#Mark 7 Reloading

[softlymellow]

The Order Forgot Me First - Chapter 11

☆⁠ PAIRING : Anakin Skywalker x Reader

☆⁠ word count: 3.6k

☆⁠ story themes: lovers to enemies to eventually lovers

☆⁠ warnings: spoilers to swtcw, angstttt and a bit of fluff !!!!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

"He finally understood just how badly he had lost you."

Your helmet hung loosely under your arm, your boots scraping against the cruiser's floor, fidgeting. Clones began to move around you in practised order as their voices blended in with the hum of the engine. 

You tried to shake off what Anakin had done to you. But you couldn’t ignore the pang in your heart. 

As you waited for the LAAT gunship to depart, you couldn’t miss the way you saw Rex shifting closer to you, inch by inch. 

Until he cleared his throat. 

“You holding up okay, General?” he asked cautiously. 

You blinked and offered him a tight smile. “I’m not a general,” you softly said, adjusting your gloves. 

Rex rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish smile on his face. “You could’ve fooled me.”  He said, in an attempt to make you feel better. 

You offered a humorless laugh. “I’m just here to help.”

“And you’re doing more than that,” Rex said gratefully. 

Across the deck, Anakin shifted. 

There was a subtle roll of his shoulders, his head tilting ever so slightly as if he was pretending to study the map and not eavesdrop onto your conversation. You caught it without meaning to. 

And just as fast as you noticed, you dropped your gaze. Focus on the mission. That’s all you had right now.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

Eventually, the gunship roared as it broke the dry clouds of Saleucami, red dirt and dust flying as you descended. 

You stood in the troop bay, your blaster slung across your chest and your palms sweaty. It would be a lie to admit that you’re not nervous. You had fought in battles worse than this but not without your lightsaber. It wasn’t even clipped to your belt right now. 

You were a soldier now. Just like the clones. No Jedi robes, no cloak. INstead, you had armour padded fabric and tactical plates. As soon as the ship touched down, you moved. 

Cody’s voice cracked through the comms. 

“Rex, sweep through the pass. L/n, take the ridge and get eyes on the southern basin. There could be droids underground.”

“Copy that,” you muttered. 

Once the hatch opened, the hot air hit you like a furnace. It hadn’t since you and Dev were there. Still the same dry clay pit. 

Anakin wasn’t paired with you, of course he wasn’t. He hadn’t looked at you once.  He with some of his own troops from the 501st, and you with some of his. 

Dogma and Kix were by your back, “Keep low,” you whispered. “There might be thermal signatures by the rocks. Last time I was here, there were big cave pockets that tunnel out.”

Kix gave a low whistle, “guess you’ve been here more than us.” 

You shrugged, crouching near some scorched stones and you raised your macrobinoculars. There was movement, subtly but there was movement. 

“Something’s moving,” you said, marking it. “West quadrant. Might be droids.” You pulled out your rifle. 

And then a separatist droid stumbled into view, sparking, dragging one leg. 

You shot it clean through the processor. 

And then more. 

And more.

And more. 

The first shots rang out faster than expected. 

“L/n, cut off the canyon mouth!” Cody barked through the comms. 

“Already on it,” You said with clenched teeth. 

Blaster bolts sliced through the air around you. Droids were swarming. 

Dogma rolled beside you, “Ridge is clear!” 

You turned sharply to look and then a B2 battle droid breached through the rocks and opened fire. 

Immediately, you and Dogma turned to duck under a stone, blaster bolts leaving marks on said rock. 

You waited a couple seconds for the droid to automatically reload its bullets. As soon as you had the chance, you peered over and fired once –twice– at the centre of the droid. It collapsed onto the ground, dust flying as he fell. 

Dogma turned to you, “I-thanks, Commander.” You nodded at him. 

And then there was a flash of blue that tore through the smoke beside you. 

Anakin. 

It was hard to miss him, his saber blazing and his own armour now dusted red. His broad shoulders flexed with every movement. He effortlessly and confidently cut down droids in brutal strokes. 

He moved by instinct. Memory. Muscle. He deflected bullets like they were nothing and his saber kept swinging and spinning its own rhythmic dance. 

You couldn’t help but pause to watch. You hadn’t seen him fight like this since before Dev. And even then, you were beside him, not watching from the sidelines. 

He had a careless kind of confident look on his face. His presence burned and it was impossible to not feel it.

A stray bullet flew past your head, your ears rang as you duck. It immediately broke you out of your trance, and without thinking, you covered his flank. 

You continued this until the last droids began to fall. The tunnel network began to collapse itself under repeated pressure. You had watched both Anakin and Obi-wan sweep through the perimeter. 

Everything was quiet now. Rex moved past you, his shoulders brushing yours slightly. “Good work, Commander.” He said casually, trying to keep it normal. 

You shot him a small smile and a nod, “thanks.”

Cody knelt beside one of the wounded and talked quietly with him. 

You swung your blaster across your back. You still felt exposed. Your belt felt empty. Weightless. 

Cody then came up to you, his eyes measured but respectful. “I heard that the supply unit will move through this pass tomorrow now.” He nodded to you. “This mission’s a success.”

Sighing, you rubbed your eyes tiredly. “Good job, guys.” Your boots sunk in the hot Saleucami sand, leaving footprints behind. 

And then a crackle came in through the comms. 

“Everyone regroup at Point Bravo. Perimeter clear.” Anakin’s voice came out. 

Rex and the rest of the clones marched towards the rally point. Everyone’s tired. The hot air only makes it worse. Your feet dragged behind you and every minute that passed you would try to stifle a yawn. 

You could not wait to get out of this dreadful planet and scrub yourself clean. 

Obi-wan and Anakin were ahead now, chatting with Cody and Rex about the mission. You followed maybe ten paces behind them. Close enough that you could hear their boots shovelling against the ground but far enough that you would be forgotten. 

“I assume we will have the brief the Senate after this,” Obi-wan said, trying to lighten the weight, his hand running through his hair. 

Anakin nodded, “Padme was already pressing for details on the blockade before we left Coruscant.” 

You felt yourself stiffen at the mention of Padme. 

And then you felt something so small. Something nudging your sides. Something pulling you back. You stopped walking and your boot dragged along the sand. 

Something was here. Something was wrong. 

Biting your lip, you looked back at the craters formed during the battle. And then you turned your head towards the group that are now increasingly further away from you.

“I’m gonna quickly check something out,” you called out to Rex steadily, who now turned to look at you.

The squad slowed down and Obi-wan’s head lifted to look at you warily. Anakin straightened himself too, his hand instinctively brushed against his lightsaber, his eyebrows furrowed. 

He didn’t say anything and lips tightened. His body shifted and his boots ever so slightly moved —as if he wanted to go after you. 

Without a second thought, you turned your back on them and headed back to the ruins. Towards the force disturbance. 

Your blaster was raised and ready for anything that came. Your eyes squinted as you moved towards the left, behind some of the destruction, out of sight from the rest. 

You moved some more, allowing the Force to guide you. Further. 

It was like walking through a storm where you couldn’t see, you could just feel. Feel that something was wrong. 

Your heart was pounding against your chest and then—

Whrrrrrp

A hum of a lightsaber sliced out from the ruins and aimed for your head. You barely ducked as the crimson blade slashed the air where you had just been. 

“Arrgh!” You hit the ground hard on instinct, rolling through dust and dirt. 

And immediately you began to fire your blaster aimlessly, hoping that while you fell you landed a shot. The shots were deflected with little to no effort as the saber spinned through the smoke.

The attacker stepped into view, their body cloaked, but their face…

Master Sora Bulq.

Like he was twisted by the darkside. 

Sora’s blade readied to hit you but you fired again. 

One shot.

Two shots. 

Three shots. 

Four shots. 

And without fail, each shot was deflected with casual precision. Without warning, he struck down onto you. You dove sideways, your shoulder slamming into a rock and you shrieked in pain. 

You twisted, wanting to kick out his lightsaber from his hands without getting your arms impaled but he was faster, meaner. The hilt of his lightsaber slammed in your ribs sending you sprawling out on the floor, knocking the breath out of you.

You rolled and your blaster fell out of your hands, your hands scrambling through the dirt. 

Pain flared sharply underneath your armour as you tried to get away from the crimson of the lightsaber. 

Without a second thought, Master Bulq reached out with his hands and pushed you. The force flinging your body towards a boulder. Your head slammed against the rough surface. 

Thud

You couldn’t scream in pain. Your voice hoarse and all air escaping from your lungs. 

Your ears began to ring and the desert began to tilt. Light burst as your eyes rolled to the back of your head for a moment. You slumped. Gasping. The taste of blood in your mouth. And then something wet dripping down your forehead. 

Your fingers scraped uselessly at the ground, wanting to push but you couldn’t. They had barely moved. 

Your vision blurred and the force kept screaming at you. Your eyes fluttered, trying to keep them open. 

Then there was a violent shift in the force. A snap. A fit of rage. 

Without warning, two figures emerged from the dust with beams of light swinging with them. Anakin dove in, throwing his saber down with full force. 

You couldn’t move and your ribs screamed in pain. Your mouth agape as you try to take in small breaths, your head lulling to the side. 

Hits and more hits.

You couldn’t make out anything anymore. 

Their figures were blurry and you couldn’t hear anything past the ringing in your skull. You tried your hardest to stay awake, your body falling in and out of consciousness in lapse.

There were clashes and screams of laser on laser. Obi-wan threw his own arm up, pulling Bulq to the floor. His lightsaber fell from his hands and his body slumped. Anakin surged through, his saber raised to finish it. 

Something muffled. Like they were talking. Or screaming. You couldn’t hear anymore but Anakin was pulled back by Obi-wan. 

You couldn’t feel your shoulders or your arms. It was all numb. You fell out of consciousness. And then fell in. And out. And in. 

A figure rushed to your side, the weight of their feet made a crunchy sound on the ground. 

“Hey — hey.” Their voice, closer than expected. Rougher. 

He tried to lift you up without hurting you any further but you fell limp and tired. Your body fell forward and collapsed immediately onto his chest. 

Anakin’s.

His strong arms immediately wrapped around you before you fell past him. You tried to speak but your mouth fell open. The goddamn ringing wouldn’t go away and everything felt tipsy and blurry. 

“Got you,” he muttered, so soft that it could have just said it to reassure himself.

You let him carry you, lifting your body effortlessly and so tightly that he was scared you would slip past his hands. That you would leave him.

Anakin’s breaths came fast. 

His eyes darted across your bruised lips and the trickle of blood that fell down your forehead. His gloved hands cradled the back of your head. Your skin was burning and your armour was streaked with dirt and ash. 

“Y/n,” He said louder now, watching the way your eyes were looking at him but not seeing him. “Stay with me.” His throat was closing up and he could feel his eyes beginning to sting. 

“Anakin!” Obi-wan called out. “We need to move her to the med-bay now-”

“She’s not breathing right.” Anakin’s voice shook.. His own chest heaving and stray strands of hair fell onto his face. 

“She–she…her head…and..her ribs,” Anakin struggled to find the right words. 

“We will lose her if we don’t move now.”

He couldn’t lose you. Not like he lost his mother. You were right here in his arms and he wouldn’t let you go away. 

Anakin moved fast, faster than he had ever did before. 

The hum of the ship faded into static. You weren’t sure what had happened. When the medics had begun to work on you, the cold bacta gel against your ribs. Or when Anakin had finally let go.

If he did at all. 

The world blurred. And you found yourself being pulled in. Pulled into a flicker.

A moment straight from the force.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

You were seventeen again. 

Right before the war had begun and you were just two padawans 

Smiling into your pillow late at night. The temple humming with cool ambience.

Anakin had snuck into your quarters, again. You felt his hands combing through your hair, so gently. Sometimes he would braid little pieces, and they would fall out during missions. 

You moved until your forehead pressed against his collarbone, your lips ghosting just above his skin. 

“I wish we could be together. For real.” Your voice came out, barely a whisper. 

“We are for real,” he murmured, fingers still threading through your locks. 

“Mhmm,” you hummed, planting a kiss on his neck. Anakin felt a smile growing on his face, his fingers now moved to tuck the hair behind your ear. He then leaned forward, and kissed your temple once. 

You didn’t say anything, pulling back enough just to see his eyes. His amber eyes that scanned your face in love, taking in every feature of yours, his fingers caressing the parts he just gazed at. 

You missed this. Missed him. 

Your body twitched. 

And then your monitor spiked. 

--- --- --- --- --- ---

Eyes fluttering open against the blinding medbay lights, you groaned quietly. You felt your scalp tingling and your sore limbs on the bed. 

There were bandages wrapped around your torso and some on your head. Your armour was gone and you were in a medical robe. It was hard to ignore just how useless you felt.

Your first mission back and you were already injured on the bed. You couldn’t blame yourself, really. You had a blaster and he had a lightsaber.

Beside you, on the chair, was Anakin. His chair was far too close than you liked. You were less than an arm's reach away from him. His clenched hands were wrapped around his body, his eyes closed with a tired but hard expression on his face. 

You didn’t know what to say, if you should call out to him or ignore him. 

But the force had other plans. It shifted the air in the room, causing Anakin to cautiously open his eyes, his gaze meeting yours. 

Anakin’s mouth fell slightly agape, surprised that you had woken up. He cleared his throat, wanting to find the right words to say. 

“I…” His voice came out low. 

“How are you feeling?” He came up with. 

You didn’t know what to say. There was a right between you and Anakin. Ever since the meeting, it had only gotten worse and the last person you wanted to wake up to was him. 

“Fine.” You hoarsely said. Your voice clearly hasn’t been used for however long it was you were in here. 

Anakin nodded, inhaling deeply to calm him down. 

“You had a pretty bad concussion.” He revealed, “If he had pushed you any harder…you might not have made it.” 

You stayed silent, letting the words settle in the room. Your hands absently minded rubbed the bandages, feeling the fabric in between your fingers. 

“You were out for a day...Mast-” He cut himself off. “-Sora has already been handled by the council.” 

You still said nothing. You didn’t want Anakin to be one to explain these things to you. You wanted Obi-wan maybe, or no one. Just not Anakin.

Anakin felt the tension in the room and gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing. 

And then finally, like he was debating against it, he spoke up again. 

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” 

The words hung in the air, his voice rough and apologetic. Seeing you on the floor, your body exhausted and on the brink of death. Seeing someone's lightsaber aimed at you to kill you. It changed something inside of him. He wouldn't lose you like his mother. As he waited in the medbay for you to wake, he swore he wouldn't let himself get angry again at you. He swore he would apologise and try to fix your relationship with him.

He shifted awkwardly, his boots scuffing against the tiles. 

“Back at the briefing,” his voice lowered. “I’m sorry, Y/n. I was hurt. I was angry and I didn’t mean to-” 

“Angry about what?” You scoffed, a look of disbelief on your face. “You were the one who came arguing with me at the temple.” 

Anakin was taken back by the sharpness in your voice. 

“Dev told me.” His eyebrows furrowed. 

You shook your head confused. “Told you what?” 

“He told me that you listened to my messages.” Anakin said. “For the entire year.” 

You flinched.

“And you didn’t respond.” Anakin’s voice grew louder but he tried to maintain his composure. 

You laughed in disbelief, tears began to prick your eyes. He had no idea. He really had no faith in you that he believed you would not answer him. That you didn’t care. 

“You really think I didn’t try?” Your voice broke, water began to visibly well up in your eyes that Anakin felt his stomach twist in guilt. 

“I was trying, Anakin. The stupid device broke and I couldn’t relay any messages back.” Your voice cracked. 

“Y/n…” 

Your chest was screaming in protest under the bandages as you felt your back straighten, but you ignored it. 

“You keep doing this, Anakin!” You said, your voice rising. “Over and over!” Tears began to stream down your face, blurring your vision. You couldn’t take it anymore. Even after all the shit you have been through, he had no faith. Even while you were in the med bay bed, there was no comfort. Nothing. 

Anakin felt your words hit him harder than any wound he had taken in battle. He watched your body tremble under pure exhaustion and betrayal. 

“Y/n, please.” Anakin extended his hand, trying to reach out to you but you jerked back like his touch was fire. And that broke something inside of him. He had hurt you to the point where you wouldn’t even let him touch you. 

“And Padme?”

“Padme?” Anakin furrowed his eyebrows. 

“You think it doesn’t hurt me when I see you close to her?” Your voice broke. “I used to come to you when we were together,” You pointed a finger at him. “I told you I was scared. I told you she liked you!”

Anakin’s mouth parted, stunned. “There’s nothing going on between me and Padme.” His voice was fast, not defensive but scared. Like he needed to say it before you could turn away. 

You blinked. You didn’t trust him like you used to. 

“You think I would’ve came running to you the second you fell?” Anakin’s throat began to close up. “I would have left your side as soon as I knew you were safe in the medbay. I would have left for the mission briefing like I was supposed to.” 

He swallowed. 

“It was always you.”

And then quieter. 

“It’s still you.”

You weren’t crying about your injuries or the battle. You were crying because of him. Because of what he had done to you. And he hated watching you unfold like this in front of him.

Tears began to sting his own eyes —fast and hot. 

“I didn’t know,” he whispered. “I didn’t know you tried—” 

“I did everything I could,” you sobbed. “I was so alone, Anakin.” Your voice cracked.

“And all i wanted —all i wanted— was for you to believe in me when I came back.” You choked out, the palm of your hands aggressively trying to wipe away the tears that wouldn’t stop falling. 

“I’m sorry, Y/n.” He looked down in guilt, his hair falling above his eyes, hiding them. 

“I know I went too far! It’s just that–” his hands clenched, “-just something inside me — snapped.”

