#amd they even make him take steps back sometimes but it's mostly with the little in game content he gets like voice lines etc ehhhh

[callofdudes]

Yesss!! Cod g/t brain worm! I just really need as much tiny!y/n, ghost, soap, and gaz with guant!price fics as I can handle!

Giant!Price and his little tinys helping him cooking in the kitchen. Like tiny!soap amd ghost pushing the ingredients to price when he needs them, while tiny!y/n mixes the pot and tiny!gaz is the taste tester!! It's so cute🥺🥺

P.s. I am sending something kinda similar to this to other authors as well. BUT I AM CHANGING THE PROMPT!! I just want to see everyone's take on cod g/t. So if you're uncomfortable with multiple authors also writing something not super similar to this, but still a cod g/t fic, I understand and you can just ignore this. Thank you🩷🩷

Shut up this is so adorable. I immediately thought of them as those little tiny chibi like characters. So just know that is what I'm picturing as I write this. Their little beans now. I hope you enjoy it, this was an interesting experiment.

When a family makes a home.

Price was in charge of taking care of his little ones. While you weren't always the most military efficient, Price brought you guys everywhere with him. On leave he had shelves above his bed where he had set up beds and configurations for sleep, all for you guys.

At night dropping you all off at your little platforms and making sure you were snuggled in so you wouldn't fall off. Even if you did, his chest would be there as a landing pad.

Even so, sometimes you guys would come and snuggle with him. Mostly you or Johnny, which frequently leads to you guys trapped under his weighted blanket.

If there is one thing you all like to do together though, it's baking. Price was taught by his mother how to cook and bake, and that was something that always stuck with him. Making bread or cupcakes. He wasn't always the best decorator there ever was, but it worked out.

Especially with his little helpers. Price got up and ready for the day, having a shower and dressing in something fresh. Coming outside to see four little people standing outside the door expectantly. Like cats almost.

He chuckled softly, walking down the hall with you all following after him. Johnny hopped and grabbed Simon's hand as they ran with him.

Gaz tagged along behind with you, having a conversation about something or other. The morning laziness was nice, especially since Price didn't get time off a lot. What with work?

You headed to the kitchen and Johnny jumped excitedly. "We'll help!!"

"We always help, Johnny." Simon pokes his cheek, making the Scot pout a little.

Price bent down, gently picking you all up, Johnny and Gaz getting comfy. Simon huffed and stepped into Price's hand with you behind him.

"So what are we making??" You asked, leaning forward to inspect the clean counter and washed-down stove.

"Omelets, I'm fixing for one today. That alright?"

Gaz gave his biggest thumbs up. As a taste tester of course he got to be the first to approve. 😌

"Perfect." Price got out a pan. "Alright," He headed to the fridge, narrating quietly as he got out eggs, milk, onions, peppers and whatever else they needed. He set them in a pile and placed his hand over the man to make sure it was hot.

He poured some oil in the pan and you all stood around watching. Gaz had a little spot by the spice rack where he usually sat. In his words, his job was to "sit there and look pretty." Which he did very well.

Price felt the pan was hot and reached his hand out. "Eggs."

Simon got up, Johnny and him each taking a side to flip the carton open. "How about this one Simon??"

"Looks heavy as fuck."

"This one it is then!"

Simon sighed, going over and taking off his little gloves, helping Johnny wiggle the egg out and carry it back on wobbly legs to Price.

"Thank you." Price cracked the egg in the pan, watching it sizzle and start to cook. "I'm going to flip it a few times and then you can have it y/n."

You smiled, nodding and rushing over. At the ready Captain Price!

"Ok, one, two, pull!" Johnny pushed the jug of milk forward with all his might, Simon grabbing the handle and tugging, his feet struggling under the marble countertop.

Slowly dragging it over.

"See.. this isn't too hard!"

"Thank you, both of you."

Johnny smiled, hopping on Simon and squeezing him. "aye aye captain!"

Simon pinched Johnny's cheek. "You're horrible."

You watched, smiling and looking into the pan. Price poured a dab of milk in and smoothed the egg around, ordering up another egg which Johnny and Simon quickly fetched.

Once Price popped it in he handed you the flipper. "Have at it kiddo."

"Yes!" You jumped in, standing on the edge, close but not too close, stirring the egg and flipping it with all your might!

Price went to the fridge again and poured three glasses of orange juice. He set down a big one and two small ones. Then getting out pineapple and mango for Simon and Gaz. Two little glasses.

You take a few sips while you watch the pan, grabbing the handle again and squishing it under the omelette, grunting and pushing it up and flipping it. Getting the folded side over too.

"How's it looking y/n?" Price asked.

"It looks good!

"Careful with that knife you two." He said over to Johnny and Simon. Simon looked over at Price. They'd gotten out the peppers and onions, Johnny holding the handle while Simon guided the blade down on the vegetable.

"Don't worry, If Johnny loses a hand I won't worry."

"Hey! You'd worry if I lost a hand." Johnny rested his chin on the handle, pouting out his lip at Simon.

Simon grumbled a little. "Yeah,.. just hold the knife."

Johnny grinned, knowing that was a yes, and went back to work.

Price looked at Gaz who sipped his pineapple mango. "Comfy?"

Gaz looked at him, then the others. "Sure beats having to chop peppers captain."

Price hummed and nodded. "Of course." He finished off his drink and grabbed a plate from the cupboard. Heading over to you. "Alright kiddo, I'll squeeze in here for a moment."

You hopped out of the way and Price took the flipper, putting the omelette on the plate. "Alright, a couple more eggs."

Simon scuttled over while Johnny held the handle of the knife, stepping into the carton and grabbing an egg.

"Careful Simon." You warned. Simon huffed, pulling the egg and wiggling it out. He hopped back down, starting to walk over and - crack.

Simon slipped in the egg white that spilled, the whole egg cracking and flooding down on him. You snickered, covering your mouth quickly.

"Son." Price chuckled, holding out his hand. Simon lifted his mask and spat out egg white. Covered from head to toe.

"Shut up." He grumbles before any of you can say anything. "You've been egged!" You snort.

Johnny came over with an armful of pepper chippings. "I got us- ah!" He slipped, egg white staining all up and down his back.

Gaz burst out laughing, followed by you. Johnny whined, standing up and shaking out his dripping gooey hands.

"Oh come on. Who did that??"

Price held out his hand, Johnny seeing Simon also completely drenched in egg. Well, he was glad he wasn't like Simon... He was swimming in it!

Price lightly shook his head. "Ok y/n, you and Gaz keep an eye on the stove, I'll get these two cleaned up."

"Yes sir." You bent down, grabbed a cloth from the stove handlebar and lifted it. Poking your head up carefully as you walked with the large thing.

"Careful," Gaz warned, also getting up and making sure you didn't slip. You huffed, throwing the towel on the small spill, shuffling your feet while Gaz came over and picked up the eggshells.

Once all is clean you get some pepper pieces and put them in the pan. Gaz and you grabbing another egg out.

Gaz went around again and turned down the heat. He spotted the unattended omelette on the plate. Casually walking over and sitting down. He pulled the corner close and took a big chomp.

"Hey, this is pretty good."

"Are you already eating it??" You snickered. "You won't get to taste test."

"I already did. And besides, he won't notice."

You both waited until Price returned with freshly washed clothes Johnny and Simon. "We survived!" Johnny waved, both hopping down onto the counter.

Price chuckled. "Now where were we?"

"Putting another omelette in."

And so you got to work. Simon and Johnny helping with more ingredients and getting the spice shakers to Price. You helped flip and stir, making up some better egg batter to pour in. And Gaz sat and looked pretty.

When all was said and done Price cut up some pieces for you four and had his plate. "Want to test it Gaz??"

"He already-"

Gaz shushed you softly, batting his eyelashes innocently at Price. "Yes, I do." Price tore a piece and gave it to Gaz, who gobbled it down. Giving a thumbs up. "It's really good-" he said through a mouthful.

You each took your plates and followed Price. Getting help down onto the floor and waddling after him with your omelettes. An adorable sight.

You made it to Price's office and he helped you all onto the desk. Grabbing on his laptop, a blanket and a Nintendo Switch.

He put the blanket on the end of his desk and you all sat around the Nintendo Switch, happily eating and watching videos.

"Hey Price??" You poked your head up. Price looking over.

"This is good."

"Well, you helped make it, so pat yourselves on the back too." He ruffles your hair with his thumb.

Johnny giggled, Simon rolled his eyes, and Gaz just continued to look pretty.

It was a peaceful morning.

Price went back to tapping away on his keyboard while you guys watched different videos. Cheering, laughing and talking as you ate.

Price never felt bugged hearing you guys talk. Just glad he had you guys around with him.

[haneys]

some more blue guys that I didn't get asked about

[pbaintthetb]

Watership Down Rant pt.2/ How Hazel (Arguably) Misinterprets Bigwig

“Bigwig would certainly be a useful rabbit in a tight corner, he would also be a difficult one to get on with. He certainly would not want to do what he was told- or even asked- by an Outskirter.”~ Chapter 3, Hazel’s Decision.

As I briefly mentioned before, Hazel is the POV character, and while there is a narrator, it can sometimes be difficult to separate the two. My first time reading the novel I was much more inclined to go along with Hazel’s interpretation of Bigwig, but after finishing, seeing Bigwig’s whole character journey, and on a reread I don’t entirely agree. There are two main characters who Bigwig gets very angry at in the novel, Fiver, and Strawberry. Strawberry who Bigwig blames for leading to Bigwig’s almost death (and he forgives it soon enough), and Fiver who is continuously (at least in Bigwig’s  eyes) putting Hazel in danger- until the snare incident.

Hazel seems to imply that Bigwig is trying, whether maliciously or not, to create trouble. One of his fears when they leave Sandleford and Bigwig asks to join is that, Bigwig, as an Owsla and generally much larger and slightly short tempered rabbit is going to fight with him for position of leader. A position Hazel feels naturally falls to him. Hazel lets Bigwig come with them, mostly because he can’t really refuse him, but also because as much as Hazel doesn’t want a power struggle he’s aware that he needs strong fighters and someone who knows more about the wider world- aka, Bigwig. (More on Hazel’s pragmatism later.)

