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chironshorseass · 3 years

Note

hello yes i’m OBSESSED with your writing so if you’re still taking prompts maybe “please look at me” bc i also have an unhealthy relationship with pre-tlo percabeth angst and live for pining percy

SYD U GAVE ME THIS AND I JUST HAD TO PUT ALL MY PROMPTS ASIDE!!! because how could i not!!!

for what i wrote, i kind of mention this clarisse one-shot.

anyway enjoy <3, since I sort of went crazy with percy being powerful :) like i always do :) and of course, pre-tlo percabeth :)

read on ao3

The waves had grown restless these past few days. Violent, brutal. The night was quiet, the moon hidden beneath darkened clouds, drenching the camp in heavy ink. Percy knew many demigods proclaimed it as the quiet before the storm. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

All he heard was noise.

He’d been like this—unsteady, overwhelmed—for some time, now. Everywhere he went, he felt like a ship sailing into giant waves, water crashing against his deck, threatening to bring him under.

Grover would’ve understood, maybe. But Grover, like the moon, had vanished. That only left a few of his other friends—and of course—Annabeth.

Percy couldn’t avoid her gaze, no matter how much he wanted to. She was always there, watching. Maybe she awaited the day when he’d sink to the power of those waves that plagued the beach, that plagued him. Maybe she anticipated with bated breath on the day when he’d turn sixteen and he’d have to make one decision that would change everything.

Nevertheless, she’d drift away from him. Then come back, again and again.

It drove him crazy, how much their relationship had changed with the times and circumstances. Only now, Annabeth wasn’t what bothered him.

His gut was.

It tightened and loosened, the same way the currents flowed to the rhythm of his rushing blood. He could hear that now, too.

His blood. The sea. The clashes against rock.

Everything was beating to a powerful symphony of drums.

But worst of all was his gut.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

Percy knew there was a war. He had nightmares about it, in fact. Nightmares leading to frantic waking-ups from the feeling of lava burning into his skin. But he hadn’t sensed the war’s presence so strongly in all his three years of attending camp as he did now—and he felt it, because the source of conflict had to do with the sea.

The shadows of cabin three clung to his skin in a comfortable blanket, but he couldn’t ignore this dread. It had trickled patiently into his system for a week now, culminating to this exact moment. He couldn’t sit still. He had to leave. Now.

Not long after stumbling outside while shoving his armor on did he hear the conch horn ringing as a warning. The lookouts had seen something. His legs moved faster.

Doors of other cabins began to smash open, and with it came the spilling of panicked campers. He was already way ahead of them, though.

“To the beach!” someone cried.

Percy arrived just in time to see Chiron assemble with Michael Yew and Austin Lake. The sons of Apollo. They’d apparently been the ones on night duty. The centaur saw Percy before the others made out his heavy footfalls.

“Percy,” Chiron said. “Thank the gods you’re here.”

“There’s something,” he gasped, doubling over once he’d reached them. “There’s something out there,” he finally managed to say, gulping mouthfuls of air. “The sea.”

They already knew, however. The conchorns were signal enough. But what was more obvious was the glimpse of the giant tail, jutting out of the water like a spear cutting through flesh.

The breath he’d managed to find from his mad dash was stolen away at the sight of the monster.

“Yeah,” Austin said, swallowing. “There’s something out there, alright.”

Chiron eyed Percy warily. “My boy. We are dealing here with something I fear that you are only capable of stopping.”

“Yeah, well...it looks like a pretty big fish. I—”

A howl punctured the atmosphere—probably the same sea monster he’d seen earlier. Percy gasped, feeling a stabbing jolt in his stomach. He didn’t know why this sudden change of the sea was affecting him so, but he had to stay strong. So he stood up straight and concentrated on his breathing.

“Are you alright?” Austin asked, studying him.

Percy looked at Chiron, who met his eyes as well. You have to be, his teacher seemed to say.

“I...I think so.”

Michael chose the moment to turn his back on the sea, blowing the conchorn once more. He shouted at the incoming campers, “Greek fire! We need Greek fire!”

The rest of the multitude showed up right away, Hephaestus kids priming canons while others exchanged weaponry. Through all of it, Percy’s gut became a pressure cooker, a fist closing around glass, about to break. He cried out in agony just as a tidal wave shook the world. Falling to his knees, his arms encircled his middle, muffling that pain. He wanted nothing but to make it stop.

He vaguely heard a sound of surprise, coming from someone nearby, then the rush of hands holding onto his shoulders. They helped somewhat, a comfort to the madness.

The hands were warm and soothing. The voice of the person became clearer. He knew that voice. He knew those hands.

Annabeth appeared in his vision, all worry lines and pinched eyebrows. She said something to him again, but the words might’ve been ghosts; the stampeding blood behind his ears was too thunderous to make out anything else.

He closed his eyes and concentrated like he had earlier.

Sharp as a blade, his senses switched to the outside world.

“Are—are you okay?” Annabeth was saying. “You doubled over, and I…”

“No.” He opened his eyes to meet hers. They matched the storm that raged across the sea. “I—I’m not okay. I need to stop this, I need—”

“We were just discussing strategy,” she said. He was glad for the distraction she’d offered. “The Scolopendra isn’t just any ordinary sea monster.”

“The Scolo what?”

She helped him stand up, steadying him with her arms.

“The Scolopendra,” she repeated. “A child of Keto. It’s one of the biggest sea monsters in existence, and it won’t leave the camp border.”

“No shit.”

Annabeth ignored him, glancing backwards at where the monster had last been seen. “There’s no telling what it can do. There’s barely any recordings of it.” She swiveled back to him. “Chiron says that it can control the tide. It might be capable of drowning the camp if we don’t kill it.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

“I told Chiron that we needed to try my strategy first. As in, bombing it with Greek fire before we go with the last approach.”

“And what would that last approach be?”

He had some idea, but before Annabeth could speak, the creature shot out of the water, faster than lightning. He only caught a glimpse of the crayfish-like tail and rows of webbed feet before it disappeared again.

“That looks like a giant shrimp,” he declared.

A giant shrimp that was probably capable of crushing a decently-sized trireme. Shrimpzilla, he was about to call it, as a way to lighten the mood. But he thought better of it, once he saw the hard line of Annabeth’s lips as she watched the campers rev up the Greek fire.

The Scolopendra dared to peek out of the waves for the third time, giving the chance for Beckendorf to yell out an order. Instantly, canyons discharged the green substance directly towards the monster.

It roared defiantly, maybe in pain, maybe in anger. No one was sure, because as soon as the night sky lit up with green flames, the Scolopendra crashed against the water like a wrecking ball. For a moment, all was silent.

No one dared breathe.

Annabeth squeezed Percy’s shoulder. She looked hopeful, as if relieved that she didn’t have to go with the second plan.

Chiron’s tail twitched. Beckendorf held out a hand, urging the campers to wait. Some stood anticipatedly, swords ready. He saw Clarisse in the front line, her electric spear aimed at the sea and crackling with energy.

Percy sensed what was about to happen next before he heard it.

“Annabeth,” he said frantically. “Annabeth, we have to go. Now.”

“What? But—”

“NOW!”

He’d already separated himself from her, yelling at the rest of the campers to leave. They didn’t have the chance; milliseconds later, the Scolopendra appeared. It bellowed with the power of a thousand hurricanes. Many campers covered their ears.

To everyone’s horror, it had closed in on the shore, its back legs likely reaching the sand floor as it rose to its full, terrifying height. Lightning crackled, and with it, came another roar.

“No,” he muttered. “No, everyone get out!”

Too late. The monster had already spit out a million gallons’ worth of salt water.

Instinctively, Percy let out a yell and threw his hands out.

The water halted in midair, rippling like a broken mirror. It was as if time had slowed down, as if Kronos himself had been the one to interfere. But Kronos wasn’t interfering. It was all Percy—with nothing but his willpower. A bead of sweat rolled down from his temple.

Annabeth reached him just as he cried out and threw the water back to the sea with everything he had, forcing the giant shrimp to hide as well.

He caught his breath while Annabeth looked back and forth. From him to the sea, from the sea to him.

She shook her head at no one in particular. “The plan didn’t work.”

“No shit.”

Then she gazed at him again. “Thank you for doing that, Perce.”

“Yeah,” he breathed. “No problem.”

“About the second plan...”

“I have to kill it, don’t I?”

“I...maybe. But we can help—”

“It isn’t a maybe. It is a certainty,” a voice said, strong and firm.

They both turned around.

“Chiron,” Annabeth said. “How can he possibly—”

“He’s the only one capable,” the horseman said. “You know that better than most.”

Her eyes flicked to Percy. Memories flashed through his mind. A quick, burning kiss. A promise. Then, the way fire engulfed him. The call of the sea. An explosion, strong enough to wake one of the most dangerous monsters of all.

When the bombard was over, he understood. He had to face this monster alone, like he had with the telkhines.

“Okay,” he finally said.

“Okay, what?”

Chiron nodded at him, ignoring Annabeth’s question. Without glancing back, he retreated to where the rest of the demigods were watching by the sand dunes as a precaution.

“I need to face him alone,” Percy told her, once Chiron was gone.

“No! Percy, that thing is bigger than—”

“I’m the only one that can’t drown, Annabeth!” He grasped her shoulders so that she was looking directly at him. “If anyone can do it, it’s me.”

“Don’t think I can’t see what’s going on with you,” she said, voice bitter and rough. “You’re distant, like, like the ocean is—”

“We’re both growing distant, ‘Beth. That’s not the problem right now.”

She pushed his hands away. “And that’s not what I’m talking about, and you fucking know that!”

Before he could reply, the monster's call came again. A reminder that this night wasn’t over.

“Please. Just trust me on this, Annabeth. I have to try. It’s our last option. You said so yourself: it may be capable of drowning the entire camp.”

She said nothing, not even sparing him a glance.

“And—and I don’t know why I’m like this! Maybe it’s because I can feel the ocean getting agitated, or because the war is getting worse, or—”

He realized it, then. Annabeth's tears. They were silent rivers, flowing gently down her cheeks and into her mouth. Flowing down to where everything ended up, to the sea.

“Hey,” he said, approaching her slowly. He took both of her hands in his, but she repelled away from his touch. “Please, ‘Beth.”

This time, he cupped her damp cheek, moving it in his direction. “Please look at me.”

And when she finally obliged, her gaze was fractured with glistening tears, like diamonds.

“I can’t lose you again,” she whispered.

Percy had yearned for too long; he let go of that rope tugging him in the opposite direction and instead let Annabeth in. They melted into each other, both shamelessly giving away the little warmth they preserved. It was the kind of hug that felt like a lifeline, the kind that made them both sway like the tide.

“I missed you,” he mumbled into her curls.

She held him tighter. “I missed you, too.”

“But I have to fight this one myself.”

Annabeth pulled away slightly—and when he saw the look on her face—he knew that she knew.

“HEY, SHRIMPZILLA!”

The Scolopendra reared its head, even uglier up close. Its nostrils flared with hairs, beady eyes staring down at him. When he charged, the monster bellowed and threw itself in the water, sending sprays taller than a house.

But none of it touched Percy.

He didn’t stop running, a plan in mind. Meanwhile, the sea churned around him in one giant mass of power, but it parted with each step he took, forming a trail of now exposed ocean floor. Water collided with the sky, flying with the salt in the air.

Hello, friend, it seemed to say. Or rather, hum. The sea was a song, and he was just there to dance to its melody.

The Scolopendra had disappeared again.

He didn’t look back, though he knew the entire camp was there, watching—maybe in awe, but he didn’t care enough to find out. He kept walking, alone, surrounded by a pool of green and blue. Was this how Moses felt, In those stories he’d heard? Bricks of ocean water, flinging up into the sky, just so that Percy could pass. The feeling distracted him from the objective.

That’s what he’d argue later, because Percy can’t explain how the monster managed to sneak up to him that easily.

The pool of green seemed endless. There was a moment where nothing moved, not even the water. But then something did tug him violently, up, up into the sky.

For a second, he couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t scream out, the breath stolen from his lungs and the icy rush of air when flung into the sky nauseating. The only feeling he knew was of the Scolopendra and its death grip on his entire body.

With each second, the roiling waters grew farther and farther away. The Scolopendra’s growl, however, couldn’t have sounded closer. Sharp claws sank into his chest and arms. If he didn’t react now, he’d be eaten before the next flash of lightning struck the sea.

Somehow, he managed to uncap Riptide.

And with a scream, he stabbed, as hard as he could.

“Hey. Want company?” A soft voice said.

He craned his neck around.

Annabeth subconsciously made the world easier to look at. Especially now, as she stood behind him in the pier with the last vestiges of harsh sun striking her back. Her stance was stiff, hesitant. He understood why.

So instead his eyes bored into his lap. He shrugged.

That was a sign enough for her. She crouched next to him, pulling her legs under herself and then flinging them out to where the wooden planks ended and the open air began, toes nearly kissing the placid lake.

She sat next to him, quiet as the wind. It took a few seconds or minutes or hours before she decided to speak.

“I’m sorry.”

From his peripheral vision, he could tell that she’d been studying him instead of watching the reflection of herons flying above the water. Something he’d thought she’d been doing. Apparently not.

It also took him seconds or minutes or hours before he could respond.

“What for?”

She exhaled, “Letting you go alone. Being a part of the campers who…”

She didn’t finish that sentence. He knew why.

Being a part of the campers who abandoned you alone after what you did.

“S’okay. I get it.”

A lie. He didn’t get it.

“Doesn’t make it right.”

He stared at his hands. “Guess not.”

The details of the fight were yet to go away. The memories were still fresh—like his mother’s batch of cookies whenever he came home from camp. Teeth were ever-present in his mind. And those webbed hands. Those twisted sounds as a monster choked on its own blood.

Afterward, everyone had taken a step back. Even Annabeth and Chiron seemed to contemplate him as though he were doomed. Maybe he was.

“I wish Grover were here.”

“Yeah,” Annabeth sighed. She kicked her leg up, swatting at some mosquitos. “Me too.”

“He’d pull our shit together, fix everything.” He found himself sounding wistful, longing for a missing piece of himself all of a sudden.

She didn’t reply to that. They both missed their best friend. Now, more than ever. Percy tried to not dwell too much on the fact that Grover hadn’t responded to his Iris Messages or to his calls from their shared empathy link.

“I’m sorry.”

“You already said that.”

“No, Percy. I’m serious.”

“I know.”

“Just look at me.”

He did the opposite, gazing at the trees to his left. They were a deep, mystical green. The colors looked like the ocean, where he’d displayed his powers for everyone to see. Worst mistake of his life. He realized that tears had begun to form in his eyes; he quickly blinked them away.

“Percy,” Annabeth insisted.

Her tone wasn’t hash or demanding—but rather, a light pink sky. A hand brushing his, sweet and tender. He noticed that it wasn’t just his imagination; glancing down, he found her fingers ghosting against his knuckles.

“Please look at me.”

This was eerily familiar. It hit him, then, that he’d said those exact words when she’d panicked about him going alone to fight the Scolopendra.

Hesitantly, his eyes focused on her face. Her freckles were there, golden like the rest of her. Only now, her eyes were rimmed with tears.

Something changed inside them both. She stared at him, he stared at her. Her face contorted, and the both broke down, crumbling like ruins with the slightest gust.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, clinging to his shirt.

“Me too,” he murmured back.

He held unto her as if she were a life force, breathing in her lemony scent. Tears were exchanged, mingling in the other’s hair. They held each other, an embrace that didn’t deserve to end. It only made him cry harder, while Annabeth held him closer.

“Why are you sorry?”

He couldn’t say it out loud.

I’m sorry for why we’re like this. I’m sorry for scaring you. I’m sorry for leaving.

Instead, he pulled away. He studied her, every single feature, from those grey eyes and that upturned nose to those curls that no longer appeared to look like a princess.’ They were just Annabeth’s.

“I scared you,” he said.

His arms loosened around her, just now realizing how long they’d hugged, but their hands stayed interlocked—like some sort of middle ground.

She regarded him, eyebrows furrowed. “I can’t ever be scared of you,” she said matter-of-factly. “You’re my best friend, Perce.”

He looked away. “Everyone else was.”

“I should have gone to you after—I just...I thought you were angry at me.”

Their hands separated. “Why would I be angry at you?”

“Because I let you handle all of it alone. The monster, the campers—”

“‘Beth.” He took her hands again, cupping them with his. “I couldn’t ever be angry at you.”

“That’s not true,” she said wryly.

An observation, not an accusation. Still, that didn’t make it hurt any less. He recalled the shouting, the fights. The only thing they looked for in those moments was to hurt the other, twist and pull at any chink in the armor they could find.

She winced, remembering that, too. “Sorry.”

His mouth twitched. “You’ve said ‘sorry’ too many times. It’s getting repetitive.”

She hit his shoulder playfully. “Well, I mean it.”

He didn’t retort anything back. They found peace in this lake, once again gazing at the horizon.

“It’s not true what you said, either,” he said, his mind lingering on what she’d told him earlier. “You’re scared, as well.”

The sound of the incoming crickets carried on in Annabeth’s hesitation.

That is, until she said, “I am. Scared. I’m scared.” He glanced over. She was staring in his direction, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Neither did I.”

She laughed, breathless. “See that’s what scares me. What else can you do? Honestly?”

He shrugged, turning away from her.

“How’d you do that, anyway?”

“I defeated it, didn’t I?” It was better to deflect than to answer her question.

Defeating the monster should’ve been what mattered, anyway.

“Percy.”

“Annabeth,” he said, in the same condescending tone.

“All I’m saying is that you could hurt yourself. You don’t know what you’re capable of. And then when your birthday happens—”

“You think I’m going to destroy Olympus or something?” He shook his head. “I should’ve known that you’d side with the gods on that, too. You think that they should kill me?”

“What? Percy, I’d never—”

He whirled, facing her, and finally let go of all those pent-up thoughts that just like the sea, wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Just admit it, Annabeth! Admit that it freaked you out that I blood bended or whatever the fuck Chiron called it! Admit, that it freaked you out how I killed that monster! That I’m fucking cursed!”

“Percy Jackson, you are not—”

“Yes, I am. Why would my dad give me powers like that? Huh? Just say it with me: you’re scared—of me.”

Her eyes were red, face hard as stone. Just like her voice when she said, “Look. I just wanted to help. But if you want to sit in your self pity, then go for it! You clearly don’t need me.”

She made no move to leave, however.

Their eyes held, until the anger from both of them melted. He huffed out a breath, shoulders hunching. “We can’t ever stop fighting, can we?”

She sighed.

“Guess not.”

“I won’t do that again.”

She lifted her chin. “Why?”

“Like you said. Scared you.”

That made her purse her lips.

“You’re not cursed, Percy. You know that, right?”

She reached for his hand. It was becoming a strange routine. Finding comfort in hand holding and then dismantling it as if it never happened.

“You’re mostly right all the time, so.” He squeezed her hand. “I s’pose I’m not cursed, then.”

“I’m right most of the time?” she said, eyes twinkling.

“Okay, fine,” he conceded. “You’re right only sometimes.”

She opened her mouth in mock-offense. “Percy Jackson—”

He cut her off with his laugh, a laugh that fit with the music of the crickets. She rolled her eyes, something that he’d missed achingly, now that he saw her do it for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Scooting closer, she nudged him. “I could help you. Alongside Clarisse.”

His eyes widened. “You knew about that?”

“She’s my friend, too.”

“Of course she is,” he muttered.

Him and Clarisse...they might’ve had a rocky relationship when he’d first arrived at camp, but now, he didn’t know what he’d do without her help—without her friendship. They both understood the other in a bizzare, not very common way. She’d helped him hone in his powers, but it had yet to be something he’d wanted to admit to Annabeth. To everyone else, for that matter.

“I get why you didn’t want to tell me,” she said. “But...I do want to help. You’re my best friend, and, and I also want to spend time with you. If...that’s alright.”

“It’s alright by me.”

Annabeth gave him a look.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” He tried for a smile. “I guess you could come along, then.”

His grin was shared with her, though her eyes were serious. “You’ll see. We’ll figure out your powers. What you can do, why you can do it, why the sea is affecting you…”

“All of it?”

She nodded. “All of it.”

They left it at that, though what they didn’t leave was the canoe pier. Not until the sun hid under the trees, spilling its ink of reds and oranges across the horizon.

The golden of the sun was replaced by the silver of the moon for the night, then it rose again for the day.

And in between, the waves lapped against the shore, constant and content. The ocean had calmed. For now.

#percy jackson #pjo fic #percabeth #percabeth fic #powerful percy jackson #look mom i can write #pre tlo #percy jackon and the olympians #chb #also don't judge i just finished this #i pormised syd i'd post it today and i did!!#pogo🤸‍♀️

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whitexwingedxdoves · 3 years

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Condemned. [request]

Pairing: Negan x Reader Warning: swearing, talks of non - con & violence unrequited love Summary: You accepted Negan’s offer to become his wife to save Daryl’s life. You didn’t expect him to develop real feeling’s for you. Prompts: “you don’t even exist to me” & “ask me again why I could never love you” A/N: My first Negan story, ahhhh. I definitely have some ideas for Negan, so I guess this is me testing it out first. Thank you to who ever requested this <3 She’s a short one. edit, im really sorry for not including non con before. :(

Another week had passed in the sanctuary, you wore the same stupid black dress you wore every day. You were waiting in your room, waiting for Negan to come by. He had given one of the workers strict instructions to keep you there until he arrived. You sat on the armchair that sat in the corner of your room, bouncing your foot up and down, chewing on your thumb a little. The other wives told you the horror stories of their first nights here and every night after that. That despite not wanting to, he would have his way with them… claimed it was consensual because they agreed to be his wife. The thought caused your stomach to knot up more. You were surprised when Negan didn’t make a pass at you the first night, like the world granted you a small amount of good karma in the midst of all the shit you were in but you grew more and more suspicious as the weeks went on and still he had yet to lay even a finger on you.

You felt your heart stop for a moment when you heard the door knob turn. Watching carefully as Negan pushed his way past his worker and the door. He held such a sinister smirk as he swaggered into your room. He stopped in the middle of the room to drink in your figure, using his tongue to pull his bottom lip, Lucille proudly propped against his shoulder. You grimaced at the way his eyes were violating your body, instantly making you feel sick. Negan turned to shut the door, so there was only you and him alone in the room.

“You know,” his words broke the awkward silence as he took a seat on the armchair that sat opposite yours. “When I first saw you, all I could think was DAMN! What a tight piece of ass!'' His laughter that spilled through his words made you shift uncomfortably, attempting to keep yourself as modest as possible in the short black dress. “Then, you surprised me! While everyone else cried their sorry little souls out, you didn’t. Not a single tear” his words took you right back to the night he had you and your people captive, the way he played with everyone’s emotions so carelessly as he killed people you loved. “I was impressed.” He added, now leaning forward to cause the gap between you to grow shorter.

“No, instead you just tore a hole right into my soul” his sarcasm made you snarl, his hand resting on his chest before letting out a small laugh. His hand raised to his face, stroking his beard as he sucked on his own teeth. “Now look at you! Sat there, all pretty to keep some redneck safe” you weren’t a stranger to his mocking, the way he talked about your family made it feel like lava flowed through your veins and he knew that. “You know, I thought you were just gonna be another hot piece of ass that I could have my way with” you noticed how he licked his lips hungrily “but you’ve grown on me Y/N '' he added, leaning back into his chair. “I was actually thinking about letting the other girls go… so you could have me all to yourself” his eyebrow cocked up a little as he thought of the image of you two standing side by side. He didn’t know how you did it but you managed to get a great big hold of his heart, despite the obvious hatred you held for the man.

You couldn’t help but snigger at his words, the thought of you ever being in a real relationship with this man was by far the funniest joke you had heard since the end of the world. “You think I’d be able to love you?” your tone becomes even more sinister as you watch the expression on his face change. This was the first time he allowed himself to be vulnerable around you and he instantly regretted it. You threw your head back, allowing yourself to laugh a little more.

“Why is that so funny?” his eyes seemingly turning black at the sound of your laughter. His teeth grinding against each other as he held back his anger. His words, causing more laughter, shaking your head you came back down to his level, staring straight into his eyes.

“You don’t even exist to me” you spat at him, snarling. You could see his face turning red slightly, you couldn’t deny the fear you felt in that moment, the look he shot you only screamed murder. He pushed himself off his chair and left the room.

Sat in silence for a moment trying to comprehend what had just happened. The audacity of this man, confessing his feelings for you while holding you hostage. You didn’t have much time to think as your door swung open again, causing you to rise to your feet. Your eyes welled up at the sight of Daryl being thrown to the ground by Negan. You watched as his fist repeatedly hammered into the archer's face before you could even step a foot forward, Dwight had his hands wrapped around your arms, stopping you from interfering. He just made you watch as Negan kicked and punched Daryl, blood spilling from the various cuts he already had on his face. Finally he stopped and looked up at you, you managed to pull away from Dwight’s grasp. Kneeling down next to Daryl, attempting to comfort him in some way. You couldn’t hold back your tears as they poured down your cheek, some crashing onto the injured southerner. You allowed your glace to trace up to Negan, pure disgust in your face as he looked down on you.

“Ask me again why I could never love you”

#negan x reader #negan x y/n #negan fanfiction #twd fanfiction #twd x you #twd x reader #request #negan twd #negan

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365days365movies · 3 years

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Historical July IV: Pompeii (2014) - Part II

Let’s talk volcanoes and Vesuvius for a second.

Vesuvius is a still-active stratovolcano, whose profile is one of the most stereotypical volcanoes that you’ll ever see. As a conical volcano, it’s composed of layers of igneous rock and hardened lava and ash. Positioned about 5 miles east of Naples, it’s part of a network of volcanoes in the Campania region. The reason for this is because of tectonic plates.

See, volcanoes tend to form along the boundaries of tectonic plates, where the crust is weak and molten rock can form closer to the surface. The African plate slipped under the European plate, and that eventually results in the formation of the arc that Vesuvius is a part of. Vesuvius is by are the most active of these, regularly producing lava and straight-up erupting last in 1944. But given that its prominence as a volcano is obvious, the question must be asked:

Why settle next to a FIERY DEATH MOUNTAIN?

Easy. Soil. Other than being coastal in the case of Pompeii, volcanic soil makes for VERY good farming, meaning that settlements around or near to volcanoes are historically quite common. Funnily enough, though, the cities around Vesuvius appear to have been founded not for their agricultural activities, but for their port availability. As part of a vital coastal region, the towns had quite a lot of trade coming their way. First settled by the Greeks and Etruscans, the settlements were eventually taken over by the Roman Empire, and had been so for hundreds of years before the events of 79 AD.

Speaking of those events, what actually happened? Well...Vesuvius exploded. But more specifically, things began long before, with earthquakes having shaken the earth around Vesuvius since 217 BC. By the time we get to 79 AD, Pompeii was still rebuilding from the earthquake 17 years before (which, to the film’s credit, if mentioned). Small earthquakes were pretty common, and it mostly went unheeded. And then, well...volcanoes erupt in different ways. Take Mt. St. Helens.

Located in Washington State, Mount St. Helens collapsed in 1980, triggered by an earthquake. This caused an avalanche of debris to DESTROY the area around the volcano, killing 57 people and causing over $3.5 billion in property damage. It’s one of the most famous eruptions in recent history, and was also accompanied with pyroclastic flows. Pyroclastic flows are combinations of hot volcanic gas, ash, pumice, and rock from the volcano itself, also known as tephra. It moves along the ground at over 100 mph (sometimes up to 400 mph), and is a little warm at about 1000 °C. So...not good, is what I’m saying.

Another more recent eruption is that of Puna in 2018, also after a large earthquake hit the island of Hawaii. The shield volcano urged forth volcanic gases and massive lava flows and fountains, the latter of which reached about 300 feet high. While nobody died from this eruption, plenty of people were evacuated, and the property and infrastructure damage was massive. And while the lava flows reached the sea, the fountains produced another fun feature of volcanoes: lava bombs!

Lava bombs are chunks of lava ejected during an eruption. They quickly cool in the air, turning into rock as they hurtle through the air, on their way to fuck up your day. Now, not all volcanoes produce lava bombs, but it’s not unheard of. Also, they tend to explode because of gases trapped inside of them and pressurized as they cool. Yeah, stay away from fucking volcanoes, is what I’m saying.

