview of the side of his abs.

“What are you doing this morning?”

“I was just going to go to my sunbathing spot and sleep” the aroma of sun cream was radiating of your skin and seeped into the room.

“Mind if I tag along”

“Sure, if you’ll behave” you warned with a toy tone.

“Me behave? I wasn’t grinding on anybody’s leg last night” You exhaled a soundless chuckle and looked down at where your dignity had fallen in that second.

“Yeah, okay, erm sorry about that” you felt as if you’d just become marginally smaller and seeked solace back away from that memory.

“It’s fine, it could easily think of worse people to give me a dance” his words oddly comforted you and made you feel at ease with your alcohol driven behaviour.

“Bet JK was jealous right?” you added, Jimin laughed, hands brushing his hair away from his forehead.

Wow

“You bet he was!”

 The serenity of the spot you’d frequent remained unchanged, the lake pooled into the circular area surrounded by a parasol of green flushed trees. A wooden dock stabilised by sturdy pillars of wood rested down the middle of the seemingly isolated lake section. The steady slope leading into the lake was watched over by a domineering lifeguard tower, the white paint peeling off in tired flecks.

Your towel unpacked, unrolled against the wooden slats of the dock and contaminated pink across the natural scene. Jimin’s towel was a less eye catching black partnered next to yours.

“Beautiful isn’t it” you asked, glancing around heat flooding your skin slipping your sunglasses onto your face as you laid down only the bikini covering your skin

“Yes it is” he replied his eyes not once acknowledging the actual scenery.

“I thought I told you to behave” lolling your head to the side to ensuring you got a shaded eyeful of him losing his shirt before he starting basking like a beautiful picture beside you. It wasn’t long before the heat absorbed you into a drowsy doze.

 “Uhhh” you gasped for air that refused to refill in your chest, your heart halted before it went into a frenzy as you were jolted awake drenched.

Jimin’s hysterical laughing intensified into slowly suffocating as your wail reverberated through the quiet.

“You dick” you managed breathy with an eventual chuckle as your heart rate became manageable again. He was stood there holding a bucket, accomplished.

Asshole

You rushed up and charged with full intent to push him with your full weight behind you. You failed, he achieved simply misdirecting your weight straight off the edge of the dock; but not before you clamped your hand onto his arm dragging him with you.

The pair of you surfaced gasping and slipping the hair from your face, the pink strands curving over his face dripping. You could stand up, just. The gravel rough at your feet. You hindered the glasses from floating away and tip toed in cautious steps towards the dock, the pair of you cursing at the temperature and jesting.

He’d managed to catch up to your heels, just his presence behind you contorted the atmosphere, heat rising from your chest sucking air from your lungs. His palm pressed at your stomach shifting your weight in the water to press to him. Delicate fingers swept the hair from your back over the front of your shoulder. His stung a kiss the nape of your neck, you suppressed a large exhale before manoeuvring yourself round in his arms.

“Can I help you?”

“I think we both know you can” your chest flush against his

“I think that’s very presumptive of you” you teased, he pressed your back against the pillar of the floating harbour stealing a moan past your lips. He leant slowly towards your ear

“Are you going to stop being a brat and let me fuck you already” If you had a drink you’d have choked, what happened to that sweet, humble guy? You was by no means complaining, the words trickled down and pooled in between your thighs.

“Don’t worry I’ll take the best care of you” he continued, nipping at the bottom of your earlobe.

I’m done

Your arms locked behind his neck in sync with your legs around his waist bringing him to a heated kiss, your back arching off the post and closer to him.

“In that tower NOW!” he growled after purring a groan through your kiss. Your lips tweaked up to a smirk toying with your bottom lips, his eye raging carnal intent. That itself send your pulse into overdrive. You obeyed, he’d grabbed the towels and blankets from the harbour and made the rickety wood planks more comfortable before he’d ordered you on your knees. Water still lacing your skin, the slow wind flowing through the viewing space bit at your wet skin. Jimin stood over you, contemplative. Water running southwards over every crease and indent of the muscle tone.

Fuck! I could be on my knees for him all day

“Now do I punish or reward you for your little dance yesterday” he spoke aloud rhetorically still mulling over the possibilities tugging at the string holding your bikini top together allowing it to fall to the floor.

“Think we need a bit of both don’t you?” your skin was on fire burning up with unbridled anticipation, his tone was much lower than normal, the bright squishy smile had been substituted to a determined lustful one. The duality this boy was capable of was unreal and you wondered how he’d be when you returned back to the others. He bent down in front of you taking your chin in the grip of his fingers waiting.

“Sure” you replied knowing full well that’s not he was after. His lips pulled up one side knowingly.

“If you don’t reply properly you’ll be the only one who suffers until I say so” he warned

“Yes..Sir!” You mocked, refusing to pacify completely to his will.

“That’s enough, hands out in front”

“If you play brat this is what you get, don’t think I’ve not noticed how much you want to feel all this” he eyes drifted down his body. Well now you can’t” he affirmed securing your wrists together with a length of rope he’d scavenged from the back of the tower. Safe to say you regretted your choices.

“If it gets too tight or sore tell me, okay?”

“I will”

“Good, now get on top” he asked, you sent a confused glance his way.

“Come on you basically outed your thigh kink last night” well Jimin had just rung the sweetest dinner bell.

Thankfully you had some self-control as to not squeal with excitement.

Finger massaged their way up his thigh longer than was necessary to slide the shorts up to the apex of his thighs.

His eyes intently watching you entertained.

“You don’t need these anymore” he yanked at the strings of your bottoms, you lifted yourself up allowing him to launch your last piece of clothing. When you sat back down you had to gasp, the introduction of his firm thighs against your already soaking core was bliss. Feeling the same thing a low groan rang in the back of Jimin’s throat. You stabilised your bound hands on his chest

“You feel so good, I want to see you get yourself off on me and stop when I tell you. And!  I want to hear you, don’t be quiet baby”

You may be on top but you were far from in control. You rocked your hips until you found an intoxicating rhythm. Jimin’s fingertips securing at the side of your thighs keeping you anchored against him. Your hips rocked faster chasing the end you knew would be denied, your breathy moans becoming louder and more vocal with each rock.