You shook your head, slow and exhausted. “Sometimes I don’t know who’s in there.” 

“But Y/n—” 

“I-I just…can’t do this anymore, Anakin.” You couldn’t stop crying now, your hands trembling. 

Anakin pressed both his hands to his face and dragged them down. His chest rose and fell in ragged breaths. His mistakes crushing him from the inside. 

“I’ll fix this,” he said. “I swear to the Force, I’ll fix it.” 

“I don’t want you to fix this,” You gasped in another sob. “I just wanted you there.” You wanted him to help you, support you and comfort you all those times the Council spoke to you like you were nothing. 

You didn’t want him to ignore you and in anger and rage. 

“I’m sorry, Y/n. For all of it.”

Anakin didn’t speak again. He didn’t have anything else to say. He stood up to leave, his hands shaking and his heartbroken.

He finally understood just how badly he had lost you. 

A/n: SRRY IT WAS A LITTLE LATE ive just been stuck with Uni labs all week </3 ALSOOO I REACHED 2K FOLLOWERS thxs so much yall im loving this little community on here genuinely i get so happy reading all ur asks and comments.

Taglist: @endairachristensen26 @hayden-christensen-verse @ducks118 @seventeen-x @movingalongthekiwi @ssnapsaurus @caramelfondu @dayrin085 @devilslittlehelper @f1wh0recom @green-lxght @bettysgardenswift @heyitsbeeeb @user-3113s-blog @fandomhoe101 @veronaspencil @zudooms @hiphopdancer101universe @starfire21 @devotedlypaleluminary @miksxz @lacherrysouldy @lotushzl @biddycums @wandasblacknails @moonixlity @icanmeltanigloo @isntthatsweetiguessso

if u want to be added or removed lmk!

[vendetta-if]

Chapter 7 + Ash Hangout Early Access is now Live! 🎉

Hey, guys! First of all, I'm so sorry for not being active here for the past month. I've been really sick and spent the latter half of January recovering and on bedrest. And as soon as I felt better, I decided to solely focus all my free time and energy on catching up on lost progress and finishing the update before the end of the month. And I did it! 😁

The update is now up for early access on both Patreon and Ko-Fi. Finally, we are starting to get into the ROs' first hangout sessions. Of course, to start us off, we'll have Ash's hangout session 😁This update adds around 31K of new words, bringing the total word count so far to around 356,701K words!

I've also implemented the autosave/reload function to each chapter, so you should be able to have some freedom to go back to the beginning of the chapter and try out different options 😉 Also added another skip-chapter point: Chapter 3.

What you can expect in this update:

The set up to the ROs'  first hangout sessions

Ash's first hangout session

Go down the memory lane and see snippets of MC's most cherished memories.

Some more Viktor 😔

A mix of angst, wholesome, and even potential fluff 🤭

🔥🧡😉

For those waiting for the Public Update, it'll be available on 7th March, 12 AM (GMT +8) 🎉 So mark your calendar!

[Patreon] | [Ko-Fi]

[monsteraddict1]

Chapter 7

   "So Graves has a hit on Hassan?" I asked.

  Great now I'm asking all the questions.

  "A supposed hit." Ghost corrected.

  "We are going to find out for sure soon." Soap's gruff voice spoke.

  "Why is no one in the passenger seat?" I looked at the empty seat. I felt both men shrug. I unbuckled and crawled into the front. I was tired of being squished. "Don't worry I'm a good co-pilot." I joked to Alejandro. My hand still putting pressure on my wound. It hurt like hell, but I knew I'd be okay.

  "You better be." He chucked slightly. His son had the same smile and I cringed at the thought. "Though I know where I'm going."

There was a buzz in our comms. "Ghost this is shadow-1, orbiting the compound now. Standing by for visual."

   "Shadow-1, bravo 0-1. We'll mark our position with IR laser, over." Ghost informed the commander.

"Roger that, 0-7."

" How do we find Hassan?" Soap asked as we all got out of the truck—guns already up.

"He'll have an armed guard cartel protection," said Alejandro.

We all took cover. I went to hide with Soap behind a stack of wooden pallets.

"Lotta places to hide..." Soap muttered, looking out at the bright green grass and small town.

"Graves covers with close air. We clear the buildings." the lieutenant ordered. 

"Copy that, L.T." 

"Mark us. Shadow-1, we're east of the compound. Position is marked." Ghost spoke into his coms. Soap held up his IR laser. I looked up at the large military helicopter that circled us.

"Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7. We're marking with IR laser. Do you have a visual?"

"Copy visual." a man responded through the coms. 

"The fuck kind of name is Shadow?" I mumbled to myself. 

"Good fuckin' question, private." Soap let out a chuckle. 

I stopped listening to what was going on and looked over the beautiful land—the mountains around us, the bright green grass, and the blue sky. It was a sight to behold. Even the wooden buildings had a charm. My leg started to ache, so I sat down a bit more. We weren't moving yet, so I didn't see why I had to get up.

A few moments after I had disassociated, I heard Alejandro's voice: "That army convoy's gaining ground." I quickly sat up.

"We go in guns blazing, hope he squirts, lock him up from there." 

who talks like that?

"Graves, you're cleared hot to engage external. We'll clear the buildings when secure."

" 0-7, copy that. Keep your heads down." 

we all quickly stood up as bullets came from the sky and shot the Mexican army by the greenhouse. They all fell with blood splattering everywhere. 

"Oh my god," I whispered as I saw the bodies fall. 

"Shadow-1, copy that. We'll be clearing the stables building first. Roping now." Ghost informed the commander.

"0-7, copy your mark. You're clear to proceed." Graves responded. 

"Shadow-1, we're moving now. If the target squirts, let us know." we ran closer to the stables. Soap and I are hiding by a shed and Alejandro and Ghost take cover by a truck.

"Shadow-1 copies."

" Soap, freeze down the right side."

"Aye." The Scot gave a slight nod.

"Breaching."

We quickly made our way to the stables and ran inside. We were immediately greeted by civilians and the Mexican army alike. 

"¡Bajense! ¡Bajense!" Alejandro yelled at the people. 

"This is Las Almas territory, mother fucker!" a cartel member pointed their gun at Alejandro. I felt my heart stop as the cartel member's finger adjusted on the gun. 

"Shit!" 

Ghost shot the man in the neck. Dark crimson blood pulsing from his neck. As I watched this play out I tucked my neck to my chest and put my left hand on my right shoulder for extra protection. I hated people touching my neck or other people having their necks touched. It makes me cringe away each time. Now seeing blood come out of someone's neck made me physically want to vomit. 

Soap patted my shoulder. "you'll get used to it."

no, I won't. You don't know anything about me. I thought to myself as I watched everyone run out. everyone shooting at the men with guns. 

"Reloading!"

"You got a visual?" Ghost asked Alejandro urgently.

"Negative!" Hassan was nowhere to be found.

"X-ray down! Graves, negative on Hassan! It's a dry hole!"

"Ghost, copy that. I need you out of the building. Move north right now." Graves voice, loud. Everything was loud. 

"Copy. Moving!" at Ghost's words we ran out of the stables. "Graves, we're clear! Drop that fuckin' building now!" 

"0-7, copy. Danger close. TV, you're cleared hot. 40 mike-mike.; Drop that fucking building."

I looked up at the helicopter that was helping us. It started to rain down bigger bullets. Within seconds the building was down. 

"Shadow-1, good shots. We're pushing west to the greenhouse." Alejandro praised the commander. We started running swiftly to the greenhouse. Armed cartel inside. 

I raised my gun at a man through the glass, they started shooting. I aimed at them as I pulled the trigger. Blood going everywhere. 

"Check fire! Hassan could be inside!" Soap yelled over the sound of guns firing. I lowered my weapon. 

"Ghost, keep your men back, we're fixing' to engage the greenhouse." Graves ordered. 

"Solid copy!"

we all ran back. And just like the stables before, the greenhouse fell to the ground. 

"Shadow-1, good effect on target. We're moving up." we ran back to the greenhouse to try and find Hassan. 

"I'm gonna be honest," I paused my speech, looking and stepping through the broken glass. Blood and flesh everywhere. "I have no idea what Hassan looks like." I mumbled. 

"well, he's not here." Ghost looked back at me. I couldn't understand how he was functioning in what he was wearing. It's as hot as Satan's balls out here. 

"Where is this fucker?" Soap angrily kicked the glass around.

"He has to be in that compound." Alejandro pointed to the large villa next to us. The stone walls blocked any sounds that could be heard behind them. Or maybe it was just quiet.

As we got closer I could confirm it was not quiet but just muted from the wall.

"Lovely architecture." I complimented. Ghost just shot me a glare.

"Shadow-1, what's the ETA on that convoy?" Ghost questioned. 

"0-7, convoy is six klicks out, advise you step it up and secure exfil."

"I'll contact Rodolfo." Alejandro said with a nod. we began our

"Do it. Graves, we're working on exfil now. Be advised, last building we'll hit is the compound. How copy?"

" 0-7, good copy. Hold your position until we clear the area."

"Roger that." We took cover by a wooded shed. "Shadow-1, troops in contact!"

"RPG!" Alejandro yelled with a warning. 

" Move left! Now!" Ghost commanded. We did as he said and ran swiftly to the left. " Shadow-1, x-rays at the water tower!; We're taking rocket fire from the water tower! Hit it now!" a few seconds later Ghost yelled in more shock than hurt. I looked and saw a bullet hole through his clothes. I was so busy looking at Ghost that I didn't notice that the water tower was now gone.

" Ghost is hit!" Soap yelled as he noticed the bullet hole on Ghost's uniform. Right in the shoulder like where mine is. "He's by the truck!" Soap informed Graves. I didn't know who the 'he' he was referring to was but I assumed Hassan.

"Positive impacts! Hit 'em again!" Ghost yelled to the Shadows. 

I turned to my left and saw the shed next to the water tower was now completely leveled. I took a second to look around me. Bodies and broken buildings surrounding us. 

"Ghost, no movement detected. What's your status?" Graves asked with A hint of concern. 

"He'll be alright. Round hit the plate." Soap responded for Ghost.

So he gets to be full-on shot and be fine meanwhile I only had a bullet graze my fucking shoulder and I'm the one whos bleeding... lovely.

"Affirm. Good thing your aim isn't shite, like theirs." Ghost chuckled at his own jab. 

"Roger that, 0-7. Be advised, you're clear to the compound, but the gate is blocked at this time." Graves informed. I looked at the gate. Made out of what looked to be rotting wood. 

We can shoot right through it.

"Copy, give us a way in, yeah?"

"We'll open the door for you. Stand by..." There was a pause. Then loud explosions, and suddenly there was no more gate. "Ghost, door's open. You're clear to proceed."

"Copy that. Moving now." 

"Ghost, no movement detected."

"Copy. We're pushing to the entrance now."

We ran into the compound. Jumping over the debris of what was once the locked gate. I looked down at the cobblestone ground. It was a pretty villa, it's a shame that it will probably be blown up.

"Roger, we see you. Be advised, the convoy is three klicks out. You need to haul ass."

"Solid copy."

"Alejandro, where's that exfil?" the Scot asked.

"Five minutes out."

"It's gonna be close."

"Let's do this, then."

"¡Están aquí!" I heard a man yell.

"Llama al Mayor arriba!" the other yelled. I looked to my right and saw them. 

"Shadow-1, Positive ID on Hassan! He's moving upstairs! Graves, he's exiting the second floor! North-west side!" Ghost shouted through the coms.

"Yeah. That's Hassan." Graves responded.

"Got a visual on Hassan!" Alejandro yelled as we ran to the building he was being kept in.

"Shadow-1 we've got PID on Hassan, moving on him now!"

"0-7, copy that. We got you covered."

" He ran inside!" Alejandro pointed to a house. 

As we made our way inside, we could hear more people yelling. The tiled floor made our footsteps echo through the house. As we went upstairs, we finally saw Hassan, a taller, bald man with bushy eyebrows that could be seen over his sunglasses.

"Get down!" Soap yelled as we all pointed our guns at him.

"Get down! Now!"

"Who the fuck are you?" Hassan shouted as Alejandro and Soap grabbed him.

"Mexican Special Forces, you're coming with us..." Alejandro responded to the man.

"Shadow-1, Bravo 0-7. Jackpot. I say again, jackpot. Target is secure."

"0-7, solid copy. What's the status of your exfil?"

"This is Victor 1-1, exfil is two minutes out!" Alejandro spoke over the comms. Then, it went quiet. There were no more bullets or yelling—just a loud helicopter. 

" Roger - All stations, be advised - convoy is closing on the target area now." Graves responded. It was getting loud again as we heard the trucks pulling up. 

"Alejandro, what's the call?" Ghost asked as we looked out the window.

"They're with the cartel-free to engage." Alejandro let go of Hassan as Soap held him tightened. Holding his hands behind his back.

"Shadow, how copy?"

"Solid. All Shadows, Mex-army is considered hostile at this time. TV, you are cleared hot to engage the convoy." then it got loud with bullets again. Everything was loud. It wasn't a good loud. My head hurt, I was sweating and my body ached. Not just the wound on my shoulder but my feet and arms. I was tired. "All stations and visible targets are down. You're clear to proceed."

"Shadow-1, copy that. Exfil is inbound now." Alejandro looked at us as we went downstairs. We made our way out of the house and saw Rudy in the armored car.

"Come on! Come on!" Rudy urged us to move quickly. 

There aren't enough seats...

where the fuck am I going to sit?

"I am a Quids force Major! You have no right-!" Hassan tried to fight back.

"Shut the fuck up!" Soap growled as he opened the door and shoved him into the middle seat. Ghost sat on the left and Alejandro was in the passenger seat. I stood frozen as I tried to think of what to do. Quickly I opened the trunk and crawled in. I shut myself in.

"You will pay dearly for this!"

I could hear the two men in the front seat conversing, but with the sound of the truck moving, I couldn't fully hear them. The ache in my bones slowly leaving my body as I lay flat on my back with my feet on the wall of the truck, my knees slightly tucked. My hands tucked into my still slightly damp vest. My eyes closed. 

[mist1e]

HAARLEP PLAYLIST

Much like with my Ascended Astarion playlist, I created a playlist for Haarlep only this time I used Google Sheets table and a ranking system to help myself. It, too, tells a story and all the s̲o̲n̲g̲s̲ i̲n̲ i̲t̲ a̲r̲e̲ i̲n̲ c̲h̲r̲o̲n̲o̲l̲o̲g̲i̲c̲a̲l̲ o̲r̲d̲e̲r̲

This story is about Haarlep meeting Tav and how this very ordinary acquaintance turned into something utterly unexpected.

Link to playlist on YouTube at the end of the post.

And now that all the normal people are just listening to the playlist, the nerds can click ‘keep reading’ to dive into the detailed breakdown of the story...

The playlist consists of 5 parts, and for each part I wrote a small drabble to share the vibe with you.

PART 1: HAARLEP

«Shhh… Hush, sweetheart, no need to make such a fuss. I haven’t even sunk my teeth into you yet. But do not fret, I’m not some rabid beast. I won’t lunge at you or tear you apart. I’m just a simple incubus, albeit an outstanding one.

What are incubi? I’m glad you asked.

We are the wielders of the enchanted word. Lords of the human soul. Masters of the all-consuming lust.

We breathe in air and breathe out passion. Love flows through our veins, voluptuousness drips from our fingertips, and our gaze ignites desire.

Your most daring dreams are our law. The innuendo swirling on the tip of your tongue is our feast. Guessing your desires before you even know them is like a drug to us.

Oh, you want to know more? Come closer, sweetheart. I never promised not to bite, but trust me, you are going to love it.»

1. Don’t Stop Me Now

Literally can imagine him waking up to this song.

Yeah, I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars On a collision course I am a satellite, I'm out of control I am a sex machine ready to reload Like an atom bomb about to Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, explode I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah 200 degrees that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit I'm traveling at the speed of light I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

2. Aimed to Kill

You've been checkin' under your bed to see if I'm there When you look back up I'm under you pullin' your hair Getting lost inside my world, you don't know where I've been Oh no, oh no, I feel it comin' And I tried to save a life with these diamond hands of mine But they're sharper than a knife, I aimed to kill And I tried to fix a heart with these lips that left some scars "I swear I won't do no harm," shh, I aimed to kill

3. Who Made You a Monster?

You've got a twisted way Of making it all seem fine Tricking the world to trust you But everything that you say Is some kind of sordid lie Who taught you how to lie so well? Who made you a monster? Who made you a monster?

4. The Devil is a Gentleman

He don't always come at midnight Burnin' red and talking sin But he knows how to play it just right If you gonna let him in Sleek along and brings you roses He's always got the words to say Just enough so you don't notice That you ain't nothing but his prey

5. Pass The Knife

Thought you had control, I'll strip you till you're bones Scraping your knees till you beg for more Cover you in scars, just to leave a mark Get you addicted, then tear you apart Pass me the knife and I'll eat you alive Take my time, I'll do it how you like it Pass me the knife and I'll eat you alive Love skin deep, you're only here to make me high

6. Terrible Things

All of the things that I've done Terrible things you would never believe Things that I've done, oh, how you'll run If you knew a single word of all of the things that I've done

7. Liquid Smooth

I see this one as a tenderness and longing for a connection, that is hidden deep inside.

I'm beautiful, I know 'cause it's the season But what am I to do with all this beauty? Biology, I am an organism, I'm chemical That's all, that is all I'm liquid smooth, come touch me, too And feel my skin is plump and full of life, I'm in my prime I'm liquid smooth, come touch me, too I'm at my highest peak, I'm ripe about to fall, capture me

8. Pure Imagination

The fantasy that he creates for the people whom he gets involved with.

