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celepeace · 4 years ago

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A monster-taming game recommendation list for fans of Pokemon

Whether you're a pokemon fanatic obsessed with all things pokemon past and present, or a veteran fan disillusioned with GameFreak's recent adoption of monetary philosophies and strategies reminiscent of other major game publishers, or looking for a monster-taming fix as you await new Pokemon content...

I'm compiling here a post of little-known games in the genre that Pokemon fans are likely to enjoy!

Under readmore cause long, but some of these games really don’t get the attention they deserve, so if you have the time, please read!

(I am also likely to keep updating and editing this post)

First up is Temtem!

Temtem is a game made by and for Pokemon fans, from the spanish indie developer Crema. Temtem is currently in early access on Steam and PS5, and is likely to remain in early access until sometime late next year. Full launch will include a Nintendo Switch release, too. Despite this, it has plenty of content to explore before full release. The developers are active, release new content on a semi-regular basis, and are responsive to the community as a whole and individuals if you happen to come across a bug you want to report.

Temtem boasts a wide variety of monsters to collect and train. It takes place in the Airborne Archipelago, a system of floating islands that orbit their star, the Pansun. The monsters inhabiting the archipelago are called Temtem, or tem(s), for short.

As far as game mechanics go, it has many similarities to Pokemon, but also many important distinctions. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the element of chance has been removed from battle entirely. Moves cannot miss, have the same power constantly, and status afflictions have an obviously displayed countdown to when they will wear off (for instance, sleep lasts as long as it says it will last. Not 2-4 turns). PP does not exist, either. Your tems can battle for as long as their HP holds out. In place of PP, a new system called Stamina exists. Stamina is an individual stat, like HP and Attack. Each move costs a certain amount of stamina. If you go over the amount of stamina your tem has, the deficit is detracted from your health instead, and that tem cannot move next turn. Stamina passively regenerates a certain amount each turn, and items and moves exist that can heal stamina. All battles are also double-battles, you and your opponent will typically have two tems on the field at a time. This is just a few of the differences Temtem has from Pokemon, but they're some of the biggest ones.

Temtem is also a massively multiplayer game. You complete the storyline independently (or with a friend through co-op!), but in the overworld you can see other, real players moving around and interacting with the world. There is also public and area-specific chat you can talk to other players through. Despite this, all multiplayer functions are (currently) completely optional. You do not need to interact with others to complete the game.

Overall, Temtem is suitable for the Pokemon fan who is looking for a more challenging experience. Temtem is not a walk in the park you can blaze through with a single super-strong monster. For one, individual tem strength is more well-balanced than it is in Pokemon. There are very few (if any!) completely useless tems. Even some unevolved tems have their niche in the competitive scene! Aside from that, enemy tamers are scaled quite high, and you typically cannot beat them just from the exp you get from other enemy tamers. You have to do some wild-encounter grinding if you want to progress.

Temtem is a very fun game and I've already gotten over 100 hours out of it, despite only 3/5-ish of the planned content being released!

However, I do feel obligated to warn any prospective players of one thing: the current endgame is quite inaccessible. After you complete what is currently implemented of the main storyline, there is still quite a lot left to explore and do, but much of it is locked behind putting a lot of hours into the game. You kind of have to get perfect temtem to do the current PVE (and this is also somewhat true for the PVP too). By perfect I mean you have to breed a good tem and then train it to get the preferable EVs (called TVs in temtem). This takes... well, for a whole team... tens of hours. Of boring grinding. Some people enjoy it! But I don't. Regardless, the game was still worth buying because the non-endgame content is expansive and fun.

So overall, pros & cons:

Pros

Battle system is more friendly towards a competitive scene

Cute monsters

Lots of gay characters, also you can choose pronouns (including they/them) independently from body type and voice

Less difference between the objectively bad tems and good tems than there is in Pokemon

Lots of stuff to do even in early access

Most conversations with dialog choices have the option to be a complete ass for no reason other than it’s fun

Having less type variety in your team is less punishing than in Pokemon due to the synergy system and types overall having less weaknesses and resistances

At least one major character is nonbinary

Cons

Falls prey to the issue of MMOs having in-game economies that are only accessible to diehard no-life players

Related to the above point, cosmetics are prohibitively expensive

Endgame CURRENTLY is inaccessible to most players unless you buy good monsters from other players or spend tens of hours making your own. However I must add that the grind is great if you like that kind of thing and is quite easy and painless to do while watching a show or something.

Here is their Steam page and here is their official website.

Next is Monster Hunter: Stories!

This is a spinoff game of the Monster Hunter franchise released for the 3DS in 2018. If you're anything like me, and you've played the core Monster Hunter games, you've often thought "Man, I wish I could befriend and ride these cool dragon creatures instead of killing or maiming them!"

Well now you can! In Stories, as I will be calling it, you play as a rider rather than a hunter. Riders steal monster eggs from wild nests to raise them among humans as companions and guardians. And yes, egg stealing is a whole mechanic in of itself in this game.

This game works pretty differently from most monster-collecting games. You do battle (usually) against one or two wild monsters using your own, except you fight alongside your monsters too. With swords and stuff. There's armor and weapons you can smelt to make yourself stronger. Type match-ups also kind of don't exist in this game? Except they do? But not in a way you'd expect?

The vast majority of attacking moves you and your monster use fall into categories reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors. Moves can be categorized as power, speed, or technical. Speed beats power, technical beats speed, and power beats technical. The matchup of your move vs your opponent's determines how a turn will go down. If one move beats the other in matchup, then the winner's move will get to go and the loser doesn't get to do anything. If you tie, you both get hit, but for reduced damage. There's also abilities and basic attacks, with abilities basically being the same as pokemon moves, and basic attacks just being "I hit you for normal damage within this category". Also, you don't control what your monster does all the time in battle. You can tell it to use abilities, but what kind basic attacks it carries out is determined by its species' preference. Velicidrome, for instance, prefers speed attacks, but Yian Garuga prefers technical. Stamina also exists in this game in a very similar manner to Temtem.

Overall this game carries over a lot of mechanics Monster Hunter fans will find familiar (how items and statuses work for instance). You don't have to have played a core Monster Hunter game to enjoy Stories though! It's fine and is easy to understand as a stand-alone.

The story has some likable characters and is rather long (it was actually adapted into an anime!), for those of you who enjoy a good story.

I'd really recommend this one especially. If it sounds fun to you and you can drop $30, just do it. I bought it on a whim and I got a few weeks' worth of playing almost nonstop out of it, and I didn't even get to do everything! (I got distracted by Hades, oops)

Stories is also getting a sequel later next year on the nintendo switch! How exciting!

And yes, you do ride the monsters.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Large variety of cool monsters to befriend and raise

Pretty lengthy story

Every tamable monster is also rideable

Deceptively simple combat mechanics, easy to be okay at, hard to master

Incorporates some mechanics from early turn-based party rpgs like Final Fantasy for a nice twist on the monster collecting genre

Cons

Many monsters are objectively outclassed by other ones, making what can be in an actually good team more limited than you’d expect

3DS graphics inherently means the game looks like it was made 7 years before its time

Here is the Monster Hunter Stories official 3DS product page.

And here is Monster Sanctuary!

Monster sanctuary is a game that just had its 1.0 launch- meaning it was in early access and no longer is! Although the devs say they still plan to implement a few more things into the game in future updates. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Monster sanctuary is a metroidvania twist on the typical monster collecting game, meaning it is also a sidescrolling platformer in which you use abilities you gain throughout the game to explore the world around you. The abilities in this case are the monsters you get! Every monster has an ability that helps you traverse the sanctuary.

Speaking of the sanctuary, the game is set in one. The monster sanctuary is a magically shielded area, cut off from the rest of the world, created by an order of monster keepers, people who befriend and protect the mystical monsters inhabiting the world. Humankind encroached too far on the natural habitat of monsters and were hostile to the native wildlife, so the keepers created an area of varied environments to safely protect and preserve the remaining monsters of the world.

Unlike many other monster collecting games, this game only has 5 types: fire, water, earth, air, and neutral. However, the types themselves do not possess resistances and weaknesses. Instead, each monster has its own assigned weaknesses and resistances. And yes, this can include things like debuffs, physical vs special attacks, and the typical elemental types.

All battles are also 3 vs 3! And unlike in pokemon, where you can only hit the enemies nearest, all monsters have the ability to hit any opponent they want. Turns also work a little differently in that speed doesn't exist, you just use 1 move per monster in your turn and then it goes to your opponent's turn. Your monsters hit in whatever order you want them to.

There is also a quite important combo system in this game, where every hit builds a damage multiplier for the next. Moves often hit multiple times per turn. Healing and buffing actions also build this combo counter. So what monsters you have move in what order really counts!

But the main mechanical difference between this and other games in the genre is how it handles levels and skills. Instead of learning a set move at a certain level, this game incorporates a skill tree, and you get to allocate points into different skills as you grow stronger. And jeez, these skill trees are really extensive. Monster sanctuary is a theorycrafter's dream. Each monster has a unique, specially tailored skill tree, making every monster truly able to have its own niche. You can make use of whatever monster you want if you just put thought into it!

And like Temtem, this game is not made to be beatable by children. I'm sure a child could beat it, but it's not made to be inherently child-friendly like pokemon. It's honestly quite difficult.

On top of that, you are actively encouraged to not just be scraping by each battle. Your performance in battle is rated by an automated system that scores your usage of various mechanics like buffs and debuffs applied, type matchups, and effective usage of combos. The rating system directly influences the rewards you get from each battle, including your likelihood of obtaining an egg from one of the wild monsters you battled (no, you don't catch wild monsters in this game, you get eggs and hatch them). If you're not paying attention to how the game works and making good, effective use of your monsters, you'll have a hard time expanding your team!

The music is also really good, it's made by nature to be able to play over and over and not get old as you explore each area, and the composer(s) really did a good job with this. Some area songs, namely the beach one, I especially enjoy, so much so I've actually played it in the background while I do work.

