#there were several combat encounters i had to just give up on for now because the enemies just WONT STOP HITTING ME

[tiktaaliker]

ok more veilguard complaints- what the fuck happened to the combat. they took away all the unique bits and turned it into a generic hack and slash. like im sure some people prefer it but its fucking DRAGON AGE. YOU CANT EVEN SWAP TO OTHER PARTY MEMBERS. WHAT. and what sucks the absolute MOST is that. ok. my player character is a mage. ive played as a mage at least once in every dragon age game. and that has been sucking absolute shit at least in early game so far in veilguard because the enemies seem to target me and ONLY me because. companions dont even get a health bar. im sprinting around the battlefield getting the shit kicked out of me because the big powerful guys are ATTACKING ME NON STOP. and as a mage, in order to do literally ANY attacks you need to fully stop moving which usually means i get smacked and knocked aside before i can even get a single attack out. its annoying as shit and it makes fights last 20x longer than they should because im fleeing for my fucking life while my companions draw exactly 0 agro away. it doesnt help that so far my only available companions are. 2 rogues and 2 mages.

and i GUESS i can see that theyre trying to modernize the combat in a similar way to how the witcher 3 or baldurs gate 3 both completely reworked combat but. like. i felt like that already happened with inquisition. and also speaking of baldurs gate 3 that game feels way more like a dragon age game than veilguard. so i think im even MORE disappointed because of that

[nightghoul381]

Ellis Twilight ~ Main Route Chapter 6

Disclaimer for route warnings | Masterlist

Additional Content Warnings: This Chapter contains depictions of murder and several mentions of blood

This a fan translation so it is definitely not 100% accurate. I do not own anything related to Ikemen Villains. Support Cybird by buying their amazing stories!

Part 1

William: “We’ve received new information from Alfons regarding the kidnapping incidents.”

Jude: “Can ya wait til later? I’m busy right now.”

Seemingly irritated, Jude answered without looking up from his documents.

William: “Oh, here I thought I remembered that you were particularly proactive when it came to cases of human trafficking and kidnapping, Jude.”

Jude: “…”

Since Jude decided to ignore William, Ellis spoke up instead.

Ellis: “What’s the new information?”

Alfons: “I heard that a friend of mine is going to be meeting with someone tomorrow night who’s said to be the ringmaster of that stupid circus.”

Kate: “Wha!?”

Unaware of Alfons sneaking up behind me, I couldn’t help but scream aloud when he whispered in my ear.

Alfons: “Aha! What a wonderful reaction. Are your ears sensitive?”

Ellis: “No, Al. Quit playing with Kate.”

Alfons: “Fufu, scolded by the bodyguard.”

(Alfons is another person that I can never tell what he’s thinking… I have to be careful.)

I regained my composure, sat back in my chair, and listened to William’s explanation.

Kate: “The ringmaster… but you said the circus had disbanded, right?”

William: “Aah. Isn’t it strange?”

The self-righteous King's blood-red eyes narrowed in amusement as he talked about the incident.

William: “It is certain that the ‘ringmaster’ has important information regarding the mastermind behind the kidnapping.”

William: “I don’t know if the ‘ringmaster’ is the one in charge or if there is someone behind him.”

Alfons: “It would be appropriate to capture the leader alive and interrogate him.”

Alfons: “I’ve also got all the information on where they’ll meet. I’m very skilled aren’t I?”

Alfons smiled, giving off a sultry, sweet air.

William: “I’d like you three to go to that place tomorrow. Please?”

Ellis: “Okay.”

Ellis nodded, as casually as if he’d just been invited to a picnic.

Jude: “Tch…You got the information, didn’t ya? You go.”

Alfons: “I’m afraid I’m not good when it comes to restraining, interrogations, or hand-to-hand combat. I’m sensitive.”

Ellis: “So—”

Ellis: “Can I kill anyone that's not the leader?”

A dark voice instantly drowned out the lively exchange between Jude and Alfons.

(--)

A shiver ran down my spine.

I’m sure I’ve heard that phrase before.

Startled by the disturbing words that came from Ellis’ lips, I couldn’t help but look up at him.

William: “—Ah, I don’t mind.”

William: “If you decide it’s necessary, there’s no reason to stop you.”

William: “Be true to your evil.”

Ellis: “Understood.”

Part 2

William: “Be true to your evil.”

Ellis: “Understood.”

I felt like I had gotten used to encountering chaos.

(But that’s…)

(Only because Jude and Ellis didn’t take the lives of people who would attack them out of personal grudges.)

When I realized this, I discovered that my work as ‘fairytale keeper’ to record their sins had not even begun.

(That’s just how it was until now.)

(With Crown’s mission of ‘conquering evil with evil’… That may not be the case.)

Ellis: “You don’t have to worry about anything Kate.”

Ellis: “I’ll protect you.”

*******************Choices*********************

1. …Thank you.

2. I have to protect myself

**3. Please be careful too, Ellis.  +4 +4 **

*************************************************

Kate: “Please be careful too, Ellis.”

Ellis: “Me? … fufu, thank you.”

Ellis: “It’s kind of refreshing to have you worry about me at a time like this.”

I think it’s only natural that he would be heartbroken if he was made to kill someone, because he was kind and cared deeply about the happiness of others.

(…I hope that Ellis can complete this mission without having to kill anyone.)

--Then, late at night the next day.

The woman who is said to be a friend of Alfons, has bright red hair.

Without noticing she was being followed, she walked into a small, deserted bar.

The storefront is old and desolate, and looks like it’s been long since abandoned.

Kate: “…Should we also go inside?”

Ellis: “In that small, deserted store, we’d likely be noticed as soon as we entered…”

(But if there’s another exit, we might lose track of her…)

As I was waiting anxiously, I imagined various different things,

But despite my concern, the woman soon came out of the building.

(That was… a lot faster than I thought.)

Redhead woman: “I’m not going to do it after all, I though it would be good to follow my dreams, but… it seems like too much for me.”

The woman called out to the person in the store and started walking down the dark street.

Kate: “Looks like the recruitment failed…”

Jude: “…”

Jude quickly turns and enters the building.

Ellis also took a step forward and I was about to follow suit--.

Ellis: “Ah.”

Ellis looked to the woman who was leaving and raised his voice.

Kate: “Ellis? What is it—”

When I look beyond his line of sight…

Redhead woman: “Ngh! Ghh…!”

A thick arm protruded from the back alley and grabbed her.

It happened so quickly—

Immediately after, her figured disappeared, as if swallowed by the darkness.

(The kidnapper!?)

Part 3

(The kidnapper!?)

Ellis: “…”

Before I could think about anything, Ellis ran after her.

I was contemplating whether to head to the store or to the alleyway—

Kate: “…!”

I ran out into the alley after Ellis, only a step behind.

When I reached the back of the alley-- I saw multiple men surrounding the woman and trying to restrain her while covering her mouth.

(What is this…!)

Ellis: “Are you the kidnappers?”

A man who looks like a kidnapper: “…!”

His stern eyes fixed on Ellis and then on me behind him.

A man who looks like a kidnapper: “—Women are worth money, keep ‘em alive. Kill the bastard.”

At the command of the man who seems to be the leader, men rush toward us.

Kate: “Gh…”

I swallowed back the scream that was about to burst out and strained my stomach.

(Ah, what, I need some kind of weapon…!)

I immediately picked up a deck brush that was leaning against a wall in the back alley and held it—

Ellis’ hand gently stopped me.

Ellis: “Kate, stay here.”

Ellis kicks off the ground.

(Ah--)

--The next moment blood was spraying everywhere.

When Ellis approached, the men fell to the ground one after another, like a puppet with its strings cut.

(…a knife…?)

Gazing into the darkness, I finally noticed that his hand was holding a black-bladed knife.

The black-blade moved as if swimming through the darkness, easily snatching away lives.

And yet… Ellis had the same expression on his face as usual.

(Is that really Ellis…?)

He was kind and offered a helping hand to anyone,

But right now, in front of my eyes, he was killing people emotionlessly and I can’t help but watch…

I just stared at him in shock, still clutching the deck brush.

Ellis: “…I guess that’s everyone.”

After killing everyone before they had a chance to scream, Ellis looked back at me in a pool of blood.

The feeling of discomfort that I’d been turning a blind eye to for a long time began creeping up again.

“—Shall we kill her?”

Ellis: “Kate…?”

Kate: “Eh…Ah.”

Ellis: “Your face is pale… Are you okay?”

Sheathing his knife, Ellis walked up to me.

The moment his hand reached out, my body trembled.

(…)

Ellis: “…”

Part 4

The moment his hand reached out, my body trembled.

(…)

Ellis: “…”

For a moment, his hands looked like they were stained with blood, but they turned out to be clean without even a single drop of blood to be seen.

It’s a chilling sign of familiarity with the crime.

Ellis: “…I’m sorry. You’re scared.”

He gently lowered his hands, not touching me.

Ellis: “I should have asked you to keep your eyes closed so you wouldn’t have to see it.”

His eyes, like the sky at dusk, are full of worry and concern for me.

Ellis seemed to understand that this was a frightening scene.

That confused me even more.

(Ellis, are you okay?)

Kate: “Um, what… what about the woman?”

Ellis: “Hmm, she’s fine… I think she’s just passed out.”

Jude: “Tch… Ya killed everyone?”

Ellis: “Jude. What about the store?”

Slipping past me and Ellis,

Jude walked over to a corpse and inspected it coldly.

Jude: “When I came in, he’d already escaped in a horse-drawn carriage from the back door. He’s quick to run.”

Jude: “Jeez, let at least one of ‘em live. Otherwise I can’t interrogate ‘em.”

Ellis: “Sorry. He said as long as we didn’t kill the leader I would be fine…Also.”

Ellis: “He was trying to harm Kate.”

Jude: “…”

(Then, this tragic situation…)

(This happened because I followed you, Ellis--)

Ellis: “… It’s okay now, Kate.”

Ellis smiles kindly at me.

But I… couldn’t smile back at him smiling in the pool of blood.

Jude carried the attacked woman and took her to the town doctor.

Alfons will find out about the situation later from his friends.

We then headed back to the castle.

Kate: “…”

Step by step, I proceeded down the hallway.

I was still in shock at witnessing someone die up close.

My legs were still shaking, I was unable to accept that it was Ellis who had done all of this.

Ellis: “…”

While escorting me to my room, Ellis kept a little distance from me out of concern.

Ellis: “We’re here, Kate.”

When I looked up, Ellis was smiling a little sadly—

Part 5

Ellis: “We’re here, Kate.”

When I looked up, Ellis was smiling a little sadly—

As I was about to say “thank you” to him for escorting me to my room, I suddenly realized something important.

(Ellis protected me… And I still haven’t even thanked him for that yet.)

Kate: “About earlier… Thank you for protecting me, Ellis.”

Ellis: “No. It’s my job to escort you, Kate.”

Ellis: “But, this time I failed…”

The darkness of his voice is filled with regret.

Ellis: “If you hadn’t seen that, you would be happier.”

Ellis: “I already knew you were a hard worker and that you would push yourself even if you were scared.”

Ellis: “I should have said, “You follow Jude” before going into the alley.”

(Ellis…)

Ellis: “Next time, I’ll be careful not to kill someone in front of you.”

(Only in front of me… then what about when I’m not around?)

Kate: “…Ellis…!”

I immediately grabbed Ellis’ palm as he tried to leave.

(I can’t believe that a person who can relate to someone’s fear and pain and say such words would not be hurt by killing someone…)

Kate: “Ellis…Aren’t you having a hard time…?”

Ellis: “…”

My gaze met Ellis’ and his eyes widened in wonder.

As we stared at each other, for some reason the surprise disappeared from his eyes.

Ellis: “Ah… I see.”

Ellis: “I thought you were just scared of me.”

Ellis: “You were worried that I was hurt, so you made that face…”

Ellis: “…You’re so kind, Kate.”

He smiled softly at me, and my heart tightened.

Ellis: “If I say it like this, I might scare you again.”

Ellis: “It’s not that painful, so don’t worry.”

Kate: “…Really?”

Ellis: “Yeah, really… See, my hands aren’t shaking like yours.”

(Even when I asked “Are you going to kill me?”)

(Even when you killed so many people just now… you didn’t hesitate.)

(Is it because you’re doing a job ‘for someone’?)

Ellis is a person who makes people happy.

A person who spreads happiness and considers the joy of others as his own.

For that purpose—he was also someone who was willing to get his hands dirty.

(But… Will Ellis be happy in the end?)

(What about your own happiness, Ellis--?)

With the rising emotions, my hand holding Ellis’ gripped tighter.

Kate: “…Hot milk.”

Ellis: “Eh…?”

Kate: “My body is cold… don’t you sleep better after drinking it?”

Ellis: “…”

After his surprise, Ellis’ eyes gently softened as usual.

Ellis: “I’d like that.”

Ellis: “In the middle of the night, I actually like hot milk with butter and sugar.”

Ellis whispered this happily.

His smile was so disjointed from the cruel scene from earlier, it made my heart hurt even more.

(For others… Even for someone he just met, like me… Ellis pours out everything—)

(I want to make Ellis happy too.)

Chapter 6 His Side Story | Next Chapter

[phoenixkaptain]

Random thoughts time! Splinter of the Mind’s Eye edition~

1. I’ve already said how much the novel changed my perception of Luke, but it did the same to my perception of Leia. She tells Luke that she joined the Rebellion because she was bored and she discovered that the Empire didn’t allow art because it could so easily be used to create free thinkers and she wanted those free thinkers to be allowed, encouraged even, to create. She likes arts and she likes people and she likes people’s art.

2. Leia is the best combatant. In one book alone, she: kicks a guy so hard in the face she almost decapitates him, manages to sweep the legs out from beneath someone, claws a man until he passes out, goes toe-to-fucking-toe with Darth Fucking Vader with Luke’s lightsaber and actually manages to hold her own pretty well, throws an axe into a person’s shoulder while she and her target are both running. She’s so cool in this book, and every time you think “oh they’re gonna do the sexist damsel thing again” it turns out that Leia was just biding her time. So. Fucking. Cool.

Also, my favourite Leia scenes because they’re funny:

“”That should give them something to think about,” she announced with satisfaction. “Let them think we dematerialized the bars. It won’t bother Grammel, but it might make the troops uneasy. I want anyone trailing me to be as nervous as possible.””

“Leia moved closer, reached out uncertainly to touch his arm. He eyed her, then coughed. She sat back. Suddenly she began screaming. Luke looked around but there was nothing in sight.

Bending over, the Princess screamed into clasped hands. The muffled wail continued for several minutes. When it ended, she looked back up at him again without apology.

“I’m all right now, I think,” she said with forced steadiness.”

3. Love how eepy Luke is.

“Hin bared sharp canines, grabbed Luke by the neck. Luke stared resolutely at his furry visage. Abruptly, the hand moved away and Hin nodded slowly, giving out an apologetic grunt.”

-

“Luke was looking past her. On the other side of the stream they’d been following grew a small forest of water plants, apparently stimulated by the steady flow of fresh nutrients here. The huge leafy pads floating on the black surface were a dull, yellow-brown color. They were round and pointed slightly at two ends where the upturned edges met.

“You can’t,” Leia commented, “be thinking of traveling on one of those.””

-

“”I’m going to cut this one loose,” he announced.

The Princess looked skeptical. “With what? Your saber? I didn’t know they operated under water.”

He gazed back at her solemnly. “They’d better.””

-

“A voice sang fancifully in the back of his mind. It was exorting him to relax. Well, that was simple enough to do, he reflected pleasantly. Relax he would. He was tired, so tired now.”

