#update as I’m making this post: AND LIGHT ARMOR???

[stellunars]

protip for all my gale enjoyers: gale, as a human, is proficient with light armor and shields. yes, you read that correctly: your favorite wizard can, in fact, have a boost to his AC that doesn't require a spell slot or affect his ability to cast spells. you're welcome

[hollowed-theory-hall]

So, Wizarding Robes

I saw this post by @iamnmbr3 and @kittenjammer talking about wizarding fashion and I wanted to talk about this for a while, so I'm going to give my own two cents on it based on fashion history. I love history in general, but fashion history and historical architecture are two I’m incredibly passionate about. So, here we go (post with a lot of pictures ahead):

When I read the books and they mentioned unisex “robes” which function like dresses in a way (as you don’t have to be wearing trousers beneath them:

James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants.

(OotP, 647)

And described as being very colorful and billowing, often accompanied by a pointed wizard hat, it was clear to me JKR was trying to invoke the image of the classic fantasy wizard robe:

Especially when it comes to Dumbledore.

The thing is, this style is based on a real historical period and historical styles of the medieval period in Europe.

Medieval Europian Robes

When I'm thinking about the "classic fantasy wizard look" the first historical period that comes to my mind is the 15th century and I'll illustrate why.

Spesificly, the 14th and 15th centuries houppelande. It was a long over garment that looked kinda like a dress with wide, flaring sleeves available for both men and women in various shapes, cuts, and even patterns. Here are examples of some houppelandes:

(As you can also see, early 15th-century fashion comes built-in with silly hats! Just like wizards)

In the 15th century you also have a wide array of cuts of cloaks (and even more silly hats!):

Along with surcoats, that contrary to their name, weren't just for knights to signify on their armor the house they serve:

These 15th-century garments are exactly like wizard fashion is described in the books: billowing robes, colorful and eye-catching, and accompanied by silly hats.

The thing is, all these garments are from the high medieval period and as wizards broke away from muggles only when the Statute of Secrecy was enacted, I'd expect their fashion to follow the muggle trend up to that point and then start diverging. Even the most pure-blooded wizarding families of the modern day, like the Malfoys, integrated with muggle circles up until the Statue of Secrecy, something that would've forced them to dress like the muggles at the time to blend in better.

As the Status of Secrecy was first enacted in 1692, it's time to talk about:

Late 17th Century Fashion

Now, while the high middle ages in Europe had everyone wearing essentially wizard robes and silly hats on the regular, the Statue of Secrecy was enacted much later. Fashion in the 17th century was drastically different from the earlier one mentioned above.

In the late 17th century, this is the kind of dress I'd expect from women in England:

And this is what I'd expect from men:

Which is very different from what is described but would've been the historical basis the wizards would work from.

So what do I think wizarding fashion is actually like?

Well, since the books are in the 1990s and wizards don't really live in a vacuum we know some later influences in fashion did make it in. So, I think wizarding fashion is an odd mix of 15th-century and late 17th-century fashions updated to the time period the wizard grew up in, hence distinct fashion changes between generations like we see in the muggle world.

We see these distinct generational fashion changes with characters like Agusta Longbottom who wears a Vulture hat. These sorts of hats with real birds on them were a thing historically. They were quite fashionable in the late Victorian era, which is when Agusta would've been a child if she's around Dumbledore's age:

Fudge is described as wearing a Bowler Hat, a kind of hat that started catching on in the late 19th century but was still a staple in menswear into the early 20th century, hence indicating Fudge's age.

Ron's yule ball dress robes are described as old-fashioned, again indicating fashions in the wizarding world change at a similar rate to the muggle one. Note that since the 17th century, fashion has been changing quite rapidly and by the 18th century fast fashion where you need to buy new garments each "season" has already started becoming a thing. With all that, I think wizard fashion indeed changes just as rapidly as the muggle one.

Now, that's great, and all, but, what would that odd mish-mash fashion even look like?

Well, I made a few very quick sketches as concept examples for what casual wizarding fashion in the UK might look like if we're working off historical references:

(not my best pieces, it's just to get the concept across)

Note that Wizengamot robes and other formal professional wear would probably be older in style and closer to 17th-century fashions.

[lolotheparagon]

After my last Batman design post went over so well: I think it’s only fair to tackle my fave piece of Batman media, warts and all: The Arkhamverse.

I’m gonna be doing a separate one for all the Arkham characters but for this one, I’m gonna be reviewing every suit Batman wears in every game (including Catwoman’s outfits in City.)

(Im not gonna count every DLC suit cos we’ll be here all day. I’m only gonna talk about the main suits that came default with the game)

Let’s start with Asylum!

Default Suit - 7/10

I’m glad this is not a suit of armor and the artists have kept that classic superhero silliness with the long cape, long bat ears and black underpants. The gloves are now armored gauntlets yet still have those spikes on the sides that just complete the look. A little on the dull side in terms of colour scheme. I miss the yellow circle behind the bat symbol. I think the Arkham City version was a lot better in terms of colour balance and how the blueish light the cape and cowl had in that game really makes a difference.

Armored Suit - 4/10

It’s a far too militarised version of the Batsuit and not silly enough to be a superhero costume. It is not worth completing the game 100% for.

Right, that’s all. Let’s head to the City!

Default Suit - 8/10

Honestly, this update of the default suit from Asylum is the perfect blend of a hardened combat suit but enough classic superhero silliness. Not too militarised and probably the best suit in modern Batman to date. I like how they incorporated the sleek blueish tinge on Batman’s cape from the 90s animated series. Great suit, even if the yellow utility belt is still an awful shade of yellow and there’s no yellow on the bat symbol.

Animated Suit - 10/10

A suit referenced from a legit good piece of Batman media. Streamlined, stylised and the mixes of navy blue and gold, with the muted grey and black is just chef kiss. Considering the technology of cartoon costumes into a gritty 3D video game at the time, this is still really good and holds up well.

The Dark Knight Returns - 0/10

Oh yeah. That comic. The one that Batman stans won’t shut up about and paved the way for morose, ultraviolent takes on Batman for decades to come. The suit isn’t even that good, he looks like Stan Smith in Batman cosplay

Batman Beyond Suit - 2/10

This isn’t Terry McGinnis so what’s the point exactly? Also the Beyond suit looks a lot less cool with all the added detail and defined muscle.

Batman Inc. Suit - -10/10

I know Bats has a hard-on for justice but Jesus, dude. I’ll give it points for being one of the few gritty Batsuit skins to keep the yellow bat symbol and utility belt.

Earth One Suit - 1/10

No underwear over the top of his costume and no yellow utility belt. You get an F. Not silly enough.

Year One Suit - 0/10

Oh wow, that’s boring! He doesn’t even have BAT EARS!!

Sinistro Corps Suit - 7/10

I’ll give it this: it’s a unique suit. I didn’t think black and murky yellow would work, but somehow it does. And that cape is LONG, surprised Bruce hasn’t stumbled on that yet. I don’t get the reference so I’m sure some comic nerd out there is going “aha” at this and good for them. It is one of the better skins of this game. Although tbh it does look like a men’s sized Batgirl suit.

Im not done, this is only the first part! See you all in a moment!

[favoriteblogonthecitadel]

Six Song Soundtrack Game

Tagged by the beloved @isayashai !! I loved reading through the songs you picked <3 And I had my eye on this tag game, so tysm for tagging me!!

Rules: If tagged, make a new post with links to music and/or lyrics describing the following: 1. An event that defines your character's past 2. How your character sees themselves 3. How others view them 4. Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic) 5. A major fight scene 6. End credits song

Doing this one for Xiomara Shepard with her ME1 self in mind specifically. Song titles/lyrics below, and since I like how they sound together, here are all of them in a playlist :)

Atlas: Eight by Sleeping At Last

I remember the minute It was like a switch was flipped I was just a kid who grew Up strong enough To pick this armor up And suddenly it fit […] But I can't let you see All that I have to lose All I've lost in the fight to protect it I can't let you in

If you’re wondering, yes, I’m very normal about Earthborn Ruthless Shepard. Particularly normal about Xiomara getting recruited from a chaotic environment and tossed into the super rigid expectations of Alliance training — struggling with culture shock within that structure, until the moment she gets to put on armor for the first time. It just... feels right to be ready to fight things, any things she gets thrown at, and becoming a soldier gives her everything she needs to pursue that instinct. From then on she thrives on the skills and attitudes she learned as a child, because apparently gang and Alliance cultures have some commonalities (they both reward desensitization to violence and loss of the self to the best interests of the organization).

2. Sometimes by Gerry Cinnamon

Sometimes, just sometimes Well alright, maybe all of the time I'm on a false ego trip Well I'm a renegade of sorts I roam the concrete jungle Hunting idiots for sport And now the cocaine scene It picked me up and made me frown That's when joking says that music helps the medicine go down Hey, it makes you feel alive More like demons of the night Flinging powder up your nose It's the way the water flows Yeah that's the way the story goes

For a character who relies so much on confidence and aggression, her inner dialogue is a lot more grounded; resigned, even. She has a job, it’s dirty work, and she does it well while finding acceptable ways to cope with it (also questionable ones, but what's life without some risk?). She doesn't feel any particular inclination to change her lot in life, until she finds the Beacon and faces a Bigger Picture she wasn't ready for.

3. MONEY by The Warning

Moral code updates three times a year Truth that's dipped in gold is just as sincere I'll never ask for forgiveness I come with God as my witness I pray he'll wash my hands It's sad and true, and the world hurts Sold your soul that's how it works We're human after all Are you worth your weight in gold? Going once, going twice, sold It's all about that cold, hard cash, hon Ow!

This is how I’d anticipate a lot of people view the Butcher of Torfan turned Council Spectre (and the mere concept of a human becoming a Spectre, tbh).

4. L.A. Kid by Act As If (for Xo and Kaidan)

You were an L.A. kid You were fighting hard You didn't need no one To set you apart You took me by surprise And stars fell from the skies You say you lost your heart And the lights went on 'Cause when you saw me, it was gone It was gone, it was gone And now that I I've got you here My days are long But you know when I'm coming home Coming home, coming home

They’re in love, your honor. <3 Neither of them was expecting it or looking for it, but once they collide, they're home.

5. The Pretender by Foo Fighters (for the final battle with Saren)

I'm the voice inside your head you refuse to hear I'm the face that you have to face, mirroring your stare I'm what's left, I'm what's right, I'm the enemy I'm the hand that'll take you down, bring you to your knees So, who are you? Yeah, who are you? Yeah, who are you? Yeah, who are you? Keep you in the dark You know they all pretend What if I say I'm not like the others? What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays? You're the pretender What if I say I will never surrender?

Heyyyyy so what if we were narrative parallels in our relationship with the threat of obliteration? What if we were both ruthless and flawed but one of us felt like a Chosen One forced to minimize the damage of the apocalypse, and the other could give zero fucks about compromising with false gods? What if our final confrontation after months of mutual hunt happened in the room that ordained both of us into the same Vigilante job, and it was not just a physical fight, but a conversation about which of us is a hero and which is a puppet? What then?

6. Raise Hell by Dorothy

Gotta raise a little hell Young blood, run like a river Young blood, never get chained Young blood, heaven need a sinner You can't raise hell with a saint Young blood, came to start a riot Don't care what your old man say Young blood, heaven hate a sinner But we gonna raise hell anyway

It's just Xiomara vibes honestly, and it goes well with the mutiny thing near the end of the game!

[cricketnationrise]

Okay, in the end I couldn't pass up: Kel in New Hope at [I can't remember how they do time and the books are all the way on the other side of the room so the Tortall equivalent of 10:17am]

a little almost post-Scanran war moment. no i don't know if that's how it would work in 'real' life but i like the vibes of this one - (new) hope you like it! 💜

want your own ficlet? rules here

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

new hope, third bell after breakfast

Kel opened the next letter on her desk with a sigh; Wyldon never warned her about the sheer volume of paperwork that being in charge generated. But he probably didn’t have to deal with correspondence that was downright rude about his person, his title, and his command. Even after returning from Scanra with over four hundred of her refugees, the hate mail addressed to Kel continued, especially once New Hope had been built and she had a fixed location once again.

She doesn’t get further than ‘ought to be ashamed of yourself’ before she throws the letter on the pile to be burned. Lighting the nonsense on fire was the simplest way Kel had found to deal with the avalanche of hate sent her way. It had been Neal’s idea, originally, all the way back in Corus when they were still pages. It still baffled Kel that people bothered to spend time on an insulting letter to a stranger (and a child) purely because her life didn’t look how they thought it ought to.

The next letter made her smile – Fianola had sent her an update on her page training, with a veiled plea for more bruise balm. Kel made a mental note to have Neal make some more up and send it out with the next messenger to Corus. The next were all inventory reports she would have to collate and parse through before sending her end of month report to Wyldon. Thank Mithros for clerks – Kel didn’t know how she’d ever done without them.

Finally, she got to the last letter and Kel sat up straight when she saw the official seals of the King and the Magistrate’s Office. She opened it carefully and felt her eyes widen when she read the opening line. She needed to alert the camp. Still clutching the letter, Kel ran out of her office and rang the bell at the center of the practice yard, summoning the residents.

Less than five minutes later, the entire camp was assembled. There was a low-level of curious muttering among the people, but Kel’s lack of weaponry and armor and the smile she couldn’t quite control made any worry of an attack fall by the wayside.

“Everyone’s here, Kel, except the duty watch on the wall.”

“Thank you, Merric. I’ll catch them up right after this,” she replied before shifting her voice to a Command volume. “Thank you for assembling so quickly. New Hope got some news this morning, and I wanted to tell you all straight away.” 

“Are we being granted a new shipment of mud?” Neal asked. The gathered refugees and off-duty soldiers, her people, laughed at his impertinent tone.

“Not until the next rainstorm, Sir Nealan. But we are being granted something.” She beamed out at them all, proud beyond measure that they’d all gotten to this point.

“King Jonathan and Queen Thayet send their regards, and advise that following the signing of the Peace Treaty with Scanra that is currently being negotiated, New Hope will become an permanent Town – meaning that once the war is officially over, you all have the option of remaining here and building a more permanent life.”

“And who would be in charge?” Fanche called out.

Kel could feel herself blush but stood straight, reading directly from the letter. “‘The Crown suggests Lady Knight Commander Keladry of Mindelan to serve as New Hope’s first mayor, pending approval from the residents and her own acceptance of the role.’” She paused there, unsure how to go on. 

“Well that settles it, I’m staying,” Seafas said, breaking the silence. Ripples of agreement went through the crowd.

“You’ve proved worth your feed, right enough,” Fanche agreed with a sly smile. “Might as well stick around a little longer.”

“I’ll need to think about it – I never thought about this possibility—”

“For once you haven’t pondered through every angle? Say it isn’t so,” teased Neal.

“Oh shut it, Neal. I promise you all I will seriously consider it. For now, think seriously about what you want your post-war lives to look like. You don’t have any obligation to stay here, you could return to your home fiefs, or somewhere new altogether. Your new hope doesn’t have to be at New Hope. Thank you.” Kel hopped down from the low wall, grinning at the cheers that went up amongst the refugees and soldiers alike. She strode in the direction of the outer wall, thinking hard as she went.

What did she want her new hope to look like?

[ariparri]

Trade & Request Rules

So I’m always open to do some art trades, but I also do trades for stories! Though for that one, I’ll still be drawing as I’m not that confident to write for others just yet. And people are free to make content with my OCs without having to ask me for permission, I always love seeing when people make something with my characters! As for requests, I don’t always open them up because some people I’ve dealt with can be frustrating to deal with. So requests are rare but I do take them once in a while.

