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glassmarcus · 5 days ago

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The Shadow That Guides Us

Sonic Adventure 2 came out 23 years ago. It's something I try not to think about, but I believe it's imperative to really understand just how old that game is. It was the first Sonic game I and a ton of other people played. After all, its Gamecube port was the 3rd party debut of the series and was released just after the launch, around the time when me and my older brother were able to get our hands on the console. When we walked into Block Buster and saw the early roster of games before us that we could rent, one game stood out. Beyond the staggering sea of licensed shovelware; Across an endless ocean of sports games that weren't Tony Hawk Proskater 3. It wasn't Luigi's Mansion that caught our eyes. It wasn't Super Monkey Ball. It was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. The over sized game box relative to the tiny proprietary Gamecube disc sported stunning box art which called to us. That box art, stuffed with dynamic Yuji Uekawa character illustrations which would go on to define at least 6% of my art style, told us everything we needed to know about the game. It was as if we didn't need to listen to Jun Senoue's masterpiece OST for us to be seemingly lured in by its siren call. Our suburban unmedicated christian raised prepubescent minds were thoroughly captivated. We knew of Sonic the Hedgehog. We had seen gameplay of the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure at a friend's house. It looked like a fun time. But based on this box art alone, the sequel appeared to be on a different level. We rented it, later bought it along with Sonic Advance a few years later, and 22 years later I'm writing a 7000 word essay on the franchise.

Sonic Adventure 2 is by all conceivable accounts, Beast Media. It's fairly sloppy in both gameplay and story, but the gumption in which it approached those aspects with turned that slop into something special. It is a game that keeps running no matter how much it stumbles and proceeds with aplomb at every opportunity. Each stage has its own unique idea despite reusing assets. Every story beat is a critical hit despite the lack of detail between them. All three gameplay types are wildly different yet all feel like they belong in the same game. Sonic Adventure 2 is perfect because it knows it's not. It doesn't try to be perfect it just tries to be engaging at every turn. I think that’s why it's still my favorite. It's not the best Sonic game, a few 2D Sonics are gate keeping that slot currently. I would say that it does the most to try to keep the player invested in the game. From the second your play though starts until well after you’ve beaten it and are just collecting emblems and raising Chao, Sonic Adventure 2 never fails to be captivating.

I admit, my tone may be slightly defensive. It's somewhat of a learned reaction. The public opinion of the Sonic franchise has been a wild ride and as that ride continued, the sentiment that “3D Sonic games were never good in the first place” steadily grew. This statement as a whole is understandable, but the adventure games are exempt from this criticism. And after thinking about this for over a decade now, I’m quite certain it is not because of nostalgia.

I am a peaceful man. The thought of inflicting harm on others makes me sick to my stomach. Yet there are moments when I feel the unrelenting need to start swinging. I become overcome with blood lust and have to do my best to reject the Satsui no Hado. Those moments are usually when a sick individual is enacting a gross injustice upon the world. Such as: physically hurting people I care deeply about or spouting toxic Nazi rhetoric to impressionable youth or saying that ‘Sonic Adventure 2 was actually never good’. I've been hanging out in gaming spaces for a while now, and I've come to learn that true strength is not measured by your ability to lift an excessive amount of weight. Nor is it the ability to inflict and excessive amount of harm. True strength is simply the ability to hold yourself back when people start telling you your favorite game was actually bad and that your memories are wrong. The earliest memory I have of feeling true maturity and substantial growth as a teenager was when a friend of mine said that Sonic Adventure 2 was always bad and I didn't immediately snap his neck. And yet I still have a long journey of growth ahead of me as I still will not forgive the world for gas-lighting us into thinking that game isn't at the apex of fiction.

I don't care where you are from, if you do not crack a smile at the opening of Sonic Adventure 2 hero story, you are truly lost among the rest of us human beings. If you do not pop off at the end of story where the good guys and bad guys join forces to take down the real threat, we probably can't be friends. And yes. Shadow the Hedgehog is cool. And I don’t mean that ironically. Well, actually I kind of do, but also simultaneously I don’t. Shadow is the quantum cool character. He exist in this incomprehensible state of being try hard edgy but...he’s also actually cool. His trauma and behavior feel valid in a lot of ways. I can take him seriously and not at the same time. I could chalk this up to multiple interpretations of the characters over the years, but I think it's present in even the first game.

There's a line in the first Sonic vs Shadow boss fight where if you hit Shadow he immediately says "I'm the coolest". It's such a weird thing to say at all and even weirder to say after getting hit. It should be out of character, but it isn't. Shadow really does think he's the coolest. You can tell by the way he talks. You can tell by the way he acts. He's theatrical. Did he really need to use the Chaos Emerald to embarrass Sonic in the beginning of the game? No, but sometimes you gotta pop out and show niggas. He thinks he's the coolest and wants you to know it. So when he gets hit, he's basically just leaking his inner thoughts. It's kinda dorky and easy to laugh at.

But at the same time, he's correct. He's 100% correct. He does have a tragic backstory that justifies his hate. He does continually get shit done seemingly effortlessly. He does go toe to toe with Sonic, the most glazed character in the franchise. Shadow has chunibyo energy, but he can back it up. That's why he's great. That's why hes the perfect foil for Sonic. Sonic is cool because he's chill. Things don't really get to him as long as you aren't murdering loved ones. It doesn't really matter to him. Shadow had his loved ones murdered already. He's the opposite. He cares because he doesn't want that happen to him or anyone ever again. And I think that determination is admirable. Both surfer jocks and goths can be cool, which is the pretty much the main conclusion you can draw from their dynamic. This dichotomy is why the game works so well. Shadow is the soul of the game. The entire structure of the gameplay and story and even soundtrack is built on this duality. He's integral into what make a Sonic Adventure 2 such a legendary game despite him having the least amount of gameplay.

Sonic Adventure 2 was peak. And I mean that it a sad way. It really never got better than that for 3D Sonic games. Games came out with more polish; Games came out with more spectacle. None of them were equal to the complete package that Sonic Adventure 2 ended up being though. So when I say, Sonic Adventure 2 came out 23 years ago, I am not celebrating the longevity of the series, I am anguishing over how the Adventure games pretty much created a blueprint for the rest of the franchise and was never competently followed up on.

Sonic Heroes wasn't Sonic Adventure 3 for some reason. It was a sharp left turn from the direction the series was heading. Looking back, I can see how the design philosophy got to this point. Sonic Adventure was a game with 6 playable characters. But the levels themselves weren’t crafted to fit Sonic's gameplay. The other 5 felt like the after thoughts that they clearly were, only being able to add gimmicks and tiny sections to existing levels. It was fine, but it made the rest of the game feel like filler. Sonic Adventure 2 gave every character a level made just for them, even if assets themselves were reused frequently. Even if you weren't a fan of a particular play style, the effort put into the level design was equally distributed so everything in the game had impact.

Heroes took this a step further. Instead of having each level be crafted for 1 play style at a time, it created 1 level for 3 at a time. There were less levels, but the levels themselves were more expansive and longer as they tried to take advantage of each play style. There's really nothing wrong with this approach gameplay wise. It gives the characters far less individuality and anchors the story more, but this could have worked well in just being a game you play through for fun’s sake. The problem is that the controls are greased the fuck up and it makes engaging with the level design a complete nightmare. The acceleration for these characters is deranged. The adventure games already nailed control, they just decided to ruin it here for reasons I have not been able to ascertain in the past 20 years. If they left the control alone I would at the very least liked this game. A lot of stuff about the gameplay bugs me. Enemies having health bars, special stages returning, the 4 campaigns not being diverse enough yet all being required. I could ignore all of those gripes if the characters didn't handle like a wet bar of soap. I actually would love a remake of this game because a few tweaks to the physics and movements will make it a substantially better one. It could also improve the plastic ass textures as well, which are still off putting to me.

Sonic Heroes was always going to be a disappointment to me because I just don't gel with the vibes as much. Sonic Adventure, and this entire era of Sonic up to 2009 had this Shonen Aura to it. The stories went into dark places and the game took itself seriously. Sonic Heroes still has this aura, but it feels like it's diminished and is competing with the Saturday morning cartoon essence it also wants to exude. Sonic Heroes carries itself with a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 composure, having some cool story content, but hiding it behind cheese and nonsense that the weaker audience may be put off by. And I was that weaker audience that was put off by it in both cases. This is the game where Shadow returns. There's a great reveal at the end of Team Dark's story where it is revealed that Shadow might not be the same Shadow from the last game. It's a cool existential question to leave open. But that's all it does. Shadow doesn't do much other than have some banter with Sonic. The most interesting and popular character in the series gets barely any screen time because the game is structured to equally provide screen time for 11 other characters, few who actually deserve such. Each campaign follows the exact same skeleton, which means the simplest campaign is gonna have the same story beats as the most complex. This rigid structure completely neuters the story by making it predictable and limited. You play as Shadow far more in this game than Sonic Adventure 2, yet it feels like he does nothing in this game. Nothing much really happens in Sonic Heroes, which is my main issue with it.

The dueling tones bothered me a bit when I played it. But it's fine for me now. Over time, the corny elements really started growing on me. That theme song won me over and I didn't really stand a chance. This tone however went completely missing in the follow up to this game, Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow got his own game after this and it was given the same effort and push as other mainline Sonic game. On paper, Shadow the Hedgehog is a game that uses the players own choice in morality to dictate the ways in which the character is explored. It has 327 different routes and 11 different endings, assuring each playthrough is wholly unique. It's a really special game, that really made its mark on the franchise.

This is arguably one of the worst Sonic games, which is quite the feat. It's great that the story focuses so much on Shadow, but because all 11 endings are so different there is no way to write shadow getting to all of those points in a natural way. Most routes in Shadow the Hedgehog are complete nonsense and hollow because Shadow has no reason to act the way he does without being a gullible dumb-ass. It's the player writing the story, but the player doesn't have the tools to write a good one. And none of them really matter because they are negated by the existence of the true 11th ending you unlock after getting the other 10 endings. The approach they take with the story only makes sense with an avatar character really. Shadow has no character other than being edgy in this because how could he be? His personality has to be so fluid that it has to account for 11 endings. Edge is all that Shadow has too him in this, and while I enjoy it and think it's funny, it's not solely why I like the character.

The story is a train wreck. But watching the cutscenes in this game is far more enjoyably than actually playing it. Shadow plays and feels similar to how he did in Heroes, but with the added focus of combat and gun-play which are not implemented in a reasonable way by any means. What made the speed sections in Sonic Adventure 2 good were that you could move fast while still maintaining control of your character. What made emerald hunting fun was being able to traverse an open area quickly to find what you need. What made mech sections fun was chaining together shots and maximizing your score. Shadow has levels where you play as Shadow, but you have the ability to shoot enemies and are given objectives to collect shit throughout the level. All of these things are implemented poorly because of the long linear level design with zero flow and the bad control and shooting mechanics. It's like a fucked up Frankenstein monster of Sonic Adventure concepts and the whole thing makes me violently ill. Shadow the Hedgehog was a train wreck and was a bad omen for things to come.

In the following year, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) came out. A game whose reputation was "Worst Sonic game" for a while. Now, let's be clear, this was a step up from Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow had less glitches and load times, but as a game, Sonic 06 styles all over it. It's structured like an Adventure game at the very least so it has the potential for sober level design and plot. Some may call it Sonic Adventure 3, but I will never refer to it as such. Even if it basically is, it wasn't titled that and I didn't own a 360 when it came out. So it doesn't count. Still, it had 3 campaigns with varying play styles that intertwined with each other and led to a final level once all were completed. It even introduced a new main playable character the same way Sonic Adventure 2 did in Silver the Hedgehog, probably one of my favorite characters. It was closer to the Adventure games than Heroes and Shadow and benefited greatly from it

I will not revise history though, this game has always been a complete nightmare. I don't think I've ever trusted a game less than Sonic 06. It feels like it can fall apart at any moment. It brought back hub worlds and made them more dull than ever. Introduced side quest and mandatory minigames that really didn't need to be in the game at all. It didn't learn from Sonic Adventure and introduced even more playable characters, some which barely function at all. Even the plot, while more substantive than the last two, doesn't really click for the most part. Sonic's campaign felt like he was the Rosencranzt of his own game. Silver's was so mid it took until the comics decided to do PR on his character for people to understand how great he is. Shadow’s story had some rough parts to it, but one of the bright spots of 06 is how spot on his characterization is. He finally feels like how he felt in Sonic Adventure 2 now that he's allowed to be in a regular story. The best story moments in 06 are from Shadow and after playing it you would think they'd be more confidently utilizing the character in the future.

Shadow isn't playable in another 3D Sonic game for another 11 years after this. A version of him is technically playable in Sonic and the Black Knight, but it’s only Shadow in terms of the character model. Shadow the Hedgehog is nowhere to be found in it, only a look alike who stands in as Lancelot from Arthurian Legend. The only Sonic character who is actually playable in the Story Book sub series is Sonic himself. Sonic Team got very conservative after Sonic 06 went down and all elements associated with that game seemed to be stripped, including the inclusion of characters other than Sonic. So if you wanted to play as a different character, you’d have to resort to the self contained spin offs that have no barring on the future of the franchise’s stories and mechanics.

In 2008,Sonic Unleashed marked the start of the boost era. A shift in gameplay that values speed far more than conventional platforming. They stopped trying to make the promising Adventure gameplay function to its max potential and then threw it all away. Look, I like Sonic Unleashed. Well the good version of that game that exist on the Nintendo Wii at least. It was exhilarating in a way the Adventure games weren't. Sonic was approaching this level of spectacle naturally, so it's logical for Sonic to be speeding through levels faster than you can reasonably control him. And at the time, every one was all about this shift. This was the last time Sonic would attempt to be cutting edge and high fidelity for a while. It was the last Hail Mary before Sonic Team decided to keep playing it safe. In that manner I've always respected it. But looking back, a third of the game was a version of Sonic the Hedgehog that I didn't really prefer and the rest of it was a version of God of War I didn't really prefer.

There's always been a variety of gameplay styles in 3D Sonic games, but this is first one where it didn't feel like regular Sonic gameplay was the main one. The Werehog is like 2/3rds of the playtime. And when you take into account how many levels force you into a 2D perspective, it starts to feel like it's barely a 3D Sonic game. The next game, Sonic Colors, actually reached the point where I don't even consider it a 3D Sonic game. The 3D sections are so extremely short that they get wholly eclipsed by the 2D parts. The quick step sections were basically top down 2D as well. And it was the solution apparently, as Sonic Colors was the best received Sonic game in years upon release. The key to making critically approved 3D Sonic was implementing less 3D Sonic, in every sense of the word.

I was a Day One Sonic Colors Hater. I thought I was going crazy over how people loved this game. I hated the way Sonic controlled once you were actually able to move him in 3D. I hated how little flow there was to the level design. I hated how dog water the script was. I hated how sauceless the levels were. I hated how nothing happened in the story and how few characters there were. I hated how intrusive wisp were as a power ups. This game was ass. Not just because it was mid as hell, but because it felt like it was embarrassed to be a 3D Sonic game. I have no respect for games that don't take pride in themselves. Sonic Colors was the first game in the franchise to really be like this.

Sonic Generations was the follow up to Colors and the only 3D game from this era devoid of pride that I genuinely like. The level design struck a nice balance between high speed movement and actual platforming. It bringing back past stages and bosses guaranteed vibrant and interesting motifs, music, and mechanics. It was a sort of ‘Best of Sonic’ type game, so it had to be good. But it's very much still made in the same vein as Sonic Colors. The lack of effort in its story always bothered me. It's a fun game to play, but there are no unique moments in the game that stick with me. Of course it's a game full of throwbacks, having an identity of its own is a bit hard, but having a story with memorable beats could have help with that. In terms of overall quality, it's arguably the best 3D Sonic game when you look at the PC port. But it's ultimately a greatest hits album, so it feels like cheating to say it's one of the greats. It's an issue I kinda have with Sonic Mania that I can overlook due to it having some unique levels. Generations has nothing like this, so I can't bring myself to truly love it like I love the Adventure games.

I’m not even gonna lead into Sonic Lost World with a smooth transition. It's the game that followed up Sonic Generations and it is the worst Sonic game. Doesn’t matter what system you paly it on. It's diametrically opposed to everything I like about these games. From its awkward controls, to its baffling design philosophy, to its bottom rung story, it is a waste of time. There are games in this franchise that are more frustrating. There are games that are more boring. But none make me feel like I'm committing a sin just by playing it. Lost World sheds the boost formula and instead of veering towards something more like the Adventure games, it decides to be a Mario game instead. And a bad one at that. Mario games at least want you to have some way to gradually build and lose speed. In Lost World, Sonic can only exist in two digital states of velocity and thus feels awkward at all times. They gave my boy a run button. What the hell were they cooking? It’s an abomination brought to life by suturing dozens of bad ideas together, none of which resemble something I want in a Sonic game. In just one release, all the momentum that Sonic Generations built up was lost thanks to this entry.