-

“What had riveted his attention was not the Coway’s continuing methods of medication, nor the vanquished warrior’s convulsive reactions to them, but a large rock. As big as a man’s head, it lay in the water close by the Coway’s head.

His fingertips retained the memory of that stone. It was the one he’d encountered prior to passing out. Or had he passed out? It seemed as if something deep inside him, some resource of which he was unaware, had reacted on the brink of asphyxiation to help him raise the rock, turn and fling it at his tormentor.

Yet he couldn’t recall even placing both hands around it, let alone lifting it clear of the water and throwing.

“How did I do it?” he asked the Princess.

She eyed him uncertainly. “Do? Do what?”

“Beat … him,” he added exhaustedly, gesturing loosely toward the Coway fighter.”

-

“Suddenly his hand opened as if he’d been shot. The pink bulb fell to the ground as Luke stood bolt upright, eyes open and staring. The Princess rose, tried to make something of the gaping expression on his face.

“Luke… what’s wrong?” He took a couple of unsteady steps.

“Was it the fruit, boy?” Halla looked equally concerned. “Boy?”

Luke blinked, turned slowly to face them all. “What?”

“We were worried, Master Luke. You…” But Threepio broke off as Luke turned away to stare eastward.

“He’s coming,” he murmured, every letter resounding. “He’s near, very near.”

“Luke boy, you’d better start making some sense of I’ll have Hin hold you down and feed you dipills,” Halla said. “Who’s coming?”

“There was a stirring,” Luke whispered by way of reply. “A profound disturbance in the Force. I’ve felt it before, weakly. I felt it most strongly when Ben Kenobi was killed.”

Leia inhaled in terror, her eyes widening. “No, not him again, not here.”

“Something blacker than night stirs the Force, Leia,” Luke told her. “This Governor Essada must have contacted him, sent him here. He’d be especially interested in locating you and me.””

-

“”I guess I’m probably the cause of that.” They all turned to face Luke. “Just as I sensed Vader, he no doubt can sense me. He’s had a lot more experience in the Force than I have, so his senses are probably stronger. Don’t forget, he was a pupil of Obi-Wan Kenobi.” He glanced back toward the shaft-tunnel leading to the surface of Mimban.

“He’s coming for us.”

-

“Luke felt a wild sense of elation as he brandished his father’s weapon. “I’m not worried about anything, Vader. Not now. I have no more worries and only one concern.” His voice held an unaccustomed hint of conviction. “I’m going to kill you, Darth Vader.”

That humorless laugh again. “What a high opinion you hold of yourself, Skywalker.”

“I’m… I’m Ben Kenobi,” Luke whispered in an odd way.

For just a moment, Vader seemed shaken.”

-

“Luke’s motionless form was enveloped in a rich, red bath of light. In his hands the crystal shone with a brilliance unnatural. Nor was the light still. It shifted, fluttered, ran over him like a live thing. It sought out every extremity, each finger and follicle, like the St. Elmo’s fire of old on the rigging of a sailing ship.

After several long, rapturous moments the radiant envelope shrank, sucked up by the crystal which resumed its normal coloring.

Luke sat up so abruptly that Halla was unable to repress a short screech. He blinked once, looked at her.”

-

“”I don’t understand,” Luke murmured. But he hefted the crystal again in both hands, closed his eyes and tried to concentrate and relax at the same time. The glow from the crystal intensified.

“I understand,” came a voice out of Luke’s body that might or might not have been Luke’s.”

-

Like Luke spends half the book scaring people and making them uncomfortable. He’s perfect. I love him.

And some more Luke scenes because these could go in wildly different directions and I need someone else to see them:

“”Oh no, Captain-Supervisor!” Luke cried, dropping to his knees and clutching desperately at Grammel’s trouser legs. “Please don’t do that. They’ll have us executed. Please, we’ll work till we drop, but don’t send us back there!” He was sobbing openly now.”

“Wiping tears conjured with difficulty away from his eyes, Luke tried not to appear too hopeful as he regarded Grammel.”

“Reaching with both arms, the Coway warrior clasped Luke around the shoulders and pulled. Luke thought he’d have to use the saber after all, when the native pushed him away gently. Then it slapped him on one cheek.”

“”Well…” Using his right hand, he belted the quiescent Coway hard enough to rattle the native’s teeth. Despite Halla’s assurances, he braced himself for some sort of violent response. Instead, the native displayed a satisfied expression and dropped to his knees before Luke as the crowd howled its approval.”

“Only his neck still bothered him. It ached at the back, where the Coway’s unyielding fingers had pressed.”

-

And, finally, here’s a collection of Leia lines that I can perfectly hear in Anakin’s voice:

“Turning serious, the Princess told him, “One learns to accept whatever events life has in store with the best possible spirits.” She stared straight ahead.

“That’s just what I’m doing,” Luke confessed, “accepting them in the bets possible spirits—nervousness and fear.”

“Well, you needn’t look at me as if this is all my fault.”

“Did I imply that? Did I say that?” Luke countered, a touch more tightly than he intended. She glanced sharply at him and he cursed his inability to conceal his feelings. He would have been, he decided, a rotten card-player. Or politician.

“No, but you so much as…” she began hotly.”

-

“”Do you have any idea who I am?” the Princess started to tell her. She caught herself just in time. “Not that it matters. What does matter is that you can’t do it, can you?”

Halla started to object but the Princess cut her off challengingly. “Can you?”

-

“”Temples, gods, crystals,” the Princess murmured. “Okay, suppose this legendary place does exist,” she hypothesized, jabbing an accusing finger at Halla. “This Kaiburr crystal, just what is it supposed to be… a big gemstone of some kind?””

-

“Still skeptical, the Princess sat back and looked in askance at Halla. “A small fragment of radiant glass or plastic, or an ordinary silicate treated to glow. You expect me to accept that as proof?””

-

(Honestly, the entire scene of them talking with Halla in chapter 4 is just filled with Leia being Anakin.)

-

“The Princess noticed her one victim recovering consciousness and kicked him soundly.”

-

“She concentrated her stare on the middle of the sergeant’s back, trying to drive him insane. The sergeant showed no hint of being affected. Probably solid bone under the helmet, she mused.”

-

“She whispered back tightly, “You have this wonderfully evocative way about you, Luke, of reducing the most excruciatingly uncomfortable circumstances to the merely mundane.”

Luke looked hurt.”

-

“”That’s funny,” noted the Princess, “because you strike me as having a particularly limited capacity for learning.”

-

“Thanks to the tactics being employed by the Imperials, Luke discovered that the Princess was too furious to be really frightened.”

-

(A lot of the earlier quotes also have this vibe. I love Leia so much.)

All in all, would I recommend Splinter of the Mind’s Eye? Sure. It’s 12 chapters, 298 pages, not too long, and it has the first lightsaber throwing, the first instance of Luke lifting anything in the Force, it’s the first mention of kyber crystals (spelled “kaiburr” but still), it’s one of the only times in the entire series Leia wields Anakin’s lightsaber (and she’s really cool doing it), it has if not the worst then a very poor portrayal of Darth Vader, and Luke and Leia both come back from the dead because of space magic. Really, it’s a rollercoaster of a read and I highly enjoyed it, somehow.

[ya-bug-boy]

I just finished reading your self aware reader x submas and I loved it so much it made me hyperfixate on them again. Just to know it, do you plan on continuing it?

OYEAA I WAS JUST WAITING FOR AN ASK REALLY THAT WOULD MAKE ME WRITE SOME MORE

Submas x Self Aware Reader! Part 4

With your own investigations and the twins helping, you were accumulating the material rather quickly. They already grew and harvested a glassgem and provided you with all the highest quality ore you'll ever need which was great.

But when they presented the glassgem to you, you were quite surprised. "Once again I am pleasantly surprised by your work. Your efforts have not been in vain, thank you." You take the delicate fruit in your hands and take a sniff, this mystic crop smells like the ocean oddly. "With this, my goal becomes ever much closer. I thank you."

"What's our reward this time?" Emmet ponders out loud. You think to yourself in thought. What could be a worthy gift to bestow upon them this time? "Well, I've given you all of my gold," you tell them both. You gave all of your money to the twins when they presented you with all the ore. "I'm afraid the reward you seek will be at the end of this journey, when our tracks meet." "Concerning how they say that. Makes you wonder what it could be," Ingo says aloud. "But I will offer to you two my help in procuring the mystic mushrooms I require in the Forbidden Forest. Hopefully it will be in our favor that we'll come across the Killer Bees." Out of all the monsters you are required to hunt for their loot, the Killer Bees were a randomized boss. "I, Goldeneye, will join you in your quest." you say as you step outside the ticket station to reveal yourself, dawning your quiver and bow. A melodic fanfare of music plays out of seemingly nowhere and the twins holler in excitement! It seems like your very presence soothes them, makes him feel rewarded. Which was fortunate considering you had nothing else to give.

"This journey will be treacherous. Pack your belongings and meet me back here," you tell the twins. Their characters quickly run down the mountains on their horses and comes back moments later with their gear.

Ingo and Emmet both favored to attack with magic, Ingo with fire and Emmet with electricity. You decide you would pack yourself with as many healing potions as you could. As the train starts, the twins are able to go leave the passenger compartment to speak with you in the front engines. The steam powered train runs smoothly to its destination. Because it's still just a game, what would have ordinarily taken hours takes only moments. You're thrown off by how the mechanics of this world works with you aware of it now but you try to adjust to it. You step off the train and wait for the twins to disembark. "Now I'll be providing as much support as I can," You explain to the twins. "I have limited potions. We must use them sparingly." The twins seem to agree to this and you set off your journey, the three of you walking in a row. The first several monster encounters go better than you expected. The twins were great fighters! You had never seen them in combat and felt relief to be in safe hands. But at one point an enemy attacks you and you fall to the ground. It...hurt. It hurt a lot more than you remembered pain feeling. It had been many years since you were last in combat. The twins immediately finish the fight and come to your side. "What's wrong?" Emmet asks out loud. "I got hurt...." You groan as you try to stand back up. "Sorry boys, it's been a long time since I've been out on the field. I haven't done any kind of close quarters combat in a long time..." Because of the curse you inflicted onto your friends, you're theoretically immortal but there was no rule opposed to you being invulnerable. "Just feeling a bit sore. Let's make camp here for tonight." The twins then get involved in some kind of setting up camp minigame. You stand there dumbfounded as the campsite magically puts itself together with the twins just staring there. The characters then turn their heads back to face you, eager to talk? You can't help but to feel a bit offput but it's slightly humorous how comical they are as well. For the twins in the real world, they think they've entered some kind of cutscene with you. The three of your are sitting in a circle around a campfire. "You two are the only ones worth speaking to," you say. "The other villagers...they live in a peace I can no longer obtain. This quest you're helping me with, the ingredients you are gathering, I will reveal a glimmer of truth tonight." You stand up and clasp your hands together, the lights and fire go out but in the next split moment, they see you again, with the dark tome floating before you and your eyes glowing white in the dark. "Try as you might, neither of you can read this book. The former scribe that wrote this made it so only those descended from the royal family of a kingdom lost long ago can read it." "This tome possessed me and showed me an evil truth to this world. What this truth is, I cannot say." You hear Emmet whine, "Not now but soon, at the end of this year when you catch me the fish I require in winter. But the truth I will reveal is this." You then close the book and it disappears, the campfire lights again and you all bask in its warmth. "The truth can be....revealed ideally. I am making a potion that will hopefully allow me to access this truth. Though there is much work to do, we have all year." "I am not certain of what other gifts I can provide to you two, but I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have, depending on what it could be." To the twins, a textbox appeared before them and they could type in a question for you. Ingo begins to type and his character then asks, "Is this truth of yours dangerous?"

"This truth is more than just dangerous, it is hope," You answer elegantly. "This truth shook me to the core and horrified me to my bones, reigniting lost forgotten feelings of despair and courage. If I fail to seek this truth out, I'm afraid my life, all of it, will have amounted to nothing but entertainment."

Emmet then types, "What kind of boys do you like???? :D "

You stand there in shock at the question before letting out a great big belly laugh, "Well, you got it correct that I do prefer men over women, but I suppose I..." You take a moment to ponder, hand on your chin as your other hand rests on your bow. "There are the ordinary values every one would want in a partner: strong, kind, smart... but what I crave with a man is more than just tangible traits. I want a man who will yearn for me."

"I have not loved in a very long time and now reflecting on it, I do not know if that love was ever even real. So the man, or even men that I need in my next love life..."

"They must be hungry for me. They must want me in a way that transcends all meaning. I have lived a life that meant and amounted to nothing which means I have nothing to give but only myself and whatever love that amounts enough for me to confess. And yet, in the face of that, there surely must be someone out there who will be hungry for me enough for me to become..." you pause on the world "real." It was much too soon.

"I hope that whoever is out there, will be as so kind to me that they will not only stand strong with me, whether it be weapons in hands....or just hand in hand. Flowers in our hair. Perhaps." You nod thinking of that.

Emmet's next response was, "I love you! :>"

You hear the actual voices of the men bickering in person before Ingo responds as well. "Though my brother fails to elegantly profess, I admit a tender fondness for you as well."

You stare at them shocked once more before saying, "But why? All this time for years, I have only provided you with train rides. And the concessional sentence in the village holidays... You two are quite interesting as you are puzzling...Quite puzzling indeed..." You let out another belly laugh. "I admit a tender fondness of you two as well, but perhaps not quite as strong. Though that may be subject to change in the future, should you two accept me for who I am."

The night continues with you interacting with the twins, them asking questions and you returning with your answers.

[niftukkun]

=The Exiled=

[A fierce combatant with unrelenting claws and a better jump than most. With rage in your heart, yours is a path is lined with constant blood and wrath.]