This is a game I would really recommend. If I made it sound intimidating, it is by no means unbeatable, you're just gonna have to put some thought into how you play. At no point did I actually feel frustrated or like something was impossible. When I hit a wall, I was able to recognize what I did wrong and how I could improve, or I could at least realize something wasn't working and experiment until I found a solution. It's challenging in a genuinely fun, rewarding way.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Extremely in-depth combat system

I genuinely don’t know if there’s an objectively bad monster in this game

Evolution exists but is completely optional, as even un-evolved monsters can be great

Entire soundtrack is full of bangers

Large and diverse variety of monsters to tame

Cons

Story is a little lackluster, but passable

That’s the only con I can think of

Here’s a link to their Steam page and the game’s website.

A kind of unorthodox recommendation is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series!

Likelihood is that everyone reading this has heard of this series already, but just in case anyone hasn't, I thought I'd include it! I would categorize this as a hybrid between the mystery dungeon genre and the monster collecting genre, because you recruit pokemon as you play and can use those pokemon on your team!

If you're unaware, the mystery dungeon genre is a small subset of dungeon crawler games where you progress through randomly generated levels called mystery dungeons. Throughout the dungeons, there will be enemies to fight and items to collect. The challenge of these games is mostly due to the stamina aspect of them, in that you have to manage your resources as you progress through the level. If you go all out in each fight, you will inevitably lose quite quickly. You have to learn to win against enemies while balancing your use of items and PP, so you have enough for the next fight, and the fight after that.

Pokemon mystery dungeon in particular is famous for its stories, the likes of which isn't seen often in Pokemon games. They are hugely story-driven games and are notable for the emotional depth they possess. It's pretty normal for the average player to cry at least once in the span of the game. There's lots of memes about that specifically.

This entry in my list is also unique for being a series. So, which one should you play first? It actually doesn't matter! Each storyline is entirely self-contained and requires no knowledge of prior entries. The quality of each entry varies and is a point of contention among fans. I say you should play all of them, because they all have their merits (though some more than others.... coughgatestoinfinitycough). They're mostly distinct for the generation of Pokemon they take place in. Rescue team is gen 3, Explorers is gen 4, Gates to Infinity is gen 5, Super Mystery Dungeon is gen 6, and Rescue Team DX is a remake of a gen 3 game but has the mechanics and moves of a gen 8 game.

My only real caution is that you play Explorers of Sky, not Darkness or Time. Sky is basically a combination of the two games with added items and content. It's an objective upgrade over its predecessors, and I honestly wouldn't waste money on the other two.

I’m not going to include a pros and cons list for the PMD series because I’m incredibly biased and it wouldn’t be an honest review.

Next is Monster Crown!

Monster Crown is a monster collecting game that seems to take heavy inspiration from early-gen Pokemon games in particular. It is currently in early access on Steam and is not expensive. I learned about it through the developers of Monster Sanctuary, when they recommended it on their official Discord.

The game has lots of charm and interesting creature designs, and an entirely new take on monster typings as well. Instead of monster types being based off of natural elements like fire, water, electricity, etc. Monster Crown uses typings that seem to be influenced by the personalities of the monsters. For instance, Brutal, Relentless, and Will are all monster types!

It also captures a lot of the charm many of us look fondly upon in early GameBoy-era games. The music is mostly chiptune, with some more modern backing instruments at times, and the visuals are very reminiscent of games like Pokemon Crystal in particular. Monster Crown is definitely the monster collecting game for fans of the 8-bit era!

The thing that stands out the most to me about this game is the breeding system. Instead of one parent monster passing down its species to its offspring, you can create true hybrids in this game.

However, it is very early access. I would consider the current build as an alpha, not even a beta yet! So temper your expectations here. I have not encountered any major bugs, but visual glitches here and there are quite common. The game also could definitely use some polish and streamlining, and is quite limited in content currently. But the dev(s) seem quite active, so I fully expect these kinks to be worked out in time!

The reviews are rather positive, especially for being in early access. I'm all for expanding the monster collecting genre, so if you're looking to expand your horizons in that sense, I would recommend you at least give this one a look! I personally had quite a bit of fun playing Monster Crown and am going to keep an eye out for updates.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Charming artstyle, appealing monster designs

Faithful callback to a bygone era of gaming

Controls are fairly simple and easy to get the hang of (and are completely customizable!)

Cool breeding and hybridization mechanics

There's a starter for each monster type!

You can choose your pronouns, including they/them!

Cons

Inherent nature of being very early access means can be clunky and unpolished at times

Also not much content as of right now, see above

User interface could use some redesign in places

Here’s their Steam page and the official website!

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, Azure Dreams!

This is one I actually haven’t played, mostly because it’s really old and therefore only practically accessible if you play it on an emulator, unless you're one of those old game collectors. Azure Dreams was developed by Konami and released for the PS1 in 1997. My impression of it was that it either didn’t sell well or only took off in Japan, because it’s actually really hard to find any comprehensive information about it on the internet.

Azure Dreams is a monster collecting - dating sim hybrid. You can build relationships with various characters and can pursue some of them romantically, although that isn’t the main draw of the game. There is also a stripped-down version that exists for the GameBoy Color, which forgoes the dating portion of the game entirely.

Azure Dreams is kind of like a mystery dungeon game in that you progress through a randomly generated, ever-changing tower using the help of the familiars you have accrued throughout your adventure. Similarly to Monster Hunter: Stories, you yourself also take part in the fighting alongside your monsters. Each time you enter the tower, your character’s level is lowered to 1, but your familiars keep their experience. Thus, progression is made through strengthening your monsters. To obtain monsters, you collect their eggs, just like in Monster Sanctuary (which, turns out, was at least partially inspired by this game!)

Due to this game being very old and on the PS1, the visuals leave a lot to be desired... but if you can get past that, Azure Dreams has lots of replayability and customization to how you play the game. To this day, it appears it has a somewhat active speedrunning community!

If you don’t mind the effort of using an emulator, and like old games, Azure Dreams just might be that timesink you were looking for in quarantine.

Honorable mentions:

Pokemon Insurgence (or any Pokemon fangame/ROMhack, really!) is a Pokemon fangame that introduces Delta Pokemon, which are really cool type-swapped versions of existing Pokemon. It’s sufficiently challenging and has a lot of variety in what you can catch in the wild, so you can pretty much add whatever you want to your team! The story is quite good, and the main campaign is multiple times longer than a typical Pokemon game’s campaign. Download it here!

ARK: Survival Evolved is NOT a monster collecting game BUT you do get to tame and fight alongside a lot of really cool extinct species, including but not limited to the dinosaurs we all know and love. This game is genuinely fun as hell, especially with friends, but I must warn you: never play on official servers. I highly recommend singleplayer, playing on a casual private server, or making your own server. Here’s the Steam page.

#pokemon #temtem #monster sanctuary #monster hunter stories #monster crown #azure dreams #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon alternatives

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alcheminary · 6 years ago

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uhhhhh yeaaaaaah I’ve got an order for some edwin featuring parental roy and riza, hold the royai?

merry new year, @bifullmetal, I’m your secret santa for 2018!! I’m sorry this is late, I was held up by some travel plans that popped off a little earlier than I thought they would

you asked for basically anything, so my plan going in here was to deliver a wintery and modern spin on the classic mermaid au fic. of course it ran away from me, so now you get a wip of a fic, and that just seems like a bum present so I draw art to make up for that, and gosh dude I just hope you like it

thanks to @fullmetalsecretsanta for putting this event together for 2018, you guys are awesome, for sure

anyway, here’s a sneak peek at the first chapter!

(edit: sorry for the extra late posting, I saved this to my drafts again on accident which is kind of the most embarrassing mistake I could possibly make)

“The Sea Bleeds Blue” Chapter 1 (prototype)

“... the man is reported to have been under the influence of alcohol during the time of his encounter…”

The tiny little TV blares throughout the house from its perch on the kitchen counter, a feat much more impressive in possibly any other structure that isn’t a cramped beach house. Like, seriously cramped. The kind of cramped where you can barely lay flat across the floor without hitting a wall.

It’s not like Winry Rockbell hates her grandma’s beach house. In a way, she gets it. You get older, your health starts to go, the warm weather is easy on your joints and the air is just so much easier to breathe compared to city smog. And everyone else your age has the same idea, too. When you have a nest egg and no other obligations, why not? Why not just live at the beach, wake up every morning to the soothing ebb of waves, sip your coffee on a porch overlooking the scenery, be a family vacation destination in and of yourself, and just wait to die?

That’s her whole bugbear with the thing actually, now that she thinks about it. People come to the beach to die.

She blinks hard, reaches for her wire cutters, and tries not to think about it much more than that.

“... officials like park ranger Jean Havoc however say the injuries are more likely to have been caused by a particularly territorial sea lion,” the newscaster on the TV continues, her voice tinny and distorted by the on-board speakers. Honestly, she could fix those if Gran would let her...

“He might’ve been feedin’ ‘em, harassin’ ‘em… Sea lions ain’t known to be gracious about their personal space, so all it takes is one loud, persistent jerkwad to ruin their whole day. Heck, mine too! Hahaha.”

“The man was admitted to the hospital this morning, and is expected to make a full recovery…”

Paninya scoffs, loud enough to startle Winry just as she’s threading the headlight through its socket. Luckily a less delicate part of this process. “Sea lion my butt. I’ve bounced frisbees off those things and they haven’t moved.”

She pauses as she considers that image. “Please tell me you don’t make field goals out of sea lions on purpose.”

“Of course not! They’re just… big. And bouncy. And all over? You can’t go down the boardwalk without tripping on them. Like, seriously, is there like a sea lion sanctuary nearby or something? Don’t they migrate?” Paninya asks, her nose scrunching up.

“Uh, I think Mr. Hughes might—”

“No, wait, that’s beside the point,” she interrupts. “And the point here is that I’m not buying what that park ranger is selling.” Her deep brown eyes watch Winry expectantly.

Winry puts down the wires she was futzing with and turns to give her a long-suffering smile, resigning herself to the next few minutes being completely unproductive. “Alright, detective, give me the scoop. What’s really going on in Brightly Cove?”

Paninya always gets this wild grin on her face when she does this. The corner of her smile lifts up just so, her eyes glint, and she squares her shoulders like she’s the hardboiled crime noir star the situation needs.

“Okay, so,” she starts, “You saw the gashes on the guy, right?”

