#your companions start chasing enemies all over the map and your character stops attacking the moment whoever they were working on dies.

[six-improbable-things]

I understand that Dragon Age: Origins was released in 2009, but key boards have NOT changed in the last 15 years, so there HAD to have been a better way to make the controls... (yes, I know keybind changing is a thing, but that doesn't change the issue of the available options of what to bind to keys being very clunky. Like dear god, the camera maneuvering is TERRIBLE, holy shit.)

[outranks]

If you’re still taking requests, how about a fluffy fic with John Seed x Dep/reader where the reader is shy and isn’t experienced with romance. Maybe she always gets flustered when John does something romantic for her and she’s always giggly and shy when he kisses her? Thx for considering my request!

thank you so much for requesting!! ❤️❤️❤️I don’t think I’ve ever written a shy character before, so I really did my best with this and I hope it’s what you were looking for!!

John Seed / Reader

–

Somehow, when you weren’t paying attention, Seed Ranch has become familiar to you. Not so much that you can map the layout in your sleep, but enough that you’ve come to expect the creak of the floorboards near the back door, or Peggies going about their business as they pretend not to see you whenever you arrive. It should be concerning in some small way— the fact that John no longer fits in the neat little box labeled “enemy”, but instead it’s becoming a small comfort to you. It’s the one place in the county that feels like you could belong.

You pause by the door, breathing in the scent of food cooking in the kitchen. and drop your bag on a chair in the corner. John is an ally, if only in companionable stress, but that’s enough for now and it’s brought you to a temporary truce. You agree to destroy fewer of his properties, and he agrees to fewer forced baptisms. 

It’s simple, but effective. 

“John?” you call, hoping to alert him to your presence before you step into view of his office. “I just wanted to use your shower before I go… do a favor for something…” It’s a request from Mary May, but you’re still debating how much you want to put another weaponized truck onto the playing field. Plus, you might be new at your job, but ‘machine gun mounted truck’ sounds pretty illegal.

John startles when he sees you, brushing his hair back as if a single strand had ever been out of place. “You’re here.”

“I— yeah, I am,” you say. “Should I not be?”

“I was thinking that we could have dinner,” he says. “Together.”

You freeze, trying to think of all the reasons he might be asking. “To work out another deal?”

John frowns. “To eat.”

“Food?”

“What else would it be?”

“Together?”

“Are you alright?”

You definitely don’t feel alright and a laugh bubbles up inside your chest. “That almost sounds like a date,” you say, tripping over the words as your mind spins in circles trying to rationalize the idea of John wanting a date. Last you checked, the two of you were at the tentative friends stage if your relationship, and you were comfortable there. It’s safe there. Anything else would be unprofessional at best and a huge mistake where you end up on a date with John Seed at worst.

And yet, in spite of your racing heart, the idea of dinner with just the two of you sounds really nice. 

“It is a date,” John says, standing up and stepping around his desk. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, just, I don’t really—” you make a few vague, meaningless hand gestures— “do that kind of thing.”

“You don’t eat dinner?”

“Well no, not recently.” The last genuine meal you had was about a week ago when Hurk invited you over for a ‘our county has been taken over by a cult’ barbeque. “I mean, the date thing.” You brush your hair back and start to play with the hem of your shirt, more nervous now than you can remember being in a long time. And not even three days ago you got chased by a bear off a cliff. 

“If you’re not interested…”

“I am definitely interested,” you say, a little too loud. You’ve gone your entire adult life not being this awkward, and here’s John Seed asking you on a date and it throws off your entire equilibrium. Which it really shouldn’t because you can’t even count on one hand the number of model planes in his office alone, so that should help a little.

It doesn’t, at all.

But it should.

John smiles and it’s soft and small, and just a little guarded. “I’m glad,” he says, reaching out for your hand and managing to send your heart rate skyrocketing even worse than before. Like maybe this is his real plan to get rid of you once and for all: a damn heart attack. “I was a little afraid you’d turn me down.”

“Well—” another laugh escapes you— “I can’t really say no to dinner with a handsome man, can I?” You absolutely could, especially if the ground opened up and swallowed you whole like you’re starting to wish it would. 

“So the key to getting you to say yes is food?” John asks, but he’s started rubbing his thumb over the back of your knuckles, short circuiting your brain. 

It’s amazing that in all the years since high school, you’ve learned nothing about talking to guys you like. “Yeah,” you say, “that’s the secret.” The worst part is, it’s not entirely a lie. A hot meal is incredibly tempting whether you want to admit that or not. 

