#— queue | time spent healing is not wasted time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

canyouhearthelight · 3 years

Text

The Miys, Ch. 133

Whew. I finally get a chance two queue chapters and add to my buffer! Yayyy me! Kind of long author’s note, feel free to skip to the readmore.

Seriously, though, I managed to only work 5ish hours of OT this week instead of the 25/wk I’ve been clocking the last several weeks. It’s been a ride, for sure. Thank you for bearing with me through this frankly-insane time.

@baelpenrose and I have had more chances to write together in real-time, which considering both our schedules and living 3 timezones apart has been a delightful miracle and I will never take it for granted ever again.

@anotherusrname and @the-raven-fae have been very encouraging of my efforts to work less, which - it turns out - has been a huge concern for oh, my entire family... Sorry I worried you all. :( I’m trying to do better! Swear I have vacations coming up!

@charlylimph-blog has just been... such a support. She literally texts me every night at 10pm my time to tell me to take my most important medications. Sainted Eldritch Fae cannot be appreciated enough, and somehow I have two.

Final shout outs go to @snickerfritz, @just-a-pastel-bunny, and @eldritchmoths for love-bombing my inbox recently. Seeing anyone speed-run through this story lets me know that I’m not wasting my time.

Don’t forget to check out the podcast!! AhhhhH! I want to scream in delight each time a new episode is released!

Focus, I told myself, breath coming in short pants. It was easier said than done, with sweat dripping into my eyes while I constantly tried to pay attention to where I was safe to move to without putting myself in the line of fire. Seeing the incoming hit, I ducked and pivoted to my left -

“Oof,” I grunted as I took a blow to the ribs. I managed not to be winded or fall, but I was pretty sure something just broke.

A voice taunted me. “You have got to get better at keeping your guard up.”

“I am,” I panted. “My ribs are a lot tougher than my face.” Refusing to be distracted, I jumped back from the next hit and started circling wide.

“And I hit harder than your sister.”

Yeah, well broken ribs are for bitches, I thought to myself. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had a broken rib before. I was fine. Out of reflex more than forethought, I pivoted my leg and bent my knee to absorb the shock of the next hit - this one to the thigh. Grabbing the offending leg, I held tight around the calf with one arm before shoving upwards on the heel with the other, dropping him onto his back.

Unfortunately, the kick to the chin I got as a result also landed me on my back.

Like an exceedingly annoying ninja, Arthur sprang to his feet before holding out a hand to help me up off the floor. “You should have expected that.”

I scowled and rubbed my jaw. “Why am I sparring with you again?”

“Because Tyche’s busy and I’m the only other person willing to actually hit you hard enough to teach you anything.”

Rolling my neck, I tried to relieve some of the tension that was setting in. “It’s not like aliens are going to know Terran hand-to-hand combat,” I pointed out as I took my stance for the next round. This time, his movement was a lot more fluid, which told me he was going for grappling instead of striking.

The kick I almost took to the face told me that his stance was also a lie.

There wasn’t any time for trash-talking, this time around. I could barely find time to breathe as he aggressively attacked, although I barely managed to avoid him actually touching me. I wasn’t an idiot - if he got a hold of me, I would be waking up from a forced nap with a sore throat. However, after what felt like an eternity and was probably only about five minutes, the odds of keeping it up were dwindling. My heart was pounding in my ears, my lungs were searing with the effort of trying to keep up with it, and there wasn’t a chance in hell that I had enough stamina to outlast him. The man ran a 5k a day as a warm up. Even more humiliating, I had spent the entire time running and dodging without even a chance to mount a counter to any of it.

Finally, I was spent. Every time I tried to raise my hands, they shook so badly that there was no chance of landing a hit, even if I had the opportunity. My legs were trembling, my knees burned, and the broken rib felt like someone was twisting a hot blade into my side. Feeling defeated, I dropped my hands and squared my feet up. The blow to the solar plexus was unsurprising, as was the chokehold he put me in as soon as I doubled over. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time this had happened while sparring with him - or even with Tyche.

I was so frustrated. No matter how much I sparred with either of them, I felt like I hadn’t gained any ground. The whole point to training so hard was to prove that I actually could defend myself. Councilor or not, the thought that I was going to be shoved in the back of the Archives in the event of an attack was insulting. Not only that, it was even more insulting than the time I had round-the-clock guards. No one else had to put up with this, why did I?

“Tap out, Sophia,” he warned me. He wasn’t squeezing yet, but he had his arm locked tightly enough that I couldn’t get my head out. When I silently refused, he sighed and applied pressure, pissing me off even more.

I’m not helpless, I growled at myself. The anger at myself and the frustration with the situation flooded my mind, and I started pulling against the hold with my legs.

“You’re going to break your neck,” he grunted as he leaned the opposite direction. I may not have had his stamina, but I could also leg-press nearly five-hundred pounds. He could let go, or lean back, no other options.

Spots were floating in front of my eyes when I felt his posture change, and as soon as I felt it, both my arms swung up. Assuming I was going to hit his face, he leaned back even further…

Right into the path of my cupped hands, which hit his ears hard enough to bruise both my hands.

“Ow, FUCK!” he shouted, the pain of his ruptured ear drums distracting him just enough that I was able to pull my head free.

As soon as I stood, he reached up to one of his ears, only to pull his hand away and see blood. “Son of a - “ he stopped when he realized what happened. “Huh. That… that is a pretty neat trick.”

Oh, just you wait, I thought to myself.

Sure enough, as soon as he tried to shift his weight for another assault, he stumbled. Trying to compensate, he made it even worse and ended up falling flat on his back. Dropping his head to the mat in defeat, he splayed his limbs out to try to gain some sense of equilibrium. “Oh that is cool,” he muttered, obviously for my benefit since he couldn’t exactly hear himself.

I managed to get him to his feet and drag him to the corridor as the medical transport arrived - there was no way I was going to try to walk him to a medbay. Once his eardrums were restored - along with his internal balance - Arthur stood and stared me down. “That was a dirty trick, Sophia.” Without warning, I was suddenly pulled into a crushing hug. “I am so proud of you. Do that, a lot of it.”

“Can’t breathe,” I gasped.

He released me, stepping back. “Right. The rib.”

I tried to wave him off. “It’s just a broken rib. I’ll be fine.”

“Medbay.” He gestured around the room. “Stop being stubborn.”

“You’re overreacting - “

“If you trip and fall, which you will, you can puncture a lung.”

“Hasn’t happened yet.”

“It’s been broken all of ten minutes. Medbay. Now.”

I glared at him. “If you think this is the first broken rib I’ve had, you’re insane. It’s not even the fiftieth.”

“Stop reminding me that I can’t go back to Earth and kill someone who is hopefully dead anyway. You made me go to the medbay for some broken teeth after the fight with Jokul. Also, with your luck it’s a miracle you haven’t killed yourself by breathing, and I am not going to be the one who’s next up on Tyche’s shit list. Go. Medbay. Now.”

I opened my mouth to argue again, but was cut off by swearing and Arthur literally just picking me up and dropping me in the closest berth. With exactly zero shame, he pinned me down by my shoulders and hips while one of Noah’s avatars held me down from the other side and scanned, then healed, my broken rib - both of them, it turns out. Finally, they both let go of me. “Can I leave now?” I asked petulantly.

“Only if you tell me the eardrum trick so I can figure out how to use it on other species.”

Sliding off the berth and to my feet, I ran a hand through my hair. “Easy. You just cup your hands so there aren’t any cracks between your fingers, like this.” I demonstrated. “And then try to clap your hands through someone’s head, right over the ears. Force of the air ruptures the ear drums, and the trauma reaction kills their spatial sense and balance.” When he tilted his head at the simplicity of it, I shrugged. “Women’s self-defense classes.”

“Ah,” he nodded. “Speaking of women and self-defense, we have got to get you more in the habit of striking and blocking with your legs. Pretty sure you’d kick like a horse if you tried.”

“If I kick you, I’ll break something.”

“Your legs are a lot tougher than you think - “

“I meant something on you,” I clarified, staring at the ground.

I didn’t look up, but I could hear the savage grin in his voice at what he said next. “Oh, we have got to try this.” When my head snapped up, sure enough, he was smiling. “If you can land a kick on me, I won’t even be mad if you break something. But that’s not what I meant.”

“You want me to test it on someone else?” That wasn’t exactly a better option.

He rolled his eyes. “Maverick literally does calibrations for a living. Pretty sure he’s got something that measures impact force. Then we do the math from there.”

“I feel like I’m on an episode of MythBusters,” I grumbled as we headed out of the Medbay and back towards my office.

“I know!” he agreed enthusiastically.

<< Prev Masterlist Next >>

#the miys #found family #aliens #apocalypse #humans are weird #humans are space orcs #humans are space fae #hfy #self defense #science fiction #sci fi #original science fiction #original sci fi #original writing #my writing

57 notes · View notes

mommymooze · 4 years

Text

Group Wolf?

Felix is assigned a battalion

warning: foul language, fighting, war stuff, disgruntled swordsman

“No.”

Felix stands, adamant as an impenetrable fortress. He is a lone wolf. He works alone. He is not a babysitter.

The Professor is not one to be refused. They argue for quite some time. Felix refuses to back down. He fights tooth and nail, cursing and gnashing his teeth. At the moment he suddenly finds himself heading to the training grounds to meet his new Battalion leader.

He opens the door to find a corpulent figure dressed in leather and ringed armor loosely fastened over a green sleeveless tunic, heavy belt with a sword hanging to the left, black shorts and worn knee high leather boots standing back to the door, putting the last bits together of a training dummy. The figure stands about five and a half foot tall and looks to be 4’ wide at the shoulders, owing to arms and legs as thick as logs, dark hair everywhere. A long dark brown ponytail swishes left and right at the back of her head like a horse tail chasing flies. Tanned skin marked with scars far and wide having spent too much time outdoors and in battle shows beads of sweat associated with hard work. Byleth calls out and the figure turns ‘round. “Kat! This is Felix.”

Kat drops the hammer and throws her right mitt up, grabbing the Professor’s tiny and delicate right hand in a merc’s handshake while slapping the much smaller woman on her right shoulder, knocking her a bit off balance. “Lassie! It’s good ta see ya!” the matronly figure laughs.

Felix’s face looks like a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing without a sound. This is a woman? The crone looks older than Manuela, probably close to 40 and has more facial hair than all the male students added together. Her cheeks have a dusting of thin dark hairs, she definitely has a mustache and a very thin beard on her neck. Her muscles put Raphael to shame.

Kat sets her eyes on the young male student. “Felix, eh? We’re goin’ to teach ya how to cooperate. How to work a team.“ She scowls at him, in return he gives the woman a disgusted look.

“Heard yer a lone wolf. Sometimes that works for a man, but yer gonna need ta figure out how ta play well with others. That’s where I come in.” She smirks, dark eyes piercing him like swords. “We’re gonna be joined at the hip for a while lad, so get used ta seeing my smiling face.“ She grins widely, offering her hand to the disgruntled swordsman for shaking. When he makes no effort to move, she grabs his right with her left and forces his hand to meet hers, shaking the hand and the rest of him heartily. Felix jerks his limb down, bringing his hand to a fist at his side while mumbling “disgusting” under his breath.

Kat looks at Byleth who is rolling her eyes. The small mountain of a woman smiles widely and gives a little wink. “Go on now with ya, we’re gonna introduce ourselves right properly here.”

Byleth snickers, leaving the training grounds. Kat follows her to the door, bars it from the inside, and turns back to the young noble. “Let’s see how well ya kin fight.” Marching to the stand of wooden training swords, she tosses one at Felix. His jaw is set, arms crossed, as he stands and frowns. Refusing to look her in the eye, he lets the sword bounce off of his chest and clatter to the ground.

---> x <---

Felix fights until he can’t hold a sword. If he doesn’t fight, he gets the crap beat out of him. When he fights, the swords or fists hit him less often. He’s battered, bruised, and can’t think of one spot on his body that doesn’t hurt. Still, she makes him fight. Still, she makes him move. Again. Pick up the sword, strike or be struck. Again. He can’t remember if 4 or 6 hours have passed. Suddenly the constant barrage stops. His eyes glaze over, his breathing is weak. He begins to collapse as she catches him and hefts him onto her shoulder, carrying him to his room like an old rug. She sets him down at the door, and he balances himself, then tries to slide in so he can slam the door in her face. A huge shoulder easily keeps the door blocked open. He grabs fresh clothes and she takes him to the baths. While he undresses, she runs the water and prepares the bath with soaps and oils. He is too tired to move. She finishes stripping him down and gently lowers him into the tub. Sinking in the water, that is the last thing he recalls of that day.

Felix wakens with a shock. He had slept. When was the last time he just slept? He can’t remember. There was not one nightmare. He hasn’t been that tired in a long time. He then recalls …her. He sits up, too quickly, his head spins, he winces as the pain causes him to fall back on the bed. He sighs heavily. Trying again, he rolls to his side, carefully placing his feet on the floor, sits up, cognizant of Kat’s eyes piercing into him.

“You’re staring. Get dressed, we have a busy day.” She turns around, looks back down at her notepad and jots a few more notes. She doesn’t look behind her as he makes a flurry of offensive gestures directed at the back of her head.

“You’re rude and stubborn. You’re also a big boy, you can dress yourself eh?”

Felix grunts, getting out of bed, to find everything neat, clean. His boots are polished and ready at the bed, soiled clothes set in the laundry, fresh clothes laid out. He grabs them with an exaggerated motion that painfully reminds him he is still sore from yesterday. He gingerly gets dressed. With every bit of strength he has left, which isn’t much, he storms for the door and heads out. Blasting down the hall, down the stairs, he heads toward the classrooms. A large arm wraps around his shoulders and he’s now heading to the dining hall. If his feet try to take him in the wrong direction, a hand in the back of his shirt lifts him from the ground and points him in the proper direction. Felix smolders angrily.