It took 4 years for a follow up to release. Sonic Forces, the most middling Sonic game of all time. I don't have much to say about Forces because no one really does. It's the return of Generations gameplay, but has basically no level design to make it fun. It has a voiceless player avatar character, which ends up absorbing any potential character interactions we may have gotten for the ones we want to see. It has music that is good, but levels that aren't long enough to hear them actually start. It pretends like it has an epic story to tell when it really doesn't. It doesn't offend me like Lost World does. It's just anemic, with a few good moments here and there. Shadow returns in it for a free prequel DLC that last 30 minutes and is slightly higher in quality than the other levels. Which is better than nothing I suppose.

Forces is pretty half hearted, but half of that heart is in the right place. The cast does return. There are multiple playable characters and campaigns. I can remember some story moments at least. It did attempt to cater to modern Sonic fans for the first time in a decade. It just did it poorly. Forces was the first step in the right direction. The next step was 5 years later when Sonic Frontiers came out. The first 3D Sonic game since Sonic in the Black Knight to feel like it sincerely wanted to be a Sonic game. There are parts of it that are embarrassing in terms of budget and control. But the story took itself seriously again. The gameplay loop was fun and complemented Sonic gameplay very nicely. It took a bit of a middle ground between Adventure and Boost game play and it felt like the 3D formula was evolving instead of flinging shit at the wall hoping something sticks. Frontiers was the shining light and that shining light led to Shadow X Sonic Generations.

People refer to the stretch between Shadow the Hedgehog and Black Knight as The Dark Age of Sonic. They are half right. I don't think we ever left it. Sure there were good games, some slams dunks every now and then, but that never made the franchise feel like it was in a good spot because they were always followed up with shit. But now, we've gotten like 4 hits in a row. Frontiers was good but still felt woefully unfinished. Sonic Super Stars was decent enough to not do any damage to the brand. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was great in that it was a Free Visual Novel that only strengthened the brand. Sonic Dream Team is pretty great for a game stuck in apple arcade jail. Maybe ‘Hits’ wasn’t the right word to describe this string of games. Jabs is probably more accurate, and the next game is a clean body blow. We have this pack in title staring Shadow himself and I'm not gonna mince words here, it's fucking spectacular. This dark age started with Shadow so it's only fair that he be the one to end it.

I should probably explain what Shadow Generations actually is. Sonic Generations is a game where Sonic goes through 9 different stages and 6 bosses from previous Sonic games. Each stage has 2 acts, 1 where you play as a version of Sonic from the classic genesis games and another where you play as modern sonic with his boost game play. Shadow Generations is a new game that takes place at the same time as Sonic Generations. It's a pack in bonus game included for the Sonic Generations rerelease. The structure of this product is similar to Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, where it’s a remaster with a short game attached to it to make the whole package a better value proposition. He difference with Shadow Generations is that there's far more effort put into it than you'd expect.

There are two parts to this effort. First is the marketing for this game. They went a bit sicko mode with the marketing campaign for Shadow. In the same vein as the "Year of Luigi" stunt Nintendo pulled a decade ago, Sega declared 2024 The Year of Shadow. This was a push to celebrate the character through multiple mediums. There's was tons of merchandise for Shadow developed, a clothing brand, a manga, hell even a movie. Yes, the Movie was gonna come out no matter what. It's not like the Movie came out to promote the game, hell it was likely the other way around. But they still fed into each other. The hype built for the third Sonic the Hedgehog movie definitely put eyes on Shadow generations, and the DLC level based on Sonic 3 that dropped around its release did the same. It was a cross promotional slam dunk. I played the DLC, and got even more hyped for the movie than I already was. And then I watched the movie and felt euphoric vindication over how well they adapted parts of the Sonic Adventure 2 story. We now have box office numbers to serve as undeniable proof that even in the modern age, the children yearn for Sonic Adventure 2. It’s surreal.

For me, the highlight of this Year of Shadow push had to be the Dark Beginnings Web series. It's a 3 part 15 minute total animation on YouTube that acts as prelude for Shadow Generations. It's not necessary and the plot would be perfectly understandable without it, but I couldn't be more grateful for it. This comfortably stands among the best pieces of animated Sonic media. I say this as a certified Sonic CD opening glazer. I say this as a seasoned Sonic CG cutscene enjoyer. I say this as one of the Sonic OVA’s strongest soldiers. In terms of writing, art, and direction, it's firing on all cylinders. It didn't need to be so heart felt, but it was. It delivers on the character interaction and action that I want out of Sonic media and is fully sincere the whole time. It made me extremely optimistic with the game going forward. Dark Beginnings made it clear that Shadow Generations is a love letter. And if that wasn't enough, the printed lore diary included with the physical copy and the purchasable Shadow beta design skin made it crystal. There is no cynicism in this series anymore.

The build up was perfect, but what about the second part of this effort? The game itself. You'd expect a pack in title to be a fraction of the size of the base game. While Shadow Generations is only 6 stages and 4 bosses compared to Generation’s 9 and 6, it is not 2/3rds as big. It's basically the same size. The levels are longer and there's far more to do in between levels as well. This is essentially Sonic Generations 2. It's also basically everything I would want out of a sequel to that game as well. It truly celebrates every aspect of the franchise while also pushing the gameplay forward.

Within Shadow Generations lies the blueprint for a true 10/10 Sonic title. All the ingredients are there, it just needs to be done in a different context. For one, we finally got a playable version of a character that is faster than any adventure era character, yet also has smooth control. It strikes the perfect balance. You aren't constantly bumping into walls when in a confined area, I not longer piss myself when presented with any precise platforming challenge. Yet you still get that exhilaration of blasting through a stage. It's not as much exhilaration as in Unleashed or Generations, but I'll take that trade off any day. Having the boost be as fast as it was led to me not appreciating and studying the levels as much. It was the definition of amusement park ride level design. Even though I'm still being pushed forward through the level, I have ample room to pace myself and observe my surroundings because I have the freedom of not going extremely fast, and even at the highest speed, the world can easily be parsed. The movement speed is near ideal. The ground control is perfect. No longer do we have to make the hard decision between navigating a grease slip stream and trudging through mud. Shadow controls tight enough to perform precise movement while also being capable of fluidity. The turning mid air could use some work, but other than that I have no notes. And it’s not just the 3D gameplay that’s at it’s best this time.

2D levels in 3D Sonic games have always been a huge drag. They cost less to produce than the 3D ones, which is why so many Boost Era games have mostly 2D content. It’s always disappointing because the ability to see straight ahead of you is what makes the blistering speed of the boost games manageable and not completely reliant on rote memorization in order to speed through them. It works for Classic Sonic because he doesn’t control that fast unless you are spin dashing. It works for the DS games because there’s a second screen warning you what’s up ahead. It has never worked as well for console Modern Sonic. Sonic Frontiers even made a point to not have any 2D levels in it’s DLC because they knew how underwhelmed fans were by them. Shadow Generations creates the solution to this by doing something Sonic Team already figured out how to do in 2007. Nights Into Dreams was a sidescroller with a pretty close camera that made it hard to see what was in front of you. The sequel, Night Journey into Dreams, doesn’t improve on the original in many ways. It does however, tilt the camera so that the player can see slightly ahead. It’s a 2.5D game so there’s no reason to not take advantage of the 3D environment. Shadow Generations understands this. There are many points in the 2D Shadow stages where the camera shifts so that you can see what’s up ahead. The dynamic camera assures the player has the necessary amount of screen information and allows for more cinematic direction as well. The complete segregation between 3D and 2D Stages also helps the to styles not get in the way of each other. It’s the one case case where ‘Separate, but Equal’ actually applies.

Sonic Frontiers gameplay was actually very similar to Shadow Generations and even came pretty close to the ideal control for Sonic. The only huge issue was how awkward Sonic’s momentum behaved when in levels, which stuck out a lot due to how good he felt to control in the overworld. Sonic Frontiers was a great experiment that could have really used refinement. And that's exactly what Shadow Generations is. Frontiers was the proof of concept. Shadow Generations is just the proof. It finds a control scheme that works for both the overworld and the stages and fleshes both of them out. The open world aspect of Frontiers was the real focus of that game while the individual levels were far too short, had no personality and copied level design from other games. I'd say the focus is swapped in Shadow Generations. The levels are gourmet here, just as you'd expect from a Generations game. These stages don't just have great design, they have great direction. There's cinematic flare and a narrative through line in them that have been missing since Sonic Team decided to cater to Mario fans. Set pieces are back while seldom taking control away from the player. Every stage is stuffed with multiple paths and a wide variety of level mechanics. Every time I played through them, I figure out a new shortcut or alternate way to handle an obstacle. They don't even hand out S ranks like they have since the original Generations… sometimes. A handful of the levels require careful study to clear that achievement, and I had a blast learning their intricacies. I think the mark of a good level designed to be played fast is how immediately you want to replay it after getting anything less than the highest rank. I added hours of play time to my initial playthrough by constantly replaying levels before moving on to the next one. I felt this way about Sonic Frontiers, but those levels are usually a minute long. These Shadow levels are 4 times longer on average, yet I have no reservations jumping back in and avoiding any hint of progress.

I can’t credit my bloated total playtime of this game entirely to replays though. I found that the overworld is a huge source of distraction as well. Most overworlds in Sonic games I haven't vibed with and would almost always prefer a stage select menu. Frontiers was an exception, because the overworld was the point of the game, so it never felt like a way to pad out the game and keep me from the gameplay I enjoy. Sonic Adventure's overworld is basically why I will always prefer a start to finish playthrough of Adventure 2. I just want to play the levels and experience the story. Exploring ultimately uninteresting areas separated by load times is not my idea of a good time. I won't deny there's a chill groove to it, but the novelty wears off quickly to me. The overworld(s) in Unleashed was even worse because of how cramped it was despite adding more actual level design to the hub world areas. The 2D overworlds found in Sonic Advance 3 and Generations ended up being my least favorite due to how impossible they were to navigate.

Every attempt at an overworld/hubworld until Frontiers came off as a restriction. Something to slow me down forcibly. Frontiers was open enough and had enough content in it to the point where I preferred the overworld above the stages. But even then, there was a lot of room for improvement. The overworld was great, but was full of puzzles and challenges that didn't really feel like they belonged in the game. Getting from challenge to challenge was where the enjoyment laid and the large open areas allowed for the paths between those challenges to be a blast. Shadow Generations does not have the luxury of size though. Yet I think its hubworld just as fun as the levels and never came off as an impediment. This is due to the density of collectibles and more natural playground challenges. The overworld in Shadow Generations is stuffed full of rewards, each which require some level of platforming or thorough investigation of the area. It lacks the grandeur of Frontiers and it doesn't flow as well because of it, but the quality of the overworld itself per square foot is better than anything else in the franchise. It absolutely dunks on the Sonic Generation’s hub world, despite having the same structure.

The high quality content throughout both stages and the overworld led this 3 hour game to become an 18 game to me. I couldn’t help but do every single thing in this. Even the boss fights in this are of a higher caliber than what we've seen before. They all function as well directed fight scenes that have tricks hidden in them which allow for faster completion. Figuring out how to skip entire phases of the fight and make Shadow look like the coldest dude on face earth was always gratifying. Mastering these fights was just as fun as mastering a level and that is something that has NEVER been true about this franchise. Shadow Generation delivers on all fronts. The only thing that is remotely disappointing is the music. The music is still good obviously, but most of the remixes were lateral moves and nothing got me to pop off like when when they added a unique bridge to City Escape in Sonic Generations. And when you consider how the Sega Sound Team has been carrying this franchise on its back for 20 years, it becomes perfectly acceptable that the soundtrack is the worst part of this game.

Shadow Generations is a phenomenal, yet short game. It's only really held back by its size and premise of being a throwback game. And like the other Greatest Hits Sonic games, I feel uneasy to say it's the best 3D Sonic game and that the Adventure games have been surpassed. Maybe I'll feel different about this after it sinks deeper into my mind, as Sonic Adventure 2 has had a 23 year head start. I will say though, I'm pretty confident the next 3D Sonic game will be the best one. All the ingredients are here.

Even within the confines of a short game that has to be about past events, the writing in this game hits exactly how it should. There's a clear reverence and respect towards every character and piece of lore. It was a joy going through the hubworld and exhausting dialogue options. Every character felt distinct and acted in line with last interpretations of the characters. Elements of the past stories come back in legitimately clever ways, which fits especially well in a game about traveling through time. The motif of the past is used to further delve into Shadow's mind set. As a Character who has had to overcome great trauma, he's pretty much forced to re-frame the way he's been coping with his issues now that the past has been rooted up. It's crazy seeing how much Shadow has grown throughout the series while still feeling like he's the same guy he was when he was introduced. I’ve never been a fan of Kirk Thornton voicing Shadow until now. He always felt like a guy doing a bad Shadow impression. But now that he has a competent script and that he's been voicing the character for a decade, I'm finally on board. Still prefer the other two guys, but I can comfortably say he is Shadow the Hedgehog.

The writing is here, the gameplay is here. All we need is an original plot and more characters to have stakes in it. And I do think that last part is important. What made the Adventure games so engaging was that characters had large parts of gameplay and story attached to them. Since Sonic Unleashed, it's just been the Sonic Show. Sonic’s friends never do anything of note and it's just Sonic quipping up a storm for the duration of the game. That's not a bad experience really. It's good enough. But it makes the world feel cramped and the plot predictable when Sonic is the only one who gets to do things. I need other characters to get their time to shine and the most satisfying way to do this is making them playable characters.

Shadow Generations shows they can make a character that plays similar yet incredibly distinct from Sonic, in a way I feel the Sonic Frontiers DLC failed to do. Shadow has basically built a frame work for characters who aren't Sonic to follow now that it's been proven that mechanics other than go faster can exist in this gameplay style. Shadow doesn't have the light speed dash like Sonic does, he uses Chaos Spears to stun enemies and activate switches. Shadow doesn't have a way to fast forward through large chunks of the level like Sonic would in the Story Book Games, he uses Chaos Control to slow time and use flying projectiles as platforms. Shadow doesn't have a weird charged homing attack that does nothing visually different like Sonic does in Lost World, he has a melee combo that launches an enemy into any direction you want. All of these mechanics are unique to Shadow and can be used to deal with obstacles quicker than you would have to without them.

These powers are integrated into Shadow's moveset and make him feel like a character equal but different than Sonic. The more I think about it, the more obvious it seems that they could implement this philosophy for each character they want to add in the future. Just 3 or 4 mechanics and some changes in the properties of how fast they move at top speed and how high they jump is all they need to make a fully fleshed out character. I'm over here brain storming how they can implement Silver the Hedgehog in this style. I'm serious, I have notes. This is how I know we are out of the dark ages. I haven't brained stormed about Sonic Team implementing cool shit in their games in over a decade. I kinda checked out after a while because I knew they'd just do something out of left field. And now it's like I'm 8 again and the future is bright.

Shadow has gifted us the blue print to success and it seems like all the pieces are in play. We just need to keep this momentum and not make another Sonic Lost World. Even of it’s not by title, we will have a game that is spiritually a Sonic Adventure game. I don’t need the gameplay to go back to what it was, I just need the general structure to return, and I’m confident they can pull it off if they use Shadow as a jumping off point. It feels strange to not be cynical about this series anymore, but I’m not. How could I when the franchise is as earnest as its been in over a decade? It was already leading to this point, but I think by taking the most easy to make fun of character in the franchise and treating him with the utmost respect, a curse has been broken. The path ahead finally looks bright.

#sonic x shadow generations

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raviotherabbit · 3 years ago

Text

There were quite a few things Wild wanted to do this weekend. Like maybe sleep in for a bit, maybe cooking a special breakfast. They’d even been planning on visiting little Zelly, a promise that her mother was sure to scold them for not keeping.

Instead, they were rudely awoken by a rough collision with the dirt, and they quickly realized they weren’t in their soft waterbed in Zora’s Domain anymore. Blearily blinking their eyes open, Wild feels like they’ve been hit by Ruta’s Cryonis again.

They’re in the castle courtyard of Warriors’ time. Which, as they seem to recall, is tens of thousands of years removed from their own era.

“Oh great,” Wild scowls as the golden light fades behind them. Ten years since their tearful goodbyes with their fellow heroes, and all of a sudden, Hylia’s playing games again.

Wild pushes themself off the ground, dusting whatever they can off with their one arm. It’s only then, when several halberds are pointed right at their face, that they realize they have an audience.

“Stop right there!” one of the soldiers, presumably a higher ranking officer, shouts. “Put your hands in the air!”

Wild frowns, but some part of their mind still remembers Warriors’ lectures to respect authority in his era. It was always so annoying, especially since he was the only one who cared so much about how they were perceived by the guards, but the anger in his eyes after Wild’s third infraction for trespassing (it’s not like those people were USING their roofs!) was enough to convince them to behave. So, after a moment of hesitation, they raise their arm above their head.

“Both hands!” The guard juts his halberd closer to Wild’s face.

“This is all I’ve got, man.”

A lower ranking guard lifts the side of Wild’s poncho. “They’re telling the truth, sir,” they announce, gesturing to their missing right arm.

“W-well!” the officer stammers, and Wild can’t help but smirk. “Take them to a cell! Trespassing on castle grounds is no laughing matter!”

Wild rolls their eyes as one of the soldiers forcefully grabs their left arm. “You’re gonna regret this, you know.”