So, what about Vesuvius? Well, here’s where the Plinys come in. Only two eyewitness accounts of this event are known, coming from famous naturalist Pliny the Elder and his nephew, Pliny the Younger. Elder went to Pompeii to help rescue a friend as the skies began to darken from the building ash cloud. Younger lived across the Bay of Naples, 18 miles away, and could see the plume of ash rising from the mountain. For him, the skies would also grow darker. He and his mother would join the population of Misenum, and evacuate from the coastal settlement as the sea drew back from the shore. Oh, right! I almost forgot!

FUCKING TSUNAMIS

To be fair, there’s no evidence of a major tsunami that accompanied Vesuvius, but tsunamis are associated with volcanoes. The displacement of material from volcanoes can fall into the ocean, causing massive waves to propagate across the ocean’s surface. We refer to some of these massive waves as tsunamis, and they have causes outside of volcanoes. While tsunamis can accompany volcanic eruptions, there probably weren’t massive waves as a result of Vesuvius’ eruption. However, Pliny the Younger’s account does suggest some waves. Either way, he and his mother escaped. But what about Pliny the Elder?

Well, Elder was a naval commander, and was in command of the local Roman fleet. So, he took his boats to Pompeii in order to save his friend, but soon encountered cinders and pumice on their way. He made it to the island, only to find that they couldn’t leave past the showers of pumice. Shit. Pliny went to a friend’s place and, not seeing any other options, took a fucking nap. Yup.

Once he woke up, he and a bunch of others decide to strap some pillows to their heads and leave the darkened city by walking through the bordering fields. Which worked...for everyone but Pliny, who died of asphyxiation, likely from volcanic gases inhaled on the journey. And as for everyone else IN the city...well, that’s when the pyroclastic fumes came down. As they cascaded down the mountain and into Pompeii and the surrounding towns, the bodies in their path were incinerated, and those people likely died instantly.

Pompeii was buried in ash and tephra, for centuries to come. It was rediscovered over 1500 years later, and the dig commences even to this day. Over time, found within the ash were an eerie sight: casts of the dead. See, the ash was so sudden and hot that the people in its path were instantly killed and encased within it. Their bodies decomposed within the ash over time, leaving nothing but bones and the ghostly stone cavities they left behind. When these were discovered in 1864, casts of the spaces were made, giving us the famous Bodies of Pompeii today.

Pompeii is one of the greatest tragedies and archeological finds in the history of man. The people preserved were encased in living death, and we can see how many of them died. Children with syphillis, masters and slaves, sleeping people, the young and the old, and people from different classes and walks of life all have been found in the remains.

And there you have it! That’s the story of Pom...peii, shit. There’s still a second half of this movie. I almost forgot. Here’s Part One if you wanna suffer with me. Let’s get this overwith.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! AGAIN!!!

Recap: Part II

The gladiatorial exposition takes place in the Amphitheatre of Pompeii, the oldest Roman amphitheater still standing. There, the visiting senator Corvus is “honored” in a fake reenactment of his conquering of the Celts that never happened. And of course, the gladiators end up winning against the invading forces, breaking the reality of the reenactment. Which is unprofessional, guys, that’s not how you do a reenactment, come on.

As they rally, and boy oh boy do they fucking rally, Corvus informs Cassia that he is to marry her, or he’ll make sure that the whole family is killed for besmirching the name of the Emperor. Which is NOT how that would’ve worked for a billion reasons, but whatever. Sutherland is also doing his best Jeremy Irons impression right now, and it’s...it’s not good. I fucking hate this movie, that hasn’t changed. But his dumbass is interrupted by another dumbass.

Milo breaks the flag, then THROWS THE POINTY END AT CORVUS. Yeah, dude tries to kill him right there in the stands. Cassia (and the crowd that’s chanting in their favor) manages to prevent Corvus from killing Milo right there on the spot, and he responds by taking Cassia captive. However, everything is interrupted by the increasing rumbles of the volcano. Corvus also frames this as a divine sign, and has Atticus and Milo taken away. And then...he has Milo fight his soldier Marcus Proculus (Sasha Roiz), kind of out of nowhere.

And as they fight a clearly unbalanced fight, I have to wonder...WHY THE HELL HASN’T THE FUCKING VOLCANO EXPLODED YET? Oh my GOD, I’m so fucking BORED. I don’t care about the revenge wish of this boring-ass edgelord, I JUST WANT TO SEE PEOPLE MELT. And then, as if to answer my annoyance...

YEAH BABY, LET’S ENCASE SOME INNOCENT PEOPLE IN ASHES!

OK, sorry, that was a little too much, I agree, but this movie is so BORING. Anyway, the amphitheater is destroyed, and...THE AMPHITHEATER IS DESTROYED? Dude, this is one of the only structures that actually survived! Fuck off, movie. Milo and Proculus fall beneath the amphitheater, and they...KEEP FIGHTING? THE FUCKING WORLD IS ENDING YOU ASSHOLES, GODDAMN RUN!

The increasing tremors, and fear of retribution by the other gladiators, cause Proculus to run away, and all of the slaves get out. Meanwhile, on the balcony, Corvus ad Cassia’s parents live. Fearing for their daughter, Aurelia asks Severus to kill him, but he’s SO FUCKING SLOW that he fails. Corvus stabs him, then he and Marcus leave them to die on the balcony. But not before Milo also gets up there, where Aurelia asks him to save Cassia, then finally dies. Milo goes to save her, despite Atticus rightfully telling him how crazy this is. The skies finally darken, as hell rains down from the mountain. In the palace on the hill, Ariadne tries to free her, only the entire palace to fall apart anyway.

But of course, who should arrive just in time to save her but Milo. They get her out, and get her water, but then the entire fucking palace falls into the ocean, and Ariadne dies in slow motion as she plummets into the sea. Now, it’s just Cassia and Milo together, and they need to get to the harbor in order to live.

Down in the city, Corvus is trapped by the throngs as the mountain continues to explode. He orders his men to kill the pancking throngs, which obviously didn’t happen in real life. But whatever, it’s fine at this point, right? After all, a BUNCH more people are about to die, because the volcanic eruption is now accompanied by a tsunami. And...yeah, that actually could’ve happened, but not to the city-flooding scale seen in the movie. Still, yes, tsunamis come with volcanic eruptions, so a small one could’ve swamped the shoreline for sure.

Atticus escapes this, and also saves a woman and her child, because of course he does. As he and our couple get to safety, the rocks stop falling, as everyone has died. Cassia asks if this is the end of the world, and ponders why the gods are doing this, or letting this happen. But hey...we ain’t done yet.

As ash rains down on them, the couple reunites with Atticus, and they move together to go to the amphitheatre and get horses. It’s there that they get ambushed by Corvus and his men, including Marcus. Corvus takes Cassia, because the end of the world doesn’t stop the horny. Taking Cassia as his property, he takes off before Mio can stop him. In the CRUMLBING AMPHITHEATRE, Milo and Atticus fight his men and Marcus Proculus, with Atticus staying behind to take Marcus, and Milo chasing after Corvus on a horse while LAVA RAINS FROM THE SKY. PRIORITIES

By the way, small thing, but lava bombs probably weren’t a part of this explosion. What’s to come is going to be far...FAR worse. Anyway, back at the arena, Atticus is killed by Marcus, but not before killing Marcus himself by breaking the sword inside of him, and using the broken piece to stab Marcus in the neck, GODDAMN, ATTICUS THAT WAS BADASS

The chase of Corvus continues, as Cassia manages to free herself, and forces the chariot to crash. But the stupid, STUPID fight isn’t over, as Corvus continues to fight Milo IN A CRUMBLING TEMPLE AS A VOLCANO DESTROYS THE FUCKING CITY

The amounts of stupid this movie is cannot be quantified.

A piece of the mountain destroys the temple they fight in, and ash rains down from the sky as Corvus emerges seemingly victorius. But so does Milo, as he jumps on top of Corvus, and him and Cassia chain him to a column. Milo gets to make a badass speech about his dead people, just as the pyroclastic flow begins. Time to die, boys.

See, searing hot ash is now pouring down from Vesuvius, and is about to kill everything in its wake instantly. The bodies will be buried and encased for hundreds of years, decomposing and leaving imprints in the ash. Those imprints will be cast in plaster, and form the bodies of Pompeii that are so famous today. These include Atticus, who is based on a real possibly North African man found in the city, and the Two Lovers. They would be two figures found clutching each other until covered in ash, and...well, I’ll give Anderson credit...that’s an interesting ending for this movie.

Yup. Milo and Cassia are the Two Lovers, meaning that this entire movie was an elaborate fanfiction to explain this real set of figures. But here’s the thing: they were found embracing, not kissing. And secondly (and this is the funniest part to me)...

THEY WERE MEN. YEAH.

Anderson based this goddamn stupid idiotic movie on two men who some have speculated were actually a gay couple. Holy shit. There is not a better way to end this dumbass fucking movie than that smile on my face.

...How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Cast and Acting - 4/10: I liked Adewale. That’s it. THAT’S FUCKING IT. Kit Harrington and Emily Browning are boring as hell, Jared Harris is on autopilot (and I like Jared Harris a LOT), Jessica Lucas theoretically exists, Carrie Anne-Moss has one of the worst accents I’ve ever seen in a film like this, and Kiefer Sutherland...WHAT THE FUCK, KIEFER? Trying to be evil Roman Jeremy Irons and failing CATASTROPHICALLY. These guys aren’t inherently bad actors by any means, and I’ve seen something of most of them that I like. But goddamn, Adewale, Browning, and Sutherland REALLY need better agents. Jesus.

Plot and Writing - 2/10: BAD Janet Scott Batchler! BAD Lee Batchler! BAD Michael Robert Johnson! We asked you to write an original movie, not copy everybody else’s homework! I’m sure you’re capable of so much better, like...Batman Forever, oh dear FUCK. Never mind.

Directing and Cinematography - 5/10: ...Look. Paul W.S. Anderson makes shitty, shitty films, but he’s not an incompetent director; he’s just a hacky one, without much personal style or originality. Which, wow, sounded REALLY MEAN. Sorry, lemme change how I say that. He’s not the best. But he isn’t incompetent. Nor is cinematographer Glen MacPherson, who’s not really known for his films work. But whatever; they’re mediocre, nothing wrong with that.

Production and Art Design - 5/10: Eh. It’s boring. Yeah, I know, this film features a mountain exploding, but...you’ve seen one special effects spectacle like this, and they tend to blend into each other. Other than that, this film looks like every other movie I’ve seen, but somehow without a sense of accuracy attached to it. It just looks like a stereotypical action movie of the time, and I have no emotions about it whatsoever. Yawn.

Music and Editing - 7/10: Maybe the only credit I’ll give this movie is the fact that the music...the music is pretty decent. Credit to Clinton Shorer, because his track is suitably epic for the tone of this event, and fitting for the events of this movie. Sound editing is good too, even though the pacing of the film is...is bad. Oh, it’s bad. Still, I don’t really blame editor Michelle Conroy.

42%. Fuck this movie.

Is it the least historically accurate film I’ve ever seen? I’ll be honest, it’s not. It is definitely inaccurate in a lot of ways, but it’s not the worst. Is it a good movie, then? Yeah, no, this movie is terrible, and 42% is far too high a number. Just remember: accurate doesn’t mean good, and inaccurate doesn’t mean bad. God, this movie sucks.

Now for an interesting experiment. Imma fast forward past this era of the Roman Empire, and toward the end of this century. And the next film on my list is technically fiction...but based on fact, so let’s do it. Maybe it’ll be good, huh?

Next: The 13th Warrior (1999); dir. John McTiernan

74 notes · View notes

sazorak · 2 years

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Every Game I Played in 2021, Ranked

It’s time to say goodbye to 2021 in the only way I know how: ranking the games I played this year. Let’s hop to it.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020

14. Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth – 2021 – Steam – ★★★

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth set in the Lodoss War franchise. The “story” as it stands is kind of just an excuse to recycle various dead Lodoss characters into a series of boss fights in what ends up being a pretty linear Metroidvania. The story is really not what you should be here for— if you’re not familiar with Lodoss it’s pretty much nonsense, and as someone who is: still not great.

What works really well here are the controls and element system. You have the ability to swap between two active elements: fire and wind. Whichever is active, you deal that kind of elemental damage, and are absorb that element to refill your mana. You also have various other abilities as a result: wind in particular allows Deedlit to float, which is very useful, and being able to stand in lava is, while not as helpful, definitely a thing.

Of course, enemies have their own weaknesses and resistances (even beyond these, which activated magic can play into), so you’re forced to be constantly swapping between elements (including back and forth during boss fights) to move through the world and attack. Which, all-in-all, feels pretty good. There’s also an interesting puzzle system built around bow-and-arrow hitting targets and cutting ropes.

Sprite work is good, animation is fantastic, music is a bit… basic. Environments look nice but are also devoid of any variety whatsoever.

Beyond the basic-ness of it, the main reason I have this relatively low rated here is that the combat is just suuuuper just “there”. There’s nothing really to it, and it’s pretty trivial. Bosses vary from being very easy to annoying, in part because they’re VERY BAD at telegraphing the moves you’re supposed to be dodging. And you really need to dodge: a core system of the game is building up damage with particular elements so you can refill life since you can’t take many hits, the game has a very harsh fighting-game style stun system, and the knockback is almost comically mean. It’s the kind of stuff that I’d expect they’d have polished with more time and playtesting but… so it goes.

It’s very short, and the variety isn’t huge, but it’s fun enough for a few hours. Honestly, it kind of feels almost like a first pass— I’d be interested in seeing the team behind this working on something with more budget (and with more people) to make a true Metroidvania out of it. Put these people with the Bloodstained team and you’d get a really interesting game out of it.

Ori and the Blind Forest – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

Ori is a very pretty Metroidvania game with some glaring flaws that bring down the experience. The combat is brainless, you just press an auto-attack button that does all the work for you. There’s an obsession with long, very orchestrated chase sequences that are meant to be “cinematic” but are ultimately just frustrating when you don’t know what they are expecting you to do at a given moment.

But when the mobility abilities are firing, the interconnected flow of combat-and-movement is fantastic. And the game really is very pretty. The writing is decent, though its attempts at emotional moments feel a little forced and obvious. Still, it’s good. It doesn’t compare to its sequel, but…

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption – 2007 – Wii – ★★★★

So, I’ve been slowly— very slowly, given I played through Metroid Prime 2 all the way back in 2015 — getting through the rest of the Prime series. I’ve played Prime 1 a bunch, but for whatever reason I just never got to the others. Well, here we are.

This is by far the weakest of the Metroid Prime series. They tried to make it more of a linear action game, which just… doesn’t work. There’s still exploration, but the kind of spatial reasoning and memorization of areas for backtracking just isn’t here. You barely even have reasons to go back to past areas, and when you do the giant space brain outright tells you what planets to go to instead. Weak.

The addition of the hypermode mechanic just… isn’t good. Like, the base idea of “spend life to increase damage” is perfectly fine, neat mechanical idea. Corruption letting you get more out of your hypermode for the health you spend is cute but poorly explained as well. The issue is that so many enemies require the use of hypermode against them that it kind of invalidates the other combat options?

I like the Prime series’ mobility. I like to charge a beam while dodging around fire to hit something. Shooting missiles that lock. Both of those are immeasurably worse options in this game, if they’re options at all.

Many bosses NEED you to be in hypermode to damage them, which can be tricky if you’re low on health (and thus require you to farm health off them v e r y s l o w l y). Actually, in general: the boss designs in this game are very weird in their difficulty. Things get much better in the latter half, but some fights are just absolutely miserable. Rundas and the first Leviathan Guardian in particular are just so tedious. Ridley, Ganaydra, and the final encounter were all genuinely fun, but man, some of the others.

Some quick thoughts:

The scans not containing much lore on monsters etc. sucks. I miss my science team scans.

Changing up the enemies for particular rooms at certain points in the story is cute, but replacing everything with Phazoids, the most annoying enemy, after you beat an area is miserable. What the fuck?

Playing this game now is hilarious, because there’s a lot of mechanical stuff built in tied to the Friend Voucher system. Backtracking to do a weird environmental puzzle where the only reward was a Friend Voucher… kind of broke me a bit.

The X-Ray visor + Nova Beam combat stuff is hilarious. Props to them on that. Sniping a Metroid Hatcher after the frustration of fighting it previously is very satisfying.

Speaking of funny: the admiral flying down like Patton to say GOOD JOB SAMUS, HERE’S SOME GUYS TO NOT GET KILLED and then fly back to his ship slayed me.

I think I hate motion controls now

Anyway, Prime 1 >>> Prime 2 >>>>> Prime 3

13. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury – 2021 – Switch – ★★★★

Mario Odyssey was billed as kind of an “open world Mario 64”, but that really wasn’t the case. The game was inventive, and the way it built its levels was certainly different, but the sheer volume of collectables in Odyssey kind of weakened it overall; it was very much a quantity over quality.

Bowser’s Fury is really, really an “open world Mario 64”, in that you’re basically moving between Mario 64 levels in an open world, each with a set of self-contained goals. This is complicated by the presence of a kaiju Bowser occasionally wrecking shit, sometimes helping out on accident but often getting in the way.

The Bowser’s Fury aspect of Bowser’s Fury is, in my opinion, its weakest aspect. Yeah, there probably needed to be some environmental interactions to make the game work, but interrupting precision platforming with unavoidable horseshit is super not cool, and the number of shines that require his presence and the overall brevity of the game basically forced them to make him spawn really, really often towards the end, which is obnoxious.

But even so, I had a real blast with it. Bowser’s Fury is short, but it’s a good proof-of-concept of a direction they could go with Mario moving forward. I’d much prefer them built out a free-flowing open world Mario along these lines than sticking to the Odyssey model, but we’ll see.

Also, 3D World: that’s still a very good Mario game. Kind of wasn’t feeling it coming back to it, but then I ended up running through the whole thing again anyway. Good stuff.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★

I’ve largely enjoyed the Yakuza franchise from afar. But the move to a dedicated goofy RPG system seemed weird enough that I had to check it out first hand.

The RPG system is a good first try. It functions, but it does not really shine. There’s just not a lot of systematic depth to the progression. See, it uses a job system with unlockable abilities, ala Final Fantasy 5, that progresses independent of your level. Different jobs have different skills and specializations, as well as different weapon specializations.

Problem is, there’s actually not much depth to job switching. Very few abilities are actually usable by other jobs once unlocked, and most abilities are very flat in both their usage and damage. While there are a few damage types, there’s typically only one unlockable attack type of a given elemental type available to a character, so you basically just grind to get those abilities so you have a full elemental coverage, before swapping them back to whatever class is the highest DPS for them / has the highest ability variation.

There’s just not much decision making in “do I attack with Big Punch A or Big Punch B”, really; you just mash whatever attack does the most damage and isn’t resisted by the target. The fact that stat modifiers for opponents are typically kind of useless given weaker enemies die too quickly for them to matter, and bosses almost always resist them anyways.

The way summons work is pretty interesting, in that they actually use money and are available based on environmental conditions, and time last used. Them also being connected to side story progression is very good; it allows them to really build dumb emotional connections as to why Kasuga is summoning a swarm of crawfish to fight someone etc.

Story wise… it’s a Yakuza game. It’s a well-executed one of those, but ultimately, it’s just one of those. If you like the crime melodrama of Yakuza, you’ll have it here. Kasuga as a protagonist is a good replacement to Kiryu in that he’s much more… emotive and involved, but it is very funny to me that the series is obsessed with putting washed up 40+ year olds in the protagonist seat, to the point where even their new junior protagonist has to be one too.

12. Subnautica: Below Zero – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★

The last time I played Subnautica was when the original back in 2018. I rather enjoyed it at the time, and I’ve grown fonder of it since. The core formula of Subnautica— a sort of underwater survival Metroidvania, where the progress “locks” are both a tech tree and spatial knowledge— just rang quite true for me, and the way it approached an open, unfolding narrative was great.

Subnautica: Below Zero is an expandalone sequel for the original Subnautica, and it’s… well, it’s not quite as good. But: it’s still Subnautica. I do not like it nearly as much as I did the original, but I still enjoyed my time with it. I do not think there is any reason to check it out if you haven’t already played and enjoyed the base game though.

Let’s touch on some positives first before I start getting into all my nits: It runs and looks considerably better. Them making the narrative much more personal— with you as an actual named, voice-acted character looking to see what happened to her sister— is a good turn. It’s an interesting expansion to the story of base Subnautica, though I’m not entirely sure if the story it’s telling is particularly revelatory in the same way. And, again: the core gameplay loop is still the same as Subnautica, which is a fun loop overall.

Alright, let’s pick those nits:

Below Zero takes a big focus on on-land (well, on ice a lot of the time) movement and exploration, and it just doesn’t work very well. The physics system can’t quite handle animal movement on land very well, particularly when it’s aggressive, and the movement is just slowww. Heat as the oxygen of the land— while being a funny statement— just isn’t that interesting. The loss of vertical movement there is really limiting, too.

My main issue with Below Zero is its layout and progression. The game is much smaller by landmass, and as a result it has compensated by reducing vehicle movement speed, made biomes much more labyrinthine and compressed, and just made the overall flow of the exploration not as good. OG Subnautica had a kind of natural sequence to the map and the technologies you followed— born both on how it slowly gave you waypoints, the way sight-line landmarks were used to lead you in particular directions, and the way it slowly gave you access to particular mobility / depth enhancement technologies and their required resources.

Below Zero being squished makes all this instead kind of weird: you’re less gated, but there’s so many areas that don’t actually matter, and you end up getting some technology / access to certain resources in what seems like a very odd order sometimes. Subnautica just felt more deliberate in how you tended to stumble your way through the game; not so here.

This lack of structural guidance also kind of bears out in the story, weirdly. There’s two major narrative threads, one of which kind of just ends fairly abruptly (and, on my part, kind of accidentally), and then the “main” plot also sort of wraps up melodramatically, in that it… wasn’t that hard to do? Compared to the main ending challenges of base Subnautica— including the extremely fraught but fun journey to the bottom of the map that really felt like an expedition— the jaunt to what ended up being the end of Below Zero was… pretty basic and easy?

Some of this admittedly could be born of not remembering annoyances with the base game which would elevate Beyond Zero by their correction, but… overall, I think this is fun enough, but not as fun.

11. Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★

This was actually my first time playing through Nocturne, and boy: that sure is a 20-year-old game huh! Like, the core SMT systems are still good and enjoyable, and the tone is still great, but there’s just aspects of the experience that haven’t aged well. A lot of expectation for you to either just know stuff or have a guide, and not a lot of respect for your time.

That being said: The turn press combat introduced here is still great, and adds a lot of fun to the sort of push-and-pull of critical hits and weakness exploitation. It’s fun!

This Remaster adds voice acting— which I found pretty good— cleans up the graphics, removing randomization from skill inheritance (oh thank god), and pulls in all of the variants of the Maniax dungeon stuff. Annoyingly, I had multiple softlocks in the Labyrinth of Amala around the Maniax cutscenes, which ate hours of my time. Which: cool, great, thanks.

Still need to check out SMTV despite owning it. Just need to build up the headspace energy for it.

10. Castlevania: Advance Collection – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★

This collection is complicated. I am on the record as loving the portable Castlevanias— and I do— and I all onboard for them getting a new release so that I can play them on, say, the Switch or something. Of course, they’re all super emulatable, and have been for two decades now, but that’s kind of the nature of game rereleases I suppose. This package includes all three of the GBA Castlevanias, as well as the SNES release of Dracula X. It adds some minor additional art stuff, some audio with better compression (well, in a few cases), and also some actually pretty useful on-screen pop ups tied to bestiary item / soul collections.

As far as deals go, it’s a decent one, but again, kind of pointless. I’ve played all the games in this collection before, so let’s just briefly run them down:

1. Circle of the Moon

This game has aged terribly. It feels stiff, empty, and super basic. The whole card combination system for special moves is really neat actually, but the drop rates for cards is terrible, to the point that you can go a lot of the game not getting new ones. It’s a tolerable experience, but not an enjoyable one.

2. Harmony of Dissonance

This game is pretty good still! Like, the Castle design is kind of complex to the point of being genuinely confusing at times— I have gotten genuinely lost in this game before multiple times, kind of an uncommon experience really— but that’s part of the fun. This game truly captured the idea of “let’s do Symphony of the Night but on the GBA”, and did so pretty well. It’s not the best portable Castlevania by any means, but it’s pretty good.

3. Aria of Sorrow

Now we’re talking. Aria of Sorrow is very good. It’s easily the best GBA Castlevania, and in the running for one of the best Castlevanias period. I don’t know what to say about it at this point. The collection aspect is good, the abilities are fun, the game moves and just feels good in a way Circle and Harmony both kind of struggled with. It’s just a fun game to play. As a Metroidvania it’s not especially open or hard in the sense of getting lost in it (beyond chasing the abilities necessary for the “true ending”) but there’s certainly more narrow ones out there.

4. Dracula X

… Why are you here? You’re not a portable game. You’re not even the best version of the game that represent. Legitimately, why are you in this collection? Y’all couldn’t be bothered to just give us a good ass Rondo of Blood port instead? Whatever.

9. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★

Hoo boy. So, Legendary Edition is a packaged rerelease / slight remastering of the Mass Effect trilogy. Way back when, I rather enjoyed the first two games, and avoided the third in-light of the drama around its original release. This rerelease was my excuse to revisit it all at once, and finally give that third game a try.

Mass Effect 1 definitely feels like an older game. There are aspects of its design that you can tell stem from it being a relatively smaller game made by a relatively smaller team— there’s a lot of asset reuse (particularly on side missions), and they hadn’t quite locked down what exactly people liked about the franchise (namely, the side characters and party members). But the world building and narrative design really did shine here. The way it presents a complete blank slate science fiction setting that’s both expansive and detailed is great. It’s a great start for the series and setting.

Mass Effect 2 is the jump into “triple A” polish and design. Combat feels better, there’s a lot more bespoke assets, and the team and your interaction with them is put at the forefront. It’s definitely the best game in the series, the most interesting and complex. Going back now, there’s still some aspects I found a bit annoying. The way it handles certain narrative points of return— basically punishing you for advancing the story in certain places not knowing that things can turn out badly for characters as a result— is stupid. Certain plot hooks are dropped outright in ME3.

My feelings about Mass Effect 3 are complicated. Obviously, I’m coming to this with all the various DLC and fixes layered on, though I was well aware of the various flaws and foibles of the game going in (spoilers aren’t the end of the world for me— I care a lot more about plot execution than plot surprises). Mass Effect 3 almost feels like it was made by two different writing staffs. The character writing is still good. The way they gave the party a real send-off with the Citadel DLC was great, and the way the general game pushed more party-member-to-party-member interaction was good. But boy, the central plot just doesn’t work well, and the resolution is tepid– even after them going back to clean it up. You can tell they put it together under a schedule gun.

I get what they’re going for with the big focus on the war in ME3, and a lot of that works well enough. The whole gathering of disparate assets and factions is neat, and the general plot being about gathering allies on the national scale etc is fine. But the actual missions, and what you’re up against is very flat, straight forward, without nuance. For a series that often had very complex narratives with interesting choices— if not necessarily that consequential when tied to those choices— everything here is hyper-focused to basically how much do you oppose genocide really. A lot of the “gray areas” from previous games are hyperfocused into black-and-white, and indoctrination becomes a catchall solution to the plot’s woes.

I wonder what the hell they’re going to do with the ostensible Mass Effect sequel we have coming. Dragon Age: Inquisition showed that BioWare can in fact make a game like this still, even if Andromeda was a big ol’ flop, but I’m not sure how one does a direct sequel now. I guess you could pull a Deus Ex and do the “combine all three endings” thing, which… would be fine, I guess.

8. Halo: Infinite – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★

It has been ages since I last played a Halo. I only play first-person shooters on PC generally, and I do so only very sporadic at that (see: the past few years rankings). But, with Halo: Infinite being F2P, I figured hey, why not dip my way back in? I had a fun time with Halo 1 on PC back in the day.

And turns out, Halo: Infinite is a good time. There’s a lot of good mechanical evolutions, fun match styles, and good weapons. The flow of kills feels pretty good. Folks complain a bunch about the “progression”, and I acknowledge that their complaints are justified, but as someone who is here to just have a good time and not necessarily chase the number dragon… ehhhh it’s fine. It doesn’t impact me really.