[Little Gods and Passing Beasts AU, aka roleswapped rain world! ;; more under the cut]

scug Pebbles in Artificer's campaign!! as is only right. they have rage-to-rage communication no matter the world lmao.

so yeah pebbles with a hella grudge. a little bit of a twist though, in this campaign you are not targeting scavengers, but vultures. vultures in the Inquirer, Hearth, Skydiver, and Exiled campaigns are much more common compared to Drifter, Surveyor, and Martyr's campaigns. id imagine theyre still limited to certain areas and maybe even regions - so for example, no vultures in the shaded citadel equivalent, but in areas where they can be encountered, there would be very very many of them and an extremely high likelihood of encounter and death. to keep things balanced, however, the hp of regular vultures and king vultures are lowered, though not by that much only to like 50 or 75% of their actual HP. to fight, Exiled has a maul like Artificer but better and a double jump ability similar to Arti but without the actual bomb part. they also have the boosted spear damage like Arti and Hunter. i am also very tempted to give them Gourmand's drop slam thing just for funsies but thats only a maybe right now. in the Exiled campaign, it starts like Artificers in getting a citizen ID drone, and starts picking up when you get to the metropolis equivalent ive been calling Lofty Roost. after exploring for a bit you may find the tallest building, the highest perch, and encounter the King Miros Vulture (>20 HP, essentially a miros vulture w the harpoons, slightly faster land walk speed, and a cool unique vulture mask).

the Exiled was once a young, arrogant and slightly callous little scuppy. upon reaching hunting age, the Not Yet Exiled decided to be a little... risky. decided to hunt a vulture, a common threat in the colony's territory, all by themself. and they succeeded. at the time, the Not Yet Exiled was the only one injured, the only one who got close enough to the successfully hunted vulture to get a scar in their eye. when the rest of the hunting party drew close however, is when things started going wrong. the King Miros Vulture was in the area. everyone was too occupied, too distracted to see it before it swooped down and struck. the Hearth, kindest and loved by the colony, got snapped up. thankfully it was a fairly large hunting party, so no one died. though quite a lot were injured, the Hearth had the worst injury and that was only because every scug was caught off guard. however, it was still a hunting party. sure the colony can forage and they do have a stockpile of food, but thats a big blow to food acquirement, and the Hearth, who was only there because it was their little sibling's first hunt, was injured to the point it would take several cycles for them to recover - if they will at all. so. the colony leaders decided to exile the young scug. this was their first hunt. their skill assessment, to see if they are fit to hunt at all - and they went out on their own and decided to hunt one of the biggest threats in the area. sure, it was successful, and if they did manage to bring back the vulture with no one else hurt the colony leaders might have even considered giving the young scug a reward in the name of sharpening their already exceptional hunting skills - but they went out on their own when slugcats are supposed to hunt together, to make sure everyone comes home. willful endangerment of an entire party like that,, they can't let it slide. so the Exile was exiled. given instructions of a territory far enough away where the hunting is good and told they are never able to go home. it angered them. it was a successful hunt! they took down a vulture! sure a couple scugs were injured but it wasnt their fault! they dont know if their sibling is alive oh stars what have they done.

after quite a lot of cycles living alone, stewing in anger and guilt and hunting down almost exclusively vultures, they decide to move. they make their way,,, somewhere. and find an odd device that starts following them around. after more wandering they eventually find an iterator named Explosive Redamancy, fallen but functional and calling them her citizen? sure. more importantly she gives them information on where the King Miros Vulture is! Revenge Will Be Theirs!!! revenge will not bring Hearth back. will not let them back in their colony. is it even worth it? it has to be. what else could they do?

[bromcommie]

Hello & Happy Monday!

So...for the WIP tag game...I know I'm supposed to pick the one (1! ONE!) that I find most intriguing, but this is like a whole buffet of intrigue, so maybe I can have two? 👀 1) НОЧНОЙ РАЗГОВОР (FIGURE OUT) <- ngl, the 'figure out' cracked me up. Also, late night conversations? Yes, please!

2) what's a nice nutcase like you doing in a place like astoria 1203 <- this just sounds fun...and possibly like the title could be deliberately misleading

Thank you! <3

Hello helloo, happy Monday to you too! (but also Tuesday now I guess. It's a 2-for-1!)

Thank you for the ask, and thank you for indulging me with two (2! it's gonna be so long!) <3

НОЧНОЙ РАЗГОВОР (FIGURE OUT!!!) - Ooof, this fucking guy. I'm glad my stern instructions to myself in the title there were funny, because I do indeed need to FIGURE this one OUT and it's bugging me. It's essentially another chapter that's a part of a larger work (not naming names not pointing fingers but it's. The Work I'm Having Trouble Updating) and it was written a looong while back, which is why it's now a standalone file. I love the premise but I kinda want to tear it down and rebuild it entirely, mostly because I'm still deciding on whether I like the way I wrote the backstory for it. So. It's fun! It's challenging! It's giving me a migraine! The title's from this song about a tired traveler trying to find his way in the night. It's three conversations (Steve+Nat, Nat+Bucky and Bucky+Steve - although they barely talk at all) that happen in the night after a very not lucid, injured Don't-Call-Me-Bucky who's recently remembered the Red Room and also had a pretty rattling encounter with the code words seeks Natasha out in Europe for [redacted] something as a last resort, but instead accidentally walks straight into Steve who he's been staying away from like the Devil Himself since CATWS. And then basically bleeds all over him. (I am not immune to the wound care trope! However, this is unfortunately not that.) A lot of ugly feelings and defense mechanisms are brought up, some painful memories re: the war and the Red Room are brought up, and nobody's having a good time or really knows how to process jack shit. They all communicate/perceive love&protection in wildly different ways, and while all three dynamics end on some kind of natural conclusion it's still a lot of unfinished, unspoken business and just kind of sad. Hurt no comfort that's necessary for there to be the promise of comfort in the future, if you will. Tbh, I really want to finish/reincorporate this one. But it's just so *screams into paper bag*. Anyway. Snippet:

When Steve wakes up the next morning Bucky’s gone, like he knew he would be. Like a hurricane passing through, the foreknowledge doesn’t make the aftermath any easier. And then what? his own voice from so long ago echoes in his head as he waits for the water for Natasha’s tea to boil in the sunny little kitchenette of the motel’s lobby. 16 hours later, he’s watching the blinding stripe of the sun setting over the East River before the plane maneuvers onto the landing strip at JFK. The hell else? Then we march on, ace. We go home.

2. what's a nice nutcase like you doing in a place like astoria 1203 - oh good, thank god! So this one is a bit more fun, but it's only got a few disjointed half-scenes so far. The title is actually one of the most literal ones on the list - the fic does take place in Astoria, Queens, and it does involves a certain "nutcase". Several, even. They really don't get along, and then they almost do.

(Blame my recent rewatch of the Netflix shows for this one. Man. What a golden age that was.)

Excerpt under the cut:

It was easy to clock the combat training before, sure, but up close this guy’s… Keyed up. Wild-eyed, a little, and not in the twitchy way of the three idiots piled up outside by the ruined water hydrant, not just sheer adrenaline stoked by fear and booze and coke. More dialed-in, purposefully ruthless. Hungry. Getting up with an expression like an enraged bull in spite of the beating he just took. Nutcase, Barnes thinks bleakly. Not that he’s in any position to judge — glass houses, all that, but — “What’re you,” he croaks, “some kind of psycho?” “Says the guy who just mowed down six guys without blinking." The man spits, grimacing at the blood that lands on the stark white of the rooftop like it personally offends him. If he notices the similar spray across his busted face, his clothes, his military-short hair, he doesn't seem to give a damn. "Nice going, by the way— my man got away." "And my man's bleeding out on a fucking pool table downstairs," he grits out. He doesn't have time for this. This whole night has been one giant exercise in unpredictability, and the police sirens echoing off in the distance are problem enough without him having to duke it out over and over with some local homicidal moron who might or might not be HYDRA. "You wanna tell me what that's about?" The man levels an irritated look back at him and then shrugs, dismissive. "I don't play with my food." "Your food had intel I've been hunting for two weeks." "Tough shit. Maybe if you hadn't screwed up your goddamn trig—" His lip curls of its own volition, affronted despite himself. What an appropriate time for his ego to announce it's back from the dead and in the mix. How fun. “The hell I did. I don’t miss.” "Is that right? There's some real screwed up drywall down there that says otherwise." His voice picks up an edge of something dangerous, aiming for threatening and landing on feral as he takes a step closer, and Jesus, can he stay down already? "Unless you did it on purpose to let him know I'm coming because you work for the bastard, in which case lemme tell you, you and me have a whole different problem." "I don't work for anybody," he says, probably with more intensity than strictly necessary. "He was a civillian. I don't kill civillians." The words curl acerbic on his tongue. He doesn't. He doesn't. That, of all things, makes the man laugh, a bitter little thing that sounds like it clawed its way out of his throat, and only barely. Who the fuck is this guy. "Oh Jesus Christ, not this bullshit again— how many of you assholes are running around this place, huh?" he says, gesturing a little wildly at him. "You got a fancy catsuit under that hobo getup, too?" It's Barnes' turn to look at him like he's a few marbles short, which judging by all evidence he very well might be. The guy snorts at his confusion, shaking his head. "If you consider that criminal piece of dog shit a civilian, you’re way more out of your depth than I thought, kid.”

but also:

“Self-righteous, God's sacrificial lamb type-of-shit," he mumbles around the mouthful with distaste, staring off across the bridge. "Got himself a stupid fucking title and everything, if you can believe that. Major pain in my ass.” Barnes hums, considering, before taking a cautious bite of his own sandwich. The thick pile of fatty meat and melted cheese breaks apart in his mouth easy with a sudden, almost overwhelming explosion of flavours, his empty stomach singing praises despite the ache in his bruised jaw as he chews. He never thought he’d say this, but god bless Queens. “Catholic?” Castle grunts an affirmative. “Yeah, I have some experience with that.”

[felixcloud6288]

Fullmetal Alchemist Chapter 37

Who would have thought the heist was a setup for the Super Heist?

It's been three days since the breakout heist. Poor Falman has been dealing with Barry and Lin for too long.

This chapter has a lot of reread value just in itself. We have Roy using a military line to make a personal call to a woman named Elizabeth. On a first read, this is an absolutely shameless and tasteless scene of Roy. He murdered Maria Ross just a few days ago and he's gotten over it to the point that he's hitting on other women. The personnel in the room reflect how the reader should feel.

Then on a reread, it's still shameless and tasteless, but at least he's not actually trying to flirt with a woman after everything that's happened. (I mean, he probably is genuinely enjoying flirting with Hawkeye, but he's putting on an act.)

Roy mentions wanting to go fishing. And then on a reread, we understand what he's fishing for.

Ed still doesn't know how to move forward after what happened with Hughes and Maria Ross. His table is covered in notebooks and paper. There are some wadded up papers as well. He's been trying to figure out how to proceed but has no ideas.

For the first time, he's asking someone else for some guidance but all Winry can think of is to confess she wishes they'd stop traveling. She's afraid they'll leave one day and never come back. But she doesn't want them to give up on getting their old bodies back.

How careless of Ed to dent his automail like that. How kind of Alex Louis Armstrong to escort Ed to Resembool to get it fixed.

And now, the Super Heist begins!! This whole thing is amazing because we get to see Roy's team show what they can do. 2nd Lieutenant Havok shows off his skill as a close-range combat officer, Lieutenant Hawkeye shows her sniping prowess, and we see how Master Sergeant Fuery's communications rig.

Hawkeye and Havok have several food cans lying around, implying they've been on stakeout for the last few days.

My favorite detail of Fuery's setup is he has two phone receivers tied to each other to create a something like a three-way call.

And this is the first non-bonus chapter where we meet the Good Boy. If he's going to be part of this operation, he needs a rank. Since he's a new recruit, I'll give him the rank of Private.

Poor Warrant Officer Falman is instead showing how inexperienced he is. He was quick to act and fired his gun without hesitation, but he was shaky during the whole encounter with Barry's body and he blew Havok's cover.

Also if you didn't notice, everyone's code names were based on their actual names. Riza Hawkeye is "Elizabeth". Jean Havok is "Jacqueline". Kain Fuery is "Kate". In the bonus material for chapter 10, Arakawa more or less points this out. It also mentions Vato Falman's code name is "Vanessa", and it's implied Hawkeye came up with the names. She named her black-furred dog Black Hayate (hayate means wolf) so overall, we can infer that Hawkeye is bad at coming up with names.

Barry realizes the whole situation that they're being attacked by his original body which has been fused with some animal soul. He thinks his body is trying to regain its soul and he can feel his own soul tingle with the same desire. Although his own twisted mind is translating that ecstasy as a desire to chop his old body up. Barry seems sad to see what happened to his old body.

Hawkeye does a similar eye thing to Roy, but her moments don't seem to linger as much. They changed color when she had to fire her gun, but then they went back to normal right after. But when she noticed Gluttony, her eyes changed in preparation of taking the shot. Sniping is stressful.

And Roy's eyes did the thing when he panicked that something might happen to Hawkeye.

The chapter ends with Lanfan confronting Envy and stating she can detect Envy has multiple souls in them. She launches a signal flare telling all parties in the super heist to converge.

back

Spoiler Discussion

Let's talk about the Super Heist!!!

First off, who are the primary conspirators? Based on all the conversation prior to it, we can assume Roy is the sole mastermind and the only people he purposely brought into it are Hawkeye, Havok, and Fuery. Meanwhile, Falman and Barry were unknowingly involved.

HOWEVER, because this spun off from the jailbreak heist, he had to bring other people in to support this operation and take care of the aftermath of the previous heist. Lin Yao and his retainers must have gotten clued into it because they're helping smuggle Maria Ross out of the country.

Meanwhile, Roy brought Armstrong into the Super Heist by having him take Ed out of the picture. When Ed and Armstrong meet Breda in the East area, Breda was fully expecting Ed, so Armstrong wasn't using Ed as an excuse to head east. He was instructed to bring Ed with him.

The biggest thing I'd like to know is whether or not Lin Yao was a direct conspirator in the Super Heist or if he figured out something was going to happen. On the one hand, Lan Fan didn't know if Havok was an ally so they were not clued in on some of the details. On the other hand, she was ordered by Lin to send a signal if anything happens, so they were expecting something and Roy is following the signal at the end of the chapter.

[zoroara]

So I decided it was about time I made a complete bio and timeline of Vittorio into a post, and of course this included drawing refs for all of their outfits/weapons/and box weapons. Their TYL design is positioned first because of them first appearing in that arc. Here’s some basic information before we get into the timeline:

Name: Vittorio Ardizzone Residence: Italy Age: 27 Birthday: January 18th Gender: Demiboy he/they Height: 190cm/6′3 Weight: 92kg/205lbs Blood type: AB+ Aligned with: Avvoltoi di Scarto / Varia Flame: Flame of Stagnation(Rain+Sky hybrid details here)

Now for the timeline that’ll be under read more cause boy there’s a lot:

Okay, when I made them I wanted them to affect the least amount of the plot we actually have. So what I did was slightly change what the hold up for the Varia was in italy. Which is originally them having to continue to hold down the base they had taken from Millefiore members. Also I’ll go over Weapon abilities at the very end. Other Ocs will be referenced here, there’s a short overview that can be found (here)

Here however, Vittorio, the leader of a group(Avvoltoi di Scarto or the Scrap Vultures) who attacks people already in combat in order to steal weapons, equipment and supplies from them to either use for their own group, sell them or for Vittorio specifically to use to make new weapons all together. With Vittorio picking off both sides only doing so confidently due to the chaos knowing the Millefiore and Varia are weak enough from the fight to essentially get away scott free. They get what they want and abandon the fight halfway through getting their men out with minimal losses.

In the present(second image is present design) while the Avvoltoi di Scarto are not well known, currently too afraid to do operations against such big mafia groups, this encounter sticks in the Varia’s minds. After healing from the Representative battles, they seek Vittorio out. For several reasons, one mainly being a grudge, the potential of getting them to engineer something for them, but also the threat Vittorio poses if left alone. It should also be noted, Vittorio has no knowledge of the future as they were not considered important to how the future turned out. But course, they aren’t going to just talk it out, and a fight ensues, the threat they find that Vittorio held is still very much the same almost taking them down before being captured instead. (I have drawn a comic of this)

Upon being captured Vittorio is forced to work for the Varia, under their watch they are tasked to design and create combat gear for them.(x) Vittorio does so, making them durable and protective against both flames and physical weapons more so than the regular varia uniforms are(Designs found here). While he is working on the Varia uniforms, Vittorio makes an offer, that if they can get them readings and information on how the actual vongola rings work, he can attempt to upgrade their Varia rings and Box weapons. (His attempt at bargaining)

Squalo is sent out to give these readings and while he is Vittorio works on his own version of the combat uniform that he made for the Varia in secret(it looks like the blue and orange combat uniform minus colour, and instead pure black), at this point gaining enough trust to not be constantly under watch. When Squalo comes back he does as he promised though not without great difficulty struggling for a while to upgrade Talbot’s work. However eventually he succeeds giving the varia improved cambio formas that can keep the box weapon out in addition albeit in a weakened state.(I have designs and abilities for these but I’ve not fully coloured them. When I have this will be edited.)