Brows furrowed, jaw set, the fuming male gets in line with his shadow queueing next. Grabbing a plate of eggs, bread & butter, and cheese, he slumps at a table. The behemoth sits next to him, placing an apple and a glass of milk next to his plate and a folded vellum with some powder. He raises an eyebrow, staring at the unwelcome additions.

“Yer a growing boy. Drink yer milk. Not an option. The other is to knock the pain down a notch or two.” A nod at his tray, she takes a bite of her eggs, waving at him to eat.

He glares at her. He should leave. Recalling the events of last night, he knows she will hold him down and pour the milk down his throat like she did the healing potions. He doesn’t need everyone staring at him here. Maybe he is a bit hungry. He eats quickly, starts to get up, hears a grunt, meets her eye and sits back down. When she finishes her meal, they clear the table and head to his first class. She leaves his side once he passes through the doors to the classroom.

“Who is your girlfriend?” Sylvain taunts the indigo haired man. The redhead is rewarded with a swift kick to an ankle that makes him yowl. He did learn a few new spots to inflict quick pain yesterday, may as well put them to use.

Class proceeds uneventfully. He manages to give several evil looks to the professor. At the bell, he knows ‘she’ waits for him at the door. There is only one exit to the room. Damn. He stomps out, she falls in with him as they head to the dining hall again. She leads him toward a table full of mercenaries. She slows to advise him, “These are my boys. You’ll greet ‘em properly. Noble or commoner, courtesy is free and expected.” The table of young men looking to be 16-30 years old boisterously greet the pair. Handshakes and introductions are exchanged, with Kat only having to give Felix one or two nods of encouragement. Plates of food are already there for the two that have just joined. One of the guys approaches Felix and puts a small jar on the table in front of him. “Name’s Roy. Heard ya like spicy foods. Enjoy.”

Felix’s eyes get a bit wide. “Uh, thanks” he mumbles. He opens the jar, the reddish brown powder smells like some kind of peppers, making his nose tingle. He sprinkles some on his stew. The teen observes the others as he eats.

The conversation around the table settles to a low roar. He wants to be anywhere but here. They are all talking to him. He feels exhausted answering their millions of questions about nonsense, favorite foods, worst foods, did you ever eat this or that, ever been to one place or another, what weapons have you used. Felix gives short answers to every question an elbow in his side inspiring him to comply. He gives a side eye glance at the beastly thing sitting next to him. He can feel her nod whenever he’s said enough to satisfy her. Why the hell does he have to know these people? Don’t you just point, they go, and that’s it? Giving orders, that is what commanding is about. He shakes his head. This is a waste of time.

Lunch is complete. The table is cleared by the battalion. They stand and look at Felix and Kat. She stands, informing the group as to their plans. “We got a bit of a chore before we can let ya go, come on.” The bear of a woman gets up and heads out towards the front gate. The company falls in behind the pair. Heading outside, they walk along the walls surrounding the campus. Following a well-worn path along the exterior walls where patrols monitor the grounds at night, they see a large uprooted tree. When it fell, the roots lifted a large mound of earth and created a hole in the stone wall surrounding the monastery making quite a mess. This breach in defenses needs to be addressed quickly.

Kat hauls herself up on one of the stones that have fallen from the wall. There must be 15 that fell loose, they are huge. Whole stones are at least 2 foot tall, three foot long and a foot or more thick, laying akimbo on the ground.

Kat directs her words at Felix. “A battalion is an amazing show of what teamwork can do ta get things done. One man, if he’s lucky, kin lift a stone. A team of ‘em can move mountains. You need communication, clear and to the point. Resolving conflicts. Problem solving, decision making, persuasion and influencing skills, rapport, reliability and recognition. No prob, eh Felix? Since I’m in a good mood, I’m gonna start ya off.”

She addresses the battalion. “We need the stones moved and stacked here.” Kat walks to a spot, shoves a stick in the ground that is about 20 foot from the wall and to the right of the toppled stones.”

“We gotta fill the hole left by the fallen tree. That’ll keep patrols from falling and breaking somethin’ when they’re policing the walls at night. If there’s time, we need to get the fallen tree away from the wall so there’s room to maneuver.”

Felix is hauled up onto the rock as Kat jumps down. “You get to tell us what to do and how to do it.” She folds her arms across her chest and stares straight into his eyes.

The young man stands there dumbfounded. What the hell does all of this have to do with fighting? Why is he even here? He wants to jump down and run. His mouth is getting drier by the second and his fists begin to shake.

A merc with sandy brown hair sticking out of a flat cap tips his head up. “Oy. We’re all here mate. We can help, just ask. We’re a team ya know.” Nods and grunts of agreement surround him.

“Who has done this before?” Felix hears his voice croak. He calls out to the 2 that answered to give their account of how the job was completed. He starts to catch his breath. He asks the group again, any other suggestions? One of the men suggests keeping people that are really short together and really tall together, makes for better lifting. Felix feels his hands relax, he nods. His glance flits to her. She is bowing her head and nodding.

“Those are great ideas. Useful information. Uh. Anything else?” he coughs.

One man raises a shovel, the end of Felix’s mouth curls up a bit. “What tools do we got here?” A count of shovels and axes is provided as well as a smaller wagon and some ropes in the inventory.

Felix starts dividing them into teams. He gets the best axe users separated from the best with shovels and the best in heavy lifting. He begins sending them out. “Axe users, clear up the area the stones are to go to. Make a clear path. Knock those roots off then start on lower branches.”

Felix stands at the stones. Lifters are in 2 teams of 4, 2 front 2 rear. “You 4, carefully move the top stone, let me know if anything shifts.” They are able to get the stone free from the pile and a couple feet away, but it’s difficult to make any distance. Felix calls a couple axe users over. He has the front 2 lift, they can get an axe handle under the stone and with 2 more in the center lifting using the ax handle to support the weight in the center of the stone, and allowing those two to stand farther out so they’re not arms and legs all over each other. On the count of 3 they lift, and the small team readily moves the stone to the destinated clearing that is now ready. Felix grins, then catches a look on Kat’s face, she’s mouthing “thank you.”

“Great job men. Well done. Take a minute to breathe, get the next team ready.” Felix awkwardly says. He heads back to begin again. When they’ve cleared the immediate area, the first team is ready to start on the next block.

Felix orders the shoveling workers to begin to fill the hole closest to where the stones lay, making it easier to access the rest of the fallen wall and make better stepping ground.

Felix sets the axe wielders working on the high point of the root ball of the prone tree. They work together and plan to knock the roots off and dirt, lessening the weight at the base of the tree and freeing more dirt for fill.

The academy student runs between units, helping lift here, steadying there, helping stomp a shovel in the ground, making sure the teams keep clear of each other, are aware of their surroundings. He thanks them with a slap on a shoulder a nod, a word. He stops a stone lift in progress, hearing something shift. The group stands back as a stone that was still wedged between others 10 feet up the wall, falls to the ground where they had been standing. Worried smiles and grateful thanks are shared for a moment, then work resumes.

Kat begins sorting the broken stones while the larger ones are moved by teams. She tossed smaller chunks in holes as fill, carrying the ones that could be reused to the end of the neatly stacked rescued wall blocks.

“Hey Felix!” hollers a merc with a scar cutting through the left side of his face, he’s Vaughn, right? “We’re done with the stones.”

“Great job,” Felix remembers to say on his own, no reminder needed.

The swordsman eyes the tree. It is very thick at the base, but as it had grown, branches grew out on the side away from the wall. He discusses with the axe wielders the best place to cut the trunk base from the rest of the treetop, what branches have to go so the remaining trunk can be rolled over to give the needed room for patrol runs. Those that are not chopping are dragging away the freed branches to make room to work and keep the path clear. The huge stump is ready in no time. All hands together, they roll it far from the wall. The ground behind is nearly flat except for where they run out of earth to fill the hole. They drive some branches in the ground about 3 or 4 feet tall making a fence around the pitfall to prevent any injuries.

Kat holds her hand out and Felix grabs it, accidentally feeling a smile on his cheek that he has to fight back down to a more neutral position. Kat whoops heartily and the battalion joins in with thanks, waves, slaps on the back, and claps on shoulders, as each is recognized for their work.

“Tank, finish the clean up, gotta get our student back ta class” The battalion leader says as she gives him a firm hug and ruffles what little black hair he had on his head. Major tasks are accomplished in a short time. Not unlike a mountain being moved.

The two walk alongside each other toward the gate leading back into the Monastery. “If I was yer teacher, I’d give ya a B+. I thought you were gonna stand up on that rock and turn to stone yourself for a minute there. I kin tell you’re not much on communication. Talking and listening. Lemme try to tell ya in a way you can connect it. Say you’re fighting another sword slinger. He’s coming at ya. You’re watching his style, how he’s holdin’ himself. How he moves is talkin’ to ya. He’s telling ya how he’s coming, where he plans to hit. Yer anticipating what he’s gonna do. Then he feints, dodges, pulls back and whips it to a backhand twist. You react, you change yer plans, tell yer body to adjust so yer eyes shift, hand takes a different grip, feet move to shift your weight to counter and set your attack. You’ve been waving that sword so long you don’t think about that any longer, you just react.

“Your battalion is another weapon. One you haven’t used before. Gotta learn how to wield it. Think of it as a man and his sword. To get them to move, ya talk to em. Figure out how best to work em, how hard to push, keeping it in balance. Use em to protect ya from danger, take out enemies. Mold ‘em into the tools that are gonna get the job done. When you’ve worked with ‘em long enough, they know what ya want, anticipate it.”

They have arrived back to just outside the classroom. She slings an arm around him in a half hug. “Ya done okay boy. Come meet us in the dining hall after class.”

Felix walks in, catching the professor’s eye with a smug look on his face as he gives a fist pump. Byleth’s head tips back and her eyes go a bit wider.

After class, he meets his battalion in the dining hall. His plate is already there. He checks with Tank, “Cleanup go okay?” The merc gives a nod and thumbs up with one hand as he is holding a turkey leg to his mouth with the other. The swordsman can’t help himself and asks several of the men in the battalion if they want to spar. A few guys accept the invite, but tonight they are drinking. They invite him to town to join them, and he will soon, just not today.

Once the student finishes his vegetables, Kat lets him head to the training grounds. She brings one of the mercs with her to find him sparring with Dimitri. Once the students have finished their rounds, Kat pulls Dimitri over, and Roy heads to Felix.

“Hey blondie, lemme show ya a few tricks to take down the porcupine over there.” She says slapping the prince on the shoulder.

“What? Who the hell’s side are you on anyway?” Felix snaps angrily.

“Whadda ya mean what? Yer gonna learn how to counter it, I’m keeping ya on yer toes boy.”

Roy grabs a training sword. He’s a bit taller than Felix, with short brown hair and brown eyes. They square off. Roy goes in for the first attack. He’s nowhere near as smooth as Felix, but he’s got a lot of strength behind his hits. “Do your worst, and I’ll pay ya back.”

The indigo haired student does not hold back. Roy and Felix go at each other for nearly an hour. Felix has the finesse, but Roy has guts and determination. Roy finally yields with a sword at his throat.

Standing up, the prickly victor bends over and grabs his gut. “You kicked the crap out of me. Damn.” He laughs.

Roy has caught his breath. “Use all that ya got, there ain’t no rules when you’re fighting for your life.”

Kat hands out a couple vulneraries. Dimitri excuses himself as he has other duties to attend to. He doesn’t escape without getting a handshake, a thanks for the workout, and a pinch on his cheek. “See ya, cutie pie.” Kat grins.

The student helps his former opponent off the ground. They shake hands and share thanks. The merc heads out, going to town to join the group for drinks. He shakes his head as he gets no takers.

Kat invades Felix’s space, taking control his life for well over two weeks. Every day they have a new project to complete, every day he sits next to a different member of his battalion and every day he spars with someone else. Sometimes they teach him new techniques, sometimes he is teaching them. He knows all of their names, where they are from, what are their talents. His entire free days are spent with them.

Kat guides him, pushes him to work on building the team, getting them all together in the same mindset. Stressing the need to be able to rely on each other. It always goes both ways. Felix is instructed on persuasion and influencing. One cannot simply order someone to do things differently, you have to explain the why and how it benefits them, generally and directly. After meals she pulls him aside to discuss rapport building and listening. Everything is based on communication.

After sparring she marks battlefields in the dirt of the training grounds, pointing out scenarios for the best use of the battalions, and when not to use them. What tactics give advantages. Gambits, useful for them as well as for you, can give you time to observe the battlefield and adjust your strategies. All the time she is touching Felix. Patting him on the back, on the head, messing up his hair punching his shoulder. He notices one day that he doesn’t flinch at it any longer. He expects it, and he would never tell another soul, but he looks forward to it.

Felix really learns how to listen. Not only to what they say to him, but what is said to Kat, how it is done. The group relies on her to keep them together. Some of the guys even call her mom or ma. She’s not their mother, but takes care of them like one. He even asks her why she lets them do it. She explains that this is her family and wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves them all, and they belong to her and she would do anything for them, they would do the same for her. Life’s too short to be holed up in a room or being off by yourself all the time.

The day has come. Felix and his battalion are ready for battle. Demonic beasts have been spotted outside the monastery walls and he goes out with the Professor and the Blue Lions to defeat them. Kat puts an arm around the swordsman, telling him he’s ready to do this. They run out to the woods to battle.

