#also i tried to make a very large difference in neatness of quills between them

[raayuie]

Double Trouble!!

[writernomore]

Two sides of the same coin.

Alright! So this is how it’s gonna go, I thought of this little somewhat scenario in my head with an Oc of mine, Where she’s like a long lost sister of Harry Potter where there is this prophecy about twins being separated and brought back together when the situation goes dire.

Summary: Y/n Brighton adopted daughter of a Muggle family has been accepted into Hogwarts a school for wizards and witches has lived a peaceful life before going to Hogwarts, all of that changes when she is accepted the same year as the infamous Harry Potter.

How did your life get to this point?

Your wondering Y/n what do you mean?

Well I’ll tell, I was living quite a normal boring life that held the same routine and would only switch up time to time.

It all changed when I had received a letter, It was weird cause my parents were talking about me going to a private school, the schools name was Hogwarts it was really peculiar because I had never heard of it, and so did my parents, so we wrote back hoping to receive an explanation, we asked and we received.

Hogwarts was a school for young wizards and witches being taught magic, I wasn’t buying it but then weird stuff happened to me I when I would be scared or angry.

I then decided to learn what I can, buying books that contained things that I needed to know about magic, famous wizards and witches, and since I was adopted my biological parents were probably magical like me.

Excitedly going to Diagon alley to buy what I needed with my Family alongside with me, fully supporting me, My older brothers calling me cool and asking if I could do cool tricks like the wizards in games and movies did, My little siblings looking up to me and proud for having a witch for a sister.

There was also news that spread really fast through out the wizarding world about the boy who lived, Harry Potter.

Harry Potter, was only a baby when Voldemort or people call him you-know-who but you really didn’t see the point by calling him that, decided to kill Harry and his family, Harry’s parents were murdered but Harry survived but didn’t leave unscathed, He had a lightning shaped scar on his forehead.

I don’t know if that was pure coincidence but you also had a scar in a shape of a star on the side of your neck.

Your Mother had told you before hand to be careful because she heard that Voldemort was only gone for a while and we wouldn’t know when or if he’d come back, so you promised your Mother you would write to her updating your situation in Hogwarts every weekend, knowing you would stay in dorms at school.

Your parents cried when they saw you in your school uniform and robes at  Madam Malkin's Robes, your brothers bothering them if they could try on the uniform to, causing you to giggle.

It was then you were there at King’s cross station, parked at the front and getting your luggage and your owl out of the car with the help of your siblings and Father while Mother carried your new born Baby brother and sister.

You asked as how you were going to get on to platform 9 and 3/4 before hand, You and your whole family running at the wall between platform 9 and 10.

The train was magnificent, after exchanging goodbye’s and kisses your luggage was placed into the train and you were now finding a compartment to sit in, it was all full.

You were passing by a compartment when you heard a familliar name.

“Holy Cricket you must be Harry Potter!” You heard a girls voice.

“I’m Hermione Granger and...you are?”

“Um, Ronald Weasley” “Pleasure”

You shook your head and just continued to walk around finding a place to sit for a while and change into your uniform and robes.

The train had stop meaning you were at the station, going outside seeing a giant bearded man approached the station holding a lamp calling the first years to him, being you who had to behave because her parents weren’t around and clearly not knowing anyone, you obeyed and followed the 8 foot giant.

The travel going to Hogwarts was fascinating travelling by boat with four people each in it.

Then there you stood, getting out of the boat being presented in front of a large castle, Holy.

You were guaranteed you were going to get lost, and this was no mall, this was going to be the school you would be studying in for 7 years, they definitely would be having a map lying around, right? Like the castle was massive! 

The inside was fascinating in itself, It looked so grand ascending at the staircase you were met with a woman with Her hair tide up into a neat bun wearing a green robe and glasses.

She introduces herself to be one of the professors in Hogwarts, Professor Mcgonagall and that we would be sorted into houses that would be like our families, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.

She leaves us there for a while when this blonde kid speaks,

“So it’s true what they’re saying in the train, Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts” Others start whispering to each other while you on the other side just wanna get sorted and sleep, standing for a while having an effect on you.

“I’m Malfoy, Draco Malfoy” Ron snorts “You think my name is funny do you? Red Hair, Freckles, and a hand me down robe, you must be a Weasley” Draco said while he looked Ron up and Down “You see some wizarding families are more well off then others, you don’t want to be making friends with the wrong sort” “I think I can tell the wrong sort myself thank you” Draco surprised looked at Harry while other children snickering from behind, While you get Hangry wouldn’t care less.

The Professor Mcgonagall comes back to lead us to the Great hall where there were other students seated at four different tables in different colored robes assuming that’s why they had to sort us in houses.

You opened you eyes and looked up at the ceiling widening in awe on how beautiful it looked, the night sky on the ceiling of the hall, remembering it wasn’t real and that it was made to look like that in A Hogwarts History.

The first years stopped walking and a four legged stool was placed at the front where the teachers and students could see you being sorted into your house, you were not a social lot, or nor you were unsocial you just didn’t like the feeling of many eyes staring at you.

Professor Mcgonagall rolled out a scroll that had a list of names, students were called and seated on the stool and the sorting hat would be sorted into their houses.

Your name was called; Y/n Brighton.

Y/n sat down on the stool and tried to shake off the feeling of eyes watching her when the hat landed on her head and covered her eyes she could finally be sorted into a house and get this thing over with to stop the feeling of everyone's eyes boring into her.

"Ah..Yes.. Difficult very Difficult there's so much potential and a mystery waiting to be solved of your origins.." origins? You thought wondering what the hat meant by that.

"You are cunning, intelligent creative too..you could do pleanty of wonders better it would be.."

The hat stalls for a while deciding what House to sort you in, You just wanted to be sorted into a house any house, you just wanted to get down form there, nothing bad will happen anyways if you were sorted into a unexpected house, "SLYTHERIN!" The sorting hat shouts, the Slytherin table bustling having a new member on their side, the sorting hat was taken off your head and you jumped off the stool and walked to the Slytherin table.

You sat down and were still hanging onto what the sorting hat meant by ‘ a mystery waiting to be solved of your origins’  What did he mean? is it cause I’m adopted?

After the sorting ceremony and a speech we all went to eat, I was waiting for this I was starving the food was good and delicious It was like home.

*-* 

You were completely lost!

It was surely a stupid idea but you just followed the person in front of you, hoping you would get to where you were going.

And as stupid as it may seem it worked? You got to potions class and coincidently sat next to famous Harry Potter.

You got out your book and turned to the page Professor instructed the class to turn to and began discussing.

Next to you Harry was writing down stuff, you put your hand on top of his a signal for him to stop writing, and he did.

He looked up at you confused then you shaked your head and pointed at Snape’s direction, he looked at him and just put his quill down, you retreating your hand to listen in on the lecture.

Let’s just say you saved him one by telling him to stop writing.

It was time for Broom flight class, and boy this was going to be terrifying.

Don’t get me wrong flying brooms sounds cool and all but not when you were afraid of falling of the broom and hitting your head and forgetting who you are and who your family were and-

Okay! No overthinking! Overthinking is bad it restricts you in doing things properly...

There you were skillfully flying on your broom doing loopty loops with some struggles with your grip on the broom, it was like the broom had a mind of it’s own but you were still holding on.

No-one was clearly paying attention cause they were watching Harry getting Neville’s remembrall back.

He got it back, yes, But he was called by Professor Mcgonagall.

You went back down so you wouldn’t be scolded, a kid did complimented your little tricks, you thanked them.

It would be hard to make such an image if you were in the same year as Harry Potter.

So you took the chance of just doing well with your new subjects and learn and understand as much as you can.