But I do have some rules regarding trades, requests and my OCs. Most of the rules from my Commission Info and Terms of Service do carry on to my trades and requests.

Rules

I will not be doing any NSFW content, whether it’s explicit or implied.

I do have the right to refuse any trades or requests for whatever reason.

Please DO NOT portray my OCs in any inappropriate or offensive way.

The other party is allowed to use their request/traded art for personal use.

Reblogging my work is preferred but if you plan to repost please credit.

I do not do a “first come first serve” I will work on smaller trades/requests between larger trades/requests.

For trades, I will hold off from posting my finished piece UNTIL the other party has finished their part.

I can only accept five(5) at a time.

Will Draw

OCs

Canon Characters

Ships/Pairs

Groups of 4

Light Gore (blood, cuts, etc.)

Small animals & creatures

Won’t Draw

Anthros (let me practice first)

Large creatures and animals

NSFW (explicit and implied)

Heavy armor or mechas

Extreme Gore

Problematic Ships & Tropes

Fandoms I Will Draw For

Palia

Bleach

Fire Emblem (Awakening, Fates, Warriors)

Genshin Impact

Honkai Impact/Star Rail

Bully

Harvest Town

Samurai Warriors

Warriors Orochi

Dynasty Warriors

Hogwarts Mystery

Hogwarts Legacy

Magic Awakened

Tekken

Otome Games (Voltage Inc. games, etc)

Note: Will be updated from time to time

Blog Masterpost

[prophbuilds]

HG RX-78 MS00Z Gundam GP00 [Engage Zero] – A Review

 Pre-ordered in October. Shipped out in March. Missed the mentioned arrival date by a Day as the tracker didn’t bother to update when it was delayed thanks to *Gestures at the recent chaotic weather* all of this “Totally Normal" March weather system.

 That’s right! That monochrome box can only mean one thing: My P-Bandai exclusive Engage Zero has Finally Arrived! = D

 What follows is the basics of the build. It was a fairly easy and smooth build that was pretty fun. So sit back, get comfy and enjoy the read. = )

 So here’s the deal... I pre-ordered this on the US Premium Bandai website back in October. The thing about P-Bandai (especially the US site) is that kits tend to sell out fast. This means that, when the Engage Zero went up for sale, I jumped on it ASAP.

 Turns out I really didn’t need to as I’m Pretty Sure you can still order a kit from the US P-Bandai site at the time of this posting. o.o

 Anyhoo! Now that I got this kit in and got the change to build it, I'm really happy I didn't risk the wait. The Engage Zero is a neat little kit. The story is it’s supposed to be a Federation/Zeon joint creation and you can tell in the build. The head and body have a lot of design cues from the classic RX-78. The colors are very much Gundam Mk.II inspired. The limbs are VERY Much inspired by Zeon suits. It sports a back skirt similar to the Qubeley with some Neo-Zeon flavored arms and legs. The beam rifle has a Gundam SEED feel and the shield looks like it’d be at home in Gundam AGE.

 As for the build… it has a handful of color stickers. It’s not a Terrible amount, but it does have some to add some red bits to the arms, legs and Gigantic space backpack. The only stickers I used were the eyes, a handful for the lenses and I tried for the classic Gundam “Crotch V-Fin". See... this is an area that – in the past - questioned if it really needed a large sticker for. Most times, the bulk of sticker is the same color as the plastic piece you’re putting it on with only the V-Fin being different. Well… this kit came with Just the V-Fin.

 To give you an idea of the size of the this detail: It’s so small on HG kits that you can just leave it blank and the natural highlight and shading of any kind of light setup will make it pop and noticeable.

 This kit comes with this teeny tiny fiddly little golden metallic sticker for Just the V-Fin. I tried for a few minutes trying to line it up on the piece and get it to wrap around like it should and Yeah! Nope. I took the thing off. Although this was kinda’ sorta' planned to be a straight build, I’m adding that to the list of things to be painted in later. This kit looks great on its own and will look better with some panel lining. It also has a lot of very nice open space that’s just begging for some decals and detailing.

 Enjoy some in-progress shots! = D

 Final Thoughts: I love it. It's a very feminine looking kit without going the full "Not Sailor Moon" distance that the Nobel Gundam goes. The color separation is great with only a handful of parts needing stickers. Although it comes with a whole thing of polycaps, it hardly uses any. Instead, it has a lot of plastic on plastic joints. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I’ll find out in time.

 The poseability on this is top notch. Massive space backpack aside, it’s well balanced and can hold a fair number of poses. As others have pointed out, the shoulder armor prevents it from getting its arms to go straight out. Like anything, a little bit of sanding would improve that but it’s not a deal breaker by any means.

 It also does something I rarely see from Bandai – It has a set of open hands, holding hands and a custom trigger hand for the rifle with backing parts for the whole set. That’s Two pairs for basic hands and a special trigger hand with Five backs so you don’t have to loot them from the others just to use them. = )

 Overall, I’m diggin' the Engage Zero. It was a relatively simple build with a nice payoff. I Might try to mod the back to accept something beyond the single post backpacks but, for now, it’s a nice little kit.

[wirewitchviolet]

The Entire Plot of Final Fantasy 14, with all the expansions, and some serious analysis of how good it actually is. (Part 4 - Post-Heavensward)

At this point my schedule for posting these is mainly limited by how rare the windows are where Tumblr will let me hit the “new post” button. Hopefully the congestion clears up soon.

Last time, we got through the end of Heavensward. A story about awful fantasy-catholic blueblooded aristocrats letting their own people starve to death while pursing a genocidal war against some real chill dragons that technically has you helping the terrible people for most of it, but at least you get to kill the pope. Which of course means now Ishgard is going to stop being a horrible place full of terrible bigots, right?

Post-Heavensward

Oh no of course not! The main structural thread of this interim of free patch content is you having to babysit this uneasy peace you mostly established and make sure none of these terrible people mess it up. Or, you know, the big dragon who was the primary aggressor in this thousands-of-years-long war who went ahead and possessed the guy who killed him because for real Estinien what did you think was going to happen when you held both eyes at the same time? Honestly.

There’s a whole bit with someone commissioning a giant version of this mural from Ysayle’s little underground dragon church of the original actual Shiva and Hraesvelgr falling in love to hang outside the gates of the city which I swear is all framed perfectly for all kinds of video edit jokes, possessed Estinein flying in and really starting crap. At one point while having kind of a party someone slips something into the protagonist’s drink before getting a riot started and hey, Warrior of Light, this is the second time that’s happened, maybe lay off wine in the future. Church loyalists don’t like that you killed the pope and exposed their whole everything as a lie, some people still hate dragons, someone tries to assassinate Aymeric, things get pretty damn awful and it largely comes to a head with some jerk flinging a small child off her roof who only survives because one of your chillest of dragon pals just happened to be heading over to maybe have a chat. Ends up being a real good PR moment for team dragon when she catches the kid.

As is usual with this stuff there’s a lot of plot threads running in parallel as we had episodic updates when this first all came out, but this particular topic doesn’t stretch on too much longer, culminating of course with possessed Estinein who has the eyes fused to his armor looking kinda like Nightmare from Soul Calibur and when you fight him he’s flipping between this and a full on dragon form.

Hraesvelgr shows up to help with this mess because seriously, Hraesvelgr is a solid pal. We get some dragon on dragon fighting that doesn’t go super well for the big H, but turns out that’s because his ace in the hole is letting you borrow his eye that was already out and loose and all. So you have your big satisfying one on one (well, 8 on 1, but the plot always pretends those other party members don’t exist) boss fight, then you and Alphinaud tackle him so you can just pry those freaking eyes off his armor and toss them into the massive imposing ravine you’re fighting over. They’re stuck in there pretty good though, and the only way you get them out is with the help of the ghost of Ysayle showing up. Whole band’s back together! Hauchefant’s ghost is here helping too, but I’m sorry, he just did not leave the impression on me the writers figured he would.

Estinein is fine, of course. Again, he’s all tied in with the Dragoon job quests. In fact, when you’re stuck in the boss arena with him in dragon form waiting on party recruitment, you can totally slip out, head to the next town over, advance some Dragoon quest stuff and spar with him a bit before the main event. Stuff like that amuses me. Anyway, this whole confrontation honestly is a very good scene. Someone should really take notes at how much better all this works when you have nice unambiguously good characters not only fighting some evil jerk but actively trying to save people they care about than wannabe Game of Thrones morally grey political stuff and shadowy robed figures with ambiguous goals whispering in people’s ears. And apparently someone is. My understanding is there was a big shift in the writing staff after this expansion and the grimdark folks kinda take a back seat while the woman who wrote the real standouts of the Rogue’s Guild and Dark Knight quest lines got tapped to write the better half of the next expansion and basically everyone for The Good One.

Estinein also finally takes off his busted blood-drenched edgy armor after this, and probably takes like his first bath ever, happy that his militant badass role is no longer needed and he has friends who take care of him. Which is nice but I can’t get over how wrong he looks without the helmet. I know he’s an elf but this semi-femme look is just weird for the guy always pulling the giant eyes out at meetings.

The next major story hook we have going on, which again is pretty intertwined with this one, is that all the less friendly monster folk kinda went and took advantage of your back being turned and started summoning their gods again. Canonically this is like the fourth or fifth time you’ve had to deal with this in some cases, because there is generally some plot justification for having the hard mode versions of those fights crop up (as opposed to the hard mode versions of non-summoned-god boss fights, which are rationalized by there being this bad hanging around who comes up with extra embellished versions of your exploits and then those go into the boss fight a la carte menu).

Hey, didn’t you used to have a whole party of friends whose whole deal was keeping tabs on exactly this sort of thing? Really is high time to get that band together too. Alphinaud has been with you the whole time, getting like half the dialog in the expansion. Y’shtola you dragged out of teleport limbo earlier. Urianger just never left your original base of operations because books are hard to move, you just haven’t checked in (past starting optional boss refight questlines) because who wants to spend time with Urianger? Papalymo and Yda are missing, but we get cutaways now and then showing them hanging out behind enemy lines doing resistance stuff. That still leaves Minfilia and Thancred. Thancred you know made it out because his scuzzy barfly pseudo-spy instincts kicked in and he got out from The Incident early but he’s been way off the grid. To help track him down, you get a little assistance from Matoya eventually, but also from that friend Minfilia’s been trying to invite to join the party since a half-audible phonecall near the climax of the base game, who’s been waylaid since by stuff like the empire full on destroying the island she was living on, Krile. Yes like, from FF5 Krile, has a grandfather named Galuf and everything... and wait where the hell is this line from? This has to be an edit, right?

Aside from being a walking FF5 reference, a big nerd all your nerd friends know from nerd school, and the owner of this custom-made catgirl hoodie, Krile is on that list of Lalafel I can count on one hand who aren’t Just The Worst. Another is Rauban’s adopted son who I think gets introduced around here somewhere. Anyway her and Matoya work out where Thancred’s been hiding. He also headed way up north you just never bumped into him, and he’s had eyes on this odd situation where while in particular the bug hivemind is getting their god up and running again and you show up to do your thing, this other goup of people come out of nowhere and killsteal him.

They introduce themselves as the Warriors of Darkness. Their whole deal is that they WERE the world-saving heroes of an alternate universe, but they claim they saved it a bit too hard, setting off an apocalypse where the whole balance of light and darkness tipped way too hard towards light and now this wave of holy radiance is just gradually glassing their whole world. They came here because one of those Ascian losers taught them the whole die and have your soul head off somewhere else trick, and put it into their heads that they can avert this apocalypse by coming here and scoring enough points for team darkness to screw your world over or kill your plot immunity crystal goddess or some such, but first they need to grind some god refights to power up and presumably recharge their personal metaphysical Zelda crystal chamber progression rooms, like you had to do during Heavensward and maybe spilling into Stormblood? I don’t recall when they all come back online.

The other thing with these guys is you’ve kinda seen them before, sort of, presumably, if you let the whole intro play out in the base game. There’s the whole bit where we see that end of 1.0 apocalyptic scene play out, then these five teleporting into the woods somewhere. The implication was clearly supposed to be that this is a party of 1.0 characters showing up unscathed afterwards but... no we are totally retconning it. This is a group of dimension hoppers party crashing. Actual 1.0 survivors had to start over at level 1 with no gear and nothing to show for it but those 1.0 veteran neck tattoos I’ve seen in the wild all of one time.

This gets real confusing real quick though, because the intro movies for every expansion have a pre-rendered stand-in for your character who looks more or less exactly like the guy in the middle. Also I’m pretty sure what you look like if you just mash through character creation without changing anything from its default postion. Also that central primary actually-took-the-Warrior-job Warrior of Darkness in particular kind of is canonically your sort-of-twin/counterpart from another dimension and I figure the only reason he isn’t actually just straight up given a copy of your character model is he has a ton of voiced lines and they’d sound weird coming from whatever you actually look like. Still super confusing though that when you first see this guy in the intro you incorrectly figure that’s you, and then in all the other intros when you do see you, you might think you’re seeing this guy now that you’ve met him. It’s also weird that they all summon chocobos in hindsight, but whatever we’re retconning an old cutscene now and that oddity only becomes odd in the expansion where we see where these people came from, still several years off.

So, they suck, and go around doing their thing while you’re dealing with other things. Thancred swoops in to help you out when you first meet them, and then later since he’s keeping tabs swoops in when they happen across Allisae when she’s just minding her own business/still waiting for you to find a party for that Bahamut raid already and take her down with a poisoned arrow that almost kills her. Trying to recall if that’s one of the several times when someone mistakes her for Alphinaud or vice versa. There’s definitely one of those the first time she meets Estinein which is pretty great.

There’s also a whole bit where we get cutaways to the Warriors of Darkness having planning sessions with a mysterious shadowy figure that is just so very clearly Urianger. Like that’s a really distinctive beard and also literally not one other person in the entire world talks like that. It doesn’t turn out that Urianger is secretly evil though, just... really curious about their whole backstory and all the interesting cosmology it brings in and stuff. Plus you know, they are trying to save their world from an apocalypse, that’s worth trying to help with, just not with the plan they’re going for. But also like, hey, Urianger, you’re hanging out having chats with an Ascian, that’s never a good plan.

Allisae tags along after getting pretty plainly pulled into this mess, and she’s honestly a pretty cool no nonsense hothead type which balances out all these academic nerds some. She’s around when you meet this tiny little kobold kid freaked out because the local priest is going to sacrifice his parents to summon Titan again, and you show up uh... between the part where he killed this kid’s parents and the summoning bit. The kid’s pretty traumatized by this, and in begging for his parents back, kinda ends up, you know, summoning Titan. Who does not bring his parents back. That is explicitly a thing gods can’t do (at least if you don’t want soulless zombie-like husks of people, they can swing that). But only hackney writing can truly bring back the dead. Interesting side note here, you have to fight Titan again, but it’s not a new fight? It’s just, like, “to proceed with the story please bring up medium difficulty Titan and knock that out real quick.” Weirdest thing. Anyway at the end of this we just have this SUPER traumatized to the point of catatonia kobold kid and Allisae is super invested in his eventual recovery and it’s kind of the defining moment for her character and pays off nicely later.

There’s a lot of lore dumping associated with all this and honestly none of it fits in super well with what’s previously been established about cyclical apocalypses and it all gets retconned pretty hard again the next time it’s relevant and that revison is way better world building than “wow those evil manipulative Ascians sure are trying to make this party of noble* heroes do evil stuff to plunge the whole world into darkness” business.