John’s lips press into a thin line for a moment before he speaks again. “This isn’t— I don’t want you to think that’s what this is. I’m not trying to get you to change your mind about us, I just want to spend time with you.”

You really should have considered this might be a new recruitment tactic before he brought it up himself. “I promise, that’s not what I was thinking.” Right now you’re barely thinking at all.

“Well, good.” John nods decisively. “Dinner will be ready soon, so you still have time to shower.” He looks at your clothes, or, more likely, the dirt covering your clothes. “I can find something else for you to wear…”

“Oh yeah, thanks.” You’re almost positive that your jeans aren’t salvageable and the only thing holding the left leg together is dried mud and hope. “I should—“ you regretfully pull your hands away from his and gesture behind you in the general direction of the shower. There’s a blush creeping onto your cheeks at the thought of using John’s shower and potentially wearing some of his clothes. 

You take a step back, wanting to remove yourself from the current situation before you do anything else embarrassing. 

“I’ll leave something clean out for you.”

“Yeah, yep, thank you.” The butterflies in your stomach are threatening to spill out if you don’t walk away soon. “I’ll just go now,” you say, spinning on your heel and heading off toward the shower without allowing yourself to say anything else. 

“Take your time,” John calls after you.

You cover your face with both hands and try not to let your mind wander through ideas of quiet evenings alone with John or dinners lit only in candle light. Both seem ridiculous given the current situation in the county, and yet you find yourself hoping to get all of that. You round the corner, finally out of sight from the small office, and take a moment to breathe. There are so many reasons why this is a bad idea, but you’re having a hard time thinking if any. 

Romance has never really been your thing, for one reason or another, but here is John Seed presenting the opportunity to you and you want to take it. You’re already so comfortable around him that it almost feels like a natural progression of what you already have. 

You take a deep breath, rolling your shoulders back, and continue on to a hot shower. Either you’re making a mistake or you’re not, but no matter what you’re going to see it through to the end. 

And hopefully you’ll stop blushing before dinner.

[blazichu]

This is a so-belated-that-now-it’s-on-time present for @chantillyxlacey. I realize the context is lacking, and I’m afraid that pieces are going to seem weird because of that. The more I tried to get the characters to interact, the more I realized how complicated getting them to even meet would be, and it kind of turned into a big ol’ thing. A big ol’ out of control thing that I’m still trying to rein in and turn into something vaguely story-shaped.

In any case, I really wanted to make sure you’d get a piece featuring your favs for your birthday, so I hope that makes up for any disjointedness that comes from not having the buildup!

❤️ Happy birthday, Lacey! ❤️

“What’s the deal with that, anyways?”

Leonardo glanced at her, frowning, but didn’t say anything. Vivi had seen that look before. That was the ‘something’s bothering me, but I’m not gonna talk about it’ look. Vivi hated that look.

So, with little else but a fire starting in her belly, she continued onwards, “You got a beef with the concept of ‘home’? We’re not gonna go looking for you—that’s not even why we were in the sewers in the first place—so why’s it such a big deal if someone talks about how you guys live somewhere? Everyone lives somewhere, even temporarily.”

His expression and posture refused to betray what he was thinking, but just for a second, Vivi caught the tension in his form. The way he was looking at her had changed; she almost felt like she was under a spotlight.

“It won’t be temporary.”

The more she heard—the more behaviors she recognized—the more Vivi became invested. There was a note to what he’d said that was almost painfully familiar, a note she’d heard more than once as Arthur poured over maps far too late into the night; it was something wedged firmly between conviction and a plea as he’d said ‘That’s where he is. It’s gotta be.’

Tonally, the two statements couldn’t be any more distinct from each other. Between the late hour and his own desperation, Arthur’s had been… she didn’t have any words for it, beyond ‘soft’.  Leonardo’s was anything but—he’d said it with such determination that it was like he could simply speak it into being.

Somewhere, not in intonation or the slightest vocal tremor, but somewhere, she heard the same doubt.

“But it has been?” She asked, even though she already had her answer.

Leonardo remained silent and stared right back at her with narrowed eyes.

‘Temporarily’

The word hadn’t caught Leo off-guard, per se, but it unsettled him. He didn’t know what a temporary home was to humans—and, somehow, doubted a derelict farmhouse in the country was the standard definition—but he doubted it meant the same thing from his perspective.

He hadn’t realized it until he’d come back to ruins, but for them, every home was a temporary one. No matter where they went, no matter how much they tried to protect themselves, an enemy would eventually find them and leave them with nothing. The mousers were one thing—at worst, that lair could be called collateral in Stockman’s grand plan—but the Foot…

Leo was grateful for the opportunity to study under the Ancient One, grateful to have been led back to who he truly was, but if it meant he’d have been there with his family when they’d found their home under attack, he would have traded that clarity away.