Your Y/n Brighton after all!

Or where you?

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

You don’t know how excited I am to do this series I’ve had this idea for a while now and I just want to hope you guys will like this series, yes a series, for how long? I do not know, Have I already thought who would be Y/n’s love interest? Yes and there will be no love interest cause Y/n is an independent queen who always speaks her mind and will never be shut up.

Also I would like to think reader would look like Lily and has red hair but has James eyes, Like Harry looking like his Father but has his Mothers eyes, also I guess I’ll be putting stuff I learnt about when I started reading the Harry Potter books, I haven’t finished but it’s better than not being able to read it yet and I had to make reader be sorted into Slytherin cause #Normalizesiblingsindifferenthouses.

[theflashdriver]

Trial by Flyer (A Silvaze AU)

The campus was dark and silent tonight, the wind wasn’t whistling through the trees and what little star and moonlight would have shone its way to her was being blocked out by a thick wall of clouds. Blaze the cat, age sixteen, shouldn’t have been out here at so late an hour. Midnight had just passed, the witching hour had arrived, and yet, this feline witch was supposed to be long in bed. Instead, where was she? Sat at the bottom step of the outdoor amphitheatre, fingers steepled and her right foot tapping uncontrollably as she awaited her best friend.

The Marble Garden School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a place of learning only for the chosen few and, as such, there were many serious rules that were mandatory to abide by. There were a multitude of simple rules that, if broken, could result in a severe punishment of expulsion; girls weren’t supposed to enter the boys’ dormitories (and vice versa), you weren’t allowed to cast nefarious spells on other students, there were to be no paid additional studies and, the rule that Blaze was currently breaking, all students had to be in their respective dormitory buildings before eleven at night. Just being out here was making her anxious, quadrupling her heartrate and making even the most minor of sounds all the more terrifying.

Blaze was a good student, well… a mostly good student; a good student as much as she could control being a good student. While she rarely raised her hand in class, only answering questions when she was called upon, she listened diligently to her lecturers, studied all she’d learned thoroughly every night, shirked social and extracurricular opportunities and took additional time at the library whenever possible. She put in more effort than any other student she knew of, that wasn’t a matter of pride so much as a fact that her teachers wouldn’t stop reminding her of. Whenever she did well on a test or whenever they wanted to give an example of a good student, her name would quickly fall from their lips followed by a heaping of praise.

Yet, despite all the praise she received and how good of a student she was, here the feline sat; so casually breaking curfew. It was as if she was trying to be caught even, a heavy bag sat beside her and she was dressed in the garb that she’d chosen as her uniform- a tall hat with a golden buckle and belt adorned her head ita long sleeved purple dress that frilled out at the cuffs and hem covered her body only to be topped by a purple-leather mantle, a set of thick purple tights with golden swirls decorating them and a pair of high heeled boots to match. The only aspect of her dress that wasn’t purple and gold were her gloves, stark white evening gloves that reached deeply into her sleeves. If she was seen, for a plain an outfit she’d tried to pick (from a very limited list of options) she’d be recognised on sight; a fact that was making it all the harder to not just run back to her-

A voice suddenly assumed the entirety of her mind’s attention, not entering through her ears but jumping directly into her brain, “Blaze! I’m so sorry, I’m running a little late. The groundskeeper was cleaning a mess outside the boy’s dorms, I had to sneak out through the window. I won’t be much longer!”

Quickly, Blaze raised her pointer fingers to the air and set their tips alight. Intricately, methodically, she traced a pair of intricate and overlapping sigils in the air and closed her eyes. The moment they were completed, she brought those fingers to her temples and thought in the loudest voice possible, “Silver. It is okay, I am glad you were not caught. I am waiting at the agreed location, please come quickly. Did you remember your notebook?”

A moment passed but no reply came.

Her fingers left her temples and her eyes flickered open but the symbols she’d cast had already faded from the air. A sigh slipped from her mouth as she recrossed her legs and resumed waiting, uncertain that her message had left her, let alone reached its intended reciprocate. He wasn’t that late, and the boy’s dormitories weren’t too far from the amphitheatre, but every second spent out her left more chance that they’d be caught. The moment he arrived, they could achieve the motive of their rule-breaking and quickly sneak back to their respective rooms.

Oh, who was she kidding; this wasn’t going to go nearly as quickly as she hoped.

It was as she had that thought that a twinkling of light, like a small cluster of stars had managed to split through the clouds, drew her attention. She looked up, frowning hard at the glow as she attempted to identify it; as it drew closer, she understood it to be the form she was awaiting. Silver the hedgehog, also age sixteen, was descending from the sky as though he was carried by a moonbeam; wrapped in cyan, psychic, light, his form was difficult but not impossible to distinguish. Before he arrived, the feline jumped to her feet and dusted herself off, quickly scanning their surroundings to make certain no one else had been watching them. He landed without a sound; standing next to her, still coated in energy, his height only just superseded hers due to the nature of his tall quills. If she wasn’t wearing heels of course, the different between them would be far clearer.

With the flaring of his fingers, the light faded from him but that new sight entirely perplexed Blaze. She’d noticed his lack of hat, thus being why she wasn’t presently taller than him, but not the lack of his other garb. Silver stood before her, dressed in a short-sleeved green t-shirt and a pair of baggy pyjama trousers.

“Silver,” She half whispered half grumbled, trying to keep her voice down but make it clear that she was perturbed, “Where are your robes, where is your notebook?”

His bright yellow eyes seemed to dance for a moment, looking to her before down to his own frame. As a realisation hit, his quills shot up straight and a hint of embarrassment overcame his muzzle, “Sorry, I forgot to drop the charm. I figured I’d be too bright if I tried to scout a path dressed normally, give me a moment.”

Like a chimneysweep dusting soot from his body, the symbols on his palms flaring, Silver began to pat himself down. With no more than those touches, he unearthed the outfit that he’d hidden- he wore open robes with flaring sleeves (cut with a keyhole window that exposed the upper portion of his chest fur), a set of baggy trousers and some thick boots with metal caps. That description made the outfit seem basic but, in truth, it was anything but that; head to toe, Silver glowed with a strange bioluminescence that matched the symbols on his hands. Scales and lines like mycelia flared additional light from seemingly random points on his person, forming jagged lines both across and up his visage. In some places it made sense, like on the buttons of his mantle and hemming his clothes, but in others it seemed nonsensical.

To conclude this transformation, he slicked his fingers through his quills and revealed what Blaze thought to be the most ludicrous cap worn by any student in this entire school. As if to compensate for the muting of his own overgrown quills, often having to be pulled back into a braid or ponytail, Silver’s choice of hat was so tall that its point had bent not three days beyond his arrival at this school. It was faintly glowing and cyan, alike the rest of his garb, but the underside of its large rim especially so. It looked as though his head was topped with a large, bioluminescent, mushroom cap with incredibly bright gills.

Reaching into his robes, he drew out his notebook and beamed at her, eyes still shining even while his hat tried its damnedest to obscure them, “There, is that better?”

Realising quite how intently she’d been staring at this magical display, Blaze quickly turned away and busied herself within her bag; though she’d thoroughly enjoyed the display, he was eating up their time. Under her breath, half hoping he didn’t hear, she murmured, “You’re so naïve.”

She pulled out her own notebook, flipping it open to her most recent writings. In a cursive, neat and elegant, font were two pages of heavily sourced notes pertaining to the history and practice of future prediction and other sorts of divination magic. She managed to walk beside him, still not looking to him, and show him the pages.