Before he would have run straight out to the beast himself, taking it on alone if he had to, but today is different. He has his battalion that he is responsible for, an extension of himself, a weapon at his disposal to be used properly and not ignored. He sends them forth in a gambit at the beast, sending the monster into mass confusion. As his team gathers back, preparing for another attack, he strikes the beast on his own. He is shocked at the cheers and encouragement coming from Kat and his men. It is inspiring and reassuring. A couple rounds later he sends them in again for another gambit. This gives him the opportunity to survey the remainder of the battle area. He and his men strike the beast a final time and it falls. He’s already leading them further down field to take on a knight with his own battalion surrounding him. Felix calls out to individual members of his group, getting the placement of his fighters best matched against the enemies. Their movements together work smoothly, the swordsman is reaping the benefits of working together with these fighters for weeks, knowing their abilities and weaknesses like his own. They plow through the battlefield as one, bringing down the enemies quickly.

When the battle is over, Felix is congratulating the team, handshakes, slaps on the back, everyone rewarding each other with reaffirming touches and positive energy. Kat has the biggest grin on her face as she hugs him until he almost can’t breathe.

“Yeah, you can be a lone wolf, but there is nothing quite as awesome as running with the pack.”

Felix puts his arm around her in a half hug. “I never thought I’d say this, but you’re right.”

#fe3h #feth #Fire Emblem Three Houses #felix hugo fraldarius #fe16

2 notes · View notes

yalungfarres · 4 years

Photo

EXPRESSIONS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

“Gahi’g ulo” (Stubborn!), “Gikapuy nako aning kahimtang nato” (I’m tired of this situation), “Kalami na ilaag,” ug “Ga-hasol-hasol raning COVID”

Complaints and disappointments constitute the daily life of most people in this time of pandemic. This pandemic cripples our normal way of life and has certainly tested our patience. Indeed, this COVID-19 pandemic is making all of us tremble in fear, exposing our vulnerability, and on top of it, testing our faith in humanity and in God. But undoubtedly, too, if we bother to listen and look into things that are not so obvious yet are also happening, it also makes us realize a lot of things from a vantage point of view. It tells a lot about us and a lot around us. How about you, are you one of those who still clings on to positivity? Or one of those who has already fallen prey to exasperation and frustration?

Now, instead of just merely echoing complaints and making noise out of disappointments, I would like to give another look at the expressions mentioned above and make a juxtaposition citing few common biblical instances. From here, I’ll endeavor to draw lines to help us weigh in on helpful and practical insights as we face this pandemic and brace ourselves for the “new normal.”

“Tigas ng ulo”

“Tigas ng ulo” is a common expression that many have carelessly thrown without even analyzing the situation the people they are criticizing are in. Many of these people literally cannot afford to stay at home, for they live “isang kahig, isang tuka,” and, therefore, “kung walang kahig, walang tuka.” Ironically, many of those who use the term are the same people who can’t help but drive to expensive coffee and milk tea shops which remain open. We try to put ourselves in the shoes of the poor: imagine living in a small room with no air-conditions or electric fans in the heat of the summer while brooding over where to get the next meal or payment for our rent and debts after all the government assistance shall have run out. Social inequality is so vast that we cannot just simply dismiss the situation of those living below the margins.

We go back to when Jesus lived his earthly life. The apostles whom He chose were people coming from different backgrounds, and most likely were hard headed themselves. There was Peter who at first refused to cast his fishing net even at the order of Jesus. There was also Thomas who was naturally skeptical and stubborn. Nevertheless, these were the same people he told to “go to the world and spread the good news of salvation.” Did Jesus confront them in anger? Or in demeaning manner? He didn’t say, “ANG TIGAS NG ULO NYO!” But instead Jesus accepted and understood them. The only difference between us and Jesus is that he did not leave his work just that; He enlightened them and taught them ways. He did not say to Thomas, “I pity you for your lack of faith,” but rather, “Come, touch my wound that you may believe.”

We should also do the same as Jesus did. Instead of always ranting and putting the blame on others, why not help those in need? Instead of telling them “ang tigas ng ulo nyo,” why not try to understand their situation first, then try to enlighten them on what to do? Most of them are also confused trying to fight a battle defenseless, something that we always tend to overlook. We cannot blame them, it’s the lives of their children and theirs that are at stake. Yes, it is true there are a lot of hardheaded people; but the thought of solving it through rants and skewed judgments would only usher in hatred not solution. These stubborn people are the same people who hope. Instead of dragging them down, why not let our hearts be open and help realign the ways for their hopes? Yes, being hardheaded during this time of crisis is not commendable… and so is having a heart of stone for others.

“Gikapoy na ko ani atong kahimtang. Kalami naman lang gyud ilaag. Hasula na aning COVID -19!”

Tired, powerless, stressed, delightfully frustrated, and the likes are the feelings we often associate with our COVID19 situation. Is it really just that or the fear of the uncertain? We go out for our grocery, fall in long queues, and observe 1-meter distance and other measures, then a question enters our thought, “How long will I keep doing this?” We are comfortably seated at home then one of our family members innocently asks, “can we go to the beach, if not then shopping would do.” Our normal way of life has been affected. Apart from the uncertainty our life holds, we are all dealing with another yet more troubling uncertainty and we have nothing to tell ourselves except “Hasula na!” or “Kakapoy na ba!” Yes, it’s true we are tired of this COVID19 situation, especially with the extension of the enhanced community quarantine. I also would admit “gikapuy nako aning kahimtang nato.” But I realize, instead of spending time thinking of what’s not even there, we think of things real and get involved in them as we supposedly should. This is the time time to be with our family, to learn new things, to reflect, and to pray. As I was watching my family doing some household chores together, I realized that this pandemic has fostered values we have not seen and experienced for a while. While at home, we can also learn new things like engaging in workouts, listening to (or playing) music, or better yet reading books or Ebooks for us to exercise our mind and widen our knowledge and understanding of things. It would, however, all the more be better if we spend time for prayer and meditation. With rising toll of confirmed cases and deaths, fake news and misinformation mistaken for truth, hoarding and other selfish activities unmasking people’s identity, prayer is a necessity. Yes, it’s true. “Gihasol ta aning COVID-19” but if we come to think of it, apart from the unpleasant and discomforting things which our eyes are glued to, things start falling back to places: the recovery and healing of nature; the perking up of interdependence among man and his fellow human beings; the celebration of life over disheartening excessive emphasis on economy; and faith in our own humanity. Billionaires sharing a part of their fortune, small and big companies reaching out to their workers, and other private individuals helping out through cash aids and food packs, all these are becoming a narrative of a living humanity.

Biblically speaking, our experience is never new. The Old Testament Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness before finally reaching the promised land. Noah and his family kept floating for 40 days and 40 nights. I could just imagine how seemingly hopeless those 40 years were for the Israelites and if they surrendered, everything they started would have just gone into waste. As for Noah, getting stuck inside the Ark for 40 days is one thing and not knowing where they will be led is another. In the New Testament, Jesus was fasting and praying for 40 days, and at the night before he was betrayed and arrested, he was patient and praying constantly. Then there is the Cross, a knowledge he brought with him for more than 30 years. The Cross that Jesus carried to Calvary reminds us that Jesus is with us, journeying with us in our suffering and seeming hopeless situation. What the biblical instances show us is that we can always make our way through suffering and that our situation is a matter of making it meaningful. But how can we make our frustrations, stresses, anxieties, etc. meaningful? It depends on how you define meaningful but as for me, I do it by cooperating with the authority, spending quality time with my family, extending little extras I have to others, keeping myself busy with real things, and most especially, by praying for the welfare of everyone affected by the pandemic, the front liners, those infected, and the poor who are the most affected due to lack of financial means. Admittedly, not everything is under control and not everything is negotiable by any material wealth. There is always what we call “fallen short” but the good thing is, there is somebody who can make up for all the shortcomings. Unless we spend time for prayer, there will never be enough. Having said this, why not, instead of saying “gahasol-hasol ning covid oy! Lami na baya kaau ilaag,” and instead of thinking of going on vacation, why not say “after covid-19 I want to go to church to praise and thank God for giving me another life?” I assure you, it does make a huge difference.

I would like to end this reflection with a simple prayer.

Lord, guide all of us in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, protect us from its infection. To those who are infected and battling for their lives, help them and touch them with your healing hands. Help also the poor that they may find what they need and guide them in everything they do. Lord, give us grace and guide us all, especially our families, friends, and those front liners as they fight to curb the spread of this pandemic.

Beloved Mother, help us realize that we are all one great family. Unite us in fraternity and solidarity so that we can only think of helping one other. Lastly, make us strong in faith, persevering in service, and constant in prayer. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, guide us always. Amen.

(Published on May 22, 2020 - Bag-ong Lungsoranon - The Official Newsletter of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu, Philippines)

#catholic #catholicfaith #covid #covid19 #faith

1 note · View note

mere-mortifer-writing · 5 years

Text

Dean Winchester/Reader ❧ Sweet Apology

Rating: Explicit Pairing: Dean Winchester/Reader; Dean Winchester/OFC Word count: 3250 | Chapter 2 of 3 Warnings: None for this chapter Tags: Fluff & Smut, a smidge of Angst; Misunderstandings; Porn with Feelings; Arguing; Reader has a crush on Dean Summary: The plan was to watch a movie in Dean’s room, but without Sam to help her feel less awkward, it’s no surprise that she ends up saying something stupid - and make Dean think she dislikes him, of all things, when she has a gigantic crush on the guy. They start yelling at each other, soon enough they’re kissing, and then - well, Dean’s bed gets put to good use. It kind of sucks, though, that as soon as they’re done Dean puts his clothes back on leaves her like nothing happened. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. Well, not really. He’s just absolutely clueless. I swear, if these two don’t open their mouths and talk…

Beta’d by @mostly-shawn - Thank you so much for the help and the brainstorming session

Read on Ao3 | Chapter One | Chapter Three coming soon!

It’s been two days, and she still can’t stop feeling…used.

She loathes using that term for something like this. Having incredible sex with the man that she loves shouldn’t, in any circumstance, make her feel so empty and cold – and yet, here she is. Rationally, she knew from the start that Dean isn’t in love with her; it’s not like she was living in a fairytale land where they would fall in bed together and never leave each other. It doesn’t sound much like the Dean she knows, anyway.

She angrily pours some sugar into her teacup, stirring the honey–brown liquid for far too long, trying to distract herself from her line of thought. She fails miserably. It’s just – the sex was not the problem, she wants to make that clear: it was good, it was with Dean, it probably ruined her for any other man. But he left. He left her immediately, when her emotions were still so raw and close to the surface she just wanted to curl under his weight to hide. She drinks down a scalding sip of tea, reminding herself not to be so stupid. Jody needed help, of course he had to go! So… where’s the problem, then? What has left her shaky and feeling ill at ease in her own skin? “He seemed happy”, she answers herself. Dean put his clothes back on, winked at her and walked out of the room, all with a smile on his face. He didn’t even kiss her goodbye, which she’s pretty sure is common courtesy even between strangers who hooked up. How? How could Dean have had such a drastically different experience that he was happy he could immediately hop off the bed and go, no problem?

Hell, she’s heard from other women how damn sweet he is in bed! A barista from a pub close to the bunker saw her looking with moon eyes at Dean and encouraged her to shoot her shot with him ‘cause, and she quotes, “I know he looks all mean and rough, but he’ll treat you like you’re the only woman he has ever wanted.” Another girl, a hunter she spent some time with researching for a case, confessed that the sex was awesome – but the way he couldn’t stop touching her everywhere, for the entire night, was even better.

So, yeah, had Dean been pissed off that he needed to leave immediately, she would have been fine. Some longing in his eyes, a “fucking werewolves” muttered under his breath… anything, really, and right now she wouldn’t feel like a toy he played with and then threw in the trash. And that thing he said, about how he “missed the feeling”, and how he “always forgets how good it is”: very nice words to hear in the heat of the moment, and she admits she found them very fluttering when he murmured them with his lips pressed on her skin. But now, in the cold of the bunker’s kitchen, they are just points added to the ‘He Wanted To Get Laid And You Were Conveniently There’ list.

Well, there’s at least one silver lining. She passes a hand to her neck and feels the familiar ache of pressing on a bruise – Dean left some marks. Hickeys, from under her jaw down to her breasts, an angry purple that is slowly fading away. Sometimes she runs to the bathroom just to see herself in the mirror – and some may call them ugly and trashy, some would even be pissed he left them there in the first place…but she honestly doesn’t give a fuck. They’re a physical reminder of what happened, a proof that Dean wanted her and was as carried away as she felt. She loves them. They’re helping her feel a bit less lonely.

Which is, in her opinion, why what’s about to happen happens. Just to add insult to injury.

Hours after she’s done with her tea, she hears the main door to the bunker open and someone who’s by far too silent to be the Winchesters come down the stairs. Sure enough, it’s Castiel. (And she’s still struggling with the whole “angels are real” concept, by the way, but that’s neither here nor there.)

“Castiel? Hi, Sam and Dean are not here”, she says when he arrives to the war room. His whole existence is so baffling to her, her brain kind of forgets that she’s usually awkward as fuck around men. She can almost have a normal conversation with the guy. “I know”, he replies, voice gruff but kind. “I’m here to retrieve some ingredients for a spell, Dean informed me you would be home. He said to, uh, ‘check how you’re doin’.” She smiles at how squinty Cas gets as he repeats Dean’s words. “I’m doing great, thank you”, she says. You know, like a liar, pops up in her brain in John Mulaney’s voice. “You okay?” “Yes, I’m well, thank you – but you have some bruises on your neck, do you want me to heal them?” Uh oh. “Mh? No, no, I mean–” Can’t he recognize they’re hickeys? “They’re nothing, you don’t need to waste, uh, energy or whatever.” "It’s only going to take a second, it’ll be painless”, Castiel explains, and before she can find some valid excuse he’s already put two fingers on her forehead. A pleasant tingling down her spine later, aches she didn’t even know she had are gone. She’s sure she doesn’t even have a chipped nail anymore, let alone hickeys on her neck – which shouldn’t be so damn sad to think about, and yet.