Their first lair had lasted fifteen years; the second hadn’t even made it two.

He understood that nothing was truly permanent, that you had to adapt to change, but no one could take living in the eye of uncertainty day after day.

It was funny, in that regard, that Leo had initially intended for their current lair to be a place to rest, and then move on. The distance from the old lair had made it safe enough—for a time—that he’d been confident in it, but the longer they lingered, the less sure he became.

With the outbreak, it had become too dangerous to go wandering about in the sewers. Security measures were a must, and, in a sense, that was also what determined that they really were staying there. The sense of loss had weighed on each of them in different ways, but was balanced by the anticipation for what this new place might become.

(And then Donnie got sick. It should have been obvious—Leo should have known something was truly wrong the instant his brother’s usually-impeccable wiring failed, but he hadn’t thought anything of it, and now the phantom of a monster-that-wasn’t-really-a-monster had taken up residence in the living room.)

He was beginning to wonder if they’d stay there for even a year.

Leo cast a critical eye over his companion and, even as he considered it, said, “It won’t be temporary.”

“But it has been.”

It wasn’t a question, and Leo bristled.

The implication that she knew—that she understood—burned. If a human lost their house, they didn’t lose everything; his family had no such luxury. She couldn’t possibly understand the crushing gravity of coming home to find nothing. Even though they’d all been alright, he couldn’t forget finding Mikey camping out in the subway with only Klunk for backup, Raph hiding on Coney Island, fearing for the others’ safety, or Don trying to tend to their father’s injuries with whatever he could scrape up in an abandoned warehouse.

He understood that nothing was truly permanent—he wanted to believe that he’d taken the lesson to heart—but he’d seen what a transient existence entailed, and didn’t want his family to endure that kind of uncertainty again.

“You said you’re not going to come looking for us,” He said evenly, the sudden need to speak startling her, ”But, for my brothers’ sakes, I can’t take you at your word. You have to realize how suspicious that question is coming from a self-professed paranormal investigator.”

Vivi’s posture straightened and her eyes gleamed with renewed interest. For half a second, Leo wondered if he hadn’t just painted a bigger target on their shells.

“Consider the topic dropped.” She cocked her head, thoughtful, “I should’a caught it before—you’re the big brother here, right?”

He gave her a flat look, refusing to reward such blatant fishing.

She didn’t seem to notice.

“I get it. It would be weird to call me the ‘big sister’ for uh, reasons, but I’m the same. I mean, we’re a team; it’s not like Lewis and Arthur can’t take care of themselves—” She stopped abruptly, frowning exaggeratedly, “—though sometimes I wonder about that.”

Taken by surprise, Leo snorted. That, at least, he could sympathize with: he was extremely familiar with detached bemusement at someone else’s antics. He was so glad he could see his brothers’ harmless quirks as harmless quirks again, and not something that would get them all killed.

Mikey’s literal-but-also-metaphorical game of telephone came to mind.

Vivi’s entire expression lit up in response. “You know what I’m talking about! Like, who manages to chase his hamster behind the desk and then gets stuck? Who accidentally pha—whoops.” The brightness of her smile dimmed, and she adjusted her scarf self-consciously, “I’m, uh, sworn to secrecy on that, actually.”

Leo shrugged, still on guard, but his mood was ever-so-slightly lighter.

“At the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to watch out for them. I was the one who asked them to get involved in the first place, after all.” Folding her arms over her chest, Vivi sighed and glanced away, previous excitement nowhere to be found. “Anyway, I get it. I still wanna know more about you guys, ‘cause you seem awesome, but I don’t want to put anyone at risk, either.”

Quietly, like she thought he couldn’t hear, she added “Done plenty of that already.”

And even though he still wouldn’t trust them so easily, that one murmured aside mattered to Leo.

The contemplative silence they lapsed into was almost comfortable.

[the-crippled-god]

Ys: Memories of Celceta

This is the first SEVENS engine game I've finished. I played about 5 hours of Ys: SEVEN on the PSP, and didn't enjoy the combat system much. That carried through to this game, at least for the first half. It's too button mashy, and the AI partners are useless.

However, once you start getting skills, and enemies get tough enough you actually have to dodge/block it starts to be fun. Really wish the AI was a bit smarter, but I ended up enjoying the system none the less.

It really feels like you can break this game in half if you found a reliable way to farm gold and abused the weapon upgrade system. Only shame is that bosses are immune to all status effects.