“These should help you start your essay, at the very least. All these books are available in the library but, if they’re taken out, I have my own copies that you can borrow,” She tapped one name in particular, “Look out for books and stories by and about her in particular, Amelia Rose. Her works are a lot older but, while I find them too flowery, they’re a very good source.”

She dared to throw a glance in his direction only to find him staring at the pages as if the several dozen names and notes were going in one of his ears and out the other. His words seemed to leave some kind of impact on him though as he managed to nod at them, “Amelia Rose, Amelia Rose, okay!” Blaze went to tear the two sheets free for him to slot into his own book, but a fumbling hand caught hers before he could, “Don’t worry about that, you need to write this essay too, right?” She looked to him incredulously only for him to start beaming again, “I learned a new spell, watch this!”

He shuffled his way just behind her, reaching around her shoulders. As if it was the most normal thing in the world, Silver plopped his notebook face town atop hers Almost immediately, Blaze felt her tail stiffen and bump against him as his arms came to rest atop his and his frame pushed so close to hers. Two of his fingers pushed against the back of both his pad’s covers and began to weave small circles. They traced from top left to right, gradually going along and down line after line after line. She watched as sparks of excess cyan energy, that which the book didn’t absorb, slipped from beneath his fingers and fluttered in the air before them. Quickly, the tenseness in her tail faded and she felt herself relax into his grasp, but she wasn’t thinking about that. She was simply enamoured by whatever it was he was doing.

So enamoured in fact that when he flipped his book in a single movement, uttering an overly pleased, “Tada!” It took Blaze a moment to come to her senses and realise what he’d done. Her words, her exact handwriting, had been copied onto the pages of his book. He’d learned this spell specifically so that she didn’t have to duplicate her notes for him, her notes could simply duplicate themselves.

“You’re so…” She went to reprimand for acting without explaining, for allowing his talent to swallow the entirety of her attention again, only to notice something comically foolish, “Your book was upside-down…”

“W-What? Oh, um…” He lifted it from hers, stepping out from behind her and squinting at the writing incredulously, “It’ll still work for studying though, right?”

“It should do,” She comforted him, but at the showing of his notebook a question rose to mind, “Did you get my message earlier?”

“Oh, yeah! You’re getting way better at telepathy Blaze,” He was smiling again, “You said it was ok and to come quickly, right?”

Ah, so the end of her message had been cut off. Her casting, even of that basic spell, was still far from perfect… unlike his.

While Blaze excelled at all things theoretical, she could easily write essay upon essay and was quick to learn that which she heard or could read, Silver was a master of practical magic. Without really understanding what he was doing, the hedgehog frequently found himself successfully casting spells on a whim and without particularly understanding their idiosyncrasies. To contrast this, despite putting in an equal amount of effort as her, Silver was especially bad at deskwork; he’d attempt to answer teacher’s questions and routinely be incorrect as well as, despite weeks of study, barely earn passing grades in written exams. Curiously enough, just as she mirrored his written ability, Blaze was lacking when it came to practical magical talent. When it came to offensive spells and fire magic, she was fairly adept at casting but anything beyond that seemed to be out of her reach. Telepathy was one of the first spells they’d been taught, and she still couldn’t transmit full thoughts, only brief fragments; abjuration, conjuration, transmutation and illusionary techniques, outside of only the most basic, were beyond her.

One would think that, for those reasons, the two wouldn’t get along but they’d formed a strong bond in their first year. It’d been very obvious to Blaze that the hedgehog was struggling, he wore his heart on his sleeve in such a blatant way, and she had taken some degree of pity on him. That pity had soon been corrupted by a mutual admiration of course, even during their first year (3 years ago) he’d shown such magnificent talent, and that admiration had forged the bonds of their friendship. They looked after each other, helped each other wherever possible and promised to come to the other for help… just as she had offered an exchange and asked him to break some rules tonight. She’d thought she’d have to beg but he’d agreed without hesitating.

“So, Friday’s test…” She led, knowing that day was only one more night away, “I know this is a little short notice, I thought I could maybe do this myself, but-

A pair of hands found hers, palm topped palm as her fingers held her tight.

“We help each other, Blaze. There’s nothing to worry about,” She caught his eye again and knew that he was being genuine, “Of course I’ll teach you to fly!”

Blaze’s gaze slipped from Silver. Her stomach was churning, it felt as though the world was spinning, the mere mention of that word and all it implied made her slightly sick. On Friday, they had their first real test of this semester- a flying obstacle course set up on the sports grounds, a small path that they had to complete. Even outside her difficulty casting a spell that would allow her to fly, Blaze had a rather significant fear of heights; when she’d arrived at her dorm room within the girl’s tower she’d almost panicked at the view from her window. For this reason, while other students had made the extracurricular effort to learn flight, Blaze had only just started to learn. She’d tried to find the right spell for her over the past few weeks, researching thoroughly, but none of them had worked with her specific type of magic.

“Alright, th-thank you Silver,” She managed to glance at him again, only to find that he’d leaned in closer, “What do you think the first step is?”

Silver’s hands slipped from hers, he fumbled with his chest fur in thought for a moment, “Well, it’s probably best to start at the beginning; you need to take off. From there, it’s just learning to control yourself; that gets way easier with practice!”

“Right, taking off…” She considered, still rather disgusted, “How would you recommend I do that? I don’t think your method will work for me.”

As if to exemplify why his method wouldn’t work, a gentle hue of cyan light overtook Silver’s frame and carried him into the air. He flipped to hover upside down, looking her in the eye as he sunk deeper into thought, “Probably not…” His eyes seemed to dance across her body, lingering on her hands before finishing at her feet, “I’ve been thinking about this for a while, you can make fire come from anywhere, right?”

With no more than a thought, Blaze allowed a pair of flaming plumes to emerge from her shoulders and dance in the windless night before having them vanish and growing a set of vague flame-wings, “Anywhere on my body, as much as I can muster.”

“Well…” He looked like what he was about to say was foolish, “What if you made yourself like a rocket? What if you shot fire from the bottom of your feet and pushed yourself into the air?”

It was, it was very foolish, “Silver, even if I could do that, it’d be incredibly unstable and almost impossible to balance. If my top half leaned over then I’d fly in just about any direction, I could race to the ground like a falling star.”

“I thought about that too!” He beamed, “What if you used your hands to make almost… stabilisers? Like what people put on a bike so they don’t fall over, only for flying.”

For as ridiculously as he’d phrased it, that was a fairly succinct counter to her issue. There was however a magnitude of issues still both swirling in her gut and with his plan, “Ok, but that presupposes that I can even make enough thrust to lift myself, Silver. I really doubt that I can…”

“Oh, have you tried before? Darn, I really thought it’d work…” He went back to thinking, almost seeming to scan her body again, but those words had made Blaze’s mind even more of a mess.

Her gaze broke from his and she hesitated again, looking at her hands and conjuring small flames. The rate with which flame emerged from her was something she could control but she’d never truly thought to, “Not really, no.”

“You haven’t? Can we try it then?” Her uncertainty must have been showing because he flitted back around, looking her in the eye, “I’ll stay right next to you, I won’t let you fall, I promise!”

She gulped, “Do you?” It was a question she already knew the answer to but worry was brewing in her gut.

“Of course, I’m here to help you, Blaze!” He insisted, preparing her arms as if she was already about to catch her, “I would never let you down.”

“Ok,” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, “I’ll give it a shot…”

Blaze was rather unsure what to do with herself to become more aerodynamic, but she gave it her best. She pushed her heels together but kept her toes far apart, keeping her hands parallel but separate to her waist with her palms pointed towards the ground. Lighting a flame was easy, she had just done it with a thought, but producing a constant and controlled flame would be just a little bit harder. She focused her attention on the underside of her boots and centre of her palms, trying to pool all of her arcana evenly over those four spots.