I ended up shelling out for the campaign, and it is pretty neat. The gameplay loop is fun, particularly with the mobility added by the grapplehook. But boy that narrative is weird as shit. I’d love to hear what the hell happened production wise that led them here, because it is genuinely bizarre structurally. How late did they pivot to… this?

7. Stellaris: Nemesis – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★

It’s been a hot minute since I touched Stellaris; last time I reviewed some expansions on here, I dwelled a lot on the issues Stellaris has; a lot of those still are here. AI is dumb as shit and doesn’t play by the same rules, there’s occasionally back-breaking bugs, and the level of micro becomes absurd at times, especially in certain “builds”. War is such a goddamn hassle.

On the plus side: there’s actually been a ton of improvements since I last dipped in. The AI is genuinely better; it’s not exactly good, but it is much less pants-on-head frustrating. The additions to Stellaris via Nemesis are also neat; the whole becoming-the-Crisis gives another option for end-game for people getting bored with the game state, as-is forming the galactic imperium. The changes made to first contact and the addition of intel is good, if a bit micro heavy and inconsequential a lot of the time.

They’ve also generally just added a ton of new small events across the game. Their addition of a team whose entire job is to polish up old expansions and add small content like this is a godsend for improving the experience. I hope they continue to add more weird Origins; the divergence of experience tied to them is really good.

6. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise – 2021 – Switch – ★★★★

This is quite an improvement on base Animal Crossing! It doesn’t exactly reduce the long-term tedium or anything, but it certainly gives more incentive to consistently come back. I guess this is technically a review of both the 2.0 update and that DLC.

The addition of Gyroids, out-of-season islands, the ability to visit Harv’s Island to deal with roaming stores consistently (particularly Redd, who will rotate art in as you buy), various item additions, and of course Brewster is all pretty great. Lot of fun details (as one would expect). The game as a whole feels a lot more rounded with it.

Happy Home Paradise is just a fun little excuse to make cute houses. If you aren’t “playing along” you could easily metagame it to try to speed run your way through, which… that doesn’t seem especially fun. But if you’re just having a good time customizing and taking your time, it’s a real hoot.

It is kind of weird to me that they’ve gone out of their way to say that this is the last major (free?) update to the game, given how huge AC is. AC seems ripe for them providing ongoing, almost Sims-esc support. People are very hot on AC, it’d be a waste to not, y’know, capitalize on it. Ah well.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★★

OK, now we’re talking. Ori and the Will of the Wisps pretty much addresses every single issue I had with Ori and the Blind Forest.

The combat is much improved, since now it’s an actual honest-to-god combat system with manual attacking. It’s very satisfying; as someone who disliked how flat Hollow Knight’s combat system was, this is a good example of a very similar game with a similar combat still that built the system out for strong in-combat feedback.

They also doubled down on the combat-mobility mechanics, encouraging more active use of the various movement abilities that can be interlinked with combat. Them having many of the unlockable ability-modifiers be based on a limited slot system further encourages you to specialize, though some are too essential to not be “mandatory”.

Story is much better this time. It still has a lot of the similar narrative “tricks”, but they’re performed much more elegantly here. It’s also enhanced by having a lot of smaller sub-narratives and stories.

I suppose I’d be remiss not to mention how gorgeous this game is. It’s legitimately one of the prettiest damn games to date; the amount of environmental and background animation is at work is incredible. You’d think a move from 2D to 3D models would reduce the hand-crafted artistic quality, but it’s very much enhanced the experience instead.

They still kept in the obnoxious chase sequences for some reason, but they at least made them less fail-state-y and more forgiving.

5. Deathloop – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★★

Y’know, it’s weird; the interactive sim genre— as it were— hasn’t changed much in the last, what, twenty plus years? Sure, different games grant you different ability sets and what not, and the set dressing varies, but the core experiences are pretty similar. “Use ability to navigate environment in a first-person shooter, depending how you specialize you can approach this from different angles.” Different titles approach their RPG-itude differently, but overall, the general intent is that two different people’s “runs” of the same game would result in them picking different approaches through the environment based on their specialization.

Deathloop is a neat attempt at innovating on that, in that in that it is deliberately focused on the replay aspect— specialization occurs on a fairly limited level, and “runs” are more often about applying learned information and knowledge of an environment over and over again. I don’t think it does a perfect job— there’s not a lot of reason to swap “builds” between going loud or quiet, and the lack of specialization typically means you just take the optimal path each time— but it’s at least doing something different. It does encourage you to learn the environments and incorporate that into your memory between each loop, even if it doesn’t give you a ton of incentives to vary things up beyond “hey why not.”

The big complicating factor is the introduction of a Dark Souls-style PVP invader, which is quite fun from both sides of the equation. I’ve had a blast invading folks as Juliana and blasting away, and her being in a level does encourage you to take different approaches, but… not necessarily that different. A lot of folks seem to just camp out until she leaves, which is boring.

Weirdly, I’d say that this game’s strongest point is actually its writing? The targets you are killing aren’t necessarily that well-developed, but Colt, the player character, is fantastic. Incredibly funny and well-acted. The ending is kind of ehhhh fine, but Colt himself and the narrative largely around him is great.

4. The Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★★

I was of mixed emotions about Outer Wilds getting DLC. I am on the record as having really, really liked that game. But it was so self-contained and well-made that, well, what could a DLC really add to the game? Wouldn’t it just bloat it, or just be the game in miniature?

Echoes of the Eye is kind of just that, yea. It’s a self-contained little journey that is wrapped in the burrito that is the rest of Outer Wilds. But it is also, like Outer Wilds, pretty dang good, so hey.

I’m not sure there’s much to say about this that isn’t a ditto from the Outer Wilds in terms of what I liked about it. There are aspects of it that I don’t care much for in terms of the overall flow, and how little it takes advantage of mechanics established elsewhere in the game (it is, again, pretty much self-contained, and that includes mechanically), but that honestly borders on quibbles compared to the enjoyment I got out of it.

It’s a nice little addition to Outer Wilds that, overall, does add some more context to the events you are uncovering elsewhere in the base game. It also adds a nice little to bonus to the ending of the base game, so hey.

3. Super Robot Wars 30 – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★★

It’s unbelievable that this happened. An official release of a main-line, non-OG SRW title in the West, on Steam. Absolutely unbelievable. And yet, here it is.

After a few years away— presumably from a mix of pandemic and just a general need to rework the systems after years of pretty same-y titles— SRW30 is actually fairly different mechanically. It removes the route system in favor of dynamic mission selection, allowing for more dynamic plot events where dialog shifts based on who you’ve recruited and the order of missions. The changes aren’t large, but they are interesting, and it does let them just pack tons of missions into the game. The game is big, even as Super Robot Wars titles go.

The cast list is also pretty different, if weird. I’m glad SSSS.Gridman has made an appearance, and the way it brings CCA/Zeta Gundam in this time around is certainly different. No real objections there, even if the Victory Gundam inclusion seems kind of funny overall.

I do have considerable issues with SRW30. The big one is the same issue I’ve brought up every time I talk about a SRW in these write-ups: the game is too goddamn easy. Like, yes, a lot of that is born from being familiar with the mechanics, and thus being able to take advantage of them. But the game also loves going out of its way making it very unchallenging to just absolutely break the systems. It’s not that there aren’t any stakes or challenge at all during missions, it’s just that any amount of understanding of the systems makes it not a challenge.

These games keep adding more and more ways for you to put yourself ahead of the curve. Upgrade your units? Upgrade their skills? Use spirits? Use power parts? Upgrade the AOS system? Use attacks in an optimal fashion? Use a small team? Perform any one of these, and even at the highest difficulty the game won’t be hard. Engage with multiple of them— or, God forbid, optimize based on your understanding of those systems— and the game become INCREDIBLY easy. It’s the thing where there’s whole systems that just don’t really come up because you never have to engage with them anymore. Enemies basically never use spirits except when triggered by cutscenes, tile-effects almost never come up— many stages don’t even use them— and the fact that the morale system can be broken in like 20 different ways makes the idea of Morale Downs completely pointless.

Some of this also comes down to mission structure; there’s not many missions that are just “ok, we’re forcing you to use some odd ball units, good luck”, or “we’re constraining how many units you have; you’ll have to play it smart”. You almost always just have to outlast the timer for 2 turns before reinforcements arrive, and the loss of a dedicated route system has introduced the unfortunate effect that you are never forced to “scrounge” lesser-played units. Who the hell is going to be sticking Tomache on the field when you have 80 more interesting protagonists that you can field at a given time?

That all being said: this is still a good time, just not necessarily the most intellectually stimulating time. Seeing the weird mash-ups and plays on lore is fun, and the systems are, at their heart, pretty relaxing. I want it to be better because I enjoy it. SRW30 came out at the right time, and it’s a deeply satisfying experience to me— I just wish it was more stimulating.

2. Metroid Dread – 2021 – Switch – ★★★★★

After nearly two decades of waiting, we’ve finally gotten a proper new 2D Metroid. And even better… it’s good.

There was a lot of reason to be skeptical, honestly. Other M was Metroid at its lowest, with Sakamoto going as far away as possible from what people like about Metroid in terms of both mechanics and narrative. None of the good Metroidvania exploration, and the plot was just awful.

I understand that most people don’t come to Metroid for ““the lore”” but it is something I genuinely enjoy and am somewhat invested in. In part because it’s so vague and weird and stupid (SCIENCE TEAM RULES), but also because Samus is genuinely cool. She’s a bounty hunter who was injected with birdman DNA by her bird dads after a space dragon ate her parents, and she proceeds to repeatedly cause planets to explode over the course of her job. She later gets Metroid DNA injected in her body, making her a bird-human-metroid hybrid. She twice got evil space gooed but she got better.

Starting with Fusion, Sakamoto started losing the thread of what people liked about Samus— the idea of this stoic space amazon, facing down monsters and repeatedly manifesting as different civilizations’ prophesized space messiah as part of just doing The Mission. Instead, she got internal monologues, she got bossed around. It sucked. But the criticism of all this seems to have finally got through— a lesson that carried through Samus Returns, and culminated finally in this.

Samus is so fucking cool in this game. She speaks exactly one line of dialog in the entire game, and it fucking rules. The silent characterization conveyed through the muted language of “eyes seen through power armor, and also a gun” works so much better than a constant monologue about ~THE BABY~.

The plot is also good. It’s a good follow up to story set up in previous titles (hey, maybe the Chozo weren’t all that great!!), and it really does put a bow on several plotlines while setting some stuff up for the future. The environmental storytelling could be somewhat better— I’d love a slightly more Prime-like touch— but overall, it works.

Speaking of environments: damn this game is pretty. Just really good animations and background, looks nice even on the Switch. The music works for it but is unremarkable. The gameplay feel is super smooth and good. Samus controls like a dream.

I’m somewhat torn about certain aspects of the gameplay, though. It’s a great game even with these qualms, but still: boy huh they really encourage linearity and discourage some kinds of backtracking. Like, the game isn’t quite Fusion level where you have Adam saying GO HERE TO GET THIS SAMUS HOW DARE YOU DIVERGE, but that’s mostly because it’s trying to be subtle about it instead. “Ooops you got this ability and we one-way doored you into this area so you can’t go back yet weird huh” “Huh you got this ability and there’s a teleporter nearby that immediately pops you to where we’d want you to backtrack to get your next ability weird huh.” “Oh, you got the thing over there now? Cool, we’re going to block off exploring around this area also and force you to go along this arbitrary path.”

None of this is bad perse, but it isn’t exactly as free form as some Metroids have been in the past. There are certainly some opportunities for sequence breaking in the game (much of it intended by the staff), but I think it could have done with a freer hand. The item collection aspects were fun, and they do tone it down as you get deeper, but still.

The boss designs are… fine. I think some of them hit too hard, or are somewhat overdesigned in that they do too many damn unique things. Whereas in the past you usually had enough life to tank a boss long enough for you to figure out what to do, bosses will kill you here in like 4 hits, pretty much no matter what, forcing you to learn patterns for dodging much more like a Souls-like. Which is fine I guess, particularly given the checkpointing before boss doors, but I found some fights generally just kind of long and annoying. I’m sure mileage will vary there, as both me and Red had pretty different picks of what bosses we liked and hated.

The EMMI encounters seem controversial but overall, I really liked them as a change of pace. You generally have enough mobility to get around them and avoid needing to “stealth”, and the checkpoints before reach EMMI area makes failure not too bad. They did become a little rote after a while, but so it goes.

But yeah, overall: pretty happy with the game. It’s probably my 4th or 5th favorite Metroid? Which, pretty good place to be.

1. Guilty Gear Strive – 2021 – Steam – ★★★★★

Totsugeki.

#metroid #metroid dread #guilty gear strive #super robot wars 30 #outer wilds #ori #animal crossing #halo infinite

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evolutionsvoid · 3 years

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As I have mentioned in a previous entry, the Underworld is not fully a place filled with fire and brimstone, but it does contain volcanic areas. Think of it as just another ecosystem that exists within an underground world. Just like how we have swamps, deserts and forests, they have fungal forests, geode canyons and lava rivers! So if you are visiting the Underworld in hopes of seeing some of this molten material, you are going to need a guide to direct you to the regions where it is prevalent! Be sure to bring plenty of heat protection and tough clothing, as these habitats are a bit harsh! Obviously the sheer heat is one factor, but all the rock that surrounds these places are quite sharp! Pretty much the whole habitat is made of igneous rock, and there is plenty of obsidian and other sharp stones to make the floor like razors! Honestly, I did most of my research and observing from a far distance away, practically sitting in the neighboring cavern and peeking through whatever tunnels offered a clear view. I am a bit sad my body cannot handle these places, because what glimpses I got were fascinating! Lava flowing like rivers of water, branching and winding through the rock beds! Great pools of magma the size of lakes, boiling and bubbling! Fire falls pouring over cliffs, creating a blinding spectacle found nowhere else! Quite incredible, but incredibly dangerous! I would be a pile of ash in seconds if I set root in such a place! In fact, I am pretty sure only demons and shades can truly dwell in these regions, save for any magic users who can create a resistance to the extreme heat. When it comes to these toasty places, the denizens of the Underworld have two different types of molten habitats: lava rivers and magma pools. Those who are savvy with the terms "lava" and "magma" are probably pretty heated with me seemingly using the two interchangeably. However, I must object! Though they may seem wrong to us up above, things are little different down below! Surface dwellers designate lava as the stuff that reaches the surface, while the magma remains down below. For a people who live entirely underground, those definitions don't really help. Instead, they differentiate the two through movement, or lack thereof. Lava is the molten stuff that flows, much like a river or stream. Magma sits where it is at and goes nowhere, like a lake or pond. Think of it like lentic and lotic systems for water, but magma is lentic and lava is lotic! I think I am explaining this right... Anyways! Despite the harsh heat and seemingly barren landscape, these molten regions can also be filled with life! If you know a thing or two about fungi, then you know they won't be stopped by mere heat! Many species of fungus grow here, with some looking quite similar to the ones found in volcanic deserts! Where fungus arises, other creatures will follow, using these mushrooms and molds as the foundation of the food web. Many of these species I refer to live upon the shores of these molten bodies, but what about within it? Turns out, there are indeed creatures that swim through the lava and magma, like the magnificent Pteramafic! These creatures are often jokingly called "lava fish" by us folk up above, but it seems this nickname for the Pteramafic may be fitting! Studies and dissections of these creatures have shown a lot of similarities to fish, mainly those who have no jaws. It is believed that these are some ancient fish species that long separated themselves from the water-lovers up above, and have settled in a hotter home. They have fins, bones and scales, but much of the details in their anatomy and make up is quite different. The most obvious difference is that they can swim through lava! Insane! I can't even begin to describe how specialized their bodies must be to pull off such a feat! The scales they have are tougher than metal, and their fins are arranged like claws to help pull them through thicker bits of magma. Their rostrums have greatly elongated to create a horn-like structure, which helps them slice through the boiling lava. Much like their jawless brethren, they possess no mandibles or likewise features. Instead, they are filter feeders, who strain the molten rock for some kind of mineral or nutrients that they can digest. With this diet, they must swim and burrow through the lava and magma to get their fill, which makes them appear as speedsters! It was quite a sight to watch these bizarre fish tear through the fiery streams, their beautiful dorsal fins looking like sails of some boat trapped in purgatory.

With their homes made in the flowing lava and bubbling magma, the Pteramafic are obviously endearing to the people of the Underworld. Those who worship fire and believe it to be the source of their soul and life no doubt find some holiness in those who literally live in flame. The Pteramafic is seen as the messenger of Pyrogohna, being believed to be one of the few creatures who can actually swim down to the realm of the Gods Below. They relay information and knowledge from the upper layers down to the Goddess of Fire, filling her in on what her children up above are doing. It is believed that these fish are how Pyrogohna knows how to pace her dance, to ensure that the Underworld thrives. Thus, it is forbidden to bring harm to these creatures, as striking down a messenger of the Gods Below is surely one of the greatest sins. Though there is no hunting allowed of the Pteramafic, one may find their parts and pieces showing up in temples. I asked about this, after I saw a priest cloaked in the hide of a lava fish. While the people may not bring harm to these fish, they are allowed to harvest those that have already died. However, this collection can only be done by the priests of Pyrogohna, and the carcass must be brought to one of her temples. There it will be honored for its service, and then its body will be stripped for parts. Its hide and armor are fashioned into garb, its fins into banners and its horn into holy staffs and instruments. These items can only be held by honored members of the temple and Fire Dancers, and often they aren't even allowed to leave the premises. I got to see some of these crafts when Leyick took me to one of the worships, and they were gorgeous to behold! However, I was informed not to even go near these things, as they were meant only for the priests and preachers, and certainly not for outsiders. That turned out to be quite easy, as the hectic worship of Pyrogohna didn't really leave a whole lot of time for inspecting and studying. I was too busy getting pulled into dances and desperately trying not die of exhaustion. My adventures and studies have given me a body built with unstoppable endurance and incredible stamina, but it sure didn't seem like it that day! In my defense, it was a whole lot of dancing in a very hot room. You try doing a two hour country dance in a sauna and I am sure you will be just as winded as I! I must note that during my study of the Pteramafic I was musing about the culture significance of the Pteramafic. The fact that they were a holy species with such protection was fascinating to me, but then Vespar mentioned something that got me wondering. She made a comment that suggested that the Pteramafic was inedible for demons, shades and....well, pretty much anything. A creature built to survive molten temperatures and eat slag isn't exactly something that would show up at the dinner table. No doubt the meat would be poisonous to many species, so I had to wonder if this informed anything. Were the Pteramafic seen as holy before or after they found out you couldn't eat them? It sounds absolutely silly to say aloud, but I am curious. Perhaps it is just pure coincidence, or maybe this helped shape their views of the species. Hard to say, and probably isn't my place to really debate this. I would bring it up to my guides, but I think it would just give them more ammo to make fun of me. Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian -------------------------------------------------------- Any lava place has got to have lava fish! And yes, I am aware real lava and magma doesn't function like this, but it is a sin practically every fantasy world commits, so I think its fine. Since we are the Underworld, that means we need prehistoric fish, so why not the pteraspis?

#fish #pteraspis #monster #creature #lava #lava fish #art #drawing

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saturnwritings · 3 years

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how’d you break your arm?

tw // suicide attempt

The lava licked at his skin, numbing him so much it felt like nothing more than a warm embrace. His lungs filled and he could feel himself sinking deeper and deeper, his whole body unfeeling. Lava; what had once seemed like a fiery, unforgiving lake of despair, had now become a boiling coffin.

Under the lava, he couldn’t hear the frantic footsteps on wooden planks or distressed screams or the clanking of glass bottles. What he could hear, though, was the sound of the lava above him splashing once, his desensitized skin barely registering the sudden current of the lava around him. Opening his eyes for what he thought would be the last time, Tommy saw a blob, a figure, either black and white or his eyes weren’t working from the lava.

Perhaps if he were more receptive to touch, Tommy would have been more startled to feel a hand - gloved? - grab onto his elbow and pull him towards it. Perhaps he would have registered something circular being pushed against his lips instead of subconsciously swallowing the liquid that flowed down his tongue and then his throat.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter, because the next second his eyes were fluttering closed, and he was only able to catch snippets of the figure dragging him to the surface of the lava before his vision went dark.

Tommy wished the bandages Ranboo was wrapping around his forearm would hide his embarrassment and shame instead of his fading scars. The bubble sounds of potions brewing caused Ranboo to be distracted and turn away. He came back and presented Tommy with what seemed like the hundredth sparkling, fuschia potion, a healing potion.

The round bottle was raised to his face, but before he could be bottle-fed and lost more of his dignity, Tommy winced as he grabbed the bottle and downed the potion. The pleasant taste of sweet honeydew melon with a hint of bitter cherry flooded his senses before he immediately started feeling the strength return to his body as his mind cleared.

Shifting awkwardly from his spot on his battered cot, layed out sloppily and haphazardly against the draped wall of TNRET, he could almost feel Ranboo’s expecting stare burn a hole into his already injured head. Albeit still dizzy, sensing the awkwardness, Tommy stood.

“Well, thanks for helping me. That was a close call!” He plastered a playful smile on his face. Ranboo's eyes narrowed as his head tilted.

“Yeah… what happened, exactly?”

The drop of sweat falling down Tommy’s face was almost comical. Pausing for a second, as to not stumble on his words, Tommy gathered his thoughts.

“I was in the nether, I was looking for blazes… for potions, and… I thought I could speedbridge over the lava,” Tommy thought that was pretty believable. He turned away from Ranboo and occupied himself by rummaging through the contents of the chest at the foot of his cot.

Useless. Pathetic. No one cares about you.

No, Tommy knew that that wasn’t true. Ranboo saved him, which means he cared about him.

Or he acted on instinct upon seeing someone dying in lava.

In all the time Tommy had been in exile, he had tried time and time again to tune out the voices in his head, the intrusive thoughts, to no avail.

“That’s all?”

“What do you mean?” Tommy’s heart was beating so loudly it hurt his ears. Ranboo cocked an eyebrow.

“You just slipped?”

“Well, I mean, yeah, I slipped. I tried to, like, grab onto the bridge, but my hands got all sweaty and shit, ‘cause it’s so hot in the nether, so I just… fell?” Tommy was scrambling, he tried to not make it so obvious, but his hesitant and unsure tone betrayed him.

“I just thought, you know, you're on your last life, ‘thought you would’ve been more careful.” God, Tommy hated how composed and calculated Ranboo sounded, completely juxtaposing his nervous blunders.

Tommy wasn’t an idiot, he was almost certain Ranboo knew what had happened, but he didn’t want to deal with embarrassment that came with admitting it. Giving up was weak, and Tommy would do anything to make people think he was Not A Pussy. His whole life he had created an image of confidence and strength and energy, willingly confessing he had gotten to a point so low he was ready to give up, to end it all, would compromise his facade.

“I was just really in a hurry, is all.” Tommy heard the other hum.

Ranboo turned back to the brewing stand.

“...The fortress was in the other direction, there was a sign.”

Tommy froze. The unsettling feeling of anxiety welled up in his stomach. His hands started to shake, but he used his shaky hands to push himself up from the cot.

You can’t even kill yourself without fucking up.

He stood and quietly muttered, “I didn't see the sign.” He hurriedly started to make his way out of the tent when he was stopped. Ranboo caught Tommy’s arm.

“How did you fall into the lava, Tommy?”

“I slipped-” Tommy got cut off before he could defend himself.

“Really? Is that what happened?” Ranboo’s voice started to raise, his tone having the slightest hint of impatience, like a parent waiting and being fed up with their child.

“Yes, it was. I slipped and then I lost my grip and then I just… I fell so…”

Ranboo grabbed both of Tommy’s shoulders and spun him around, his eyebrows were furrowed, and his red and green eyes glowed as they searched Tommy’s eyes. His grip tightened as he seemed to look for the right words.

“Did you fall, Tommy? Or did you let go?”

Oh.

Tommy felt his body become paralyzed as he tried to take a shaky breath. He snapped and pulled away from Ranboo’s grip to wrap his arms around himself and look away defensively.

“I fell.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Ranboo sighed, yet desperation creeped in his voice, “You know, just because… you tried to kill yourself, doesn’t mean I think anything less of you. It won’t… make me think of you any different or think that you’re weak or anything.” It was almost scary how Ranboo knew exactly what to say.

“I mean, you were alone, and for so long,” he paused, “I’m sorry that I didn’t visit more often. Every time I came you always looked like you had everything together and, and I know that isn’t a good reason, and I was worried about you, but, yeah, there isn’t really any excuse for not visiting you.”

Ranboo dropped a comforting hand on Tommy’s shoulder, “I think… that you’ve handled this situation really well. I mean, anyone would get messed up in some way if they were in, like, isolation for that long. I think you’re really strong for holding up as long as you have.”

They stood in silence for a while, barely even noticing the sun setting, it was almost dark. Tommy bit the inside of his cheek.

“I let go.”

haha poggers anyway follow my twitter @/sailorsatxrn_ 👍

#fics #dream smp fanfiction #dream smp #tommyinnit #tommyinnit fanfic #ranboo #angst #mcyt #mcyt fanfiction #mcytumblr #fanfiction #minecraft fanfiction #trying out a new style #:thumbs_up:

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years

Text

PARTY FAVOURS | CHAPTER 5

Rating: Explicit.

‼️TW: Reader is EIGHTEEN! Recreational drug use, smoking and alcohol consumption, deeply internalised self-loathing, very questionable moral standards. Daddy kink taken half-seriously. BDSM themes in later chapters - explicit content will come with it's own TWs. FIRST PERSON POV.

Summary: You're Peter's classmate, a child of rich and famous but uncaring parents. Getting paired up for a lengthy project with the boy was an interesting turn of events and you don't know whether to feel blessed or cursed when you develop, seemingly, a perfectly normal, harmless crush on Tony Stark. Fueled by feelings of inadequacy and boredom, your life spirals out of control - and you're lucky your newfound friends are there to pick up the pieces even if you cannot find it in yourself to believe these amazing human (and not so human) beings voluntarily give you more than a fleeting glance and an offhanded thought. And they brought cake!

A/N: Revenge is sweet but a well-timed dick joke is sweeter. xoxo gossip girl. Please supervise one Bucky Barnes on the internet. Questionable music taste. Detention is the price we pay for justice. Bruce Banner is too precious for this world, too pure.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub @mostly-marvel-musings @vozit @littlegasps @pilloclock @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads @hermione-grangers-wife @individualistfem

Beta read by the lovely and patient @miscmarvelwritings ! 🎶🎵I love you biiitch ain't ever gonna stop loving you biiitch 🎵🎶

"Initiate phase one," I added a growly undertone to my whisper, holding my phone inconspicuously, as if I was making a simple phone call. There was no answer but I didn't expect one: I was testing the voice recorder app that I had downloaded for the sole purpose of documenting and relaying the inevitable fall of one Flash Thompson.

Making my way through the crowd of students during the busiest time of the day, I made the most intrigued and outraged facial expression I possibly could. Spying my targets, I leaned against a nearby wall, putting a hand over my mouth in fake outrage, keeping my eyes wide and trained on the opposite wall. Just as I had predicted, the two sophomore girls started giving me side-eye by minute two of my staring and finally approached me as I contemplated the wall for whole five minutes.

"I'm sorry, are you okay?" The brunette asked, her blonde friend hanging a step back.

"Yeah, totally," I mumbled. "I'm, like, shook beyond imagination, but nothing, like, bad."

The girls traded a curious look, seemingly coming to some sort of conclusion. The greedy gleam in their eyes had me internally cheering. "What happened?" The blonde one asked, coming closer.

"I'm not sure if I should tell that to anyone," I stammered, watching them bodily move forward. "Well, okay, I can't keep quiet. But you must never, ever speak of it or I'll get expelled or something," I said nervously. They both nodded so rapidly it reminded me of Funko Pop figurines. "You know the senior guy, Flash? Brown hair, kinda hot?" Again, they both nodded, conspicuously grinning. "I think I just saw him in the closed girls bathroom on the third floor with, like, some brunette from Ms. Johnson's History class," They both gasped. Predictable. "But that's not the worst! They were like, y'know," I made an obscene gesture with my hand and they instantly covered their own mouths with their palms in shock. "And the chick was like 'is it in yet?' and he was like 'yah' and I just closed the door and ran, oh my god I hope they didn't hear me," I squealed at the end, playing the part of a mortified teenager.