“There, all done”, Castiel says with a small smile tugging at his lips. And because she like him, and it was objectively a very nice thing of him to do, she smiles back warmly. “Thank you, Cas. I feel better.” She said, you know, like a li- yes, okay, thank you brain, we get it. “You’re welcome”, and he’s off to take the bone of a virgin nun or something from the basement. Man, spells are weird.

And she misses Dean. What else is new?

❧ ☙

“Sammy, get on with it–”

Sam slaps him on the arm, still fumbling with the bunker’s key. “Dude, we slept like four hours, give me a break – ok, there you go, it’s open.” Dean wrestles his way through the door first, more to annoy his brother than anything. He’s actually feeling pretty good all things considered: the case went well and nobody got hurt, which is all he asks for. He’s just excited to be back home, is all.

Okay, yeah, and he’s excited to see her again.

Both Jody and Sam teased him for three days straight because his eyes kept glazing over every time her name came up in conversation. Dean had made the mistake of admitting to Sam how exactly the “movie marathon” was going when he picked him up to go to Jody – queue the continuous Dean–has–a–crush jokes. Thank fuck Claire wasn’t on the hunt with them, or he wouldn’t have survived her added teenage snark.

He realizes that Sam was just happy that he stopped moping after her, but still – leave the guy some dignity.

“Sam, it’s your turn to unpack this stuff” – he pats the bag he just put on the war room table – “and clean the weapons.” His brother stifles a yawn just to shoot a heartfelt “...dude” in his direction. “It’s so your turn, Dean”. “Yes, but I’m still pissed you cockblocked me the other day.” “You said you guys were already done!” Dean scoffs. “What, you think I would have stopped at one round?” “Okay, no,” Sam says, noise scrunched up while he shrugs off his jacket. “TMI, Dean, come on.”

He’d deserved a too–graphic retelling, to be honest, but she’s also Sam’s friend and he doesn’t want to embarrass her just to get back to his brother. Also, it was, you know…kind of special for him, too, and he’s not one to kiss and tell.

Well. Not this time, at least.

Dean has had a soft spot for that girl for a while. She’s unlike any other woman he got to know during the years – the hunter life makes for a completely different personality, more brass and outgoing; and apart from various female hunters he’s met in his life, the other women have been mostly one night stands. It’s not like he knew them, not for real. Meanwhile, she’s more on the shy side (which by the way he finds adorable, especially when she’s doing research for a hunt and stays huddled up with her books for hours. Very sexy librarian of her); a calming presence, level–headed and serene when a lot of things in his life keep falling apart. She reminds him of Charlie, sometimes, especially when she shows what she’s truly passionate about and gets a bit nerdy. He thought the similarities would make for a painful reminder that Charlie is gone, but with time it just made him more fond of her.

He wishes, though, that he didn’t need Sam as a constant buffer between the two of them when they hang out. Dean has learned more about her by listening in to her conversation with his brother than any time it was only the two of them. He’ll admit that was starting to be bitter about it, and that’s why he snapped at her the other day – but thankfully things worked out great. Really great. Like, super great. He’s still riding that high. Admittedly, the fact that they got interrupted before a much-deserved cuddle session (and he’ll shoot you if you go around telling people he’s a cuddler) sucked, but he left happy knowing that they could make up for lost time when he came back.

God, she’s smoking hot. The moment when he slid off her panties down the curve of her ass played in his mind in repeat often during the hunt, keeping him distracted during the boring witnesses’ interviews. Jesus Christ, he swears the way she arched her back when she was finally naked was the hottest part…Oh, perfect, now he’s getting hard in his jeans just thinking about it–

“Dean.” Sam throws to his face one of his dirty flannel shirts taken from their bag. “You’re done for, man. Gross. Go say hi to her!”

Yeah, he’s gonna do just that. She’s probably in the library, that’s her favorite spot.

And while he appreciates Sam’s support, he flips him off anyway while he leaves the room.

❧ ☙

Dean enters the library and immediately spots her on an overstuffed armchair, wearing headphones and scrolling on her phone. The bobbing of her head in time with the music explains why she hadn’t heard them arrive.

He takes a moment to observe her from afar, his eyes falling on the curves of her bare legs. It runs hotter in this area of the bunker, and she’s down to shorts and a tank top. Fuck, he’s missed her.

Dean decides to sneak up on her from behind, 'cause he’s a bit of an asshole and he wants to scare her, and when he’s close enough he sneaks an arm around her shoulders. She immediately jumps up with a yelp, and he takes one of her headphones out before planting a wet kiss on her neck. “Dean, holy shit”, she pants when she recognizes him, “what the hell?” He laughs while he goes to stand in front of the armchair. “We just got back. Sorry, it was the perfect opportunity to do that.” “Sam would never.” It’s obviously supposed to be a joke, but there’s an edge to her voice that makes him frown. “Yeah, well, Sam’s boring like that. Is – is everything okay?” She gives him a tight-lipped smile, so very different from the warm, inviting one she usually reserves for him.

Dean’s confused, to stay the least. He thought she let go of the awkwardness around him somewhere between kissing and telling him a detailed fantasy of how she wanted to fuck him in a diner’s bathroom. I mean, there’s no coming back from that…right?

Maybe she doesn’t know where we stand now, Dean thinks. It’s not like we had time to talk about it. And actions speak louder than words, in his opinion, so he ducks down to kiss her. She stays frozen for a second, the leather of the chair creaking under her grip. Dean cups her jaw to angle her face better, and she kind of…melts into him, warm lips moving on his. Dean’s heartbeat quickens the more she responds to him – he can feel it shaking his chest under the layers of cotton and flannel. He sinks to his knees in front of her, tugging on her legs until she’s sitting on the edge of the chair, caging him between her knees. He breaks off the kiss to attach his lips to her neck – and, wait, didn’t he leave some marks there? He remembers getting, uh, a bit carried away, last time. She didn’t seem to mind, though… Maybe they already healed. Whatever, he has other things to focus on.

“Dean”, she says, and sinks her hands in hair. He sighs at the feeling of her fingertips on his scalp, and he loses focus of what he’s doing. “Dean, wait a second–” Her grip turns less kind, and he gets the hint. He sits back on his haunches but leaves his hands on her thighs. “Yeah?” “I– Dean, I can’t do this again.” He blinks, surprised at the sudden shift in mood. She looks so damn uncomfortable he has the urge to hug her, but he sets his hands on his lap instead. Did he do something wrong? He knew he would fuck things up eventually, but not so soon. “We don’t have to do anything now, sweetheart,” he reassures her. Maybe he came off too strong. “You’re not feeling okay?” "That’s not really the problem. Last time” – she avoids his gaze, looking down at her hands – “last time wasn’t good for me.”

It’s like she dumped freezing water on his head. He thought – he thought the sex had been awesome, and now she tells him she didn’t enjoy it? But she came, he thinks, immediately followed by maybe she faked it – which, ugh. Oh God. He’ll drive straight into the ocean. “I thought–” he starts, face burning up in mortification. He even told Sam they were amazing together, and that he couldn’t wait to do more – earning a “spare me the details” from his brother. "Well, nevermind. I’ll leave you to your music”, he grumbles.

He’s not making this any better, is he? It’s just – what the fuck is he supposed to say? Something mature, probably. Not his forte.

She opens her mouth, but Dean stands up before she can say anything – he doesn’t want to hear her soften the blow with some excuse. “I’ll see you at dinner”, he quickly adds while he dusts off his pants. And then, bruised ego in tow, he leaves the room.

As he hurries down the hall, he can’t help thinking back to what he did differently, with her, that didn’t work like it always has on other women.

Of course, he knows that everyone is different, that there isn’t a universal how-to guide for pleasing a woman in bed…but still, he did pick up a thing or two during the years. Dean would like to think that he got way better than his first time stumbling in bed with a girl, back when he was seventeen, arrogant but unbearably self–conscious under all the bravado.

He did the things that he usually does, warming her up before the main event, going at her pace 'cause he knows that it takes girls longer to really get into it. And he likes drawing things out – the undressing, the exploring of each other’s body; letting the desire turn desperate and all-encompassing. So? What was the problem?

He thinks about it some more, losing himself in the memories from time to time, but then his steps falter as he remembers something. Which is that he did, in fact, skip one of his favorite steps: he didn’t eat her out. He forgot, alright? He was worked up because of all the arguing and the kissing and the weeks of tension between them before that…and she was so wet and responsive, he let it get to his head, and then…then…

Arrived to his room, Dean glares at the door like it stole his money and scratched his car. When he yanks it opens it creaks, offended at the rough treatment. As he face-plants into his bed, he wishes he could make a similar sound that to properly express what he’s feeling at the moment. He’s so fucking embarrassed that he gave this girl – that he’s genuinely interested in, that has always been kind to him, that he lives with and has to see every day – less attention than he would a one-night stand.

But the problem, he reasons, can’t possibly be only his lack of cunning linguistics – as his smartass, clever-world-play lover of a brother once called it – even though he’s sure it helped lessen the overall experience for her.

Well, there was also a moment where he accidentally hurt her – but it was just the position, he probably went too deep, and he knows damn well that the first time with someone you’re bound to fumble, to have some awkward moments. That’s why he was excited to be with her again: he doesn’t have the opportunity to try a second time very often. They could get better, fall in tune with each other until it all becomes natural and effortless and good.

Yes, the thrill of the first time, of something new, is amazing – but the times that he got to feel the familiarity seep in, to see that sense of performing instead of just enjoying disappear…? God, he wants that again. He hoped– Well, nevermind what he hoped. If she doesn’t want him anymore, good riddance. The only thing he prays for is that things won’t be oh so terribly tense between them. If nothing else, because Sam would get caught in the middle.

Then he remembers he left her with a “see you at dinner” – which means he only has a few hours to decide if he wants to face this whole thing like a man, or just drive into the ocean like he was thinking about earlier.

He loves Baby too much to let her rot in the Atlantic, and that’s all that’s stopping him.

He groans in his pillow, defeated – give him a nest of vampires, and he’ll know how to deal with it. This whole mess? Not so much.

Taking a deep breath, he realizes the fabric still faintly smells of her – that flowery shampoo that she uses; the natural scent of her skin. Predictably, snapshots of how she looked tangled in his sheets flash behind his closed eyes, details soft and hazy in his memory. Despite everything, it makes him smile and snuggle deeper into the pillow.

“Oh my God. I have feelings for her”, Dean mumbles with his face still squished in the fabric. “Fuck my life.”

❧ ☙

Every comment is cherished and/or framed and put on a wall to read when I’m sad

Tags under the cut :)

Sweet Apology Tag List @perpetualabsurdity @thatgirl1456 @boredtotearz100 @sister-winchesters99 @fuckthealarm @fangirlanotherjust @deansgirl79 @sparklypandemonium

#Dean X reader #Dean Winchester X reader #Dean/reader #Dean Winchester/reader #Dean/you #Dean Winchester/you #Supernatural #Supernatural fanfiction #spn #spn fanfiction #Supernatural Reader insert #spn family #Dean Winchester #Dean #Dean Winchester pov

84 notes · View notes

imagination-is-key-in-my-world · 6 years

Text

Everything Has Changed (1/3)

Summary : You are Jace's little sister. You recently moved to the institute following your perfect record in Idris. Izzy is ecstatic to have you back, but Alec gives you the cold shoulder.

Warning : Possible inappropriate language

Pairing : Alec Lightwood x Reader

Word Count : 2,431

“You don't have to baby me Jace!” You say slapping his hand away for the fourth time since he picked you up from Idris. “I can carry my own bags. I do not need my big brother to do everything for me.” Jace sighed as he considered taking it from you anyway. He only stopped himself when he caught you rolling your eyes at him. “Y/N, I am just trying to be nice.” Jace stepped in front of you cutting you off. Rolling your eyes a second time, “Come on! I haven't seen my little sister in ages and I just wanna look out for my little girl.”