Come with me and you'll be In a world of pure imagination Take a look and you'll see Into your imagination We'll begin with a spin Traveling in the world of my creation What we'll see will defy explanation

9. Mr. Sandman

He falls asleep, thinking to himself if there is a way to feel this longing that has been building inside him for quite some time during these lonely evenings in House of Hope, when all he did was waiting, wondering if Raphael would come to him or no. Next thing you know, Tav enters the boudoir...

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream Make her the cutest that I've ever seen Give her two lips like roses and clover And tell her that her lonely nights are over Sandman, I'm so alone Don't have nobody to call my own Please turn on your magic beam Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream

PART 2: HAARLEP MEETS TAV

Haarlep leaned on the railing of the balcony and gazed thoughtfully into the distance. The grey ash-covered mountains drowned in a reddish haze. The ground beneath them was laced with a web of rifts, their bottomless depths blazing with lava flares. Dirty, colourless clouds drifted In the sky above the crooked-toothed mountain peaks. Avernus in all its ugliness.

His forked tongue lashed out of his mouth and wetted his parched lips. He drew in the air, heavy with dust that settled thickly in his lungs, and spat irritably over the balustrade.

He couldn’t resist tasting her, he just couldn’t. Damned girl.

Haarlep was used to being starved in the House of Hope. The howls of the damned souls and the flesh of devils were not sustaining in the slightest, and over the years, he just had to learn to control his hunger. There was certainly nothing good about it. Haarlep was weaker than he could be, it was harder for him to conjure magic, and sometimes in the mornings his veins painfully twisted into poisonous threads. It was the ache he could only relieve with exhausting, concentration-demanding meditation.

Haarlep's mind slipped into the vivid memories of yesterday.

Yesterday, he dreamed of his past life again… Feasts, masquerades, balls in the mortal world, where he could drink from four or five mortals in a course of a single evening, or even sneak around and drain a soul out of some petty wretch. And that last orgy at the Duke’s mansion? Haarlep closed his eyes and his nose tickled with the scent of the freshest rainbow caviar, which swam in the belly of a fish in the waters of Calimport the day before. His ears rang with the laughter of the young noblewomen, who used to lose their composure after the third glass of sparkling wine, pretending not to notice the lewd glances of the men smoking cigars in the half-dark corners of the room. And Haarlep… He was sitting in the centre of the hall on a golden throne — the Lord of that den of debauchery! — whilst the mortals were crawling on their knees, their faces drooping with lust, their hands reaching out to him as if he were their god… The memories ran through his body in a searing wave, and Haarlep involuntarily craned his neck, arching his back. Things had been different in his past life. The one he had before he fell to his knees in the presence of Mephistopheles.

Yesterday, when he opened his eyes and saw her in the Boudoir, Haarlep thought he was still dreaming. How could he have restrained himself? And was there any point in restraint?

Oh, how delicious she was… Her life essence flowed through his veins, blossoming with a long-forgotten arousal in his chest. Perhaps his starvation was to blame, but she tasted divine. Nothing like any other mortal he had had before. Purposeful, ambitious, a little naive, she opened herself to him like a soft book with a flowery spine and golden embossing, allowing him to drink in her deepest desires, fears, and dreams. And he did drink… At the moment of her climax, in the deep caverns of her soul, he tasted submission, desire to please, an urge to earn praise. Ah, if only he had a little more time! He would have guided her and under his tender yet insistent touch she would have unfurled like a beautiful flower in an overgrown garden. He would have nudged her to fall headfirst into the abyss of her darkest desires.

But he didn’t have enough time. It was all over in a flash. For some puzzling reason, she didn’t grab the Hammer and just slipped away unnoticed.

The faint scent of her arousal still lingered in the Boudoir, making Haarlep violently run his claws over his neck, crossing the impeccable skin with red brown marks. He had been hungry before, but now he was famished. All night after they’d met, he spent tossing and turning in bed, the silk sheets thrown to the floor, his fingers digging into the pillow.

Haarlep closed his eyes, which were stinging as if they were filled with sand, and rubbed the bridge of his nose nervously.

He must see her again.

He would sneak out of the House of Hope, follow the scent of her thoughts, and catch her again.

Consequences be damned.

10. Me and Mr Wolf

Hey little girl, you look so nice In the pretty red dress with those pretty black eyes Hello Mr. Wolf, oh what a surprise To find you here so deep in the night My dear little girl, what's the rush? How about supper, just the two of us? Oh Mr. Wolf, you want me to stay But I fear we'll regret it one day

11. Out Of Control — Haarlep

I watched her feet move, her hips they sway Does a hair flip then starts to say Oh my god, it's my favorite song I pull her close and she sings along We can't slow down even if we tried If the record keeps spinning so will I She likes disco and tastes like a tear Tells me don't stop dancing and she's pulling me near

12. Kill of the Night— Haarlep

The street's a liar I'm gonna lure you into the dark My cold desire To hear the boom, boom, boom of your heart I'm gonna catch ya I'm gonna get ya, get ya, oh, oh-oh I wanna taste the way that you bleed, oh You're my kill of the night

13. Terrible Thing — Tav

Oh for you, you terrible thing, you Terrible thing, you Terrible thing, you Beautiful thing Mm, you beautiful thing A wreck, a wreck you make You leave, you leave me in your wake Oh honey, let me go Aha, aha, don't you let me go

14. Tongues and Teeth — Haarlep

I've grown a mouth so sharp and cruel It's all that I can give to you, my dear And when you come in quick to steal a kiss My teeth will only cut your lips, my dear And I know that you mean so well But I am not a vessel for your good intent I will only break your pretty things I will only wring you dry of everything But if you're fine with that You can be mine like that

15. Horns — Tav

She got blood cold as ice And a heart made of stone But she keeps me alive She's the beast in my bones She gets everything she wants When she gets me alone Like it's nothin' She got two little horns And they get me a little bit

16. if u think i'm pretty

If you think I'm pretty, lay your hands on me Know you can't stop thinkin' 'bout it I know that you're shitty and you're bad for me But I can't stop thinkin' 'bout it Said you needed love, but you're only here for sex, and And I'm dyin' to be next Killed me once before, I just come back more obsessed with you

17. When You Say My Name — Haarlep

And does it scare you That I already know what you're into? You can say lеss, I bet I can guess That you say whatevеr to get me undressed Double dare you, tell me two lies Don't need no truths 'Cause I can see right through you You're no good at pretend I’m using your tricks that you use with your friends I like the way your mouth moves The way you say my name

18. Dirty Thoughts — Tav

I get dirty thoughts about you They get worse when I'm without you Does that mean that I'm going to hell? Or are you thinking them as well? But when you hold me In the fantasy, it's so convincing I shouldn't think the things I'm thinking But now I've gone and let them sink in

19. Eat You — Haarlep

Cause you've been sticky with your tricky words And I would crumble like a humble bird Now you're so tender with an ear I can bend And tell you how I feel I go hungry every night But not this time around I'm gonna eat you, you're my desire I'm gonna sharpen all my teeth and build a fire I'm gonna eat you, cook and defeat you I'm gonna breathe you in my lungs and make you mine

20. Sugar Water — Tav

My boy’s got a sharp twist, no, he’s wicked in the heart Feeds me sugar water just to keep me alive Saw him in my dreams again He’s wiping down the fingerprints Press so hard I float up to the sky It’s kind of tripping me up, babе I’ve got it bad for you Laying back sipping sugar water I’m so weak for thе things you do

21. salvation — Haarlep

Sleep with me Worship me Pray like I’m your god Find the light in my voice Treat us like it’s blasphemy Pray we don’t get caught Let me be your only choice I’ll deny you of salvation I’ll be the reason you repent Kiss me like I’m a conviction Beg for divinity in my breath

22. Pretty In The Dark — Haarlep

I want All the power and the pain I’ll love you in the flames Just tell me that you're mine I’ll be your beautiful obsession Center of attention That’s just what I like Run through your veins Got your heart to keep Calling my name Get down on your knees

23. A Dangerous Thing — Tav

Something about you is soft like an angel And something inside you is violence and danger I knew from the moment we met, you are a dangerous thing When you are with me, I feel like I'm living And living besides you can be unforgiving I knew from the very first step, you are a dangerous thing

PART 3: WHEN THE GAME TURNED SERIOUS

“What do you dream of?”

Haarlep lazily opened his eyes at the soft caressing sound of her voice. Just like always after their little romps, he was in a state of blissful indulgence, like a cat who got the cream. Usually, he would wait out the indolent peak of his satiety and then disappear from her sight again, bestowing her with a dazzling smile and a graceful flick of his wrist as a kiss goodbye. But today, for some reason, he felt overwhelmingly lazy and reluctant to leave.

He glanced down at her little head, which rested perfectly in the dent under his collarbone. The look on her face was pensive, and her delicate features were slightly tinged with a subtle sadness of some sort.

“I dream of having a unicorn,” he muttered.

“Really?” she perked up, but her eyes narrowed upon seeing his snickering grin. She grudgingly elbowed Haarlep in the side, eliciting a little chuckle from him. “I’m asking you seriously.”

“Look at me, mouse. Are these eyes capable of telling untruths?” he batted his eyelashes innocently.

She sighed, but smiled with her lips only and didn’t ask further. The predawn silence enveloped them once more, as the morning light was just beginning to bloom in the sky. The first tinkling glints of sunlight seeped through the open windows, and a biting daybreak rolled down their shoulders with chill.

She shivered and snuggled closer to him. She smelled of sex, girlish sweat, floral honey, and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He inhaled her scent deeply, and the corner of his lips tugged up in a slight smile against his will.

Haarlep was brimming with her life essence, and the barely perceptible magical connection still weaved between them, leaving the flavour of her thoughts on his lips. Her mind was emanating feelings and emotions that, to his incubus sense, were as tangible as her warm shoulder under his palm. He felt she wanted him to ask. But he didn’t ask.

No. He had no desire to ask.

“And what do you dream of, little mouse?” The words slipped from his lips involuntarily, clearly having a mind of their own.

“I want to go back to the Feywild someday. To see the place where I grew up again. To see the old oak grove, and the Falls of the Rejected Bride… To see where my parents are buried.”

Haarlep slid the tip of his tongue over his lips, feeling the bitter tang of her sadness in his mouth, and it made him feel unimaginably wistful.

“What a marvellous dream you have, my dear — to visit a graveyard of memories and bodies.” He snorted and let out a cynical hum. “You should dream of visiting the shores of Lake Esmel in Amn. The sun is warm on the skin, the men, and women have a true lust for life, and the wine there is absolutely fabulous…”

“Oh, that’s not what I meant at all,” she muttered quietly.

He sighed.

“I know, little mouse,” Haarlep murmured, pressing his lips to the top of her head, kissing her ashy hair. He closed his eyes and drew in her sadness with his nose. Damn, even her sadness tasted divine.

“Are you going soon?” she asked timidly. Her voice quivered with an unspoken hope.

Haarlep was silent. He took a deep breath again, deliberately intoxicating himself with her very nature.

“I’ll stay a little longer.”

24. FU In My Head — Tav

Take me closer, take my clothes off Oh I fantasize If I'm honest, it's more fun when you can't read my mind Sometimes I fuck you in my head I let you touch me when I'm lonely in my bed I wanna scream, but hold my breath The kinda thing that you would rather leave unsaid I got dirty wishes on my mind But you will never ever know that I I like to fuck you in my head You make me scream when there's nobody Just the thought of your body

25. Devil On My Shoulder — Tav

Every time I think I'm free, you're calling me Your love pulling me right back down Can't believe that I keep coming back But you make me feel so good I swore I'd never dance with you again Keep safe from the devil on my shoulder But you know me so well And you drag me to Hell I can't keep safe from the devil on my Keep safe from the devil on my shoulder

26. Maniac — Tav

You play girls like a man, but your eyes are like a child Your face is cool and calm, but your hair is wrecked and wild You hide behind your metaphors and pray that no one sees The fare behind your poker face: your dark and twisted needs Your fragile heart and your paper skin Such a beautiful boy filled with so much sin Your reflection is your very worst enemy Behind the glass is an angel, but the devil's beneath Let me in, wear me out Let me in, wear me out

27. You — Haarlep

What I would do to get into your head Crawl out my body into yours instead Swim through your veins all day and every fiber Raid your brain and all your desires If you only knew I would do anything For a taste of you I would do anything Just to see inside And no one else will do All that I want is to be you

28. the fruits — Tav

My love, are you the devil? I would worship you instead of him I have no time for confession For I'm too busy committing sins My love, you're something special I never met someone like you You made me fall from Heaven But I know just what I do But I don't I feel your hands grabbing my throat As you say

29. Rule #34 — Haarlep

I love that you shake When I ravage your skin It's so easy to bite with your hands pinned Shadows dancing on the sheets If you obey I might give you a treat Right now you're mine All mine Give in, you're mine All mine You look so good There on your knees Such a good girl, knows how to please Look at me, look me in the еyes Forget yourself Surrеnder your mind

30. Lovesick in Public — Tav

Last night you really got in my head How’d I get hung up on what you did When all you did was kiss my neck My cheek's red like a cherry Help me cause I am berry Lovesick in public I’m hooked on the way that you taste I know I’m headed for heartbreak

31. Good Looking — Tav

Play casino holes of my eyeballs Roll the dice on my thighs You stopped for breath and I sped up Just to impress you The skyline falls as I try to make sense of it all I thought I'd uncovered your secrets but, turns out, there's more You adored me before Oh, my good looking boy

32. You Put a Spell on Me — Haarlep

Before I hunt you down Grab your chin and kiss your lips You bring me back I lay you down and grab your hips And we lose all control And before you know it I put a spell on you Now you're mine I've got a hold on you, at least for the night

33. Keep It Down — Haarlep

You shoot me up through the clouds I’m a hero in your mouth I'm the sickness you found I'm the fever you're about While I throw you around You're gonna scream ... Shhh: girl keep it down The scars you leave on my back A painting of your attack You're biting down on my fist I know you cannot resist

34. Good Looking — Tav

Pressure on my lips I die for just one kiss Wake, I can't resist Could I be dreaming this? How do I fake it with another man? How do I love him on the weekend? How do I listen to another man? How do I get off on the weekend? You're in my heart, in my heart, in my head

35. So Damn Into You — Haarlep

Can I have you forever? Every single night It started with a bang Don’t know how you got me so messed up But baby I won’t ever get enough, oh 'Cause I’m so damn into you I’m so damn into you

36. From Persephone — Tav

No, I wasn't threatened Mother, I was not bound No, I wasn't carried Off on his three headed hound 'Cause I packed my own bag, found my own way Down into the underground See, mama, he may seem gruesome But he's even got a dog And don't you know that death is A very stable job? 'Cause I love my baby, tall, dark Hades Lord of death is down on his knees for me

37. Hearts a Mess — Tav

Pick apart the pieces of your heart And let me peer inside Let me in where only your thoughts have been Let me occupy your mind as you do mine You have lost too much love To fear, doubt and distrust, it's not enough You just threw away the key to your heart Don't get burned 'cause nothing gets through It makes it easier, easier on you That much more difficult for me To make you see

38. Closer — Haarlep

I wanna fuck you like an animal I wanna feel you from the inside I wanna fuck you like an animal My whole existence is flawed You get me closer to God You can have my isolation You can have the hate that it brings You can have my absence of faith You can have my everything

39. Choke — Tav

You are a shadow Following me where I go I'd be better without you What are you doing to me? I'm suffocating Don't know how to explain it But I feel like I'm fading What are you doing to me? Loosen your grip before I choke Can't catch my breath, I'm gonna choke I wish that you'd just let me go I don't want this, I promise, just leave me alone Loosen your grip beforе I-

40. she calls me daddy — Haarlep

It might be a little superficial She plays with the boys But she comes home to me Little fucked up but I think it's official ’Cause she might be your girl But she's calling me daddy She's mi-i-i-ine She wears a collar with my name Secretive but not ashamed She's mi-i-i-ine But I'd never tie her down They always come around now

41. The Masochism Tango — Tav

I ache for the touch of your lips, dear But much more for the touch of your whips, dear You can raise welts like nobody else As we dance to the Masochism Tango Let our love be a flame, not an ember Say it's me that you want to dismember Blacken my eye, set fire to my tie As we dance to the Masochism Tango

42. Wicked Game

The world was on fire, and no one could save me but you It's strange what desire will make foolish people do I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you And I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you What a wicked game to play To make me feel this way What a wicked thing to do To let me dream of you

PART 4: OBSESSION

“Say it! I want to hear you say it!” It was not a spoken word, but a rasping growl that erupted from his chest. He loomed over her, with his back rounded, and bristled, like a wild beast over its prey.

His fingers clenched harder on her throat.

She dug her small fingernails into his straining arm. Wet strands of her fringe clung to her forehead, covered in beads of sweat. Her eyebrows were raised piteously, her emerald eyes fixed on his face. She parted her plump cherry lips wide as she gulped in the rhythmic breaths of air.

“I am yours,” she replied hoarsely. “I am yours, Haarlep. Yours… Haarlep! Haarlep. Haarley…”

He growled again and thrust his hips into hers with abandon. She cried out, running her trembling fingers through his wavy black hair, pulling it gently. Her emotions exploded like fireworks in his mind, blurring in coloured circles under his closed eyelids. He pushed his hips against hers like a man possessed, drowning in her sweet surrender. She was under him, and she was everywhere, enveloping him like a raging torrent. Her fragility tingled along his spine, her sincerity squeezed his heart like a vice, her vulnerability stroked him with hundreds of gentle fingers, her trust filled his very being with a velvety warmth.

