#but at least I got the gist of where to dodge and where to attack so I can skim through it and get to the point I died

[lemonsourcrisis]

I hate this final boss fight 😅, it made me die 🙃. And I haven't died once throughout rebirth. Damn you, Sephiroth! 🙄

[bogbees]

It's 10:30am, I haven't slept and should be cleaning but soulmate au where you feel phantom pain when ur soulmate gets injured ninja dad ver

10:30 AM · Apr 10, 2017

Kakashi feels his nose hurt and it's like "whaaat" Minato/ Sakumo be like "Yo kid it's probably just ur soulmate no big deal" cue confusion

Iruka constantly feels injuries it's alright until he's like seven and his eyeball is searing with pain as Kakashi fucking removes it

Iruka is like "Jesus christ is my soulmate ok???? Are they in trouble???" Kohari be like "probably a Ninja, nothing to worry about"

Cue adorable "well I'm gonna get strong and protect them!!" promises from the mouths of babes. You're crying, I'm sobbing my ass off

They can't dechiper between another's pain on the kyuubi attack. They ache all over, it's painful but they must keep going

Idk if the strain of loneliness and such things would carry over. It'd be interesting but also really heavy stop hurting the dads I'm beggin

So Kakashi goes on more missions than Iruka, gets injured more often. Iruka powers through it and has forgotten ab his promise to his mom

Kakashi thinks his soulmates fucking dead or something. Maybe a civilian, but mostly dead. He's startled whenever he feels a kunai hit him

Cause Iruka’s kids are bad with projectile weapons. He tries his best to keep from getting hit (emotional trauma fr the kids) but yanno

So when Nar steals the scroll, Kakashi is out of town when he feels this thing pierce through his back and fucking panics. What the fuck

When he gets back he hears about the academy teacher who almost died saving Naruto. Um? Clarify ? Turns out A GIANT SURIKEN PIERCED THE GUY

So he's like "this.... this can't be it...." lo and behold, he meets the man a week later and he has a scar. Over his nose. Huuuuh.

That's funny, I first learned about soulmates when I felt like my nose was gonna fall off.... huuuuuhhhh

So Kakashi is Kakashi right. Doesn't want to deal with it (get close and deal with emotional trauma when Iruka eventually dies) so he dodges

Iruka is none the wiser bc honestly, he's pretty sure his soulmate is like, an anbu or some shit with all the trouble he's gone through

And it's like, all fine and dandy for awhile. Bc Iruka and Nar are "family," Iruka joins them for dinner a lot. Kakashi hates it.

But Sakura is keen and will notice something's up with her teacher if he just bails every night and doesn't at least attempt to know them

So it's on these ichiraku ramen "dates" that Kakashi finds himself falling for his soulmate. He really hates it

Actual thing Kakashi said into his pillow "god damn it he's really nice and his smile is---" the rest is muffled by the fabric and his sobs

Iruka tho, he's harder to please. Man's got standards. Kakashi's not meeting any of them with his perpetual half lidded dead fish gaze

But! He comes to at least like the guy by the chunin exams. Whoops he's trying to kill my children???? No sir please fuck right off will ya

Kakashi be like "I can't mope that Iruka MY SOULMATE hates me I'm trying to train soldiers here if I can't have him it's fine bc Konoha wil"

Whoops would you look at that, they're asking him to pop out a scroll to greet his kids for passing round two. You know who'd like that

Iruka would like that. He'd like to see his kids ( their kids inner Kakashi cries) pass round two and see them and congratulate them

Anyway the gist is Kakashi pines the entire time and it's not until he gets trapped in that genjutsu that Iruka catches on

He's like, feeling awful and when he visits with Sakura, she's telling him about the symptoms bc she's been reading, he goes "is that so"

He goes home and considers the possibility of him being his soulmate. It's not impossible, but it's just so surreal. Wouldn't he had said..?

So he laughs it off. And it's not until much later, when Naruto has left and returned, after many weird dates,

When Kakashi returns from Suna drained and on the verge of passing out, that Iruka decides it must be so.

Because he had collapsed and can't move, he feels fine, it's just his soulmate has drained their chakra he tells the nurses

When Kakashi gets omitted, Iruka grabs some crutches and makes his way to the man's room and yells at him for how foolish he is

The nurses will not stop talking about how Iruka had whopped the famed Kakashi up the side of the head with his crutch only to wail in agony

It's all over Konoha by sundown. They've been given the same room. Naruto and Sakura are screaming. Gai is beaming. Somewhere Tenzo laughs.

"When did you find out," Iruka says when the moon hangs in their window, exhausted from the day. Kakashi is feigning sleep but Iruka knows

After much silence between then and what must be crickets playing their music in the fields, Kakashi dares to look over to Iruka.

(Under the moonlight, the serious moonlight, lyrics provided by David Bowie)

Iruka has fallen asleep. Kakashi bites his tongue. He should have said something, told him the truth. He settles for watching Iruka sleep

And not until years later, when everything has been said and done, that Kakashi confesses to having known they were soulmates from the start 11:42 AM · Apr 10, 2017

[all-might-can-smash-me]

New Girl

Keigo Takami/Hawks x reader

Summary: You run into prohero Hawks while on night patrol for the agency that took you in after recently graduating from UA

Masterlist

You were fresh out of the hero course of UA and you just simply couldn’t believe it. It all felt so surreal, like it was still all just a big lucid dream you would have as a child with a mind that would yearn to be a hero. It was real though, all those tough years in UA and training got you here. You may have just been a sidekick in a smaller agency, but it was more than you had ever hoped for with your quirk. You see, you were a hair hero, your hair would go to almost an infinite length and you would use it like a capturing weapon, but you couldn’t retract it. With that downside, everyone saw your quirk as troublesome, not wanting to mess with the cleanup of hair after a fight. Though an agency showed an interest from the start and guided you through your job shadowing and your hero work studies, helping you make a name for yourself and even offering you a job once you graduated.

Though with being a newbie at the agency, you usually got placed on night patrol. You were fine with it though, honestly, you expected that with you being a new member of the agency. Sometimes you wished you didn’t though because it was quite frightening. Shadows would trick your eyes, cats jumping from alleyways would startle you. Tonight you just couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching you though as you slowed your pace down, footsteps now softer as you tried to listen. There...a soft flutter, like a bird. You could hear it coming up from behind you. No time was spared as your hair was clutched within your hands, spinning to quickly whip it towards the sound above you, but it only dodged, so you continued your attacks until finally it landed next to a lamp post a few feet away from where you stood. You sighed in relief as you finally got a good look at the other, hands releasing the hair that you gripped on.

You knew exactly who he was, you didn’t even need an introduction for the hero that now stood a bit ahead of you. Everyone in Japan new his image and name. Hawks was an icon amongst the people. Plus he was handsome, hard to miss that face on the news and gossip magazines.

“You! How dare you sneak up on me like that!” You shouted as you caught your breath and tried to subside the trembles of fear that plagued your body. The pro hero non other than Hawks only smugly stood in front of you, leaning against the lamp post letting out a laugh.

“Sorry sweet heart, just wanted to swoop by and see who the new girl is, but nobody warned me that the she was a feisty one.” He said with a shrug of his shoulders as his wings boredly ruffled and shook themselves out.

“Damn...” you spat out as you finally managed to calm yourself down a bit, eyes finally looking to your hair that trailed around you on the ground, branching out in so many directions. “Look what you made me do...you know, it isn’t easy to gather all this up.” You grumbled out as you let the toe of your boot nudge up against a pile of your hair.

“Ah...well....” he groaned as he squatted down, gloved hand grabbing a handful of your hair to bring it up to his face to examine it. “At least it looked cool, you actually had me shaking in my boots for a sec, I recommend you get some night visiom eyewear for late hour patrols” He stood up, hand still messing with the hair in his hands. “You would have honestly probably have gotten me if it weren’t for you probably not being able to see in this lighting.” With that he looked up to the lamp post. Though you only gave a click of your tongue as your hands shot to the belt that hugged your hips, the sound of Velcro ripping followed and soon you had a pair of scissors in your hand.

“Yeah? Well you still could have been nice and helped me avoid this by not sneaking up on me” You pointed out to the other, soon making your way up to him, trying not to trip over your own hair, and offered him the scissors. “Well since you got me in this mess, why don’t you help me out” Hawks hesitantly grabbed the scissors from your hands, slowly walking behind you. A gloved hand went to pull your hair, with the help of your too, all to your backside.

“Right here fine?” He asked, fingers gently rubbing the length that he was referencing across your back. You tried not to let the shiver you felt from that touch show as you nodded your head, a gentle flush on your cheeks as he began to snip away as neatly as he could, soon handed you back the scissors.

“That’s better....” you said with a sigh of relief as you ran your fingers through the new length of your hair, your head already feeling 10 times lighter. The scissors were soon placed back in their designated pouch at your hip, your hands now beginning to gather up the hair that stretch across the area you stood in. Hawks stood there for a second before letting out a sigh before bending over himself, now beginning to help you gather the hair as well from the ground.

“Damn! What do you do with all this?” He exclaimed as the two of you finally managed to clear the area of hair. “This stuff is heavy!” He said as he moved his arms up and down to get a good feel o for weight it had made within his arms.

“Well....I usually just throw it or donate it, but I donate pretty frequently anyway.” You explained as you led him up to a nearby trash can where you dumped your bundle in there, Hawks following right after you. Your quirk may have seemed simple, but dang, with all that hair he was impressed that your scalp didn’t rip off under all that weight.

“Donate it often? Good girl...” he said with a smirk as he looked to the trash that was almost completely filled with hair. On the other hand your cheeks began to feel hotter at his words, your arms crossing over your chest with a huff.

“Why you had to be weird though? Sneaking up behind me like that....” You said as you scrapped your shoes against the pavement below. “That was scary! Plus it’s dark!” You continues on as you leaned against the lamp post, watching Hawks saunter up to you with his hands shoved in his pockets.

“Eh? Flying up behind you to see what’s up is weird?” He asked with a raised brow, wings now stretch out “I thought flying around was pretty normal honestly....or have I just been lying to myself all these years?” He said with a playful pout as his wings rested back down, leaving you to only roll your eyes as you played with a piece of your hair that fell over your shoulder.

“Oh har har...” you said as you began to braid the bit of hair that you were playing with, the smirk upon Hawks’ face only growing as he watched you and listened to your response. He liked your more every second it seemed.

“I’m funny right? I try to be.” He said with a grin, a hand making a quick swoop over his messy hair. Though he quickly went to pressing his hands over the pockets of his jacket and pants before finally pulling out a pen, handing it over to you. “Though I’m not trying to be funny now, I would like your number though....you know....so I can warn you next time I’ll be swooping in.” He said with a wink “Ok now that was suppose to funny, but you get the gist.” Hawks said with a chuckle. After a few seconds of a pause, you let out a sigh before finally taking the pen from his hands, your own hands grabbing one of his arms to roll up the jacket sleeve and begin scribbling down your phone number and possibly a name.

“There, hopefully you will remember to warn me since I’m guessing you really are a bird brain.” You said with a small smirk upon your lips as you handed the pen back, which he gave off a playful pout as he grabbed the pen from you and shoved it away.

“Ouch....that hurt....that really hurt...” he spoke dramatically as his wings began to flap, lifting him up from the ground “I’ll see you some other time though....or maybe your hair, who knows!” He called down as he was soon zipping through the night sky. It didn’t take long for him to swoop down on the balcony of his apartment, stepping though the unlocked sliding door into his apartment, speaking up for his Alexa device to turn on the lights. Slipping off his shoes and tossing his jacket aside, he tossed himself onto the couch in his living room, phone whipped out and in his hands, eyes now searching for the number on his arm. Though he let out a laugh as he saw the number and the words ‘for Mr.Not Really Funny’ written besides it.

He still couldn’t stop laughing as he added your number and sent a simple winky face emoji to you. He had a feeling you would know exactly what number was texting you just by looking at that....

[baphomet-media]

Dad of Boy - A God of War (2018) Review

Genre: Adventure

Subgenre: 3D Adventure

Developer: SIE Santa Monica Studio

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Platform(s): PS4

Release Date: April 20th, 2018

I have never played a God of War game before. Though I know the basic gist of the story (Kratos kills all of the Greek pantheon before they can kill him through powers of rage), that’s about it. Still, I saw nothing but praise for the new game, and the setting, story, and gameplay that I saw intrigued me. I got the game as a gift a short while ago, after it seemed to collectively drop off the media’s radar, and eventually decided to give it a shot. So, does it live up to the hype? Let’s dig in.

Story

God of War 2018 (GoW18) takes place many years after the events of the previous games. Kratos, the former bloodthirsty deicidal barbarian Ghost of Sparta has moved to a new land of giants, dwarves, and Norse gods, and has settled down with a wife and child. But Kratos cannot run away from his godhood forever, and things catch up with him one day after his wife dies, when a mysterious stranger shows up at Kratos’s door. The two engage in a brutal fight, with Kratos seemingly emerging victorious. Kratos and his young son Atreus then must set off to take Kratos’s wife’s ashes to the top of the tallest peak in all the realms.

Along the way, Kratos teaches his son about how to survive in the world, in his own gruff way, of course. The interplay between Kratos’s grim and serious nature contrasts delightfully with Atreus’s impatience and youthful energy. Various other friendly and hostile faces present themselves throughout the story, with the highlights being dwarf brothers Brok and Sindri, two dwarf smiths with clashing personalities that spend most of the game passive-aggressively bickering about how horrible of a smith the other is, but actually do their best work together. The supporting cast are all fantastic, however the enemies left a lot to be desired, and there were very few actual named enemies, making a lot of the story beats just feeling like they lacked impact, and were instead just stepping stones along Kratos’s way. Still, there were plenty of moments of good humor and intrigue, especially for anyone with an interest in mythology, particularly the Norse variety.

While the game does not have a completely canonical representation of Norse myth, it takes a lot of the established characters and ideas and puts its own grim spin on them. I enjoyed learning a bit about different mythological figures and events, even if the majority of them are merely exposited to the player and make no physical appearance in the game itself. It leaves me wanting more, and hopeful for a sequel.

Gameplay

From what I know about past God of War games, combat used to revolve around Kratos using his Blades of Chaos, two beefy short swords chained together, which he uses to spin, grapple, slam, and juggle hordes of foes. GoW18 takes a different approach, slowing things down and moving the camera over Kratos’s shoulder. His main weapon now is the Leviathan Axe, which excels at one-on-one combat, and can also be thrown and returned for ranged combat. To put it plainly, combat in this game feels a bit more like Dark Souls than Devil May Cry. Longtime fans of the series may be disappointed in the shift in gameplay direction, but as a relative outsider, I found the combat enjoyable. I liked that it made me think about my strikes, blocks, parries, and throws, instead of mindlessly mashing attack buttons to rack up insane combos.

However, combat demands that you stay in control. Even the weakest enemies can drain your health quickly, as Kratos is vulnerable to being stunlocked. Plus (at least on the Hard difficulty, which I played) enemies have a ton of HP, so you’ll need around 5-6 combos to finish off most weaker enemies. It doesn’t help that the beginning of the game only drip-feeds you the controls, so I got killed multiple times on the first enemy because I had no idea that Kratos had a shield or how to dodge properly.

Still, as you progress through the game, the number and strength of enemies increase, but the overall challenge gradually decreases as you unlock new moves and combat options to help you deal more damage, more easily stagger enemies, and better deal with multiple foes. Unfortunately, for most of the game, the combat struggles when there are multiple foes. The lock-on system is extremely reluctant to switch enemies, and it’s sometimes difficult to maneuver, dodge blows, and keep the camera looking where you want all at once. Particularly in boss fights, which are numerous.

Still, when it goes right, using the shield to parry, and landing heavy blows with the Leviathan Axe is very satisfying. Along the way Atreus himself gets more capable in combat, improving his archery, and learning assist moves that distract enemies and set them up for combos by Kratos. You can also command Atreus to shoot arrows and use special abilities, which gives you more options in combat. This starts out being only marginally helpful, but gets much more useful the further you advance in the game, and Atreus also gains abilities that help you progress in the overworld, allowing you to bypass obstacles that Kratos couldn’t deal with on his own.

