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pan-fangirl-345 · 3 years

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Books Bring People Together

Summary: A frustrated and stuck Kaminari comes to you for help, and it somehow blooms into something else along the way.

TW: I made Kaminari ADHD, so I'm sorry if there's anything wrong, I went off what my ADHD friends do and what a medical site told me. I myself am not ADHD, so again, I apologize if there's anything wrong with this. Small swears, and Mineta, which should be a warning in and of itself.

A/N: I have had this half-baked idea stuck in my head for months and I wanted it out, so I am giving you all this!

"Hey, um, (Y/L/N), can I ask you something?" Kaminari asked, sliding into the chair across from you at the common room table.

"Sure, what's up?" you asked, setting your pencil down on the paragraph you were reading.

"Um, this is kind of embarrassing," Kaminari admitted. "But, um, I'm having a really hard time with English right now, and I know that you're right behind Bakugou in grades."

"Where are you going with this Kaminari?" you asked, crossing your arms in front of your chest.

You had heard things about Kaminari, and after meeting Mineta and knowing that Kaminari hung around with him, you didn't have the best impression of him. You had just been placed in Class 2-A, and so far you had mostly hung around with what the other students were calling the 'Dekusquad'.

"I need someone to tutor me," he admitted. "Normally English isn't all that hard for me, but Shakespeare is whack and I don't understand half of it."

"You want me," you started, "to tutor you. Why not ask Bakugou? Isn't he your friend?"

"Yeah, but . . . Bakugou has . . . harsh methods, and I need someone who won't treat me like an idiot," Kaminari confessed.

"Alright," you relented. "Why don't we get started now? Do you have anything going on?"

"No, this takes precedent," Kaminari said, rushing to grab his things.

"Alright, here's my question for you," you said when he propped his book open. "Why don't you understand?" You saw the look on his face change and you winced. "Sorry, sometimes I have a hard time controlling the tone of my voice. Let me rephrase that question." You paused for a moment, thinking of the right words before you said, "What about this don't you understand? What's the one thing about this that trips you up?"

"The formatting for one thing," Kaminari grumbled. "Why the hell is printed like that?"

You chuckled, brushing hair out of your face. You had thought the same thing the first time you had read Shakespeare.

"Alright, how about you just read, and then you can ask me any questions while I work on my own stuff, alright?"

"That sounds like it might work," he admitted.

"If that doesn't work, feel free to let me know," you told him. "This is about what helps you remember the material better."

"No, like I said, normally this is really easy for me," Kaminari said. "Let's try it."

"Alright, and remember, if you have any questions, I'm right here."

"Thanks (Y/L/N)," he mumbled.

"Of course, I wouldn't be much of a hero if I couldn't help people, right?" you mused, smiling at him.

"R-Right!" he chirped, grinning back at you.

You both worked in silence for a little bit before Kaminari leaned back in his chair, rubbing at him eyes.

"You okay?" you asked.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm ADHD, so sitting still and trying to read this is a little hard," he confessed. "And I might be dyslexic, I've never been tested but sometimes reading is hard for me."

You frowned, biting the inside of your lip, running the situation through your head.

"What if I read it to you?" you asked, looking up from your chemistry homework.

"How? It's a play," Kaminari said.

"I used to be in a drama club in middle school," you told him. "It's set up like a script, or if we don't have the energy to act it out, it's not hard to pretend that it's a regular story."

Kaminari stared at you for a moment before he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah I think that might work a little bit better than me staring at the same paragraph for fifteen minutes without actually reading anything."

"What part are you on?" you asked Kaminari, moving to glance over his shoulder at the page.

"Portia is trying to convince Brutus to tell her what's going on in her house. I think."

"Oh, I adore this part," you muttered, mostly to yourself. "Alright, what has you stuck?"

"This part. 'I grant I am a woman; but withal A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter. Think you I am no stronger than my sex, Being so father'd and so husbanded? Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose 'em: I have made strong proof of my constancy, Giving myself a voluntary wound Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience. And not my husband's secrets?' I don't entirely understand what she's saying."

Wow, English must've been his thing, he didn't mess up a single word, and he was able to read it fairly fluently, everything considered. It might have taken him a little longer than normal, but he had nailed it.

"Okay, so she's basically telling Brutus that she won't tell his secrets if he tells her what's going on, it doesn't matter if she's a woman or not."

"What was with the voluntary wound thing?"

"So, it depends. Sometimes, in plays, the women playing Portia will have a fake knife and stab themselves in the thigh, other times they pretend to slice themselves, depends on the director," you told him. "She basically cut herself on the thigh and said, 'If I can handle this I can handle whatever's going on inside your head.' Do you understand?"

"Yeah, but damn, this woman is a badass," Kaminari said, staring down at the pages."

"Right? Some people read that as psychotic, but it's Shakespeare," you told him, "everything in Shakespeare is psychotic to some extent."

"That's fair. Thank you for explaining that to me," he said.

"Of course, that is why you came to me," you replied, laying a hand on his shoulder for a moment before you moved back to your seat.

Kaminari, despite the things you had heard, was actually quite intelligent, it just took him a little longer to get the answer sometimes.

"Thank you so much for helping me," Kaminari murmured. "You were super helpful."

"Of course, I actually enjoyed helping you," you told him. "And if you need any more help, please, let me know."

"I will, thank you so much (Y/L/N)," Kaminari repeated.

"Have a good night Kaminari," you told him.

"You too!" he chirped before he headed up to his room.

You sat down at the table again, staring at the chemical formula in front of you.

So, if zinc only had one charge, positive two, and it was combined with thiosulfate, that meant that there shouldn't be the need for two of the zinc atoms, they would make the charge neutral.

You wrote the answer down, checking the textbook to make sure you were right. Polyatomic ions were a little more complicated than monoatomic ions.

There were only a few more questions, and then you could go to bed too, and you just hoped that there were no trick questions.

You were the last one in the common room, as usual, despite assuring Iida that you were right behind him when he went to bed an hour ago.

"Alright (Y/F/N), time for some good sleep," you muttered, shutting your book and gathering your supplies.

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

You had been tutoring Kaminari for about six weeks, and he was definitely smarter than people gave him credit for. Sometimes he just needed a few minutes to think, or he needed something explained to him in a different way than everyone else.

Sero had been joining your little tutoring sessions too, and you had started doing them in Sero's room, since there were things Kaminari could mess with while he studied, and it was an environment where he didn't feel the need to prove himself.

"Hey, (Y/L/N), can you help me with this problem?" Sero asked, waving you over.

"Of course, what are we working on?" you inquired.

"Polyatomic ions, again," Sero said. "I need this extra credit."

"Alright, which one are you stuck on?"

"How do I figure out which Roman numeral goes here? Gold has multiple charges."

"You work backwards," you told him. "When you look at the formula, you need to figure out what charge dihydrogen phosphate has."

You gestured to the chemical formula.

"It has a negative one charge. Right?" Sero inquired, checking the list of common ions that the teacher had given them at the beginning of the unit.

"Right, and you have three of those ions, right?"

"Yeah, because there's a subscripted three outside the parentheses."

"So you have three of those, which means that those three together have a negative three charge."

"Right."

"So now you just have to figure out which gold variant has the right charge to cancel that one out."

"Well, there's only one gold atom, so it's gold three right?"

"Bingo, you got it."

"Oh, that makes it so much easier than what I was doing," he muttered, erasing the math he had been doing, writing down the way you had just shown him.

"(Y/L/N), can you come read through this essay for me?" Kaminari asked. "I think it's okay, but I need another eye on this."

"Sure, hand it over," you told him, taking the papers that he had handed to you.

You grabbed one of your signature blue pens and uncapped it, ready to mark anything you thought he could do better.

There wasn't as much as you were expecting. While Kaminari had a hard time interpreting things, once he understood, he was golden. He had a way with words, you noticed as you scanned through the paper he needed to hand in next class. You assumed that it gave him time to think about the right phrasing of things.

Other than a few grammatical and spelling errors, the paper was well written, and there was nothing major that needed fixing.

"Good job Kami, this is really good," you told him, ruffling his hair lightly.

He responded well to physical affection and praise, you had also noticed, and he made it easy.

Once you got past the typical shield he threw up, he was a nice guy with insecurities, just like everyone else.

He chuckled, leaning into your hand.

You noticed that the others didn't touch Kaminari as much as you did, despite having known him for much longer. They were worried about getting shocked, Sero had told you.

"Why though? He's never shocked me," you had told him.

"He can't control it sometimes, it builds up in his body and it needs an out."

"Well, that still no reason to stop touching him," you had mused. "If he shocks me he shocks me, it's really no big deal."

Kaminari had only shocked you once, during a thunderstorm when there had been a lot of lightning outside. He had gotten excited about getting a 90 on one of his tests, and had hugged you, giving you a slight shock.

He had apologized profusely, but you had waved his apologies off.

"It's okay Kaminari," you told him. "It happens to all of us sometimes."

You were finding yourself thinking about him more than you should've. You had become good friends with both him and Sero, and the other students had started coming to you when they had a question, but Kaminari was a little different.

It had started out with the flirty comments, but slowly those had turned into real compliments. He had been keeping Mineta away from you more and more, and he had even started laying off the perving with the grape rat.

He was a good guy, he really was, despite the playboy attitude. He was sweet, and he was just like every other person in the world.

"Thanks for tutoring us both," Kaminari said as the session was coming to a close.

"Yeah, you're really saving our asses," Sero agreed.

"Of course, come to me any time," you told them both, smiling as you made to head back to your own room.

"Hey, um, (Y/L/N), can I ask you something?" Kaminari asked.

"Sure. You know how much I love questions," you teased, smiling at him. Then you noticed his expression. "Kami?"

"Will . . . will you-" he chuckled awkwardly, messing with the seam of his pant leg. "Can you read something to me?"

"Yeah, of course," you said. "What is it?"

He handed you the book, and you smiled.

"My dad used to read this to me when I was little. I think that's why I love books so much," you admitted. "That was before . . . well, it doesn't matter now. Come on, we can head down to the common room if you want. Or your room, it doesn't really matter to me."

You had visited Kaminari's room on more than one occasion to return things to him, he tended to be a little forgetful, and he had often left things with you.

Despite the fact that everything you had learned about society told you that you should avoid being alone in a room with a boy, you trusted Kaminari enough to be alone in a room with him.

"I really like to read too," he confessed. "But sometimes my brain doesn't like to let me do it."

"I understand, it's okay," you told him, touching his arm lightly. "Are you sure that you'll be able to sit still long enough for me to get through any of it?"

Kaminari, after spending so much time with you over the last few weeks, had figured out how your voice worked, and he rarely got offended by your tone of voice anymore, which you were thankful for.

"Yeah, I like the sound of your voice, it helps calm me down. I think I might pay attention more if you read it to me."

"Alright, sure, let's go," you said, holding the book to your chest.

You knew this book like the back of your hand, and you had a feeling that Kaminari was telling the truth when he said he would be able to pay attention.

Kaminari followed you into the common room of the dorms, trailing just slightly behind, but he was in front of you the moment Mineta tried to get to you.

It amazed you how fast he could move sometimes, when he really wanted to.

"Get lost Mineta," you said. "I have nothing to say to you."

Mineta opened his mouth but a raised brow from Kaminari had him shutting it and heading to his own room so he could think his pervy thoughts in peace.

"I can't believe I was ever friends with that perv," Kaminari whispered. "I think I owe a lot of the girls apologies."

Kaminari glanced over his shoulder, and you smiled at him, linking your hands together.

You were proud of him, he had really grown lately, and you were glad that he was seeing how uncomfortable he had made the girls.

"I'm proud of you," you told him, and he beamed.

He responded well to praise, and being told that he had done a good job.

"Come on, we'll have to go to bed soon if we don't want Iida to lecture us again," you said, sitting down on one of the couches.

Kaminari sat down next to you, leaning his head on your shoulder as your propped the book open.

You didn't mind the fact that Kaminari was a little clingy, the contact was nice, and he always radiated warmth, though whether that was his normal body temperature or he ran hot because of his quirk, you didn't know.

You started the book off, barely having to look at the words as you read, changing your voice as necessary, stopping every once in a while to explain a word to Kaminari that he didn't understand, or to answer a question that he had.

It was nice, spending time with him like this, simply because he wanted to, not because he was going to fail a subject.

Somehow he had ended up with his head on your thighs, and you had one hand buried in his hair, brushing it away from his face, your fingers carding through it softly.

He was making a content noise in the back of his throat, and you smiled down at him, finishing up a chapter.

"Do you want to go to bed?" you asked softly, not wanting to disturb him too much, he had enough trouble sleeping as it was.

He hummed softly, leaning into your hands, and you smiled down at him softly.

You had never been one for crushes, they had seemed pointless, and there had never been a person who had caught your attention like this.

You had thought about it, of course, what it would be like to be in a relationship, but you had never thought that you would have to worry about it.

Well now you were worrying about it.

That nameless, faceless person that had been with you in those daydreams was starting to look frighteningly like Kaminari.

You had panicked when it had first started happening, until you realized that it would probably fade. You had had a friend in middle school who had a new crush every week, and you had assumed that it would fade with time.

It hadn't. That uneasiness that had popped up around him slowly melted into a nice warmth whenever he was close. You had started to stop worrying about whether he would like this, or hate that, and had started to show your true colors.

He had seemed to like you even more when you had started doing that, and you were glad.

But the only bad thing was that now you were noticing other things. His hands lingered a little longer than necessary when he helped you during training, his smile always seemed brighter when you made him laugh. His eyes always seemed to follow you around the common room, and he sometimes appeared at your side when you walked in.

You weren't sure if you just overthinking things or if he might like you back.

But this wasn't a simple crush anymore. You weren't sure what it was. It was a little too early to be love (even though it was just a rush of chemicals in the brain meant for human survival), but it was way past a simple crush.

Was there another step between a crush and love? Was this going to end with your heart breaking? Was there even a chance that he might like you back?

These were things that you kept in the back of your mind until you were alone in your room. Worrying about them in his presence made him worry about you, and you didn't want him to worry about you if he didn't need to.

"Kami, seriously, you need to go to bed."

"If I do, so do you," he told you, making you chuckle.

"I'll go to bed if you will. You are in my lap after all," you teased, pulling your hands away.

"That's fair," he murmured, stifling a yawn.

"Go to bed Kami," you whispered, standing up as soon as your legs were free.

They had fallen asleep a while ago, but you hadn't had the heart to move him.

"Alright," he mumbled, stumbling towards his dorm room.

You smiled softly, heading for yours.

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

You weren't sure what woke you up hours later. Maybe it was the three glasses of water you had drank before bed, or maybe it was the fact that your brain hated you almost as much as Kaminari's hated him.

You stretched, pulling a hoodie on over the tank top and shorts that you had gone to bed in, heading for the common room.

You weren't going back to bed any time soon, so you might as well get some studying done with a nice cup of tea or something.

You were almost surprised to see Kaminari sitting at the common room table with his books out.

"Denki? What are you doing?" you mumbled, wandering over.

"(Y/L/N)? What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing," you murmured, plopping into the seat next to him.

"Couldn't sleep, my brain went into overdrive the minute I tried to fall asleep."

"I at least got a good four or five hours in," you replied. "But it's Friday night, I should be sleeping in."

"What woke you up?" he asked, laying a hand on your thigh.

Kaminari, you had noticed, liked having his hands on you.

Not in the perverted way you had expected though. He liked having a hand on your thigh or on the small of your back. He liked an arm around your shoulders or his arm linked with yours when you all took class outings. He liked being close to you.

"No idea. It might've been a nightmare," you admitted. "I remember faint flashes, but it might've been something else."

"Are you going to be able to go back to bed?"

"Nah, I'll be up for a good while," you told him, leaning into his shoulder.

"Anything I can do to help?" he asked.

"Can you just . . . talk to me?" you inquired. "I like listening to you talk about things. Calms me down."

"What do you want to know about?"

"Anything. Everything. You."

"Did you know that I have a cat named Marshmellow?"

"What? No," you said, perking up a little bit. You had always been an animal person.

"Yeah. He's the spawn of the devil, but I didn't know that when I named him. All white, pretty blue eyes. Pure fucking evil," Kaminari told you, taking his phone out to show you a photo.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, he absolutely despises me," Kaminari said, handing his phone over to you. "Loves my sister though, so he isn't a complete psychopath."

"He's a cat, can animals even be psychopaths?" you asked, moving your seat closer to his.

"No idea, but it wouldn't surprise me if he is," Kaminari said, chuckling.

"You're right, he is pretty," you murmured, flipping through the photos quickly.

Kaminari hummed, but when you glanced up he was looking at you.

He had that look on his face, the look that he sometimes got when he looked at you. It was one of the reasons you wondered if he liked you or not. He looked like he was in pain when gave you that look.

"Denki?" you inquired softly.

"Hmm?"

"Why are you looking at me like that? Like you're in pain? Like you're hurt?" you asked.

You didn't like the way your voice sounded. That little hint of insecurity snuck in, your voice had that clogged sound it got when you tried not to cry.

You weren't sure whether you could handle his response to that, but you needed to know if being around you caused him pain. You needed to know if there was any chance that he hated being in your presence.

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

(Kaminari's POV)

Pain, huh?

Yeah, this was definitely pain, seeing her like this, swaddled in a hoodie he had left in her room accidently a week ago, covering her shorts, making her legs look a mile long.

He had tried to ignore it, tried to ignore the feeling in his chest every time he looked at her, tried to ignore the blatant male pride that came with seeing her draped in his hoodie, but he was only human after all.

Denki, after spending so much time with a girl that didn't tend to pull her punches, he knew how uncomfortable he had made the girls with all of his comments. He now knew how it made them feel when he said some of the things he had.

Denki never wanted her or any of the other girls to feel like that again, and he wanted to ignore some of the things that were running through his head, but she was making it hard when she looked at him like that, when she said his name the way that she just had.

"Denks?" she asked softly, moving to get a better look at his face.

Denki had never had a crush, not a real one anyway. He had had his eyes on Jirou first year, but that had been fleeting.

He was flirty, it was just his nature, but this feeling whenever he looked at her . . . that was completely new on him.

"Denki, are you okay?" she asked, putting her hands on his face lightly, making him look at her.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me?" Denki asked, placing his hands over hers. "I wasn't sure whether you felt the same way and I didn't want to mess anything up."

"Denki? What are you saying?" she asked, eyes bright with hope as she looked at him, running her thumb over his cheek softly, almost absentmindedly.

"I like you, (Y/F/N), I like you a lot, and this isn't some . . . three A.M. spur of the moment confession, but . . . it kind of is. The point is that you're smart, and all kinds of gorgeous, and there's so many things about you I wish I could list, but words aren't my thing, and I know that I'm rambling, but I really can't stop 'cause I'm terrified of what your response is gonna be and I don't want to fuck anything up and-"

"Denki," she cut in, smiling at him the way she did when she was fondly exasperated with him. "You have nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing. I like you too."

"Why?"

Even Denki was surprised by the amount of confusion in his own voice.

"Because you're a dork," she stated. "Because you're smart, even if people don't always see it right away. Because you want to be a hero, because you like to make a difference. Because in the end, you're a good guy, when you get past the playboy attitude and shitty pickup lines. Because you're cute and all kinds of soft. Because apparently I have a thing for hyperactive morons with screwed up hair."

"Rude," he muttered, but she smiled at him even wider, and he knew that it was worth it.

"Am I wrong?" she asked softly, swinging her legs around to get closer to him.

"No, but that doesn't mean that I'm happy about it," he mumbled, pouting slightly.

She gave a small giggle, something that rarely happened, and Denki smiled, wide and unburdened.

"So, what do you say about going on a date?" he asked, tucking her hair behind her ear to get a better look at his face.

"I think that's the smartest thing you've ever said to me," she teased.

Denki pouted again and she touched his nose lightly, making it crinkle in response.

"That wasn't a no," she told him, wrapping her arms around his neck softly.

"You know, this looks good on you," he whispered, touching the hem of the hoodie carefully. "And it looks very familiar."

"It does?" She pulled away to look down at it and her eyes went wide. "I didn't even know it was yours. I just threw it on on my way down here. When did you even . . . .?"

"I left in there like a week ago," Denki informed her. "I thought you had just kept it."

"I didn't know it was in there," she admitted. "But I'm not sorry that I'm in it, it's very comfortable."

"We can share custody," he murmured.

"We'll have to," she agreed. "I don't think I can deal with never wearing this again. You actually have good taste in hoodies."

"Why are you so surprised by this?" he asked.

"Because most of the time your style seems all over the place," she replied. "But that's not a bad thing. It makes you unique."

"Normal is overrated."

"A normal sleep schedule is not," she said, standing up. She grabbed his hands, pulling him to his feet. "Come on, we can chill in my room if you want to."

"You aren't nervous about having me in there?" Denki asked.

"No, because I know that if you try anything I can knock you on your ass. I also trust you," she told him, linking their fingers together softly. "Is this okay?"

"More than okay," he breathed, stepping close enough to brush their shoulders together.

He could get used to this.

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

(Your POV)

It was a rare day when you and Denki got a day off together. Being heroes was tiring, and schedules were always weird, so when you both got a day off together, you always spent them together.

"You're up early," Denki murmured, slipping in behind you from where you were sitting on the window seat of your apartment.

He wrapped his arms around your waist, burying his face in your neck.

"The baby woke me up," you said.

Said baby padded into the roof, tail high in the air, a smug look on that cute furry face as he jumped up onto the seat, curling up in your lap.

"Marshmellow, don't lay on my book," you muttered, pulling the book out.

"Told you, he's fuckin' evil," Denki murmured, kissing your shoulder lightly.

His shirt was slipping off your shoulder, and Denki treated uncovered skin like a target, regardless.

"How long have you been up?" he asked.

"Only an hour or two, and you looked so peaceful, I felt bad waking you up. I know that you've been getting more action than I have these last few weeks," you murmured, taking one of his hands, kissing his palms softly, leaning back into his warmth.

"I love you," Denki hummed.

"I love you too Denks," you told him.

"Read to me?" he requested, and you smiled.

"Always," you replied, finding your spot in your book again.

#denki kaminari x reader #denki x reader #kaminari fluff #kaminari x reader #kaminari x reader fluff #denki x reader fluff #mha #mha kaminari

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oh-boy-me · 3 years

Text

Obey Me! Card Planning Tips

Hello! This game causes us all a lot of pain and suffering, but I’m MANAGING (?), so I thought I’d give what I’d consider some tips to maybe make things feel slightly more possible for you :)

I’ll split it into three parts and put it all under a read more.

Team Strength Calculation

Team Preparation

General Tips for Resources and Daily DP

Part 1: Team Strength Calculation

Each stage has 2 sins tied to it, as you’ve probably noticed. In chapters 1-20, the stats of these two sins are boosted for ALL cards (character and support) by 15%.*

In chapters 1-20, your team’s strength is calculated with the following formula:

Strength = 1.15(AttributeSin1Total) + 1.15(AS2Total) + Other5SinsTotal

For example, let’s look at Lesson 10-20, which is a Gluttony/Lust battle. My team is composed of Pandas Mean Profit (Greed), A Special Ceremony (Lust), and Colorful Panic (Pride). And I’m using zero support cards just so I only have to add up 3 numbers.

Strength = 1.15(24338) + 1.15(34921) + 122736 = 190884**

Keep in mind that the buffs only apply to the attribute sin scores. If the battle is Gluttony/Lust, the Pride scores will stay at their base values. This is the case for all lessons up through chapter 20, both normal and hard mode.

However, from Lesson 21 onwards, there are two changes. One, there is a primary sin and a secondary sin for each battle, marked by which icon is bigger in the preparation screen. (There always has been, but now it matters which is which.) In boss battles, both are primary. Second, the buffs have changed drastically.

Every card has its main sin, obviously, and its strength in that sin is the strongest. However, they still have strength in the other 6 sins as well. There are two non-main sins that a card is very strong in, two that it is average in, and two that it is terrible in.

The percent increase is now dependent on how good a card is in the battle's two attribute sins. (Remember that these buffs still only affect that sin, not the card’s total strength.)

If a card is the same sin as the battle’s primary sin, that sin gets a 160% buff

If a card is the same sin as the battle’s secondary sin, that sin gets a 90% buff

If a card’s second or third best sin is the battle’s primary sin, that sin gets a 30% buff

If a card’s second or third best sin is the battle’s secondary sin, that sin gets a 10% buff

Any sins lower than third best no longer get a buff

I’m not going to make a formula this time because it’s too long and situational. But let’s look at that same 3-card team again, this time with Lesson 21-5, a Lust/Gluttony stage in that order.

Pandas Mean Profit has an average Lust score, so it gets no bonus. Its Gluttony is its 3rd best sin, so that gets a 10% buff (10752 > 11827)

A Special Ceremony is a Lust card, so its Lust gets a 160% buff (17308 > 45000). Its Gluttony sucks, though, so that doesn’t get a bonus.

Colorful Panic has Lust as its second best sin, so it gets a 30% buff (10423 > 13549). Gluttony is its third best, so that gets a 10% buff too (9866 > 10852).

With the new system, the team’s Lust score has skyrocketed from 40158 to 65739. However, its Gluttony score dropped from 27987 to 26399.

This means that the sins of your cards suddenly matter more in battle. (And honestly I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I know people complain that it makes it harder, but. If my Comedy team in A3! is made entirely of Action/Drama cards with poor Comedy, I shouldn’t expect that team to do well. Idk why people think that shouldn’t apply to Obey Me.) Which brings us to part 2.

By the way, colored glow sticks raise the card’s total strength by 10%, and rainbow glow sticks raise it by 30%.

* It’s actually like 14.99% but it’s effectively the same. The “slightly under but so close that I’m just rounding for significant figures” thing will be consistent for all of these buffs.

** The actual in-game strength is 190881, 3 points off due to the .99% thing.

Part 2: Team Preparation

I’m so sorry. But someone has to say it. Are you listening? Great.

URs aren’t automatically better than SSRs. Honestly, they never were. They ESPECIALLY aren’t now. You’re not losing the battle because you’re using SSRs. You’re losing the battle because you’re throwing Wrath cards at a Sloth opponent.

Morning Voice is an Envy SSR card. My copy of the card is only level 10, and in a Lesson 21+ Envy battle, its Envy score is 6866.

What is my Level 90 UR Colorful Panic’s Envy score in the same battle?

3489.

Colorful Panic is a higher rarity and 80 levels higher. It has worse Envy. Why? Because Envy is its worst sin.

Obviously you aren’t going to be using a level 10 card in a battle, so for a more realistic standpoint, my copy of Resentment Runs Deep (SSR Envy) has 46108 Envy in the same battle. That’s 13x better than the UR.

I’ll repeat it one more time before I move on. The sin scores of a card are far more important than the rarity of the card. A random SR card of the right sin is better than a UR with no sin bonus. The most impressive thing about a UR is how hard it is to get one.

Anyway, what does this mean? Is it hopeless?

Well, if you wanted to binge all three seasons within the first month of playing, yes. But let’s assume that’s not the case. (Side note, but the feeling that our cards are never good enough is definitely exacerbated by the aggressive speed at which they release new lessons combined with the fandom’s apparent allergy to spoiler warnings, but that’s a point for another post maybe.)

Remember that having URs isn’t actually all that important. Now remember the sheer amount of SSRs they release since they also aggressively release events. Also remember that with every 10-pull, you’ll get at least one SSR+. (Also remember to never do single pulls; they're not worth it at all.) If you’re really struggling with a lot of battles, here’s how you can improve your scores while focusing on as few cards as possible.

Open an Excel document or Google Sheets page and make a chart that looks something like this:

[Image Description: An 8x8 Excel sheet. The columns are labelled with each of the seven deadly sins, and the rows are labelled Cards 1 through 3 and Support 1 through 3, with a blank row in between. The rest of the sheet is blank.]