Of course, as he worked and figured out how to upgrade the ring, he made his own copy, and made the vulture box weapon, Avo. (Whose Cambio forma is the orange combat suit). But once Vittorio finished he struck a deal with Xanxus, who begrudgingly agreed to let him go free, for the ability to call on them(and vice versa), and for the ability to ask them for upgrades, to fix equipment, or build something for the Varia.

Vittorio then disappeared without a trace leaving Xanxus as the only person who knew how to contact him despite getting along with the other Varia members. (perhaps a little too well in some cases.) At least he did until one night he sent an emergency alert to Xanxus who only had time to grab Lussuria.

They then found Vittorio in the midst of being attacked by a mercenary known as Kira. She is a Flame of Deceit user and has made real monstrosities that have to be fought. It’s a struggle but once Lussuria heals Vittorio up through team work the Trio take her down. Only to find it was a fake and she is still out there. For his safety Xanxus forces Vittorio to return with them, and Vittorio promptly shuts down. (Also art of these events 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13)

You see, Vittorio has no ability to handle any form of care, especially care that is forced upon them. Growing up in a house that they could not leave for the fact the world was “too dangerous”, he eventually had no choice but to run away if they ever wanted to see anything outside of what they could see from a window. Left scarred from the first attempt, only escaping because their flame awakened, they soon went back home, the only place that he could think of for safety. Only to be met with even more of their freedom taken, with that and their second attempt, only cemented further a twisted idea that if anyone ever cared for them their freedom would be stripped away. (little bits of their past + how they got the idea to form the scrap vultures 1 - 2 - 3 - 4)

However, after two days, Squalo aggressively comes into his room and says that he needs to leave if he’s just going to completely shut down. Vittorio is given his freedom back, provided he at least eats something first cause it was two days. Though he does dip out for a few hours to clear his head, realizing they were right and it is too dangerous to stay alone and goes back. In order to help fight his anxiousness about it he asks to temporarily join the Varia so that he can at least tell himself it’s just for work.(9th picture is his uniform for present day Varia). During this he does admit that the reason he was alone when Kira attacked was because he ended up dismantling the Avvoltoi di Scarto after a recent betrayal as a last straw. Leaving himself as the one and only Scrap Vulture.

From there he works as a trainee, as despite his strength and usefulness.... Vittorio doesn’t meet the requirements of the varia in one aspect. He only know Italian and cannot be a full Varia member in any capacity until he learns. So while they’re trying to track down Kira for their proper fight Vittorio is also trying to learn enough languages to count as a member in some form. It takes several years for them to track down Kira, and in that time they grow comfortable being in the Varia. and in their good relation, the Varia give Vittorio an Axolotl Box weapon which they then name Alba. Which they then make the blue combat gear cambio forma with. Now Vittorio has both box weapons he had in the future, even if they don’t know it.

Upon tracking down Kira, the Varia and Vittorio attack her head on, but of course this being her domain, she is able to easily gain the upper hand practically warping reality to her will. Only Vittorio, Xanxus, Belphegor and Squalo can put up a fight against her flame with easier ability to neutralize it but, unfortunately due to her power they end up overwhelmed. on the brink of defeat and about to die. The horrific living ghost tale that is Presagio appears, making a deal with Vittorio, who is healed and powered up to kill Kira. Only to be stolen away by it as part of the deal.

While Vittorio is trapped with Presagio they find it is a person, an incredibly powerful one but a person nonetheless. They have no choice but to toil away as whatever Presagio needs them to be until after a couple more years, eventually the Varia come to rescue them. Explaining that the reason they made no plans to escape was because Presagio would simply re-capture them there’s a quick plan made. Soon Presagio enters the room that had been broken into, and is challenged to a game. The Varia also offering themselves if it wins, but that they get Vittorio back if it loses.

The game they play is 3 nights, capture the flag. The flag being Vittorio who is tied up in the same building but you can knock out other players(non-lethally only, more to the Varia’s benefit than presagio’s) and if you do so they can't act in the next rounds.

Round one: Team of Levi Mammon and Squalo take vittorio as objective. Xanxus tries to take down Presagio alone. Lussuria and Belphegor act as back up but arrive after Xanxus has already been taken down and get sweeped. However Squalo's team captures the flag before further damage can be done.

Round two: Now with the strongest player out of the way, Presagio focuses the objective, with their swift movements and sturdiness they can't be budged from it. making an easy win for them.

Right after round two: Mammon decides to use Presagio's greed against them, and offers that if it can awaken their full power as it did with Vittorio, they will have a better asset if they can succeed in beating the Varia. Presagio agrees on the one condition that if they do this, and Vittorio cannot create Gear more suited for Mammon's new form in time for the next match. Only Squalo and Levi will be participating. knowing this is their only shot the Varia agrees.

Round three: Fully powered up and newly equipped Mammon aids the remaining two members after them. Though Mammon cannot take down Presagio due to their strength they simply need to cause problems with their illusions and while Presagio is good at seeing through illusions, a fully powered up Mammon is too much. Presagio stays distracted too long, as Squalo and Levi capture the objective and thus they finally get to bring Vittorio home.

After some time to recover both physically and mentally from all that happened. Vittorio asks to permanently join the Varia. Later on getting a tattoo on their back that though they had in the future with wings and the scrap vulture emblem, has the varia emblem added to it as well. They continue their work for the Varia, eventually asking to make a division similar to the Avvoltoi di Scarto, but loaned varia members so that they can easier get the materials they need. They are given a small group to command and continue well into the future.

The first thing they make once they form this group is the Cambio Fusione, the first of it’s kind using both Avo and Alba’s cambio formas to create something that’s an extremely powerful combination of the two previous weapons. However it has heavy physical drawbacks on the user so it is only ever used when Vittorio is desperate to protect someone, but also knows after they can be trusted to take care of him. The trust required originally, they never would have dreamed of.

Now that I have explained their whole story, it’s time for the weapons!

Gun Blade: The gun blade is pretty simple in concept but has a lot of moving pieces. First the blades on both sides of the gun with a press of a button near the trigger of the weapon will be unleashed from a lock mechanism and shoot forward from their position. The only downside is they do have to be physically reset but it doesn’t take much, even quickly slamming the weapon onto the ground will get the locks back in place for it’s next use. Next is the extra part of the handle that the end that can be adjusted so Vittorio can hold the weapon like a bat or like a proper gun. Due to the weight of the weapon it takes a lot of strength to use. Finally the gun part, fun fact, Vittorio has stolen many documents and recordings from mafia groups, they actually learned how to make a gun like this by using Xanxus’ as inspiration. much like Xanxus’ gun it can fire fairly fast but is more often used in charged blasts.

Pioggia Avvoltoio di Cieli, Avo: Avo is a large box weapon, based on the Cinereous Vulture however is a bit larger to allow Avo to pick up Vittorio. Vittorio only uses Avo to handle crowds, as it’s flames are weak in their effects but the Vulture itself is incredibly powerful. However prolonged exposure to it’s flames however weak will eventually cause sluggishness. In the alternate future, Avo was a stolen Sky box he modified to suit his flame.

Cambio Forma, Pistole del Mietitore(Gun of the Reaper): Avo’s Cambio forma much like the box weapon, is focused on power. Vittorio carries a Shotgun and pistol, one for long range and the other for up close. While both can be switched between a normal charge shot, they both have different option settings. The pistol can be switched to a seeking shot which while much weaker will follow the enemy, while the Shotgun can be switched to an explosive spread shot that will petrify anything caught in it. Though they both have blades on them, they’re static unlike the gun blade’s, and are typically only used when someone gets too close and vittorio needs them to back off quickly. This is typically used when there’s plenty of room for the opponent and Vittorio to run.

Pioggia Axolotl di Cieli, Alba:  A small box weapon based on an axolotl, that isn’t very strong physically but makes up in it’s strength of flame.  Alba is typically used in stealth, the small axolotl is hard to feel as it quickly numbs your body. by the time it’s noticed the target is too sluggish and will soon be picked off by vittorio. Thankfully for them Vittorio prefers non-lethal. In the alternate future, Alba was a stolen Rain box he modified to suit his flame.

Cambio Forma, Spada dello Scorticatore(Sword of the flayer): These are two Identical swords with a hook at the end of them. The holes on either side of them will emit a fog version of the flame as long as vittorio squeezes the black triggers on the hilt. This fog will fill the air and slowly overwhelm anyone who enters it. The fog lingers for a long time so Vittorio does not have to constantly refresh it unless they are forced to move out of their area. Vittorio prefers to use this weapon in close combat situations.

Cambio Fusione, Arma dello Scavenger(Weapon of the Scavenger): The final combination of the two previous forms. Through appearing to mainly be the sword, hidden inside of the weapon is a gun which triggers are what used to be for only the sword’s fog. Additionally, only the first 3 sections of the weapon can cut and slice. The fourth is entirely a bludgeoning weapon and is completely flat aside from the hook. Both swords are only colour coded so that Vittorio can keep track of what setting he has them on in case they switch hands. As before, the guns can be switched between a charged shot, a seeking shot, and a the explosive shot. However the blade can also be set to only produce the fog.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

[tipsygeek]

So I just finished running Pathfinder 2e's The Slithering with my group, and I have thoughts. If you're a player, maybe don't read this?

It's a long read, so I dunno, get your coffee first or something.

The Slithering spoilers ahead.

You've been warned.

My players bought this book for me because we all thought the premise was really cool, and I still think it is! What's cool about it?

Takes place in Kibwe in the Mwangi Expanse

No humans allowed (go crazy my furry friends)

The stakes are really high (the city is afflicted by a curse that transforms people into ooze!)

Starts at level 5!

I read through the whole thing and thought "Welp, this'll need some serious TLC." Because this adventure starts at level 5 rather than level 1, the characters should either 1) have some downtime to get to know one another, 2) already know one another. The adventure gives zero opportunity for this.

So I added an introductory chapter and background elements:

All characters had been part, when they were going, of a sort of school/orphanage situation

While they did not necessarily know one another (they could) or have strong ties, they all had a reason to be in Kibwe: their former headmistress was getting married

The adventure started weeks before the first case of Slithering

They had friendly NPCs they could go to.

I could introduce Tomil and his sliminess (intended) ahead of time.

The intro, that enabled them to test out their characters, get acquainted with other characters, and start working as a group was "find the lady's future husband, mister got lost in the jungle."

After that intro, they got to the marketplace where the adventure actually starts.

And here's why it's so important: the first fight, against black puddings, is motherfucking hard!

Actually most fights are. This adventure is pretty brutal tbh. This was a recurring theme until the end.

A problem I've encountered, mostly running this game on Fantasy Grounds, is that several encounters did not have maps, including the first one. At a table I can "guesstimate" a decent map for a market or a temple, but I can't really improvise on Fantasy Grounds. Other adventures (i.e. Quest for the Frozen Flame) are much better at giving maps even for tiny, seemingly innocuous fights.

Once the adventure started, we had a lot of fun with encounters that were not combat (helping the medics, the debate with the fearmongerer, etc.) Along the end of Chapter 1, after a long dungeon crawl, I also added a bit of a sidequest with the Boggards to change the pace a little.

Every single part of this book is met with a very glaring problem (super obvious in part 2):

The party is on a very limited time frame (they're racing against a curse)

It's impossible to complete the dungeons in a single run so they need to rest (and feel guilty doing so by YMMV)

There is no mechanism for what happens when they go in and out of the dungeons, how the denizens react

So I had to improvise A LOT. I've got nothing against improvising but it was just... a lot of raking my brains lol

Finally, after all this, I basically cut the last chapter by 80%. I had issues with it and didn't think it brought enough to the story, it was just like one of their excessively long final dungeons in JRPGs. My issues with last chapters were:

Definitely against the clock (now they're racing a statue THAT DOESN'T STOP)

Same map as the last "dungeon in chapter 1" but different denizens

The motivations of the denizens make no sense because the bad guy actually died before the adventure began

Final note on my apparently lengthy list of complains: a lot of enemies are fought over and over and over again. Oozes (I guess that makes sense), cultist, Athovians... it becomes tedious and difficult to make fights interesting after the third or fourth fight. There could have been more balance.

THAT BEING SAID! We had a lot of fun, I have an amazing group who built the story and each other up. It's doable, but as a GM I found this adventure to be the not-fun kind of challenge. If you ever are interested in running and want to know more about my setbacks or experience, hit me up!

[henlp]

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

It's been five years, but considering how linear these games are anyway, how much I've put off the second probably means I didn't like it as much as the first. Which I definitely didn't like enough to 100%, or get the DLC for.

It has a better story (in that it has a story), there's some characterization that entails more than just visual gags, and the more free-form movement in combat does provide a slight degree of tactical maneuvering, rather than only positioning.

But most story missions are dull, generic encounters are repetitive, and there's not a lot to either customization or changing up your team, once you've settled to three characters you like to use. Which is another thing, that not only do you have nine playable characters (six of which are given to you right out the gate, not giving you much of a chance to experiment), but you're limited to only ever using three (outside of unique instances), which is annoying and needlessly drags on most fights. Hell, my favorite mission was in fact the very final boss fight, because even though it had three phases back to back, I was using all nine characters, and the enemy cannon fodder didn't pose much of a distraction on my way to the goals.

I guess in part my dislike also comes from the severe lack of customization and upgrades. Weapon unlocks are now all skin cosmetics, the titular Sparks don't change much between them other than ailment/damage element, and the level cap at 30 is quickly reached before you get to the final zone (another pet peeve of mine, when RPGs don't let you abuse your max power, and it just becomes the norm).

Wouldn't call it a bad game, your mileage may vary. But I doubt I'd wanna play a new Mario + Rabbids game, if it ever were to come out as Ubisoft becomes increasingly desperate for some Nintendo cred to back them up.