He couldn’t drink enough of her, couldn’t inhale her with his full lungs. He could barely restrain himself from devouring her whole without a shred left.

As always with her, the pulsing life essence flowed easily, like a chiming stream, she gave it to him willingly. Despite the intoxicating madness threatening to overwhelm him, he tried to take as little as possible so as not to hurt his little mouse in any way.

“You’re driving me mad,” he growled into her ear in a frenzy, his fingers on her neck tightening into a bruising grip.

“I want you to go mad! Lose your mind! Go insane! For me…”

His hips picked up a punishing rhythm

She shrieked and dug her nails into his shoulders, forcing him to arch his back. Clenched like a spring, she stiffened and quivered beneath him, out of breath. Her consciousness blazed like a bonfire on Midsummer Night, spilling her life essence. It crushed him like a storm wave, drowning him in rapture. With the last thrust, Haarlep froze and shuddered, feeling the physical bliss merge with the cascade of her emotions flashing in his mind.

He collapsed on top of her, pressing himself against her hot chest, nuzzling his nose into the crook of her neck. She wrapped her legs around his hips, unwilling to let him go, pulling him greedily against her body. Her hoarse and frequent breathing burned his temple.

“Yours… Yours… And you are mine. My Haarley…” she whispered, choking on euphoria, trembling with delight.

With a growl that shook his chest, he slipped his arms under her back, pulling her close, so tight that it was probably hard for her to breathe.

“What have you done to me, mouse?” he exhaled, his whisper tinted with a hint of desperation and confusion.

“I bewitched you. Enchanted you, spellbound you, charmed you, beguiled you. Now you’re not going anywhere.”

For a few moments, only their laboured breaths echoed in the silence of their secret sanctuary.

"I am not,” he agreed and captured her sweet lips in a tender kiss.

43. I Wanna Be Yours — Haarlep

Let me be your 'leccy meter An' I'll never run out Let me be the portable heater That you'll get cold without I wanna be your setting lotion (Wanna be) Hold your hair in deep devotion (How deep?) At least as deep as the Pacific Ocean I wanna be yours

44. The Cult Of Dionysus

I'm feeling devious You're looking glamorous Let's get mischievous And polyamorous Wine and women and wonderful vices Welcome to the cult of Dionysus Run, run, run away Just take my hand and we'll abandon this world We'll wash those tears away You're young and beautiful, and I'll love you always We got no time for pain When it's just you and me in ecstasy

45. Angel of Small Death & the Codeine Scene — Haarlep

I watch the work of my kin, bold and boyful Toying somewhere between love and abuse Calling to join them the wretched and joyful Shaking the wings of their terrible youths Freshly disowned in some frozen devotion No more alone or myself could I be Lurched like a stray to the arms that were open No shortage of sordid, no protest from me

46. Obsessed With You — Haarlep

Your smile sets my heart aflame Electrocute me with your eyes The very mention of your name My stomach fills with butterflies Your love is better than cocaine I need you more than oxygen I've got it bad again An O-B-S-E-S-S-I-O-N But I want to get next to you Yeah, I love all the things you do I want to get close to you You are my dream come true I want to have sex with you Your sweet caress won't do Cause I'm obsessed with you

47. Misery Meat — Tav

You want a taste of my brain? Okay, it's yours anyway A bite of my eye? Alright I won't put up a fight As you open up my ribs the blood flows out like a river You strip my bones away as you indulge in my liver And the more that I am in pain The more that you'll gain And to me, that seems like a pretty fair trade

48. High Enough — Haarlep

Do you see anyone other than me? Baby, please I'll take a hit of whatever you got, maybe two, maybe three Oh, you're phenomenal, feel like a domino, fall to my knees I am a malady, you are my galaxy, my sweet relief I used to like liquor to get me inspired But you look so beautiful, my new supplier I used to like smoking to stop all the thinking But I found a different buzz

49. Dear Alice (Rainy Days) — Haarlep

I'm losing my faith in you, my long-lost friend, Alice Roses have lost their colors And it's breaking my heart (Ah) You take my breath away And I don't know what to do And I don't know what to do Before you say your last word That makes me want To lay you down I'll kiss, I'll touch, I'll cut you into the pieces And you feel the same And you'll know my crave And you'll see that I'm The only one for you

50. I Am Your Skin — Haarlep

I wanna be your skin I wanna feel everything you feel I will be your covering And I will hide you inside of me With every breath in harmony I wanna be your skin I wanna be your covering

51. Desire — Haarlep

Baby, I wanna touch you I wanna breathe into your will See, I gotta hunt you I gotta bring you to my hell Baby, I wanna fuck you I wanna feel you in my bones Boy, I'm gonna love you I'm gonna tear into your soul

52. Obsessed — Tav

I wanna feel you in my arms Hold you hostage in my heart It’s true 'Cause I'm so obsessed with you Your every word, I pick apart Down to the punctuation marks All you do 'Cause I'm so obsessed with you Oh, with you

53. Spiracle — Haarlep

I want the parts of you You only show to the birds outside your bedroom window I want the teeth that you lost as a child That you hide in a box under your pillow I want your secrets, your clementine fields The ropes that you climb up, the parts that won't heal I want your safe word, your passive resistance The sickness you foster, your favorite addictions And I want your nightmares, the ghost in your doorway Your paralyzed sleeping, your- (Aaaah) I want you butterfly, I want you sailor I am your lover and I am your jailor

PART 5: VANILLA CREAM FLAVOUR

“All right. Take it off.”

Smirking, Haarlep pulled the silk blindfold off, and smiled at her ruddy face and eyes sparkling with mirth. He raised his gaze and looked ahead.

From the high hill where they sat, they could see Baldur’s Gate harbour buzz lazily beneath them. It was slowly preparing to shake off the last cargoes, sigh with its sleepy waves, and retire to rest for the day. The half sunk into the bay of the Chionthar River, casting a golden shimmering glow over its rippling surface. Haarlep lowered his eyes. Before him, on the blanket spread on the ground, she laid out small plates packed with all sorts of savoury delicacies. One was filled with green grapes and strawberries, the other with neatly arranged cheese and sausages, appetisingly glistening with fat. Nearby stood bowls of buns and sweet rolls of various kinds.

“Somehow this picnic looks suspiciously like a date,” he placed a finger on his chin with feigned thoughtfulness.

She shook her head.

“A date? What a silly thing to say. We’re going to unromantically stuff our faces with this unappetising food, that’s all there is to it,” she tossed a grape into the air. He caught it, and it burst in his mouth, spraying sweet juice on his tongue.

Haarlep sank to the grass and rested his head in her lap. She immediately ran her nimble fingers through his hair, stroking it absent-mindedly, as she was gazing out into the distance, at the orange sun setting in Chionthar.

They were silent. Haarlep had long ago realised that it was nice to be silent with her.

Wide over the water resounded the shouts of the workers, who wrapped up the unloading of the last fishing schooner. A loud crack of a wooden crate breaking reached their ears, accompanied by the selected swearing of the cargo handlers.

“You know, I’ve come to realise one rather curious thing,” Haarlep mused thoughtfully. “I know very little about mortals.”

“How so?” she snapped out of her reverie and, for a moment, stopped flicking through his hair and looked down at him. “You can reach into the most secret nooks and crannies of a person’s mind, find out things about them that even they themselves are unaware of.”

“Yes. Except I was looking for a very different thing.”

She continued to stroke him, running the silky strands of his hair through her fingers, as she studied him with an expectant gaze. Haarlep noticed how sweetly she always nibbled on her lower lip when she was curious, and smiled at his observation.

“I’ve always looked for the weaknesses, to see what buttons I can push to get what I need from a mortal, and I’ve always succeeded. I searched into their past. Their traumas, their fears, their most depraved sexual experiences and lusts. All other sides of humanity were always foreign to me. I considered them useless. But after glimpsing into your head, I changed my mind.”

She raised her arched eyebrows, and Haarlep’s mind responded to her emotion. Her sudden sky-blue surprise flashed before his inner gaze, her wonder glided tenderly over his arms like a soft caress. And amidst it all, there was something else — a subtle, salty undertone, tinged with pure, unadulterated hope.

Lately, she had been emitting life essence a little at a time almost constantly, and Haarlep didn’t even need to do anything to elicit it. He had never encountered something like this before. He had to resist the temptation to indulge his innate greed and delve into her. The trust she exhibited never ceased to amaze him.

“I became curious and looked a little deeper. I’ve seen your strength, tasted your fascination with the world, touched your thoughts about the future. And that’s just a small portion of you. There’s so much more...”

He grinned and shook his head slightly.

“I can’t believe it never occurred to me to do this before.” He fell silent halfway through the sentence, and sank deeper into his thoughts, but after a moment he smiled at her again and added, “I guess I just didn’t care. But with you, little mouse, everything is different. Perhaps you did bewitch me?”

“Of course I did. I have a witch’s eye.”

She leaned closer, rolling her eyes and made a funny face, eliciting a laugh from him. Oh, what a dummy.

Delighted that she had managed to humour him, she straightened up again.

“How does it feel to drink the life essence of a human?”

“Oh, it’s the most marvellous feeling.”

Haarlep sighed, and his gaze drifted towards the sky. The cirrus clouds scattered like weightless pinkish-orange silk threads across the deep blue canvas. Their weightlessness and ephemeral nature made him think they were about to dissolve right before his eyes, but they froze in the sky like translucent butterflies caught on a pin.

“Life essence differs from mortal to mortal,” he continued. “It contains their unique nature. In the moments of supreme physical delight, the mortal becomes vulnerable enough for an incubus to harvest it with ease. It’s like crushing a ripe peach in your hand and catching its sweet juice with your lips. The essence is coloured by human emotions and feelings, and each one we can taste, like a hint of flavour in a wine.”

She hummed thoughtfully and twisted a small strand of his hair around her index finger.

“It does sound marvellous.”

Haarlep shifted his gaze to her.

“Every emotion is not only a taste but also a colour, a smell, and sometimes even a sense of a touch. For instance, when I pin your wrists to the bed above your head, you quiver so sweetly… I feel a prickly shiver run down my spine, and you smell like the first snowdrop on an early Alturiak morning: meltwater, almonds, and a promise of warmth.”

She blushed, and an embarrassed smile flickered across her lips. Haarlep smiled back at her.

“It’s like I feel the world with your skin and through you. Your senses mingle with mine, your consciousness flows into mine, the reality bursts with new colours and expands like a star exploding.” He reached out and cupped her cheek, stroking it gently with his thumb. “I love looking at this world with you. I see things I never knew existed before.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, surrendering to his caressing touch.

There it was. Again. He felt it again.

“You know, there’s something quite mysterious about your life essence. No matter how many times I taste it, I can’t figure it out…” he frowned, and his hand fell limply to the grass along his body. “Every feeling and thought you have, they all have the same tinge, the same unknown flavour to me. Something very soft and sweet and enveloping, like… like…”

Haarlep fell silent, trying to find the words to describe this incredible sensation that made him want to squeeze his eyes shut. One that spreads with homely warmth through his body, rolls with tenderness across his tongue, drips from his fingertips akin to molasses.

“Like vanilla cream?” she suggested.

He fired a glare at her.

“Yes! Sounds about right…”

She blushed even more and turned her face to the setting sun again.

Of course, she knew what that vanilla-cream flavour of her feelings was.

And deep down, so did he.

54. Life Worth Living — Tav

Take what you need, darling I'm just here for you Ooh ooh ooh ooh (oh) Give me your love and Physical affection Ooh ooh ooh ooh Give me the worst of you to hold You to take me to the heavens Give me the best of all your grace You make life worth living

55. Love Like You — End Credits — Haarlep

If I could begin to be Half of what you think of me I could do about anything I could even learn how to love When I see the way you act Wondering when I'm coming back I could do about anything I could even learn how to love like you

56. Hardest of Hearts — Tav

There is love in your body but you can't hold it in It pours from your eyes and spills from your skin Tenderest touch leaves the darkest of marks And the kindest of kisses break the hardest of hearts There is love in your body but you can't get it out It gets stuck in your head, won't come out of your mouth Sticks to your tongue and it shows on your face That the sweetest of words have the bitterest taste Darling heart, I loved you from the start But you'll never know what a fool I've been

57. I Might As Well Die With You — Haarlep

Oh baby When I see your face Too beautiful for this place Don't let the vice and the bad deals Let it go to waste Over and over and over again Oh baby Spiraling out of control God save me Falling in love at the end of world Just take me now What’s the use? I Might as well die with you

58. Souls on Fire — Tav

Do you feel the burn between our hearts Souls on fire A strange desire Have you given in To this ancient ritual I don’t know how long we’ve been apart But we’re the same old souls playing different parts Same old souls playing different parts Picking up the broken pieces of our hearts

59. She — Haarlep

This is the song that started this playlist and it happened so that it ends it. A huge heartfelt thank you to @mina-astarvara for sharing it with me in the first place.

She may be the face I can’t forget A trace of pleasure or regret May be my treasure or the prize I have to pay She may be the reason I survive The why and wherefore I’m alive The one I’ll care for through the rough And ready years Me, I’ll take her laughter and her tears I’ll make them all my souvenirs Oh, where she goes I’ve got to be The meaning of my life is she

YouTube Link:

[sheepytina]

So people are talking about the artwork in Metal Slug games again

There's been a few posts going around talking about how weird the Metal Slug characters look in the mobile games, particularly female characters like Eri and especially fan favourite Fio.

This conversation comes up again every so often, but it's been reignited on Tumblr again this week with three new Metal Slug games coming onto the scene:

The recent re-reveal of the indie title Metal Slug Tactics from Dotemu, which was originally announced in 2021, during Summer Game Fest 2024,

The June 2024 Nintendo Direct shadow-drop of a revamped version of the former mobile game Metal Slug Attack as Metal Slug Attack Reloaded, and

The impending global launch of the Chinese mobile game Metal Slug: Awakening from Tencent Games next month (July 2024), which originally released in China and SEA in 2023.

Remember these three names, because this is what this post is going to primarily centre around.

However there's one version of this type of post going around that just posts artwork from Metal Slug 3 and MS: Awakening and doesn't adequately explain what the artwork actually comes from and why it looks the way it does, resulting in the confusion and bewilderment of many people who are less familiar with the Metal Slug series.

And so I decided I really need to throw my hat into the ring and see if I can dissect this and bring some actual facts to the conversation.

Look, it's not great. Basically, the stuff people are saying is indeed mostly true, but there's a lot of half-truths and even a few straight up lies being mixed into it. Such as how what the original Metal Slug games looked like is actually more complicated than people think, for starters.

Furthermore, one of the three games I mentioned actually looks really good, and oddly it seems to be the one with the least attention on it right now.

Now, because I'm me, this blog post ended up really long, long enough to have chapter markers, so please bear with me and stick around to the end if you can. — And if you don't care about the historical context, I'm happy for you just to look at the pictures too.

Part 1: The original NEOGEO Metal Slug games

So the main point of this conversation is that the classic Metal Slug games let the characters look weird and cartoony. That's a big part of Metal Slug's core identity, and this is lost in the recent mobile games.

(Of course I had to get a real CRT photo in here at some point.)

To define "classic Metal Slug" you can assume most people are referring Metal Slug 1 through to 3, i.e. the ones that SNK created before their bankruptcy in the year 2000. And most of all, that iconic character select screen from Metal Slug 2, X and 3.

As you can see, there's definitely a shift that took place here.

But hold on, Fio also looks pretty different on the arcade flyers, especially in her original debut in Metal Slug 2. So it's not exactly as clear cut at the cherrypicked images would suggest, but all the same there is still a distinct, extremely late '90s style to everything.

Metal Slug 4 and 5 also released for the NEOGEO system and are similarly loved by many, but were developed in the 2000s under the newly formed Playmore, aka SNK Playmore. I definitely agree with this sentiment that the "original identity" of Metal Slug was strongest in the early titles, and the artwork is the most noticeable reflection of that.

However, although it has little bearing on the conversation, I think it's important to clarify that this change to a contemporary anime style actually began in the early 2000s during the Playmore era of SNK. Like would happen with other SNK game series like The King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown, things got weird for Metal Slug once SNK was reborn as Playmore, eventually becoming SNK Playmore.

Still, all the mainline Metal Slug games through to Metal Slug 7 and Metal Slug XX are still considered classics by fans. The problem for a lot of fans would be SNK's push into new markets such as pachislot and mobile gaming.

Which brings us to…

Part 2: The Metal Slug smart device games, and the Chinese mobile game market

Mobile games would prove a highly lucrative market for SNK Playmore, with hundreds of titles published for Japanese phones during the '00s. A few of these also made their way to more conventional J2ME devices in China. Eventually the mobile gaming market would move to smartphones, with SNK bringing games such as Metal Slug Defense and Metal Slug Attack to market in the 2010s.

This is the first mention of China in this post and it won't be the last. SNK's arcade titles had traditionally been extremely popular in the Chinese market, and with the mobile game market rapidly growing and a hunger for bigger games from beloved SNK series, a lot of interest had grown for SNK titles in this market.

This would result in a huge investment from Chinese companies, with a new joint venture acquiring a 81% stake in the company in 2016, leading SNK Playmore to announce a new shift in their strategy, and with that came a rebrand, once again to simply SNK.

This new identity signified a new era for SNK. This newly reignited SNK would move away from non-videogame markets such as pachislot, and focus more on console games and character licensing. This is the SNK that gave us The King of Fighters XIV and a new Samurai Shodown game.

But this is also the SNK that really doubled down on the Chinese and South-east Asian mobile markets.

