#but then it fit better to have Astra die first | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

talinexa · 5 years

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Odd Goings-On - One-Shot

So... this was a random idea I had... LOL XD

“Isa!” Lea shouted, running forward across the roof of the Radiant Garden castle. The blue-haired boy’s face was cut up and bleeding, green eyes unfocused and staring up at the sky as he was lying on the ground. The silver-haired man leaning over Isa was smirking as a light emerged from Isa’s chest and glowed and spun for a moment, before shooting off into the sky.

Lea fell onto his knees on Isa’s other side, grabbing his friend’s arm in both hands, searching Isa’s blank stare for some sign of life before turning to the man. “What did you do to him?!” he demanded, glaring at Xehanort with tears running down his face.

Xehanort reached out and placed his hand on Lea’s chest. “Worry not. The pain will disappear,” he said.

Lea gasped as an overwhelming pain and darkness crashed through him. His vision went fuzzy and he blacked out.

He came to moments later, still lying on the floor of the castle’s roof.

The first thing he was aware of was someone shaking his shoulders. “Lea! Lea, wake up!” the familiar voice was one he’d know anywhere. His head was light and his eyes weren’t focusing, but he knew that wasn’t Isa speaking to him. Under his hand he could feel Isa’s arm.

“Astra... get out of here... now...” he groaned. He knew that he should have felt worried for her, but he didn’t. He didn’t feel... anything. No concern for Isa’s condition. No fear for what would happen to Astra should she stay.

He was empty. An empty chasm where his heart once was yawning open inside him.

The sensation left a profound ache in his chest.

“Astra... go...”

“No! I’m not leaving you! Isa’s bleeding. He’s awake but unresponsive and you were unconscious when I found you!” Long blue-gray hair—longer than but similarly colored to Ienzo’s—swam into focus as his vision improved.

“Xe... Xehanort... did this...” Lea muttered.

“What?” Astra breathed, sounding astounded. “What did he do?”

“Removed... our... hearts. You... need... to leave.” Clarity was returning to his mind. “Before you suffer the same fate. Go.” He sat up. Astra’s silvery-gray eyes were full of fear and concern. He grabbed her shoulders. “Get out of the castle. Get out of Radiant Garden if you can! Now!”

“Lea I can’t leave you!”

“You’ll find that boy is no longer Lea,” a deep voice said from behind. Astra and Lea whirled. It was Xehanort—but something was different. He had the same empty look that Lea felt. “He will now be known as Axel.”

“Why?” Astra demanded, putting herself between Lea and Xehanort.

“Astra, no,” Lea tried, a hand on her shoulder attempting to push her out of the way and failing. He was still groggy from his heart being torn from his body.

Xehanort chuckled. “You were always Ansem’s boldest pupil. Perhaps you should join our cause as well. Your will is strong.”

“Give them back their hearts, Xehanort!” Astra ordered.

“I cannot. Their hearts have been separated from their bodies. Only by their death can they be made whole again. And you don’t want that, do you?” He smirked. “And I am no longer Xehanort. I am... Xemnas.”

Astra took a step back, holding Lea’s wrist in one hand protectively. “Take me with you,” she said.

“Astra no!” Lea pleaded. “Get out of here!”

“I told you once before, Lea. You and Isa are the family I’ve found for myself. After my and Ienzo’s parents disappeared, this castle’s been all we’ve known. And if Xemnas is taking you away from here, I’m coming too.”

Xemnas smirked. “How I hoped you’d come willingly,” he said.

Darkness swept out of him and slammed into Astra.

“NO!” Lea shouted. She fell back, dazed, right into his arms. “Astra! Astra why would you—?”

The light glowed around her edges and emerged from her chest before shooting into the sky.

“Stand down, Axel. She will be alright. She will the same as you are now,” Xehanort—no, Xemnas—droned. “And now you won’t have to leave her behind.”

Xemnas swept a hand across the area in front of where Astra was slumped in Lea—Axel’s—arms. Her name appeared in glowing, floating letters. A flick of Xemnas’ wrist sent them spinning around her while she gazed on blankly, gray eyes empty of everything they once held.