All three of us giggled uncomfortably for a moment. The blonde girl stared at me suspiciously. "And what were you doing there?"

I faked a nervous stammer, looking around briefly and showing them my lighter for a moment. They both gasped and nodded in recognition. "Don't tell anybody or my mom is going to have kittens," I pleaded. Both of them nodded solemnly, noticing their own group of friends approach. I used the brief moment to get lost in the river of pupils and by the time they turned around to introduce me, I was already at the opposite part of the hallway.

For the time being, everything seemed peaceful. There were a few giggles and side-eyes directed towards Flash Thompson but nothing out of the ordinary. He was disliked by most of the student population even if nobody dared to admit it outright. I took care to walk around without my earbuds for the day and pulled out my phone to record the most interesting conversations around me whenever I caught the tell tale signs of a gossip mill beginning to run its course around the school.

"Oh my god, I heard about this girl that was caught fucking Flash in the girls bathroom and she literally said 'is it in yet', can you imagine the shock, jeez!"

"Some chick literally just rejected Flash because his dick was too small."

"Rebecca from AP chemistry told me someone saw Flash's micropenis. Poor guy!"

"I wonder if his girlfriend dumped him because he can't do shit, I mean, he doesn't look like the type to eat the kitty."

Those were just the highlights of the Friday afternoon. Come the weekend and the news of Flash's unfortunate condition will make the rounds through every single group chat that the school has and by the time Monday rolls around, nobody will have a clue who started the rumour in the first place. I had to carefully select the girls who were to distribute the rumour and I was happy with the outcome: Marissa and Layla with their squad of chatty, bored rich girls were the perfect choice. I thought they would jump at any opportunity to cause drama and I was right.

It was sufficient to say I was bristling with pride as I cut and compiled the audio track from today's school day before sending it to the group chat.

Clint, Peter and Natasha appeared online as soon as the message delivered and I was delighted at their response. Romanoff's kind words, specifically, made me all warm and mushy inside. I didn't resist the feeling, basked in it even as I did a happy dance around my room. Peter's nonsensical string of emojis was another point of laughter for me.

It wasn't exactly the smartest way to go about killing Thompson's reputation... Alas, simplicity is the way to success when it comes to large crowds of teenagers. That tiny little vindictive part of me was very much looking forward to the weekend and the results of the inevitable distortion of the rumour I had started. Who knew, maybe by Monday Flash Thompson would not only have a micropenis but horns and hooves as well.

Near bedtime, I had all the avengers send me their regards and thumbs up. I answered the flurry of texts as quickly as I could but there was no point in keeping up with ten or so people constantly streaming their questions, opinions and comments.

I settled on a single easiest response: pulling my dad's old uni sweatshirt over my tiny lacy pajamas to preserve some modesty, I settled in front of my mirror, turning on my Bluetooth speaker to play "Boss Ass Bitch". In true gen-z fashion, I put on my best resting witch face and solemnly lip-synced to the song's eponymous chorus. My eyeliner was sharp enough to cut paper and my prismatic highlighter glittered enigmatically in the cold light of my blue lava lamp.

The response was, once again, delightful and I genuinely belly-laughed at the adults' attempts to meme after Peter. His blushy face emoji started a whole nother conversation that I didn't participate in but watched from the sidelines with glee, snorting every time his friends and mentors gently teased him about the very obvious crush he harboured on me.

Seeing Peter starting to go absolutely nuts, I interjected with an offer (more like a dare) of a lip sync battle. He jumped on the bandwagon, immediately going offline to undoubtedly film an epic video of what I thought would be dorky-dancing to some hipster song. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a pre-recorded tik tok video of him and Ned fighting with lightsabers while mouthing the words to Fergalicious that played over the Imperial March.

Weirdos. I still followed him on the app, though, it was pretty funny.

Bucky interjected with a very well executed rendition of "Bring Me to Life": he was wearing his full Winter Soldier get-up, complete with an AK-47, dramatically serenading Steve who looked seventeen shades of done with his partner's antics. Wanda's following twenty second voice message consisted of nothing but pure hysterical laughter, summing up everyone's reaction to the video. Bucky was going to go viral one of these days...

Obviously, I had good competition and nobody else seemed to want to participate so I rearranged my surroundings a little bit and stood up at my full height and swapped the old sweatshirt for a cute crop-top hoodie. My thigh-highs were on display and with my make-up, I looked like a proper internet e-girl. I leaned against the mirror as I mouthed along to the song with my best interpretation of the famous Lucifer smirk, seasoned with a tiny bit of angelic innocence: "Doctor, doctor, give me the news, I got a bad case of loving you..."

Needless to say, I won the competition. Eventually Wanda joined in, looking menacing and ominous with her dark clothes and Natasha's red hair flashing somewhere in the background; even Tony did a round (AC/DC as his soundtrack of course) with one of his Iron Man suits but nothing beat my stunt and the reaction that it caused.

I had accidentally called out Bruce with the choice of my song and his teammates gave both of us a lot of cheeky comments about it. We relented and flirted with each other a bit as the conversation flowed into more mundane discussion; I said my good nights somewhere between Tony's bitching about the hobbies of my generation and my nightly skincare routine. The little green heart that I'd become accustomed to over the past few weeks greeted me just as I was about to lock my phone.

Bruce was really too precious for this world. My crush on him was different than the one on Tony, it mellowed out in comparison. I wanted him to hold me, to stroke my hair, to call me his darling and wrap me up in one of those dorky button-ups that he insisted on wearing in spite of Tony's unwanted, however very valid, fashion advice.

For all that's worth, the scientist probably knew or at least suspected and had the good grace to play along just enough to satisfy my deep need for attention... Without crossing any actual lines. It was frustrating, it was disappointing but I had virtually nothing to complain about. Besides, I didn't want to lose the quirky friendship that we had. Banner was, probably, the least judgemental person I knew and I wasn't about to trade that for an awkwardly stolen kiss.

Monday and Tuesday passed in a flurry of giggling and snorting every time Flash walked by. His girlfriend broke up with him, very publicly, accusing him of cheating and he didn't even deny it - just insulted her and stormed off, leaving even his friends looking lost and clueless. I started dragging Peter and his two pet nerds along with me just about everywhere I went in case Thompson decided to do something stupid again. If judging only by the looks he was throwing our little company, he was on his way to figuring out who began nibbling at his reputation.

The week was coming to an end and the rumour began dying off, slowly. That just didn't sit with me, I wanted the fucker gone. Due to the obvious time constraints, I approached MJ regarding Peter - after a brief argument, we came to an agreement regarding Peter's safety should I need to leave him alone in the hallways or at lunch.

I needed to do this alone so if I got caught, I won't drag them down with me. Granted, I would probably get something like a suspension and the school will attempt to call my mother (she never picks up) but that's about it. That's where her reputation comes in handy-people consciously avoid dealing with her, she can be that unbearable.

But first, I needed to get a teacher that's on my side. After carefully considering the candidates, I settled on my Social Studies professor - he taught the college-level classes and was overall a very chill, nice dude. And he disliked bullies with a flaming passion. So it didn't take me long to work him into a righteous fury - just a quick chat over a cup of tea in his homeroom and a few pictures of Peter's bruised face, complete with my own pleading puppy eyes. We agreed Mr Davies would "accidentally" leave the teacher's lounge unlocked during third period and I would sneak in. The plan wasn't foolproof but if it worked, not only Flash, but also his whole misogynistic, bigoted family would go down.

As I was leaving, Mr Davies looked up at me with a bright smile: "Give them Hell, alright?" And I suddenly noticed he was, in fact, very attractive. The smile brought out the fine wrinkles around his mouth, the crow's feet around his eyes - he smiled a lot. Silver strands mixed in with the wooden brown of his hair.

I let my eyes slide over him briefly before baring my teeth in return. "I owe you one," I don't know what possessed me to say that. My mouth really had a mind of its own sometimes. The room suddenly became hot.

"Sure," He replied, totally oblivious.

On Friday, I made myself a small nest in the empty classroom opposite the teacher's lounge and sat waiting for the signal from Mr Davies - he'd tap on the door once and I'd quietly go inside the teacher's lounge, retrieve Thompson's file and make my way back to the empty classroom to grab my backpack and carry the file to my locker for further examination.

The first part went successfully and I managed to snag Thompson's file. It was heavy and hefty, all the evidence of his rowdiness compiled into one flimsy plastic folder. There were A LOT of pink slips and I rejoiced internally: at least there was a paper trail of his exploits. The principal didn't do anything about it which was... If not against the rules then at least frowned upon; the plan was to take copies and anonymously submit them to the school board prompting at least an investigation into the blatant disregard for Flash's immoral and illegal behaviour.

On my way back I stumbled upon the principal herself which got me not only a stern talking to, but a whole detention for skipping class. Whatever, I was too elated from potentially ruining the life of a dumb fuck who ruined my friend's face.

Surprise came in the face of Mr Davies, who, having heard the commotion in the hallway, stepped out of his class and saw me being lectured by the principal.

"I'll take her for the detention," I heard the familiar voice behind me. The principal nodded solemnly and I had no choice but to sigh in resignation. "Three thirty, be here," He nodded to me, walking back, looking way too smug for his own good. So I wasn't the only one excited about the successful completion of stage two of my nefarious plan. Cue evil laughter.

#tony stark x reader #tony stark x y/n #bruce banner x y/n #bruce banner x reader #stephen strange x reader #Stephen Strange x y/n #bun writes #party favours #author doesn't advocate for small dick jokes but tbh the abusive fucker deserves it

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tiny-cacti-magnet · 3 years

Text

The Shot Goes off, Yet the Show Goes on

Summary:

"Are you sure about this?"

“Of course,” Wilbur answered surely. “This probably won’t take more than a few minutes.”

Sam shrugged. “If you say so. Just… be careful. He’s dangerous.”

Wilbur had to scoff at that. “He’s also the one who brought me back. It’d be a pretty stupid move to revive me, only to kill me at the first opportunity.”

—

Wilbur visits Dream in prison.

Tags:

No Archive Warnings Apply, Clay | Dream & Wilbur Soot, Sam | Awesamdude & Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot, Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Sam | Awesamdude, Mentioned TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), a little bit of crime bois, Pandora's Vault Prison, Older Sibling Wilbur Soot, Resurrected Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot is Not Okay, he is just very confused, Author is Not a Clay | Dream Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), but we're not condoning torture mkay?, Author is a Wilbur Soot Apologist, and I will die on this hill

In the end, it wasn’t too difficult to convince Sam to let him into the prison. The warden had some concerns about his past relationship with Dream, which Wilbur easily explained around. He signed the contracts at the entrance, and he wouldn’t go back on them. Wilbur had no intention to break Dream out of prison.

Or, not this particular visit, at the very least.

The second source of concern came from his relationship with Tommy; his right-hand man had to stay outside and far away from the prison. Something about an argument with Sam, the teen had explained to Wilbur.

Thus, here he stood, deep in the belly of the beast, the monster known as Pandora’s Vault. Sam stood in front of him, Warden’s Will gripped tightly in his right fist as he flicked the lever to lower the lava. Nothing seemed to happen for a minute, then two.

The lava bubbled and popped, its orange glow illuminating the obsidian walls with warm light. It made the room stiflingly hot, and Wilbur could feel himself beginning to sweat beneath his heavy overcoat.

This was his last chance to back out, to take, well, everyone’s advice and leave Dream be, let him rot in prison. And yet, here he stood, probably a mere twenty to thirty blocks away from the man that had caused so much destruction on this server. All the same, Wilbur himself had caused a fair amount of destruction as well, and he remained a free man. Never once had anyone threatened to lock him away, despite everything he’d done.

The lava still hadn’t fallen an inch, and Wilbur decided to take the time to reorganize his thoughts. He would need to be prepared for what he was about to do. It was hard to be prepared for this. How could he be when everything was so incredibly complicated beyond all comprehension?

Dream was the villain—or at least, Tommy had been very insistent on telling him so. Wilbur found it hard to believe that. Or maybe Wilbur just didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t tell sometimes. It was all so confusing. Dream was the bad guy, but he had saved Wilbur from that train station of hell. That wasn’t a very villainous thing to do, was it?

Unless Dream had only revived him for his own purposes, which Wilbur suspected, and Tommy agreed with. Tommy also certainly seemed to think that Wilbur shouldn’t be visiting the prison at all unless his life depended on it. Wilbur couldn’t wholly disagree with the sentiment.

It was simply too dangerous, according to Tommy, and Sam; even Quackity had warned him about visiting Dream. Wilbur took their concerns into consideration, and set off in the direction of the prison regardless. He needed closure and some sense of understanding of Dream’s actions, and there was only one person who could give him that.

“Are you absolutely certain about this?” Sam asked, his deep voice cutting through Wilbur’s train of thought. “The last time you—or a version of you, rather—was here, it didn’t end well.”

Wilbur inwardly scowled at the implication that his revival was something that “didn’t end well”. He considered that day to be one of the best, watching the sunrise for the first time in thirteen years, feeling its warm rays on his pale skin. It didn’t matter that the air vaguely tasted of gunpowder even after so much time had passed—at least he could taste.

“Of course,” he answered surely. “This probably won’t take more than a few minutes.”

Sam shrugged. “If you say so. Just… be careful. He’s dangerous.”

Wilbur had to scoff at that. “He’s also the one who brought me back. It’d be a pretty stupid move to revive me, only to kill me at the first opportunity.”

“Still.” Sam frowned. “I don’t want anything else to happen to anyone in this place. He’s caused enough damage and death on this server. Don’t let him cause any more.”

He nodded. “I’ll do my best,” Wilbur promised.

After a few minutes of listening to the lava slowly flow down from the ceiling, it started falling down, revealing the prisoner across the gap.

Wilbur stood on the small platform that would take him across. A memory hit him—of covering for someone, crossing the gap with another person. Ghostbur’s memory, he realized quickly. He’d been getting more of those, recently. Little snippets whenever he entered a plains' biome, or pulled out a compass.

Tommy had told him some of it, but not all. And Wilbur tried to tell him what he remembered, but never all of it. He couldn’t get through a couple of words of it sometimes without feeling the need to disappear into a forest to aggressively hack away at trees for an hour or two.

The stone hit the edge of the obsidian box that had become Dream’s new home. Or perhaps it was his first home, technically. Wilbur had heard from somewhere that the man had been homeless before. Not that that was going to make him feel any sort of sympathy for him.

The platform left. The lava fell. The netherite blocks descended into the floor.

Wilbur got his first good look at Dream in person in over a decade, and it was immediately obvious that life in prison had not been treating him well. He wore a bright orange jumpsuit that looked to be stained with blood in some places. His eye was bruised, and there were multiple cuts and scrapes on his face, which was lacking his usual mask.

In spite of his state, Dream still smiled when he spotted Wilbur at the entrance.

“Dream,” Wilbur greeted curtly.

“Wilbur,” Dream echoed in the same tone. “How nice of you to finally decide to pay me a visit. I’ve been waiting for you, you know.”

Wilbur cocked his head to the side. “Oh?”

“After all, I was the one who revived you.”

“I know.”

Dream turned his head sharply at Wilbur, who’d taken to casually leaned against the obsidian close to the lava. “You… know?”

“Of course, I do. You were conducting the train.”

He grinned at that. “I was, wasn’t I?” His gaze drifted to the wall of lava, then back to Wilbur. “So,” he said, “I take it you’ve come here to thank me?”

“Among other things,” Wilbur answered. “But yes. I can’t say I enjoyed being stuck in my own personal limbo for thirteen years. And you were the one to get me out of there. That at least deserves some form of acknowledgement.”

“Well then. You’re very welcome. I’m glad I could be of service.”

“But I know you didn’t do it out of the goodness of your heart, or some other bullshit like that, did you Dream? You’re no altruist. You want something from me.”

The smile that Dream gave him was full of something corrupt and wrong, and in some twisted way, Wilbur saw something of himself in that expression. Perhaps there were some similarities between the two of them. Wilbur had been stuck with his thoughts, which were hell enough on their own without the incentive from the fucking train station; Dream had been stuck in this cell in a similar predicament—trapped with nothing but his own thoughts.

Maybe he did deserve some hint of sympathy.

Or not.

“Well, I think after doing you such a large favour, you could at least offer me one in return,” Dream suggested with that same expression.

“And what would that favour be?” Wilbur questioned, pushing himself off from the wall and casually making his way over to where Dream stood in the opposite corner.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed my current living situation. If I remember correctly, your previous situation wasn’t all that different, was it?”

Wilbur tilted his head, considering. “No. It wasn’t. I’m assuming you want this “living situation” changed?”

“I’d like a change in scenery. I’m sure you’d understand.”

And he did. Prime, Wilbur understood that. Understood shouting and clawing at the walls, screaming until his throat felt like sandpaper, and he couldn’t have spoken if he tried to—not that there was anybody else in limbo to talk to (apart from Tommy for those blissful few months, and Schlatt when he wasn’t passed out or high out of his mind).

However.

He remembered a crater, a destroyed camping site in a plains' biome. He remembered an obsidian grid in the sky and explosives raining down from above. He remembered looking in as much as he could from the afterlife, watching two teens give everything they had to protect each other from the enemy.

He remembered Tommy pleading with him.

Trust me, Wilbur, listen. Dream is not a hero. He has caused so much damage and trauma to everyone on this server. Trust me.

And that was the issue, wasn’t it? Trust.

That was his downfall, always. Spiralling into his own mind, convincing himself that anyone and everyone could be the traitor. It was trusting too much that had gotten him killed, and refusing to trust anyone at all that had dealt the final blow.

Wilbur knew he couldn’t trust Dream. That wasn’t his paranoia speaking, that was just common sense. Tommy on the other hand… maybe the kid deserved some of Wilbur’s trust after trusting him for months in Pogtopia despite all reason saying to do otherwise.

He’d made his choice.

“There’s this saying, Dream, from someone I know very, very well.”

Dream whispered under his breath, “I swear, if you’re about to say ‘It was never meant to be’—”

Wilbur fought a smile at that, but continued on regardless. “‘I believe in absolute reciprocity’.”

“I’d agree,” he replied. “It’d be a fair trade, wouldn’t it? One rescue for another?”

“That’s one way of thinking about it. But you see, I was trapped in the afterlife for thirteen years, Dream. Thirteen years. You’ve been in here for what? A few months at most? Maybe half a year?”

“Wilbur—”

“‘Absolute reciprocity’,” he repeated. “That leaves you with about twelve and a half years to go? I’d say that’s a fair trade.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” Dream frantically tried to explain. “Time works differently in the afterlife. You weren’t gone for that long, I swear.”

Wilbur shrugged carelessly. “I don’t particularly care about how time works in limbo, or whatever that place is called.”

“But—”

“Sam!” Wilbur called into the lava. “I think we’re done here.”

“I—I revived you,” Dream insisted. “You owe me.”

“No, I don’t. You should never have hurt my brother, Dream.”

The lava fell.

“You should have known I wouldn’t be merciful to those who hurt my family.”

The platform came.

Wilbur let a twisted smile spread across his face as he stepped onto it. He turned around to spare a gloating wave in Dream’s direction. “Enjoy the next decade in prison. I’ll be back sometime around then, probably.”

If you last that long, he didn’t add.

—

AO3

#dsmp #dream smp #dream smp fanfiction #dsmp fanfic #wilbur soot #dreamwastaken #awesamdude #revivebur #so this was written before the techno stream whoops #why does stuff happen so fast in this fandom #wilbur is mostly just confused in this #that's it #anyways enjoy

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inventors-fair · 3 years

Text

Three Cheese Commentary: An exercise in utility

I really shouldn’t complain about contests being popular with people.

Still, what a way for the year’s contests to start. A heckuva lot of entries for a very hard prompt makes me feel good, in an odd way. I have a hypothesis that the clarity of directions and the examples provided were enough to make it feel as though there was a low barrier to entry. It’s interesting and kind of my fault that a lot of mythic legendary creatures found their way in. Ah well. Lessons learned.

If you’re reading this, I want to give you a little hint: we love hard decisions. If your cards really are brilliant, if you do your best to improve with each and every entry, if you listen to the commentary and submit the best possible card, then our jobs as judges would be nail-bitingly hard. And I love that. I love having to sigh wistfully and move a card from “winners” to “runners-up.” I love praising cards that contest for coolness in their spaces. In short: you don’t have to listen to us specifically because, well, we’re not professionals, but if you tweak the tweaks and polish on your polish, then—well, the goal is that you grow as designers and in your understanding of the game. And that you’ll have fun along the way.

For every card, I’m going to converse with the intent, talk about where improvements can be made and what might have gone wrong, and then go through wording nitpicks (another part of what makes cards hard, heh. You gotta do design AND cost AND flavor without committee). Cards with JUDGE PICK are personal favorites that for whatever reason either didn’t meet the criteria for winners or just tickled my fancy despite being some kind of not-there-in-certain-ways. Or maybe they just got pushed out of runners-up because of space. See? Hard decisions.

Let’s talk about some cards:

@aethernalstars — Anurid Matriarch

Intent: The Matriarch feels like a casual build-around-me keyword card with some connection to the Anurids of Dominaria. There are only two frogs with reach (and none with first strike) to date but this isn’t supposed to be a tribal card, is it. Not like that, anyway. Giving keywords those ups makes sense. Token generation is pretty solidly GW, giving them flying is WU, sure. First strike to double feels distinctly white. I imagine this card as a casual build-around-me or a token generator. Five mana for a 1/1 token ain’t bad.

Improvement: I have no idea what this card really wants to be. First strike doesn’t see anything outside of white, and reach doesn’t see much inside white. Or blue, for that matter. The flying makes sense for blue but this whole card doesn’t feel cohesive in terms of colors or identity. I did my Anurid research and I don’t see any precedent for this. Frog beasts are cool but… Well, this card answers the question of “why” with “just because.” I don’t fully understand the niche it’s trying to fill or the environment in which it wants to exist. If you’re gonna make a Frog build-around-me, lean into that. If you’re gonna make a keyword tribal card, focus on just one. If you want to make it color-balanced, look at what everything could do together for a flavorful feel.

Nitpicks: Flying comes before double strike.

Amarinthe — Rashmi, Enlivened Artificer

Intent: Temur has a pseudo-foothold in Kaladesh mechanically, so I’m not surprised that Rashmi’s here doing her thing. Giving your cards Jump-start is interesting, as UR has a sort of flashback mechanic, plus the lands from the graveyard work into green quite well. What I really like is the way that the Crucible effect interacts with jump-start. That’s pretty cool design chops. I can see this in a supplemental Commander sphere or even as a Standard mythic for a three-color archetype. It doesn’t seem exceptionally broken on either front. From a purely mechanical perspective, I think you made an awesome card.

Improvement: This card perhaps feels RUG, but it 100% doesn’t feel like Rashmi or a druid. Elves can be artificers on Kaladesh, and that’s not an issue, but you call her an artificer, you type her as a druid (which yes, was her original type when she was more druidic), and you give her a primary ability that’s got basically nothing to do with artifacts or druidic principles. The lands work great with the druid part, but the flavor could be sorted out. I would take out “jump-start” as a keyword and just work in the wording “you may cast from your graveyard” etc., make a new character, and flavor them appropriately. The flavor text should complement the mechanics; as it is, I’m not certain.

Nitpicks: “jump-start” should be lowercase, but it doesn’t really matter if you do end up taking it out.

@arashisann — Yurlok’s Conflux

Intent: With Yurlok being a new commander hotness, I can see the intent of this card as a Jundian standard/supplemental addendum. The lava flow makes mountains, then the second ability...represents something predatory? And the last is Jund destruction. The R>B>G makes sense there.

Improvement: I don’t know if this card is necessary salvageable as-is; you might be better off making two or three separate cards if you want to show this character. When making a saga, you have to tell a story in a limited form, and it’s hard, absolutely! You represented the lava flow in the first ability quite well, and I do like that a lot. The creature and artifact sacrifice isn’t indicative of anything that I can follow story-wise. Reading the wiki I understand the way that you might want to represent the Thrash dying or Esper being invaded. I don’t believe this is the way to do it. With the very last sentence not doing anything when you’re sacrificing anyway, I don’t believe the best card for you is a saga at all. How could you tell this in an instant or sorcery card, perhaps? The moment that Yurlok comes over the Esper border?

Nitpicks: “non-Mountain;” the land type should be capitalized in both parts, see Quicksilver Fountain. The ability should also be one word. As I mentioned, removing the counters doesn’t do anything mechanically because it’s sacrificed after resolution. Check the MSE Discord if you want to get your text fixed, BTW. I know how frustrating that can be.

@askkrenko — Etherium Restoration

Intent: You know, even without Ed being there, I’m getting a Bruna-ish feel. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just that UW expensive returning stuff kinda has those associations. The fact that the creature is being restored with etherium though is pretty awesome, and you know what, that alone (the return plus the re-artifacting) is a great way to convey what Esper does and wants to do.

Improvement: The aura and equipment stuff doesn’t grab me, honestly. What do auras have to do with Esper? And the only equipment that I could find that fit was Mask of Riddles. So I’m going to stop here because the obvious answer is that you’re exploring new story design space for what Esper might be. I respect that. With the information we have now, it’s middle-of-the-road. My vote would be to make this (3)(B/W)(U) and make an argument for UW reanimation to artifice overall, then completely drop the aura/equipment part. Plus, gotta say, I know the flavor text is a pop culture thing but you’re messin’ with my favorite plane! Show some respect! /j

Nitpicks: If you do keep that second part, “Aura” and “Equipment” should be capitalized.

@bread-into-toast — Krofor, Corpse Hauler

Intent: It’s a nightmare insect? I’m down. Even without that particular piece of art I can see how people might be afraid of a giant bug. This is pretty evidently a Commander-geared card although I can see how casual brewers might want to throw it down in a combo match and do some graveyard hate. GW graveyard exile and black ability scavaging is pretty cool, so I can see where your intent was with that. Good catch putting “Nightmare” first, too. I almost suggested mixing it around. I like how aggressive this card can be.

Improvement: Firstly, Corpse Hauler is literally another card which already had a self-evident mechanical ability to get creatures back to the hand. Even if it’s an homage, I would distinguish it; besides, it’s not so much “hauling” corpses as it is eating them. Presumably. “All abilities” is a bit of a slippery slope, too. Activated abilities is one thing, but all abilities whatsoever? I’m uncertain if that’s design space you want to tap into, but don’t pull the trigger. My main issue is that you have the activated ability cost “X and W, B or G.” I understand what you were trying to do but that that point you might as well just have it be “1X.” There wouldn’t be anything stopping you from making that mana already. In short, rectify the name to fit flavor, change the ability cost, and be wary of weird interactions with abilities.

Nitpicks: “Lifelink” and “Vigilance” should be lowercase ‘l’ and ‘v’ respectively. The X in the rules text of the activated ability should also be spelled out and not a mana symbol. You can change this in MSE by highlighting, then going to the star next to the bold/italic toggle and turning it off.

@col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion — Sevala, Exiled Naturalist

Intent: I read up on what happened with Selvala after the events of the first Conspiracy set, and I see how you set off to mimic that, but then I saw the note about the Timeshifting, and yeah, I guess that works.. The green landfall, the red flashback and the white Path come across well. I suppose this is more of an eternal-themed card, although I could be wrong.

Improvement: Yeah, technically there’s nothing stopping you from having a noncreature card as a partnerable card. I’m trying to be diplomatic about the implications, though. Okay. So Selvala’s white aspect was introduced in the first Conspiracy set as she was heavily connected to the citizens of Paliano and worked as a community diplomat against the establishment. She forged a stronger connection to nature and thus became more green in her overhaul of the city. Path to Exile is not in her wheelhouse. She does not exile; she parlays, communes with creatures, seeks out new futures. What exiling magic does she have? What judgement? It doesn’t exist in her character, nor does the redness. Frankly landfall doesn’t really fit her character as well. The point is that even if a character could have a partner that’s a concept (which is antithetical to the mechanic as a whole), the spell you have chosen contrasts with Selvala instead of complementing her. And what does she have to do with flashback anyway? To improve this card, completely restart the conceptual process.

Nitpicks: The character’s name is misspelled.