“Quiet you!” the senior officer snaps at them. “I’ll have no disrespect from magicians who infiltrate our defenses against the crown!”

“Fine,” Wild scoffs. “Hey, while you’re processing my intake paperwork or whatever, could you tell my brother where I am? He’ll be sooooo worried about me.”

The senior officer’s eye twitches. One of the lower ranking guards whispers, “It is protocol to inform citizens of incarcerated family members.”

“Alright! Alright!” the senior officer throws his hands up in frustration. “Just tell me and get out of here!”

“He’s the hero, Link. Ever heard of him?” Wild forces down a laugh as the officer’s face turns red. “Tell him Wild’s in prison again, and it’s not their fault this time!”

“Take them away!” the senior officer points the guard holding them towards the dungeon. “Now!”

And even though they’re being dragged into the dreaded dungeons of Hyrule Castle, Wild can’t help but laugh the entire time.

- - -

“You’re going to be in big trouble,” Wild lightly scratches at the rusty bars of their jail cell. They’re sitting on the nasty dungeon floor, legs crossed. “Seriously, it’s not too late to let me go.”

The guard stationed outside their cell sighs. “I’m not in charge of that.”

Wild huffs, pouting to themself. A little recognition wouldn’t hurt, would it? They were here all the time a decade ago! And even then, everyone knew they were with Wars. These kinds of theatrics and blunders are just rude!

“So, is Commander Link really your brother?”

Wild’s ear twitches when the guard speaks up. “Commander, huh? Wars got a promotion?”

“Uh, I-” the guard stammers. “I don’t-”

“Yeah, he’s pretty much my brother,” Wild answers. “It’s been a bit since I was in town, though.”

“YOU WHAT?!”

The shout rings through the dungeons, a shrill entitlement that Wild would know anywhere.

Wild clicks their tongue. “That’d be him,” they point their thumb towards the entrance to the dungeon. “You know, it’s been nice hanging out with you.”

“Don’t make it sound like I’m going to die.”

“I’ll put in a good word for you,” Wild promises, standing up and gripping onto one of the bars just as Warriors rounds the corner, flanked by the senior officer, who now looks flustered.

And that’s Wild’s confirmation that it’s been some time for their brother, as well. He’s sporting some well-manicured stubble, obviously, because everything about Wars is well-manicured. His hair is longer, tied back in a ponytail that reminds Wild of themself. Of course, they didn’t have a chance to do their hair before landing in the past, so it’s all loose and tangled.

“Wild?!” Warriors shouts, mostly in shock. “You’re really here?!”

“Oh thank goodness!” Wild feels like they could cry. “Wars get me out of here!”

“What are you doing here?” Wars ruffles their hair through the bars, a warm smile on both of their faces. “I thought we agreed, no more trespassing.”

“It’s not my fault, it was the portals!” Wild explains quickly. “They wouldn’t listen to me. I just woke up here!”

Hearing Wild’s poor circumstances, Wars snaps back towards the senior officer. “You ARRESTED my brother!”

“Your one-armed brother!” Wild pipes up from behind him.

“My ONE-ARMED- wait,” Warriors turns back to Wild, his tone suddenly soft as he looks at them with concern. “You lost your arm?”

Wild stares at Warriors blankly. “Don’t tell Twilight.”

“I’m not-!” Wars sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How would I even tell him?”

Wild simply shrugs.

“We’re talking about this later,” Warriors asserts, before turning to address the officer once again. His glare is cold, and his fury is burning. “I can’t BELIEVE that you saw a clearly disoriented individual in your courtyard and decided to ARREST THEM, of all things! Who is your superior, I’ll have to inform him-!”

Wild leans over to the guard, who’s standing frozen with fear next to the cell. “I told you,” they whisper.

#yes wild uses they/them #yes they prefer to be called brother #linked universe #reunion tour au #lu wild #lu warriors #fanfic #rav's writing

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2-cute-4-school · 4 years ago

Text

𝘕𝘊𝘛 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘱 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴

Mark Lee

so we all know mark is a quite expressive person with his emotions

and come on when playing video games we all rage and throw fits so emotions are running especially high ‎(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻

what i’m trying to say is that mark is yelling, banging fists against his desk, laughing his ass off and pissing you off

i mean mark’s laugh is very cute and ENTIRE BLESSING TO HEAR but ♡ sleep ♡ is also precious

but mark can’t hear your exaggerated sighs nor see your ever-lasting pout

so you lift your tired self from the bed and plop down on his lap

mark : “hUH??¿¿ B-BABE?!¿¿” （＊〇□〇）……！

haechan, audible through the headphones: mark, not in front of the boys, you wild beast (๑⁍᷄౪⁍᷅๑)

mark opens his mouth to shout in protest but you bury your head in his shoulder and let out a soft whine and mark.just.COMBUSTS!!!

he grumbles something about how haechan is due for a good beating and nuzzles the side of his face against the top of your head ♡(.◜ω◝.)♡

whenever he has a break and doesn’t need both hands to play, he brings one arm around you, cuddling you closer to himself and running his hand along the length of your spine

or just LAYS HIS HAND ON YOUR THIGH askfafwsr- ya know (˵ ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°˵)

doesn’t have the heart to break the atmsophere even after he shuts down his computer and just cocoons you in his warm arms and hums a song softly as you doze off intertwined together UwU

Huang Renjun

you’re just trying to be cute and create a romantic enviroment as you cuddle up to your boyfriend who is immersed in his game

“y/n?” his voice is soft, almost a hush and it could almost lull you to sleep

“yeah?” ෆ╹ .̮ ╹ෆ

“i can’t see because of your head”

FIRST HIT HOME but you didn’t give up of course, just flattened your cheek against his shoulder to accomodate his complaint

just as you settle downs drowsily, glued to his frint, he covers his mic to grumble to you again ಠ╭╮ಠ

“it’s getting hot”

SECOND HIT HOME and you’re starting to get discouraged as you scoot a little further away from his body and loosen the grip of your hands around his neck (๑′°︿°๑)

but of course ever grumpy renjun still had complaints karen who

“my legs are falling asleep”

*SIGH* “eye roll* *definetely not pouting* you start pulling yourself away from him and trudge defeatedly and bury yourself under a ton of blankets

but he just chickles, has the AUDACITY to chuckle, and brings you back on his lap, squeezing the life out of you (≧д≦ヾ)

“i was just kidding babe don’t leave me!!” says renjun as he sways you kinda violently may i add from side to side and rubs his cheek against yours cuz he’s a kitty and adorable confirmed ε=(��♡ˇд ˇ♡｡）

rough love you have other there as you can see

Lee Jeno

jeno is GENTLE GIANT （ﾉ｡≧◇≦）ﾉ

gentle loving giant in this case actually so even better

so we all know how the dreamies exposed this boy TWICE for playing video games 25/8 and he got scolded by his mum lol so i’m thinking

you’re trying to get him to go to sleep or at least rest his eyes he’s already blind enough i WONDER WHY damn

all this started when you settled in front of his computer to block his view

and as he argued with you he decided enough is enough and pulled you into his lap, traping you against his chest (╬ Ò ‸ Ó)

“jeno it’s 3 am!!” :<

“ just one more round baby” of video games ya nasties...no? only me?ok

he tries to give you a *smooch* but you move your face away and refuse to turn around and let him kiss you

and that’s where jeno draws the line (; ･`д･´)

kithes are something that can’t berefused between you two, an unspoken rule you apparenly weren’t aware of

so with a ‘eep!!!’ from you, he simly stands up from his seat with you latched onto him like a koala like (＾ω＾ ≡ °д°)

“jeno put me down!!!11!!1! NOW!!”

“kiss first” (.◜ ᵕ ◝.)

“are you nuts??!!!?” *exaggerated smooch* “now put me down!!”

needless to say he’s not letting go anytime soon, he just plops into bed and you cuddle until you fall asleep you’ve been scammed

Lee Donghyuck

haechan is a very VERY petty brat person ಠ_ಠ

so guess what... fights with him are a national competition of petty acts

and you know what his ultimate move in your most recent fight is? *drum rolls* turning off the central heating really original hyuck i applaud you

and this kid knows exactly what he’s doing when he sits down in his gaming chair with a shit-eating grin (ง ͠ ͠° ل͜ °)

he hears you stumble around the house in your dora the explorer exploration in the search of a blanket

but guess what? they’re all under his flat cake ( ✧≖ ͜ʖ≖)

so when you bardge in the room and find him hogging all the warmth you hope to intimidate him with your ✨ highly horrific glare ✨

but he pretends to be too busy to notice you so you just defeatedly settle on his lap and under the blankets

“well well well look who’s crawling back with their tail between their legs”

“i might just cut off your front microscopic tail” (눈_눈)

but i just know he’s gonna cuddle you until you sweat your ass off under that mountain of blankets

and even when he can’t hold you, he’ll press his lips against your forehead, lingering there as his warm breath fanned across your skin

he also made a deal with you to which you didn’t necessarily agree with but that’s a minor detail am i rite

if he wins the round he gets a kiss as a reward (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

if he loses, he gets 2 kisses as a consolation (ฅ⁍̴̀◊⁍̴́)و ̑̑

you’re getting suspicious of his 4 consecutive losses

Na Jaemin

he’s a fluff ball we all know it, we all love it

he’d DIG THAT KIND OF SHIT ٩̋(ˊ•͈ ꇴ •͈ˋ)و

and he babies you to the end of earth

99.8% chance that he’s gonna stop playing just to cradle you against his chest properly because YOU’RE. HIS. BABY!!! periodt.

cue yelling from his teammates for abadoning them in the middle of the game but that’s inevitable

“na jaemin you SIMP!!!!”

but jaemin is too busy making puppy eyes at you (●♡∀♡))ヾ☆*。

he’d kiss you everywhere he could reach and then scoop your hands in his and bring them to his lips for another shower of kithes (*'､^*)chu

and if you kiss him back??

this man will literally COMUST with uwus istg

like just imagine you brush your lips against his neck and then you gently nuzzle against him??

jaemin would melt in your embrace ♡(｡- ω -)

even if he did eventually go back to playing, he’d press kises anywhere in reach periodically cuz he’s soft like that

would also LOVE feeling your breath fan his neck he gets a unique feeling of comfort knowing that he has you so close to him (๑˃ᴗ˂)

“even if you were the impostor i’d still vote myself out for you”

the romanticism of this decade

Zhong Chenle

this boi is ruthless when playing video games

god frobid you’re in his way cuz you’re getting SQUASHED (｢⊙Д⊙)｢

he obvioulsy LOVES winning

but ya know what he loves more than winning???

𝓨𝓞�� ♡(㋭ ਊ ㋲)♡

so chenle is all (｡+･`ω･´)

“you waste of space move along!!!!” “shoot that gun straight dammit or i’ll shove it up yo- oh hey baby°˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°“

the moment you plop down on his lap and curl yourself up with your head tucked under his chin, his blazing eyes soften so cutely

and so raging kid chenle turns into best babyboi chenle (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

he M E L T S like he just leans into your touch and continues gaming A LOT more silently and just smiles absent-mindedly the entire time

“yo chenle you dead????” most likely jisung on the other side of the headphones

“no?” ｢(ﾟ<ﾟ)ﾞ??

“... guys he’s plotting something, reatreat!! i repeat, RETREAT!!!”

“what?? no, what do you mean by that !??!!!”

you stir as his voice rises in volume and chenle immediately settles down again and shushes you while patting your heah and threading his fingers through your hair carefully (*-ω-)

goes straight for jisung after that teammate or not rip jisung you’ll be missed but also bad choice to annoy a soft-for-only-my-baby chenle

Park Jisung

a bit flustered but just couldn’t refuse you when you cutely asked him with wide puppy eyes if you could sit in his lap to watch him play

probably short circuited for a good 2 minutes before he could produce and intelligible answer (ง ´͈౪`͈)ว

and that’s how you found yourself perched on his lap, facing the screen with curious eyes as jisung struggled as if his LIFE depended on it

“how do you jump?” (,Ծ_Ծ,)

“you can’t jump”

“what do you mean you can’t jump?? gravity doesn’t work like that” Σ(･ิ¬･ิ)

you’re like 2 newborn babies running wild and unsupervised

“jisung, that character looks like you when you’re constipated” (๑꒪▿꒪)*

cue cackling from the devil spawns on the other side

he’s gonna keep in mind this betrayal UNTIL THE END OF TIME beware

if you catch sight of one of his hands not working away i bet my allowance you’ll have this uncontrollable urge to hold it in yours DO IT I NEED MY ALLOWANCE DON’T BE SHY

of course he’ll automatically intertwine your fingers together and bring them up for a chaste kiss ～(^з^)-♡

and i know for sure that he won’t have the heart to let go of it even when he needs it to play sigh jisung you SIMP

he’s gonna get scolded and teased by the other later but ya know

at least he ain’t no touch starved coward ¯\(°_o)/¯

he gets grounded for that by jaemin

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acerace · 3 years ago

Note

...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo)

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway)

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will!

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao

#hermitcraft #mindcrack #vintagebeef #mcyt #long post #asks #redwinterrises #that was so many words #kudos to anyone who reads the whole thing lmao

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sassycassie-s-writing · 3 years ago

Text

Mountain Night

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): A Court of Thorns and Roses Series/Rhysand

Rating: PG-13/T (lots of implications but nothing explicit)

Original Idea: Just kinda skimming back through ACOTAR and felt like it.

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) This has a couple extra headcanons of mine sprinkled in here, just to fill in gaps. Thanks. Enjoy!

^^^^^

I stood in front of the fireplace next to Rhysand, watching the flames. Somewhere within the Mountain, a bell tolled eight, agreeing with the clock on Rhys’ mantel. Rhys’ shoulders slumped. “Amarantha’s gonna be summoning me any time now,” he said. Dejected, exhausted. But not defeated.

I reached out and held him. “Not much longer now. The forty-nine years of Tamlin’s curse are almost over. Then… then we’ll see if we can break the spell on you and the other High Lords and get out of here,” I said into his shoulder. I traced my fingertips over his shoulder blades, where his wings met his back when he had them out. Amarantha didn’t even know he had wings—and he wanted to keep it that way.

“We can only pray,” he said, wrapping his own arms around me.

The mating bond thrummed between us. Neither of us had accepted it. Acted on it. If we did, Amarantha would smell it on us. Destroy me for what I meant to Rhys, just to torment him. It drove us both mad—wild, occasionally—but we’d fought it for years. We could fight it until we were free.

I kissed his barely-exposed collarbone, where the hint of his tattoos were poking out.

“Happy Starfall, Rhysand,” I whispered.

He shuddered. “Happy Starfall, darling,” he replied. His voice shook slightly. He blinked away tears and released me from the hug. Still holding one of my hands, he lifted it to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to my knuckles.

His eyes, so dark blue they were violet, seemed to be piercing right into my soul. “I swear to you, when we’re free, we will never have to hide our love from anyone,” he said.

I smiled. “That will be nice.”

His voice dropped to a whisper, “Go. Be safe. Walk through the walls as a shadow so she doesn’t see you leaving.” He pressed his forehead to mine.

“I will.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I let his hands go. Darkness swam over my skin, almost like how they did with Azriel. Az… I missed our family.

Tears brimmed in my eyes. I backed toward the opposite wall from the fireplace, my lower body passing through the unrumpled bed. I wiped the tears away, staring at Rhys for as long as I could before I was swallowed by the wall.

I lingered in the wall for a while, letting my tears fall in the privacy of the stone. Inches from Rhys, yet I may as well have been on the other side of the Wall on the farthest end of the human continent. Forty-nine years. So close, trapped, together Under the Mountain. Mates unable to accept their bond for fear of their lives.

I heard the door open to Rhys’ room. “Well, hello, handsome,” Amarantha’s smooth voice greeted.

The sound sent me running. I knew Rhys hated every single night she forced herself on him. I knew he wouldn’t want me to hear. Knew he was ashamed of it, but willing to keep doing it to keep our family and our home safe.

I loved him all the more for it.

Even if the dormant mating bond chafed against me at the thought of another female in bed with my mate.

Stupid territorial instincts.

I burst out of the stone in my own bedchamber. Small, not particularly grand. Sometimes I imagined it was the guest room I usually occupied in the Velaris townhouse. When I was desperately in need of comfort. Neither Rhys nor I had seen the sun much in the last forty-nine years. Sometimes, in midsummer, Rhys, Helion, me, and a few closely trusted people would gather in one of our bedchambers and let Helion glow, imitating the sun.

Then Rhys would cast a blanket of darkness through the room. Darkness and those glittering stars. A night sky we never got to see either.

Neither High Lord had enough power to hold the light or dark for too long, but the brief snatches we got of both were enough to keep hoping. Enough to keep us from breaking entirely. From shattering down to our very souls.

I collapsed on my bed. Nuala and Cerridwen appeared a few minutes later. Just to sit with me. Their touches were light as I cried. It felt like they were barely embracing me. But I knew they were there. Appreciated their care and concern. As well as their company. If it weren’t for Rhys and Helion, I would have certainly gone mad a long time ago.

“My lady,” Nuala said softly, “how may we ease your pain?”

I shook my head. “Just… just sit with me a while.”

The twins nodded. “We serve and protect,” Cerridwen said.