Now choose a card you want to use. Doesn’t matter why you want to use it, maybe you like how it looks, maybe you worked really hard to get it, maybe you like its ability, maybe it’s just your current strongest card. I don’t care. For my chart I’m gonna use Pandas Mean Profit because it’s really pretty and I got it from the 100-pull pity reward.

Look at your card’s top 3 sins and put them into the chart. For the character cards, note who the card is, because you can’t double up. For reference later, also note whether it’s 1st, 2nd or 3rd best. (Be sure to do this through Contacts and not a battle so there are no buffs skewing the scores.)

Once that’s in, choose another card you like for a different sin and input that card’s top 3 sins. Envy is still completely empty, so I’ll put Resentment Runs Deep in next. It’s an SSR, but I really love the Refresh Team ability. Do this for one character card and one support card of each sin at first, if you can. It doesn’t matter what level they are right now. Then fill in whatever blanks you have with cards that specialize in that sin.

If a sin comes up more than 3 times, keep whichever ones are strongest in that sin without overlapping characters. Play around with it until you get something that works for you. Keep note of the sins you’re lacking cards for.

[Image Description: The same Excel Sheet as before, except filled in with various Obey Me card names. The cells in rows 2 through 4 are color coded to match the character of the card. Each cell marks in parentheses how strong the card is in the sin of the column it’s in from 1 to 3.]

Mine looks like this. This chart isn’t perfect (if you look, none of my cards had Envy as a good non-main sin, and Pandas and Bunny have too much overlap for the same character), but it works as a rushed example. I used the cell colors to mark the characters.

Are these the teams you should be using for each battle? No, obviously not. First off there’s no single-sin battle, and second off the game will still build the teams for you.

BUT, this greatly lowers the amount of cards you need to pour resources into. Instead of 42 cards, with this chart I only have to focus on 18 cards in order to be guaranteed that all my cards get at least a SLIGHT boost in each battle. The best-case scenario would drop it down to 14 cards.

Later on, once you’ve managed the cards on your chart, the next thing to do would be to find main sin cards to replace those that are only third best in their sin. On mine I’d definitely focus on a Gluttony character card next, but in general Sloth is the one you want to be the most proactive about.

That should help you get through at least Season 2. Season 3 is admittedly where the difficulty actually IS ridiculous, but Season 2 really isn’t as hard as we’ve been saying. It just requires more planning than “the first three URs I ever got.”

I do still apologize for the resources and Grimm it’ll take, though :’)

Part 3: General Tips for Resources and Daily DP

This section is just some extra tidbits to help you have the resources to get cards and upgrade them.

[Image Description: The “hard to swallow pills” meme. The pills read “You don’t need every single card and unless you’re a whale eventually you’re going to have to prioritize some events and ignore others or you’ll never have the resources to improve the cards you already have.”]

However, events ARE good for farming Grimm, so it’s not the end of the world if you want every SSR. The only issue will come up when you need hard mode items and never have any AP, but it’s manageable.

If you’re going to log in more than once throughout the day, you can do the 2-1 job distribution. If not, do three jobs with one character each so you get the daily task done

To save money for leveling up your good cards, complete the devil tree daily mission with N-rank cards.

Use vouchers over DP whenever you can (and use Raven to get vouchers). The 99 DP level-up sale IS worth it if you can afford it, because that’s like 50% off a 10-pull once you do two.

I’m not certain, but I THINK skill level also influences how often an ability activates? I feel like my Lv 10 SSR cards activate often but my Lv 1 URs never do. So if you’re relying on an ability, the permanent SSRs might be worth looking at over limited time cards.

Anyway, I hope this helps at all in our mutual suffering.

#obey me #gameplay talk

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

Note

Re the BTD recap: "the prose is still incredibly messy in places" "To be frank, it’s not that I think this is all particularly good… just not particularly bad either." If it's not too much trouble, can I get some concrete examples for why? I feel like I often don't notice this sort of thing, so I want to know what I'm missing. Might help me to be a better writer.

Challenging request, anon! :D I feel like I need a few disclaimers here:

The book is serviceable. It’s just not going to be winning any awards. Talking about how the prose and dialogue can be better isn’t meant to translate to, “This is the worst thing ever written.” Because it’s not.

This is very much a pot calling the kettle black situation. Anyone here has the capability of hopping onto AO3, finding a horribly written passage of my own, and shaking it in my virtual face. So this is likewise not intended to be me standing atop a pedestal going, “Anyone - myself included - could do better.” I often can’t do better because writing is hard.

I’m not a creative writing instructor, thus it’s often difficult for me to articulate why I think a piece of literature doesn’t read well. If you’ve ever, say, come out of a movie with a strong sense of it not being “good” but can’t easily explain why it failed? It’s similar to that. By consuming lots of media we get a sense of “quality” over “badly written” that then informs our reactions to new texts, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to boil that response down to, “See here on page 3? They shouldn’t have done this. Fix that and it’s ‘good’ now.”

Nevertheless, let’s try. I’ll take a passage from the prologue where Sun is facing off against these “goons”

Two glowing clones of Sun flared into existence, one facing Pink and the second squaring off against Green. That left Brown—whom he figured was both the leader of the group and the most dangerous. Why? Because he was hiding the most.

Brown slashed a hand toward Sun. “Take him.”

“Which one?” Green asked.

“The real one,” Pink said. “These are just flashy illusions.”

Sun directed one of his clones to punch Pink in the face.

She blinked and looked more annoyed than hurt.

“That’s no illusion!” Green reached for clone Two.

Sun’s clones were physical manifestations of his Aura, every bit as capable of inflicting damage as he was. But it could be difficult to control them, especially while he was fighting. They were better suited to giving him the element of surprise, extra pairs of hands, or emergency backup when he needed it.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t sustain them long, and they couldn’t take much damage, as they drew Aura from Sun himself. If he kept them going too long, or tried to create too many clones, it usually weakened the Aura shield protecting him. But he’d improved a lot with training, and his Semblance was a lot stronger than it used to be.

Sun whipped out his gunchucks, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, spinning them as he and Brown circled each other slowly. At the same time, Sun was fighting Pink and Green through his clones. Pink was some kind of boxer, dancing around and jabbing with her fists, which One was managing to block. Meanwhile, Green was trying to grab Two and wrestle him to the ground.

Brown had some kind of martial arts training similar to Sun’s—but he wasn’t nearly as good. Sun leaned back as Brown did a high roundhouse kick; he felt a breeze as his opponent’s booted foot swept past his nose with a lot of power behind it. Sun flicked his right gunchuck to loop it around Brown’s ankle and pulled him out of his stance, hitting him with the closed gunchuck in his left hand. The man took the full blow, but it didn’t even faze him.

Now let’s break down some of the reasons why this passage doesn’t work for me. I’ll work chronologically.

As mentioned in the recap, it’s rather awkward for a PoV character to ask and answer their own questions. Especially when they’re not presented as literal thoughts. The “Why? Because...” takes me right out of the story. It suddenly sounds like I’m attending a lecture or reading an article. Sun believes X. Why does he believe this? Because of Y evidence.

The dialogue is clunky. This problem is admittedly more obvious at other points, but there are a lot of moments where it doesn’t feel like this is a natural thing someone would think or say. Which again, is really hard to write. How people speak is quite different from how we think they speak and finding a balance between that (eliminating most pauses like “um” or “like” that would be too frustrating to read, giving characters more flowery language to serve the story’s goals even if it’s not realistic, etc.) is hard to nail. Here, Sun is often thinking things that don’t sound l like an actual thought in a panicked teen’s head.

Oh crap, Sun thought. I’m losing. How am I actually losing?

It just sounds like exposition. The reader needs to know that Sun is losing! So Sun will tell them that.

The villains, so far, are a bit too cartoony for me.

“You got lucky, monkeyboy,” Green said as he walked off, his companions following him through the cloud of foul vapor. “This time.”

Which is admittedly a matter of taste and does have some justification given RWBY’s early writing (think Roman). Still, it’s hard to take lines like this seriously, especially when we just had the group making fun of Velvet for cheesy quips. But the villain’s quips are supposed to read as daunting?

Connected to Sun’s thought above, there is a lot of telling rather than showing throughout. For example: “She blinked and looked more annoyed than hurt.” There are ways of showing the reader that Pink is annoyed (indeed, just leaving it at “She blinked” would have gotten the point across) rather than resorting to, “She looked ___”. Another good example would be “ Sun leaned back as Brown did a high roundhouse kick; he felt a breeze as his opponent’s booted foot swept past his nose with a lot of power behind it.” You don’t need to reassure the reader that there was “a lot of power behind it.” The action itself - feeling a breeze, his boot passing close to his nose - conveys that on its own.

To be clear, telling isn’t something you can’t ever do (break those writing rules!!) especially when sometimes you just want to be clear/convey something succinctly, but it is something to keep in mind. It’s another balancing act. Too much telling and the reader feels like they’re just being told a list of things to believe. Too much showing and it feels like the writer is trying too hard to make everything detailed, exciting, etc. Still, a good writer is going to be able to convey everything (Sun losing a fight, annoyance, a powerful kick) without feeling the need to remind the reader of things every few lines, “This is what’s happening. Don’t get confused!”

After the fight starts we immediately get a two paragraph info-dump about Sun’s semblance. How it works, what his limitations are, and what that means for this fight. Again, show that! We’ve just started an action sequence. The fight is underway. The reader doesn’t want to get pulled out of the action for another lecture. Rather than hitting pause on the fun stuff to explain things, create scenarios where these details become relevant and can be shown to the reader. Right now we don’t care what Sun’s limitations are unless those limitations become important.

We get another announcement in the form of “[Brown] wasn’t nearly as good [as Sun]” instead of (again) showing us that. Indeed, as I mention in the recap all the action that comes next contradicts this. So where did this assertion come from? If Sun knows that Brown uses a martial arts style similar to his then theoretically they’ve been fighting for at least a few seconds... but the reader doesn’t get to see that. Meyers was too busy telling us about Sun’s semblance.

Finally, there are pockets of Meyer’s writing that are all roughly the same. Meaning, sentences have little variety to them. This isn’t a consistent problem (and it’s certainly not the worst example I’ve seen of this) but on the whole he could use a more engaging flow to his work, both in terms of sentence length and balance among actions, dialogue, descriptions, and thoughts. Otherwise you get prose that reads, “This happened. Then this happened. This happened next. See the length? It’s all the same. Very little changes. And the reader gets bored.” Again, not a consistent problem, but one he should keep working on.

There are a number of other, smaller issues that are beginning to pop up. Such as the in parentheses pronunciation of the teams’ names, or the overuse of “he sent” whenever Fox communicates telepathically. In contrast, there are things about the writing that I’ve enjoyed. There are moments of dialogue - such as Fox’s joke in Chapter One, or how Sun’s instructions to “find Shade” literally refer to the school but also remind the reader that shade, in such a hot environment, is crucial - that I think are worth pointing to and going, “Yeah. That was a nice touch.” Overall though? It’s that, “I just came out of a bad movie” feeling. There’s too much clunkiness throughout. The writing often lacks variety or feels absurd. I’m taken out of the story more often than I fall into it. Is it the worst thing I’ve ever read? Far from it, but fans aren’t wrong when they say things like, “I’ve read better fic than this professional story.”

#rwby #rwde #mymetas #Anonymous

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39hystericalqueens · 4 years

Text

It’s A Hard Life (Brian May x Reader) Chapter 2

This series was written alongside a companion playlist. Each song on the playlist is related to a certain scene or moment within the story and while this fic can 100% be read without the playlist, it adds so much to the story to listen along as you read. Throughout this series, you will see numbers in parentheses within the text. Each number corresponds to a track on the playlist. For example, if you saw: (1), this would mean play the first track on the playlist before continuing on reading. Some of the songs serve to set the mood, some correspond with a song that is actually playing in the story, and some tell part of the story better than I can and so they help to drive the plot. I will say again that you don’t need the playlist to understand and enjoy this fic but I strongly recommend at least checking it out.

MASTERLIST

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Warnings: Some mild cursing

A/N: Wow what a long break I took from posting any sort of update to this fic. I have been writing a lot in this time and have a decent portion of this story complete to post. I know hardly anyone (if even that) follows this fic especially now that I basically abandoned it for a little while there, but hopefully someone might find it interesting and enjoyable to read. Either way, please enjoy chapter 2!

Word Count: 4.8k

October 1969

The next morning you awoke with a smile on your face. You weren’t quite sure why until the memories of the night before started coming back to you. Dancing to great music, running into Roger again, and that mystery of a guitarist: Brian. He was just as intriguing this morning as he was last night. A part of you wished you had asked Roger or Tim where he was, but you supposed it was too late now, and as you pulled yourself out of bed and into the world you tried to push the thought of him out of your mind.

After a full day of classes, which, as per usual, were long and exhausting, you found yourself at work. On Wednesdays you worked from 6 until closing at midnight. Today you had decided to actually be productive and while you waited for another customer to come through the door you worked on your composition assignment. You had two weeks to write the first movement of a sonata in the correct form, but as much as you tried, you just couldn’t get the development to sound the way you wanted it to. You sat focused behind the counter, lost in the world of themes and dominant keys, when the bell over the door jingled. You looked up and to your complete surprise saw Brian standing there. He looked almost exactly as he had the night before. Same untamed hair, same look of concentration, and when he saw you at the desk, he flashed the same small smile as last night.

“Welcome to Selmer’s,” you started your preprogrammed greeting, but then decided to take a risk, “I suppose you’ll be needing some new guitar strings?”

As Brian looked up to see who had just spoken, he was met with the sight of what he thought was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. You sat perched up on the stool behind the counter, pieces of staff paper spread around you, and a pencil in your hand, and even though he knew he was staring he just couldn’t look away. That was, until he realized what you had just said to him.

“Yeah I-- wait, how did you know that?” Brian said, utterly confused.

His speaking voice was just as light and sweet as his singing voice.

“Lucky guess?”

He chuckled, accepting your answer, but not fully certain that he believed you.

“Something tells me that you don’t use Fender strings,” you continued, “so, what can I get for you?”

“Wow you’re good, uh I use RotoSound 8 gauges.”

“A fine choice. I don’t play guitar myself but I’ve heard from a lot of my customers that they give you a really nice sound. A lot of people tell me that they find Fender strings too abrasive.”

When you mentioned this you saw him raise a questioning eyebrow.

“Wow that’s really funny that you would mention that,” he said, “Last night I was just telling the drummer in the band I’m in that the Fender strings make my sound real abrasive.”

“Lemme guess: you broke some of your strings, didn’t have any extras on hand, sent your drummer to go and get some while you finished setting up, he brought you the wrong ones, you played a show with an abrasive sounding guitar, and now you’re here buying the right strings.”

When you finished talking you couldn’t help but laugh at the look of absolute shock and disbelief that was across Brian’s face. He truly didn’t know what to say.

“How on earth did you know all of that?”

You smiled, finally deciding to let him off the hook.

“Your drummer Roger came running in here yesterday right before closing looking for your guitar strings, only he had no idea which strings to buy so I gave him your basic 12 gauges...”

Brian shook his head in disbelief.

“I told him specifically which strings to buy, I even went so far as to write it down but he insisted that he knew what he was doing. I’m never letting him buy gear for me again.”

“If it makes you feel better he did seem to be quite distraught about it when he came in. Nearly knocked down my door rushing inside.”

“Well I suppose that does make it slightly better, but you still haven’t told me how you knew I was upset about the strings.”

“Right, forgot about that. So my friend Freddie has been following this band called Smile around for quite some time,”

At the mention of the band’s name Brian smiled as he started to piece the story together.

“And he’s been on me for ages to come out to one of their shows, so last night I finally did, and as I get there and see the band walk onstage, who would be sitting behind the drum kit but Roger. I went round back after the show was over with Fred to see Roger and Tim but you weren’t there.”

“I was off taking those awful strings off of my guitar,” he said, “but now I wish I had been there to meet you.”

As he said that you felt your heart flutter in your chest once again.

“Me too, but I’m glad I’ve met you now.”

“Will I be seeing you again?”

“Yeah I hope so,” you said, giving him a small smile that he returned even more so. “I’m Y/N, by the way.”

Once again, he smiled. “I’m Brian.”

And with that, you handed him the package of strings, letting your hands linger for a second as they brushed against his, before giving him one last grin as he walked out the door.

(4)

_____

It had been one week since your run-in with the guitarist and all you seemed to be able to think about was when you would be able to see him again. You tried not to let it distract you from your life too much, but as you and Freddie walked home after classes that afternoon it proved to be difficult.

“...and then I said to Tim-- Y/N, are you even listening to me?”

You broke yourself out of the haze of your unintentional daydream.

“Yes! Sorry Fred, I just zoned out there for a moment.”

“Well bring yourself back because I’m about to tell the best part of the story. So I was saying to Tim that maybe we should just give up on trying to find a flat for all of us because there is literally nothing available in our area and he agreed with me. So just when we were about to call Brian and Roger and tell them, we get a call from Roger saying that he found us a place to live!”

“That’s great!” You said, “where is the place?”

“That’s the best part, it’s right down the street from Ealing where we rent out the practice rooms which means it’s right down the street from your place. And don’t worry, we won’t be at your door bothering you all day and stealing your food.”

You laugh slightly.

“Yes you will.”

“You’re right we probably will, but we’ll be pleasant company I assure you.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Excellent! We’re set to move in this weekend and we’d love to have the help.”

“Sure thing,” you said, “just tell me what time to be there.”

_____

Move in day came bright and early on Saturday morning. You were up at 5 to take a cab over to Freddie’s flat on the other side of the neighborhood. When you arrived you found that he had already been up for 2 hours, finishing off last minute packing and piling boxes and a few pieces of furniture into the small truck he had rented.

“Don’t you think the truck might have been a little overkill?” you said, looking at its mostly empty interior, “I mean you don’t exactly have that much stuff to bring.”

“Oh trust me darling, I know. The truck isn’t just for me, we’re stopping by Roger’s place to load his things in here as well. Then Tim and Brian are meeting us there.”

You nodded in understanding.

“So, what can I do to help?”

“If you can grab the last few boxes from upstairs and bring them down here that would be great. And then come and help me lift this chair into the truck.” He said, gesturing at a very old and worn looking armchair sitting on the curb.

“Roger that,” you said, and headed up the stairs.

A half hour later the two of you had successfully loaded all of Freddie’s things into the truck and were driving away down to Roger’s place.

Roger lived another several blocks away, even farther away from you than Freddie, in a tiny one room flat on the top floor of the building. He had not yet started the process of luging his boxes down the five flights of stairs that he had so graciously forgotten to mention when he asked Freddie for help the other day.

“Roger...I’m...going...to kill...you,” you pant as you make your fourth trip down the stairs, two boxes balanced in your arms.

“C’mon,” he said, “if I had told you about the stairs you would never have agreed to come and help me.”

“And you’d have been right,” interjected Freddie who was standing at the bottom of the stairwell, leaning against the wall, and fanning his face profusely. “Is that the last of it?”

“Thankfully yes,” you said, as you made your way out to the truck and hoisted the boxes inside. Roger followed suit, and finally you were able to pull the door down.

“Wonderful!” said Freddie, “next stop: our new home!”

It was nearly 3 o’clock when you three pulled up in front of the boy’s new building. Brian and Tim were sitting outside on the steps waiting for you.

“Well it’s about damn time,” said Tim, “you guys were supposed to be here an hour ago.”

“We were a bit, delayed,” you said, looking directly at Roger. Brian gave a small snort under his breath.

“Oh come on, you guys are so dramatic. So we’re a little late, it’s not like we’re meeting the Queen or anything.”

You and Freddie collectively rolled your eyes.

“Now let’s hurry up and unpack.”

Compared to the amount of effort it had taken you to pack up Freddie and Roger’s flats, unpacking them was a breeze. Their new building had an elevator and their flat was right next door.

“Wow you guys, this is a really nice place,” you said as you walked through the door, “how did you find this place again, Roger?”

“Funny story really, I was talking to this broad at a coffee shop the other day and I guess I mentioned how my mates and I were looking for a new place to live that was central in the city. Well it turns out that her grandmother is moving to Manchester and has been trying to sell her flat for ages.”

“Ages? A place like this is every Londoner’s dream, why couldn’t she sell it?”

“Well she wasn't exactly going about it in the most conventional way. They had to sit her down and explain that walking down the street and asking people if they would like to buy your flat isn’t the most effective or appreciated form of advertisement.”

“Yeah not appreciated unless you’re four broke blokes like us in which case she was so desperate to sell it we paid next to nothing for it,” said Tim, setting down a large box. “I think this is almost all of it, there’s just one box left in the truck.

“I’ll go and get it,” said Brian, standing up.

“It’s pretty heavy, you’ll need two people to lift it,” said Tim.

“I’ll go with you,” you said quickly, making your way to the door and holding it open for him. As you walked into the hallway you caught Freddie looking at you with a sly look across his face.

There was a slightly awkward silence as you two walked down the stairs. Finally you spoke up.

“So uh, how’ve you been since I saw you at the store?”

“Oh um I’ve been alright. I’ve had a lot of work for school and all so I’ve been pretty focused on that. I think Roger already told you that I’m studying astrophysics, but I don’t want to bore you talking about it.”

“No I’d love to hear about it! What are you working on right now?”

“Well,” he said, his face lighting up, “the main thing that’s been eating up all my time is this paper we were assigned on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. Basically it’s a scatter plot of stars that shows the relationship between the stars’ luminosity or brightness and its temperature. We’re meant to cover its history and creation, the functions of the diagram, and its importance in the advancement of the field. It’s an insane amount of information to cover and I’ve only got two weeks to write it.”

“That sounds really interesting,” you say, “I’m not usually one for maths and science but from the way you talk about it I’m actually interested to hear more about it.”

“You’re welcome to read my paper when it’s done if you’d like.”

“I might just take you up on that offer,” you said, smiling.

“So that’s what I’ve been up to,” he said, “what about you? You’re over at Ealing studying music, right?”

“Yep, working hard to start my career as a starving artist,” you said sarcastically. “Jokes aside though I have been quite busy as well. I’ve got a recital coming up next week so I’ve been locked in a practice room all this week.”

“Wow, that sounds really stressful.”

“It’s not too bad, this one just counts for a completion grade. The real stressors are the midterm and final recitals. Those are killer.”

“Well stressful or not I’m sure you’ll do amazing. I would love to hear you play sometime,” he added. He had been wanting to hear you play ever since Freddie had told him you played the flute, but he hoped he wasn’t being too pushy.

“Would you like to come to the recital?” you said, “it’s this Tuesday at 2.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to impose or anything you know since we sort of just met each other.”

“Nonsense, I would love it if you came! In fact, I want you to. It would be so nice to have someone cheering me on in the audience. Freddie and Tim usually have classes that conflict so I’m normally playing to a crowd of strangers.”

“Well I’ll be there right in the front row, and I’ll clap louder than anyone else in the room,” he said, and you couldn’t help but blush.

“You know I just remembered that we came down here for a reason,” you said, looking towards the truck where the last box was still sitting.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, “we should probably get that upstairs before they start to worry that we’ve been hit by a car or something.”

Together the two of you lifted the box up and out of the truck and into the building. Tim hadn’t been lying when he said the box was heavy. Even with the two of you, it was quite the struggle to carry it up to the flat.

“Jesus Christ, what’s in here, a load of rocks?” you said as the elevator reached their floor.

“I think it might be all our amps and sound stuff. You can tell that Roger packed this box because any sane person would have split them up between several boxes to keep the weight down.”

At last you made it into the flat, ridiculously heavy box and all.

“I wasn’t expecting to get that much of a workout in today,” you said, “next time make it a little heavier why don’t you.”

Ignoring your comment, Freddie said, “Well you two were gone a long time weren’t you,” he eyed you suspiciously.

“Yeah it took a lot of effort to carry that box,” you answer, “I need to go and get some water or something.”

You headed into the kitchen and Freddie followed behind you, closing the door.

“Alright spill it, it did not take you twenty minutes to carry a box from the truck into an elevator,” he said.

“I mean we talked for a little bit while we were down there, but I don’t see why-”

“Let’s skip over the part where you try and dance around the facts. You so obviously have a thing for Brian!”

At his comment you felt your stomach drop slightly.

“What?! No I don’t!”

“Oh come on Lucy, I wasn’t born yesterday. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you staring at him, hanging on to his every word, and you volunteered to go with him to get that box so quickly I don’t think he had even finished his sentence.”

“I don’t know what you’re on about,” you said, “can’t I just like being around someone?”

“Of course you can, but that’s not what’s going on here. You like him, it’s so obvious.”

“You’re way off, Fred.”

As he gave you an exasperated look you felt some level of panic rise in you.

“If I liked Brian then why do I have a date set for this weekend? Hm?”

You’re not sure why you said it. It was a complete lie, you hadn’t been on a date in months nor did you have any interest in going on one now, but you had already committed to this story and if Fred found out you were bluffing you would never hear the end of it.

“Really?” said Freddie, skepticism in his voice, “you have a date?”

“Yep, Saturday night.”

“With who?”

Shit.

“Uh just some guy from my composition class,” then you added hastily, “you don’t know him.”

“No of course I don’t,” said Freddie, “but I’d love to meet him! Why don’t you have him pick you up at your flat so I can be there to say hello?”

You could tell that he saw right through you, but you were too far down this road to back out.

“Yeah um, ok sure. I’ll let him know.”

“Excellent!”

And with that Freddie left the kitchen, leaving you to realize what you had just gotten yourself into.

Well shit, now I’ve got to find a date. Great. Who the hell am I supposed to even ask?

______

The next day you ended up asking out a guy named Trey who sat behind you in composition class. He seemed really excited which made you feel even worse about the whole thing as you knew you would have to let him down after the one date. Saturday arrived all too soon and at a quarter to seven Freddie showed up at your door.

“Alright so where is this lad you have so graciously charmed?” he said, a devilish smile on his face.

“He should be here any minute.”

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. You opened it and there stood Trey, shifting nervously on his feet with a meek smile on his face. You could already tell that this was going to be painful. Before you could say anything, Freddie showed up right behind you to look at Trey.

“Hello darling, I’m Freddie, Y/N’s friend, I was just stopping by to see her off before your big date! I’ve got to say, when Y/N told me she had a date this weekend I didn’t believe her because, well, she’s not usually the type, but you two look oh so cute together, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you in the future!”

You could have killed him. You knew exactly what he was doing, and he had won, so now you were stuck still having to go on this date with the knowledge that Freddie would be waiting at your home to confront you when you got back.

“Don’t mind him, Trey,” you said, “Freddie can get a little over-invested in my life sometimes. Shall we?”

And with that the two of you walked out the door, but not before you looked over your shoulder to shoot Freddie a death glare to which he responded with a look of mock confusion.

To say the date was awkward would have been an understatement. It was clear that Trey didn’t pick up on how uncomfortable you were, or if he did, he didn’t mention it. You somehow stumbled your way through dinner and then a movie. By the end of the night though, you had just about reached the end of your rope as on the cab ride back to your flat he kept going on and on about how much he loved the movie you went to see.

“And I just thought the ending was so brilliant,” he said, “the way they brought the two story lines together, I didn’t even see that coming!”

“Yeah it was good,” you said, half-heartedly. The cab pulled up to the curb. “Well, this is me.”

“Let me walk you up, then we can say a proper goodbye,” he said.

“Alright,” you said.

As expected, Freddie was there waiting for you when you got back. He sat on your sofa, sipping on a glass of wine, as you and Trey said your goodbyes.

“I had a really nice time tonight, Y/N,” he said, “I’d love to do it again soon.”

“Um, yeah maybe,” you said, mentally kicking yourself as the words came out of your mouth. Why couldn’t you just say no? There was a moment of silence and then he leaned in to give you an awkward kiss on the cheek before saying one last goodnight.

Once he was gone you walked around to the sofa and collapsed into it, eyes closed.

“Well,” said Freddie, “that really was something. I think you and this Trey character could have a real future together. You seem to get along swimmingly and not to mention he’s quite handsome.”

“Alright! Alright Fred, you win! I may have a bit of a crush on Brian.”