Bigwig’s two flaws that Hazel picks up on and I agree with are- he can be quite short tempered (though we’ll see, Bigwig is good at separating personal feelings from  non-personal matters), and specifically doesn’t take uncertainty particularly well.

However, these aren’t traits that make a particularly good Chief Rabbit, Bigwig can think on his feet- but not as well as Hazel, Fiver, or even Blackberry. I feel like Bigwig is somewhat aware of this fact (his reaction to being told he’s not suited for a task later in the novel due to his temperament is one of someone who doesn’t disagree, but doesn’t like the fact). Therefore, my basic point is that I don’t think Bigwig is gunning for Chief Rabbit, and I particularly don’t think he is at any point trying to usurp Hazel. As to whether he truly believes Hazel is their true/great Chief Rabbit  from the beginning… no. But, he does acknowledge him as leader of the group, he does seem to default to him, or at least treat him as equal, and his criticisms of Hazel seem to be more that he wants Hazel to be better than Bigwig thinking he, or anyone else, would make a better leader.

Bigwig has a basic level of respect for Hazel from the very beginning, seen when he allows Hazel to speak to the Threarah, even though Bigwig knows it will create trouble for him because he trusts Hazel has a decent reason. Who doesn’t Bigwig really respect? Five, at this point he’s entirely neutral, but he trusts Hazel to trust Fiver. There is still plenty of room for Bigwig’s respect of Hazel to grow- arguably culminating in Efrafa- but he never once treats Hazel as lesser or makes a bid for power. The closest he comes to a mutiny is actually against Fiver and specifically because he thinks Fiver is endangering Hazel and Hazel’s authority.

Now, Bigwig’s not perfect, he does feel he’s owed more respect than say, Blackberry or Dandelion (though he also respects their own skills and talents and gets pretty mad when Cowslip’s rabbits aren’t impressed by Dandelion’s story telling), but also like... eh, he’s not wrong. Bigwig is the most knowledgeable about the world (Blackberry is a mad genius, but he more theorises things than knows) and is often the one explaining crucial things- roads, snares, predators, and most importantly- how to stay safe. He and Silver (tldr Bigwig but calmer) often stay up to take watches- amd this, like most of the tasks Silver and Bigwig do together are clearly coordinated and arranged by Bigwig. Bigwig also takes charge of a lot that Hazel feels he should do as leader, but Hazel is not lazing about during these times, he’s taking care of other tasks that a leader needs. The most usurp thing Bigwig does is essentially take charge while Hazel is away, but he always hands it back. Bigwig works like a second in command- and Hazel doesn’t seem to see this. This is particularly funny but also a misunderstanding on Hazel’s part when considering some of the first things Hazel does is put Bigwig in this role. Additionally, Bigwig is more than happy to share is wider knowledge as a result of his experience, but mostly to Hazel- because teaching takes time and it’s not worth, for example, teaching Pipkin how to fight a cat. This is why I feel that Bigwig simply wants to improve Hazel, he’s very calm and polite when he teaches him about the road, and points out that as an Outskirter and not an Owsla there is no reason why Hazel should know these things when Hazel is embarrassed about the fact. Both the other two Chief rabbits we meet in the book are ex/current Owsla, Hazel is not, and thus it makes sense for Bigwig to catch him up to speed. Personally I think Hazel is paranoid about his own position and protecting that outwards.

Onto how Hazel views Bigwig and why I think he’s wrong- but with textual evidence. 

“Bigwig would certainly be a useful rabbit in a tight corner, he would also be a difficult one to get on with. He certainly would not want to do what he was told- or even asked- by an Outskirter.”

Hazel seems to think Bigwig wants to usurp him because he was more powerful than him before they left their home. And in Hazel’s mind this is justified by Bigwig’s bluster and the fact that Hazel keeps stumbling across him taking charge of the rabbits... because Hazel has been away/busy/doing another important task and someone needs to hold down the fort- so Bigwig steps up, and then quite calmly steps down once Hazel is back, who doesn’t seem to quite see this at first because he’s paranoid. No Hazel hate, just truth.

However, for all of Hazel’s fears, there’s little truth to them. I’m going to quickly run through all the supposed challenges Bigwig offers upto their arrival at the Warren of the Shining Wires. (I’m deliberately not calling it Cowslip’s warren- because it’s not, he’s not Chief- the human is, the rabbits just live there.)

“If you’ll take my advice-” began Bigwig. “If we stay here any longer I shan’t be able to,” answered Hazel.~ Chapter 4, The Departure (after Bigwig has bested Holly, immediately before they leave Sandleford.) See how respectfully Bigwig brings up his potential criticism? And there is no note of Bigwig being resentful, rude, or sulky that he was shut down. He acknowledges that now is not a time for discussion/democracy, it’s a time to pack up and follow Hazel- whereas you’d expect some kind of grudge if Hazel was right. At the very least you’d expect something the next time Bigwig “criticises” Hazel in chapter 5. However, Bigwig simply states that the group needs to stop, he lists out the reasons why he knows Hazel won’t want to, but also lists why they need to- simply put that Fiver and Pipkin physically can’t. At this point Bigwig doesn’t even know Pipkin’s name (he refers to him as “this half-sized fellow”), but he’s one of Hazel’s squad and Bigwig’s protective instincts are coming out. Hazel is reluctant, but listens. Also of note is that Bigwig doesn’t demand this in front of the group as if it were some power-play, he walks off away from the group to quietly talk to Hazel, and it’s still Hazel who announces they’re stopping. Bigwig is not trying to convince Hazel of this after the fact.

Chapters 7-8. When the Badger finds them it’s Bigwig who leads them away, however, this most seemingly obvious element of insubordination is not remarked on by Hazel- internally or otherwise. This is because Bigwig is the only one who knows what it is, how dangerous it is (it’s of the “lets not invite trouble” variety). And yes, it’s because he’s Owsla, but Silver is Owsla too- this is how Bigwig seems to view himself, not as Chief, but Captain of the Owsla for their group and sharing power with Hazel. Now, Hazel has not given this role- but as we’ll see later he kind of defaults to putting Bigwig in it and Bigwig has already won a fight for Hazel, it’s not an unreasonable assumption. Bigwig is very annoyed when they arrive at the river and takes it out on Hazel- who notes that Bigwig is only steady if he’s certain of their options. Hazel uses some flattery to calm Bigwig down (honestly, a great talent of Hazel’s in many situations).

Bigwig gets angry. So, in chapter 8 Bigwig starts to actually shout and rage, but it’s interesting to note that this is prompted by Fiver. Bigwig is clearly irritated at being led to a dead end- but it’s more the exhaustion and confusion than anything about Hazel. However when Fiver says they need to swim the river (noted to be impossible for exhausted rabbits by the narrator) that Bigwig starts to get annoyed- remember that Bigwig was the one who got them to stop earlier. Especially considering there are other options. Still, Bigwig lets it go. And again, when he comes to talk to Hazel about a potentially sensitive situation he talks to Hazel aside from the group, and comes to ask what Bigwig should tell the group- Bigwig very much asks for permission not forgiveness. It’s when Hazel says they should stay- clearly for the Benefit of Fiver Bigwig gets annoyed- probably because of his slightly more worldly nature- they are in a very open and vulnerable position and he’s smart enough to know that Hazel just wants him to cross the river. However, some flattery, and Bigwig happily swims across, alone, to scout. This, again is very telling. Bigwig is clearly able to swim the river and not altogether unwilling.  It also displays Bigwig’s protective instincts and why he’s such a good Captain. Bigwig’s issue is revealed- though Hazel doesn’t seem to realise- to not be crossing the river, but the fact that not all the rabbits are able to make it. This culminates in Bigwig screaming at Hazel, after BIgwig reveals there’s a dog in the woods. First, he gets all the other rabbits to swim across (Bigwig has returned) and then he shouts at Hazel to go over, and not to stay for Fiver and Pipkin saying they’ll all be killed. Even Hazel notes here, that he’s surprised, but admiring the fact that for all his talk, Bigwig isn’t running off to save himself. Bigwig is a captain and can’t leave his men to die, but Hazel is the leader and he can’t leave the survivors. Frankly I’m very interested to see if Bigwig would have stayed, fought Hazel, or dragged him had Blackberry not saved the day. The main point here is that Bigwig never challenges Hazel on the grounds of not trusting or respecting his authority, only occasionally his decisions, and primarily for the collective safety of the group. However Hazel is still viewing Bigwig as a fierce independent rabbit who is going to make trouble.

4. Hawkbit, Speedwell & Acorn challenging Hazel, Chapter 10, The Road and the Common.

Hawkbit, Acorn & Speedwell (HSA) start to challenge Hazel, first saying they’d like to stop (they’ve been having a very gruelling climb), and then it escalates to saying they’d like to go back because they believe Hazel is lying to them and full of it. Notably they bring up his lack of knowledge about the road- something Bigwig did talk to Hazel about in front of the whole group for once. Hazel starts trying to explain why this is stupid (if the rabbits go back they’ll be killed), and what they even expect him to do, likely in the hope that HSA will talk it out until they air their grievances until they realise they’re wrong. However HSA are cut off before this can happen by Fiver and Bigwig approaching, Fiver who wants to talk to Hazel, and Bigwig who- it’s not explained why he’s there- but he’s heard the whole thing (likely looking out for Hazel). Bigwig scowls and says he’s going to have a “few words” with HSA- which from the little we hear through Hazel’s POV is mostly insults with the purpose of reminding them their place. We hear what we’re told is likely the end of Bigwig’s speech though and-

“And now, you bunch of mole-snouted, muck-raking, hutch-hearted sheep ticks, get out of my sight sharp. Otherwise I’ll-” [then he’s cut off by the wind]. 

Once more evidence of Bigwig throwing his weight around doesn’t support him being a usurper, in fact he seems angry at the disrespect to Hazel, and is doing his best to make sure dissent and disorder doesn’t fester in the ranks. Whether Hazel or Bigwig’s approach is better is a different story and more to do with their different personalities and roles- Chief/Captain.