This is where this conversation stems from. Games such as the tower defence mobile game Metal Slug Attack and many other mobile games in series such as The King of Fighters would be massive money-makers for SNK. Even the new Samurai Shodown game on consoles/PC would centre Chinese audiences with its first DLC crossover characters pulling from Ubisoft's For Honor and Tencent's Honor of Kings.

But when it comes to centering the tastes of the mobile game market, the big one that bugs people is Metal Slug: Awakening, a mobile game developed and published under license by Tencent Games, which entered beta testing in 2021 and released in China and South-east Asia in 2023.

Now this game actually doesn't have all that much to do with SNK besides the license. However it would be disingenuous of me to say that means it's insignificant to the series. We didn't get to this point out of nowhere out of all. Plus this game is set for a global release in 2024, so this game is for all of us to enjoy.

Although, is it really for all of us? The game certainly seems to plays like a real Metal Slug game, retaining the series' famous run 'n gun gameplay, which is more than you can say for most Metal Slug mobile games. But it certainly doesn't look like a Metal Slug game. The in-game graphics are a strange 3D interpretation of the original pixel art, and all the game's promotional artwork and splash screens look like this. Fio in particular straight up looks like a different character in these pictures.

It's not great. I'm not about to try and defend this. It's just that I really need to stress that it's really not a game targeted towards us.

To make matters more confusing for a lot of people not super plugged-into Metal Slug is that it's not even the only Metal Slug game in the news recently. Metal Slug Tactics had been missing in action since 2021, and all of a sudden it gets re-revealed by Dotemu in June 2024 but overshadowed by many other announcements during the Summer Game Fest period.

But also, SNK themselves would, during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, reveal and immediately shadow-drop a revamped offline version of the Metal Slug Attack game called Metal Slug Attack Reloaded.

I actually saw a lot of people confused by this. People who remembered the initial 2021 reveal of Metal Slug Tactics and thought this was the same game. It might seem obvious to some of us, but if this is you, then I assure you, it's not the same game.

Although SNK seems to be downplaying this for some reason, Metal Slug Attack is a pretty old mobile game that went defunct last year, and this is a revamped version of it for consoles and PC that can be played offline without microtransactions. (An increasing trend I want to see more of!) The game is still very much a mobile game to its core though and you can tell.

But, look, don't worry, there's hope for us yet, in the form of a new game that many western Metal Slug fans have been excited for for many years. I've already mentioned it, it's…

Part 3: Metal Slug Tactics, a new tactical Metal Slug game from Dotemu and French developer Leikir Studio

I'm going to preface this section with a clarification of my stance on this. As a strategy game this doesn't exactly scream classic Metal Slug. However, a few people have been lumping this in with the mobile games and I think that's pretty unfair.

For starters, this game is oozing with personality and really looks like it's developed by people who truly understand Metal Slug.

Second, the artwork in this game is clearly a very different beast from what can be seen in Metal Slug: Awakening.

Obviously this isn't the same as the funny looking characters you remember from the in-game graphics of the NEOGEO titles. I still however feel like this captures the spirit of these beloved characters better than any of the mobile games have. This is definitely along the lines of Sonic Mania or TMNT: Shredder's Revenge in terms of attention to detail, and that's especially reflected by how the actual game looks and moves in action.

This is really my true agenda if I'm perfectly honest. Please don't sleep on this game. Even if you don't like tactics games, this is the one you want to keep an eye on if you want a true return to form for Metal Slug.

[cheshireliam]

Buying Diamonds* From IFC

*Refers to the premium in-game currency, whatever they may be called otherwise in each game.

This guide is only for players who may not already know how to do this. Here's also a friendly reminder to spend responsibly and for legal reasons, I'm NOT accountable if anyone decides to spend their life savings on 2 dimensional fictional men.

1. Log into your IFC account.

2. Make sure that you have already linked your game to your IFC account, and that this is the correct game account you're purchasing the currency for.

Guide for linking games to IFC available here.

3. Look at the top right corner of the main page and open the hamburger menu.

4. Tap on "BENEFIT" and then "イケシリマーケットとは".

5. Scroll down and look for this "イケシリマーケットを利用する" button that will take you to the shop.

6. Tap on the game you want to purchase the currency for.

I will be using Ikemen Villains as an example.

7. Choose the amount of currency you want to purchase and tap on "購入".

8. Check that this is the correct amount of currency you want to purchase and tick the checkbox next to "上記内容に同意する" to agree to the terms and conditions.

9. Enter your card details.

Don't ask me whether your card can be used, please ask your bank instead. The prices are all in JPY, bank conversion rates apply.

10. Tap on "購入を確定する" to confirm purchase.

The currency will be credited to your game immediately. If you don't see them, please reload your game. If you still don't, please contact customer service and not user archiveikemen on tumblr dot com.

11. In your game, you will see this white exclamation mark symbol.

Tap on it and you will be brought to this screen where it gives you information of your recent purchases on IFC.

[lunariatia]

Guide to Farming Hourglasses (farming methods, birthdays, events, etc!)

Update: I believe Cheritz has nerfed the chances of getting an hourglass... unfortunate...

https://www.reddit.com/r/mysticmessenger/comments/17pr6l8/hourglass_farm_update/

Opinion Dump! Are you kidding me?! This is... kinda diabolical. I genuinely think the developers should focus on The Ssum rather than trying to squeeze every single cent out of Mystic Messenger players. This game is over 5 years old, they're just being greedy. This is ridiculous! It'll take slightly over FOUR HOURS to get 100 hourglasses like this. Look, I can understand. Mystic Messenger is not a game where players can actively pay; but that does not stop this from leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The Developers are not even planning a major update to Mystic Messenger, but are still putting limitations. My only question is why? Why do this to an app you are not even updating! I feel so bad for new players.

Updated Guide: • If you don't have max speed, then "Seven loves cats" or the prologue sometimes give 2 hourglasses. You automatically get max speed on the prologue and day 1, so this will be faster than using the Christmas DLC for those who didn't pay for the max chat speed function. • If you have max speed, then the most efficient way is still the Christmas DLC Chatroom "Can't rest on Christmas," making a reloadable save by reentering that chatroom using 10 hourglasses after exiting it. You can still only earn 2 hourglasses every 5 minutes, it just takes A LOT longer now. • Replay Zen's route! He is still THE sugar daddy of hourglasses. He tends to give a lot if you just kiss his ass. mwah.

Hello! I am years late, but I'd like to share a guide on farming hourglasses! It is very likely that you've read these somewhere already, or you may have not! This is going to be lengthy, so I've added A TLDR (too long, didn't read) at the bottom. If you're confused, you can read it all!

⚠️Disclaimer! If you are worried about getting banned, do not worry! This will not get your account banned by Cheritz, repeating a chatroom for hourglasses or hearts is NOT breaking the Terms and Conditions because it is not using any fraudulent apps or hacking methods. What can get you banned? 1. Manipulating time to abuse the game. 2. Using illicit apps to change or abuse game data. 3. Abusing a bug for gameplay. If you would like to check for yourself, I've attached an image of a player's email regarding this and Cheritz's response as well as the link to this post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mysticmessenger/comments/hyjjiw/in_case_any_of_you_questioned_whether_you_would/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Now, without further ado, let's get right into it! How does it work? / Steps 1. Enter a chatroom, and leave it immediately. DO NOT finish it. 2. Spend the 5 or 10 hourglasses to re-enter the chatroom and play through it, (answers are provided below). 3. Once you've finished the chatroom, from the homescreen, hit "settings" > then "load" > click "This is the saved file from when the last game point hourglasses were used" > hit "load"

Notes: ⚠️ *Options marked with an hourglass emoji, ⌛, are only a CHANCE to get an hourglass, it is not guaranteed. 🕒 *It is not necessary to buy max chat speed ($2.99); however, it is very helpful! You can farm hourglasses faster, or if you're like me where it's torturous to get bad endings, just skip it! And a cherry on the top, it supports the developers! It is not a subscription, but a one time purchase, and in my opinion, very worth it! Method 1 - Prologue Farming • Casual or Deep Story 00:00 [Any Time], Prologue 1. ANY 2. Reveal yourselves first. I'm the one most confused here... ⌛ 3. ANY 4. ANY 5. I just wanted to chat with pretty boys... ⌛ 6. ANY 7. ANY 8. ANY 9. ANY 10. ANY 11. What do you mean? ⌛ 12. What do I get if I join? ⌛ ⚠️I still have to edit and double check for hourglasses for this method, so feel free to skip this method for now! ^^ Method 2 - Day 1 • Casual or Deep Story 10:04, Seven loves cats 1. ANY 2. The cat's pretty... haha 3. Ya. I'll have to be careful. Alt Selection: Seven, what do you do? 5. I think he's funny. 6. Good bye. 7. I'll believe you. 8. ANY

Method 3 - Christmas DLC, Day 1 • DLC > Christmas Special 2016 • costs 100 hourglasses to download/unlock 19:18 [7:18], Can't Rest on Christmas 1. I miss Zen... ⌛ 2. What should you do if your blood pressure gets higher? Dr. 707 ⌛ 3. ANY 4. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to handle it T_T I don't like one-sided love or one-sided authority. ⌛ 5. What if they don't end up falling for you? ⌛ 6. Zen... would you hate it if I called you Masterr?⌛ 7. If I sent some hearts, would you still hate it? ⌛ 8. What do you have to say? ⌛ 9. I want to spend a nice warm Christmas with Zen T_T sniff sniff ⌛ 10. I hope you can be that way with me... <3 ⌛ 11. ANY 12. Zen, I'll warm you up with my words, hoo~ <3 ⌛ 13. Zen, close your eyes! ⌛ 14. I want to to on a date with Zen... ⌛ 15. ANY 16. ANY 17. That was unexpected... I'm getting really lonely now... T_T ⌛ 18. Zen, every time you practice, just think of me for support! You can do it! You know I'm cheering for you right? ⌛

TLDR; Zen is THE sugar daddy of hourglasses, pick options that emphasize him. Additional Notes: I very highly recommend... • saving your hourglasses to buy the Christmas DLC! • consider buying max chat speed. again, it is not necessary, but very helpful!

RFA Guest Comment Once you've completed a route either a normal/good ending, look through the guest book and click through any guest if you haven't already!, and click RFA comment. One of the RFA members will leave a comment on that guest, and you’ll receive 1 hourglass! Remember to collect hourglasses for every new guest after a party!

Special Dates! March 12th - Yoosung Birthday April 1st - Zen Birthday June 11th - Saeyoung (707) and Saeran Birthday July 9th - Mystic Messenger Anniversary September 9th - V Birthday October 5th - Jumin Birthday December 28th - Jaehee Birthday Please do not be discouraged if you feel as if you are not getting a lot of hourglasses! ^^ It is worth it in the end, 100%. I got to about 6,000 farming, and I spent more than 2,000 just to fast forward time because I'm an impatient bum tehe. These are all of the methods I could think of, please feel free to let me know if you have other methods, comments, etc. Good luck farming lovelies! ♡

[iuliacaesar]

72 Seasons album opinion + my experience at M72 Tour in Madrid

72 Seasons is the eleventh studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, released on April 14, 2023. This album marks the band's first full-length release since 2016's "Hardwired... to Self-Destruct," as a collaborative effort between the band members and producer Greg Fidelman, who also worked on their previous album.

In this album we can observe a great growth in the band's music production, as we can appreciate Metallica's signature sound, blending thrash metal with elements of hard rock and progressive metal. It features heavy riffs, complex arrangements and powerful vocals, which show a vast development and maturity of their musical skills. From the first track, titled as the album, to the last one, Inamorata, we can notice the great energy transmitted with their powerful intros. 

This album also has a meaning. The title "72 Seasons" refers to the first 18 years of a person's life, a period that significantly shapes who they become. The album delves into themes of childhood, personal growth, and the lasting impact of early experiences. I believe this also has a symbolic meaning that shows the transformation Metallica has had through the years.

The album generally received positive reviews from critics, who mostly praised James Hetfield's lyrics and vocal performance but criticized the album's song length and some repetitive song parts. 

72 Seasons received three nominations at the 66th Grammy Awards, winning Best Metal Performance for the title track 72 Seasons.

In my view, 72 Seasons had influence from their previous album mentioned before, because they already have a firm model of song structure, with similar riffs, rhythms and vocals.

My favorite songs in this album are 72 Seasons, Screaming Suicide and Shadows Follow. Overall I enjoy this album because of their mature and perfect technique when playing their instruments and vocals, they have great harmony and strength. I would give this album a 9, only because of the repetitive parts in some songs. However in live these songs don't feel long at all, on contrary, they feel short.

On November 28, 2022, Metallica announced the album's title, release date, tracklist and a promotional tour of North America and Europe, featuring Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch and Architects among others, titled the M72 World Tour, and I had the honor to assist the M72 Tour in Madrid, at the Civitas Metropolitano Stadium. The concert lasted 3 hours divided on two days, 12th and 14th July 2024. 

Both concerts had amazing visuals on stage screens for those who couldn’t see the members close enough, but even so I felt so close to them, because they really were playing for the crowd, giving a very comfortable and friendly environment. I’d like to highlight that both events started with the song The Ecstasy of Gold from the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a moment that reminded me of Enter Sandman live in Moscow in 1991, the first video I saw from Metallica when I was 7 and moreover the largest concert in metal history. But we must not forget that the most important thing is how beautifully and dedicatedly they performed both concerts, which consisted in five songs from  72 Seasons, Ride the Lighting and Metallica, four songs from the Master of Puppets album, two songs from Reload, …And Justice for All, Kill ‘Em All and Death Magnetic, the unexpected song King of Nothing from the Load album and my personal favorite of the night, Moth Into Flame from Hardwired… To Self-Destruct.

This concert is something I'll never experience again, and I must say, 12th and 14th July 2024 will be forever the happiest days of my life, that’s why I’m writing this.

I hope you guys enjoyed my article and I’ll look forward to bring some more :) Also don’t forget to like and follow me on my socials.

much love xoxo

pd: photos aren't mine because my phone camera is shitty :( they're from their official Instagram (@metallica).

[themenendezbrothers]

The [2005] Habeas Corpus Appeal. "Had either Erik or Lyle presented evidence that, at the moment of the killings, they had an actual fear in the need to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury, this evidence would have helped explain why they had that unreasonable fear. Nonetheless, the fears leading up to the murders and the reasons why such fears might have existed simply are not the threshold issue for California's imperfect self-defense instruction."

In this consolidated appeal, Lyle and Erik Menendez appeal the district court's denial of their petitions for habeas corpus. 

Link (excerpts below)

C. Imperfect Self-Defense Instruction

California recognizes imperfect self-defense in homicide cases where the killing resulted from an "actual but unreasonable belief in the necessity to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury." CALJIC No. 5.17 (1995); see In re Christian S., 7 Cal.4th 768, 771, 30 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 872 P.2d 574 (1994) (discussing imperfect self-defense). If imperfect self-defense is established, the defendant can be guilty of no more than manslaughter because the requisite malice necessary for murder is absent. Id. Though a reasonable person need not view the peril as imminent, the defendant must make some showing that he actually believed the peril to be imminent. Id. The fear, no matter how great, cannot be of prospective danger or even one that is in the near future. Id. at 783, 30 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 872 P.2d 574. Rather, " [a]n imminent peril is one that, from appearances, must be instantly dealt with." Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

Under California law, a defendant is entitled to a jury instruction only if substantial evidence, or "evidence sufficient to deserve consideration by the jury," supports the giving of that instruction. People v. Barton, 12 Cal.4th 186, 201 n. 8, 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 569, 906 P.2d 531 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted). The state trial court conducted an extensive hearing to determine whether the imperfect self-defense instruction was warranted, and concluded that, taking Erik's version of the circumstances as true, there was not substantial evidence of a belief that the danger was imminent. Accordingly, the court declined to give the imperfect self-defense instruction.

The California Court of Appeal affirmed, concluding that there was no error in the trial court's decision not to give the instruction because the defense presented insufficient evidence under California law of a belief in imminent peril. Because Erik and Lyle left the house after the confrontation, went to the car, retrieved their shotguns, reloaded their guns with better ammunition, reentered the house, burst through the doors and began shooting their unarmed parents, the court concluded that there was no substantial evidence of a belief in imminent peril. The court placed special emphasis on Erik's testimony that Erik knew the danger to be in the future. Furthermore, the California Court of Appeal concluded that even if the  trial court erred in failing to give the instruction, the omission was harmless because the jury necessarily resolved the question posed by the proposed instruction adversely to Petitioners

.

The court's determination that this instruction was not appropriate and the state appellate court's affirmance of that decision resulted from interpretation of state law. Any error in the state court's determination of whether state law allowed for an instruction in this case cannot form the basis for federal habeas relief. Estelle, 502 U.S. at 67-68, 112 S.Ct. 475. The state court carefully applied state law principles and factually similar state cases and determined that no instruction was available to Petitioners because they failed to provide a basis upon which the instruction could be given. Quite simply, that should be the final word on the subject. However, because Petitioners argue that the refusal to instruct violated federal due process, we press forward.

The State argues that this claim is barred by Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989). We reject this argument and proceed to the merits of the claim, as it is a long-standing principle that instructional error may so infect a trial that the resulting conviction violates due process. Estelle, 502 U.S. at 72, 112 S.Ct. 475.