A thought dawned upon her, “Should I I just let it go or should I jump and do it from the air?”

“T-Try just letting it go,” Silver’s voice cut through her focus, “It looks like you’re doing rea-

A single lapse in her concentration was all it took. As Blaze was trying to focus on his words, the seal keeping her flames from spilling free lapsed. A thunderous force, larger than any Blaze had tried to conjure before, burst from all of four of her extremities with an unrelenting roar and launched her straight up into the air. The moment she opened her eyes, Blaze was met with cloud but soon they passed and cracked to reveal an unending array of stars dancing around the moon. For a single moment, as her eyes lingered on the shining crescent above, she felt joy; she’d done what she thought impossible, she’d successfully taken off… but she was still soaring.

There was no ceiling to stop her and, much more terrifyingly, no safety net beneath her. She’d shot off without warning, she had no idea how fast she’d flown or what kind of noise she was making. It was possible she’d woken up the whole campus, it was probable that one of the nightguards had noticed! She was going to get them in so much trouble! As she glanced around herself in an attempt to find Silver, she forgot how important the positioning of her palms was and sent herself into an upwards corkscrew. Now spiralling, her hat having long fallen from her head, Blaze fought to regain control but soon found herself spinning on more than one axis.

Her focus and control waned, the fire at her limb’s ends snuffed and soon she reached the apex of her ascent. For the briefest of moments, she felt weightless, having tumbled up to mingle with the stars, but she very quickly found herself plummeting. With the wind rushing around her frame, Blaze couldn’t relight her form and, even if she could, her feet and hands were in such wrong positions.

She started to scream, the sound had just begun to leave her lips, when something soft found her back and hooked around the underside of her legs. She couldn’t have fallen for half a metre before that gentle touch had found her and brought them both to a standstill in the air. Lit by the moon more than his powers; Silver’s smile was huge and his eyes sparkled down at her. She’d landed in his arms; he was holding her back and beneath her legs, clutching her close to his body in an attempt to secure her. His face, his smile, it was all so close; she couldn’t recall anyone else ever looking at her like this, especially not after she failed.

“Are you alright? Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” He insisted, but before she could say a word his smile almost tripled, “You did it Blaze! You flew!”

“I-It was more like I exploded! Don’t be so naïve!” She tore her gaze from him only to be confronted by their current height. Despite her blush and false-fury, Blaze was forced to meet his gaze, “Don’t act like that was a success!”

“What’re you talking about, you took off!” He sounded so excited, “You managed to learn that so quickly, I was sure it’d be the hardest part, the rest should be a cinch!”

She felt him shift just a little, something popped into the corner of her vision; a certain black hat that’d been lost in her flight. Snatching it, simultaneously gripping him tight with her remaining arm, she used the garment to hide her face, “Stop being so naïve…it’s not going to be that easy.”

A brief silence overcame them and Blaze found herself shrinking further into her hat and, almost by mistake, deeper into his arms. Over the past handful of months, Blaze had been catching herself in these positions more and more often; every single time she had only herself to blame, though she’d usually berate him for his part in them. They’d be studying in the library, sitting side by side as they read, and her head would just so happen to find comfort on his shoulder, or they’d be walking across campus and she’d, eventually, notice that their fingers had intertwined. Prior to this year, Blaze hadn’t thought much of these occurrences, they’d just sort of happened, but idle gossip, fresh from the girl’s common room, had made her far more aware of these things.

Silver’s talent hadn’t gone unnoticed by their lecturers or, as Blaze had come to learn, their classmates. The bizarre bubbling sickness that Blaze had experienced when another student had expressed interest in the hedgehog and pried about their relationship was unlike anything she’d felt prior. Though she’d wanted to deny the rumour, she’d found herself entirely unable to.

Hesitantly, she flicked up the brim of her hat for a small glance at him. Despite her prior rudeness, he looked entirely unphased; the wizard in training was simply looking up at the sky and smiling, taking in the stars. The way the night-light seemed to colour his fur, let alone the expression it managed to put on his face, was just a little dazzling. It’d taken her a while to really understand it, but there was something rather… aesthetically pleasing about his form. Nothing she ever planned to admit aloud of course, especially not to him, but after that girl had mentioned it, the changes he’d undergone over the years and the way his eyes sparkled did make for a rather pleasing visage (even despite his silly robes).

Realising that she’d been thinking for much too long and noticing him turning back in her direction, Blaze quickly made a demand, “I want to try again.”

“Whenever you’re ready, I’m ready,” He affirmed, still smiling as his gaze returned to her, “You can stand on my feet if you want. That way you’d be up straight, it might help you get used to this.”

“It means I’ll be free of this embarrassing position, I’m willing to try anything,” She huffed but, moments later, caught herself and realised what she’d said. He was trying his best to help her, he probably didn’t even think this was embarrassing, “You’ll still… hold me, won’t you?”

“I won’t let go until you tell me too, I promise,” The hedgehog pledged.

She shifted in his grasp, clinging tightly to his shoulders, and, ever so gently, he slipped his hold from her legs. It took a little bit of fumbling but, eventually, she managed to perch herself on the tips of his boots. Despite how painful it’d surely be if they were on the ground, this change of position didn’t seem to bring him any discomfort as he glided his remaining free hand around her back.

The young witch peered over his shoulder and her gaze fell upon the thick cloud barrier beneath them. Up here, no lecturers or other students could see them; they were alone with the night’s celestial bodies. Though being above the clouds did frighten her, the fact that they couldn’t see the ground was making things a lot easier. She knew that Silver wouldn’t let her fall, she believed in his abilities, but having that a fluffy-fake ground beneath them was doing her a world of good. Gradually, she managed to shift some of the tension from her shoulders and hold him in a less life-or-death manner.

He seemed to notice the shift, “Alright, maybe you should start with your feet? That way we can keep holding each other.”

That made sense but, truth be told, letting go seemed a little easier than stepping off and into the abyss, “One foot at a time?” She hesitantly suggested.

“Try to use just enough energy to lift you but not to change how high you fly,” Silver recommended, “Once you’ve figured that out once, you should understand how it feels and be able to do it again.”

Blaze heaved a shallow breath and closed her eyes, “Okay… okay…”

She leant back just a little, allowing her left foot to depart from his frame. It took no more than a thought for her to produce a small flame but that would not provide enough thrust to keep her afloat. Slowly, gradually applying more power to her newfound thruster, Blaze felt precarious half of her body begin to shit up and away from the anchored half. Working down and up in smaller and smaller increments, she sought equilibrium for what must have been minutes before finally finding something close to it. She focused on the feeling of flames flowing freely from her heel, their exact measure and rate as well as the small pressure being put upon her knee and the greater one on the arch of her foot.

Once she’d held it for a few moments, she dared to open her eyes and look to Silver, “I think it’s time for the right one. Could you…” She hated the only way that she could think to phrase this, “Hold me a little tighter.”

Silver, without even hesitating, moved his hands to grasp the robes above her shoulder blades. The look in his eyes reinforced his prior promise and gave her all the motivation she needed. Her right foot left his boot and, though the shift in weight made her dip just a little, with its ignition, it was easy to make it match her left. Blaze found herself to be hovering, hanging in the sky by her own accord.

When she managed to tear her eyes from her boots, she found that his smile had tripled in size, “You’re doing it Blaze!”

“Sh-Shush,” She hissed, feeling herself grow redder as more flames sputtered from her soles, “I’m trying to concentrate.”