Hazel, upon returning asks Blackberry where HSA are and we’re told this:

 "There's been a fearful row. Bigwig told Hawkbit and Speedwell that he'd scratch them to pieces if they didn't obey him. And when Hawkbit said he wanted to know who was Chief Rabbit, Bigwig bit him. It seems a nasty business. Who is Chief Rabbit,anyway--you or Bigwig?" 

Bigwig, being Owsla manages discipline much firmer and through strength/power. Hazel notes that he doesn’t know who the Chief Rabbit is, merely that Bigwig’s stronger. But this is actually a very good example of Bigwig’s loyalty- he’s angry but sticks to physical discipline while they’re merely talking about not wanting to follow Hazel. However, once they start snarking and perhaps suggesting Bigwig lead a coup/suggesting he’s a usurper/Hazel isn’t a good leader you can see how the switch flips in Bigwig’s mind. He doesn’t take the insult well, Bigwig views himself quite clearly as a second in command, and a loyal one at that. (Loyalty, strength and protectiveness are some of Bigwig’s best features). The incident isn’t really focused on again, but safe to say there’s no more questioning who’s really the boss, just as there’s no questioning Bigwig’s tendency to lead in lieu of Hazel. This isn’t just because of Bigwig’s own presence, it’s a lot to do with how Hazel treats Bigwig, even if he doesn’t seem to quite consciously focus on it yet…

Lastly to note and really seal the deal, when they meat Cowslip several of the Sandleford Rabbits refer to Hazel as “Hazel-rah” (calling him chief), Bigwig… doesn’t, but he doesn’t seem to object in any way, and, in a scene that I will dissect, really does seem to view Hazel with incredible respect and as leader- to who Bigwig follows but offers meaningful criticism to allow him to be better.

[sh1tbird-shantytown]

Ah thank you for answering my Stommy ask i loved it a lot. Can i get some more Stommy.

Okay so like what if Tommy finally sees what Steve's doing with the kids amd the mindflayer and acts like he's down to help and he is he wants to help steve.

But at the same time he has a bit of a breakdown infront of everyone and his whole bad boy persona drops and he's scared he didn't expect this, he didn't believe in anything like this before and he doesn't understand how steve does it.

Can i get some Johnathan being sympathetic to Tommy and sort coming to an understanding with him, and they get eachother, (i like to think that Tommy isn't rich like steve and is more like the byers than everyone thought. Like he comes from a broken home and all the fancy clothes he gets from steve)

Ooo and some tommy and johnathan being like ugh "rich people"

Will and Tommy moment though where will is like :O and Tommy takes him under his wing like Steve did with Dustin

Whoa this is long. Im so sorry. I hope you have a good day.

stommy for sure. thanks, hun!

===

He didn’t expect it to happen. He never really did, he would get a call from Hopper or Joyce or Dustin usually. Cancel everything and go play near death whack-a-mole for a few hours. He’s gotten real good at it at this point. Tommy was suspicious, started asking questions.

“Where are you going off to?” he’d shown up at the Harrington house. Steve wouldn’t let him in, his bag of monster hunting supplies and his stained nail bat poking out prominently. “Or do you have someone in there with you?” Tommy moved his head around to search behind Steve’s shoulders.

“No, Tom,” Steve put his hands up, “Some stuff just came up. An emergency.”

“Is your mother in the hospital? Is your father back home and he’s sending you out for errands so he can invite his side chick over—“

Steve leaned against the doorway, unamused, “—Come on, Tom, that’s not funny.”

But Tommy didn’t stop, “—Is Dustin sick? What’s so important that you had to cancel twice on me this week? Huh!” Steve closed his eyes for a brief moment, collecting his bearings. He stepped out and closed the door behind him.

“Look,” he slowly took Tommy’s hand, the other watching with clear suspicion. “I would much rather stay in with you and watch your stupid drama movies.” The other’s face twisted a little but he listened. “Hopper needs me right now, important, top secret, emergency.” He squeezed Tommy’s fingers a little with every accentuated word. “It’s best that you don’t know, you’re safer that way.” He had hoped that would get Tommy to back off. Wishful thinking.

Tommy shook his head and crossed his arms defiantly, “I’m coming with you for sure now. You don’t get to keep things like this from me now. No secrets.” Steve opened his mouth but Tommy pinched his arm, interrupting him. “No secrets! Okay? You don’t get to go risk yourself, or whatever you’re implying, and leave me in the dark!” Tommy stomped his foot and Steve had the mind to assume he’d been paying attention to all his sisters way of dealing with their own boyfriends. Tommy cupped both sides of his cheeks when Steve sighed. “I am your boyfriend,” he made Steve look at him. Tommy looked concerned, face wrinkled and cheeks pale. “I deserve to know.”

His shoulders sank as he gave in, “You’re not going to like it. Probably won’t even believe it.”

Tommy glared, “Try me.”

Steve went back into the house and grabbed his bag. Tommy quickly noticed the bat, obvious about it with his wide eyes not meeting Steve’s own and instead on the spikes peaking out over his shoulder. He didn’t ask yet though. Instead, he followed Steve all the way to the BMW and then got in the passenger side.

Steve looked over at Tommy sitting rigidly before starting the ignition. There were intense lines between his eyebrows and his lips were being abused by him biting them. He started gnawing on his fingernails when Steve made a decision.

He stepped out quick and Tommy startled, “Where are you going now?”

Steve leaned back in, antsy, “I’m going to get you a weapon.” Tommy looked like he desperately wanted to ask, Steve waited, but Tommy just sat back with his leg bouncing. He sighed again and Tommy glanced over at the noise. “You don’t have to come. It’d be better if you just stayed here until I get back.” Tommy folded his arms, leg still going up and down due to the weight of his hand not lessening it.

“Like hell I am,” he grumbled, “Go get me something if it’s so necessary.” Steve’s shoulders and ankles were tense and locked a little in place. This wasn’t going to end well even if Tommy believe him. He wasn’t supposed to add anyone else to the group. All he had as an excuse was Tommy’s unrelenting behavior and how immediate and stressed Hopper had sounded when he called. The excuse that maybe more help was necessary.

So Steve went to the shed and found a chain. A long iron chain that his father had used to hold the fence gate between theirs and the neighbors’ yards shut. He went back to the car with it in hand. When he sat back down Tommy stared wonderingly at it. Steve dropped it in his lap, the sound heavy as it slipped slowly to the car floor and clanked together.

“Can you still lasso?” he asked quietly. Didn’t want to trigger Tommy into some spell of hysterics.

Tommy swallowed and his eyes grew even more serious than before, “Yeah, yeah I can still lasso.”

Steve looked from the chain to Tommy’s face a few times, “Can you do to the same with that as you can a rope if we need you to?” He’d seen Tommy lasso, done some himself in the summers on the Hagan farm. Their small farm that housed loads of milk cows. It was a nice escape, mostly outdoors and their house was rundown only a little. Obviously warn from love and family and sweet time. Something real against the Harrington’s artificial capsule.

Tommy nodded again, “I can make it work.” When Steve didn’t catch Tommy’s eye for another minute or so, he started out to the Byers’ house. He could tell Tommy was trying to pay attention to the route but he kept messing with the chain. Steve knew he was forming it around to form the lasso correctly. Had seen Tommy sit on a bale of hay and mess with a rope the same way.

They pulled up to the dusty driveway and Tommy finally looked up with recognization, “Who exactly is involved in all this?”

Steve parked and neither of them moved, “Well, we’ve got all the Byers, Mike and Nancy Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin, and Hopper”

Tommy glared over at him and opened his door, “What kind of shit have you gotten yourself into?”

Steve only smiled thinly and he stepped out to grab his bag from the backseat before heading up to the door. Hopper was smoking and watched him as Tommy slowly gathered his chain.

“What did you do now?” Hopper didn’t sound surprised.

Steve could only shrug, “He insisted.”

Hopper took a drawn out puff, “Well you should have resisted.”

Steve turned his neck to glimpse as Tommy closing the car door, “You trying resisting a Hagan and then get back to me.”

Hopper raised a brow and flicked the ash off the filter, “Just keep him by you and make sure he doesn’t get hurt. I don’t want to have to explain to his parents.”

Steve rubbed his upper arm as Tommy walked up to his side, “Why would I get hurt? And what’s wrong with my parents?” he ordered defensively.

Hopper sighed and squished the cherry out in an outdoor ashtray balanced on the porch railing, “Nothing, kid. Your father just doesn’t like me.”

Tommy muttered something Steve only just barely caught, “You just can’t leave an innocent drunk man alone on a Friday night.”

“What’s that?” Hopper’s eyes narrowed. Tommy folded his arms and didn’t respond, only shook his head once.

Steve looked between the two. He knew Tommy’s father liked to drink sometimes. Mostly after a long day working on harvesting hay bales and tending to their cows. Knew his mother and Tommy’s sisters hated when he did. Tommy didn’t know how to feel, got mad at Steve when he tried to sympathize. A few of their fights had ended in Tommy throwing the fact that Steve’s father was never really around back in his face. Yelling he wouldn’t understand. Couldn’t. Not the same way.

“What’s the code?” he asked to break the heavy tensions, to at least try. Instead a new sort of shadow surrounded them.

“Orange,” Hopper took his hat off and rubbed his forehead, “Looks like more strays are picking off cattle at night. We need to go catch them.”

Tommy perked up, “Cattle? So you do know what’s been picking our calves off?” he shouted. “What is it? Why are you hiding it from the town? Us farmers!” He was livid and when Steve touched his arm to comfort, it was whacked away. He stepped back, a bit betrayed. The adrenaline in Tommy must have picked up already. He only acted like this when he was wound up tight and angry. Hopper was silent for a long moment as Tommy huffed his breaths in and out, upset.

He turned around to the house and said, “You’re about to find out,” before the door opened and closed.

“What is going on, Harrington?” Tommy asked, desperate now. Desperate for answers he hadn’t asked for. Made Steve annoyed that he allowed himself to get pent up again. Out of control of himself, the opposite of what they’d been working on. He took Tommy’s hands gently, at least thankful for Tommy allowing that much.