The three of us stayed on the edge of my bed for hours. Hours, I knew, Rhys was spending with Amarantha. On Starfall. Because she knew he loved it, and she wanted to deprive him of it. Just as, if she found out we were mates, she would want to deprive him of me. Slowly. Painfully. In every way possible before I finally died. Hoping to break him beyond repair.

But my High Lord’s soul was forged in hotter fires, even, than this half-century-long trial. He would never let her break him. Even if she found out about his relation to me.

Long after midnight, Cerridwen pulled a small comb out of my hair that I’d forgotten I’d put in. A small, silver thing with a single star engraved into the top. No jewels, just metal. A simple ornament to remind myself it was Starfall. To remind Rhys.

Even if I had forgotten I put it in.

The twins helped me with the stiff buttons of my tunic and shirt and then left me for the evening to finish undressing and climbing into bed.

I didn’t sleep.

Forty-nine years, and I never slept the night of Starfall. Nor the Winter Solstice.

—

Rhys slipped into my room well into the next morning. I was still lying in bed, eyes closed but awake. He set a hand on my shoulder.

I opened my eyes.

His wings were out.

I sat up quickly. “What—why—”

He just held a finger to his lips. “So you know it’s me. Not some illusion. She didn’t see. I didn’t let them out until I closed the door in here.” His wings tilted backwards and then disappeared.

I leaned my head onto his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around me.

“This kills me,” he whispered. “I should never have brought you to that party. Then you wouldn’t be stuck here.”

“It was my choice too,” I reminded him, sitting up from his shoulder. “I thought… I thought you’d need backup. Someone to distract anyone who came too near while you were getting into her head to make her confess. It kills me that I didn’t think to test your drink for curses. Sniff it for poisons. I want to kill her for all she’s taken from you. For the fact that we’ve lived like this for decades. That I can’t take you to be mine because of her. Some nights it makes me sick thinking about my mate being forced to bed a different female. This isn’t your fault, Rhysand. It’s mine too.”

I never called him his full given name to his face unless I was serious about something. He knew it too. Which was why his violet eyes finally met mine from where our knees were almost touching.

“I don’t deserve you,” he muttered.

“I feel the same way about you.”

He kissed my forehead.

Forty-nine years. The bond had snapped into place thirty years ago, even though we’d known each other for two centuries before that. Thirty years of not being able to even kiss him on the lips for fear of us both losing control and accepting the bond on both ends. Slamming our scents together in an unmistakeable sign we were mates.

“I promise, I’ll find a way to get us out of this,” Rhysand vowed, voice low.

“I’ll help any way I can,” I said.

It wasn’t a bargain, per se. Not the type that required a tattoo. Just a quiet promise between two people in love.

Nuala appeared in the room. “Amarantha’s calling a party for tonight,” she said. “Throne room. The usual.”

“Thank you,” Rhys and I said at the same time. She nodded and disappeared.

Silence stretched out between us for a few minutes. Long enough that it started to make me uncomfortable. I got out of bed and started selecting clothes for the day. Awful, immodest, wicked, Under the Mountain clothes.

“What do you think?” Rhysand finally asked.

“About?” I tested.

“The party tonight.”

“It’ll be just like all the other ones.”

“Wanna shake things up?”

“No. A party just like all the other ones is how we’ve survived this long.” I picked up a brush from where it sat on my basic vanity, set my clothes bundle where the brush had been, and started to detangle my hair. “We survive by playing our roles. Wearing masks even worse than those at the Spring Court, stuck to their faces. The people here—they know what you are. They know what I am. They know I will pretend to tolerate their company while the monster inside sizes up its prey. They know you do the same thing. Changing it now won’t be good for us.” I shook my head.

“What if you arrive in your most revealing gown and we pretend to be lovers that will use and discard each other?”

I didn’t answer until I finished brushing out my hair. “You know that would be dangerous.”

“It would distract Amarantha.”

I threw the brush across the room, where it bounced off the padded headboard, soaring an inch past Rhysand’s ear. “I’m not talking about Amarantha!” I snapped. Rhys looked startled, though the expression smoothed out after the blink of an eye. “You know why we can’t do that to each other. Not now. Because… because—” I squared my shoulders. “—because having you so close, playing that game… you know neither of us would be able to help it. We’d come back here, shred each other’s clothes, and tomorrow Amarantha would start slowly butchering both of us.”

He looked away from me, down to his knees. I crossed to the door that would lead to my tiny adjoining bathing room. “I know,” he said softly. He stood up and stomped over to me as something seemed to rile his temper. “But don’t assume for a second that she hasn’t noticed you have never taken a lover your entire time here. Everyone else has—except you.”

“So what?”

“She doesn’t like being beaten at her own game. Everyone else takes lovers because she expects them to grow more and more wicked and base as their souls wear down and break. For pretty much everyone else, she’s been right. She thinks she broke me like a prize stallion with very little effort. She sees that you’re not breaking—and she’ll want to start working on wearing you down. Tamlin’s deadline is crawling ever-nearer and she’s getting paranoid and restless. She’ll turn you into entertainment just for defying her like this.”

My shoulders slouched. “Even so, she’d never give up you. And I’m not about to take any other male while I’m here, knowing it’s you I should be taking.” The barest flicker of feeling twitched at the mating bond between us. Which emotion, I couldn’t place.

Rhys looked thoughtful. “She’d let me have a side-dalliance as long as she suspected there was nothing behind it. No care, no emotion at all. Just base, primal, carnal instincts we’d later toss aside.” He shrugged. I missed the sight of his wings sweeping the air with his shrugs back home.

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea,” I said.

“Your choice.”

It was always my choice. Even when things directly impacted him, or hurt his feelings, it was always my choice. “What about your choice?”

“Well, given I suggested it, I think you already know what my choice would be.” He gave me one of his best, sensuous, seductive grins. Wickedly flirtatious. Appealing to that part of me that was absolutely feral deep down. My chest tightened and I clamped down on the longing rising in my heart.

“Fine. But we can’t let—we can’t let the bond solidify. She can’t know.”

Rhys grinned. “I think you’re going to need to choose a different dress, darling.” He gave me a wink.

If I hadn’t already thrown my hairbrush at him, I’d have done it again.

#Rhysand #Rhysand Imagine #Rhysand FanFiction #ACOTAR #ACOTAR Imagine #ACOTAR FanFiction #don't know how else to tag these #Mountain Night

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tedturneriscrazy · 3 years ago

Text

Here's Eclipse Lake, an episode that has been highly anticipated! Will it top Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door?

I'll skip the pretense: No. It won't.

You'll see under the cut.

Hmm, that list of ingredients for the Grimwalker...I'll let other people theorize about this (like @sepublic ), but it sure looks like a thing

Guess the mysterious green goo won't cut it, huh?

Belos face reveal already?! Huh, didn't expect it so soon.

Oh, no, he's hot! (And I'm mad about it)

Still an ass, though

Now we know why Hunter was wearing a different outfit (because people fixated on that for some reason)

Amity with the clipboard gives me strong Dipper vibes

GHOST! My beloved!

I need a moment because CAT!

(Also, someone pointed out earlier that Ghost was based on Dana's cat, and that's super obvious in hindsight)

Raine?! Oh, wait, you mean rain. Sigh.

Eda gets training tips from DBZ confirmed

(Also Amity's face when reacting to Eda's explanation is priceless)

Oh God Eda's a weeb I need another moment

Damn, Amity just straight up calling Eda old

Oh, loopy Luz

(The abomination holding the tissue box is adorable for many reasons)

Yeah, don't want Luz to eat the McGuffin

I have several questions about those Tamagotchis that I'll refrain from listing here

Amity your Odalia is showing

Girlfriend counter: 1

(Yes I am introducing a counting gag, deal with it)

Was wondering if they were ever gonna reference the dissection incident. We've come a long way, baby!

Oh, so that's what everyone was looking at

Luz honey your enthusiasm is admirable but no

Luz burrito is quite cute, though

Girlfriend counter: 2

(Damn, still wild to think that that's the case)

Just occurred to me that "Boots" is probably shortened from "Bossyboots" from earlier

Guess the Luz hiss compilation needs to be updated again

Those tunnels ain't the only thing around here that's unstable, amirite?

Oops, guess Kiki was justified, after all

Maybe don't talk so loudly about your plans, dude

That is her son, get it right!

Serves you right for having that stupid strand of hair sticking out like that

Is this just the episode where everyone dunks on White Boy? Because I can totally get behind that.

Already mentioned this, but I am loving the parallels between Katara and Amity with that bottle of abomination goo. Insert obligatory "Two Nickels" meme here about Mae Whitman.

We really are just dunking on the white boy and I am living for it

Hooty had to get it from somewhere, I suppose

Nothing says mother-son bonding like shooting things at each other (see also: Separate Tides)

I'm sure the magic bouncing off the veins won't come into play later at all

Oh well, at least the echolocation looked cool

At this point Amity would kill Hunter for a Klondike bar

Wait why does Hooty need a chair

Willow with the galaxy brain ideas

"A bad but sad boy" Luz is a genius at succinctly summing people up

Kikimora continues to be unhinged. Ironically she's not wrong about Hunter.

Motherfucker stop acting like you know what that says

(Also, projecting much?)

Girlfriend counter: 3

Friendly reminder that Hunter is still an antagonist

Uh oh

UH OH

I know someone mentioned Willow having the brain cell, but honestly it seemed like Luz had it this whole time. And that's not good.

WHY IS FOOL'S BLOOD EVEN A THING

Aaaaand cue the getting screwed over

Further reminder that he's still an antagonist (Apparently there's a vocal segment who's Really Mad at him that seem to forget this fact)

You unhand Ghost right now!! And Amity too, I guess.

(I kid, she's literally my second favorite character)

For what she did to Raine it warms my heart to know Kiki has had zero peace of mind

Wait, the Abomatons are Transformers?! Okay, that's kind of awesome, actually. Alador might be a shit dad but he is a brilliant inventor.

Chucking kids off cliffs is a surpisingly common pastime in the Boiling Isles

Owlbert no!

Eda did spend literal decades fighting the Owl Beast within, so I guess she can't be blamed for not thinking to talk to it

Also hurry up guys I'm very concerned about Owlbert

Fuck yeah Harpy Milf!

Yay Ghost returns!

She's glad they're okay (I didn't need to take this, I just thought it was cute. Also this is surprisingly high quality considering I just took a photo of my TV screen)

Oh, so they do have video games in the Demon Realm. That or Luz introduced them.

Trailer shot!

Oh dear, we about to have a fight over the key

Wow, being so high ranking under Belos is really bad for mental health

Jesus Christ Belos what have you been putting in this poor kid's head?

Leave it to King to give radical recontextualizations

Amity, I'm glad you remembered/realized this about Luz, please don't let the sad white boy play you like that again

Also, I appreciate the gesture you're making, and it's a wonderful summary of your character development, but goddamnit he's gonna go for that key because he's STILL AN ANTAGONIST

"Being nice usually works for Luz!" A) Not always, and B) Amity I love you but Luz you are not. A valiant attempt nonetheless.

Ooh, cool fight scene!

Always lovely to see such superb animation

I was privately griping about not seeing Amity use magic for so long, and now I am fed

Don't think I didn't hear the glass breaking

Appreciate your ass from a hole in the ground, Golden Boy!

(jk I don't actually feel that strongly about him still. That kind of threat still isn't cool, though)

Oh so that's why it's the Common Mold!

It's kinda cute, actually. Or maybe it's just because it's Luz.

TIL Hooty is heat resistant

Apparently Owl Beast just wanted a snack

Girlfriend counter: 4

Also love how calling Amity her awesome girlfriend is literally the first thing Luz says to her upon returning.

Yesssss return the hug! You deserve it!

(I know there are higher quality versions of this screenshot, I just didn't feel like looking around)

King demands huggies, too! (And gets 'em)

Reminder that Amity is smart as hell. I knew that glass breaking indicated something!

So once again I've been had. I let the fandom trick me into thinking this episode would be way more intense. Guess that one screenshot was from the next episode.

Overall this was...fine. Some nice Lumity moments, Harpy Eda strutting her stuff, that gorgeously animated fight sequence; those were all lovely.

I do wish Willow and Gus had a bit more to do. And I'm still rather unenthusiastic about Hunter, to be honest. I've seen his type several times before, and the path they have for him is rather obvious. I may never share the fandom's love for him, and I guess I'll have to deal with that.

Anybody who says this was better than KKKOHD is a damn fool.

Mid season finale next week! I think Yesterday's Lie will finally bring the pain!

#the owl house #amity blight #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #king clawthorne #toh hooty #willow park #gus porter #emperor belos #toh hunter #toh ghost #kikimora #toh s2 spoilers #the owl house s2 spoilers #the owl house season 2 spoilers #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers

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batgurl1989 · 4 years ago

Text

We Meet Again Chapter 1

Summary: After years of not seeing each other, Geralt has found Younin again at the Inn at the Crossroads working as an Herbalist. He needs her assistance, and she can’t turn him down.

Word Count: 1578

Pairing: Geralt of Rivia and OFC

Warnings: None at this point. Those will come later

A/N: This is the first chapter of many for Geralt and Younin (The name for my OFC as a play on the use of Y/N for your name). This is mostly being used as an introductory chapter, and is based more on the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt video game than on the show or books. As always, I welcome critique, and feel free to shot me ideas of what you may like to see these two get up to on their adventures. Let me know if you want to be on the taglist.

Taglist: @rmtndew @princesssterek

Chapter One

“Mutant!”

“Abomination!”

“You’re kind’s no’ welcome ‘ere!”

The shouting could be heard clear down the street, all the way to your humble shop. You paused grinding the herbs, the pestle almost slipping from your hand. Since the Crones had been destroyed and the war ended years ago, your quaint little town didn’t often have unknown visitors beyond the traveling merchants. If you needed supplies for your potions and oils, you usually had to travel to Novigrad or at least the Crow’s Perch. But this visitor was especially rare. A Witcher was passing through.

You shook your head, trying to clear it of the hope that suddenly sprang to life in your chest. Your heart rate picked up at the possibility that this Witcher could be YOUR Witcher. But you knew he left Velen years ago without much thought for returning. You began to grind the herbs in the mortar again, but got lost in the almost hypnotic mundane work.

Over the decades, you and Geralt kept running into each other. The first time was when he needed healing after a Drowner attack while on one of his missions. At that point you knew his heart belonged ultimately belonged to your Sorceress comrade, Yennefer. Though handsome, and clearly up for a meaningless romp, you managed to heal him and send him on his way. The on again off again relationship between Geralt and Yennefer was well known among the magical world, and the last you had heard, they were on.

The next time your paths crossed had been in Skellige at one of the many parties the ruling Jarl had thrown. A few heated glances had led to a rendezvous on the balcony. He and Yennefer were off at the time, but your conscious still ate at you regardless of the immense pleasure the Witcher had given you. You saw the look of hurt that flashed through his eyes as you portalled out of the party shortly after finishing.

Since that party, you had seen each other every couple of years, and although you knew how easy it would be to fall into bed with him, you never did. But that didn’t stop the two of you shameless flirting at every turn.

When you had settled in Velen to open an herbalist shop in Novigrad, he was quick to find you. It had been one of the most difficult meetings you two had shared. At the time Geralt had just gotten his memory back after spending time with Triss, having completely forgotten about Yennefer. It was a tense time for everyone as the whole magical community held its breath waiting to see if Yennifer would decimate Triss for taking advantage of Geralt while his memories were gone.

And then of course there was the confusion following when Geralt couldn’t seem to make up his mind between the two. You had decided it was safer and better for you to concentrate on your work and boosting your business. But it wasn’t safe for you to remain in Novigrad as the Witch Hunters were making themselves very known to anyone not human.

That was how you found yourself in one of the outskirt villages, making a decent but humble name for yourself. Keeping your magic mostly under wraps. The villagers knew you were a Sorceress, but as long as you didn’t do anything too big and draw too much attention to yourself, then they left you alone for the most part. You figured they were probably just happy to have someone who could heal the ailments that came with living near a swamp.

A knock on your door pulled you out of your memories. Giving you head a harder shake, you plastered a smile on your face, and turned to greet the customer standing in your open doorway. You tried to leave your door open during business hours so people would know you were open. Your smile almost faltered when you saw who filled your doorway.

“Long time no see.” Geralt had a surprised smile on his face, as though he hadn’t been expecting you. Outside you could still here villagers grumbling about his presence.

“Here. Step inside.” You waved him in. Once he was over the threshold, you closed your door. If Geralt was here, it was important, and any other customers could wait. Wiping your hands on the waist apron you wore when grinding herbs, you looked around from something to busy yourself with. If you were being honest with yourself, you were mostly looking to make sure the place was in decent condition. “So, uh, what brings you to the Crossroads?”

“I’m running low on some herbs.” You could feel Geralt’s eyes on you as you went over to your large cupboard where you stored all the herbs you had for sale. “I didn’t think you would still be in Velen after everyone left for Kovir.”

“I make do where I am.” You shrugged, opening the cupboard doors to reveal a multitude of tiny drawers and compartments filled with herbs and other spell components. “What herbs were you looking for? I usually have the ones you would commonly need. For the rarer ones, you might need to travel to Novigrad.”