The game has a fairly expansive world, though this is not so much in the sheer size of the world, but more in that the main area of the world is constantly revealing more depth to it. The Lake of Nine, the game’s main area, is constantly revealing new areas to explore, which constantly keeps it fresh, although sometimes it definitely feels like you’re constantly revisiting the same areas. At most points in the game, you can explore freely, though you may stumble across challenges and enemies that are too difficult for you to tackle at your current power level and need to come back once you’ve powered up by upgrading your gear. On one hand, I like this, because it gives you the option to try instead of just locking out higher-level content, but on the other hand, even if you’re really good at the game, you’ll have a lot of difficulty felling enemies that are even slightly higher in level than you, mostly because their HP is ridiculously high, which leads back into enemies feeling like HP sponges.

Presentation

GoW18 is a gorgeous game to look at, with the scenery being drenched in detail. The various realms that you travel to throughout the game also add differences in visual appeal, keeping things fresh when you’re outside of Midgard.

While the game doesn’t have much in the way of music, the heavy brass and choir vocals on more dark and foreboding tracks remind the listener of Kratos’s violent past, and let you know not to mess with him. You don’t want to be on the receiving end of his Spartan Rage when that music swells!

The voice acting in the game is top-notch. Christopher Judge is great as Kratos, and as a longtime Stargate fan, it’s funny just to see how much Kratos mirrors Judge’s previous role as Stargate’s Teal’c. I also particularly enjoyed the voice acting of the character Mimir, voiced by Alastair Duncan, who exposits his own twisted take on Norse mythology to the father-son duo during travel periods. The rest of the cast are fantastic in their own right, as well.

Conclusion

God of War 2018 is a great game that manages to step out of the shadow of its previous games to create something unique and new for itself. Despite how violent and dark the series is, GoW18 tells a touching story of a father and son getting to know each other better, travelling the world together, and meeting all manner of colorful friends and foes. The combat, while slower and more methodical than previous games and tedious at times on higher difficulties, rewards skillful play and empowers the player more and more as they stick with it.

All in all, if you have a PS4 and like action games, definitely give this one a try. You’ll be glad you did. I look forward to Kratos’s and Atreus’s further adventures on the PS5 when God of War Ragnarok comes out next year!

Score: 8 / 10

[transparentparadiseglitterzombie]

I can’t post this on my actual social media due to my profession, so here will have to do.

There’s a grand total of two people who know me in real life that also know me on this hell site so—

All the context you really need to have is that I’m a Hispanic 22 yr old that was adopted at the age of two into an entirely white family.

I don’t know why they adopted me. I honestly have no idea. I’ve actually gone to my adoptive “parents” and asked them and they consistently dodged around the question.

So around the holidays things in my adoptive “family” always get tense for one reason or another. As you can imagine thanks to a lil thing called a pandemic it was even worse this year. Add in the fact the matriarch of the family passed one week before we went into lockdown and everyone was already feelin it.

Another factor (for my adoptive “family” at least) has been my being even more openly a member of the Alphabet Mafia (LGBTQ+) since Mid-February. Add a “heart attack inducing” number of piercings and tattoos (8 and 12 respectively) and we have a “family meeting” in the works.

Over the years I’ve managed to keep myself in the closet relatively tightly. I was always extremely careful with cues I gave off, who I talked to, so on and so forth. As you can imagine it got to the point where I was basically living a double life. Those who truly knew me vs. Those who thought they did. So I took a risk and broke down the door. And that led to my adoptive white-privilege Christian family saying over our “family” zoom call that I either get back in the closet and weld the door shut, or they would push me down the staircase sitting next to the closet. Well, not exactly those words, but you get the gist of it.

The conversation ended with me storming out of the apartment and driving around for two hours. My adoptive “father” texted me an hour and a half into my drive and told me he didn’t want to be associated with me anymore. My “brother” and “mother” gave me the silent treatment for a week before saying the same over phone tonight.

I expected something like this.

That doesn’t make it any less terrifying.

I was served with disinheritance provisions this morning from my adoptive “father”’s lawyer. Basically this means I’m legally no longer associated with that name or that family.

I guess what I’m saying is I’m taking last name suggestions if you have them.

[pandawritespoorly]

With Time: Chapter 30 - Needlework

Author’s Note: For those of you truly worried, I'd like to point out that the warning at the top remains 'no archive warnings apply'. This is probably sort of anti-climatic to who-knows-what you guys were imagining.

Woo! Chapter thirty! This is crazy to me, especially since I'm nearing the end where I'm at. I've also posted over 100,000 words of this, so that's exciting! (I think that was last update or the one before, but I didn't notice).

Anyways, enjoy some angst featuring children with too much pressure on them.

Akuma slide here.

Chapter Summary: Ladybug goes down during a battle and Adrien can’t find a pulse.

First | Previous | Next

“I’m so glad you agree with me. I really think Adrien has changed, and it’s not for the better.” Lila says tearfully.

“Oh, girl. It’s okay. We’ll do something.” Alya hugs her close.

“Yeah, my bro’ll come around eventually. He loves you.” Nino consoles.

“It’s just… I think he’s been spending time with Ma- her.” she stumbles, avoiding the name even all these months later, “I don’t want to lose him to her too…” she adds, quietly, as though it’s just an afterthought.

“Adrien’s better than Ladybug! He’d never abandon you for a liar like Marinette. If he does, you’ll still have us! I still have some choice words for him…”

“Yeah, total bummer Marinette took him away.”

“Oh.” Lila interrupts, “That might be why he’s acting so strangely recently. He’s absolutely terrified of her. Now, I’m telling you this in confidence so you can’t tell anyone else this, alright?”

The other two nod.

“Marinette threatens him. I already told you some of this, but she’s made a deal with Mr. Agreste. He gets a designer to run the company, and she gets to marry Adrien. That’s why we have to keep our relationship so secretive. If anyone found out, the consequences would be terrible! The only reason Mr. Agreste agreed to work with as awful a designer as her is because all the others would never agree to such a deal, especially since they’re all so close to me.” “That’s despicable! I can’t believe it!” Alya gasps, then scowls, “Actually, I can. That’s definitely a thing Malicious-nette would do. You’re so brave and strong for persevering through this!” “Don’t worry dudette, I’m sure something can be done.”

“Thank you so much.” Lila sighs, smiling weakly, “It’s such a relief to know that you guys have my back. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Lila truly is happy, because a plan is forming in her head.

---

It’s late February and Ladybug really wishes that winter would hurry up and end. She’s tired of being tired. She’d been resting at home when there had been an akuma alert. Now she had to deal with whatever it is this time.

Type 3 too, so there’s lots of dodging. She’s bad at dodging and things flying at her face scare her. Especially when she’s tired like this. 

It’s very hard for her to convince herself to drag herself out of bed when she knows it involves magical projectiles being thrown at her.

At least she’s got Chat Noir, he’s her favorite person. He’s so nice, and he didn’t think she was an abominable disappointment like she was preparing herself for.

He hugged her a lot. That was nice.

He’s really warm too, and he visits her a lot, and-

She’s still thinking about how much she loves him when she finally sees him.

“Hey Bugaboo, how-” He’s cut off when she throws herself at him, hugging him tightly, he looks down at her seeing that she’s smiling and he joins, “Just a hug kind of day today? I can live with that.”

“I love you and you’re really nice and you’re really warm and you’re-” she’s mumbling into him, but he hears enough to get the gist of it.

“Same goes to you, my love.”

The delighted smile she gives him makes his week.

“As much as I hate to interrupt you hugging me, we can’t just leave Paris to fend for herself.”

Despite (or maybe because of) his warmth, she seems reluctant to be let go, only hugging him more. She finally accepts reality and steps back.

At the very least, she seems to have woken up more, “Dumb Hawkmoth.”

“How about we try to get this akuma over with quickly so you can go back to sleeping.”

“Do you know anything about it?”

“Nope, sorry Bugaboo.”

She sighs, and they head in the direction of the akuma. They know they’re on the right track when they see buildings that appear to have been turned into a messy patchwork of various fabric scraps.

There’s civilians wrapped up in thread, while some appear to have had their clothing changed in a similar manner to the buildings.

The duo spots the akuma eventually, a cloaked figure floating around on a giant red button. The cloak is a mis-matched jumble of various fabric scraps and threads.

She spots them, “Ladybug, Chat Noir! I am Needlework! Hand over your miraculous!”

“Not happening.” Ladybug hollers.

The battle proceeds as usual from there. They adjust to her attacks and avoid them. She raises one hand and thread shoots out, anything that makes contact with it is changed as they saw earlier. People have a chance of either being wrapped up or just having their outfit changed.

As the heroes slip into the rhythm of the fight, they can’t help but notice that one of Needlework’s arms stays hidden beneath her cloak the whole time. In the ten or so minutes they’ve been fighting her, they haven’t seen her use it once.

Ladybug is starting to get tired by this point. Being out and about is one thing, but pretending to be at her usual energy level is even worse - especially during akuma attacks. She’s about to call over to Chat and suggest they back off momentarily to strategize when the akuma finally raises her hidden arm.

It’s sudden, but she raises her arm and throws out a giant needle, it misses Ladybug’s face by a mere centimeter and she can feel it poke a pigtail before it’s pulled back by the attached thread.

Ladybug stiffened the moment it came at her. She feels it breeze by her face, and with it being winter, her ladybug instincts are at the forefront. They take over, and she doesn’t even register what’s happening as she collapses.

Chat Noir just about has a heart attack. He could have sworn that the needle didn’t touch her, but something must have happened because she’s down.

Maybe it had to do with the needle attack? They hadn’t seen it before, so there’s no telling what it does.

It doesn’t help that his instincts are screaming at him that she’s in danger.

He crosses the roofs to her quickly, and his stress isn’t helped by the fact that she’s still on the ground, her legs pulled to her chest.

“Ladybug?” He calls to her gently.

She doesn’t respond, but Needlework is approaching, so he scoops her up to carry her somewhere safer.

He ends up back in his room, and sets her on the couch gently. She hasn’t moved yet and he really doesn’t like that. After a moment of panic, he figures it wouldn’t hurt to do the basics.

He checks her pulse, and her breathing-

He can’t find her pulse.

What happened? Is she dead? She must be dead, no no no no-

His ring beeps and he doesn’t even register it.

“Adrien, calm down. She’s fine-”

“Plagg she’s dead, she’s dead, oh she’s dead-” he wasn’t prepared for this.

“Kid, breathe, you need to calm down. You’re hyperventilating-” “Calm down-?!”

“Listen to me, she’s not dead. Take a moment to breathe and check her pulse again. If I’d realized this was coming I’d have warned you.” Plagg is resting above her heart, watching Adrien carefully.

He nods tearfully, doing as he’s told. Shaking his head, he turns to Plagg to protest, but the Kwami holds up a paw, “Give it a moment kid. You’re too stressed for this.”

Adrien waits some more, holding her wrist delicately.

There.

Plagg is right, Ladybug has a pulse.

Very faint.

Concerningly faint. 

But a pulse nonetheless.

Adrien exhales in relief, resting his head against her and gripping her hand tightly.

“Plagg, what happened?”

“She’s playing dead. Bugs don’t usually start doing this for another few months, but I guess she’s been through enough stress to be a little early.”

“How long will she do this?” Adrien hasn’t moved yet, still calming himself down.

“It can vary, it’s her first time so it’ll be shorter, but as soon as she feels the danger has passed she’ll wake up and return to normal. ‘Course, she’s unconscious, so her earrings decide when it’s safe.” “How do they do that?”

“With the ring. She won’t wake up if you’re not close. If the holder of the ring is stressed or feeling unsafe, she won’t wake up. Basically kid, stay calm and stay close.”

“So she’s fine.” “She’ll wake up any moment and won’t even know what happened. She’ll be a little scared obviously because that’s what led to this, but yeah, she’s fine.”

“Wait-” Adrien looks to Plagg, slightly panicked, “What if something happened when I wasn’t around? Would she just stay like this until I happened to find her?”

“Kid, you’ll always know. Doesn’t matter how far, a Cat will always know when their Ladybug needs them, and vice-versa. Follow your gut.” “Okay.” Adrien sighs, finally moving, “Okay. Okay.”

He picks her up gently, sitting on the couch and holding her in his lap. It’s easier to stay calm now that he knows what’s going on.

“So how often is this going to happen?” Adrien doesn’t look at Plagg, only watching his Lady.

“Depends,” Plagg has retrieved some camembert, tossing it up and swallowing it in one gulp, “Your Bug can be a little skittish. There’s really no way to predict it. When she’s scared, - or more when she feels in danger - it’ll happen. If she’s already excessively stressed, or her tendencies are prominent then it’ll probably be more likely.”

“Alright.”

After another minute passes, the girl in his arms startles awake, bolting upright and gasping, looking around in confusion, “Cha- wait what? What happened?”

Adrien hugs her tightly, comforted by the fact that her heart rate is back to normal - if maybe a little quicker from her panic and residual fear.

“Shh. It’s okay.”

“But- what- why- how did we get-?” she’s still panicky, breathing quickly.

“I’ll explain in a moment, but just take a minute to calm down. Everything’s fine.”

She nods, “Right. Right.” she hugs him back, murmuring, “You’re here, so… right.”

After a moment, he turns her to him, taking a moment to appreciate her eyes - alert and alive, “I thought you’d died. Mon Dieu.”

“Died?! Adrien, what happened?”

“You played dead, girly. That’s what ladybugs do.” Plagg tells her.

“But I’m not a real ladybug! I’m a human. People don’t play dead!” she protests, glancing between Adrien and his Kwami.

“Humans don’t hibernate either. It’s just another side-effect.” Plaggs shrugs, eating more cheese, “I don’t see why you’re all tied in knots about this.”

“Because! I scared Adrien!” She's not supposed to scare him, she’s supposed to be a hero, heroes don’t faint because they get startled.

“It’s okay Mari, you’re fine now.” Adrien interrupts.

“No it’s not!” Ladybug tears up, “I worried you! You don’t deserve that!” she puts her hand to his face, looking at him carefully.

“It’s not your fault, don’t beat yourself up about this. At least we know now.”

He’s so nice, and understanding. She doesn’t deserve this. He should be mad, she keeps messing up as a hero. She worried him - in the middle of an akuma attack no less. 

The tears fall silently. When would she stop messing everything up?

Her earrings beep. Tikki flies out to leave them be as she goes to Plagg.

“Oh, little lady, what’s wrong?” he wipes the tears off tenderly.

“I keep messing things up. You don’t deserve that. I’m sorry.”

“Princess…”

“I’m sorry.”

“No. Don’t apologize. It’s okay. None of this is your fault. You can’t help that you’re a Bug, and I can’t help that I’m a Cat.”

“I scared you! You thought I died!” She hates to think what must have been going through his mind.

“I know now. It won’t happen again. Shh.” 

“But it might-”

“But if it does, I know what’s happening. It’s okay, believe me.”

“Okay.” She hugs him, because out of the two, she thinks he needs the comfort more.

He doesn’t necessarily disagree, but he thinks they both need a moment of rest. Squeezing her closer to him lightly, he purrs softly. Both to relieve his stress and hers.

They break apart, moment of reprieve over.

They’ve got a job to do.

Transforming, Ladybug and Chat Noir exit the room together, following the trail of fabric buildings back to Needlework.

“I’m willing to bet that her needle is the akumatized object.” Ladybug nods, “That’s probably why she hides it so much.”

“What do you say we get this over with so that you can take a nap?” Chat suggests, glancing over at her.

“Mhm!” she raises an arm, “Lucky Charm!”

A spotted pair of scissors fall into her waiting hands, and she looks around momentarily.

He loves the look on her face when she figures something out, and grins when it comes, ready for her plan.

“Alright, Chat I’m gonna’ need you to get her to throw the needle again.” “Will do, Buginette!”

She waits on the sideline for her chance.

It doesn’t take long. Needlework throws out the needle again, and Ladybug rushes forward to cut the thread. Needlework shrieks as the needle falls to the ground, flying after it.

Chat beats her to it, snapping it over his knee to release the butterfly.

“Gotcha!” Ladybug sends out her yo-yo, purifying the insect as usual. When it flies away, she flutters her fingers at it, “Bye bye little butterfly.”

“Pound it!”

She calls on her cure, throwing the scissors into the sky, releasing the little beetles to fix the city.

“I can talk to the victim, you go home to rest.” Chat offers.

She nods, doing as he says, sleeping the moment she detransforms on her pillow.

---

When Allegra, Allan, Claude, Felix and Adrien stop by later, she is awake again.