His hand raised to your head as he ruffled up your once neat parting. Setting your whole look off balanced, and basically giving you the appearance of a girl who had been dragged through a thorn bush backwards. But even though Jace was doing everything that he could to annoy you, you knew that he came from a good place. You hate to admit it but you missed him too. Not only him but you also missed your best friend Isabelle. Izzy would come and visit you whenever she had to go to Idris to see her family. Giving you the low down on everything that had gone on from missions to just general gossip. You almost laughed when Izzy had told you that Jace was deadly jealous of Simon who so happened to be a vampire. All of this because of a girl called Clary. Jace had shown you a picture of her and you had to admit that you could see why he was smitten, she was absolutely gorgeous with a capital G. You actually felt sorry for Jace because you knew what it was like to have a crush on someone that you knew you could not have. “Well hello there stranger!” Within seconds of walking through the doors you found yourself crashing to the floor sending one of your bags that you were carrying to fall right onto Jace's foot. Izzy apologized as she stood up, helping you to your feet as she was at it. You smoothed down your already messy hair do and stared at her confused. “Do I know you?” Izzy's smile instantly faded. A look of pure horror crashed onto her face as she considered the thought of her best friend not remembering who she was. That was when you burst out laughing, causing the corners of Izzy's mouth to lift into a weak smile. “You are not allowed to do that. You had me worried!” She slapped your arm and slowly her smile increased to a full belly laugh. “I'm sorry Izzy you are just too easy. Come here!” Both of you hugged each other tight after being apart for so long. You scanned the rest of the room, spotting people that you could faintly remember as well as those that you considered family. There were some that you just couldn't put their face to a name, obviously new. But there was one person that you could see through the crowd, walking in the opposite direction, and fading into the distance. You could remember that dark wild hair anywhere. Alec. __

A week has passed and you had developed new relationships with the other Shadowhunters. Clary was an alright chick. Although you did find it hard to like her because of her behaviour with Jace. Jace had told you that things were odd between them. They were close but awkwardly close. She was still with Simon who is now a close friend of yours. Both of you spent a whole night talking about Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Comparing theories and reciting scenes together. Simon was just the nerdy friend that you were lacking while you were away in Idris. Jace was always thankful that he was able to pry Clary away from Simon while he was distracted by you. He even joked about you and Simon becoming the new power couple because of how similar you both were. Every time he would say this you would smack him in the back of the head and tell him to get his mind out of the gutter. Just because he wanted to drive a wedge between the two, allowing him to swoop in and comfort Clary, doesn't mean he can exploit his sister.

Simon and you were talking in the training room after spending some time sparring. When Clary and you got closer, she asked you whether you would mind helping to train Simon, knowing that you were one of the best in the institute. But also aware that not many of the other Shadowhunters were willing enough to work with a Vampire. “So what is it with you and Jace?” you asked as you through him a bottle of water from the table. With his fast reflexes he was able to retrieve the bottle before it made an impact onto his head. “Nice.” “What do you mean Y/N?” His head tilted to the side the way that a dog would. You had to admit, it always made you smile when he did that and he knew. “Jace is Jace and I am just me.” You snorted a little at his response making him hold his hands up and change his answer, “fine, you got me. Very wise you are. No wonder we get along.” He scratched at the back of his head while searching for the right thing to say. “Well Clary and Jace have always been close and had that tension...” “Tension?” Your eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah sexual tension.” He stood up and approached you. You were leaning against the table that was at the far side of the room, watching him as he talked and advanced towards you. “So basically they want each other. But not as partners or friends, but more.” Using his fingers to air quote the word 'want.' Your hand lifted to the top of his arm as you looked deep into your friends hurt eyes. “Simon, if you know all of this. Why do you stay with Clary?” He moved away, turning his back to you as he brought a hand to his head. “It's not that simple Y/N.” He paused, “I love her. I have loved her since I was old enough to know what love is. Maybe even before that. So you see, I cant let Jace get in the way. If I want this to work, then I have to make it work.” Before you could stop yourself you pulled him into a hug. You weren't quite his height so your head was flat against his chest. After a few seconds, his chin rested on the top of your head, wrapping his own arms around you. You weren't the type of person who would show weakness like this. Where you would show that you cared as much as you did, especially when your line of work is as dangerous as it was. There were only a select few that you would allow yourself to be yourself around. To truly care about. It was hard for you to let new people in, but Simon would be an exception. You just couldn't stand seeing him this hurt. Especially because you knew far too well how it felt. Your hug as well as your thoughts were interrupted by a loud cough. Pulling away startled, you looked to your right and noticed Alec with his arms crossed staring at you disapprovingly. You had not seen Alec since the day you had got back. Even then all you saw was him look over his shoulder as he walked away, locking eyes with you for what felt like an eternity, but in actual fact it was a split second. “If you're done 'hugging.' Some of us need to train.” With that he moved over to start the simulator, bow at the ready. This was your queue to leave. __

Another week had passed since the training room drama. The person who said that time heals all wounds, was the most brain dead person on the planet. You couldn't help but feel like shit the past week. Thinking about how Alec and you had been so close for years. But the minute you were back he saw you as nothing more than the Downworlders that he used to despise. You had no one that you could talk to about this. Jace was his best friend, nothing good would come from telling your brother that his best friend was ignoring his sister. You knew Jace all too well. Hearing something like this would make him want to confront Alec, regardless of who overheard or got hurt in the meantime. Izzy was Izzy, she was all for the romance. But something told you that her innuendo and sexual nature would not stretch to her own brother. She was great to talk to about relationships, but probably not this particular one. You couldn't even consider telling Simon any of this. Not now that he has his own shit to deal with. Why wasn't life fucking simple.

You were sat in the large communal kitchen, stirring your spoon around in your already soggy cereal. You were never fond of cereal once it had gone past that 'too' wet point, slipping into the mushy. Your mind on other things, causing your cereal to become gross and putting you off eating it. For it to only become something for you to play with. “You know mum hated it when you did that!” Jace walked in, obviously meaning Maryse your adopted mother since your real parents perished. Having Maryse as your mother made things a hell of a lot harder for you. “What's on your mind little one? You only play with your food when your mind is somewhere else.” “It's nothing Jace.” You pick up your bowl, only to have it snatched back. “Jace!” “What?” He said with a mouthful of soggy cereal, “no point in letting good food go to waste.” You scoffed and walked out of the room, leaving Jace behind with the rest of your breakfast. Looking at the rota, you knew that in ten minutes it would be your slot in the training room. Running back to your room so that you could change from your pjs into your training gear. __

Half an hour later you were in the middle of training. Hair plastered to your sweaty face, unattractive and an inconvenience. There were not many people who could use a bow apart from you and Alec. When you were younger, you and Alec would practice together in the simulator. Having each others back. If it wasn't for him being closer to Jace, it is possible that you and him would have become parabati. Alec always laughed when you would miss the target. But not in a mean way to make you feel like shit. But in a way that would push you to try better, to work harder for his approval. While you were shooting the targets after your extensive sparring battle with the fight simulator. Your mind went back to the memories of you two..

** Alec was shooting at the archery targets that you had both set up in the training room. Each arrow flew and hit the target dead in the centre perfectly. He would laugh every time that he managed to land a perfect arrow on the target. While you fumbled trying to get the arrow to reach the board. “Another point for me! Any one would think you're distracted.” Your head fell to the floor to look at your toes. “Don't be stupid Alec! You're just not playing fair.” “How am I not playing fair?” He snapped turning around to look you dead in the eye. You were 14 at the time, Alec was 16. “Because you put me under too much pressure to be like you. I am not you.” You walked over to grab an arrow from the table. Lined up the target with your eye but hesitated. While you were trying to focus on the target, your were interrupted as you felt hands ever so gently placed on your waist holding you steady. “Y/N focus. You shake when you are trying to focus. Focus on not shaking more than hitting the target. Breath and let go.” His head was right next to your ear whispering to you. You could feel his warm breath on your neck. It was hard to focus when you knees felt that wobbly. You let out a sharp breath and the arrow flew landing right next to Alec's in the board. You could feel him smile without having to look at him. “The student has become the master.” You spun around with a big grin on your face. His hands fell from your waist and held onto your hands. “I knew you could do it. But I cant stand behind you every time we are in battle mind.” You laughed and fell into his chest. “Thank you Alec. You make me a better me. I hope I always have you around to keep me safe.” “We will always stick together. You and me, that's the truth. Forever and always.” “Forever and always!” You repeated as you nuzzled into his chest. **

“Are you gonna shoot, or what?” It was Alec who shook you out of your daydream about Alec. You released the arrow and sure enough you missed the target. You hadn't missed that bad since you were younger. “I am gonna go with or what” Alec snickered and walked out of the room. “What is your problem Alec?” You yell. Your eyes were glued to the doorway where he was just stood. All of a sudden he reappeared, arms crossed in his usual stance. “I have no idea what you are on about. But clearly you have forgotten everything that I taught you.” “Shut it Alec.” You turned back to the target quickly and shot an arrow landing right in the centre of the board. “I know what I am doing.” He turned and tried to walk away for a second time, but you weren't done. “You have been avoiding me since I got back. Why?” “Just drop it. Things have changed,” he paused, “people have changed. So just drop it.” By the time he finished what he was saying he was back through the door. Leaving you alone, again.

Part 2

104 notes · View notes

dwestfieldblog · 3 years

Text

DOOMSCROLLING

Rocking and doomscrolling in an Eigenstate, the English Variant is here...All virtue signalling wannabe edgelords, sleepwalking ’woke’ automatons, fake Christians, Faustian Republicans, corrupt Conservatives and retarding neophobes look away now. Little more than domesticated primates, a majority of larval humanity continues to ignore its astral biology...yes really. ‘Those who control symbols control us’. And Pavlov dogs do love flags eh? Here is a balanced, mostly unpretentious finite rant for breakfast where the opinion arises from triple checked facts rather than mere emotion. In God we rust.

Straight off...Disgusted to rage by the English government’s March budget which gives nurses a ‘pay rise’ equivalent to three pounds fifty pence a week, (which doesn’t even begin to cover the cost of their parking at hospitals) the disdain these arrogant swine feel for truly essential workers is revealed in full. The ‘Heath’ minister explained that times were tight due to Covid...yes Matt, fairly sure the nurses working 18 hours a day had already noticed this in their desperately overworked, overcrowded hospitals. Deeply in debt, Britain plans to borrow 355 billion pounds this year, the highest amount in her history. Corporation tax will possibly increase in 2023, a little late to balance wages elsewhere for nurses etc...And given the previous ten years, highly unlikely it would even be used for such. But it might look good to those brainwashed gimps that STILL plan to vote for this bastardly corrupt party in 2024.

A clip taken in March of an exceptionally long queue for a food bank in London brings it all into sharper focus. The 6th richest economy in the world has the most food banks of any democratic country. Over 2000 in the UK. (Over 900 in Germany.) Hate to come across as a Socialist but The Tories have been in power for ten long years, historically destroying the NHS a bit more each time they hold power. Endlessly subcontracting, pouring money into new unneeded tiers of management, slowing operations down with extra paperwork, voting down pay rises, thus expediting a brain drain of doctors, nurses and surgeons to other countries and private practices...and over the last thirteen months, supplying those who stayed, with mountains of PPE equipment not fit for purpose. A ‘jolly good show’ handclap every evening on doorsteps doesn’t fecking cut it. Neither do all the rainbows drawn by children put into windows. In fact, Boris, it looks like outright damn cynicism. All the more since your dose of the virus (‘I visited the Covid ward and shook hands with everyone’) was healed by excellent work by the NHS. Mr. Boris ‘No government could have done more’. Johnson...a lot of us are keeping score.

Lord Bethell, (‘Parliamentary under secretary of State for Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care’) said that nurses are ‘well paid’ for the job they do, reiterating that times are hard; ‘There are millions of people out of work on the back of this epidemic’. Well yes there are. And why? A government which dragged its heels many times after salient scientific advice, prognoses/ projections were given, and allowed three massive social gatherings (384,000 people) to take place for superspreading, as well as conflicting advice about masks, herd immunity and confusion over open borders, schools to return for one day, etc...All of which led to the dire need for total lockdowns and the impossibility to sell or go to work (unless working from home) leading in turn to unpaid rent/bills, evictions, bosses laying off those they cannot afford to pay. And to mention again, the Tories have been the ones in power for ten years...with banking scandals (where chiefs were not punished but the public were twice, once by collapses and once for raised taxes to prop up the greed). The expenses scandal of politicians, massive public service cutbacks, corruption, the smug George Osbourne guiding Britain disgracefully to poverty via austerity, a National Health service being encouraged to disintegrate and’ an oven ready’/tramps breakfast scraps Brexit...and LO!... the coffers are indeed a little empty thanks to all the contracts tossed without oversight to the governments mates without due process, including 37 billion pounds spent on a Test and Trace programme which did not function, 252 million AND 6000 pounds a DAY to ‘consultants (for the essential chimera of PR etc).Chumocracy at highly profitable work.

Over to you Boris, ‘...it is thanks to PRUDENT FISCAL MANGEMENT that we have been able to fight this pandemic in the way that we have.’

Well exactly.

A dishevelled adult leader of a country who cannot even brush his hair or dress himself, a ‘leader’ who missed five vital COBRA meetings about the pandemic, never took in the notes from scientists of advance warnings and blustered his pompous comedy horseshite rather than leading from the front. Father of six or perhaps 7 illegitimate children (does he pay child support? No records). But never mind eh, he is a rum sort of cove. No. Churchill would have him horsewhipped naked and tarred and feathered in Trafalgar Square. But still! When questioned on whether there would be an inquiry into the colossal waste without recompense or standard clauses in contracts of taxpayers’ money raped from the Treasury, Mr Johnson replied that it was ‘NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST’. Really. REALLY? Boris, if you were a catheter, you could not extract more urine than you already do. The clown father of the motherland. BJ said he took ‘full responsibility’ for the massive number of fatalities. But hasn’t resigned.127 thousand covid deaths in UK, leading Europe by 33 thousand. Well played chaps. 545 thousand USA. China 4636. Yeah RIGHT. Sure.

Once knew a guy who, if you told him something factual, most often replied with ‘Well, it’s the first I’ve heard of it’...meaning anything he had not already been told was automatically false. How did he ever learn new information? Neophobes, their insecurities heavy chains to evolving, seem to rule the world; Good news is they don’t. Bad news is, they know it and are getting ever more desperate the rest of us go down with them in righteous conservatism and counter evolution. ‘Perception does not consist of passive reception of signals but of an active interpretation of signals...active, creative trans-actions’...‘The easier you can predict a message, the less information the message contains’. If a media source etc attempt to relay actual news and it does not fit what is already believed, it is disregarded or worse...GIGO...Garbage In=Garbage Out.