______

It was Tuesday morning, the morning of your recital, and Brian found himself wandering through the halls of the Ealing music school, looking for the recital hall. As he rounded what he swore was the same corner he passed ten minutes ago he saw that a group of students had shown up and were talking rather loudly. He was about to turn around and continue his search when he heard something that grabbed his attention.

“So you know Y/N, the girl who sits behind me in composition, well she asked me out on Saturday to the movies.”

“Oh dude no way!”

“Yeah and it was completely out of the blue. I mean I never would have guessed that she had a thing for me, but we had a great time. She said she would want to go out again.”

Brian, who had been standing behind the corner, felt his heart drop when he heard this. He hadn’t really told anyone, but from the moment he met you he had been wanting to ask you out, he just hadn’t figured out how. He thought you were the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, both inside and out, and wanted nothing more than to be around you all the time. He was rather shy by nature and typically didn’t take a chance if he wasn’t entirely certain of the outcome, but after talking with you on moving day he had thought that maybe, just maybe, you felt the same way. He knew of course that he had no right to be upset, you could obviously date whoever you wanted, but he couldn’t help but feel crestfallen knowing that you weren’t going to be anything more than friends.

(5)

Checking his watch, Brian realized that it was ten minutes before your recital was set to start and he still had no idea where he was going. Realizing that it was his only option, he turned to the group of guys.

“Hi, I’m looking for the recital hall? Do you happen to know where that is?”

The boy who had been talking about his date with Y/N turned around to look at Brian.

“Yeah mate it’s just around that corner there and then take a left and it’ll be the set of double doors on your right.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Do you go here?”

There was no contempt in his voice but at his question Brian couldn’t help but feel as though he was accusing him of something.

“No,” he said apprehensively, “I’m actually here to see a friend perform.”

“Who do you know?”

“Um, Y/N... Y/N Y/L/N? Do you know her?” He grimaced internally at his question, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, she’s in my composition class. She’s real sweet, incredibly talented too.”

“Yeah I know,” said Brian, a little too quickly, “thanks for the directions.”

“Anytime,” he said, “I’m Trey by the way.”

“Brian.”

“Nice to meet you, Brian. And hey, wish Y/N good luck from me. I’ve got a class in ten minutes so I can’t go and see her play.”

“Yeah sure thing,” said Brian monotonously, as he turned to walk back down the hallway.

As much as Brian wanted to hate Trey, he knew he really couldn’t. He seemed nice enough, cared enough about Y/N’s life to know that he was missing her performance, and he had given him accurate directions. Brian found his way to the recital hall in no time, picking himself out a seat right in the front row. The turnout was what you might expect from a midday, midweek, student recital. The back of the hall was filled with students kicked back in their seats and glancing lazily at the clock every other minute, mostly likely forced to attend as part of their grade. The middle was quite sparsely populated with what looked like a few family members and friends scattered throughout, and the front was almost completely empty with the exception of four rather stern-looking people who Brian assumed were Y/N’s professors, and of course now him. He hadn’t been to see a classical performance in ages. His mother used to take him all the time to go and see the London Symphony when he was younger, but after starting secondary school and then uni and devoting all his time to his studies and his guitar he had stopped going. Now, sitting in the icebox of a theatre, he couldn’t help but feel like he didn’t belong.

A few minutes later, the performance began. It was a woodwind only recital so Brian sat through two clarinets, a saxophone, three oboes, and a bassoon, before it was your turn. When you finally walked onstage, Brian kept his promise and applauded so loudly that one of the professors turned to see where it was coming from. He didn’t care though, he couldn’t wait to hear you play. As you made your way over to the music stand you flashed Brian a smile, and he felt as though he was walking on air. God, he thought you were just perfect standing up there, completely in control of that stage. He wanted to run up the steps and hug you, kiss you, to tell you how much he adored you. How you should be with him and not Trey, but then you began to play and he was snapped back into reality. He didn’t recognize the piece, but it didn’t matter. Your sound carried through the hall with such vibrancy and clarity, and your fingers danced across the keys effortlessly. You made it look so easy, each movement more beautiful than the last.

(6)

As you brought the last movement to a close, Brian stood up and gave you a standing ovation. You knew it was overkill of him, but as you watched him fill the room with thunderous applause you couldn’t help but smile. You took your bows and with one more look at Brian, made your way offstage.

Twenty minutes later, the recital had come to a close. The last few flutes had performed but to Brian they paled in comparison to you. After a quick word with your professor and some scattered congratulations and compliments to your fellow performers, you made your way out into the audience. You saw Brian standing near the back, beaming as you half walked half ran up the stairs to him.

“So, what did you think?” you said, “it didn’t bore you too much I hope.”

“Are you kidding? Y/N, that was incredible!”

You blushed.

“I mean I knew you played well and everything, but that was just so beautiful. It was like you were singing through your flute, you’ve got a real talent.”

“You’re so sweet, you know that?” you said as you pulled him in for a hug, “what did I ever do to deserve a friend like you?”

Friend, Brian thought to himself, that’s all he would ever be to you.

Taglist: @peter-sue-the-management @borhapqueen92

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feministshawnmendes · 5 years

Text

Papí

a/n - Inspired by Shawn being a papi chulo in the senorita music video and me being a slut for men calling me mama. English translation for the Spanish is in parentheses.

___

“Mendes, I’m gonna have to kindly ask you to shut the fuck up.”

“Wow, Venegas. You get one drink in ya and you start getting bossy, eh?”

“Well,” Gabriela started, narrowing her eyes at Shawn as she leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table that separated the two of them. “We all can’t be sweet and Canadian like you.”

“Hey!” He laughed in mock offense, his voice cracking as he leaned forward too, a smile working it’s way on Gabriela’s face. “I’m not that Canadian.”

“Ohhh but you are,” She teased. “What did you say to that girl that time you came too fa-“

“Fuck off! You’re trying to distract me,”

“Am not!”

“Come on,” He said as he raised an eyebrow challengingly at her, her heart skipping a beat as Shawn pushed up the sleeve of the thin white t shirt he was wearing, his toned bicep on full display. It was completely unnecessary and she knew he was just trying to show off how beefed up he was. She rolled her eyes as he gave her a playful wink. She shifted her weight onto one elbow, her palm pressing against his as their wrists locked together. Gabriela fixed her hair with her free hand, pushing it off her shoulder and letting if fall over her back as Shawn pushed himself closer to the table, his knee knocking into hers underneath the table, her breath catching in her throat as her entire body went flush.

“Ready?” He asked with a sweet but cocky laugh, making her roll her eyes.

“I hate you,” She huffed.

“You’re the one who wanted to arm wrestle, Venegas. Don’t blame me!”

“True pero (but) only because you called me weak,” She shot back. “So really this is your fault.”

“Love how your Spanish comes out every time you drink,” He mumbled, his voice barely audible as he gave her a closed mouth smile, his curls falling into his face as strangers danced around them. She’d flown out to see him on a whim. He’d all but begged her to take a break from work to come see him in Portugal as he prepared to start another year of touring. She’d caved in after weeks of him persisting, saying he wasn’t sure when he’d be home next and he needed to see his favorite girl one last time. She hated how he did that. Used her weakness for him to get what he wanted. It wasn’t intentional necessarily and he didn’t know how she felt but he knew she’d say yes. Knew she’d begrudgingly fly to see him and Brian, her two favorite boys, even if it was just for a day.

Gabriela felt her chest tighten as he pressed his knee harder against her exposed one, the heat radiating off of his body and wafting over her as her entire face tingled with fiery tickles. She could have blamed it on the alcohol or even the hot summer air that was making her hair damp with sweat as it stuck to the side of her face. The air around then was thick and even in the blue and yellow flower dress she was wearing, Gabriela’s entire body felt sticky with sweat, her eyes grazing over Shawn’s arms which in all their tan and godlike glory had a thin layer of sweat glossed over them.

“I said one word,” Gabriela whispered back, pushing down the lump that was forming in her throat as Shawn’s grip on her hand loosened. He was so handsome, his curls damp with sweat as they fell into his eyes. He lowered his head to let his eyes meet with hers when she tried to look away from him.

“It’s one word now,” He laughed. “But ten minutes from now it’ll be full sentences. The alcohol brings it out in you, mama”

“Did you just call me mama?” She asked slowly, her lips curving into a small grin while her heart thumped at an ungodly speed in her chest, her fingers tingling as Shawn pressed his palm further into hers, his thumb sliding against hers. She gulped nervously, her cheeks burning as he nodded.

“I like it,” He smiled, his hand falling out of hers as she pulled her hand away from him and set it in her lap. He kept his elbow on the table, setting his chin on his palm and leaning forward even more as he bit down on his bottom lip. “Think it’s kinda hot, don’t you?”

Gabriela’s eyes narrowed slightly at her best friend as she bit the inside of her cheek, tilting her head as she fidgeted with her fingers underneath the table. She felt like her breath was being sucked out of her as she tried to stop herself from giving herself away. Things had been different for a while between her and Shawn. After a rough breakup, he had been way needier over the past couple of months. Constantly calling her when he was home and begging her to come cuddle with him, trying to convince her to come fly out and see him and Brian whenever they were in a new city and he felt homesick. Throughout their lifetime friendship, they took turns being the needy friend. Sometimes Gabriela would call him when he was away and school was too much and beg him to come home so they could snuggle up on his couch in Pickering while Karen made them snacks. When she was having a difficult time falling asleep, overwhelmed by her self-deprecating thoughts, she’d facetime Shawn and she instantly felt better - the love he had for her pouring out like it was second nature. He loved people so well, always telling her how beautiful she was, so willing to wrap his arms around her when she said she felt sad. So she didn’t mind that he was extra needy lately. She liked that no matter how famous he was, Shawn still needed her like she needed him But things felt different, especially after that night in Toronto when they were all at his condo and they’d all had a bit too much to drink and Shawn was feeling extra affectionate, asking her over and over to hold him. She practically kept him between her legs the entire night as they all sat in his living room, his back pressed against his couch as she sat above him, her arms wrapped around him, occasionally moving to massage his scalp, his arms wrapping around her legs, his fingers occasionally raking up and down against her skin. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to be affectionate but the way he kept pulling her closer every time she slightly moved and the way he pouted whenever she stopped petting his head felt different. And the way he looked at her as the warm Portugal air stiffened around them, thick as it caressed her skin, his eyes pouring into hers, felt different too. But she didn’t want to name it or point it out. Too afraid that she saw something that wasn’t there.

“I swear to God this is why I don’t tell you anything,” She breathed, finally letting go of the breath she'd been holding onto. She’d once told Shawn that she thought it was hot when guys called her mama, her stomach twisting as she replayed the way it sounded rolling off of her best friend’s tongue. Shawn let out a loud laugh, making her roll her eyes as she kicked his shoe underneath the table. “Pinche cabrón (asshole)”

“Ah see there it is,” He teased, licking his lips before falling back in his chair. Gabriela shook her head, sighing as she pushed herself out of her chair, Shawn’s sparkling eyes following her movements as she did so. “Where are you going?”

“To find Brian,” She answered. “My actual best friend”

Shawn laughed, quickly jumping from his seat and trailing behind Gabriela as she pushed her way to the front of the small bar they’d been in, stepping out into the much cooler but still humid air. Shawn nudged her hand with his as a small breeze washed over them.

“Come on” He laughed as he grabbed a hold of her hand and pulled on her lightly, her feet firmly planted in their spot. “I was kidding. We all have a thing.”

“Yeah but you can’t use mine against me, you fuckhead!”

“Why not?” He whispered, a ghost of a smile on his face as he stepped closer to her, the sound of Latin music filtering through the open windows of the bar they’d just been in, the fast tempo matching Gabriela’s heart beat as Shawn’s hot thumb traced a fiery pattern against her hand. “I think it’s cute how worked up you get.”

“Fuck all the way off, Mendes.”

“Don’t be like that, mama. Let’s go dance.”

“You know,” Gabriela smiled deviously as the wheels turned inside her head, her hand falling out of Shawn’s as the night air continued to circle between them, goosebumps sprouting up on her arms as Shawn shoved his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans. “I bet I could guess what your thing is.”

His expression quickly changed, the easy smile he was wearing slowly fading as Gabriela cocked an eyebrow at him confidently, her hands going behind her back as she clasped them together and took a large step forward that closed the distance between her and Shawn. She smiled up at him as she tilted her head to meet his gaze.

“Try me.” He said in a raspy tone, Gabriela’s tongue poking out to wet her lips as she let out an all too cocky laugh, Shawn’s adam’s apple moving up and down along his throat as his heart fluttered as he held onto his breath.

“Quieres que te hable español, papí (want me to speak spanish to you, daddy)?”

Confidence dripped from her voice as she whispered the words gently, as if she had wrapped them up and blown them to him with a kiss, his cheeks warming up as the tip of his nose turned pink while he tried to conceal the way hearing her made him feel. It didn’t help that she leaned into him, moving expertly as she let her hot fingers caress his skin as they trailed up his exposed arm as if they’d been made to touch him. He audibly groaned, his cheeks deepening in color as her fingers stopped in place, brushing against his as her eyes trailed down to his lips, Shawn’s breathing labored as his feet tingled. He’d felt her before. Her fingers had pressed into his skin before, her arms had wrapped around him countless times. But of course, things were different. He’d needed her so much more than usual. Everything about her felt like home and at first he thought it was because he was lonely but after that night in his condo after he called her and asked her to keep him company for a little bit, her lips pressed against his cheek at the end of the night before she said goodbye, he felt differently.

“Did you just call me papí?” He asked in a low voice, his eyes dancing across her face as the wind gently blew a few strands of hair into her face. She smiled, nodding gently as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She knew she had him. The way he swallowed nervously and purposefully let his feet move forward making her let out a small laugh.

“I like it,” She whispered. “Think it’s kinda hot. Don’t you, papí?”

He was completely breathless, his stunned eyes locked with hers as his mouth fell open slightly. She didn’t say anything, her smile fading as Shawn continued to stare at her. Her stomach turned and uneasiness washed over her as her own cheeks burned with embarrassment, Shawn’s nostrils flaring as he let out a large breath, the hot air hitting her face as she watched Shawn’s eyes grow dark. She let out a jagged breath and she went to apologize but before she could she felt his fingers fumbling for hers, his face growing redder by the second as he whispered a raspy “c’mere” as he pulled her to the backside of the building, which was dimly lit, the lights from the open windows and the hotel that was a few hundred yards away providing a nice orange tint around them as Shawn guided her, his fingers holding gently onto the tips of hers before he stopped and turned to face her, his chest moving up and down rapidly as he stared at her. She gulped nervously, Shawn copying her movements as she slowly backed away and let her back hit the side of the building, an audible gasp falling off her lips as Shawn pressed his fingers against her hip gently. She felt a jolt of electricity shoot up her entire body, her fingertips tingling, the thin fabric of her dress feeling practically non-existent as Shawn’s touch burned through it, his fingers ghosting over the side of her body as he leaned into her, the tips of their noses touching.

“Kiss me, Mendes.” She said as she held her head high, letting her nose rub against his as she purposefully let her breath fan across his face. He shivered at the contact, any sort of resolve he had completely dissolving underneath the trance she’d pulled him into.

“Say it in spanish for me, mama” He whispered, making her gasp gently as his fingers trailed down her thigh. She let out a small whimper, swallowing thick as she let her fingers grip the thin fabric of Shawn’s shirt.

“Dame un beso, Mendes (kiss me, mendes)” She breathed against his lips, their faces close enough to where they were recycling the same air. Shawn let out a small groan, his lips curving up into a smile before he let his lips find hers, his entire body coming alive as she pulled him further into him. The way his lips felt against hers was electric, his kiss eager but gentle as he slowly let his arms wrap around her waist, pulling her completely into him as her hands found his face, one of them moving to the back of his head as she let her fingers wrap around his curls. It felt like fire, their mouths working together as they kissed each other as the Portuguese air wrapped around them, their sweaty bodies pressed together as they quickly fell into each other.

#sm #shawn mendes #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn mendes fic #shawn mendes oneshot #shawn mendes x oc #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes x mexican reader

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sprydecreates · 5 years

Text

‘babylove’?

requested: nope

warnings: nothing this is really cute (language is a given at this point)

pairings: tom holland x reader

type: fluff ; headcanon/list ; 2k+ words ; gender neutral

summary: it's the first time you visit the holland's at their home in london, and you're trying your hardest to impress everyone. you aren't tom's lover just yet, but it's obvious that you two fancy each other.

disclaimer: the depictions of tom holland and the holland family in this are of my own imagination. none of this is real!

a/n: another oldie of mine refurbished and posted here! back when my writing was Decent LOL.

p.s., the dialog isn’t like it is with my latest ones as in y/n gets italics and bold n everyone else just gets italics. it’s just emphasized when need be, and i thought it was alright that way. srry if it bothers anyone who reads my newer stuff!! adding in a disclaimer from now on too. never got someone thinking something was real, but it’s good to be prepared :-)

also, when i put things in parentheses, it's usually me putting in my reactions.

"PIP PIP 'N CHEERIO GOVENAH!"

"y/n we don't actually say that"

"tom, i have to get myself situated. with the boiling tea and crumpet chip biscuit whatevers.”

YEEHAW. you're traveling to meet tom's family back in london.

you've met harry, sam, and harrison already, but there were still three very important people to meet

you had met tom through a mutual actor friend who brought you on set one day

obviously it went like a fairy tale

your friend left you alone on set while they went to get snacks for you both

tom seen you, and came to tell you that only actors could be on set at that time

causing you to freak out, because UH, spider-man is speaking to you (ohMygOd, it'spEterparker)

which of course made tom cocky, and he was like "ayyyyy baby i'll give u an autograph"

then your friend came back and officially introduced you two

and tom saying "you're friends with y/f/n? i'm so sorry"

"i know. it's tragic."

"you two are perfect for each other" with an eye roll

so to say the least, you and tom had sparks from the beginning

not to mention the backhanded, sarcastic compliments that often lead to flirty and witty comebacks

"you're cute, for 5′8″.

"good thing you have a good personality because that outfit today was... :/"

"just wait until i see you again. you're dead, holland"

"well why don't you come over right now and show me what you'd do?”

going over to play wrestle until you dominate him and straddle his hips while your breath is hitched and he'd just look up at you like "holy fuck"

with the whole banter situation taking place, it kind of shocked you when tom asked you if you wanted to visit his family with him

like, REALLY took you off guard

because this was really domestic of him, and he hadn't really ever showed that side to you

but nonetheless, you took the opportunity

took a bit of persuading to get your family to allow you, but eventually, everyone agreed.

(boy it's a good thing you got that passport that you totally didn't get for the sole purpose of this occurring)

"as long as you call every morning and night, and text when necessary. and take pics."

lots of preparation through facetime

"i heard it's really fuckin' cold in england. should i pack a parka?"

"y/n it's not that cold. plus you won't need two."

"what do you mean i won't need two if i-"

in a thick accent "peta parka."

"...."

deep sigh

"can i get a refund for my ticket"

"don't think so, love" in a soft laughing tone

(AAAAHHHHHH)

after two or so weeks of packing and unpacking, and checking the checklist fifty times, it was finally time to depart to southwest london, darling

this boy got first class tickets for the both of you

or at least that's what he thought

he actually only got one for himself lmao

so instead, he swapped seats with the person beside you

oh my god shy hand holding on the plane would be expected

also cute little candids that would go up on each others instagrams wow

fast forward to arriving at the holland home

p.s., the entire car ride there was filled with little thigh touches to try and calm you down.

but that only made you more nervous because god have mercy this beautiful boy wasn't trying to act funny or anything like he usually acted, he was being genuine and that made your heart full

once at the door, you were greeted by nikki, dom, and a very excited tessa

"hello love! it's so nice to meet you! tom has told us SOOO mu-"

"DAD!!!!" would be said between clenched teeth while he would be blushing

with red cheeks of your own, you'd walk in to see the two brothers you had previously met, and a new face, who you recognized as paddy

sam and harry would say hello, but paddy would whisper yell to one of the brothers, "is that who tom calls his 'babylove'?"

both you and tom would just stand there, his jaw would drop and one of your eyebrows would raise up

and you'd turn to tom with a huge smile and just whisper "babylove?"and he'd blush even harder and be like "let me show you to your room!!!!!!!!!”

he'd bring you upstairs and into the guestroom so you could put your stuff up

then you'd follow him to his old room, and you'd sit on his bed and just have a look around while he piled his clothes into a hamper

hear me out

there would be little spider-man symbols across the wall, with some football flags strung up every so often

and you'd be like "you really weren't lying about your obsession with spidey, huh?"

and he'd come and sit beside you and shrug while looking at his old decorations

you'd lean in and give him a lil kiss on the cheek before saying "it's really cute, tom." and he'd immediately light up and become a shy baby

then you'd hear footsteps coming up the stairs, and you'd pull away from each other with cute little grins

sam would look in and be like "mom wants to know what ya want for dinner"

and tom would turn to you and be like "well?"

and you'd insist that he choose, since he hasn't been home in awhile

he'd say something he heard you talking about wanting to try

sam would leave and then you'd just nonchalantly grab tom's hand and follow sam down

once down there, you'd be met by the family, minus nikki and sam who would venture into the kitchen

you'd let go of tom's hand, and sit by paddy on the couch

little conversations would start up from dom

literally just things like "so tom said you can sing" and "tom said you guys met through a friend of yours?"

he wouldn't even have to ask you questions directly because tom has told them virtually everything because the boy was swoon as fuck

but after a little while of tom and the rest of the family in sight getting caught up, you decided to slip out of view yourself and join nikki and sam in the kitchen

a "hey sweetheart! whatcha need?" coming from nikki

but you'd be like "i just wanted to know if you guys wanted an extra hand?"

sam would be like "hell yea y/n knows how ta cook"

but nikki would be like "that's alright, it's our pleasure to treat a guest of tom's! thank you though, that's really sweet"

so you'd walk back into the living room after a few "are you sure?"'s

and dom would be like "kicked out of the kitchen?" with a small laugh

and you'd answer with "yeah. you holland's are stubborn."

which would definitely make tom pout, and your response would be to pat his cheek and say "pouting wont exclude you," followed with a quiet "babylove." while you dropped your hand

some time passed before nikki and sam returned, and nikki said dinner would be ready in about thirty minutes

those thirty minutes consisted of the family sharing embarrassing stories about tom

and him eventually hiding his red cheeks in the crook of your neck (sweet god)

soon, the timer went off and everyone made their way into the kitchen and got their plates

tbh i see the family taking all the seats around tom, so you'll get to sit in between dom and nikki

(i'd love that holy shit)

after dinner, you helped wash the dishes. that earned major brownie points from nikki and sam

it was getting kind of late, so the family suggested watching a movie or two together

oh my god tom would take you upstairs again and tell you to change into your pajamas because that was a tradition for movie night

wearing batman pajama bottoms knowing it would tease him

him refusing to let you go downstairs before changing into a pair of his spider-man bottoms

giving in once he gives you the puppy dog eyes while his forehead is pressed against yours

watching some sort of proper english movie because it was your first time visiting

angus, thongs and perfect snogging came into mind

harry loudly asking if you and tom ever snogged like that

cuddling with tom under a big blanket

when the family started to get a little drowsy, they decided to call it a night

everyone started to head upstairs, and you and tom did the same after grabbing a few snacks and some drinks

once in his room, you'd sit on his bed and just smirk at him until he'd ask what was up

and you'd immediately be like "what's up with this lovey dovey side of you? you usually act like a sarcastic shit around me"

he'd just look down and press his hand against the nape of his neck and mumble "i like you"

and you'd say "well i got that part awhile ago"

but he'd sit there for a few seconds, trying to think of a way to say what he had in mind. he finally sighed and spoke out to you, "i mean, i think i'm falling in love with you"

and you'd sit there with your lips parted, and your eyes darting back and forth between his

he'd start to blabber on about how it was just a strategy that he used because he didn't know how to show you how he really, truly felt

and you'd cut him off, and say "can i kiss you?"

and a few seconds of silence would take place before he would cup your cheeks and empty all the passion he held in his body out in one single kiss, while you would do the same

after you both pull away, he'd lower his hands and you'd both just sit and stare at each other

you'd raise your hand up and cup his cheek and rub your thumb across his cheekbone

eventually, you would say you're tired, and press a small kiss against his lips before getting up and heading for the door

"goodnight, thomas."

"goodnight, y/full/n."

shutting the door and doing a happy dance all the way to the guest room

it's sunday morning, and you couldn't get any more sleep in due to the kiss from the night before still swimming through your memory

finally deciding on getting up and cooking breakfast for everyone to return all the love you were given the day before

carefully sneaking down to the kitchen

taking a long ass time to find all the ingredients you initially needed (oils, other stuff)

googling measurement equals because what american knows european measurements off the tom of their head

deciding on making some fancy omelette roll ups you once had with your actor friend

taking so much time to make everything perfect

when you finished making the omelette's, along with some other sides, you would set everything out for easy serving, and then you would head upstairs again

since it was a sunday, everyone slept in

you'd gently knock on everyone's door, and say breakfast was waiting for them downstairs

but when you got to tom's door, you'd softly knock before heading on in

tom would be sleeping on the side of the bed that faced the window, and you would walk over to that side and crouch down

you would subconsciously lay your bent arm on the bed by toms face, and lay your head on your arm. you'd raise your free hand up to toy with a few loose curls while you looked over his features

he'd eventually wake up, and smile in a way that was really wide, but evidently tired

he would kiss your forehead and say "what a good way to wake up; an angel playing with my hair." you'd giggle really quietly and stand up while saying "c'mon, babylove. i've made breakfast."

and he'd pull you down onto the bed with him, and pepper little kisses against your shoulders, collarbones, neck, and cheeks before pressing a lingering kiss to your lips!!!

while he rested his forehead against yours, you decided to confess something you totally forgot to last night, "by the way," you'd say in a really soft voice while swiping a messy curl from his temple, "i think i'm falling in love with you, too."

#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland fic #tom holland hc #tom holland list #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot #tom holland blurb #sprydecreates th

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lumosinlove · 6 years

Text

Solntse

part ii

Remus sits in Lily and James’ tiny living room and tries to ignore the subtly laid out pillow and blankets set on the corner of the couch. Lily doesn’t let him.

“Your apartment has flees.”

Remus sets his glass down, “That was one bug and it was a beetle.”

Lily twists her hair over one shoulder, unrelenting, “Remus. Please.” She nods towards the pillow, “Just—I’m worried. We’re worried.”

Remus looks away so he doesn’t have to see the way James nods, they way they’re both looking at him like he’s already a lost cause. He wishes for a moment he’d never told them what he does other than serve pizza and take the early shifts at the gas station around the block, but then he’d be all alone in it. And they were his best friends, that was why he had told them. Just in case one day all of James’ fears came true and some guy murdered Remus in a hotel room. Or something.

James sighs, “Mate, we’re not ganging up on you.”

“No, I know.” Remus nods down at his mug of tea, “I know. I just…I don’t want to be that friend you can’t get rid of. Like. That would be awful.”

“Re, you’re never going to become that.” Lily puts a warm hand on his shoulder, squeezing, “That’s not how we think about it at all. We just want to know your safe.”

James raises his mug to his mouth, “As safe as you can be…”

“James.” Lily snips, then her face turns soft again for Remus, “Will you stay here?”

“Lils, really, my apartment is fine.” He curls his feet further beneath him, “I’ll finish my tea and go. Don’t worry.”

He thinks back to his two night hotel escapade and shakes his head more firmly at Lily. He already feels enough like a charity case as it is. Even if he did get good money for it. Sirius had pushed an extra eighty dollars into his hand at the door and closed it before Remus could protest. He had pressed a chapped kiss to his cheek too. Remus was still mulling that over.

When he finally does make it out of the apartment he pulls his ratty coat tightly over his shoulders and ducks his head against the wind. He could probably buy a new one if Sirius called again. He did ask for two nights in a row, and it went great so, maybe. But he didn’t want to be flashy about any new money. His landlord had already raised his eyebrows when Remus had handed over two months rent in advanced.