"Failure to give [a jury] instruction which might be proper as a matter of state law," by itself, does not merit federal habeas relief. Miller v. Stagner, 757 F.2d 988, 993 (9th Cir. 1985). The Supreme Court has stated instead that a claim that a court violated a petitioner's due process rights by omitting an instruction requires a showing that the error "so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violate[d] due process." Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U.S. 145, 154, 97 S.Ct. 1730, 52 L.Ed.2d 203 (1977) (quoting Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 147, 94 S.Ct. 396, 38 L.Ed.2d 368 (1973)). In addition, a state trial court's finding that the evidence does not support a claim of imperfect self-defense is entitled to a presumption of correctness on federal habeas review. Hartman v. Summers, 120 F.3d 157, 161 (9th Cir. 1997). Because we agree with the state court's finding that Petitioners failed to demonstrate that they believed they were in imminent peril, we conclude that there was no error and thus that Petitioners' due process rights were not violated.

Petitioners contend that the state court failed to consider various categories of evidence that they assert supported their requested imperfect self-defense instruction. Specifically, Petitioners argue that the court ignored evidence that they were threatened with harm if they ever disclosed the abuse, as well as evidence of the confrontations leading up to the murders and Erik's testimony that he feared his parents might kill him. This argument fails because none of the evidence, including evidence of the abuse Petitioners allegedly suffered at the hands of their parents, or even the details concerning the confrontation that occurred the night of the attack before the victims and Petitioners retired to different locations, supported the imperfect self-defense instruction.

Indeed, the defense did present evidence that Jose had repeatedly abused his sons and that Kitty had acquiesced, for most of their lives. Erik testified that Jose had threatened to kill him if he revealed the sexual abuse. According to Erik, there had been several confrontations between Jose, Lyle, and Erik days before the murders. Erik testified at extraordinary length and in incredible detail about his childhood and his relationships with his parents, beginning with his allegations that his father began sexually molesting him at the age of six and following through incident  by incident until he was eighteen. Erik testified that in the days leading up to the murders, he had some fear that, at some point, his parents would kill him — a fear that fluctuated in intensity during those final days.

Petitioners' focus on this evidence, however, is misplaced. Taken at face value, this background evidence served only to explain why the brothers might have had an unreasonable fear of their parents at the moment they killed them. At most, the evidence illustrated that Erik and Lyle feared that their parents had the capacity to and might, at some point, harm them. Erik's testimony about his general fear in the days leading up to the murder does not provide any evidence that, at the moment he shotgunned his parents to death, he feared he was in imminent peril.

In fact, evidence that Lyle ever feared his parents is so weak is so weak in the record that his claim could be rejected without discussion.

Even Erik's assertion that he feared his parents would kill him when they exited the room is insufficient to support the instruction. He testified that he "just wanted to get to the den as quickly as possible before my father got out of the den. If my dad got out of the den before I got there, it was over." But Erik admitted that the danger was in the future. He knew that his parents could not kill him through the walls. He knew that "they would not kill me until they exited the den." Taking Erik's testimony as true, these killings were, in effect, preemptive strikes.

Thus, the instruction was not warranted under California law. Had either Erik or Lyle presented evidence that, at the moment of the killings, they had an actual fear in the need to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury, this evidence would have helped explain why they had that unreasonable fear. Nonetheless, the fears leading up to the murders and the reasons why such fears might have existed simply are not the threshold issue for California's imperfect self-defense instruction. In re Christian S., 7 Cal.4th at 783, 30 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 872 P.2d 574. Consequently, the state court's decision was not error, let alone a violation of due process.

Our decision in DePetris v. Kuykendall, 239 F.3d 1057 (9th Cir. 2001), in which we held that evidence of Battered Women's Syndrome was erroneously excluded, does not affect our conclusion. The state court in that case had already concluded that the evidence was erroneously excluded. Bound by that determination, we concluded, among other things, that the error was not harmless because the defendant had been restricted from testifying fully about her state of mind. Id. at 1063. Here, on the contrary, Erik's testimony was virtually unlimited, but he nevertheless failed to make the requisite showing of fear of imminent peril. In any event, DePetris is inapplicable here, as only Supreme Court decisions can form the basis of federal habeas relief. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).

D. Exclusion of Testimony and the Right to Due Process

Lyle and Erik sought to introduce testimony that could explain why they feared their parents. These witnesses were referred to by the trial court as so-called "source witnesses," people who had "observed certain things, either observed the interaction of the defendants with their parents or gave character evidence . . . relating to the parents, . . . things of that nature. . . ."

The trial court ruled, however, that the defendants were required first to lay a foundation, which in this case, could only be accomplished if the defendants testified about their actual belief of imminent danger. Indeed, we, too, see no other competent way in which the foundation  could have been laid. Erik took the stand, but Lyle chose not to testify. Petitioners argue that the trial court's ruling violated their rights to due process because it forced them to choose between their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and their Sixth Amendment right to present a defense. We disagree.

In disallowing this evidence, the trial judge explained:

The relevance of the expert testimony of these experts that we've referred to in the hearing, the relevance of that testimony was to and is to corroborate the testimony of the defendants regarding their mental state at the time of the killing, and to dispel certain misconceptions regarding the conduct of an individual faced with a situation or circumstances as described by the defendants.

The issue, as I looked at it and look at it now, is the state of mind of the defendants at the time of the killing as to whether there was an actual belief of imminent danger of death or great bodily injury and a need to act. Obviously, if that actual belief is not presented to the jury, then the experts have nothing to corroborate. . . .

Since the relevance of the expert testimony is related to the state of mind of the defendants at the time of the killing, the purpose of the experts' testimony that they had — that the defendants fit a certain diagnosis; that they are, whatever the expert says, a battered person — they fit the — or fit the diagnosis of a post-traumatic stress disorder, that is only to corroborate the defendants' testimony as to their mental state at the time of the crime.

. . . . .

It's really irrelevant, and it would be totally irrelevant to any trial, that the defendants had been abused or that they fit a particular diagnosis of being abused. That's totally irrelevant, unless it corroborates their testimony as to their mental state at the time of the crime. If it doesn't do that, then the fact that they happen to be abused or happen to fit a particular diagnosis is irrelevant.

. . . .

And as I look at it, the foundation of the testimony — of the evidence is the defendants' own testimony of that belief [of imminent danger]. . . .

(emphasis added). The California Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court's ruling, concluding that the issue was not whether Petitioners were required to testify, but whether the testimony of the relevant witnesses was admissible despite a lack of foundation.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Ice Cream Apologies

Read on Ao3

Warnings: none

Pairings: chris redfield/ethan winters, mia winters/ethan winters

Word Count: 2951

Fuck, she's her father's daughter. Every day, he looks at her and he can't stop fucking seeing Ethan. In how she holds herself with her shoulders just a little hunched, how her mouth twists the same way his did when he wants to call bullshit but is too polite to say it. How she smiles and the corners of her eyes crinkle up like she just can't help it. Even how she fights—she holds a gun the same way he did, she picks her targets the way he did, she even reloads the way he did. "That's the fucking problem, Redfield," he grumbles to himself as he turns onto the bridge. *** A look at Chris's perspective after his fight with Rose, and a memory that he's never quite figured out what to do with.

"No skin broken, no risk of direct contamination."

Chris nods. The doctor takes a cotton swab and runs it over the bite mark. He takes three more samples before Chris scoffs. "Isn't that a bit excessive?"

"We've never seen what the saliva alone can do. Risk of contamination through the blood is possible, but the saliva itself might have properties that—"

"Fine, fine," he interrupts, "just—hurry it up."

The doctor gives him a look but moves slightly faster. After all of the samples are taken—six in total—he wipes down Chris's arm like he's a kid getting a flu shot again and tells him he's good to go.

"We'll monitor it closely for the next few days, at least until we're sure—"

"You said it didn't even break the skin. What's the point in monitoring it? You've got the samples and it's not like Rose is quarantined."

"It's just a safety precaution."

He scoffs again. "Safety precaution. Right."

He leaves the doctor without another word, shrugging on his jacket and reaching for his phone. Odds are he won't have been delayed heavily enough to miss the next briefing with the rest of the squad, but with how many fucking samples they had to take, it's not worth risking that he—

"Sir."

Chris looks up to see a team of armed agents heading towards him. He frowns, discreetly tucking his phone in his back pocket. "Yes?"

"Detail is set up on a four-shift rotation, first team goes live in five," reports the agent in front, "reports are set to come in at—"

"Whoa, wait, detail for what?"

The agent frowns. "For the bioweapon."

Irritation flares. "She's a kid, she doesn't need a detail right now. She's in the compound, she's in her room, she knows to tell someone when she's going somewhere and Paul's on shift."

"Sir, with respect, the bioweapon—"

"Her name is Rose."

The agent makes a face like he smells something. Chris can smell something, it's bullshit, and this guy reeks of it. "Rose attacked you and possibly infected you. Our orders are—"

"You get your orders from me." He steps forward and tries not to grin at how quickly the armed agents skitter. "And I'm ordering you to disband this detail. It's not necessary. Rose is fine. I've got it under control."

The agent glances at Chris's arm before he makes another face and mutters: "Yes, sir."

Chris glares at them until they all slink off down the hall. Then he makes sure no one else is about to ambush him as he goes to the car and storms to the garage. He shuts the door a little harder than necessary and sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face. After a moment, he pulls out his phone and makes a call.

"Hub 7."

"Is Rose still in her room?"

Keyboard clicks from the other side. "Yes, she is."

He picks at a stain on the steering wheel. "Is she…okay?"

"She's staring at the wall with those lights on it, but she seems fine. Why, did something—?"

"Thanks."

He shuts the phone off and sits in silence. He glances down at the sleeve-covered bitemark. He can still feel the weight of her when he'd thrown her off him—light, still so light, still so young—and the ringing echo of the guns trained on her the second she hit the ground.

He starts the car and pulls out onto the road, driving out of the main bay of the compound. He taps his thumb against the steering wheel. He rubs his temples.

Shit.

"Fucking doc," he mutters under his breath, "she's just a kid. She's still just a fucking kid."

He hadn't expected her to bite him. He'd expected her to get angry, sure, hell, that's what he'd been doing, but the bite was…surprising. And then she'd looked at him with the guns pointed right at her and she'd looked so—so—

A horn blares and he slams on the brakes just in time to avoid running into the car in front of him. He waves a bit sheepishly as the other driver yells through the windows and gives himself a shake.

No use thinking about it anymore. It was over. Rose was fine, safe in her room, and he's…

He sighs, taking advantage of the red light. Rubbing his temples with one hand, he looks over and checks his phone. No missed calls, no nothing from the rest of the squad, and nothing from Rose. Not that he particularly expected anything, she's probably still royally pissed at him. Not that he can blame her.

He'd been too harsh today. He'd known the second she'd refused to tap out once he'd pinned her that he'd fucked up. And then she was halfway across the room on her hands and knees and he was fine and she'd looked so hurt. So confused. That fucking expression is still burned into his head. He'd wanted to—shit, he didn't know. Fix it. Make her stop looking at him like that, even though he knew exactly what had put it there.

Knew exactly why he'd put it there.

The road starts to open up and there's less and less of a risk of accidentally running into someone, so he takes one hand off the wheel. It's still a bad idea to let his thoughts run away from him, but he can't stop seeing Rose's confused, hurt face and he can't stop thinking about how much it reminds him of her father.

Fuck, she's her father's daughter.

Every day, he looks at her and he can't stop fucking seeing Ethan. In how she holds herself with her shoulders just a little hunched, how her mouth twists the same way his did when he wants to call bullshit but is too polite to say it. How she smiles and the corners of her eyes crinkle up like she just can't help it. Even how she fights—she holds a gun the same way he did, she picks her targets the way he did, she even reloads the way he did.

"That's the fucking problem, Redfield," he grumbles to himself as he turns onto the bridge.

He'd made the same mistake with Ethan, too. He'd trained so many recruits into soldiers that it had become rote. You knock them down, you tell them what they did wrong, they get back up and try again. They were supposed to be soldiers, damnit, that's how it had to work. They got frustrated, they got angry, they got in his face and yelled at him or they stormed off, but they always did it. They buckled down and trained and they made it. Mia was like that. Mia knew what he expected of her and she had the same grit that pulled her through three years in that hellhole in Louisiana. But with Ethan…

He'd made Ethan cry.

Chris is pretty sure that his emotionally compromised state was an open secret amongst the higher-ups at BSAA. Ethan Winters was not supposed to be personally trained by Chris Redfield, not for the amount of time that he was and certainly not to the degree he was. The man could shoot like a fucking sniper with barely any input on Chris's part—he's still not entirely sure how the fuck that happened when Ethan admitted he'd never so much as gone paintballing before Dulvey—but everything else…

Safe to say if Ethan was a normal recruit, he'd have washed out long ago.

But he'd been so fucking earnest, trying over and over with a smile and a self-deprecating laugh when he couldn't get something. Like they were playing, not doing military training. And he couldn't help himself, he wasn't acting like he was training Ethan to survive either. Saying shit like it's okay, you'll get it next time instead of barking orders, or let's try this instead, you're getting the hang of it instead of making Ethan buckle down until he got it right just once. And when a year had passed and Ethan's progress was slim enough to make a few of his squad turn their heads, the higher-ups had done some buckling down of their own.

He was given a week to get his shit together, or the Winters family would be transferred to someone else for training.

Mia didn't so much as blink when he started getting tougher on her and for a moment, for a moment, he thought it might be fine. If Mia could do it, then so could Ethan. But Mia was an agent of a bioterrorist organization masquerading as a person doing a babysitting job when the ship crashed in Louisiana. Ethan was a systems engineer who was just trying to bring his wife home.

He'd shown up for training that day and smiled at Chris. Called him 'buddy.' Like they were friends getting together for coffee. He'd looked baffled when Chris snapped that he was late, even though he wasn't, and to get his ass onto the mats.

"You said we were doing gear checks today—"

"That's an order, Winters."

And Ethan had looked at him for a moment before he shrugged and went to the locker room. He'd come out, smiling again, and taken a starting position on the mat. "Are we going to—whoa!"

Chris had laid him out before he could finish his sentence. "Don't let your guard down like that. Get up. Again."

"Can't let me say hello?" But he'd gotten up. "Am I just supposed to—hey!"

"I said," Chris had growled, not stopping, "don't let your guard down."

"My guard wasn't up in the first place, I—ah!"

"Focus."

Ethan had tried. He'd put his hands up and tried to defend himself. But he was slow. Sloppy. Not like someone who Chris Redfield had personally trained for a year should be. Chris knocked him down again and turned his back.

"Not even gonna give me a hand up?"

"I shouldn't even be giving you this long to get up. Save your breath."

They'd gone like that for half an hour. Ethan didn't land so much as a hit on him. Every time he hit the mats he grunted like he was in pain. He shouldn't have been in pain, he should've been used to what it felt like to be knocked down so he could get back up. But he wasn't. Because Chris hadn't trained him right. So he'd barked at Ethan to get up, come on, hit me, and Ethan got up again and again and he never hit Chris once.

He could tell Ethan was getting frustrated. So he baited him, trying to draw it out. He knew how to deal with that frustration, knew if he could get it to anger, Ethan might actually stand a chance.

Then he started talking.

"What the hell got into you today?" he'd said as he picked himself up, a hand to his side. "You get bad news, or something?"

"Shut up and fight, Winters."

"Really," he panted as they kept sparring—well, as Ethan kept failing to hit him and failing to dodge— "is there something wrong? Is the squad—?"

He'd knocked him down to try and get him to shut up but oh no, not Ethan Winters.

"Is it those people Mia used to work for?" He was slower getting up. "Or something with the clean-up?"

"You're not worrying about the right thing," and he'd gone again. Faster. Harder. Ethan couldn't fucking talk if he was too busy trying not to let Chris beat him up.

It worked. For a moment. Then he'd knocked Ethan prone again and he'd just stayed there, panting.

"Get up."

"What's wrong, Chris?" Ethan had asked, his voice suddenly soft and gentle. "Something's bothering you, I can tell, let me help."

And he couldn't, he couldn't tell him, and so he'd growled and wrenched Ethan off the floor and thrown him to his feet, stalking after him. "I said get up."

"Chris, please, just talk to me—"

"Shut up, Winters."

"—I'm your friend, let me help—"

"Shut up." He'd grabbed Ethan's shirt and pulled him close. "We are not friends. I am your commanding officer. You do not ask what is wrong with me, you shut up and you follow orders. You are sloppy, you are unfocused, and you are not good enough. So get that fucking head of yours in the game or I'm done with you, do you understand?"

He'd thrown him back and given him three seconds to get into a defensive position before he was on him again.

They fought.

Ethan didn't say anything. His jaw set. Something burned behind his eyes.

A punch missed Chris's shoulder.

Chris growled and wheeled around—

—and punched Ethan right in the face.

They'd frozen like that, in the middle of the mats, Chris's hand still drawn back, Ethan still on his feet, staring at Chris. Their breaths had rung out harshly in the empty room, each hitting like thunder against Chris's ears.

Some part of him had known, logically, that everyone's eyes water when they get hit in the face. It's like a reflexive reaction, impact equals watering.

But Ethan was crying.

And he was still staring at Chris like a fucking wounded puppy, so hurt and shocked and confused and upset, with tears streaming down his face and his mouth halfway open. And Chris—

Chris hadn't known what the fuck to do.

The part of him he'd been pushing to the front of his brain snapped at him to get himself together, to tell Ethan to cut that shit out and focus. The part that had been screaming since he got that notice from the higher-ups screamed again, yelled at him to fix this, you asshole, he's fucking crying. He'd stood there dumbly, staring at Ethan crying silently, until he'd heard the click of the door opening and turned sharply on his heel.

He'd barked at the other agents to get out, they were busy, but he'd left Ethan alone on the mats and out of earshot. When the doors had closed and he was alone again he still had no idea what to do. On autopilot, he'd gone to fetch their water bottles and gone back, only to stop before he walked back out into the room.