“I need you to take a few deep breaths, Sweetheart,” he used his calm tone. Used it for the kids when they got too scared sometimes. “This isn’t going to get any easier, so if you want to step out, do it now.” He waited and Tommy didn’t move, didn’t really do anything besides stare at him. “Is that a no?”

“I’m not leaving,” Tommy stated stubbornly.

“No one would think any less of you,” Steve said deeply, “We all wish we didn’t have to deal with this shit. You can go back home, you wouldn’t be able to tell people about this. The government will confiscate you otherwise.”

Tommy scoffed, “So my father isn’t some crazy conspiracy theorist.” Steve didn’t answer, didn’t really want to, didn’t think he needed to.

“It’s scary, Tom.”

Tommy puffed out his chest, “I don’t care. I’m staying with you and that’s final.”

The door opened and Dustin started yelling, “Son of a bitch, why is he here, Steve? Get your ass in here, we need to start planning!” Steve turned and Dustin started attempting to drag him up the porch. “We’ve got target on three different farms tonight.” He stopped and Steve almost tripped on the last stop. He asked Tommy, “Dont you live on one?”

Tommy’s shoulders rose, “What’s it to you?” Dustin glanced at Steve, who was giving a warning glance, shrugged his shoulders and headed inside again.

Steve grabbed the door and held it open for Tommy, “Come on then!” Tommy ran up and into the house, the warm waft of heat blown into their faces. Joyce met them first, Dustin rushing back into the other room.

She eyes Tommy worriedly, “Did you tell him anything yet?” Steve shook his head. She wasn’t mad, she instead waved then in more, “Well then we have quite a bit to catch you up then, huh?” she smiled welcoming. Walked them in through to where everyone was already staring over a map of Hawkins. Red circles around what Steve assumed were the farms being threatened.

Nancy’s face twisted, “What’s up with this?” she gestured to Tommy and his chain clutched in his fist.

“He wants in,” Steve shrugged and stepped forward to look at the map between Hopper and Dustin, “Not like we couldn’t use the help.”

Nancy scowled, “We can manage.”

“Yeah,” Mike butted in.

Steve glared at her, “Let it go, Nance. He’s here and that’s it, please.” She looked at Johnathan but John looked at Tommy just as openly as his mother had.

“You know how to throw that?” he looked at the dark chain links.

Tommy nodded and pointed to the west circle, “That’s my farm. Well, my dad’s.” He looked sheepish, like he was admitting something.

“Cool,” Steve heard Will whisper.

Johnathan smiled more just as Nancy’s frown deepened, “Didn’t know you were in the lower levels like us.” Tommy frowned and Nancy scolded John with a slap to the arm. “It’s just cool is all,” he defended himself from her onslaught.

Tommy grew confused, “Cool?”

John nodded, “Tuff,” he grinned. Tommy smirked and eased down, comfortably joining Steve by his side.

“So do I get the backstory or what?” Everyone else looked at Hopper.

The man rolled his eyes but relented, “Keep up,” he pointed at Tommy gruffly. The boy nodded and Steve planted a grounding hand on his shoulder. “When Will went missing he was actually trapped in a different dimension. There’s El, who isn’t here right now, she was an experiment.” His voice with filled with distaste. “ She has powers, telekinesis. She’s resting right now so she can—“

“Which is stupid,” Mike snapped, “She’s not ready—“ Lucas and Dustin elbowed him to shut him up.

Hopper didn’t even look at the kids, “She’s getting ready to fight the bigger problem, the mindflayer. Something that likes possessing people. Watch out for that,” he tipped his hat back. “But there are big dogs from that other dimension sneaking in like your average coyote onto farms. So we have to go out and clean them out.” Steve eyed Tommy’s face which was stoney. Hopper turned back to the table and map when he fingered Tommy had at least taken all of what he said in through his ears to process eventually. “We’re hitting it by groups. Joyce and I will go to Merrill’s. Nancy, Johnathan, Will, and Mike are going to Tinnerman’s. Steve, Tommy, Dustin, and Lucas are at Hagan’s. Got that?” he looked around. When no one disagreed he backed away.

Steve took his bag off and set it on top of the map, “You still have that tire iron?” he asked Dustin as he took out his lighter.

“Yep,” the kid nodded, “Still behind the house, I’ll go get it,” he ran off.

Steve only had to look at Lucas for an answer, “Got my pockets full of rocks and marbles this time.”

Steve smiled small but assuring, “Good.”

Everyone walked off to retrieve their own weapons or start their own vehicles. Except Steve and Tommy. Tommy was pale and his eyes were greyish.

“Hey,” Steve rubbed a thumb across his freckled cheek, “What’s going on in your head?” he whispered.

Tommy looked up and took in a shaky breath, “I’m ready to kill some monsters?” The questioning tone didn’t surprise Steve, the words did though. He didn’t ask, didn’t want to over work Tommy’s mind already. Not when they still had a long night ahead.

===

The Hagan property was the smallest of the three Hawkins farms. Fencing behind them that was meant to keep cattle on grounds, then a big barn, then the Hagan house. But it wasn’t meant to be called “small” either. The cattle were safe in the barn as long as they all stayed attentive and ready to kill off any demodog invaders. Simple, all in a days work. But Tommy was shaking like a leaf and Steve heard rustling from their right.

He stepped ahead a few steps just as Dustin and Lucas yelled out at the shadow creeping out of the trees. Tommy cursed loudly, so much so Steve feared Tommy’s mother would wake from it all the way in the house. He swung his bat to stabilize himself and then went to town on the thing’s neck, back, and head. It went down quick and others started coming out more and more. Lucas slung-shot his own ammunition and Dustin kept them back with Steve’s lighter and a can of hairspray.

“Can you get that one, Tom?” he shouted over the growls of a new dog as one ran past him to the fence.

It was a pretty quick success all things considering. The carcasses laid around Steve in wide diameter, gunk sprung all over the grass and tree bark. But as silence carried no more sounds carried out from the darkness.

He faced the group, Dustin parking things back into Steve bag and pulling out water bottles. Lucas was trying to wipe the sweat from his face.

Then Steve caught sight of Tommy standing still. Too still. He panicked.

“Tom?” he whisper yelled as he ran up to him. Grabbed his arms and then his head, “Tommy, are you alright?” Tommy’s pale face reflected streaks of luminescent tracks in the moonlight. His eyes looked frozen wide. “Hey,” he wiped away the tears with his thumbs and made Tommy make eye contact. Which seems to blow him out of his stupor. He started breathing sporadically. Steve hugged him and started breathing in and out exaggeratedly. “Match me, Sweetheart,” he whispered. Breathed in and waited as Tommy matched it. Exhaled and patiently listened.

By the time Tommy was lax against him, exhausted and adrenaline all gone, Steve had decided they were done. He snapped his fingers to grab Lucas and Dustin’s attention.

“Yo, call Hopper and see what they’re up to, please,” he threw one of Tommy’s arms over his shoulders. Started leading them back to his car a little ways away. Tommy wouldn’t speak, Steve had the mind to assume he was in shock. Knew the feeling himself. But the amount Tommy was still partially immobile on his own was concerning. “Can you signal to me how your feeling, Tommy? What can I do for you?” he asked as he opened the car door and worked his boyfriend into the passenger seat. He knelt on the wet road, his jeans getting damp at the knees.

Tommy finally made eye contact on his own and pressed his lips together, “That was scary.” Steve nodded understandingly. Tommy continued, “This is fucked,” he sat back and forcibly enclosed Steve hand in between his own. Steve distantly heard Dustin yapping to someone on the walkie talkie. “How do you all do it?” he asked exasperatedly. He deflated and shook his head, lost, “How do you do it all? You were amazing back there, didn’t hesitate or flinch.”

Steve smiled and leaned up to give Tommy a kiss to the cheek, “No one is going to be upset with you Tommy. We don’t even have to mention it. The important thing is,” he stepped back, “That we’re all safe and the dogs are done with.”

“But—“

“We won’t hold it against you,” he promised and Tommy closed his mouth slowly. Nodding in agreement a little reluctantly.

Dustin was messing with the dials on the walkie when he left Tommy there, “I’m gonna go clean the mess up, you two get in the car and wait.

Lucas stepped up though, “I’ll help.” Steve gave him a look but he persisted, “Please?”

He rolled his eyes, “I guess you’d be better help than Dustin.”

“Hey!” the other scolded.

Lucas flicked him, “Please, you gag every time the goo gets on you.”

“I wonder why!” Dustin called back as he got into the car with Tommy.

===

It was a few weeks later and Tommy was a little more comfortable in the Party and their occasional missions to take out other dimensional monsters. Tommy was good with the chain when he wasn’t completely petrified. Caught and wrangled multiple dogs out of the way on occasions. Sure he stopped out a few time but they didn’t fight him about it. Knew he knew what he couldn’t handle.

He was teaching Will a thing or two now. They each sat on logs in the Byers’ backyard with ropes in their hands and on their laps. Steve watched as he leaned against the back door doorframe with Joyce. Johnathan had tried to follow along but had quickly knotted his bad. Had encouraged them both instead as Tommy directed Will step by step.

Then, Steve joined them as they worked on tossing and capturing low tree branches. Tommy lassoed them all and Steve got some. But Will grew his skills fast apparently because he was right behind Tommy, grasping all the practicing targets with concentrated ease.

Tommy fist bumped the kid and Steve used his height to pull the rope back down, “Good job, Byers!”

“I was actually good at it,” Will beamed proudly. Tommy slung an arm over Wills shoulders and headed towards the house as Joyce called for dinner.

“You know, you should come take Steve’s place on the farm over the summer.” Will bounced on the souls of his feet a bit at the excitement and giggled when Steve scoffed dramatically.

“I’m just rusty.”

Tommy chuckled, “Come on, Byers One and Byers Two, let’s leave the Rich Boy to clean up.” Will laughed and followed him loyally.

Johnathan stood with a definite nod, “Agreed.” Steve stopped to watch them race to the house like they were all young boys.

Tommy fit in just fine.

[fgodestinyawakenings]

FGO Destiny Awakenings: Fujimaru Ritsuka and Fujimaru Ritsuko bio

My procrastination on life, writing my story, anything I needed to do is bad enough I’m surfing web day by day so.... Might as well get my ass to work on this

This is pretty long since it’s two people bio, so everything is under the cut! 