The feline took a moment; shifting the ball of her foot seemed to allow for a degree of dexterity on her part- if she angled her shoe correctly then the flames would correspond and allow her to drift. Slowly, gradually, Blaze managed to bring herself to circle the hedgehog and bring him to spin on the spot. Every time she dared to glance at him, she found an even greater look of amazement on his face. Eventually, finally, she decided to halt her practice.

“I think I’m ready,” She decided.

Silver simply nodded and, clearly trying not to disturb her, released the tension at his fingertips but did not shift his hands; he left that final move entirely up to her.

She slowly slipped from beneath his fingers but, just when as his arm were about to fall to his sides, dared to grasp his right hand, “I still want you to stay close though.”

Her movements were made more awkward and slow by her lack of an anchoring point but, soon, the two of them were gliding together. With each passing second of flight, as she acclimatised herself and grew accustomed to the movements, she felt the heavy iron ball in her gut gradually shrink. She refused to let herself think this was fun, especially not while she was holding his hand so tightly, but she did permit herself an internal admission that this wasn’t entirely awful. Skating over a sea of clouds, surrounded by starlight and hand in hand with her best friend? It was very difficult to think of this as awful, even if not seeing the ground was a huge part of it.

Tentatively, trying something new, Blaze managed to turn and face him while still flying in the same direction.

The shift came with a small increase in speed but Blaze took that in stride, “Is there anything you think I should try, Silver?”

“Well, the test is supposed to be fairly simple, it’s just a little obstacle course. It focuses on manoeuvring through the air…” He mused aloud before, in a serious tone, making a foolish suggestion, “If you’re alright with separating, we could play a game of tag?”

It was a childish proposition or, at least, that was Blaze’s first thought. Her second thought was far more positive though as she realised what his suggestion implied, his natural talent and experience flying meant that he could already soar to the academy’s standards. If she could even just follow his path then, surely, that meant she would pass too. There was only one problem- she’d have to separate from him.

Blaze brought herself to a halt, allowing her thumb to glide over his knuckles, “If I call out, I know you’ll come and catch me…” Something about this, assumedly the fact that her training had taken on such an embarrassing form, was rebolstering her blush, “But I’d like to hear you say it again.”

“If you fall, I’ll catch you, Blaze. I promise,” He swore, his smile totally vanished and his most serious face took its place, “You won’t even touch the clouds.”

Her fingers slipped from his, she was on her own in the sky, “So, how are we going to do this?”

“How about you fly away from me first and then, if I catch you, I’ll try to keep away from you?” He’d phrased it in such an honest way that, were it anyone else proposing it, she’d think they were being condescending. He really thought there was a chance that he wouldn’t be able to catch her and that he wouldn’t have to slow down so she could catch him.

Still, regardless of the difference between their skill, she was going to give this her best. Though it renewed that weight in her belly, even though she was certain that she would regret it mere moments later, Blaze pointed her toes skyward and rushed away from Silver, struggling to turn mid-air on order to see where she was going in this obstacle-less sky.

“W-Wait, Blaze, is that a yes?!” He called out and, by the sound of his voice, he wasn’t giving chase yet.

Deciding she needed this lead in order to make their game even remotely worthwhile, she didn’t answer him. Remembering the stabilisers she’d used for take-off, Blaze brought her hands to burn and, though she floundered for a moment, used their bonus thrust to shoot even further from him. That done, cloud after cloud vanishing beyond her feet, she dared to look over her shoulders and saw a cyan globule finally begin its shift towards her. Though she tried to fight it, a grin managed to wriggle its way onto her face as she looked forward. If she was bound to be caught and he’d surely gain on her soon, it was worth getting in a little practice… besides, he could surely use some training too.

With the simple quirk of her brow and through rolling her heels, Blaze feigned a movement left before shooting off towards the right. She didn’t even glance back at him after that, instead opting to try and alter her elevation; with a bit of effort, the young witch managed to align her body and crawl further into the sky as she flew away. Using her hands made all of this a lot easier, she could flare more energy into them to aid in adjusting elevation or simply increase the flames coming from one palm to force her path to bend.

“You’re doing great, Blaze!” A much too close voice called out, “I’m sure you’ll ace the test! You’re already so good!” It was getting closer by the second.

She’d known this would happen, it was an inevitability, but the pyrokinetic found that a competitive spark had stolen the spot of that metal mass in her gut. Her pulse was pounding, she knew her magic could hold out for another hour at minimum; she decided that the best way to learn was a trial by fire. Alternating hands and kicking as she went, Blaze managed to form eight quick zigzags before shooting left with all her will. Flare after flare burst from her limbs as she darted further and further above the clouds.

Unfortunately though, just as Blaze thought she was reaching the summit of what she could stomach, there was a flash of cyan light above. Blaze didn’t even have to glance to know what’d happened, Silver’s experience flying mean he’d clearly understood plotting the shortest route. Being in the lead was difficult, every harsh turn meant traveling further for the lead and a shortcut for the one behind. Simultaneous to that though, Silver was (perhaps unknowingly) about to teach her a technique she hadn’t even attempted yet. The only way to avoid him was to descend.

Blaze tried to lessen her output, but that proved far harder than increasing their potency. Once her upward thrust was spent, she began to plummet like a stone and fall feet first towards the clouds. Her hands flickered and sputtered as she tried to balance herself again, she straightened her back and shut her eyes tight as ignition after ignition failed to fully take hold. Finally, she managed to light her ignitions again… only to overdo it and rocket right back up. She shot right past him, very almost being caught.

As he rocketed up to give chase, frustrated, Blaze chose to continue to practice altitude control. Rather than snuff everything, she focused and manage to mute the flames on her feet. The difference was clear and immediate, she was slower and a lot shakier but this worked far better than trying to calm both sets of flames. She managed to drop directly in front of him only to then relight her boots and blast forward. The feline must have gotten too greedy and drawn too close because she soon felt something pad between her shoulder blades.

“Tag!” The moment she’d registered the touch, he’d called out as if they were kids on the playground.

She swivelled around in the air only to find he’d raced off in the other direction so quickly that he almost looked like a star on the horizon. Leaning into her movement, Blaze found herself flying faster than she ever had before. In the time it took to catch up to the grey wizard, Blaze had a moment to contemplate the rather miraculous change she’d experienced. She’d gone from being terrified of heights to dancing across the sky just like he could. Admittedly, she was certain those fears would return if she was on the other side of the cloud barrier or flying alone but flying around the test course with the instructors watching would surely prove easy enough. It’d been an exchange of tutelage, she’d given him notes and he’d helped her practice, but Blaze couldn’t help feeling a little indebted to her partner.

Some of that feeling waned when she caught sight of him and how he was flying though. The hedgehog flying with his back to the ground and his eyes trained upon her, he almost looked like he was sitting up in bed. Blaze understood why he’d chosen that position, it meant he’d been able to keep an eye on her and that he’d be able to fulfil his promise, but that didn’t stop it from stoking a more competitive aspect of her psyche.

It was just naivete, he didn’t know how cocky he was being, yet it still fuelled her drive! Blaze closed her fists for a moment, allowing pressure and tension to build in them just as she had when first taking off. It was terrifying to be frank but, knowing the direction she was rocketing and that the closer she was to him the safer she’d be, Blaze managed to steady herself and focus on building energy. Containing her flames slowed her in the short term, so much so that the grey hedgehog’s head cocked and he seemed to slow down. At the perfect second, just as she saw his mouth begin to open and the gap between them lingered around four dozen metres, Blaze reopened her palm.

Like catching a surprise shooting star out of the corner of his eye, he must have blinked in bafflement when he saw her for the first time. By the time he’d started to move she was already almost upon him, carried by sheer momentum more than thrust at that point, gaining more than a metre with each passing second. Finally, almost too late, he realised that he stood no chance of overtaking her- Silver’s arms opened wide and, with more than a little magic bolstering effort, he both was caught and managed to catch her.