Winry shrugs. “A little bit.”

“Okay, well, they’re completely inconsistent with a sea lion attack. We’d be looking for bites and puncture wounds, and he got approximately uhh, NONE of those. So either sea lions have mutated to have razor sharp claws in the past week, or it wasn’t a sea lion and the park ranger is bullshitting us to cover up what it REALLY was.”

“Right, I’m following so far.”

“So, let’s set the scene.” She stands up to stalk around the incredibly small kitchen table toward Winry. “You’re a dumb tourist that came to the beach in the winter. You’ve brought a brand new jet ski with you, completely oblivious that the water is way too cold for that right now. Because you’re a dumb tourist.”

Winry takes the cue. “I’m a savvy tourist because I’ve arrived when no one is here and none of the shops are open! Locals LOVE my business! Sure hope nothing happens to me without any lifeguards!”

“You’re out on the water when you get caught… in a current! Waves come and pummel you towards the shore, one by one! Before you know it you’re smashed up against the rocks, no shore to save you. You’re stuck.”

She musters the most dramatic slump over the back of the chair that she can manage. “Woe is the fate of a tourist such as I.”

“But wait!” Paninya raises a hand to her forehead, shielding her eyes from some kind of indoor sun. “What’s that coming toward you? It couldn’t be, is it a person, come to save you in your darkest hour? But then it comes closer, and you realize fate has never been so kind… because there, in the distance… is…“ She leans in close to Winry with a grave look.

“Is…?”

“Bigfoot with a machete.”

“Bigfoot with a—?!” Winry sputters, pushing Paninya away as she absolutely howls with laughter. “Your idea of a more likely culprit than a sea lion is Bigfoot with a machete?!”

“Uh, yeah?” She lifts an eyebrow. “Come on Winry. The gashes. The rocks. The collectible shot glass he leaves at the scene of every crime. It’s totally Bigfoot’s m.o.”

Winry turns back to the mess of robotics on the table. “I’m done with you. Completely done. I’m kicking you out.”

“What? Noooo, come oooon, I’ve got nothing else to do today! I’m gonna be so bored, Winry, pleeease,” Paninya whines, flopping bonelessly onto the table with her best puppy-dog eyes. Winry is mostly unaffected.

“Why not just go hang out with Lan Fan?” she asks. “She puts up with you way more than I do.”

“Can’t. She’s out with her grandpa ‘scoring sweet holiday deals’ at the outlets.” The complaint comes with air quotes. “Besides, you’ve been talking about how cool this project is gonna be for like, mooonths. I can’t miss it after that kind of hype.”

“I have kind of been taunting you with it, haven’t I?” Winry sighs, curling a loose wire around her finger. “Tell you what. If you can be quiet and not so… Paninya the amazing living distraction on me, then I’ll let you come with me later to do the experiment.” Paninya’s whole disposition perks up like a labradoodle. “But! That means no distractions.”

“Aye captain, no distractions,” Paninya promises with a little salute.

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

Several hours in that ramshackle beach house kitchen, crammed around a table and dutifully trying to keep potato chip crumbs from invading her whole zone (which, to Paninya’s credit, does not technically count as a distraction), and it’s finally complete. Just in time for low tide, too. The thing she’s been dreaming of doing for months, the senior project that will launch her college applications from drab to fab, the thing that will get her out of this backwater beach town for good...

“Okay, so. No more secrets. Tell me what your project is, Win,” Paninya demands, handing her a roll up cord out of the backpack they brought with them. Winry beams at her.

“Wwwweeell, do you remember those guys from like, San Fran who started building an aquatic robot to explore a hole that was rumored to have treasure at the bottom?”

Paninya pulls out a half-eaten bag of Ruffles from the backpack. “No, but that sounds completely rad. Is that your project? Oh shit, are we gonna find treasure?”

“Probably not,” Winry casually admits, ignoring the way Paninya deflates. “But the robot, yeah. The one they built was a world-wide collaboration across the internet. They had a goal, and people would test their builds by building one of their own, tweak it, and report their findings on those tweaks. It was super cool.”

“Yeah, cool for nerds maybe…” Paninya mumbles around a chip.

“SO,” she presses on, “I built one of my own. With some tweaks. You know, in the spirit of the thing. Now I just need to test it out, record my success, and write a whole essay on it.”

“Which is why we’re in the spooky cave that you can only get to at low tide and has a mysterious bottomless pit in it? So you can see if your ‘bot dives or fries?”

“Yep!” Winry answers cheerfully. “And why not just use Ling’s pool to do this instead? My legs don’t get good traction in here. I almost slipped earlier. I almost died.”

“Because Ling’s pool isn’t saltwater, and you’re fine.”

“Wow. Cold. Is this what a shitload of free time your senior year does to you, or is it just the overachieving itself?”

“Both,” Winry chirps, and plugs the cord into the tablet. She moves to plug in the other end into the robot itself, but frowns. The waterproof chassis doesn’t look right, like it settled in transport, skewing the whole design just slightly enough that it kind of worries her. Just that tiny bit of pressure on the cable could knock it out with the right bump, or damage the whole port.

Oh well. That’s why a scout’s always prepared, right? She pulls a knife out of her pocket and carefully shaves the plastic away to make room. And just like that, the plug fits like a charm. Nice and snug.

She turns to Paninya, and nods. “It’s show time.”

“Wait, waaaait,” Paninya stops her, waving a cheese-dusted hand around as the other reaches into the backpack. “It’s bad luck to sail a ship without a name. Got one?”

“Uh… I’ve just been calling it Divebot mark 1?” she offers.

Paninya stops digging through the supplies to stare. “Come on, Win. I’ve taught you to ‘yes and’ better than that.”

“Ugh, fine, okay. Um… Divey Jones?”

“Better.” Paninya reveals a can of ginger ale, and at Winry’s own disbelieving stare, shrugs. “It’s not like I have champagne, dude. Ready?”

“Ready.”

Gently, Winry eases the newly christened Divey Jones into the pool of water in front of them at the same time Paninya starts vigorously shaking the can. It floats on top of the surface, gently bobbing, and Winry tosses a grin at Paninya. First success: buoyancy. Next: video feed.

She boots up the tablet, jailbroken to run an open framework because nobody wants you to sandbox their stuff anymore, and opens the custom app she programmed just for this project. One part video capture, one part robot controller. It saved her the parts cost of making a controller, but also? It’s just a little more impressive for whoever looks over her work. Look, she can engineer hardware and software!

When the window prompt comes up to sync the devices, she starts to get jittery. It was one thing to test out at the house, where everything seemed to work just fine, but this was it. This was what either made her winter break a vacation or a mad dash to troubleshoot whatever could have possibly gone wrong in her schematics. The only thing separating her from either possibility was the flip of a switch.

She picks Divey back up from the water, turns it over, and flips it from “off” to “on”.

Immediately, it begins whirring to life, humming in her hand as the battery does its work. She picks up the tablet and pulls out a notepad lined with little squares to check off as she goes through the boot up process: Video feed online? Check. Headlights? Check. A quick figure eight around the little pool confirms that the fins and motors are working, and she checks that off as well.

It’s time for the big moment. She and Paninya nod at each other.

She deflates the swim bladder a little bit, and as Divey Jones begins to sink into the black abyss, Paninya opens the can of ginger ale to a satisfying arc of spray across the cavern, whooping and laughing at the mess it makes. “Bon voyage!!” she calls down the hole, and Winry shakes her head, smiling and turning her attention to guiding the robot on its way.

The “bottomless pit” is an old volcanic magma tube of some sort, five feet in diameter at the top but quickly narrowing as you go down, and filled with water that pours into the cave at every high tide. The cave that contains it is only accessible on foot during low tide, and you have to be careful not to get caught in the cave during high tide. There’s a ton of warnings on a sign outside that attempt to dissuade tourists from trying to camp out in it, and for good reason.

She got stuck in here at high tide once, when she was a kid. Blacked out and woke up to an ambulance and her grandma freaking out. Couldn’t step foot into the place for a few years after that, partly because of trauma, and partly because the park rangers have tightened up their watch on the place ever since.

So. She and Paninya aren’t really supposed to be here. But, you know. It’s for science.

Paninya leans her head on Winry’s shoulder and watches the video feed on the tablet, the only indicator of where the robot is now that it’s turned a corner out of sight. She presses a chip to Winry’s lips, who mindlessly opens her mouth to accept it she’s so focused.

“How deep is this thing, anyway?” Paninya asks after a few more moments of watching video of dark gray rock walls float by.

“Hopefully less than fifty feet? The cable isn’t any longer than that.”

“Yeah, and you’re almost out of rope,” Paninya observes, looking at the coil beside them that grows thinner and thinner as the robot dives onward. “So now might be a good time to say you see the bottom.”

“Well, I don’t see anythi… wait.” Winry leans forward, bringing the tablet screen up to her face, her brow furrowing. There’s a small irregularity in the tunnels further down where it opens up a bit more. It’s like… what it looks like when an octopus camouflages itself against a rock. But the video on Divey’s tiny little camera is so grainy… and it looks so, so much bigger than an octopus.

Paninya leans in closer. “What? What do you see?”

“I… don’t know?” she answers honestly, and then something really startles her. “Oh fuck, it moved. It just moved—”

“What moved? Where am I looking?”

“Right here!” She points at the screen, at the tiny mass of pixels that is growing and changing and moving, even as the robot sits still, and she doesn’t know what it is. A thought occurs somewhere in her head that maybe she should start backing Divey up, but before she can do anything the mass surges forward in a terrifying blur and the feed cuts to static.

“Divey, no!!” Paninya squeals, and Winry nearly tosses the tablet across the room. But she’s cool. She keeps her cool. She’s smarter than to throw away the one thing containing most of the several past months of work.

“What the hell could…” She stops, the zippy sound of cord sliding across rock catching her off guard. That pitiful coil of cord that was slowly disappearing into the abyss with Divey is disappearing so much faster now, and with the tablet still connected to it.

“Winry, Winry Winry Winry, the tablet, you’ve gotta let go of the tablet—” Paninya babbles, scrambling to get onto her feet, and Winry doesn’t even think this time. She fumbles for the knife at her side, and in one swift motion, severs the line, just in time for the newly frayed end to get sucked into the hole like spaghetti.