They’ve barely entered the room when she stops them.

“Mm! Nuh! Mm-memmh!” she flaps one of her hands at them, and they pause. Whatever she said is muffled by the hand she’s holding in her mouth.

“What was that?” Claude asks.

She removes her hand, “Careful, I dropped a pin… or three.” she turns back to the desk where she has laid out fabric, and avoiding the scissors haphazardly open on the floor.

“Got ‘em.” Adrien’s eyes are better than hers, and he picks them up to return them to the pincushion.

Marinette puts the side of her thumb back in her mouth, bending to the put her scissors back on the table, “Mm hm.”

“Marinette, we cannot understand you if you insist on sucking on your hand.” Felix chides.

“Why are you doing that?” Allan questions.

“M hm mm hmm.” she pauses, removing the hand to clarify, “I cut my hand, that’s all”

“Marinette! Were ya’ planning on doing somethin’ about it?” Allan goes to her side, looking at her hand carefully.

“I do it all the time. I can get back to work once it stops bleeding. I can just measure for now…” She mutters flippantly, looking at her dress form, as if trying to picture her design.

“That’s not really what he meant. I think it’s time you take a break.” Allegra grabs her by the shoulders and spins her around to the trapdoor. The others follow.

Once they’re all seated in the kitchen, Adrien helps Allan find the first aid kit, and they patch the girl up.

“There.” Allan steps back once he’s finally satisfied that Marinette’s cut has been treated properly.

“As great as it is to see you up and about, maybe next time be more careful with the scissors.” Claude rests their hand on Marinette’s head.

“I was tired!” she protests, “I don’t normally cut myself that badly.”

“Then sleep. How often do you get yourself with those scissors anyways?” Allegra asks.

She shrugs, then flops onto the table, “Late winter sucksss. Even when I’m awake, I feel tired, but not tired enough to just sleep until it’s over.”

“You’ll last until spring.” Adrien comforts her, patting her arm consolingly.

“I like spring!” Marinette pops up again, smiling.

“Me too!” Claude cheers.

Adrien suddenly realizes what spring means to Marinette. Occasionally things hit him like that - he’s still catching up to combining Ladybug and Marinette in his mind. Not that he can’t accept that they’re the same, just that sometimes he forgets that things that once applied to only one of them now applies to both.

Ladybugs like spring. He saw that firsthand last year with his partner.

Her new friends will certainly be taken aback by how fast Marinette goes from slow and sleepy to hyper and happy.

He grins, this year he can see it first hand in and out of the mask.

“Oh boy,” he says quietly, grinning. He’s not entirely sure any of them will be ready for this.

“What?” Allegra turns to him.

He just shakes his head, “I forgot… just, you’ll see when spring comes.” There’s no need to ruin the surprise.

“Okay…?”

Claude has produced a card game from who-knows-where and is already dealing cards to his friends, so everyone takes a seat.

By the end of the third game, Marinette is slumped against Allan, completely out.

No one comments, leaving her be. Felix stands to retrieve a blanket from the couch to put over her and they keep playing.

---

Author’s Note: That chapter felt short.

Yay! Marinette lives! A new tendency to deal with though.

Akuma slide here.

That whole sewing scene required testing because I can't just be normal and make up sounds. I recorded myself trying to say the words while my hand was in my mouth and had both myself and my friend try to translate it into letters. Kudos to her for putting up with my nonsense.

Ooh, next chapter is notable in at least one Wayzz. (•‿<)

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any thoughts, theories, constructive criticism, or anything really in my ask box, in replies or through reblogs. I love seeing what you think!

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[mirrcrfaced]

@dxctxrii​ [ continued! ]

@mirrcrfaced​ asked: ’ you don’t look like a scientist. ’ ( he’s signing it shakily, but curious. )

𝙳𝙾𝙲𝚃𝙾𝚁 𝚆𝙷𝙾 𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚂𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙴𝚂: 𝚂𝙴𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙳 𝙳𝙾𝙲𝚃𝙾𝚁 𝙴𝚁𝙰 || 𝙰𝙲𝙲𝙴𝙿𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶!

WHILE NOT THE UNNERVING OF IMAGES, THE GENTLEMAN IN FRONT OF HIM HAD THE POTENTIAL TO RENDER HIM UNCOMFORTABLE NONETHELESS. After all, the sight of someone dressed in what could only be described as an adapted diving suit, with no face visible nor any voice to be heard, and was thus devoid of any conventional sense of identity, was usually enough to prompt feelings of suspicion within him - those who sought to conceal themselves seldom possessed any positive intentions.

AND YET, THERE EXISTED SOMETHING ABOUT THE STRANGER THAT WAS TRYING TO CONVINCE HIM OTHERWISE. First impressions were seldom reliable, naturally, and The Doctor understood that, to a certain extent at least, he had to remain vigilant, but at the same time, he felt compelled to allow a hint of his guard to vanish. While perhaps not an immediate ally, he garnered that, for now at least, the individual before him intended no harm.

LIFTING HIS HANDS, HE SOUGHT TO SIGN HIS RESPONSE TO THE QUERY THAT HAD BEEN OFFERED BEFORE HIM.

“Appearances can be deceiving, you know. I may not be a medical or scientific expert by Earth’s standards, but rest assured I do know my way around a laboratory.”

    it took him a moment to read the man's answer - he was only just learning ( or perhaps relearning, with vague memories coming back to him ) how to 'speak' again, and there were words that he still had difficulty in understanding. regardless, after a long pause, he believed that he got the gist of what was being told to him. ' i can hear, if you can talk. ' delta added quickly, tapping the rough area on his helmet where his ear should have been. it would likely make things go by quicker, and he had precious little time to waste.

      eleanor's panic, pain, and frustration continued to increase every hour over their bond- he had to get to her and put an end to sophia's experimentation. what good was a utopian if it forced a living nightmare on eleanor? it filled him with anger so much unlike that of a protector; clear-headed, focused, and determined to stop sophia. ' not with...l-a-m-b? the family? ' just because he didn't appear to be a splicer and wasn't currently attacking him didn't mean that he wasn't allied with her - though delta honestly doubted that he would have been given any response other than having his location broadcasted for all to hear if that were true. anyone who wasn't on her side, then, was a potential ally for delta; god, did he need them.

    there was still something...off about the stranger, though. as desperate as he was for any friendly aid, he wasn’t oblivious. for one thing, the man used the word ‘earth’ as if he wasn’t from the earth - or had he been in rapture so long that he failed to picture anything beyond it? but if that were true, the man was remarkably...clean. unharmed. even surviving former socialites and aristocrats had been living in a dying city for ten years. sinclair, for all his luxuries and monetary worth, had eventually been reduced to living in a maintenance room in a train station, scrounging for food and dodging splicers. and no one lived this long without having at least a little blood on their hands.

    ‘ help find E-L-E-A-N-O-R - little sister? ‘ he hesitated, wondering if he had the right to use a word implying familial connection now. he wasn’t her father anymore - not really, but he still felt as if she were his daughter. but it didn’t feel right to put words in her mouth when she wasn’t here to confirm or deny it. ‘ -- daughter. ’ the sound of a low yet pleading rumble built in his chest, the only sound he’d made thus far - but undeniably sorrowful and wounded. broken. ‘ have to save her. ’

[djgamek1ng]

Log Horizon: To Fade Away (OC story) - Chapter 2

The gang woke up, headed down for some breakfast and to discuss a plan of action for today. Duran was the first to wake up, then Sky not too long afterwards and Gaia woke up an hour afterwards. Both Duran and Sky saw that Gaia had it rough. Duran decided he would ask her about it later. Sky was worried that she might’ve had something to do with it, so she decided to not ask about it and hope it faded away sooner or later.

“So, what are we going to do today?”, Duran asked the other two after finishing breakfast. “Well, we probably should try out fighting monsters, right? After all, this is the world of an MMORPG, we’ll have to at least be somewhat used to combat, even if we won’t fully use it”, Sky replied. Gaia nodded and she said “Y-yeah, I can agree. Even if any of us decides to become a blacksmith or something, it is still important for us to get used to fighting.” “Alright then. Might as well get a feeling for how tanking works in this body instead of behind the computer screen. Let’s take stock of our supplies and gear, so that we know what to get or replace before we head out”, Duran said. The other two agreed and the three of them went to look at the stores. It was chaos. Adventurers screaming at People of the Land, People of the Land being scared and intimidated by Adventurers. It became pretty clear to the party that they weren’t gonna get anything out of this, since the chaos wasn’t looking to slow down anytime soon. The party instead decided to head out of Akihabara and into the combat zones.

They found some lower level monsters of level 27 to level 32 to practice on in the forest after about an hour of traveling. “Okay, so to go over this one more time so I’m sure, this is the plan: Duran attracts the monsters and walks towards here, then me and you, Gaia, come to support him and defeat the monsters. That’s about the gist of it, right?”, Sky asked. “Y-yes, that should be basically everything”, Gaia responded. “Keep in mind that if I run straight back that I wouldn’t be able to get the aggro of all the mobs immediately, so don’t quite immediately start unleashing big skills”, Duran chimed in. “Right, right. So wait a bit before actually striking the enemy. Should be simple enough”, Sky said. “Alright, let’s do this”, Duran said before he unsheathed his sword and went running in.

He had run ahead and at about 5 meters away, he swung his sword while yelling “Spiritual Wave!”. A light-yellow glow was around his sword and it released into a wave of divine energy when he swung his sword. It hit the mobs and they started running towards Duran. He started running back and communicated over the telepathic communication system of the game towards the girls. “2 Brier Weasels, 1 Goblin Scout and 3 Kobold Mages are running after me”, he communicated. “Alright, so we should take out the Scout first”, Gaia said. “Yes and leave that to me!”, Sky responded. The Goblin Scout shot at him a couple times, with a few of them hitting. “Agh! T-that is gonna sting… I’m down to 5000 HP”. He reached the designated spot and he used ‘Aura of Hate’, followed up by another ‘Spiritual Wave’, to make sure all the enemies where focused on him. “Okay, they are ready to go! Let them have it, you two!”, Duran yelled out. Sky and Gaia ran out from their hiding. Sky went to attack the Goblin Scout. “X-Cross!”, Sky yelled out. With two quick swipes in the form of an X that both had a red trail, the Goblin Scout was destroyed and let out a spray of blood. “Healing Light!”, Gaia called out as she healed Duran. Duran, who was now surrounded by 2 Brier Weasels and 3 Kobold Mages, was fending them off the best he could. Some attacks got through, mainly the magic attacks from the Mages. It hurt, but not as much as he would’ve assumed. Especially not the piercing vines the Weasels were using. His HP was dropping quick though. When he hit 4500 HP, he activated ‘Divine Aegis’, which is a defensive skill that boosts the user’s physical and magical defense by a lot. The attacks were hurting less, and his HP dropped a lot slower. Gaia cast another spell, ‘Pulse Heal’, which put an effect on Duran that would trigger when his current HP was below half his maximum HP. When it triggers, it heals the person it is put on for a high amount.

Duran was attacking the monsters with his sword, before he saw a shadow appear behind one of the Mages and with two cuts in quick succession, one of the Mages fell down, dead. Sky had used her ‘Quick Step’ skill to come over and help. The two of them exchanged a quick nod to make sure the other was okay. Duran stabbed his sword into one of the Kobold Mages and it was quite hurt. In that motion of pulling back his sword, he stabbed his sword into the ground. “Holy… Explosion!”, he shouted. Around him in a radius, quick flashes of light appeared before they burst and made explosions of divine energy around Duran. This damaged all the monsters nearby, killing one of the Weasels and the Mage he had just stabbed. The attacks of the remaining Mages and the one remaining Weasel triggered the Pulse Heal. Gaia reacted to that by casting ‘Holy Bolt’, a magic attack that launched divine energy from her hand, at the Weasel. It hit and it was enough to kill it. The Kobold Mages went to attack Duran and as he tried to dodge one of the hits, he tripped and fell due to not being used to his smaller stature yet. Him tripping lead to him getting hit by both attacks, losing a chunk of damage. The Mages prepared for a quick follow up attack, but before they could launch it, Sky slashed the Mage that had the lowest health twice and used ‘X-Cross’ to defeat the other one.

With the encounter out of the way, they went to look for a safe place to rest up for a bit. It took a bit, but they eventually found a spot to sit down for a bit. Duran was a bit worn out from the battle, but he was mostly okay. Sky was also doing pretty good, though she was a bit shaken. Gaia was very visibly shaken by the battle. Duran and Sky both noticed it. “Hey, are you okay Gaia?”, Sky piped up. “…T-this is battle in this world, huh?”, she replied.

S: Yeah… it is kind of weird and it feels pretty bad to have to actively attack another creature. G: Y-yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that… It honestly i-is kind of harrowing. S: How are you holding up Duran? D: Weirdly… I’m doing fine. Adrenaline is pumping, but outside of that I’m not really shaken up. S: Huh, maybe you just have an affinity to combat. D: Could be yeah. G: I-I wish I could be like that. D: Heh, while I appreciate that, honestly it frightens me. G: H-huh, why? D: Well, it makes me worry about my lack of concern over killing things. Like, I know these are monsters that don’t really feel, but still. S: I guess that makes sense. Well, don’t worry for now. If you keep feeling that way after being in combat with actual people, then it starts to become real worrying. G: Yeah and we’ll be here to support you, no matter what! D: T-thanks, you two. S: Alright, let’s-

Sky was interrupted by a scream. Duran stood up immediately and drew his weapon, wary of it being more enemies. Sky jumped up and held her hands on her weapons as well. Gaia jumped up and started running in the direction she heard the sound in. “G-Gaia? Where are you going?!”, Duran yelled. “It was a girl’s scream, we gotta go help her!”, she yelled back. “O-okay!”, Duran said, and he started running after her. Sky followed as well without saying much.

[the-writing-dump-bin]

A Dangerous Game - Part 4

Well looky here. The final chapter of this ride.

I just want to give a quick thank you to all who have followed and liked the story. You all have been patient with me in getting original works done and I can’t wait to work on my next project! Again, thank you!  💜

NSFW 18+ bondage; teasing; vaginal sex; dirty talk

Fuck! Risotto cursed. He wanted to get the letter back as quickly as possible. He knew that Bucciarati wouldn't die from his attack, but he didn't plan on being seen by that Giorno kid. Now they'll come after him for sure.

Ducking into a darkened alley way, he stopped to catch his breath. He had been invisible for so long that it tired him out. Running wasn't helping either. Knowing he didn't have a lot of time before he was potentially found, Risotto thought about you.

You would know that he attacked Bucciarati for sure, but wouldn't know the truth behind it. He could always tell you why he did it, but who knows when - or if - he would ever see you again. Cursing himself again, he kicked a couple of garbage cans out of rage.

"Risotto?"

Risotto spun around to the mention of his name and saw the majority of his team; Melone absent. "What the hell are you guys doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Well, when you said you were going out and didn't come back, we figured you went home." Prosciutto answered. "We got hungry and decided to find a place that was open to eat. That’s when we heard all the noise."

"Where is Melone?"

"Passed out back at base." Illusio informed.

Risotto looked to the ground. Well, most of his team was here, at least he would have others fight with him once Bucciarati and the others show up. He didn't want to say anything about you to them, so he just gave them the gist of the situation. "Bucciarati had something and I followed him to get it. Things went wrong and I was seen. They're on my trail for sure."

"Well, now we're here." Formaggio said. "We'll back you up."

Risotto was grateful for the help, but this situation was way more complicated than it was. The best thing he could do was run away and hide for a while. But how long was "a while"? And your team would go after the others. It would just end badly for both sides.

"We should prepare ourselves then." Ghiaccio said. "If they are on their way, we should fight them head on and deal with this quickly."

This was not what Risotto wanted, but it was something that was going to happen. He was about to lose you forever. -

"There they are." Ghiaccio announced as Bucciarati led the way to them. Risotto stood tall, trying not to show any signs of weakness.

Bucciarati stopped a good distance from him, scowling while team members formed behind their capo's. "Risotto..." He simply said.

"Bucciarati..."

"Why did you attack Bucciarati?!" Narancia yelled. "And how did you find our safe house?!"

"To acquire something." Risotto pulled the letter from his pocket and held it up. "I saw you take it. Must be pretty important for you to take and bring back home."