Geralt nodded, stepping closer to the cupboard and you. You hoped you were subtle as you stepped away from him, giving him more room to search for what he needed. A sideways glance from him told you that he noticed. Clearing your throat, you went back over to your bench to start cleaning up the herb you had been preparing. Anything to get you away from his heat and his scent. Though he had probably been on the road for days, fighting who knew what, he always smelt of fresh air, leather, and horse. It wasn’t an unappealing smell, and you found you always had to distance yourself from it otherwise it clouded your mind.

“If you are going to ask, just do it.” His low rumbling voice carried easily across the small room even though you were making a lot of noise.

“How is Yennefer?” You quietly asked, not able to give your voice volume in the hopes that he didn’t hear. You were unsure if you wanted to know the answer, and you felt like giving him an out for old time’s sake.

“I wouldn’t know.” Geralt replies calmly, opening a few drawers to pull out a few sprigs of herbs.

BANG

Spinning with a hand reaching over his shoulder for one of his two swords, Geralt looked ready to take on any foe that might have invaded your cottage. He relaxed when he took in the shattered mortar on your work bench, and the smoke rising from the shards. His hand left his sword as he made his way over to you as you scrambled to clean up the mess.

“Sorry! Sorry.” You swept the powdered mess into your hand to deposit in a bucket you used mostly for compost, but would now serve as a garbage. “I don’t know why that happened. The components were stable.”

“But you weren’t.” Geralt noted, leaning against the workbench with his arms crossed. He watched you with a mixture of amusement and concern swimming in his golden eyes. He watched you silently for a minute longer as you rushed to clean up the mess. You seemed to be making it worse with each attempt to sweep it up. His hand covered yours, stopping your panicked motions. “Younin.”

“Don’t.” You closed your eyes against the wave of emotions that crashed over you at his touch. Hearing your name on his lips was bad enough without him holding your hands still. Mentally throwing up walls against your feelings, you steeled yourself as you looked directly at him. “Did you find what you needed?”

“Got them here.” Geralt held out his hands. You quickly made a mental note of what he had taken for inventory purposes. He set them down on the bench, reaching his coin.

“You don’t need to. Consider them on the house.” You raised your hands, shaking your head vehemently. You couldn’t imagine a world where you would actually charge Geralt for a simple handful of herbs.

“You must let me pay you.” Geralt took a step toward you, crowding into your space. There was no where for you to go as your back was against the workbench. You took a deep breath, ready to protest again, but you saw something shift in his eyes, and he backed off. “At least let me buy you a drink then.”

“Fine, but only because I was heading to the Inn anyway.” You sighed, giving in against your better judgement. The single piece of information he had given you was quickly taking root in your mind and seemed to take over your decision-making skills. “Just let me clean up in here, and I will meet you there.”

Geralt seemed to accept that, nodding as his gold eyes took one last lingering look at you. He ducked out the door, closing it behind him with a soft snick of the latch. You sighed, letting the tension flow out of your body now that he was gone. You hadn’t fooled him or yourself. He still had a hold on you somehow after all these years. But having drinks with him might be the only time you had to explore those feelings. So you got ready as quickly as possible to head over the Inn.

#Geralt of Rivia fanfic #Geralt x reader #Geralt x OFC #witcher fanfiction #Witcher fanfic #Henry Cavill Fanfic #Henry Cavill Fanfiction #Geralt Fanfic #We Meet Again

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tomas-adriah · 3 years ago

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i am once again thinking about post time skip haikyuu and how the series ended. i think so much of the series was how hinata overcome a lot of his insecurities in regards to volleyball; the passion and tackling burn out in regards to the sport as well as stating how volleyball can be “fun.” the ending of haikyuu, especially , beach volleyball, and post time skip is what got me into haikyuu. and yes. this meant i only had picked up the series very recently, at 2020-2021.

for reasons i can elaborate more later on: i didnt pick up haikyuu when it first published in 2012 because i had quit volleyball by then. i wanted nothing to do with the sport and i was eager to find myself outside of the sport and other passions i had always wanted to pick uo but couldn‘t because of volleyball. and yes this meant that i had avoided the sport for almost a decade.

ok maybe not completely avoided. i enjoy watching beach volleyball by the time rio olympics had rolled around the corner...and this is mostly since when i played indoor, we would play beach volleyball as thats a great way of learning what my coach, team, and i would consider “real volleyball.“ see where im going with this? the beach volleyball arc had me picking up haikyuu as a series…and eventually had me backtracking and reading kamomedai and a portion of the beginning of the series.

which leads me to a couple of things:

- i have a different perspective from one who had followed the series. (we all do, but considering that i have a past with volleyball where i avoided it for the duration of the manga’s serialization, and only really read the last few arcs of the series, i have a different approach towards the series and why i thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the ending).

- and yes i thoroughly enjoyed the ending of the series. it not only got me picking up the sport and actually…dare i say it…go back to indoors matches im…SHIT thats scary lol especially after a fucking decade of absolutely not wanting to…but i also got me loving the series ending from a literature/writing perspective? and its so fuckinf wild since i had always associated writing/reading and volleyball/sports SEPARATELY.

- so my mind is a bit jumbled. like i can understand people’s dislike of the kamomedai match as well as the mix reaction to post time skip. so lets address some of this:

POST TIME SKIP, SKIPPING OVER ARCS, AND SOME GAPS IN THE LITERATURE

ugh i seriously need to stop reading science research papers as i cant believe im using the term “gaps in the literature“ but please bear with me T^T

one of the main complaints of post time skip is the fact that furudate skipped over possible rematches (ie: inarizaki v karasuno, etc.), didnt go into detail of some character’s arcs (yamaguchi captain or ennoshita captain had me robbed ok i feel that 😭), or the overall journey and content of out fav first years and their eventual destination as third years going further into finals.

and as much as i would love to see that and wouldnt mind reading that in a light novel (so if furudate youre seeing this and willing to revisit haikyuu, i’d love to and will totally support), i just never thought theyd go over this part of their journeys? like even when i had initially heard of the manga at 2012, i didnt really think about whether they made it to finals. i didnt think about winning. i thought about their play style and dynamics. then i saw that their focus was more attack-oriented and lost interest.

because being attack-oriented isnt as fun as one would originally think, since rallies are what makes volleyball really fun.

in other words, i thought about how this series would make that come alive. how can this series emulate that sense of fun?

and ive thinking so much about how the last arcs really connects with that of the beginning, with some caveat. at the beginning obviously there was some conflict w hinata and his middle blocker position, his dynamic w a genius setter, his height - as it all are barriers to him fully enjoying volleyball. and initially it had been wanting to be an ace and winning games as his solution. but then…hinata grew as a character. and not only hinata, but those around him were very much affected by hinata’s journey with volleyball. and so, by the time we got to the later half of the series (karasuno v nekoma, kamomedai v karasuno), we get to see furudate’s message about passion, burn out, and having fun playing volleyball. having that passion for volleyball and choosing to play it, to make a living out of it, is eventually what makes a monster. i would even argue that those who see volleyball and inspire others to show that volleyball is fun, is also a monster…

this is a really long winded rant/observation thats not quite fully formed into coherency or completion, but i just needed to get this OUT and im tired of losing all my drafts and loose paper of these thought process so instead in publishing this impulsively lol.

will probs finish this later on or add more to it later…

#haikyuu post time skip #haikyuu meta #or my attempt at a haikyuu meta lmao #the volleyball nerd reallt jumped the fuck out thanks furudate #see three years ago i wouldnt have considered myself as a volleyball nerd #seriously very thankful for furudate writing kamomedai and post time skip ESP the beach volleyball arc #i wouldnt have picked up something volleyball related if it wasnt beach volleyball related and if it wasnt w how it was written to consider #readinf kamomedai arc and in turn…encounter a character like hirugami whose story hits a little too close lmao #hirugami’s BACKSTORY and hoshiumi’s struggle w his height is something that hits a little too close and helped me heal

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jensengirl83 · 4 years ago

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Unsung Verses Chapter 4

Rockstar!Dean x plus sized reader

Word Count- 3879

Summary-Y/N and Dean have been best friends since high school, in a band together, and dated for a year but decided they were better off friends. They play gig after gig trying to get discovered, but once they sign a record deal, will fame be all it’s cracked up to be? Or will it be too much for their relationship to handle? Join them on their adventure to fame and find out!

Warnings-Angst, Mutual Pining, A little fluff

A/N- Songs in this chapter are “Why Can’t He Be You” by Patsy Cline and “Unlove You” by Jennifer Nettles

Thank you to @deanwanddamons for being my beta for this series!

Text dividers made by @firefly-graphics

Lyrics will be in italics. I really hope everyone enjoys this series! Feedback is greatly appreciated!

Series Masterlist

Series Spotify Playlist

“Why did I let you guys talk me into this?” Y/N groaned, taking the shot of whiskey Sam pushed towards her.

“Because you love us,” he laughed.

“I’m not so sure about that,” she chuckled, sticking out her tongue at the boys sitting around the bar table. Why had she agreed to a drinking game in the first place?

“Come on now, baby. Don’t be a sore loser,” Brent said, poking her in the ribs.

“You don’t have to get up and sing a random song!” Y/N yelled, throwing her hands up in the air.

“You can sing anything, Freddie. It won’t be that bad,” Dean smiled, trying to give her a little encouragement.

“Fine, what am I singing?” she sighed.

“Page four, song twelve,” Cas said with a smirk.

“What the hell. Let’s do it!” Y/N said, taking another shot before walking to find her song for the next spot on the karaoke stage.

“Let’s hope it’s something she can actually sing,” Cassie laughed, taking a sip of her beer.

Brent laughed along with her, but Dean didn’t find it funny at all. It had pissed him off, to be completely honest. He threw back his shot before looking at his girlfriend and letting her know exactly what he was thinking.

“Have you not been paying attention at our gigs? Y/N can sing anything you throw at her. That’s why we’ll be famous one day, not us, but her. She will be the reason we make it big!” Dean growled, his patience wearing thin with Cassie lately.

“Whatever, Dean,” she sighed, rolling her eyes.

“Calm down, man. She was just making a joke,” Brent laughed.

Dean opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of the piano caught his attention. He looked to the stage to see Y/N getting ready to sing. He didn’t understand why she looked like she was about to cry, and it worried him. His eyes never left her as she began to sing.

He takes me to the places you and I used to go

He tells me over and over that he loves me so

He gives me love that I never got from you

He loves me too, his love is true

Why can't he be you

He never fails to call and tell me I'm on his mind

And I'm lucky to have such a guy; I hear it all the time

And he does all the things that you would never do

He loves me too, his love is true

Why can't he be you

Dean’s breath hitched in his chest as his eyes met hers. She was singing with so much emotion that you would think that she was really feeling this way. But that couldn’t be true, could it? Of course not. He knew she didn’t feel the same for him. It was his imagination running wild and wishful thinking.

He's not the one who dominates my mind and soul

And I should love him so, 'cause he loves me, I know

But his kisses leave me cold

He sends me flowers, calls on the hour, just to prove his love

And my friends say when he's around, I'm all he speaks of

And he does all the things that you would never do

He loves me too, his love is true

Why can't he be you

Dean is pulled out of his hypnotic state when the song ends, and the sounds of everyone screaming and cheering for her fills his ears. He can’t help but smile when he sees everyone clapping and Sam and Cas on their feet whistling and cheering. His smile falters when he looks over to see Cassie staring at him, an angry look on her face.

“Have a good time staring at her?” she asked, her voice full of anger.

“I was watching my best friend sing. Chill out,” he groaned, in no mood for her bullshit.

“Correction, Dean. You were ogling her, not watching,” Cassie huffed.

“I’m not doing this with you tonight and definitely not here,” he whispered hatefully in her ear. This was an ongoing argument with her lately.

Dean was going to say more, but Y/N was almost back to their table, and he didn’t want her to hear him and Cassie arguing over her.

“Are you guys happy now?” Y/N sighed as she sat back in her seat, hoping no one would notice the sadness in her voice.

That song had hit too close to home, and she had barely been able to keep herself together to sing it. When Dean’s eyes had met hers, she didn’t think she would be able to keep going. His face was at the forefront of her mind as she had sung, wishing that he was the one she was with and feeling guilty for feeling that way because she was with Brent.

“You did an amazing job, babe,” Brent told her, kissing her passionately.

“Uh, thanks,” she said, pulling back from him, wondering why the dramatics with the kiss. He usually wasn’t that fond of PDA.

“Yeah, good job,” Cassie chuckled, standing with such force her chair scooted harshly against the floor as she turned and walked away.

“What the hell is her problem?” Y/N asked angrily, standing up to follow Cassie, but Dean stopped her.

“It’s nothing. She’s been in a bad mood all day. I’m going to take her home,” Dean sighed, saying his goodbyes and walking away to find his girlfriend.

“You know what? I’m ready to go home, too. I’ll see you guys later,” Y/N smiled, trying to keep herself together until she could get out of the bar.

“Want me to follow you home?” Brent asked with a smirk, and she wasn’t in the mood for what he had in mind.

“No, I just want to get some sleep. I’m not feeling so great,” she bent down and placed a quick kiss on his cheek, and walked away. The fact that Brent didn’t try to follow her should have bothered her, but she was too emotional to notice.

Y/N was sitting at the kitchen island drinking her coffee and enjoying the rare morning that she was alone in the house. Sam and Cas went to their girlfriends’ homes after the bar last night, and it was apparent that Dean had stayed with Cassie. After last night, she was happy that she was alone. The song had brought up too many emotions, and she needed time to process them without anyone around to distract her.

She knew she had to let her feelings for Dean go. It wasn’t fair to Brent, and it was painful for her to watch him with another woman. But it wasn’t easy to turn off your feelings for someone that you’ve loved for over a decade. That thought sparked an idea for a song. Y/N grabbed her coffee and ran to the basement to write before the concept was lost. She grabbed her guitar and started strumming, letting the words flow from her.

I could break down and cry

Laugh it off and deny

Draw lines in the sand

And count on both hands

All the reasons why

This just won't work

It'll be nothing but hurt

I can swear that I don't

And maybe one day I won't

But for how hard I've tried

I can't unlove you

My heart can't unbreak

I can't unfeel how it felt

But feel so much myself

My whole body ached

And I can't unknow this

Lord, I wish I knew how

But I can't unlove you

So come love me for now

She sang and played with her eyes closed, letting the emotions she felt overtake her. A tear slipped down her cheek as she sang the words that she wished she could say to the green-eyed man she was still so in love with, but couldn’t.

They call it fire

But it feels just like drowning

Well, the weight of my burning desire

Closing in all around me

I wasn't lost until you found me

And I can't unlove you

My heart can't unbreak

I can't unfeel how it felt

But feel so much myself

My whole body ached

And I can't unknow this

Lord, I wish I knew how

But I can't unlove you

So come love me for now

“You’re still in love with him,”

Y/N jumped and dropped her guitar, his voice scaring her. She hadn’t heard him come downstairs, and she couldn’t form words as she stared at him. She felt horrible that he had heard her singing a song she had just written for her best friend that she was indeed still in love with, but she couldn’t do anything now but try to apologize.

“I’m so sorry..” she began before he cut her off.

“Y/N, just..don’t. I’ve known it for a while now, but I guess I was too stupid to believe it,” Brent said with a sigh, “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t compete with him,”

“Brent, please,” she started, but he interrupted her again.

“No, this is for best, Y/N. I won’t spill your secret, but I’m not going to keep trying to win your love from him,” he chuckled wryly, walking over to kiss her on the forehead, “Goodbye, babe,”

She watched as he turned and walked away from her and up the stairs. Her relationship had just ended because she couldn’t stop loving a man she would never have again, and she wasn’t sure what to do. She ran up the stairs to lock herself in her room as the tears began to trail down her cheeks. Her undying love for her best friend had just cost her a good man, and she knew that it was wrong to have led him on, but she couldn’t stop loving Dean. No matter how hard she tried.

She threw herself down on her bed and let the sobs overtake her. She wasn’t sure what she was crying about more, the fact that Brent had just ended things, or that she was deeply in love with her best friend who she would never have again. The fact that she still felt this way about Dean made her feel guilty, but she knew it wouldn’t change. She had loved him for so long that she didn’t think she would ever be able to feel the same for anyone else, and that scared her. That would leave her doomed never to have the love she wanted so desperately, to be alone and pining for a man who didn’t love her back.

Dean walked in the house, closing the door, leaning his back against it. He had been at Cassie’s all night, and he was glad to be home. They had done nothing but fight and argue all night long. She had insisted that he wanted Y/N. He denied it of course, even though it was a lie. But it wasn’t as if he could tell her the truth, knowing that his feelings for her weren’t reciprocated. He knew that it was selfish to lie to his girlfriend just so he wouldn’t be alone, but he knew his time with Y/N was over, and he had to try and move on. So, if that meant lying to Cassie about his true feelings until he could let Y/N go, then so be it.

He sighed as he pushed himself off the door and started walking to his room. He needed some peace and quiet so he could think, knowing that he had to find a way to move past this infatuation with his best friend. She had a boyfriend, for fucks sake! All his feelings were going to do is further break his heart because he knew he would never have the woman he truly wanted.