Her mouth is dry as she looks up at Paninya.

“Run.”

#fullmetalsecretsanta #fullmetalsecretsanta2018 #fmasecretsanta2018 #edwin #fma #fullmetal alchemist #au #mermaid au #feat. me #edward elric #winry rockbell #genuinely very sorry about how late this is dude #art

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bri206 · 6 years ago

Text

HE’S HIDING SOMETHING

This is a little guess fic for 7x13 after reading the synopsis. I hope you enjoy!

He’s hiding something, he can feel it. Oliver had walked past William’s room this morning , and when he asked if he wanted to help with breakfast, he slammed his laptop shut. Now he’s sitting across the bar pushing around his eggs.

“Hey” Felicity says walking into the living room. “Something smells amazing” Laying a gently her hand on William, to give him a gentle hug. He gives her a small smile in return. “Did you sleep well? Was the bed ok? I was thinking about getting the extra soft mattress, but I know that you like some firmness.” Shutting her eyes, she silently shakes her head and tucks her lips between her teeth. “I’m just… gonna… forget I said anything.”

“I made you coffee honey”

“Thank you”

When she looks up to give her husband a look of thanks, she immediately stops in her tracks. His eyes are darker, but not like the kind of dark when he is out in the field. This is different.

“You ok, Felicity?”

“What?”

“You’re coffee.” William says scrunching his eyebrows together.

“Right, coffee.”

Looking between his parents several times, he just shakes his head. “I’m going back to my room.”

“Will you didn’t finish your breakfast” Oliver says quickly.

“I’m not hungry.”

Before Oliver can protest, Oliver’s already in his room.

Releasing a deep sigh, Oliver closes his head and lets it hang.

“Uh Oh, I know that look. What’s wrong?”

“He’s hiding something”

“Oliver, he’s a teenager. Secrecy is their main language. I mean we were teenagers once, we know how it goes.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. Felicity I was not a good teenager. I mean when I was his age, I had my first of many beers, and I was smoking and partying.”

Felicity can see the spiral consuming him.

“Ok, Oliver, Oliver. Hey, focus.” She grabs his face between her hands. “Listen to me, William is a good kid. Ok? He has a good head on his shoulder, and he is super smart.”

“Yeah, but he just went through several traumatic experiences, one after the other. That could lead to some awful fallouts for him and us.”

“Were you reading that child psychology website again?”

He hesitates. “No”

“Oliver, you know those articles do nothing, but make you worry, and for no reason.”

“No reason? Did you just see the encounter we had with him. He couldn’t get out of the room quick enough.”

“He’s still adjusting.”

“He hates me.”

“No he doesn’t. He does not hate you, ok? It’s like you said he went through some traumatic experiences and it’s just gonna take time for him to adjust to our new norm.”

“You’re right. Time.”

“Time. Speaking of time, aren’t you gonna be late for work?”

“Yeah, I should go” he says, grabbing his coffee and giving her a kiss. “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

---

As he walks into the precinct, the first thing he notices, is the chaos. He’s still trying to adjust to the environment of not only the police force, but also with so many people being involved.

“Got another one” Dinah says coming to walk with him.

“Another murder?”

“Yep. Another young woman, late 20’s, early 30’s” she says giving him the photograph. “Strangled to death.”

“Do we have a connection” he asks when he reaches his desk? “Still working on it.”

He sighs, when he heavily sits down.

“You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m just worried about William.”

“Oh, yeah, how’s that going.”

“Well he’s not talking to me and he’s hiding something from me, so great.”

“I’ m sorry.”

“I should have expected this. I mean, I can’t blame him for being mad. I did break my promise to him.”

“He’s a kid, he’ll get over it.”

“Or he won’t” he mutters.”

“Why don’t you look more into that case, you can even go to the crime scene if you would like. That’ll help get your mind off your problems.”

“Yeah, I’ll look into it.”

-----

After going over all the women again, for the fifteenth time, Oliver gives up. There are no connections that he can find. He sent the list of women that had been murdered by the mystery serial killer or as the Star City news reporters are calling him “The Star City Slayer”, over to Felicity, but still nothing.”

A knock breaks him from his reverie.

“Hey, find anything?”

“No. All these women, they all have different jobs, families, social status. Some have kids, some don’t. Some are married, some aren’t. I mean, it’s almost as if he was randomly picking these women out of the city pull.”

“What about age?”

“I mean a few of them were in their early 20’s, one of them was in her late 30’s, and the rest mid 30’s.”

“Alright, so we have a range, 20-30’s.”

“That’s kind of a big range.”

“Yeah, well you said you had nothing, so, I’m reaching for anything at this point. You try.”

“Alright fine, if you want to get technical, all of them are blonde. Happy?”

“Peachy” she says sarcastically. “Now go home.”

“What? I’m done yet, and Felicity’s still working on this, so this could take a couple hours.”

“Oliver, you’re not here. Mentally anyway. You’re mind is drifting off to your son.”

Oliver wants to protest, but he knows she’s very right. William is all he has been able to think about the entire time he’s been at work.

“Dinah..”

“Go. Go home and spend time with your family. We both know you deserve it.”

“Are you sure? I mean, what if he attacks again?” “Oliver, we’ve got this. I promise. Now go, before I have to escort you out myself.

----

Walking through the doors of their apartment, Oliver can’t help but feel relief.

“Hey, you’re home early. Did you find the killer?”

“No, umm, Dinah kind of forced me to come home.”

“Forced you? Why?”

“Appaerantly I wasn’t focused.”

“Let me guess, William.”

“Yeah. Speaking of which, is he here?”

“Yeah, he’s in his room. Which he hasn’t left in the last 4 hours.”

“Great, then he can help me with dinner.”

“Oliver, wait.”

“What” he asks turning towards her.

“Look, I know you want to get to the bottom of this, but you need to remember he is not some low life criminal. He’s your son.”

“I know that” he says defensively.”

“I know you know that. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you need to be patient with him and let him tell you rather than force it out of him.”

“Alright, alright.” he lift her hand and kisses it delicately.

Walking to his son’s bedroom, he takes a deep breath and softly knocks on the door.

“Hey Will.”

Looking up from his laptop, he slowly narrows his eyes.

“Hi, dad. What are you doing here? It’s just that Felicity said that you tend to work late.”

“I usually do, but I finished early today. I figured that we could make dinner together.”

“Oh”

“I did promise Felicity lasagna, and we do make the best lasagna. What do you say?”

He looks at his laptop one final time, and then closes it.

“Ok.”

----

“The table is set.”

“Perfect, and the lasagna is out of the oven. How are the breadsticks, Will?”

“Done.”

“Perfect, because I am starving.”

After bringing over the food, they all settle down and begin to eat. The conversation is surprisingly easy, as Felicity talks about her new security system, and Oliver’s new job with the police.

“So Will, what was your favorite thing about Cambridge?”

William hesitates and looks down at his food. Oliver and Felicity exchange looks, worried that he won’t answer. But he proves them wrong seconds later.

“Umm, I think it had to be the science fair there.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, everyone really got into it. I also played some baseball while I was over there.”

“That’s awesome, Will.”

This is the moment, Oliver thought, this was the moment he would figure out what his son was hiding. But before he could even get the first word out, Felicity’s computers go wild.

Rushing over to them, Felicity immediately starts typing furiously. And then with a final punch to a key, her moments go still.

“Umm, Oliver. Come here, please.” she says in a very tense voice.

Quickly getting up he, comes to land a hand on her shoulder in support.

“What’s wrong?”

Seeing that William has a clear view to the screens, she slightly pushes Oliver into his line of sight.

“What?”

“Look” she says pointing to the disturbing picture.

It is Dinah, Renee, and Emiko tied to chairs, with blood running down different parts of their bodies.

“Where is this?”

Quickly finding the address, Felicity gives it to him.

“565 W. Prichard”

Pulling up another camera angle, Felicity's breath hitches.

“Wait a second, that guy looks familiar.”

“Stanley.” Oliver says in utter disgust and surprise.

“Yeah, he was the one that was in prison with you.”

“‘Was’ being the key word. How did he even get out?”

“I don’t know, but Oliver, they don’t look so good.

Already pulling back his shoulders, and turning towards the bedroom, Oliver starts to walk with determination, when all of a sudden he hears his son’s voice.

“Dad?”

Turning to his boy, Oliver’s stance softens a bit.

“Buddy I’m so sorry, but-”

“You have to go. I get it. Go.”

“Will, I promise I’ll-”

“Just go. They need you.”

Without another thought, Oliver was gone.

----

It had been 15 minutes since Oliver had left, when Felicity found his dot stopping right in front of the abandoned warehouse.

Felicity is doing everything she can think of, on her computer, when she catches a glimpse of William.

He is sitting all alone at the table, looking very sad and disappointed. That immediately shakes her of her reverie.

“Hey Will, can you come here for a second?”

At the sound of his name, he gets up and begrudgingly makes his way over to her.

“Felicity, if this about dad-”

“It’s not. I mean it is, but not… I could really use your help.”

“With what? You look like you have everything covered.”

“Well that is where you’re wrong, because I have a very important job for you. Pull up a seat.”

He does as she asks, and when he sits beside her, she shows him what to do.

“Do you see these orange dots?”

“Yeah”

‘Those are heat signatures, that means those are the amount of people in the building.”

“It shows four.”

“Exactly. Three of those are our friends and the other is the bad guy.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to keep an eye out for more orange dots. Can you do that?” “Yep” he says with a determination, she hasn’t seen in him for a while.

“Alright Overwatch, talk to me.”

“Ok, they are in the North East sector.”

“Any surprises I should know about?”

“No, it’s just the team and Stanley, so far.”

With a simple nod, Oliver wasted no time getting to the North East sector.

Kicking the door open, he is welcomed to his friends, looking utterly pissed off and tied up.

Turning to the sound of the door opening, Stanley lets a creepy smile appear on his face.

“Oliver. It’s so nice to see you again” he says in his childlike innocence voice.

“Let them go Stanley.”

“Oh, I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because they’re my victims” he says it as if that statement would solve everything.

Knowing that he will just make everything worse by yelling, Oliver decides to take the softer approach.