The pandemic is doing great things for the further global rise of populist swine...When the mass public mind is aflame with anger and fear, new bastards step up and old governments impose harder laws. Hungary loses her last independent radio station and Orban rejoices. Brazilian bastid Bolsanaro continues to see his people as expendable inhuman statistics. By their hatred he will burn. 301 thousand dead. Totalitarianism creeps apace via populist chancers, Stalinist fascists, nationalist bullshitters who care far more about their ego than their country. (Hello frog eyed Nigel Farage aka Lord Haw Haw the 2nd.) Speaking of which...Lord Mayor of London wannabe Laurence Fox bought a mask exemption badge online because he didn’t want his pretty face to be unrecognised. Narcissist, who as leader of a new party Reclaim, wants to ‘take back’ Britain from the Woke snowflakes (even while speaking like a laidback Establishment version of them) and end up in Parliament. Good for you luvvie. But now with acting career ended and music career failed, he does look a lot like a pretty poster boy who needs to stay adored and recognises (along with his string pulling financial backers) there is a bandwagon to be jumped on. In 8 years time he (or someone similar in insecure need for others approval to give vent to their sadistic impulses) could be a new type of prime minister and the V for Vendetta pre-scenario will be in full swing. ‘Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like Nascar drivers, then we know who owns them’ Robin Williams via Jonathan Pie. No one from Texas should be allowed to be president...and no one from Eton (or Harrow) should ever be allowed to be Prime Minister. Apart from Churchill.

Sometimes it takes a nightmare to wake one up...an authoritarian dystopia coming soon to a land mass near you...a failed state and a divided kingdom of Mediocre Britain with bad laws for her citizens but great if you are a ‘public servant’ or a friend of those that are. Probably a good thing for Euope that we are an island eh? We turned our back on them and they can cast us adrift like an oil tanker filled with toxic waste. Sunak or Patel next? Will the ‘Elite’ (Ha) allow a person of colour to rise to the depths of Prime Minister? The entire cabinet should be sent to a Chinese prison. Avaricious liars. If you don’t stir the cream it turns into scum.

And speaking of destroying your country from inside....

Oh America... just watched the Idaho mask burning clip in Boise, adults encouraging children to pick up discarded masks, pathogens, all with bare hands and drop into the garbage bin flames...inhaling the formaldehyde smoke... Freedom! End lockdown now! Breathe deeply rednecks. So looking forward to having a black woman president over there. Please be better than all these useless white trash MORONS...Q Onan, the ‘storm’ (in a beer can), the ‘plan’, ‘where we go one, we go all’...right down the toilet of history into the sewers of oblivion. Good riddance to foul rubbish, Believers anxious for orders from ‘Christians’ who are actually serving what they would call ‘Satan’. Ironic on the darkest level, no? LOOK at their faces, into their eyes, naught but greed for power. Two thousand years of inverted truths. ‘Religion’ became consumed by ‘the Devil’. Discuss with yourself after watching the majority of preachers.

The Trumps, Hawley, Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Bannon, the Mercers, Paula White, Stella Immanuel and the Gawd awful Marjorie Taylor Greene should be sent alone, foodless to a small island surrounded by sharks. And filmed for our entertainment. And oh...that dumbass disgusting false idol kitsch gold statue (to celebrate his love of golden rain) of Donald, created via Mexico and China in artistic irony. And, and AND the Republican senators against any background checks for those who want to own guns. (Seven mass killings this year already by armed wankers.) Britain, Europe and America, unions encouraged, persuaded to break apart into hexagram 23 while China and Russia grin. Q seems like a new form of right wing bullshite to rally the dumb against what they perceive to be the ‘left wing’ rebellion of Anonymous. I think Q originated in the Kremlin myself. An electronic baobab seed...

Back to my birthland...New powers of arrest looming for ‘Non Crime Hate Incidents’, and a new police bill of up to ten years prison for silent protest. One almost expects this in (arf) lesser countries with pantomime dictators, but on the septic, excuse me, sceptre’d isle of Britain? An obvious Government first shot reaction against what they know might be coming for their dire mishandling of the pandemic, loss of jobs and no real support for the underlings...Governments ARE afraid of their people, that’s why enough laws are passed (with minimum debate or under cover of smokescreen news events) to ensure all those not wealthy and well connected are in daily risk of being arrested for ‘criminality’. So be sure to be obedient to your ‘public servants’.

Ahh.. enough eh? Apolitically incorrect, radical liberal, fundamentalist atheist, remember the Tar Baby idea Dave, the more you attack something, the more you are attached to it. Let it go brother. The difference between being frozen in stasis and empty with Zen calm. But to paraphrase Robert Anton Wilson, (as I am so often wont to do) thanks to our own programming, when we do not frequently examine and cross check our input we become full of Self Hypnotic Ideational Trance. Dogmas must be only transitory, flow river, flow...

Bells Theorem? Pretty good but this is mostly Jameson’s (with Czech spring water) theorem. In confession, I crave your indulgence, Invoke Often, Repeat repeat repeat, ‘How far is it, if you can think of it?’ Transduction of thoughts into chemicals...surfing the neuropeptides and there you stood on the edge of your feather expecting to die, A skeleton breastfeeding a priest, and if that mocking bird don’t sing, daddy’s gonna break off both its wings. Whoops. The optical illusion of a rainbow halo as beautiful as ‘God on drugs’. Melancholy melophile, melomaniac and melomaniacal, I am an Audiophile in the paralysis of rapture...Ahh...and now I have obtained an elegant sufficiency, multitasking in five time zones. Left frontal lobe digital (manual) moving to Right frontal lobe analogue non Aristotelian (self controlled). Get it? DNA appears to be a cybernetics information/programming system...but anyway...

Bet there will be a massive increase in the birth rate nine months after most of the world is vaccinated, a surge of relieved masses celebrating in the old fashioned way. All those who died will be ‘replaced’ at double pumping speed. The idea that the vaccine contains the ‘Establishment’s’ nanobots seems unlikely...how on Earth would at least ONE person in the know, not spill the (genetically modified) beans? And those wondrous illogical conspiracy theories that Covid was triggered deliberately via 5G mast networks by a satanic paedophile elite will fade for a while. Until the ‘Christian’evangelical (evil angels) right wing restart their crazed rambling about the Illuminati/Freemasons again. For the record, my own feeling is that any group which had Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe, Beethoven, Sir Issac Newton, Washington, Mark Twain, Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Jefferson etc as members, seems like a fairly cool and worthwhile group for humanity to learn from. Is it because Lucifer was the Light Bringer that they conflate illumination with evil? How very aware of them. Arf. Paranoid magicians live longer. Speaking of witch...’Nothing is, nothing becomes, nothing is not’. A.C. The Book of Lies. Be aware, not woke. Look for the hunchback (?) behind the soldier (!)...‘You can empty infinity from it and infinity still remains’.

‘The data may not contain the answer. The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.’

Ever see Interstellar? Love that film. Elon Musk should just select 100 people, blast off and leave the rest of us to burn. As psychologists would call it, most of humanity is indeed still at the larval stage. Most of us stay on ‘the fourth circuit’ all life and rip at anyone who goes beyond or tries to. Christ would be murdered again, that’s why Buddha avoided crowds. Release and receive...channel.

‘Truth, truth, truth! crieth the Lord of the Abyss of Hallucinations...’

Paradise in a scientific quantum possibility...A dimension where the ‘soul’/ recorded/imprinted memory continues in ‘A quite specific electromagnetic-gravitational field in which mind can manifest without organic bodies’. As all ‘reality’ is subjective, and an individual life most likely takes up a mere byte in a terabyte (trillion bytes). Personal Heavens, the way YOU design and chose. Dream and imagine possibilities now...much Love forever from Anon of Ibid

0 notes

gossamer-scraps · 4 years

Link

Here’s the guide I made! Let me know what you think of the format.

Hopefully you can now look at the written rotation on the Snow Crows site and see what’s going on. We alternate between the scepter/tome loop and the axe mini-game, using symbols with priority and sword of justice primarily as filler.

These concepts apply to almost every rotation in this game; once you understand them and have muscle memory for them you can pick up whatever class you like!

As you can probably tell, I’d like to get skill priority tables of the kind this guide is based on for more classes, and maybe make more guides like this and/or encourage other community members to steal the format, but I’m not sure who has the data. Let me know if there’s a guide you want or if you have any leads.

The entire text is pasted below the cut, for those who don’t like Google Docs. (cuts now work on tumblr mobile now, right?)

The condi firebrand rotation, explained:

My goal is to explain enough here so when you read the "notes" section of https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/guardian/firebrand/condition/, you feel like you know exactly what each note means, understand why, and know what to do when things break down.

Let's start with some data. Credit to dolan#7398 for some DPSe numbers I shamelessly stole, and to Ivalia and Khar for the original spreadsheet. TJ has similar data in the benchmark video description as well.

For the unfamiliar, DPSe is damage per cast time, or “how much DPS am I doing while casting this particular skill?” Priority takes cooldowns into account (don’t worry about the math too much.)

With any rotation, we want to press all skills better than autoattacking as often as possible, keeping them on cooldown, and prioritizing the really good ones. What do we observe from this table that helps us make a good rotation?

Since mantras are instant, they can be cast during other skill casts, and so we want to press them off cooldown simultaneously with and independently of everything below.

Scepter 2 is great; scepter 1 is awful. This means we want to use axe for autoattacking, dip into scepter for skill 2, use as many good skills to fill time as possible, use skill 2 again, and go back to axe. Tome of justice is perfect for this. This is why our loop "skeleton" is:

ax2, sc2, tome, sc2, fill time here, sc2, ax2, stay on axe until we can do it again

or when renewed focus is up (including the beginning of the DPS rotation):

ax2, sc2, tome, sc2, renewed focus, sc2, tome, sc2, ax2, stay on axe

When we're waiting around on axe, we don't want to interrupt the autoattack chain, but we want to use axe 2 and 3 as soon as possible; this turns into a little mini-game where you bunch skills together as they become available to leave bigger gaps for completing the entire axe 1 chain. Be very sure you get the third skill in the chain to fully hit twice.

Because sword of justice is an ammo skill, we can delay it without losing DPS. Delaying a normal skill means time spent without it recharging; since after the opener ammo skills are "always" recharging, we can prioritize traditional skills over them and their damage output in the end will be the same, making them great for filling in gaps in the axe mini-game. You get better at it over time, don't worry.

Example: I see that axe 2 and axe 3 will both come up pretty soon, but the axe3 will be a bit late, and I have one sword of justice charge. If I just mash buttons, I’ll cast something like 1-sword-1-2-1-3-1, interrupting my chain a lot.

Instead, I want to finish my current chain, then press 2-sword-3 and start a new chain.

Torch 4 is kind of like that, but not really; it’s almost like a weird mini-game of its own. The activation is an instant cast skill, so you can use it during other casts, but then you must throw it within the next 3 seconds. While this allows you to activate it ASAP like a mantra, use some traditional skills or finish an autoattack chain, and then throw it (just like sword of justice), the passive activations you get make this method confusing.The easier method, in which you keep it synced with the passive trait, is to always let the passive trigger, finish whatever axe skills you're using, then throw the passive and activate and throw the active.

Note that there's a bug if you spam the 4 key that wastes time (your character “throws” nothing), so either press it the exact number of times you need or queue up another skill right after your throw.

Torch 5, being slightly worse than the full axe autoattack chain on DPS builds, is only used to avoid some weaker autoattacks when you run out of other filler options. Usually this is scepter autoattacks, i.e. where I wrote "fill time here” in the “skeleton,” though it can technically replace 4 axe autos as well. Make sure you finish the channel, as all the damage is at the end; if you interrupt it, just autoattacking would’ve been better.

These concepts apply to almost every rotation in this game; once you understand them and have muscle memory for them you can pick up whatever class you like!

Quickness firebrand changes…

...are really minor. It’s basically the same class! Because we run feel my wrath, only the first “skeleton” loop is relevant, and the axe and tome skills become somewhat weaker because of the lack of bleeding, but this doesn’t cause a significant rotation change (axe skills are about equivalent to torch skills). You should be pressing your heal mantra ~off cooldown along with your quickness mantra, rather than on DPS firebrand where you are free to save it for perfectly timed aegis. And that’s about it!

[DPSe table for quickbrand goes here]

#gw2

0 notes

archived-lightbaund · 2 years

Text

withsorrowandregret asked ( once upon a time ago ):

early morning rain , heedless &. turbulent , scurried down the windows . the perpetual music of water drops upon glass soothed his nerves , if only a little . not enough to liberate him from the need to march the corridor up and down , awaiting the awakening of his friend . the fraction of a second midoriya heard the door open , he must have nearly tackled the birthday boy the the ground in a fusion of enthusiasm &. nerves . scarred digits offered a small package , neatly wrapped in sapphire &. ruby shades , for celebration ; a self - made good luck charm stacked on tickets for an amusement park .

❝ happy birthday , todoroki - kun ! ❞

His alarm signed the beginning of a new day, a day Shoto hadn't been looking forward to, not more than any other. He'd intentionally ignore the texts on his phone, still in a morning haze where he couldn't deal with the wishes of his family ( the only people he expected to remember what day it was, if caring to text him this early ). He realized he was mistaken though, when he found someone standing at his door. Having woken up at the sound of heavy rain, and meeting his most dear friend first thing in the morning, was more than he could have ever asked to brighten up his day, but it seemed as if more awaited him.