As he passed Y/N’s room, a sound made him freeze in his steps. He could’ve sworn he heard her crying, but what would she have to cry about? He continued to listen, hoping he was wrong, but then he clearly heard her sobs through her bedroom door. Without any hesitation, he opened the door to see her curled up in her bed, hugging her pillow to her body, and his heart dropped at the sight of her.

“Freddie, what’s wrong?” he asked her, walking over to lay behind her.

“Please leave, Dean. I don’t want to talk about it,” she sobbed. She couldn’t bear to look at him right now.

“Sweetheart, talk to me. I can’t leave you here like this, and you know it,” he whispered, his voice breaking with the sadness of seeing her this way.

“It’s over,” she spoke so low Dean almost didn’t hear her, “Brent and I are done,”

“I’m sorry, Y/N. What happened?” he asked her, feeling guilty that he was a little happy that Brent was out of the picture now.

“It doesn’t matter. I just want to forget about it,” she sighed. She couldn’t tell him the truth.

“Okay, but I have one question,”

“What’s that?” she asked, turning to look at him.

“Do I need to go kick his ass? You know, rearrange his face a little,” he said with a chuckle.

The giggle that she let escape made his heart melt. He hated to see her this way, and he wished that she felt for him the way he did her. If only she could be his, he would never break her heart or hurt her like this. He would make it his mission to make her smile every day until the end of his time on this earth.

“No. I don’t need you to kick his ass. I just need my best friend,” she said shyly.

“You’ve always got me, Freddie. Always. Now, roll that cute ass over here and let me cuddle you,” he said with a laugh, holding his arm up for her to snuggle into his side.

Y/N couldn’t help but to smile at him. He was too damn cute lying on her bed, arms open, and waiting to hold her. She scooted over and wrapped her arm around his middle, laying her head on his chest. The feeling of his warmth and his arm caging her against his body was already making her feel better.

“Let’s get a little rest. I’m sure we could both use it,” he whispered, placing a light kiss on her forehead.

“Sounds good,” she yawned, curling into him and falling asleep.

Dean’s eyes fluttered open, a feeling of something poking him. He looked through sleepy eyes at Y/N, her back flush against his chest, and his arms wrapped tightly around her. He smiled softly to himself at the feeling of holding her like this until he felt it again, something poking him. He grunted at the annoyance, turning to look behind him and his eyes shot open wide. Cassie was standing there, a look of pure anger on her face. He hurriedly got out of bed and walked her out of the room before the inevitable fight started, and it woke Y/N.

“Well, well. What a sight for me to see,” she growled.

“Cassie, I was comforting my best friend. Brent dumped her, and I was trying to make her feel better,” he explained.

“Really? Is that how you comfort all your friends?” she asked sarcastically.

“I’m not doing this with you today,” he rolled his eyes, walking to his room with Cassie on his heels.

“Yes, we are doing this! I’m tired of sharing my boyfriend with his “best friend” who is clearly in love with him! This ends today!” she shouted.

“What the hell are you talking about? She’s not in love with me,” he said, shocked at what she was saying to him.

“You’re blind, Dean! Everyone can see that she loves you! Everyone but you, obviously!” she continued yelling, pacing the floor.

“Be quiet! You’re going to wake her up!” he hissed, getting frustrated.

“Again, it’s all about her. It’s time to choose Dean. I refuse to keep being put on the back burner for her,” she said bluntly.

“I’m not picking between my girlfriend and best friend. I’d never make you choose!” he yelled.

“Yeah, and you’ve never caught me snuggling in bed with my best friend!” she shouted back.

“I told you why, Cassie,” he said, pinching his nose between his fingers.

“That’s supposed to make it okay? It doesn’t! So, time to choose,”

Dean stopped and stared at her for a few seconds, seeing she was serious about him choosing between her and Y/N. He took a deep breath, trying to steady his emotions. He couldn’t believe it had come down to this, but he knew what the choice was going to be.

“Goodbye, Cassie.”

He walked over to his bedroom door and held it open for her to leave.

“Are you serious?” she asked, shocked.

“You made me choose, and I did. I’m sorry, and I hope you find someone who will make you happy,”

“Fuck you, Dean!” she yelled, walking past him and down the hallway, slamming the front door behind her.

Dean shut his bedroom door with a sigh, not knowing what to think about everything that had happened and what had been said. He was angry that she had wanted him to choose between her and Y/N, but he was also so confused. Did his best friend really have feelings for him too, and he was just too blind to see it? Could he honestly be lucky enough to have her love him back?

He flopped down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. His mind ran wild, thinking about how Y/N acted around him, trying to see if what Cassie said was right. Had she been showing feelings toward him, and he didn’t see it? And if she was, why hadn’t he noticed? He had wanted her for so long that he would’ve noticed it, right?

Dean growled in frustration as he jumped up from his bed. He needed to clear his head, and the best way to do that was to play his guitar. If he could play a little and clear his mind, he could rationally think everything over. He was so determined to get to the basement that he missed Y/N opening her bedroom door after he walked by, watching him head for the basement.

Once he was there, he walked around the corner to see her guitar lying on the floor. He knew that she never treated her guitar that way. It was her baby, so something was wrong with this picture. He bent to pick it up and placed it back on its stand when he saw the notepad lying beside it. Y/N had been writing a song, and he had to read it. His eyes scanned the paper, and his heart stopped, the words on the paper making him freeze. The title of the song was Unlove You, and the lyrics were heartbreaking.

And I can't unknow this

Lord, I wish I knew how

But I can't unlove you

She had been with Brent, so why would she write this? She could’ve written it after they broke up, but that didn’t seem likely. If she wrote it before, maybe Cassie was right, and she did have feelings for him. His heart began to race at the thought that she could possibly want him too. It’s all he’s wanted for such a long time, and maybe now it could happen.

“Dean?” Y/N whispered, seeing the notepad in his hands.

“Y/N, please don’t lie to me. When did you write this?” he asked, turning to see tears in her eyes.

“Today,” she said, her voice barely audible.

“Before or after?” he questioned her, walking over to stand right in front of her.

“What do you mean?” she looked up at him, confused.

“Freddie, please, did you write this before or after you and Brent were over?” he stared down into her tear-filled eyes. He had to know.

“B-before,” she stuttered, scared that this was going to be the end of their friendship.

“Y/N, I-I..Did you write this about me? I have to know, sweetheart,” he whispered, not trusting his voice.

“Dean..”

“No, please be honest with me. I deserve that,” he sighed, praying she was going to say yes.

“Yes, okay? I wrote it about you! So, go ahead and tell me how you don’t feel the same and that you’re with Cassie and..” she was shouting until he interrupted her, grabbing her face and crushing his lips to hers.

“Y/N, I want you to listen to me,” he said, resting his forehead to hers after they broke the kiss, “I’ve been crazy about you since high school. I never wanted us to end back then, so this has made me the happiest man on earth, sweetheart,”

“Dean...We can’t. You’re with Cassie. I’m not doing that again,” she sighed, not willing to be the other woman.

“I’m not with her anymore. We broke up while you were still asleep, and what do you mean, again?” he asked, but then it all made sense, “You remember! You remember what happened that night after the karaoke bar!”

“Yeah, I do, but...Wait?! You remember?!” she asked, catching on to his words.

“I’ve always remembered. You said you didn’t, so I didn’t want you to carry that guilt if you didn’t have to,” he told her bluntly.

“You said it was a mistake,” she said, hanging her head.

“I know, and I was stupid. I regretted saying it as soon as the words left my mouth. I felt guilty, but being with you would never be a mistake. Wasting all these years on other people has been the mistake,” he chuckled. The truth of what he had said hit him.

“We just got out of relationships today. I don’t want to be a rebound, Dean. I want you to want me because you want me. Not because you don’t want to be alone,” she said, looking up to see his face, and all she saw was love and hurt at what she had just told him.

“How could you think that, Y/N? You want to know why me and Cassie aren’t together anymore? She told me I had to choose between you and her. I chose you, sweetheart. I’ll always choose you,” he declared, leaning in to kiss her lips softly.

“You chose me?” she asked in shock.

“Of course, I’ll always pick you, pretty girl!” he laughed.

The smile that spread across her face had his heart beating double time and the fact that he was the reason she was smiling made it even better. He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms tightly around her, resting his head on hers. He had to thank Cassie for making him angry. If she hadn’t forced him to choose, he wouldn’t have come to the basement and seen Y/N’s song. He would never have admitted how he felt and wouldn’t be standing there with the love of his life in his arms.

@flamencodiva @foxyjwls007 @waywardbeanie @emoryhemsworth @valsworldofcreativity @hardcoresupernatural @msmarvelouswinchester @lyarr24 @anaelsbrunette @akshi8278 @midsummereve1993 @sutton2001 @emory91 @halesandy @miss-nerd95 @ellewritesfix05 @winchest09 @defenderrosetyler @hobby27 @whatareyousearchingfordean @deanwanddamons @atc74 @superfanficnatural @supernatural-love14 @vicmc624 @squirrelnotsam @tatted-trina6 @xhannahbananax03 @coffeebooksandfandom @nihilismworld @mrsfox79 @malfoysqueen14 @moron225 @deans-baby-momma @lovelyrocker @fablesrose @queenofchaos7 @maralisa124 @deangirl93 @aimee-ginge @anathewierdo @donnaintx @screechingartisancashbailiff @itsdesiree86 @kyjey @roxytheimmortal @briagallen @aubageddon91 @lunarmoon8 @that-one-gay-girl @stoneyggirl @kitkatd7 @wonder-cole @brilovesdeanwinchester @allonsy-yesiwill @krazykelly @440mxs-wife @rebelemilu @sarahbaker2010 @onethirstyunicorn @tyferbebe @metalfangirl @vanessa27xoxo @mishacollins4evah @redbarn1995 @thoughts-and-funnies @izzathequeen @heavensangel45135

#Unsung Verses #dean winchester x reader #dean x reader #dean winchester #dean winchester fanfiction #dean fanfiction #dean au #rockstar au #rockstar!dean #dean x plus sized reader #dean x you #supernatural family #supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #spn fanfiction #spn famdom #spn family #Jensengirl83

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bonesaldente · 4 years ago

Text

Ferocious I Darth Maul x Reader

PART II OF CALIGINIOUS

Chapter 1: An Unlikely Reunion

ao3

warnings: violence, you already know the drill

word count: 3900+

This directly connects to S5E14, 08:36 (Eminence) There will be a bunch of cuts in this chapter because of... reasons. You have been warned

____

Allies.

There is something extremely satisfying about the word which marks the first concrete step towards his ultimate goal of power. Power and… revenge.

These days, nothing drives Maul quite as much as his seething hatred for Kenobi, for the man who has taken everything from him: His legs, his future, and lastly, his one outlook on a life filled with more than just selfishness and hatred - a life spent with you by his side, the only person to ever make him feel something akin to… love?

He didn’t pinpoint the emotion back then, foolishly believing he would still have time. Sure, he had used the word, but never as his own feeling - when he dared use such a word, it was possessively, as all things he ever felt.

The difference seemed futile, up until there was nothing there anymore, nothing to love, nothing to hate, even. All there had been was himself.

“The Black Suns have their lair on Mustafar. We should-” Pre Vizsla’s attention is pulled away from the sentence he was in the middle of constructing and to a small group of people approaching from across the Death Watch camp. In their middle walks a woman, the only one not clad in Mandalorian armor, wearing a hood and an intricately composed mask that obscures the lower half of her face in the place of a helmet. The strategic placement of Mandalorian warriors around her makes it obvious she is not a member of the Death Watch and not entirely trusted either.

An expectant grin sneaks on Vizsla’s face, and the woman tosses a blood stained linen bag in his direction.

“His head, like you asked.” Her voice is leveled and distorted by a voice modulator.

“Never one to disappoint, are you?” Vizsla remarks, picking up the bag and taking a look inside, though Maul’s focus remains on the woman whose eyes are glued to him. It is not unusual for him to catch people’s attention due to his vibrant skin tone, but typically, fear makes them look away right after.

With a wave, the Death Watch leader dismisses the Mandalorians surrounding her and beckons her closer while pulling out a sizable pouch of credits.

“Your payment, like we discussed.”

Finally, the woman’s eyes move back to Vizsla.

“Next time, don’t ask for their head. It’s messy.”

The Mandalorian barks out a laugh and his seemingly constant amusement in non-laughable circumstances is already beginning to irritate Maul.

“Maul, allow me to introduce you; This is Spectress, a mercenary we hire to take care of the Duchess’ political friends; Spectress, Lord Maul-” Maul scowls in distaste at the Mandalorians borderline mocking use of the title, “is our newest ally.”

There is something unnerving about the way Spectress is staring at his face; the force is tickling the corners of his brain that harbor old memories of a time before Kenobi. Quiet voices whisper into his ear, ghostly fingers tracing his skin.

With his mind, Maul reaches out through the force, and all of a sudden the woman’s force signature hits him with the strength of a ship jumping to hyperspace.

The aura surrounding her has changed, matured, but its essence remained the way it had been ten years ago. When he looks into her eyes that are hardly visible under the hood, all doubt vanishes.

It is you - These eyes are the same ones he’s seen for a decade every time exhaustion forced his eyes shut, boring into the deepest corner of his mind and filling it with such longing, such yearning, that some days, he would try to use pain to keep them open, keep himself out of sleep’s tempting hands, for sleep brought the nightmares.

“Allow me to speak to this Spectress,” he briefly weighs the name on his tongue, “privately.”

Vizsla looks taken aback by his sudden interest in their accomplice, but complies and gestures to a vacant tent. “I will make the preparations for Mustafar, then.”

As soon as the fabric of the tent falls back into place behind Maul, you whirl around and force him to back into a table, pressing a knife to his neck.

“What kind of game is this?” Your eyes are wild, hood having fallen off in the maneuver. “I will not fall for some mind tricks!”

“There is no trick,” Maul’s voice remains calm, though he can’t cover up the small tremble in it as he slowly moves a finger to push away your blade at his throat, but you don’t budge.

“It is me. I survived Naboo and-”

“Impossible! I saw you die! I saw you die over, and over, and over again,” the pain in your voice is evident even through the modulator, and it sickens Maul to his stomach to think that he is the cause for your pain.

“Kenobi…” He can’t fight the growl that accompanies the name whenever he utters it. “Kenobi almost killed me, but I lived, discarded like trash, abandoned. But I made a promise to not leave you alone,” he stops when he sees your hand shaking and your head turn away from him.

Ever so carefully, he extends his hand to graze the small part of exposed skin right under your eye. “And I will keep that promise.”

Your wide eyes meet his, and your hand slowly moves to your nape, preparing to unlatch your mask, finally let him see the face he has been longing to see for so long.

Maul holds his breath, eyes never leaving yours, when suddenly-

“The men are readying for takeoff to Mustafar, we will leave in less than an hour time,” Pre Vizsla bursts through the entrance of the tent unannounced, causing both Maul and you to jump apart like you had gotten an electric shock.

“Vizsla,” Maul does his best to control his aggravation and not show just how much he would like to choke him in this very moment. “Might I propose a deal with… Spectress?”

He leads the man out of the tent.

“If we intend to utilize the underground for our machinations, employing someone with ties to the criminal world will be useful to us.”

“You suggest we keep her in our ranks?” The man does not look convinced.

Maul’s tone is insistent when he answers. “Now more than ever, it is crucial that our plans remain hidden from the eye of the republic. To ensure that-”

“She doesn’t leak information to outsiders, we keep her close to us where we can keep an eye on her!”

Maul’s eyes flutter shut in annoyance at being interrupted, though he forces himself to put on a diplomatic facade once more.

“Precisely.”

An offer like the one Pre Vizsla is presenting you with right now is not something that would ever be appealing to you - under normal circumstances, that is.

You glance at the man who claims to be the person you’ve lost a decade ago. There are questions swirling around in your head, doubts that you have yet to eliminate; you are not convinced that Maul might actually be alive, and, furthermore, stand right before you. But at the same time, you have no way of finding out the truth if you leave now, so perhaps, a more permanent position among the Death Watch would be an adequate exception to your rule of complete independence - solely a means to an end, of course.

The Mandalorian still looks at you expectantly. He doesn’t understand your dislike of allegiances and commitment: The man praises nothing above honor and the way of the Mandalorians.

“With an appropriate compensation for my efforts,” you accept, “that can be arranged.”

The flight from Zanbar to Mustafar is not too short to make you regret your decision to get more involved with the Death Watch - yet. The ship is also not big enough to get the privacy you need to confront Maul, if it really is him. All you get are stolen glances from across the cockpit and more questions in your head that is already buzzing from the events of the day. Who is the second zabrak and why, in the name of the maker, is he so big? You’ve met enough zabraks to know that they do not grow much taller than human males do, and this one exceeds the height of seven feet, almost hitting his head when he entered the ship before you.

Your fingertips tickle with the naive desire to truly reunite with Maul; in your head you know it could still all be a trick played on you by Darth Sidious to lure you out of the hideout your identity as Spectress has become. In your heart, however, you can only see the man you’ve missed so, so much that your heart still hurts just thinking about the first few years after his supposed death.

The ship lands on the uninviting planet with a dull thud and immediately, Maul leads the way out along with the other zabrak and Vizsla.