Note: In regards to their Magic Circuit quantity, neither FGO wiki or material gives any information about them. I’ve estimated them to be around Emiya Shirou’s level of circuit, but can be lower or higher... But more likely lower as they are only receiving magecraft training in the story

Note 2: Foreign languages in here are courtesy of google translate, if you’re able to improvise its grammar, please drop me an ask so I can edit

Note 3: Some of the info are quite spoilerly but not that much spoiler since it’s a base information for me on their personality, background, magecraft

Note 4: After reading the bio, I know some will be enrage with me at the sensitive topics I’m about to touch for this story. Some are imagination, some are based on what I experience, and I won’t revealed which of what is imagination or experiences in reality. The bio will contain sensitive potential topics such as Depression & Family abuse, you’re entering this at your own risk to read.

Reminder: Yes this is fiction, but you need to separate in from reality. I’m not your babysitter to cater your needs, I have put up 4 notes to remind you of the content you’re entering. And yes, I’ve pacing back and forth on their backstory knowing the backlash I received since this is Fate lore we’re going in out of consideration.

Fujimaru Ritsuka

Character Type: Human, Master, Magus

Affliliation: Chaldea Security Organization

Gender: Male

*Lineage: TBA

Birthday: December 6th

Height: 1.72m

Place of Origin: Japan

Alignment: Lawful Good

Likes: Meeting and getting to know historical figures, Magi*Mari, Reading and Researching about history

Dislikes: Needles

Talents: Stage Magic 

Circuit Quality: D

Circuit Quantity: D

Magic: Projection (Illusion), Hypnosis

Elemental Affinity: Air, particularly closest to Mist

Profile

Background

Ritsuka’s father divorced with his birth mother for unspoken circumstances and remarried to Ritsuko’s mother at the age of 11. At their first meeting, Ritsuka’s body was completely frail with his bones visible in plain view, wearing a dead emotionless face that shocked Ritsuko completely. His family situation was only described to young Ritsuko that Ritsuka’s father is doing everything it takes to ensure his mother will never come near him again.

But after spending more time with his new sister, Ritsuka gained back not only his weight, but his ability to speak, where first happened to yell at her for being reckless in fighting against their bullies. Though, he immediately regretted doing so and apologized afterwards when he knew all she did was to protect him.

Whenever someone brought up about his mom, Ritsuka immediately pushed the subject away to another topic. However when prodded further a little, he’s often described to be showing his real self by a broken look with a heartbreaking smile whenever he mentions about her

Personality

Intelligent, compassionate, self-conscious and rational with a reserved personality holding a snarky mouth, Ritsuka is considered the “brains” and leader to his sister and contracted Servants in their goal to restore humanity  

By many Servants and Chaldea Staff who are Mages, he’s often described as someone “born with a heart that’s unfitting to be a magus”. Ritsuka would often bring his tablet along in each Singularity to inquire and take photos of the historical in each singularity. His scrupulous attention to detail comes in handy when he is off creating strategies to win against the enemies in the Singularity. And his ability to learn magic quickly helps in fasten his pace to be a better Master, but sometimes his answers in avoiding his friends to find out his meeting with Merlin within his dreams leaves others questioning his credibility for his talent. 

Because of his strategic mindset, Ritsuka is highly perceptive to the others' feelings, and can figure out the source of most people's inner turmoil in a matter of a few important conversations.

“The last time someone falls in love with somebody, they had either--created a stepping stone to an illegitimate son to bring his father’s kingdom fall into ruins, trapped themselves forever in a land of utopia or even knocked up with his Master’s sister because why the hell not. No offense to you, Caster.”

-- Ritsuka to his sister while mentioning about Arthur’s, Merlin’s and Cu Chulainn’s love life  

However his lack of experience in love and holding low regards about it from reading tons of historical and mythology books, had made him completely oblivious to his own and other people who had fallen in love with him. Though this is mainly of his own low self-esteem of his own worth as a person may have stemmed from his childhood, despite being considered an ace in everything he does by his sister. Ritsuka usually hide this but immediately quickly putting back up the façade of “a reliable and dependable but also ridiculously goofy person” when someone notice.

Understanding how critical their situation is, Ritsuka often refuse to sit still when there’s a given chance to do anything to help Chaldea. He also seems to get a little annoyed sometimes when people think he's cute or adorable, as he wants to be taken seriously like a grown-up from people around him as at most times Ritsuka is more mature and wiser than others. 

When Ritsuka and Ritsuko are on their adventures in the Singularity, Ritsuka is the one to act as the leader because he is shown to be very brave and smart. He can be very protective of his sister, whenever she is in danger he is always there to help and will do anything to get her free.

It is also well mentioned that unlike his sister whom is open about her problems and sociable, Ritsuka is much more reserved and emotionally distant often avoiding talking about his past and himself. Even though he admired Heroic Spirits greatly and wished to understand them more, some would notice he often forced himself to draw a line from getting too close for some reason. But as the journey goes, Ritsuka has become greatly attached to everyone in Chaldea amd considered them strongly as his secondary family.

With his strong knowledge in history and novels, Ritsuka thinks much like an actual detective.

Despite his serious personality, living with Ritsuko his whole life (who is famous for her silly attitude) has caused him to indulge in childish activities with her. As such often either jokingly teased he’s forced to join with the shenanigans with the Child Servants, or mostly being the butt monkey teasing by them.

He also holds a huge soft spot towards children in particular to Jack and Mordred. When asked why in particular, Ritsuka easily gives his true smile that children like them deserve the love and acknowledgement they needed. But, he does a huge comedic soft spot to Alexandar and Ko-Gil, making his heart thumping when both used their charm while calling him “Onii-chan”.

He also seems to not mind breaking the rules in order to have some fun, which often having him to be scolded by Emiya when he does so. In particular habit is often staying up late or staying over at Romani’s room to watch Magi*Mari.

Abilities

“Merlin: After all, you and I are very similar, Ritsuka-kun. There shouldn’t be a problem for you to learn my tricks. Ritsuka: By similar, if you’re talking about having the same sexual reproductive organs... That’s captain obvious, Merlin.”

-- Ritsuka to Merlin on his first lesson with him

Illusion Magecraft

With his experience in entertainment magic, Merlin had taught him in magecraft of deception and proficiency in Projection. A magecraft that relies on fooling a being’s psyche to win, a magic which Ritsuka concluded only a mage like Merlin befits this magic for his notorious mischievous behavior.

Misdirection

Under the incantation chant “maintenant tu me vois maintenant tu ne”, Ritsuka will fool his enemy thinking that he had disappeared by their five senses. Rather than concealing his presence, Merlin described this spell as “Putting one’s attention focused strongly onto another. Like falling in love at first sight, where your world focus on that person alone!”

This spell Ritsuka commonly mostly to hide himself from enemy, and also additionally do a surprise attack from the back

However due to his quantity and quality of his magic circuits, Servants and enemies with strong sense and Clairvoyance are able to notice his whereabouts.

Projection (Illusion)

Unlike Emiya’s projection, Ritsuka’s projection creates objects based on his memories and imagination. A skill he’s able to do easily as though it’s strangely natural from his muscle memories, he currently lacks the learning to reinforce his projected works to a reality

Under Merlin’s teachings, Ritsuka is able to create an illusion of manipulating to fool his enemies five senses during battle. But, it may not work if one is able to see through eventually  

To perform this magecraft, he need to act/pretend of an action in order to project the desired item from his mind into reality. However because it’s like an illusion, not only it lasted for seconds to minutes, that item may not even appeared in his enemy vision if the latter noticed the truth.

Combat

Even if magic circuits is weak, Ritsuka makes it up by physical combat via kendo. In combat, Ritsuka will give commands to his Servants while fighting against the lower mobs summoned by enemy Servants. Lacking any fear towards death, Ritsuka won’t hesitate to step forward to deal against enemy Servants if needed to buy some time for his allies Servant to summon their Noble Phantasm

As such even facing against a professional magus, Ritsuka treats it as an experiment test nearly at the cost of his own life to find a weakness within them.

Role

Ritsuka acts both support and fights with their Servants in Chaldea. He has no specific Servant in mind as being dragged into the World of Magus. Ritsuka admired all Heroic Spirits, often near instantly switched into his fanboy mode when meeting those he admired. 

While he enjoys their company and wishes to personally know each of them better, he does get exasperated by some of the extremely colorful and chaotic Servants summoned in Chaldea.

But, Ritsuka instantly draws a line between him and the Servants from getting to close by often avoiding talking about himself and his own true feelings. Despite making himself distant from them, he cares a great deal about them and strongly hated the idea of treating them and anyone as tools or weapons to use.

Unlike his sister, he’s the one who supplies mana generally to most of the Servants via a technique Merlin taught him when he requested earnestly for his help.

Fujimaru Ritsuko

Character Type: Human, Master, Magus 

Affliliation: Chaldea Security Organization 

Gender: Female

Lineage: TBA

Birthday: May 29th

Height: 1.58m

Alignment: Lawful Good

Likes: Sports (mainly excel in softball and basketball), Morning workout as early as 4am, Sweets

Dislikes: Studying through reading of books, Anyone who hurts her brother and even attempting to bring up his family problems, House chores

Talents: Accuracy in throwing and quick learning speed taught via hands-on

Circuit Quality: D+

Circuit Quantity: D+

Magic: Nine Hand Seal Magecraft

Elemental Affinity: Fire

Profile

Background

Ritsuko mentions to Mash in Fuyuki Singulary Section 9 Part 1 that her real father disappeared on both her mother and her when she was a baby for reasons unknown. As such, it’s noted her mother has been raising her single-handedly by herself before remarrying Ritsuka’s father when she was 10.

At their first meeting, Ritsuko was completely horrified at Ritsuka’s body was completely frail with his bones visible in plain view, wearing a dead emotionless face that barely even respond to her when she first greeting him warmly. His family situation was only described to young Ritsuko when she asked was that Ritsuka’s father is doing everything it takes to ensure his mother will never come near him again, and will only explain to her when she grew older.