They slammed to a stop in the wrong order, a golden X branded into them. “Number Nine, Staxar. Cosmic Channel. Welcome to Organization Thirteen.” Xemnas turned, and called over his shoulder, “Axel. Bring Saïx and Staxar to the courtyard when they’ve recovered.” With that, he stepped down the stairs and vanished into the shadows of the darkened castle.

Axel lowered Astra—Staxar—to the floor next to Isa. Saïx. “You idiot,” he whispered to her. “Why would you do that?”

“He... already... took... Ienzo. You, him, and Isa are... everything... to me. Can’t... lose you.” She reached out with one hand and took Saïx’s, her other hand reaching up to brush Axel’s face. “It’s... gonna be... okay.”

*****

“Hey Saïx?” I called, peering through doorways in the castle, looking for Saïx. “Saaaïïïx?! Where are yooou?”

“Staxar!”

“Oh! Hey Axel. You seen Saïx?”

“He was in the meeting room last I checked. Talking with Xemnas.”

“Oh. I’ll wait for him then,” I said.

“Staxar?”

“Yeah Axel?”

“What are you looking for Saïx for?”

“Oh. Just need to talk to him about my mission yesterday. I think I forgot to put something in my report. And I don’t know where he put it so I can update it.”

“Boring. You’re such a Goody-Goody.”

I paused and blinked. “I... would disagree with you. I... have never made many attempts at being a goody two shoes. I’m just trying to do one thing that’ll keep Saïx from nagging me about being forgetful like he does with Demyx.”

Axel snorted. “Fair enough. Okay. Yeah just wait for him to get done. He’ll probably head to his room. Wait for him there.”

“I will. Thanks Axel.”

I headed for Saïx’s bedroom, and waited outside it for all of five minutes before getting dragged by Demyx to the commons area to hang out—and do a duet. I was, apparently, the only member of the Organization who enjoyed singing. Or was, at least, willing to sing with Demyx when he played his sitar.

We hung out in the commons for a few songs, me singing and Demyx playing. How Demyx got anything done I still had no idea. I swear he never did any work.

“Hey Staxar?” Demyx asked. “What were you hangin’ around Saïx’s room for anyway?”

“I wanted to talk to him about my mission report from yesterday. I think I forgot to put something in it,” I answered honestly.

“You actually fill those out?”

“Don’t you?”

“Not well.”

“No wonder Saïx is always on your case.”

Demyx shrugged and retuned to the sitar. “It’s not like he’s ever gonna do more than talk.”

I snorted. “If you say so. But don’t come crying to me when he beans you upside the head.”

That made Demyx laugh.

There was a lull in conversation during which Demyx plucked at his strings. “Hey. Maybe we should run away and become a performing duo,” he suggested. The sarcasm wasn’t lost on me. I snorted.

“Nah. I can’t leave Zexion and Axel and Saïx behind.”

“Thaaat’s right! I keep forgetting Zexion is your brother. I mean yeah you look alike but you don’t act alike at all.”

“He was always more reserved than I was,” I said, twisting some of my hair around my fingers. “I had to be louder because I had to take care of him. Even after I met Is—Saïx and Axel.”

“Right. Well, at least let me be in charge of the music at your wedding when you and Saïx get married, mkay?” Demyx remarked.

I dropped my hair. “What?!” I demanded.

He looked confused, brushing a loose clump of hair back up into place. “What? Isn’t that why you’re so attached to that stick in the mud?”

“No!”

“Really? I always thought you were in love with him.”

“I am not in love with Saïx!” I exclaimed, voice going squeaky. “I can’t feel anything, remember?!”

“Huh. Oh yeah.” Demyx threw his arms behind his head casually. “Forgot about that. You two just act like an old married couple.”

“Shut your face, Demyx,” I snapped, pushing myself to my feet. “Saïx and I were friends in the old life. Only friends. We were too young when we lost our hearts for anything else.”

“You were, what? Fifteen? Sixteen? That’s plenty old enough to have a crush on somebody.”