“Enough” he forced through his own moans when he felt your legs begin to quiver allowing your climax to simmer back.

“Fuck you look good on me” he panted

“You’d feel better in me” you quipped back apologetically pleading.

“Oh I don’t doubt that for a second baby” he replied sitting up from the waist a gasp gurgled in your throat as his thigh twitched beneath you, you slumped your arms over his neck. Strong hands slapped and gripped at your behind and pulled you closer

“Ahh” you wailed, a chimera of surprise and pleasure as the sting faded. A devilish grin formed at your vocal and physical response.

“Oh you like that huh?”

“Mmhmm”

//SMACK//

“Words” he scolded. Your body jolted in the opposite direction from the direction of his hand the sting harsher than before.

“Yes! Fuck!”

“Hands and knees” he barked, he supported you off to the floor, tracing his fingers down the centre of your spine which curved underneath his touch. You leant into his grip as his hand rested around the back of your neck, he tightened the grip softly to gauge your response; the squeezing of your thighs together gave him that answer.

“How about 3? I can’t punish you too much for winding me up as it was a dare. Count with me. His hand pre soothed the area and spent a few seconds running his hands through your arousal

Your wrists clenched within each other, your head resting on the top of them, eyes scrunched absorbing the sting

“1” said through gritted teeth.

Again

“2”

Again

“3” you whimpered,

“Well done baby” he praised “Fuck how much did you enjoy that, you’re even more soaked?” he gasped fingers running through you again.

“I’ll have to be harsher with my punishments next time”

“You presume they’ll be a next time?” you toyed through a breathless chuckle.

“Oh you can count on it, I have no intention of making this a one-time thing, you’re too perfect for that” your heart only barely managing to slow down now it had to deal with skipping an awe happy beat. The harsh tone had dissipated and was back to his normal softness until you pushed yourself to sitting on your legs.

“Did I say you could sit back up?”

The shift in tone knocked you for six, you loved it. You resumed your previous position, the ache between your legs tormenting you endlessly.

You heard the rummaging from the bag as he searched for the condoms, leaving the space around you lacking in Jimin and any contact. When he finally shuffled himself back down behind you he aligned his thighs with yours and pulled you back up by your hair directly onto his cock

“Fuck Jimin!” you cried adjusting to him. He tugged at your hair stretching your neck back exposing it to his assault of bites. His hand wandered soaking up the skin of your stomach and kneaded at your chest until his hand rested at the base of your neck pressing gently. Something about his hand lightly constricting sent your head spinning, endorphins flooding your already sensitive system.

“Don’t cum until I tell you” he growled starting bucking his hips into you, the pressure at your neck grew, as did his hand grappling at your hip keeping you steady. Your bound hands offering you little support only pushed you harder into his grip as you allowed your legs to support more of your weight.

Tangled hair clung to your skin, sweat now providing the adhesive quality. His grunts and groans were overshadowed by your ever increasing in pitch moans.

“Please can I touch myself” you requested with a breathless whine.

“Does this baby girl want to cum?”

“Please!” If he didn’t give you permission soon you was going to be in trouble.

“Not yet but yes you can touch yourself…fuck you feel so good on me” he choked panting at your ear. His thrusts slowed to hard and intermittent ones and you was ready to break the rules all over him.

With moans turning into desperate whimpers he finally gives in to his own pleasure as well as yours.

“Fuck! Cum for me baby” his words came out like a plea, relief to your ears. His hips jerking hard shoving you into a climax, legs quivering, your core pulsing harsh euphoric waves round his own throbbing cock. Your nails dug harshly into your thighs as the wave consumed and slowly dissipated from you.

Jimin untied your wrists in a rush, with your freedom all you managed was to slump down onto the blankets in a breathless hot heap. Recuperation was cut short with Jimin lying on his side next to you ghosting sweet tender kisses at your collar bone.

A small chuckle escaped past your lips.

“What?” his breath had yet to return fully, his hands soothing your wrists with delicate touches.

“How can you be such a cute sweet caring marshmallow and then fuck like that” you joked.

“Can I not do both? And did you just call me a fucking marshmallow?” he replied through wide, glazed over amused eyes.

[lightningbig]

okay but like deadass carver hawke deserves better from this fandom okay he’s a misunderstood angsty asshole who says the wrong thing precisely Always but it’s just bc he doesn’t know how to fuckin talk to people and also his social skills are Trash considering the family he grew up in. 

(under a cut for da2 spoilers and bc this rant is entirely induced by Alcohol)

carver hawke is 100% the product of his upbringing and surly middle-child temper, even tho TECHNICALLY he’s not a middle child he IS a middle-child ok u know what i mean

esp. with a mage hawke. carver spends all of his life sandwhiched between two mage siblings who are both incredibly revered by their parents and absolutely terrified for and like, okay, yes the first thing he learns in life is how much he loves both of them and will do anything to protect them but also, how the fuck is he meant to survive and live and be recognized as his own person between both of them??

even if hawk aint a mage, they’re still the oldest, and the ‘protector’ of them; to me hawke no matter what will fill that role bc it’s what malcom and leandra would’ve instilled, especially once the twins are born and bethany shows her affinity for magic

and carver grows up insecure bc he doesn’t have that. his twin is his equal in every way except for the amazing things she can do without even trying and how is he not supposed to feel cheated by some higher power, when they share everything else except for this? especially when the ‘this’ means a special connection with their father and potentially their oldest sibling as well, a door into a world carver will never know anything about, will never be invited to bc he’ll never belong

and carver will never learn to talk about his feelings so he never will and when he does, eventually, it will never come out right so he stops trying. he deals with things on his own. as soon as he’s old enough he boards himself off to denerim to join the kings army bc it’s something he can do and it gives him a purpose. swing his sword for a good cause, fight the good fight for the people like his family, to protect those he loves.