As a general rule, I was struggling to get through this game up until I got to the Primeval Lands, then the story actually kicks off and the combat gets good.

As far as complaints, here:

- This is a PC port of a PS4 port of a Vita game, and you feel it. Everything works, but certain aspects of the controls, and all of the interfaces and menus, are designed for a touch screen. It's never really a problem, but it looks ugly. They tried to make the game look better with shaders and AA, but the models are really low poly and the textures are pretty low res, it looks fine most of the time, but sometimes cutscenes look really rough.

- The game is about creating a map. But the map you're trying to fill in is offset from the terrain, so to get those last few percentages you need to hug the walls in certain areas, and it really feels like they should've either caught this in QA, or patched the game when they ported it from the Vita

That's pretty much it. Other complaints are a lot more subjective or petty (combat starts a little too hard, but becomes too easy, gold feels too scarce up until you no longer need it, etc.).

Story wise, this is a lot beefier (or at least wordier) than previous games, so I'll skim just the important bits, and bit I found charming:

- The framing device of the series is finally made explicit: What we're experiencing are re-tellings (from several centuries later) of travelogues left behind by Adol, and that Adol was a legendary adventurer who brought about the 'Age of Discovery'

- Adol finally has a personality: He's inquisitive and curious to the point of it being a character flaw, he can't help but stick is nose into everything and constantly hound people with questions. He also really likes lame jokes. I found him actually charming, which I wasn't expecting.

- The era of the world is much more clear: It's less medieval, and more early age of conquest type stuff, large empires are sending armies and explorers to frontiers in attempts to map and rule the enitre world.

- Duran is a fun companion, if only because he gets to be the butt of every joke. The twist with his background is a good way of giving the character depth when he's also the only character without his own arc in the story.

- Karna is boring. Maybe this is just because I read the (5 chapters available in english) of the Mask of the Sun manga and she's much more fun there. Her and Remnos's story just being a redo of the Fact brother's story from Origin didn't really help. I like Remnos though, which he had more presence in the story.

- Ozma is also boring. He's just kind of a type or character I don't like. The whole one with nature / compelled by sacred duty thing always feels tedious to me. He also has the least personality, he never really has conversations with the other compansions, he's just kinda there.

- Calilica is adorable. Precocious and snarky and thinks she's way smarter than she is? Fun. Every scene with her in it is a good scene.

- Frieda is cool, but the game doesn't really give her enough time to shine. Her snarking at Duran and fooling with Adol is good, and her fairy embarassing her is also good, but there's just not quite enough of it. I'm assuming both her and Duran come back in another game, because boy do they leave a lot of open plot threads lying around in Danan.

- I get that the game is trying to portray Eldeel as benevolent, but he's so weirdly patronizing in how he treats humanity that I wanted to kill him before he turned evil.

- Griselda also needs more screen time, for such a cool design it's a shame she's relegated to only a couple inconsequential scenes.

Okay, very quick high level story summary (mostly just the bits that matter to the over all series):

At the start of the game Adol has lost his memories, he's already been through the Great Forest once, but doesn't remember it. The new Governer General of Casnan/Celceta (okay this is confusing, is Celceta just the ancient kingdom, or is it also the new one run by the Ronoms? Casnan is certainly the city, but characters are inconsistent on the name of the country), Griselda, arrives and sends Adol and Duran on a quest to map the Great Forest. They set out to map the forest, and see about recovering Adol's memory. They evenutally meet Ozma and Karna, and help them with some problems their respective villages are having. In solving these problems they encounter a beast tamer and a magician, who are up to no good. Reporting on map progress to Griselda, and trying to work out where to go next, Adol runs into her new aide, Gruda. Duran recovers a journal Adol wrote before losing his memories (spoilers: presumably recovered from his grave by Frieda), that hints at how to cross the rives and reach the Primeval Lands. Upon reaching the Primeval Lands Adol and company encounter Adol's own gravestone, and the village of Highland. Highland worhips the 'god' Eldeel, who lives in a tower nearby surrounded by storms. Adol was brought there previously by one of Eldeel's apostles Leeza. Highland is surrounded by a barrier field that causes anyone who leaves it to forget anything about it. This is how Adol lost his memories. The people of Highland found his belongings at the foot of a waterfall, and assumed he drowned. Adol had previously met with Eldeel and been given something. Eldeel is a god who imparts knowledge onto various humans in order to guide civilization, because although people forget highland upon leaving, they'll eventually be inspired by the knowledge he gave them, and believe they came up with the ideas themselves. The example he gives is granting the losing side of an ongoing naval war access to a more advanced ship design, evening the odds. The game aggressively skims over how that likely just massively increased the death toll of the conflict, but don't worry Eldeel is a good guy, promise.