Bucciarati's eyes widened at the sight of the paper and instinctively shoved his hand in his pocket. The letter he took from your nightstand was missing. He narrowed his eyes at La Squadra's leader. "You followed me from Y/N's house. You had to have been in her room to see me take it." He knew you going home would be dangerous. Knew your escape from the enemy would cause them to go after you. "That letter has nothing to do with you!"

Oh, Bucciarati, Risotto thought. What little do you know. He stuffed it back into his pocket. "How do you want to do this, Bucciarati? Is this letter worth bloodshed?" Just turn around and go home!

"You attacked our gang!" Abbacchio shouted. "You think we're not going to retaliate for that?"

Fuck!

A subtle signal from Risotto and the rest of La Squadra prepared for battle. Bucciarati and his gang braced themselves as well. "Then lets dance."

-

The sounds of your rushed footfalls echoed through the quiet streets as you ran to find anyone. You were hoping to Bucciarati first and ask him why he was attacked. There had to be a reason, Risotto wouldn't just show up and declare a feud; he knew how much you valued your friends.

Turning the corner, you came to a halt. There they were. Everyone in a full one on one battle in the park Risotto left you twenty four hours ago.

You stood there, watching your friends fight against La Squadra, each team trying to defeat the other. But you couldn't worry about that right now. You needed to find Risotto.

Skirting the outside of the fray, you stepped on something; a piece of paper. You didn't pay much mind at first, you thought it was just trash from the street, until you saw the familiar handwriting. Picking up the paper, you saw it was Risotto's most recent letter to you. "How did..." Then it all came together. Bucciarati went to your house, was in your room, he saw the letters and took one. Risotto must have seen him take it and followed him to the safe house; he attacked him to get it back. But why was Risotto in my- You shook your head. It didn't matter right now why he was in your house. You had to find him and fast.

And there he was; dodging Bucciarati's attacks  from Sticky Fingers near the fountain. No... This shouldn't be happening. You had to stop it. Stuffing the letter in your pocket, you noticed the seriousness on both Bucciarati's and Risotto's faces, knowing the next move would be deadly. "NOOOO!" You shouted, taking off in a sprint towards them, activating your Stand. "STOP!"

Risotto couldn't move. One moment he was staring down Bucciarati, lunging at each other to make their attack the last. The next, he was trapped inside an invisible coffin, looking down at your confused and pained face. Y/N...

"Y/N!" Bucciarati skidded to a halt when he saw you run between them. "What are you doing here?"

"What's going on?!" You shouted with emotion.

Around you, the others ceased their fighting to look towards the three of you.

"Risotto found our safe house and attacked, stabbing me and leaving me for dead."

Tears formed and fell from your eyes as you looked your lover in his. Why? Your eyes seemed to say.

Risotto started coughing and gasping for air, still trapped by your Stand, slowly losing consciousness. He kept a hard expression, but deep inside, he was in pain from the hurt he caused you.

And you were hurt. Angry from what he did. You told him that Bucciarati and the others were your family and that you didn't want anything to happen to them. You pleaded with him to not go after them and he agreed unless they attacked him or his men. He went back on his word with his actions tonight. You shrunk the coffin tighter around him, cutting off more of his air intake.

"Do it, Y/N!" Bucciarati yelled behind you, encouraging you to use your Stand to dispose of Risotto's life.

Your hold on him became tighter. Risotto didn't blame you for this. He understood your reasoning and watched you with soft, sad eyes. With his lungs draining from of oxygen, and his heart breaking, he nodded and gave you a sad smile. It's alright, il mio amore. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, falling to his knees. It would only be a matter of seconds before he takes his last breath.

"Don't let him go!" Bucciarati ordered. "Don't release him until you know he's gone!"

Your heart ached, watching the man you loved, dying in front of you. He was prepared to let you go, knowing he betrayed your wishes. You could feel his life force weaken in your Stand. Just one last breath...

"AHHHH!" An agonizing scream rose from your chest and out your mouth. Your Stand disappeared in a flash of light as you let go and rushed to Risotto as he fell forward, catching him before his face hit the ground.

"Y/N!" Bucciarati shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Get back here!" He watched you rush towards the enemy, catching his upper half in your arms. Then he noticed how you were looking him over to see if he were still breathing; tears running down your face and calling out to him repeatedly.

"Risotto!" You shouted, holding his head up. He was completely limp in your arms, head lolling to the side; he was unresponsive. "No... Please, Nero..." Were you too late? Was he already gone? "Nero... Please don't leave me! I love you!"

Everyone around you watched with wide eye and shocked expressions. Each member of their respected gangs returned to their leaders; La Squadra hovering around you and Risotto.

Bucciarati stood frozen at the sight of you holding onto the limp body in your arms, crying as you cradled him. "Love?" He muttered. Slowly, everything came together. The 'N' on the letter was for Risotto Nero. He was the man you were seeing and kept hidden from everyone. Understandable so, you were in love with the enemy. His heart was breaking. Not only from you finding love in the arms of another man, but from the agony you were feeling.

The members of Risotto's team gathered around you, looking somber at their lifeless leader.

It was quiet for a while, only the sounds of your sobs could be heard until the sound of a deep gasp filled your ears. The body in your arms convulsed while it coughed and tried to take in air. Your eyes went wide, darting around Risotto's body. You couldn't believe it, he was alive. "N-Nero...?" He continued to cough, gasping whenever he could. "Nero!"

Calming down, Risotto started breathing more steadily, chest still heaving heavily. His black eyes roamed his surroundings as everything came into view, especially you. "Y-Y/N..." His voice was hoarse.

Smiling through your sobs, you nodded, brushing his hair from his face. "It's me. I'm here, Nero." You leaned down and rested your forehead on his, kissing the bridge of his nose. "I'm so glad you came back to me."

"Bucciarati..." Said Mista, walking up to his capo's side. "What's going on?"

Bucciarati couldn't answer; he didn't know what was going on himself. Taking a deep breath, he moved forward towards you.

Risotto sat up with a little more help from Pesci, still coughing as he caught his breath. Grabbing your hand, he pulled you closer to his body, holding you in the strongest embrace he could give you right now. "Y/N... I am so sorry. It wasn't my intention to-"

"Shhh..." You put a finger to his lips, silencing him. "It doesn't matter right now. All that matters is that you're back to me again." Moving your hand to cup his cheek, you kissed him passionately. "I love you, Nero."

The sound of approaching footsteps pulled you from your kiss. Looking up, you saw Bucciarati stop just a few feet from where you were kneeling. Risotto's men went into a battle stance just behind you as he approached. Knowing his squad's intentions, Risotto extended his arm out, stopping them from going any further. "Bruno..." You choked out. "I'm so sorr-"

"How long has this been going on?" He demanded.

You could see the pain in his eyes. It wasn't your intention to hurt the man who gave you a home when you were down and out on the streets, went on missions and developed a close relationship with the others. They were your family and you betrayed them. "Ten months."

Bucciarati swallowed hard, trying to keep his emotions bottled. "When you were taken...that was-"

"A plan for us to see each other."

Formaggio, Pesci, Illusio, Prosciutto and Ghiaccio looked at one another. Even they had no idea you two were in a relationship or that kidnapping you was just a ruse for you to be together.

"Are you...happy...with him?"

You stood up, walking a few steps to stand in front of Bucciarati. "I am." You grabbed his hands, holding them tightly in yours. "Bruno... Please don't hate me. I am sorry I kept this from you - from all of you." Your eyes panned to each of your fellow gang members, heart breaking at their hurt and confused faces.

Bucciarati softened his look, your hands so small and warm in his as he gave them a meaningful squeeze. He had longed to be the one who made you happy and protect you from the dangers of the business. But if you felt safe and protected in Risotto's care, then he would want nothing more for you. "I don't hate you, Y/N. I could never hate you. I'm hurt, yes, but I want you to be happy. And if being with Risotto makes you happy, then we won't stand in your way." He looked back at the others, nodding to each one of them to see that they understood what he was about to do.

"Y/N... If it is what you wish, then you have permission to leave this gang." His eyes held back tears, as did the others, until you smiled and hugged them tightly. "I'll always care about you, but if they attack us again without reason..."

"I understand." Breaking from Bucciarati, you embraced the others, trying to control your sobs. They gave you hugs and kisses; sad to see you leave.

"C-Can we still do dinners sometime?" Narancia choked out. Other than Bucciarati, he was the saddest to see you go.

Laughing through tears, you smiled and pulled him close. "I snuck around for ten months, I'm sure we can meet up for dinner." You winked.

Backing up, you looked to each and every one of them one more time until you were finally back at Risotto's side, who grabbed your hand and pulled you close.

After he kissed the top of your head, Risotto looked towards Bucciarati. It was like the two Capos understood each other in what they were saying just by the look in their eyes.

Take good care of her. Bucciarati seem to say.

I will. Risotto nodded in response.

Turning on their heels, each gang made their way to their respected places. With one last look, you glanced behind you at your family walking away. Bruno... You smiled. Thank you.

-

THREE MONTHS LATER

"I fold. You win again." Illusio slammed his cards down onto the table in utter defeat and got up from his chair. "You're too good, I don't even know why I play you."

Smirking, you leaned forward and pulled the poker chips to you. Honestly, it felt good to be best at something against them. It took a while for them to warm up to you and vise versa. Once you got to know them, they were acutally friendly... Or Risotto scared them into being nice to you because you and him were dating. "Another hand?" You giggled. Illusio declined but the other members you were playing against, Prosciutto and Formaggio, accepted.

It wasn't long before Melone came into the room and leaned against the door frame, arms crossed as his eyes roved your body while you sat in your chair. "Hey, Hot Stuff," You moved your head slightly and eyed him annoyingly before he continued. "Risotto wants to see you in his office."

"What for?"

Melone shrugged. "He just told me to fetch you."

Getting up from the chair, you told the others to just play without you; you'll play again some other time. Melone didn't move much to let you by. He was always sniffing at you since you joined the new gang but obviously didn't act too much like himself- he was greatly warned by Risotto to not do anything to you or there will be consequences. Ugh.

Risotto's office was upstairs on the third level of La Squadra's base. A long, dark hallway led to the equally dark room he sat in. His desk neatly set with papers and folders of hits he and his men were to carry out. He kept a neutral expression when you walked in, eyes just flicking to you for a second before going back to the paper he was looking over. "Sit." He commanded, voice deep and raspy.

"Melone said you called for me. What is it?" You asked, lowering yourself down onto the chair across from him.

"It's about your title in this gang. You have been here three months now and haven't carried out a single hit." Risotto leaned back in his chair. "I put you with a group and they are the ones who do the dirty work."

"Oh, come now. I trap them in my Stand, I incapacitate them."

"And yet you can't seem to finish them off. You get the others to do it for you." He stared into you, squinting his black eyes slightly. "I was afraid you were too nice for something like this."

There was something in that stare that you picked up on. Something that he was trying to get you to notice. A subtle hint on what he was trying to get at. A grin formed on your face; your tongue gliding over your teeth. "Well," You said, standing up slowly. "Maybe I am too nice. I guess I just don't have a single bad bone in my body." Your eyes looked at the tall, silver haired man lustfully as you made your way to him and straddled him on his chair. Splaying your hands on his beautifully toned chest, you leaned into him, grinding your pelvis against his. Bringing your face to his neck, you laid kisses over his skin before whispering in his ear. "Maybe you could help me with that, Nero..."

Risotto gave your hips a quick squeeze before standing up and slamming you on your back onto his desk, his broad frame hovering over you. "Naughty girl... This was supposed to be a performance review." He slid his hands up your shirt, grabbing at your breasts; his cock straining against the fabric of his pants.

Feeling your boyfriend suckle at your neck made the sensation in your waist flutter with arousal. The images of dark, purple bruises on your skin made you moan with anticipation. You undid his coat and pushed it off his shoulders, making his torso bare. "Then let's review."

Risotto's touches got a little more rough. Fingertips digging into your skin as he roved your body with his mouth. Removing your bra, he threw it to the side and took a nipple between his lips, sucking skillfully as he worked the button of your pants, pulling them down and onto the floor. Standing a bit straighter, he paused to look you over. "Perfection." He simply said, undoing his belt and pants; freeing himself.

You shuddered at the sight of his long cock. You had been pleased by it many times in the last year but it still gave you butterflies every time you would lay with him. He grabbed himself and rubbed your clit with his tip, sending sparks up into you. You couldn't help your hips from moving into the feeling, wanting him to do more. "O-Oh, Nero..."

A growl rumbled in Risotto's chest. He loved how you said his name, using such emphasis on it. Grasping your hips, he tightly held you down. "Il mio amore... Don't move." The motion went down to a slow tease; it was hard not to move. Lips locked, he continued to tease your throbbing core. His cock becoming so slick with your juices. "Mmm, you're so wet. It's been a year and I still have this effect on you?"

"You'll always h-have this effect on me, Nero..." You panted. "Even when you're not around, I still get like this." He moved his kisses down your body, stopping so close to the heat radiating from between your legs. Looking down, you lifted your hips up, insinuating he use his mouth elsewhere. When he looked up at your flushed cheeks, all he did was smile and go back to his kisses. "No, Nero, please..."

"No." He growled, kissing your stomach; his tongue occasionally gliding over your goose bumped flesh. When he felt your hands grip his hair and push him back down, he stood up, pinning your hands to the hard wood of the desk. "I said no." He squeezed your wrists with force. "Why aren't you listening to me?"

"Either eat me or fuck me. Hell, I'll take both, just do something!"

"Oh, now you're not getting anything but teasing now." Risotto pulled your arms up and over your head, holding both your wrists in one hand. His other hand trailed down your body, resting it on your inner thigh, thumb rubbing circles on your skin.

A whiny groan left your lips as you looked Risotto in the eyes. His cock twitched against your leg, his hips subtly grinding it into you. "Just think, if you fuck me, you can get what you want too."

Chuckling low, he brought his face closer to yours. "I can wait, amore. It's you who is impatient."

"I hate you so much right now, Ris." Wriggling underneath him, you tried to move your arms. "If you're not going to do anything, then I will!"

That made Risotto quirk an eyebrow. "Oh will you now? How will you do that with your arms bound?"

Good point. You couldn't use your hands and his waist wasn't close enough for you to grind against him. Helpless. You were helpless. Tears started to form in your eyes from the want and need you were feeling. His long fingers ghosted over your folds, slowly sliding in between them. "Nero, please...!"

The look of desperation was what Risotto wanted to see. A primal growl and he shoved himself inside your aching pussy and snapped his hips mercilessly. Your entire body moved up and down against the flat of the desk; papers flying off and to the floor. Your breasts bounced around freely, hypnotizing the man above you, who was still holding your wrists together.

"Yes! Oh, god, Risotto, yes!"

He pulled out of you, making your eyes wide with shock before he pulled you up and spun you around and bent you over the desk. Your face plastered to the condensation that formed between the desk and the heat of your body as Risotto grabbed your arms and secured them behind your back. His knee pried open your legs further apart as he bent over your frame to growl in your ear. "There is no god here, amore..." Again, he thrusted in and went ballistic.

The feel of his cock stretching your walls over and over made your eyes roll to the back of your head. It hurt, considering how big he was, but you always found a way to push past the pain and take in all he had to offer. "I-I'm go-ing to cum!" You nearly screamed, feeling your orgasm teeter on the edge. Through tears and sweat dripping from your face, you looked back at the dangerous, gorgeous man fucking you from behind. "Fuck me harder, Nero! Cum inside my pussy- fill me up so full of your cum!"

"Do it, il mio amore!" The faster he went, the more intense your orgasms were growing. "Cum around my cock. I want to feel your beautiful pussy tighten around me."

Everything around you blurred. Your mind clouded with pure bliss. Ribbons of Risotto's hot cum shot deep inside you as you slowly milked him with your pussy clamped tightly around him. "All of it. I want all of it."

Risotto's hips sputtered to make sure you got what you wanted; making sure all of his seed was buried deep inside. He didn't move for a moment- his sweaty forehead against the back of your equally sweaty neck, gasping to catch his breath between kisses. Finally moving, he pulled out slowly, giving you an extra bit of stimulation between your legs and gently turned you back around to face him. He sat on his chair, pulling you onto his lap and cradling you in his arms. "I love you, Y/N. I really, really do love you."

More tears fell from your eyes; emotions all over the place as you snuggled into Risotto's body. He wasn't one to tell you this often, but when he did, it was the greatest feeling in the world. "I love you, too, Nero." You sat in comfortable silence for a while in each other's embrace, chests rising and falling with each breath you took.