and then ostagar happens, and carver thinks he’s going to die without seeing his family, that his family might already be dead and he did nothing to save them. when carver bickers with hawke in the beginning dialogue it’s out of fear, they’re stuck between the darkspawn hoarde and nothing and he’s seen what the hoarde is capable of and he knows they will never survive it and he’s so, so scared. most of his fighting throughout the act 1 dialogue is because he doesn’t think hawke takes threats seriously enough, because they take unnecessary risks, because they’re a mage existing outside of the circle in the worst place possible to do so and he’s worried.

when (if) carver comes back at the end of act 2/3, he has a few lines about regrets, and apologizing to hawke, and it’s not that he’s saying he didn’t care for them before this and he’s sorry, or that he didn’t realize it, or anything like that - he’s saying he didn’t have the words for it and he never let himself find them. his end game dialogue, “I’m proud to call you (sister/brother), that’s gone unsaid too long,” is a prime example of the fact that he doesn’t know how to vocalize shit! he stews in his emotions and he doesn’t do anything constructive with them bc he never learned how, or when he tried previously shit hit the fan spectacularly so he locked that shit down and never tried again. carver hawke has gone through so much in his life and he’s had so little to help him through it (not belittling hawkes struggles through the same or saying hawke didn’t have an equal experience) but like, my dude,

i don’t get how people can write carver off as just a whiny little sibling, he deserves better

[hypexion]

Ashes of Outland: Aluminium Reveals

With the arrival of the Rusted Legion, it’s best to keep your metals locked away. Unless you need them. In that case, you should probably take them out.

Spectral Sight is one of those Outcast cards. Not a bad top deck, since it replaces itself with two cards, but otherwise it’s not that amazing. Being a card you might not play for a while is to this card’s advantage, as it should slowly move to the left of your hand as the game goes on. Of course, holding onto cards you aren’t using can cause problems, so Spectral Sight isn’t the best option for card draw.

Imprisoned Satyr is the first of the imprisoned minions. It doesn’t look that great, since while you do get a discount on a minion, it takes a while, and the main body is only a 3/3. Probably what might save this is that paying three mana to do nothing might not sink you, and being able to drop a big minion ahead of schedule could work out for you if it’s the right one.

Tutor for Beasts with Scavenger’s Ingenuity. Probably worth testing out, since giving a minion +3/+3 can be pretty helpful. And Hunter tends to have a lot of Beasts that work better with more attack, so this could be pretty helpful.

Furious Felfin is stupid, but also probably good. Even if you use your Hero Power to activate it, a 4/2 with Rush is pretty good for three mana. Activated without having to pay mana for your attack it’s a really good deal. It’s probably something that will be pretty popular, since every deck likes a way to deal with minions in the early game.

Skull of Gul’dan is a pretty macabre topic for a card, but it’s here anyway. Absorb it’s dark energies to draw three cards at a fair price. The Outcast effect is another that’s pretty excessive, making all the cards drawn cost three less. It’s probably worth running anyway, even if you only get the discount occationally, because having more cards is generally a good thing.

Imprisoned Antaen is another minion that takes a while to do something. This is a problem, since your opponent gets two turns to make sure they aren’t taking ten to the face when this wakes up. Doing nothing on turn five is also a questionable move, since by this point, the big guns are starting to come out. Mix that with a somewhat lopsided statline, and you’ve got a minion that looks scarier than it actually is.

Soul Split copies a demon, an activity I wouldn’t expect a Demon Hunter to approve of. Has copying minions ever actually worked out? Usually you want to copy the big ones, but that’s often a an issue because you can’t play a big demon and copy it on the same turn. That leaves you only able to copy smaller demons, and at that point, you might as well just put in a card that works by itself. But hey, this card is free, so you can at mess about with it before replacing it will something more impactful.

Fungal Fortunes is like Book of Specters, but it removes minions rather than spells. This could work well in a token deck, since they generate most of their mnions via spells. And when your greatest problem is running out of steam, drawing three cards for two mana is a pretty tempting idea.

Imprisoned Observer is a new way to discourage your opponent from playing minions. When it awakens, it zaps all enemy minions for two damage, making it pointless to summon any with less than two health the turn before. With the added bonus of having more stats than the mana cost usually allows, Imprisoned Observer is a surprisingly proactive card for something that does nothing the turn you play it. Probably worth trying out, at least.

Dragonmaw Overseer is Shadow Ascendant, but more. It looks good enough, and as three mana minions go, it’s pretty useful. With Priest being shifted to a more board-focused class, this is the kind of minion that could help make that work.

What if Sap was better? Then it would be Blackjack Stunner, which costs one mana, and makes the returned minion cost more. The catch is that you need a Secret out to return a minion, but it shouldn’t be too hard to arrange that. Since this increases the cost of bounced minions, it’s a pretty strong tempo play, and can permantly deal with the most expensive ones. I’d expect to see a lot of this once Ashes of Outland drops.

Secret synergy needs Secrets, so Rogue is getting Ambush. Which is effectly just a 2/3 with Poisonous, since your opponent is probably going to be playing minions. Probably decent, especially since if your opponent spends all their on a creature, you can immediately kill it, and they’ll have little recourse.

Bogstrok Clacker is another evolver card. I have run out of words for this archetype. Reroll exhausted minons, hope for good replacements. Probably will be annoying.

Torrent is Flame Lance, except if you played a spell the turn before, it only costs two. Seems kind of awkward really, since you might not have cast a spell the turn before you need this. Plus, Hex is cheaper than an undiscounted Torrent, and deals with Deathrattles as well. Which probably means Torrent won’t see that much play.

The Dark Portal is a weird Handlock card. If you have lots of cards, you can pre-pay for the card you draw. Given that it’s not hard to have lots of cards as Warlock, this might see some experimental play.