@deafeningsandwichpeach — Ilharg, the Craze-Boar

Intent: Ha, I get it. I’m going to go out on a huge limb here, because I mean as much as I like all of this I get the feeling that either the name or art came before the full concept. Nothing wrong with that, because ultimately the card is good. SO. Either this is designed for a Timeshifted set where something really awful happens to our poor Boar God, or, well, something really bad DID happen to him somehow. I’m not sure what the land return represents flavorfully but it’s fine mechanically. The creature return as well is BR and I’m down for that, strong as it is. This card evokes the colors in a way that makes it slightly different than Jund; maybe it’s the art but I’m getting Innistrad vibes from him, the madness returning, the pain going on inside his head. It’s neat. Again, massive stretch though, let’s be real.

Improvement: And with that in mind, I wouldn’t have made him Ilharg. Honestly, this should’ve been a new character, and I would have been a lot more generous. I don’t really get what Ilharg as a whole even in an alternate timeline has to do with lands returning considering that he’s a big ol’ nasty city destroyer. Mechanically, this card needs to cost like EIGHT mana. The card you return from your graveyard to the battlefield stays there, and with a big enough graveyard you don’t have to worry about getting things from your hand anymore. Turns 1-4 dump all your creatures, turn five get the best of them if not earlier? Pretty busted in any format. For eight mana I wouldn’t complain.

Nitpicks: “up to two land cards,” not “lands.” Question: why isn’t he a God?

@deg99 — Radiant Return (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Black reanimation, white attachment, red hastiness. All the colors are definitely there! There’s something Mardu-not-Mardu about this RWB card, and I think I like it. I could see it as a standard card, definitely, or as a commander staple for a really interesting commander. I’m honestly not sure exactly what kind of deck would really appreciate this card right now! Keskit/Akiri? The Auras part is a little more interesting. Ardenn/Vial...Smasher? The fact that it defies current archetypes but still makes sense is very cool to me. I also wonder what a standard expansion in which RWB auraquipment is an archetype would look like now.

Improvement: A little flavor text could make this work one degree better. It’s really on me that you went into the future with this card, isn’t it. There’s no major improvement to be made besides that. Consider contextualizing for future contests, perhaps? When necessary, anyway.

Nitpicks: “Return target...to the battlefield, then attach any number of Auras and/or Equipment you control to it...etc.” Don’t need the trigger.

@demimonde-semigoddess — Seaglide Whaler

Intent: A pirate’s life for me! So we got an aggressive tempo-y pirate person with a decent couple of sharpshooter abilities. Blue sirens are certainly reasonable, as are Grixis pirates. I like the notion that it has to attack to “survey” and then take whatever shots it makes. I don’t think Ixalan could have had this card but honestly the future is a place where anything could happen.

Improvement: The problem with these colors is that in practical terms, the second mode is strictly black and yet can be played in an Izzet deck. Hybrid is a weird mistress. As much as these abilities might neatly tie into the three colors, hybrid makes deck construction nearly impossible. You can have a pinger in UB or a Fatal Blow in UR, both of which are either severe bends or breaks. Making this a straight UBR 3/1 flier could have been okay, perhaps, or having on-color activations, but as it is now, hybrid makes things hard. Consider looking at a Venn diagram between UB and UR to consider more appropriate abilities?

Nitpicks: Kathari Bomber implies the second mode to be “...damage this turn and sacrifice Seaglide Whaler.”

@dimestoretajic — The Dark Tendril

Intent: Sultai skulk-lord could be a fun card to open and build around in limited, and a BUG defender-y deck could have some fun application. I like how you’ve made the new character and sort of done another take on treefolk.

Improvement: For this contest, I don’t feel a strong color balance in this card. Skulk was a weird black/blue centered mechanic, sure, and green assigns the toughness, but… This feels like it’s trying to make skulk look cool rather than address the issue that skulk was just plain not a good mechanic. I get where the color weight is supposed to be but the whole thing is shadowed by that underlying desire. If this card had just been “Creatures you control can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power” and the other stuff, on a name/type that was more resonant, then I think it could have been a stronger contender. I don’t understand the world in which “The Dark Tendril” lives. I don’t understand why it’s a treefolk. I would get rid of naming skulk, make the type more apparent, and give the character some character.

Nitpicks: Three-colored cards really should have a gold border, not a hybrid one. Also, promo frames tend not to have flavor text (with exceptions for cards with no rules text like Memnite).

@driftingthruthecosmos — Ulti, Sudden Conjurer

Intent: I like that triggered ability because it’s got some smooth flow over it. GU has its flash aspect, but black also likes destructive instants, and then the Disentomb-effect fits nicely into a payoff that feels black for sure. I also like how you’re using the three colors to push the card into a really neat 3/3 aggressive creature. Flash and deathtouch literally only show up together in these three colors but not together—and here you are changing that on a powerful legend!

Improvement: But the fact that she can only return creatures with flash is kind of a bummer. Sure there are plenty of cards that could work with her, and having some Ambush Viper casual tribal wouldn’t be too bad, but it’s still limiting. I would have implied that she works with flash, or let players work with flash, without being so specific about it, and I feel that the card would be improved with implied flash tribal over explicit in this case. Additionally, what on earth is that last ability doing? Each end step, you have to sacrifice a creature or lose one of your potential targets for her trigger? I have the feeling that you may have been too cautious to push power levels here. If you want to limit her, have it be “Whenever you cast your first spell during each opponent’s turn…” or something, and axe that last part.

Nitpicks: “unless you sacrifice a nontoken creature.” Full stop, you can never sacrifice creatures you don’t control so adding “you control” is redundant.

@dumbellsndragons — Gorvax, Lich of the Horde

Intent: It’s a Mardu zombie orc wizard. At this point, you’re already doing something right for the Timmies out there. The first ability has Tainted Remedy plus some crazy draw after that, and oh man, it’s begging to be punishing. “I’m gonna Heliod’s Intervention you. Deck yourself. Runeflare Trap. Molten Psyche.” But also, that second ability? You can Bolt during an opponent’s turn and turn it into a one-red-mana Ancient Craving. For mythic, to build around? I honestly think that that’s perfectly fine. And insanely powerful.

Improvement: There’s weird stuff going on, but the hard part is that I don’t know if there’s things to improve. Giving your spells lifelink has Jeskai precedent, but it’s not NOT black. Doing a little digging, I can see that there are indeed zombies and even liches on Tarkir, but only in Sultai… But there’s no reason that the Mardu wouldn’t have them, right? Hm, maybe “Victory or Death” gets muddled here. Wizard, though, that’s a sticking point. And frankly, the whole “Lich” thing. I don’t see the lichiness in the abilities or the wizardry in the Mardu. You know what would be dumb fun? Ditching the Mardu aspect and making this WUBR. Wouldn’t fit the contest but what a friggin’ commander.

Nitpicks: None!

@emmypupcake — Knight of Summer’s Vigor

Intent: I was surprised to see that there are actually quite a few green Knights. It makes sense, of course, considering both Eldraine and Bant and Selesnya. So yeah, an elf knight who makes more knights? This is a powerful card with some crazy abilities if it gets out of control at all, but the color restrictions and the lack of substantial evasion ensure that it’s not busted out of the gate. The name’s pretty good, too! Oh, Knight of New Alara...

Improvement: For this contest, I don’t feel color blending as much. Tokens with GW and knights with R(W) are fine, yeah, but aside from that, the colors of the tokens and the general feeling of the card isn’t enough to really excite me. I do want to see a set in which this card could exist, perhaps, with multicolored knights and elves and whatnot. I don’t have any real improvements for this card; I just don’t think it stands out against some of the weirdness. Keep it around and add some flavor text. Consider: what would you like for this set to be? In what world would these knights exist? Why is summer important?

Nitpicks: “Whenever,” not “when.” See Pollenbright Wings

@evscfa1 — Estrid, the Unmasker

Intent: The Commander sets with shard Planeswalkers did give us a lot to work with but not a lot of extra stuff, so it makes sense that people might pick up on them for the contest. White auras, exile, and taxing all make sense mechanically. I feel that this is more standard than supplemental, a little weirdness for the way that the specific tokens and all would want to work. I don’t mind that part, honestly. Bringing Estrid back would be fine by me, even as monocolored.

Improvement: Because, well, this is a mono-white card. The +1 creates white Auras (that don’t do anything, so that’s an issue), the -2 is close to Generous Gift, and the -8 is an enchantment-oriented Hum of the Radix, like a twist between Sphere of Safety and Aura of Silence. None of these abilities feel anything but white. The emblem is arguably UW, but not by much. With Auras that don’t do anything and a color identity that doesn’t mechanically contribute to the card, I feel that you can either keep her and buff some of the abilities or try to make her feel more in line with the contest, which you don’t really have to do at this point. I’m also worried about the name and the ability tie-ins. Estrid doesn’t “unmask” at all, does she? She’s a mask user, not a revealer of truth or any of the things “unmasking” would imply. Why would she make a False Mask? Is this some alternate storyline? If so, I don’t really understand what changed, or why.

Nitpicks: “*Its controller” in the -2, “*get an emblem” in the -8.

@fractured-infinity — Rhythm of Death (rare)

Intent: Red (/black) gains first strike, black (/green) has deathtouch, green (/red kind of) has lure. Everything’s coming together in a kind of keyword soup, so that’s all well and good! In limited someone who opens this will be very, very happy to make people cry. In casual Commander, it’s sure to help make negotiations.

Improvement: In terms of this contest, yeah, this isn’t really buttering my radishes. It’s there, it’s pretty standard, and it makes sense. There are two cards that have first strike and deathtouch and four more that can gain it naturally and all but one are in those colors. And that wouldn’t be a problem if this card was presented differently. I’m ignoring the art for now because it’s actually distracting here. What is the “rhythm?” Is something being given the rhythm? What’s repeating, cycled, constant? What about a rhythm gives the creature these abilities? Change the name, flavor it up, get some text in there, and use blank art.

Nitpicks: “Enchant creature (lowercase) >> Enchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch, and must be blocked if able.” Take that with a grain of salt, though. Protective Bubble might have it say “Enchanted creature must be blocked if able and has first strike and deathtouch.” Or you can cut the middleman and make it two lines: “Enchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch. // Enchanted creature must be blocked if able.”

@gollumni — Exotic Wings

Intent: It’s interesting that we have two back-to-back “must be blocked” cards (hm, no shorthand?) in a row, both Auras no less, but very different. I like your flavor use with the wings being a status symbol, bright and glittery, and therefore turning the creature into irresistible prey of sorts. Aura colors are good, and the solid green effect is in there as well. The mechanics fit a pretty standard-ly powerful draft uncommon that can be used for beating down when necessary.

Improvement: I’m 90% sure that right now GW doesn’t get flying by itself anymore, or at least very rarely. Pollenbright Wings and Shield of the Oversoul exist, so I’m on the fence. Maybe I’m biased with recent printings, but for two mana I’m not sure it’s what GW would need. That said, I’m sure there’s dissent and arguments to be made, and yes, I know its full color identity includes blue; this is pragmatic. I think this could have been solidly WUG with another buff, perhaps, but that just would have made it favorable for this contest and honestly it’s up to playtesting to see if those colors need a cheap flying aura. But the wings. The flavor. I… So these wings belong to birds, naturally? Who is summing this enchantment for mating? This is some kind of buff or boon that most any creature could have so in what world is some enchant-o-mancer giving “do me” wings to Mx. Passerby?? But, this may be just a quirk of the game, yeh?

Nitpicks: None!

@hiygamer — Etherium Replicator (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Major kudos for making my look up Prototype Portal and seeing that my gut was wrong and that you DID use the right wording! This is a super-Esper card, more than any of the imprinted cards and honestly a great use of the art. Thopter Foundry is a great card but this one isn’t a bad use and would kind of make sense. Now, I’m not going to put this in improvements, because I want to ask a question: could this card be just plain UW? Possibly, but also consider: this card could be just a straight-up artifact as well, and it feels better how it is now. Why? Because the black invokes a different feeling. It invokes consumption, recycling, progress, larceny, calculation. It’s a very blue side of black. And it also feels, well, Esper! Its an established use of theme!... Honestly it’s probably more that. But I like it anyway. I’d say my bias was showing but none of the winners necessarily invoked Alara straight-up so thpt.

Improvement: There are mostly just wording errors. To be honest, if you’re getting something big, could this card be three mana? That’s probably pushing it, but worth testing. Multicolor custom cube time.

Nitpicks: “enterS the battlefield” (tense), “artifact or creature” (instead of the other way around), and most importantly: “Create a token that’s a copy of A CARD exiled with Etherium Replicator” etc. Because you can copy the ETB trigger and/or use shenanigans to exile other cards.

@hypexion — Ferrari, Sharp Scrapper

Intent: Well if my eyes don’t deceive me, it’s another Esper card! And an artifact-y card? Hm, artifact-enchant-y card. It’s easy to see the designation between colors, with self-mill and the lifegain going into black but leaning towards all three colors, the second ability being straight Disenchant, and the last one being an interesting UB pseudo-reanimation on the cheap, which is super interesting and aggressive. I can see this card intended as either a standard staple or being used as a supplemental planeswalker face card. There’d be a heavy amount of artifacts and enchantments for sure, probably artifact creatures.

Improvement: Did I miss something? When did WUB start caring about enchantments as a multicolor wedge identity? Alela and Zur have their thing, sure, but are those the baseline now? I’m more head-scratching and 0% mad, honestly. As a flavorful card, though, I’m not sure what you’re conveying exactly. So they get rid of stuff and they’re happy when they find garbage, but sometimes they want to scrap things they don’t like, but then they can recreate some of your garbage? Let’s back up and say that this card isn’t a Scrapper and that they’re an artifact/enchantment person. In the most general sense, I don’t really feel a harmony of ideas. The card feels one-note, like there’s very little to do besides abuse the -2 ability and maybe the -1 to get rid of some big thing on the table. The +1 exists to serve the -2, and the -1 feels like it’s trying to be protective for protection’s sake. I don’t know why this character does the things they do through the card. As utility planeswalkers become more abundant, the things they do have to be more resonant; imagine a fully-built world and put your card in the middle. No card is a metaphorical island.

Nitpicks: I think (maybe) that the +1 could be: “Mill up to three cards, then you gain 3 life for each artifact and/or enchantment card milled this way.”

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Corpse Spell

Intent: I think you made this very apparent. As a counterspell, it does the job well, and then it lets you get an idea for free! The choice of casting a noncreature spell is particularly interesting, as it plays into this weird and not-really-that-common theme of transfiguration. Obviously polymorphing appears in blue and red but it feels black because of the flavor you’ve chosen to convey. That’s a great job.

Improvement: The big mechanical thing is that I would 100% make this let you case an instant, sorcery or creature instead of just a “noncreature spell.” These colors don’t really feel like they could transmute a creature into something that’s not an idea or, well, a corpse, and it really seems as though that’s the idea you’re going for. The big flavor thing, though, is the name. I really and truly don’t know what you’re trying to convey. Now, I’m aware that English isn’t your first language, and that’s a barrier that I’m not sure how to cross for this kind of criticism. “Corpse Spell” seems like a playtest name. As a concept, this card is great. As a submission, I’m still having to extrapolate a lot; most importantly, it doesn’t tell me how the caster is using the magic to turn a creature into something else. Work on telling that story, and when possible, use native speakers to help get ideas across.

Nitpicks: I think the wording would be: “Counter target creature spell. You may cast target noncreature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to that spell’s converted mana cost from your graveyard without paying its mana cost, and if that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.” Because if you exile it as it resolves and it’s, like, an artifact or planeswalker, what’s the point? Hence my note about instants/sorceries and maybe other creatures.

@ignorantturtlegaming — Draxys, Scourge Eternal

Intent: This card absolutely fits the elemental shell. It feels to me like a standard or CMR-style bomb mythic that hits the table and kinda goes nuts. I mean, it wouldn’t be your commander probably, but in Conspiracy-style? Man. Multiplayer draft, that’s what I mean. It gets cards, it gets counters, it deals damage, then Blitz Hellion-s away. It does indeed feel like a blend of all the crazy things that come in these colors, and you did that much very well. It’s not broken, but it’s powerful, and it’s repeatedly monstrous (not the mechanic, lol) with the fear that it’ll return (until someone Doom Blades it, but that’s the game for ya). Great feeling of a massive beautiful monster.

Improvement: Really, the one thing I would do to improve it would be to consolidate the second and third triggers into “When Draxys enters the battlefield, draw four cards, put four +1/+1 counters on it, then it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of creatures and/or planeswalkers.” No, wait—why not make it an 8/8 and just have it draw cards and deal damage? Because of its massive cost, you’re not gonna play it and then activate Wheel of Fortune in the same turn unless you’re playing some crazy massive game, and then it just shuffles away anyway! So, my suggestion would be to make this one massive bomb when it hits and really get the Timmy out of it.

Nitpicks: None!

@jsands84 — Quarrel, Tariff Enforcer

Intent: The colors are obvious enough, right? A sphinx (blue) based on taxing and punishing (white) to make your opponents lose life (black). Couldn’t be simpler. The color weight is reminiscent of standard cards like Ultimatum cycles but heck, we’ve seen weirder commander cards in the past. I like the fact that even though the color weight is really heavy, the keywords support that kind of aggression without being too overbearing like we’ve seen in other chase rares and mythics.

Improvement: That said, I don’t think it needs that weight at all. 3WUB would have done the exact same and it wouldn’t have looked awkward. Why would it need that weight in the first place? Well, perhaps if it entered the battlefield with an amazing immediate effect. And this card, well, it doesn’t. You have a great eye for flavor and the fact that a legendary (read:uniquely adept) sphinx is enforcing the tax laws of the universe? 10/10. But it doesn’t need that kind of punishment, especially considering, like, the effect really doesn’t come up outside of vintage. So yeah, reduce the weight.

Nitpicks: In the flavor text, “their” referring to the universe is kind of an odd pronoun. With most cases IIRC the concept is objectified instead of personalized, see Aether Adept. (Also there aren’t many cards with ‘universe’ in the flavor text, surprisingly.)

@justincase-1012 — Startling Wisp

Intent: Illusions are almost entirely blue (and one of only two illusions with zero blue in its box is Esper-centric, funnily enough) so that’s all interesting, but this is definitely breaking from the artifact theme and going for color flavor. The fact that it is the one doing the startling is somewhat black, but the discard definitely is. Because of the narrowness of this ability, I feel that it’s intended to be a draft/standard oriented card as opposed to eternal breadth. A 1/1 flying indestructible spirit in these colors is honestly pretty fair and ghostly!

Improvement: This card is too narrow to be common but definitely too specific to be rare, and that narrowness really is...weird. It doesn’t just require noncombat damage, but it requires noncombat damage from creatures. Why? “The next time a source would deal noncombat damage to you or another creature you control this turn” would be perfectly reasonable. Also, why the next phase? Just have it say “Then, if ~ is on the battlefield, return it to its owner’s hand.” The timing doesn’t feel necessary. And honestly, I don’t find this card “startling” much. It’s alluring, certainly, but not startling. Consider renaming and tightening the focus. Too narrow and things just get ugly.

Nitpicks: So you do need “this turn” as I said above, and then looking at other printed oracle text: “that damage is dealt to ~ instead” etc. etc.

@kytheon4-4 — Surrak of New Atarka

Intent: Surrak was a three-color monster the last time we saw him, and he’s back in action now and reclaiming his colors. This is definitely meant to be a commander of sorts, hyper-aggressive with some awesome combat to boot. The first ability’s Gleam of Battle is really aggressively costed here but it makes sense in a timeline when he’s reclaimed some kind of new unity. And of course, the callbacks to both Tarkir timelines is there and well and good. Color-wise, your choice to then go ahead and make a future new timeline is really interesting and I can feel that sort of “new ‘Naya’” blood pumping in Surrak’s veins.

Improvement: The first damage trigger is great, if pretty pushed for Naya colors. The second clause is… Well, call it a “winmore” if you want, but it really is a winmore. Big creatures are big and that’s okay, but if they’re that big and dealing damage, then an indestructible counter is kind of adding insult to injury. And frankly, why not combine these all into one trigger, so that the Gleam ability is just a little less pushed? Whenever the creature deals damage, THEN it gets a counter, and IF it’s four or greater THEN you draw a card, and THEN if it’s eight or greater, something weird happens.

Nitpicks: None!

@mardu-lesbian — Contentious Pair

Intent: A white Soldier, a red Goblin, and a deathtouch counter, and yep, the gang’s all here. Token-making in red and white is pretty standard, a little less for BR and more heavily in the white part of WB, but all the same there’s nothing wrong with that appearing in the three-color combo. It’s interesting you went for a post-Conflux kind of deal with Alara...wedges? Really unique. This is most definitely designed to be a common card for a standard expansion, meant to be drafted and whatnot. It implies a lot about the potential future!

Improvement: I’m unsure how you came up with these colors and creature types. Bant, the shard of soldiers, and Jund, of Goblins, do have one shared color: green. But then this card would have been what, white-green-red? And that’s problematic in another way, and I get that. As it stands, though, this feels heavily weighted towards BR and less towards white, and honestly, this feels definitely uncommon. You get two bodies at instant speed, one of which will most likely destroy an attacking creature. Instant deathtouch isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it’s been in standard for a bit. The bodies and potential permanent deathtouch when you have an empty board is what raises the complexity. My flavor question: why are they contentious? Makes me feel like we’re seeing the start of the story more than a split-second moment; this card might feel better as an uncommon sorcery.

(Also, I’m just imagining them coming over a mountain at instant-speed during combat, and the soldier and the goblin are just talking about their differences and the goblin is showing off their poison dagger when a beast just WHAMS into them and they both instantly die as the soldier looks on in shock and horror. I do love it when cards tell weird stories.)

Nitpicks: None, I don’t think.

@misterstingyjack — Galtiber, Segovian Titan

Intent: Ah, the memes. Well, still, 1/1 tribal is an interesting take on the whole build-around-me dealio. I can honestly say I’m unsure where this card would fit, but that’s not a bad thing. It feels build-around me, but could it work in a limited environment? You’d need a higher as-fan of 1/1s or tokens, and that’s not a bad thing. Honestly, this card doesn’t feel too bad. He’s a protector and he makes them all work together. It’s a neat little design that captures the diligence, unity and edification of these citizens.

Improvement: I really can’t think of a place where this card would see play, though, and the issue is? There’s no real way to improve that past putting this in a pretty bonkers set where it can either go nuts or be mediocre. There are a lot of cool things you can do with this card, but where does he fit? Segovia is a weird plane and designing for it is hard. I love this card and would love to build with it but the fact is that it’s just going to be weird. I’ll put this in nitpicks, but there’s wording issues. Additionally, talking about the character by name in the flavor text is a little off-putting to me. I’m sure it’s happened before but the story feels like a moment being described more than a character.

Nitpicks: “Creatures you control with base power and toughness 1/1” is the correct way to word these things, Iiii think.

@morbidlyqueerious — Ricantha, Ribbon-Dancer (mythic) (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: As much as this technically could be someone’s general, I like this card as a standard-legal mythic, like Kethis or Yarok. It’s surprisingly easy to understand while being quite powerful in its own way. I wouldn’t call it a Voltron card so much as I would call it a control bomb, certainly for limited. The white-blue deals with the tapping, more the blue with the freezing, and the alluring aspect and keywords fill in the green. It brings a lot of the multicolored feel even with a monocolor activated ability.

Improvement: You know, the flavor almost outshines the color aspect. Looking back I do see the intent, but I’m also mostly seeing an interesting take on the dancing and the enchanting aspect. They’re vigilant, they ‘tie down’ the creatures, and they make other creatures follow them. Honestly, this is a case of “right card wrong contest,” where you made a great card to convey the specific act of ribbon-dancing and a dance leader so much that it overtakes the intent of color. The jokingly biting way of saying this is that you didn’t pander to me as a judge enough (/s). I don’t know about reach; first strike, maybe, to show their agility?

Nitpicks: The combat trigger should be one sentence, see the oracle on Kamigawa snakes.

@mtg-ds — Majak, Revival Instigator (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Now I wouldn’t call this a gimmick card but I would say that there’s a lot going on here, again, with the flavor. Sacrificing each other creature actually feels white in a Cataclysmic way but with a black edge of making all the zombies. Hasty zombies fills in the red and plays into the instigative aspect, and man, getting everyone out onto the dance floor? I’ll admit that this card is kind of silly with the art, but there’s something unusually cathartic about it. He enters, turns them all into zombies, makes them dance, then whenever someone else dies they join the dance, and when he leaves the music stops. Like, it’s kind of brilliant, how the zombies can’t dance without him. As a flavorful card for a supplemental set I think that you did a fantastic job.

Improvement: My first small note is that the art is again really distracting, and like, I understand that that might’ve been the purpose but “zombie dance party” out of context feels a little unusual, and the name “Revival Instigator” is a touch on the nose. But those are small concerns next to the fact that this card really could have been black/red and wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. Could’ve even kept the Cleric typing. Again, I need to also say that this card is downright fantastic mechanically, but just not quite white there for the purposes of this contest. Keep this card as-is, maybe make him a Human IMO. I don’t have any significant improvements.

Nitpicks: None!

@naban-dean-of-irritation — Tamakoma, Spectral Shiver (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Clever clogs, I looked up that name and it is indeed fitting! Very clever you are, just as clever as giving the UB flash ninja ETB feeling that strikes fear into the heart of those who don’t know she’s coming. White’s got the spirit flash and indestructible, black’s got deathtouch, flash, AND indestructible, and blue’s got the ninja feeling. Something tells me this would totally be a supplemental card unless Kamigawa goes three-colors, but to be honest I get a MH1 vibe more, and that’s okay too. Major kudos for making me double-check cards like Ambuscade Shaman for this weird wording.

Improvement: I can see how this card would be white flavorfully; I think its just precedent working against you. Because of the way that black has been encroaching upon indestructible in the past couple years, this card could just be blue-black and fit into the ninja feeling just as well. I personally like the white spirit aspect. It’s just not as present here as I would have liked for this contest. Great card, no mechanical improvements.

Nitpicks: I don’t know if “the hollows of the night” are, like, a thing? I don’t know, just as a writer it reads weird to me. One day I’ll be accredited and that won’t seem like such a jackass comment too.

@nine-effing-hells — Llanlaia Rywh, the Inmost Eye

Intent: I like your take on elves here, using the focus and mood to turn the ordinarily green elves into some warrior monastery funky stuff. I’m getting the sense of a cave world, or some kind of twisted plane where expectations are thwarted and the different races of Magic have to find their own kind of way around. Definitely a face card for the tribe in whatever set it’s based in.

Improvement: There’s no blue and black here, or at least I’m not feeling it mechanically, and for this contest that’s the most important thing. Giving a Runed Halo effect on a pump is really darn powerful, and to have this dismiss any damage or removal at instant speed is definitely powerful and definitely white. The concept of looking within for meditation is a bit blue, sure, but I don’t see that expressed on this card as much. I do have some major presentation issues. The name is almost completely unpronounceable, so consider shortening it and cleaning it significantly. The flavor text is also in need of shortening and edits. “Look within to look around.” With a hint that the elves are blind, boom, you’re golden. So: name change, flavor paring, and consider that this card feels overall white. That said, for flavor and balance reasons for this card, keeping those colors is fine. Also consider that this is a really damn powerful beater.

Nitpicks: None that I can tell.

@partlycloudy-partlyfuckoff — Everlasting Forefather

Intent: Here’s the thing: I’ll get to stuff in the ‘improvements’ section but mechanically, this card is really interesting for a number of flavorful reasons. Three-mana 4/3 with mentor is perfectly powerful in these colors, that’s great, flavorfully fine as a forefather. Creating two spirits upon death, awesome, those are the embodiments of his students and ideals, and most importantly, play into the embalm, where his zombie can teach the spirits after death and makes for great flying beaters, AND that Zombie token will make more spirits in remembrance. The use of flavorful mechanics gives it an interesting edge even if all these individual mechanics could be in mono-white.

Improvement: One, I would personally make this a warrior, but that’s super minor. Two… I can’t think of any reason outside a custom set where you’d have three non-evergreen mechanics from three different sets and two different planes on the same card. It feels like a custom card, not in the sense that it’s at all thoughtless or amateurish, because it’s not, but because there’s no way of making these pieces come together in a meaningful way; it feels like you’re removing the restrictions on what can go together for the sake of it. MH1 did have some mechanical mashups and we’ve explored that before. This feels like a bit too much for what we’re looking for. Honestly, for a custom multicolor cube or w/e, keep this card. But you might also want to consider MSE or having someone render for you, because with the VERY necessary rules text, this one takes up a lot of text; no room for flavor, and no need, ‘cause you do it all naturally anyway.