“Stanley, this has nothing to do with them. Ok? This is about you and me. Now, let them go.” “They weren’t supposed to be here.”

Getting irritated every second that passes by, Oliver tightens his grip on his bow.

“Stanley, let, them, go.”

“I tried to get to her. But every time I tried to go through the window, there was loud beeping and sirens screaming.”

Losing his patience, Oliver made small steps towards the man, who seemed to be in his own little world.

“And then I saw her, yesterday. She was beautiful, with her hair blowing in the wind, shining as bright as the sun. And her dress kissing her thighs with every step. She was a sight to behold.”

All while Stanley is giving his disturbing speech, William accidentally pushes a button, and a whole bunch of pictures pop up. All of them are of the women that were killed.

“You saw who” Oliver asks curtly in his deep voice.

“I was going to finally have her, because she was the key. But then, you showed up and I couldn’t blow my cover, so I went for second best.”

William leans closer to the pictures and notices a similarity between the 6 women. They all looked like her.

“Felicity” fear coating his voice.

She is intently watching Oliver’s every move.

“Felicity” he tries again.

“What?”

“All these women, they all look like you.”

At the revelation, she looks back to the screen where Oliver is watching Stanley, waiting to make a move.

“Oh my god” she whispers. “Oliver he was going to kill me.”

As soon as the word reached his ears, he goes stock still. Stanley was talking about Felicity. His Felicity. He was going to kill her.

“You were going to kill my wife” he whispers in anger.

“Yes. She was the only way. Felicity was the key to you.”

“Don’t you dare speak her name.”

“You hurt me Oliver, and I just wanted to hurt you, and the only way to do that was to hurt someone close to your heart. Because I know from experience that when someone hurts your heart, there’s no going back.”

Not wanting to hear another word come out of his mouth, Oliver lunges at him and fights. Fights for his wife, and the anger that courses through his veins. As he continuously punches the defenseless man, her voice finally comes through.

“Oliver! Stop! Stop!”

At the final ‘Stop’, he did. He lets his fist loosen just a little bit, and he takes in the scene before him. Stanley’s face is bloodied and bruises are becoming prevalent. As much as he wants to finish the job, he thinks about his son and Felicity, and how much he wants to be a good man for them. And if he kills Stanley, he will not be that man for them, so he backs up slightly and glares at him.

“If you EVER even so much as think about my wife, you will forever be in the pain of hell.”

“Without her, you are nothing”

And with one final punch, Stanley is silent.

---

Felicity is lost. Lost in thought. He was there, at Big Belly Burger yesterday. He was going to kidnap her and kill her. Murder her, just so he could get back at Oliver. That was a lot to process.

Not knowing how long her mind had been lost, she feels her arm being lifted and her feet shuffling across the floor. A light pressure is being applied to her shoulder, causing her to sit on the soft cushions of the sofa. And then the presence was gone.

But then it returned minutes later.

“Felicity”

That was all it took, her name.

“William. Oh, I’m sorry, did I zone out?”

“Yeah. But it’s ok, I brought you the hot chocolate you like. The one with extra cinnamon and extra whip cream.”

Giving him a sincere smile, she gladly takes the beverage and sips at it. Sitting across from her, William asks if she’s ok.

“Yeah, sorry it’s just a lot to take in.”

“Knowing that yesterday could have gone really bad.”

“Yeah” she whispers.

“Well it didn’t and I think that’s all that matters.”

Nodding her head, she silently agrees.

Silence fills the air as they sit quietly processing the night.

And then out of nowhere, he spoke.

“Why did you forgive him so easily?”

Turning towards her step-son, she looks to question what he means.

“Dad. Why did you just pretend like the last 7 months didn’t exist?”

“Will I-”

“You act like you didn’t give up everything for him. That you didn’t cry yourself to sleep every night. That he didn’t break you. Felicity you were a barista. And you hated it.”

“William. Look, you’re right, I did forgive him quickly, but it’s not what you think. Ok?”

“I don’t understand. He hurt us. He left us.”

“Yes. He did. And we will always remember that. The way it made us feel , and our emotions. But I did forgive him, and this is why.” Taking a deep breath, she’s not sure if she should tell him what she’s about to tell him, because it could be crossing a line, but she needs him to understand why she willingly forgave Oliver.

“This isn’t the first time he’s done this.”

“Gone to prison?”

She huffs “No, lied to me. Do you remember when you first met Oliver? As your mother’s friend?”

He nods.

“That was right after he found out that he was your father. And he wanted so desperately to be in your life. So much so that he made a deal with your mother. The deal was that he could see you as long as he didn’t tell anyone about you.”

“Including you?”

“Including me. Now you're probably wondering why this means anything and that’s because your dad and I were engaged.”

“Engaged?”

“Yep. We were going to get married. But then you were kidnapped and the truth came out. Long story short, when I found out about you I was so angry, and it wasn’t because of you, because I love you as my own. But it was because he lied to me. I know some women would let it go and move on, but I couldn’t. So I broke off our engagement and relationship. That next year was torture. Oliver and I still worked together, but it was awful being around him and not being with him. In fact it was even worse when he started dating someone else. It was as if everything broke all over again.”

“And what happened after that? Clearly you two ended up together.”

“We did obviously, but it wasn’t without a fight. Look I guess the reason I forgave him so quickly, was because I know what it’s like to be without him and I never want to experience that again. So I would rather work on things with him than not have him at all. Will I know you’re mad at him, as you should be, but wouldn't you rather work things out now, then regret not having a relationship, ten, twenty years down the road?”

He looks down at his lap and back up at her eyes. She was baring her love, worry and belief in him.

Putting her cup on the coffee table, she take both of his hands.

“I am not saying you have to forgive him now, or even three weeks from now. But all I’m saying is that you deserve to have a relationship, a good one, with your dad.”

Before he can say anything, her alarm goes off. All it says is ‘Oliver Queen’.

A few seconds later, the door opens, and Oliver walks in, with his leathers on. His eyes immediately land on the scene before him and he sends questioning looks to his love. But she simply deflects them with a shake of her head. Getting up slowly, Felicity meets him half way and they are both embracing like they’re lives depend on it.

“You’re here.”

“I’m here” she says stroking his hair comfortingly.

He pulls back slightly and frames her face between his hands, “are you ok?”

“I’m fine. He didn’t touch me.”

That seemed to get through to him, because he let’s out a deep sigh and finally relaxes. Kissing her softly for a couple minutes, he finally breaks it.

Looking up he sees William, looking down at his lap.

“Will, I am so sorry, I had to leave. I know I promised dinner and a quite night-”

“Dad it’s ok. Really. Felicity let me help.”

“She did? You did?”

“Yeah, he was actually the one who figured out that Stanley was targeting me.”

Oliver stands in awe of his family, and can’t believe they’re his.

“Well good job, I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks dad” he says blushing.

Basking in the moment, Oliver almost forgets all of their problems, and they hit him full force.

“As amazing as you did tonight, we need to talk. Will, I know that I broke your trust and I lied to you and I am so deeply sorry for that. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but that being said, I do want you to be honest with me. Starting with what your hiding from us.”

The question makes William cower. The reaction causes both Oliver and Felicity to look worried at each other.

“Will, you can tell us anything” Felicity coaxes. “ We won’t be mad at you, I mean we were both teenagers once, and we did some not so appropriate things…”

He immediately looks up “I didn’t drink or smoke or party, if that’s what your thinking.”

At the statement, Oliver literally sighs and physically relaxes, causing Felicity to look over and give him a funny look.

“Oh thank god” he says under his breath.

“Ok, well if it’s not that, then what’s going on?”

Again William, looks down.

“Umm, I don’t know how to tell you guys, because I don’t know how you’ll react. I don’t if you’ll be mad at me-”

“William, we won’t be mad, I promise” Oliver says laying a supportive hand on his son’s shoulder.

Still avoiding eye contact, William lets the words fall from his lips.

“I’m Gay”

Silence fills the room, and that’s when the tears begin to stream down his face. He took from the lack of movement and sound that they were mad.

But their faces said anything but that. Oliver engulfed William into a hug and Felicity soon joined. When they released each other, William finally looks up.

“You’re not mad?”

“Mad? Why we be mad?” Felicity asks.

“Because Danny Walker’s parents were super mad when he told them he was gay. They said he was an abomination and that he was a disgrace.”

He feels two hands cup his face.

“You are NOT an abomination. You are a gift. Our gift.” Felicity said with all the love she could muster for her son.

“We love you Will, and we are so proud of you.”

“And we will always, always support you, no matter what. Ok?”

Tears openly running down his cheek, he simply nods, and feels them both pull him into a hug. And they all cry. Tears of joy, love and most importantly tears of happiness, because they all knew, they were all finally home.

#Olicity #olicity fanfiction #olicity fanfic #oliver queen/felicity smoak #oliver and william #felicity and william #william clayton #Felicity Smoak #oliver & felicity #arrow #arrow 7x13

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spideytorchbigbang · 7 years ago

Text

2017 Second Claims

Due to interest and the number of artist sign-ups, we’ve decided to open a second round of claims for the 2017 Spideytorch Big Bang. If you were unable to claim to a story in the first round, or you simply want to claim another, please e-mail [email protected] with your pick!

Summaries repeated under the cut:

JAILBREAK

Universe: AU [616-based] Rating: M Warnings: college rejection/dropouts, morally grey decisions, breaking and entering, involving a teenager in illegal things, dubious consent due to alcohol (not painted in a good light), manipulation, sexual regret, mentions of canon compliant character death, shady and illegal government organizations, prison Summary: When Johnny Storm is fourteen years old, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm move next door. Due to his sister’s strange attraction to them, and his intense love for his sister, Johnny finds himself sucked further into their world, until one night Reed decides to steal a spaceship and bam – along come the Fantastic Four. At first, the F4 are heroes, but they soon take a menacing turn, and it takes a chance run-in with Spider-Man, the new kid on the block, to remind Johnny that he can be a hero again. But when things take a turn for the worse, Johnny is left alone in a world of heroes, desperately fighting to find his family (and maybe even himself). Or: the Fantastic Four are well-meaning but evil, SHIELD is generally shady, Johnny kisses boys he shouldn’t, Peter Parker has a hot girlfriend and a motorcycle, and Spider-Man is always in Johnny Storm’s corner.