Make spells hurt more with Mo’arg Artificer. For some reason, the effect counts as a downside. I guess because your opponent might get to respond first. Not really sure about this one, since although it provides good opportunities for board cleaning, it does apply both ways. And as an Epic, you can’t even test it out.

Warglaives of Azzinoth is just Fool’s Bane again. Sure, it scales well with extra attack, but sometimes you can’t afford to wack your face into four minons. Works well with Blur, at least, but even then you probably need to invest more cards into it to make it work. And at that point, you might as well play Chaos Nova.

Pit Commander is like Dragon Tamer except turned up to eleven. It has Taunt. It’s almost got a full statline. Shove it into a deck with only high-cost demons, and you can laugh all the wall to the bank. Or victory screen. Seriously though. This is super pushed. Did Team Five realise that nine mana minions show maybe be playable?

More evolve with Boggspine Knuckles. Big problem? When Evolve the card was in Standard, there were problems. Attacking is free, so things could be worse? How do developer learn from mistake?

Shadow Council is another one of those weird maximum random cards. Except now the new cards get +2/+2, so if you low roll you at least get some advantage from it. Honestly not sure what to think about this one, since Demon quality is still all over the place, but many of them are a lot better with +2/+2.

Teron Gorefiend is egg card of this set. The egg Legend. Sure, he isn’t actually an egg. But he can hatch all your eggs. Then when he dies, you get them all back, in a form capable of self-hatching. Outside of funky Deathrattle stuff, Teron probably isn’t as useful, but that’s okay. He’s a card with a stupid fun niche, and sometimes, that’s what you want.

Spend five mana to upgrade your Hero Power with Metamorphosis. Then after two uses it turns back. While doing five damage for one mana is pretty good, the overall mana economy on this card is less so. If you need something to close out a game, it’s probably not the worse choice, but it still doesn’t seem great.

The first of the Primes is Archspore Msshi’fn. The starting form is nothing to write home about - it’s just a simple Taunt, hardly even worth Silencing. But the second form is much more impressive. As well as a 9/9 with Taunt, you also get a second 9/9, with your choice of Rush or Taunt. That’s quite a lot of stats, and should hopefully stop a lot of decks from beating you to death. Then, hopefully, you can beat them to death with your giant minions.

The second Prime is Lady Vashj. The first form is completely generic, and will probably die immediately. The second form is... also pretty generic. All the value is front loaded in the Battlecry, which grabs some spells and makes them cheaper. Which is quite nice, I’ll admit. Depending on what spells Shaman gets in the coming sets, Vashj could be a decent choice for spell-heavy decks that want to do more during their turn. Plus, with the Quest reward, you can draw six spells, which is a little crazy.

Kargath Bladefist has a blade where his fist should be. Hence the name, I assume. He’s also the third Prime. Regular Kargath is pretty decent, as a 4/4 with Rush, for four mana. Since he has Rush, there’s a good chance you can kill him off the same turn you play him, to avoid any Silence or transform effects. Which you’ll want to, because Kargath Prime is fucking amazing. A 10/10 with Rush is pretty much able to delete any other minion on the battlefield, and at eight mana, he’s obscenely efficent. Oh, and as a small bonus, you get ten armor when he attacks and kills a minion. Which he will, because he has ten attack. Honestly, the only downside here is that Kargath Prime is so utterly threatening that your opponent will want to kill him immediately.

Oh yeah, and since Kargath Prime is a minion, Galakrond’s Battlecry can draw him. At that point, is there anything he can’t kill?

Finally, from the /r/customhearthstone pile is Bulwark of Azzinoth. It completely blocks four attacks. That’s it. That’s the weapon. Then you can bring it back with Hoard Pillager to block four more. Of course, it’s not actually that good against swarm-style decks, given that they only lose small amounts of damage. But plonk this down in front of a board of big hitters, and laugh as they can only chip away at your Bulwark. Definitely a strong choice for Control Warriors everywhere. It even stops (most) Combo kills.

Well, that was a lot of cards. But now I've caught up, just in time for a bunch more to be revealed overnight. Or at least, that's usually what happens. For now, it seems like there won't be anymore until tomorrow.

[yoon-kooks]

With Love and No Regrets💋 2

Pairing: ??? x Reader, Taehyung x Reader (this chapter)

Genre: Angst, Handwritten!AU, inspired by TATBILB

Summary: Seven stories, seven regrets, seven letters… to all the boys you may or may not still think about…

Word Count: 2.8k

Parts: Prologue // 1 // 1.5 // 2 // 2.5 // 3 // 

Warnings: none

A/N: hands up if you remember your first crush ever 😔✊

Fifth grade might’ve been your prime. You were a whopping ten years old, all the kindergarteners looked up to you as their senior, multiple boys in your class had their eye on you, and you developed your first crush. His name was Kim Taehyung.

Unlike Jungkook who you had met in kindergarten, the existence of Kim Taehyung was unknown to you until fifth grade came around. And boy did he hit you like a truck.

Taehyung was cute. Perhaps one of the cutest boys in your class, up there with Kim Namjoon and Jung Hoseok. And sure, you would’ve loved for fate aka your teacher to seat you right next to him for the entire school year. But the truth is, fate wasn’t always so kind. Because Taehyung always somehow ended up on the opposite side of the room from you.

But why leave everything up to fate? You weren’t that passive when it came to love—at least not at age ten. So you found another way to connect with the boy.

One stormy October morning, you discovered a common interest between Taehyung and yourself. Rainy days were always your favorite because your class was blessed with some free time in the school’s computer lab during recess. After all, you were the type that opted to stay behind a screen instead of facing things head on.

“Ahin, how are you level 77 already?” you asked your best friend as you glanced back and forth between her level 77 mage and your level 32 bandit on the computer screen. Her character had a lot more swag with the sunglasses and shit compared to your basic ass character with the default clothes.

“That’s because my screen time isn’t limited to one hour a day like you,” Ahin shrugged. “At this rate, you’ll be a noob forever, Y/N. Taehyung’s gonna over-level you soon.”