His apartment wasn’t flea infested although it did give off that sort of look. He had a cheep futon bed frame, just to keep his mattress off the floor so it didn’t mold, and a dresser from IKEA. His kitchen consisted of a stove and a sink. The gas was usually pretty iffy and his sink ran mostly cold, like his shower, but…he had a roof and food. It’s fine. He has James and Lily if he was really, really in trouble but he doesn’t want it to come to that. He’ll never want it to come to that.

He throws his keys down on the dresser and goes to check the leak under the sink. It hasn’t gotten worse but he empties out what water is in the bucket just while he’s there. He re-tapes the crack in the window and makes a note to ask his landlord about that. Again. He’s just sitting down on his bed when his phone rings. He groans and closes his eyes when he pulls it out, hoping it isn’t one of his less polite customers. He sighs in relief when he sees the name.

“Frank, hi.” Frank almost never wants sex. He likes to talk. He’s lonely. Remus can relate. He’s the son of two wealth-soaked parents who don’t pay him a lick of attention. Remus can half relate. “How are you, mate?”

“Oh. Hi, Remus. Wasn’t sure I’d get you, um. I’m fine. I—um. Was wondering…” He trails off.

“Sure, when were you thinking? I’ve got something Tuesday and Sunday and you know when I work, so…”

“Actually, I was thinking now?” His voice is up an entire octave with nerves, “I just…Family problems right now. Was hoping to just talk a bit.”

Remus runs a hand over his face but tries not to pause too long. He doesn’t want Frank to think he doesn’t want to, “Sounds great! Should I meet you at the—“

“I couldn’t get the usual room. It’s 207 tonight. Same hotel though, the Pierre.”

Remus nods, tries to keep a smile in his voice, “Great. See you soon.”

He’s barely hung up when another name flashes up at him. He’s almost embarrassed by how fast he answers, “Sirius. Hi.” That didn’t come out anywhere close to how he wanted it to.

“Remus! Life is good?”

Remus laughs lightly, still caught off guard but warmed by Sirius’ simple honesty, “Uh, yeah, life is good. How are you?”

“Good. Busy. Always busy, you know? I’m at airport now, going to be in town on Wednesday. You want see together? Or, ah, not together.”

“Each other.” Remus supplies.

“Yes, perfect. You always know. What you think, Remus?”

Remus half wishes Sirius would stop saying his name like that and half wishes he’ll never stop saying his name like that, “Yeah, that works for me. What time were you thinking?”

“Seven? I get us dinner in room, so don’t eat. I’m, ah…” Sirius lets out a soft laugh and Remus presses the speaker closer to his ear, “I’m think about you a lot.”

Remus swallows over a suddenly dry throat, “Yeah?”

“Hm.” There’s a loud speaker in the background and Sirius says something low in Russian, “Flight calling me. Wednesday okay, yes?”

“Yes. Have a good flight.”

“You too. Or—“ They both laugh, “Okay, I’m go now. Bye, Remus.”

The line goes dead and Remus lets the phone fall to the bed. He breathes in deeply and looks down. He’s half hard in his pants now and he really doesn’t know why. He’s suppose to be on his way to Frank’s, he tips well, he honestly needs Remus a little bit and…fuck. He splashes some freezing water on his face from the sink and yanks his door shut as he leaves.

Frank’s is fine. The hotel room is nice and Remus ends up sucking him off—twice. He doesn’t get hard either time but Frank seems either completely fine with that or he doesn’t notice. What does get him going is the ping he gets on his phone while he’s walking home from the tube. It’s a picture. Of Sirius. A selfie. He’s grinning in front of a beautiful sunset outside a plane window. There’s no message except a few sideways parentheses that Remus takes as smiles. Looking at the grin triggers thinking about Sirius’ large, warm hands on his hips and back. That leads to thinking about the way Sirius had carefully pushed his fingers inside of Remus, then the hot slide of his cock to replace them, his weight covering Remus’ back—

By the time Remus is walking up the stairs to his apartment again he’s more or less waddling around his tented trousers. By the time he’s throwing his keys on his dresser all he can do is lean back against his door and shove his hand into his boxers. They’re already damp with pre-come so what’s the point anyway? He smears his thumb over his head and squeezes the base, letting out a breath. It’s not as good as Sirius and his fucking huge palms. Now that he’s got a hand wrapped around himself he can really feel the difference. He pushes his pants down around his knees so he can get two hands around himself instead, twisting around the head and keeping a tight grip around the shaft. It barely takes a dozen pulls before he’s shooting into his fist with a harsh sound, Sirius’ name almost on his lips. Almost. He makes the mistake of thinking about the way Sirius had trailed his fingertips over his sensitive cock after he’d made Remus come in his mouth, keeping the pleasurable nerves alight, and takes a cold shower so he doesn’t have to go again. The shower only makes him think about how, next time, maybe Sirius won’t come untouched. Maybe Remus will get to return the favor. He doesn’t even know how much of Sirius he could fit in his mouth but fuck if he doesn’t want to try. He groans and wraps a hand around himself again. He’s too sensitive but he doesn’t care. He works himself fast and hard until his cock is a flushed red and he comes weakly against the shower wall, panting into the cool spray.

He looks at his phone as he towels off his hair. It’s Saturday, and it’s going to be a long couple days.

There’s a different woman at the front desk this time and Remus is glad. Not that he thinks the other one would remember him but, still. He stares at the twelve on the door for a moment, trying to calm his heart rate, before he knocks.

The door doesn’t open immediately so he knocks again, feeling more awkward by the second.

This time there’s a muffled shout and a few seconds later the door is yanked open by Sirius—dripping wet and a towel hastily wrapped around his waist.

“Sorry!” He gasps, “Sorry, flight late, felt kind of like plane—plane all over me? Thought I be fast, sorry.”

“Okay.” Remus meant to say it’s okay but, well, Sirius’ towel is slipping sort of low.

“Come in, come in, I’m be ready in minute.”

Ready for what? Remus wants to ask.

He goes to sit on one of the couches and strokes his hands over a soft pillows while Sirius pads back to the shower, dropping his towel without closing the door. For a second, Remus debates on whether he can consider that as an invitation or not. He stands up twice and sits back down before the water shuts off and he sits again. Sirius emerges a second later, grabbing the towel from the floor to wrap around his waist and another for his hair. He rubs at his hair until the waves fluff around his ears and into his eyes. He smiles over at Remus somewhat guiltily.

“Sorry again. You want look at menu?” Sirius flips open a sleek looking suitcase and starts rifling through it, “Starving. Airplane food most bad, you know?”

Remus doesn’t but he’s not about to start that conversation. Instead he reaches for the leather-bound hotel book, “Where did you come from?”

“Sydney, ah…Hard for me to say.”

“Australia.”

Sirius laughs and pulls a loose fitting pair of sweatpants on—bare, “Yes, right.” A white long sleeve shirt follows and—to Remus’ surprised delight—a black snapback. It sits snugly on his damp hair, pushing the front part back out of his eyes while the rest wings out above his ears. Remus can see the shape of his ring necklace through his shirt. He swallows. Sirius looks good.

He pulls some warm looking socks on and Remus glances briefly at the hole in the heel on his own left foot. The couch bounces a little as Sirius settles next to him, leaning in close to look at the menu, “Good food? What you like?”

Remus tries to read the menu, he really does, but Sirius’ arm is thrown over the back of the couch and his fingertips are brushing over where he sweater gives way to skin. He holds the menu out to Sirius, “You decide. I’ll eat anything.”

Sirius gives him a teasingly disapproving look but takes the menu and reaches towards the side table for the phone. He orders too much. A steak, fries, a plate of brisket ravioli, a cheese board, a salad, calamari, and two slices of chocolate cake. Remus doesn’t know where they’re going to put it all, but he hopes maybe he can take some of it home.

“We do tea later,” Sirius reaches out and fans one of Remus’ curls between his fingers. “After.” He amends, “They say thirty minutes.” Then his fingers are lightly brushing Remus’ hip, just beneath his sweater, “We stay busy while wait. Is okay?”

“Yeah.” Remus breathes, because what Sirius doesn’t know is that he got off to the mere memories of what they did last time every night leading up to now. Sometimes twice. Of course it’s okay. He’s never had a job this fucking okay, and he’ll damn sure make the most of it until Sirius moves on. They always do. Remus usually feels more grateful when they do, but he has a feeling Sirius will be different.

Sirius flashes him a grin and tugs him right into his lap. His lips are warm and chapped against Remus’, but the rough texture is nice. Remus feels like it keeps him there, in Sirius’ arms. He runs his tongue across Sirius’ bottom lip just to feel it and is rewarded with a soft sound and a palm to the small of his back. Sirius, who seems to be able to take Remus aback in almost everything he does, is holding Remus close, chest to chest. Not by the hips, not by the shoulders. Remus has never had any problems with abuse and he’s lucky in that way but Sirius, Sirius isn’t holding him like he’s there for sex at all. He’s cradling Remus in his lap, hands running lazily up and down his back. He’s licking into his mouth like they have all the time in the world, like they’ve been kissing forever and they’ll do it tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Remus’ palms cup his jaw and he runs his fingers along the edge of the snapback.

“You want off?” Sirius’ voice sounds like he’s just woken up.

Remus shakes his head and his eyes slip closed as Sirius’ mouth moves to his jaw, “No.”

Sirius’ warm breath against his neck as he laughs softly almost feels better than the wet kisses he’s leaving there. Almost.

They stay like that until the knock on the door makes Remus blink his eyes open blearily, suddenly aware of how warm he is.

Sirius shifts him to the side gently, kneeling on the couch for one last peck, “I’m get food, relax here.”

Remus blinks at him, licks his kiss-swollen lips, and honestly just wants to ask Sirius why he is like this. He rests his head back on the couch and listens to Sirius’ bright voice chatting away to the bell boy who brought their food. He’s thanking him, telling him how good it all looks, and Remus thinks maybe he’s just this nice to everyone he meets. He isn’t sure what to do with that.

“Hey,” Sirius head pokes back through the door, cart trailing him, “Food.”

Remus isn’t going to say no to that.

The spread of food looks even bigger when laid out and Remus can’t help but laugh as Sirus sits down next to him again, “Sirius, this is…a lot.”

Sirius shrugs one shoulder, “We don’t finish, you take home.”

Remus isn’t going to say no to that, either. He has a brief moment of wondering whether ordering this much was purposeful on Sirius’ part, but pushes it aside. That’s ridiculous. Sirius doesn’t even know him, much less anything about his financial situation. Well. He might know a little given who they are to each other.

Remus spends most of the meal listening to Sirius try to explain some funny story that happened on his trip, and anticipating the occasional moments of being fed bits of steak and such by Sirius, who barely breaks in talking despite how it takes Remus’ breath for a moment.

“I spend lot of time in hotel, you know?” Sirius’ voice breaks into Remus’ thoughts, mid story. He wished he’d been listening fully to know how to respond.

“I, ah, lonely?”

Sirius shrugs, but shoves a large scoop of pasta in his mouth. Remus takes that as a yes.

“How did you…” Remus searches for the right word before trying, “find me?”

Sirius actually pinks a little at that, “Ah. Friend. You know him. Recommend. Say you very sweet.”

Remus nods and respects the anonymity even if he’s dying to know who, “Sweet, huh?”

Sirius smiles a little, “I’m think so, too.”

They move onto the cake and the hotel had sent up an two extra desserts, seemingly just because Sirius is Sirius.

“I’m stay here lot, they know me.”

“Probably because you order the entire menu anyway.” Remus jokes.

It makes Sirius’ entire face light up, spreading his hands, “Hey, why not? Hungry after long day of flying.” He knocks his ankle against Remus’, “Good food, best company.”

Remus rolls his eyes a little and Sirius snorts. That shouldn’t be attractive, but it is.

“You live here always?” Sirius asks through a bite of cheesecake, “London?”

“Yeah, always.”

“Born here?”

Remus nods, “Yeah. I live a few streets over from my parent’s flat.”

“Must be so nice.” Sirius is smiling, but his eyes are down at his plate and he looks a little mournful. His fingertips not holding his fork are twisting the ring around his neck, “Be near family always.”

Remus takes a bite instead of answering. It had been nice. For a while.

“Not…Not nice?” Sirius says softly, “Sorry, not want to bring up bad things, Remus—“

“No. No, it’s okay. It’s fine, I just…yeah, I don’t really talk to my parents much these days.”

Sirius places a warm hand on his thigh, thumb rubbing on the inside slowly. But it isn’t sexual. It isn’t even verging on sexual. It’s soothing and warm, and it makes Remus want to keep talking.

“Not since I came out.” He finally manages, “To them. They weren’t…” But it turns out that’s all he can say on the matter.

“Make you feel better…” Sirius wets his lips, “Parents not know. Mine, I’m saying. Scared to tell, not good thing in Russia.” He gives Remus’ thigh a little squeeze, “I understand. Remus, it’s—it’s most brave.”

Remus blinks hard, “Yeah.” He doesn’t know why he’s sitting here having this semi-melt down with Sirius. Sirius definitely isn’t paying for this. He’s probably annoyed with him under all his kind words and so Remus snuffles and digs his palms into his eyes, trying to wipe the tears away and the redness that’s probably there both. There’s nothing really to do to make this not an awkward transition. How do you go from tears to sex? And with a stranger? “I’m sorry.” He begins, “Fuck, this—was not what I had planned.”

“Remus, it’s not apology—no, okay?” He’s suddenly pushing the food table away and tucking his legs beneath himself, sitting on his socked-heels and taking both of Remus’ hands, thumbs rubbing gently against the vulnerable insides of Remus’ wrists, “I’m not mind, really. Really.”

“I’ll take this out of your pay. Honestly, Sirius, this isn’t what you brought me here for, I just want you to know that I know that.” Remus can’t help it though, and despite his words curls his fingers around Sirius’, “Sorry."

“Please stop saying, Remus.” Sirius tone is firm, “Please, you—not an apology.” Even the word ‘apology’ sounds nice in Sirius’ mouth.

“I…make okay? A bit?” Sirius tugs very lightly on Remus’ hands but when Remus shakes his head he—he lets go. Which Remus can’t decide how he feels about that.

“Sorry.” He says again, then at Sirius’ face, he pushes a hand through his hair, “Fuck, sorry—Sor—“

And then Sirius is kissing him. His thumbs are stroking slowly along his cheeks and he’s sucking Remus’ bottom lip slowly into his mouth, brushing his tongue along it with the same amount of leisure. Remus sighs into it, fingers digging into his own thighs for a moment before he’s leaning forward and pressing his palms flat on Sirius’.

“Only if want.” Sirius says against his mouth, “Remus.” He pulls away just enough to look at Remus’ glassy eyes, “You not want a second ago, I’m just want no more sorry. No, ah, not need to do anything, okay?” He curls his fingers back around Remus’ ears, around the curls there, “карамель, can just put movie on. Have more cake.”

Remus sniffles a little, blinking hard at Sirius, “Did—Did you just call me caramel?” He remembers the soft word from last time.

Sirius smiles, a bit, and lifts one shoulder, “It’s good, no? It’s…not sure how to say…small names important in Russia. Mean two people are close.”

Is that really what we are? Remus wants to ask. He sort of wants to yell it because, as great as this is, he sees nothing but a darker end. For himself, anyway.

“Oh.” Is all he says out loud and falls sideways a little on the couch into the cushions. He’s suddenly so tired. Sirius doesn’t seem to mind, though, and mirrors his position, their knees knocking together. His soft smile is still aimed right at Remus. “What’s yours then?”

Sirius’ smile grows, “Mama give to me when little.” He raises his eyebrows, “Little bit funny, not laugh.”

Remus feels a smile of his own start up and he uses his sleeve to wipe his nose, sitting up a little more, “I won’t laugh.”

“Sivushka.” It rolls nicely off of Sirius’ tongue, and his cheeks pink a little but he looks pleased, “Sort of…for family? Friends. Not so much lover, too…small?”

“Casual?” Remus offers, “Like, it means a different feeling.”

Sirius’ smile is soft, “So good with english. So helpful.”

“Sivushka.” Remus tries it out, but it doesn’t sound half as good. Then, he can’t help it, heart in his throat when he asks, “What’s…what’s more than friends? Like, not—just, I’m curious what that would be.”

“Lover? Sirusya, maybe.” Then he smiles, eyes crinkling warmly, “You like? You call me?”

“Surely someone already calls you that.” Remus tries to keep his voice light. I mean, look at you. He wants to add.

Sirius sits up at that a little, eyes going hard, hand—that had been rubbing idly against Remus’ knee—going still, “No. No one call me.”

Remus swallows, “I—I didn’t mean—“

“I’m not—изменя́ть.” He huffs in frustration, “изменя́ть—I’m not know, not know, okay?”

Remus’s chest goes cold, “Okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything.”

“Not be here if with—someone else.” Sirius shakes his head, “Not like that, Remus. I’m not.” The phrase is followed by a disgruntled spell of Russian that Remus does his best to follow through tone alone.

“I know.” Remus finally says, “I know you aren’t.” Because he’s only met Sirius twice but he can honestly say he does know this about him, “I’m sorry.”

“Not apology, карамель.” Sirius rubs his hands over his face, “Too much action, sorry.”

Remus looks on in confusion, “What?”

“Me, me,” Sirius gestures aggressively towards himself, “Me. Too much action. Not right.”

Overreaction, Remus thinks and nods, “No, I understand.”

“I’m know…what guys you probably see doing…this.” Sirius doesn’t look at him as he acknowledges exactly why Remus is there for what feels like the first time other than money exchanges, “Not wrong for you to think. But no.”

“Sirius, it’s okay.” But that feels wrong somehow and so he says instead, “I mean, we’ve done this three times.”

Sirius is quiet for a long moment this time. “It’s true.” Then, after running his fingers over his necklace a few times, “You have other small name?”

The topic change pings a little, “Um. Not anything big. Re, mostly, if anything.”

“Re.” It sounds like a lovely mess of vowel in Sirius’ mouth, “That’s all?”

Remus nods, “Nothing like Russia, huh?”

Sirius runs a hand over his face one more time but when he moves it there’s a trace of his usual smile, “I’m find you one, not worry.” Then, eyes down and voice quiet but questioning, “You have…small name…for lover?”

Remus swallows. His throat is so dry all of a sudden so he just shakes his head, then realizes Sirius isn’t looking at him so he croaks out, “No.”

Sirius nods back, “Oh.” Then he grabs the remote and pushes it into Remus’ hand, “Find something. I’m call for tea and get money before forget. Be back.”

It seems like the end of the conversation, but the conversation doesn’t feel over. Remus choses a movie, but he couldn’t say what it was about. When its over Sirius has to tuck the money into Remus’ back pocket himself. He presses another kiss to Remus’ cheek. Then Remus doesn’t hear from him for two weeks.

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moonlights-shadow-warrior · 5 years

Text

Who Killed Strelitzia?

Ava, Ven, Skuld, and Darkness. The four mostly likely to have killed Strelitzia based on the information we have now. The fandom seems to lean more towards the former two, while I believe it was one of the later two

First, to go over what we know

It’s recommended to use x2 speed for videos

Strelitzia's Chirithy spotted Player and Skuld walking into the house to meet with Gula (x)(x) and immediately ran to get their wielder (x), to the confusion of Elrena's Chirithy (x). While Player and Skuld were in the house, Ava's and Luxu's keyblades clashed (x) and the clock tower tolled, starting the war. This prompted Gula to tell them to head back as their "Union Leaders will probably call for an assembly", at which point Player and Skuld split up, the latter saying she was "going to go join the other Dandelions" (x)

Not long after, Strelitzia arrived at what at first seemed like an empty house (x). As the two are getting ready to leave, Strelitzia is stabbed. Her Chirithy asks "Why...?" and on the zoom out the killer has disappeared. Then you get Strelitzia's last wish as she walks to the doorway and then she dies.

I'll go down the list, giving for and against arguments for each character

Ava

For:

Knew that Strelitzia was chosen as a Union Leader. And--as far as we know--her, MoM, and Luxu were the only ones who knew. MoM and Luxu taking out a chosen wielder and inserting someone different, going against what was supposed to happen doesn't seem likely. Not unless Strelitzia wasn't supposed to be a Union Leader, which also doesn't seem likely

Has the ability to create illusions (x). Would give an explanation as to why the killer was shrouded in darkness, and possibly even giving her the ability to appear in two places at once. There is also a theory that Ava became Darkness, being able to do so because of this ability

Her wording when she gave Brain his role and the BoP seems odd and rather suspicious (x)(x). General consensus as of now is that she either gave Brain the BoP when she wasn't supposed to or straight up inserted him into the Union Leaders when he wasn't picked by MoM. This is supported by Luxu saying in Secret Report 11 "One of the Five is an impostor, someone the Master did not choose. They represent a virus in the program he so carefully wrote. The virus has begun a strange undertaking: a reckless plot to allow the Five to escape into another worldline" (x). In addition, Brain calls himself a virus (x) and is possibly named after the first computer virus (x)

Chirithy's "Why...?" possibly implies that they knew the killer. And as far as we know, the only suspects Chirithy had previously met or seen was Ava and Skuld. Chirithy has also probably met Lauriam before, but based on Lauriam's inner thoughts on his search to find Strelitzia as denoted by the parentheses (x)(x) he didn't know what had happened to her, much less that she'd been killed

She didn't notice Strelitzia wasn't with the Dandelions. While we don't know just how many Dandelions escaped the war, you'd think Ava would keep an eye out to make sure all the future Union Leaders were accounted for before taking them to the new world. However, Lauriam didn't notice Strelitzia wasn't there either so maybe there were too many to keep track of who all showed up (added 11 Dec 2019)

Against:

Brain was given his role as a Union Leader and the BoP 4 years ago (x). How long they've been in the simulation is unknown, but based on Ephemer's conversation with the player (x) it's been a while. However, with everyone being able to recall events that happened before the war with relative ease, I'd say it hasn't been years since the war. I'd venture a guess to say it's been months, maybe a year at most. In addition, given that Ava didn't say that the war would be happening soon unlike all the other times we've seen her tell the other chosen, he was probably one of, if not the first to be given his new role

She was fighting Luxu shortly before Strelitzia was killed (x)(x)(x)(x)(x). We don't know how long the fight lasted, but unless she was able to create an illusion or the fight ended extremely quickly, she wouldn't have been able to find Strelitzia and kill her in that time

The Dandelions were to meet up after the bells. Skuld said she was going to meet up with the other Dandelions (x), at which point Ava would send them to the outside world (x). So Ava would have had to given the role of Union Leader to a Dandelion that she had either pulled aside from where they were meeting or found them before they had met up with everyone. We don't know how quickly the Dandelions were sent off, but it had to have been in the span of the few days (x) between the bells and the war. However, Elrena's Chirithy says the new Union Leaders were introduced shortly after (x) Strelitzia's Chirithy ran off to find her

She gave Strelitzia her role what was probably only a day before she was killed. Ava says that the it wouldn't be long before the world ends (x) which immediately cuts away to Strelitzia in her room thinking about her being a Union Leader and what's going to happen. Upon her realizing that Player isn't a Dandelion she debates going out to find them (x) before saying she'll wait in Fountain Square for them early tomorrow (x) which is where Chirithy finds her and tells her that she spotted Player (x). This leads to her going to the house in which she dies. So unless during the cut away days pass or she waited at Fountain Square for multiple days, Strelitzia was killed the day after she received the book

Brain was given his book first, then Ephemer, then Strelitzia. As stated above, Brain was given his role 4 years ago. Ephemer was sent not long before the war to prepare everything as Ava would be sending the dandelions "soon" (x) and that there wasn't "much time left" (x), and Strelitzia what was mostly likely only a day before. Meaning Strelitzia could have very well been the last of them to receive the book, so why would she kill her when she only just informed her of her role? Unless what Luxu said really shook her to her core and she quickly tried to make a last minute change

Only one (1) member of the Union Leaders was someone MoM didn't choose, as stated in Secret Report 11. This means that if it is to be believe that Brain wasn't a chosen Union Leader, then whoever killed Strelitzia was meant to have been a Union Leader in the first place. So if Ava was trying to change things, why would she pick the person chosen by MoM that she had previously skipped over for the role of Union Leader?

Ven

For:

He was very young. Ven was ~16 (x) during BBS, and had been living with Master Eraqus, Terra, and Aqua for 4 years, making him ~12 when he trained under Xehanort. Which means that he was 12 or younger during his time as a Union Leader and selected my MoM when he was 8 or younger due to at least 4 years passing (x). Which means at the time MoM chose what was essentially a 2nd or 3rd grader to lead the others in 4 years time. So either MoM was being extra chaotic, or he never actually chose Ven

Xehanort was able to create Vanitas from his Darkness. We've never seen this tempted again, so it's unknown if it's possible to do this with everyone that has darkness in their hearts, or if Ventus had more darkness than what could be considered normal which was then used to give birth to Vanitas

He said he'd barely spoken to Ava (x). And based on previous interactions Ava's had when telling the new Union Leaders their roles (x)(x), she tends to talk a lot

His Keyblade. Claims he's not particularly good at anything and never at the top of the rankings (x), yet has a fully leveled Missing Ache (x). Not only is this Keyblade the fourth to last one you get when playing (x), it's also a Dark Speed Keyblade (x)

Against:

Only one of the new Union Leaders was an impostor. So unless Brain was chosen by MoM, Ventus was meant to be a leader in the first place which takes out the first and last points of For

As far as we know, he didn't know Strelitzia had the book

Skuld

For:

The new Union Leaders weren't supposed to come in contact with one another (x). While we don't know if that meant meeting each other knowing they were to be Union Leaders or meeting each other in general, we don't know. But Skuld had a feeling Ephemer would be there (x) which seems to go against what Ava wanted. In addition, this isn't outright confirmed by Ava, rather Brain speculating and Ava saying he's "always been a bright one"

Ephemer talked to her about the end of the world (x). Ephemer showed up in her dream (x), and even though she said he told her nothing except to meet up with Player and go with them, her story quickly changes. We don't actually know how much Ephemer told her either

Ava told her that she had chosen Ephemer to replace her and lead the Dandelions (x). This means that Skuld knew about Ephemer, which again contradicts the first point. In addition, while Ava talked about a war with the Dandelions, she never talked about others replacing her (x), possibly allowing Skuld and only Skuld to infer that there would be someone to replace each of the Union Leaders who had to take part in the war

She split up with Player right before Strelitzia was killed (x). We don't see her again after that until she and Ephemer go to get Player, so it's unknown if she went straight to where the other Dandelions were gathered or not

She's been compared to Ava quite a few times (x)(x)(x). So if you believe Ava might have killed Strelitzia then Skuld, who is quite similar, could have gone through with it as well

Her eyes. Yes, I'm using the fact that Skuld has golden brown eyes as a point because the only characters we've seen with eyes that aren't blue, purple, green, teal, or silver is Skuld and those possessed by Darkness. Even the reoccurring Dandelions seem to have one of the above eye colors. The only exception may be Brain and that's 'cause I can't tell what colors his eyes are since it's so dark

Again, Chirithy's "Why...?" possibly implies that they knew the killer. And they had previously seen Skuld going into that building with Player

Against:

To the first point of For, Lauriam and Strelitzia obviously knew each other being siblings. Lauriam claimed to have not seen her much after he convinced her to join the Dandelions (x) sometimes within the two years before her death (x), but that doesn't change the fact that they met beforehand. So unless Ava didn't know (which seems unlikely), the new Union Leaders were allowed to meet and know each other as long as they didn't know about the other being chosen.