FAMILY

Universe: 616, but current canon is more of a suggestion than anything Rating: Mature Warnings: Kidfic (but not mpreg), Peter Parker’s Poor Decision Making Skills, Tentacles, Implied Foggy Nelson/Matt Murdock/ Kirsten McDuffie , HEAVILY Implied Venom Symbiote/Flash Thompson Harry Osborn/Flash Thompson and Venom/Harry/Flash, child illness, Johnny Is Shirtless All The Time Because Reasons Summary: Peter always thought he’d have more of a say over when he had a kid, that it would be something decided between him and his hypothetical lover some time down the line. But between his board of directors insinuating that the public doesn’t trust a single and child-free CEO, and a rather insistent alien queen wanting him as some kind of stud male to save her people, Peter’s ‘someday maybe’ plan has ended up becoming 'no time like the present’ when said alien queen gifts Peter with an egg. Inside? A baby made up of his and Johnny Storm’s DNA, because name dropping Johnny Storm to get out of hot water was never a good idea. In the face of Johnny’s depression over his still missing family, Peter decides that Johnny could never know the baby was his, too. Instead, Peter invites Johnny to live with him as the baby’s nanny, because living with the guy you have over a decade and a half of repressed romantic feelings for and raising your daughter together under false pretenses is a plan that can’t possibly back fire. Good Job, Pete.

WOLF

Universe: MTV-Teen-Wolf-inspired AU Rating: Mature Warnings: secondary characters’ deaths including a police shooting scene, bullying incidents, scenes with Peter in chains, mild horror content (a wild werewolf chasing and threatening Peter), expletives (swearwords), animalistic characteristics of Peter in some scenes, shapeshifting into a werewolf, violent incidents, some scenes are heavily influenced by the Teen Wolf series Summary: When Peter gets dragged by Gwen into the Central Park in the middle of the night to look for a body he doesn’t expect to be bitten by a werewolf (it’s not like they exist, right?), but that’s exactly what happens. His life takes rapid turn, he’s lost his uncle, a crazed killer alpha werewolf is trying to get to him, and he can’t even control his own body. To make the matters worse the fate seems to like playing with him as it turns out that the only person who can calm him down is none other than Johnny Storm, a self-absorbed cheerleader who seems to embody everything that Peter hates. But maybe being a werewolf won’t be as bad as Peter thought…

SPIDER

Universe: AU Rating: M Warnings: violence, drug addiction as a minor plot point (Harry Osborn), alcoholic parental figure/legal guardian, a lot of bruises and visible physical injuries on Peter, one usage of a homophobic slur, one usage of a racial slur, heavily implied child abuse (and child abuse is discussed), very minor Peter/Flash is sort of there technically, perceived relationship between an adult and a minor, keep your eyes wide open and you’ll still probably miss it but it’s definitely in there reference to canonical childhood sexual abuse, a brief Spanish language conversation that while is not google translate bad I also am not very strong at Spanish, and I think that about covers it Summary: Possibly the worst part of being a superhero was dealing with villains such as the notorious and mysterious Spider. But Johnny has bigger problems to deal with. His girlfriend just left him for some twerp named Peter Parker. He meets the kid and he sort of gets the appeal. Oh god, no. Of course Parker has no clue what Johnny’s talking about when Johnny calls him out for stealing his girlfriend. The Spider has nothing on this sort of terror. Or: AU where Peter Parker chose to be a super villain instead. Featuring Johnny not knowing jack about Les Mis, Snitch the teddy bear, the magic of criminal profiling, “Dorrie Evans? Isn’t she gay?”, and a completely made up super villain origin story.

Additional Information from the author: In this fic Johnny and Peter are both Latino. To be more specific Johnny is Mexican and Peter is Puerto Rican. I felt that was something an artist should be aware of going in.

MULTIVERSE

Universe: Main Universe: 616, Guest Universes: Fant4stic, World’s Greatest Heroes, an original universe or two Rating: T or M Warnings: A character dealing with intense grief over an AU character’s death Summary: Johnny’s been hopelessly in love with Peter almost as long as he’s known him, but he’s never told Peter how he feels. During his lengthy stint in a Negative Zone prison, he promised himself that he’d finally tell Peter the truth if he ever sees him again. He’s been back a few weeks, but he still hasn’t been able to work up the courage. When he and Peter step through the Inhuman Eldrac, a magic door, he and Peter are jointly sent on a trip through the multiverse, where they encounter version after version of themselves, all in different stages of their lives…all of whom are deeply in love. Could Eldrac possibly be trying to tell them something? Featuring mutual pining, angst, babies, weddings, old marrieds, a widower, and tons of Peter being his usual oblivious (and possessive) self.

MORNINGSTAR

Universe: AU Rating: E Warnings: Canon and fairy tale typical violence, references to self-immolation, brief sexual assault (a forced kiss) in an encounter with the villain. The explicit rating is due to consensual sex between Johnny and Peter. Peter is a giant talking spider for part of the fic. Summary: When Johnny makes a deal with the monster that lives in the woods – himself for his sister’s happiness – he doesn’t expect the giant spider to take him to a beautiful castle, or to reveal himself a cursed prince. There’s only one catch: he’s only a man in the darkest night, and Johnny can never see his face. Still, they grow closer, and Johnny is happy with their strange arrangement – until a visit home ruins everything. Now he must travel east of the sun and west of the moon to reclaim Peter from the Goblin King. An East of the Sun, West of the Moon/Polar Bear King-inspired AU.

BARK

Universe: no clear universe, it’s a mashup (character-wise, I follow Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker pretty closely, but Johnny is also a bit of a mashup based on how I see him) Rating: Teen Warnings: canon-typical violence, kissing, injuries, brief nakedness (when Johnny gets turned back to human), Johnny is a literal dog for most of the fic, underage drinking (Johnny is nineteen), cursing (including at least three uses of the f-bomb), animal violence and abuse (dog fighting ring), non-consensual drugging (chloroforming Johnny while he’s in dog-form) Summary: A witch turns Johnny into a yellow lab, effectively leaving him in the middle of New York City with four paws, no way to communicate, and oh yeah - a dog that can flame on isn’t exactly inconspicuous. All his instincts scream for him to run home, but to his confusion, his paws aren’t leading him to the Baxter Building. Aka Johnny Storm turns up at a run down apartment near Empire State University only to discover that the apartment belongs to one Peter Parker. Only problem is, Johnny doesn’t know that Peter is Spider-Man, and Peter doesn’t know that Johnny is a dog.

CIVILIAN

Universe: AU Rating: Teen Warnings: canon-typical violence, identity porn Summary: Peter Parker meets and starts dating Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, which is unusual, as Johnny is a super-human super-star and Peter is…not. Competing with an adoring public and the frustration of being stuck on the ground while Johnny is up in the sky makes Peter wonder if he fits in with Johnny’s spectacular life. Then he gets a bite from a certain spider and becomes Spider-Man! Problem solved, right? The only issue: Johnny hates Spider-Man. Misunderstandings and hilarity ensue.

This post will remain up until the 20th or until all summaries have been claimed a second time.

#spideytorch big bang #spideytorch big bang 2017 #mod post #art claims

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nuzblog · 7 years ago

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October 26th, 2017

I have come before you tonight with dreadful news. One member of my party will not make it out of this entry alive. This very sad fact makes me very sad, and it will make you very sad when it happens.

But before I can tell you that story, I must first tell you this story.

Mt. Moon, as you may be aware... is a difficult dungeon for Nuzlockers. I go ahead and do the obvious thing, walking inside back and forth for a little bit. My first encounter is not nearly as lucky as the Jigglypuff or Weedle. No matter how much I could be hoping for Paras (the pre-evolved form of my favorite Gen 1 Pokemon), Zubat is what I get. Still, it's not as though I dislike Zubat. I go ahead and catch it. I name it Kenny. By the by, my nicknaming scheme has been guessed correctly. I won't say it here, in case anyone else wants a chance to guess - you might also get one of the Pokemon from this journey when it's over! At this point though it's pretty obvious, I think.

Randy only knows Leech Life, which is not yet a useful move, but IS one of the 3 damaging Bug moves that exist. This comes in pretty handy, actually, despite its low power.

Anyway, now that I've got a full team of 6, I go ahead and... grind! For like ever. I walk all the way back through Pewter, then Viridian Forest, then south to Palett, to heal at home... and then walk back to Route 3 where strong enough Pokemon to grind off of are. I do this like 3 times over, to where my two new guys are Level 10, before I start to venture a little further into Mt. Moon, fighting trainers, still going back home whenever healing is needed.

I collect the TM for Water Gun. Shelley could learn it, but she's gonna learn it from level up soon anyway. Lemmy could learn it... but so could Randy. And Randy's movepool is pretty limited right now. And he's lower leveled, so could use the anti-Geodude weapon, to keep more XP for himself. So I teach it to Randy.

I later collect the TM for Mega Punch. This also goes to Randy, filling his moveset out to a full 4. Around this time, Lemmy learns Hyper Fang - both moves have 80 base damage, when previously, my highest base damage was 40 on moves such as Quick Attack and Pound, so this is a pretty huge boost for my two Normal types.

Speaking of moves, can we briefly talk about the move Wrap? It might not be too bad in this game, since Ekans isn't wild (unlike in Red), but in Generation 1, moves such as Wrap, Bind and Constrict are... very silly. Whereas in later games, being squeezed in that manner is essentially identical to things like Fire Spin or Sand Tomb - inability to escape, and recurring damage at the end of each turn - Gen 1 makes them also prevent either you or the opponent from moving. Even though it makes sense to be able to bite someone who's grappling you, in the Pokemon World of Red, Blue, Green and Yellow, when you are constricted by a snake, your only hope is that its incremental damage will be low and it uses Leer on its next turn of action, or it will simply rewrap you. The one Rocket with an Ekans in Mt. Moon was pretty annoying as a result.