Nitpicks: Mm, none, I don’t think!

@reaperfromtheabyss — Glorified Minddrinker (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: This is definitely asking to be in a standard/draftable set as a tribal beater. You give it evasion, you use other vampires/warlocks to mess stuff up, you get in, and you drink. BW vampire lifegain meets the milling, and there you have it. What I really like is the fact that it’s “any card,” like Bloodchief Ascension, but that feels blue, because they’re drinking from the mind and not just the body, and I dunno, I REALLY like that kind of neat flavor niche. I also love how this makes a really roundabout already-exploited infinite combo with Sanguine Bond and Mindcrank, both of which are halves of other better combos.

Improvement: Mechanically, there’s nothing to improve here, except you might want to consider some kind of evasion. I think there’s just the nitpick of having “Glorified” in there without any understanding of what makes this creature glorified or why. A snippet of flavor could have helped with that, and with only two abilities. I don’t know, this one just didn’t pop to me for some reason. It’s a perfectly fine submission, and it just needs a little more pop.

Nitpicks: None! Nice and clear.

@shootingstarhunter — Storm Key

Intent: I find it interesting that the mana made from sacrificing is red but the abilities have a central Riku-like fascination. This feels like a supplemental card for sure, although I’m sure there are standard shenanigans. It would require a set in which RUG/Temur has an artifact theme and in which giving things storm is on the table. I have the feeling that in a genuinely competitive Maelstrom Wanderer deck that this card could turn a possible win into a guaranteed win. It’s there to help big things be bigger, but without a win-more feel, and I like that.

Improvement: In terms of this contest, it lacks elegance in its cohesion. The flavors don’t necessarily blend as well as they could. There’s a lot of rules text that emphasizes the separation rather than blending it together. My suggestions: Make it just cost RUG, no generic, reword the first ability to be: “When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, add R for each spell you’ve cast this turn,” and the second ability to “5, T, Sacrifice ~: When you cast your next instant, sorcery or creature spell this turn, copy it for each spell you’ve cast before it this turn.” And then add reminder text about targets and permanents. A tiny bit more flexible and less text, and you can add in some flavor. Personally I don’t really get the “Key” aspect. It feels more like a big machine of sorts.

Nitpicks: Remember to capitalize “Sacrifice” in the ability costs. Second reminder text should be “You don’t choose new targets for the copies.” I think, there’s not much precedent. Check the MSE Discord for tech help in getting your name/type text straightened out if you’d like.

@snugz — Erratic Polymorph (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: This does feel very wild, more of the Temur frontier or even the Ketria triome. Either one of those sets getting a return could have this, or a supplemental draft set on that world, or a commander product aimed at those timelines. This card’s pretty flexible in that sense! The red lack of control over twisty magic is definitely evident, with the green bear and the blue otters as representative of those sides of the wild. I like how you took blue’s natural sense and made it river/forest oriented. Big boys and little boys do different kinds of cool damage. I can dig it! (Although I’m more inclined to bears than otters myself…)

Improvement: I wouldn’t call this “elegant” as a primary adjective for its color balance, even though it’s very neat still overall. The obviousness of green being bears and blue being otters doesn’t take away from the fact that both of them make sense. The long and short is that I don’t have card improvements, and this card’s just for a different contest.

Nitpicks: None-zo

@starch255 — Dopplicant

Intent: Very clever, I see. You used white’s enchantment base for the card type even though it’s a strictly red and blue ability. Copying any spells is on the table now with Lithoform Engine so that makes sense. This could be in just about any set with these colors, and you know what, that’s perfectly fine. Jeskai, Raugrin (ugh), or otherwise, there’s cool stuff happening.

Improvement: With a vague name and flavor, it’s easy to have this card be a thumbs-up mechanically, but what...exactly is it? It’s name makes me think of the creature Duplicant, which is fine, makes sense, although it’s not a creature here like any of the other “-cant” cards. I just can’t place it, which is obviously a presentation thing over a mechanical issue. For the Fair, presentation is somewhat important, and also contextualizes your cards. It might just be a “me” thing to keep in mind for when I’m judging, so don’t take it personally at all. I think the idea is sound and all we need is polish.

Nitpicks: None~

@stormtide-leviathan — Jeskai Confluence

Intent: Like the confluences of C15, this is a charm-like modal spell with three pretty standard modes for the colors: blue draw, red damage, white erase. I can see this being part of either a standard return to that other timeline or as part of a “clan clash” supplemental set for sure.

Improvement: In the main post, there were examples like Shattergang Brothers that were posted as technically fine but not elegant. Totally separating your colors and abilities was part of that, breaking the cohesion. Unfortunately, charm effects were most definitely part of that area. I know that Magic design space isn’t eternally open, and I hate to say this, but because this card uses 2/3 abilities already found on the printed confluences and only minorly changes the damage, this feels somewhat derivative. I would go back to the drawing board and look at overlap rather than individualization, what the colors could have done together to make a card that creates something unique.

Nitpicks: There should be a period after “once” instead of an emdash.

@thedirtside — Twisted Design

Intent: I think that with Tezzeret being who he is and with the cool trend of colored artifacts, this card could absolutely find play in a variety of places. It feels almost like a story card, someone’s terrible (well, twisted) creation. That much is absolutely apparent. The counter/exile is definitely blue and black-ish but I like how the theft kind of ends up being red as well and the artifact typing helps with that. Flavor text is pretty okay too. Short, simple.

Improvement: That...second ability. Are you choose a card as part of a cost? I’m no rules guru but I’m almost certain that you can’t do that. And it doesn’t specify the speed, so you can basically pay the (very fair) cost to exile the spell, but then very unfairly get it back anytime you want. Why random, too? What if that spell has other random restrictions or no legal targets? There’s a lot to unpack from that with no printed precedent because, to put it bluntly, it doesn’t work within the rules. I really like the idea of having a card where you can somehow steal, twist, or morph their spells into new nightmares or futures. Work with that idea to make something URBy that, well, works rules-wise.

Nitpicks: It took me a bit to find your source photo with your source link (X), and I don’t even think that blog’s using proper permission. Here’s the gist: if you can’t find the original photographer, either go stock or don’t use art, OR find a source that’s more easily traceable. Pretend that you’re someone who has to find the source working backwards.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path — Ziziphus, the Lotus Eater

Intent: I could never be like him, I could never talk like that. Also, thank you for making this explicitly commander-based, heh. Food tokens are interesting, and I can see the token art already as well as the kind of person you might imagine Ziziphus to be. Oddly enough, they feel Therosian, considering the “lotus eaters” in the Odyssey, and that’s not a bad thing I suppose. Food’s sort of in the green area, with blue-white profiteering, and the general combat lull sort of encapsulating the whole GWU-ish control feeling. Turbo-fog ahoy.

Improvement: Competitive commander gets shut down pretty easily and casual commander becomes almost instantly unfun. It’s an instant-speed everyone-gets-it nigh-uncounterable Pacifism array that’s flavorfully understandable but puts a target on you as the one person to kill if anyone wants this game to ever end. I understand the top-down design but it’s impractical and I don’t see a game where this being your commander would make the gameplay better. So like Gwafa Hazid, consider your design: what would entice people to take the food? What’s the payoff? How often do you want this to happen to improve gameplay without causing staleness? Is food where you want to go, using lifegain to then further prolong the game?... Oh. Oh, someone can also just lorus-ify Ziziphus itself and then nothing happens in this version. That’s something to consider.

Nitpicks: The name’s really similar to “Sisyphus” in pronunciation. I was distracted.

@whuh-oh — Tainted Lightninghorn

Intent: Some day, I think we’re gonna get a five-color Lightning Blankemental kind of card, and I can’t wait for it. So yeah, it’s an aggressive predatory insect elemental with nasty sauce, and I feel this in a supplemental set for sure.

Improvement: So as an uncommon, it’s already pretty pushed, too much so. Ball Lightning set a precedent, and it’s a rare for a reason, honestly. That much power even for four mana with the abilities you’ve given it is a but much. For this card, most importantly, I need to be as clear as I can: The interaction between deathtouch and trample is an unintuitive quirk of the game. They do not belong on the same card with zero restrictions, especially not on an uncommon. Sometimes it’s okay to just make a cool card because it’s cool. I like my weird cards, I like my weird interactions. Forcing them feels like choosing indulgence over good design. I’m not feeling the uniqueness of the colors, I’m not feeling the flavor (why does lightning leave decay?), and I’m not feeling the gameplay. Where do we go from here? I think this general concept is fine for a personal set or a supplemental concept. Contextualize it for that area, look at environmental answers, and then see if you want to play with what the colors do.

Nitpicks: I’m 90% sure it’d go “Deathtouch, haste, menace, trample.” Also, I’m sure someone pointed out the whole flying-without-flying thing for the art, that’s very mildly distracting.

@wolkemesser — Murmurs of the Bosk

Intent: Yeah, this is very much a Lorwyn-inspired card, and I’m happy for that. Both the treefolk flavor and the permanent return are green, returning to the battlefield is white and black, and the white enchantment plus toughness matters (also in green) gives this card a magnificent flow of feeling, the trees returning. I can see this in any set, but especially a standard return to Lorwyn, and yet it could have a home in several cool recursion decks! It’s a nice little addition for both lovers of slow return and for treefolk fans.

Improvement: This card was going to be a runner-up or even a judge pick, but the severity of nitpicks grew until I realized that there were just too many problems to give it full commendation. I’ll put the revised wording in the ‘nitpicks’ bar and get to the big ones: the name, and the flavor text. The name is obviously an homage to Murmuring Bosk, right? That’s understandable, but the name is literally so close that I can’t think of anything else. The difference between being honoring and being derivative is enigmatic at times. This particular case is more evident. And the flavor text is almost completely ripped off from Doran’s card itself. Literally, it keeps the order and adds four words that don’t add sense or depth to the character. For future submissions, keep that in mind. As a mechanical suggestion, you could just have it be the greatest toughness without targeting, and it does need to target the card in the graveyard.

Nitpicks: “At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the greatest toughness among creatures you control.”

Join us tomorrow, for a new contest, and a brush...with DEATH.

- @abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #commentary #three cheese blend #inventor's fair #long post

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ramzawrites · 3 years

Note

I’m glad you like reading about c!Leif! And I like answering your questions about him!

So yeah he does other things, like tapestries, wood/stone carving, and all sorts of stuff, painting just happens to be his favorite. I’d say his second favorite would be soapstone carving. He likes to make mini versions of all his animals. Most of the more artistic things are kind of self taught. Before he settled into the sanctuary he traveled a lot to find the ‘perfect place’, during his travels he met plenty of people, he just copied them. Monkey see monkey do really lol.

His anxiety does make him sad sometimes, he would love to make new friends, but his nerves tend to get the best of him. Though he definitely doesn’t mind being surrounded by animals rather than people. As nice as it would be to have friends around to talk to, the quiet is nice most of the time.

I definitely agree that c!Philza would probably have spent a lot of his time traveling and learning about the world. c!Leif would definitely be more inclined to get to know c!Philza seeing as he’s one of the calmer smp members. I like to think that when c!Leif manages to make a new friend he’ll spend hours excitedly introducing them to all of his pets. I can imagine him growing quite fond of c!Philza.

When c!Leif found the ruins I’d say he was more intrigued by the architecture rather than how it got there or who made it. During the process of rebuilding he did stumble upon some strange runes, he wrote them down for later and proceeded to forget what he did with the notes.

The tendrils really only bothered him because of the smell, he heard something about a large red egg at one point, but has yet to put two and two together. He assumes they were just some sort of invasive species, a seed probably stuck to the shoes of a traveler.

I’m really glad you enjoy his character! I really enjoy building his story and it’s fun to rant to you about him!

After getting to know, and open up to c!Ramza, c!Leif would definitely like to consider them a friend. Especially if they offered to help find the rougue chicken. A one way ticket to being c!Leif’s friend, his animals. They seem like a very kind person, and they probably have some entertaining stories he’d enjoy hearing.

And for the final question, this isn’t all of his animals but these are his most prominent friends. Almost all of the animals are named after peoples of Ancient Greece, gods and goddesses, philosophers and scientists, perfect example: Archimedes the chicken. Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and an astronomer. One of the the more renowned scientists found his time, so it’s only fitting that a chicken who probably knows more than it lets on should be named after him. There are plenty of chickens roaming around the sanctuary, most with names, but Archimedes sticks out more so than the others. He likes to make himself known, if you aren’t paying attention to him he is either tearing up your home or pecking at your feet. There are three different packs in the sanctuary, they don’t stay there full time, they like to roam. The pack that c!Leif is the most friendly with is the smallest one, there are only five wolves in this pack,and c!Leif has lovingly named each of them. There are three siblings: Acesias(a physician),Marinus(a philosopher), and Lobon(a literary forger). A mother to the siblings, Lysias(an orator). And a runt they found in a ditch, Isocrates(a rhetorician, and Spartan general) Lobon and Isocrates are the only males in their little pack. There’s an especially large heard of horses that don’t live in the sanctuary, but c!Leif goes to feed them every morning, most are named, though c!Leif has yet to meet all of them. Four of the named ones include Hecate, Epiphiron, Heimarmene and Gelos. There’s one polar bear he managed to drag home, appropriately named Lyssa, for her rude tendencies. Lyssa was the spirit of mad rage and frenzy.

There are and abundance of birds living in the sanctuary, mainly parrots. One particularly vain parrot is of course, called Aphrodite. There’s a decent size lake that flows into the ocean, there’s freshwater fish living in the lake, and c!Leif can follow the river to the ocean where all of his sea turtle friends are, they tend to ignore him, but he enjoys watching them from time to time.

There’s also a pair of piglins who he has forced to live in a section of the sanctuary. He found them during a trip in the nether, he wasn’t wearing gold so they came after him, he just led them home and trapped them in a little building witch he latter added a lava pool and a bunch of gold to. They begrudgingly stay because they don’t know how to get back to the nether, he calls one Ares for obvious reasons, and the other is Menoetius, a titan god of violent anger and rash violence. He doesn’t like to pick favorites, but he has a favorite. A little bearded dragon, I have a bearded dragon so it only makes sense my sona does too lol. Her name is Anteros, the god of requited love, she likes to ride around on c!Leifs shoulder while he does chores and feeds all the other animals.

As for chores and feeding, c!Leif spends the early hours of the mornings gathering wheat, carrots, meat, etc for all the animals. He goes around to water tubs and troughs , refilling the water tubs around the sanctuary and feeding all the animals. He also spends a good hour scrubbing bird poop and picking up goat droppings, some of the animals just like to do their business wherever. He also goes to the lake to make sure there’s no debris or sickened animals there contaminate the water. That’s another detail about the sanctuary, he has a veterinary room for sick or injured animals he comes across. c!Leif’s interactions with animals vary from animal to animal. Pandas and wolves enjoy belly scratches, parrots like when you talk to them. Turtles are pretty indifferent, cats are cats, they want love, you give them love, they are then filled with rage at the fact that you are touching them. Fish, well, they’re fish. Can’t really pet them lol.

If you have any more questions I’d love to hear them! Some questions help me develop him more so it’s always nice to have questions to answer!

I know you said you enjoy long asks but this feels a little too ridiculously long.

Ohhh that’s cool! Very talented! ngl I would love to see the little figures of the animals 😌 I think they would look incredible cute and awesome!

honestly c!Leif sounds like a person I would definitely approach and ask about how to treat mobs correctly and how to take care of them correctly! I know c!Ramza would! They would probably ask him about it and write down the info he has in order to spread it/ keep it safe for others to research!

I’m happy to hear that he didn’t have to deal with the egg too much and that it went well!

The animals sound so nice! But also mischievious haha I bet c!Leif has a lot on his hands with them but in a good way! I really adore that you use old prominent greek names!

Honestly the place sounds amazing! ngl I would love to see something like this, I imagine this as a really beautiful and peaceful place. I can tell you thought a lot about this and I love it so much!

Would he feel comfortable with inviting people over? Only people that he really trusts or feels he more comfortable having his home for himself and the animals? How would he react if someone gets too close and maybe wants to investigate the place, seeing how anxious he is

Has he had problems with maybe protecting his animals or has his life there been rather peaceful?

#Ramza chats #🏤#🏤-anon #dsmpsona rant #long post

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sterys · 3 years

Text

Behind the Beskar

Genre: Romance, Angst

Pairing: Din Djarin/Reader

Cross-posted on AO3

Behind the Beskar

You’d just joined the Guild and this was your first job.

You were living on borrowed money in a seedy little flat in the one of the worst neighbourhood of Nevarro. You had to pay the rent (not cheap), the electricity (cheaper), the running water (hot water was included, thank hot lava planet), the speeder repairs, the monthly salary to your elderly parents’ maid who helped them through old age, a system away from you.

You used to lend your accountancy skills to Governors from outer regions, help them manage their bases and finances. Now, with the Empire fallen, you struggled to make ends meet. The Rebel alliance had centralized every financial operation, scattered the old consolidation team and you were made redundant at the young age of twenty-seven.

Every accountant and financial controller working under the Empire had been found guilty of financial fraud and theft by the Rebels right after the Battle of Endor, so you had hastily embarked on a ship to leave the Core Worlds and never return.

In Nevarro, nobody cared about where you came from, or what you did for a living, as long as you had credits, and the wits to keep them with you at all times when on trips to the cantina. You were able to sustain the lifestyle for a month, but one day you woke up feeling so cold that you thought your toes would fall off your feet, stomach rumbling loudly, and you decided that enough was enough.

You went straight back to the cantina, barely paying attention to your surroundings. You were intent on paying off this debt. Everything went smoothly enough, considering that it was obvious that the man from the Guild expected you to die on your first mission, and you could only agree with him, but fuck, this was a ride-or-die situation. Nobody wanted to hire a former Empire accountant. Things would have been different, were you a trooper or a starfighter pilot, because people always needed those skills. But you had spent the last five years forgetting both honesty and the Full Disclosure principle, so that did not go well in your CV. Fuck the Empire and their margin-reducing Death Stars.

You chose the best-paying job, not out of talent, but out of necessity. You returned home, burying yourself under the woollen covers, puck in one hand and the city’s last year financial records printed out on yellowed paper in the other. You stifled a yawn, looking lazily at the pages.

Something was wrong here with the numbers, and you bet it had everything to do with your new bounty.

The Guild guy had explained that somebody stole something from somewhere in the city, which was not great intel, but this somebody had a contact inside the townhall, which was intel. As soon as the theft had been discovered, the contact had disappeared from the surface of the planet, but rumour had it that he was just low-profile for the moment. He was said to carry three blasters with him at all time and use two akimbo.

Sure, you didn’t have the weapons or the military background other people in the Guild had; but you had your wits and an eye for spotting anomalies in figures. Years of camouflaging fraud had taught you how to spot one very quickly – and yes! Here it was, the gap between income and cash flow. Somebody here was getting some hidden cash from the city’s council as there was no way they could still buy Empire stock with simple credit coins or chips after the fall of the Empire.

Financial records were a mine of information if you knew what to look for. You compared the statements – yes, a new building had also been bought at the beginning of the standard year, roughly at the same time as the strange disappearance of Mr. Bounty. And you happened to know where this building was. You lived in it. No wonder the rent was so high!

You emerged from the covers satisfied with your studies. But you had yet to devise a plan to eject the tenant under your feet while not crashing your own little flat. Maybe you could try from the sewers under? You could pretend to take out the bin tonight and –

Crack!

The bedroom door flew out of its hinges in a cloud of black smoke. Coughing loudly, eyes closed, you plunged to the floor, cursing your bad luck. How could your neighbour possibly know that you’d chosen his puck? You crawled under the bed while the smoke dissipated, hugging the puck and the soundproof bag containing the fob. The fob! – it was pulsing red, but no more than before. How odd, you thought, that someone would give me a faulty fob that doesn’t work even though the bounty’s boots are three inches from my face.

Heavy brown boots did in fact stood just before your eyes. You pressed a hand to your mouth, feeling sweat running down your back.

The boots shuffled on the dusty floor. You held your breath. Suddenly the bed above you disappeared, then came crashing down on the window. The room became dark, the mattress hiding the morning sunlight.

You lifted your face, head buzzing with panic. And then you saw him. You couldn’t miss him, really. The tall Mandalorian in a battered armour and shiny helmet. He towered over you, and despite you lying on the floor and having a very distorted perspective, you could tell that he was huge.

Fob glowing an angry red in one hand, and a blaster pointed at you in the other, he was a dangerous man. Before your eyes, around his calves, were enormous bullets that could only fit the rifle strapped in his back. You could tell he was a true fighter by the state of his chest plate: old, the paint wearing off, bullet cavities marring the surface. Something was not right, you decided, observing his strong shoulders. You read in his stance that he was an adept at hand combat. Hand, mid-range blaster and heavy sniper rifle. He looked down at you. One gloved hand was stained with blaster residue. The other glove was clean – or at least as clean as orange could be on a rocky planet.

“I can bring you in warm –“

“Wait!” you cried out. “You are not the bounty I’m looking for.”

This man obviously used only one blaster, not two. You could almost see the cogs turn in his brain when you saw his T-shaped visor gazing at the general direction of your own fob.

“Who are you?” His voice was raspy.

“I’m a bounty hunter,” you replied, your voice shaking a little. Admittedly, you hadn’t done a lot of bounty hunting yet but it did sound better than accountant.

He didn’t answer but you heard a small huff of static.

“I believe the bounty is the tenant living one floor under me,” you said hesitantly.

Immediately, he turned on his heels and ran out the room, leaving you aghast. You heard his surprisingly soft footsteps going down the stairs and the sound of a door being blasted off.

You sat down, heart pounding in your chest. Wow. Chances were that you’d never be able to live here again. Better flee now than miss the chance of escaping the kriffin building. You grabbed your ID, clean underwear, a big brown cloak, a bottle of water and the implant. You put on the combat boots one deputy statutory auditor had gifted to you before being murdered by the one and only Lord Vader, and set off to the stairs.

You put your foot on the first step timidly. Bang. The unmistakeable sound of blaster fire. Smoke rose in the air as it became acrid and hard to breathe.

That’s when you panicked. You turned around and ran towards the window, pushing aside the lumpy mattress and curling your fingers into a punch. Then you hit the glass as hard as you could. It came down crashing down, shards falling everywhere. You held your breath. You jumped.

You landed. You landed bad, and it hurt. Oh, kriff. You’d fortunately landed on your feet but lost your balance and your right ankle ached a little. It would probably swell up in the next couple of minutes but for the moment you needed to get out of here pretty fast.

Your stuff had fallen off your bag when you’d landed in the dirt-filled back alley. You quickly gathered your clothes, put the dust bag over your shoulder and half walked, half ran to the freeport, wincing at every step you took.

The buildings were blurry, and you could only see the shadows of the people you passed by. Was it a concussion? You ran a hand through your hair, half expecting to see blood, but you only gathered dust on your fingers. The pain in your ankle had risen during your walk, and by the time you were on the main road you were limping pitifully.

You reached the cantina for the second time in one day. This was both the point of no-return and the place where everything had begun. There were tears in your eyes, tears for this city that you’d have to leave so suddenly after grinding so hard. You were never happy here, you never made it and you struggled till the very end. On your left you saw the stand where an old man sold coarse fabrics; you’d purchased a few to repair your own clothes in the direst times. You recognized the woman brushing her hair through the top window of that one dirty, dusty building: she’d helped you find a place to sleep on your first day here.

You felt a hand on your shoulder. Shivering, you turned around. The Mandalorian was standing just behind you. You looked at him through your tears, understanding the hurry in his stance. He didn’t say anything, but you grabbed your bag and followed his long strides in the darker alleys to the space port.

Your ankle hurt but you kept running. You kept your head low, not wanting to be recognized by another Guild member. This was your first bounty, and you’d already colluded with a fellow hunter. You weren’t so sure if this was legal or not, and you were not eager to find out.

In any case, the closer to the space port you were, the better it was for your skin. You needed to lie low for a while; people here noticed blaster shots easily and you didn’t want your name to be linked with a bounty.

Your throat was burning from volcanic dust and pain flared in your ankle at every step, but you carried on. Everything was still blurry but you could see the Mandalorian keeping a steady pace a few steps before you. He never turned away to make sure you were still following, but you guessed he could hear your laboured breathing from where he was.

Now the next steps were: finding a ship that left soon, not do anything for a moment, then… Now was not the time to think about a potential “then”.

His ship was a military cargo ship, made to carry soldiers in remote outposts during the war. It was battered from battle and dusty from whatever planet it had been to before. You hesitated for a second.

“Is this where we part ways?” you asked, your voice wavering.

“Do you need transport out of here?” The Mandalorian asked gruffly.

When it became clear to him that you did, he ushered you inside and rushed to close the ramp.

You stopped to look around. That was when you realized that the Mandalorian was carrying a big black body bag on his shoulder, and he was heaving a little from the weight.

He threw the body on the ground then retrieved a pair of handcuffs from somewhere inside the metal wall. Intrigued, you looked closer. There was a strange system of metal chains suspended from the top of the wall that ended in two hooks. You understood their purpose when Mando attached the hooks to the handcuffs and pulled a lever, raising the body to eye level.

The bounty was a middle-aged human man, black haired, smartly dressed for Nevarro. His head was hanging, lip split open, and a nasty bruise was spreading on his right eyelid.

“Dead?” You murmured, a little frightened.

“No,” the Mandalorian answered. “Get back.”

You scrambled back to the end of the ship, clutching your tightly. Sharp lighting reflecting on the beskar helmet, the Mandalorian looked very in the small hull of this ship.

His movements precise, he clicked a few buttons on the control panel and suddenly the body was frozen in carbonite.

You let out the breath you just realized you had been holding. You shivered a little.

“Better get used to it,” the Mandalorian said, making his way to the cockpit.

You followed him quietly, strapping yourself in the passenger seat when he told you to. You closed your eyes as you felt the engines roar and the ship soar into the grey sky, the heavy clouds, then the blackness of the galaxy. You were afraid, but there was also a strange feeling of excitement coursing through your veins. The Nevarro days were behind you.

You woke up, feeling blindly around you. Judging by the absence of light in the ship, it was still the middle of the night on Scarif. Also judging by the soreness of your muscles, you’d only managed to sleep for a couple of hours before the clamp soup you’d swallowed with abandon the evening before had reached your bladder.

Leaving the (relative) comfort of your covers, you got up, reaching towards the nearest wall to support yourself. Tiptoeing around, you tried to make as little sound as possible. You stifled a yawn, almost lost your balance, and cursed loudly. So much for quietness.

After half a dozen more yawns, another string of curses and a bruised toe (you’d unfortunately collided with what felt like an enormous durasteel wall plate) you found your way to the ‘fresher. You relieved yourself and washed your hands – they looked so thin; you really could use some more food – then stepped out of the unit.

That was when you heard it.

A very male groan followed by heaving breathing that did nothing to cover the distinctive sound of flesh on flesh.

You stopped dead in your tracks.

You’d forgotten to shut off the ‘fresher light. It was a flickering old light that made your face look like it had been out of the sun for two decades, but it was enough to show you that the enormous durasteel wall plate you’d stumbled into was in fact a thigh guard. And said thigh guard was still attached to its wearer but was not protecting anything except Mando’s ankles.

He was holding himself in one hand, helmet still on. You stuttered:

“Wow. Errm, I mean – I’m sorry.”

Not waiting for an answer, you took a step backward, closed your eyes and made a hasty retreat.

You lay in the cot, waiting to fall back asleep. You’d felt so tired just seconds before and now sleep was eluding you. The image was seared in your brain.

It had been long since you’d had a good fuck. You’d been building up so much financial stress that you hadn’t even found your release by yourself in months. You guessed it was all backfiring now. Remembering the sinful sounds Mando had made, you felt a heat coiling deep inside you.

You risked a hand between your legs. Okay, you had a problem there. You were wet. Not just damp. You were soaking through your underwear. You brought your fingers to you nose; they had the definite smell of sex.

Would you be able to finally pleasure yourself on a stranger’s ship far away from Nevarro?