If only Midoriya knew his place in Shoto's heart. His hero, bright and as if standing on a pedestal, beyond his reach. But suddenly, he was there, right in front of him, not as Deku but simply as his friend, an image he wouldn't forget as long as he lived, for this was a day different than most. Not a reminder of his loneliness, like his past birthdays used to be, but the reminder of his inner growth, and the connections he had made in the last year. Becoming someone he didn't despise, and who could be taught what was like to be loved again. All because of HIM.

“ You remembered? ” were the first words to slip his mouth, surprise evident in his eyes as he stared at the green-haired and the offered gift. As if the sour past memories of this day no longer had a place in his heart, as if replaced by the sentiment of this moment, Shoto smiled at the other. A wide smile free of any reservations, of any dark thoughts to cloud his heart and mind. “ Thank you, Midoriya. ” How sweet were the words, a different taste than usual. Carefully he'd attempt to unwrap the present, a bit uncertain if that was the tradition, revealing what his friend had made for him and the tickets. He took the charm in his hand, holding it tight to his fist as if it was his most precious possession. “ I'll always have this with me. ” He cast another glance of gratitude, and next to his attention were the tickets. “ Would you mind going with me? ” He never had gone to a place like this, and only if it was with Midoriya, it'd be really worth it. “ It's a place you should go with friends, right? ”

#withsorrowandregret #—× repost.#—× birthday.#— ask | if you rely on words alone — they better be powerful enough to reach them #— ic | look properly at who you want to become!#— main | no matter how hard the world pushes against me — within me there’s something stronger (something better) pushing right back #— midoriya izuku | what's a soulmate? well a soulmate is like a best friend but more. it's someone who you carry with you forever #— izuku & shoto | it's the person who knew you and accepted you and believed in you before anyone else did or when no one else would #— withsorrowandregret | look at the stars — look how they shine for you and everything you do #— izuku & shoto (withsorrowandregret) | for you i'd bleed myself dry — don't you know i love you so?#—× withsorrowandregret | 008 #— queue | time spent healing is not wasted time

1 note · View note

moved-deibreak · 2 years

Text

tag drop #1

main tags.

—❃ thread | clothe yourself in beauty untold and see life as a means to a triumph

—❃ ic | look properly at who you want to become!

—❃ ask | if you rely on words alone — they better be powerful enough to reach them

—❃ visuals | slowly. slowly. do not rush the unfolding of your soul. everything takes time to bloom

—❃ crack | ‘ladykiller’s’ aka ‘handcrusher’s’ time: if i smile they’ll die?

—❃ favorites | snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes / silver-white winters that melt into springs / these are my favorite things

—❃ queue | time spent healing is not wasted time

#—× tag drop.#—❃ thread | clothe yourself in beauty untold and see life as a means to a triumph #—❃ ic | look properly at who you want to become!#—❃ ask | if you rely on words alone — they better be powerful enough to reach them #—❃ visuals | slowly. slowly. do not rush the unfolding of your soul. everything takes time to bloom #—❃ crack | ‘ladykiller’s’ aka ‘handcrusher’s’ time: if i smile they’ll die?#—❃ favorites | snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes / silver-white winters that melt into springs / these are my favorite things #—❃ queue | time spent healing is not wasted time

0 notes

kazlifeadventures · 6 years

Text

Iceland!

Warning - lots of facts and alot of gushing to come for this amazing country... and I've had to split it up because I saw and did so much. But first:

Oh my - suitcase joy!

I surprised myself with how chill I was about my suitcase not making an appearance at the airport in Keflavik. Not surprised as it was a very short transit in Copenhagen, so a part of me knew that there was a chance that would happen. As a person who has worked predominately within the service industry it is always interesting to aee the different reactions of the customers and the responses it generates in the staff. My lovely lady guatanteed me that I'd be first delivery of the next day as my tour waa was due to depart at 9am. I was not entirely impressed in what seemed to be the disorganisation of the buses from Keflavik airport. Waiting in a queue for another 40 mins for the 1 hr or so trip to Reykjavik doesn't help when you are tired from travelling most of the day! I'm not sure if they were surprised by an influx of tourists for the new year period, there were heaps of us though! I finally made it to my hotel, with my little pouch of 'sorry we misplaced your suitcase' stuff. Found food, and a beer walking distance from the hotel, then sleeeeep! I'd booked a harbour northern lights cruise as an extra for my first night, but the rain and clouds meant it was cancelled.. bummer, but also good, as it meant an early night.

The tour I booked was a new tour, a 4 night 5 day New Year Northern lights adventure. We were late departing. And it wasn't my suitcases' fault. Luckily our tour leader is awesome. He rang the company for me and got the details of the driver, rang him and arranged for my case ro be waiting at the first stop of the day. One very happy Kaz! Especially as it was raining and I was wondering how on earth I'd get everything dry as I'd spent a good couple hours the night before rotating my smalls on the tiny heater in my room.

We had a smaller earthquake in the early hours of first morning (30thDec) at about 4am. I woke up to a bit of a shake, then went back to sleep! Earthquakes are very common here as Iceland is literally on the join of tectonic plates and has multiple active volcanoes as well. It's like one big bubbling hotpot with constantly changing walls...

The country is only a relatively new one when compared to everywhere else (both in land age and being populated/economic development), it has seen many of it's advancements in growth over the past 100 years or so. Iceland has a very small population of about 354000, and alot are direct descendants of the Vikings. Our guide, Baldir (no idea of spelling) told us he can trace his history to the first settlers 20 generations ago, and the city has a statue of his 20th cousin Leifur Eiríksson. To me having that level of descendancy in one location is simply amazing.

Before we set off out of Reykjavik we did a quick tour of some of the city's highlights.

The Harpa - suitcase arrival zone (did I say I was happy!) What a beautiful building! Its an amazing concert hall opened in 2011 featuring a distinctive colored glass facade that was inspired by the basalt landscape of Iceland. The lights that are set into the glass change colours constantly adding to the intrigue.

Next up was the Perlan ('The Pearl') a museum and rotating glass dome restaurant (more to come on the restaurant later!), that has been built on top of six huge water tanks that store 24 million litres of Reykjavík's hot water on top of Öskjuhlíð Hill. Surrounded by trees it is one of the capital's most distinctive landmarks. Oh, and there is a 360° outdoor viewing platform with stunning views across Reykjavik, even on a freezing cold wet windy day... We drove past the beautiful Hallgrímskirkja the 74.5m high Lutheran church, so tall that it's tower can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

After lunch at a gorgeous little lighthouse restaurant in the old fishing area of Grindavík we headed out to the 'Bridge between continents' at Sandvík. It is a small pedestrian bridge over a major fissure showing clear evidence of the presence of a diverging plate margin. It is often referred to as a symbol for the connection between Europe and North America. By this stage it was so windy rainy cold that it felt like being pelted with ice! Everyone's clothing that was not weatherproof was soaked. So it didn't matter much when we then headed to the South west coast peninsula of Reykjanes. The diverse landscapes of this country are astounding. The previous eruption areas of black rock, no vegetation, no water that extend for klms. The huge bodies of water, the lack of trees, the rock formations of the ever changing coastlines. This area, although wet, super windy and cold at the time we came, was absolutely stunning.

All too soon we were hauling our wet butts into the blue lagoon. There is a marvelous story of Gunda a lady who died near the hot springs. The Icelanders have many stories/fables and are a very superstitious bunch as well!

The lagoon itself is a big environmental mistake. Its the outcome of the waste water disposal from the geothermal power plant that operates in the middle of the lava field. In 1976 a pool formed with strange colour at the site, and in 1981, people started bathing in it after its supposed healing powers were popularised. In 1992, the Blue Lagoon company was established, and the bathing facility was opened for the public.

Sometimes it just works to say: Stunning! Freezing. Got beer and a face mask and blissed my way around finding the hotspots. Was still lightly raining, windy, but glorious. Not too busy, I had heard it gets terribly full of tourists and was happy that it was only the locker rooms where there was an overload of people. I totally Showered like a European in the open shower area (winning!! - how far have I come!!) Iceland has many many public pools (it has hot water everywhere!!) But the blue lagoon is the big touristy thing, and I'm so glad my suitcase arrived otherwise I may have missed out (my swimsuit was in it). I did find out that you can hire swimsuits there but...hmmm glad I didn't have to! I don't have any photos as the weather meant it wasn't worth it. One of the tour guys took a photo of myself and Christine (one of my new friends), in the lagoon, classic tourist shot, but that's it, the memories are enough!

I Loved it. What a magnificent experience even putting my wet clothes back on couldn't dampen my mood.

What a day! Off to Hella, to our Arhus cabins on the Ranga river. No northern lights tonight though - too much cloud rain and oh my...the winds were nuts. Got some new friends, and a huge day tomorrow.

More to come!

0 notes

skyesentinels · 8 years

Text

Voltron Youtubers AU Part 4

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 The Klance is here!

On Lance’s channel:

Hunk and Lance collab all the time

It's always lighthearted challenges

Their Bottle Flip Challenge video is LEGENDARY

Hunk got it on his first try and he dabbed for the first time

Lance cried. He’s so proud.

No matter how hard he tried, Lance could not get it by the end of the video

One time Lance convinced Hunk to do a song with him

Hunk played the guitar and sang backup vocals

Views went through the roof

Now subscribers love their guitar duets

Their instrumental songs are on a lot of studying music playlists

When Allura comes on, they talk skin care

Face masks, face washes, you name it they’ve done it

Lance screamed when Allura brought over a magnetic face mask to try

He spent an hour of time just playing with it

“It was worth it. Don’t judge.”

Shiro collabs on Q&As with a few challenges thrown in

The most famous collab they’ve ever done was a Blindfold Makeup Challenge

Shiro turned out okay. But Lance…

“Shiro. My dude, my guy. How did the eyeliner come out PERFECT????”

It's true. The eyeliner was perfect and Lance went to a party with it on afterwards.

Lance wants Shiro’s eyeliner secrets

“There is no secret?? I just do it???”

“LIES.”

Pidge makes song mashups for Lance to cover

They’re all love songs

“Another love song? Can't we do something else?”

“No.”

“But WHY??”

“I’m waiting for SOMEONE to take the hint.”

*Queue fandom screaming*

Pidge uses a program of their own design to make mixes

It’s available for free download because Pidge is good to their people like that

Keith appeared on Lance’s channel after a month of convincing

They do challenges ONLY. They are RIVALS

It usually involves water. Or electric shocks.

“NOT AT THE SAME TIME KEITH!!”

Their banter is hilarious once they’ve gotten comfortable together

These videos give Klance shippers life

There is footage of a Whisper Challenge that may never see the light of day

Things were said. Feelings happened.

Keith asks what happened to the footage but Lance says it got corrupted.

He lied. Lance rewatches it every so often with a soft smile.

The fandom screams for him to do a Mouth to Mouth Challenge. With Keith.

He’s thinking about it

On Keith’s channel:

Pidge both loves and HATES being on Keith’s channel

The games just DON’T WORK

“Keith, I can’t even mod this. The code doesn’t even make SENSE.”

“Welcome to my life.”

“Can we play something else?”

“No. Suffer with me.”

Keith is the only one that can bring out Pidge’s RAGE.

Multiple compilations are made out of their screaming

They talk conspiracies and cryptids and Lance when they’re not screaming

Shiro comes on and they play co-op

Their teamwork is LEGEND

Opponents will log off when they see Shiro and Keith’s screen names together

Shiro’s is TheBlackPaladin

Keith’s is TheRedPaladin

Shiro says he copied his awesome big brother. Keith denies it. But he totally did

Keith once suggested they play Who’s Your Daddy?

Shiro shut that DOWN. He’s knows better after Allura told him

Allura plays indie horror games with some survival horror thrown in

Jumpscares do not affect her

But Keith is WEAK

But if a game has scarecrows she is OUT

Until Dawn was not a good time for either of them

Except Keith had all these weird wendigo facts to share

Allura excels at survival horror because she has good item management

Keith just wastes ammo and healing items because he gunjumps EVERYTHING

Getting Lance on his channel was actually pretty easy after they did a collab on Lance’s channel

They are VERY competitive playing games

DDR was a disaster. Mistakes were made

Mario Kart went better?

“Did you just blue shell me??”

“Well would you look at that, I did.”

“You are so going to pay for that.”

“Maybe if you ever catch up to me!”

They don’t play shooting games anymore

Keith got tired of losing

Lance did an Ice Bath Challenge for Keith’s channel

Lance chased Keith around afterwards trying to steal his body heat

Lance won and Keith cradled him in his arms

Lance doesn’t remember because he was so cold

But Keith remembers. He remembers how well Lance fit in his arms. And how close he was. Almost close enough to-

And there we go! Now I just need to write some one-shots…. and a multi-chapter fic…. *moonwalks out of the room*

#voltron youtubers au #youtubers au #voltron #lance mcclain #keith kogane #pidge gunderson #hunk garrett #takashi shirogane #shiro #allura #klance #shallura

829 notes · View notes

boisentertainment · 4 years

Text

Dead by Daylight Guide: Tips and Thoughts

I didn’t expect myself to like Dead by Daylight as much as I did. I have spent over 100 hours playing it because I was drawn to how competitive it can get. My Dead by Daylight guide includes tips for the rank system, survivor/killer gameplay, perks, and my thoughts on the game. (I play on Xbox One).

Dead by Daylight consists of four survivors working together against a single killer. The objective of the survivors is to repair five generators spread out throughout the map. Once the generators are powered on they must find an exit gate to power on and finally escape. The objective of the killer is to hunt down each survivor and put them on one of many hooks throughout the map. This is known as the “Sacrifice Process”.

Customization & DLC

Most characters are locked from the start, requiring Dead by Daylight’s in-game currencies “iridescent shards” and “auric cells” to buy them. Iridescent shards can be earned by progressing your general rank through the game. The only good way to earn them is by trading your time playing. Not to mention, it’s massively time consuming to buy a single locked character (9,000 shards) or a premium skin (up to 21,000 shards).