“Wait,” you speak up, causing them to stop in their tracks.

“I am familiar with the Black Suns and I have a reputation among the crime families. If I speak to them, they may be more inclined to listen.”

Vizsla crosses his arms in front of his chest, but nods eventually. You can’t help but search Maul’s gaze, and it’s only after he steps to the side that you pass them and take the lead in approaching the Falleens.

It is clear they are hostile, just by the amount of men they have gathered in front of their castle.

“A battalion, brother,” rumbles a deep voice behind you. Brother? That would explain some things, though you still wonder how Maul would have been able to find his family, if he never even knew who they were, let alone where they were. But this is a mystery to be unraveled at a later point in time, as you now reach the Falleens.

“We wish to speak to your leaders,” you declare loudly over the sound of the Mandalorians’ jetpacks. Through the modulator, your voice always sounds more certain than you yourself feel, covering up small trembles and certain emotional inflictions.

The man chuckles darkly. “It’ll be your funeral.”

You tilt your head. “We’ll see.”

He leads you to something akin to a throne room, dimly lit, just like the entire planet.

You post up at the very front of the small group, enjoying the look of recognition that flashes over the Falleens’ faces.

“Mercenary… Why do you come here?”

Maul speaks before you get a chance to reply. “We seek an army.”

“Fools. We are none of your trade,” he gestures to you condescendingly.

“My trade,” you start insistently, “knows a good deal when it sees one.” You wait for the words to sink in before you continue. “And cooperation will be your best option.”

The man only scoffs, foolishly ignoring your advice.

“Dispose of them, keep their ships and weapons. Give me that one's sword, and I want her mask hung on my wall.”

Your group does not falter and the yellow zabrak picks up one of the approaching men, throwing him onto the long table, while Vizsla points his blasters at the other.

Menacingly, the men around the table start rising from their seats. Before you know what is happening, a hand- Maul’s hand - wraps around your wrist and pulls you to the floor with him, thus allowing the other zabrak to throw his lightsaber - double bladed, you note - effectively decapitating all leaders except the one standing closest to you.

Once the weapon has returned to his brother’s hand, Maul pulls you back up, the gesture reminding you of the times you’ve been sparring with him, and going even further back, when you first agreed (against your will, back then) to work with him.

You gulp down the emotions and refocus your attention on the last Falleen in the room.

“Congratulations, it seems you have been promoted,” you comment coolly. “The decision is up to you.”

The man looks three shades lighter and slightly nauseous, but he forces a diplomatic smile.

“After careful consideration, we will join you.”

Flying back to Zanbar is a… much more pleasant endeavor than the flight there. The first steps toward the liberation of Mandalore are taken and the few other death watch warriors on the ship are visibly content with the success of the mission.

You, however, have the incessant urge to space everyone aboard, just so you can finally, finally, get a word alone with Maul. It feels so very unnecessary to act like you were strangers just to keep up an image, when you thought him dead less than 24 hours ago.

If only the ship had even one room that allowed for some privacy… How could you be so fortunate and so unlucky at the same time?

When you depart the ship, Vizsla looks like he is about to try and engage Maul in yet another conversation, but you decide you have waited long enough.

“Lord Maul, a word?” You quickly cut in.

The Death Watch leader raises his eyebrows in surprise, but you sign for Maul to follow you.

There is hardly a place that isn’t bustling with Manalorians, but you know where they won’t be.

A small sigh of relief escapes you when you see the familiar metal of your ship and you finally face him once you’ve made it to the ramp.

You take a deep breath, then push back your hood, practiced fingers easily finding the familiar latch. With an almost inaudible hiss, the mechanism holding your mask in place releases and you push it under your chin.

His eyes widen, but you don’t let yourself soak in his softening gaze.

“Explain.” You demand, unmodulated voice sounding strangely raw even to your own ears.

His mouth opens but it takes a bit until actual sounds come out.

“I… it took nightsister magick and my brother to find me. And even then, I was - I was damaged, hardly functioning. Mother Talzin repaired my mind,”

“When?” You interject sharply, selfishly feeling neglected when he was alive all this time while you were busy mourning, hiding from Darth Sidious as well as the Jedi who saw your face on Naboo, and then having to survive as a criminal in the outer rim.

Sincere eyes never leaving yours, he responds.

“A month or so.” You bite down on your trembling lip, wanting to remain vigilant but unable to stop your suspicion from disappearing.

Maul still stands at exactly the same distance as when you started talking, so as to not scare you off, you presume, but now you stupidly want to close that distance.

You notice that his hand is shaking when he slowly reaches out and, at last, grazes his gloved fingertips against your cheek.

“Believe me, I never stopped thinking about you.”

“I -” You are interrupted by a loud clunk from the ramp.

Already, you know who it is, but on instinct you still spin around with your blaster raised.

Staring back at you with wide eyes is what looks like a reflection of yourself some years back.

You look back at Maul, seeing the way he freezes upon seeing her.

“Is that… that’s not … Is it?”

For a moment you don’t understand what he is getting at, but then it clicks in your head, at about the same time that the young woman behind you understands the implication.

“You guys were- Oh, no no no-” She waves him off, cheeks tinted red.

“Loa,” you point at the girl, “Is my sister. I tracked her down some time after… Naboo.”

The girl still stares at Maul for another moment, before she picks up the crate she was carrying earlier.

“I was going to stock up on supplies,” she says meekly, “so I’ll just … leave you two, and… yeah, I’ll just go.”

Moving down the ramp, her body is shaking with a cough that pulls at your heartstrings.

Your face must have betrayed you, for when she is out of earshot, Maul asks:

“Is she sick?”

Your eyes flicker to the ground while you try to find the words to explain her condition.

“She was a slave in one of the spice mines on Kessel before I found her, and she’s had breathing difficulties ever since. And sometimes, she gets very weak, or faints.”

You despise the pity in his eyes. “But she is strong. I’ve taught her to defend herself, and she has grown up to be a remarkably cunning, honorable woman.”

“She must be,” he mumbles, “With you as her teacher.”

Maul is unsure of how to interpret your actions. Do you still yearn for him the same way he has been longing to be with you again all this time? Or have you moved on from your past, including your time with him, and outgrown the need for his companionship?

He wants to run his fingers along your face, that, while more mature, still looks exactly how it appeared in his fevered dreams on Lothor Minor, safe for a few small scars here and there. Your eyes still hold the same intelligent sparkle that they did ten years ago, but now something else, wisdom, perhaps, lurks behind them as well.

How does one proceed under these circumstances? Maul is a refined schemer, a crafty intriguer, but matters of the heart are not his forte, and understanding emotions other than rage and resentment is not something he was ever taught - or even had a desire to learn. Until you, that is.

His thought process is cut short when the deafening sound of several ships approaching the Death Watch camp catches both of your attention.

“Those are Pyke ships,” you remark with curiosity and Maul catches himself staring at your face instead of the ships.

“We should probably…” You trail off and he snaps out of his immobility.

His hearts ache when you secure your mask once more, already missing seeing your full face when you speak.

The Pykes joining his army this easily is a welcome surprise, and so is Pre Vizsla’s sudden keenness to further the assembly of it.

The Hutts, however, evidently aren’t so eager, which the knife floating inches away from his head indicates.

Bounty Hunters start closing in from almost every direction, and a shootout ensues. Maul watches you in the corner of his eye, ready to use the force to pull you away from any danger: With no protective armor and unable to block the blaster bolts, he worries you might be at risk, though a quick observation proves the opposite to be true; bodies fall to the ground all around you, and your movements are quick enough for shooters to fail at targeting you.

Still, the growing number of enemy fighters forces the small Death Watch squad to retreat to where their reinforcements are waiting.

The Mandalorians do a decent job at pushing back against the bounty hunters, but a sudden attack from the ceiling catches Maul off guard and pushes him to the ground. Two bounty hunters attack from their hide, one accompanied by an Anooba that instantly jumps onto Maul, causing him to drop his lightsaber.

He attempts to wrestle the beast off him, but its snapping jaw restrains his mobility severely, even rendering him unable to retrieve his lightsaber using the force, until through someone else, the Anooba is sent flying through the air with a pained squeak. He looks up, only to see you already fighting the zabraki woman that started the sneak attack.

Both you and Savage are gaining the upper hand over your respective opponents, prompting them to throw a smoke grenade and run away. Savage makes a move to pursue them, but your raised hand stops him.

“There is no benefit in going after them, the bounty hunters have no allegiance.”

Pre Vizsla sheathes his own saber, that very despicable smirk plastered on his face. “But you do?”

Maul follows your gaze as you look around the cave, surrounded by bodies, many of them sporting wounds that obviously stem from your weapons.

“You tell me.”

The Mandalorian laughs out, then proceeds to move back to speak to the one Hutt that hasn’t managed to escape.

Making him talk is an easy feat, as was to be expected from a Hutt - put a lightsaber to their neck, and they sing like a bird.

After disposing of the slug-like creature, some of the Mandalorians still busy themselves with looting the dead bodies, something that is not necessary anymore now that they have an army and resources, but years of living hidden must have caused this instinctual reaction. Maul’s feet automatically carry him over to where he sees you around a corner wiping your blade, distanced from the others.

Once you spot him, your eyes scan the surroundings, then you pull down your mask. Every time you do that, Maul swears he feels his hearts stutter a little bit - a strangely physical reaction for a man usually so in control of every cell in his body.

With your sleeve, you wipe off a few blood splutters that are nothing in comparison to your attire which is covered in several stains of blood as Maul notices upon looking closer.

“That is … a lot of blood,” He remarks.

“Not mine,” you counter, and the situation reminds him so much of Cato Neimoidia that he loses all previous inhibition. Finally he closes the distance between you and crashes his lips into yours, crowding you against the wall. The feeling of your lips is familiar, yet so surreal as they move against his with the same fervor that he is feeling. One hand tangles inside your hair beneath the hood, the other sliding up and down your sides, wanting to memorize every little dip and curve of your body before he loses you again.

A small gasp escapes you when he tugs on your hair, allowing him easy access to your mouth, uncaring of the growing need for air and relying purely on his force abilities to warn him before someone sees the two of you.

“You’re taller now,” you mumble against him in the small time frame that you break away to catch your breath.

“You don’t seem to mind,” he retorts just as out of breath as you are, ecstatic that you so clearly still want him when your arms wrap around his neck to pull him in again.

“I missed you,” you breathe right before reconnecting your lips with his, and he tries to tell you the same with the way he kisses you back.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind that is intoxicated with you, he senses a person coming closer, forcing him to pull away and signal you to put your mask back on should you not want your face to be known by others.

He steps away from you not one second too early; his brother rounds the corner the moment your mask is fastened with a quiet ‘click’.

“Brother, we are ready to depart in-” He does not finish his sentence, eyes flicking back and forth between you in an attempt to interpret the way you are standing a few feet away from each other awkwardly. It’s only now that Maul sees that your hood is almost off entirely, exposing quite ruffled hair. With a subtle flick of his fingers, he calls upon the force to lift your hood over your head further.

“We will be there momentarily.”

____

notes: YAY, FIRST CHAPTER! And this time, I even have a plot prepared ... Is it good? I don't know. But do I have it? I sure do. I hope you liked this very, very chaotic first chapter. I'll try to keep the majority of the story separate from actual clone wars episodes so that I have a little more freedom and not as many jumps in time, but to be honest I really wanted to start out during 'Eminence', so that's that. There will be a few POV changes in the next chapters as well, but it will mostly be you!

Comment or message anytime if you want to be tagged!

@princessayveke ; @spaghetti-666 ; @noiralei ; @larawl ; @secretnerd00 ; @bagpipes606 ; @zabrak-show ; @brilliantbutbatty ; @eleine-t1d

#maul #darth maul #darth maul x reader #darth maul x you #maul x reader #maul x you #sith #swtcw #star wars fanfiction #star wars x you

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paragonrobits · 4 years ago

Photo

a friend asked me to give a shot at doing an entry in this tier list they linked me to, of the video games inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame since 2015, and I opted to give it a shot!

My rankings are generally biased towards games I personally enjoy playing, though I will give some commentary on their historic relevance:

S-Rank

Super Mario Bros: The game that repopularized video games in the US, that arguably began the entire platforming video game genre and all its imitators and spin-offs, that spawned a new generation of video games after the Atari Crash in the US, and still a DAMN FUN game in its own right! I simply had to put this at the top ranking. After the disillusionment caused by Atari’s failures, this game brought home consoles back in a big way to the US.

World of Warcraft: Now, I’m not much for MMORPGs. Nevertheless, I’ve followed the lore and general information in the Warcraft setting for years now, and a couple years back, my brother asked me to play it with him. I had a ton of fun, honestly! Playing a goblin mage, I believe. WoW is notable for being THE MMORPG, and still going strong. Admittedly, nowadays many games do what it does better, and the time when it was dominant as THE single game to play is past, but it was still an enjoyable experience and I really have to like how sincere the game is about its aesthetics and campy vibe. Given that the entire setting is reputedly a reskin of a Warhammer Fantasy Battle video game that went south, it’s cheery and colorful, morally gray tone is... an interesting complication in its history. (Also, HORDE. I STAN THE HORDE VERY HARD.)

The Sims: A bit of history; I did not play this game as enthusiastically as a kid as my sister and mom did. We ALL spammed the hell out of the Rosebud cheat, though; not until recent times did I actually wind up playing the game properly, when the most recent iteration of the series was free for a while. My mom didn’t care to play the game, she just liked building houses. In any case, while my attention drifted from the game now and then, I always am fascinated by the actual gameplay of caring for your simulated humans, and the way you don’t actually control them directly. This sort of hands off experience is actually a bit similar to the ‘dungeon simulator’ genre, and while the game is notorious for enabling cruelty (something I never saw the appeal of!), it’s a surprisingly wholesome experience, and it can’t be understated how unique this gameplay was at the time.

Legend of Zelda: It’s actually rather interesting how different OG Zelda is from modern games. Not just the top down perspective (which DOES pop up, now and then); the game is non-linear and allows you to go to any dungeon at any point, completing the game at your leisure, and the story is extremely barebones compared to what we may be used to. It’s quite a far cry from the linear gameplay of gradually collecting tools and working through plots that the games are known for. Breath of the Wild is, in fact, a return to form rather than an upheaval of the formula. I’ll also admit that I have a lot of affection for the gameplay of this one, as well as Link To The Past.

Donkey Kong: When you’re talking old school, as far as what you might call the modern generation of games goes (which is to say, the games that resurged after the Atari Crash), it’s hard to go wrong with Donkey Kong. It’s certainly notable for being a weird stage in Mario’s character and something that is generally ignored; it’s just strange thinking that at one point he was supposed to be abusive towards a pet ape that went in an innocent, well-meaning rampage! Personally this one kind of breaks a mold for my S-class rankings because while I like this one fine, I don’t like it THAT much; i mostly played it in the DK 64 game, and found it very difficult and that’s stuck with me. Still, I place it here for its momentous position in placing Nintendo on the map, with the influence and revolutionary technologies and gaming mechanics they would introduce, to this very day.