[angelsndragons]

okay since folks really like my original cockroach party post i’m going to expand a bit and talk about how and why the mighty nein turned into a cockroach party.

but before we do that, i’m going to talk about mechanics on this post. warning: long post ahead.

first, let’s define terms. all adventuring parties find their own play style when it comes to combat. from my experience, these tend to fall into three broad categories that i am calling the glass cannon, the control, and the cockroach. to be clear, no one party style is better than another; the players and characters simply have different priorities and skill sets.  

glass cannon: these parties are built for doing damage. that’s basically it. they do damage and hope that they kill their enemies before their enemies kill them. these parties tend to be low on support casters, healers, or both. round 4 is where things start to get really rough for these parties and chances are good that if the fight has gone on this long, someone’s at least unconscious.

control: these parties tend to go around obstacles and enemies. there are a million ways to do this; for example, these parties can regularly avoid conflicts all together via stealth or charisma or some other check. when forced into combat, they excel when they have plans or traps to spring on opponents. they struggle a bit but ultimately triumph because they have a myriad of ways to not get hit or they are able to escape and lose their pursuers. 

cockroach: these parties don’t engage in combat, they endure it. their goal is to outlast their enemies via healing, support, and tanking. you hit them? joke’s on you, they don’t care. unlike their glass cannon counterparts, round 4 is where things turn around for the cockroach party. they’ve dug in and are starting to push back.

vox machina is a quintessential glass cannon party. part of that is simply down to player availability; ashley their cleric worked across the country so that made it tough for her to attend on the regular. but. the party technically still had a primary healer who could have stepped in and filled that role: keyleth. druids are pretty dang good healers and support casters, even moon druids. however. marisha and keyleth decided to instead take a dps and tank role similar to grog. this ain’t a diss either so don’t any of you all start anything, especially considering keyleth was often burning her higher slots just to get vm to different places. when keyleth was tanking in wild shape and focusing on dps, it meant that vox machina was reliant on: vex’s cure wounds (and with her being a half caster, you weren’t getting a lot of mileage of it), scanlan as the only support role, and later vax’s lay on hands for emergency healing. percy could heal himself a bit if things got really dicey, grog was taking half damage from most attacks, and the twins could hide as a bonus action or stay at range out of the way. in fact, most of vm had some method for staying at range and letting grog and keyleth tank. and this style worked for them for the most part. their biggest dangers were always the longer fights, with or without pike. longer fights meant more chances for these fragile kids to get hit and possibly drag out the fight even longer by trying to get someone up.

the ashholes from exandria unlimited is a great example of a control party. i count half of their encounters which they’ve been able to wriggle out of without killing their opponents. their liberal use of charm spells, high charisma, and just flat out out of the box thinking (they flipped a fucking crocodile!!) has saved their bacon so many times. during unavoidable combat, they have struggled a little bit, but they’re a low level party to begin with so struggle is expected. all the casters appear to be offensively geared with dariax and fearne having prepped utility on the side. even so, that control vibe still permeates the party; dorian’s most clutch move was that dissonant whispers on mister, which he cast not to harm mister but force him to move away from the rune that transformed and powered him, thus ending the combat.

and finally we have the mighty nein, the cockroach party. we’ll get into the hows and whys later, for now, cockroach parties are built on three major founding principles: action economy, mindset, and versatility. action economy is king in dnd. pcs get an action, bonus action, and reaction per turn. having turns each round is critical to a dnd party's ability to overcome the enemy and the more turns you have compared to your opponent, the better. for large parties, that is a sizable advantage over enemy monsters, which is why even low level monsters are packing multi-attacks, decent ac, and/or good solid hit points. more members means more attacks the creature(s) needs to take and focused fire adds up fast, even at low levels. for example, kylre had about 90 hp and was dead in three rounds, with fjord alone dealing 64 points of that damage. yeah. want to know why mid to high level monsters have legendary actions and resists? action economy. want to know why some silly min-max number crunchers think that cleric healing is severely under-powered? action economy. laura's assessment of healing, that it is better to damage the enemy and only heal to bring people up to make sure they get their turn, is a solid, reasonable assessment of the economy, especially when it comes to the cleric spell slot economy which I elaborated on here.

so, in light of the action economy, let's talk about the cockroach mindset. the cockroach party doesn’t ask ‘how do we beat this opponent’, it asks ‘how do we outlast this opponent.’ it’s a subtle difference in combat focus but an important one. survival of the party is the cockroach’s top priority and all members go into the encounter with that priority in mind. the players aren’t focused on the survival of their character, however, they are focused on giving their party another round to act. they give themselves room to breathe. whether that is stunning the enemy completely, whether it's lowering the enemy's attacking ability, whether it's giving a party member an extra action, whether it’s bringing someone up from unconsciousness, those methods combine with damage generation to win an encounter. cockroach parties don't rely on damage output to keep themselves safe, they rely on their own ability to survive and support their team. 

which brings us to versatility. cockroach parties tend to have a wide array of skills at their disposal and aren’t afraid to use them. while they have solid support roles, casters are not the only ones who can bring utility to a party. just ask beau. just ask yasha as she flew caleb out of danger in the first lucien fight. heck, just ask orym and his swip swap battle flop. or damian and the owlbear from the darrington brigade. cockroach parties, more than control and glass cannon parties, prefer to have a wide range of options available to them. the more tricks up your sleeve, the more likely you are to have something to deal with whatever the dm throws at you. marine layer, anyone? at the same time, the party also uses this wide array to have multiple ways to handle the same problem. jester is the backup stealth scout and teleporter. fjord is the emt, able to remove and heal injured party members if caduceus or jester cannot. caleb is the backup backup cleric with polymorph. veth can also stun/incapacitate enemies with her spells. caduceus is the backup backup tank and battlefield control via his shield of retribution and spirit guardians to beau and jester.

these three tricks combine into one inescapable reality: there is no one better or obvious target to take out. the entire party is one giant interlocking trap; break one and the others will reinforce the weak point and make you pay for the effort.

(incidentally, the cockroach approach is so ingrained in the cast that the vm side of the battle royale didn’t play with the urgency the vm playbook requires and that, more than anything, screwed them over. but that’s a different post.)

tune in next time for a break down of how, when, and why the nein went from glass cannon to cockroach because it is a fascinating ride.

[the-littlest-goblin]

fic prompt: shadowgast (obvs lol) and the idea of light as corruption or rot/decay

This was an interesting challenge! I did my best.

________________

It took less than a minute for the blindness to wear off, but fear can make time stretch and slow as much as any magic.

“There we go.”

Essek blinked and blinked as Caleb’s face came slowly back into focus. He’d known Caleb was nearby, could hear his voice whispering soothing reassurances and feel his calloused palm stroking Essek’s cheek, but it was still an enormous relief to see him there. Essek’s racing heartbeat calmed down, though it still fluttered due to Caleb’s closeness. He found that a much more pleasant sensation than the painful thud of panic against his ribs.

“Where—” Essek cleared his throat. “Where did you take us?”

“The Blooming Grove. I figured we could both use a cleric after that… encounter.”

Essek glanced around. Though the magical blindness left over from the assassin’s spell had faded, the sun shining overhead in the cloudless sky still marred his vision with spots. Realizing this, Caleb drew them both several feet back into the shade.

Now, the scenery came into view properly. They were indeed surrounded by forest and lush greenery, but this was not the familiar garden of the Blooming Grove; there was not a single gravestone around, and the Clay’s cozy cottage was nowhere in sight.

“Why—?”

Anticipating the question, Caleb cut him off. “I brought us a little ways away. I wanted to ensure we weren’t followed. Just in case.”

A shadow passed over his face that had nothing to do with the shade of the trees, and Essek was sure the expression was mirrored on his own face as he too recalled the week they had spent in the Grove, almost a year ago now, repairing the Clay’s home from the destruction wrought by those chasing Caleb.

“Thank you,” he said. Essek would never have forgiven himself if history repeated itself because of his enemies. Caleb nodded, understanding without Essek needing to explain.

“I think we are safe, though. You are still attuned, right?” Caleb lifted an orange pendant out from where it lay underneath his shirt, and Essek produced the matching one pressed against his own chest.

“Always.”

“Then there is no reason to think we were pursued. The Dynasty’s forces wouldn’t know to look for us here.” In contrast to his reassuring words, a note of fear still hitched in his voice. Essek nodded in confirmation.

“Good. Then we should go see if anyone is home who can lend us some healing. It will take a few minutes; can you walk?”

Breathing deeply through his nose, Essek leveraged himself up from the ground, bracing one hand against a tree for balance as he readjusted to the equipoise of his floatation. The movement stretched the tender burns covering his skin, and he winced.

Caleb, unable to help ease his pain, grimaced.

“What was that spell they used?” he asked, needing some detail to focus on other than Essek’s injuries and his own uselessness. “I have never seen it before.”

“It is a specialty of the Luxon. Common for priests and paladins in the Dynasty to use in worship, although I have never seen it utilized in combat before.”

Caleb thought back to the blinding, all-encompassing light that had emanated from the Dynasty assassin. Essek had gotten the brunt of it, but it had hit Caleb as well, burns spreading across his hands where he’d reached up to cover his eyes. It was not the scorching welts left behind by proximity to fire, with which Caleb was all too familiar, but rather the unique searing sensation of divine damage, which left no visible trace on the skin to account for the terrible pain of it.

“What possible use could that spell have outside of combat?”

“Well—” Essek wobbled, sent off balance as their path brought them into another sunny clearing. Instinctually, he reached out a hand, and Caleb grabbed it with both of his own. “I told you about the practice in Rosohna, where they lift the darkness over the city and worshippers give themselves to the light?”

“Yes.”

“This is along the same idea. A ritual display of radiant power—in that situation, no one is near enough to be harmed by the light, as we were.” He winced again. “But they do give themselves over to the blinding effect. It is sort of like a, um… trust exercise?” Essek sighed. “To be honest, I have never understood the logic behind most of the religious practices. It’s something about ‘the light will reveal what the eyes cannot see,’ or… something like that. Personally, I believe those sorts of rituals are responsible for the unusually high rate of long-term vision problems amongst Luxon clerics, but since most clerics are also the main healers within the city, no one has cared to look into the issue.”

Caleb’s gate slowed, and it took Essek a moment to realize he was staring at him.

“What?”

Caleb shrugged, a mirthless smile twitching at the corners of his lips. “The Dynasty is almost as fucked up as the Empire,” he laughed.

Essek raised an incredulous eyebrow. “You think?”

“I mean, I was aware of some of the… hypocrisies, within the Dynasty, on the big picture scale. But hearing you talk about it, I guess it just hit me. I am so used to the Empire’s corruption, anywhere else seems a utopia by comparison, at least at first. But it is only on the surface.”

“If you want to compare notes on corruption, I have plenty of other tales I could recount to you. Having been among the corrupt myself.”

Caleb’s slight smile turned tender and sad, as it so often did. “Later, my friend, after some healing. We are almost at the Grove.”

He pointed out ahead of them. Essek followed his gaze, but beyond the next twenty or so feet of shade in front of him, everything was a blur of white-hot sunlight.

“I will take your word for it,” he said, clutching Caleb’s hand closer to him.

[nevertheless-moving]

Unnamed Extremely Bad Plan to Defeat Darth Sideous AU - SW AU NO 9

Hopefully writing down this star wars au will help me exorcise the cringe demon that helped midwife it. Time travel au where obi-wan and Anakin come up with an extremely SPECIFIC and UNCOMFORTABLE plan to defeat Palpatine because it unfortunately, would actually work, as it capitalizes on one of Palpatine’s easiest to reach political vulnerabilities. This is not a unique plan- there are other au’s like this, but this one is mine. When searching for ways to explain exactly why this anti-sith strategy inspires such cringe and delight in myself I realized, with sinking dread, I have seen this in an Always Sunny episode...which yeah. I might be over reacting but hey, cringe is a personal phenomenon, everyone’s different.

Anyway! Uh here’s a bunch of plot that will eventually culminate in the plan. 

*Too much plot, aaaah*. **All plot actually.** ***Its 1 am and this is still a draft*** ****It’s 2am**** *****This post will be just be background I guess.*****

*******STAR WARS AU NO 9 LAZILY OUTLINED CHAPTER ONE*********

Force ghosts Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi have had time to yell at one another without need for breath, and have more-or-less come to terms with the trainwreck that was their shared life. I wouldn’t call them well adjusted, but they’re more stable then they were the last decade or so of their living existence. 

In haunting Luke, they end up encountering an artifact in an ancient Willis temple that offers spirits the chance to fix the mistakes they made in life. It doesn’t truly unwrite what’s been done, but it lets you create an alternate timeline. So this galaxy will still be what it is, but some alternate galaxy somewhere could at least have it better. Its almost never been used, because becoming one with the force usually lets you accept the past, but viewed objectively, Vader and Ben’s lives involved an extreme amount of yikes. They say goodbye to Luke and are flung backwards and sideways.

Anakin is holding his mother as she dies. Obi-Wan is landing on Genosis. 

Vader just barely manages to avoid slaughtering the tuskens. To be honest, he doesn’t really get why he shouldn’t- his moral compass is still pretty f-ed up. He’s fairly certain the force is just torturing him, but still he controls himself (for Padme for Luke for Leia).

I’m gonna say well-adjusted!Vader sees murder in general as more of a vice than a sin- on par with having a beer. And really well adjusted Vader is willing to admit to himself that he’s an alcoholic, he seriously cannot regulate, its a problem. He really can’t let himself go, because he’ll just end up spiraling. And so he restrains himself and only seriously maims a few of the adult raiders.

Vader figures he can always come back later and slowly torture them to death if this whole ‘save the future’ thing doesn’t pan out.

Obi-wan leaves his shuttle and hides under a rock for 30 minutes. He calculates thats just enough time for him to pretend he went on an extremely effective and sneaky fact finding mission- just in case anyone checks R4′s records. Gets back in shuttle and gets the fuck out of there, much to Dooku’s chagrin, who lost sight of him after the shuttle landed and is now going to have to switch to one of his alternate start-the-war plans. 

On the flight back he reports everything to the council- fallen Dooku and the separatist leaders, the trade federation and the massive droid army, Jango Fett the clone template of the republic army (?) working for the separatists. He briefly comms Anakin, but anyone hacking into their conversations would hear only a nonsensical, rambling conversation. Later, a hacker might turn over the idea that they were speaking in elaborate code, but why would Jedi invent such a thing during peacetime?

The war still starts; at this point in the timeline it was inevitable; the artifact was only designed to give them the chance to correct their own failings, not the galaxy’s. Palpatine still gets his emergency powers. 

The same day the armies are discovered, separatist war ships take off to engulf Ryloth. The Jedi are instructed by the senate to lead the clone army and provide immediate relief-this will not be a repeat of the republic’s inaction on Naboo. It’s both better and worse than the first Battle of Genosis. So many more civilians are caught in the crossfire. The first titanic battle is not contained to evacuated droid factories, but rages across an entire populated world. The battle lasts for weeks.

The main reason this fight is less deadly is solely due to the fact that General Kenobi manages to maneuver his way into high command of the entire army.

 “I believe assumptions were made since I was the first point of contact with Kamino, Masters,” the Knight explained apologetically to the arriving high council members. “I realize its not quite appropriate, but for right now I am the Jedi most familiar with our forces and the enemies. I would, of course, prefer to cede the role to someone else.” 

The assembled Jedi can feel the truth in that statement.

“For better or for worse, advance troops were directed by the senate to land planetside and have met heavy resistance. I managed to redirect them to a more defensible position, where they can provide surface based cover fire for incoming reinforcements. The battle has already begun.” He received a grim nod of approval from Master Windu.

“I feel the need to say now, that if there’s one thing I learned from my time as a general on Melida/Dann, or in working against Death Watch on Mandalore, its that having a clear chain of command is vital for a military to succeed. I don’t need to remind some of you that leadership breakdowns were what ultimately ended both the Stark Hyperspace War and the Yinchorri Crisis,” Masters Koon and Tiin exchanged looks before deliberately sending forth a small force wave of approval, understanding where this briefing was leading. 

“I believe that unnecessarily restructuring command before the battle is won here could do far more harm than good.” The reminder of Obi-wan’s unusually militaristic apprenticeship put some of the assembled knights at ease even as it inspired a twinge of guilt in the older masters. 

“In command you are, General Kenobi,” Master Yoda finally acknowledged. “A Jedi Master you will be, once done this battle is. Have us do, what would you?” 

The battle lasts for weeks, and when its over, the commanding Jedi and Troopers involved will openly acknowledge that had anyone else been in command, it would’ve lasted months, if not years. Facing down logistical, strategic, and tactical problems on a scale unheard of for a thousand years, High General Kenobi does not falter.

Enemy reinforcements seem unending. For all their preparation, every single trooper is new to war, and secretly concerned that should they fall, they will be replaced with cadets who hadn’t even finished their training.

Obi-Wan is putting out fires before they can start. Much to their shock, clone commanders are informed that they will, for the time being, remain in charge of their troops. With a handful of exceptions, Jedi ‘Generals’ were in fact, to be treated as a cross between highly skilled commandoes and advisors with abnormally sourced field intelligence. 

“All of you have spent your lives training to lead your brothers into combat. The Jedi Masters and knights who are being assigned to your divisions have not received such training.” 