Willing it as she entered his grasp, her flames snuffed themselves as any lingering momentum was absorbed by a combination of his psychic aura and fluffy body. Blaze found herself lying atop him, their muzzles very almost touching and the rims of their hats bumping. If it weren’t for the adrenaline currently coursing through her, she’d probably have had a lot more to say or complain about this situation but, for now at least, she was content to be back on the equivalent of stable ground.

“H-Hi,” He stuttered, plainly surprised and impressed by her showing.

“Hello,” She hummed, grasping at his shoulders to better secure herself, “How was that?”

His arms found her back and his smile quickly returned, she felt their bodies begin to descend, “You were incredible Blaze! You took to the air so well! You probably didn’t even need me for this,” That thought seemed to take the wind back out of his sails, “I-I’ll make up for the notes some other way… I’ll-

“You’re so naïve,” She cut him off, propping herself up slightly, “I wouldn’t have had the guts to come up here without you. You don’t have to worry about making anything up to me.”

The cloud barrier obscured her view of him for a moment or so but soon, she found his face and could see the grounds beneath. Weirdly enough, as she lay in his arms, it didn’t feel like the ground was all that far away. Or, well, that she wasn’t at risk of meeting it at ludicrous speeds.

Gently, slowly, he shifted upright and lowered the young witch to her feet before himself landing back near the heart of the amphitheatre. Now on the ground, a hold that’d once been for the sake of survival and security had transmuted into one born of comfort and kindness. Blaze found herself lingering in his grasp and in fact deepening her hold, the witch’s right arm managed to slip down and hold the small of his back. While she had performed subtle in this shift from practicality to affection, he wasn’t nearly so subdued in his shift. Her feet left the ground again as he hugged her with all his might, chortling as he did so.

When she returned to the ground for a second time and their eyes met again, bristles of heat crept across her muzzle. Without the moonlight, he was the only light for-

“And what time would the two of you call this?” A voice, tired and deep, sounded from one of the amphitheatre’s high seats.

Both their heads swivelled like they were about to be knocked off and their gaze fell upon a very cross and prickly looking figure, sat with a book in his right hand and crackling green energy in his left. The individual’s red eyes and dark robes, entirely lacking the oh-so-common hat most students and lecturers wore, gave away who they were and forced their joy to give way to panic and fear. Shadow the Hedgehog, the very lecturer who would be conducting the flying test, had caught them.

“Um,” Silver stammered, letting Blaze to the ground, “L-Late?”

“How astute,” He seemed to sneer, “And what say you of your current position, Blaze?”

“It’s my fault professor, I asked Silver to-

“N-No, it’s my fault!” Silver cut her off, “Blaze just wanted help, she did nothing wrong!”

“Endangering both your own and each other’s safety and being out of your dorms at such a late hour,” He tutted, “What kind of punishment to give you both.”

Blaze couldn’t help but throw a glance to Silver, the hedgehog looked entirely stern. No matter how they were dealt with, Blaze knew he would try to take it all on himself, just as she had. She was certain there was no way around it, that they’d both be punished, but, following a long and drawn out sigh, the usually cruel lecturer took a bizarre course of action.

“Pick up your things, go to your dorms and pray that I forget this infraction before I settle on a fitting detention,” Their eyes clashed again, confused, but before they could ask, the hedgehog gave a demand, “Well, go on, hurry along before I change my mind.”

They stood frozen for a second but, seeing his brows furrow, the two threw a quick glance to each other before rushing to pick up their things. He’d leaned in close as he went for his bag, “S-See you soon.”

“Yeah…” She managed to mumble, slinging her bag over her shoulders and allowing her shoulder to graze his, “Th-Thank you, Silver. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

They were forced to part ways with that as their goodbye, Silver walking

“And do remember, regardless of clouds, if you’re going to make quite so much light at night then people are going to notice!” The old man concluded his chiding, likely returning to his book, “We’re hardly in the right position to see an aurora…”

The walk back to the dorms was lonelier than her walk there by a wide margin. Though they’d parted so suddenly, or perhaps due to it, she could still see his smile in her mind. When they met again tomorrow, she’d try to make it up to him, try to engage first contact like she had in the sky, but the more that wizard’s grin lingered the more embarrassed she felt. While the pyrokinetic doubted Professor Shadow was the type to gossip, if word of their actions spread then the rumours would only get worse. Hopefully no one else had seen them tonight but, by the sound of it, they’d been rather hard to miss…

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (Console)

If you expected me to review the handheld versions from the title, sorry. I didn’t get those back when the games first came out. I’m considering getting them in the future and I’ll review them if that happens.

But onto The Eternal Night! The first Spyro game that caused me to consider quitting the series after playing! (Spoiler alert: I didn’t)

Gameplay

Basic controls are exactly the same as its direct predecessor, but with some new twists. Melee now lets you chain five air hits rather than three, and now we have the new ability: Dragon Time.

Dragon Time lets you slow down the environment around you. It’s used in some platforming, and it’s extremely useful in combat. It’s also just plain cool. Too bad I didn’t know how to use it properly when I first played!

If A New Beginning is too easy, The Eternal Night takes the opposite approach. Enemy AI has been improved, new types of enemies are sometimes very cheap, enemies respawn after you die and regain all of their health, cheap shots, and to top it all off, cheat codes for infinite health and mana don’t exist in this game when they were advertised to exist. So not only is it harder, but you’re forced to play it at that difficulty.

Okay, with one exception: the Dark Spyro cheat. It makes the game trivially easy, since Dark Spyro’s breath ability is really overpowered and hardly uses any mana. I honestly haven’t beaten the game without using this ability at least to defeat enemies I already beat. The game as designed just isn’t fun for me.

Additional Game Modes/Characters

There’s the Dragon Challenges that unlock after you beat the game. They’re some combat challenges with special rules. So it’s not really a new game mode, just more combat. I actually found them fun when I actually got around to them, though. (Which I think was the third time I played through the game - did them in a completed file alongside my playthrough on a different file)

Collectables

They actually return in this game! It’s not nearly as extensive as the Classic games, but it’s something.

The most common item is the Scriber’s Quill. These unlock concept art. Generally, these are relatively easy to find and get to, but some of them are hidden.

Then there’s Dragon Relics, which give bonuses to your maximum health and mana. These are hidden very well, to the point that I only found one my first playthrough. Some are extremely difficult to navigate to, as well, such as the Ancient Grove one, where you have to platform across small roots that are difficult to stay on.

They’re pretty fun to get, but they have a major problem: there’s no way to access levels you’ve already beaten without looping through a playthrough (beating the game and starting again on the same file). I always use a guide, simply because I haven’t played the game enough to memorize it. And you really shouldn’t have to do that.

But they exist, which is a step up from A New Beginning.

Breath Abilities

We get the same ones as last time, with some changes. Because plot, Spyro has to relearn his abilities again through the game, and they act a little differently this time. It’s mostly just that instead of a ranged attack, now we have a melee elemental attack.

Fire is fire. But no longer do we have fireballs, but instead the Comet Dash! It’s great for dealing a ton of damage or moving quickly. Honestly I don’t use it much, but it became pretty iconic later. So the fact that it originates here is noteworthy!

Ice is next this time around. The main attack is now a burst attack rather than a stream, and can be used to create platforms in water. Whoa, actual puzzles and platforming! There’s also the tail-based melee attack that slows down your enemies’ movement and, depending on the size of the enemy and your own upgrades, sends them flying. That attack alone made Ice my most-used element.