“Taehyung plays StapleMory, too?” You were intrigued because StapleMory was already your favorite MMORPG, but with the addition of a cute boy thrown into the mix, you’d have to beg your mother for an extra hour of play time.

“Yeah, he started playing a few weeks ago and he’s only a few levels behind you.”

“What’s his username? I wanna add him to my friend list.”

“Why? Are you in love with him or something?”

“What? No, of course not.” You didn’t have a crush on him just yet. You didn’t even know what a crush felt like.

“Well I don’t know his username either,” Ahin said. “I just heard him talking about it with Hoseok. Try asking them instead.”

You’d only made the smallest of small talk with Taehyung in the first month back from summer break, so you didn’t know him well enough to casually start a conversation with him at recess without it feeling a little forced. On the other hand, you did have an already established acquaintance with Hoseok thanks to summer school a few years back.

You peered down at the pair of boys several computers down from where you sat, locked onto your target, and rolled your chair over in that direction. When you caught a glimpse of familiar character sprites on their screens, you knew what to do.

“You play StapleMory, too, Hoseok?” The character on his screen was a heavily armored warrior holding a long blue spear.

“Y-you play too, Y/N?” He looked shocked. Shocked but not upset. Though maybe if you both had put two and two together sooner, you could’ve advanced your acquaintanceship with him beyond summer school.

“Yeah, and Ahin plays too.”

“I play too,” Taehyung jumped in. Contrary to his natural handsomeness, his character was on the ugly side equipped with a bow and arrows. “Well I just started, so I’m only level 30.”

“Oh, so you’re still just a noob,” you laughed as if being two levels higher than him was anything to boast about.

“Well what level are you then?”

“Higher than you.” You really should not have had that smug look on your face, but you did.

Taehyung narrowed his eyes at you. It was a challenge. “What’s your username? I’ll add you.”

“YoungHinata.”

“Is that some kind of Naruto reference or something?”

“Yeah, duh.” You didn’t know. It wasn’t your username.

After typing the username in, Taehyung’s jaw dropped. “Level 77? That’s… impressive. You already have your third job advancement?”

You wanted to psych him out a little, not impress him. Clearly that didn’t work out, so you abort. “Nah, I’m just kidding. That’s Ahin’s character.”

“Haha very funny. I guess I’ll add her then, not you.” Taehyung sent Ahin a virtual friend request right in front of your eyes. “Unless you wanna tell me your username.”

Were you feeling threatened? No. But did you want Taehyung to be your friend? Yes.

“It’s… TacoCat98.” You admit you were self-conscious about the name, and you would’ve picked something a little wittier like TacoBelle if you’d known you’d be playing with a cute boy. But nobody could’ve predicted that.

“Seriously?” Taehyung laughed at your username as he typed it in. He had no right to clown you when his own username was something as simple Vante, and you totally did not get the reference if there was one. And he only stopped laughing once he saw your character. “You called me a noob when you’re only like two levels above me? Noob.”

“It doesn’t matter! I’m still higher than you, so ha!” You got the last laugh, but not the last say.

“Not for long, Y/N… Not for long.” The confidence in Taehyung’s voice was admirable with a hint of flirtiness, but you wouldn’t let him get the best of you. Or so you thought.

-

It had quickly become a regular thing for you to hop online after school with either Ahin, Hoseok and Taehyung, or just Taehyung. Your mother was pleasantly surprised to see you zipping through your homework with newfound motivation, and she even granted you an extra hour of screen time to reward your excelling academics. Little did she know that your motivation had everything to do with a boy.

With that valuable extra hour of play time, you did everything in your power to stay ahead of Taehyung. You grinded, took on quests, asked Ahin for advice on the best equips and places to train, and you did so without a minute to waste. The only time you took a break from leveling up your character was when a certain notification popped up on your screen.

[Vante has logged in!]

[Vante sent you a message!]

Vante: hi Y/N >:)

TacoCat98: why r u sending me a mean face? :P

Vante: freedom of speech?

TacoCat98: ok?

Vante: come train with me :(

TacoCat98: where r u now?

Vante: where the fire boars are

TacoCat98: kk

You might’ve been in the middle of a jump quest that you’d have to restart later, but you were willing to forfeit some good EXP in exchange for time with Taehyung. The two of you were close enough in level where it’d be mutually beneficial to train together on the same map anyway. So you hustled over to the fire boars.

As soon as you walked through the portal to where Taehyung said he was, you witnessed a hoard of flaming pigs chasing an ugly green-haired archer. Rather than extending a hand to help the boy out of danger, you take pleasure in watching him struggle to find safety on a nearby platform.

“why didnt u help me????” A speech bubble appeared over Taehyung’s character. “i almost died!!”

“i didnt wanna kiss you,” you typed, with a very embarrassing typo. “i meant KS you… not kiss you lol”

“r u sure that was a typo?” Taehyung changed his character’s facial expression to a hmm face.

“KISS wouldnt have made sense in that context!!” K.S. was the abbreviation of kill steal, which was when someone (often a noob like Taehyung) is trying to kill a monster but then a higher level player passes by and instantly kills the monster as a form of mockery. Kiss, on the other hand, meant something very different.

“right…”

“RIGHT.” You made your character flail around in the air like a kid having a tantrum before jumping down to release all your awkward energy out on the fire boars. “can we just train now??”

You sent Taehyung a request to join your party, and he accepted it, but he remained right where he was instead of joining you on the battle grounds.

“or we could just talk,” he typed. That not only surprised you, but also meant something to you. It meant he’d rather spend time chatting with you over leveling up his character. You were more important to him than the game itself.

You jumped back up to the safe platform and faced Taehyung’s character. “we could.”

You didn't know if he was just luring you away from training so he could sneak past you in levels as soon as you logged off, but maybe it didn’t matter. You only had two hours a day to do whatever you wanted on the computer, and Taehyung was what made your time feel well-spent.

And if he ended up surpassing you in levels as a result of that, you’d lose bragging rights and that hold over him, but something in you wanted to believe he wouldn’t leave your noob ass behind.