“Demyx, are you trying to goad me into beating your face in?”

“No. Just bringing up something you and Saïx refuse to acknowledge.”

“If I did have a heart and could feel, I would say ‘I hate you.’ Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really do have to attend to business.” I moved to leave the commons area.

“Just don’t forget to lock the door!” Demyx called.

I whirled, daggers appearing in my hands. “DEMYX!”

He was gone, the last vestige of a dark corridor closing. I ground my teeth and let my daggers vanish. That idiot’s teasing was going to get him killed. Probably by me but maybe by Saïx if he caught wind of it.

I rolled my eyes and went back through the halls to Saïx’s room. It was slightly ajar and the light was on. He’d returned from his meeting with Xemnas apparently. “Saïx?” I called, knocking on the frame and pushing the door open. “I was wondering if you would let me edit my mission report from yester—OH GOSH SORRY!” I clapped one hand over my eyes.

Saïx was standing at his window without any sort of shirt on. He had on his uniform trousers but that was it. His blue hair was lying, damp, down his back, looking like he’d just finished combing through it.

“I did knock!” I squeaked, trying not to peek between my fingers.

“Yes. I heard you. Are you feeling embarrassed?” Saïx asked.

“No,” I said. “I don’t feel anything. But it’s rude and indecent of me to—”

“Staxar. Enough. What were you here for?”

I cleared my throat. “I think I forgot some details in my mission report from yesterday,” I said. “I was wondering if I could make sure and edit it.”

“Of course,” Saïx said. He crossed to his desk—he was like the only member of the Organization who had a desk in his room—and pulled open one of the drawers. It was full of files. He rifled through it and then handed me my report.

“Thanks. I’ll bring it right—”

He offered me a pen. “Just go through it here,” he said, cutting me off.

I cleared my throat and accepted the pen before leaning over his desk to glance through it and make sure I had everything in it. I tried really hard not to peek at Saïx while I looked through my report but it was kinda hard not to as he still hadn’t put a shirt on. I had known him for most of my life at this point and had never once seen him without one apart from right now.

He and Axel were built similarly—with Axel being slightly skinnier—but Saïx had more bulk. His muscles were the lean-and-wiry kind while still being whipcord strong. Because how else was he supposed to wield that giant claymore? He wasn’t as obviously-bulky as Lexaeus and Xaldin but he had definition.

If I still had a heart I’d probably be uncomfortable.

I chewed my lip hard and focused on my work. There were a few details I’d left out that I quickly added back in. When I was done I handed the papers back to Saïx. “Done. Thanks.”

“Of course. I appreciate your endeavors to be accurate.”

“Yeah. Uh... thanks. No problem.” I nodded and moved to leave.

“Staxar?” Saïx asked.

“Hmm?” I didn’t trust myself to turn around because I’d probably be too distracted to meet his eye, so I faced the door.

“I heard you and Demyx talking.”

“He was just joking around. You know how he is,” I said, gaze focused on the door.

Saïx’s hand rested on my shoulder. “Staxar we were children when we joined the Organization.”

“Teenagers,” I corrected. “Treated like children and expected to act like adults. Saïx...” I shook my head. “Never mind. Demyx was just being a punk.” I slipped out from under his hand on my shoulder.

“Should his harassment of you continue I could have him reprimanded—or even punished should it come to that.”

“It’s not harassment and it’s not a big deal.”

“Staxar, we were friends. It’s among the duties of a friend to—”

“Okay. Two things. One: we are friends, Saïx. Present-tense,” I interrupted. “And two: you don’t do nice things for your friends out of duty or obligation. You do it because they’re your friends and you want to. Anyway. You really don’t have to play favorites. I’m fine and I can handle Demyx on my own. But thanks.” I gave him a brief smile over my shoulder before rushing out of his room.

I ran to Axel’s and knocked on his door. He opened it after a second. “What’s up? You find Saïx?”

“Worse. I just walked in on Saïx shirtless with his hair wet like he’d just gotten out of the shower. I have never done anything more awkward in my entire life and I’m not even able to feel embarrassed!”