Auric Cells, on the other hand, are the way to go if you have money to spend and assuming you don’t have an issue with microtransactions. Auric cells can only be bought with real money (e.g., 2250 auric cells for $19.99 on Microsoft’s store).

I’m usually against microtransactions but it is somewhat justified because of the licensed characters Dead by Daylight offers from popular movies and shows such as Stranger Things, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc.

Most of the skins are really cool, but be prepared to spend $20 for a few premium ones.

Changing Factors

Having a set plan in Dead by Daylight is proven to be difficult because of how much changes from each match. When starting out, the game makes you feel uneasy and confused to replicate a sense of terror and suspense while being hunted. As a killer you’re challenged to use mind games and tracking abilities to put constant pressure on desperate survivors. A variety of factors keep you on your toes such as:

14 different realms to play in

Different variations of most realms (change in map layouts)

Changing structures, hatch, and generator locations

21 survivors

14 killers

146 survivor perks

66 killer perks

Many items, add-ons, and offerings for use

An unlimited combination of these factors provides you with a new experience that changes with each match. Most factors being unknown to you until the game begins such as the map and the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent, will surely throw a wrench in any plan you had waiting for a game.

Ranking System

Dead by Daylight surprisingly does a great job of keeping the game fresh with no story mode and one multiplayer matchmaking mode. It has multiple ranking systems that make it worth countless hours of grinding.

Specific Character Level

Rank up specific characters by playing ranked games and taking advantage of daily challenges and trackable challenges that you can choose to gain “Bloodpoints”. Bloodpoints are used to level up whichever characters you use for both survivors and killers. Each level is equipped with a bundle of item add-ons, offerings, and most importantly perks. Once you level up that specific character to level 35, 40, and 45, their specific perks become teachable. Teachable perks can be equipped by other characters for unique perk combinations.

Spending Bloodpoints in Feng Min’s Bloodweb

Survivor/Killer Rank

Dead by Daylight also includes a skill based ranking system that starts at level 20 (for both survivor and killer rank). The highest level you can achieve here for a season is level 1 and colored in red. Rank is determined by how many “pips” you get in each game.

Points are rewarded at the end of the game for these four categories based on your performance as a survivor:

Lightbringer (Objective): Cleansing totems, opening exit gates, generator repairs, and being chased while others repair generators

Unbroken (Survival): Escaping the trial without being downed

Benevolent (Altruism): Remaining unhooked, safely unhooking other survivors, healing teammates, taking a hit while a teammate is being carried, and helping a teammate wiggle free while being carried by a killer

Evader (Boldness): Remaining undetected while the killer is in close proximity, escaping a chase, and dropping a pallet to stun the killer

You also have these four categories based on your performance as a killer:

Gatekeeper (Deviousness): Points are given for time that generators are incomplete

Devout (Sacrifice): Eliminating Survivors

Malicious (Brutality): Hurting, interrupting, downing, and hooking survivors

Chaser (Hunting): Chasing survivors and winning that chase with a hit

You will be given an emblem for each category including none (the worst), bronze, silver, gold, or red (the best).

Survivor Post Game Performance

General Player Level

A general level strictly for time played and experience points. This level ties survivor and killer experience together and gives players a level from 1 to 100 (I know… complicated at first). Iridescent shards are awarded each time players level up.

Quick Survival Tips

Sprinting leaves temporary scratch marks that killers will track you with

“Terror Radius” is your heartbeat that gets louder/faster when the killer is close by

Hide in lockers for a quick hiding spot typically near generators

Holding down the sprint button while entering lockers, vaulting windows/pallets will give the killer a visual cue of your location

Skill checks will pop up randomly when repairing/healing and if failed will alert the killer

Skill checks look like a needle moving clockwise in a dial – stop the needle in the highlighted area

If you die during the trial, you will lose any equipped items

Use a well timed pallet drop to stun in the killer in a chase

Cleansing totems can weaken a killer depending on their loadout

Plan ahead and space out completed generator locations

Survivor Overview

As you queue up in matchmaking as a survivor a haunting acoustic guitar riff plays in the waiting lobby giving me a sense of hopelessness before I fight for my survival.

Evasive Perks

I started with survivor Nea Karlson because of her evasive maneuvers. Specific perks for Nea include Balanced Landing and Urban Evasion. Balanced Landing gives you the ability to drop from a fall and get a three second sprint burst cooling down after one minute. Urban Evasion offers a faster moving crouch speed. You can quickly wrap around trees and boulders using the turbo crouch and preventing yourself from a chase.

When creating space from a killer in a chase, Dance With Me comes in handy, which disables scratch marks for a few seconds after vaulting an object. If I’m out of sight, it forces the killer to guess which way I went rather than using visual tracks. Stealth and evasion will always be my favorite playing style because of my love for the Metal Gear Solid franchise and it’s sneaky mechanics.

Tracking/Support Perks

I consider Spine Chill essential and still haven’t taken it off since I discovered it. This perk will alert me when the killer is walking in my direction and in most cases before my terror radius is going off.

If I’m working on a generator, this buys me a few extra seconds to crouch into a hiding spot, thinking about my next move while killers inspect the generator. Some other notable tracking perks can be used including Dark Sense, which highlights the killer for a few seconds after a generator is completed, and Kindred that reveals everybody in the game for a short period of time when a survivor is hooked.

Altruistic Perks

If you would like to go with a more altruistic build, try equipping a med-kit for faster healing and using some of my favorite perks like Borrowed Time or We’ll Make It. Borrowed Time is a Bill Overbeck perk used by daring players who have no problem putting others before themselves. When unhooking a survivor within the killer’s terror radius, the Borrowed Time effect applies to the rescued person allowing them to absorb an extra hit that would normally put them down again for 20 seconds (Tier 3 version of the perk).

Some killers may hook a survivor and camp there waiting for teammates to come in for the rescue. This spoils most of the game and makes it anti-climatic. There’s no chase if you’re repairing generators and nobody wants to sit on a hook with no hope of surviving. This is where Borrowed Time can come in handy for a thrilling save.

We’ll Make It will reward a player for unhooking a survivor. After unhooking a teammate, healing speed is much faster for up to 90 seconds, letting you rack up Benevolent points quickly as you chase that red emblem.

Objective Perks

I do my best to waste absolutely no time in a match, so I wanted to use an objective based perk to boost my efficiency. Look for Dwight Fairfield, who I leveled up just to make Prove Thyself teachable to all my characters that boosts generator repair speed up to 15% when working cooperatively. Equip a toolbox for your item slot to boost repair speed temporarily.

If you would like to relentlessly work on generators, you will occasionally have to do so when injured. Look for perks like Iron Will, Resilience, and Dead Hard that activate when hurt so you can remain efficient while you work.

Bold Perks

Some days when I play, I just want to be bold and look for trouble early in matches. If you live for the thrill of being chased and being a distraction, consider some of these bold perks to use.

Sprint Burst gives you 150% running speed for 3 seconds (Tier 3 is a 40 second exhausted cooldown) that comes in handy when the killer is closing distance on you. Decisive Strike gives you the ability to stab the killer thus freeing yourself from the killer’s grasp after being unhooked. Take a flashlight with you to blind the killer and force them to drop a carried teammate on their shoulder. It’s a pretty difficult tactic, but plenty of boldness points will be awarded.

Killer Tips

Keep an eye out for bothered crows that give away survivor locations

Keep an eye out for an escape hatch on the floor that you can close later in the trial

Listen for generators that get noisier when repair progression is made

Listen for nearby injured survivors that cry in pain and look for blood trails

If you use hex perks, protect your hex totems

Prioritize your middle generators to make your patrol easier

If you’re using too much time looping one survivor move on

When carrying a survivor, pay attention to others with a toolbox that may sabotage the hook near you

If you hook somebody, move on, you will lose time and points for camping

Killer Overview

Queuing up as a killer immediately turns the tides from survivor to killer as a badass metal riff plays fueling your motivation to hunt down others. Killers feel true power with the ability to dictate the pace of the game. Every killer is vastly unique from each other that includes different base moving speeds, weapons, aggression, and abilities.

It’s difficult to stick to one killer when Dead by Daylight offers popular, yet infamous characters like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Scream, and several others. Even original game characters like Hillbilly, Nurse, and The Hag are well crafted with sweet abilities and horrific design.

Nurse Loadout Screen

Trap Killers

I kicked off my journey as a predator playing as a trap character; The Hag uses set traps on the ground that activate a clone to pop up and jump scare the survivors who step on them. If Hag is in close enough distance she can teleport to the triggered trap location and quickly close in for a strike. Alternatively you can use The Trapper, who sets bear traps to primarily take down victims.

Both characters could use traps to cut off loops while creating pressure around hooks and generators. Trap killers require patience and clever trap placements to dominate. I like using Ruin for trappers, which accelerates generator repair regression when they aren’t being worked on.

Sneaky Killers

If you prefer to take a sneaky approach to hunting, check out The Shape (Michael Myers), The Pig, The Ghostface (Scream), and The Wraith to stalk and jump-scare survivors. Scream and Myers build up power by stalking survivors and gain one shot down capabilities. You can take stalking one step further with both Scream and Pig by crouching to remain undetected. The Wraith has his own unique cloaking ability which is most useful to sneak up and interrupt survivors working on generators or healing teammates.

Take a look at perks like Discordance that highlights generators when two or more survivors are repairing, or Nurse’s Calling that highlights survivors who are healing each other to cause disruption with stealth.

Ranged Killers

Having trouble closing out a chase while other pesky survivors have you in a loop? A ranged killer could be perfect for your playstyle. The Deathslinger carries a speargun that could shoot up to distances of 18 meters. He reels victims impaled with a chain and goes in for the melee applying a Deep Wound effect (gives survivors a bleed out timer until mended).

The Huntress prefers throwing hatchets for her weapon of choice. She starts the trial with 5 hatchets and can refill them at lockers.

The Plague doesn’t use weapons, but attacks survivors with Vile Purge; a vomit with range up to 13 meters that infects them. Vile Purge can be upgraded to Corrupt Purge, which will injure them when hit.

I suggest perks like Monitor & Abuse that reduces killer terror radius before a chase, as well as increasing first person field of view. Corrupt Intervention will block the three generators furthest from you at the start of the trial for up to 120 seconds. Cutting down the size of the map will force survivors to play into your range making it difficult to dodge your distant attacks.

Rush-down Killers

If you’re anything like myself as a gamer, you love speed and mobility. Rush-down characters like The Nurse, The Oni, and Hillbilly can patrol distant generators, close out chases, and can apply tremendous pressure quickly in trials if used correctly.

Nurse is a challenging character to use on console compared to PC, but can “blink” (teleport) through obstacles and surprise attack survivors. To offset Nurse’s strong teleportation ability, she has a slow base movement speed and gets fatigued after using blink. Mastering blink is key, and without proper skill, fatigue will allow survivors to slip out of your view.

The Oni feeds his true power off injured survivors. Oni has both an intimidating and large appearance, using a long blade for weapon. Blood obs are absorbed to activate the Blood Fury ability, enhancing movement speed to nearly 200%. Blood Fury increases Oni’s lunge attack range, and could even down those who cross his path in a single blow.

Hillbilly uses a chainsaw that charges up after a few seconds with unlimited use. The chainsaw ability gives him a staggering 230% movement speed as he dashes across the map in linear fashion. Similar to Oni, his chainsaw downs opponents in one shot. Mastering the chainsaw also takes practice, because bumping into objects will take Hillbilly a few seconds to recover. Alternatively, he uses a hammer for a basic attack to chase survivors around tight corners.

Rush-down characters could use a variety of perks, but a popular choice is BBQ & Chilli that highlights all distant opponents for 4 seconds after hooking a survivor. Make Your Choice makes a survivor vulnerable to a one shot down, when they rescue a teammate from a hook far from you.

Improvements

Like most games with a tight-knit community, Dead by Daylight gets a fair share of complaints about flaws. Passionate people complain about imbalance, meta load-outs, and exploits caused by opponent behavior.

Personally, I’d choose to improve gameplay mechanics (on console at least). In a game where precision is essential, I would love to see small tweaks that make movement, striking, and rushed actions run smoother. An inconsistent hit-box may cause killers to strike a surface when a survivor is hugging close to the environment. On the flip side, survivors may get struck after clearing a window vault in a close chase. Although incorporating first person and third person camera views works, they do conflict and cause striking uncertainties occasionally.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I could easily get by any flaw Dead by Daylight has. The tension on both sides while playing followed by immediate relief, seemingly never gets old. Getting a full experience requires the player to try out new characters and explore their unique perks and abilities. I appreciate Behaviour Interactive’s effort to keep Dead by Daylight alive and well after almost four years later. New content and chapters continue to expand the already fantastic customization.

I left out plenty of survivors, killers, perks etc., to leave it up to your own discovery. Even with around 100 hours played in the Dead by Daylight, I have yet to use a majority of in game content. It’s the main reason I continue to replay the game.

Only experience helps you learn about your opponent and how to make educated guesses on how to counter them. Putting in hours will reflect your skill and make you stand out as a seasoned veteran. You can give Dead by Daylight a shot on PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Mobile. See for yourself how you like it.

I hope you liked my Dead by Daylight guide and embrace the terror,

robisntreal

The post Dead by Daylight Guide: Tips and Thoughts appeared first on Bois & Bar Talk.

#beer tasting #microbreweries #bars #drinking #partying #blogging #Podcasts #restaurants #night clubs

0 notes