-

For a solid year, you never grew bored of Taehyung and his antics. Even in the classroom, it became apparent that you two were no strangers. You teased him about his new haircuts, he teased you by shouting “TacoCat98” across the school yard, and you both exchanged ugly faces as you passed by each others’ desks. All of that was innocent and cute, though the more intimate stuff remained online.

You can’t remember the exact moment you first acknowledged your feelings for Taehyung because it was your very first crush and you had no way of recognizing the signs. For a while, you assumed your first crush would be Namjoon because he had all the stunning physical qualities you thought you wanted in a boyfriend. But with Taehyung, it was something else that you couldn’t quite comprehend. All you knew was that he made your day a little brighter. And you found yourself thinking about him. A lot.

But nothing could’ve made you realize your crush more than when he asked you about it right after graduation.

Vante: hey

TacoCat98: hey

Vante: do you like anyone?

It was your chance—the golden opportunity. You wanted to scream “YES, IT’S YOU” through your computer. But on the off chance that he didn’t feel the same way, you wanted to save yourself from a potential rejection. You told yourself you’d only confess to him if you felt 100% confident that he felt the same way. Despite having a gut feeling that that might’ve been the case, you needed more answers.

TacoCat98: lol why r u asking?

Vante: bc u know how my group of guys had a talk after the grad ceremony?

TacoCat98: umm no? and yall arent “guys” yet btw. youre still boys lolol

Vante: whatever -_-

Vante: anyway

Vante: the BOYS had a talk about who we liked in our class

Vante: so i know who likes u

Someone liked you? That was definitely news to you. No one (to your knowledge) ever had a crush on you in your ten years of life. Naturally, you were curious as a kitten as to who it was, and if it was in fact Taehyung himself. Or maybe he was just bluffing. If that were the case, you were going to bluff back.

TacoCat98: well i know who likes u too :P

Vante: who?

For some reason, your dumbass didn’t anticipate him asking you to spill the tea. Especially not when you were alluding to your own crush on him.

TacoCat98: u tell me first and then ill tell u

Because how romantic would that be if the feeling was mutual and realized on the online platform where it had all begun to bloom?

Vante: hoseok

TacoCat98: wat

Vante: hoseok said he likes u

Vante: ok next

You needed a long minute to comprehend what had happened. Hoseok liked you? Hoseok? Hoseok didn’t even know you the way Taehyung did. You rarely even spoke to him outside of when he’d play StapleMory with you and Taehyung. So how was it possible for Jung Hoseok to develop a crush on you out of nothing? Spoiler alert: It wasn’t possible. But you didn’t know that at the time.

Vante: so… who likes me?

An idiot liked Taehyung. And that idiot was you. But after he didn’t confess to you like you had hoped, there was no way you’d confess either.

TacoCat98: actually i promised to keep that a secret

Vante: but u said u would tell me >:(

TacoCat98: well im srry!!

TacoCat98: it’s not like you were sharing your OWN crush, so why r u so mad lol

TacoCat98: hoseok probably wanted to keep that a secret but u told me anyway

Vante: true

Vante: dont tell him i told u >.<

TacoCat98: ok i wont

Vante: good

Vante: now back to the original question… tell me who u like

TacoCat98: i dont like anyone lol

Vante: seriously…

TacoCat98: really i dont lol

Vante: everyone has a crush

TacoCat98: and your crush is…?

Vante: ahin

He typed it without hesitation, not a sliver of doubt. He confidently told you about his crush on your best friend as if that information wasn’t going to get back to her. Maybe he intended for you to tell Ahin so he wouldn’t have to confess himself. Or maybe he just wanted to make you jealous. The latter was what he accomplished.

As a friend, you loved Ahin and envied her for how easily she got along with the boys in your class. Just as her StapleMory character outshined yours, she had the same effect at school. It honestly didn’t surprise you that Taehyung chose her over you. You had just hoped and envisioned that this time it was you.

TacoCat98: AHIN!!! can i tell u something?

YoungHinata: sure lol

TacoCat98: i like tae

YoungHinata: omg

YoungHinata: really????

YoungHinata: u should tell him!!

YoungHinata: he always acts like he likes u too

TacoCat98: i dont think he likes me like that

YoungHinata: y tho???

TacoCat98: i just have a feeling :(

YoungHinata: well youll never know for sure unless u confess to him

TacoCat98: nah im fine with him never knowing

TacoCat98: i just wanted to get it off my chest so i told u instead of him lol

-

After elementary school ended and middle school started, you were more thankful than ever that you and Taehyung had established an online friendship. You wouldn’t have otherwise known he attended the same middle school because you had zero classes with him in sixth grade and literally never saw him on campus. You owed a lot to the online platform for all the opportunities it provided you with in chatting with your crush. At the same time, a relationship built upon online engagements had its limits.

[Vante has logged in!]

TacoCat98: hihihi

Vante: i havent seen your face around these parts in a while

TacoCat98: blame my teachers >:(

TacoCat98: more hw = less staplemory

Vante: same

Vante: dont u think it’s weird tho

TacoCat98: whats weird?

Vante: how we talk on here but not irl

TacoCat98: i guess we never see each other at school anymore

There were a million better ways to respond to Taehyung’s comment, but that’s how you chose to respond. You had every opportunity to say, “hey let’s meet up at lunch tomorrow” or “wanna get milk tea after school?” But you were too dense to realize what he wanted out of that conversation. You took it more as a subtle breakup like “we can’t be friends anymore because things are awkward now irl.” After all, you were on the wrong side of an unrequited love, and it was almost inevitable that he’d develop other crushes on his new classmates who outclassed you.

It was only after you both quit StapleMory later that year and left your friendship to die in cyberspace that you heard a rumor floating around regarding you and Taehyung. One of your new middle school friends said Taehyung had asked her if it was true that you had a crush on him.