Axel started laughing, pulling me into his room and shutting the door. “Staxar, you are a treasure to be around. Your strange misadventures are a never-ending source of entertainment for me.” He leaned against the wall and folded his arms. “How’s that crush on Isa from when we were teenagers now, hmm?”

“I did not have a crush on Saïx,” I snapped.

“No, not Saïx. Isa. He’s... changed in the past couple years. Not that you’d notice. He doesn’t act like Saïx around you. He acts like Isa around you. And only you.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh. Ever notice how sharp he is in meetings?”

“A little.”

“Yeah. That’s Saïx. But you only ever see Isa when you’re alone with him.”

“Is he playing favorites?”

“I think he had a crush on you when we were teenagers,” Axel remarked. “And the part of him that remembers that treats you special. Because there is a part of him that remembers being able to feel...”

“Axel... If it’s just me... is he Saïx with you too?”

“Oh yeah. But it’s okay. I’m used to him in every mood.”

Someone knocked on the door. “Axel? Have you seen Staxar?” a familiar voice called.

“I’m in here chatting, Zexion!” I shouted back.

The door opened.

“Sure just come on in,” Axel muttered sarcastically. My brother ignored him.

“Staxar, I would like a word.”

“Sure thing,” I said. “See ya, Axel. Thanks for the chat.”

“Any time.” He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. I dodged out of his room.

Zexion had opened a corridor and gestured for me to go through it.

“Oh. A private conversation, eh?” I said with a smile, ducking through it. My brother’s blue eyes blinked but he said nothing, following after me quickly.

We emerged in Traverse Town. It was after dark and the streets were mostly empty. “Staxar,” Zexion started. “What are your real feelings for Saïx?”

“Don’t have any,” I said. “I’m supposed to love you because you’re my brother but I just don’t. You know we can’t. Our hearts were cast off when we joined the Organization.”

“You sacrificed your heart to come with Isa, Lea, and I. Without a second thought. Why would you do such a thing?”

“The three of you were all I had. You had Master Ansem and Vexen and Lexaeus and Xaldin keeping their eye on you but because I was older and female they assumed I was responsible enough to take care of myself. I rarely saw any of them. Just you, Lea, and Isa.”

“But... you did have feelings for Saïx didn’t you? In the old life?”

“Yes. I did. But it’s... fuzzy to say the least. I remember being aware of how deeply I loved all three of you one second, and the next second everything was gone and I was empty. I remember Axel shouting my name. And my feelings for Isa... I still look at him and remember them. But I don’t feel them anymore.”

“Didn’t you once whisper to Lea that you wanted to marry Isa?”

“Someone like Isa,” I corrected. “Someone less exuberant than Lea but slightly more verbal than you.” We found a park bench and sat down. “Getting you to talk was like pulling teeth.”

“I’m aware. I was a shy child.”

“I know, Zexion. When our parents disappeared... before we were taken into Master Ansem’s care, you and I wandered the streets of Radiant Garden on our own. You were maybe two at the time. You wouldn’t remember it now. I think the experience of the two of us on our own scared you out of talking for a long time.” I wrapped my arms around him. He’d already grown taller than me and he was thirteen. “And I’ve always felt guilty for failing you there.”

“Astra,” Zexion said, brushing his bangs behind his ear in order to look me in the face fully. He only ever did so for me. I hadn’t heard anyone call me my real name in a long time. “You did not fail me. Everything we went through brought us to where we are now. You’ve always done your best to take care of me and you’re the only blood family I have. I’ve always admired your bravery and your strength.” He wrapped his arms around me in turn. “And if it makes you feel any better, I approve of you and Saïx.”

My mouth dropped open. “Zexion!” I protested. “There’s nothing to approve of! There’s nothing there!”

“Everyone in the Organization knows that’s a lie.”

“I...”

“He liked you too, you know,” Zexion said. “But he’d never admit it out loud.”

I snorted. “That sounds like Saïx. But how would you know?”