You wanted it so badly. You were burning up, pressing your thighs together to relieve the pressure. But the thing was, the owner of this spaceship had lent you his cot. People did not get off in other people’s bed, that was your implicit rule of hospitality. Especially not when you knew you’d make a mess with how wet you were.

Just a touch, you decided. A quick rub of your lady parts would not do wrong, right? You leaned backwards until your back was pressed against the metal wall and you slid a hand under your sleep pants, circling the tender area with the tip of your fingers.

You still saw Mando under your closed eyes. You tried to focus on your past adventures but Mando’s helmet kept coming back until it was him you imagined riding on your small bed back in Nevarro, making the erotic sounds you’d heard tonight. You let out an unvoluntary moan. You couldn’t stop now, you felt your whole body tingling and burning, you began to see stars, white stars, everything was brighter –

Your eyes flew open at the brightly lit torch brandished towards your face from the end of the cot. Fuck fuck fuck. In your haste to flee, you’d forgotten to close down the hatch and now Mando himself was standing still, looking directly at you, the torch in his left hand.

He was not moving but you swore he looked amused. You wanted to crawl in a hole and die, and at the same time you felt incredibly wanton and powerful with your legs spread apart and the glow you knew was on your face.

“I heard my name,” Mando whispered.

His voice was hoarse and heavy, and you felt your insides clench at the sound.

“I’m sorry,” you murmured. The air between you was thick.

“Don’t be,” he replied. Then he looked at you, looking like he was debating something internally. “May I?”

The pronounced static of his breathing, the expectant posture – you felt your head buzzing at the implication. It meant one thing.

“Yes.” Your voice was breathy, but you didn’t care.

The two of you were too big for the bunk, especially since Mando still had his full armour on, but you didn’t mind the way his body pressed against yours in all pleasant ways.

“Let me,” he groaned, once he was fully inside the bunk, …

You stilled, feeling a blush creep up your cheeks. Slowly, so slowly, he placed his right hand in your inner thigh, fingers hovering over the soft skin. Every place he touched you, you burned.

You reached to grasp the helmet but he caught your hand, staring hard into your eyes. You resolved to closing your eyes and slide your hand under the fabric of his shirt, smiling when you caressed the warmth underneath.

So there were taut muscles and soft skin behind the shiny beskar.

You’d lost your way in the numbers and figures, it seemed, in the cold facts of mathematics and the harsh reality of financial fraud. All those years alone had not been easy and you’d forgotten what it was like to be held by a soulful touch. You could almost cry. The night was tender and warm and you felt like melting into Mando while he melted into you, two lives meeting in the corner of the universe, on a planet graced by tragedies and hope alike.

There was no undressing for him. He’d made it clear that the helmet would stay on, and neither of you bothered to remove the rest of his clothes. He sighed deeply when you bit the fingers of his gloves and removed them with your teeth, revealing two hands that looked and felt sun-kissed.

You lazily removed your sleep clothes, keeping your eyes fixed on the helmet, and it felt like your gaze was locked with his even though you couldn’t see behind the black visor. You threw your underwear in a bundle, the fire in your body urging you to feel him ever closer. The plates of metal poked into your skin, cold and unforgiving but you couldn’t care less. If this was the price to pay to keep him close, then you’d willingly pay it.

The rush of the cocktail of hormones felt like drugs in your foggy brain. You were in the middle of draping your left leg over his waist when all movement slowed and stopped. Time was suspended; only the heavy static behind the beskar helmet and your own wrecked breath cut the silence and the electricity buzz of the landed spaceship.

He looked like he wanted to kiss you. You knew you wanted to press your mouth against his and taste his lips. But you knew it couldn’t happen. He knew it too. There was a shimmer of hope, then it died down as your leg finished its graceful arch in the air and you settled yourself over him, hot and heavy under your hips.

You felt the desire in your veins, and there was raw longing in the way he murmured your name over and over again while he buried himself inside you.

Maybe the last few years had been harsh and loveless for you, but it seemed that Mando had decided to make it all up on his own. Why you would at last find true passion in the hands of a seasoned bounty hunter, you didn’t know. You couldn’t contain your wanton moaning, lost in the haze of the moment. If he was as fierce in battle as he was in his love - and it looked like he was -, then you would not be able to fight back if he demanded your heart. You would gladly surrender right there, right now…

You felt the sweat gathering on your face. There was urgency in your movements, and you felt your own muscles tightening deliciously.

Cyar’ika, cyar’ika, cyar’ika…

Mando whispered the words into your shoulders as you felt his body tense under yours.

You couldn’t understand them, yet you couldn’t miss the depth of their meaning. You pressed a thousand kisses on his helmet, cradling him in your arms, rocking quicker as you readied yourself for him to shatter and explode into your embrace. Cyar’ika, cyar’ika…

You couldn’t understand these words, but I could.

You and I were chatting amiably in the cantina of some random planet he happened to have a bounty on. I could tell that the flush on your face was caused by both the cocktail swirling in your glass and the feelings you so obviously had towards the beskar-clad warrior.

Maybe it was the need for female company. Maybe it was the alcohol in your system. Maybe you thought you found a friend in me. But you poured your heart out to me, maybe hoping I would somehow understand your feelings and encourage you to act on them.

I didn’t tell you that I last travelled with the Mandalorian of your story a little more than six months ago. I couldn’t bring myself to it.

You didn’t understand the pet names he gave you, but I did, because he’d called me this way too.

I’d done everything you did.

I’d met the Mandalorian a different way, him looking for a doctor for a festered wound that did not heal. His desperate sighs when I applied bacta patches beneath the armour had compelled me to stay on his ship.

I’d laughed and cried and moaned on the Crest just like you. I’d been under crossfire more than once, I’d tended to his wounds, I’d made the calculations to jump to hyperspace while he was asleep, tired from a day of bounty-hunting and a night of love-making.

We’d spent hours discovering each other’s bodies while the Crest floated somewhere between the stars. I’d seen the heavens, shuddering beneath him, breathy sighs saturating the air. I’d waited for him to come back every day, touching myself on the pilot’s seat and wishing for the comfort of his strong arms.

But life on the Razor Crest was too lonely for me. After a while, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I needed company, friends to share a meal with. I missed evenings with my family, cooking together our trademark roast chicken recipe inherited from my maternal grandmother. I missed the silly games we played with my little cousins; our faces distorted in grimaces as we imitated HoloNet celebrities. I also missed my friends’ laughs, my first crush’s hazel eyes, my best friend’s freckled face. My home planet was only a short hyperspace drive from here, yet it felt like I was worlds and worlds away.

Behind the shiny beskar and the hard muscles, I could only see a lifetime of worry and loneliness. How in the galaxy could I ever belong there, in that tin can in the middle of nothingness? I needed the warmth of the sun, the smell of the earth and the promise of a happy life.

So I’d left before I could fall in love and get hurt. I gave him back the pendant you now wore between your breasts. I’d tried to ignore the way his shoulders hunched as I packed my bag. I left without looking back, my chin held high, half hoping he’d notice the tears on my face and beg me to come back.

You looked happy; he deserved you. You picked up your watch and I read the surprise on your face. “Already? I have to go, he’s picking me up here and we leave in a half-hour.” You packed your bags hurriedly, the flush lingering on your cheeks and I smiled at your apologies for leaving so soon. You thanked me profusely for my quiet companionship.

Then I heard it clearly. The velvety voice from my memories, the deep “Let’s go”, the clanking of the armour. It seemed that my body had not forgotten either and I felt myself uncomfortably pressing my thighs together. The memories started to flood my mind because I remembered everything and now I realized how much I missed –

How happy I –

How passionate he –

But this was a path I’d chosen not to take.

#the mandalorian #mando #din djarin #fanfiction #romance #angst #star wars #read and review #read and enjoy #din djarin x oc #x reader

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welcometophu · 3 years

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Not Your Guardian Angel: Chapter 22

Marked Book 3: Not Your Guardian Angel

Chapter 22

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Pels blinks several times as she wakes. She’s lying on her side, her free arm curled under her pillow, the other hand lying against her hip. She aches from head to toe in ways that definitely remind her that she’s alive, but the floating sensation seems to be gone.

The room is still somewhat dark, the overhead light off, but there’s more noise and light from outside the curtains.

Dad sits in a chair facing her, but as soon as he meets her eyes, he stands and walks out. The curtain lifts and falls in his wake, and there’s a scrape of a chair behind her.

“I am never going to get used to that,” Jess mutters. Shuffling sounds, and Pels rolls onto her back to find Jess’s hand over her shoulder. Jess pulls back quickly. “You’re awake.”

“I’m awake.” Pels is completely aware of the way Jess hovers as if she wants to lean in and knows she needs to lean back. Pels licks her lips—she feels like she’s been dried out to a husk. “I think Dad left us alone. It’s a surprising offer of privacy.”

“What does he think we’re going to do?” Jess huffs softly. “Shane’s picking up some breakfast. I think your mom and sister will be back a little later. We told them to take their time since you were sleeping.”

Pels nods. She tries to push herself to sitting, and Jess quickly moves to raise the back of the bed for her. “I hurt more,” Pels says. “But I feel less like I’m underwater.”

“I think that’s a good thing.” Jess sits back in the chair, her hands tightly clasped together. “They said they were going to back off on your pain meds. The Healers stopped by and said that in order to be able to start actually healing, your body needs to not be sedated. So. They recommend against prescription painkillers.”

“Mm.” Pels looks at the trash, still full from last night, and the small rolling table she hadn’t noticed that sits off to one side. “I don’t suppose anyone brought me breakfast, did they?”

“I can go ask.” Jess pushes to her feet, but she hesitates. There’s something going on, but Pels can’t read her expression other than that it looks tight and drawn as Jess bites her lip.

“What?” Pels asks.

“I was so scared,” Jess whispers. “I was just so scared, and I’m still kind of scared because I know you’re real and okay and you’re here and Shane told me you’re solid and not some kind of ghost like your dad, but I still just want—” She hesitates. “I wish I could hug you.”

Oh.

Pels touches her wrist, fingers drifting over the mountain’s craggy lines. “I—”

“I get it,” Jess says quickly. “I don’t want you to do anything you—”

“Okay.” Pels interrupts her, needing to get the word out before she changes her mind.

Jess stops. “Wait. Really?”

“Please don’t keep asking or I might say different,” Pels tells her. She opens her arms as best she can with the IV line dragging against her. “Just—let’s do this.”

Jess’s expression lights up, the corners of her eyes crinkling as she leans in. She moves slowly, and Pels thinks she could say no even now, but she doesn’t.

The second Jess’s hand touches her shoulder, Pels feels the zing straight through, like an electrical shock running all the way to her other arm. Then searing warmth as Jess carefully gathers her in, enveloping her in a rolling heat that pushes in through her skin, then wells up inside of her.

“Oh,” Pels whispers. She closes her eyes, her head tilted against Jess’s shoulder as Jess cradles her carefully. Tightly. Pels catches at Jess’s shirt with her good hand, fingers holding on to the fabric against her back.

Under her hand, Jess’s muscles slowly relax. Breath is soft and warm against Pels’s cheek when Jess exhales. “God,” Jess replies. “Just… I was so fucking scared. You flew, Pels. I thought—I thought you were going to be dead. And I didn’t know what I’d do.”

“I’m okay.” It should be obvious, now that they’re like this, but maybe she needs to hear it. Maybe Pels needs to say it. She’s okay. Not just after the accident, but also after touching Jess. She felt it ripple through her body; she knows her mark must have changed. And right now she is absolutely and completely aware of the way lava bubbles through her, as if she could burn up from the inside.

But she’s okay.

Jess pulls back, brushing her lips against Pels’s forehead. She frames her face with her hands and stays there, staring into her eyes. “You are seriously okay?”

“I am maybe a little shaky right this very second, but that has nothing to do with being thrown out of a car,” Pels says with a small smile. She loves the way Jess laughs at that, her eyes crinkling in the corners.

“Can I—” Jess stops herself, making a face. “Too soon.”

“What?”

“You kissed Shane.”

There are semantics to this. Shane kissed her. She kissed Shane. Shane apparently transferred a kiss from Pels to Jess.

But yes, that’s mostly it.

They’ve already touched. It’s not like kissing makes the magic worse.

“If you really want our first kiss to be in a hospital while I’m—” Pels cuts off as Jess leans in, mouth slotting over hers, because oh, she has no breath left to speak. Her heart pounds and there aren’t any bees, just that lava boiling up from her belly, magma ready to spill over and consume her in flames.

A machine in the background gives a startled high-pitched beep and whine.

Jess pulls back, her pale skin flushed a dusky rose. “Maybe making out while you’re hooked up to a heart monitor isn’t the best idea, but I have to admit, the feedback is good for my ego.”

Pels is not going to look at the machinery. She knows her heart is racing, and her skin is heated and warm. She tries for nonchalant. “It was okay.”

Jess laughs; the sound is as rich and warm as the lava flowing through Pels’s veins.

The curtain pulls back with a rattle. “You two look cozy,” Shane says.

Jess steps away, her hands falling from Pels’s face. Pels tries to look innocent, but she feels as if her skin must be blazing red, and the monitor still raises the alarm from her elevated heart rate.

A nurse comes in behind Shane, bearing a tray that she sets on the table. “Breakfast,” she says, taking the lid off and setting it aside. The scents of eggs and warm maple syrup fill the air. Pels’s stomach growls, and she reaches her hands out, grinning when the nurse wheels the table next to her, so it goes in front of where she sits up. She reaches for the mug, but it’s empty; Pels makes a small whining sound.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d want coffee or tea,” the nurse says.

Pels looks up, another small, hopeful noise slipping free. “Coffee. As much as I’m allowed to have.”

The pot that’s delivered shortly thereafter seems far too small, but at least she has something.

Shane hands a wrapped egg sandwich to Jess, and they all eat in silence for a little while. Breakfast is far better than last night’s post-midnight snack, and Pels devours it quickly. She’s still hungry when it’s gone, and she wonders if that’s a side-effect of the Healing that’s been done and her body’s attempts to catch up to normal.

Jess refills her glass of water when Pels asks, and she sips at it, trying to get the cotton feeling out of her mouth.

“So,” Shane says, lifting his hand in the air. “I almost dropped everything when you two started making out.”

His mark looks exactly the same. Maybe larger, but Pels can’t really tell and it’s not like she measured the cloud when this whole mess started. “Nothing happened,” she says, frowning at his mark.

“I’m pretty sure something happened.” Shane’s dry tone has a hint of humor, and a moment after he says it, he’s grinning.

Jess reaches out, sliding her fingers over Pels’s hand, curling around hers. “I hugged her. Then she said I could kiss her, and I wasn’t giving up that chance.”

“Bees and lava,” Pels says. They both give her a strange look, and she flushes but doesn’t try to explain. She’s sure she’d sound like a fool if she did.

“So.” Shane gestures to the two of them as he says it again. “I’m not asking for details on the kissing—the monitors made it clear that was a good thing.” He smirks a little, and Pels tries to sink back into the pillows. “Your wrists?”

Oh. Right. That.

Jess holds hers up first, and instead of a mark that indicates either Pels or Shane, she has a clouded inky spot that shifts and moves as she does, just as indistinct as Shane’s.

Pels knows her mark must have changed. She felt the impact of Jess’s touch, felt that singing electrical spark through her blood, down into her arm. But she’s half afraid that if she looks, it’ll still be somehow inconclusive.

Jess reaches for her at the same time as Shane does. They both stop just shy of touching her, and she meets their gazes as she turns her hand over to show the inside of her wrist.

The mountain is still there, but the scene has expanded with a cloud above, and a pool of water below. Both are patterned, filled in with a jumbled chaos of lines that make Pels think of being able to see the air and water in movement on her skin.

“It’s beautiful,” she says. “I don’t know why...?”

“Maybe we’re each soulmates with you, but not each other,” Jess says.

“That doesn’t make sense magically,” Shane disagrees. He sits back down in the chair further from Pels, leaving Jess to tangle her fingers with Pels as Shane continues to speak. “It’s my mark, and if I’d bonded with Pels originally, we would’ve had each others’ marks. Instead she got yours. And now she’s got mine, and you’ve got… something in waiting. It’s not done yet.” He puts up a hand before Jess can start speaking. “And yes, it makes more sense if it’s a V—I’ve been researching how triads work.”

“I get the idea, mathematically speaking,” Jess agrees.

“But you and her, plus me and her—that’d be stable, and it does make sense since we’ve known each other forever. And we already know that you and I touching each other doesn’t make a difference, because we’ve done that a hundred times since the Ritual.” Shane shrugs, slumping further back. “We’re still missing something.”

“One step at a time is fine with me.” Pels watches as Jess lightly traces the tiny lines that swirl inside the lake. “I’m adjusting. And I haven’t panicked—” She glares when Jess snorts. “Much,” Pels amends. “I haven’t panicked much. But we’ve touched, and I’ve kissed you both, and that’s all—it’s good. It’s very good. It’s different, too. I feel like I’m different now.”

She blinks, because Dad’s standing behind Shane, just suddenly there. “So much for privacy,” she huffs.

Shane and Jess look at each other. “Your dad is here?”

“He is now.”

“Go on, this was getting interesting,” Dad says. “You feel different how?”

Pels tugs her hand free from Jess, crossing her arms. “Like I want to talk about how kissing feels in front of you,” she mutters. “I just feel—connected. Like I’m aware of them. Bees and lava under my skin, pulling me towards them. You,” she says, pointing to both Jess and Shane. “I know how you feel and it’s different, but I’m aware of it all the time right now. I want to touch you. Be touched by you. Kiss you. And I don’t know if that’s me liking you or the mark saying that I need you.”

“The mark can’t force anything,” Shane reminds her. “It’s a suggestion, not an order.”

“I am perfectly okay if you want to tell me how attracted you are to me.” Jess grins, her thumb sliding over Pels’s skin. “If you want to get some more data, I’m all for more kissing, too.”

“Hey.” Shane protests, but he’s smiling and doesn’t look entirely upset by being left out.

Dad raises an eyebrow. “So. You’re all set then?”

“I think I’m okay without more kissing. For now. I think I just—I know you’ll figure out what’s going on eventually, or we will, but right now… I’m tired,” Pels admits.

Jess moves her hand to Pels’s forehead, smoothing her curls back from her face. She smiles gently as she touches her, fingers just drifting over her skin, like she can’t stop now that she’s allowed. Pels feels every glide and slip of that touch, leaving trails of warmth along her body. “The Healers said that would happen, and if you do rest, it’ll help a lot. The more sleep you get, the more your body gets to heal. They think you’ll be able to go home tomorrow, actually. Your mom and Cheyenne should come by later. They’re staying until you get settled back on campus.”

Pels wants to ask what happens next. Whether she just goes back to class and pretends she wasn’t thrown from a car. Whether she gets to relax in her room—if being in a room with Jennifer and Nikita could be considered relaxing at all. That life seems very separate from this one, lying in a hospital bed, trying to keep her eyes open.

“Maybe we should let you rest,” Jess murmurs.

Pels wonders how long it’s been since she said something, and when exactly she closed her eyes. “Mm,” she agrees. “I could sleep.” Which is kind of funny, since she literally just ate breakfast and drank her coffee, but it feels like no amount of caffeine would be enough.

There’s a brush of lips against her forehead, warm and rumbling. Then movement, and another light press that sets her skin buzzing. She smiles at that. “I can tell the difference between you,” she murmurs.

“We’ll come back tonight,” Shane assures her as he moves away. The curtain rattles and falls, then a chair scrapes.

Why Dad would bother to move a chair to sit closer to her Pels doesn’t know, but when she forces her eyes open, he’s done exactly that.

“Hey,” he says quietly, slipping his hand over hers. “I’ve got you. Go ahead and rest.”

“I’m so confused,” she whispers. “I think I like them. But emotions are hard, and then I can feel them getting under my skin, and the physical just makes it all harder to understand. It’s like my body doesn’t want to wait for my mind and heart to catch up.”

“You’ve just described love,” Dad says quietly. “Maybe you should be a writer, Pels. I think you understand more about people than you think you do.”

She feels like she should; she’s spent enough time trying to figure them out, after all.

She floats in a haze that feels like sleep, but she’s still aware of the machines beeping, and the feel of Dad’s hand on hers. When the curtain rattles again, she’s not sure how long has passed, but it’s easier to open her eyes again. She fully expects to see Mom and Cheyenne, or maybe Shane and Jess, or a nurse or a doctor or well… she doesn’t expect to see Pat standing there, the curtain held back, watching her wake.

“Hey,” she says quietly. “I didn’t expect—”

“I heard about your accident, so I took a bus over. Jackson says get better soon. TJ’s… doing something. I don’t know what.” As Pat moves into the room, Dad vacates the chair.

It’s really funny how sometimes he doesn’t mind people walking through him, and other times he seems to loathe the idea of sharing space.

Pat sits down and looks at her. “You look….”

“I haven’t seen a mirror,” Pels admits. “I’m probably bruised. Scraped. I suspect I broke some things—no one’s talking about exactly what happened, just that I spent some time with Healers.”

“Priya said they called her in. She’s a freshman, like us,” Pat explains when Pels gives him a confused look. “She’s from a Healer family, so they have her on call at the area hospitals. Just in case. She didn’t say anything that would break privacy, just that they needed extra support, and it wasn’t easy. But she thinks you’ll be fine, if you just take a break and get some rest now.”

“No one wants to say I almost died?” Pels quips. She’s half afraid she’s right, and doesn’t want to think about it too closely. “I don’t really want to talk about my accident. Tell me you’ve been kicking ass in that game of yours or something. Or new stuff that you and Sera are doing on your skateboards. Or well… anything. Take my mind off of all this.”

She sees Pat’s gaze drop to her arm, which lies wrist down against the bed. Pels doesn’t offer a view of the changed mark; she’s not ready to talk about that, either.

“I’m still pining,” Pat says lightly. “After TJ. I think he’s clueless, actually. He’s either head over heels for Sera, or well, he’s definitely in lust with her. And she’s one of my best friends, so I don’t begrudge her that if she wants him. But Jackson’s watching him, too, and I don’t know what’s harder—me wishing he were ours for me, or for Jackson. Does that make sense? I feel like I’m being greedy.”

“Because you’re dating one person and have a crush on another one?” Pels huffs a soft laugh. “Remember, I have two soulmates. If you can talk to anyone about this, it’s probably me. Apparently Shane’s been doing research on triads and how they work. Because this is a thing that people other than just us do? I didn’t even realize… on the other hand, I had enough trouble with the idea of one-on-one relationships before.”

“So did I, but this… it’s different with each of them,” Pat admits. He’s smiling when he leans forward, tapping at the side of Pels’s bed. “Jackson’s comfortable. He’s like finding that perfect t-shirt that you’ve had for ten years and didn’t realize still fit, and you get the feeling it’s just going to fit forever and will never wear out. It’s like I found another piece of myself I didn’t know I was missing. And TJ—he’s like light shining down on us, lifting us up. I can’t stop watching him, and Jackson can’t either. He’s the north star, and we’re trying to navigate. Y’know? I’m also not even sure if he’s bi or not.”

“You haven’t talked about it?”

“He likes Sera and he never talks about guys,” Pat says. “I think—he’s said some things about how his father felt about guys in dance. It complicates things.”

Pels is pretty sure there’s a part of the story she’s missing there, but she doesn’t actually know TJ all that well other than as an RA, or gaming in Pat’s room. “Oh,” she says.

“Maybe it’s just a daydream,” Pat says, leaning back, hands behind his head as he slouches down in the chair. “But it’s a nice one. It’s not like watching hurts, right?”

“As long as you and Jackson are both okay, then, sure?” Pels says uncertainly. “I mean, don’t lose what you have because you’re both pining for something else.”

“Oh, definitely not,” Pat agrees. “The thing with TJ, it’s just dreaming. It’s nice that my boyfriend has the same crush, and that we’re united on that front. But we’re still us, too, and nothing’s going to change that. I never thought I’d find someone like Jackson, honestly. I wake up every day kind of amazed about it.”

“I never thought I’d be where I am either,” Pels admits. Because relationships are confusing and hard, and here she is sitting squarely between two people who both are interested in her. And don’t hate each other over it. “The universe has a lot of surprises in it, doesn’t it?”

Pat laughs, a short surprised sound. “I guess you’re right. It’s pretty amazing that way, isn’t it? Magic isn’t just about creating things out of nothing, I guess. It’s about everything.”

That’s one way to put it. “Magic lives in the spaces between everything else,” Pels murmurs. “It binds us together, and pushes us apart, and it gives us the things we don’t even know we need, while protecting us from the things we don’t see coming.” Her gaze drifts to where her dad sits quietly in one of the other chairs. “Magic isn’t just about Talent,” she whispers. “Maybe it’s about life.”

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hopeatermeetsgodzilla · 3 years

Text

Chapter 19

“Sir?” Jonah raised his head from his computer, frowning as he saw Emily. The young woman seemed worried about something. “May I come in?”

He softened his face a bit. “Of course.” Emily nodded, coming into the room and sitting down in front of her boss’ desk. Jonah took his hands away from the keyboard, folding them over his desk. “What’s wrong? Are you afraid Monarch knows of our headquarters’ position?”

“No! No, it’s not about that.” Following Florès’ exposing of their takeover of Outpost 32 to the military, the Titan Liberation Front had had to leave in an emergency, coming back to their base in Boston. It had quickly been followed by Emily doing a quadruple check of the security system.

The only trace from Florès she had found was an encoded message on a Word document that hadn’t been there before.

Remember, Jonah doesn’t trust you...

“Well then, what is it about?”

“... are you sure waking all the Titans is the way to go?” Emily asked, frowning. When Jonah narrowed his eyes, she quickly tried to correct herself. “I-I mean I know they’re the only ones who can save the planet at this point and that not waking them would just delay the inevitable, b- but what if when we free all of them, we end up regressing back to the Stone Age-”

“Emmy.” Jonah suddenly cut her off. She flinched away. Emmy was a nickname her parents had given her before they had died. Jonah was pretty much the only person close to her who was still allowed to use it. “Why are you so worried? Humanity going back to a time were they held no impact on the planet is an ideal scenario.”

“I- it’s not just about that... it’s Ghidorah.” She started. “It’s- they’re not from Earth, they’re not going to restore the planet- they’re destroying it- it’s not going to be the co-existence you told me about, they’re a walking extinction event-”

“Kane.” Jonah started, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Are you telling me you’re having second doubts now? You were fine with millions of people dying, but you’re going to draw the line at billions of people dying?”

“That’s not what I said-”

“If we’re a sickness,” Jonah started, circling his desk, “and the Earth Titans are a fever, then Ghidorah is both the cure and the vaccine. It doesn’t matter what our intentions are: what’s important is that humans won’t be able to rise up again once they’re done, and the planet will only benefit from it. Do you understand?”

“... yes, sir.”

“And if we do live to see this mass extinction event through...” He placed his hand on Emily’s shoulder, making her flinch. “I trust you and your talents will help us out, yes?” Jonah smiled down reassuringly at her, patting her shoulder.

... And you shouldn’t trust him.

Emily hesitantly nodded, remembering the message Florès had left her. “O- of course, sir.”

“You want me to teach you how to absorb energy?” Rodan nodded, San turning away from the coast to look at him instead, still not getting up. The sun was starting to set, and Ghidorah had made it very clear they were fascinated with the sky and the objects in it. There was also the fact they drew most of their energy from it. “Any reason why this sprang up?”

“I’m having difficulties finding food, and your brother mentioned you could teach me how to do it.” Rodan explained, sitting down and craning his neck up to look at San. “Something about being more spiritual.”

San nodded. “That is true. Ichi’s too clinical, and Ni convinced himself that if he allows himself to be vulnerable, he’ll die.” There was a pause. “Either way, neither can meditate if I’m not here. Can you absorb energy on your own, like, consciously?”

“Not consciously, I just start doing it automatically the moment I submerge myself in lava.”

“Partially, or fully?”

“Both. The more I’m submerged, the easier it is.”

San nodded. “Alright, that means you’re the unconscious type. We’re gonna try to meditate, okay? Okay. I want you to close your eyes, and breath in a pattern: 4 seconds in, 4 seconds hold, 8 seconds out. You think you can do it?”