* I am just never going to be able to let the whole deadly poison in an arrow fired at a random civilian thing go. There’s really no justifying that and it directly conflicts with everything they try to do with these characters later.

Anyway turns out Minfilia’s dead. Kinda. It’s complicated. To work out what’s up with her you have to go bother poor Matoya again and check out the upside down tower in her closet I accidentally mentioned too early. Which arbitrarily ends by the way with a fight against Calcabrina, that really memorable creepy doll fight from FF4. Sadly you can’t skip the big boss by killing all 6 little dolls at once here. So, your personal goddess Hydaelyn has been having connectivity issues for a while (again, this is why you needed an immunization booster in the form of a soul pact with Midgardsomnr, who still pops up to chat here and there and also manifested a cooler mount form for Azys Lla touring). So... when Minfilia was kind of just adrift in the lifestream there with Y’shtola, she kinda went “hey can I like hollow out your body to use as a mouthpiece for talking to the protagonist? It’d really help me out” and not having any sort of actual personality Minfilia agreed. She’s kinda still in there but, yeah. Also like I already assumed, just because this game is so very diligent about hammering home that all religions and gods are inherently false and parasitic, that we’re eventually leading up to a big “and that absolutely includes Hydaelyn” moment, and this here really feels like tipping their hand towards that but... somehow not one single character in the whole game sees this as a red flag or has any problem with it.

Eventually you have your big ol’ showdown with these Warrior of Darkness jerks, and its kind of a neat one showing off a lot of new mechanical concepts that will be commonplace soon, and it’s a big ol’ party vs. party thing where you fight their whole team and the Scions pull their weight for a change helping out. Allisae (who’s never really been formally on the team but is definitely A Party Member from here on out) kinda surprises everyone by announcing she’s sick of being all passive in the background with her little caster book that matches Alphinaud’s and whips out a big ol’ glowing crystal sword she’s gonna try tanking with for a change. After this she decides that’s not really for her and goes for a lighter one once the Red Mage class gets introduced.

So you beat these jerks up and send’em packing back to their home dimension, but you do feel bad for them, so Minfilia/the voice of god goes along with them to see about maybe helping out there. You know, again, we wasted a perfectly good Moonbryda to avoid killing Minfilia off earlier and then we go right and turn around and pull that trigger anyway, basically. And now we’ve just got one and a half major plot developments left and I kinda want to save the one that really sets up the next expansion for last, after I get into the sidequest stuff.

The half though is that somewhere in the middle of all this a real big preposterously tough weirdo samurai washes up by Urianger’s place, having just come over from Doma by just taking a damn rowboat over. Possibly going the long way around the world, too. I just generally enjoy this broad character archetype.

And yeah it’s weird he’s British in the English dub. It’s weird that everyone’s British. Well everyone but Gaius I guess. When we get to the third expansion people start having accents from other parts of the UK at least for a little variety, but it’s weird. Anyway Gosetsu here is a cool new friend but he’s mostly here to let Yugiri know we’re kinda getting the resistance band going again over in Doma after things were rough enough for a bunch of people to have to immigrate over here and get involved in ninja job quests. Can’t foreshadow things much harder than that.

Time for side stuff though. First off, hey, with all these flying islands we have in this expansion, we really should have some cool friendly air pirates. The sort you’d see in Skies of Arcadia, or various Ghibli films. So we do! They’re fun! And we get involved with them as they’re dealing with this big scary floating doom ship that survived a past apocalypse with some evil guys looking for ancient relics. Typical stuff from those wacky Allag- oh! Hey for like the first and only significant time it’s NOT the Allagan empire! We’re dealing with fallout from one of the OTHER world ending apocalypses and dead civilizations! This isn’t just out of the blue or anything. This stuff does come up a bit in the slew of optional dungeons that opened up after the base game, and in various class/job questlines, particularly like all the spellcaster ones.

Way back when we had three big civilizations of nerds all at once and at war with each other. We’ve got Ampador (white mages), Mhach (black mages), and Nym (scholars). And the big war they had went down in history books as the War of the Magi... because damn if the writers for this game don’t bend over backwards to work in every reference and every maybe-this-is-even-the-same-world-centuries-later deal with every old Final Fantasy game, but especially the SNES ones, and ESPECIALLY FF6. Surviving details are sketchy but basically Nym got taken out with a plague that turned everyone into tonberries, and the other two really went at it until a point where thanks to black mages spamming fire ice and lightning, and white mages spamming wind and earth, the whole world’s elemental alignment got skewed because the only people who ever cast water spells are ninja, and this caused a global flood. Really that’s what this wiki just told me.

The Mhachi got out by building a big flying arc powered by bound demons, including the queen of demons, which is just an absolutely ridiculous and irresponsibly dangerous thing to do and yes I am 100% just setting up a callback joke for when I explain what happens in later expansions. Also the demons are specifically bound in giant coffins, as is the Mhachi style, so... we have this gigantic airship made of coffins looking all Event Horizon and having this general manta rays and mind flayers aesthetic going on. I actually genuinely like that this setting has such a convoluted history with multiple fallen empires just kinda tucked away in the background so we can pull stuff like this out now and then and appreciate the shared themes and aesthetics stuff from various eras has. That’s some solid nerdy world-building I’d like to see more people tackle. I’d also kinda like to see more of it here because for real this is the only time it’s ever not the Allagans.

Helping you deal with all this and giving you ancient history backstory is this weird little familiar that’s survived since Mhachi times whose name is, can you guess the reference we’re dropping? Cait Sith. He looks... odd. Anyway, this is our big alliance raid trilogy for the expansion. Noteworthy cameo bosses include Doomgaze from FF6, who has a bunch of hard to read full party kill attacks and is a lot of fun to learn and then watch other people die to constantly, and Diabolos, who you’re actually fighting for a second time if you did an optional dungeon. Plus a bunch of reasonably original vaguely Gaelic and/or fishy demons.

Anyway speaking of weird little artificially created cute familiars, remember our dumb friend Hildibrand? You pull him out of a snow drift and have some fresh wacky shenanigans with him. This time as you pull him out, you also pull out this adorable as all hell little clockwork Black Mage called Gigi because that’s the sound your little head gears make when your memory isn’t working right, and we didn’t want to just directly go with Vivi. Hildy and his assistant Nashu argue about Gigi’s gender but totally just decide to collectively do the adoptive parents thing. At first they’re living in the gazebo of the noble family you’re still sort of crashing with (and we absolutely get some oldschool RPG nerd gazebo jokes) but eventually they decide if they’re really going to be a proper family they need a gazebo of their own, and settle for a vacant house in Idyllshire, that sort-of-a-town in the ruins of Sharlayan set up by cool goblin pals. Gigi decides their new residence needs a proper family crest too, and creates one.

Gigi is freaking adorable. Oh and Hildy’s dad also shows up during his, at one point using his renowned artisan skills to craft Gigi a new super buff muscle guy body to be a Proper Manderville Man which is pretty great while it lasts. Other little clockwork black mages/vikings/cool little guys with void faces exist incidentally, they’re called mammets and aren’t quite relics of a lost civilization, but were created early enough in the history of the current civilization that people are kinda 50/50 on still having the knowledge to fix them. Gigi is special though having this whole time reversing power that leads to various shenigans and some angsting about not being able to fix everything and a big heroic sacrifice moment leading to a powered down state, after which Gigi goes on your list of little summonable minions along with chicken-Enkidu and a bunch of other random things, to hang out and hopefully remember stuff. Oh and Hildy gets launched like half a world away again because someone points out that if Gigi is his child that makes his incongruously hot and violence-prone mom a grandmother and she cannot deal with that.

Briardien the other inspector from the last batch of Hildy stuff also pops up again, with his own longng line of really just cutscene sidequests and... I’m gonna be real with you. It is some boring Harry-Potter-ask magic school crap and my eyes glazed over as soon as it started and I just kinda blindly mashed through it all to get the little glasses-adjust emote at the end and get those exclamation points off my screen. It’s lame, he’s lame, doing a Harry Potter sort of thing is lame, I don’t care, and I’m glad he never shows up again.

But then we’ve got the "normal” raid set. Seeing chunks of this are literally what got me to take a chance on this game to begin with (well that and it’s totally free up to the end of this post you’re reading), and kept me going through the absolute slog to get to this point. Freaking Alexander as this combination city/god/confusing timefolding thing/set of a dozen or so little mini-dungeons/bossfights with really great music and where you fight a combination of goblin mad scientsts and smaller city-like robots that live inside the big one, some of whom transform.

It is just a blast playing through this bit. You’ve got all kinds of steampunky little sections where everyone has to split up and dive down big tubes and ride ultraspeedy ultra-thin conveyor belts that careen all through this big city, there’s this wacky mad scientist fight where people have to jump into pools of mystery goo that transforms them into gorillas so they can punch aside big cartoony bombs, the transformer in that bit I just linked where halfway through the fight you have to run over and jump on as it turns into a jet and just nukes the whole arena, then do a timed button press to hop off safely, and of course the specific thing someone showed me that hooked me in is the bit where you fight a set of five robots, then they fight Voltron, with a remix of an earlier track from the area in the style of a 60s tokusatsu theme.

The plot associated with this is neat too. Alexander is just kinda there, in this big frozen time bubble, barely shifting now and then to get a little bit of itself out and giving you a new entry point. Cid and friends are checking it out, because showing up to check out the cool new techy raid dungeon is their entire deal and a repeated thing. Turns out it just sort of appeared out of nowhere a few years ago, vaporized this one woman’s boyfriend, and vanished, with just a book about it and a cat left behind. One of the local goblins found the book, studied it, decided that Alexander is just the coolest thing, and summoned it the way FF14 people do to be the new utopian home of his people. Cid is horrified by this and says something along the lines of “what kind of a monster takes something as pure and beautiful as a giant robot and goes and makes a god out of it?” So you head through, cool goblin techno getting louder and more distinct as you approach the center, have a big confrontation, time travel mode gets turned on, you all get a good view as you jump back a few years, watch this guy get vaporized, and the head goblin’s cat decide he sucks and hop off with his notebook, realize there’s all sorts of time loop shenanigans as you make friends with his adorable cat.

And of course partway through all this there’s a bit about dead boyfriend gal talking about her people’s creation myths also mentioning what sure seems like Alexander popping up at some point and dumping out her Adam and Eve equivalents, so yeah, that’s where things end up for her and her less-dead-than-suspected boyfriend once all the timeloop business wraps up and you have the proper fight against Alexander, on top of Alexander, with Alexander looming in the background because time and space are all kinda going screwy on you. I swear when people say they like Heavensward what they really mean is they like this Alexander stuff you get access to after it.

Eventually though once you’re done playing with time traveling robots, air pirate demons, building a city for moogles and dragons, helping bugs reject their abusive parents, and leading dance squads for owl people, it is time to get back to that main story progression. Ishgard eventually gets it together enough to come join your alliance, and you’ve finally got the whole continent united to deal with that evil empire. The one that’s been occupying your immediate neighbor for two decades. With all the refugees. Isn’t it, uh, about time you get around to striking back and doing some liberating there? A lot of people sure think it is. This is what Papalymo and Yda have been busy with. That whole coup leading into this expansion was tied into false promises of pushing back there. For some reason though, the collected heads of state aren’t quite willing to push the button there yet though. I guess they want to intercept a fresh attack wave before they counter? That’s the go to plan in strategy games. Maybe deal with the recent summoning wave some?

In any case it really gets under the skin of the local terrorist scene as headed up by Ilberd, that guy who cut Rauban’s arm off, and they decide it’s time to force everyone’s hand by stealing a bunch of military uniforms from everyone else and assaulting the nearest imperial stronghold themselves. I am fully in support of this plan, honestly, people are really dragging their feet too much. Unfortuantely the Empire has, you know, lots of guns and death robots and while they’re too blindsided to get the real heavy ordinance out, Ilberd stole uniforms from EVERYONE, and has this whole Watchmen plan going which involves his own assault squad getting pretty well slaughtered even as you and your actual armies rush in to help, because all of them getting desperate and panicky and him busting out a big ol’ bit of aether storage in the form of one of Nidhogg’s eyes he climbed down to get from the big hole you tossed it down let’s him do a big ol’ large scale summoning. You suck Ilberd. Could have just forced a war all regular.

It seems like the new summon is coming in all extra huge and Bahamut looking, and Papalymo, having recently borrowed what’s left of Louisoix’s staff (oh yeah, there was a whole thing with Ascians wanting that because it has some ancient super good aether channeling rock built in, this came up with the Moonbryda stuff I think), decides to recreate that whole save world from giant god dragon thing from the ol’ intro, despite the fact that he knows it kills the caster, and the fact that like, you’re right there. You kill gods, it’s your whole thing, you could take it. Yda’s pretty upset with this plan because those two are pretty close and goes all “if you’re dying here so am I.” Thancred just goes “no you’re freaking not” and drags her off. Hey, finally everyone’s getting some real characterization here. Anyway Papalymo’s dead. I guess that’s kinda tragic. He’s certainly been around the whole time. If I’m honest he was never really well established though? He’s a healer, he fusses over people like C-3PO. I guess he’s on that short list of Lalafel I don’t hate. But the most interesting thing about him is a bit we only just find out here now that he’s dead.

Yda is also dead. Has been for some time. Apparently since some time in 1.0, even. The original Yda was a monk with serious self-esteem issues with her face and/or a desire to hide her traditional Ala Migan face tattoos, and therefore always wore a mask, so when she died in some big attack, her younger sister Lyse just had to steal her mask and pretend to be her for uh... basically as long as anyone present has known her aside from Papalymo. The big reveal is that like most of the Scions, she has these fancy neck tattoos everyone in 1.0′s Scions equivalent had, but the real Yda died after getting those, and these were an illusion Papalymo was creating. I feel like this would land a lot better if the real Yda died more recently, like, oh, when things went bad in Ul’dah? But even then she hadn’t really been established as much of a character. Just a little bit of a bimbo, kicks people, hangs with the short healer. But it’s pretty significant to her, so she’s ditching the mask, going back to using her real name, and really keen on being basically the main character for the next expansion like Alphinaud was for this one since the whole fallen fortress/giant god summon thing did totally force everyone’s hand.

Oh but first that there god is still there, just kinda temporarily bound, and we don’t have a moon handy to lock it up in. Which of course means it’s time for you to kill it right? Well... normally it would be, but Cid and Nero are kinda “on again” just now and Nero found this cool robot buried underground and mostly worked out the manual and he just really really pretty please wants to see a big cool CGI fest cutscene where a big Godzilla-ish spacey dragon fights a weird vaguely Gamera like robot. This is objectively a horrible idea, for the record. You totally can and do just go punch that dragon to death like every other god, and Nero’s robot kinda goes on to cause a real problem in the next post-expansion, and then again like, time of writing, the Ultimate difficulty fight with it has only been beaten once by people who were exposed as flagrantly cheating. That’s all on you Nero, so I hope you enjoy your pointlessly indulgent cutscene.

Are you happy now Nero? Are you? You know I STILL haven’t finished FF5 thanks to Omega. Gotta go and add that to this game too huh, well I hope you’re happy. I guess big dragons and robots fighting in cutscenes is a series tradition though, and it’ kind of neat to get a preview of what some bosses’ deals are going to be WELL in advance of when you get to fight them. For now they’re both down for the count, we get a shot of the Domans heading home, the main villain for the next expansion seeing and appreciating that splashy fight because that’s the sort of thing he’s into, and for the 4th time, we have a very long credits roll, marking the end of what you can play without putting up any cash. Which is admittedly a solid chunk of game, only most of which is super boring and tedious!