Again, only one of the new Union Leaders was an impostor. Either Ava messed up big time when telling Skuld about Ephemer, Brain was chosen by MoM, or Ava decided after meeting her that Skuld wouldn't be included in the Union Leaders

As far as we know, she didn't know Strelitzia had the book

Darkness

For:

It's Darkness. Taking on the name of what they're fighting and helping Maleficient is all kinds of shady

The book could have been given to another. Just because Strelitzia was killed by someone, doesn't mean that person was the one to become the new Union Leader in her place. The killer could have easily passed the role onto another

We don't know anything about them. As with the Ava is Darkness Theory, Darkness could actually be anybody. We don't know their abilities, we don't know if that black blob is their true form or not, we don't know their motives. All we know is that they have knowledge of the future, know MoM's plans, and know how to travel forward in time (x)(x). Because of this they could even be someone already on this list

Against:

As far as we know, they didn't know Strelitzia had the book. This is excluding the Ava is Darkness Theory

And now for some honorable mentions I've seen

Lauriam - almost completely cleared of suspicion

Brain - almost completely cleared of suspicion

Strelitzia's Chirithy - doubted Strelitzia and would've been able to inform other's about her role

Gula - in the house where Strelitzia was killed

Luxu - could've known she was to be a Union Leader

MoM - would've known she was to be a Union Leader

Luxord's Somebody - there are claims that he's Darkness, plus we haven't seen him yet

Demyx's Somebody - there are claims that he's MoM, plus we haven't seen him yet

While going over this I did notice that some of the new Union Leaders are similar to the old ones and maybe MoM just picked those that could take over in both role and personality. Ava = Skuld (obviously) and Strelitzia = Invi with the whole watching thing. Kinda falls apart after that though with Aced, as grumpy as he can be

Obviously I'm biased but really I don't care too much on who it was; I just want this game of Clue to be over and to find out who killed my precious baby angel. Just think of all the possibilities for art and fics and photoshoots

Let me know if there are any tags I should add, if I missed anything, if any of the links or information are incorrect, if there are any typos, and feel free to comment any ideas or theories.

Crossposted from Pillowfort

#kingdom hearts #kh #khux #kingdom hearts union x #kingdom hearts theory #kh theory #khux theory #traitor ava theory #traitor ventus theory #traitor ven theory #traitor skuld theory #ava #ventus #skuld #strelitzia #kh darkness #who killed strelitzia #it speaks

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magic-and-moonlit-wings · 5 years

Text

Chapter 40: A(nother) Changeling In Trollmarket

Becoming The Mask

I'll be using a script format in addition to my previous -text between hyphens indicates text messages- method, to make it clearer who is typing in the group chat. (Emojis) will be described in parentheses.

Bold italics are trollish.

I’m also trying out a simple new line divider now that Tumblr doesn’t have an automatic one anymore.

+=+

The second thing Jim did when he got home, after putting his backpack and duffle bag in his room, was dust the house. It hadn't built up much in a week, since dust was mostly human skin cells and Barbara was rarely home in any case, but Jim usually dusted every day. Then he checked the lightbulbs, swept the floors, and scrubbed the bathroom. He wouldn't need to take out the trash until Monday.

Barbara didn't have work that day, and since she'd slept all morning, she was awake while Jim cleaned, which was a little weird – he usually took care of these things before making her breakfast. She half-followed him, helping dust and sweep.

"You know you don't have to do all this," she told him from the doorway, as he was wiping toothpaste stains out of the sink.

"I like taking care of you," Jim insisted. "And I wasn't sure how much you'd trust my cooking now, but this I can do."

"You understand why what you did was wrong." She hesitated. "… Right?"

"I know why it upset you," which wasn't quite the same thing. Jim knew he'd caused his mother stress when she found out about the sleeping potions, but how much more stress would it have caused her to wake up and find her child missing? "I won't do it again." She knew now, that he might be gone in the middle of the night.

+=+

Toby: -So Jim told me something last night that's really freaking me out.- -He's had a plan *since before we were ten* for how to cover up my death if I got killed by a troll.-

Mary: -… I'm sorry but also curious.-

Darci: -You OK, TP?-

Toby: -Just freaked out that my BEST FRIEND has BACKUP PLANS to HIDE MY DEATH!- -Sorry, Darcy.- -Didn't mean to snap.-

Darci: -Understandable.-

Toby: -Also sorry my phone keeps autocorrecting your name.-

Darci: -It happens.- -You're going through a lot right now. It's good to let it out.-

Claire: -Jim said WHAT?!-

Toby: -Yeah, he said if I died and he couldn't make it look like a bear attack or car crash, he'd hack my phone and tell Nana we ran away to be rockstars. He'd come back without me in a few months and say we 'got separated'.-

Mary: -That's nuts.- -I mean I might believe it but it's still nuts.-

Toby: -Back when we were kids he was gonna send a postcard saying we were looking for my parents and his dad.-

Darci: -(wince emoji) That hurts.-

Toby: -It gets worse, amazingly. He said he thinks the rockstar story could also work for you guys if *any* of us die.- -Because Dr L found out about you. Not specifically, no names- -but she knows we have other friends who know about trolls, and she wants to tell your families but Jim said no and Dr L asked what he's going to tell our families if we get killed.-

Darci: -(three wince emojis)-

Mary: -Not to derail but this means his mom's talking to him again?-

Toby: -Yeah she was at my house when we got back last night.- -She let him move back in. That's where he is now.-

Claire: -She trusts him again already? After he kidnapped and replaced her son?-

Toby: -She had this whole speech about how she adopted him and he's her son too.-

Mary: -Aawww-

Toby: -I think she was a little drunk but she didn't take it back when she sobered up.- -She's still mad about the drugging and the lying and everything, she didn't say she forgave him. Just that he can move back home.-

Claire: -So at least you're not sharing a bedroom with somebody with a plan to cover up your death anymore.-

Mary: -OMG Claire I know you're mad at Jim and I get it and you deserve to be, but will you chillax? Yeah, I just used outdated slang. That's how long it feels like you're dragging this out.-

Claire: -I'll *chillax* when my brother's not stuck in troll-hell.-

Darci: -What if we told our parents ourselves?- -You know, got ahead of Dr L and told them what's up on our terms.-

Mary: -That's a good idea. Let's talk to Jim first so he can tell us from experience what not to say.-

Toby: -Jim might have to use those cover stories because I think Trollmarket would kill us.-

+=+

"I don't want it facing where I sleep, but I've no objections to you keeping your trophy here."

"Excellent." Jim positioned Bular's head on one of the basement shelves. "I got called into the Void while I was there. The Ghost Council is really impressed we took him down. Your father wanted me to say that he's proud of you for avenging him."

Draal puffed up at the praise. It made Jim want to pat him on the head or something.

"And I wanted to thank you again for – being here. Keeping an eye on my mom."

"She faced no danger on my watch."

"You know, if you ever wanted to help out around the house, too –"

Draal snorted, making his nose ring flap. "I protect. I do not clean."

"Except for taking care of the recyclables," Jim teased. They'd had this conversation before. Draal rolled his eyes.

Jim's phone chimed. "Toby wants to meet up in Trollmarket for 'strategic brainstorming'," he read. "You want to come along?"

+=+

"What is HE doing here?!"

Jim stared, wide-eyed and jaw twitching, at Enrique, who blew a spit bubble at him from the stroller.

"I told my parents I was meeting friends at the park, and Mom said 'why don't you bring your brother?', and if I said 'no' it would've become this whole thing and they'd think we were really planning to sneak into an R-rated movie or something."

Draal had declined to leave his post, so instead of taking the tunnels and opening the door from the inside, Jim had walked with Toby to the canal. It didn't take long for the girls to join them, accompanied by an undesired extra.

"Okay," said Jim, failing to calm down but trying to at least fake it. "What are you planning to tell your parents if he's discovered and executed?"

"Not everyone spends their time coming up with ways to cover up the deaths of everyone they know!"

"I don't have plans for everyone." That would be absurd and unnecessary. "Just the people I'm close enough to that it would be more suspicious if I didn't at least know they were missing." Jim took a deep breath and let it whoosh out. "Let's get inside. Now I need to brief Enrique before we go downstairs, and that'll be easier if he can ask questions."

Stricklander and Nomura had both been startled into revealing their connection when they first visited. Jim couldn't let Enrique be exposed so easily.

After the portal's arch closed behind them, there was a crackle of green light mixed with the blue glow from the crystal staircase. Enrique unbuckled himself from the stroller and hopped over to Jim.

"Is it supposed to look like a Nyarlagroth's lair in here?"

"Creepy, right?" Jim transformed as well. "It's just the colour of the stairs. You get used to it. Tobes, would you keep watch for us? Just say my name if anybody starts coming up."

Mary snapped a photo of the two Changelings.

"The one you need to watch out for most is Vendel," said Jim. "He's in charge down there. Pale, long curly horns, carries a Heartstone staff; hopefully you won't actually meet him. Blinky, my trainer, you will meet. He's the one who looks like Dictatious. They're brothers. Don't bring that up if you're found out. If he catches you staring, just giggle like the six eyes are funny and –"

"Peek-a-boo routine, I know. I'm more in practise than you are at the baby gig right now."

"AAARRRGGHH is going to be there, too."

Enrique ducked into a crouch, ears up, slit pupils thinning to eyelash width and then dilating.

"But it's okay! He's a pacifist now. He won't attack anybody."

"You're jokin'."

"No, really."

"Why is that a shock?" asked Claire. "AAARRRGGHH's a sweetie. Unlike some trolls I could mention." Jim and Enrique didn't answer her. "Plus, I already told Blinky and AAARRRGGHH about Not Enrique, remember?"

"You what?!"

"Enrique didn't need to know that," the blue Changeling growled, holding the green one suspended in the air. "He can't risk dropping his guard down there."

"Getcher hand off me scruff or I'm taking it off your arm!"

"You guys even keep secrets from each other?" asked Toby, sitting on the top step. Darci was sitting next to him. Both humans were watching their friends over their shoulders rather than peering down below.

Jim set Enrique on the ground rather than dropping him. Enrique growled and reached behind his shoulders, rearranging and grooming his scruff as best he could, but he was glaring at Jim rather than Claire, so Jim counted it as a win.

(If he could keep fights between the Nuñez siblings from turning violent, it would be easier for them to bond, and less likely Enrique would lose his home at Claire's hand.)

+=+

"We want to tell our parents about trolls," Darci said to Blinky and AAARRRGGHH. Since she had come up with the idea, she'd been informally elected the one to tell the trolls about it.

Jim made a shrieky noise. When the group turned to him, he shook his head and waved them off, taking notably deep breaths.

AAARRRGGHH shook his head. "Bad idea. Vendel mad."

"I must concede the point. Vendel would never agree to have more humans made aware of trolls."

"Jim's mom is out to tell them anyway," said Toby. "She already told Nana. Nana thought she was talking about a video game, but still. The only thing holding Dr L back is that she doesn't actually know who to talk to yet."

"But if we tell them ourselves," said Darci, "then we can make it sound a bit less terrifying then she probably would, so they won't try to call in the army or something."

"We're not really asking permission, here," said Mary. "We're asking how to tell them, not if we can."

"… We should discuss this with Vendel," said Blinky. Darci thought his hands might be shaking, before he clenched all four into fists.

They made a tense procession through Trollmarket. Jim practically hovered over Claire and Enrique. AAARRRGGHH, at the rear of the group, made quiet snuffling sounds every few moments.

Trollmarket paid more attention to them than was usual anymore; trolls glancing at them and then muttering or whispering. Darci hoped it was the stroller drawing attention. Though, even if anyone was picking up on the mood, grimness could be passed off as 'some serious Trollhunter matter just came up'.

The stroller's wheel caught in a crack in the ground. Not Enrique made a whiny noise at the jostling, but didn't commit to the part enough to start crying.

"Vendel?" said Blinky cautiously, tapping on the Heartstone to the side of the hollow leading into and under it. "A matter of possible urgency has arisen."

There was a long pause.

"Come in, Blinkous." Vendel sounded tired. "What is it this time?"

He was at a worktable with a number of gems. Darci only recognized a few of the tools; a hammer and chisel, various sizes of tongs, a grindstone. She didn't know any of the crystal names or their properties, even after months of part-time exposure to troll culture, but Toby might.

Darci cleared her throat, and then gulped, and then cleared her throat again. She tried not to let her voice shake.

"We … Claire and Mary and Toby and I, we want to tell our parents the truth. That trolls exist."

Vendel peered at her with his seemingly blank eyes. When she'd first met him, she'd assumed he had cataracts. Now she thought his eyes were opal or moonstone. He could definitely see; she'd seen him reading.

"I suppose I have no way of stopping you. Short of having you executed, or imprisoned here forever … which I daresay our Trollhunter would object to. But know this, young humans. Should you expose the secret of our existence, a secret which you have given your oaths to guard, you will no longer be welcome here in Trollmarket."

+=+

Previous Chapter (Strickler considers summoning Angor Rot)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Arguments for and against telling the parents)

#Becoming The Mask chapters #Trollhunters #Tales of Arcadia #Changeling Jim #Dr Barbara Lake #Tobias Domzalski #Darci Scott #Mary Wang #Claire Nuñez #Draal #Not Enrique #Changelings #Blinkous Galadrigal #AAARRRGGHH #Vendel #My Fanfiction #Monday is fanfic day!

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the-gay-in-the-way · 6 years

Text

A Thread of Doubt

(Okay, so this is something that I felt kind of compelled to write while I was working on the third part of The Great Boop War of 2018. Reason being that it kind of adds on some extra context to some of the stuff that happens in there.)

(So I figured I’d just go ahead and make this beforehand while the iron was still hot and the ideas were fresh in my mind.)

(You can see this as a stand alone or a spin-off or whatever, but the basic thing you need to know is that it takes place in the same universe as the Boop War, the Utensil War, and Why be Sad When You Can be Even Sadder.)

(It all coincides together and you can read all of them to get some extra context and little references in each one that comes from a different one.)

(Also, there’s a particular line in here that I have Virgil use and it comes from this person right here and their really interesting idea that inspired another really cool person to create an awesome fanfic on Ao3 called Persona that I very much recommend.)

(Also, also, there are a couple of songs I reference in this that I recommend you just generally check out. They’re pretty cool, in my opinion.)

(Myth me-Chilly Gonzales, Roundtable Rival-Lindsey Stirling)

(Anyways, let’s get on with this. Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoy the story.)

Deceit had been helping Patton with the dishes one morning when the moral side had suddenly asked him if he’d like to watch Virgil work that day.

Deceit hadn’t been entirely sure why they were going to watch Virgil work, of all things, but he had been intrigued enough by the question and Patton’s enthusiasm that it hadn’t taken much convincing to make him come along.

And so, Deceit soon found himself standing beside a visibly excited Morality as they both stood inside of Virgil’s bedroom.

“So, do you know where the entrance is? Or are we waiting for Virgil now?”

(Technically, you don’t have to read this part. But I recommend that you do so that you can understand the universe as a whole a little better. It’s what I’m gonna be using in most of my stories so...)

(You know, just as a warning. Read or don’t, it’s your choice. There will be another line and a set of these parenthesized comments where the detailed exposition ends and the rest of the story continues.)

All sides had a particular “Realm” within the Mindscape they were individually in charge of. Each Realm was attached to the main House/Hub by a specific entrance within each side’s bedroom. The entrance would then lead to a mirrored version of the bedroom and house within the other Realm. And, when you exited the house, you would enter the actual bulk of the Realm itself.

Logan’s Realm was the Memory Library(where all of the subjects, books, movies, music, roles, and lessons Thomas had ever learned/experienced before were kept) and the entrance was behind a secret bookcase door that could only be opened by solving a particular puzzle within the room that Logan changed once every week.

Roman’s Realm was the Imagination Plane(where all of Thomas’s ideas and dreams were kept and, for the most part, created) and the entrance tended to change depending on the day. Sometimes it would be through a wardrobe, other times it would be through a magic mirror, and every once and a while it would be through a painting or a book. Finding it was part of the fun, according to Roman.

Deceit’s Realm was the Memory Archives(where all of Thomas’s actual memories were kept and carefully sorted, organized, and maintained) and the entrance was through a fake wall right across from his bedroom’s door.

Patton’s Realm was the Heartscape(where everything Thomas held dear to his heart like his love for his friends, a collection of his most precious memories, his most deep seated beliefs, and almost all of his emotions as a whole were kept and maintained) and the entrance was through a simple door covered in pictures and stickers and little splashes of paint over in the corner of Patton’s bedroom.

Virgil’s Realm was the Nightmare Plane(where all of Thomas’s fears, doubts, concerns, nightmares, and troubling thoughts were all kept, created, and very carefully maintained) and Deceit didn’t actually know where the entrance was.

(Okay, that’s all the detailed exposition)

(Back to the main story)

Nobody had ever gone to Virgil’s Realm without him or Thomas just sinking them into it, so the other sides weren’t really sure where Virgil’s Realm entrance actually was.

And, whenever someone asked, Virgil would always just say that it was better they not be able to go in on their own anyways.

The Nightmare Plane was a dangerous place, even with Virgil being there to keep them safe.

If they went in without him, nobody was really sure how well that would turn out.

So it was simply one of those things that everyone quietly thought about but never did anything to figure out.

Except, apparently, it wasn’t.

Because Patton was smiling at him and walking towards Virgil’s bed with a confidence that spoke volumes about how much time he spent in the anxious side’s space.

“Virgil showed me where the entrance was a long time ago. And I know where he’s gonna be today, so you can just follow me and I’ll take you where we need to go.”

Deceit blinked in surprise and had to physically keep his jaw from dropping when Patton reached a hand under the overly long sheets of Virgil’s bed, pulled the blankets up and away from the floor, and revealed a very thin black wooden door where the underside of the bed was meant to be.

And then Deceit felt a little like smacking himself.

Of course, the entrance was under the bed.

It was the Nightmare Plane, were else would it be?

Patton grinned at him and waved a hand.

“C’mon, I wanna get there before he starts!”

And, with that said, Patton opened the secret door and slid easily through it.

Then it closed with a startlingly loud slam behind him and Deceit had to take a moment to remind himself that this was Virgil’s Realm Patton had just gone into and the anxious side would never let anything bad happen to them if he could help it.

So, after taking a single long and steadying breath, Deceit made his way to the side of the bed and opened the small door.

It didn’t creak or do anything particularly ominous which surprised him a little.

And it stayed open when he started to slide through it.

It only slammed shut again when he was safely past it.

“There you are! For a second there, I wasn’t sure if you followed me or not.”

Came the muffled voice of Patton from...

Somewhere.

Deceit couldn’t see anything.

Which said a lot considering how good his night-vision usually was.

But he was still on his stomach and, when he raised his head a little, he could still feel the low ceiling/bottom of the bed above him.

Then, suddenly, there was light and it took a moment for Deceit to adjust his eyes enough to clearly see Patton crouched on the floor and looking at him sideways through the thin open door.

“Don’t worry, this is just the bed in Virgil’s other room. So, you can come out now.”

“Oh. Alright then...”

And Deceit shuffled his way out from under the bed, looking around the room with some curiosity once he entered it.

Although Virgil had let them into his Realm a few times in the past, they had never really gone anywhere past the living room before.

The rest of the Realm was far too dangerous, according to Virgil.

“Okay!” Patton said with a firm clap of his hands that made Deceit jump half a foot. “Let’s get going before we miss anything!”

Deceit didn’t bother complaining as he allowed the other side to pull him along.

He simply remained silent and continued to look around the only Realm he’d never really had the chance to explore before.

The main house looked, for the most part, the same.

Just with the additional decorations that tended to vary between each side’s spaces.

The living room, once they reached it, looked as it always did.

Although, there was now the addition of a pile of random pillows and blankets strewn all across the floor.

It looked like a massive pillow fort had attempted to manifest only to somehow miss its mark and just end up collapsed all over the place.

Patton went straight past the mess with only a bit of a fond smile thrown over his shoulder as any sort of acknowledgment.

Deceit kind of wanted to ask about it but didn’t get the chance when Patton reached the front door and swiftly pulled it open.

And Deceit felt chills run down his spine as he and Morality entered the true Nightmare Plane and all that that would entail.

Patton didn’t hesitate when a strong gust of wind pushed at them threw the door and only laughed in delight as he stepped easily through, his hand still pulling Deceit along behind him.

For a moment, Deceit was too afraid of what he’d see to look away from the other side’s back.

But then he started to hear the sounds of something that surprised him.

Crickets chirping.

A breeze gently rushing through leaves.

Water flowing from somewhere nearby.

So, hesitantly, Deceit looked up.

And was met with a sight that he would easily call one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

Outside of the house was a large circular clearing, surrounded by trees.

Within the clearing was a medium-sized pond attached to a waterfall that came from a river leading into the shadows of the surrounding forest.

Next to it was an absolutely massive willow tree with little glowing purple lights gently floating around its swaying limbs.

Small, almost glowing, white flowers dotted the grass like little fallen stars.

And above it all, was a breathtaking view of the sky.

The moon was large and full, surrounded by too many stars to count in a swirling mass of color like Deceit had never seen in anything other than Logan’s pictures of far off galaxies.

Gentle golds and oranges mixed with vibrant blues and purples.

The stars made patterns like no real constellation ever could.

“It’s nice, right?”

Deceit looked quickly back down at the one standing beside him, and realized with a start that they had stopped walking at the edge of the pond.

He took a quick glance and saw that the water was so clear and still that he could see the sky reflected within it.

It was like standing beside a tiny galaxy.

“No.” He breathed. “It’s horrible.”

Then there was the sound of a familiar laugh and Deceit looked up to the willow tree nearby.

“So shocked you lied, huh? I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Virgil walked through an opening in the limbs created by, seemingly, the limbs simply moving themselves for him.

He looked as he always did, though he did seem slightly more relaxed than usual.

Even his eyeshadow seemed just a tad softer than normal.

“You shouldn’t. I can think of something better to express my shock.”

The anxious side let out a small snort in return as he finally reached the two and came to a stop beside Patton.

He let out a rather long-suffering sigh and directed a baleful glance at the other.

“Hey, Pat. I didn’t realize you were gonna be bringing someone with you today. If I’d known I would’ve made this place a bit spookier or something.” Virgil said with a shrug before bringing a hand up to rub at his neck a little awkwardly. “I’ve got an image to maintain, y’know.”

And Deceit felt the smallest of twinges within his chest.

He understood Virgil’s mindset quite well.

“Nobody cares if you’re scared.” He’d once said to him after a rather heated debate between the sides had ended with Virgil using his voice and control over shadows to intimidate them all into listening to him. “They care if you’re scary.”

Virgil could easily be seen as one of the most caring of the sides.

Both for Thomas and the others.

But he always seemed so dark and mysterious and scary.

That it had been hard to notice before.

Though, that time was passed now.

And they were all famILY.

So Virgil didn’t need to be scary anymore.

This was something that Patton, and now Deceit, wanted to prove to him.

That was, after all, why Patton had brought Deceit with him in the first place.

He’d been trying to find good opportunities to bring the others in and show them around without Virgil being able to stop him beforehand.

And that opportunity was now, so he was going to milk it for all it was worth.

Patton grinned widely at his best friend and released Deceit’s hand before leaping forward and giggling when Virgil instantly caught him.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Virgil. You’re already beautiful in my book, so I don’t know how making this place look any different would make your image change.”

Deceit smiled behind his hand as Virgil’s face turned a very pale shade of pink.

“You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you. I swear you’re the worst, Pat.”

The anxious side’s grumbles were only met with more giggling and some quiet snickers from the peanut gallery.

Then he sighed in a way that sounded, incredibly, even more long-suffering than before.

“Alright, I get it. You’re making a point and trying to reveal my soft and squishy underbelly to the others. That’s fine and all but I actually do need to get some work done today. Thomas is having a good time with his friends so I’d rather take care of it now than worry about it later.”

With the reminder of Virgil’s work, Deceit straightened and Patton let go of the side he’d jumped at to instead face him head on with an excited grin on his face.

“Right! Sorry, yeah, let’s go!”

And Patton ran past Virgil and over to the willow tree, the other sides trailing slowly behind him.

The two stayed silent as they walked but Deceit did give the anxious side a gentle nudge to the arm that was returned with a soft smile.

The gesture spoke volumes, and needed no words to get the intended message across.

When they entered the small enclosed space created by the willow tree’s limbs, Patton was already settled within a little cushioned hollow in the tree’s roots and Deceit took a moment to look around at the floating lights as they idly made their way around the area.

“Alright, get comfortable you two. I’m gonna be at this for a while and I’d really prefer it if you didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Don’t worry! We’ll be good, right Deceit?”

And Deceit nodded as he took a seat in the hollow beside Patton.

“Of course not.”

He didn’t bother making himself tell the truth.

Virgil could tell when he was lying and when he wasn’t.

Indeed, he simply nodded in understanding and took his place standing in front of them.

For a moment, everything seemed to still and take a breath.

Then Virgil took his own breath and sat down on thin air.

Deceit blinked in surprise and watched with no small amount of curiosity as liquid shadows dripped from Virgil’s fingers.

The shadows moved around him and slowly solidified into a piano and a bench.

Then he started to play and Deceit felt something well up in his chest.

And when Virgil started to sing this song that he had never heard before, he felt a little like crying.

“Myth me.”

Patton’s quiet whisper startled him a little and he turned to look at the other side who looked just as affected by the music as he was.

“What?”

Deceit whispered back as quietly as he could.

“The song. It’s called Myth Me. It’s one of my favorites when he works on these threads.”

And that’s when Deceit finally noticed them.

Long, delicate, and glowing white threads filled the air around Virgil like some kind of intricate work of art.

The threads thrummed quietly alongside the music and some seemed to simply loosen and fall apart, disappearing into the air like mist.

“Oh.”

Was all Deceit could think to say in response.

And that was fine.

The two remained silent for a long time after that.

Simply listening to Virgil as he played and sang.

Occasionally, more shadows would seep from his fingers and take on the forms of featureless humanoids that would play other instruments alongside him.

And the threads continued to loosen and fall apart.

Until all that was left were the tautest of strings.

That was when Virgil stood from the piano and took his place beside it.

A violin quickly formed in his hand and the piano, alongside almost all of the shadows around him dissipated into thin air.

Then Virgil started to play.

And the ethereal calm that had filled the clearing moments before was snapped alongside dozens of the threads as Virgil played a song that sent a thrill of excitement and fear through Deceit’s body.

He felt Patton press close to him and listened closely as the side whispered in his ear once again.

“Roundtable Rival. It’s one of the best at breaking lots of threads at once.”

Deceit wasn’t surprised to hear that.

He watched as the strings continued to snap, letting out impossibly loud cracking and booming sounds that matched the music perfectly each time.

Virgil danced around the threads, and the shadows that played beside him, like he was being carried by the music itself.

With each snap of a thread, blindingly bright light flashed across him and only seemed to intensify with his playing.

And Virgil continued to play that song and so many more until most of the threads were gone.

Finally, Virgil stopped, took a deep breath once more, and let all of the shadows and instruments he had summoned disappear into thin air.

Then Deceit jumped almost a full two feet into the air when Patton leaped up and started to clap with a cheer.

“That was amazing, Virgil!”

The anxious side smiled a little crookedly and rubbed his neck again.

“Thanks, Pat.”

And Deceit found himself quickly nodding along as he stood alongside the moral side.

“No, that was terrible. I hated every second of it.”

And Virgil seemed slightly surprised by the praise but smiled genuinely at the both of them.

“Thanks. I’m glad you guys enjoyed yourselves, I guess.”

And Patton rather suddenly squealed before launching himself at Virgil once again.

Virgil, bless his heart, leaped forward and caught the excitable side without hesitation.

“We have to go and get cookies now! You deserve so many cookies! All of the cookies! I love my dark strange son so much! He deserves all of the cookies in the world!”

Deceit chuckled into his hand as Patton continued to ramble while Virgil just silently carried him away from the tree with an expression of utter defeat and quiet embarrassment on his face.

With one final glance back at the beautiful clearing they were leaving behind, Deceit followed the two emotional sides back into the house with a peaceful smile on his face and a slightly altered view on his family’s resident worrywart.

(Here’s a link to the next part of the CAP Series.)