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot.” Rodan hissed out, San giggling to himself before closing his eyes. Rodan watched the taller one do it a few times, before attempting himself. He started taking a deep breath. 1, 2- Heat, too much heat, feathers burned off, scalp burning, sides of mouth splitting, veins bursting, eyes burning, heart burning, too much light, no noise, nothing, lost everything-

“Hey, hey.” Rodan opened his eyes, craning his neck up to look at San. The blond had a worried look on his face. “You weren’t able to get it in. What went wrong?”

“I felt like I was burning from the inside out.” Rodan wheezed out in a shaky tone, before stopping and taking a moment to gather himself. When he spoke again, his voice was steadier. “Am I supposed to feel like I’m losing control of my powers?”

“You’re not. Probably. I don’t feel like I’m getting struck by lightning when I meditate, but I do feel like I’m floating... You said you felt like you were burning, right...?” San seemed to think for a moment, before holding his hands out. “Take my hands.”

“... alright?” Rodan hesitantly put his hands in San’s. He shuddered. Apparently, the cold from the ice had seeped into their very being. It felt as if frost spread were his hands touched San’s. Long fingers curled around his hands, and he shivered as he felt a shock run through his body.

“If you start feeling too hot again, focus on my hands, alright?” Rodan nodded, closing his eyes again as he took a deep breath. 1, 2- liquid fire in his lungs, in his heart, can’t breath, can’t talk, all alone- he squeezed San’s hands, all cold and long fingers and letting off small shocks each time they moved- shaky 3, steady 4. He opened one eye as they held their breath in, but quickly closed it again when he saw San’s were still closed. He let it out, and San giggled. “See? You did it!”

“Y- yeah.” Rodan couldn’t help but blush. “I guess I did. What now?”

“We continue. Try to find your own rhythm. I’ll follow you.” Rodan nodded, resuming the exercise as they slowly adapted to his own breathing- which was more along the lines of 5,3,8. He could practically hear his own heart beating, how the magma flowed in his veins. Slowly everything seemed to fade away, the only thing left being the hands he held. “Rodan?”

“Mmm?”

“Open your eyes.” Rodan carefully opened one eye, before looking around in confusion.

They weren’t on Mara anymore. The sky had become whirls of color he couldn’t put a name on, and the ground a flat expense of white sand covered by a thing layer of water. Thousands upon thousands of stars filled the sky. Rodan blinked in confusion. “What the...?”

“What, first trip to the Soul Realm?” Rodan turned toward San, and screamed in surprise, letting go of his hands. Instead of San, there was now a vaguely San-shaped golden floaty thing in front of him, three pairs of round white eyes staring at him.

“Wh- San!?” He exclaimed in surprise, the spirit nodding. “What happened? Where are we? Where did Mara go? Why do you look like that-”

“One question at a time, okay? First, we’re meditating. This is what happens when you successfully separate your soul from your body. This is the Soul Realm, or the place between life and death. Mara didn’t go anywhere, in fact our bodies are still on it, alive and soaking in energy. And I look like that because that’s what my soul is like.”

Rodan groaned. “Great. And I thought the moth’s whole deal was weird...”

San giggled. “Don’t be like that, fire bird. I mean, look at you! You’re practically wrapped in fire!”

“What are you talking about- woah!” Rodan looked at his hands. His sleeves had been replaced by feathers of fire, dragging after him like a train as he got up. He slowly moved his arms, watching the flames move in synch.

He slowly started laughing, running around in circles and watching the fire around him grow larger, brighter, encompassing him. He distantly registered San laughing along or telling him to spin as he danced around, but he complied anyway, flames growing with each gleeful pirouette he did.

“You’re even brighter than the precious Fire guardian!” Rodan came to a halt at that, the flow of flames around him dying. San tilted his head at that, Round eyes becoming ovals in an imitation of confusion. “What’s wrong?”

“... Quetz had similar flames?”

“Oh yeah!” San cheerfully said, seemingly obvious to Rodan’s distress. “She was really something to behold. A bloodlust that nearly rivals Ni’s, a flawless defense in her attack, and a passion-”

“-That shined brighter than the sun could ever hope to.” Rodan finished, his voice breaking a bit on that.

San tilted his head in curiosity. “... are you sure you’re alright? Each time the former Guardian of fire comes up, you get really sad.” Rodan said nothing, simply maintaining his lack of eye contact. “With how you and your people’s hierarchy work, I thought you’d be happy about a runt like you getting close to the top of the food chain-”

Rodan’s flames flared up again, this time in anger as he screeched. “WHY WOULD I BE HAPPY ABOUT MY MATE DYING-” The flame went back to a smolder as he realized in horror what he had just blurted out. There was no way they wouldn’t try to use that against him-

San looked impassive, but what he said sounded... horrified? “You... your mate died and you ended up taking her place!?”

“I- I don’t know why it happened either-” Rodan started, the pent-up frustration and anxiety and despair that had accumulated and festered over the years starting to come out as yellow flames started surrounding them. “It’s just- we were trying to start a family and one of the attempts finally took- and before I knew it the volcano we nested in erupted and we lost the eggs and I lost a wing and she choked on the smoke and I tried to join them but Terra wouldn’t let me die-”

Rodan came to a halt as he felt two hands come up to his face. San was looking down at him, all three pair of eyes narrowed. “How cruel.” He blankly stated. “Instead of letting you join her, your god- Terra, is it?- has decided to throw her death right in your face by making you her successor... are you not angry at her?”

Rodan grabbed San by the wrists, taking his hands away from his face. “Why do you care? It’s not like you ever lost anyone dear to you.”

“I have, actually.” Rodan’s eyes widened in surprise. He would’ve called bullshit, but something about San when he said it made him seem more... vulnerable. “Back when we lived in space. He often helped us, we had similar point of views, and he was very fun to be around. A bit similar to you, really. Losing him so suddenly is what drove us to come here.”

“Oh.” Rodan took a hold of San’s hand, squeezing reassuringly. “I’m so sorry for your loss... was his death brutal, or... ?”

“Oh, he didn’t die, firebird.” San started ominously, standing to his full height. “He betrayed us.”

“W- what?” Rodan’s eyes widened in horror. As far as he was concerned, once mated, you essentially pledged your very being to that person. And while a relationship between mates could die if given enough time, betraying them before breaking off was never an option. “Why would he do that!?”

“Weaker beings are afraid of what they don’t understand, and we are very hard to understand.” San stated, his voice back to it’s dissonant cheerfulness. “I mean, I’m very sure you’ve seen quite a few humans who didn’t like Titans and wanted them dead-”

Rodan didn’t process what came out of San’s mouth next. He was too focused by his arms breaking off, separated from his shoulders by tiny black, pointy sticks. He opened his mouth to scream, only for more sticks to lodge themselves in his lips and throat, chocking off any sounds that would come out of it. As those sticks started tearing into his chest, is vision went blurry, the entire world around him melding in a sick spiral of colors, gold at it’s center.

“Rodan!? RODAN! OPEN YOUR EYES!!!” Rodan opened his eyes, eyes turned to the ground and whole body shaking as he hyperventilated. He was back in the real world. ‘Hey, hey, it’s fine, you’re fine, there’s no danger- Look at me.” He slowly looked up. The light of the mostly set sun was casting strange, moving shadows on San, his glowing red eyes amplifying the strangeness of his sharp features. “What’s wrong?”

“C- Can’t breath-”

San frowned. “Breath, then.” He sang, his voice echoing onto itself.

Rodan didn’t know why he wasn’t ignoring the Ghidorah’s songs. Hell, they were the whole reason he had built up his immunity to all Calls, thanks in no small part to hanging out with Godzilla so much. But that didn’t mean he didn’t feel the pull of it. And he was too shaken to not listen right now. He took in a large gulp of air, breathing in short, quick bursts as San held onto his hands.

“Do you want to talk about what that was about?” San asked, tilting his head. Rodan shook his head. Revealing his relationship with Quetzalcoatl could’ve gone wrong very fast, and he attributed San having someone similar to a pure stroke of luck on his part. There was no way Ghidorah could’ve ever been hurt by beings so much smaller and weaker than them. He hoped the other wouldn’t push it.

But San just nodded, letting go of Rodan’s hands and gently bending forward as his breathing calmed down. It’s then he realized. “It worked.”

San blinked in confusion. “Uh?”

“The meditation, it worked!” Rodan cheerfully exclaimed, pushing his earlier thoughts in a corner of his mind. “I feel stronger then befo-”

“Rodan.”

“GAH!” Rodan turned his head, only to see Ni staring down at him and San. “I told you not to sneak up on me like that!”

Ni simply shrugged in indifference. “You’ll get used to it.”

“Oh, hi Ni!” Ni nodded at San, before kneeling down, facing Rodan.

“I found something you might like.” Ni told him, handing him a handful of something. Rodan’s eyes widening in surprise when he realized it was a handful of small roots, nuts and grains. “You told me you couldn’t eat the fish around the island anymore, so I tried to find something you could eat in the human settlement. It’s not a lot, but it should be better than rotten fish.”

Rodan smiled, bringing the handful of food to his mouth and swallowing. He then turned toward Ni, his face glowing a bit. “And it is. Thank you, Ni.”

Ni frowned, bringing a hand to Rodan’s face. “Are you sure you’re fine? Blood keeps rushing to your face.”

That snapped Rodan out of his relaxed state of mind. He jumped up, the flush growing bigger as he did so. “Of course I’m fine, whywouldntIbefine-”

“Rodan, it’s fine, sit down-”

“AnywayitsgettinglateandIneedtosleepgoodnight!” Rodan exclaimed, followed by a strong wind that carried him off to the top of his volcano. Ni and San could see his silhouette collapse at the top of it, followed by a strange, quiet shriek.

San turned toward his brother, smiling. “Good idea to find him food!”

Ni blinked. “I didn’t think my efforts to make him like me were working.” When San gave him a confused frown, he shrugged. “Each time I try to be nice to him, he keeps getting... flustered. Embarrassed. That’s not a good thing.”

“... He’s touched.” San blankly stated. “You keep giving him gifts, Ni. Of course he’s gonna keep blushing.”

“How did you figure out he needed food?” The two turned toward Ichi, who they knew had been watching them for a time.

San waved as their older brother sat down. “Hi brother Ichi!”

“He... told me?” Ni tried hesitantly. “It’s why I told him to talk to San. So he could learn to absorb energy without soaking himself in lava. Help him stay not weak.”

Ichi nodded. “Either way, good job. The both of you.” Ni sighed in relief and San beamed at the praise. His good mood only improved as Ichi pat him on the head. “If we continue like that, we’ll be out of this place sooner than later.”

#writing #My writing #Godzilla #godzilla gijinka #gijinka #emmy kano #alan jonah #Rodan #ghidorah #King Ghidorah #san ghidorah #ni ghidorah #ichi ghidorah #kevin ghidorah #rodorah

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quiet-hypnotist · 4 years

Text

Of Drinks And Dreams

(Just a quick heads-up: This story features a fairly conversational induction scene. And given the nature of that style, please have a content warning. All suggestions that the tist in this story mentions are about feeling pleasure from obedience and being taken into hypnosis. At the end there is the mention of a re-induction trigger, yet that along with all suggestions is framed to fade as the story ends, much like waking from a dream. A dream about what exactly? Well, for that much detail you gotta read it yourself. Enjoy!)

“Hey there. I hope you saved a beer for me.” The friendly call turned some heads, but not more than on any other Friday evening in this place. The small hotel bar wasn’t exactly the place where people would go to find isolation. During the work days that might have meant a bustling bartender and busy waiters all throughout the room. Yet as it so often went the last days of the week flushed only the weary or the troubled through the doors. And whoever didn’t silently cling to their glass eventually let silky dark air outside flush them back out the same way, sending them to bed or back to the grind.

As such the room was already almost deserted, the only one’s who truly took note were the three people who, with beaming faces, turned to face the source of the noise and wave. The two guys sitting across from each other smirked before one of them corrected their glasses for the dramatic effect, donning their best imitation of what might have otherwise been a stern voice: “Get your butt moving and order one then. Ain’t no one saving a drink for the tardy around here.”

“Oh, woe is me! My best friends leave me to just die of thirst.” “Yeah,” the second guy nodded with a smug grin, “and of hunger, too. Don’t think just because you let me copy your notes every week that you’d get even one of these fries from me.” “Oh, guys, c’mon! He was just half an hour late. Why would we possibly have a reason to take that out on him?” The group’s only lady looked no less amused by the exchange than the other two. Though as she shifted in her seat to tug a strand of pink hair behind her ears that expression softened from one of mockery to honest warmth. “Take a seat for now. And here’s your drink.” As he seated himself opposite from her she pushed a filled glass in front of him. “And here I thought I would get to see the day where you finally keep all the good stuff to yourself.” Despite the words he received it with thanks, all the more seeing as both she and the guys still had their own glasses right there. “Already on the second round?” “Don’t be ridiculous,” the first speaker waved it aside, “isn’t it only natural we’d wait for you?” On the other side of the table the smug guy laughed. “Ryan, you do notice how much you’re contradicting yourself, right?” Adjusting his glasses again more out of embarrassment over his act from before than of necessity, Ryan countered: “Not like you or Brielle were any better.” “Oh, I don’t know,” Brielle winked, “I think Jeff here was pretty convincing. Or can you imagine him willingly sharing food with anyone?” “Ah, you have a point.” “Excuse me? What are you implying here?” “Nothing, of course. Could these eyes lie to you?” “Damn, yes, they could.” “Hey now, that’s the privilege of a lady.” “C’mon, Erik, say something to her, will you?” Instead of saying something he took a sip from the offered beer before chuckling. “Nah, I think I’ll let you folks do the talking tonight.” “See, that is why I don’t share my fries with him.”

“Don’t tell me…” Brielle stopped to take a good look at his face. “Did it happen again?” He nodded. For a moment the group fell silent. “Damn, you really have it figured out, huh?” “I wish.” Ryan shook his head in disbelief. “You need to get a grip, man. There’s no way it works like that.” “You’d really think so.” It was always the same reaction. Not like Erik could blame them. Honestly, he himself often enough doubted what was going on. And he was there when it happened. How would they have an easier time believing it?

“Err, sorry to be the party pooper or something.” Jeff scratched his head in hopes of finding the right tone for the occasion: “But could someone maybe give me a quick rundown here? What are you even saying happened? Traffic jam or some such? We… we are talking about why Erik was late, aren’t we?”

Brielle chuckled with that same helpless eye roll as the day Erik had first told her about it. Ryan meanwhile frowned: “You haven’t heard yet?” “That’s why I’m asking, wouldn’t you say?” “Hey, no need to get snarky. Just… oh, who am I kidding, it’s not like I would have that clear an idea myself.”

To assist him Brielle mentioned: “Erik chatted up a girl.”

And fell silent again. As if that would explain anything. Thousands of people chatted up someone. And just as Erik would have expected, Jeff seemed to be of a similar opinion: “Hey man, good for you! You’ve been single long enough! What’s it been since that cutie from the pool party? Six years? Seven?” “Something like that,” Erik forced himself to smile, “but it’s not what you think.”

“Aww, no need to get shy now! We’ve all flirted with a girl before here. Some of us still are.” Jeff winked at Brielle who just let one of her hands disappear under the table. Seconds later he grimaced but at least today he managed to not make a sound despite the pain where she pinched him.

“You’ll never learn, will you?” Erik sighed. “But be that as it may, really, it is not like that. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I had every intention on maybe getting her number. Ask her out on a date, get to know her. You know the drill. But… well, I kinda… talked to her.”

Still wary and with a grumpy glace at the girl besides him Jeff fired back: “That’s usually how flirting with someone new works, Mr. Smartypants. Though hopefully you didn’t only talk to her. Because if that is how you ended up half an hour late I have an idea why you’re making such a long face now.”

Ryan on the other hand nodded, suddenly a lot milder than a few minutes ago: “I feel you there, buddy, believe me. They wanna hear about your hobbies and before you even get into the third arc of Gundams they mysteriously have a prior engagement to get to.” “No, sorry, that might be just your problem there.”

Brielle shut the guys up with a glare that probably would have managed to freeze lava if she tried. Before directing her attention back to Erik, all concern and worry. “What I don’t understand,” she carefully approached the issue, “is why it keeps happening? It would be odd enough if it happened at all, of course, however sometimes life just plays out that way. But every time?” “Tell me about it,” he grimaced. She didn’t seem to press on after seeing his expression. A gap that Jeff more than eagerly used to get a word in himself: “Or better yet, you tell us! Sure you might not exactly play up there with the big movie stars when it comes to sex appeal, but really I can’t see a single reason why you wouldn’t find a date when you actually make an honest effort. So what are you doing that it ends up like this each time?”

It was obvious that their interest was raised to the point where they would never let him off the hook. Especially Jeff, friendly, supportive, nosey Jeff. If Erik didn’t watch his step the guy might just drag him to five blind dates a week until the matter was solved or something. He sure wouldn’t hesitate all for the sake of helping a friend. Though would it really be considered help given the circumstances? So he cleared his throat, taking another sip of liquid courage and tried to express just how it went.

“Really, I’ve been convinced it had to be just a coincidence for the longest time, much like you guys. I mean, it sounds lunatic no matter how you slice it. Chatting up a hot person is enough of a hurdle as it is. But seeing how odd they behave every time… ”

“So what if they tiptoe around you not being their type?”

“Oh, no. No, I doubt you could call it that. Though granted, that’s what anyone would think the first couple times around. So, you know, that’s a fair point to make. But no. It’s not like they feigned interest until a convenient distraction moves the conversation into safer waters. Or like they mysteriously get phone calls that need them to leave and postpone any meetings with me for the indefinite future. Nothing of the sort.”

It had a soothing effect to watch the golden brown alcohol swirl in the glass when he gently moved it while speaking and he found the motion helped the words flowing.

“If anything it is exactly… well, maybe not exactly but still pretty much the opposite. They don’t lose interest. If I had to say it, they get too interested in what I say. Like this girl today. She actually was the one coming up to me this time.”

“Aren’t you just bragging now?” Jeff’s question was swiftly followed by a painful yelp and a death glare that quickly vanished behind Brielle’s gentle encouragement: “Now I would get why you’re sure she wouldn’t just politely avoid you.”

“Right?” He appreciated how she helped him get back on track after the interruption. “I don’t even really remember what she started off with, but within a couple minutes we found ourselves sitting down at a nearby bench with two cheap paper cups in our hands and letting the heat of the coffee inside just warm our fingers. And I want to claim that we had a really eloquent conversation about this or that, but… well, to be honest I just talked. And I guess it was fine because she didn’t do much else. The words just kept flowing as a welcome reason to sit together, spend the time in each other’s company and whatever was said didn’t even matter compared to just keep that moment going.”

Jeff seemed to have some words of his own but no sooner had he opened his mouth when with a careful glance at the pink haired girl next to him he fell silent. Erik barely noticed how dumbfounded he looked with his mouth opening and closing like a carp. In his mind he was back there, on the bench, a flimsy cup of coffee in his fingers instead of cold beer, once more seeing the expression of that young woman.

“She didn’t mind just listening. In fact sometimes she would nod along much as if she were feeling every word she heard. Maybe you already know that sort of fugue when it just feels so right to listen that the only important thing becomes to keep hearing that other person’s voice?” “Mhm,” Brielle murmured, all her attention on him. The guys both leaned back, evidently happy to wait their turn with further words.

“And honestly, had anyone been seeing the two of us sit there it likely wouldn’t have seemed like something out of the ordinary. Just imagine it, taking a stroll in the sun and seeing her there, focused on every word she heard and yet not being aware of a single one of them. Because in that moment it was much better to let the warmth from the cup soak into her. Much easier to simply nod and listen. So very comfy to stop thinking about where the conversation flowed. And how could it not? When even I, the one who kept talking, stopped thinking about the words and focused only on how lovely this person looked?”

He took another sip more to wet his throat than because he was thirsty, but neither of them so much as moved.

“And had such an onlooker continued to take in the scene, can we be sure they had noticed the signs? Would they really have become aware of how that woman’s head started drooping a little more with each nod? Would they have realized the way those shoulders slumped a little more with each breath? Would those eyes have seemed glassy and doll-like even from a distance? Or would all of those things simply happen without anyone noticing at all as the body simply responded to impulses beyond control?”

It was a question he still knew no answer to and at this point he began to wonder if it even mattered at all.

“Memory is such a blurry, foggy thing sometimes but perhaps you remember moments like that, caught somewhere in an unexplored haze between waking and dreaming, between listening and blankly absorbing. And I suppose that must have happened to that girl. Because by the time I noticed she was leaning against me, those eyes fluttering as if dancing on the line between watching and dreaming. Who really knows if she even had the ability left to notice her lips being softly parted, a faint trickle of drool escaping her as she slumped that far.”

Somehow the swirling beer inside his jug became a canvas, conjuring up all the impressions from that time anew. The weight of a person leaning on that arm. The warmth of another body right next to his. The slow, steady rhythm of her breath. The subtle moans as he continued to speak: “She was beautiful like that, no doubt. And as such I dared not to disturb the moment. Whether aware or not, she felt here and now was exactly the right place and exactly the right time to let all worries and cares go. And I cannot put my finger on why, but we both knew that it was perfectly fine because that mind was so good at absorbing the words that continued to flow around it.”

Did the words flow down into the depths between slumbering thoughts like a warm, soothing liquid down a thirsty throat? It was a nice image at the very least. He smiled, appreciating that his friends had fallen still to give him a chance and get it all out.

“Of course, I say that the words don’t matter but that does not mean they were without meaning. It was just that neither of us needed to think about them because conversation took a life of it’s own, flowing on and on in a way we could drift along with. Like when I just began putting into words how attractive she was or how pleasurable it felt to be this close.”

The memory alone stirred up a blissful shiver.

Opposite from him Jeff and Brielle seemed to know exactly what he was talking about, both of them leaning against each other with dopey smiles on their faces and half-closed eyes. Meanwhile Ryan next to him slumped against the wall and seemed close to dozing off. Not like anyone could blame him. It was the middle of the night and by now the three were the only guests left. As the evening progressed it would be a surprise if people didn’t fall asleep.

He considered ushering the group to bed. But… he had never really had someone listen to him about this issue before and to be honest it was cathartic in a way to get it all out.

“Was it maybe the warmth of our drinks that melted one moment into the next? Or maybe the way the wind seemed to carry words and thoughts and anything else away for a while? Whichever it may have been, neither of us noticed how the longer I kept talking, the more pleasurable she found it to listen to me. Which may have been remarkable in hindsight, considering how the more she entrusted that mind to my words the more she began to shiver and moan. It almost seemed like that young woman’s mind felt the sheer sound of my voice with the intensity of soft, intimate touches. And it wasn’t before she was clutching my arm, openly panting in aroused heat that it dawned on me. It had happened again. Somehow it happens all the time. Like there were a pattern in the way I speak that inevitably draws someone in if they are willing to listen and follow the thoughts my voice offers.”

It was nice that his friends restrained their comments to moans under their breath. They clearly had to hold it in a fair bit, the excitement from not talking seemed to nearly overwhelm them as they shuddered and panted the moment he began to speak.

“It is like my words were putting her under a kind of hypnotic spell until all she could think about was whatever I told her. Like she were mesmerized to believe obeying this voice she hears meant pleasure and pleasure meant obedience. She was falling more and more under this spell the longer she kept listening. And kept listening only ever more intently the deeper she fell for me. By the time we realized this she was already so deep that the thought of obeying something I said alone was already sending wave after wave of pulsing arousal through her.”

Goodness, those three really gave it their all to hold back their opinions! They sounded just like that girl had as he wondered if the talk they had was going to turn her into a slave to the sound of his voice.

“In the end, of course, just as Ryan pointed out before, that just isn’t how flirting works. Of course in many ways a good flirt is about honing the art of seduction. Thus I could easily see how someone who enjoys this kind of flirt might get seduced into letting their thoughts fade the more they listen. Or might even get drawn into such a joyful haze that they start to crave doing as they are told when it is a safe time and place for that to happen. But in the end, a fun flirty dream is all it was. Because that is how that works.”

As he watched their faces Erik couldn’t help but wonder if they were already on their own way to dreamland. Ryan looked totally knocked out. Jeff was sprawled all over his seat, his mouth hanging but whatever comment he may have wanted to make long forgotten. And meanwhile Brielle rested on his chest, though her eyes fluttered open every now and again, unfocused and merely vaguely gazing in his direction. While one of her hands rested on a suspicious bulge in Jeff’s pants.

“That’s how it works. And yet, can you imagine why this keeps happening? It’s like this same dream keeps returning every time. During every flirt. As soon as I say something specific. Like, could it be possible that I would only need to say something as unusual as ‘Hibiscus puppets’ for that mind to drop right back into this dream of obedience and mindless submission? If that were so, can you imagine how powerful and intense the pleasure from this dream must be to draw them right back here when they feel it is appropriate and safe?”

The empty jug made a dull sound as it came to rest on the table. From across the room the waiter gave him a warning gesture by pointing at the clock. Sounds didn’t carry across the room as easily, but that wasn’t necessary to realize how late it had gotten. No wonder all three of them fell asleep.

“That woman is on her way home now, and honestly I don’t even know if she remembers the talk we had. That’s the thing about dreams, even if they leave an impression the brain usually remembers exactly as much or as little as it likes. What I do know is that she asked for my number right around the start, so who knows? If she really wants to, perhaps she will chat me up again sometime. After I returned to my senses and found that this weird flow had happened again I certainly did no longer dare ask for hers. Not when there were greater priorities. Like waking her up, for example. Because as comfortable as it may be to rest and dream with a kind voice flowing around those heads, eventually all the dreams will end and dissolve. As each dream gets followed by thoughts and awareness returning. But who am I kidding, of course you would already be so familiar with that. Speaking of which, you three, rise and shine. We gotta get you home safely as well after all. So c’mon, try to hear what I say so the sound can slowly guide you back up and awake!”

“Hmm… What?”

While rubbing the sleep from her eyes Brielle got up first. The guys took longer, but then again maybe they just really needed some shut-eye that bad.

“Sorry, probably bored you to death,” Erik shrugged, “Tell you what, as thanks for listening this round is all on me. Deal?”

“Awesome! Why didn’t you say that first? Feel free to always talk to me about your troubles from now on.” Jeff beamed at the news that he could leave his purse untouched tonight.

“Leech.” Ryan chuckled before turning pale at the sight of his smartphone display. “Shucks, folks, no choice here. I gotta run. Thanks for covering for me tonight. We should do this again sometime. I feel like I missed half of what you said. See you later!” And just like that he was out the door.

“He could at least have taken the time to say some proper goodbyes first if that’s how it was.” Despite her choice of words however Brielle didn’t sound displeased in the slightest. “Are you really gonna just treat us all? It’s perfectly fine for me to…”

“Don’t you worry about that. I was late and on top of that we only talked about my date today. This is the least one can do as thanks.”

“Ah. Maybe you really want to hold your horses then. Because sorry as I am to say after you went through the trouble of explaining it all, but I still feel pretty out of it. Not sure if anything of what we talked about stuck. Even though I finally hoped to understand just how to help you with your problem.”

“Don’t sweat it. Really, you guys were sleeping for most of it anyway. It would have been outstanding if you remembered the conversation in detail despite that.”

Even while responding a buzzing sound distracted him. A mail on his phone. From an unfamiliar number.

“Someone important?” Of course Brielle wouldn’t miss the effect these few digital words had on him. Which given his dumbfounded stare would likely have been hard even for a less attentive person. Like Jeff, who simply grunted: “Probably spam.”

“It’s her. The girl from earlier. She’s asking if this was my number and if so, if I remember what we had to drink during our talk. So that I can treat her to a repeat tomorrow evening at my place.”

“Smooth,” Brielle commented with a smirk, “So you can do it after all. Now I better hope your memory is more reliable than mine. I still can’t recall what that word was you mentioned along the way. Even though I really liked the expression. What was it? Did it have something to do with flowers?”

She was darn cute when she scrunched up her face like that. Without thinking he blurted out: “What? Did you mean ‘Hibiscus puppets’ maybe?”

As if struck by lightning both of them dropped whatever they were doing, eyes fluttering shut as they slumped in their seats. The change was far too dramatic so that even Erik could not have missed it.

“Oh fuck me,” he breathed as his eyes drank in the sight of his two hypnotized friends, “I did it again!” ***

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#My writing #hypnosis #conversational hypnosis #trance #obedience #mindlessness #trigger

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