I also found a Moon Stone, and had a bit of a debate with myself on whether or not to use it on Randy now. I looked at its level up movepools between both Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff in Generation 1, and learned that Defense Curl (useless), Body Slam, and Double Edge (which is a TM) would be unavailable to me. Body Slam isn't a huge loss, and TMs can pick up the slack, so I go ahead and evolve Randy, giving it all 3 of these nice items I've found in Mt. Moon.

I walk past the Rocket I recall has a Raticate, since Raticate Rocket is a real rapscallion who ravaged my previous party.

At the end of Mt. Moon, there is a Super Nerd who has a Koffing, Voltorb, and Grimer. (My name in Pokemon Go, which is my Trainer Class and then as much of my name as would fit, is SuperNerdSter. Irrelevant, but also... relevant.) I would like to take this opportunity to discuss sprite oddities in Gen 1, since Koffing's sprite here has the skull and crossbones above its eyes, which is different from the classic Koffing design. In general, these earlier games took a lot more liberties with the designs. For my favorite example, you can look no further than my own party - Kenny's evolution into Golbat will also give it a huge, actively slobbering tongue to go with that enormous mouth, as well as squinty eyes that make it look both creepy and like it is bothered by light, both of which are slightly better than the regular eyes it has now, but still far far worse than the no eyes that its pre-evolution has. I feel that if Golbat had no eyes like Zubat, and still had its tongue, it would be one of my favorite ever Pokemon, instead of just one that I think is fine. Maybe not surpassing Parasect, but coming close.

Another notable sprite change is in a Pokemon I've encountered a few times before as well, Kakuna. In Gen 1, it has ARMS! The arms are still there in later generations, but are constantly flush to its body and no longer seem to have any range of movement. Which is a bummer! I loved Kakuna's arms.

Anyway. I chose the Dome Fossil, which I like, but I'm not gonna use it. I have... other plans, for Cinnabar Island. ;)

By the time I get onto the other side of Mt. Moon, my team is level 15. I could progress from here to Cerulean...

But first. I have some unfinished business.

I go ahead and walk all the way home again - for the last time. until after the Diglett Tunnel. And then I go back... to finish off the completion for Mt. Moon. I pick a fight with Raticate Rocket and his illegal Raticate, who murdalized my guys last time I fought him. This time, he is not so lucky.

Anyway. Back to progress. Unlike the two sides of Viridian Forest, the entrance and exit to Mt. Moon are on different Routes! Route 4 is new, so I hop down, now unable to return home, and run around, finding a... drumroll please... Sandshrew! I've never actually used one of these before, except I might have in one of my millions of Emerald playthroughs, where they are pretty plentiful in the desert. I also can't find one to save my life in Pokemon Go, since I started playing after they were removed from eggs. So I'm pretty jazzed to see this little fella. He's also Level 12, which is the maximum for the route, and pretty close to the rest of my team! His name is, after much debate, Leopold.

I add him to the party and heal at the Pokemon Center, setting Lemmy in the PC for now. I might as well take this opportunity to lock in a rule addendum I've been adhering to, but not specifically mentioned, so I no longer have the potential to weasel out of it. I did say these rules might be changing a little as we do this first game.

Rule 4c: At any given Pokemon Center, that Center's heal comes before any outstanding Notable Battle Heals that haven't been spent yet.

So for example, healing here at the Cerulean City Pokemon Center is the Cerulean City Heal, and not the Brock Heal. Got it? Good.

Now, I go ahead and have a pretty unsuccessful grinding session, on a similar "until I need healing" basis to one of them previous grinding sessions. Leopold gets to Level 14, and Randy gets to 16, but it's otherwise not great. Ah well. I heal again, since I have no way of progress without making another Notable Battle happen and I don't want to waste a heal. (In retrospect I could have knocked down some gym trainers, maybe gotten better XP than the grass gave.)

And then, I head North to Nugget Bridge, ready for yet another face off against Ash. I do like how frequently you encounter him in this game. Later Pokemon Games have a steadily shrinking rival presence, and a steadily more nonantagonistic role for the "rival." Like, the last 3 generations, your rival is actually just your friend who likes to fight Pokemon sometimes.

Unfortunately... I am underleveled. Pretty badly, looks like - Pidgeotto is Level EIGHTEEN. Whoops. I head into combat anyway, switching out when things look hairy, starting off with my two powerhouses, Randy and Lemmy...

Sadly, and tragically, an unexpected critical hit knocked just over the edge of Randy's health. Randy... is dead.

October 25th, 2017 - October 26th, 2017.

Poor Randy. We barely knew ye. And we funneled a bunch of resourced into ye that have now been wasted and are unrecoverable. :,(

Pidgeotto goes down fine after that, though - next is Abra, who only knows teleport, so I take the opportunity to use my last two Potions on Lemmy and on Shelley, whose high defense was the difference against the Pidgeotto. I then use Kenny's super effective WAIT SHIT AS I'M WRITING THIS I LITERALLY ONLY JUST NOW REALIZED I BROKE RULE 3.

Um. Whoops.

In all fairness, looking at HP and PP totals, I never actually used Windy or Bebe during that fight, so technically I did only use 4 Pokemon, but I did forget to box two of them. Boy, rules are hard to remember!

Leech Life. It's the super effective one. Remember how I said it would be useful? It was.

Then came Rattata, who I fought with my own Rattata. My Hyper Fang caused a flinch, and dropped it low enough for Quick Attack to finish it off.

After that, I switched back to Kenny, because thanks to Bug being weirdly good on Poison, Leech Life is Double Super Effective on Ash's Bulbasaur. Victory, despite being underleveled, with only one casualty.

And that's where I am - I'm at the Pokemon Center, in front of the PC, where I've swapped the deceased Randy for the extant Leopold.

Ah... poor Randy. You shall be missed.

#pokemon #pokemon blue #nuzlocke #entries

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todonintendos · 7 years ago

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Top 5 Best and Worst Shrine Quests in Breath of the Wild

A few days ago I listed my favourite and least favourite shrines from Breath of the Wild, however I focused on what was inside of each shrine itself rather than what players must do in order to get to them, and this is where Shrine Quests become important. There are 42 of those in the game, and they’re missions that need to be completed in order to reach or unlock a shrine. For this list, I will be excluding all quests in which the shrine is already accessible before triggering the mission, as I’ve found a lot of those by just randomly exploring, so here it begins!

Also, spoiler alert, just sayin’ you may want to complete all of these quests by yourself before.

#5 (Best) - Shrouded Shrine

To kick off this list I could have picked any of the three mazes, but instead I went for that dark forest north of the Great Hyrule Forest because it’s more original and better designed than any of the three labyrinths. The gimmick is pretty much using whatever you find or is in your inventory to light up your way to the shrine in a completely dark forest. There are many treasures spread around, but nothing too interesting on the chests except a ruby. As you advance, you’ll begin to hear growls that become louder and louder, and when you get to the end the mystery unravels: someone at Nintendo decided it would be cool to put a Hinox right there, but you can just skip it and enter the shrine.

This shrine adds a sense of mystery and, why not, fear to the game, which you won’t see anywhere else in the vast wilderness of Hyrule, which is mainly why I like this quest.

#5 (Worst) - The Ceremonial Song

I know most of you actually don’t find this quest to be that bad, but it straight up confused me to the point I had to give up and come back way later in the game. The quest triggers when you talk to a Zora girl, and she sings a song containing all the clues you need to solve the quest. I was a bit early into the game so when I read “scale of light�� I immediately thought of one of the three dragons, but which one? The question answered itself when I tried putting all three scales on the pedestal without success, only to find out later “scale” referred to the weapon, so I began looking for it when that old Zora told me he dropped it off a bridge... but what bridge? I looked under every bridge on the way to Zora’s Domain, didn’t find anything. He was actually talking about the “bridge” he was standing on, which I don’t even consider a bridge in the first place.

But this doesn’t end here, the final step was going to the pedestal and doing what the Mipha statue was doing. I don’t think I have to mention how much time it took me to figure out what she was actually doing and what I had to replicate... and that I had to do it from a certain height. As soon as I saw the shrine pop up... ugh... screw this quest.

#4 (Best) - Recital at Warbler’s Nest

Despite the urge to talk about how terribly cute the small Rito are, I’m gonna have to focus on the quest. It triggers when you talk to one of the five sisters at Warbler’s Nest. She will tell you that her four sisters met up to sing with her, but didn’t come, so you’ve got to look for them. All of the missing Rito are in Rito Village (shoutouts to the one sitting on the cliff that literally took me ages to find) and each of them will give you an ingredient, as the green bird won’t go sing unless you prepare her favourite meal: salmon meunière, which you do by mixing the three ingredients you get from the other sisters.

Once this is done, the five sisters will be finally reunited at Warbler’s Nest and they’ll play their song. Now the player must memorize the order in which they sing, and use a Korok Leaf to enter that pattern using the numbered rocks as a reference to reveal the shrine. This quest mixes two of the main attractions of any Zelda game: exploration and puzzles, and the shrine you get is not a blessing one... but it has a huge staircase.

Now that I’m done talking about the quest... please take a minute to appreciate the cuteness of the five sisters, specially during the cutscene in which they fly back to Rito Village. Also my apologies to the blue one for being an unhatched egg, never forget.

#4 (Worst) - Watch Out for the Flowers

The fact that this is one of the first shrines you’ll encounter after exiting the Plateau doesn’t save it from being among the worst. I’m talking about that infamous quest featuring the mad flower woman, who literally takes away part of your health is you step on her flowers too much. And by stepping, I mean just touching one single flower a little bit. Or you can also wait until you get Revali’s Gale and screw all the process up, but that still makes it too cheap. Get frustrated or skip everything, you decide what to do.

And don’t forget to burn all of the flowers from a certain distance when you leave using bomb arrows. She somehow won’t notice and you’ll feel like you’ve recovered all of the time you may have wasted with this one.

#3 (Best) - The Stolen Heirloom

Unlocking this one takes some time, as you don’t just need to defeat Master Kohga in order to trigger it, but also complete every secondary quest in Kakariko Village. Once you do, you’ll notice something strange at Impa’s house: that big fat orange ball is missing and that girl that gets shipped with Link way to much called Paya will tell you, sobbing, that someone stole it. After falsely incriminating a random woman who just wanted to cry the death of someone he loved (this is your fault Nintendo), if you head to the pedestal that’s next to the Great Fairy Fountain, everything gets suddenly real. Even more if you consider the lore of Kakariko Village.