General Kenobi addressed the division commanders, some in person, some over holocomm. All focused in rapt attention as their General reordered the shape of their lives using language they could understand.

“The command structure I am issuing is designed to maximize our ability to utilize our respective strategic capabilities, while minimizing potential loss of your life. It will be our great privilege to serve alongside such an army, and while I fully expect a complementary exchange of knowledge in time, for now, focus on survival.”

The Jedi received similar briefings, tailored for their broader array of combat and military experience. Some, including Jedi Master Pong Krell and Grandmaster Yoda, were pulled aside and tasked with the essential mission of infiltrating and destroying the Droid factories on Genosis. If they were to have a chance of winning this war, they they would need to cut off the seemingly unceasing flow of droid reinforcements. 

An elite squadron of Arctroopers and Jedi field operatives were covertly dispatched, Grandmaster Yoda himself in command. Considering Count Dooku had yet to appear anywhere near Ryloth...the grandmaster had the best chance of bringing in the fallen separatist leader alive for questioning.

Shortly after they left, Anakin arrived, having finally turned over Padme’s protection to her regular guard. With the military creation vote past, the assassination risk was considered minimal. The real delay in his arrival came from her repeated attempts to join the Grand Army of the Republic on Ryloth with the intent of coordinating humanitarian assistance. Eventually he managed to convince her that she could do more good in the senate. 

After all, he pointed out, someone would need to followup the military creation act with a bill to grant clones equal citizen rights. Otherwise, the legal grey area that cloning fell under and their non-republic origin would inadvertently make the clones slaves. 

His borrowed Nabooan cruiser entered the warzone with the grace and efficiency as a small neutron bomb.

Those close enough to see its flaming descent watched in horror, realizing that the high generals own padawan would likely be a war casualty before he ever engaged in combat.

The legion nearest to soon-to-be-ground-zero, under the command of Captain Rex of the 501st, were distracted by heated combat, as the temporary barricade they had put up to defend the civilian population gave way to droidika artillery. 

While reloading, several dozen troopers happened to look up to see a speck detach itself from the hull as at spiraled in the lower atmosphere. Hope spread that the Jedi had managed to activate some sort of eject hatch. A skilled shocktrooper could probably control and and survive such a fall with luck, which mean a Jedi almost certainly could. 

A few tactical scouts charged with watching the skies confirmed that the speck was indeed a humanoid. No chute was visible, but even 8 days into the war, rumors had already spread about how Master Windu had passed off his chute mid-air to a troopers who had been damaged by suppressing fire, cushioning his free fall solely with the tank he crushed upon landing. 

Only one trooper, stationed in the town clock tower specifically to track the Padawan’s arrival and issued with a high-resolution farscope, saw the whole thing. Fortunately for his credibility later, in its current setting, the scope automatically logged photos every 5 seconds, ensuring that for years to come Obi-Wan would have a flipbook as evidence that he was not the crazy one.

CT-3609 or Blink (as he was named after winning the division wide staring contest on Kamino two year prior) forwarded the trajectory of the vehicle to command, who confirmed his analysis that it would impact two clicks out from their makeshift fort and not present a risk to civilian or trooper lives. 

As it traversed the stratosphere a figure (desperate repair droid, Blink assumed) emerged from the cockpit to perch on the nose of the ship. As it entered the troposphere, it became painfully obvious that the figure jutting out from the hull of the ship was in fact not a humanoid droid, but an unarmored human. The Jedi stood on the prow of the ship, seemingly impervious to and oblivious of:

air resistance 

centrifugal force

normal space gravity 

Blink’s slack-jawed bewilderment

the flames engulfing the ship below him

At this range, the smirk on the man’s face was visible (man? boy? kriff is he even through puberty?). Several miles above the surface he leaped, diving towards the ground like a bird of prey. 

To the west, the ship made impact with the ground, sending a shockwave that shook the tower just enough for Blink to lose visual in the final moments of descent. Cursing, as while he was confident the Jedi would inexplicably survive, he really wanted to see how. The trooper scanned the droid-engulfed farmland to the north for a crash site, to no avail. Lingering smoke from the burnt countryside negatively impacted visibility low to the ground.

Rather than trying to articulate his report into words, he sent the 50-odd frames the farscope had saved, as well as the coordinates for the jedi’s projected radius of touchdown. A quick radio over to long range electro-ballistics ensured that his landing wouldn’t be marred by friendly fire.

He awaited follow-up questions on the absurd entry method, which, when they came, mostly consisted of variations on “...Is this for real?” and eventually “Can you set the scope to video for a little while?” and finally “Do you think that’s how he got the name Skywalker?”

There was a temporarily lull in fire from the west, likely a ripple effect from the ship’s explosion. From his vantage point Blink could see his batchmates using the opportunity to try and plug the holes in their barricade with broken droid pieces. Regardless of the itch to join them, he knew he couldn’t leave his post until the Jedi actually arrived in camp. Finally, a distant explosion and thick pillar of smoke gave the Jedi’s position away.

He tried to make out details, but the scope had a difficult time focusing through the haze. Manually trying to fine tune the scope’s settings, Blink caught a glimpse of what looked like half a hover tank sailing through the air to impact with a trade federation troop carrier in a fiery explosion. Several more explosions, flying droid artillery, and plumes of smoke were caught on record before visual contact with the source was established. He was mostly visible as a blue blur, lightsaber mowing a meandering path towards their location. 

It wasn’t until Skywalker braced himself in place to punch a droidaka into pieces that Blink caught actual sight of the man. Only his eyes were visible, nose and mouth covered by layers of cloth. He blurred, then reappeared on top a massive missile launcher attached to an absurdly heavily armored vehicle. A minute or so of rapid blue flashes passed, the longest he had seen concentrated in one area. Then Skywalker was gone, movement clearly visible as he for once he moved in a straight line, plowing a rapid path away from the launcher. 

Less than 30 seconds later, Blink had to wince away from the scope, as a burning white explosion temporarily overwhelmed the direct light filter. The trooper panicked for a moment, thinking he had gone both deaf and blind, but the abrupt, sucking silence ended after a moment with a deafening sonic boom. The shockwave rattled the farscope, nearly knocking it over, but Blink managed to steady it and himself in time. 

A cheer emerged from pleasantly surprised vod below. The entire droid legion that had been guarding the missile launcher and apparent ordinance bay was flattened. 

It took a moment for the realization to set in that the background noise of missile and and anti-missile collisions directly overhead had slowed pace. With the northern flank gone, artillery were able to redouble efforts to the east, and a second white hot shockwave ensued, signaling that the tide of battle had shifted. It was almost too easy for the republics electro-ballistics to tactically devastate the surrounding forces. 

Eventually some sort of win/loss programming must have set in and all forces outside of a certain radius began retreating southward, conceding the scorched land to the republic army. It was cadets work to clean up the final suicidal droid charge. 

A commotion ensued as Skywalker leapt the barricade with a mid-air flip. The vod greeted him with cheers, as they correctly assumed his appearance had something to do with the skirmish’s decisive victory.

Blink sent the video of the battle to command and quickly packed up his scope and assorted equipment. Hurrying down the battered tower, Blink thought to himself that this Anakin Skywalker was the best sort of Jedi a trooper could ask for.

uh sorry i got really sidetracked there moving on

Kenobi and Skywalker quickly become the face of the war once again

they grit their teeth a bit, but when they finally have a moment to really plan they eventually agree that to take down Sideous they have to cut off his political power in addition to everything else, and taking advantage of their public personas was the most accessible way to do so (*evil laughter*)

While Dooku wasn’t captured, Yoda heard the truth in his old student’s cryptic warnings about a Sith in the Senate, and the council begins carefully editing their release of tactical plans to the Chancellor’s office in the hopes of ferreting out the spy in their midst.

Pong Krell looses two arms in his duel with Dooku. Obi-Wan successfully hides his smug pleasure at the news. Anakin enjoys makeing comparisons between him and Grievous. 

Kenobi doesn’t allow the origin of the clones to go unexamined, although he agrees that if the public were informed that they don’t actually know who ordered them it would probably cause panic.

The ‘inhibitor chips’ are ‘discovered’ early on and Anakin leads the effort to ensure that they are phased out and removed immediately. This consists of reminding every Jedi who even hesitates about how how he as a child slave had some experience with control chips and unless you want to take a leaf out of the hutts books lets start doing brain surgery chop chop mmmkay?

(This isn’t to say that Vader doesn’t still a twinge of shame at acknowledging his slave roots. But it is eclipsed by the burning guilt that he knowingly acted as slave master to his troops for decades after Sideous wiped their minds. He tried to rationalize it to himself, after all he didn’t immediately understand what Order 66 had done to the troopers. But while the morality of murder was more of an intellectual concern than a personal one, treating people as things...)

The Kamonions are a little harder to budge, referencing contracts that they refuse to allow the Jedi to see

Finally Vader snuck into the Chief Medical Scientist’s home while she was sleeping and straight-up threatened to murder her and burn down her lab. At the risk of losing her life’s work, Nala Se complied.

Vader left with the final threat that in the event that Darth Tyranus caught wind and activated Order 66 prematurely, he would kill 100 Kamonians for every Jedi felled by troopers. Shaak Ti was pleased by the cloners sudden change of heart. Tyrannus, and by extension, Sideous, are in the dark. 

Obi-Wan frequently publicly confronts Palpatine about the troops citizen status, urging him make use of his emergency powers to grant them citizenship and full pay, with the option to leave the army should they so wish. 

Anakin manages to play off his avoidance of the Chancellor as disappointment in his perceived lack of dedication to anti-slavery efforts

Finally Palpatine gives in- regardless of what happens next, the troops will be looked after.

With 2/3rds of the troopers dechipped, Vaderkin is eager to kill Sideous again, but after several intense screaming matches and sparring sessions, the time travelers come to the agreement that even if they succeed in their duel, with things as they were, the perception of the Jedi military coop would cause mass civil unrest. The scattered sith apprentices, while individually weak, were more than capable of magnifying that fear and anger until the galaxy breaks. Darth Sideous wanted to ensure that if he couldn’t have the galaxy, no one would. 

(Vader knows this. Sideous enjoyed monologuing, and much of his plotting couldn’t be safely bragged about until after he had decisively won, leaving Vader as the unwilling receptacle for years of pent-up rants and self-satisfied gloats about the inevitability of his victory)

Continued Here

[oneoftheprettynerds]

Devout Worshipper: Dark! Peter Parker x Professor!Reader

A/N: So this girl here tried something else. I’ve been wanting to upload since long but this got delayed a lot and now I have several WIPs but finished this first. Sorry not proofread. I’m still discovering my writing style and my forte and thank you for staying and witnessing my experiments! Wear safety goggles please.

Summary: The best of all the educators yet, both smart and stunning, became Peter’s mentor in university. Peter grew too much of a liking for her, from a clingy scholar to her devout worshipper.

WARNING: STORY AHEAD HAS NON-CON, KIDNAPPING, POSSIBLE DRUGGING, UNHEALTHY BEHAVIOUR, OBSESSION. DNI IF TRIGGERED.

You sat on the teacher’s desk, going through the latest thesis published by Dr. Banner last week. He had given you one of the several copies and asked you to go through it and your judgement on it. The classroom was slowly filling in as the scholars stacked in, their buzzes growing loud with each passing trice.

You were on the last paragraph of your current page when a slight thump made you break out of your stupor, you tilted your head up to find a brawny youngster leaning in front of you, with his hand planted beside your ass on the ebony desk. He had blonde locks with grey eyes and was definitely a sports’ team captain, basketball you believed, who had his own posse of wannabes behind him.

You kept the paper down in your lap and met his eyes again with an inquiring look. “Yes?”

“You seem new. Me and my guys will save you a seat at the back, so come there when your little reading session is over, babe.” He said smugly, his eyes brimming with mischievousness as they dipped to your cleavage not-so-subtly and stood there gawking while he awaited your response.

You paused to see the whole class had gone quiet watching your encounter with the jock. You gave him a sickly-sweet smile as you nodded shyly for show and he tapped your knee with his other hand before leaving. As soon as his back faced you, you rolled your eyes so hard at his antics you heard the first-benchers gasp. You could still hear him talking to his ‘friends’, “I love myself a badass girl like her.”

You returned to your thesis but before you could finish the last few sentences, the bell rung and you had to stop. Thanks blondie.

You got down from the desk, jumping on your black heels as you made your way over to the door, closing it as lock clicked into place.

The entire class was watching you with quizzical glances as you stood in front of your desk this time and wrung your hands together, “Good morning class and congratulation on making it to your second year in college, I will be your mentor and also your lecturer for biology for this semester and for those who pass, also their next one.” The entire class’ jaw slackened and you giggled lightly as waited for them to digest the news, and then told them your name.

“I know a lot of you see science itself as a chore but since you’ve already taken it, I suggest you try to pay attention as you will have to study it anyways. However, because I can relate to your struggles, I will try my best to be a companion or advisor, whichever way you prefer it, and help you get through the class with flying colours hopefully. So, ask me anything, no matter how stupid or absurd you believe your doubt or query is. I’ll answer as many times as you ask and trust me when I say that I am a woman of my word. You have any questions for the semester?” You finished with a bright smile on your face as you saw the students in the front relax slightly. At least you had their approval.

“Ma’am” The blonde kid started without raising his hand, stressing the word unnecessarily as he and his horde sniggered at some stupid inside joke, and continued, “Can I have your number?”

Some of the students gulped while the others leaned forward interested in your response. That kid thought he could fluster you by putting you in a weird spot. He smirked arrogantly, leaning back in his chair as you raised your eyebrows.

“That, Mr.?” You paused as you lingered for his answer, which came almost immediately.

“Flash Thompson, but you can call me whatever you want baby.”

His friends hooted at his pickup line, some praising his smoothness while some high-fived him.

“That, Mr. Thompson, is an excellent example of the stupid questions I mentioned formerly. Thank you for helping me make it clearer to the rest of the class, an extra point for you in the first grading assignment.”

His face fell as his jaw ticked and you turned to face the rest of the class again, “Though I suppose I will give you my number but for emergency purposes only, you can contact me on my e-mail though which I will be using most frequently. You are supposed to mail me majority of your papers this semester and the grading pattern is expected to change this time around but I will inform you of that when the time for the first assignment comes around. Any other questions, and if possible, a bit wiser ones?”

Peter knew he liked you that day. You were attractive and stunning, yes, that too in the natural way, without make-up and tight clothes. But of course, there was more to you than that, you were smart and witty, hence a young lecturer in this esteemed college and you being a science enthusiast as well was like chocolate chips on top of a well baked dessert. You were spirited and jaunty and your sardonic and sassy replies were never degrading or humiliating. The five-year difference between you and the class made you their elder sibling rather than professor.

The first benchers worshipped your intellect while the last benchers adored your sarcasm. Everyone could see how you gave your all to teach, every trick for learning, showing real skeletons and organs in formalin, easily becoming the favourite mentor ever. You could easily be labelled as the university’s crush of the year.

But Peter soon began to despise that. The perverted comments by the students and jealous, snarky remarks by the plastics irked him. He was enraged by the geeks admiring you but baffled all the more by the strange palette of emotions he had never suffered before.

The sheer envy he was sinking in had never even surfaced while he dated Liz or MJ. For him you were a Goddess, tons divine than his exes or any other female for that matter, who should be properly worshipped and treasured.

He knew these sentiments weren’t right, but in this twisted world where he had combatted with unnatural beings and seen unimaginable horrors, he began to believe morality is just fiction used by the herd of inferior men to hold back the few superior men.