(A Bed of Links:)

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Cerillen

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerillen/pseuds/Cerillen

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPz4p5XdoRESDKZeMDnWXFQ

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/cerillen

Discord: https://discord.gg/FsUhc5f

#virgil sanders #patton sanders #Deceit Sanders #thomas sanders #sanders sides #sympathetic deceit #moxiety #platonic moxiety #anxeit #platonic anxeit #virgil secretly being ridiculously good at playing all instruments is something that gives me life #also the idea that virgil had to become scary because he needed to make the others listen to him is something that hurts me in the best way #that's probably a really weird thing to say but whatever #also i have so many cool headcanons about the realms in the mindscape #especially virgil's

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zydrateacademy · 6 years

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Roleplaying 101

Over the years I’ve spread this post around. Takes about 10-11 forum posts to get it all down and it’ll be one of the few posts I give a “Read more” break on. It has gotten a bit taxing to transfer it between communities, so I’m going to bring it here at long last to give a proper, singular link for people who wish to learn.

Currently, this post is in the form of Conan Exiles. I usually give my own little edits and “notes” depending on the game of the community I’m posting it in. So if you see this floating around, it won’t be in the same form most of the time.

Now, let’s get to it. (Very, very long post)

I will give credit where this is due; All this information has been borrowed from my old RP server on World of Warcraft. Most of it will be copy/pasted... However I may give a few edits to try and make it the most relevant to this particular game. If you find any references to WoW (Or even SWG, where I had posted this before), I apologize. Still, when it comes to MMO/RP terms, many of them can be interchangeable.

RP 101: Welcome to a RolePlay

Is it "role players" or "roleplayers?"

This is a question I've thrown in myself (IE: Not from the original source).

The answer is; Both! I can't debate on which one is more grammatically correct (That's for people smarter than I) but I can tell you that in our community, referring to "role play" or "roleplay" is acceptable.

“WTF is up with the (( )) ?”

Bracketing is a form of indicating one is speaking out of character. It can look many ways. Double parentheses (( )), singles ( ), brackets [ ] or any number of other bracketing form. The most common is the double parentheses.

By indicating that one is speaking out of character, they are saying “You are speaking to the player right now, not the character.” It’s good to know the difference (in case the character is particularly abrasive).

Sometimes a group will indicate that Group chat is automatically OOC while /say is automatically IC. In such a case, when speaking in group, (( )) is not necessary. There is no standard as to what channels are IC and which are OOC. It is entirely subjective depending on who you’re with…. With one exception.

"/say Chuck Norris ROXXORS!"

…. Please don’t. When you consciously engage in RP, normal local chat should be assumed to be IC. If you speak OOC in Local, please bracket. No, not everyone does it. No, not everyone is going to be bothered by it if you talk about Chuck Norris, your latest Facebook picture or how much cheese it takes to make a really good Welsh rarebit… but why start off in bad habits? If you want to play on a role play server then start off in a good way and keep good habits all the way through.

"Dude! Why are you wearing that armor?!"

Some MMO's have a cosmetic function, though that's not applicable here. However here at Exiles, you might find that some people wear some of the barest of clothing. What this is called is an "RP outfit", something we wear that makes a bit more sense in the context of our interactions.

Thankfully in Exiles, you can wear a variety of things while still being able to contribute in RP-PvE.

"How do I find the role players?"

This is always the toughest part. It’s easier if you know someone on the server and they can drag you around and introduce you or show you where the events are. Otherwise you have to rely on your own detective ability.

Step one: Read the forum of the realm you have chosen (though hopefully you read them before you joined). Before you jump on there going “HEY! WHERE’S THE RP??” make sure they are not a hive of scum and villainy. Be sure they aren’t a putrid den of RP hatin’.

Step two: Talk to other people. Whether you meet them in a group, on the street, see them fishing in blue overalls, talk to them. Ask questions. Make it a point to reach out to others. Let them know you are new to the server and trying to make contact.

Summary

Being a roleplayer can be a fun and rewarding experience. You can meet some incredibly imaginative, creative, and fun players. There also tends to be a higher maturity ratio among role players. The most important thing to keep in mind though is you are coming to us. Don’t come to us with a LAWLRPSUX attitude because you are a guest. The rules of the house were set long before you came along. If you respect those that choose RP because they are roleplayers, you will have a much more pleasant experience. If you give it a chance, it is very likely you will find that RP brings an extra element of "adventure" to your game. One much more unpredictable and fun than anything that could be programmed in.

RP 101: Role Play Etiquette Is there such a thing as Role Play Etiquette? Certainly there is! It may not be so obviously called that but you can usually tell when someone is breaking it. How can you tell? By listening carefully to what others say. I’m going to try touching on the subject of RP Etiquette. Mind you there are hundreds and hundreds of RP pet peeves that individual RPers might have that I certainly can’t cover, but I will try to cover some of the most common ones. I will also discuss how to know if you’re breaking RP etiquette and possible alternatives or solutions to such behavior. Making role play fun for everyone is the goal. So let’s work towards that goal together. Interrupting Active RP Like in any real-life conversation, it is considered rude to interrupt a RP conversation that is going on. Though often role players are more open to others joining in, it is usually wise to try to determine if others are welcome before jumping in. The simplest and usually fastest way to do this is to send an OOC whisper. Something along the lines of “(( I see you are engaged in role play conversation. Is this a private conversation or may others join in? ))” Quite often you’ll find that role players are seeking others to join them. But be prepared for the times when it is a private conversation not open to others. There is also the technique of simply listening in to see what is going on with the conversation. Don’t worry! Mom won’t scold you for eavesdropping this time. In life, you can catch a few lines of conversation quickly and determine if it is something you can join or if it is a private matter you should step away from. Snowplowing This is the term I use though others probably have different ones that mean the same thing. Snowplowing is stepping into someone’s active RP conversation and overwhelming it with YOUR rp. You plow right through with what YOU want to talk about without regard to what is already going on. Not good. Everyone gets their time in the spotlight. It does not have to be your time every time. If there is already an active conversation going on or someone’s RP plot, don’t snowplow through it with your own plot. A good example. We were all at RP night in Stormwind one evening enjoying some casual conversation, doing a bit of fishing, a bit of drinking, and sharing some bawdy jokes. Up walks Darkandspooky (I’ve changed his name to protect the guilty). Immediately he begins spamming us with his description (in the form of bad emotes) and starts in with bizarre behaviors that are meant to reinforce the fact that he is “dark and spooky” (which I will discuss in a later article). Now the characters already present either continued with their conversation as if he hadn’t interrupted, or reacted in the way people who had imbibed large amounts of alcohol would. He seemed terribly upset that the other characters didn’t appropriately react to his all-powerful “dark and spooky”, but that was because he was trying to snowplow his way into the existing RP. It simply didn’t fit and forcing it wasn’t going to make it fit. There are much more subtle ways to introduce your RP thoughts, ideas, plots or conversations. RP conversation, like real life conversation, flows and convolutes and changes. It may start out as a conversation about the fish in the canals and end up discussing whizzing off the docks in Westfall. You never truly know where it is going to end up or what roads it is going to take in between. So if you’ve got something you would like to bring into the conversation, listen to it. Follow the flow. Bring it in carefully where it fits rather than trying to force it on others. Trying to force it where it doesn’t fit has a tendency to go over like a turd in a punch bowl. Sometimes conversations don’t go down the paths that would best fit what you want to talk about. Sorry sweets, but that happens sometimes. It doesn’t mean you are a bad role player. It doesn’t mean the others are trying to be rude to you. It simply means that the conversation flowed just like in real life. It is unpredictable. That is what makes it fun! Hovering Now there are two different forms of hovering. One is rude and one is not. Telling the difference is subtle so pay attention. The first form of hovering, the not-rude one, is the person sitting to the side just listening to the conversation. Maybe casually emoting something once in a while. The shy character that just wants to be near people but really doesn’t want to interact. Sometimes the hovering character has a player that is being pulled away from the keyboard frequently so lets the character sit quietly as the conversation scrolls across the screen and catches up on what is going on when they return to the keyboard. I’ve done this a number of times. This form of hovering is okay and is also a great way to learn things. By keeping the ears open and the mouth shut. The hovering that is irritating and rude is of a completely different variety. The character that walks back and forth past the conversation participants over and over and over and over again…. but never says anything. The character that sits right at the edge of the conversation (usually with their back to the others) clearing their throat, emoting other trivial things such as spilling a mug or tying their shoe or picking at the lacings on their trews…. but never says anything. They make it clear they want to rp too but are not doing anything to reach out the hand to play. As a matter of fact, their behaviors generally are not something others would comment on. If I see someone picking at their fly I’m not going to call attention to it. The latter form of hovering is a behavior that is guilty of waiting for contact. I discussed the difference between looking for contact and waiting for contact in a previous article. Inclusion isn’t a one-way street. In order for others to include you in conversation, you have to do something that they can react to. Simply wandering back and forth isn’t sufficient. I’ve seen characters just wander back and forth for twenty minutes not saying or doing anything but then getting upset because they weren’t included in the conversation. Role players are not mind readers. In order to be part of the conversation they have to be given something that they can comment on or notice. Don’t be shy. Try speaking out. It can be something simple like asking for directions or commenting on the weather. Be creative. God-moding This is by far the singlemost irritating rp behavior out there. God-moding is when you do something that affects another character without giving them leave to decide their own actions or opinions. An extreme form of god-moding would be emoting that you stab the other character, killing them instantly. It can take other, more subtle, forms though. If you emote something along the lines of another person’s character noticing that your character has eyes red from crying, that is god-moding. A better choice would be to emote that your character rubs at eyes red from crying and leave it up to the other player as to whether they notice it or not. Sometimes characters have reasons for not noticing things. Many role players won’t come flat out and tell someone they are god-moding. That is, perhaps, a fault many share. Generally they will ignore the god-moded behavior and continue on with whatever they were doing or simply ignore the character guilty of it. If you find yourself being ignored or legitimately snubbed and you truly do want to improve, don’t get angry, ask the person about it in whispers. Usually others are quite open to helping eager role players improve their rp skill. Manners, Manners, Manners! In general, role play behavior should mirror real life behavior. The same rules of manners still apply. Take time to think in these terms and you will find smooth role play laid out in front of you. Inclusion in role play also takes effort on both parts. Don’t just wander around doing nothing and get upset when you’re not included. You have to try too. Remember, everyone gets their time in the spotlight. It may not be your time at just that moment but it will be eventually. Patience is the key. And as with all things involved in role play, be creative! Even if your attempt to reach out and be involved is awkward, it gives a place to start.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author. She does not claim they are the only way to RP. Hopefully someone will find some merit in the article but as with all RP, it comes down to personal preference.

Character Building Part 1 - Introduction & Personality So you want to create a role play character. You want this character to be interesting, be attractive, be loved by those around, have others to interact with regularly, etc. How do you go about it? As a writer and role player for 20+ years, I’ve learned a few things along the way about character building. I’ve made many of the mistakes that afflict new writers and role players and have seen firsthand the results. It is my hope that some of what I have learned the hard way can make character building less painful for venturing into the role play realm. Because building a good character is such a far reaching topic, I will break it down into a series of articles to make for easier reading. Fun Everyone wants their character to be fun to play. If the character isn’t fun then what is the point in logging in and slogging through the levels? I’m sure we’ve all created a number of alts then abandoned them for various reasons simply because they were not fun. First thing you need to look at is what do you find fun? Do you like being by yourself or being in large groups? Do you like one on one interaction? Do you like funny, light-hearted RP or do you like more serious and dramatic? All of these must be considered when building a character. Interest Everyone wants to have an interesting character. After all, if the character isn’t interesting then what is the point in having him or her around? There are several factors that play into whether a character is interesting or not; Personality, Appearance, Believability, Weaknesses, and Background. These are just boiled down because sometimes factors overlap but this is a good starting point. Let’s Talk About Personality Try to create a personality that not only you can enjoy playing but one that others enjoy interacting with. That is if you want interaction with others. If the character bites, insults, or otherwise abuses others about them for no apparent reason and with great frequency, you’ll soon find yourself without anyone to interact with. This goes for drama llamas too. (See definition below). Now I’m not saying every character has to be Polly Pureheart, but they should have enough redeeming qualities that there is something to bring others back to play. First generalization you need to consider is do you want to play a good guy or a bad guy? This may seem like a silly thing to consider, but it is the beginning point of your personality. Don’t worry, there are bad guy characters that are cool beyond belief and others certainly do want to interact with them. Good Guys: First off, not all good guys are of the Polly Pureheart variety. By being a “good” guy, that could be as simple as someone who works hard, helps others, brings food to their sick aunt Patty. Then there are the extreme good guys. If you’re going to play a good guy, you need to think about the level of the character’s goodness. Now, as with many things, there are areas of gray. Not everything is black and white. Perhaps the character is mostly good in that they do not try to actively harm innocents. They try to be good but sometimes what may seem good to them, is not so good to others. During the course of play, these types of situations will also help shape the character. Bad Guys: Not all bad guys have to be of the kitten-eating demon variety. Someone who is greedy or a bit of a megalomaniac can be considered a bad guy. Perhaps it is someone who feels they have no choice in what they do. It doesn’t mean they are not a fun character just because they are a bad guy. Some bad guys are obviously bad, but they are so cool and suave about it we continue to be drawn to them. I use Dr. Doom from Marvel Comics as an example of a cool bad guy. He’s bad, he’s a megalomaniac, and he wants to kill the Fantastic Four… a lot. But he’s cool. If you can create a bad guy with the element that leaves others saying “Wow. That character is bad… but cool!” you’ve created a good bad guy. Common Personality Traps: When creating your character, there are a few common personality traps that you should try to avoid, otherwise you may have others rolling their eyes at your character or just avoiding it all together. Mr./Ms. Perfect: The character that is so pure, so heroic, so sweet, so loving and so GORGEOUS that everyone should lust after them and want to be their friend/lover/pet/champion. Nobody is that perfect. Others like to interact with characters they can in some way identify with. Why do they roll their eyes at Mr. Perfect? Because he is not believable. Disbelief cannot be suspended with this type of character because they do not exist in life. (Zydrate's Note: In RP communities, this is generally referred to as a "Mary Sue") Superbad: Superbad is a character so evil they eat kittens on their Cheerios, happily slaughter their way through Stormwind on a daily basis and steal Ol’ Emma’s water bucket just for laughs. In general, they treat everyone around them like crap. And they are sooooo bad nobody in the universe could ever hope to quell them! This one should be self-explanatory. Who wants to interact with someone that treats everyone around them so badly? Where’s the fun in that? If people enjoyed being treated like crap they’d go back to High School! Even bad guys need some redeeming qualities. Drama Llama: “Oh my life is so tragic! It is more tragic than yours could ever be! There is nothing that could ever be done to make my life less tragic! And nobody else cares!” /eyeroll Yep. Nobody else cares. You know why? Because the drama llama seeks only for everyone else to fawn over her while she whines and wallows in misery. How is that fun for anyone but the llama? Others expending their energy trying to make someone feel better or help them out and that person continues to wallow. Eventually people run out of energy to expend and go off to do something fun. The one factor these types have in common is extremes. Anything taken to extremes gets real old, real fast. A good character has a balanced personality. A good character is not only fun for the player, but fun for those around as well. Zydrate’s Note: A lot of this section had to be omitted because it had an emphasis on World of Warcraft Lore. Sorry about that. Character Building Part 2 - Background Every character has a history of some sort buried away somewhere. This history filled with experiences shape the character’s personality, reactions, quirks, hobbies, style – everything about them. Sometimes finding that background is the most difficult task in character creation. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Often times you have to play the character before you can fully flesh out the background. Many role players and writers refer to this as “giving the character time to tell you about it” or waiting for the character to start “talking”. No, they aren’t suffering from delusions or multiple personality disorder. This is simply giving their subconcious imagination time to brew up what it needs to fit the character and manifesting it in a way that is easier to translate into written or role played form. Taking time with the character, seeing how a few things play out, is usually the best way to build a background. If you have it all written out before you ever set foot in the world with the character, can sometimes be very limiting. The last thing you want to do is restrict yourself and the character you play beyond your ability to have fun with them. That being said, you should have a general idea about where they come from before you let them speak. Here are a few tips to help you get started. Know The Lore You don’t have to be an absolute fiend about knowing the lore of the game to create a feasible background, however you should have a general idea of the history of the race you’re going to play and some idea of timeline. Avoid The Eyeroll There are some common backgrounds that I see from many new role players that leave me rolling my eyes. I’ve heard the same comment from other long time role players as well. While this is RP and you are more than welcome to play what you like, if you want to interact with others and avoid the eyeroll response, try to avoid some of these common background traps. The Vampire While you may think its cool and spooky to play a vampire, when you announce to other players that you’re a vampire, you leave many of them rolling their eyes and putting your character name on a mental – if not actual – ignore list. If you want to play a vampire, check out Vampire: The Masquerade and its subsequent additions. It’s a very good table top game for vampires. The Daughter/Son of (Insert Major Lore Character Here) It's generally considered bad form to make your character be related to a known NPC. It simply feels like you're trying too hard to seem "special" or "distinguished". There are MANY other ways to go about this, make sure not to fall into this trap. The Catgirl Whether it is born to a druid in cat form or the product of a mating between a druid in cat form and a wild tiger, it’s overdone, and simply put – ridiculous. You may think you’re being so creative with your cat-tail hanging down and your furry ears and you’re pointed teeth peeking out of your mouth, but if you go around claiming you’re a catgirl (or boy) don’t be surprised if you’re not taken seriously. The Trauma Llama Everything bad that could ever happen to a character has all happened to this character at least twice. Now while bad things are a part of everyone’s history, nobody enjoys a trauma llama that wallows in it, spouts it to every person they meet on the street, and tries to one-up everyone else’s traumatic events. If the trauma of the character’s life is the be-all, end-all of their background you’re going to have a difficult time getting anyone to take an interest. This is a game meant for fun. Trauma can, and does, help shape a character, but it shouldn’t be the sole focus of their life and history. Where is the fun in that? Think Creative Without Being Outrageous It is possible to create a wonderful, interesting, and colorful background for your character without being a victim of the eyeroll. Your character doesn’t have to be the leader's illegitimate half-demon catgirl in disguise to be interesting or fun to interact with. Don’t try to force importance, validity, or take any aspect of the background to extremes. A good background is like a good personality; well-balanced and feasible. Do not underestimate the power of the ordinary. The Background of your character does not have to be grand or outrageous or even noteworthy. It is merely a tool to help shape the personality of the character, to help guide their actions and reactions when you play them. It’s there to give you something to talk about on occasion. What’s wrong with being a mere notekeeper? A mere Soldier or Apprentice? It isn’t the background that makes the character, it is how you play the character that makes them. It is how that character acts and reacts with others. It is their views, their loves, their dislikes, their mannerisms. Let the character make the character. If you’re creative and confident enough to do that, you’ll do just fine.

Character Building Part 3 - Appearance Tips For Writing A Good Description When writing a description for your character, remember that there are five senses; Sight, Sound, Taste, Touch and Smell. Now it is unlikely you’ll write what your character tastes like. I know I don’t usually walk up to someone I’ve just met and lick them. Touch might be a bit awkward, but there are some situations where this sense should not be written off entirely. Your most commonly used sense in descriptions is going to be sight, however sound and smell have their own validity. Sound This could cover the sound of their voice, the rattle of their armor, the beads on their shirt. There are many things that could be incorporated into the sound of a character. Remember to listen to your character’s appearance when writing about it. Smell The sense of smell is one of the most powerful we have. It can draw us to someone or repel us. There are many things that could stimulate our sense of smell. Does the character wear any scented oils? Are they consistently sweaty? Do they smell of grass? Herbs? Close your eyes a moment when writing about the character and think about how they would smell. If something stands out, then put it in the description. Sight This is going to be the sense most characters will touch first. What they see will be a key indicator in other’s first impression. Some of the basic descriptors are hair length, color (if it is different than the avatar), build, height, and weight. Some of the more detailed descriptors are eye shape, color, face shape, jewelry worn, or condition of clothing (neat, ragged, dirty, etc). Then there are outstanding features. Outstanding features can cover a number of things; missing limbs, eye patches, limps, anything of that sort. Large ornamentation, visible body paint, oddly colored stripes in the hair. Something that would stand out. These outstanding features should most definitely be included in the description. Be creative on these. Don’t go for easy. Take some time and think about the character and what, if anything, might stand out. And be sure to include at least something on how they dress. Loose fitting, ragged, neat, armored? Think about that as well. And while I realize this is, indeed, a fantasy game, understand before you write “this person wears armor, even while sleeping”, that you understand (from a person that has worn plate armor for several hours on end on numerous occasions) that armor is uncomfortable. It is bulky, difficult to move in, noisy, stiff, and pinches in places that a body was never meant to be pinched! Mannerisms should be considered when writing a description as well. Does this person flinch when new people approach? Do they have a notebook they carry with them at all times? Is their hand constantly on their weapon? Do they have a teddy bear tucked under their arm? These sorts of observations in the description give a bit of insight into the character’s personality. Something that can be seen to support their actions and reactions when we encounter them in actual contact. Keep It Simple Now that I have told you all the wonderful things you should think about when describing your character, I’m going to confuse you by telling you to keep it short and simple. I can hear your cries of “Foul!” from all over, but honestly, especially when it comes to an in-game addon description, few people will read one that is overly long and complicated. We don’t really need great details about how many buttons are on the character's shirt or which direction he laces his boots. Give us the most obvious in the most succinct manner possible. Having a novel for a description will actually hinder people reading it. Avoid God-Moding When writing a description, god-moding involves describing a trait and how the reader feels about that trait. Avoid writing things such as “Your jaw drops when you see her enormous bosom.” Honestly I couldn’t care less about her bosom. I’m not in the habit of looking at them. I have one of my very own that I have to look at every day. That is an extreme example but they are out there. However there are others that are more subtle, but just as incorrect. For example if you were to write “He is the most handsome man you have ever seen.” How do you know? Whether a person is handsome or not is a matter of opinion. You should never try to force an opinion on someone else. Let them judge whether they find that character handsome or not. Instead of telling us he’s handsome, tell us about the traits that YOU think makes him handsome. Describe the dark skin, black hair, golden eyes – whatever! But don’t tell us we think he’s handsome. Description Only Please When writing a description, especially for in-game addons, do not include information such as the background of the character or what kind of personality traits they have. We can’t see that, hear it, smell it, the first time we encounter that person. A description is just that; a description. Do not include information that is not apparent to the senses of other players. By putting in that information you’re expanding the length of the description unnecessarily and making it less likely anyone will read it. If they want to know that, they’ll find out when talking to the character! Avoid The /eyeroll Now I’m not going to try to tell you what your character should look like; only you can decide that. What I am going to offer are some tips on what will elicit the /yawn or /eyeroll response. Many role players when first starting out want a character that is particularly handsome or beautiful. There are probably a number of psychological reasons behind this and I won’t attempt to delve into them, however I can point out a few of the most common appearance traps. The Scar This is a harsh world our characters live in. Some scarring might to happen. If that is the focus of your character’s description, then it is not a very interesting character. Where extreme scarring is rare IRL and shocking when you see it, it is so common in role play descriptions that it seldom elicits more than /yawn. If your character has scars and there is a reason for them, by all means, write about them, but don’t just use them to make the character “cool”. Chicks don’t dig scars. There are literally hundreds of ridiculous description traps that I could write about here, but that would make this article far too long. I’ll try to summarize and make this all fit together in a final bit of advice. • Keep it simple • Think with your senses • Avoid description opinions • If it sounds even slightly ridiculous to you, it probably is. Zydrate’s Note: I've omitted a couple others that were noted on the source, such as "The Buxom" and "The Cyber-Bait". Players here (Conan Exiles) would probably be less concerned considering half the point of this custom server is to ERP. Still, I'd recommend being a bit classy with it. Build a character for world interaction, and sexual encounters will come regardless. Sexuality is just a mere footnote to a character's complexity. Don't drown others in it, but there's no need to shy away from it either. And one final bit of advice, especially if you are new to role play; if you have a friend who also role plays, get them to read your description and give an honest evaluation. Tell them they MUST be honest. Having others read it and tell you what works and what doesn’t work is a great way to learn.

Character Building Part 4 - Weaknesses Throughout these articles I have discussed the need for balance. One of the features that make a character well balanced is weaknesses. Their weaknesses will contribute to their personality, behaviors, responses to others and different situations. Weaknesses are woven deeply into everything about the character and provide a more well-rounded personality. After all, nobody is perfect. Weaknesses contribute greatly to who a character – or person – is. Well-crafted weaknesses are just as important and interesting as any other element of your character. It would be impossible to determine a character’s strengths without weaknesses to offset them. Weaknesses can also provide something to work towards. If, for example, the character is scared of dogs, that provides a goal to work toward; overcoming that fear of dogs. Types of Weaknesses There are certainly many types of weaknesses, but they can be most easily broken down into two; Psychological and Physical. Psychological weaknesses are those that spring from the character’s own mind. Whether it is a fear of heights or narcississtic tendencies, they are self-defeating weaknesses. Psychological weaknesses are, in essence, controlled by the character’s own mind, which makes them especially difficult to overcome. They may have been created by some severe trauma in the character’s past or perhaps some other event that brought it on. However it came to be, it is part of the character and may or may not be something that can be overcome. Physical weaknesses are of the sort that affect the character’s physical appearance or abilities. Physical weaknesses can also cause psychological ones that are closely intertwined. A physical weakness might include a missing limb, sensory loss (blindness, deafness), vertigo, or some sort of disease or condition such as allergies. Physical weaknesses can be caused by injury, disease, birth defect or any number of other factors that can affect physical appearance or ability. Severity Not all weaknesses are of the debilitating variety. Some are small, just little quirks of a sort. Some are humorous, some are sad, some are so outrageous we find ourselves trying to fix the person we encounter with it simply to have it gone. Sometimes we give our characters weaknesses without even realizing we’ve done so. Is your character bigoted toward another race? Do they drink to excess? Are they lazy, dishonest, scared of the dark? Do they have a teddy bear that must be with them at all times? Are they promiscuous? These are all weaknesses that help to round out the character. When deciding the severity of your weaknesses, however, be sure that you don’t write yourself into a role play corner and leave yourself with a character that is unplayable. I have a friend that wrote a character that has issues with his foot. Severe enough to keep him from adventuring. He recently realized that this made it very difficult to get anything done with the character and is working on a role play reason to make the character viable again. My friend is an excellent and creative RPer so I have faith he will have no problem coming up with a creative and believable way to make this happen, but it helps to illustrate the point here. All things in moderation. Don’t defeat yourself and your character before you’ve even started playing it. Reasoning If you are going to build a weakness into your character, be sure there is a believable reason behind it. Do they dislike the Strangers because one of them stole his prized shield? Are they repulsed by the smell of the clockworks? Did they lose their left pinky toe in the fight with Vanaduke? Be creative but be believable. The weaknesses must fit the persona, not just be tacked on because you think they are “cool”. In-Play Happenings Sometimes weaknesses can come from happenings in current RP. These can either be temporary or permanent, depending on the situation. Whatever the case, again, make sure they are believable. When coming up with other happenings that influence your character, make sure it is not something you’ve already done to death. If your character is possessed by demons every Tuesday, others are not likely to give the reaction you’re looking for. They are more likely to roll their eyes and relegate you to a forgotten corner of obscurity. Avoid The Most Common Trap The single most common weakness trap is “Sir Buford is afraid of failure.” Now, if played properly, this can be a valid weakness, however quite often it is seen as a cop-out for someone trying to run Mr. Perfect who never has failures, and has no weakness. Remember, weaknesses can be fun! They don’t have to be huge and traumatic. Be creative and go with what fits the character.