The road for you two to be together like this without hiding it from anyone was a long and dangerous one. But here in Risotto's arms, forever, was more than you could possibly ask for.

"I still don't think I could do hits, Nero... I just don't have that kind personality."

Smiling, Risotto pulled you closer, stroking your hair. "I know. I won't make you do anything you don't want to."

Eyes closed, you sighed happily and drifted into a small slumber.

[cupcakecoterie]

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@sfwarlock - Nai, elf ranger

Marion - Ava, human ranger

Unfortunately, neither @hyperewok1 nor @noctumsolis could be with us on Sunday - travelling to family get-together and internet issues respectively. Then again, it was probably just as well. There were some personal issues we needed to sort out.

(We did wish you a happy birthday, Noms, if you’re watching.)

Also I got the recording from @fauxfire76 because OBS settings decided to reset.

Riswynn decided to hide out with Molly and not interact with anyone until some of the weird interpersonal shit for which she had no context got resolved. Really did not want to leave the shed. At all. Even a tiny bit.

Remi sat in a chair radiating “don’t talk to me right now”.

Hazel and Nai went outside for air and pondering - going out the front this time. Darvin requested some patience from Bahamut, then went out and told Nai he wanted a word, leading him about 500 feet from the house.

Darvin then went off. The speech has to be watched to truly be appreciated. Then, in order to avoid an awkward walk back to the house, he used Dimension Door to get back.

His Aura of Life tattoo ... expanded, sort of, a bit. Currently he bears some stylised celestial and draconic imagery in an extensive platinum sleeve-style tattoo that extends from wrist up the arm across the shoulder and spreading partway across his shoulder blade and chest. This is the start of our second official PC dual-classer; someone’s getting a weensy bit Divine Soul Sorcerer.

Hazel, meanwhile, went to run laps around the house. She found a note from Alisaie tucked into the fence - the gist was, “Hurt, angry, don’t want to hurt Nai (but seriously, Nai, cope), so going to kill ice drakes and might not come back and I feel bad about it hence the ‘might’ but I don’t want to screw you guys up”.

Hazel went back in, handed note to Remi. Remi mostly skimmed it, tossed it on the table, walked out ... and, off-screen, armoured up to at least help kill ice drakes. Darvin picked up the letter next, then Ava snatched it from him, read, handed to Froseth ... it got mostly passed around and caused some consternation. Darvin went out to be with the screaming in anger and frustration, Hazel went out to run more laps. It ended with a Darvin / Hazel hug-pile in a snowdrift.

When they came back in, they talked about what next. Final decision: wait, let Remi talk to Alisaie, let Alisaie make her decision and respect that decision, even if turned out not to be the one they wish she’d make.

After that, Ava went to find Nai. It required some Ranger-tracking, but she found him on the roof of the barn, where he had Misty Stepped. She talked him down ... or at least, talked him into be willing to come down. The problem was that he was out of Misty Step, and now could not get down from the barn. So Ava went to find a ladder, and with some help from Froseth, she managed to get said ladder to the barn to let Nai get down without breaking something.

With those characters whose players were present back in the same room, they discussed what to do about the current situation. In the end, Froseth gave a rather moving speech about how, frankly, he’d never been afraid of his own death before, but now he had two little girls who've sworn revenge revenge if he dies and would probably get hurt in the process, and since he’d already died twice even when they were working well together, any rift in the group that might make them less liable to survive wasn’t something he was willing to risk - not for his own sake, but for Skylar and Farideh.

The Cathay family adults were listening to this whole thing like some kind of soap opera. It was fun.

Flitty has adopted Nai now because he feels that Nai needs him more.

Dinner was had, they started rebonding as best they could, which was pretty well, all things considered. There was some discussion about meeting Hazel’s biological mother in the Elvenwild, and trying not to punch her.

Between courses, Hazel tried her new 4th level spell - Divination, to ask whether Remi and Alisaie would be back. Coming up with omens is fun. Anyway; she got “Remi definitely, Alisaie highly likely”. Hazel went a little hysterical with pride and joy that her god was talking to her. Ava was a little freaked out and critted on the traditional “slap the hysteric’s face”.

Over dessert, discussion turned to improving Nai’s combat technique and after some joking about ducking and Polymorph, Flitty suggested snowballs for learning to dodge. Darvin ran with it and snowball fight ensued. Molly Cathay built a snowball-lobbing trebuchet.

Froseth was the clear winner, using his “catch missiles” monk ability to catch people’s snowballs and throw them back at his attackers. Or ... at least, Froseth was the clear winner until there was some bright and a cry of “Death of above!”, at which point Alisaie dumped a bowling ball-sized lump of snow directly on Froseth. She was covered in blood but at least most of it wasn’t hers, and her clothes were a wreck, but she was back, with Remi standing off to one side, really not wanting a snowball down the back of her armour.

Ava hugged her, heedless of the blood. It was probably the best thing she could have done, really. Smart Ranger.

Whole thing ended with Alisaie offering to cook up ice drake liver for breakfast in the morning, and getting in so she could get into something less shredded and blood-stained. Mostly because it was late and I was tired and anything else we could have done would have taken too long. So the rest of it can wait for next session when they’re back on the road.

Basically there were a lot of fantastic moments and even though I was kind of dreading that session, they made it something wonderful.

[bigbenalpha]

I’ve Ben DMing, Session 25

So due to the size of the party not a lot happened in this session, but really, so much happened.  The fighting took a lot of time but doesn’t require a lot of written description, while the crucial plot points at the end were quick to say but take many paragraphs to explain. 

So, five of the party were brought back thanks to a mass healing spell and fight with the bandit leaders continued. The enemy bard took a good bit of damage then Glim used his bag of tricks to throw a bear at her. She vanished in a puff of brimstone. Nora got the last hit on the captain and Corvid dropped the warlock. Their spore druid revived and called lightning, taking out Surtur and Ogner, who had suffered a chunk of damage from a wall of fire and was already unconscious. Now he was dead. Again.  The winged kobold rogue hit Eimir with a hold person spell. None of the party understands draconic, or they would have heard the dragon call the kobold a traitor, kobold reply, “why serve dragon when can be a dragon? she promised me.”

Their ranger decided now was a good time to duck out as well. The barbarian wasn’t quite done and ripped down a curtain revealing two invunche waiting to attack. A third came through the doorway on the upper ledge, and a fourth arrived from the passage that led back to the giant bee hive. This one was accompanied by Maw-Maw Sugar.

The  green hag, using the fragment of an orb of dragonkind, ordered the wounded black dragon to use its breath weapon on the party. The only one in range was Nora, and she went down again. The hag moved on Nora and tried to drag her into one of the arcane ritual glyphs. Eimir dodged an attack from an invunche and got an arrow into the hag. She just smiled and laughed. 

While Glim, Valik and Telamon contended with the other invunche, Kainos decided it might be time to duck out as well. Corvid engaged Maw-Maw and with the aid of several enhanced items landed a massive amount of damage on her. Boots of speed and ring of the ram, coupled with his monk skills resulted in a series of devastating blows that knocked her across the room and freed Nora from her clutches. As the hag was about to cast a spell (Bad DM can’t recall who) one of the party pierced her hand with an arrow, pinning it to the cavern wall.  Before the next attack could land there was a deafening clap of thunder and the light filtering in the broken ceiling began to shift.  The winged kobold and the druid used the new confusion to teleport their fallen comrades away, and the barbarian slipped out the back. The hag looked confused and frantic as she tried to free her hand.

The next sound anyone heard was a pair of well-crafted boots walking down the tunnel from the hive area. Entering the room was a tall, pale man with sharp Elven features. The hair on his head stuck out in every direction and from the neck down he was completely covered in a cloak made of fine, white feathers. He commanded everyone to stop what they were doing.  Three of the invunche’s head exploded at his glance. The fourth ran into the swamp. The hag looked genuinely panicked now.  Amnon attempted to ask a question but the man shut him down and walked up to the hag, telling her that she had dipped her toes into pools she was forbidden from. He  then spoke to her in Sylvan. Telamon was the only party member fluent in that language so he filled in the gaps later. Several others speak Elven so they picked up a few words and phrases to get the gist of it.

He told her that the ritual she was attempting could never work and the individual who gave her the idea had been manipulating her. Even though she had managed to ensnare a piece of an unborn god and house it the body of a dragon (one of the only creatures strong enough to hold it) the thing was not of this plane and could not be contained by anything of it. The source of Maw-Maw Sugar’s information has used her to create an imbalance in reality that is was going to exploit for it’s own purposes. He told her that he wasn’t there to punish her. His bargain was only to collect the godshard and return it home. He finished by saying, “You know who will be coming for you and soon, Jarella. Run now while you can.” Hearing her name spoken aloud enraged the hag and she attempted to claw the man but he dodged easily and backhanded her across the room. She morphed into a small bird a flew away. The man then walked across one of the arcane glyphs, causing it to pop like a bubble. He stepped up to the dragon and asked if it knew that it wouldn’t survive. The godshard would grow and consume the dragon, and removing it would also be fatal since it was bound by the dragon’s life force. The dragon snorted and asked him to make it quick. 

The man produced an impossibility of item, a lean, curved blade that was only visible from a certain angle and caused light ripple around it, and he began to cut quickly. As the dragon breathed its last he leaned over and whispered, “He’ll remember you.”  From inside the beast he puled out a large egg that glowed with golden white light.  In his hand it turned into a sleeping baby- with one eye and hooks instead of hands. It stirred but he calmed it saying that he would be home soon, where he could cause the most fun.

In the shadows of the cavern small faces could be seen, and the man handed the infant god off to them. They produced something resembling a bassinet as the man instructed them to return home immediately with the utmost care. He’d follow shortly, he said, then he turned to the group and asked what he was to do with all of them. The party had all been revived, except Ogner, and Kainos managed to slip back inside the cavern. Be fore he did he saw Titus, badly wounded by bees, atop the cliff lighting a signal fire for reinforcements.  As the man walked and surveyed the wounded Nora asked what his name was. He asked hers first and thought for a second. “Hmmm, close, but those first two letters... I do love to hear my name on the lips of others so you’ll have to listen for it.” Glim asked the man if he could bring Ogner back, because Ogner owed his soul to Glim. The man laughed and said Glim would have to get in line, Ogner was under the thumbs of beings who placed zero importance on the deals mortal make between themselves. He said yes, he could revive Ogner but what bargain did the party offer. As they thought quickly the man leaned over and with his impossible blade lifted Ogner’s amulet into the light.  “I’ll take this, and your oath that you’ll stay out of my way as I gather the remaining shards and return them to their rightful place.”  Eimir asked how they were supposed to know if they were getting in his way. “Your ignorance isn’t my concern. Decide!” Glim quickly agreed. As the man severed the cord of the necklace Ogner came back.  He turned, “My business here is done. I apologize about your travel plans. Let’s not meet again.” And he turned into a large, white owl and flew away through one of the holes in the cavern ceiling. As the small faces in the shadows faded they all whispered, “goblin king. goblin king, goblin kiiiiing.”

Corvid, Surtur and Amnon did a quick check of the cavern exits and discovered that the swamp outside had been replaced with thick, temperate rain forest. The sky was twilight. The were in the feywild now.  And that’s where we stopped.

And this is where I’m stopping being the DM for a while. Glim’s player is taking over that chair. When he’s done with his story I’ll pick up again for a session or two to add a bit more to my larger story. Then Amnon’s player will DM, then Kainos’s, with me filling in again in between them then coming back full time to wrap it all up. We should be at least level 25 by the time it’s all over. And if you’re wondering how a green hag could take so much damage it’s ‘cause I had to beef her up tremendously. There were eleven level five party members looking to bring the hurt so steps were taken. I won’t say what steps, exactly, in case she has a taste for revenge and manages to elude whoever is coming after her for what she’s done. I’m also done with writing recaps for the time being as well. Nora’s player is going to pick up the pen in my stead. I’ll be copy’pasting them here as she updates. If you’ve read along with any or all of these recaps I hope you enjoyed them.

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ART credit: Jareth the Goblin King by Marker-Mistress on deviantArt

[doe-praefacioofblue]

Chapter 4, Section 2-With That Person; Scene 1

Praefacio of Blue, page 250-262

♣ Yukina ~In the Former Lucifenia Territory, “The Anonymous Coast"~

.

The coast was quiet at night.

The only sound that reached my ears was the faint crash of waves.

.

I had come here at a time like this to make sure of something Rin had told me at dusk.

She had said, "I saw Madam Freezis out here on the coast". She told me that she had tried to talk to her, but when she ran up to my mother, who had hidden herself under cover, she was already gone. If that was true, then there was a strong possibility that, for the week after my mother had come to visit the monastery at the very least, she had been loitering around here.

Compared to the area around the Lucifenian palace, this place was mostly countryside, so it didn't have a lot of things to look at in particular. Frankly I didn't know what she was after.

Though it may be true that she was here at dusk, I had no guarantee that she hadn't moved somewhere else at this hour, so it was natural to think that about now she'd have taken lodging in the port town somewhere and was getting some rest.

But I had gone through and searched the inns around this town for two days. No matter where I looked I had found no trace of anyone who might have been my mother staying at them.

My mother had not gone to an inn. So in that case no matter how slim the odds were, I thought it was wisest to search for some trace of her at the coast. Even if I didn't run into her, I might find some clue…That was my thought process, walking around covered in sand.

Even so, this coast was much larger than I had thought. Even worse, I couldn't locate anything relevant to my search in this darkness. The fickle light of the lantern that I'd borrowed from the monastery was bound to fail me in my efforts, after all.

Being in the dark is sufficient circumstances to break a girl's conviction…

Continuing my investigation even so, suddenly the fuel in my lantern ran out, and my surroundings were enveloped in darkness. When that happened I had to admit it was time to give up.

I can't keep this up! I guess I'll go back for now…

I began to walk towards the lights of the town shining inland. That's when it happened.

Huh? Is that…

In the darkness to my left hand side, I could see something moving. It was unmistakably a human figure. Perhaps it was Mama. With that hope in my chest, I changed course towards where I could see them walking.

That figure was armed with a sword. When I got a bit closer, I was able to determine this with a serious look, though it was dim.

Miss Germaine…!?

Was she practicing with her sword at this time of night?

After thinking it over a little, I drew up to Germaine further. I figured I'd try talking to her.

The moment before I called out to her, I shut myself up. There was another person in front of Germaine, facing her.

That mask. It was a woman wearing the Almoga Mobarez mask. She didn't look to be carrying a weapon. I couldn't see her face, so I didn't know her expression.

But I knew who that was. She had on a frilly dress, and had a decorative flower on her left breast. It was Mama. Those clothes were that of my mother, Mikina Freezis.

I told myself not to get too excited. I would put the situation in order first. My mother was here, and Germaine was aiming her sword at her. Why? I didn't know. Perhaps Germaine had witnessed her in that flash from back then as well.

Even so, I didn't want her to cut her down without even listening to an appeal. My mother must have had some reason for doing that. There was no need for her to steal the vessels of deadly sin nor kill Ney, to say nothing of doing what she did to my father, who loved me, her daughter, to the point of embarrassing me--so I couldn't imagine that she didn't have some extenuating circumstances for it.

At any rate, I would stop Germaine--as I took a step towards them with that decision in mind, Germaine opened her mouth.

"I've finally found you, Abyss I.R."

--Abyss I.R.!?

I could hear a thick, laughing voice from beneath the mask.

"Ha ha--Oh, so you've figured it out, huh? Impressive…I would say that, but this is a suggestion you got from someone else isn't it?"

That voice was undoubtedly my mother's.

Germaine didn't react. She stared at my mother, without lowering her sword.

My mother turned towards the ocean, not looking particularly phased by that. And then she began to leisurely walk towards it.

"Are Elluka and Gumillia searching in Marlon? That must mean you came here to Lucifenia as insurance."

After two, three steps, she stopped and once more turned to Germaine.

"A safe guess. If I was going to cross the sea from Marlon, then it would be extremely likely I'd come here, to the closest port town. There are no vessels going to Elphegort due to the trade embargo, and Levianta is too far--That's your reasoning, isn't it?"

Germaine brushed through her hair with her left hand.

"Not quite. Master Gumillia went to Levianta."

"I see…That's actually decent preparation, considering it's Elluka."