She mentioned though he was quiet, he was still receptive if not hesitant in answering to her. But after spending more time with his new sister, Ritsuka gained back not only his weight, but his ability to speak mainly to yell at her for being reckless in fighting against her bullies. Though at that time, Ritsuko chuckled she was unsure why she was crying while he apologized; whether it was the bullies, her brother scolded her, or the happiness she felt when she saw life in her brother’s eyes after months of wondering if the effort was futile to get closer to her new older brother. 

Personality

On the surface, Ritsuko is fierce, independent, and pugnacious, but beneath her tough exterior, she possesses a strong loyalty toward her friends and duty as the Humanity’s last Master with her brother. She also has an admirable compassion and devotion, demonstrated when she expresses love toward things such as her family and friends. Unlike the calmer and reserved Ritsuka, Ritsuko is similarly quick witted and impulsive, especially in heated situations. And, she lacked perception towards her rash decisions often resulted in her accidentally insulting others.

Ritsuko is tough, impatient, headstrong, sarcastic, and assertive. Due to her crush on Mash, she tends to pull her away and shield her from others who showed interest in her. Like her brother, Ritsuko fully embraced her position as the Humanity’s Last Master, but lamenting her weakness how she isn’t calm and level-headed as her brother. A trait of Ritsuka she admires greatly when they were kids, as she’ll always be grateful during the times she was in near trouble. Mainly Ritsuka’s willingness and accepting of her secret towards her interest in woman, as she didn’t want her mother to know out of fear of disappointing her.

Because of this, Ritsuko also tends to be protective and even more so than her brother when it comes to his own well-being. Her mother never told anything about Ritsuka’s parents, except as she quoted: 

“Mom said I was too young understand. Telling me Ritsuka’s mom did something really bad to him so Dad ensured his mom will never come close to meet Ritsuka again.”

As such, Ritsuko often keeps an eye on Ritsuka’s reaction whenever someone asks about his mom; ready to deflect or even pull him away at the uncomfortable situation.

Initially frightened and frozen with fear at Fuyuki Singularity, Ritsuko lamented with regret greatly how if her strength to save Mash from Artoria Alter’s Noble Phantasm could do the same for Olga Marie. But, she knew better she can’t wallow in grief, vowing to grow stronger and requested Emiya’s and Sadakuni’s aid to train her in combat and magecraft respectively.

Abilities

"Boomer-Dagger”

A pair of dagger crafted specially by Emiya after considering her skillset. It can be used for both physical combat and her magecraft. When thrown to her enemies, it returns to her via an invisible string connecting to her magic circuit. Also, it’s used as a placeholder on her talisman before conjuring her Nine Hand Seal Mudra Magecraft

Talisman

Her catalyst to invoke with her magecraft. Taught by Sadakuni, she needs to place it on her target before doing her Mudras to attack her opponent. Ritsuko often brings her mat of magic circle drawn by her blood to imbued powers into the talisman daily through meditation.

Onmyoudo Kuji-in aka Nine Hand Seals Magecraft

Taught by Section Chief Agano Sadakuni, Ritsuko mainly uses this magecraft for combat. This magecraft relies specifically on specific hand gesture and pattern to conjure her spells. From reinforcing her weapon and physical strength, to summoning fire magic for combat

Rin-Pyo-Toh, ready for battle: Enhancing her physical strength

Kai-Jin-Retsu, release: Conjure an explosion burst of flames

Jin-Pyo-Zai, bind: With ranged of 10 talisman connected by a burning magical rope to bind the target

Zai-Sha-Kai, heal: Transfer her mana for healing or empowering her Servant

Combat

Like her brother despite having slighter better circuits than him, Ritsuko sides along with her brother via physical combat. She often pairs with her brother, acting as a bait to go against the enemy, while Ritsuka pulls off a surprise ambush via his illusion magecraft.

In the face of an enemy Servant, Ritsuko steps back to give orders to the Servant she contracted with.

Role

While she treats Servants who are Kings or Queen with respect by their title, Ritsuko treats everyone equally with respect and as a friend. She’s shown to be more than willing to teach them about the modern technology and slang, also joining them in their crazy plans often resulted in chaotic humor, much to Ritsuka’s chagrin.

Like her brother, Ritsuko detested the idea of anyone treating Servants as tools or weapons as she view those who contracted her as their friend. This feeling also extend to her enemy Servant, believing they are living beings with their own free will and emotions.

While her brother generally supplies mana to their Servants, Ritsuko acts second-in-charge right after he finish mana transferring to their Servant which resulted him immobile and carried around by Emiya or Caster Cu Chulainn.

[shhh-no-ones-home]

hollywood horror chris motionless x reader

+++++++++ Request from anon "Comfort fic, him noticing it [depression] and being there or whatever comes to your mind. just a sweet fluff thing."

It's a little different, mostly what I would want when I'm feeling super depressed and shut off so I hope you don't mind. anyway thanks for requesting, i hope you like it.

Song: the haunting by as it is

tag list: @thisplace-ishaunted @ryansitkowskiswifey @alilpunkrock @theoneandonlykymberlee +++++++++

I sat on the couch and rocked back and forth. I couldn't find it in me to get up again so I'd been staring at the blank tv screen for a while. I looked down at my phone for a second and saw Chris's name pop up. I frowned at first thought, before picking it up. He had texted me asking if I wanted to do something today. It was almost his birthday and normally we went out but I wasn't sure I wanted to. Besides this probably wouldn't be what we did for his birthday, that I actually wanted to take time for but time was ticking. I texted him back to come over and I'd get ready, begrudgingly.

I walked slowly to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I was grateful I had showered last night so all I had to do was brush my hair through. It didn't take long but by the time it was brushed out it was frizzy and I had grown to hate what I was wearing too. I sighed and walked quickly to my room, throwing on a flowy dress and my vans. I looked in the mirror again and debated whether or not I actually liked it. Then there was a knock on my door. Guess it was too late to change now. When I swung the door open Chris was standing in front of me with two movie tickets in his hand. He frowned at me for a second, lowering his hand.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

He stepped forward and wrapped me in a big hug, looking down at me.

"Don't lie to me y/n."

I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"I'm fine Chris."

He squeezed me a little tighter.

"I know your not okay, but You will be when I'm done with you. I'm gonna turn that frown upside down for sure."

I raised a brow at him as he let me go.

"And how are you gonna do that?"

He grabbed my hand.

"Well for starters If we don't leave right now we'll be late."

He had the biggest smile on his face and was practically vibrating with excitement. I laughed a little at him before grabbing my bag off the floor and following him out to his car. I squinted at him, the sun in my eyes, before asking him what we were seeing.

"Get in and I'll tell you."

I rolled my eyes and did as told. He grinned at me, handing me the tickets amd pulling out of my driveway. When I read the title my eyes got wide.

"No way! I tried to buy these weeks ago and they were sold out."

He sent me a look before turning his gaze back to the road.

"Well I got them, I knew you'd want to go. I mean it's a new horror movie, who wouldn't? And Of course we had to go together."

I actually felt kind of excited now, we'd been talking about this movie forever. When we got to the theater he took his ticket from me and got out of the car, practically dragging me across the parking lot.

"Chris you're gonna take my arm off."

He let off a little bit.

"Sorry I'm just excited, I don't wanna Miss it. Plus I wanna see the commercials, the new James bond one is supposed to be playing."

I laughed at him as he held the door open for me.

"You and James bond."

He nodded at me.

"Yes me and James bond. I love him."

We stepped up to the ticket taker and handed them over.

"Theater ten to your left."

He said with a smile. We both thanked him and started in that direction. Then Chris stopped.

"Shit, I almost forgot."

I looked at him confused before he started walking towards the concession stand.

"Chris you just said we were gonna be late."

He sent me a look like I was crazy.

"First off yes we might be and second, something must really be wrong for you not to want an icee and pretzel bites. We always get them when we go to the movies."

I shrugged.

"Just not hungry I guess."

He sent me a look.

"We both know that's bullshit."

He stepped forward and ordered. I rolled my eyes at him as the guy behind the counter handed him two icee cups. He tried to hand me one but I was hesitant, I still wasn't sure I was up for it. He at least got me out of the house.

"Come on, if you don't drink it I will."

I sent him a look.

"Suit yourself."

I stood there, tapping my hand on the counter, watching as he stuck both straws in his mouth, drinking out of both of them. He made a face and nodded.

"Not a bad flavor combo."

Then he tried to hand me mine again and I took it this time.

"Fine, but you'd better let me try that first."

He handed me his cup and I did the same thing he did, sipping out of both straws at the same time. I made a gross face before swallowing hard.

"Yeah no, you can keep that."

He laughed at me as he took our pretzel bites from one of the theater employees.

"Come on, let's go or we'll miss it."

°°°°°°°°°

When the credits started rolling Chris and I both just stared at the screen. Our fingers were tightly interlocked and I wasnt sure I could actually get up yet. It was one of the scariest movies I'd ever seen and my heart was still trying to escape my chest. No wonder it sold out. Chris looked at me slowly and took a deep breath.

"Wanna go watch a kids movie now?"

I looked at him and let out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah actually but I think we could go home to do that."

He nodded and we both stood up at the same time, not letting each other's hands go. As we walked out of the theater we just kind of looked at each other.

"That was intense."

I said, shivering. He squeezed my hand.

"Definitely."

I looked up at him.

"So, what series of cartoons are we watching when we get back to my place?"

He laughed at me.

"All of them."

°°°°°°°°°°

When we walked into my house I was quick to start moving all my stuff off my couch. I was so focused on not dying during that movie it had completely slipped my mind that I probably shouldn't have offered to go back to my place. i hadn't cleaned in a while.

"Sorry for the mess."

I said as I took all my stuff back to my room. When I came back out Chris was knelt in front of my DVD shelf.

"I don't mind, you know that. Besides, with how down you seemed earlier im sure you have good reason."

He kept flipping through, pulling Brave out. He held it up.

"I don't think I've seen this one yet, wanna watch it?"

I shrugged and plopped down on the couch.

"Aw mom, it's just mah bowwww!"

I said drawn out in a terrible accent and he laughed at me.

"I'll take that as a yes."