Character Building Part 5 - Believability & Summary Over the course of these articles I’ve tried to give some basic tips on creating a believable character. Most role players want a character that is fun to play and fun for others to interact with. After all, if we don’t have others to interact with then we have no true role play. It is like writing a story with nobody to read it. Vastly unfulfilling. One thing holds true for all creative endeavors; if your audience, or in this case those you interact with, do not enjoy your story/character, they will find someone else to play with. You will find your sandbox sadly empty. Believability is an important factor for any character you create and hope to play. If other players do not find the character believable, then this dampens their enjoyment and they will gravitate elsewhere. What makes a character believable? Many things actually, but most importantly are the traits that we can identify with. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing an undead mage, bi-pedal cow, or cloven-hoofed warrior of the Light. If your character has traits we can identify with, and if they are presented in a reasonable and logical way, the character can be believable… and likeable. Watch out for extremes. If our character is always emo, flogging themselves about how horrid they are, that gets old real fast. If the character is perfection itself, can do no harm or wrong, that also gets old real fast. You don’t have to push the character over the edge to be interesting. I can’t say it enough; Do Not Underestimate The Power Of The Ordinary. So many people out there are trying to build RP heroes and gods and whathaveyous. Trying to capture fame by forcing “importance” on their character. Trying to steal respect without earning it. In all things; looks, personality, background; the ordinary can be the most fascinating and extraordinary thing to others. What you may see as ordinary, may be the most incredibly fascinating trait to the next person you interact with. Give it a try.

Role Play 101: Romance in RP- The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Now before you start to point and snicker, muttering about “cyborz”, notice the title is ROMANCE, not ERP. We get plenty of that too but there's plenty of reason to be mature about it all. Romance and sex are friendly concepts in many settings, this server more than some. Romance can cover a wide range of emotional depth from the friends that exchange flowers on occasion to full fledged lovers or marrieds. Role playing romance DOES NOT mean cyber just like reading a book that has romantic elements does not mean reading porn. The Good If you choose to involve your character in romantic relationships it can bring in another level of role play that is interesting and a good development tool for the character. It can also bring pleasant interaction and memories for both the character and the player to counteract the war-stricken and depressing world they live in. It’s a way to see that even in such terrible times, life does go on. There is hope and there are things to take joy in. Emotional beings need that. If a mind is constantly bombarded with the awful with no respite, eventually it will break down. The Bad Sometimes RP romance can be taken too far; too seriously. Always always always remember IT IS RP. IT IS NOT REAL. I have seen people who’s characters are involved in romantic RP begin to believe that it is an actual relationship and when one of those involved plays another character or spends time with other friends, the other gets jealous or angry. These are pixilated images inside a box of computer parts. They are not real flesh, bone or emotion. They are story characters that we play with and read about but do not really exist. Do not fall into the trap of thinking they do. The Ugly I have seen RP romances turn sour and because one party or both have taken it too seriously, when the RP romance fails, it destroys the friendship between the players. I have also seen it go so far as to fracture guilds. Bands of friends choosing sides because one or two people pushed it too far. Truly a sad affair and one that should NEVER be allowed to happen in RP. Rules For Romance In RP While this list may not be all inclusive, I will try to provide at least a beginner’s guide for those looking to involve their character in RP romance. Much of this may seem like common sense but perhaps, for some, reading it will drive it home and give pause before the ugly rears its head. 1 – The most important! If you forget everything else, do not forget this! – RP Romance is not real. It is an interactive story development. Nothing more. 2 – The character your character is involved with has a player behind it too. This player usually has other obligations such as real life, other friends, guild members, other characters that they want to play as well. Don’t try to monopolize their time. 3 – Don’t let your time be monopolized either. If you have other things you wish to do, be sure the other player understands this as well. 4 – “Intimate” role play should be decided on in advance by both parties. Set your boundaries and stick to them, or be respectful of the other person’s boundaries as well. 5 – Make sure all boundaries and limitations are clear and understood. Do you only have time once a week to dedicate to RP? Do you have another character that you want to spend time on as well? Do you want to be able to spend time leveling as well as role playing? Make sure it is all clear. 6 – If something comes up that is going to keep you away from contact for a while, let the other person know. Heck, let all your friends that you play with know! They’re your friends. If you just disappear without a word they worry about you. 7 – The other player likely has other characters that they want to play too. These other characters may become, or already be involved, romantically with characters that are not yours. This is acceptable. Do not get jealous or snippy because the player wants to spend time with other friends too. This comes back to both #1 and #2. Making It Work Now there are many factors that play into whether romance can be feasible. First off, it is not likely the characters are going to be able to spend as much actual time together as a couple might in real life and trying to do that will cause issues of its own. However there are still ways to have the characters “be together” in down times that will fit with the RP and won’t leave anyone feeling pressured. Zydrate’s Note: There was a whole section about fading to black and "It can be assumed..." but this is (Conan Exiles). Most romance and sex is actively roleplayed. It might be assumed that characters spent the night in bed together and when you log off, the other has gone on a hunt. Many ways to play it. Combining Objectives Are you questing in similar areas? Level ranges? Have the same instances you need to hit? So make them into a RP session. Grab a group of like-minded individuals for that instance and RP as you go. Run around the countryside with your RP muffin and complete quests while engaging in conversation and the occasional stolen kiss. Be creative. RP doesn’t always have to be just sitting in a bar in Stormwind. You can RP and accomplish other tasks as well. Schedule It Set up a time or day that you and your RP partner are scheduled to hang out together in game. That way neither of you gets lost in the shuffle. Maybe every Wednesday you meet for RP dinner at the Blue Recluse. Perhaps Friday is the night that you both have set aside to kill monsters. Be creative and keep it interesting. Maybe all you want to do is sit in a chair and talk all night. That’s good too. By scheduling a day/time to do it then you avoid the hit or miss of scheduling differences. Write It A great deal of story can be created and told through written RP. Most guilds associated with RP have a place for storytelling. By creating a written story coinciding with the in-game RP, there is a great deal more information and development of character that can be accomplished. So you’re not the greatest writer in the world. How will you get better if you don’t practice? Use your spellchecker and your grammar checker and then learn as you go. Share the story as it grows and give it the details that we cannot see or experience in game. It’s a great way to tie everything together when actual play time is limited. As with anything, communication and respect are very important when involving your character in RP Romance. Have fun with it. Be creative. But always remember, it is just RP.

Role Play 101: Drama In RP: How Much is Too Much? Every story must have some conflict or drama to be interesting. When it involves RP, how much is too much? Every player has their own tolerance threshold for character drama. Some are going to have a fairly high tolerance, some are going to have a fairly low one, and some it will depend on what they have recently been involved in, how believable the drama is, and how original it is. Personally, I only rarely create major dramatic threads for my characters. Why? Because they get real old, real fast. I rarely get involved in other people’s major plot lines. Why? Same reason. Part of the problem with major RP threads is the time commitment. Most major drama threads require a commitment of time either in game or in written RP that many folks have trouble making. This is a busy world, things happen and the larger the storyline, the more people involved, the greater the chance that someone will have trouble meeting the time obligations due to real life. There is also the interest factor. I can attest to the fact that after waiting for days on end for the next person to do their part, interest wans. You want to move on, do other things, spend your time on something that is moving rather than wasting it waiting. RP Is For Fun The one point I cannot stress enough is that RP is for fun. It is not supposed to feel like work. It is not supposed to create stress. It should leave all participants with the feeling that they enjoyed themselves. It should not leave anyone feeling bruised, angry, or in any other way stressed out. I realize that many people find the long, drawn out, dramatic role plays fun but I ask you, for how long? For whom? Please stay tuned as I explain. At one point in the rp community on my (old) server there was a chick, we’ll call her Chiclet to protect her identity, that wasn’t content unless she was surrounded by huge dramatic rp. If there wasn’t huge drama going on that she could somehow switch the spotlight to her, she would create it. She became a bit of a joke among role players with her “weekly demon possession” and people quickly learned to avoid her. Now there are many reasons why Chiclet became a joke. First off there was the overuse of old plots. She had been possessed by demons no less than four times that I am aware of. One possession well played (which I have never seen done) can be an interesting plot. More than that and people yawn and walk away. It’s too much! It is not believable and if it was poorly done the first time, the second and third won’t be any better. Chiclet never allowed for down time either. It would be wave upon wave of huge dramatic RP. She was possessed, she was dying, she was pregnant, she was pregnant with a dying possessed catgirl… You get the idea. After a while, others get tired of expending their time and energy. Finding The Line There is a definite line in dramatic RP and some people are very good at not crossing it. Others, not so good. The difficult part is finding that line in the first place. RP is meant to mirror reality in many ways. Even though we're in a fantasy setting, the aspects of life, of believability are what draw people back. They want a glimpse of people, situations, places, creatures they will otherwise never see. They want a story to entertain them for a few hours here and there. They want to interact with that story and influence it and have it affect their characters in return. Because this is a fantasy setting, we’re pushing the line of believability every day. However, you can push the setting believability line a lot further than you can push the character believability line. Characters should mirror life much closer than any other aspect of your story. Their life path and how they deal with it are the elements that will draw others back or repel them. Life is full of ups and downs. I know for a fact that there are times when it feels like it is nothing but downs, but truly there are ups too. When looking at a character as portrayed in RP there are a few things to consider when planning their plot. First off, if you only give the character down moments, never any up moments, you’re going to turn others off really fast. The character that is the perpetual downer that ONLY has bad things happen, has them happen three times a day, and is so traumatized by every single one of them that they can never be happy is not very interesting. People reading, or participating in, a story like for things to get better. Like for the character to have ups as well as downs. After all, if nothing ever gets better, what is the point in trying? People don’t like to have hope killed. Hope keeps us, as human beings, plugging along through our lives even when things are bad. If the characters in our entertainment have no hope, it creates a sense of fear that we have none either. How the character deals with it is another point that can draw people in or repel them. Time to talk honestly here. Overall, tragedy makes people uncomfortable. We feel helpless in our lack of ability to fix it. Sometimes we can do something to help ease it, but overall, we’re not truly comfortable again until it is gone. If we can watch that character actually work towards improving their situation, we can follow the story with pleasure because it builds up that sense of hope. The “mud puddle” character is not going to accomplish that. What is the “mud puddle” character you ask? That is the character that falls into the mud puddle and instead of trying to climb out, just sits there, splashing around in the dirty water, saying, “Oh no! Oh no! I’ve fallen into a mud puddle!” Because we only see the characters for such a small amount of time, every moment that we do see them that is influenced by the downs is going to be magnified. Because we don’t see the flashes through the day of them just staring at the sun daydreaming, or sleeping peacefully at night. What we do see is intensified by the short amount of time that we see it. Some drama is great for a story. But give your “readers” breathing space or you may find yourself RPing alone. Now if you are sitting there insisting that your character is defined only by tragedy, then I have nothing further to say to you. You’re stuck in the mud puddle, you don’t want to get out, and nothing anyone says is going to convince you otherwise. However if you’re the one reading this that wants there to be more to your character that a string of cheap misery tricks, read on! No Firm Numbers Nobody can give you firm numbers on how long you should wait between dramatic events. RP, like life, should be fluid. It should not be forced. Let it flow and take it’s own path. If it feels too soon for something else to happen, likely it is WAY too soon. The owner of the character is always the last one to recognize this. While many role players will say their character “talks” to them, we all do have some control over the path they take. And you should exert that control on occasion to make sure the character is not only fun to play but fun to interact with. Role playing alone isn’t nearly so much fun! If you’ve played out a major dramatic storyline, give your character some time off. Let them run around doing mundane things for a while. Take them fishing, to an evening out in a pub, for an afternoon walk in the park with their pet worg. Let them live a normal life for a while. If your character has a tendency towards depression, give them a few moments of “uptime” here and there. Let them enjoy themselves while questing with others or find something they do enjoy for a while. If it is something they’ve done alone, let them talk to others about it. Eeyore is cute, but after a while his bummer attitude gets a little old. Be Creative As with anything involved in rp, be creative. Down time doesn’t have to mean dull time. With a bit of creativity you could even make sitting on a curb eating cheese interesting. Be imaginative! Is there something simple that you don’t often play out with your character? Well, try it! Something totally off the wall that they’ve never done? Do it! The really fun part is the “why” behind it. Give it a shot! Try walking through a city, but don’t just walk! Interact! Set up a macro that has the character nod at those they pass or bump into them or something else. Nothing is going to be perfect every time. Nothing is going to be audience captivating every time. But if you keep trying, keep testing new things, keep the audience entertained without forcing depression down their throats, you’ll have more fun than you could imagine. Gloom, despair and agony are not the only path to interesting role play. I have said it before in other articles; Never underestimate the power of the ordinary. Make it a challenge for yourself to take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary. So you’re standing at the mailbox reading a letter. What can you do to make it fun? Interesting? To draw others in? Giggle at the letter? Start talking back to it as if the author could hear you? If walking through town, what can you make happen by tripping over that warpstalker’s tail? Make it a challenge to yourself. Take an ordinary situation and challenge yourself to make it something else. If you like, come back here and tell me about it. I would love to hear your story and I’m sure others would too!

RP 101: The Difference Between "Looking for Contact" and "Waiting for Contact" The single most common complaint I hear from role players is either “nobody RPs anymore!” or “I can’t find anyone to RP with!” My first instinct is to ask, “Does that include you?” You see, there are lots of profile's running around out there that say “In Character, Looking For Contact” but are you *looking* for contact, or *waiting* for contact. There is a distinct difference. Looking for contact is the act of putting out effort to find, create, or otherwise engage others in RP. Waiting for contact is sitting on a bridge, saying nothing, waiting for others to engage you. Do you see the difference here? In a perfect world, we would all have RP dropped into our lap whenever we wanted. This is far from a perfect world, however, and in order to find RP, you also have to be willing to put out some effort. If everyone just sits around waiting for RP, when is it ever going to happen? Someone has to take the initiative. How can you tell if you are looking or waiting? Through a simple analysis of your own in-game behaviors. Do you approach others with their looking for contact tag up? If someone you don’t know comes up while you are engaged in conversation do you try to include them? Do you walk while in town instead of run? Do you put on RP clothes? If you answered no to these questions, you are waiting. Looking for contact does involve some effort but is not as difficult or scary as you might believe. I’ll try to provide some tips and hints to set you on the right path to finding the RP you crave. Clues To Finding The Role Players Now just a name is not always enough to pick out who role plays and who does not. Watch behaviors too. Walking in town is always a good indicator. Wearing “street clothes” rather than armor is one too. Are they a member of a well known RP guild? If you see them talk in /say, is it IC? There are lots of subtle indicators, and some not-so-subtle, that can lead you closer to someone who would be more receptive to role play. Making IC Contact Lots of people have difficulty making first contact IC. Called “first contact fear”, hopefully I will be able to provide some tips here that will help others to overcome this. Don’t worry! You are not alone. Everyone has felt that first contact anxiety at some point. It can be overcome. The most common question is “Why would my character talk to that person?” Why indeed? This is where you have to be creative! It doesn’t have to be something profound. Find an excuse. If you wanted to strike up a conversation with someone in real life, what would you do? It could be as simple as complimenting their clothing or if they have a pet, comment on that. Comment on the weather or ask for directions. Use your imagination. All it has to be is something to get the conversation started. Making OOC Contact When you simply cannot come up with an idea to start a conversation IC, resort to OOC. Send the person a whisper OOC. Something along the lines of /tell Person (( Hey! I notice you have you're speaking IC. Would you like to RP? )) Don’t let fear keep you from at least trying. Most people are either going to be receptive or tell you if they are about to log or leave to go to a raid or whatever. Sometimes you may not get a response at all. Don’t assume this is a snub. The person may be on a stealth afk. Or they may be wrapped up in drama over other channels. Or they may simply miss it in the spam. Because this is a typed medium, be sure you give plenty of time to respond before you move on. But don’t let one failed attempt keep you from trying again. It is only through trying that we ever succeed. Events Another way to find RP is to attend events. Small weekly gatherings or larger events thrown open to the public are a great way to make contact with others. Yes, this may mean giving up an evening of Vanaduke runs, but if you want to find RP, you have to make the effort. Check your forum for events. Also check any guild forums you frequent or other forums tied to your interests. Ask around among people who are well known on the server. Likely they will know of any upcoming events or where to find information on them. When you attend events, be sure you don’t just sit on the side and wait for others to talk to you. RP is a two-way street. It takes effort from both sides to make it happen. If you attend a ball, mingle! Talk with others, compliment their clothes, comment on something you hear in passing. Once again, be creative. You are looking, not waiting, remember? If there are no events coming up, consider organizing one. That isn’t as complicated as it may seem either. See my previous article on Hosting A Role Play Event for ideas and information on this fun and rewarding process. Don’t Be A Wallflower Apathy kills RP. I cannot say that enough. If we all sit around and wait for RP to happen then who is going to initiate it? We must all put forth effort to make it happen and keep it alive. Don’t expect others to bring RP to you. Step out of the safety of silence and look for it. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work out every time. That’s normal! The more you try, the more success you will have! If you sit around like the wallflower at the prom, don’t be upset if nobody asks you to dance. The next time you find yourself complaining about there not being any role play, ask yourself what are you doing to get some going. With a little bit of effort, we can make more RP happen for everyone!

Zydrate's Note: The first part of this next article was personalized for the actual writer of all this, but it all leads up a very specific point so I'll simply replace her bio with, well, mine.

Role Play 101: The Other Side of the Pixels I’m going to touch on a subject that all players, not just role-players, should keep in mind. It may seem like it has nothing to do with RP and therefore has no place in this series of articles, but I assure you it does. It has a very firm place in all interactions we have online and I hope people will read it and take it to heart. Who Am I? Who Are You? Hi. I'm Zydrate. I like to write stories and play video games. My home life is not terribly impressive; I'm 29 and I work as a bagger in a grocery store. I enjoy the job but it does not pay well, and thus puts a strain on my home life. I live with my brother, mother who in turn also lives with her mother. My brother has mental issues which prevent him from getting a job as well. My entire family has various forms of depression of varying severity. I have dreams and daydreams, I think every day about what I'm going to do the next. I have wishes and goals and theories. In other words, I am a human being on the other side of that computer; a real person with real feelings that can be damaged by carelessness. Just as I am sure you are too. It’s a tragedy that so often that fact is forgotten or blatantly disregarded in a world that conducts so much of its business, communication and social interaction online. We may be utilizing a heartless machine to communicate, but the being doing the communication is still human and should be treated as such. Sometimes it’s far too easy to forget that person on the other side. Many times it is incredibly easy to misinterpret something that was typed or to type something that seems fine at the moment but might act like a fiery brand on the temper of the person on the other side. Other times it is far too easy to hide behind the Great Wall of Internet Anonymity and be an ass. Verbal vs. Electronic While a study in human nature determining what the exact percentage of our communication is nonverbal is nigh impossible, fair estimates put it firmly somewhere between 85-95% with 93% being the most common approximation. So that means that approximately 93% of the meaning of our message is conveyed through nonverbal cues; tone, volume, inflection of voice, facial expression, body language and eye contact. Literally hundreds of messages can be conveyed through half a dozen spoken words by the nonverbal signals we send. Our world is moving deeper and deeper into the digital age. The average person conducts somewhere between 40-60% of their daily communication electronically, either by email, text, chat programs, social networking sites, etc. Each year that amount increases as electronic communication becomes faster, cheaper, easier. Our youth grow up in a world where instant, anonymous communication is the norm. Yet none of those forms allow for nonverbal cues. Now considering the message conveyed in the two previous paragraphs, is it any wonder that it is so easy for drama, cruelty, depression, anger and frustration to explode so fast and so painfully over the internet? The Great Wall of Internet Anonymity It really is easy to hide behind internet anonymity. That dark little voice in the back of your head that reminds you that person doesn’t know you. You don’t know them. You don’t have to look them in the eye, you don’t have to acknowledge their feelings, you don’t have to witness the pain you cause. We are empowered by being anonymous. This freedom from having to acknowledge others as sentient beings with viable feelings and emotions that should be respected leads to hordes of people across the cyberverse that display little or no regard for others. They don’t know that elf/troll/dwarf/noob/pug personally so they feel no responsibility to treat them with common courtesy. I’m sure there are a number of people that have stopped reading by now or will stop shortly but think really hard. Examine your behaviors and really look at them. Consider them from the other side of the computer. “Noob.” “WTF! Idiot!” “You suck!” “OMG you can’t heal/tank/dps!” It’s so easy to type. It is so easy to picture the fingers typing the message. But when the same messages are directed back, they don’t feel very good, do they? You feel angry, hurt, confused. It’s even easier to lash back because we feel justified in our anger. “They started it! I’m going to finish it!” syndrome. Sometimes the messages are more subtle. How we type a phrase always has the chance of being misinterpreted. Wording is a very tricky matter if you don’t pay attention. Study the three following sentences and see if you can pick out which one is the best and why the others might cause problems even though they all say the same thing. #1 - “If you don’t pick up your dps you’re going to get kicked out.” #2 - “You even going to try getting your dps up, noob?” #3 - “Your dps seems a little low. Do you need some help figuring out why?” #1 – The other person has just been threatened. It might have been meant as a warning or advisement, but the more common interpretation is going to be seeing it as a threat. Being threatened causes a person to become defensive; feeling the need to defend/protect themself. The most common reaction is going to be to strike back. #2 – The other person has just been insulted. When typed it might have been meant in a joking way however there are no nonverbal cues to communicate that so the more common interpretation is going to be as a deliberate and cruel insult. Once again, the person has been put on the defensive. Most common response is likely to be the same as the threat. #3 – It should be obvious that number 3 is a more correct path to prevent hurt feelings and explosive drama. I hope to many it is, but it’s also easy to forget. In number three it has been communicated that there may be a perception that something is wrong and there is an offer to figure out why this is so. There is no accusation, no insult, no threats. Nobody responds well to threats, insults, accusations in any form. Always think about what you are going to type before you hit that enter key, sending it into someone’s face. One should never feel justified in cruelty. You may be stuck in that group of idiot puggers. Sure, someone may be acting like an ass. Does imitating that behavior make us so much better? In-Character Is Not an Excuse What does any of this have to do with Role Play? It has quite a bit actually. You see I can’t tell you the number of times I have witnessed someone using role play as another wall to be cruel. One more excuse to hide behind. Not only are you anonymous behind a computer, you have yet a second face to use as a shield. One that is imaginary. I have seen “characters” mob another one with hate filled comments carrying on for days to the point where the receiving player is so hurt and upset they lash out, hide, quit or engage in defensive behavior. Then the phrase “Oh it was IC hate” is flippantly tossed out as if that makes it all better. I, myself, have been the target of in-game hate mail thinly disguised as role-play from not only an anonymous player but character as well. Insults bordering on OOC or some of them blatantly OOC meant precisely to be cruel and cause damage. Hidden behind an excuse of “but it’s in character”. IC anger/hate/maliciousness/cruelty should be understood and explained before ever beginning. If it happens spontaneously out of the blue, communicate with the other person and make sure it’s okay. Discuss it and maybe come up with a fun plot, rather than one person feeling abused. If IC hate/anger/drama starts to hurt the player, they need to speak up reasonably about it and the other party needs to be willing to drop it and move on to something else. Period. (Zydrate’s Note: I actually like to chime in after a heated IC argument. I like whispering the person with something along the lines of "That was fun! " to make sure that the other player knows that there is no ill will. This usually opens up a bridge, "Oh, okay. They're civil, I can arrange something with them at a later time". Because there is part of our brains that if there's absolutely no OOC contact, we will attribute the character with the player. It's wrong, but it's a natural occurrence.) The moment a player expresses that a role play behavior directed at them is bothering them out of character, the other person needs to stop and the players need to consult. Maybe a compromise can be found, maybe the characters just need to not be in the same stories or they need to pretend the other doesn’t exist. Either way, it cannot be allowed to continue. The player’s needs always outweigh the role-play. Don’t think that someone is being too sensitive because one character abusing their character bothers them. Our characters are extensions of some part of ourselves. Whether the character is the law abiding paladin, the pocket-picking rogue, the puppy-sacrificing cultist, they are the creations of the player. They are that player’s work. When creating a character for role play or writing we always put a bit of our heart, our soul into that character. Without it we could not make that character seem real. However even that tiny little piece of ourselves that we build into each character can cause pain and we need to be aware of that. Courtesy is not so difficult. If you want to interact with someone’s character, especially in a negative way, it is basic courtesy to communicate with them. Especially if it seems feelings might be getting hurt in the interaction. Whether in role play, in groups, on the forums or in chat, it is important to break down that wall. Don’t use the Great Wall of Anonymity as an excuse to be an ass. Courtesy is not so difficult. Kindness goes a very very long way. One tiny bit of kindness could improve a person’s day one hundred fold, prevent weeks of drama, and does it really cost so much to spare? It doesn’t take very long to examine what you type before you do so. Let’s put faces back on the person we communicate with. Hi. I’m Zydrate. It’s a pleasure to meet you and I hope we can be friends. I will be kind to you even if I feel you are not kind to me because I know on the other side of that screen, we are not so different.

How to Have Living, Breathing Emotions Now this is a section that I thought up entirely on my own. You may even notice it has a different writing style, as I'm told I have a "conversational" tone, informed by my several years of blogging experience. So this piece will be entirely original. This has been bouncing around in my head for some time, and is something I've struggled with when I interact in WoW-RP. This new guide is just as much for me as it is for all of you. Employ the Senses Earlier in this guide, we read about using three of the five senses when it comes to character creation and description. This continues to apply in every day custom emotes. When approaching an unfamiliar face, you need to give them a sense of who your character is. Tell them what they might see. Is their armor clean? Are they wounded? What quality of weapons might they be carrying? Do they look out of breath? In WoW, there are complete AddOns that help mitigate some of this but in Conan Exiles, we must lay a little bit of groundwork for our interactions. Throughout conversations, try to pepper in mannerisms. In real life, none of us are stone cold when having conversations. We move our hands, we look around the room, we continue about our business shuffling papers or making sure we're productive while speaking to co-workers. Starting an RP post with a custom emote rather than dialog is the best way to go about this. For example, Livia will tend to clasp her hands when something excited her. Other ways to do this is to show that your character is "shaking with excitement" which illicit a visual of something practically bouncing on their toes about a fun prospect. That's just one idea of many, and will go a long way in helping your character feel more alive in any given interaction. Your character is a person. Act like it! Avoid the Two-Line Curse Understandably in dialog-heavy situations, you want to quickly react to what your partner is saying, especially on heavier topics. That's a fair assessment but it's still not an accurate way to look at it. Tying into the point above, your character should often be emoting properly about anything that is said. A widened eye to signal surprise, that kind of thing. I might be repeating myself here but too often I see emotes out in the world such as; Livia turns the corner and sits upon the stool, thinking and taking a swig of her glass. What does that accomplish? What can other characters do with that information? Who cares? The dreaded one or two liner especially in a fully written custom emote (as opposed to pure dialog) gives nothing for the other characters to work with. Typically, we're also not mind readers. Do not pad your custom emotes with idle thoughts, unless you accompany it with physical tics and cues that may give us a hint to what they may be thinking. Better still, just write those tics and keep the thoughts for yourself, and give the partners their own mini-game to try and suss out what your character is thinking about the situation. Balancing Size and Time Don't get me wrong. Seeing paragraph-full posts are often times a joy, and have been the primary source of thinking of this post because I want to employ their mastery and help others along. There is however, a double sided issue. On one hand, there's a lot to reply to. Notably, if they have multiple dialog that can branch into multiple reactions and replies. On the other, the effort the player puts in their posts can easily sap time. Taking several minutes to type of fifteen lines kills a lot of time, and we all have places to be eventually. Some need their sleep, some need to get to work, or sometimes there's several people involved in the interaction and the conversation has the chance to completely derail if someone has to reply to something said several posts and minutes ago by a character that apparently went into a small coma for the time it took for them to type it all out. See what I mean? Again, it is always a mixed blessing. Sometimes great posts like these make people feel inadequate as a writer and roleplayer. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, use this information. Borrow their style. Pick it apart, figure out what makes it so great, and eventually employ it into your own writing. I've met several great writers that have pushed me to be a better custom-emoter. Whether I have or not, time will tell. Hopefully, I just want to help pass it along and help everyone emote better. In a way, we're all actors here. We take on a role and we write it out. I just hope this tidbit helps.