Earth is third. You get this big flail as your primary attack that you can whip around you quickly, attacking all enemies that surround you. The melee is a pulse attack as Spyro jumps and sends energy out in a sphere underneath him. I really didn’t use it much.

Finally, you get access to Lightning Breath. It was overpowered in the first game, so how does it hold up here? It’s usable, I guess. Primary attack is a large electric orb that you can knock away into distant enemies before blowing up. Pretty neat. Melee is a lightning whirlwind, that’s basically Comet Dash but much more controllable. Very powerful, but uses up mana pretty quickly.

Notice we don’t get any overpowered attacks this time around. Still, second attack wins. They’re all useful, though, as some enemies have hidden weaknesses, and they’re all different enough to be used in different situations.

Bosses

There’s a lot of them, but many are very similar to one another. Not even sure whether to call a lot of these boss fights or alternate game modes since they’re played a lot differently than the rest of the game.

The Assassin and all the Skurvywings fights are all pretty much the same. You’re on a 2D plane where you can move back and forth, and jump, while sending fire (and only fire) out to your opponent, who is flying around. The main difference between these fights is the distance between you and your opponent, and thus when you can hit them. The hardest part is dodging, but using Dragon Time makes it manageable. I find these fights pretty fun, since they have a different playstyle than usual.

Arborick uses the same controls as above, but with a twist: you need to attack all of the different parts of the body to proceed. I think in a specific order, too, but I don’t quite recall. There’s also a second round where you just attack as quickly as you can and dodge his attacks. Pretty creative and fun boss.

Fellmuth Arena is pretty much “lets take some bosses and minibosses from A New Beginning and have you fight them here in a small arena!”

We’ve got the Blunder Tails, which are some optional enemies in A New Beginning. This time, they’re both aggressive at the same time, and their AI’s a bit better. You have to use melee carefully to beat them. It’s a little tough with both of them after you, but they’re only mini-bosses, so it’s doable.

Hey, remember Steam? I bet you do! The Ravage Rider is identical to him! Except he only has two health bars instead of three, so he’s a little easier!

And finally, the Executioner. The guide I use says he’s identical to the Ice and Electric Kings from A New Beginning, but there is a fairly major difference here: you can’t spam ranged attacks if you don’t have any! Just that fact alone makes the fight a lot harder - you need to fight him like you were supposed to in the first place! *gasp*

Next up is Skabb, who is a boss that acts like a boss should. Dodge his attacks, wait until he rests, and beat on him when he does. You’ve seen this kind of boss as far back as A Hero’s Tail. (before that, you generally were using the environment or powerups to fight rather than your normal attacks)

The Elemental Spirits are more copies of the Ice and Electric King, but this time you’re limited to just one element when you fight them. Hope you upgraded more than just Ice! (I think you can also use Dark Spyro here if you’re cheap, though)

Remember Cynder’s fight from the first game? What if she was crazy aggressive and you could only use one element at a time on her? What if you simply can’t cheese her because Dark Spyro doesn’t work? Honestly, it’s a very fun fight. Although I think I mostly love it because the first time I completed the game, I spammed Dark Spyro everywhere I could, and here I was forced not to. And I had fun.

Finally, Gaul. you lose your breath abilities against him, meaning you’re forced to fight him with melee. It makes a very fun and intense fight. Second round you get access to Dark Spyro, but you aren’t completely out of the water as he still has some fight left in him. Dark Spyro’s still really overpowered, though. Still, you’ll need it. I had a blast the first time I actually got to him. Again, being forced not to use Dark Spyro (and then being in a fight where you have to use Dark Spyro) made it a lot of fun.

So in general, very varied, and there’s a ton of bosses here. Some are copy-pasted from A New Beginning, but with the increased difficulty, they feel new enough to work, and some limit what you can use against them.

Levels

Much more varied compared to the first game. Maybe not necessarily in style, but definitely in gameplay. There’s so much more platforming and cleverer puzzles scattered around. You need to make full use of Dragon Time and Spyro’s Elemental abilities not only to fight, but simply to get through each level.

The levels themselves are also well-themed and not nearly as cliche as in the first game. Okay, crystal-based caves are pretty cliche, as well as evil volcanoes. But Skabb’s Fleet, come on! Flying pirate ships manned by dogs!

I can say I definitely had a lot more fun maneuvering in this game than in tits predecessor.

Story

Honestly, a whole lotta nothing happens in this game. It’s basically the filler episode of the series. The storytelling is still incredibly well-done, but really, it all boils down to rescuing the princess dragoness.

So Cynder feels all guilty about the first game and tries to leave the Dragon Temple. Spyro tries to go after her, but unfortunately the Dragon Temple ends up under attack and Spyro has to go help.

After defending the Temple, Spyro gets a vision from this Chronicler guy and is instructed to find a special tree in a forest. Ignitus encourages him to follow his advice, and Spyro goes on to look for that tree.

Tree turns out to be Arborick. Who some pirates were in the middle of capturing for their arena tournament. They capture Spyro, too, for good measure, because he happened to pass out to learn a new breath ability at a bad time.

Spyro is forced to participate in the arena challenges. Turns out they captured Cynder, too, though. But Cynder is captured again by Gaul the Ape King’s forces. And Spyro has to break himself out of this situation to go after them. Oh, and Hunter of Avalar has a note delivered. He never really appears in this game.

He does, and promptly passes out in the middle of the ocean for another lesson. Luckily this turtle-guy you’ll never see again was there to rescue him. And take him to the Celestial Caves, where Spyro has to make it through the Chronicler’s security system before finally meeting the king of bad timing himself.

Spyro learns that Cynder has been captured by Gaul to be used to summon the Dark Master or something. Spyro wants to go after her. The Chronicler tells him to “ride out the storm. Live to fight another day,” basically telling him to stay there and stay safe.

Spyro say no way and escapes, traveling to the Mountain of Malefor and the Well of Souls to rescue Cynder. He faces Gaul, but not before the Celestial Moons do their thing and Spyro gets caught up in the corruption. He turns into Dark Spyro and brutally kills Gaul. It takes Cynder knocking him out of the beam to snap him out of it.

The cave crumbles around them, and there’s no escape. Spyro remembers the Chronicler’s words, and uses his time powers to freeze them in crystal. There they would be stuck, until Hunter finds them. Cue credits.

So yeah. But again, the storytelling is amazing despite what it is and I had a blast watching and experiencing it. The atmosphere’s great, and I really loved the sketchbook style some of the cutscenes had.

Once I saw the ending (because I think I looked it up on YouTube; I didn’t beat the game until many years later), I couldn’t wait for the next game. Mostly to watch it, because I had decided that if it was going to be this hard, I wouldn’t get it again. Sadly, this series never got a real conclusion in the same style.

Unique in the Series?

In many ways, yes. Dragon Time never shows up again, and thus a lot of the gameplay is completely unique because a lot of the game relies on it.

In other ways, it’s very similar to A New Beginning.

Conclusion

I gave up on this game because I didn’t like Action games at that age. Once I got older, and actually appreciated Action games a bit more, I learned to love this game.

Sure, it’s not perfect. Sure, I do need to cheat to fully enjoy it (because it’s not fun fighting cheap enemies you’ve already beaten. I just blast them until I get back to where I was before). But it’s a really solid game and a ton of fun.

On it’s own right, I think it’s just as good as the classic trilogy. It’s just a completely different genre. It’s a shame in hindsight that it didn’t do well enough for Krome to finish the series.