He turned the TV on and put it into he DVD player, coming and falling on the couch next to me with the remote in his hand.

"Is it good?"

He asked, skipping through the commercials. I nodded.

"I think so."

He wiggled further into the couch, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and cuddling into me.

"So, now that we were scared shitless, and are watching something cute, how have you really been feeling?"

I looked up at him quizzically.

"What do you mean?"

He shifted.

"You looked so broken this afternoon when I picked you up. I didn't wanna pry cause I know sometimes getting you out and about makes you feel better but I kinda wanna know what was up. Now that you seem to actually be feeling better."

I frowned as he shifted next to me.

"Honestly I've been feeling a little stuck. Stuck in my own head and my own emotions. Every day is the same thing and I guess I feel better now cause you came and got me out of my rut. It was something different, something nice, no more of that groundhog day feeling."

He kissed the top of my head.

"You know I'll always be here to get you out of a rut right? You could have texted me when you first started feeling down and we could have gone and done something. ya know before it got worse."

I shrugged into him.

"Yeah but you always say that and I never follow through. You know that. I don't reach out, even when I need to most."

He ran his hand gently over my arm.

"You're right, and as long as you keep doing that, I'll keep showing up unannounced to drag you out of this house myself. if you wont make yourself feel better, i sure as hell will."

We both laughed a little.

"Thanks Chris, it really means a lot. You're the best friend I could ever even hope to ask for."

He offered me a small smile as he hit play on the movie.

"I'll always be here for you y/n, that's what best friends are for."

i hugged him into my side and he did the same.

"now, lets watch a girl turn her family into bears."

he looked down at me like i was crazy.

"im sorry, we're gonna what?"

i laughed at him.

"just watch the movie."

[nocturnaladvocate]

An Archive Party

The night had started innocently enough. Sable’s roommate had reminded them about a party someone was hosting. It was going to be a proper party too, not one of the imitations gringos were always trying to pass as a party. Offhandedly Sable mentioned it to Tim, when he had stopped by for his daily story about the skull. Tim then passed it over to Sasha, who had been itching for a good drinking contest. Sasha knew she was going to rope Martin in this because the poor man had become Jon’s punching bag. As for how Jon found out, and came to them asking for an address was a mystery. At least none of them would stick out, all in varying shades of brown the entire archive staff would blend in with the crowd easily. Their shifts were to end at a similar time, Jon being the last who was meant to leave, but what Elias didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. They cut the day a little short in favor of piling together into the auto that Mercury had waiting outside the Institute.

“Sorry, Mercy. Entire team found out on accident.”

But the driver only laughed, before turning to the three archive workers in the back. “I’m the dd for tonight so don’t worry about anything.” Neb said with a smile turning back to the wheel and the group left the hellscape that was the Magnus Institute, coming to a stop a few blocks away from a nondescript house and as the group came closer the faint sound of music could be heard.

“Jon, it’s gonna be warm. You might wanna ditch the sweater vest.” Sable called over their shoulder, having already turned a work uniform into something applicable to a party.

“I will be keeping my sweater, thank you.” He responded tersely before the quintet came to the front door, opening it to be met with a wall of differing languages all spoken in such a free and casual way that English usually was forced into taking the place of.

Mercury grinned before diving into the fray, pulling Martin after neb, taunting the others as the pair disappeared. Jon bristled at the loss of a member, but was quickly pulled in but the remained archive workers, Sasha and Tim discussing plans and Sable smiling at him.

When  Sasha finally disappeared, lost into the crowd where music hung in the air, voices occasionally intertwining with the notes in that off-key way that always came with smiles and laughter. Sable wrapped a hand around his wrist, gaining the archivist’s attention.

“Take a breather, Jon. You look like you’re twenty seconds from a freakout. Come on, I’ll lead you outside, alright?” Silently he followed their lead, emerging in the cool night air where the crowd was just milling around and talking. He could smell a barbeque somewhere out there, but what it was cooking he couldn’t tell. The hand on his wrist disappeared, but now he was calmer and in a place with so much less noise. It wasn’t that he disliked parties or loud noises, no, it was just that it always overwhelmed him at first, head pounding and the ground swimming and bass throbbing in his chest. But then it became the setting and he was fine, it just took a few minutes. The music from inside muffled itself and he could breathe again, taking a moment to recollect himself. One of his workers seeing that momentary break irritated Jon, but it had been the one least likely to make comment on it, so that was a relief after all. And they were his friends, at least as much as he allowed himself to indulge.

Inside the home, however, the party was thriving. Sasha found the drinking challenge soon enough, the loud jeering called her over easily and really it was shots, tequila. A clean shot. Simple enough, but she would pull the Jaeger bomb at some point, coaxing out the real challenge.  But that could wait, for now. She flashed the group a wide grin, sliding in and stealing a shot from the end of the line, downing it in one and placing it on the table upside down. “Twenty quid says I can drink you under the table. All of you.” The loud and slurred consensus of agreement earned her another shot.

Tim wandered through the throngs of people, drink in hand amd flashing that smile that earned himself the title of most people's workplace crush. And in this moment, there was no exception, for he quickly drew the attention of all. Sable went between their friends before settling close to the music station, waiting for a moment. Waiting for the right moment. A mechanisms song. One-Eyed Jack. Our Boy Jack. Either would do. Both would yank.Jon to center stage.

They watched the crowd, and when that familiar sweater was spotted, Sable changed the music, the always familiar chords ringing in the air as Jon's attention was drawn to the source. He hummed along, despite himself, and upon seeing Sable's shit eating grin he knew this was no accident.

"Why, Mr. D'ville, I believe this to be your cue." They called, eyeing the table where the speakers sat above, mounted on the wall. Jon shook his head, his smile stupidly fond as he climbed the table and fell into his age old persona. His voice rasped as he sang along, becoming Jonny D'ville once more. If only for a little bit. And then the song ended and Sable offered a hand, helping him down. "Find your stride? Treat it like an old concert." They smirked before darting off, leaving him on his own. Amd his own didn't seem too bad, not with the confidence of an immortal space pirate first mate possessing him. And if he saw Sasha drinking and being passed notes of cash or saw Martin dancing with some random man, learning the salsa with a tie wrapped around his head or Mercury watched with a gleeful grin or Tim making his way through the circles of people or Sable causing their usual mischief or pulling Mercury and Tim into dances throughout the night? Well. He wasn't going to say anything. He was allowed to have some fun and so were they.

The night was coming to a close, most of the crowd clearing out and separating on their own paths. Most, but not the archival team and Mercury, not yet. In a couch hidden in the basement, just barely out of sight, Tim and Sasha and Sable had all squished together, the smallest of them in the center. Sleepy mumbles and terrible jokes. 

“Sasha. Sasha. Sasha,” Tim started making grabby hands over Sable before launching into one of his trademark jokes. “Statement Joe Spooky on the topic of Jimmy Magma-” was all he was able to say before the laughter overtook, pulling spams from the three assistants before they all squished more, trying to minimize any space between them because that’s what a friend pile was. It was protecting against being touch starved by virtue of becoming a pile of kittens, except with humans. 

On the upper level Martin, still with his damned tie wrapped around his head and cheeks flushed red, danced with Mercury, even if it was mostly just swaying side to side with music playing in the background. He was wrapped around neb like a kola, mumbling something in the hybrid language his family had created and making softly pleased noises, trying to show his affection in a way that could be accepted. Perhaps there was too much alcohol in his system, still, causing this stupor instead of the manic energy from earlier. But fuck, if he wasn’t pleased with the current events, swaying with a beautiful person in his arms and tangling his hands in nebs hair. 

Jon, still with remnants of D’ville in him, came to the basement, finding three of his archists laying in a pile of limbs and warmth. He sat in front of the couch that trio had collapsed on, legs folded together, and barely tugging Sable’s hand before being met with tired brown eyes. Eyes that sometimes glinted with mischief or knowledge they shouldn’t have. Eyes that outside of the dark and dust of the archive and in the sun held glints of tawny in the usual dark umber.

“Would you care for a dance?” He asked, voice still having the rasp that separated Jonny from himself, however minimal the presence was now. Groans of protest came from Tim as they tried to disentangle from his lazy grip, arms eventually falling limp as Sable emerged from the pile. Carefully he stood once more, leading them upstairs where music still floated lazily in the air, pulling them close and resting his head on their shoulder, for a moment at least before taking a step and leading a spin, Sable easily passing under his arm. 

But the night had to come to a close, the host finally kicking them out. Jon and Sable descended a level to the remaining archive workers, rousing them from slumber. Hands reached out for the normally third member of their group, instead latching onto both Sable and Jon. Sasha and Tim both draped over their smaller compatriots, allowing themselves to be led to the auto where Martin and Mercury waited, the former of which climbed in shotgun seeing the swarm.

The swarm of four then piled into the back, Sable and Sasha each half on Tim's lap and Jon nearby. Neb, made way to the one flat the location of was known for sure, Mercury's own. Inside awaited a fort built of most of the blankets in the flat, a remnant of the night before. Before it could be accessed however, Mercury would fumble with the key in the lock, surrounded by archive workers in varying states. The door opened and in fell the horde, piling into the flat and finding areas of situation inside the fort. Where shoes and outer layers were shucked did not matter in that instant, sleep did.

Inside the fort it appeared a tangle. A heap. But divisions were clear enough. Tim slept between Sasha and Sable, legs tangling with them both. Sasha had an arm draped over Tim's chest, hand curling into Sable's sleeve and keeping their hand close. Jon slept with his head on Martin's stomach, a hand outstretched and entertwined with Sable's. And Mercury slept in the center of it all, touching the entire entourage in one way or another.

When morning came, it would be different. The peace would be broken and everyone's lives would return to the typical, but the night would be remembered fondly enough. Morning would come and ruin the moment, but locked away and away from the Entities was a moment of peace. For now, at least.

[jonathanraychapman]

Remembering Ultima Online

When I was in junior college (I spent two years at the local community college before the state university), I used to hang out over at a friend’s house  This was someone I met in high school.  He and his other friends had started to play Ultima Online on his new Gateway 2000.  I didn’t really have any close friends growing up (especially not ones that could come over) so this was sort of a new era in my life (where being social was a possibility).  Before that, I tended to read and play PC games by myself - cut off from the rest of the world and completely offline.