So yeah, again, I honestly straight up do not like Heavensward. Too much time hanging out with just the absolute worst people, even if you do get to personally kill kind of a lot of them, and none of the dungeons or boss fights are particularly interesting either (Bismark would be if it had teeth). Post-Heavensward though? Pretty solid overall. We really start fleshing out the main cast, and have some really just bonkers side quests with a lot of creative energy and memorable moments. As of here though I would still say no FF14 is a terrible game with a bad plot but has some really neat optional content once you’re an expansion deep. And I would have to stop here since again, this is where the free version ends, and while I got here just around the end of when the free-trial availability’s hammering of the servers forced them to shut down new character registration and I could invite some friends in, they all bounced off before even the first dungeon. People I know who’d been in it a while though went and gifted me the other expansions and several months of time cards though, so next post I’ll be talking about the second expansion. Is that where things finally get good? Eh kinda. They get pretty OK at least. It does weird me out that things get much more enjoyable right at the point you need to put money in though.

Speaking of money I am still like one bad day away from being homeless, and I have a Patreon. You don’t have to give ME money to learn what’s in these next 3 expansions, but I’d sure appreciate it if you did.

Next time, Stormblood... which I swear will be a shorter write-up. But then I always think that.

[gasha40k]

This post will be more of a progress update than an exhibition of anything I’ve finished, so I’ll start with the most interesting stuff.

Here’s the first of hopefully eventually many pieces of Thunderbearers commissions! This piece, depicting a nondescript Thunderbearers Astartes—maybe a Sergeant—locked in combat with a nondescript Goffs Nob, was commissioned from the lovely Picklld, who you can find on Twitter and Reddit. They were an absolute joy to commission. Incredibly patient, incredibly cooperative, and incredibly creative! They absolutely nailed the Thunderbearers look with very minimal input, and the pose, lighting, and detailing are all undoubtably fantastic.

There’s a lot about this piece that I really appreciate even beyond the novelty of my guys being art now. I think Picklld absolutely excels at utilizing extreme values to create dramatic compositions, and they have a deft eye for detail. The battle damage on the Astartes power armor tells the tale of a long-embattled warrior, the inscriptions on his hip, fluttering purity seals, and still-burning backpack candles visually professing his monastic devotion to the Chapter. His bold, aggressive pose professes the signature Thunderbearers battle fury as he dives headfirst into close combat with a Nob, the buzzing killsaw framing the Marine’s figure like the halo of a venerated saint. The Ork, too, looks suitably bestial, his snarling jaw held together by a brutal metal similar to that which his terrifying power klaw is made of. The jaw prosthetic and head stitches imply that this Ork isn’t one to succumb to any injury as menial as a decimated jaw or an exploded head. A skull and tallies on his weapon of choice supports an air of monstrous veterancy, perhaps counting the most worthy of opponents that he’s felled over doubtless years of gory combat.

Rex Manticore faces down Bladeguard Squad Cambarn during the Second Battle of Deadside Pass

As a brief aside, the Ork’s power klaw and killsaw abomination is a little reference to a rivalry that my Lieutenant, Simon Sadrian, formed with the Goffs Warboss, Rex Manticore, during the Calthradia Crusade. Sadrian and Manticore have waged pitched battles at the same location three times now, each one taking place in the mountainous region that acts as the main passageway from the Calthradian beachhead onto the plateau, and subsequently into the mainland. This region is called Deadside Pass, and its rocky cliffs have been forever stained with the blood of Astartes and Ork alike. In each of these battles, Rex and Sadrian met in hand-to-hand combat. While the Ork in the commission isn’t necessarily Rex, he also isn’t necessarily… not.

In conclusion, I’m incredibly satisfied with this art. It’s sick as fuck and I’ll very likely be commissioning the artist again in the future.

Moving from drawing to painting, I finally swung by my local Games Workshop and grabbed my classic 2002 Daemon Prince. This model is a few firsts for me. It’s my first resin model, and man, resin is obnoxious. It’s not horribly dysfunctional, it’s just uncomfortably soft, and a total pain in the ass to clip from the sprue.

This is also the first time I’ve ever attempted to paint in subassemblies. This is a really nice and rare model, so I’d like it to stand out on the tabletop. Since I didn’t have any paper clips, I ended up using, like, matches or incense sticks or some shit to prime the pieces. Sub assemblies are very… strange to me, and I’m not really sure I like doing them. Building a model to completion before priming and painting it kinda scratches my brain better, but I understand why this would be a more efficient way to paint a model, especially a big fancy one.

A layer of Khorne Red washed with Agrax Earthshade, cleaned with another layer of Khorne Red, and then brightened with Mephiston Red, making him the same color as the rest of my World Eaters

Speaking of painting, tackling this thing’s color scheme has been a little bit of a challenge. The GW version of the model has a lot of advanced techniques to it, things that are undoubtedly beyond my skill level, like some really gorgeous blending between the Prince’s skin and the armor. Because that’s far beyond my ability at this point, I’m gonna try and paint it the best I can using the stuff I’ve learned. That means mostly color layering and excessive use of washes. Whoops.

In regards to the actual color scheme, black armor wouldn’t really work for a World Eaters Daemon Prince, so despite my desire to keep my World Eaters as “vanilla” as possible, I’m gonna swap up the colors of the model. I think I’m going to try and emulate the scheme of the new Prince on my Prince. Black skin, red armor, and bronze trim, which is quintessential World Eaters. A new scheme on a classic model, and an homage to the modernized (actually good) Daemon Prince model, since I like the new one but much prefer the old shitty one because it was in Dawn of War.

I’ve got a few more things to talk about, but not many, so next post will be a short one.

[polizwrites]

WIP Update - 5 Jul 2023

A slightly higher-than-average writing week with almost half my word count on one fic!  I touched 6  fics (1 WIPs & 5 new works)  for a total of   2934 words.

On Ao3, I posted:

Blowing Off Steam  - WinterHawk FWB PWP  with light D/s

Chapter 2 of A Sugar-Coated Pill  - sugar daddy!Alpha!Bucky and sugar baby!omega!Tony fake (at least for now) relationship hijinks.

WinterIron Bingo - July 2023 Round Robin  - Bucky & Natasha fake dating vs Bucky’s crush on Tony =  hijinks. 

On Tumblr I posted:

There Would Be No Courage Were It Not For Hope -  Bucky & Tony --> Bucky/Tony plus pride parade floats!

I have  17 semi-active WIPs  😬 with my  current  deadlines being the July Break Bingo (ends 31 Jul),  WinterIron Pride Prompt Party (extended thru 15 Jul) and Hot Bucky Summer, which ends 31 Aug.

See  below cut for what I’m working on/planning to work on - arranged more or less by bingos/challenges/etc.  As always, feel free to send me   prompts or plot bunnies as well as asks regarding  any of these projects  or any other WIPs I’ve got out there.   Interaction really helps feed the Muse and keep me motivated!

Seek & Destroy Collab

After reading @psychiccatpanda‘s amazing   Morguna and the Green Queen, I  got the itch to explore the Soldier’s POV and talked  Faustie into   collab’ing with me!  We’re working on a new part of the series, and I’ve  contributed about 900 words towards the  2500-ish we have so far.   Going to see if I can squeeze any of my BBB squares into this fic.  

Bucky Barnes Connect Four Alt-Juniverse Event (BBE_C4)[ends 30 Jun 2023]

Managed to complete two cards with seven fanfics (combined two squares for one fic)   MASTERPOST 

* C4 - Friends with Benefits –   Posted Blowing Off Steam - WinterHawk post-mission PWP. It crossed over with my BBB  Present Tense square and  BBE_HBS  Week Four: Choking prompt and came in at 1249 words.

WinterIron Pride Prompt Party  [WI_PPP]  (Ends 30 Jun)

While this daily prompt event hosted by the WinterIron Discord server  technically ended on 30 Jun - they’ve extended the event to mid month, so I may try to get another couple of fills in  as well as existing ones copied to Ao3 and added to the collection 

I’ve completed twelve prompts with Tumblr ficlets  so far:  Day 1: First Meetings = Potential for Retribution;  Day 2: Yearning =  Dressing for the Occasion ; Day 3: Gender Euphoria = Where Will He Be Tomorrow?   Day 4: Dragons are Gay = A Shift in Their Relationship;  Day 5: Fluidity =  Tony Stark’s Pride 101;  Day 6: Internalized Homophobia = Two Lists Day 7: Questioning = Solving for X and  Day 9: Older Gays = All the King’s Horses.   Day 12 - Audacity =  Make Way for a Fabulous Tomorrow  Day 19: Armored Heart = Music to His Ears  Day 20: Both Are Good = Both. Both is Good  Day 30: Hope = There Would Be No Courage Were It Not For Hope

July Break Bingo  [JBB_23] (Ends 31 Jul)

Signed up for a 3x3 card for this all fandoms, no minimums bingo  (signups open til 15 Jul) because of course I need more prompts!   😁😬

* B3 - Pining/Longing/Being Needy - this might fit in nicely with A Sugar Coated Pill or Technicalities. 

* C3 - Mutual Pining -- See above for possible WIP usage or maybe use this as an excuse to get my  Centerfold  Stucky fic finally started.. 

Hot Bucky Summer [BBE_HBS]  (Ends Aug 30)

Another @buckybarnesevents​  event, this time with weekly smexy prompts.  I’d like to complete at least two fics/chapters per month for this challenge.  

Week Four: C Prompts:  Choking –  See BBE_C4 - Friends with Benefits above

Week Five:  “When I First Met You..” + Fireworks -  filled this with Chapter 2 of A Sugar-Coated Pill - combining with WIB  Dancing and  BBB Pet Names prompts.  After attending a few events together, Bucky and Tony start to get  more comfortable around each other.  It came in at 1087 words and posted on 6/30.

Week Eight - “How did you meet?” + High Stakes Op - Chapter 3 of  A Sugar-Coated Pill will fill these prompts  - and I’ll throw in my WIB AU: A/B/O square for this as well. Bucky is hosting a donor party at his own home with quite a bit of help from Tony, who in turn asks a favor.  This chapter is drafted as well and sitting at 1229 words - it may get tweaked a bit before posting on 7/21. 

Week Nine: “Where do you want me?” + in my lap  – cheating a bit and going back to the Week Three prompts.  This will be where A Sugar-Coated Pill finally gets steamy…    probable crossover with WIB  Eye Contact During Sex prompt and possibly Old Ghosts from my TSB card if I want to go a bit angsty  (that or something spicy from adoptables at next weekend’s TSB Discord party!)  It’s currently sitting at 190 words and will post on 7/28.  

All Caps Bingo [ACB_R1]  (Ends 30 Sep)

I’ve got thirteen completed fics, two WIPs and  will be pursuing the One Fill, One Bingo  Challenge for Row 5.  

* I1 - Mutual Pining - may combine with something on my BBB card - see if the Centerfold fic idea fits in here.

* G1 - Isaiah Bradley -  Planning to add more to The Fist, Defeated.   (possibly present day)

* G3 - Established Relationship - planning to fill this with Chapter 2 of   Half of the Flesh and Blood That Makes Me Whole   - a Bucky POV remix of at least the first part of Take What Was Wrong (And Make it Right),  which is current sitting at  52 words.  I’m expecting at least one more chapter, possibly two, depending on how far I want to take the remix.  

* O3 - Pararescue Sam Wilson - may try to squish this into an expansion of   A Rising Star -  a previous Flash Fiction Friday fill.  

Sam Wilson Bingo [SWB_R3]  (Ends 15 Oct 2023)

I have four fills and one WIP -  I need to work on cross fills between this and the All Caps and Bucky Barnes bingo!

* B3 - Rivals Turned Allies - posted How Far We’ve Come to Ao3  (previously on Tumblr).  A Sam POV self-reflective double-drabble.

* G3 - Joaquin Torres - see ACB Pararescue Sam Wilson above.

WinterIron Bingo  - [WIB_R1]   (Ends 16 Dec 2023)

I have eleven fills completed and two WIPs for this brand-new bingo event that I’m helping mod!  Along with crossfilling against my other bingos,  I’m going to try to combine my B column squares for the Iron Soldier badge (complete a bingo with a single work). – Alpha Tony Stark, “That was not my intention.”, James Rhodes,Alpine loves Tony and Blind date.

* I2 - AU:A/B/O - will pull this into Chapter 3 of  A Sugar-Coated Pill

* N1 - Bucharest –  I think I can fold this into a future chapter of My Love is Vengeance -  where a young!Tony and a recovering!Bucky have been kidnapped by Hydra, who still thinks Bucky is the Soldier. 

* G1 - Playing the Piano - used this for  last weekend’s  WinterIron Bingo - July 2023 Round Robin -  Bucky & Natasha fake dating vs Bucky’s crush on Tony = hijinks

* G2 - Eye contact during sex -  see Week Three of BBE_HBS above

* G4 - AU: College Students – looking to expand Beaten to the Punch with some backstory on Bucky and Tony as science camp counselors to fit with this square - will also cross over with my WFB  Volunteering Together square.  

* O5 - Gentle – use this poem  as inspiration?

* JUNE ADOPTABLE - Dancing - see Week Five of  BBE_HBS above.

Stucky’Verse Bingo Round 1 - [SVB_R1]   (Ends 22 Dec)

Two fills, two WIPs and a couple of ideas  -  I need to review my card for potential crossfills and other idea sparks.

* A4 - Fairy Tale Curse  - this seems custom-made for a continuation of Beyond the Beast  😁  Nothing written yet, other than some Vague Ideas.  

* B1 - Beta/Omega Relationship - Chapter 1 of Finding Something Fresh is written -  Beta!Bucky and omega!Steve meet cute at the farmer’s market.  It was supposed to be a one-shot, but the idea grabbed a hold of some brain cells so....?  It’s coming in at 404 words and will probably post next Wednesday.

* B3 - Tied to a Bed --  this will probably be Chapter 3 of Finding Something Fresh  just so you know.... 😁

* D4 - Edging - will probably use this for the next chapter of   Technicalities

* D5 - Trust Issues  - may get used for Chapter 2 of  Finding Something Fresh  as Bucky & Steve work out the next steps in their relationship.

* Adoptable  - Things Have Changed --  this might fit nicely with my Centerfold idea...  :: ponders::

Bucky Barnes Bingo  - [BBB_R5]   (Ends 10 Jan 2024)

I’ve got  seven fills,  five WIPs (!!)  and a couple more Vague ideas.

* B4 - Shapeshifters -  wrote . A Shift in Their Relationship as a crossover with the WI_PPP prompt Dragons are Gay.  This came in at 404 words and will be posted to Ao3 before this event is over.  

* U2 - Clint Barton/Hawkeye -  Dredged up my year-old Winter Soldier/ young Clint WIP   You Can’t Stop It With a Gun.  Chapter 3 was already in progress and is drafted at 928 words and will post on Friday.      

* U4 - Present Tense - see  BB_C4 Friends with Benefits above

* C1 - Pet Names -  see Week Five of  BBE_HBS above

* C2 - Yelena Belova –   The plan is to use this prompt in the next chapter of Peresmešnik,  (aka Three Avengers and a Baby) , which is currently sitting at 1100 words (400-ish of which are mine).  