Here's where the game gets a little odd. Eldeel is blatantly the same race as Reah and Feena. Adol I guess doesn't talk about this because he doesn't remember Ys? You eventually get memories back of Dogi, but never any of what happened in Esteria. Just seems weird to me that even after you recover all your memories, you can't ask Eldeel about where he came from.

Eventually we work out that Eldeel is sick, and sneak into his tower to check on him, there we find evil Eldeel, who demands that Adol return the Mask of the Sun, something Eldeel gave to him the last time they met. We now know how Adol lost his memories. Eldeel gave him the Mask, for some reason (I think to destroy it, but we'll get to that), the his sickness took over, turning him bad, where upon he chased Adol down and knocked him off a waterfall. So, the Mask should be in his grave, right? Nope, we already investigated the grave for other reasons, and found it empty.

Upon returning to Highland we find it under attack by Ronom soldiers, specifically Gruda, the soldiers are using strength enhancement masks that was being trialled on people from Karna's village. Karna's brother Remnos, also appears to be working with Gruda (along with the two shady people we'd already encountered). Gruda is also looking for the Mask, and his team quickly take control of the tower while Adol and co. are distracted saving the town. Soon after, we find that Gruda and Eldeel have both fled the tower, headed for the ancient kingdom of Celceta.

Somewhere in here we learn the purpose of the Mask of the Sun: it enables the wearer to read the Akashic Records.

Eventually our journey takes us to the hidden city of Danan (Dana? Unclear, map calls it Danan, so), Danan is populated by descendants of people who betrayed the gods 800+ years ago. Eldeel brought them here and forgave them, but the people of Danan continue to maintain records of forbidden knowledge in order to keep the world safe. Duran (and Frieda) is an agent of Danan. Duran saved Adol and brought him back to Casnan at the beginning of the game, intending to leave him, but ended up helping him out. Frieda also recovered the Mask of the Sun from Adol's grave, and it's being kept in the village.

Leeza shows up and takes the mask (believing she can use it to save Eldeel), she has a giant mech, so we can't exactly stop her. The mask is quickly stolen from her by Gruda. This is where we learn that Gruda is also from Danan. He became obsessed with forbidden knowledge a few years back, and left Danan, taking up the old (disgraceful) mantal of the Danan people, calling himself a Darkling. When he left, Frieda's fiancee also left with him, pursued by his younger brother (I'm assuming this will come up in another game).

We chase Gruda and Eldeel (now basically fully evil) to the Temple of the Sun, where the Akashic Records are stored, however we can't follow them inside because it will only open for the wearer of the Mask.

Through the Roos/Roda Tree we learn of the existence of a second (less powerful) mask, the Mask of the Moon, and seek it out. While hunting down the mask we learn some stuff about water dragons that makes Ozma happy, and learn that Remnos was just pretending to be evil (no duh) and save his life. Later we meet the ghost of the old king of Celceta, and learn that Leeza is his descendent. He explains that we can use the Mask of the Moon to surpress Eldeel's dark side, at least for a short while.

We enter the Temple, fight Eldeel, use the Mask of the Moon to make him good again (temporarily), and pursue Gruda (who now has the Mask of the Sun) into the Akashic records. We eventually kill him, but destabilize the records as a result. So, we take the Mask of the Sun and throw is into a volcano (this section is so obviously LotR that it's not even funny), destroying the Akashic Records (and thus freeing humanity from it's pre-written history) forever.

Everyone lives, and Eldeel goes off to kill himself, remarking in much the same way Feena/Reah did in Ys II, that Humanity is much better off than they were in the age of the gods.

So, a few good hooks in there for stuff to come later. The Danans obviously have a lot more going on. There's details about Eldeel and the kingdom of Celceta that hint at the same incident as Ys Origin did (a people betraying the gods, etc.). The confusing piece to me is timelines. Ys fell 700 years ago, Celceta fell 800 years ago, when Celceta was founded, Danans already no longer called themselves Darklings. So, where was Dalles and crew from? Is Eldeel actually one of the God race? Or is he like Reah and Feena, among the betrayers, but stole technology from them in order to help humanity? What's the difference between these betrayers and the Darklings? Hoping the next couple games will answer some of these questions.

Up next is the only Ys game I'd already beaten before starting this. Ys: The Oath in Felghana. I remember really enjoying this game (it's what got me in to the series), and not finding it too long or difficult. Which is weird, because looking it up, it has the repuation for being the most difficult in the series. Let's see how it is on the revisit.