How did Taehyung know about that? And why did he even care? He was supposed to like Ahin. He told you himself that he liked Ahin. If you were his crush, he would’ve told you. He should’ve told you. Because you were fully convinced he no longer cared about his little gamer friend when there were plenty of prettier kids to pursue. And whether or not it was the truth, you took it to heart, despite all the other signs that had said otherwise.

So, no. The rumor wasn't true. You didn’t have a crush on him. Not anymore.

[hippychick006]

Okay, so self insulating with an octogenarian with dementia is interesting to say the least, day consists of...

Constantly reminding him he can’t go out because of the virus, then discovering he’s sneaked out at some point and wandered down to see if the bar he’s been going to every day for the last 40 years or so is indeed closed because surely by now, it must be back open (or I and the Prime Minister are likely lying to him that it’s closed in the first place).

Hearing the freezer door opening, waiting until he’s sat back down before going to the fridge and putting the 6 frozen chicken breasts he’s removed “because there’s too much food and we have to eat it up” back into the freezer (note, I’ve moved in to help him and keep him safe and there’s currently only a 2 shelf freezer so we’re hardly hoarding food, only the recommended amount to get us through a few days if the virus hits).

Hearing the doors to the laundry cupboard open, hearing the washing machine stop yet again, and having to count to ten before getting up and sorting it so the laundry can continue. I’ll be doing this frequently throughout the laundry cycle so at least that’s my exercise for the day done.

Trying to cook while being told how to cook (incorrectly - no, chicken most definitely should not be slightly pink!). Trying to stop a bottle of oil being poured into the pan because “it needs more oil” and generally being thankful that I have nothing more lethal than a spatula in my hand.

Watching old movies like westerns because he doesn’t like anything else but then complains it’s garbage and can’t we watch something else. (He’s unfortunately at the stage where he can’t do too much - reading or listening to someone reading is out of the question, as is playing games or doing jigsaws etc so tv is what we’re left with and even that option is becoming more difficult).

Explaining for the millionth time, that the person making “weird hand signals” at the side of the screen is speaking to deaf viewers.

Hearing, “what do you do on there?!” for the millionth time when I’m on my iPad or phone and explaining for the millionth time that I’m watching a movie/playing a game/talking to friends/family... “It does all that?!”

Reopening my bedroom balcony doors after hearing (for the millionth time), “your balcony doors were wide open so I closed them”. Incidentally, I wake up overheated in the middle of the night because my balcony doors have once again been closed.

Worrying I’ve got the virus because I’m seriously overheating, then I remember and go check on the thermostat, which yes, has been turned up to 30, because he couldn’t feel heat coming out the baseboard heaters which means the heating isn’t working and needs to be bumped up (really looking forward to summer on this one)

Trying to stop him wanting to take his bedtime pills at 3pm because it’s not yet bedtime... this will then continue every 10 minutes or so until he gets to take the pills in the evening.

So, how’s your isolation going?

[fluxofthemouth]

dune universe plots...2! (continued from [xxx])

(please don’t reblog!)

One of our muses gets into a nasty fight in a common area on a heighliner ferry, a large ship the Spacing Guild uses to transport smaller craft across space using their closely-guarded secret process for faster than light travel. Muse A loses that fight, and their opponent(s) don’t want to catch the attention of the Spacing Guild for a death on a heighliner. Their solution is to hide the body in the cargo hold of some random ship and let it be someone else’s problem. Muse A isn’t actually dead, though... and now someone’s opening the cargo hold, & they’re on a planet they didn’t want to go to, & maybe there won’t be another heighliner stopping by for months. Muse B is an important new connection that Muse A makes through this situation; could be the captain of the randomly selected ship, or part of the crew, or someone who lives on the world that it landed on/has been stationed there. Muse B had problems of their own before all of this started, could Muse A help with that at all? If whoever tried to kill Muse A finds out they’re not dead, is that going to be a problem?   

Piter is working alongside your muse, an important professional contact. They’ve come to a point in their work where further progress can only be made on Giedi Prime; perhaps because they need to use the Harkonnens’ sophisticated lab equipment, perhaps for another reason. Unfortunately, your muse doesn’t feel safe on Giedi Prime, at all, and is seriously considering backing out of the project. After a long, mutually frustrating, and somewhat circular conversation about options, Piter offers to let them stay in a spare room at his place, and to personally keep an eye out for them. Their professional relationship is solid enough for them to at least trust him, and rightfully so; he may be violent and dangerous, but he isn’t one to sabotage his own career. Will your muse actually need the protection of a Mentat assassin? For all of the back and forth leading up to this, this awkward Saturday night board game sure is anticlimactic. Not a romance plot; it’s just that I’m the dragon from the iguanamouth comic that hoards awkward interactions.

[rebellingstagnationblog]

“Welcome Christmas” from How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Day 10 of 31)

For @leviprime @raidenraccoon @teh-bluejay and @rubbersoles19 who have become GoMax shippers. 

“I’m trying to be cool about this, but the Negaverse really does look like a video game,” Max said as he jumped from car to car in Gosalyn’s wake. “Seriously. All I need is a few weapons and some zombies and I’d be set.”

“How would you fight off the zombies?” Gosalyn asked, leaping down to the pavement and glancing back to make sure he wasn’t too far behind. “You don’t have a game controller.”

“I played baseball!” Max said indignantly, walking side by side with Gosalyn as they started down the street.

“That type of swing would tire you out quickly and mess up your shoulders and back because you’d be hitting living things and not a small ball,” Gosalyn pointed out.

“Listen,” Max said. “No zombie is gonna come running at me at 90 miles per hour, so I would be able to use all that force on a slow-moving brainless monster, which I could totally do.”

“What video games are you playing?” Gosalyn asked, glancing up at him. “Because the ones I’ve played with you, and beaten you in by the way—”

“That’s still up for debate. You elbowed me in the ribs.”

“—have very nimble and fast-moving zombies,” Gosalyn finished as if she hadn’t been interrupted half way through.

“Okay,” Max said, holding up his hands in surrender, “you are getting very technical and I just came out here to have a good time.”