"I told her. I said she couldn't afford to just go around doing whatever she wanted every time."

The intruder back in Lioness. It seems I wasn't the only one who had recognized who she really was. I regretted just a little in not asking for help from these three.

Thanks to the darkness, the two of them hadn't yet realized I was there.

Their conversation continued, and Germaine asked my mother, "Why have you not left this region after all this time?"

"…I'm searching for something. And I haven't quite found it yet."

"A 'Vessel of Deadly Sin'? Is your goal to collect them?"

"Well, I suppose it's turned into that…"

I steadied my resolve, and walked up to them.

Germaine noticed me first.

"Yukina…!?"

A look of surprise taking over her face at seeing me, Germaine eventually looked again towards my mother, taken aback.

During that time, Mom did nothing. She didn't launch a surprise attack on Germaine, nor did she run away. She just gazed at me through the mask. After a short while, she put her hands on it and slowly lifted it up.

Underneath was indeed my mother's face.

She was smiling.

"Yukina, what's wrong? What are you doing at a place like this, at this time of night…?"

She wasn't smiling out of enjoyment. It was an expression made to calm the other person. That was the kind of smile it was.

And then, she pleaded in a frightened voice, "Please, Yukina, could you help me? Germaine is attacking your Mama, I think she's misunderstood something. I'm very afraid."

Despite her tone of voice she was still smiling. And she gradually started walking towards me.

Germaine stood in front of her, blocking her path.

With her back to me, she said, "Don't be deceived. That is your mom, but it's also not her."

I could tell that for myself. But what I wanted to know was why.

"…Has Mama been taken over by Abyss?"

"Basically, yeah."

"But how!? Abyss' spirit was blown away back then, I thought…"

I was sure that was what Elluka said.

"That isn't what happened. Abyss' soul never entered Elluka's body to begin with."

My mother immediately ceased in her approach.

"Ho…So you've figured that out too…"

Germaine began her explanation so that the both of us could hear. "Elluka had a nagging doubt this entire time. The 'Swap Technique' is an extra-high grade spell…She wondered if there really was another person who was capable of performing it outside of herself. At that point, after what happened in Lioness she arrived at a conclusion."

Germaine lifted her arms and pointed the sword straight at my mother.

"Where has the red cat gone, the one that's always with you?"

In reply to those words, my mother clicked her tongue, and then murmured in a low voice, "…So it seems I was correct after all to hide my true body for safekeeping."

"That's too bad for you. I'll find it immediately."

Germaine hoisted up her sword, and a sigil inscribed on the hilt began to glow.

The light soon turned into a single beam, and it pointed to a shack in the corner of the beach.

"…There. It's unexpectedly close by. If you go too far away you lose your ability to manipulate bodies, is that it?"

"That inscription...is that Gumillia's work!? How annoying!"

My mother and Germaine both ran for the shack at the same time.

Germaine was quicker of foot. She reached the shack a step earlier and kicked in the wooden door.

"Oop--"

She dodged back in response to something. Immediately after, a small figure darted out from inside, and jumped onto my mother's shoulder, who'd arrived later.

I ran up to the shack as well, further behind the two of them. It was hard to run with sand in my shoes.

Riding on my mother's shoulders was none other than that red cat. The cat that Abyss had been walking with, that my mother had taken in.

"…So you're saying that red cat is Abyss' true body?"

That seemed to be the gist of it.

Abyss' spirit hadn't entered my mother. Her body was just being controlled like one would a puppet. By that red cat--Abyss I.R.!

"You let my mother go, Abyss!" I screamed at her, letting my anger take me.

My mother, being controlled by Abyss, didn't look the slightest bit intimidated at my fury.

"How brave, little Yukina. Despite not being able to do anything on your own. Ha ha--"

Her laughter was cut off by Germaine sticking out her rapier right at the red cat.

"Sounds like bravado to me, Abyss. The person you're manipulating right now isn't a sorceress or a soldier--just a normal person."

"…Yes, there was nothing to really do about it since it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but I suppose Mikina's body is a little inconvenient as feeble as she is. …However." She pulled something out of her bag. "I do have this."

It was too small for me to see it clearly, but from afar it looked like a spoon. The fact that it was faintly glowing blue in the darkness was fairly ominous.

Germaine immediately took several steps back.

"A Vessel of Deadly Sin…!?"

"Exactly. Your perception is quite sharp, swordswoman. Despite not being a sorceress yourself. …And then there's the speed of your recovery from your injuries…There doesn't seem to be any after-effects from the acceleration inscription in the forest… Hahaha, how interesting.

Certainly Germaine had fought in quick succession, from Column forest to Castle Hedgehog. It was a little strange that despite the fact that she must have been injured each time, she was promptly up and around like this. I had thought so when I was working as medic on her wounds in Beelzenia--she healed much faster than the other soldiers.

"My injuries heal up quick after I eat a bunch," Germaine shot back, likely thinking she was being made fun of.

"After eating, huh… I see--I had thought you looked like her before. It seems there's a chance you're a blood relative of her after all--Conchita."

Conchita…Did she mean Banica Conchita? Germaine was--a blood relative of Conchita!? What did she mean by that? A descendant? Or else…

Mother walked a little closer to Germaine. But I could tell she was careful so as to not get within range of her sword.

"Not bad…I want that body," I heard her murmur quietly.

I picked up some rocks at my feet and threw them at the red cat. But they didn't connect, falling to the sandy beach. Neither the cat nor my mother had tried to avoid them. They just didn't reach. My lack of upper body strength was really irritating.

"Give up on such futile struggles, you villain!" I screamed once more. I heard the cat meow, as though mocking me.

"A villain, hm?... Do you mean me, Abyss? Or the person in this body--Mikina?" She continued before I could reply that I obviously meant Abyss. "How much do you know about your mother? Do you really think…that she is an innocent person through and through?"

What…what was she saying!?

"Have you never carried doubts about her? Never noticed something mysterious in her actio--"

There her voice suddenly cut off, and she crouched on the spot.

The groan and the words that came from her mouth. They were of my mother's voice, like before, but her tone was clearly different.

"Ugh…Please…stop…I don't want…Yukina…to…know…"

And then, with the sound of an electric shock, a lightning-like flash engulfed her body.

"Agh!"

Mom suddenly fell, but then quickly stood up again. Her attitude returned to being wicked like before.

"Guess my control was too weak. How impertinent…"

She looked openly displeased for a moment, but then her lips spread into a twisted smile, as though having thought of something. And then she began to talk to not Germaine, nor me, but herself.

"Hahaha, Mikina. In that case I will give a little bit of your body back to you. And then you will admit to everything from your own lips, in front of your daughter."

And once more, her behavior changed. She knelt on the spot, and clasped her hands as though praying. Gripped in her hands was the spoon from before.

"…Y--Yukina…Your Mama has…deceived...many people…until now…"

They were my mother's words. But she was not speaking of her own will.

The red cat's eyes were open wide.

Is Mama being forced to speak by Abyss…!?

"You don't need to listen to this, Yukina!"

Germaine ran before my mother, swinging her sword down on the red cat.

In that moment the blue light of the spoon turned to an intense flash--it was the same kind as I'd seen in the town of Lioness--and Germaine's body was sent flying.

The cat took up a menacing posture with its hair standing on end, as though to tell her not to interfere. Germaine didn't seem to have lost consciousness, but she did look as though she was having trouble standing upright, tottering a little.

“Yukina...Yukina...Mama has...I...Oh, God...I...confess—”

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[asuccessfulbusinessman]

Dark Souls III Area Enjoyment Scale

You know how both Dark Souls 1+2 peaked after reaching Anor Londo and Drangleic Castle respectively? Well, I’m starting to get that feeling again, so as I reach the endgame to 3 (well, it might still be technically the midgame, but I digress,) I wanted to look back at my first playthrough and record my feelings about each area, before each area is hard saved in the back of my mind.

Cemetery of Ash: 4/10. Nothing can compete with DS1′s Asylum, but this is at least on par with the DS2 starter area. It gets more points in my book because it has a powerful enemy barring you from 100% completing the area your first time through, no Fragrant Branch of Yore mechanic enforcing backtracking and exploration, and an actual boss.

Ludex Gundyr: 7/10. A pretty good boss to start off with. Introduces the mystery of what the hell is that for the player to solve, and has lore with that sword in his gut. Will likely kill you your first time around, but once you learn him he’s easy enough.

Firelink Shrine: 8/10. As an area, this area is spectacular. Reinforces the “come back when you’re a bit stronger” with the sensei undead, has some mystery with the firekeeper soul and firekeeper graveyard, and if you search through the area you can find some goodies. DS1 had some chests and the path back to the Asylum, DS2 had an Estus shard and (I guess) the binoculars, DS3 has an Estus shard and the coveted silver serpent ring. I just wish it wasn’t so hard to find the goodies in 3 (though, how anyone found the path in 1 is beyond me). As a hub, I don’t like it very much. Sure, it’s useful, but the constant warping back for level ups and buying items makes it somewhat less desirable. Also, the layout of NPCs is just... gamier than DS2s. That’s saying something.

High Wall of Lothric: 6/10. A bit bland, but it gets the job done.

Vordt, Of the Boreal Valley: 5/10. Incredible and imposing the first time you meet him (makes you want to keep your distance), but fairly forgettable once you realize you have to get (and stay) close and touch the butt.

Undead Settlement: 10/10. Beautiful area, actually feels like a settlement. Has some great NPCs and exploration options. I just wish that one of the bonfires was findable for me without accidentally falling off the ledge. (Platforming is reinforced later in the area).

Greatwood: Bleh/10. I may have had phantoms but the gist of the fight is readily apparent. But it seems like this is a fight where it’s easy to die even if you know what you’re doing, judging from the Phantoms’ life expectancy.

Road of Sacrifices: 9/10. My only gripe with this area is that I missed the Braille Tome because I thought you had to jump for it (I missed the path. Whoops. Sensing a theme?) Aside from that, the tengu and crabs are cool, and the variety of enemies keeps the area feeling fresh.

Crystal Sage: 6/10. Teaches you that magic hurts, an important life lesson. I honestly like Pinwheel more, but that was because I fought Pinwheel early on in DS1 to get miracles, and when Pinwheel gets to live long enough, his clones got too much to handle. Sage’s clones... much less so.

Farron Keep: 3/10 for completionists who have to go through the swamp. 5/10 for everyone else. Annoying. Very easy to get lost.

Abyss Watchers: COOL/10. Nothing beats realising there’s a second phase after burning your estus. The only thing that comes close is realising you can get them to fight eachother.

Cathedral of the Deep: 2/10 on your first time through. AKA, “HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?” I tried everything to get the grubs off me, even firebombing myself. But a friend told me, “oh just take out a torch.” Because of a message on the ground, I knew there was something fishy about the well from the get go. But even when I knew I had to get back to Patches to get armor from him, I didn’t know how exactly to get up there. While this area is technically optional, the storylines of 3 NPCs and a covenant require you to find your way to the rafters, a path that is very easily missable (at least to me) especially since you would normally have no reason to go back to where the path is. Also, the level design leaves me lost, all the elevators look alike to me, and I often take the wrong path away from the one true bonfire. And you have to learn the boring way that the dagger weapon art allows you to more easily traverse the goop.

Deacons of the Deep: 1/10. Fun.

Catacombs of Carthus: 6-7/10. Some of the enemies here can be very challenging, but the area is worth completing. Spent too long backtracking to find Horace. Didn’t find him here. Also, remember that Miyazaki made the pendant? The crab is a prank.

Smouldering Lake: 8/10. The demon (yes, he’s part of the lake) was fun to take down with a skeleton mob. I still have to kill the crabs and worm (love the hint in the yellow pills description) but got all the items in the lake. I tried to get the ballista to help me kill the worm, but to no avail. Didn’t find Horace until I “cleared” the area. Painful place. Enjoyable because of it. I wouldn’t stay too long.

Old Demon King: 6/10. The only thing I remember is seeing him unable to fight back anymore.

High Lord Wolnir: 7/10.The one boss everyone already knows about (besides Vordt). Spooky, but I just chugged and slammed bracelets.

Irithyll: 4/10. Beautiful but painful. Killed off my second best friend because I went to the dungeon before killing the area boss. (How was I supposed to know to backtrack to find his ashes?) Got lost as a phantom, because the sewers are much less conspicuous than the entrance to the dungeon (I’m sensing a theme). Aside from that, all the big enemies can kill fairly easily, damn fire witches. If I wasn’t cursed, I would complain about not knowing jack squat about the pilgrim. I still haven't gone to the area with two dogs. I’m too scared. Will talk about archer section in Anor Londo section.

Dungeon: TurnYourVolumeDown/10. Can be a slog if you’re not willing to risk melee with the wardens. Expect lots of exploration, which is nice. Too many mimics (we can read the ground, even if people don't want to tell me the hidden paths needed for completion).

Profaned Capital: 6/10. A bit too short. Thankfully, I was able to find the path to save the friend on my own. Annoying that the hint item was just rubbish.

Yhorm the Giant: Friend/10. A fight whose enjoyment entirely dependant on if you have your friend by your side. If you don’t, you have to learn on your own to rush the throne for the item to do critical damage, which I would wish on nobody. If you do, it’s a simple enough fight with a nice little piece of lore. Goodnight sweet prince...

Anor Londo: “This Place Again”/10. Even FromSoft knows how much of a high point Anor Londo was. Thankfully, even if you dislike the place, it’s short enough, and the knights are fun to fight if you don't need to do the hell grind. The castle is hauntingly beautiful when you see just what happened to the place after all these years. I just so happened to get married here! I was not expecting that. Still don’t know what my genderfluid ring does.

Aldrich, Devourer of Gods: 8/10. A challenging boss for me, but I was always ready to get back up and try again. Made me switch up my armor and tactics, very nice.

Dancer: 0/10. I hate this. I hate her roll catches. I hate her first phase grab. I hate the walk back to the boss room, where a knight will always hit me. I hate how inconsistent her movement speed is, leaving me to dodge too early at times, or assume I have the space to fire an arrow. I hate the fact that the best way to kill her is to literally tank and spank, to rotate left around her (TOWARDS her grabbing hand, because hitboxes) with a shield up, never dodging, and attacking her butt when you get a chance. In retrospect, she is cool to look at though, especially with the lore you can read about through items.

[daisyachain]

This is completely unedited and moderately incoherent, but here we are! DGM rarepair week, day 2

Black | Mysterious | Sophisticated | Powerful | Emptiness | Void | Darkness

Fandom: D.Gray-Man Rating: T-ish for violence, gore, nonexistent plot and Kanda being emotionally insensitive Pairings: Edit: I left it unclear to fit the mysterious prompt but it’s Kanda/Daisya

Total Words: 3.7k

Allen, Johnny, and Kanda are on the world’s worst roadtrip chasing after the Noah and some answers in a timeline parallel to this latest arc, when they run into a rather unwelcome guest. This is somewhat of a rehash of what happened with Alma, but it serves to highlight just how similar the two characters are, and it was mostly a 'what if' scenario.

A church bell faintly rolled the hour, though it didn’t feel like they’d been out for so long.

Johnny had insisted they stop for dinner, saying he wasn’t going to be dealing with both Allen and Kanda on an empty stomach. They all knew it was bullshit, and that he just wanted to them to take care of themselves, so no one complained.

The food in the town’s inn had been the usual, solid stuff, nothing to write home about, but something that would get you through a good couple of hours of chasing down the ultimate source of evil in the world and hoping they didn’t find you first. Then, they’d hit the road again, and coming up on…was it two hours later? Three? Allen had been sure it was closer to two, but it was too dark to check the watch by torchlight, but they’d set out just past the hour. The bell was slow, but Allen decided to count.

One.

It was a sleepy part of the country, even here, and they walked down a broad dusty avenue through the centre, to the central square. It was starting to get cold, and even the light from one or two streetlamps was sucked into the black night, which showed no sign of stars.

Two.

Allen and Johnny fell back behind Kanda, who was quiet for once. No snapping at them to hurry up, or slow down, or stop damn well talking amongst themselves.

Three.

“We’ve made some good time,” said Johnny beside him. “See? It was good that we stopped. Otherwise we’d just be miserable and hungry, now.”

Four.

“You’re right, Johnny.” Allen smiled at him in reassurance, to make sure he didn’t worry. He knew that he was nervous about him, how quiet he was now.

Five.