Pokemon Red/Blue: Hoo boy. HOO BOY it is honestly something of an oversight that I didn't immediately shove this beauty straight to the front of the S-line because good god I love this game. It's been years and years, long since I was but a whee Johnny playing a strange new game for the first time just because there was a cool turtle creature on the cover (because I was super into turtles back then), and I still love this game. Even with the improvements made to the formula since then (getting rid of HMs, the fixes and new types introduced since) there's still something lovable about this game, even as something as basic as the official artwork that just tugs my heartstrings. This game is highly notable for being an RPG that popularized the monster collecting/befriending gameplay (so far as I know), and as an autistic person, i really appreciate knowing the whole thing grew out of an autistic man's bug collection hobby from when he was a child. Pokemon is an absolute juggernaut of a media influence, and THIS is where it all began. It's first stage evolution, you might say. And not like a Magikarp or anything. This one's more like one of the starters... appropriately enough. Final Fantasy 7: This is probably a bit of a controversial take, but FF7 was not actually one of my favorite Final Fantasy entries back in the day. I never played much more of it than the beginning missions, as my cousin owned the machine in question, and I moved out before i could play it much. Final Fantasy 3 (in the US; it's more generally referred to as 6 now) was my favorite for a long, long time, and that game pioneered many of the traits that would be associated with 7: the epic story, the complex ensemble cast, though 7 really expanded on that basic idea, and previous games were hardly shabby in that regard. 9 is my favorite of the pre-10 era, with its extreme shake ups to the mechanics of the game. No; what makes 7 stand out is that it was a shift towards making Final Fantasy a constantly shifting, unique franchise where every entry was its own thing; it introduced 3D graphics with a fun and cartoony style mixed with a story that wouldn't be out of place in a cyberpunk story, and heralds Squaresoft (as it was called at the time) splitting off from Nintendo, with its censorship policies, and doing its own thing with Sony, with a great deal more freedom to write as they pleased. The party design also stands out, which each character having their own unique function in the party while the Materia concept allows a degree of modular skills to be installed, customizing them in ways that, in my opinion, the best entries in the franchise (on a gameplay level) would revisit. Colossal Cave Adventure: I'll be honest; I never played this game, and I don't believe it's particularly familiar to me at all. However, I chose it for this vaunted spot in S-rank because games of this nature, of text-based prompt and responses, are some of the most interesting things imaginable! Games like AI Dungeon are similar in some respects, and its impressive to think just how dang old this game is, and yet it managed to pull off basically being it's own DM. It has an interesting history; created by a man who worked on the precursor to the Internet, the game was made to connect with his daughter and was inspired by recent entries into Dungeons And Dragons, and later expanded upon by other programmers. It's notable that while Zork is the sort of game that would probably involve more immediate recognition (I actually mistook it for Zork at first, from the screenshot), this game was the first of its kind, and that always deserve some recognition. Minecraft: I absolutely LOVE Minecraft, and it's rightfully one of the most popular games, if not THE most popular game, of the last couple of decades, and it's interesting to think just how unconventional it is; the game is, effectively, a LEGO simulator, and as someone who honestly always wanted tons of LEGO sets as a kid but could never afford them consistently, there's something genuinely very appealing about Minecraft's basic set up. It's open approach and lack of a goal, just gameplay mechanics that encourage you to build and do as you please, makes for a very relaxing and unusual mentality not often seen in games until this point; it doesn't even have a storyline, it simply gives you a world to play around in. Of note, Minecraft's entry seems to have relevance towards video games becoming a cultural touchstone; Minecraft's visual aesthetic leans towards both blocky LEGOs and retro graphics, and certainly proves that games don't need to strive for hyper realistic graphics to be appealing. ----- A RANK Doom: I genuinely like Doom, a lot! I still have memories of replaying this game frequently, long before Doom 2016 and Eternal were glimmers; it's just genuinely very fun to play. That said, I feel that there's other games that are a bit more historically notable and while i like this game, not quite as much as other entries. But it cant be understated that this was THE first person shooter, and more to the point, was fundamental towards game design as we know it. Of note, it pioneered the idea of a game engine, which has had tremendous impact down the road in terms of making a flexible baseline system that latergames were programmed around. Additionally, the first three episodes being free, with the additional ones being purchased as part of the full game, this was, I think, the first demonstration of a demo. Back then, we called this shareware; a game which was free but had full features locked off, but otherwise you could play it however much you wanted. There's a REASON Doom winds up on more systems than Skyrim! Ultimately, while it's not one of my favorite games, it's impact on the business of gaming and the functions of game design cannot be overstated. Pac-Man: This game, is THE game that made video games a phenomenon and its worth thinking about that and how video games as a modern institituion can be drawn, however broadly, from Pac-Man's commercial success. I should note that while I've played this game extensively, it's not something I'm particularly good at; there's a LOT going on here and its a bit much for me to handle. That's probably a strength; there's a reason people had to fake their accomplishments and falsified high scores. It's worth noting that Pac-Man is a unique thing in that it has been rereleased many times over, and every generation has found it enjoyable and fun, unlike other games that set trends only to be lost out in the end. (Goldeneye, for instance!) The Oregon Trail: Like many other people I assume, I first played this game as something available on school computers. Purportedly made as an educational game to teach students about history, this game may be notable for, among other things, being an entry point towards the idea of resource management in video games (as well as being hellishly difficult, by the standards then, but that DOES illustrate a point, does it not?). It's also the oldest, most continuously available game ever made, even now being ported to smartphones, or so I hear! It seems to be a very early example of edutainment games, and a genuinely great one at that. It probably helps that a selling point is that it doesn't really mince around with its subject matter; anyone who's played this game knows that total party kill is the default assumption, as it was in life. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat: I place these two together as I feel that they form a duo of sorts, and defined fighting games of my childhood and modern gaming experience; name a fighting game, from Injustice to something as deliberately different as Smash Bros, and it has SOME relation to these games, even if its in terms of doing something completely different. These games set a mold for fighting games! Among other things, both games feature iconic characters as a selling point, and to this day fighting games make their mark based on how signature their characters are. Mortal Kombat is of course an incredibly violent game (though very tame, by modern standards), and its fatalities and depicitons of violence sparked thought and arguments on what video games ought to be allowed to depict, for better or for worse. It's not implausible to suggest that the overly strict restrictions on what video games could depict go back to Mortal Kombat's fatalities, specifically (since there's far worse games predating it, though too graphically primitive to be obvious). Street Fighter, conversely, strikes me as having more characterization and depth, especially as far as fighting systems go; I find it hard to be interested in many fighting games now, if they don't offer as much depth as the likes of Street Fighter 2. Street Fighter stands out for innovating multiplayer play, initially in the arcade, and its not implausible to say that the likes of Smash Bros is a descendant of sorts of the specific mentality Street Fighter brought to the table. Consider also that it is STILL a mainstay in the remaining arcades and cabinets in service today! Tomb Raider: This is a game i legit liked back in the day, and there's some part of me that's sad that the platforming, puzzle solving and focus on exploration has not really made it back into the modern Tomb Raider series, last I checked. There's probably something interesting in that Lara Croft represents a bit of an intermediate period between platforming mascots and modern Edgy Protagonists; you know the ones. Balding white dudes with vague dad vibes, but this is not a slight on Lara; she definitely has a ton of personality, even just at a cover glance. This game had a strong focus on exploration, and that's honestly something I really like. Super Mario Kart: I'm going to be controversial here; complaints about the Blue Shell are kinda overrated. It's not that different from, say, a red shell hitting you from behind when you're close to the finish line. But, jokes and old 90s memes aside, this game has some interesting status in that it started the idea of making spin-off games in dramatically different contexts; Crash Team Racing and Sonic Drift, for example, are listened as similar games. On a franchise level, this began the trend of Mario becoming a truly flexible character who could do pretty much whatever was required of him, not just the original platforming games, and its possible his imitators never quite learned the same lesson. Though one wonders what Miyamoto might have thought if he'd known how many thinkpieces he would spawn with 'why does mario go-karting with Bowser when they're enemies?'. For my part, I favor the idea that the other games are in-universe fictions they're actors on and this is their actual dynamic, or that Mario is a relaxed dude who doesn't mind playing kart games with his foe. (I mean, he's not Ridley. Bowser's easy enough to get along with.) Animal Crossing: Again, I have to emphasize that I've never actually played this game, at least on a consistent basis (and by that, I mean I MIGHT have played it on the Gamecube, once, in the early 2000s), and have to speak from what I've seen of what it sparked. And I really do like the way it really codified the sub-genre of relaxed, open-ended games where the player is free to do as they like, without much stress or fear, which is something I think more games could stand to do. On my personal list of features that my ideal video game would have, Animal Crossing would definitely offer a few ideas. I am reminded of farming simulators, such as Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley; while they are different beasts entirely, there's a familiar sense of non-combat relaxation that's pleasant to see. Spacewar!: This machine is GODDAMN old, and like an old fogey predating modern humans, it deserves our respect. It's so old, it predates Pong. Supposedly created as part of predictative Cold War models, with an emphasis on emulating sci fi dogfights, producing a game that soon proved popular, for over a decade remainign the most popular game on computer systems, and a clumsy foray into arcade gaming (that didn't pan out, unfortunately) led to the creation of Pong by its creator, which is another story all its own! And Pong is directly responsible for the idea of the video game itself; this game launched the entire video game industry as we understand it! No small feat, indeed. ----

B RANKED Sonic The Hedgehog: I must state that I DO like this game, though not as much as later entires like Sonic 3 and Knuckles, or the Sonic Adventure series; the fast paced action seems a bit hobbled by the traps and need to be careful of surroundings, which would seem to run counter towards the whole idea of GOTTA GO FAST, y'know? But the game presents an interesting viewpoint on the nature of mascot gaming; created specifically, so it is said, as a rival to Mario, Sonic was designed as a mascot with attitude, and inspired a host of imitators; he's probably the only one to escape the 90s more or less intact, and this may have something to say about his flexibility, star power, and also the fact that he's a pretty mild character, all things considered. This game certainly has its place in gaming history, giving an important place in the console wars of yesteryear. Believe me, I was a kid in the 90s, Sonic was a HUGE deal. Space Invaders: This game is noted to have catapulted games into prominence by making them household, something outside of arcades, and it shows! An interesting detail of note is that supposedly, the Space Invaders were meant to all move at high speed, but this was either too hard to play against, or too costly on the processor; it was found that by making them speed up as they were defeated, it created an interesting set of challenge. You have to appreciate game history like that. In general, its success prompted Japanese companies to join the market, which would eventually produce what I imagine was a thriving, competitive market that would eventually get us Nintendo and it's own gamechangers down the road. Grant Theft Auto 3: I'm going to be honest with you. I don't much care for this sort of game. The Saints Row series, with its fundamental wackiness, is the kind of game I really DO like if I'm going for something like this, and GTA sort of leaning towards the 'cruel for fun and profit' gameplay is really unappealing for me. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't address this game, and what seems to come up is two things: the game's sheer freedom in its open world (which certainly pushed the bar for games of that nature, and has made it a byword for gamers screwing around in a game just to see what ridiculous things they could or couldn't do) and the infamous reputation from the mature aspects of the game. Personally, I'm not much for this game's take on maturity (if I wanted to discuss a game of that nature, I'd suggest, say, Spec Ops: The Line) but I really do appreciate what this game and its series did for the open world genre, and the sheer possibilities presented for letting you do what you wanted. King's Quest: I've never played this game, but I am a HUGE fan of the point and click genre (also known generally as the adventure game genre) that it spawned; without this game, there's no Monkey Island, no Sam and Max, no The Dig or Full Throttle, or Gabriel Knight. This game was similar to previous text-based games, with a text parser to input commands, but with the distinction of a graphical interface to move their character around, which would be the seed of later games such as the SCUMM engine of Monkey Island and other Lucasarts games (which, to me, ARE Adventure Gaming). The puzzles, comedic sensibilities, and interface innovations originated with this game, and codified those later adventure games i love so much. Starcraft: This is another one those list of 'games I should have already played by now'. I'm not much of an RTS person, barring forays with games such as Impossible Creatures, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, and more strange entries such as Brutal Legend, and I contend that the combat aspects of 4X games like Civilization DO count on some level; the specifics of troop movement and unit strengths/weaknesses are a bit beyond me, when you get to more complex stuff. Starcraft, reading between the lines, really introduced the idea of multiplayer culture especially for RTS, pioneered the Battle(dot)net system (which I mostly recall from Diablo, if I'm being honest!) as well as the idea of relative strengths and powers for individual factions so that they became characters in their own right. It's still a very popular online game, and that says SOMETHING. Also, I tend to use zerg rushes, so I would probably play Zerg. Probably. (There is much speculation on whether or not, like Warcraft being a failed Warhammer Fantasy game, if the same holds true for Starcraft and Warhammer 40k. I lean on the side of 'probably not'; the differences are too notable. The Zerg and Tyranids have some similarties, but that's probably because they're based on the same broad hive mind evil insect aggressor trope, and they have enough differences from there to be very distinct from one another. It's not like how OG Warcraft's orcs were very obviously warhammer orcs with less football hooliganism.) Bejeweled: This is a firm case of a game that I don't play, but I really have to respect its influence on gaming as a whole. Apparently it started as a match three-type game with a simplistic formula that proved wildly popular (perhaps making a point that simpler can be more effective, in game mechanics), with a truly explosive record of downloads; over 500 million, it seems. Thus its fair to say that this game set the precedent for casual games, which have become THE market. Regardless of your feelings on that genre, this one was a real game changer. (Pun intended, absolutely.) ----

C RANK Pong: "By most measures of popular impact, Pong launched the video game industry." This line alone saws it all, I think. It wasn't the first video game, but it was one of the more early ones, and its the one that really made video games and consoles successful, gaining widespread attention from the mainstream audience, as well as getting Atari recognition (for better or for worse, but perhaps that was just a development of being on top, so to speak; maye the console wars at least kept the big three honest). It also started the arcade revolution of games, and this humble game is essentially responsible for the entire state of video games as a concept, as we know it today. Halo: No disrespect to Halo, but it's just a game series I've never quite been able to get into. Those games are very hit and miss for me; games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Gears of War and everything like that are just... hard for me to get into. It takes something specific like Borderlands or the Besthesda Fallout series, or something else, for me to get hooked, and Halo just doesn't do it for me! Nevertheless, I would be QUITE remiss if I simply dismissed it, and there's reasons for it to be inducted into the hall of fame barely three years into the hall of fame making inductees. Firstly, it was Microsoft's big entry into the console wars, and it must be said this was a MASSIVE upset and a completely unprecedented shift in the assumptions of the console wars back then; NO ONE expected microsoft to actually do this, let alone redefine gaming out of Sony and Nintendo's favor like that. At the time, PCs dominated FPS games, and Halo showed that consoles could do it just fine. It must also be said that it has a very intricate and complex system of lore, backstory and material that was quite distinctive for a new setting back in the day, and while I've seen people object to it's gameplay, I suspect that its with the benefit of hindsight; Halo offered an extremely unusual degree of freedom in achieving the goals set out for you. (Cortana also didn't deserve getting her name slapped onto that search assistant that eats up all your RAM.) Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego: Surprisignly enough, based on the article, this game was NOT an adaptation, but the source material of this character. This is where the fancy, mystery lady in the red coat started! Evidently this game was originally an edutainment game with a cops and robbers theme, and inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure from higher up on the list, and one must appreciate the effort that went into it. This one is ranked low, mostly because it didn't seem TOO notable to me. Honestly I'm surprised this is where Carmen Sandiego started. (And that she doesn't get enough credit as an iconic theatrical villain who won't go a step too far, but that's another rant.) -

D LIST

Here we are. The D LIST. The bottom of the sorting pile; the lowest of them all, the... well, the ones that I honestly don't necessarily dislike, but couldn't place higher for reasons of notability, personal interest, or perceived impact on the history of gaming. John Madden Football: Sports games, as a whole, really do NOT do it for me. I don't like real like sports at ALL (with, as a kid, a brief interest in boxing and that was just because they had gloves like Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog) so its hard for me to say that I find the history of this one all that compelling. Even so, there's some interesting elements in how this game was a sequel to a previous failed attempt, with a bold new attempt at a more arcade-style action game with a more dramatic take on the players, who would in turn be rated in different skill sets. The Madden series is STILL going so... it worked out pretty well, I'd say. (FUCKIN EA WAS BEHIND THIS ONE??? wow, EA is older than I thought.) Microsoft Flight Simulator: It's honestly a bit painful sorting this one so low, since I had many happy times as a wee Johnny playing this game back in the old days. I mean the OLD, old days. This was like, the days when Usenet was the preferred way for people to talk online. (Not me, though. I didn't talk to people, then. I was even less social than I am now, which is saying something!) All the same, I suppose that it was important to not crowd too many entries in a specific folder, and statistically, something had to keep getting knocked down, and in the end, I couldn't honestly say I still enjoyed this one enough to place it higher. Still, credit must be given where it is due; this game stands out for being an early foray into simulator gaming, showing a realistic depiction of actual flight. It has apparently been updated and rereleased many times since, which is impressive! Tetris: I like puzzles. So it might be surprising to hear this seminal game ranked so low; firstly, I like different KINDS of puzzles (like weird ones where you have to fling your sense of logic to the moon and back, or make use of gaming mechanics) and honestly this game is kind of stressful for me. You gotta keep an eye on a lot of different things flying around all at once, and constantly move things around, and that kind of attention and quick thinking does NOT come easily to me. All the same, I really have to admire how it was born from it's creator's pleasure in solving mathematical puzzles about sorting shapes into boxes, in a manner strangely remniscient of Satoshi's bug collecting that became Pokemon. Certainly the game's simplicity has proven a universally appealing thing, and may say something about the value of keeping it simple. Microsoft Solitaire: This game apparently became pay-to-get some time ago in recent computer generations, and let me tell, you, it was genuinely depressing to find that out. I remember younger decades, from the 90s and on, when this game was a regular and free feature in Windows computers fir MANY years. You got a computer, this game was on here. I was a kid, and i remember watching my mom play this game and makign the cards go WHOOP WHOPP all over the place and marveling, because I couldn't ever do the same thing. (A related note: I am terrible at this game. Go figure!) Of note, this game was massively widespread, and just EVERYWHERE, and I think everyone who ever played a computer back in those days instantly remembers it in some way. It was just... ubiquitous. Centipede: Oh, ol' Centipede. I don't mean to be mean to you. But between the likes of Pokemon and Super Mario Bros, even the arcade Donkey Kong, someone had to keep dropping down the leaderboard that is this tierlist, and unfortunately, there were other games that felt higher up than you. All the same, you're a very good game, and honestly, I like you more than some other games ranked higher for reasons of relevance to gaming history. Certainly more than anything else in D-listing. The colorful and appealing palette is noteworthy. That trackball controller! Amazing! (More games should use trackballs. They're fun and easy to use.) At the very least, Order of the Stick did a joke with you once, and that's better than anything I can do for you. All the same, you're a cool game.

#tier lists #video games

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raviotherabbit · 3 years ago

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Reunion Tour - Chapter 1

note: this is an extended version of these two posts, with an ending added on.

[first] - [next] read it on ao3!

Chapter 1: Familiar Circumstances Wild and Warriors meet each other again.