“A good time. In the Negaverse?” Gosalyn raised an eyebrow.

Max shrugged. “Well, you were here, so. Yeah.”

Gosalyn couldn't help the blush that spread across her cheeks as Max grinned down at her. Sobering up, she pointed a finger at him. “Don’t try to sweet talk me so you can win this zombie argument.”

“I am telling you I could take them out!” Max said, balling his hands into a fist and miming a batter’s swing. “Give me a baseball bat and I would be pretty dangerous.”

Gosalyn shook her head as they continued down the street.

It wasn’t that Gosalyn didn’t think he could do it, it’s that she knew he couldn’t. Sure, Max might be able to do some damage to zombies if given the chance and a weapon, but she was the fighting expert of the two and, realistically, she’d be the one fighting them all off.

The low rumble of voices caused Gosalyn to stop in her tracks, a hand going out to grip Max’s coat. He immediately frose, glancing down at her for further instructions.

There was definitely someone coming. A group of them based on the crunching of the snow and the voices echoing down the nearby street.

It had been a huge gamble, bringing Max to the Negaverse. But he’d been interested, she’d needed the help, and the city had been at its safest with a stockpile of villains trapped in the Prime Universe. Really, if Max was ever going to visit the Negaverse, now was the time before the chaos returned in full force.

Until right this moment, when Negaduck was apparently bringing all the chaos home.

Gosalyn gripped Max’s coat and shoved him into a nearby restaurant. Ducking down under a front window, glass long since blown away and the frame lopsided, she whispered, “Don’t say anything and don’t move.”

He hunkered down, Gosalyn beside him as she listened to the villainous group get closer and closer.

“My leaves are gonna freeze off if I stay out in this cold much longer,” Bushroot whined.

“I’m already half frozen,” Liquidator said, his voice shaking.

“I knew I shoulda gotten dat winter suit from da department store before we left,” Steelbeak said.

“The city’s a mess!” Ammonia screeched.

“Nothing a little paint won’t fix,” Splatter Phoenix said.

“Shut up,” Negaduck snarled. “All of you, just shut up.”

No one dared speak again, but their footsteps grew louder as the villains approached. Gosalyn maneuvered so she could peer out of the entryway, the door hanging exclusively by the topmost hinge hopefully obstructing her from the villains.

But they were walking away from her. Towards the edges of town where each of the villains had set up their own individual hideouts.

Gosalyn remained as still as she could, her eyes following each of the villains as they walked by, making sure they had all returned. She would’ve liked to follow them to their respective hideouts and watch their reactions to the Christmas surprises she’d left for each of them, but she wouldn’t risk Max for that. And she had the annual McDuck Christmas party to attend tonight, so.

As she’d told Negaduck a few weeks ago, she’d overbooked.

Still. It was tempting.

To tell Max to wait here and slip out, following them to their individual hideouts.

Because she’d decorated each one for a kind of Christmasy homecoming and thank-you-for-staying-loyal-while Negaduck-had-been-gone type of thing. Today, she had needed an extra pair of hands (Liquidator’s gift and been heavier than she’d anticipated), so she’d recruited Max. He was probably as eager as she was to see how each villain reacted to their gifts since he’d been directly involved.

She could just imagine Megavolt seeing his lighthouse glowing with every variation of string lights Gosalyn had been able to get her hands on.

Bushroot tending to the poinsettias she’d brought back from Mexico and all the sad little Christmas trees the lots had been ready to send to the chipper.

Liquidator finding the ice sculptures.

Quackerjack playing (and no doubt modifying) the traditional Christmas toys she’d found as she had shopped to best her father during the 12 Days gift-off.

Ammonia using her plethora of new cleaning supplies.

Splatter Phoenix testing out her new paint set.

Moliarty wearing his enhanced eyewear that helped him see in any lighting.

Steelbeak’s new suit.

Paddywhack got a Mexican piñata because Gosalyn had been at a loss as to what to get a demon duck and everyone likes piñatas, right?

So, yeah.

It would be nice to see each of their reactions in person. But she had places to be.

Besides, she’d probably hear about each of these gifts in the days to come. With new toys and tools, each of the villains would likely commit small crimes to test them out. Which would then give Negaduck the opportunity to put each villain back in their place.

Really, these were the gifts that would keep on giving.

Negaduck led his villainous hoard down the street, stalking forward with his hands balled into fists. The rest of the brood followed in his wake, shivering and silently fighting one another with shoves and rude gestures.

Gosalyn had kind of missed them. The Negaverse hadn’t been the same.

As the villains disappeared down the street, Gosalyn glanced over to Max with a smirk. “Want me to find you a baseball bat so you can let loose?”

“I said I could take out slow-moving zombies, not a hoard of villains.” Max sat up slowly and glanced through the window. “Are we safe?”

“You were never not safe,” Gosalyn said, standing and looking down the street to make sure the villains were still making their way through the city and hadn’t stopped for whatever reason. “But yes, the coast is clear.”

Gosalyn gave it a few more moments before poking her head out of the restaurant. The villainous group was getting smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing around a corner.

Stepping out into the street, Gosalyn nodded to Max who joined her.

“I know, by the way,” Max said, smiling down at her. “That I’m safe here with you.”

Gosalyn rolled her eyes but couldn’t withhold her own smile. “You’re such a sap.”

“Your sap,” Max pointed out as they continued on their way, down two more blocks to the corner where they’d left the hot-wired Volkswagen. They’d gotten as close to Liquidator’s as they could, but the roads were either overgrown with vegetation or drowned in collected water so they’d still walked the last few blocks to reach their destination.

And, apparently, they’d been just in time. A few minutes more and they might have run into the villainous hoard instead of passing by them.

Shifting the car into drive once they were both safely inside the vehicle, Gosalyn barreled down the abandoned city streets and barren freeways towards NegaDuckburg and the portal home.

She wondered if their luck would hold out and get them to the McDuck Christmas party on time.