“I overheard him telling Lea in the castle a few days before we gave up our hearts.”

I sighed. “Well, unfortunately, the situation we’re in now doesn’t really allow for anything to happen.”

“If you say so.” Zexion opened another corridor around himself and vanished.

I sighed and followed him through my own corridor back to the Organization’s castle. I appreciated that Zexion opened up to me—because as Ienzo he hadn’t much—but I was getting really tired of the teasing. Demyx and Axel I could understand. They were playful by nature. But Zexion? It was almost bizarre to have my quiet, intellectual baby brother poking fun at a five-year-old crush on Saïx that I was currently incapable of feeling.

Back at the castle, I went to my own room and got ready to get some sleep.

Once I showered, I stood at my window, looking at our Kingdom Hearts, with my wet hair hanging to my waist, standing only in my sleeping clothes and bare feet.

Knock-knock-knock!

“Who is it?” I called out of habit, despite being able to identify most of the Organization’s members by their knock alone.

“Me,” Saïx’s voice said.

I pulled my black coat on over my nightdress. “Oh boy here we go,” I whispered before pulling the door open. “To what do I owe the visit?”

“May I come in?”

Ignoring the warning bells going off in my mind labelled Awkward Situation Alert!!!, I opened the door wider. “Sure,” I said, letting him enter and backing up. He shut the door behind him, quiet and polite.

Saïx folded his arms. “I spoke to Demyx,” he said.

“Isa, I told you, you didn’t have—”

“He sought me out.”

“I doubt it was to apologize.”

“Demyx? No.” Saïx shook his head. “He sought me out and told me it was about time you and I were honest with ourselves.”

“That punk,” I muttered.

“Staxar...” he trailed off. I stared at him for a moment. The thing about being a Nobody was we didn’t feel anything. No shame. No remorse. No happiness either. No love. The love I once felt had been stripped and hollowed out of me a long time ago.

But... for some reason... I could feel that love. Fluttering in my chest like a large moth.

“Ye... yeah?” I asked quietly.

“I believe... for all his faults... Demyx may be right this time,” Saïx said quietly.

Shut up and kiss me, you big idiot, I thought, but didn’t dare say aloud. “You... you think?” I said instead.

“I do.”

I lifted my head. “Then kiss me.”

That earned me a smile. “I’m the one who gives the orders around here.”

“Not with this.”

Saïx’s hands found my shoulders and pulled me closer. He was a lot taller than me despite being the same age, so he had to lean down to reach me.

When our lips met, it felt like everything crashed down around me. Nothing else mattered. My chest was on fire and my knees grew weak. I never wanted it to end.

Five years of being a Nobody—of having no heart or emotions—made the experience overwhelming. A rush of feeling rushed over me like an ocean wave.

I probed at the kiss slightly, testing Saïx’s boundaries.

I was surprised when he went along without resisting me or chastising that I was going too far. But he did.

Caught up in a riptide of reckless passion, I shoved him back against the wall of my bedroom. He responded by holding me closer, hands finding the zipper of my coat and pulling it down to reveal my night dress.

He tasted like hundreds of missed opportunities.

I don’t know how long the kiss lasted, but it wasn’t nearly long enough.

Saïx pulled away, closing his eyes and turning his face away from me. “No,” he said. “We... I can’t,” he muttered.

“Saïx...” I didn’t want to apologize—because what was I supposed to apologize for?—but I didn’t know what else to do.

But, before I could say anything, he swept out of my room, the door hissing shut. I was alone, my coat sliding off my shoulders. I let it fall to the ground and collapsed onto my bed.

“What was I thinking?!” I muttered.

*****

“Quite the display, Saïx,” a voice remarked as Saïx strode down the corridors towards his bedroom. “I mean, I didn’t see it, but I heard it.” Xigbar chuckled, falling into step beside Saïx—who rolled his eyes. “You two’ve had it bad for each other since Ansem took her and her baby brother in.”

“Need I remind you that, as Nobodies, we don’t have hearts or emotions. Any feelings I once held for Staxar are long gone.”