“Awful quiet, though, for a town this big.”

“Hmm.”

Six.

Allen’s eyes narrowed, doing a quick check-over of the shops and houses on either side. No akuma in sight. There were lights on, and some moving shadows, the roar of voices and the chink of plates from inside, but…

Seven.

“Speaking of which, it looks like we’re the only ones out travelling tonight.”

“I guess everyone else already got in.”

“Yeah.”

Eight.

In front of them, Kanda had been slowing down his pace, and now he fell into step beside Allen.

“Can you activate your Innocence without showing it?” he murmured, far to calm to be the usual Kanda.

“Of course,” Allen whispered in retort. “What’s going on?”

Nine. That should have been the last bell, unless he’d completely messed up with the counting.

“Just take care of Johnny if shit goes down, and find somewhere to hide.”

“Hey, I can fight—”

The last chime didn’t go away. It held, and Allen could swear it started to resonate. And grow louder.

“Shut up!” hissed Kanda, suddenly furious.

“What do you mean? What’s going on?”

And louder, with a tone that set Allen’s teeth on edge.

“Just do what I tell you, and do it now!”

The world shattered in Allen’s ears as he and Johnny went flying from Kanda’s shove.

“Ugh—”

Allen jumped to his feet, Innocence at the ready, then paused. Kanda had pushed them — thrown them — into a wooden shop door, and now Allen could see why: the street’s windows had exploded in a storm of broken glass. The light was dim here, but every last bit of it glittered off the shrapnel that covered the streets, and…

“Kanda! You all right?”

“Get inside!”

He’d been clever enough to shield himself with his coat, but cuts still covered Kanda’s face.

“What about you?” Johnny shouted out from beside him, more winded than he was.

But Allen had already grabbed him by the collar and kicked open the door, loose from the first time they’d slammed into it.

“He’ll be fine,” he said, letting go and shutting the door behind them, searching for a bolt. “I don’t know how, but he knows what’s going on.”

The building hadn’t been used in a few days at least, but it looked to be a shop — Allen took a quick look to make sure the merchandise wasn’t breakable, then swept it on to the floor and dragged a few tables closer to the door. Then, leaving just enough room to sneak out, he dashed back to the window to have a look outside.

“Allen? What’s — do you have any idea what’s going on?” Jonny was shaking just a bit, and he couldn’t blame him. What had Kanda known?

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know anything more than you,” he said, craning his neck a bit. Damn — Kanda was looking away, but whatever he was staring at was firmly out of view.

“What’s our plan, then? I can make a pretty good barricade if you give me a few minutes.”

“Yeah, that’d be good.”

What had Kanda meant with all that mysterious stuff? Protect Johnny had seemed to be the gist of it. Allen glanced over — the guy seemed to be on it already, checking over the tables for where the joints were.

“Got it. I’ll get to work—”

“Wait — I’ll go outside and guard the door, and you can cover up the windows from the inside.”

Whether it was an akuma, Innocence, or God forbid a Noah, it was able to do some damage with the shattered glass.

“And you’re sure you’ll be fine?”

“Of course! Kanda hates losing, so he’d never let anything happen.” Allen gave what he hoped was a cheery wink, and stepped outside.

“Good luck!”

The door shut quietly behind him, and he looked out on to the glass-strewn street. Each of the half-timber houses seemed to loom crookedly over the scene, gables seeming far away in the darkness. Overhead, clouds gathered to form the grey-tinged blackness that had settled on them like treacle, thick and numbing. The glass panes of the lamps had shattered, leaving wrought-iron thorns sticking up into the night.

“Come on!” A playful voice rang out, sounding just slightly to metallic for a young man. “You know it’s me, so just say my name.”

Allen’s eyes focused on the situation in front of him, each taking in a different set of information. Oh, shit.

His right saw Kanda standing stock still, sword drawn but by his side, everything else blending into a tall and coal-black figure, just outlined against the slate sky.

The left saw his opponent more clearly, perched up on one of the rooftops like some sort of cat, hanging over the side — a level 3, with the kind of concentrated agony that reached back into Allen’s mind and gave him a toothache last year, and two weeks into the future. Just pure, concentrated pain, and a very loud laugh to drown it out.

“You’re dead.” Kanda’s voice hung low, grinding along like metal on a whetting stone.

“Nope!” The akuma seemed to be amused by this, bouncing up and down, and then unfolding its limbs for a hop down to the ground, flipping up and over as it did.

“I mean,” said Kanda, quieter now, “You’re going to die.”

Even Allen felt the words slide down his throat like ice. There was no heat in Kanda’s anger, if it could be called anger.

The akuma’s spiked teeth just pulled back into a smile.

Like most level 3s it was something of man, something of machine, but this one was also a bit more animal. Two long and sturdy legs, striped vertically around the knees stuck out from a shroud that covered the torso and the arms, and most of the face as well. There was a spring in its movement and a laughter in its — not its voice, but the sound that came from it.

Its hood obscured everything but the mouth running gash-like across its face.

And now, with the body glowing slightly, Allen could see a large red splotch on its cloak, just on the left side of its chest.

“You would never kill me—”

Mugen stabbed into the space where its chest had been, and swept a path under where its legs had stood.

But in that sliver of a second it had let itself fall backwards and roll, springing out of it as if this was all going to plan. What did it mean, Kanda would never kill it? What the hell was it?

“—and it won’t be for lack of tryin’.”

“Shut up.”

Kanda swung the sword again, sending out a wave of pests, but the level 3 was getting bored.

“You should know me better than that, Kanda! Besides, aren’t you wondering why I’m here? I should have been burned and buried!”

It dodged the attack and then held its hands about stomach height, balled together, then drew them apart — this was it! There was the noise of a bell, getting louder and louder—

There was an explosion, and the house the level 3 had perched on collapsed in on itself, forming a new pile of rubble.

“Wanna dance? If you just say you remember who I am,” it continued, cajoling now, “I’ll tell you who it was, you know, that called me back.”

Kanda just strode slowly towards it as it twirled, and extended an arm theatrically out of its cloak. Maybe it had been an actor, when its soul had belonged to a human, or a some other type of entertainer.

“Die.”

Another spirit attack, far too slow to catch the akuma. It seemed to have forgotten that it was here to hunt Allen, for the moment. He probably should have been relieved.

BOOM

Another thundering noise, scattered here and there with the bright sparks of shattering glass, sounded as the akuma collapsed a building on to where Kanda had been standing.

“Just say my name,” the thing said, and each word rang out louder, backed by the chime of a bell. “Do it. Do it!”

It flitted around Kanda, throwing up clouds of debris with its abilities, and working up a cloud — yes, Allen realized, it was trying to cut him off.

He was about to reconsider, and run in to help, when suddenly the noise stopped. Not just the sound of the bell, but the scuffling on feet on the ground, and the muffled sounds of heavy breathing.

“Shut. Up.”

Kanda had unleashed a barrage of black ghosts, seething in a circle around him to eat away the dust.

“You were nothing to me then.”

He stared blankly at the thing that had stopped to listen, frozen in its place.

“And you are nothing now.”

Mugen’s blade withdrew, and reformed, levelled at the akuma’s throat.

Over the course of seconds, his spirits disappeared, fading back into darkness. Somehow, Allen felt as if he were watching a play, some scripted performance play out. Both the fighters made sure to have time to throw insults back and forth, and stand still in the newfound silence of the night.

Yes, it was silent. But just a moment later, Allen heard it break — clumsily. Nothing dramatic about it.

There was just the soft, then louder, shameful and strangled sound of crying.

It carried on, quiet sobbing at first, then a wail, and then just seconds later it crescendoed into a scream — into two words, ripped out from the akuma’s lungs.

“I know!”

It took a blind leap at Kanda, swinging a fist instead of shooting bullets or creating its explosions.

“It was my little sister!” It shouted.

Allen placed the words in his mind alongside the others that this thing had spoken, trying to piece together what it wanted. Was it like Eliade, whose shattered memories changed and rearranged themselves?

Kanda, meanwhile, had caught its blow easily, and redirected it into a throw — and yet, this akuma must have had some training in its life. It twisted and managed to kick out at Kanda’s kneecap, sending them both tumbling. Was Kanda really humouring it that much?

“You bastards tried to hide it from her, didn’t you? But she’s so much fucking smarter than you! Takes after her brother, don'tcha think?The fight wore on, each of the akuma’s blows meeting perfect blocks, but now it honestly fought. The moment Kanda was close to something — aaaugh! Chunks of wood and plaster, stone and brick ripped out from the structures on that side.

"And I looked for you. I found you. I followed you all, through everything, I stayed with you, when I was still level 1. And you know what?”

A swift hip throw slammed it down on a wood spar that shoved through its chest with a sickening sound. Still, it managed to escape the chokehold, pulling out the spar, and held it up like a club.

“You didn’t miss me!” it yelled, punctuating each phrase with a swing. “You didn’t even remember me! I waited so fucking long, just to hear you say something, but…”

Its voice faded suddenly, snuffed out by a burst of effort. Finally it got past Kanda’s oddly loose defenses, scoring a blow that landed with a hollow noise on the back of his skull.

“…you never even said my name.”

Without the sound of battle to cloud it, Allen heard again the scratched voice of a boy about to cry.

A boy that now collapsed over Kanda, pinning him down…shit. Kanda was beaten. Now it was his job to get that obnoxious bastard out of this mess.

Was he really that tired? Was it a Noah? Or, to Allen’s sneaking suspicion was he just playing along?

He took a couple of deep breaths, and tensed his muscles, ready for the fight. It would be over quickly, even with that explosion ability.

“Innocence—”

“Stay the fuck out of this, Walker!”

Kanda yelled — screamed — him down before he’d even pulled out a Crown Clown, but Allen just had to trust him. After that business with Alma, he should have learned his lesson.

“Just hurry up, all right?” he yelled back into the street.

Kanda still lay there, at the akuma’s mercy, the spar hovering over where his throat must have been.

“Grab Johnny, and backtrack. I’ll end it.”

Allen let himself spend another moment in complete confusion, then nodded to himself.

He did not look back.

…

Kanda watched the two of them go. Allen was too much of a fucking goody-two-shoes to be trusted.

Besides, it wasn’t hard to keep the akuma at bay. No bullets, no ability, it was still trying to stick him through the throat with nothing more than brute strength. He had the edge. It had a hole in its chest.

For most of the fight, he hadn’t been able to see its face, between how fast they were moving and the hood’s shadow. He hadn’t wanted to see.

It was clear as fucking crystal that this wasn’t a fake.

But now, he couldn’t deny it any more. Not as human as Alma, no, but a level 3 that looked too real. The mechanical semblance of a face was twisted into an expression he recognized.

“Get off me.”

“Shut up,” it croaked.

Kanda wondered if those were somehow real tears, or just some clever mechanism.

It shouldn’t have mattered. This smartass akuma was still just as weak as any other. It didn’t have the skill to beat him, even without the sloppy blows and missed openings.

But…

“That’s my line, dumbass.”

“I said, shut up!”

The akuma punctuated the sentence with strikes that Kanda could have blocked. He’d heal up soon enough.

There was something boiling up in him that he had no name for. The feeling when old man Zhu told him the truth. When he saw Marie and Lena standing there, and knew that they understood him, and how much he had wanted to die, and knew he’d dragged himself back into a miserable life out of nothing but guilt.

Gently, just a bit at first, then more fully, Kanda smiled, and lifted a hand to the thing’s cheek, brushing aside what looked like tears.

“Daisya.”

It took little effort to then snap what might have been its neck and kick it off, then slam it into the ground to reverse their positions. The blood that trickled out of a cut on his cheek flowed, and took Mugen’s form.

Now Kanda knelt over that mechanical body, and pushed the hood fully away, exposing the face to what little light there was. The tattoos beneath its eyes were now holes in the metallic outer shell, and the bandages that stuck in Kanda’s memory were merely painted on. Hollow, a shell full of meaning but empty inside. But the scars and mottled, uneven skin were the same as ever, and the one rusted earring left over from an impulsive act at age 7 and a stubborn need to be cool that had stayed into their teens.

The careless collection of features was still set in an expression Kanda had rarely seen up close before, unlike the grin his mind painted over this face. It looked disgusting.

“After all that talking, I thought you’d have something to say now.”

The akuma finally snapped out of it, and rolled its eyes at him.

“You could at least let me get my head on straight, first.”

It reached its arms up to about ear level when Kanda released them, and set it in place, broken bones — no, components — healing with a crackling noise.

“That’s disgusting.”

One of the cold hands reached up to brush the bangs out of his eyes, but he didn’t flinch.

��Your face is disgusting.”

“So your sister called you back. Did you kill her?”

“Nope. Didn’t have much use for a body. She’s a good kid, you know. Oh, wait, of course you do. You’re the one who told her I fucking kicked it, ‘cos you guys didn’t care enough to come get me. You heard it, didn’t you? I had my golem on during all of it, so you shoulda had a good bunch of screaming in your ear. Must’ve been fun for Marie! He mentioned me, you know. He remembered.”

Kanda kept Mugen hovering over the akuma’s throat, steady at about an inch away. His expression was flat.

“I heard you, and the Noah.”

“That fuckin’ hat-wearing bastard. I’d thank you for kicking his ass like a dutiful teammate, but you only did that when Lena got involved. Hah! Don’t think I heard anything from her, either, but she’s always hung up on one thing or another, so I’m just going to say that she still remembers me. You can trust her, like that.”

The thing grinned up at him. “So, you gonna kill me now? Or poke another hole in me?”

“You haven’t even gotten to the point, yet.”

“Didn’t I?”

“Nope.”

“Damn.”

If this conversation had been when they were thirteen, and gangly, and sharing tiny straw mattresses between the two of them and whoever else was on the mission, it would have been funny.

Now, it just gave Kanda the cold comfort of knowing that whatever else, this thing did have Daisya’s memories.

“Spit it out.”

“Okay, okay.” The akuma sighed. “We were kind of family, at the Order, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“Seven years, we were together. But, did you ever love me?”

Seven years of night trains and cover identities, tattered uniforms and stolen hair ties, ripping up the sheets to bandage wounds and carrying Daisya in the rain, for three days because the akuma were circling and his leg was broken and badly healed with Kanda’s blood.

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“You didn’t cry, didn’t mourn, I don’t think you noticed it. Marie did, but you never even said my name.”

Travelling for days on end, stopping only for akuma and the occasional hour of sleep, staring at a girl in a tourist town with sharp eyes and messy brown hair, buying a trinket and leaving the next day. Tracking Cross’ inscrutable movements through snow and wind with barely a word passed between them. No quarter in battle against Tyki, or against Bolic.

“Maybe.”

It started crying again, but with a smile on its face.

“It hurts, you know. I remember pretty damn clearly, I still thought you’d save me. I still thought you’d at least, I don’t know, try.”

Age fourteen, tearing a slit down his wrist, letting the blood drip on to a broken body hoping that it would be enough to heal whatever this was. Age eighteen, boots skidding on the cobblestones as they ran, seeing the body just as light dawned. Take care of him. It was a dead body, but the words had still needed to be said. Protect him, where I failed.

“…”

There had been some kind of response lined up, but the words choked out in his throat.

Age sixteen, in the snow, grinning at a dumb joke and holding hands, waiting for the train.

He shifted position, coming to kneel beside the akuma, and not over it, smiling despite himself.

“Kanda?”

Not again. He sat the akuma’s battered body up, wrapping an arm around its shoulders, and leaned back, against a pile of rubble.

No one would ever see him in the darkness. No one would ever hear him in the void. They was fifteen again, stupid and still somehow naive enough to give a damn.

“I’ll save you this time, Daisya.”

“So, does this mean…”

“I did.”

…

Kanda didn’t show up until the next day. Johnny asked about it, worried, but Allen knew better.

That night belonged to Kanda.

[nancronomicon-blog]

Information - Sokoya

I was given a prompt by my Pathfinder DM to write about one of my characters doing surveillance work and gathering information in order to advance her goals. She’s got a while to go before she can accept the role that fate wrote for her, but everyone has to start somewhere.