Basically, the big fat ball was stolen by a big fat Yiga who is suspiciously stronger than the other big fat Yigas. I could talk about the fact that you just have to defeat him in order to unlock the shrine, but it’s the lore what gives the bronze medal to this quest on my list. Dorian, one of the guards in Impa’s House, is a former Yiga member who left the organization to look after his family, so the Yigas killed her wife as a revenge, and as they weren’t done yet they came back to steal the big fat ball which the game likes to call heirloom.

After kicking the Yiga’s butt, the first thing that came to my mind was that boy who was seemingly playing hide and seek with her mother for like, forever. You could think it’s just another NPC cliché, but everything changes when you find out that’s one of Dorian’s children. Then you’ll come across the game’s lore silently cutting onions in a distant corner.

#3 (Worst) - The Lost Pilgrimage

If you’ve played the game, you know what I’m talking about. All Koroks are cute, I must admit, but this one gets on my nerves, Scolting missions in videogames are generally bad, and this one is no exception. This mission is one of the three trials in the Korok Forest, and you have to follow a Korok without letting it notice you and, of course, trying not to lose track of it as he knows the way. And you don’t. The way becomes more and more dangerous as you progress, to the point where he runs back after getting scared without even telling you, and there’s a wolf ready to make things harder. And it’s not a short way.

The first time I did this quest I somehow managed to get to the shrine, but not complete the quest because I didn’t talk to the Korok once I was there. All I can tell you is that I tried again like 100 hours of gameplay later.

#2 (Best) - The Spring of Wisdom

Though you don’t really need to trigger an actual shrine quest in order to unlock the shrine, I just couldn’t miss this one. You’ve probably already seen Dinraal and Farosh flying around Hyrule, but what about Naydra? All the pieces of the puzzle put themselves on its place when you get to the summit of Mount Lanayru: the big blue dragon is possessed by that purple goo thing with eyes. And suddenly, a boss battle appears!

To defeat the evil forces taking over Naydra, you just have to fly next to him and shoot the malicious eyes with any arrows you have. Not too hard, yet not too easy, as Naydra moves and turns pretty fast and you can’t touch its freezing body. Despite the apparent simplicity of the battle, the setting is what makes it unique and different of anything we’ve played so far in any Zelda game. Once Naydra is defeated, you have to take a scale from its body and put it on the fountain to reveal the shrine. Make sure to say hi to Naydra whenever you find it while exploring!

#2 (Worst) - Test of Will

The main attraction of this shrine is three Gorons that don’t even know who you are and aren’t aware of you possessing either Fire Elixir or an entire suit that protects you from extreme heat in your inventory. This quest requires a bit of exploring to find, so you may already have any of the stuff required in your inventory... or you can rely of food, as it somehow prevents you from burning to death.

Now, just stand still for way too long until the Gorons notice you can handle heat better than they do. Don’t worry, they won’t notice you’re technically cheating, but they won’t give you back the five minutes you wasted by simply waiting.

#1 (Best) - Stranded on Eventide

Like if there were any doubts. Stranded on Eventide is the only quest where it just doesn’t matter what weapons or what enemies you’ve killed during your adventure (only hearts and stamina do), so it doesn’t really matter when you do this quest. This quest begins right when you step on Eventide Island for the first time, and the game takes away all of your clothes and weapons so you’ve got to start from zero, using anything you find as a weapon. The aim is to find three orange balls and bring each one to any of the three pedestals.

This is a challenge known for its rather hard difficulty, as it’s not about killing enemies as you’re probably used to do, but about avoiding them. You don’t want to face them though the balls are in the most dangerous locations possible. Heck, there’s even one on a Hinox, and the only alternatives are either climbing to his belly using his hand, or throwing something at his eye when he wakes up. But you can’t deny that the satisfaction of beating this is certainly worth it.

#1 (Worst) - Under a Red Moon

If the main problem with the previous worst quest was waiting, then you’re instantly going to understand why this is the worst quest in the game. You can be lucky and be able to unlock this shrine right away, or be like me and talk to Kass the night after the blood moon happened.

As you might have guessed, all you have to do is stand on the pedestal during a blood moon. And you have to do it naked. Unneeded detail that I bet at least someone missed and got even more frustrated... as unneeded as the quest itself, gotta be honest here.

And that was it! Those were my five most and least favourite shrine quests in Breath of the Wild... hope y’all agree! (probably not, though)

NEXT LIST: TOP 10 HARDEST KOROKS

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spideytorchbigbang · 7 years ago

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Art Claims Big Bang 2017

Welcome to the artist claims for the Spideytorch Big Bang! We have eight fantastic fics up for claiming! A big round of applause to all of our authors – you’re all spectacular.

Please read the summaries carefully and when you’ve selected your top picks, send an e-mail to [email protected] with the e-mail address and tumblr username you signed up with along with your first, second, and third pick. When you’ve successfully claimed a fic, you’ll be put in contact with your author.

Claimed summaries will be crossed out, so keep an eye on this post. We may be opening for double claims this year once all fics have been claimed. Thank you!

JAILBREAK

Universe: AU [616-based] Rating: M Warnings: college rejection/dropouts, morally grey decisions, breaking and entering, involving a teenager in illegal things, dubious consent due to alcohol (not painted in a good light), manipulation, sexual regret, mentions of canon compliant character death, shady and illegal government organizations, prison Summary: When Johnny Storm is fourteen years old, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm move next door. Due to his sister's strange attraction to them, and his intense love for his sister, Johnny finds himself sucked further into their world, until one night Reed decides to steal a spaceship and bam -- along come the Fantastic Four. At first, the F4 are heroes, but they soon take a menacing turn, and it takes a chance run-in with Spider-Man, the new kid on the block, to remind Johnny that he can be a hero again. But when things take a turn for the worse, Johnny is left alone in a world of heroes, desperately fighting to find his family (and maybe even himself). Or: the Fantastic Four are well-meaning but evil, SHIELD is generally shady, Johnny kisses boys he shouldn't, Peter Parker has a hot girlfriend and a motorcycle, and Spider-Man is always in Johnny Storm's corner.

FAMILY

Universe: 616, but current canon is more of a suggestion than anything Rating: Mature Warnings: Kidfic (but not mpreg), Peter Parker's Poor Decision Making Skills, Tentacles, Implied Foggy Nelson/Matt Murdock/ Kirsten McDuffie , HEAVILY Implied Venom Symbiote/Flash Thompson Harry Osborn/Flash Thompson and Venom/Harry/Flash, child illness, Johnny Is Shirtless All The Time Because Reasons Summary: Peter always thought he'd have more of a say over when he had a kid, that it would be something decided between him and his hypothetical lover some time down the line. But between his board of directors insinuating that the public doesn't trust a single and child-free CEO, and a rather insistent alien queen wanting him as some kind of stud male to save her people, Peter's 'someday maybe' plan has ended up becoming 'no time like the present' when said alien queen gifts Peter with an egg. Inside? A baby made up of his and Johnny Storm's DNA, because name dropping Johnny Storm to get out of hot water was never a good idea. In the face of Johnny's depression over his still missing family, Peter decides that Johnny could never know the baby was his, too. Instead, Peter invites Johnny to live with him as the baby's nanny, because living with the guy you have over a decade and a half of repressed romantic feelings for and raising your daughter together under false pretenses is a plan that can't possibly back fire.

Good Job, Pete.

WOLF

SPIDER

Universe: AU Rating: M Warnings: violence, drug addiction as a minor plot point (Harry Osborn), alcoholic parental figure/legal guardian, a lot of bruises and visible physical injuries on Peter, one usage of a homophobic slur, one usage of a racial slur, heavily implied child abuse (and child abuse is discussed), very minor Peter/Flash is sort of there technically, perceived relationship between an adult and a minor, keep your eyes wide open and you'll still probably miss it but it's definitely in there reference to canonical childhood sexual abuse, a brief Spanish language conversation that while is not google translate bad I also am not very strong at Spanish, and I think that about covers it Summary: Possibly the worst part of being a superhero was dealing with villains such as the notorious and mysterious Spider. But Johnny has bigger problems to deal with. His girlfriend just left him for some twerp named Peter Parker. He meets the kid and he sort of gets the appeal. Oh god, no. Of course Parker has no clue what Johnny's talking about when Johnny calls him out for stealing his girlfriend. The Spider has nothing on this sort of terror. Or: AU where Peter Parker chose to be a super villain instead. Featuring Johnny not knowing jack about Les Mis, Snitch the teddy bear, the magic of criminal profiling, "Dorrie Evans? Isn't she gay?", and a completely made up super villain origin story.

MULTIVERSE

MORNINGSTAR

Universe: AU Rating: E Warnings: Canon and fairy tale typical violence, references to self-immolation, brief sexual assault (a forced kiss) in an encounter with the villain. The explicit rating is due to consensual sex between Johnny and Peter. Peter is a giant talking spider for part of the fic. Summary: When Johnny makes a deal with the monster that lives in the woods -- himself for his sister’s happiness -- he doesn’t expect the giant spider to take him to a beautiful castle, or to reveal himself a cursed prince. There’s only one catch: he’s only a man in the darkest night, and Johnny can never see his face. Still, they grow closer, and Johnny is happy with their strange arrangement -- until a visit home ruins everything. Now he must travel east of the sun and west of the moon to reclaim Peter from the Goblin King. An East of the Sun, West of the Moon/Polar Bear King-inspired AU.

BARK

CIVILIAN

Universe: AU Rating: Teen Warnings: canon-typical violence, identity porn Summary: Peter Parker meets and starts dating Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, which is unusual, as Johnny is a super-human super-star and Peter is...not. Competing with an adoring public and the frustration of being stuck on the ground while Johnny is up in the sky makes Peter wonder if he fits in with Johnny's spectacular life. Then he gets a bite from a certain spider and becomes Spider-Man! Problem solved, right? The only issue: Johnny hates Spider-Man. Misunderstandings and hilarity ensue.

ALL CLAIMED for now, but watch this space...

#spideytorch big bang #spideytorch big bang 2017 #art claims #mod post #long post/

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