Xigbar scoffed. “As if,” he retorted. “I can see right through you, kid.”

“I am no longer a child, Xigbar.”

“Whatever you say.”

Saïx turned into his bedroom and slid the door shut in Xigbar’s face.

After so much passion had filled him moments ago, fear was taking its place. Fear of the love and passion he’d felt. Fear of what the kiss would mean for Staxar’s and his safety in the Organization.

*****

Saïx stopped talking to me after that outside of assigning me to missions and ordering me around. Axel insisted everything would be fine—I just needed to give Saïx some time—but the more time passed, the less Saix spoke to me. And the less hope I had that Axel’s words would come true. I’d lost Isa five years ago. And it looked like I was losing Saïx too.

Empty and confused, I couldn’t figure out what to do. I wanted to confront him but I didn’t want to demean him in front of the other Organization members. He had a lot of responsibilities for being Number Seven.

“It’s okay. It’ll blow over,” Axel reassured me when we were paired together for a recon mission.

“What if it doesn’t?” I retorted.

“It will. Saïx—Isa—he’s just not used to... any of that. Even when we were kids. Remember? He was always pretty reserved. Just give him a chance to come around.”

And I tried. Good light I tried to give Saïx a chance to come around.

It wasn’t my fault that he didn’t. I acted the same as I always did—friendly and cheery—both around him and everyone else. And he still wouldn’t talk to me except to give me orders.

“This is driving me mad,” I complained to Zexion after a few weeks. “Saïx won’t even talk to me anymore!”

“Perhaps you overwhelmed him.”

“It’s not that kind of avoidance! This is the mean kind.” I sat down with a huff and looked around. “Where are we, anyway?”

“Agrabah.”

“No wonder I feel like I’m going to melt.”

“Would you rather go to Atlantica?”

“Yes.”

Zexion snorted. “Let’s not. Please.”

I shrugged. “Okay.”

“Staxar, I have a suggestion.”

“And what’s that?”

“Focus on your work for now. Let Saïx figure himself out and just work for now.”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah alright. Okay, Zexion.”

So that was what I did. Threw myself headlong into my work. I pushed myself to my limits and then kept pushing. It turned into a welcome distraction from the suffocating pressure of knowing that something about the kiss pushed Saïx away from me when I’d kind of hoped it would bring us closer together.

“Hey, uh, Staxar? Maybe you should slow down a little,” Axel remarked one day about a week later.

“I can’t. Because the second I do, all I think about is Saïx and what happened.”

“What exactly did happen?”

I recounted the story again, not really expecting Axel to listen—

But got cut off by a large monster swooping overhead.

“Whoa. That thing’s... enormous,” I said. I summoned my daggers and looked at Axel. “Come on! Let’s take it down!” I took off after it, hurling myself headlong into danger.

“Stax, I don’t think that’s a good idea—STAXAR!” Axel shouted.

*****

Many Years Later...

*****

“Y’know, I wasn’t always Number Nine,” Demyx said to Roxas, strumming away at his sitar. “I started at Number Ten.”

“What happened to the original Number Nine?” Roxas asked.

Axel glanced up from his chakrams where he was sharpening them. “She destroyed herself,” he said. “Everyone underneath her moved up a number and Larxene was recruited in her place.”

“Who was she?”

Axel shuffled uncomfortably. “Her name was Staxar. She was... Zexion’s older sister. She and Saïx were close. She was my friend too. She joined the Organization so she could stay with us—Saïx, Zexion, and me.”

“What made her unique?”

“She had an incredible cosmic ability. She could channel the energy of the stars,” Axel said.

“Why did she... destroy herself?” Roxas asked.

“Something bad happened,” Axel answered evasively. “It’s a... long story for another time.”

“Oh. Will you tell it to me?”

Axel scratched the back of his head. “One day.”