-------

Sitting on a flat building's rooftop, Sokoya carefully counted out the amount of coin in the small bag she kept on hand. It wasn't everything she had of course, and she doubted that Wrathcatcher would stab her if it was incorrect at first. So long as the total wound up correct, the elf was likely to be satisfied. Still, there was something to be said for not making missteps in her investigation. It had taken months of denial and desperation for Sokoya and Rav to come to the conclusion that there was little hope of the amalgam that they currently are to make it back just yet. Once they were stronger, that might change, but they were stuck for now. So, the two had quickly decided that if this was their life now, they would accept it and react accordingly. If the world required them to save it, they had best get started. The first step would be to find out any notable events in the area, and to find out all they could about the history of the world that didn't match what Sokoya was told.

It was slow going at first. After all, Mourning Ridge aside, not a lot of the common folk were inherently willing to trust a drow on the surface. Sokoya didn't blame them, but it did result in a few tricky situations. The first time she had ventured into a major city, she had been nearly arrested on the spot. The local guard had immediately tried to knock her out, and it was only because of Rav warning her in her head that Sokoya had managed to dodge the strike. Her mind--or rather, their shared minds--kicked into overdrive with the sudden stress, and for once she felt connected to her former time based abilities once again, as things seemed to slow to a crawl. The two of them agreed in their hyper-conscious state to flee rather than making it worse by fighting back, so they quickly darted down a few alleyways, getting lost soon enough.

A small smile formed on Sokoya's features as she recalled the memory. It had started off poorly, but the next moment had introduced her to an ally that she would come to count on quite a bit in the coming weeks. Sokoya had nearly collapsed against a wall, struggling to maintain her body's synthesized state for a moment with herself so winded from running through the city. She could still hear the guard out there, looking for the drow that had dared to intrude into the city. Her keen ears had already heard rumors spreading, and she was quickly beginning to give up hope of escaping that day. The quiet sound of footsteps approached, and she gritted her teeth, ears low as she forced herself to stand back up as she reached for her knife.

The footsteps stopped a few steps away and Sokoya acted quickly. She couldn't keep running, and getting caught now was unacceptable. Tuning Rav out for a moment so she could focus, Sokoya had pivoted on one foot, practiced movements carrying her dagger from her waist into a thrusting motion at the person behind her. Her target had been surprised at first, but reacted nearly as fast, and Sokoya's vision blurred for a moment before she found her face shoved roughly against the wall of the alley, held firmly by a hand and the cold feeling of her own dagger's blade pressed against her neck. She hadn't even fully seen the person's movements, and in her dazed state she could barely think of more than the fact that she should have been faster than most guards.

"Not too shabby, really, but kind of predictable," came the quiet voice behind her. "Now I'm going to let go, and let's see if you can avoid trying that again, yeah? I'm not here to arrest you." The person pulled away from her, and Sokoya carefully turned around, staring down the other. At first she paused, thinking the other was another drow, before she caught on soon enough. There were traces of drow heritage to be sure--a red tint to the eyes, skin a bit more grey than most elves, hair a bit lighter--but the person in front of her was clearly a surface elf. That didn't help her nerves at all, really. Especially not now that she was disarmed.

"Not from around here, are you?" The elf asked with a small smile, half mocking and half genuine. The smile soon faded however, as a small commotion outside signalled the guard was getting closer to searching this area. The elf gave a small jerk of their head towards further in the alley before quickly heading off in that direction, and Sokoya saw little reason to not follow. The alternative was waiting for the guard to catch her, after all. The elf soon led her to a concealed hatch in the alley wall, completely hidden if you weren't looking for it. They slipped inside and Sokoya followed after just a brief hesitation, the elf closing the hatch after the two of them. The inside was a dark passage, lined with stone and with very little light.

"I think you might've set the record for the quickest someone set off the guard, friend. You definitely made our job harder today, too. The guard's looking everywhere for you. From what we heard though, you didn't do much, huh? Bunch of racist pricks, really. Name's Wrathcatcher, by the way," the elf said, idly looking over Sokoya's dagger before back up at the drow. In the dim light of the passage, the elf's eyes were glowing, and Sokoya knew hers were as well. "...Sokoya, Sokoya Yulijalil Ra'riithel," she replied after a short time, and awkwardly extended her hand. Wrathcatcher had saved her, and especially after she attacked them, being polite seemed the least she could do. The elf didn't shake her hand, just passing her the dagger back after a few short moments. Sokoya paused, before putting it away, a silence falling over the two as Wrathcatcher looked her over.

"So, Soko, tell me. What's a drow doing on the surface, anyway? I mean I get enough shit for being partial drow, so I can only imagine it's worse for you. The way I see it, though, you're causing us a bit of trouble either way, since you're stirring up the guard and now you know about this passage here. So I'm thinking.....you join us, or at least become a client of ours, and maybe we don't tell the guard where you are, and help you out. What do you say? Street rats like us gotta stick together, hm?" Wrathcatcher said as Sokoya stared for a few moments, the drow and dragonborn in her head quickly debating on if this was a good idea. Eventually, she nodded.

She had told Wrathcatcher the gist of her situation--or at least, the parts about information gathering--and the two had worked out a partnership from there. Wrathcatcher and their friends, who Sokoya very quickly learned made up a successful thieves guild, would keep ears out and find out information for her, as long as Sokoya could keep coin heading their way. They also set Sokoya up with some documents about nearby cities and the like and the sort of people to avoid both because of her race or because they were corrupt enough to warrant a warning. It wasn't a relationship of boss and employees of course, so much as mutual respect because of the need to survive. It was almost like being back home with Misery and her grandmother, really. A bunch of people on the more unfortunate side of things banding together to make it through the world.

"Hey Soko, something on your mind? You look pretty pleased," came a voice from behind her, making Sokoya jump in surprise at first as she looked behind her. It seemed every time they met, Wrathcatcher was getting better at sneaking up on her, and she still didn't have a chance at catching their reflexes without her time powers, either. They still wore a small grin, though Sokoya had come to learn that behind that mask was a sharp mind analyzing every interaction, always on the lookout for danger. It was how her friend had come to survive so long, after all. 

"Just remembering a fool with a knife," Sokoya replied calmly, turning to face Wrathcatcher fully. She held the bag of coins up, shaking it a bit to let them clink against each other. "The usual amount. Anything new to report? How're your friends doing?" She asked, before tossing the bag over. Wrathcatcher snatched the bag out of mid-air and tossed it back and forth between their hands as they weighed it and thought things over. After a short time, they pocketed it and shrugged. 

"Things have been a bit quiet lately, Joleyne's been crying that her newspaper's going to die out if things keep up like this," Wrathcatcher said. Sokoya opened her mouth to protest the lack of news, but the elf cut her off. "Hey now, have I ever disappointed you? Don't answer that. Penwriggle's been teasing that he's got another book that's being published, but more to the point he's been getting a bit more cozy with the captain of the guard. It'll be nice to have one of our people on the inside, and for now I can tell you the guard's being criticized for how it's handling the races around. There's some town a few days out that I guess has a bunch of adventurers joining it and most are tieflings, apparently. It's making things more awkward for the guard, so it might just be safe for you to explore the city on your own after a while."

Wrathcatcher paused, looking a bit uncertain before continuing. "There's also a new person of interest out west. Calls themselves 'Avast 88th Sea'. I think they're a bit of an ass, but they're a sailor's apprentice. The guildmaster's brought them in as one of us, and they're a pretty nice connection to the sea and beyond. On that note, apparently there's been a lot more raider activity across the sea. Not sure if it's headed in this direction yet, but it's at least getting closer to their ports. Rumor is that it's just as much humans and the like as it is goblins and orcs. Kind of weird to hear about them being organized like that. Oh, and there's apparently supposed to be some nobility coming through town in a few weeks. Said something about visiting that town--Mourning Ridge?--while visiting too. Might be a good idea to pay attention to that, as long as, you know, you don't mention knowing anything if anything of theirs goes missing," Wrathcatcher said with a wink. Sokoya frowned, none of this was really anything she could act on. It would be nice to visit the city properly, though. Still, it was better than nothing. If she really could visit the city before too much longer, she could expand her information network, at the very least.

"Well, keep some ears out for me, would you? I'll see you again next week, yes?" Sokoya asked, gathering her things as she got ready to head off. Wrathcatcher put a hand out though to stop her, taking a bag from their shoulder and holding out a small package bound in parchment. Sokoya looked at it, then up at Wrathcatcher questioningly. 

"The boss said to give you this, said 'consider it an offer'. It's a bunch of coin and information that I didn't have," Wrathcatcher said, and Sokoya stared for a moment longer. She had been asked multiple times to join the Guild, and each time turned them down, but never had they given her anything beyond information. "Soko, babe, we're not dumb. We know you're not staying in town--guard's too full of racist pricks for that, and you're too healthy to be hiding out in the woods. Mourning Ridge's the closest town to us, so we know that's where you're probably from," Wrathcatcher said, their smile replaced with a more serious look now. "That's fine and all, but remember that we've got your back if you ever need it, yeah? As far as we're concerned, you're one of us street rats. That being said....If you wanted to do us a favor and do for us in Mourning Ridge what we do for you here, we could probably just drop the whole payment thing entirely. You don't have to join the Thieves' Guild entirely, and we're not really asking you to steal anything, just....give us another branch to our network, yeah? Just some information. Think on it at least, will you?" They said, before heading towards the nearby ladder to the alley.

"And....Soko, you don't have to say yes, we can keep things the way they are now, but if you ever want to be part of the family properly, just let us know. If nothing else, we work for clients, but we protect our family," they said, before slipping out of sight down the ladder as Sokoya clutched the package tighter.

[biolumitranslations]

The Unicorn Legion - Chapter 19

Silent War

Turning to look at the trees, he saw a familiar figure.

Cain was swinging his sword as though fighting an invisible enemy.

Thrust, parry, forward, back, Cain moved without the slightest hesitation. His dancing sword reflected sunlight so dazzlingly, it was as though he was slicing cleanly through the air around him.

Intrigued by his skilled martial arts, the elf quietly began to approach, but before he had taken two steps the knight stopped. Suddenly, he turned and pointed his blade toward the elf:

“For a warrior like you to approach me now, are you challenging me?” Cain’s eyes were closed, and he spoke with a meditative expression.

Ellen smiled and silently took a few steps to the side, but Cain merely turned with him, keeping his swordpoint perfectly aligned with the elf.

Ellen thought for a moment before backing away and circling behind the knight before closing in.

As though he had eyes in the back of his head, Cain didn’t turn and simply raised his sword again, pointing directly at the elf.

“How are you doing that?”

“Perception magic. I can detect living things within a certain distance, especially if they have magical attributes.” Cain still didn’t open his eyes.

“So you can see even in the dark, or when something’s in the way?”

“Mm. Closing my eyes helps me focus.”

“A useful skill indeed,” Ellen nodded. “If you’re free, could you explain the magic you learned when you were a paladin?”

“I’d be happy to, Captain,” Cain opened his eyes. “But are you sure you don’t want to fight first?”

“Not a chance!” Ellen laughed. “If it were a long-distance fight, I could beat you without breaking a sweat, but if I let you get close it’ll be my loss.”

“Then, let me say this,” Cain looked serious. “I’ve been thinking about it, and although there’s no way to recover your reduced magical resistance, you can make up for it in other ways. For example, improving physically, and actively strengthening your defensive abilities. Even if you are hit, if you consciously focus on protecting your vitals, you can reduce the damage you take.”

“Cain . . .” the elf looked at him in surprise.

“I know elves don’t have much in the way of a physical advantage,” Cain smiled. “So, would you like to learn a few defensive moves?”

“Cain, you seem like you’ll enjoy being my teacher, am I right?”

“You could be right.”

“Then I have no reason to refuse,” Ellen smiled. “Where do we start?”

“First, let’s have a look at your strength,” the knight handed the elf a sheathed short sword. “Come at me!”

It was a quiet battle. Between a sheathed short sword and a sword, the sound isn’t harsh even as they’re clashing together. Cain was careful not to overpower him, and once he was sure Ellen could withstand his attacks, he shifted into a defensive stance.

Still, the tension of battle didn’t diminish.

The elf cautiously observed the knight, looking for an opportunity to strike, but he could only spot weaknesses just as Cain hid them, and they were gone before he could react. There was no doubt the knight had a disadvantage in agility, but as long as he didn’t make mistakes, it didn’t make a difference.

Nothing will happen if I just keep waiting, Ellen thought, and changed his strategy, attacking more actively. But he neglected his defense in the process, and was quickly stopped by Cain’s sword.

“One,” Cain said, and withdrew his sword.

Ellen understood the meaning of his comment. If this weren’t a practice fight, then Cain’s sword would have killed him once already.

Two times, three times, four times. The knight didn’t say them aloud, but the elf was keeping count. Each time it was only the tip, or the broad side of the blade, and the contact was always gone the next moment. But if this were actual combat, every one of them would have been fatal.

Ellen didn’t consider himself skilled in melee, but he was very experienced in dodging. However, this confidence crumbled over the course of the fight. Cain’s calm style of fighting was designed to make his opponents panic and to create an opportunity to strike; he didn’t push when he had the upper hand because he was waiting for his opponent to expose themselves further.

How long has this fight been? Five minutes? Ten minutes?

Cain said he’d go easy on me, but-

Ellen felt a jab of pain in his chest.

“Don’t get distracted,” Cain’s voice held a hint of displeasure.

“Sorry,” Ellen took a deep breath and concentrated on the battle.

At the very least, I can’t let Cain be disappointed.

Be patient, minimize his number of ‘deaths’, and an opportunity would surely come.

Finally, after blocking countless strikes, the opportunity he’d been waiting for arrived.

A hole appeared in Cain’s defensive footwork, and the next time their blades met Ellen pushed Cain’s to the side, stepped closer to the knight and brushed lightly against his chest before falling to the ground.

“One.”

“You did very well,” Cain smiled, and held out a hand to help him up.

The elf had been utterly tense all this time, and the fingers holding his short sword were stiff.

“Ellen,” the knight spoke with a mild tone. “Sometimes you become too focused on ‘attacking the target’ and ignore your own safety. This tactic can make your attacks very accurate, but it comes with a heavy price. Also, you are more easily injured than others.”

Ellen nodded, leaning against Cain’s shoulder and panting hard.

Of the original Unicorn Legion, he was indeed the member with the largest number of injuries. He’d always assumed it was because he was a weak archer, but apparently this wasn’t the case. In fact, it could be said that only luck had kept him alive thus far.

“It won’t be easy to try and change your fighting style at this point, but if you can, you should remember not to fight alone, and to listen to what your body is telling you. After all, not all wounds will fully recover after the battle. If you go all out in a single fight, you won’t be at your best in the next fight, and you’ll do yourself more harm than good.”

“Ah . . . I will try to change my habits . . . now that I think about it, I’m, hah, really lucky to have lived till now . . .”

Cain shook his head. “Your hand is a bit stiff, your breathing is too heavy; your shoulders and lungs are probably really hurting right now, correct?”

“Oh, you can tell?” Ellen laughed hoarsely. “Yes, that’s the gist of it. But my circumstances are rather unusual, so there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

“Those two points in the body are vital in a fight, so the matter of building up your strength again is essential. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” the knight frowned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to force you to this point just to expose the problem.”

“It’s not your fault . . . no, wait,” the elf looked up. “Just now, did you let me hit you just so you could stop the fight?”

“Oh, you figured it out?” Cain teased, his eyes narrowing happily.

“You . . .” Ellen stared at him, trying to look angry, but his heart was overflowing with a warm feeling.

“If you want revenge,” Cain grinned, “we can continue this in the afternoon- Mrs. Cavendish, is it time for lunch?”

“Huh?” The elf turned to see the Grand Mage’s wife a short distance away.

“Ah, before that,” the knight got down on one knee and secured the short sword to the elf’s belt. “. . . when I’m not beside you, let this protect you in my place.”

“Cain,” Ellen laughed, “thank you, but do I owe you anything for this?”

“As I’m letting you borrow it, you can just give it back when you don’t need it anymore,” Cain replied. “You know, I kind of miss those fast-paced battles we used to fight with the mercenaries. I hope someday we can do something like that again . . .”

“Well, I’ll hold out for as long as I can, but I doubt our future enemies will be so easily dealt with.”

“Yes,” the knight stood up. “The road is still very long, and you are the most important part of our team. Ellen, don’t give in too easily, alright? I know you can do this . . . we all do.”

This chapter was so sweet! Could it be that spring has finally sprung for everyone’s favorite elf? I’m rooting for you, Ellen!

Whew! It’s been a while, but I wanted to get another chapter of TUL done before moving forward with TDO. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

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