It was the last day before spring break and no matter how much your pupils loved you, it wasn’t enough for them to not get distracted and murmur around. Only half of your entire class’s strength came and that half somehow managed to create more ruckus than usual. Even you were minutes late, not in the mood to teach this aloof and uninterested batch of youngsters.

You sat on the table and crossed your legs, which was somewhat your habit that you weren’t really proud of but continued to indulge in nonetheless, and cleared your throat times to catch the attention of the unmindfully fantasizing students.

The baritone of the males and shrieky pitches of the females made you clutch your head. You were sure going to end with disprin at the end of day. You clapped loudly and effectively so, gathered the class’s attention, but by the roll of their eyes and glares on their faces, you deduced they weren’t happy. Who would have thought?

“Okay, before you all slaughter me to the netherworld with your lethal gazes, let me make it clear that no teaching will commence today.” The class hollered appreciatively and whistled, while you paused to let them do so. Teaching on the last day before a vacation was like speaking to yourself only but with the consequence of your name being added to several hitlists.

“I’ll distribute the graded assignments submitted last Thursday and then, since I’m required to clock thirty minutes of educating at the bare minimum, we can play something, maybe you have some talents to show, principles to mock or some gossip to attend to.” The college kids laughed at your poor joke, perhaps too thrilled for their break that nothing could make their mood sour. “We’ll see accordingly, but first, raise your hand when I say your name, I want to learn at least the names of the students who bothered to come to uni on the concluding day.”

You distributed the papers back, making sure to associate each name with a face and the students took them stuffing it straight inside, not bothering to check their scoring and possibly wreck their mood.

“Peter Parker?” A hand raised in the second last row shyly, a flustered boy with glasses on his nose and a hoodie covering his head. He barely made eye contact and you smiled at his nervy, edgy form hoping to ease him a bit. Your heels sounded heavy against the few stairs as you made your way to the back, the class buzzing with laughs as students barely paid you any heed.

The draught of epinephrine Peter felt was unlike anything he had ever felt before, nothing like the anxiety on the battlefield or the excessive sweating while impressing Mr. Stark. The apprehension he felt was decuple that.

It’s not like he had never talked to you afore, he constantly asked clever doubts, which he knew the answer to already, of course, to make an impression on you, but that was with a two feet and 7.5 inches of teacher’s desk in between. Yes, he measured. He had even made sure a couple times, let’s be honest, more than several times that his Goddess had arrived her fascinating abode safely.

But this time, they’d be hardly half a foot apart and the anticipation was tearing him apart. He did want her close, in all ways possible, but was he ready enough to not make a fool of himself? All his previous conversations were thought out meticulously and beforehand but was ready for a spontaneous interaction?

“Good job, Smart Cookie.” You mused at Peter with a wink and dropped the paper on his desk as he looked at you with those innocent, doe-eyes of his, his cheeks and nose a tad bit rouge.

Peter’s hearing ability got lost as the sound of his heart pumping blood filled his tympanum. He could only watch you retreat back to the front of the class, your hips swaying invitingly in that damned black pencil skirt as you called another person’s name.

Smart Cookie was his favourite nickname now.

It was pretty late when you left the university premises, finishing up all you had to and even preparing for your first week of teaching after vacation because you knew how procrastinating errands went.

You couldn’t almost believe how you were on the adult end of things, making sure and guiding other people. With the job, came a lot of obligations that you had to fulfil and being responsible was hard, really demanding. You suddenly had a lot of reverence for all the teachers in your life, from kindergarten to your degrees.

You were on a sabbatical from research temporarily, signing a teaching contract for three years minimum and you were satisfies with the refreshment. Interacting young, curious minds was almost like a recreational activity you indulged in free time and the various angles they approached science at even taught you something. The scholars found it in themselves to even question well-established biology.

Slightly humming, you made a mental checklist of what all was left to do for your solo, self-discovering trip the next week. All that you should pack, clothes according to the weather in the hills and enough emergency eatables. Maybe you could revisit the work-in-progress papers of yours or maybe it would be a leisure excursion only.

Only you never made it to your flight.

 The pounding of your head made a thrumming noise in your head, increasing its tempo and volume with each passing instant. Your eyelids felt heavy and opening them felt like a chore, which even more difficult considering the light that flooded your vision with every bit they opened. Your senses felt overwhelmed being burdened and strained with their everyday tasks after what you assumed to be at least hours of inactivity.

The sudden spike of pain shooting in your head made you jerk your hand to clutch your throbbing forehead, only to fail and find your hands bounded to something. They weren’t cuffed or shackled, nothing dug in your wrist either. Maybe a rope but the texture wasn’t rough enough. After what felt like minutes, you opened your eyes and sat up, as straight as your confined self could, and looked around.

The room was shades of grey and blue, a giant bed was where you were sitting. The giant ceiling to floor windows beside you, cast enough moonlight in the bedroom for you to see the entire bedroom. The view outside was so picturesque, that you had been gawking were you not afraid of your surroundings. You could discern you were high up, with how small the vehicles looked and another wave terror ran through you.

A white desk with a blue chair had a laptop atop it, also sitting beside several books. You would have noticed them being your subject and recommendation but you were scanning your brain as to how you landed here. With your vision now clearer, you saw your restraints to be like silk but no matter how hard you pulled, they didn’t snap.

You were full on panicking and staring wide eyed when the laptop entered your vision again. There was no other electronic except it and you calmed yourself to think rationally. Deep breaths, in and out. Your best bet right now was to hope that the laptop was connected to someone’s wifi.

You slid off the edge of the bed and tried to cut the weird silk ropes with bedside table’s corner. It took some time but you succeeded, your hands freed from the poster of the bed as you made your way towards the laptop, after checking the locked door of course.

Another wave of panic ran through you when the laptop wasn’t connected to anything and all available connections were password protected. You noticed the laptop to be brand new, and of a very expensive company that was out of your budget. You also noticed the OS was very different, not the usual Windows you ran. Your AI Cortana in this overpriced gadget, was named Karen.

You still refused to wait for your captor to show up and snooped to find something on the laptop, anything. There was no profile of the owner but you did manage to find at least three GB of videos and images.

Your hands froze and eyes widened when you saw the security footage of your building’s outside, the little bakery’s neon sign confirming the location. The videos were the same, of you entering and exiting every day, just the dates on the videos varied.

Another folder had clips with the same dates, but they were in the lobby of your apartment, your potted plants outside your door the affirmation again. It showed you getting milks and newspaper every morning, ordering take out several days and placing the garbage bags outside.

The earliest date in each folder was after your first month of moving here, second week of teaching probably.

When you opened the third folder, as the video started your hands covered your mouth as you tried your best to hold back the sob and making a noise. The screen showed two camera screens, both inside your apartment. The first showed the living room clearly and your kitchen and you concluded it to be behind some article on the bookshelf.

The other screen showed your bedroom.

You could still see the floral bedsheet with the white quilt atop it. Your red suitcase that you took out from the storage for your trip this morning, resting beside the wall. Your lamp switched on from when you mayhap left it on, already late for the last day of work. As the time hit 12 AM at the bottom of the screen, the video ended and played again. There were even more folders and you wondered how far would the surveillance go, till your bathroom?

Your abductor had live footage of your house being sent to his laptop and that scared you shitless. This was not a random crime, that ransom could end. You were here for something, some sick purpose you didn’t even know. Was this a hate crime? Would you even make it-

“I really wish you hadn’t looked there.”

The deep, familiar voice amplified your fear and you turned your head slowly, almost comically to look at him. Another gasp escaped your lips as you found warm eyes of your student and brows furrowed in confusion and fear when you saw the deranged lust in his eyes. Was this some sick prank?

“What am I doing here and what is this?” You gestured to the screen playing footages of the inside of your house. Seeing someone familiar and the probability of this being a prank should have calmed you somewhat but the revolting trick and the strange darkness in the boy’s eyes made you even more wary.

As he took a step closer, you hastily climbed out of the chair and backed away, nearing the bed again as he locked the door and closed in on you. He made a move to snatch you and you jumped to the other side of the bed barely missing him by an inch. You reached for the door hoping to find it unlocked but it didn’t even budge.

You pulled even harder while being painfully aware of how that kid from your class just sat on the bed and observed, having the utmost confidence in the door. Your frenzied state got a jump-scare when a female voice broke the silence, “Authorization to access locked doors is granted to Mr. Parker only, please refrain from damaging the property, Mam.”

So some tech-boy with a rich background is set on you?

“Please sit on the bed and I’ll explain, please.”

His doe eyes would have fooled you were you not extremely aware of your environment due to the adrenaline coursing through your arteries. He was an exceptionally good actor, you had to give him that. You prided yourself to be an excellent judge of character and here this guy had deceived you for three months.

The AI called him Parker, what was his name again?

Patrick? Peyton? Peter? Yes, Peter Parker.

“Peter?” You softly called out and his eyes widened as a blush crept up to his cheeks as he relished the fact that you remembered his name. You sighed internally, praying that this was a case of a harmless crush gone wrong and he was just innocently hopeful. The image of his dark, lust covered eyes crossed your mind to make an argument but you pushed it aside to calm your nerves and stay as relaxed as you possibly could with all that was happening.

“I know that this is all a big misunderstanding but you are really scaring me here. Can you please at least let me out of this room to somewhere open?” You looked at him, hoping to talk him down and get out. You didn’t think he would hurt you but you weren’t willing to take any chances with this maniacal youngster either.

“I’m sorry but I can’t do that, you’ll run.”

Of course, you’ll run, who wouldn’t?

“Peter, boy, listen to me-”

“No, you listen to me! I admit the situation isn’t ideal and you’re probably terrified because of your meddling but this is all for you! I’m here to protect you! The world out there isn’t safe and your heavenly self needs to be resuscitated.”

“Peter, you’re not making any sense. I’m an adult, older than you and you need to understand boundaries-”

“I’ve seen the way of the world, trust me, in fact, far more than you have! Did you know that raping and murdering women on Asgard is considered a common crime? How Hydra is kidnapping young, bright women to exploit them for breeding projects? How the Red Skull resurfaced and his ideals now include eradicating women from Earth as well?”

“Pete-”

“No, you don’t know! You are just blissfully unaware of this world, so oblivious you don’t even how know the perverted and debauched comments your own class makes?”

His outburst frightened you as you felt yourself losing control of the situation, maybe you never were in control. But now the unleashed fury on Peter’s face told you that had triggered an irrevocable topic.

“Calm down, it’s alright.” You said quietly, hoping to ease him again but his steps towards made you back up yourself to the other side of the bed.

“You, You are still scared of me, aren’t you? You still don’t understand, do you? I’ll show you, show you how much I worship you, the true extent of my devotion.” Every ludicrous declaration of his bit away your hope of getting out.

As he approached you again from the foot of the bed, you jumped across the bed again, hoping to reprise your stunt from before. However, your jumping halted midway as something glued your right wrist to the headboard and you jerked due to inertia of movement. As your eyes looked to your hand, the same silky rope met your vision.

You did not have the time or the wits to ponder over the fluid, about how your abductor shot it or how it wouldn’t budge no matter how hard you pulled. A hand on your ankle prompted you to try one last time as you screamed as loud as you could, for as long as your lungs allowed.

“It won’t work, Mr. Stark got me a soundproofed apartment. Pretty cool, right?”

A sob wracked through your entire frame as the tears descended, the frustration and hopelessness and dread, all attacking you at once. Your legs kicked and flexed and when your left fist swung, he restrained all your limbs after dodging, of course.

“I just want to love you, is it too much too ask?” He asked in a quiet whisper, his hands undressing you cloth by cloth; first unzipping the side of your pencil skirt and unwrapping it, then unbuttoning your blouse. When he brought out a pocket knife, your eyes instinctively closed, a “Please don’t hurt me” falling from your lips.

“Never.” He replied with absolute assurance.

The blade cut through your blouse first, leaving you in your garments while Peter sat back on his knees to admire you. You’ve been flattered with the adoration in his eyes had you not gone through the mayhem that you had.

His hand caressed your curves, feeling the soft skin underneath as he took his time admiring you, committing each feature to memory while your tears poured, your eyes never leaving the knife he held.

The blade invaded your privacy once again as it took away your last pieces of defense, leaving you utterly nude and your cries wreaked havoc in the otherwise quiet room. Your eyes found Peter face and you noticed his eyes twinkling in admiration trailing up and down your body several times. His disciple complex was scaring you, you almost bordered considering his Goddess belief.

“So stunning.” He whispered as he came down to kiss you, his lips meeting yours in this bruising embrace of both your mouths and as he began to undress himself simultaneously, his dramatics became the least of your concerns. The thought of the inevitable future made home in your mind and gave you one last bout of courage to try and fight.

The restraints on your limbs didn’t even budge and every fleck of hope deserted your body when you saw the chiseled abs on his scarred torso, his biceps bulging and silently warning you into staying put. He made quick work of his remaining outfit and his hard, angry member was bigger than you had anticipated.

You had not expected a stereotypical nerd to be packing, with muscles and brawns, hardly to even expect him to be the largest among the ones you had ever experienced.

“Please don’t.” You mumbled, defeated, knowing he would not listen. You closed your eyes expecting the intrusion to get it over with. You were caught off handed when you felt him shift and devour into your pussy. He feasted like a man famished, his tongue leaving no area unlapped. The sparks in your abdomen made you queasy and giddy at the same time, you could barely open your eyes due to the intensity of his actions and when he added two of his shockingly calloused fingers, you let go of the coil in mere seconds.

Your limbs sat limp while your vision whitened, your mind foggy and hazy, deprived of all sensibility. When his thick thighs rested on top of yours, your gaze ascended to meet his already staring pupils, the warm, honey brown orbs now a black abyss. You couldn’t even protest in your blissful state as lined himself and entered your cavern, which was lubricated enough courtesy of him.

The stretch burned but as he rocked himself and thrusted with a rhythm, the pleasure started building from scratch. Each push was sturdier than the last and every spot he hit managed to make your breath hitch. Your hands and legs freed as the fluid perhaps melted but the last of your energy was being used by you to stay conscious. When he descended to kiss you once again and trailed kisses to your collarbone, your hands held onto him for support, his biceps providing anchor to you, made of pure muscle.

His teeth bruised your skin as he lightly bit your neck, reaching his end and releasing his load. The warmth that filled you made you let go, his orgasm encouraging another one from you.

Your eyes drooped, your body filled with exhaustion due to all the struggling as you curled in to your side and wrapped your arms around yourself, trying to forget your abductor and the forceful, mind shattering ecstasy you felt. Your refused to think about the guilt and the uncertainty of your impending doom in the hands of this maniacal student of yours. You just wished for sleep, for some peace alone.

The wish of yours was not granted when you felt Peter slide behind you, his hand wrapping around your middle as if you were lover. You still gave into slumber, but not before feeling him peck your shoulder with a promise.

“This devotee of yours will worship you forever and always, Goddess.”

[captainsspnanon]

C2E59 - Perspective

Sorry for delay, I gave The Unsleeping City a go and had to finish it.  I personally prefer CR over D20, because I love the CR cast all RPing with each other, whereas in D20 it’s so heavily story focused, and RP seems to just be between PC and NPC, not PC and PC, but I’m going to give Fantasy High another shot, and then did get Dropout for some of the other campaigns.  All in all, I did enjoy it, and if you are someone who really wants more good story than lots of RP, I’d recommend D20.  (also a lot more comedy, just by the nature of the stories created and the settings leaning more into the absurd than the classic)

BUT BACK INTO CR, PLSKTHX

(and of course today’s a Thursday, so unless I finish this episode tonight, which is unlikely, I won’t finish it until after I watch the new one.)