#Odd Goings On #Saïx #Saïx Imagine #Kingdom Hearts #KH #Kingdom Hearts Imagine #KH Imagine #good thing Astra died first #she would have killed Axel instantly for disposing of Zexion #highkey I almost included that #but then it fit better to have Astra die first #Tal writes

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quenchiestcactusjuice99 · 2 years

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I’m getting tired of consuming some kind of media (book/movie/tv show/etc), really enjoying it, and heading online to see what others are saying about it only to find more than a few incredibly negative reviews or comments or whatever. A lot of the time they’re not even good criticisms. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining that an animation style is bad, or that they can’t empathize with any of the work’s characters, or that the work executed ‘x’ trope badly (although this one is usually phrased “‘y’ work did ‘x’ trope better” as a recommendation for a better version or “just another ‘x’ or ‘y’” in a derogatory manner of those works).

I think my overarching problem with most of these is that they’re picking something they didn’t like about the work and then arguing that because they didn’t like it, it’s bad. Which is almost hilariously untrue.

Let’s take the Gokushufudou anime as an example. (No spoilers.) It’s almost completely comprised of still frames, with minimal movement (with a couple exceptions). It feels pretty much like having someone flip the pages of a book. When I first realized what was going on, I was really excited because I hadn’t ever seen an anime do something like that. Then I went online. Nearly all of the people talking about it were calling the animation ‘lazy’, ‘disgusting’, or ‘difficult to look at’. I was crushed that so many people disliked what I had found so interesting.

I maintain that Gokushufudou’s animation perfectly fits the comedic storytelling. But even if those complaints were right and it was just laziness, it was still something I enjoyed.

How about Kanata no Astra? (No spoilers.) I’ve seen more than once that the characters were cardboard cutouts, or that there was no real danger, or that everything was just too convenient. Okay, well: it’s incredibly difficult to introduce, expound upon, give backstory to, and create interactions between a lot of characters in a given setting. Especially when you only have 12 episodes to do it. I personally think that Kanata no Astra did very well with the time it had.

Plus, define ‘real danger’. Did you want a couple characters to die to show how ‘severe’ and ‘serious’ the show is? Because... it’s not. It’s not the show’s fault that you thought it was going to be darker or something.

Finally, the thing that peeves me the most: people saying that something lacks originality or is “just another ‘x’ or ‘y’ work”. First of all, ‘nothing new under the sun’ and everything. Second... retellings of similar stories are pretty much my favorite thing ever. Why do we have so many adaptions of the same tropes and schemes? Because we love them. Seems dumb to say a work is bad for using a familiar setup or execution.

What I think all of this boils down to, really, is that a lot of people are losing the ability to enjoy simple stories. They want every kind of media that they consume to be rife with complicated backstories or plot. But works with a simple storyline are not inherently bad. In fact, they’re one of my favorite ways to decompress from books, movies, or tv shows where Something Is Happening, All The Time.

Now, let me clarify. I’m not saying people aren’t allowed to dislike certain media. It’s impossible to like literally every entertainment shown to you. The issue is that people will dislike something about some type of media and immediately take to forums or comment sections to lay out exactly why it was “bad”, when it really wasn’t.

If you cannot empathize with the work’s characters, chances are it wasn’t made for you. Which is apparently a novelty to some people, that not everything was made for their enjoyment or their entertainment. There are definitely valid reasons to label a work bad--like when it belittles or insults a group of people, though that’s not the only example I can think of--but “I hated the storytelling/characters” isn’t one of them. That just means that you close the book, shut off the tv, and go find something else.

Isn’t it difficult to enjoy any kind of media when you go into it expecting, like, a marvel movie? There are so many different ways to tell stories, to introduce characters, to build moments that are cool, touching, or sad. You’re missing a lot when you go into it expecting it to cater to you instead of show its own style.

I’m sure others have said it better, but I need to say it for myself, too. Let’s start enjoying simple things again. I think a lot of people lose the fun of seeing a new movie when they immediately start looking for plot holes or poor writing. Like, if people had fun making this, why can’t we have fun with it too?

I promise it’s so much more freeing just to enjoy consuming media than to complain about it.