* C5 - Marriage of Convenience/Pretend Couple -  next chapter of   Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion.    Not quite sure where to take this next at the moment.  😕

* K3 - Magic -  Aro!Bucky sickfic idea?  * Y2 - [image: IW Bucky with the good hair] A Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF198 What Comes Next]   was a perfect match for an idea I’d already been playing around with to fill this square.   I banged out Getting Prepared -(updated title = Preparations)   an A:IW missing scene set between the time that T’Challa and Okoye come for Bucky and the moment he sees Steve again.  I will post it to Ao3 sometime in the next month or so.

* Y3 - Alpine  - see WIB Iron Soldier combo.

* Y4 - Forgotten Things -   using this for Chapter 4 of  You Can't Stop It With a Gun  - it’s sitting at  116 words at the moment.       

Tony Stark Bingo Round 7  - [TSB_R7]   (ends 15 Feb)

One fill and two WIPs already, with a couple of ideas in play. 

* S1 - Galaxy - possibly use in final chapter of  Never More to Go Astray ?     

* R4 - Playing Games - filled this with last weekend’s  TSB Discord Party Round Robin -- my part came in at 327 words and it should get posted by the end of the week. 

* R5 - Doppelganger/Evil Twins -  this will probably cross over with my Stony AUniverse AU: Crack square as I have a semi-silly idea for it, inspired by seeing a T shirt of mine in a mirror.

* K3 - Pairing: Tony/Pepper  -   Expanding a bit on Starting Something New , so I can crossfill with my  Tony Stark Bingo square   Pairing: Tony/Pepper  The ficlet is now sitting at 396 words and will post sometime soon.

Stony AUniverse Bingo  [SAUB_R1] (ends 15 Feb)

Another brand-new bingo I’m helping co-mod!  Got my card and square swaps sorted, and have several  crossover WIPs  and ideas already!

* S2 - AU: Crack - see TSB  Doppelganger/Evil Twins

* S3 - AU: Wings - see ACB Established Relationship

* S5 - Accidental Baby Acquisition - see BBB Yelena Belova

* T1 - AU: Fantasy -  CoffeeOwl shared a really cool dragon!Steve/indebted!Tony prompt in the ACB Discord server that I may be playing with for this. 

* N1 - AU: Spy -  I want to expand on/add backstory to  Keeping All My Secrets Safe Tonight from the Stony Drabbles challenge earlier.

Warm and Fluffy   Bingo  - [WFB]   (no end date)

I got my card from  @warmandfluffybingocards back in February but really hadn’t done much with it  - however, I’m picking it back up for some crossover possibilities!

* N4 - Affectionate Teasing –  see TSB Pairing: Tony/Pepper above  

* O5 - Volunteering Together – see WIB AU: College Students

————

On  other creative fronts:  I have an   Original Character  Stuffed With Character figure in progress - one of several commissions from last week’s con.  I will be making an announcement about commissions sometime in July so if  you’re looking for one of a kind gifts for birthdays or other celebrations, check  out Stuffed With Character    over on Facebook for a full list of my designs (now over 100!).   These soft stuffed figures are  mostly Marvel and monsters, but I have some Star Wars, Star Trek, DC   and Disney figures as well. Plus I love to take custom design   requests  for any fandom!

[votestaynight2]

16th Day - EDEN (Scene 2) / Epilogue

Alright! So, this is the last update for the Unlimited Blade Works route, but before that, I just have to apologize for the sex scene last time. I make these posts before I read the update, so I squint while doing it so I can't read the text as I copy it into the post.

If I had been able to read it, I would have put trigger warnings for non-consent, that was not what I was expecting. It was disgusting.

“……! Haa”

I feel dizzy. I can’t brace myself anymore.

…I’ll die. I can’t endure it at the very end.

Should I loosen up since I can’t brace myself? If I do so, I should be able to push him back into the void

“Don’t take me so lightly…! I won’t let you take me with you…!”

I gather my courage. Will my arm rip off first, will his chain rip off first, or will he come out first? I don’t care either way. I’ll fight until the very end and die gallantly…!

“…Heh. You can do that if you wish, but dodge to your right before you do that.”

“Huh?”

I turn around instantly. I look back at the compound which has turned into a flat field.

At the same time, something passes by me.

“YouArcher…”

…The chain is released. Looking like he saw something unexpected, Gilgamesh lets go of the chain.

“”

I fall on my butt. I sit there dumbfounded, and the void shrinks and disappears in front of me.

“That… was” I can’t stand up, and just look behind me to the flat field.

Dawn is near. The one with the rising sun behind him is the knight in red.

“Damnshow-off.”

I complain without thinking. But I’m smiling happily for some reason.

“Heh. Well…”

I have nothing to say to him. I guess I’ll stay quiet so I can sleep.

A golden field that is now deserted. Seeing the knight standing there and Tohsaka running to him, I lay on the ground. Tohsaka should say everything I want to say to him.

So I’ll sleep for now. We’ll end up fighting if we see each other again, and I’m not used to parting with myself.

…And for the final time… I engrave my ideal into my mind so that I won’t forget it, and I close my eyes.

The land below him is like a wasteland he once walked on. There is nothing here. There is nothing, as everything was blown away from the mountaintop.

The battle has ended.

The battle for the Holy Grail has ended, and the curtain is about to fall on his battle as well. He does not know how long it was.

But the accumulated wish that should have bound him forever is gone now.

The end quickly permeates into him and takes away his body’s form.

“Archer…!”

He looks towards the voice. She should not have the energy to run, but she is running with ragged breathing.

He watches it in silence.

“Haa, haa, haa, ha……!”

The girl that ran up to him looks up at the knight.

The red cloak fluttering in the wind shows no trace of what it used to be.

The cloak is cut everywhere, and his armor is cracked and torn. His existence is weak. Standing there haughtily, the knight begins to disappear from his feet up.

“Ar… cher…”

The rising sun is in the distance. A golden light is emerging from the horizon.

“Too bad. Well, that’s what happened. Give up this Holy Grail, Rin.”

He must not have anything special to say. The knight in red says trivial things.

“”

That gets to her all the more. The knight who is about to disappear is still acting like before. He is her partner that she spoke cynically with, ran through the battles with, and trusted her back to. She can declare that those days were “fun”.

And it is still there before her eyes.

He has remained in this world to save her at the last moment. He lost his Master and received the king of heroes’ Noble Phantasms. His body was disappearing, but he did not come to her and ask for help, and he instead watched over this battle.

And the end is in front of her.

“Archer.”

The girl cannot think of what to say. It is always like this for her at the most crucial times. She loses her cleverness when it counts the most.

“Ha”

The knight smiles a bit. He knew that from the start. The clumsiness of the girl is a dear memory for the knight.

“W-What? You don’t have to laugh at me at a time like this!” She looks up at the knight.

“Oh, excuse me. It’s because you look so terrible.

I was just amazed at how worn-out we are.” He smiles while he talks.

“” She gets a lump in her throat after seeing his regret-free face. The instant she wonders if he should really disappear…

“Archer. Form a contract with me again.”

She says something she shouldn’t.

“I cannot do that. I do not know if you will keep your contract with Saber, but I am not qualified for that.

And I do not have a goal anymore. My battle ends here.”

His reply is free of doubt and his will is strong. His face is as bright as the rising sun, and how can she force him when he’s making a face like that?

“……But! But…

You”

‘won’t be saved’. The girl swallows her words and hangs her head.

That is not something the girl should say. And it’s not something that is solved by keeping the knight in this world.

“Man. I do not have any attachment to this world, but…”

It’s troubling to have her cry. For him, the girl always has to be a positive, indulgent realist.

He was always encouraged by her figure. So he wants her to stay that way until the very end.

“Rin.”

The girl looks up at the voice. Her face looks cute, trying to hold back the tears. Rather than expressing the attachment he feels, he looks at the boy lying in the distance.

“Please take care of me. I think you know, but I am unreliable.

Please support me.”

The knight says so as if it’s somebody else’s business.

Those are words of parting.

…The future might change. If a girl like her stays with Emiya Shirou, the hero Emiya should not be born.

His words contain such hope.

“Ar… cher…”

…But even if it ends up that way, the already existing knight will forever be a guardian.

The boy and the man are two different existences.

They only have the same starting point, and he is an ideal that the boy dreamed of.

“!”

…There is no salvation available for this knight. There is nothing to give to him, as he has already died and become a phenomenon. She nods in spite of that. She cannot give him anything, so she will give him her best smile.

He asked her to take care of him. She smiles so that she can answer the trust he put in her.

“Yeah, I know. I’ll do my best. I’ll do my best so that he won’t get twisted like you. I’ll do my best so that he will be able to like himself…!

So you should also”

forgive yourself.

She does not put it into words. She looks up at the disappearing knight with a flood of emotions.

How much salvation did it bring? After engraving the girl’s smile into his memory with pride…

“I found my answer. It’s fine, Tohsaka. I’ll do my best from now on as well.”

A breeze. The knight has finally rested his wounded body, without waiting for the girl’s reply.

“Heh. I never got to complain to you.”

She wipes away her tears and talks to the one who is not there. Her voice is clear, and the girl is standing firm again. It is only natural. She does not have time to be depressed after he made a face like that. She says goodbye to the ground that the knight was standing on and runs to the boy laying on the ground.

Within the golden sunrise… The smile he had was like that of the boy.

Epilogue

―――I sometimes recall the fight.

The crying spirit and the sparks flying off the clashing swords. My attacks were immature, and it's not something one could call a sword dance. We were both clumsy and did not know of retreat. The ridiculous sounds of clashing swords were annoying and I have no memory of them.

At that time… I lost an answer and found an answer. So a plus and a minus makes a zero. Nothing has changed. He's him, and I'm me. I'm just watching this fading dream.

It's been only a month. But it feels so dear now.

It seems like it happened so long ago. The memory of it is fading day by day, and I can't even remember what the person I was fighting looked like. But that is to be expected. That was something that was impossible from the start. We did not believe that the fight would change anything. We just tried to beat each other to ascertain ourselves.

So there is nothing to gain from victory. There never was any such thing. The loser comes to an end, and there is no prize for the winner. Man, it really was good for nothing.

But I can still recall it if I close my eyes. The echoes of unrefined metals. A dazzling, distant technique that knew no retreat.

It was our beliefs that crashed against each other. I fought against my own ideal to carry out my hope. The result is not clear yet. I don't know who won, or which of us remained. It should be a while before the result becomes clear.

An illusion like a mirage that disappears when one turns around. Only the reverberation remains, and my feet will eventually reach――――

"Wake up, you fool. Everyone else has already left for the assembly. Are you going to boycott it even though you are at school?" "――――――――" …My body is being shaken. The voice brings me back to reality.

"……? Wait, why are you here, Issei?" I raise my head and look at my classmate.

"'Why'!? We are in our classroom, today is our last day, and it is ten minutes before the closing ceremony! I came to look for you since I did not see you, but I did not expect to find you sleeping!"

I don't know if he's in a hurry or just plain angry, but Issei yells at me. "――――――――" We're the only ones in the classroom. It's 9:50. The closing ceremony starts at 10 o'clock, so I bet everyone's at the gym already.

"Hey. Are you really awake, Emiya?" "―――Yeah, that woke me up completely. Thanks, Issei. I'm glad you came to wake me up."

"Hm. …It is fine if you understand. But thank me later. We won't make it unless we hurry. I do not want to think how angry Fujimura-Sensei would get if she finds out we are not there."

"Oh, got ya. I can't face my classmates if Fuji-Nee gives us ridiculous amounts of homework before the vacation. I'll make sure to calm her down." "Please. We will be too ashamed to face our classmates if she gives us more homework. I am sure they will curse us."

He sounds scary, but the frightening truth is that it's very possible. The extra homework she gave us last summer after we got her mad was ridiculous. It wasn't even English homework. What was she thinking when she told us to enter any competition to win a medal?

"Emiya! We have to hurry!" "Sorry, I'm coming." We should hurry to the gym for now. It only takes three minutes if we run. We should make it five minutes early if no teacher finds us.

"No. We cannot run in the hallway." I was too optimistic. As expected from the student council president. He is really committed, as he is still following the rules even now.

"That's splendid, Issei. But we won't make it if we walk." "Let us hurry without running. We can make up any excuse as long as we are there on time." I nod and walk faster.

We are in the middle of March, and the sky is amazingly blue. Fuyuki City has long winters, but spring is finally around the corner.

―――The days went by quickly. It's been a month since the Holy Grail War. The city is back to normal now. The Holy Grail has been destroyed, and most of the damage caused by the Masters was taken care of by the church. The person that came as a replacement for Kotomine is old but energetic, and everything was smoothly settled.

But one can see the after-effects of battle here and there. Kuzuki Souichirou, the person that chose to fight as a Master, is considered missing.

Issei was sad that the one who he treated as his older brother was gone, but… "He suddenly showed up at the temple to start with. It is only fitting that he leave the same way." Issei just laughed it off.

The surprising thing is Fuji-Nee, and it turned out that they often drank tea together. She complained that she wanted to fight him once, so it seems Fuji-Nee knew that Kuzuki was a master of martial arts.

Shinji's life has been saved thanks to Tohsaka, and he's currently in the hospital. I guess the hospital is part of the Magic Association, and he's getting better. Sakura is busy visiting Shinji, so she's been showing up at my place only on the weekends. I went to check up on them once, and they were getting along surprisingly well.

I don't know if that event took something out of him or if he's just unenergetic from the wounds. Either way, Shinji is ironic but honest, and he's acting more like the Shinji I first got to know.

――――Saber is not here anymore. She left this world after destroying the Holy Grail. Something constraining her must have been released when she destroyed the Holy Grail with her own hands.

…It's vexing that I could not say goodbye to her, but I should be glad that she's freed from the binding of the Holy Grail. If―――If I do ever see her again, I want to thank her as much as I can.

So. And finally, the most important person…

"――――Gah, Tohsaka." Right after we get down to the first floor…

"Oh, student council president. Are you patrolling the building at this time? Or are you taking care of the club rooms? I am getting tired of saying this, but you really are diligent."

We meet up with the person representing the students at the closing ceremony, who's coming out of the teachers' office.

"…Humph. I am also tired of hearing that line. Try guessing something else for a change. Or do you keep saying that on purpose?" Issei glares at Tohsaka.

"Huh? Of course it was on purpose. What? Did you not realize that until now?"

"…I see. I thought you had more sense of humor, but I guess you really are a blockhead. I am very sorry. I always used the same greeting to show my affection for you, but I guess it was hard for you to understand."

"W-What do you mean by 'affection'!? I have not done anything that deserves your affection! ―――Come, Emiya, we will be late if we concern ourselves with this fox!"

Issei sure doesn't get along with Tohsaka. …Well, I feel the same way, so I'm in no position to feel sympathy.

So. Our eyes meet as I walk past her.

"――――――――" "――――――――" We decided to act normally when there are people around. I naturally ignore Tohsaka and follow Issei.

But… "Good morning, Emiya-kun. I'm glad you seem well." I don't know what she's angry about, but she embraces my arm and puts on a big smile.

"Toh――――" My head goes blank. It's because even though we've been seeing each other, this is the first time we've touched each other in a month.

"Tohsaka…" I try not to blush as I bear the sensation of her touch.

"I'm joking. But it is true that I am happy, Emiya-kun. Oh, let's go home together after you finish helping out the student council after the ceremony. I will keep on waiting in my classroom." Tohsaka puts emphasis on "keep on waiting".

"W――――What are you saying!? Let go of him already…!" "It has nothing to do with you, Ryudou-kun. Excuse us. I am busy as well since I have to make a speech in your place, student council president."

"Wha-" Tohsaka leaves, leaving behind the footsteps of a victor.