….FUCK matt looks hot

nooooooooooo top camera is lower quality :(

(it is now several days after starting! XD  My focus is SHOT right now, I keep jumping from one thing to another to another.  PLUS I’m really wanting to start my Leverage rewatch, and then there’s this, and then there’s giving Fantasy High another go [on the third episode now] and then just all the cooking videos that I watch, not including actually reading and doing shit……...my brain needs to calm down!)

Let’s see how far I can get today before my brain nopes out.

YASHA CHARGING FORWARDS!!!!  (not at ALL influenced by Travis getting super hype in the corner, no sir)

Oh hey!  Is this the first Dwarven Forge sponsor for combat section?

“this will be a trick I learned from Brennan” re: the blue tack.  I had NO CLUE who Brennan was the first time I heard this, so this is super cool! Escape from the Bloodkeep looks like it aired on Dropout around Feb 2019, and this episode is from April 2019, so only a relative few months between (even including that I don’t know when the D20 stuff was actually filmed, because I think? that they have the entire season filmed before posting?)

Travis is SO EXCITED that the Charm Monster worked.  And for good reason!  This definitely was a big turning point of the encounter!  Actually, I wonder how the entire section of these few episodes would have gone had the Nein just killed the giants.  Never find out about their home, never find out about the rift machine, never get the scrap of fabric for scrying……. Unless Matt was going to have the giants start talking during the combat regardless to try to stop it from being one-sided, this is a case where a whole chunk of the campaign could have turned out very differently.

Yasha succeeded on a wisdom saving throw????  what is this out of character nonsense??!!! oh wait, it was for Hold Person.  Alright, proceed.

Yeah, Cat’s Ire! I want to see the cat claw mini next to the Bigby’s Hand mini from C1.  For whatever reason, it always feels to me like the cat claw is smaller, despite knowing that it’s big enough for Caleb to ride it in the cathedral fight.  I’m assuming this is just due to the perspective with the minis.

I actually got a decent chunk into the fight before I noped out from focus issues, but just didn’t have much to say because, yanno, combat.

A week later, let’s keep going!

POLYMORPH LET’S GOOOOOO!!!  Yes, I will likely be this excited every time someone casts Polymorph.  It was THE spell of this campaign, had incredible use both in and out of combat, and ranged for serious to humorous as needed. (Runner up iconic spells for C2?  Sending, Bless/Bane, and Spiritual Weapon are the three that come to mind)

A wild Foster appears!  Foster uses Refill Drinks!  It’s super effective!

Travis, while he gets all the credit he deserves for being an amazing RPer, does NOT get enough credit for his physical portrayals.  He mostly sits outside of his PC while at the table, but when he DOES do it, it’s fucking fantastic.  The ‘UH UH UH, DOWN’ head waggle and heavily downturned mouth??  Completely in character, and completely hysterical.  I love Fjord so much

Okay, the giant telling Caduceus that they were attacked by creatures with wings and long faces?  Ominous and also exciting.  Hearing it again now knowing what the creatures look like??  Absurd and humorous.  It’s SUCH an ugly mini, omg, it’s forever tainted my reaction to it.  And to be fair, it’s a strong creature with some terrifying abilities!  But it’s so GOOFY LOOKING.

“watched his life wither” it’s so cool to see how much Matt actually tells the group ahead of time, but because they don’t have the knowledge of what’s to come, even though he shares it all, it’s in such a way that they can’t predict.  He did the same with the information with the Beacon, and I’m sure much more that I’ve forgotten.

WAIT WHAT what is this shit with Soorna’s brother being killed by the creatures and then being undead? and possessed or shit I DON’T REMEMBER THIS AT ALL

I really appreciate how in C2, pretty much every PC aside from Yasha all had multiple instances of them taking the lead and handling big conversations.  If it’s more serious/analytical, usually Beau or Caleb take the lead. More demanding or bluster or submission?  Fjord (with a wonderful show of flipping between his dynamics).  Humorous or unexpectedly influential?  Jester and Nott.  And while part of it is just Ashley not having the opportunity to, it also makes sense that Yasha mostly sat back and let the others do the talking.  There’s no one set leader, no one style of voice, no one player who made sure to play the face.  After I’d finished watching and watching C1 (so therefore having the opportunity to forget a whole lot of C2), my remembrance was of Caleb, Beau, and Jester being the big talkers. This rewatch is really letting me appreciate Fjord, Nott, and Caduceus’ contributions even more.  They don’t have just ‘one off’ moments, nor do they just have their ‘big’ moments.  All are a steady contribution throughout the campaign.  (and, no hate here, but honestly?  I’m glad we didn’t have Molly throughout, because I really am unable to imagine his conversations and how he may handle things – especially considering Tal wanted to play him as fairly static in terms of character growth, so imagining early!Molly with his harshness and abrasiveness, unsoftened in the way Beau and Caleb are, is just jarring in my mind)

Oh, investigation checks.  I kinda feel bad that Beau got a 25 but basically just found junk, where Fjord got a 26 and got the humiliation material.  I know that technically they were searching different areas, but it’s just one of those things that feels a little bad.  I’d have thought that maybe it required the nat20, but Matt specifically asked “for a total of?”, implying that it did have a specific DC.

Jester pestering Caleb while he’s casting Comprehend Languages definitely gives me twinnie vibes, but also in a completely different way.  Full props to Laura and Liam – the three dynamics that they’ve presented in each of the campaigns is so different but feels so true.  I’m still early on in C3 (episode 30 airs tonight…..episode 29 is the one that I mentioned earlier XD) that they haven’t fully established how they will work in this one, but I’m SO looking forwards to it, SO SO SO MUCH.  Or even finding out if in C3 they end up having a very MINIMAL dynamic – like how Caleb and Caduceus, despite having a few good conversations, had much more of a minimal dynamic than the other C2 friendships.  It’s early enough in C3 that I don’t know! And what’s already been established can change!

Re: moorbounders “if they get killed, I’m going to kill you” “no you won’t, you love me” can I just mention how much I love Laura and Travis’s relationship with how they portray it when they’re streaming?  It’s so fucking adorable

I am pretty sure that I haven’t forgotten a moment, so I am gonna say FIRST INSTANCE OF YASHA EATING BUGS (yes spiders count as bugs shut up).  You can tell that she had this in her mind early on, Matt was describing the flesh and she was sitting there smiling and nodding while the other players/PCs were getting grossed out expressions.  She had the rat to eat before, but this is a step further.  (side note, yes I’m aware that insects are eaten in non-US cultures.  But I admit that it’s a hellova NOPE for me, especially with my phobia of bugs crawling inside my body).  I wonder how much of this was improv-ed in the moment and how much of it was something she’d already determined for Yasha’s backstory.

IT’S BEEN A WHILE!!!!!!!!!!!  First appearance!!!!!  I’m shocked that so many of them jumped on it instantly.  It made me think that it must have happened earlier, but I can’t find any earlier instance of it.

Sam making good use of travel time to have a conversation with Caleb about Nott’s feelings, and it’s so good.  It might not get touched on in depth at this point, but it brings up basically all of her worries.  Is she a bad person for immediately going out on an adventure again?  For WANTING to go out on the adventure again?  Will Yeza like who she is now?  He’s accepted her skin for the moment, but what about her mind?  Does SHE want to go back to being who she was?  So quickly laying out everything there, for an emotional journey that will take the rest of the campaign for her to go through.  And Caleb!  Being so supportive of her and her choices, but also fully reassuring her that Yeza will support her, disagreeing when she thinks it’s just for now.  Also – let’s give fucking full credit to Liam Oberon in this moment.  They’ve already had the Nott/Veth conversation when Nott first shared her story.  But then they also all understood the switch to Veth while Yeza was around.  And now, Caleb takes a moment to clarify even further ‘what would you like me to call you when we are not with Yeza’ and it’s BEAUTIFUL.  This is just a small aspect of it, but it’s a moment where a viewer can really take this and use it in their own lives for people that they may know, to ensure the comfort of those who struggle with their identity or how they present it.

HENRY CAMEO!

Okay first of all, Laura doing sad!Jester destroys me every single fucking time omg. Secondly, I’m actually not quite sure where she was leaving the possibility of the RP going.  I’m a bit disappointed that Travis didn’t engage with it.  While the moment ended up being silly kinda flirty kinda teasy, it feels like there was something big under the surface that got missed.  And because of my shitty memory, I can’t remember if it comes up again later or not!  (to be fair, Laura could have just been RPing Jester as low from being poisoned the night before, but let me read into things)

I appreciate Travis noping out as Matt is describing all the spiders that they’re seeing.  At this EXACT MOMENT, there is a decent sized spider RIGHT ABOVE my bed where the wall meets the ceiling.  It’s too high up for me to kill it, even if I stand on the bed.  As long as it STAYS there, or moves somewhere else, I’m...well, not fine, but ignoring it.  (I had to sleep with it there last night T.T) but if it comes down the wall?  It diiies.

...I just realized that everyone is individually mic-ed.  When did this happen????  I thought they had mics above them?  They’ve certainly hit them enough times.  Maybe because Ashley is back so they’re not seated properly under them?  Or maybe they’ve had the individual mics for a while and I’ve just completely failed to notice?  *starts checking things*  oh, they didn’t have them before break.  I’m guessing it’s for the kickstarter celebration after the show then, and they just decided to get it done during the break to reduce the amount of time they needed to get set up.

I still have mixed feelings with Frumpkin exploring everything ahead of time.  It’s great that the map gets cleared and the party has a vague idea of what they’re heading in to, but it takes the agency away from other players to discover it on their own.  I don’t remember how much Vax did this as well, I think it was frequently?  Or at least at the beginning.  Just glad that Orym doesn’t do it.  Yet.  It’s different when it’s different players doing it each time, but when it’s the same player each time, in multiple campaigns?  I’d hope that Liam checked in with the other players to make sure that they were cool with it.  It’s hard to argue with, because tactically it makes absolute sense to send Frumpkin, but that doesn’t always translate to fun.

Oh good, this was only a quick little exploration.  And once again the ‘does Frumpkin have darkvision’ question.  Matt should have just given Caleb a magic collar or something that let him have darkvision as a cat only. Dumbest 5e ruling.

Beau boosted with Holy Weapon is SO fucking badass, I wish it happened more often.  I actually only remember it one other time….CR stats has it a total of 8 times.  Episodes 59, 60, 69, 82, 95,105, 133, 139.

I….forgot about all these con saves.  Fuck we is in trouble

I hear a lot online about how Matt pulls his punches once Molly died.  Except Fjord nearly straight up died during this combat from having his hit point max reduced to 0 (thanks Cad for canceling the crit!), being targeted as an unconscious creature while an aggressive target was in range but ignored.  I disagree with this statement fully, for what it’s worth.  I also don’t get the argument of people who are desperate to see the party fall and PCs constantly die.  I get that it happened a lot in C1, but you know what also happened in C1?  The players got tired of it.  They talk about it in one of the Talks (have no clue which one, whether it was at the end of C1 or during C2) but they were resurrectioned out because of how emotionally taxing it was, especially to keep having it happen.  So much of the ‘waaaah’ online is that the people thing Matt is being too gentle.  IF he is (which I don’t agree with), then it’s likely something he decided after talking with the players.  Considering they shared their feelings online through Talks, it’s VERY likely that they would have talked with Matt and explained how they felt and what they would like going forwards.  And there is nothing wrong with having a more or less deadly game!  But this is where there’s a lot of preference that it taken from the point of the viewer basically ignoring what is likely preference on the parts of the players.

I forgot that the NPC got the kill!!  I guess ‘cause it wasn’t as hyped up for the “How Do I Want To Do This” moment with Obann – Matt even still says the normal HDYWTDT.

LOL Liam is never going to let anyone forget what happened with Kynan.  STILL SALTY.

I don’t think I’m going to watch their kickstarter wrapup.  I watched it the first time, and I’d rather go to the Talks, or jump back into Fantasy High (still not vibing with this one as much as I did for The Unsleeping City, but they do two of it so I feel like I have to)

@suicidallyreckless

[jabbers-wild-world]

Verse: The Wildest Witch

A verse in which Hunter was raised by Eda

Hunter was adopted by Edalyn Clawthorne when he was four years old

Eda had infiltrated the castle for one reason or another, met this tiny child, then witnessed how he got his cheek scar, so she stole him

Eda was not planning to adopt a kid, and was going to dump him off on someone else, but one thing led to another and she grew attached

He was raised to be just as reckless and rebellious as Eda herself, and is now just as infamous and wanted as she is

Hunter’s list of crimes, however, does also include several counts of jail breaks and other vigilante/‘justice warrior’ behaviors, since he does still have a strong sense of morality after all

Hunter’s name is not public knowledge unlike Eda’s, and so far he likes it that way

All his wanted posters refer to him only as ‘the Golden Owl’, and his affiliation with Eda the Owl Lady is only speculated, and only by some of the less idiotic law enforcement officers

When breaking the law in any significant manner, he disguises himself with a golden mask and a cloak almost reminiscent of an owl’s wings, and that’s what gives him anonymity to the public

His choice of anonymity for his criminal/vigilante acts also means that he can go out in public unmasked and not be hounded by law enforcement

His vigilante activities are a common topic of conversation among Hexside students, but no one knows his true identity, which also makes teenagers more likely to be drawn to the air of mystery and perhaps even idolize and/or envy him

There may or may not be some fan art, and even some amateur comic books that depict him and his ‘adventures’, all drawn by Hexside students

There was also probably a fan club for him that some students attempted to get approval for during the same time Willow was starting the flyer derby team

He was not present for Eda’s initial encounter with Luz, or for the ‘rescue’ of King’s crown, as he was off on his own ‘mission’

Hunter is a lot more snarky and sarcastic in this verse, and definitely takes after Eda with a lot more sass than his canon verse

Eda has encouraged him to carve his own palisman, but he has so far refused, citing his lack of real magical ability as an excuse

The truth is, he just doesn’t want to feel like he’s burdening the palisman he would carve for himself by having to rely almost exclusively on them for magic power

If Hunter were to carve his own palisman, he likely would have carved his own owl palisman similar to Owlbert

He gains the companionship of Flapjack in the same manner as canon, but with a slightly different ‘wish’

“You’re lucky, Luz. You don’t let anything stop you. Magic or no magic, you don’t let it slow you down. And you’re human, so no one expects any magic from you. But me? People expect me to have powerful wild magic like Eda, but I’ve got nothing. So they all look at me like I’m just.. in the way, and all I want is to prove that just because I’m powerless, it doesn’t mean that I’m less than them.” - Hunter, opening up to Luz and gaining Flapjack as a palisman

Having no natural magic ability means Hunter is still very much trained in martial combat, but instead of a formal, military-esque training, he has completely trained himself and learned almost every known fighting style there is

He is highly versatile and adaptable in a fight, due to knowing so many different styles of combat

He also fights dirty, and will resort to cheap tricks and underhanded tactics if he’s backed into a corner

He is also somewhat of an insomniac and does not get enough sleep majority of the time, and he sometimes forgets to eat

When he does sleep, however, he is capable of falling asleep literally anywhere

He has also trained himself to sleep standing up, which he will do if he’s overtired enough but still wants to seem alert and on guard

His mask and cloak definitely aid him and give him that alert appearance during such instances

There have very likely been occasions when he is wearing the mask at the very least, and is sound asleep standing up while Luz is using him as a sounding board for her thoughts

- more to come soon