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

avengers: infinity war

um. SPOILERS.

so i finally watched spiderman: infinity war avengers: infinity war yesterday with the inimitably awesome aakanksha ( @franklyineedcoffee). it was great! very cgi and very Epic.

like. mcu movies were never terribly remarkable to me, but then they got Spiderman involved (and made him great!) and the ensuing trifecta of extremely enjoyable films (homecoming, ragnarok and black panther) finally made a fangirl out of me. which basically primed me perfectly to enjoy the shit out of infinity war. 

a few thoughts! a second reminder for SPOILERS because i discuss about basically everything.

1. the film did a great job juggling so many characters and so many plot threads? of course some parts were under-served (the whole wakanda stretch was a bit meh to me), but at no point was i just waiting for the film to get back to the Interesting Bit. almost all of it was equally engaging.

2. i’d heard a lot about thanos going into this film but what i wasn’t expecting was to be reminded of two villains that the mcu had done really, really well recently: adrian toomes/the vulture from homecoming, and erik killmonger from black panther. thanos isn’t nearly as compelling as either of them and certainly doesn’t deserve a fraction of the sympathy we can reasonably afford to either toomes/killmonger, but the kind of sad, single-minded conviction that he used to justify murdering trillions of people? yeah, that was all-too-familiar. far from the cackling, evil villain trope, both toomes and killmonger were shaped and scarred by unforgiving circumstances; you didn’t approve of the stuff they did but their pathos was palpable. thanos plays this part of the villain arc very well--he doesn’t visibly delight in death and destruction, but does it because he is burdened with it. and isn’t that how it usually goes in the real world? the worst people in the world never believe in their own evil--just their own status as a Special Person Who Knows Something Better Than Everyone Else. a special destiny, a special responsibility with all that power. sometimes the line between superhero and villain is so, so thin.

2.5. because looking at it objectively, his motivation was some malthusian bullshit, yeah? and in a way recalls some of the most harrowing repercussions of bullshit science from the early twentieth century. so if i read one more thinkpiece about ‘errrrr guys maybe thanos had a point’ i’m going to lose it. both the writing and performance for thanos was fantastic--he practically dripped with gravitas, even under all the layers of cgi and chaotic fight scenes--but let’s not confuse that with actual sense/decency, yeah?

3. the groupings were great--so great that i could’ve readily watched an entire film based on any one of them. my favourite had to be thor with rocket/groot. i would’ve never guessed it, but it turned out to be the most poignant dynamic of them all. that little conversation that rocket had with thor was a little oasis in the middle of a terribly chaotic movie and neatly tied in and mirrored the incredible character development both the characters had undergone in their last movies--GotG vol 2 and ragnarok. this scene for me was an example of the ultimate reward of getting a film like infinity war--a moment of truly resonant emotional connection between two wildly differing characters and genres.

3.5. and, btw, the genres! can we talk about that a bit? it was a really cool mix of generic superhero stuff with sci-fi, a touch of horror, magic, swords-and-sorcery, opposites-meet comedy, a bit of romance, and just good old-fashioned family drama. 

3.75. and speaking of drama, the whole arc with gamora was gutting and inspired more tears from me than the much-talked-about snap. the sheer range of emotions she went through right before and after she realised that thanos was going to kill her and why! zoe saldana is fucking amazing.

4. aagh i just wished we had more time but all of the groups played really well off each other: i enjoyed iron man and company in particular because duh, spiderman, and watching three gigantic egos clash in the form of tony stark, dr strange, and peter quill was entertaining as all hell. and i know tumblr fandom in particular likes to give tony a hard time but i was impressed not just by his quick thinking, his surely-impossible technology, and his raw physical strength, but also his ability to lead, well, any team. he had spiderman covered (summoning the iron spider suit! appointing him an avenger! collaborative flying of an alien spaceship!), had dr strange figured out pretty quickly, and tried his best to steady peter quill. 

4.5. the group on wakanda wasn’t nearly as compelling, but much of their screen time was filled with fighting cannon fodder and that’s literally the least interesting part of any mcu movie, so. i guess i was also annoyed by rhodey basically throwing away the principled position he took in civil war--the narrative had to essentially make the regulatory body a one-dimensional super-villain. and, like. whatever. the avengers have to reform, etc. but it still stinks. i kind of dozed through the parts of civil war that didn’t involve spiderman but some of the issues that it raised were compelling. but then those issues were just used as an excuse to get a slugfest between iron man and captain america and now somehow an agreement signed by 150+ countries is all about oh no! will steve and tony ever make up?? like, fuck that shit. 

4.85. i didn’t expect to be as moved as i was by vision and wanda, though. unlike the nat/bruce thing that also kind of came out of the blue in ultron, these two were weirdly compelling. (although wanda’s missing accent is bothering me.)

5. there was so much cgi in this movie! some of it was truly breathtaking but more often than not it felt suffocating. i feel like tony stark and co. were especially ill-served: the deep blues of the doughnut spaceship and the flashy, dusty oranges on titan just made it more difficult to see the characters and, idk. i’m not a fan of the effect. 

5.5. everything involving thor was great, tho. couldn’t possibly match the climactic bridge scene in ragnarok in terms of pure Epicness but came close several times. 

6. mmm, what else? i really liked that this film undercut a lot of the truly dramatic scenes with humour--it just lent a dreadful sense of finality to the scenes that left us with death rather than a punchline.

6.5. another note: i realise that thor continually calling rocket and groot ‘rabbit and tree’ was supposed to be funny, but why would he do that? the ‘captain’ has a name. and he speaks groot’s language! why would he call him something as reductive as ‘tree’? (unless groot’s actual name is tree) it’s just a little niggling thing but it’s starting to bother me a lot now.

6.55. but i do find it a little endearing that prideful, extremely sensitive rocket never once bothered to correct thor.

7. ultimately the Epicness that made this movie possible is also one of the things that repeatedly threatens to bring it down. i just don’t want this film to fall down the rabbit hole that SPN finds itself in--expand its scope exponentially and find itself unable to remotely do it the justice that it deserves. what do you do with a character who could kill half the universe with a snap of his fingers? what do you do with characters who, in their individual movies, have expressed powers and resources that are seriously large-scale?

we see the film sputter in this respect a couple of times: i never understood why thanos didn’t just use the reality stone to, say, turn tony’s tech into cheesecake or something. out of respect at the man’s sheer tenacity? idk. and loki going out by trying to stab thanos was weird to me. was he deliberately sacrificing himself? is there something else going on? doesn’t he have much better weapons in his arsenal? at least he was aiming for the head

and the consequences of the final snap where more than half of the heroes disintegrated in front of their friends’ eyes should’ve felt more devastating, but the neatness of the old avengers being spared so that they could save (avenge if you will) their next generation in a final hurrah in the next movie seemed way too obvious. that’s not to say it wasn’t impactful. watching peter parker disintegrate in tony’s arms, fighting till the very last minute to stay he was so scared oh god he just wanted to stay and for mr stark to make it all right was gutting, no matter how much i’d prepared myself for it. i may have whimpered. 

8. i’m sure i have a lot more to say but it’s getting late and i’m tired, so. another post in the near future maybe.

but before i go, how could i not talk about spiderman?? i screamed my throat raw at the first sight of peter parker, and although he doesn’t actually get all that much screen time he made every second count. the awe-inspiring appearance of the iron spider. “have you ever seen that old movie, aliens?” the sheer range of emotions that passed his face when tony stark officially made him an avenger. flying spaceships along with tony. fun with magic portals! almost getting the gauntlet off because he is Just That Strong. saving mantis and drax. and clinging to life till the very last second even as the edges of his body were starting to wisp away. this boy. god. how mcu hit the perfect formula to represent my all-time favourite superhero on screen is a mystery, but i’m so so glad it happened.