He'd stared at Ethan, crouched down under the bright training lights. He could hear the muffled sobs. He could see the way the man's shoulders kept shaking, the way he wiped furiously at his face. He saw the way he slumped down, the way he curled up, defeated.

He'd looked down at the water bottles, and left Ethan's just outside the door.

It wasn't until later, much later, after Ethan was dead and Mia could bear to be in the same room with him for more than five minutes that he realized just how badly he'd fucked up that day. They'd gotten drunk off of Ethan's favorite wine and Mia had confessed how awful it felt when Ethan started having nightmares. He'd known what happened from the files, and from the bits Ethan had shared with him during their downtime, but his heart had just about fallen out of his fucking chest when Mia drunkenly told him that he just kept coming back.

"Eveline made me stab him," she'd cried, "she made me cut—cut off his hand with a chainsaw and he just—he still came back."

Chris's drunk brain had formed the conclusion his sober one hadn't been brave enough to. He'd been trying to get Ethan to see him as Jack Baker, even Eveline, someone he could get mad at and stay mad at. But he'd never been the bad guy, not to Ethan. He'd been…he'd been…

Okay, his drunk brain hadn't been that brave.

But you were, it hissed at him, he cared about you enough to let you hurt him like that. And he still came back.

He tries not to admit to himself how often he wishes he could've done that whole day over. Sat Ethan down and explained to him what was going on—because no one ever told him anything, not really—or even afterwards, instead of leaving the water bottle and fleeing like a coward, gone over to him. Taken a towel and wrapped it around him like a blanket, said he was sorry, that he didn't mean it, not any of it, wiped his tears and let him cry, offered to let him punch Chris in the face for being such an asshole.

Ethan wouldn't have, not at that point. He might've laughed, maybe, and said Chris owed him a drink. The first time Chris managed to psych himself up enough to go to Ethan's grave, he'd drained an entire bottle of wine.

He gives himself a good shake.

Ethan's dead, he reminds himself, focus on Rose.

Rose…Rose who was so very much her father's daughter. If he'd made her cry today, he wouldn't have fucked that up twice. No, he'd have told all the idiots with guns to fuck off and run right over, let her rage and scream at him—bite him again if she wanted to. He'd hold her, if she let him, because she was still just a kid and she didn't deserve that.

He'd tell her, he decided. When he got back, he'd explain why he was such an asshole. And—well, he couldn't take her out for a drink, but he could take her out for ice cream.

She was still young enough to like ice cream, right?

As he pulls up to where the rest of the squad is waiting, he swears he can hear Ethan laugh,

Everyone likes ice cream, Chris, you're never too old for ice cream.

[bismuthupmy]

Nothing Hurts | Leon x Luis RE4

Chapter 7 | 3.1k words

The story of tragic righteousness where nobody is hurt and everything is perfect. Except nothing is perfect in hell.

A re-imagining of the events of the Resident Evil 4 remake where Luis and Leon get the ending they deserved.

——————————————————————————————————Guys. I got to spend my holidays on a farm. Hand feeding baby cows every day. Im in heaven.

Ch.1

——————————————————————————————————

The sun had fully dipped behind the hills now, shrouding the ravine in darkness, the sliver of orange light disappearing. The night breeze was chilling as night began to settle in.

Leon pulled himself up to his feet, panting from exertion. Ashley was coughing beside him standing up shakily as well. 

“You ok?” Leon asked Ashley. She shook herself off and dusted down her jacket.

“Yeah, fine.”

“Luis?” “I haven't done this much high stress running in days,” Luis leaned back against a rock the farthest from the ravine you could be. 

“Days?” Ashley panted. “I haven't in months.”

Luis and Ashley looked at Leon expectantly and if he was honest he really didn’t know how to answer because it was a bit sad in retrospect.

“Minutes?”

Ashley snorted and Luis just shook his head sympathetically.

“You’re so unintentionally funny, you know that Leon,” Ashley beamed at him with a giggly sigh. 

“How do you know it’s unintentional?”

Leon turned his attention towards their surroundings, now that they were out of imminent danger for the time being.

“You get this confused look on your face whenever we laugh at you, thats how,” Luis breathed a laugh, having finally caught his breath. Smokers life Leon guessed. 

Opting to ignore the irritating voice hanging over his left shoulder, Leon turned to Ashley, “Listen. You’re the one he wants. If we see him again, you run.”

“Huh? Wh-what about you?”

“I’ll do my job”

Ashley submitted and just hummed her assent, clearly not pleased but he had his job to do and he was going to finish it successfully.

“Don’t suppose I’m part of that job, huh?” The insufferable voice to his left spoke up. 

“I’m not getting paid to save you.”

“Aw, you wouldn’t leave me here, would you?”

Leon just rolled his eyes and walked a little faster.

“Don’t count on it,” he muttered.

They came up to another merchant stop, the mysterious man waving at them cheerfully, no doubt excited for some more pesetas.

“Repairs and wares to share, stranger. What’ll it be?”

Ashley wandered around the open clearing, ogling the big building behind the merchant’s booth, and Luis hung back around the path they came up from, watching over the area despite it being safe enough if the merchant was keeping up shop. 

Leon traded some treasures he picked up and repaired and upgraded some of his gear. The merchant really was ripping him off. This man was definitely taking apart these guns just to sell the upgrades separately. He was lucky Leon needed them.

He was just about to sort out his equipment, reloading and whatnot, when the merchant started moving around behind his little counter. He was packing up his merchandise into cases and piled them on top of a wagon. Leon watched him wide eyed. He wouldn’t have thought the merchant could move around this much with his arsenal if he hadn’t helped him earlier at the factory.

The merchant looked up, feeling Leon’s inquisitive gaze and his eyes crinkled under his mask. 

“Just packing up, stranger. Time for me to head out.”

With not another word he finished stacking his cases and pulled his wagon behind him. With the flick of a switch the purple lantern that marked his shop went out and the man went on his merry way, shuffling down the road with a wave over his shoulder.

“Uh, the roads not-” Leon went to inform the merchant of the unfortunate happenings of a few minutes ago but found he was too stunned to finish his sentence. He watched as Ashley tried to explain the same thing as he walked past but he just chuckled and patted the top of her head as he left. 

“Well isn’t he a funny character?” Luis was now next to Leon. He just scoffed and shook his head. 

“I’m not going to question it.”

Luis just nodded. He turned around, swinging his legs, as he whistled lowly, “What does this mean for us then?”

Leon gave him an irritated questioning look, to which the Spaniard received with an innocent little smile. Could he not be so cryptic all the time?

“You know,” he continued. “No merchant, no purple fire. Wondering what's nearby is all.”

Thinking about it, Luis was right. If the merchant was leaving the area there must be some sort of danger around. They better be careful from now on.

“You think he’s back?” Ashley joined them, hands drawn to her chest how you would when protecting yourself from a bad dream. 

“If he is, we be careful,” Leon started for the building. “Stay close and stay quiet.”

He was met with silence behind him. Naturally it didn’t last long.

─•~❉᯽❉~•──•~❉᯽❉~•──•~❉᯽❉~•──•~❉᯽❉~•─

“You said this was a slaughterhouse?” Ashley whispered  to Luis behind Leon. They walked up the wooden steps to a high platform which overlooked the lovely remains of some pigs and cows. 

“Yeah,” Luis answered just as quietly. “Though it's in a bit of an inconvenient spot. Far from town, right next to the castle. Terrible planning of this village.”

Leon sighed, succumbing to the incessant chatter behind him. Their talking was putting Leon on edge. To be fair he only told them to be quiet, not silent, but it was implied.

Ashley snorted, “The farm was all the way across the lake wasn't it? Why’s the slaughterhouse here? They didn’t think the layout through, did they?”

As he crossed the threshold, Leon was met with a sinking feeling. Something wasn't right. The air was dry and there was the lingering smell of rotting flesh.

“No, ha. Is that something you look into as the President's daughter? Didn’t think you’d be close to the country's infrastructure.”

Leon shushed them harshly, halting at the corner of the platform, staring intently down at the ground floor for any movement.

“Only curious.”

“Luis, shut up,” Leon hissed, pulling out his gun from its holster and signalling with his spare hand to the others to stay back. To his relief they obeyed and he  cautiously skirted around the corner and further along the top floor.

In an instant he was flying through the air and having the air knocked out of his lungs as he heavily hit the floor below.

“Leon!” Ashleys voice echoed in his ears. Pushing himself up on throbbing arms, Ashley was still up with Luis on the top floor, the latter pulling at her arm in the opposite direction with urgency. The village chief stood before him, on the same ground floor, looking up at the girl.

Leon pulled himself up onto his knees, lungs burning and chest heaving to regain sorely needed oxygen. He shot at the giant to distract him. Like  always bullets didn’t affect him, but now his attention was drawn to Leon so Ashley could escape.

Frantically looking around the room for a better solution, Leon spied an explosive barrel. Running to it, he rolled it on its side, sucking in a deep breath and yelled up to the pair on the second floor, “Run!”

He pushed the barrel towards the chief, training his gun on it now.

“Hasta luego,” he shot the barrel.

The explosion blasted him backwards a few feet, setting fire to the entire slaughterhouse, the dry wood inside the perfect fuel. Blistering heat licked at his skin as he stood back up again. Beyond the flames, Ashley and Luis weren’t  to be seen which Leon hoped meant they were able to get out safely.

In other less enjoyable news, the chief walked out of the flame. He wasn't unscathed however but it seemed like that was working out for him just fine. 

The man, skin marred by the fire, was even more of a giant, his spine stretched and exposed like a  centipede, large scorpion-like limbs protruding from his back. He was more than nightmarish.

“What the fuck,” scrambling to get higher ground on the monster, Leon pulled himself up to a second higher platform. He steadied his gun in his hands and fired at the chief's head. Heads were a weakness, right? He hoped.

Leon’s opponent drew back its claw limbs, swinging them downwards to kill. He just managed to pull out his knife in time to block off that attack when the second claw followed in the first’s footsteps. Leon rolled out of the way to avoid it, not trusting his luck with his knife a second time.

He was able to get in more gunshots to absolutely anywhere he could get a bullet in at this point, though nothing seemed to make a difference. The chief drew back which painfully puzzled Leon, folding inwards and upwards. 

“Judgement,” he muttered, now coming spinning at full speed towards Leon, claw limbs outstretched, clocking Leon right in the chest and sending him sprawling to the ground floor for a second time, his feet  kissing the flames that crept closer. His toes will certainly never be cold again.

Not wanting to stay down on the same level for any amount of time, Leon ran for the platform ladder again, leaping up to avoid another swiping attack. The monster seemed to be dizzy for the moment, wobbling, his attacks no longer precise. A few shots to his legs made him stumble a bit which brought great relief to Leon as that was the first sign of weakness. He now knew he had a chance.

With the chief recovering from his judgemental phase, Leon replaced his handgun with something with a little more power, pulling out his shotgun.

The blast from this one had more knock back and a headshot managed to stun the monster into falling to the ground, revealing a large green eye seated right in the middle of his upper back. If the head wasn't the weakness, a very abnormally large and out of place eye would certainly be.

Leon leapt down to the ground floor again and pulled out his knife, plunging it hilt deep into the eye on the chief’s back. He howled, clawing at his face in pain as he flung upwards to his feet, the force of it severing his elongated spine and his upper body came crashing down and his legs almost humorously flopped forwards.

“Looks like your tap dancing days are over,” Leon huffed, coughing around the increasing fumes in the air. It was getting hard to breathe, the fire consuming any oxygen in the slaughterhouse, the smoke smothering. In other news, the chief shouldn’t be too much trouble to get rid of now that he had no legs, right? Wrong.

A second set of claws erupted from his mangled back, pincers attached to the end. He banged them about, the vibrations sent up the walls of the slaughterhouse, causing the far platform to collapse along with part of the roof. Their ‘arena’ was closing in. 

The chief pushed himself up and away, flung to the roof rafters to hang on with his claws. He reached down with the new claws to pick up flaming piles of  wood and launched them at Leon down below. He was only able to narrowly avoid the projectiles by throwing himself to the side.

Turns out figuring out the monster's weak spot was worthless since he couldn't even get to it anymore. All he could do was run around aimlessly avoiding any projectiles thrown his way and getting in any gunshots he could between them. 

Leon watched as the chief picked up more projectiles from the rubble of the slaughterhouse. The smoke burned his eyes and made them tear up, making it much more difficult to see anything but he was pretty sure that those were explosive barrels he was holding.

Shoulders entirely deflating, Leon ran to try and duck for cover behind the panelling holding up the second floor from the barrels but he knew his space was limited. The chief pulled back and the barrels exploded. Except Leon didn’t feel the blow. 

Looking around his small hiding spot Leon saw the remnants of the aggressive heat of an explosion which followed a sharp gunshot. A second shot rang out, seeming to hit the chief right in the back where his eye was. He wailed and slipped from the rafters trying to catch himself on the others, ultimately falling to the floor infront of Leon.

Luis’ head popped up in the furthest window on the opposite side of the slaughterhouse, Leon’s rifle propped on the windowsill. He was gesturing towards the fallen monster, yelling something that Leon couldn’t hear over the roaring flames, but he got the idea. Pulling out his knife again, Leon lunged and put his entire weight behind stabbing the bulging eye in the chief’s back.

The chief roared and flung his sharp limbs around angrily, pushing himself back up onto his claws ready to jump back to the roof  rafters.

“No you don't,” Leon dove behind the chief as he floundered about on the floor, aiming his shotgun straight for the eye and firing as quickly as he could to try and take down the monster again.

Luckily for him, he slipped from the roof as Leon shot him mid jump, and he went sprawling to the floor again. Leon had to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed in the process.

Short of breath and aching from the lack of fresh oxygen, Leon struggled to pull himself back up in time to stab the weak eye again. He pushed up onto his knees and watched as the chief was pushing himself up on his claw limbs. 

Not waiting  another second, Leon lunged towards the monster, managing to lodge his knife into the eye just as he was  jumping for the roof again, slicing through the eye and the chief’s shoulder, successfully bringing him to the floor a final time. The chief screamed, hollered for Saddler, as he crumpled and collapsed unmoving on the flaming floorboards, his false eye falling out of his lax eye socket.

Leon coughed through the smoke, looking down upon his fallen enemy. 

“Give my regards to your god,” he spat, kneeling down to pick up the eye just as he heard a huge crash to the side and the fire expand.

“Leon!” Ashley cried from the direction of the crash. She had broken in a window to escape. “Quick! This place is coming down!” 

Forcing his limbs to move, Leon dashed for the exit, hearing as the wooden roof of the slaughterhouse cracked and scrapped. Not saving time to check it out, he dove out through the window into fresh air and the cool night breeze as the ceiling of the slaughterhouse caved and crumbled in.

  Leon coughed and sputtered as he tried to get all the smoke out of his lungs and back to normal functionality. He felt Ashley urgently pat down his back and noticed some other tiny flames attached  to his clothes which he promptly snuffed out too. He sighed.

“You’re welcome?” Leon looked up at Ashley who was smiling with her hand outstretched. He chuckled and took her hand as she helped him stand back up.

“Thanks.”

Leon took a moment now to look around their surroundings. They were now fully cut off from the village, the slaughterhouse in unexplorable ruins and a broken bridge now making a path into the dark depths of the earth. 

“Luis made sure I was safe here before going back to help you,” Ashley informed him. Leon hadn’t asked for more details about it but he must’ve made some sort of face that made her continue. “I know you don't like him or trust him and I don't know why. But he’s a good guy and I think he’s helped us out enough to trust, right?”

Leon wasn't planning to explain to Ashley about Luis’ situation with Umbrella since this whole mess was complicated enough as it is. He’d probably even have to go into explaining everything wrong with the company too since he wasn't sure how much Ashley was in the know about.

Then again, Luis had helped them without hesitation so he was making up for something. If Leon continued to think about it, it was strange a former Umbrella scientist was here in the midst of a parasitic cultist movement but he didn’t care so long as they could leave safe. And to do that there did need to be some level of trust.

Speaking of…

“Hope you haven’t left without me,” a grunt and a growl “These rocks are slipperier than I thought they’d be.”

Several more noises of effort  came from behind the remains of the slaughterhouse. Luis could now be seen shuffling down the rock face backwards. Upon seeing that Leon and Ashley had in fact not left him behind he gave them a goofy smile and a wave which immediately caused him to slide uncontrollably down the rocks and into the dirt below.

Ashley snorted and jogged up to Luis to help him up. 

“Gracias, princesa.”

Leon approached them both, regarding Luis, “You climbed up the rocks to get to that window?”

“Sure did,” Luis brushed down his jacket to get rid of the sticking mud. “You’re welcome, by the way. Couldn’t have you impaled by a scorpion, could we?”

“Impaled- scorpion!?” Ashley exclaimed looking between the two men with wide eyes. “What happened in there?”

Luis laughed, “Should have been there to see it! A whole scorpion came out of the storeroom!”

“Quit messing with me! Leon?”

Ashley fixed her stare on Leon and he just waved her off with a laugh of his own.

“Nothing, nothing. Let’s just say we don't have to worry about that big guy anymore.”

“What does that even mean?” Ashley huffed and jogged over to the window where Leon escaped from, leaning left and right to try and catch a glimpse of absolutely anything that happened in the slaughterhouse. “You guys never tell me anything.”

That’s because you don't need to know,” Leon rested a hand on Ashley’s shoulder to guide her away from the window. “This fire’s bound to catch their attention. Let’s keep moving.”

“Ok,” Ashley looked longingly after the slaughterhouse as the group began up the road again. “ Uh, Leon? I’m not going to turn into one of them, right?”