"What was that about, Emiya? What is your relationship with that fox…!?" "…Well, it's hard to explain. First of all, I think I told you before that we're acquainted."

"That was a month ago! I warned you to cut your ties with her―――O-Oh, I get it! Does she hold a weakness of yours!?"

"Well… I guess you can call it weakness." "I knew it…! Dang, I cannot let you go now, Tohsaka…! Consult me, Emiya! Confess, Emiya! We shall give that fox her due punishment…!" Issei shakes me.

"Look at the time, Issei. The ceremony's starting." "―――I do not care. The ceremony starts out with a speech from that fox. It shall be mentally good for us not to hear it…!"

The student council president keeps shaking me. Issei is normally calm, but his personality changes when it involves Tohsaka. Tohsaka must be his natural enemy, but…

"…Sorry, Issei. I'm sorry to let you down, but I can't do anything about Tohsaka. She'll beat me instead if I go to beat her. …Um, you shouldn't go near her."

"…Hm, that is a rare negative comment coming from you. Is the weakness she's holding that bad?" "…Unfortunately. So I'm leaving you to take care of Tohsaka. I know it's a hard fight, but please do your best."

"―――I see, all right. Do not worry, Emiya. It is for the good of our school. I shall reveal her true identity and overthrow her. She seems to be planning something with all the athletic clubs, but the student council will be ready for her before the next year is out. The real match starts then."

The student council president smiles in anticipation. …Um, but Issei… We'll all be graduating in a year…

The ceremony comes to an end, and the school starts to lose its liveliness. Spring Break has started. Most of the students have left with a smile, and the students in athletic clubs are getting ready for their training camps.

There aren't that many students left in the building. All the classrooms are empty and the hallway is tinted in red.

"So you're finally done, huh? Issei makes you help even on the last day. I'm sure that's his way of getting me back." An empty classroom. Tohsaka smiles and says so as soon as she sees me coming into the red-tinted class 2-A.

"Hey, that's because you did that ridiculous thing. I would have been freed a lot earlier if you hadn't gone and said needless things." I complain as I go into the classroom. Why is it so awkward to go into someone else's classroom even though they all look the same?

"What? Are you saying it's my fault, Shirou?" "Half of it is definitely you. Look, you're the one who said we should act as strangers until next year since everyone would get suspicious. So why did you do such a thing?"

"…Heh. You don't mind a bit of a running start since this year's over, right? First of all, there are other ways to ignore me. We weren't in a cafeteria or something. We were the only ones there, so at least give me a nod or something."

I don't know why she's unhappy, but Tohsaka looks away and complains. …Hm. Is it because of the evening sunlight? Her familiar gesture looks so fresh and cute that I'm fascinated.

"―――Man. Here. I got this, but do you want it?" I show her the orange juice that was distributed among the helpers.

"Oh, yeah, I'll take it. Good, you're considerate about things like this." She receives the juice box and takes a sip out of the straw. …She's sitting by the window. She looks down at the campus as if she's watching something bright.

"……" "……" I follow her example and look down as I drink. It must be the track team that's running. They sure are energetic, running like that when Spring Break starts tomorrow.

"Hey. Were you on the track team before, Emiya-kun?" Then. Tohsaka suddenly asks me a strange question.

"Track team? No, I was always in the archery club." "…I see. Well, I guess there are times like that. Seeing the setting sun just reminded me." Telling me to forget about it, Tohsaka continues to drink the orange juice.

"……" I'll forget about it if she wants me to. When she calls me "Emiya-kun", half the time she's going to make a sarcastic remark, and the other half she's going to say something really important. I'm sure in this case it's the latter. After a month of studying magic under her, I'm finally starting to recognize her habits.

"――――But time sure flies by. It's already been a month since the Holy Grail War ended and you became my apprentice. At this rate, I'm sure a year will fly by as well."

"……" It's been a month since Tohsaka started teaching me the basics of magic. I've been busy with hard work and Tohsaka's malicious nature, but she's right now that I think about it.

This past month sure went by quickly. So I'm sure a year would pass in a flash.

"…A year, huh? We'll be leaving this school at that time." "Yeah. Today would be my last time in this classroom and I'll be in a new classroom starting in April. And just like that, I'll be going to a new place in a year." Tohsaka holds her knees and looks down from the window.

"'A new place', huh?" What will I be doing a year from now when I graduate? …No, I don't even need to think about it. There's only one thing I must do. I need to make my ideal come true, just like he did.

…And, well… There is one other big goal right now, but I don't want to think about it since it's irritating.

"What will you be doing after you graduate, Emiya-kun? Are you going to succeed your dad?" "Huh? …Well, that's true, but I want to become a proper magus more than I want to succeed my father. I can't boast unless I'm a proper magus."

"Oh? And to whom are you going to boast?" She smiles as she asks. "……" This. My other goal is to make her admit defeat.

"I-It doesn't matter, right? My goal right now is to become a proper magus, and that's why I'm your apprentice right now. Please give me your best regards for the next year." "Oh, you sure are optimistic. You think you can become a proper magus in a year? I was ready to teach you for ten years when you became my apprentice… But I see, you're fine with just one more year, huh?"

"T-Ten years…!? T-That's great, but―――no, that's not it…! T-That's really a long way ahead. Wouldn't you get tired?"

"Nope. As your goal is to become a proper magus, my goal is to make you a proper magus. I have it all planned out in my head, you know? Should I write it down and give it to you?"

"―――――――Uh, um…" Well, that's… That's great, but…

"But I guess that's impossible. You're going to succeed your dad, right? Then that means you'll be staying here after you graduate." "…Yeah. But what are you going to do? Your family supervises this town. You can't leave this town, right?"

"Me? I'll be going to London after I graduate. I got an admission recommendation because of what happened, so I guess they're letting me in without any tests." "Wha――――you mean that London, the headquarters of the Magic Association…!?"

"Yup. There's a limit to what I can do here, so I'm thinking of studying there for about five years. I hear that my dad did the same thing. And it's natural to go to the highest institute of education if you want to be a proper magus, right?"

"――――" I'm stunned. It's so sudden that my head blanks out. It's natural for Tohsaka, who is a legitimate magus. I finally realize the difference in our positions.

"London, huh? That's a really amazing thing, right?" "Hmm, I don't know. It's vexing, but it's not because they approve of my own powers. I was only invited because of my dad's achievements, and because I'm the last one alive."

She speaks casually, but I'm sure it's an amazing thing. …But London, huh? …That's certainly too far away. My father wasn't in the Magic Association. I'm just like him, and I don't like formal stuff.

"―――But you have the qualifications to enter in that case. I'm sure they'll test you if I recommend you―――"

…But I might be able to move there. I can start working more, study English, save up traveling and living expenses, and find a job over there…

"―――I know you're not enthusiastic about going there since the Magic Association is your enemy, but the Clock Tower has proper equipments and it's really well-suited for training. Oh, but you have to keep your Reality Marble a secret, so I guess they'll test your basics. …Whoa, would one year be enough―――?"

No, no, let's say I am able to rent an apartment there. I don't know what kind of a place the Clock Tower is, but I'm sure Tohsaka will get even busier. …Then it should be better for me to go there after I become a proper magus by myself. Yeah, that sounds good. First of all, London isn't suited for me. I bet I'll faint if I go there and if it's filled with people like Kotomine――――

"……Hey. Are you listening to me, Emiya-kun?" "Huh? Were you saying something, Tohsaka?" "…………" Tohsaka frowns and shuts her mouth. ―――So. After taking a deep breath, she makes a serious face and…

"I forgot to tell you, but I'm being invited as the successor of the Tohsaka family. In other words, I can get a proper room as a proper magus." …She says something strange.

"…?" "I'm telling you that they approve of me as a proper magus. So it's not unusual for me to have an apprentice or two, right? There are factional disputes there, so I'm allowed to take at least one of my apprentices." Tohsaka sneaks a peek at me.

"――――Um, that's…" I may be blunt, but I know what Tohsaka is trying to say. In a word…

"Yup. I can unconditionally take one follower as an assistant. You won't have to take the test that way, and you'll be exempt from tuition fees. …Well, but you'll be in a disadvantageous position because you'll be a student at the Magic Association without being part of it."

"――――――――" My head resumes its thinking. No, I force it to start working again. What Tohsaka is telling me… I put every cell in my brain to work to weigh the options I have. I must look funny, as Tohsaka is giggling.

"W-What? I'm not considering going there because you talked me into it, okay?" "Is that all you want to tell me? Well, I'm going to London."

She looks kindly at me. Then, Tohsaka makes a mischievous expression. "So, what will you do, Shirou?" She asks me gently, with eyes that see through me.

"――――――――" My face turns red. Her words and expression blow away my humility and my dislike of the Magic Association. …This is what I mean by Tohsaka holding my weakness. I can't help it if I fell in love with her.

"Oh, why go silent now? I haven't heard your answer yet." She keeps smiling mischievously. She knows what my answer is, but she's mercilessly attacking me.

"Uh… I, um…" To be honest, London is too far away, but I can't imagine myself being taught by anyone other than Tohsaka. And I never even thought about parting with her. Most of all, I want to be with Tohsaka.

"Be clear, this is important. Will you still come with me, even if it's as my assistant?" She looks up into my eyes. She looks so attractive that I feel like my heart will pop out of my mouth.

"S-Shut up, you idiot…! You idiot, idiot, idiot! I-I-If it's so important, tell me about it in a more appropriate place! I can't answer you when it's so sudden…!!!"

I don't know what'll happen to me if I keep staring at her, so I look away. …I still feel Tohsaka's presence. She's happily watching my reaction.

"Hey, Shirou. What's your answer?" She murmurs gently. ………She's got me beat. Is it this hard to nod and reply honestly? "……….." But I can't turn around unless I say it to her.

"……You idiot. Don't ask me such an obvious question." I meet Tohsaka's gaze and tell her my honest opinion. Her smile broadens at those words. "―――Okay, then please give me your best regards from now on, Emiya-kun. I'm going to train you until you become a proper magus, so prepare yourself."

"…Same to you. I took that seriously. I'm going to get taught by you until I become a proper magus." "Of course. I'm going to make you an honest man and have you lead a happy life. I won't allow you to give up just by getting taken to London."

Where did her previous prettiness go? She says so with a daring smile and jumps off of the desk.

…The sunset should end soon. Spring Break will end, April will come, and another year should pass by quickly. We will part with this scenery until then. After a year… Tohsaka and I will spend our final days of student life here.

"Let's go home. It'll be a lively dinner at your place today." We leave the classroom without any lingering memories. We can still hear the club activities from outdoors. The sounds are far off, and they remind me of the sword fight.

I can't stay in the same place forever. Tohsaka and I will be going someplace different in a year. It should be a while before I find out if it is the right choice or not.

I recall that red figure one more time. Neither this classroom nor that fight will change. Everything is the same. Everything is an illusion like a mirage that disappears when one turns around.

But I can get there if I aim high. I will surely be able to catch up to his back with Tohsaka's help. So I'll come up with an answer at that time.

…The swords that echo far away. By relying on those sounds, I shall eventually reach that place.

Answer

―――What came and went were distant memories. They were signs that he forgot and cast away, something that cannot be returned.

The sparks of the crashing swords. Crashing spirits. Many dozens of unskilled attacks and defenses. They were clumsy attacks that just tried to deny each other. Why did such a thing revive a worn-out oath?

―――They were impossible attacks. His charging body is covered in wounds. His fingers are broken, his limbs are slashed apart, his breathing has stopped although the boy does not know it. Even at a rush, his speed is trifling, and his attacks are mediocre. Although he has absorbed his combat skill, his techniques are now as clumsy as an amateur's again. His attack is executed haphazardly. But… His attack is heavier than any that came before. There is no superhero. The boy's mind is obliterated by the one who grew to realize that fact more than anyone. The distorted mind should collapse from the stress. It is obvious that the boy will be devoured by his contradiction.

But where are the signs of his defeat? He moves his wounded body and steadies his faltering mind, but there is no hesitation in his attacks.

His fury is incomparable to before. The boy swings his sword recklessly. The attacks are equally matched. The space is filled with sparks and everything entering it will be cut to pieces. It is the embodiment of their minds that melt together even though they repel each other.

The desperate attack. It is only a dying spark that a man gives off in his last moment. The boy gasps with each attack, almost falls, steadies himself, and attacks yet again.

"――――――――" Seeing it, he is confident that his enemy has no power left. The boy in front of him is a corpse. But… Why is there infinite power in his arms holding the sword?

He sees an illusion. It must be because he got bored with seeing someone attacking even though he knows it is useless. The irritation boils up his most detestable impulse.

…What did he feel was beautiful and noble?

The boy said that he does not want to see people die meaninglessly. He wanted to save everyone who was in trouble if they could be saved.

It is out of the question. He knows such a wish is just meaningless hypocrisy. An ideal where others are more important than yourself is an ideal that should never be held.

……But. Did he ever not dream that such a life would be wonderful―――?

"………………!" He cannot hear what his enemy is saying. His enemy's voice is too weak to be heard, but his attacks are fierce. The enemy's hands are already one with the hilt. It must be to fix the sword there, but the impact will go to his body like that. The boy is covered with blood, and he will die if he retreats. For the boy, every attack comes with great pain.

"…………!" The voices are hard to pick up. The boy, who is on the verge of death, frantically opposes the impediment in front of him. He does not need to be told where the boy's motivation is coming from.

―――It is a bad dream. He is shown an old mirror image.

He keeps swinging his sword with tearing arms. The only thing there is a strained yell. "………!" There were people that could not be saved, and there was him, who could not save them. He saw people dying meaninglessly, and he swore never to let such a thing occur again.

"………!" There is only one thing that comes and goes through his mind. Things he believes in. Things he believed in. An ideal he swore never to surrender. Something he will never surrender――――

And so. He realizes that there will be no end to the attacks.

This enemy will not stop. The enemy will never stop on his own. Even though the boy is attacking with all his power, he is taking no notice of him. The boy is only trying to slash himself, the one who obstructs himself. His enemy is fighting for the things he believed and for the things he will keep on believing in.

"――――――――" Realizing that, he grits his teeth. The boy keeps challenging even though he knows he cannot win and that it is meaningless. That is the exact mistake he made. ―――But then, why? Why do these eyes keep on staring at him?

Another crashing sound. The attack is parried. The enemy that could not block any attacks repels the attack like nothing. ―――The mirror breaks. He is not strong. He is not strong at all. He fights risking his life, looking ugly and miserable. But… Who in the world can laugh at him…?

"――――――――" He stops his breath. Parrying the oncoming attack, the enemy readies his sword again. A final blow. Will the boy stay standing in spite of all his wounds and the strain on his mind?

Of course. The boy overcame such limits ten times. It is obvious that the enemy will not stop even if this attack is blocked.

"…………!" The boy slashes his sword even though he is collapsing. Those eyes… They are looking straight at him――――

He sees a familiar dream for an instant.

Whose dream was that, and who inherited that dream?

" !!!!" The boy's voice reaches the empty mind. A single scenery closes in.

―――What an ugly, fanatic good will. A beautiful ideal to struggle for.

The final blow is coming in. But the man does not watch the sword that is about to pierce him.

That is the only thing on the boy's mind. Even if his heart is a fake, the beauty of what he believed in is real. ―――That is something he cannot lie about. And it is the origin of his powers.