By that time I was already an established PC gamer (but not with deep knowledge of games) since my mom bought me a IBM compatible one of her coworkers had built - probably when I was 12 (complete with dual 5.25-inch floppy drives).   We weren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination and my first PC was really the second-hand cast-off from her coworker - who had upgraded as an enthusiast.  I became an hobbyist myself and my birthday money and part-time job earnings quickly went into new rigs.  By the time I entered college, I had scrounged and bought a AMD 300 Mhz K6-2 with a 8mb Matrox Millennium graphics card and probably 16mb of memory.  I mostly just played older games (by that point) like Quake and Doom.

Meanwhile - across the road from my parent’s house - they had built a new Walmart supercenter with its own software section (which was kind of amazing since our whole town had less than 1800 people).  Instead of driving over an hour away to get PC games at the mall (at a Babbages) or borrow a physical copy from someone at school, I had access right there to somewhat-modern games and magazines about them (specifically magazines with demos).

The first RPG game I bought over there (my first RPG games were the Gold Box TSR/SSI games) was Ultima IX: Ascension.  It was a really poor purchase and it ran terribly on my rig (which I’ve read was probably for pretty much everyone).  At this point I wasn’t nostalgic for Ultima because I hadn’t really played it so I returned it.  Walmart didn’t even want to take it back because of it having been opened - though eventually we worked that out (it was defective in my eyes).  I hadn’t yet caught the Diablo 2 bug and so when my friends suggested I go back over there and buy the new Ultima Online (the same series as the game I had just returned) I was a bit skeptical - especially because we didn’t even have dial-up internet at the time.

But after sitting over at my friend’s house and seeing how this game (Ultima Online Second Age) played out for him, I was hooked.  It also helped that that midi sound from this game was just amazing in this game (just the character creation screen was awesome).  And the lack of Internet at my house wasn’t really a problem either as it turned out.  Though it might have been a bit unethical, a phone number and password was passed around between friends and that became my internet access as well.  The fact it was 56K modem (and probably less than that given the copper wiring in the house and poles) wasn’t really an issue since this game was simple as far as controls and graphics.  But the internet was bad to just cut out at times - leading to many in-game deaths (and heart-stopping moments).

Certainly for such a primitive-looking game, the imagination greatly assisted in making Ultima Online an immersive experience.  When it was 2am in the morning, having your newbie account being attacked by a bear or an Orc Mage would put you on edge (heart racing as you tried everything to win or run away). 

This game also introduced me to this pattern (especially with MMOs.. Everquest, Star Wars, etc) that carried on through my college years of friends getting me into a game, but at a point where they were much too high level or too aloof to play with me.  So I really ended up playing Ultima Online alone instead of it being the group experience I had hoped for.  I was still having a good time playing it, but it was just so hard to coordinate with local players at that time in my life that I decided to just not try to.  After all, I was using the only form of outside communication in the house as my conduit into the Internet.  There were no cell phones at that time for us.  If you needed to call someone, you had to sign off of the modem and get back a dial-tone to call them on the landline.  And, if you wanted to reach them at home, they also had to not be using their phone line for Internet or you’d just get a busy signal.  We had ICQ at that time, but it only helped so much (both parties had to be online for example).

I spent most of my time in this game leveling up and wandering the coastline above town.  I went around, finding reagents and using them to practice spellcraft.  This was all made harder by being killed by NPCs (Orc Mages were notorious), bears, and then there were the worst -  PK’ers (Player-Killers).  

A little aside about PK’ing.  If everything was well and good and fair, this wouldn’t be so bad, but in Ultima Online, these villains were quite the scourge on the aspiring newcomer.  First of all, you had to run all the way back to town to be resurrected if there was no good player around to resurrect you.  When you died, your items would all remain on your body (at this point you were a ghost).  The PK’er could loot your body for any items they wanted - leaving your body to rot.  This meant that by the time you got back to your body, your items were probably gone (evaporated into the digital ether).  But not only that; the PK’er might just be hidden nearby and they might murder you a second-time - using your body as the bait to bring you back.  PK’ers were the ultimate trolls in this game - getting their fun by causing you misery.  Sometimes players (especially new players) would just give up on the game altogether because of this.  Now if you were close to a town, you could call out GUARD and if there was a guard in proximity they would show up and pretty much immediately execute the PK’er.  I can assure you that this never happened.  These killers were experienced in the game and would never position themselves close enough for that to occur.

Eventually - while out in the middle of nowhere - I found a kind, trusting stranger that let me have a key to her house (and access to her food) so I could work on crafting and not lose everything - just the items on my person - when I died.  I only played this character so eventually I became pretty powerful as a wizard (I believe my spells and swordsmanship were both above 90/100).  Typically my style was to cast spells and run back (which eventually was termed ‘kiting’) while wearing little or no armor (just a helmet and a robe) to recover mana.  After casting spells, I’d equip a halberd to deliver the final blow.  Over time I had to travel to dungeons and fight higher-level monsters to even gain anything stat-wise.

I had joined my friend’s guild - even though I didn’t hang out with them most of the time - given how difficult it was to arrange.  Joining up was more out of friendship than any advantage.  And - by that point - I was every bit their equals as far as combat (though we had went different tracts).  By that point, I had even defended myself against some PK’ers by that time (using their own techniques against them - given that my play style was the same as theirs - nuking with spells, running, repeating, and then delivering the kill blows with a halberd).  I was happy that the guild i joined had bought a house at that time and my friend was a pretty good blacksmith (actually smithing was how he raised funds) so that was also a perk.  But neither perk was really great for me.  I spent most of the time away in dungeons or storing my loot at that lady’s house that I had met earlier.

So - to continue my story - one rainy afternoon (IRL) I get a phone call.  It’s my friend and he and his guild needed my help online in the game (which it was my duty to provide given our affiliation).  The plot?.. Well enough is enough and they’re going to raid a guild of player-killers up the path a ways from Britain.  I certainly needed no more motivation.  Given my previous difficulties, I was absolutely livid about these jerks in my game.  He wants everyone to meet up at the guild-house (right outside the edge of the city limits) and then we’d ride up there together to attack.  I didn’t have a horse (given that I just usually teleport or walk everywhere), but he says he’s got one for me to borrow.  So at that point I’m in.

The four of us talk strategy in chat.  My friend - the leader - is playing a traditional fighter/tank character (with a high/maxed healing skill - using bandages to recover HP on himself and others).  He’s done some reconnaissance beforehand.  The evil guild up north has been positioned by the roadside and has been hiding and then waylaying travelers - looting all their items (but really just murdering newbies for lulz).  The gang is filled with real, logged-in players who use alt accounts to keep themselves supplied - as the game won’t let you come to town as a murderer.  They’re well outside of town limits, so calling guards is no use up there.  And the gang uses a local house to run back and hide in if there’s trouble.  The game won’t let people rush in their house if they’ve locked the door.  On top of that, they can banish you from their house by typing and then selecting your sprite.  You’re immediately transported outside and can not enter again or approach the step (kind of like legends about vampires - only you’re the vampire here with the invisible barrier preventing entry).  

Given these villains are traditional PK’ers (already leveled-up characters with a certain skillset used for murder), they are attired and skilled much like myself - with little armor and with a heavy polearm (relying on magic to quickly take down enemies before being hurt).  Their hit-and-run tactics works well-enough normally - against single travelers - but against four adventurers on horses they need their spells to do massive damage to have a chance.  All together we launch an assault out of nowhere, riding up there on horseback.  Though they're hidden (waiting for new targets, hidden among the skeletons of the newly-killed on the roadside), this assault catches them off-guard and, in the end, there are only two of them logged on at the time.  They initially break their cover with the hopes of winning before realizing they’re outnumbered.  They attempt to run and hide, but I reveal them with the namesake spell - letting the others continue the assault.  

Again they fall back and blast some spells in retaliation, but it’s no use.  We overpower them - using healing to tank the damage while disrupting their spell-casting by attacking and the PK’ers are soon out of mana.  On top of that, from the back-line I hit them with a energy bolt as they run.  This is where things get interesting.  In a fit of panic, one runs into their nearby house as he’s pursued.  My friend rushes right in after him.  This takes away his option of locking the door.  As he’s probably typing in the command to banish a player (which is fairly quick to accomplish), my friend strikes him dead inside the doorway.  

So - after we finish the pursuit - there we are - inside the bandit house with an unlocked door - with no-one alive now to banish us outside.  And it gets better.  Normally in the game you can lock down items so that no-one can remove them from your house.  These players hadn’t done that (because they relied on the locked door).  So it’s a veritable cave of wonders in there with everything for the taking. And apparently this PK’er’s alt account is a grandmaster blacksmith and he stores his extra goods in the house (to share with his accounts and guildmates).  When you’re a grandmaster blacksmith in this game, your name is visible in text on the armor and swords you make.  So pretty soon we’re all stocked up with the guy’s armor and weapons (I believe I took some armor made from a green-colored ore).  I’d taken all the stored food and spell reagents I could find.  There wasn’t any gold in there (because they kept that in the bank), but anything that wasn’t nailed down (sitting in chests) we took.  

There’s no downside here (not even a moral one).  After all, looting the body of a murderer is allowed without karma loss.  There’s also no karma loss for picking up items out of chests.  The PK’er is probably a ghost there, screaming at us to no avail.  He can’t get resurrected with that login in town because he’s a murderer.  He could log in with his alt account, but that takes time.  It’s over and we’ve won.  Later, we spotted the alt account near the bank in town (because it was the name on the armor).  Whenever we’d see that guy, we’d always go over and thank him for the awesome armor we had on (the joke being that he hadn’t exactly given it to us).  He’d just leave town or type something that the game would mask as gibberish (i.e. curse-words).

So this was one of my more-fun adventures (and really my only adventure with my local friends and their guild) and really the beginning of the end for me playing it.  Shortly after this we all went our separate ways.  I continued my schooling elsewhere, found Diablo 2 (and the expansions), and lost many many hours playing that game online.  Maybe I’ll write about our Neverwinter Nights adventures some other time.