Leon looked back at the girl. She looked nearly defeated, anxiously keeping eye contact with him. He looked back to the road and caught Luis’ sad gaze in passing.

“I won’t let that happen. I promise.”

Their attention was taken by the castle up ahead, the stone fortress looming over them. There wasn't any other way for them to go and they needed to keep moving so into the castle it was. Leon hoped they could sneak through or find somewhere to lay low for a while.

The moment they crossed the drawbridge, it began rising, trapping them inside.

“That’s reassuring,” Luis commented. At least they weren’t unwelcome. These people seemed to love having them here if they didn’t want them to leave.

“Well, at least we don't have to worry about being followed.”

——————————————————————————————————

I always underestimate how big action scenes are like this one i was expecting like “oh it’ll just take up a lil bit and then i can go to the castle” but noooooooo it took up half the chapter Ridiculous i love it

<- Previous | Next ->

[my-little-wraithlings]

ED:tG Survivor Tips and Warnings

Since Evil Dead the Game has come to Steam, I've been seeing a lot of new players. And, I love new players but... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, we need to talk about a few things.

I am level 555 in game and here are some tips and tricks to keep your veteran teammates from wanting to fuckin' murder you!

Tip/Warning Number 1!: Do. NOT. shoot before the demon finds you! At the start of game, the demon has no idea where you are. While you are getting the map, do not shoot. The demon can hear literally every ranged weapon and will come find you. They will chase you down and gut you. If you shoot, your teammates are highly likely to run away from you because they want to get as far away from that spot as they can before the demon shows up. So you will most like be alone or left to die.

Tip/Warning 2: Unless you're on mic and have planned it with your teammates ahead of time, do not get in a fuckin' car during the map phase! Demons can see you driving the car and will hunt you down. It's a great way to call the demon to you and get your whole team murdered.

Tip 3: If you are playing Pablo, drink sodas around your teammates for fuck's sake! Pablo has just as much ability to heal the team as any other support (except Cheryl, she heals far more). Shielding is very good but you also need to heal. Especially if there's a Ruby on your team! Because Ruby cannot have shields and need to be healed more.

Tip 4: If you are fighting Eligos and you are a Hunter (the Ranged characters: ED2 Ash, Ed Getly, Amanda, Kelly), do not take a crossbow unless you're really good with it. I don't care what color it is. The aim on them is kinda wonky and the reload is slow. Berserkers are very wiggly, this makes them extremely hard to hit with a crossbow.

Tip 5: Take blunt weapons against Eligos! At the book, you want to be able to stun the possessed elites because they melt the book very quickly. Also, even Hunters need to get up to the book and melee the deadites there in the last 30 seconds to stun enemies as fast as possible so the book doesn't die.

Tip 6: If you have a healer/support (ED1 Ash, Cheryl, Pablo, David, Blacksmith) on your team, make sure to supply them with sodas and amulets so they can keep you in the fight!

Tip 7: If you're a support, don't take any legendary weapons unless the fighters don't want them. Yes, you do reduced damage but you taking the gold weapon is just going to get the team killed.

Tip 8: If you are a Warrior (AoD Ash, Henry, Scotty, Mia), don't fuckin' shoot unless you're de-possessing someone. You have severely reduced ranged weapon damage, meaning guns are useless on you and you'll just end up taking more damage then if you just meleed the deadite. Make sure colored guns go to the hunter or Annie (if you have one).

Tip 9: If you are playing support, do not open chests around Objectives or in places where the demon has been. If there are tiny Ashes inside, they have a high chance of taking your sodas and amulets. Just mark the chests so you teammates can open them for you.

Tip 10: If you're a support and you're fighting a high level Evil Ash, he has a perk that stops healing. If one of your teammates gets slashed with his sword, they will be unable to be healed for several seconds. So, if you drink during that time, you will be wasting a soda! Keep lots of amulets on you for boss fights so you can amulet and protect your teammates while they kill Evil Ash.

Final Tip/Warning: This tip is extremely important! When you are in the Dark One's phase, you need to stick by your Support. Do not run around the dark ones. Just by the support and kill the dark ones. You take a lot of damage during this phase and if you're not close to your team, your support will waste multiple sodas to heal the team that's spread out. This leaves them with no supplies for the book stage. So, stay in a teammate cluster when fighting dark ones. your healer will appreciate it!

-

Now. Go have fun and murder some fuckin' deadites!

Love you all, little wraithlings! ❤️

[pathfinderunlocked]

Magitek Absorption Bit - CR2 Construct

A machine that absorbs and releases magic.

Artwork is an in-game model from Final Fantasy XIV, copyright Square Enix.

The biggest difference between magitek creations in Final Fantasy and clockwork constructs in Pathfinder is the name. Also you have to wind this thing up, I guess.

Giving this enemy a challenge rating at all is kind of misleading. CR 2 is totally accurate if it's fought by itself, and maybe that's an interesting fight for low level characters. But it's mainly designed to be a minion of a boss, protecting the boss from the player's magic spells, and that boss can be almost any level.

If a boss of CR 5 or higher has the standard spell resistance of 11 + CR, you can remove its spell resistance, and instead give it one magitek absorption bit per 5 CR. If you do so, you should treat the boss as the same challenge rating as before, and treat the magitek absorption bits as being worth 0 XP. The result will be a fight where the martial characters have to destroy these bits before the spellcasters are able to cast their favorite save-or-suck spells to instantly end the fight.

If your boss is above level 12, I also made a higher level version, the magitek absorption bit mark II. It'll work better for high level bosses.

I included crafting requirements, but even if you're crazy enough to let your players craft third-party constructs, don't let them craft this. This is for enemies only. Counterspelling one spell per round with no die roll is not a remotely reasonable thing for players to be able to do.

Magitek Absorption Bit - CR 2

This flying iron device glows with internal magic energy that can be seen underneath its armored plating. A small cannon is mounted on the front of it.

XP 600 N Tiny construct (clockwork) Init +7 Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +1

DEFENSE

AC 23, touch 17, flat-footed 18 (+3 Dex, +2 dodge, +6 natural, +2 size) hp 17 (3d10) Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +3 DR 5/adamantine Immune construct traits Weaknesses vulnerable to electricity

OFFENSE

Speed fly 15 ft. (perfect) Ranged assault cannon +8 touch (1d10/x3)

Spell-like Abilities     Constant—resistance

STATISTICS

Str 8, Dex 16, Con —, Int —, Wis 12, Cha 1 Base Atk +3; CMB +0; CMD 15 (cannot be tripped) Feats Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes Skills Fly +15 SQ low hover, runic absorption, swift reactions, winding Gear bullet x30, black powder x30

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Assault Cannon (Ex) A magitek absorption bit has an assault cannon which functions like a two-handed firearm with a range increment of 40 ft. It targets touch AC, has a capacity of 1 bullet in its chamber, misfires on a roll of 1, and requires a standard action to reload. A magitek absorption bit's ammunition and black powder are stored internally and loaded with internal mechanisms.

If a magitek absorption bit's assault cannon becomes broken as a result of a misfire, it can spend a standard action to repair it.

Low Hover (Su) A magitek absorption bit can hover in place without making a fly check, as long as it is no more than 5 ft. above the ground.

Runic Absorption (Su) As an immediate action, when a spell is cast that originates from or targets anything within 40 ft. of a magitek absorption bit, or targets an area that includes an area within 40 ft. of a magitek absorption bit, the magitek absorption bit can nullify the spell. This functions as if the spell was counterspelled, except that it automatically succeeds without needing to identify the spell with a Spellcraft check or make a caster level check.

After a magitek absorption bit nullifies a spell in this way, its next assault cannon attack is treated as a magic weapon, and gains an enhancement bonus to its attack and damage rolls equal to 1 + the spell level of the absorbed spell.

Winding (Ex) Clockwork constructs must be wound with special keys in order to function. A fully wound magitek absorption bit can remain active for 3 days.

Construction

The creator of a magitek absorption bit must start with a musket worth 1500 gp, black powder and bullets worth 330 gp, and crafted clockwork pieces worth 250 gp.

CL 12th; Price 29,080 gp

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Feats Craft Construct, Gunsmithing Spells dispel magic, fly, geas/quest, resistance Caster Level 12th Skill Check(s) Craft (clockwork) DC 20 Cost 15,580 gp Special crafter must not be a player character

[azspot]

In the third and fourth centuries, especially in Germanic areas, it became customary for men to disarm themselves before entering into the sanctuary for worship. The bulk of these weapons were simple wooden clubs — not elegant, but effective as protection against highway bandits and wild animals. Thus, it became common for the back of the church to fill up with a pile of the wooden clubs during services. Gradually, congregants developed a kind of game associated with this practice of leaving these signs of animosity and violence behind them. After services the men would collect all these clubs, pile them together and compete among each other to see who could knock down the most clubs as possible by rolling stones at them. The more clubs knocked over, the more sins the individual was believed to have left behind.

Eventually this contest became more intentional and more organized, ultimately developing into “nine pins” — a bowling game. Knocking down sins turned into a much anticipated pastime on Sunday afternoons. By the time of the Reformation, bowling nine-pins had grown well beyond the church’s “parking lot” to become a hugely popular betting game at taverns and inns. It was Martin Luther’s favorite sport, and he is often credited with being the one to standardize the game of bowling with “nine pins.” Luther loved the symbolism of Christians as “holy bowlers,” enthusiastically bowling over all the sins that kept them from seeking God’s fullness and fulfillment.

When bowling made its way to the United States, it quickly lost all of its religious pedigree and became an exercise in gambling. Local and state legislatures took exception to this activity and passed all sort of laws outlawing the nine-pin bowling sport. But some bright bowler got the idea of replacing the rectangle of nine-pin bowling with the triangle of ten-pin bowling. Hence our modern bowling was born.

What holy bowling do you need to do to keep your life from being grounded? What wrong actions and attitudes need to be removed that are keeping you from going where God is calling you to go? Release the chocks and blocks of your life. Repent and believe.

[bboyplankton]

R&B/Pop/Alternative Albums 2023

Dende - 95' Civic

Tone Stith - P.O.V. - EP

Arin Ray - Phases III - EP

Jungle - Volcano

Chris Brown - 11:11

Elmiene - Marking My Time - EP

Masego - Masego

Sam Smith – Gloria

Phabo - Don't Get Too Cozy

Ama Lou - I Came Home Late

Casper Sage - Synthesis+ - EP

JMSN - Soft Spot

Abby Jasmine - Growing Pains

Emotional Oranges - Still Emo

Vedo - 7

Kenyon Dixon - The R&B You Love

Kyra - as things grow

Rory - I Thought It'd Be Different

Mahalia - IRL (Deluxe)

RAAHiim - But if iiM Honest

Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!

Victoria Monet - Jaguar II

Jorja Smith - falling or flying

Vedo - Mood Swings

Jordan Ward - moreward(Forward)

Austin Millz – Breathwork – EP

Azekel – Analyze Love

Teezo Touchdown – How Do You Sleep At Night?

Rum.gold – U Street Anthology

Sebastian Mikael – Phileo Deluxe – EP

Leon Thomas – Electric Dusk

Brent Faiyaz – Larger Than Life

Jacob Lattimore – Closure – EP

BJ the Chicago Kid – Gravy

Kiana Ledé – Grudges

Sabrina Claudio – Archives & Lullabies

Tay Iwar – Summer Breeze

The Teskey Brothers – The Winding Way

Adi Oasis – Lotus Glow

Ellie Ingram – Bad Behavior

Dende – Before We Crash – EP

Saint Harison – lost a friend – EP

Leonard Charles – Heaven – EP

Raheem Devaughn – The Summer of Love

Sy Ari Da Kid – Toxicity At It’s Finest

Omarion – Full Circle: Sonic Book 1

Jane Handcock – World of Women

Khamari – A Brief Nirvana

BLK ODYSSY – Diamonds & Freaks

Elhae – Forotten Flowers

Ambré – who’s loving you? – EP

Noah Guy – Who’s Taken Time?! (Act II) – EP

Chase Shakur – it’s not you, it’s me…it’s love

6lack – Since I Have A Lover

Burna Boy – I Told Them…

Majid Jordan – Good People

Cleo Sol – Gold

Alexis Ffrench – Christmas Piano with Alexis

Terrace Martin & Alex Isley – I Left My Heart In…

Baby Rose – Through & Through

THEY. – Nü Moon

Eric Bellinger – 1(800)HIT-EAZY: Line 2

Jozzy – Songs for Women, Free Game for Niggas (Deluxe)

Diddy – The Love Album: Off the Grid

Paramore – This Is Why

October London – The Rebirth of Marvin

Romy Dya – Transformation – EP

Buju Banton – Born for Greatness

Fall Out Boy – So Much (For) Stardust

Kali Uchis – Red Glow in Venus

Destin Conrad – Submissive

Mariah the Scientist – To Be Eaten Alive

Queen Naija – After the Butterflies – EP

Justine Skye – Dark Side

Maeta – When I Hear Your Name

Love Moor – Love – EP

Valerie Omari – Closure – EP

Mannywellz – Mr. Olúlala – EP

Xenia Manasseh – Love/Hate Pt. 1

Cedric Brazle – …What I Know Now – EP

Selah Sue – Persona (Deluxe)

Ciara – CiCi

Tinashe – BB/Ang3l

Idman – Risk: Reloaded

ATSN – Where Do We Go From Here?

Destra – Unchained

Chiiild – Better Luck In The Next Life

Biako – Feelings Happen

Jastin Martin – Miss Me Yet?

Daniel Caesar – Never Enough (Bonus Version)

Tink – Thanks 4 Nothing

Sekou – Out of Mind – EP

Roy Woods – Mixed Emotions

Terrace Martin & James Fauntleroy – Nova – EP

Forest Claudette – Everything Was Green – EP

Musiq Soulchild & Hit-Boy – Victims & Villains

Traetwothree – Long Story Short – EP

Kevin Ross – Midnight Microdose, Vol. 1 – EP

Lavi$h – You Made A Big Mistake

Chlöe – In Pieces

Cleo Sol – Heaven

Kaleem Taylor – Ember

Adrian Dzvuke – Don’t Worry About It Sweetheart – EP

Devon Gilfillian – Love You Anyway

Nonso Amadi – When It Blooms

Ellie Goulding – Higher Than Heaven (Deluxe)

Brandy – Christmas with Brandy

King Sis – Pendulum – EP

Ebony Riley – ebony – EP

Lojay – Gangster Romantic

Popcaan – Great Is He

Jean Deaux – Heavy

TheARTI$t – ARTchives

Cisco Swank – More Better

Winny – Winny

Yung Bleu – Love Scars II

Hamzaa & 1srael – Rush – EP

Tim Lyre – MASTA

Kevin Ross – Midnight Microdose, Vol. 2 – EP

Ed Sheeran – - (Deluxe)

Saleka – Séance

Gorillaz – Cracker Island

James Blake – Playing Robots Into Heaven

Joya Mooi – What’s Around the Corner

Safe – Safe & Sound

Dinner Party – Enigmatic Society

Yakul – Outlines – EP

T-Pain – On Top of The Covers

Omah Lay – Boy Alone (Deluxe)

Angie Stone – Love Language

Jon Batiste – World Radio Music

Summer Walker – Clear 2: Soft Life – EP

PinkPanthress – Heaven Knows

Amari Noelle – Take II

Cee-Lo Green & Jack Splash – Serious – EP

Ed Sheeran – Autumn Variations

Mac DeMarco – 5 Easy Hot Dogs

Sabrina Carpenter – emails I can’t send fwd:

Arlo Parks – My Soft Machine (Deluxe)

Laufey – Bewitched

Keke Palmer – Big Boss

Jayda G – Guy

Gracie Abrams – Good Riddance

J. Brown – The Art of Making Love

Wanmor – WanMor

[tarmac-rat]

1, 6 and 7 for Riley? :3

>:3

Demons of War: Is there a job that has left a permanent mark on your OC?

I once composed a made-up job for Riley's canon fic that basically borrowed on the concept of "what if two gigs by two different fixers unknowingly intersected?" and yeah, that one was right before her breaking point, so she's not taking any of the aftermath of that very well. It's probably some of my favorite Johnny + V dialogue I've ever written and basically has her confronting her own mortality and beliefs head on in a way she never really has before. Bad night for Riles, I can say that much.

More canon gigs that really left an impact on her were Backs Against the Wall (the whiplash of thinking she could reason with Hare vs. the aftermath of trying? She went to a bar straight after), Dirty Biz (kids are a really big 'off limits' point for her, and she went in firing on all cylinders basically), Family Matters (given she has a brother, that gig ended up prodding a very big open wound for her), and most recently The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman (Riley has killed a lot of people in a lot of ways for a lot of reasons, but very rarely has she committed an execution like that. That was another all-night bar trip), though that one I don't consider canonical.

Bloody Ritual: Does your OC have any pre or post mission rituals or superstitions?

Riley'll review the gig parameters several times and make sure she has exactly two extra speed reloaders/magazines for her sidearm in her bag. Once the Relic progresses a little faster, she'll smoke a cigarette or two while she's doing it. Post-gig, she'll probably stop at the Afterlife to drink or sometimes mingle, but if it's a bad gig she'll just beeline to whatever liquor purveyor is closest lol

Discount Doc: Is your OC good at improvising? Would they survive a mission under prepared?

Riley's very quick on her feet but it only translates to action and not speech lol. She's good at improvising weapons and small on-the-fly plans of action when she has a beat to think, so if it's a physical altercation she'll usually manage to recover. If it's something verbal? God, she's such a goner. She's a pretty horrible liar and it somehow gets even worse when she's caught unawares about something, so anything that needs to rely on her words (or worse: her charisma) is going to crash and burn in flames if she needs to start going off the script.