The boy cries out with a smashed throat. …That he wants everyone to be happy. Yes. There is no road of retreat. Because the dream is…

He has made numerous mistakes. He had no way to atone for them, except for hating and killing himself. His hands are covered in blood, and it is something that can never be forgiven. But still――――

―――A straight gaze. Mistakes and lies, Shaking off everything, running on without stopping―――

The battle ends with a victory. The pain in his chest does not lift up his conviction. As the man hates himself, salvation will never be given.

But he earns a small answer. The answer is only for this summoning. It is a meaningless thing that he will forget the next time he is summoned. But there is nothing to regret. It is something that has already been built up, something that the boy will build using all his life.

There is only one thing coming and going through his mind. There is regret. He does not know how many times he wished to redo things. Heroic spirit Emiya will forever curse this end. But still――――

But still――――I was not wrong―――

There is nothing to talk about. The boy will remain, and he will leave. The only things that remain are the exchanged blows.

The path is long. Relying on the sounds of the swords echoing far away, the boy heads for the deserted plains.

[jellyfishinajamjar]

I really want to make him an official part of my lore. Perhaps 1st company Captain? (There’s been a rather recent vacancy.) In my more recent lore I’ve decided that due to being 1.) Inquisition aligned and 2.) on the short list of chapters the inquisition might need to axe if shit goes heretical, the chapter has an attached Grey Knight Captain on the chapter council, who trained the first of the first company back in the founding. This means that the first company has a significant focus on anti warp operations, knowing deamon lore, hunting down heretics, etc. Given Morax is in terminator armor and has a special hate for Death Guard and Nurgle shit, I think he’d be a perfect fit for it, if you think he has the leadership for it? I don’t wanna just go *yoink* and steal your character though

I have updated some of the lore since that original post, including the color scheme and name (the first thing everyone said when I told them about the lore was the same “That’s Heresy you can’t do that” so I put a literal coat of paint over to help hide the whole “sons of a fallen primarch” thing unless I think the person I’m telling is cool. They’ve got a new orange over cream look, and I’ve renamed them to the Dawn Scythes (both because it’s very Salamanders adjacent, as is there cover story, and also fits when you know that they’re DG cause they’re bringing light and hope and such)

I’ll post an updated scheme as soon as I can figure out how to make sergeant helms not terrible with red on orange.

As for service studs, I think it’s okay to have three as longs as it’s like two and one rather than three, if that makes sense? So you could have the first two be gold and then have two silver studs for fifty years each, followed by his fourth and all subsequent in gold. It could be a really interesting look for every marine over 300 to have that third hundred broken up

Behold Morax! Sorry it took me so long to finish him (kind of, I need to find the micro sol&set to do the transfers). This model really challenged me a lot, and I probably would do some stuff differently. But I love him and playing him in an rpg campaign rocks. He successfully performed multiple medical checks and assists.

AHHHHH THATS SO COOL!!!

Holy shit I don’t even know what to say that’s just such a good paint job and I immediately love him. I would love to hear more about Morax and your campaign!

[sofhtie]

i’ve made myself so upset at the idea of cami becoming another subclass and for WHAT. it’s Not going to happen i am just :headinhands: about even the vague idea of it

[catierambles]

Chimera Ch.10

Pairing: Captain Syverson x Amelia Jones (OFC)

WC 2056

Warnings: Smut (PIV, Syverson being a dirty boy)

@liecastillo @summersong69

They rode in silence save for the random clearing of throats or coughs but pulled over after about an hour in front of a cave, the entrance dark and foreboding.

“This where you guys last found it?” Syverson asked as they got out of the truck, adjusting the strap on his rifle.

“Yup.” Chase said as Amelia moved around to the back of the truck.

“Comm check.” Her voice came through the piece in his ear.

“Loud and clear, Ames.” Locke said and the others gave their affirmative and she came back around.

“Johnson made contact west of the main chamber, we’ll start there and work our way around.” She said.

“We splittin’ up?” Syverson asked but she shook her head.

“Not unless we have to.” She said, “Don’t want any of us caught alone again. Let’s get this done.” They turned on the lights clipped to their armor and headed into the darkness with Amy in lead, her P-90 down but ready. The cave was massive inside, opening up into a large cavern with passages leading off in different directions. Syverson looked around as they moved, watching for any movement other than their own and straining to hear any sounds that might be something approaching them. Their footsteps against the rocks and dirt almost echoed through the cavern, making it difficult. They moved west, clearing passages as they went, and Chase broke off as his light hit a large dark spot on the ground. “What do you have, Chase?”

“Blood.” He said as he crouched by it, “It’s fairly recent. Probably Johnson’s.”

“Focus up.” She said and he rejoined them. They searched for what seemed like hours but eventually made their way back to the start. “It’s not here.”

“Nope.” Locke said, “Moved again.”

“Fuck.” She said with a sigh, “Okay, let’s move on to the next one.”

They searched cave systems all night but found no sign of it, finally driving back through the gate of the base as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. Exhaustion pulled heavy at his eyes, having been up all day and all night, and after he got out of the armor and stowed his weapons, he and Amelia locked themselves in his office, collapsing onto the cot without bothering to get undressed save for their boots. His men knew without being told that he wasn’t to be bothered, fielding all requests to his second-in-command. They slept soundly until about midday, getting up and getting changed into fresh clothes, Amelia having started to keep a bag of clothes in his office for when she spent the night.

“We’re running out of places to look.” Syverson remarked, looking at the updated map in the command post.

“Sure are.” Amy said, taking a drink of her coffee.

“Same thing tonight?” He asked but she shook her head.

“Waiting on a GPR report so we can get a better view of the last few cave systems. Should be here tomorrow.”

“What do we do until then?” He asked and she sighed.

“Nothing,” She said, ”All we can do is wait for more intel.”

“I hate waiting.”

“Patience, darlin’,” She said, imitating his drawl. “Patience.” He grinned, remembering what exactly they were doing when he first told her that. He gave her a look over his shoulder, snorting when she blew him a kiss.

“You two are nauseating.” Chase said from his seat across the room.

“Least I’m getting it on the regular.” She said and Syverson gave a bark of laughter, his cheeks heating slightly behind his beard.

“Hey, the ladies of Corpus Cristi love me.” Chase replied indignantly.

“Okay, Casanova.” She said, sounding unconvinced.

“You’re all a bunch of children.” Locke grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Okay, dad.” Amy said with a roll of her eyes. She got up from her seat, stretching with a sound. “I need food.”

“Yeah, I’ll come with.” Syverson said, following her out of the command post.

They ate in his office as he went over various forms and reports, finally doing the administrative drudgery he had been putting off. She relaxed in her seat when she was done, boots up on his desk and hands on her stomach as she closed her eyes. He kept looking at her over the top of the paperwork, his eyes taking in the way the black t-shirt she wore stretched across her chest before moving down her long legs clad in dark cargo pants. Her little mockery of him earlier brought back all kinds of happy memories. Happy, invasive, memories.

“What.” She said, “I can feel you staring. What.”

“Nothing.” He said and she picked her head up to look at him but he was looking back at the paper in front of him, so she relaxed again, her eyes closing. “It’s just…”

“Yeah?” She asked, picking her head up again.

“I’m doing my least favorite job right now.”

“Okay.”

“And there you are, lookin’ like that.”

“I thought you said I didn’t distract you.” She said and he thought for a moment. He did say that, didn’t he.

“I guess I’m just easily distractible right now.”

“Do you want me to leave?” She asked and he turned it over in his mind.

“No.” He said after a moment, “You’re good where you are.”

“Okay.” She said and sighed, closing her eyes again.

“Actually--”

“Oh my god.” He stood, walking around the desk and standing in front of her.

“Stand up.” He said and she blinked at him. “You heard me, stand up.” Her boots hit the floor and she stood, looking up at him as if awaiting further instruction. “Go over and face the wall.” She gave him a questioning look but did as she was told, going over to the patch of wall between the window and the door and facing it. “Hands on the wall.”

“Silas…”

“Hands on the wall.” He repeated and she shook her head but reached out, pressing her palms into the wall.

“Okay, now what, Mr. Mysterious?” She asked and he went up behind her, kicking her feet apart and making her laugh. “You gonna frisk me, Captain Syverson? You know I have a knife in my boot.” That made him pause.

“I didn’t, actually, but good to know.” He said, “Close your eyes.”

“What?” She asked and he moved in close, placing his mouth right next to her ear.

“I said,” His voice had taken a timbre that made her breath catch in her throat, “Close your eyes.” Her eyes closed and he reached over, flicking the lock on the door. "Now, no matter what, you're to keep your eyes closed and your hands on the wall, understood?" She nodded. "I want to hear you say it."

"Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, Captain, I understand." She said and her saying his title with what he had in mind threatened to turn him feral. Stepping very close to her, he brushed against her before snaking his hand around her front, pulling her shirt out of her pants and slipping his hand underneath, pressing his palm into her stomach. Tracing his fingers up her front, he tugged down the cup of her bra and freed her, holding her breast in his hand and massaging the soft mound gently. "Silas…" she sighed.

"Eyes closed and hands on the wall." He reminded her as his other hand worked on her belt, undoing it deftly along with the button fly and pulling down the zipper. She shuddered as he pushed his hand into her pants and under her small clothes, delving between her legs. His fingers worked her expertly, finding the nub at her center and rubbing against it, fingertips dipping down to her entrance to gather any wetness that formed before resuming. Her fingers curled into the stone wall but her hands never left it, not even as he slid one, then two fingers into her the best he was able given the angle. His hand at her breast pinched and rolled the tip between its fingers, her head falling to the side as his lips touched the side of her neck. "Such a good girl." He whispered, pumping his fingers inside her leisurely. Moisture and heat gathered in his palm as he worked her, the slide of his fingers becoming slick. She shifted like she was about to move and he paused, his fingers buried but unmoving. "You move, I stop, understand?"

"Yes, Captain." She said, a whine to her voice.

"Good girl." He said and started to move the heel of his hand against her clit in tune with his fingers, his tongue darting out to run up the side of her neck, tasting her. He felt her hips become taut, her shoulders stiffening. "You can move against my hand, that I'll allow."

"Thank you." She sighed, tension leaving her as her hips started churning against his hand, riding his fingers. He pressed against her, letting her feel him against her backside and she gasped, clenching around his fingers briefly.

"That's what you do to me, darlin'." He said, grinding against her briefly. "That's all for you. Oh I can't wait to be buried inside that sweetness of yours, feel you wrapped around me the perfect way you do."

"Silas, fuck."

"I'll get there, but I want you to come apart on my hand. Can you do that for me?" She nodded and he curled his fingers inside her, making her gasp. "Say it."

"Yes, Captain."

“That’s my good girl.” He said, pressing his lips to the back of her neck and she started to move against his hand in earnest. Syverson watched for any signs of disobedience, but her eyes stayed closed and her hands stayed on the wall, even as her orgasm hit her and her head fell back against him with a cry. Taking his hands from her body, he pulled down her pants roughly and undid his belt, pushing his pants and boxers down his thighs so he could free himself, giving his length a few short strokes before wrapping his arm around her hips and hauling her closer. Due to their height difference, he almost had to lift her off her feet, but she stayed balanced on her tip-toes as he aligned them and, with one push of his hips, sheathed himself in her completely. The aftershocks of her orgasm made her flutter around him and his jaw clenched. The pace he set was hard and fast, the sound of their skin coming together loud in his office mixed with her breathy curses and pleas for more. “Do I feel good?”

“Yes, Captain.” She nearly sobbed, nodding.

“Do you want more?”

“Yes, Captain.” Pulling from her, he turned her around and pressed her against the wall, pushing inside her again and rutting into her hard. Her arms wrapped around his neck, holding onto him tightly as he gripped her hips with bruising strength.

“Do you want to come again?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Use your words then, like the good girl you are.”

“Please, Captain, please make me come.” She begged and he started moving in a way he knew she liked, that would make him pass over that spot inside her again and again. It didn’t take long for the second time and soon she came apart in his arms again, her nails digging into the back of his neck as she cried out against his chest. A few more rough pumps and he joined her, giving a choked growl as he spilled inside her. They stood there for a moment, both breathing hard as they came down from their highs. “Hello, Army Personnel Office?” He looked at her, seeing her imitating talking into a phone, her eyes still closed. “I’d like to lodge a formal complaint against Captain Silas Syverson, the man’s D game is too strong and is a danger to women everywhere.” He laughed, holding her face in his hands and kissing her gently.

“I love you.” He whispered, still smiling, but then the gravity of what he just said hit him and he looked at her, seeing her looking at him with wide eyes. “Baby, I--shit, I--” She pulled him down into a kiss of her own, her nails running over his scalp through his shorn hair.

“I love you too.”

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 313: Deku VS Lady Nagant

Previously on BnHA: Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai Lady Nagant showed up to fire a cupid’s arrow into my heart, and a bunch of literal bullets into my son. Deku was all “oh shit it’s Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai, what do I do, let me think back to Hawks’s advice for a sec.” Flashback!Hawks was all “anyway Deku so if my super-hot badass murder senpai ever shows up you’re basically screwed so you’d better abscond the fuck out of there.” Present!Deku was all “lol idek why I flashed back to that conversation since I’m just going to do the exact opposite of what Hawks said” and charged directly toward Nagant because WHY NOT. Overhaul was all “waah I need to get back to my boss who I put in a coma out of love” and Nagant was all “jesus christ why did I even bring you here” and had a flashback to AFO who was all “ILU NAGANT IMMA GIVE YOU AN EXTRA QUIRK SO PLEASE CAPTURE DEKU FOR ME PLEASE AND THANKS” and yeah. Shit is all over the place right now and I love it.

Today on BnHA: All Might gets attacked by a pair of discount assassins and is all “Call an ambulance! ...BUT NOT FOR ME” and it’s really badass but also I really wish he would stop tempting fate like this. Lady Nagant is all “[casually flies around town shooting shit]” and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t read an entire chapter of just that. Deku is all, “[gets shot (≥_<)]” and releases a giant Smokescreen which prompts En to show up. En is all, “( •᷄⌓•᷅ ) (⌣̀ Δ⌣́) ( •̀_•́ )σ (¬､¬) (눈_눈)” which I consider to be a high point of both the chapter and of my life. The chapter ends with Deku using the Third’s quirk to launch a bunch of random objects at Nagant so that he can jump up and grab her arm all sneaky-like, and I’m sure this is going to prompt another week’s worth of discourse that I don’t care about at all, but fuck it, I’m having a good time.

OH WE’RE CUTTING BACK TO ALL MIGHT WELL THAT’S NICE I GUESS. CONGRATS ON NOT BEING DEAD

you named your car??

you named it Hercules??

I love you so much??

please marry me you giant fucking dork???

lmao speaking of huge fucking dorks

who the fuck are you clowns. la dee da we’re gonna murder All Might with our synchronized spear attack!! I mean... they’re clearly trying their best... maybe I should just be nice and politely hype them up like All Might is so clearly trying to do

like okay, but we all agree that this is actually the least intimidating attack any of us has ever seen, right?? these guys zipped up their hoodies all serious-like and are trying to attack All Might and Hercules with their Walmart tiki torches, but just, no?? right?? like the only way this could possibly be effective is if they were trying to kill All Might with secondhand embarrassment

“those are assassins” this is a VERY generous assessment, All Might

OH MY GOD THE TIKI TORCHES ACTUALLY KILLED THE FUCK OUT OF HERCULES

[slaps roof of car] this baby can fit so many weaponized festive backyard lighting solutions in it

and yet, even after watching this with my own two eyes, I still can’t take these dudes seriously. idek what it is. anyways r.i.p. Hercules, I loved you a lot but I guess you weren’t actually a very good armored car were you

omg they didn’t know it was All Might??

okay 1) for a moment there I was like “oh hey maybe they’re not so bad after all” but then a moment later it was like “ah nope, they are.” like, that was an interesting .06 second emotional journey there. anyways 2) All Might you have my permission to kick their asses for this disrespect, and 3) anyone else all of a sudden getting “wouldn’t this be an interesting time for Stain to suddenly show up” vibes?? no?? just me???