#Roleplaying #RP 101 #Roleplaying 101 #Guide #Roleplaying Guide

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liamins · 3 years

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The big list of oc info, including names/pronouns/birthdays/ages and the names+synopses of their stories, updated as I think of things

The Soulsverse

All of these stories take place in the same universe (housed inside of my robot lizard persona Alder (he/him)) and have the same soul-energy-based power system, just in different timelines, places, and time periods.

(A * by the character's name indicates they are a main character. Parentheses around pronouns means they're used before a character comes out, ie not permanent pronouns but ones that do get used directly in canon.)

(currently unnamed) - A sci-fi adventure series about a pair of twins harboring a magical princess while trying to keep themselves afloat by various, often dubiously moral means as 'Freelancers'.

*Liz - she/her - August 27th

*Zil - he/him - August 27th

*Vrn - she/her - October 31st

Ava - she/her

(currently unnamed) - Mostly here because the first two appear in the above series as side characters, but has a story about androids from a human colony on mars that fight for their autonomy connected to it that I'm unsure about truly making (I thought of this before the D*vid C*ge game that sounds similar came out and the story is more about capitalism stripping workers of autonomy and identity than trying to parody civil rights movements, but it is still a very complex issue rooted in societal biases I do not experience/unwillingly benefit from, which is why I am wary of producing a full series for it).

*Quinn(by) Pax - he/him - January 6th

*Jamie Aldophac - (he/him), they/them - July 8th

Lilac - she/her

Maverick - they/them

(currently unnamed) - Just some extra space pirates that may or may not get their own mini-series, but appear in several stories.

Jas - she/her

Gor - she/her, he/him, they/them

Geralt (Geri) - he/him

Altus Raianak - he/him, she/her

Tai - he/him

Storm - they/them, she/her

Roxie Diam - she/her

Marble Cook - they/them

Spike Cook - they/them, he/him

The Climb - a hypothetical sci-fi 'choose your own adventure' visual novel/turn-based rpg where you try to climb your way through the space pirate underworld.

*Nella - any - 17 - Human

Steph - xey/xem, they/them - 17

Puzz - they/them - 17

Stiriaco - he/him - 34

Monte - he/him, she/her, they/them - 30 - Human

Giuseppe (Gus) - he/him - 22 - Granarian

Mel - they/them - 20

(currently unnamed) - A hypothetical point-and-click/visual novel sci-fi/mystery game where you work as a private investigator trying to solve crimes around a city in space.

*Selachidimus Parry (P.) ‘Sharky’ Chomps - he/him

*Therin Zenos (Z.) Nosorus - they/them

Megalosa Donna ‘Don’ Chomps - she/her

'Tiny' - he/him - 32 - Aliurian

Scorpia - she/her

Husks - a sci-fi drama series about a group of ex-soldiers and magic 'clones' hunting for war criminals, including the scientist that created the clones, while also trying to work out their personal problems and identity issues.

*Randall Hasan - they/them - 40 - Human - November 9th

*Ivan ‘Ivy’ Hasan - (he/him), she/her, they/them - 30 - Human - December 17th

*Arven Hasan - he/him, they/them - 25 - Human - August 29th

*Sebastian 'Sebby' - (he/him), they/them - 25 - Constructed Human - October 5th

*Thomas Cecil ‘TC’ - (he/him), any? - 25 - Constructed Human - May 18th

*Ram(ona Starlight) - (he/him), she/her - 25 - Constructed Human - June 11th

Odelia ‘Odi’ - she/her - 74 - Human

Acting Captain - An adventure comedy about an actor and his roommate who get beamed onto the ship of a space pirate crew who just lost their captain in an accident and, seeing that the actor looks almost exactly like him, have him assume the identity of said captain to maintain their influence until they find a proper replacement.

*Ricardo 'Rico' Estivez - he/him - 32 - Human - February 9th

*Sora Ito - they/them - 26 - Human - December 4th

*Carrion Tarnak - he/him, they/them - 41

*Aquavi 'Avi' Quarary - any - 42

*Ventirus, or just Ven / Rus - they/them, xe/xim - 25

*Catarina 'Cat' Drasti - she/her - 23 - Human/

(currently unnamed) - The origin story of Eye and Castor, before they became god-like beings. Technically takes place before both Chimeric Ouroborus and Infinitesimal due to timeline bullshit.

*Cassius - he/him - Human (mutated)

*Issac - he/him, they/them - Human (mutated)

*Paulina - she/her - Equine Construct

Infinitesimal - a surreal horror fantasy series about a man dying and ending up in the home of a god-like being that promises to let him return to his life if he weeds out the monsters in their reality-warping mansion.

*Stan(ley) Aarons - he/him, she/her - 28 - Human (mutant) - November 11th

*Ryan Wilson - he/him - 28 - Human (mutant) - September 6th

*Jc Ramirez - any - 28 - Human (mutant) - March 13th

*Alecc Noland - he/him - 28 - Human (mutant) - October 27th

*The Clairvoyant Eye or 'Eye' - he/him, they/them - Ascended

*The Relentless Castigator or 'Castor' - he/him - Ascended

(currently unnamed) - A direct sequel to the above story following Stan and Ryan's son as he goes to college and tries to figure out the secrets of the city's magical underground. All while living near Alecc, who is trying to solve a mystery of his own.

*Jin Wilson - he/him - Human (mutant) - February 19th

*Loretta Duvall - she/her - Human (mutant) - September 15th

Brave the Dark - A fantasy adventure series about a teen boy venturing into a mysterious underground world full of spirit creatures called Constructs to save his best friend, only to learn that the world at large is in danger and he's the only one that can save it with his newly-awakened powers.

*Denzel 'Denny' - he/him - 17 - Human/Construct - April 6th

*Adel 'Addy' - she/her - 18 - Human - March 3rd

*Ratool - they/them - 42 -Serpentine Construct

*Quisco - he/him - 45 - Arachnid Construct

Rosa - she/her, they/them - 18 - Arachnid Construct

Chimeric Ouroboros - A post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure series about a man who is possessed by the cursed spirit of his father and, with the aid of family and friends, must find a way to rid himself of the spirit before all the components necessary to complete the revival are found....or worse.

*Elliot Velasco - he/him, they/them - Human/Construct - September 16th

Marina Velasco - she/her - Avian Construct

*Liko Ka’uhane - he/him, they/them - Human (mutant) - May 20th

Puanani Ka’uhane - she/her - Human (mutant) - September 18th

*Rupert Blitzbär - any - Human (mutant) - June 25th

*Conroy - he/him - Human (mutant) - May 14th

Freya - (he/him), she/her - Human (mutant) - April 17th

*Kosmy - he/him, she/her, they/them - Human (mutant) - July 23rd

*Sterrick Monev - he/him - Void Soul, formerly Human (mutant) - December 18th

Solas (Monev) - he/him - Human (mutant)

*Selena (Monev) Maher - she/her, they/them - Human (mutant)

Desdemona (Monev) Maher - she/her - Human (mutant)

*Darren Maher - he/him - Human (mutant)

The 'Recoded'-verse

These stories all take place in a different universe from the Soulsverse, where there isn't magic naturally present in the world. But there is an elusive magical being simply known as The Gamemaster (it/its), who either brings life to video games or sends life (people) into the worlds of the game. Just because it thinks it would be more interesting.

#long post #liamins ocs #rambles #///This is seriously just all the named one #///Anyway - feel free to ask about them at any time! I know it's just their names but I can explain them #///I like explainin #///Or just check the rest of my oc tag and you'll maybe find art and info of some of them there

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michaelandy101-blog · 3 years

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Google Superior Search Operators for Aggressive Content material Analysis

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/google-advanced-search-operators-for-competitive-content-research/

Google Superior Search Operators for Aggressive Content material Analysis

The thrill of ending a aggressive key phrase analysis venture typically offers method to the panic of fleeing from an avalanche of alternatives. With out an organizing precept, a spreadsheet stuffed with key phrases is a bottomless to-do record. It’s not sufficient to know what your opponents are rating for — you have to know what content material is powering these rankings and the way you’re at the moment competing with that content material. You want a blueprint to craft these key phrases right into a compelling construction.

Just lately, I wrote a publish concerning the present state of long-tail search engine optimisation. Whereas I had an angle for the piece in thoughts, I additionally knew it was a subject Moz and others had coated many occasions. I wanted to know the aggressive panorama and ensure I wasn’t cannibalizing our personal content material.

This publish covers one methodology to carry out that aggressive content material analysis, utilizing Google’s superior search operators. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll pare down the key phrase analysis and begin our journey with only one phrase: “long tail seo.”

Discover your greatest content material (website:)

lengthy tail seo website:moz.com

“long tail seo” website:moz.com

First, what has Moz already revealed on the topic? By pairing your goal key phrases with the [site:] operator, you may search for matching content material solely by yourself website. I normally begin with a broad-match search, but when your goal phrases are made up of widespread phrases, you possibly can additionally use citation marks and exact-match search. Right here’s the primary piece of content material I see:

Our greatest match on the topic is a Whiteboard Friday from 5 years in the past. If I had nothing new so as to add to the topic and/or I used to be contemplating doing a video, this may finish my journey. I don’t actually need to compete with my very own content material that’s already performing nicely. On this case, I determine that I’ve bought a recent take, and I transfer ahead.

Goal a particular folder (inurl:)

lengthy tail seo website:moz.com inurl:study

lengthy tail seo website:moz.com/study

For bigger websites, you may need to give attention to a particular part, just like the weblog, or in Moz’s case, our Studying Middle. You’ve a few choices right here. You might use the [inurl:] operator with the folder title, however which will lead to false alarms, like:

moz.com/weblog/study-seo-in-30-minutes-a-day

moz.com/weblog/what-seos-can-study-from-adwords

moz.com/neighborhood/q/subject/20117/what-is-the-best-way-to-study-seo

This can be helpful, in some circumstances, however when you have to particularly give attention to a sub-folder, simply add that sub-folder to the [site:] operator. The helpful factor concerning the [site:] operator is that something left off is basically a wild card, so [site:moz.com/learn] will return something within the /study folder.

Discover all competing pages (-site:)

lengthy tail seo -site:moz.com

Now that you’ve got a way of your individual, currently-ranking content material, you can begin to dig into the competitors. I like to begin broad, merely utilizing adverse match [-site:] to take away my very own website from the record. I get again one thing like this:

That is nice for a big-picture view, however you’re most likely going to need to focus in on only a couple or a handful of recognized opponents. So, let’s slender down the outcomes …

Discover key opponents (website: OR website:)

lengthy tail seo (website:ahrefs.com OR website:semrush.com)

By utilizing the [OR] operator with [site:] and placing the lead to parentheses, you may goal a particular group of opponents. Now, I get again one thing like this:

Is that this actually totally different than concentrating on one competitor at a time? Sure, in a single essential approach: now I can see how these opponents rank in opposition to one another.

Discover associated content material #1 (-“phrase”)

lengthy tail seo -“long tail seo”

As you get into longer, extra focused phrases, it’s potential to overlook related or associated content material. Hopefully, you’ve completed a radical job of your preliminary key phrase analysis, but it surely’s nonetheless price checking for gaps. One method I exploit is to search in your principal phrase with broad match, however exclude the precise match phrase. This leaves outcomes like:

Simply glancing at web page one among outcomes, I can see a number of mentions of “long tail keywords” (in addition to “long-tail” with a hyphen), and different variants like “long tail keyword research” and “long tail organic traffic.” Even in the event you’ve turned these up in your preliminary key phrase analysis, this mixture of Google search operators offers you a fast method to cowl plenty of variants and doubtlessly related content material.

Discover associated content material #2 (intext: -intitle:)

intext:”long tail seo” -intitle:”long tail seo”

One other helpful trick is to make use of the [intext:] operator to focus on your phrase within the physique of the content material, however then use [-intitle:] to exclude outcomes with the exact-match phrase within the title. Whereas the outcomes will overlap with the earlier trick, you may generally flip up some attention-grabbing aspect discussions and associated matters. After all, you too can use [intitle:] to laser-target your search on content material titles.

Discover pages by dates (####..####)

lengthy tail seo 2010..2015

In some circumstances, you may need to goal your search on a date-range. You’ll be able to mix the four-digit years with the vary operator [..] to focus on a time interval. Observe that this may search for the years as numbers wherever within the content material. Whereas the [daterange:] operator is theoretically your most exact choice, it depends on Google having the ability to accurately determine the publication date of a bit, and I’ve discovered it troublesome to make use of and a bit unpredictable. The vary operator normally does the job.

Discover prime X lists (intitle:”#..#”)

intitle:”top 11..15″ lengthy tail seo

This will get slightly foolish, however I simply need to illustrate the ability of mixing operators. Let’s say you’re engaged on a prime X record about long-tail search engine optimisation, however need to make sure that there isn’t an excessive amount of competitors for the 11-15 merchandise vary you’re touchdown in. Utilizing a combo of [intitle:] plus the vary operator [..], you may get one thing like this:

Observe that operator combos can get bizarre, and outcomes could differ relying on the order of the operators. Some operators can’t be utilized in mixture (or at the very least the outcomes are extremely suspicious), so at all times gut-check what you see.

Placing the entire knowledge to work

For those who method this course of in an organized approach (if I can do it, you are able to do it, as a result of, frankly, I’m not that organized), what you must find yourself with is a listing of related matters you might need missed, a listing of your at the moment top-performing pages, a listing of your related opponents, and a listing of your opponents’ top-performing pages. With this bundle of associated knowledge, you may reply questions like the next:

Are you susceptible to competing with your individual related content material?

Do you have to create new content material or enhance on present content material?

Is there outdated content material you must take away or 301-redirect?

What opponents are most related on this content material house?

What effort/price will it take to clear the aggressive bar?

What niches haven’t been coated by your opponents?

No instrument will magically reply these questions, however through the use of your present key phrase analysis instruments and Google’s superior search operators methodically, you must be capable to put your human intelligence to work and create a particular and actionable content material technique round your chosen subject.

For those who’d wish to study extra about Google’s superior search operators, take a look at our complete Studying Middle web page or my publish with 67 search operator tips. I’d love to listen to extra about how you place these instruments to work in your individual aggressive analysis.

Life rushed again into Jayda’s lungs, sharp and unforgiving. To her left, shards of a thousand synonyms. To her proper, the crumbling stays of a mountain of long-tail key phrases. Because the air crammed her lungs, the reminiscences got here speeding again, and with them the crushing realization that her group was buried beneath the particles. After months of effort, they’d lastly completed their aggressive key phrase analysis, however at what price?

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duckling-duck-duck · 4 years

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Midnight Sun Review, Chapter 1: First Sight (Why am I doing this?)

Hello people and welcome to my side blog specifically dedicated to my thoughts, feeling and opinions on Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer. It’s not like I have anything better to do at the moment (studying for exams, a semester to prepare for, friendships to cultivate) so let’s get to it!

Before I get started on informing you of said thoughts, feelings and opinions, here are a few disclaimers and other things you should probably know to follow my thought process and that will likely have an influence both on my reading experience and view of this book. For my inspiration for this undertaking, you all can thank both Hannah Lee Kidder for her excellent rewrites of the first book on YouTube (she is awesome, go check her out) and Strange Aeons for her video review of Midnight Sun, which I would also highly recommend.

When I heard that Stephenie Meyer (from now on referred to as SM, yes) finally was going to publish this mysterious thing that was circulating when I was barely a teenager and just starting my Twilight phase, and still seriously interested in the books, I was both over the moon and very apprehensive. And I knew immediately that I was going to buy and read it, no matter how bad or good it was going to be.

This YA fiction series was a huge part of my early formative years. At the time when I first read it, I was still too young to thoroughly grasp some of the more problematic concepts of the story, which has since changed. It got me into vampires, to an obsessive and, frankly, unhealthy amount. I subsequently read literature that was NOT for the eyes of a thirteen-year-old at the time and at the same time much worse fanfiction.

Another probably important thing is that I did not read the original Twilight series in English, but rather in German, which means that some things I may remember differently due to translation. I included this because the way Germans translate English in books is atrocious. I have never re-read the books after I read them for the first time, only watched the movies a couple of times since, mostly to make fun of them, this time in English. When the fourth movie came out, I was already mostly over Twilight again and just went to the theatre with my best friend for the hell of it. The only characters I was invested in at this point were the side characters, like Jasper, Rosalie, Leah Clearwater and, basically, anyone and everyone that wasn’t Edward, Bella and Jacob (mostly because everyone else had a much more compelling storyline). So please bear that in mind when I rip into this book. I will also probably be biased in favour of these characters.

This brings me to my last but probably the most important point: I had no interest in Edward and Bella and mostly wanted to know what kind of mess they ended up in this time. I made fun of them a lot. The older I got, the more of the unhealthy tendencies I recognized. So, this is my official warning for everyone who is genuinely interested in this book and wants to read it for fun and came across this post by accident: It will not be nice. I will probably not be kind. I like sarcasm and am not afraid to utilize it to get across exactly how dumb, deranged or practically pointless I think something is. I like to think I can give credit where it is due, but this is probably not the blog or post for you.

I will include trigger warnings if necessary, but if I miss anything please do not hesitate to let me know and/or stop reading immediately if it makes you uncomfortable. I am open to discussion and criticism, but please remain civil. And now that introduction has gone on for far too long, so please enjoy.

Chapter Summary: What happened?

We start with Edward in class having an existential crisis which seems to be his default state. He comments on his siblings, reducing them to absolute tropes which anyone who has read the original series later knows is not at all what and/or who they are. Practically anyone is more interesting than him, though that is not a high bar. Then we have lunch period (still wild you have that) where everyone else is thinking of the new girl who is still nothing amazing to him. Edward spews some vapid comments about everyone else in school (the word “children” comes to mind and is frequently used) and is very amused that particularly the female population, except for Angela, seems to be interested in him. After that, we get the famous biology scene from a whole other point of view and boy is it enjoyable! We end the chapter with Edward going to Alaska because otherwise he may or may not break into Charlie’s house to kill the daughter of the chief of police. (I rewrote this summary like, five times and still cannot make it less sarcastic. I apologize.) (#sorrynotsorry)

Warnings: Swearing, a lot. Explicit language. Too many parentheses. Slight description of violence. A lot of talk about murder.

It took me two evenings getting through this first chapter (25 pages total) and I am not going to lie: On the first one, I barely managed to make it 5 pages in before I had to stop and lie down and mentally prepare myself for the things that were to come. And lord, did they come!

If you thought being stuck in Bella’s mind was exhausting, welcome to a new level of it. Because Edward is even more self-deprecating than she is. He literally describes his basically vegetative state as purgatory because high school is just that boring. Granted, it sometimes is, but why even is he in high school then? As mentioned later he has 2 doctorate degrees. Could you just not go to university and study something that you haven’t learned yet? If Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper can pass as seniors (and you have to excuse me, but I know practically nothing of the American school system) then I am sure you can pull some kind of ‘gifted’ scheme to put Edward in either advanced classes or have him skip a few years. And fake a High School diploma. Another question: if he has two doctorates, why doesn’t he do something with them? You could apply your mind and focus on other things, like research, furthering humanity, curing cancer! (On that note: why has Carlisle not tried to do that? Just because you need to fly under the radar? There has got to be something you can do, both with your excessive money and apparently brilliant mind, that would benefit all of humanity that you so desperately try not to hurt. And if not personally, you can damn-well fund it or nudge someone in the right direction.)

But this doesn’t just tell us that Edward is bored out of his mind, it also tells us that he is probably unhappy with his non-life as well. In the first four sentences, we have already set the tone for the entire novel and I am contemplating a descent into alcoholism. It is gonna be excruciating to follow this dude’s mind for 756 pages because that is 755 pages too long. His entire existence revolves around making Carlisle proud and proving he still retains some of his humanity. While he sometimes talks about the love he has for his siblings, that seems more of a farce he upholds for his adoptive father (read: god) and mother, which in her case is more of a ‘can’t deal with her disappointed look’ (we all know the one), because besides Alice his opinion of them is basically ‘couldn’t be bothered to give a shit’.

(I wanted to use a gif of her but this was the first thing that popped up when I searched "rosalie" and ngl, it fits his perception of her perfectly)

Rosalie, in his opinion, is shallow, self-obsessed, and superior the everyone (“her mind was a stagnant pool with few surprises”). These two do not get along whatsoever and while this may have been my initial impression of her in Twilight it changed over time. She is more than that and it is baffling that Edward thinks of her that way even after all this time. They are familiar with each other’s stories and I find it hard to believe that he would do anything nice for her based on the initial impression we are presented within this book. Or maybe she now has almost everything she wants: a loving partner, a family, a comfortable life. Why is it so bad? She seems to be comfortable and even happy. Can Edward just not accept that other people might not despise this life as much as he does?

Emmett gets away slightly better than Rosalie, but not much. The impression I got of him from reading his paragraph is that he is an overgrown, glorified child. He has no problem with Edward reading his thoughts, specifically because he carries his heart on his sleeve and if he has something to say, he will say it to your face. He seems to be Edwards second favourite of his siblings.

His absolute favourite is Alice, because “it wasn’t easy, being the freaks among those who were already freaks.” If Bella and Jasper weren’t in the picture, those two would be a couple, I swear! They are the extra special snowflakes (derogatory) among the already special snowflakes (derogatory) (So sorry!). They look out for each other; I can already tell you that they will present a united front concerning anything and everything and ask each other favours (like Alice wanting Edward to keep an eye on Jasper to make sure he doesn’t go on a murdering spree because he’s hungry).

Coincidentally, Edward is pretty mad at her for focusing on her husband/boyfriend/SO and his trip down the serial killer lane in a public high school that she, later on, doesn’t catch a glimpse of Edwards violent fantasies and his possible future with his fangs in Bella’s neck. He seems to be pretty salty about that. I get that for Edward this is probably pretty damning, especially since this is not a regular occurrence, but has the thought crossed his mind that, right now, she has other priorities? Or that this future simply will not come to pass and that is the reason she hasn’t seen it? I am not familiar with how it works in the books (like I said, ages) but in the movies sometimes she gets the visions automatically without focusing and they are dependent on a person’s intent.

Back to Jasper then. And oh, Jasper. They did my boy dirty.

Well, technically not, because he has a much harder time living among humans than the others. But SM did not have to write Edward so dismissive of his struggles. To quote: “And Jasper was … suffering. I suppressed a sigh.” If this is so hard for him, why does he have to be there at all? They can’t always count on Edward and Alice to monitor him like a toddler. It would be far more efficient to just keep him away from humans. Also, and this is something that I have snapchatted to my friends several times and no one has yet come up with a concrete answer for me: You know how half the population is female? And how there are art-classes and PE and probably a school nurse? Accidents happen (I cannot tell you how often my friend had a spontaneous nosebleed in the middle of history class) and PMS is a thing. There will be a girl on her period when Jasper hasn’t fed in a long time. He’s not gonna avoid it by any stretch of the world by being in school. Have him stay home with Esme and work more in smaller steps.

“Why flirt with disaster?” If you can say that in response to Jasper having fantasies about drinking the blood of one of his classmates which starts with what is an exhibitionist-inclined make-out, why can’t you stay away from Bella? Because let me tell you: the best scene in this chapter was Edwards’s mind working out how to best kill his entire biology class just so he can rip open the new student and afterwards he doesn’t take his advice and cannot stay the fuck away. To his credit though, he tries. For like, half a chapter.

Until that point, where he smelled her, Bella was entirely mundane and uninteresting. He’s seen her in the minds of other students and the cafeteria and the most remarkable thing about her is that he can’t read her mind. He is very dismissive of it: “Not that I would find anything worth listening to.” So yeah, she doesn’t particularly strike his fancy or frankly, his interest.

But then she steps into the airflow that full-on blows her scent into his face and I have no words, except damn! And from that on we get the seven and a half most enjoyable pages of this chapter (dare I say the whole book?), the murder fantasies. What does it say about this book that this is the best scene so far? I found it quite well written to be honest. How he changes his second plan midway through the first because there are too many instances of the others screaming for help or alerting everyone else and, most importantly, Bellas body would grow cold while he snaps about 19 necks in 5 seconds. He is, for a monster without control, very methodical in his imaginary attempts to murder his class. Him thinking he has to destroy evidence, figuring out how he could best and most efficiently go about it, ultimately not relishing the killing but seeing it as the removal of an obstacle – I am getting some serious Hannibal vibes.

Of course, the thing holding him back is Carlisle and how Edward knows that his adoptive father would forgive him for this, because “he thought I was better than I was”. Only Edward being a stubborn bitch and wanting to prove something to Carlisle keeps around 20 people alive that day.

While I think the scene is incredible, it still rubs me the wrong way in a particular aspect: Edward has a raging fang-boner (pardon my French) for Bella and has the gall to judge Jasper simply because for him that is a permanent state of being. If anything, it makes me have a lot more respect for Jasper (and we can get into the confederate army major thing another time, I am aware of that) because he hasn’t ripped open someone’s bowels. But that isn’t where I was going with this. Edward only takes an interest in Bella because she smells like ecstasy to him. Because his instincts attract him to a meal so scrumptious, he’s never gonna forget it again. What a great start for a relationship! Also, he hates her because of her scent and this somehow keeps him sane. I either do not get boys in general or Edward Cullen specifically. Probably both.

It also takes him waaay too long to stop breathing. (And I know that he uses the phrase “sinking my teeth through that fine, thin, see-through skin to the hot, wet, pulsing-” to describe her neck, but I have read too much horribly/well-written E-rated fanfics on AO3 to not think of a vagina when I read this.)

And even after he has resolved to not abduct and kill the new student, he still fantasizes about doing it. Like I said, reading his fantasies is pretty enjoyable, but why did SM have to give them to us in the first chapter? Nothing in this book is gonna compare to this description ever again and I am sad about it. I know, who’d have thought?

Then we get to the part where he thinks about following her to her house because to kill her there is “the responsible way to deal with this”. Excuse me? Oh man, still really enjoyable to read, but now I am genuinely scared for Bella!

Because this is not just very detailed, but also very thought out. I am not sure if SM decided to ramp up the fear-factor for Edward because while everyone theoretically knows that he could snap a neck with his pinkie, the thirst was very much real about a decade ago and everyone just kinda glossed over the fact that Edward is a killing-machine. Not sure if Bella wouldn’t take Jacobs concerns regarding sex with a vampire while she was still human a little more seriously if she knew that was how her husband thought about her when they met. Is this supposed to entice me or turn me on? Not that it ever could in general, because Edward, but after that description, I am very much turned off, actually, and not at all receptive to this dude and want to tell Bella to run for the hills or La Push and never come back. This is, good writing aside, disturbing!

After class, he heads out in his car and listens to calming music, which he does a lot. I’ll keep tabs on how often and keep you posted. And this is where he gets angry with Alice for focusing on Jasper instead of him. To quote: “Was she so absorbed with watching for trouble with Jasper that she’d missed this much more horrific possibility?” Well, maybe because her boyfriend has a much harder time with basically every student in the school rather than just one and is much more likely to flip his table in English and jump the teacher (and not in a fun way). And that her life doesn’t revolve around you!

As I said, the chapter ends with him speeding off into the night, because that is the only responsible choice. If you fell you it best to remove yourself from the situation, do it. But maybe stay consistent afterwards.

Good things: The description of Edwards methodical nature when planning the murders. Very well written, as well as his portrayal as a ruthless monster compared to the amped-up teenage-heartthrob-thing we got from Bellas point of view. The danger surrounding a vampire never really came through, but now it did. I actually fear for her. Very impressive writing.

Bad things: How easily and nonchalantly he tries to manipulate his way into a higher-level science class was very disturbing. How dismissive he is of almost all of his siblings and their problems or their happiness. The fact that the first feelings he had towards Bella are ambivalence and hatred.

This is gonna be unbearable, isn’t it?

#midnight sun #bella swan #edward cullen #review #can we even call it that?

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