(ETA: hmm tbh I’ve still got those vibes and they haven’t gone away lol. Stain?? you out there buddy?? do you want to be cool for just once in your life. ball’s in your court pal.)

OH SNAP ALL MIGHT ARE YOU REALLY GONNA DO IT ARE YOU GONNA KICK THEIR ASSES

PROTECTIVE DAD MODE ACTIVATED?? BECAUSE YOU KNOW I’M HERE FOR THAT SHIT, SO YEAH, FEEL FREE

omg he’s shouting at them about how much Deku has suffered lmao and they’re just like falling over from being scolded

so they have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about though, right? “SIR THIS IS A WENDY’S” well whatever, you killed his pet car so he’s in a bad mood now

OH MY GOD

LIKE, JUST SO WE’RE ALL CLEAR, THESE FOUR PAGES SO FAR HAVE MADE ALMOST ZERO SENSE. LIKE MAYBE 2% SENSE TOPS. BUT ASK ME IF I CARE. GO AHEAD AND ASK. I SAID GO AHEAD, IT’S OKAY. ...NO I DON’T CARE AT ALL THANK YOU FOR ASKING

(ETA: also, the more I look at this panel, the more I’m just like, why the hell would you phrase it like that though, sob. way to doubly tempt fate?? are you trying to give Horikoshi a challenge??)

and now back to Deku who is randomly bouncing around the city and narrating it to himself just in case he was confused about why he was doing this

who are you talking to Deku. but thanks we appreciate it

man you gotta love that overconfidence. the smartest guy in the world warned you away from this lady, so SURE, LET’S RUN RIGHT UP TO HER. “I APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT, FLASHBACK!HAWKS, BUT I’LL TAKE IT FROM HERE” well okay then!!

I think it would be funny if RHA.com put little Buzzfeed-style polls in between the chapter pages so they could survey people at random intervals as they read their way through the chapter. like, you finish this page and then there’s a little poll there asking “do you think Deku’s plan of catching up to Lady Nagant and finding out where Shigaraki is will work?”, and you click “no” just like everyone else and then nod as the results show that 97% of your fellow readers also picked “no”, and you chuckle to yourself wondering how many of the 3% accidentally clicked on the wrong option by mistake, and then you keep on reading

ANYWAY, SO

HOW’S THAT PLAN WORKING OUT FOR YOU SO FAR DEKU. nice kick, though!!

omggggggg

ouch

update: Deku’s plan not really working out. sources tell me my boy has been fucking shot. this is an ongoing story and we will keep you posted with the latest developments as they come in

wait what

feel free to explain to the rest of us what all of this “UNLESS...” and “THAT POSSIBILITY...” shit means anytime, Deku

oh lol did he realize she could fly??

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE, CNN’s John King reports that Deku is still fucked. eyewitness reports now coming in that Nagant is doing no-look shots and basically not even giving a fuck. sources described her mannerisms and expression as “sexy, but in like an effortless sort of way.” we will continue to bring you the latest

so now there’s basically an entire page of Deku being all “ah fuck so she’s basically closing in and she could already hit me with impossible accuracy even from Far Away, so if that’s the case then her being Up Close is probably going to be even worse!” making good use of that Big Hero Brain there, Deku

so now what, you’re doing some kind of spiraling kick thing?? how is that going to help

oh lol he’s using Smokescreen to create some cover. aww, good for you Deku you named one of your Smokescreen attacks

OH NO LADY DON’T TELL ME AFO DIDN’T EVEN FILL YOU IN ON THE BASICS

seriously, AFO?? you basically told her what Deku’s exact strategy was going to be but then couldn’t be assed to drop that little, small, barely notable piece of knowledge that Deku is rocking multiple quirks?? is it supposed to be a secret or something?? you dropped the ball here man

damn this is getting intense now

(ETA: the way En is poking Deku’s head in that first panel is fucking sending me, I love this guy so much omg.)

well then what are you planning, Deku?? I’m actually really curious!! I am genuinely starting to be invested in this fight scene not only in the “wanting to see who wins and how that impacts the plot” sense, but also in the “wanting to see how it happens because the choreography and strategy is actually pretty cool” sense, which honestly hasn’t happened for quite a while now! this is fun

anyway so what’s up Deku, are you going to use another quirk?? I’ve been speculating that he hasn’t actually unlocked the last two yet (since Two and Three didn’t exactly seem convinced when we last saw them), but maybe I’m about to be proven wrong

(ETA: well he clearly has Three’s obviously, but Two’s is still MIA, and that’s the one I am of course the most curious about. that’s the one we’re all curious about, let’s be real.)

OH SNAP???

AHHHH I’M HYPED LOL. ANOTHER SHINY NEW QUIRK LOL SHOULD I PUT UP THE USUAL DISCOURSE DISCLAIMER

(ETA: so yeah, after thinking on it, I’m not gonna say “please no Deku discourse on my blog” this week, but I probably will ignore any discourse that does come my way though, just because I don’t have much interest in getting involved in what would probably be a pretty repetitive discussion. like, I can just sum up my opinions (which is what they are) here instead. in fact here they are lol:

1) I like the SIXQUIRKS and I like seeing Deku be a badass.

2) I also don’t think Deku is too OP. more like he’s exactly as OP as he needs to be at the moment, given that we’re approaching the end of the series. I expect the other kids will also be pretty damn OP when we see them fight again. we’re just at that point now where they’re all badasses (as well they should be; they’ve grown a lot and they deserve it). it’s just that Deku’s the one we’re getting to see right now.

3) of course I miss Kacchan and the others, but for me this vibes much closer to the MVA arc where even though I missed them, I was still having a blast (as opposed to the dark days of the Basement arc where I was pretty much losing it lol). like, even though Kacchan’s my favorite, I still love Deku a lot and this arc has been amazing for him getting to shine on his own (for like the first time, really).

4) y’all know I love the OFA plot and I’ve never been shy about that lol. I like all of the Vestiges a lot. Banjou and his over the top personality; En and his “guy you thought would be serious and :| all the time but is actually hyper-animated and ALL OVER THE PLACE” energy; Shiro who actually is a :| sort of guy lol; Three who I still expect will be fleshed out in a more detailed flashback at some point; and of course Two, who, well. you know what I think about him lol. Bakuverse is still on the table and I’m still hyped. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we still have yet to see Two actually talk to Deku (as opposed to talking to the other Vestiges while Deku is distracted). did he lend him his power yet?? or is he still holding out?? either way it’s definitely going to be a Big Thing when it finally happens and I can’t wait to see it.

5) Lady Nagant is Everything and just because Deku grabbed her arm doesn’t mean the fight is over yet lol. Overhaul hasn’t come into play yet either. not to mention that even if the fight is over, the “where do we go from here” part still has me excited either way. her connection to Hawks and the HPSC is very intriguing and we’ve barely touched on that as of yet; she definitely has more of a role to play in this.

6) last but not least, I feel like every week the discussion is all about how much focus Deku’s getting, and how OP he is or isn’t, and OFA this and OFA that, but meanwhile I’m actually so invested in the character development here though?? the way Deku has distanced himself from everyone (except for the Vestiges, because of course they’re already dead so it’s not like they can die again lol)?? the way he’s pushing himself far too hard and we can see the shadows in and under his eyes, and the fact that he never smiles, and even All Might has remarked on how he isn’t taking care of himself at all?? the fact that he’s so single-mindedly obsessed with focused on stopping AFO?? the fact that he’s still the same sweet old Deku despite everything and was so kind to that fox lady with the umbrella, but there was also something so sad about that scene because it felt like a reminder of the type of hero that he wants to be, but that he’s not allowed to be right now?? because the stakes are too high and the world is falling apart?? and he feels like he’s the only one who can do something about it?? and that he has to be?? and that he is putting so much pressure on himself right now, and it’s absolutely too much pressure for any one person to bear, and I feel like no one is fucking talking about this lol goddammit.

anyway so yeah. I have feels about this, and every week that slow-burn angst is getting more and more intense behind the scenes, and I feel like it’s all going to hit a breaking point eventually. sooner rather than later. it really feels like a mirror of Katsuki’s post-Kamino arc. where all that angst was just churning below the surface for like twenty chapters and then it finally was like “okay it’s time” and it all came bursting out and we got the best five chapters of the fucking series (in my admittedly biased estimation lol).

basically, I know that most of fandom is billing this as either the “villain hunt” arc or the “solo Deku SIXQUIRKS fighting arc” or whatever. but for me, it’s always been and still is the Deku Angst arc lol. the cool fights are a sexy bonus (the worldbuilding less so because even though it’s interesting to see society at such a low point, it’s also very depressing and gets old pretty fast), but for me the thing that’s really keeping me engaged chapter after chapter is seeing Deku like we’ve never seen him before. seeing him all quiet and withdrawn and brooding and focused on AFO, AFO, AFO, and seeing that “he just doesn’t take himself into account” mentality taken to extremes. I am invested in that. I’m soaking up that angst each and every week, and I’m invested in seeing what comes of it. it’s a big picture thing. week to week this arc might just seem like a bunch of villain fight scenes, sure. but Deku’s emotional journey is the thread that’s going to carry this arc through from beginning to end, and for that I’m willing to be patient.

anyway that turned into a BIG OL’ RANT there but yeah! so those are my thoughts on the disk horse as it currently stands. and like I said, I’m open to discussion, but tbh I will probably just wind up repeating these same talking points endlessly so just a fair warning lol.)

anyway so Three says Deku has yet to use his quirk at ALL but now he’s trying to combine it with another quirk?? damn. also please check out En’s face here you guys

En launching a sneak attack up my favorite character list by the sheer power of his expressions alone. he really knows how to make the most of his screentime

OH DAMN DEKU

at this point the 3% from that hypothetical poll earlier are starting to feel prettttty damn smug, I’ll bet. well shit

what in the fuck

?? so like releasing his chi or whatnot?? isn’t that basically just like base OFA all over again?? also Deku did you seriously just apologize to Gran’s cape

update: Nagant has turned her eyeball into a gun

hm. hmmmmmmm. ...okay yep, still somehow sexy

anyway so she’s just floating up there building suspense, as one does. lord I sure hope she has good reflexes because something tells me she’s going to need them

OH SNAP HE THREW GRAN’S CAPE AS A DECOY WHAAAAT OKAY THAT’S SOME SMART SHIT DEKU

LOL SHE’S MAD NOW

JESUS CHRIST SHE JUST NEVER TAKES A GODDAMN BREAK FROM BEING AWESOME HUH

DEKU ARE YOU JUST THROWING EVERY DAMN THING IN YOUR INVENTORY

but without the cape and the hood how will you continue to look like an enigmatic badass. you really can’t. which means we might finally be moving on from the wandering nomad part of this arc, stay tuned

LOL YOU MANIAC

I hope he went full Kacchan with the dialogue there. his face sure looks like it lol. popped out of a building all mad fdskljlkj omg

well this was fun, shit. I still have basically no idea what Three’s quirk does though lol. like, can he use it to charge up objects with kinetic energy or something?? but then what was all of that talk about combining it with one of the other quirks?? or was that just because he was using Smokescreen at the same time??

(ETA: having seen and read an additional half-dozen explanations of Three’s quirk, I can say with confidence that I still have basically no idea what it is or does.)

anyway so!! Deku is a badasssssss but something tells me not to count Nagant out just yet even so. also I really enjoy seeing Deku flip out on people like he doesn’t have a fucking hole in his torso because it reminds me of A CERTAIN SOMEONE and I always love to see him channeling that feral energy; I feel like it’s been a while

anyways good luck to you both!! I truly wish that both of you could win. but if not, then maybe you can at least become friends instead. you have so much in common, you both can fly and have multiple quirks and you’re both badasses, and plus it would just be really funny to see the look on Hawks’s face lmao

[felicityphoenix5]

Day... Four, I think? of WIP posting: Exile, a Pix fic that i will never finish :'D

Pix landed on the outskirts of Pixandria, his elytra folding behind him. It creaked and groaned as he set foot on the sands, rusty joints protesting at the 

Did the desert feel colder than usual? He shivered, trying to ignore the glares from the people he passed on his way to the Vigil. It needed to be updated, as a few of his fellow rulers had died during the Battle. Pix crossed the bridge to the main part of Pixandria, the main square where the Vigil was. As he rounded the corner, an ominous sight awaited him.

His people blocked the road leading to the Vigil, lanterns and torches held aloft as they waited for him. His head advisor, Adelaide, stood in front of the crowd, trident in hand. She narrowed her eyes as he stopped.

“Pixl.”

“I- Del? What’s, what’s wrong?”

She glared at him, hand tightening around her weapon.

“You know very well what’s wrong, Pix! We all felt it!” She gestures to the crowd.

He winced. Of course…

“Pixl. You killed the Thirteenth Empire.”

“I… I did, yes, but-“

“You did this in full awareness that this is a heinous crime according to our laws.”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind, but-“

“The dragon is- was the defender of the world, with her gone, who knows what will happen!”

“Del, please, it was the only way we could-“

Her trident crackles with lightning, the shadows marking her face.

“Pixl, you-!” She shouts, temper getting the better of her.

“It was the only way we could get back home!” He shouts back. “Okay? It- we were trapped there, we had to kill the dragon for the portal to open, and I know, I know that killing her was wrong, but it was the only way!”

She regards him in his torn clothes, elytra worn and rusty, eyes tired and guilty, anger, sadness and regret pooling in her gaze. 

“You of all people should know that there’s always another way, Pix. Leave.”

He looks at her in shock.

“I- Del, what?”

“Leave. You are not worthy to stand in the light of the Vigil, not anymore.”

“But Del-“

“Leave, Copper King, or we will make you. Leave, and never come back!”

Lightning zaps around her trident again, the sky thundering. Adelaide is a master at Channeling, a rival to Pix himself. She could smite him where he stood if she wanted to. The fact that she isn’t is probably more than he deserves. 

Guilt chokes him, tendrils of regret curling around his throat. His eyes glance to the crowd, hoping for an ally, a friendly face. There are none, his citizens, his friends glaring at him with suspicion and hostility. 

He feels heavy, and not just because of the elytra and armor he wears. The dragon's death is his fault, the demon growing more powerful is his fault, it’s all his fault.

“I’m sorry.” He says, not looking Adelaide in the eyes. “I had to, I’m sorry.”

She glares at him, trident pointed at his chest. “Tell that to Jean.”

He swallows, eyes darting to the corners of the square. Guards stand in the shadows, weapons at the ready. 

“Okay.” He says, head bowed. “I will leave, and live in exile until I can prove myself worthy to the people of Pixandria.” 

Someone in the crowd scoffs.

Pix raises his hands to his head, where the Copper Crown sits. He takes it and lays it at Adelaide’s feet, along with the elytra and his armor. The former Vigil Keeper shivers in the cold desert air, the wind whistling through the streets.

Adelaide nods at him, lowering her trident. He bows to her, turning back the way he came. At the corner, he pauses, turning back to his most trusted advisor.

“Who will update the Vigil?” He asks. 

Adelaide looks up at the sacred structure, lantern and candles floating gently around it. 

“I will.”

He nods, turning once again to the empty street in front of him.