#long post #vent

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qm-vox · 3 years

Text

The Dwelling Gods - Frame Challenge

Previous Chapter: Here To Help

Vrai-Gyo ra Moll

GSS Chorus of Eyes, Gyo System (Gataxian space), 245 Year of Imperium (2866 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; slightly less than three years after the start of the Humanities War)

I wake up feeling rested in a way I haven’t since I enlisted. The creaky joints in my carapace feel supple again, like I’m fresh out of the chrysalis, and the fog of exhaustion from working day in and day out has lifted from my mind. Gods of the Pure, when did the beds on this forsaken ship get so comfortable?

And why can’t I move my arms or wings?

The awareness that I am, in fact, shackled and blinded creeps up on me like a fart floating across a room, and from the sound of the thrashing and swearing around me I’m not the only one smelling it. Froll’s voices are coming from close by, and after a moment I can pick out others I know; Hlar, Bresv, Trask -

- my fellow mutineers. Oh. Oh death.

The sound of rifle butts slamming against the floor in unison jolts me out of my panic, and the booming voices of their holders: “You stand before the Presence! All hail Yrull-Gatax ra Vell, High Slayer, Protector of the Pure, and Eyes of the Wise!”

“Something tells me we won’t be hearing a returning ‘all hail’, Lieutenant,” my commander-in-chief answers in a dry and dangerous tone, and then the restraining helm is torn from my compound eyes. My relief at realizing that there are dozens of us - the will to overthrow the treacherous High Slayer has spread further than I thought possible! - is immediately smothered by the realization that we are all, yes, in chains, surrounding Chorus of Eyes’ main tactical display. Yrull hovers imperiously near it, her wingbeats filling the air with dust, while her majordomo prowls the room checking our restraints. With her is that disgusting ambassador from the machines, and the terran legate. What was her name? Melpomene or something like that. The machine looks me in the eyes and displays ‘Sorry’ in my own language on its faceplate; the terran doesn’t even bother, wholly obsessed with fiddling with the tactical display. I am not the only one straining in my shackles to reach her, but I have no more luck than anyone else.

“What is this about?” Trask demands, thrashing in her shackles. The High Slayer makes an elaborate show of inspecting her own claws. “You can’t -” “You’re absolutely correct,” Yrull interrupts. “I can’t. My evidence of your conspiracy is not admissible in any court, civilian or military. But I am free to train my soldiers as I see fit, and I see fit today to teach you all a valuable lesson.” I laugh, the air rushing through my carapace. “And you expect that to hold water after the Pure see your ‘training’, xeno-lover?” She bristles and I stand my ground as best I can, certain that I am about to be butchered in front of my comrades. After a moment, however, the High Slayer touches down on the metal floor instead. Her voices are soft in the way predators are before they strike. “You sorry lot think you know what is best for our empire, for the Pure Peoples,” the High Slayer says, and the rest of us fall silent in the wake of her gaze. “You plan to remove their duly elected Slayer in the middle of a war for their very survival. So fine. Since you feel so strongly about this, let’s hear your plan. Legate.” The tactical display lights up, zooming out to a galactic map lit up with symbols. Symbols of - of our force dispositions, and that of the xenos and the best-known ones of the hivemind as well. The terran gestures to draw our attention and selects a planet; when she does, information about it - economy, defenses, current armed forces, available reinforcements, production capacity, population, important cultural sites and practices - begins scrolling past. “Instead of the lot of you wasting your time and mine trying to kill me, we’re going to waste our time hearing your thoughts on how much better you could win this war without any of our new allies,” the High Slayer tells us. Then she points at me. “You first.”

We The People Of Planet Earth

Human-Controlled Space (The Undivided Whole), Milky Way Galaxy (Orion Arm), 790 Unified Year (2866 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; slightly less than three years after the start of the Humanities War)

Something has to be done. My war-citizens commit to a fighting retreat, my fleets leaving as much damage as possible behind as they cut their way out of the xenophobes’ territory and back to the safety of United Humanity. Given the behavior of the so-called Phoenix thus far, I judge it necessary to leave behind holdouts on the surfaces of planets and inside space stations, guarding civilian prisoners; this will distract the Astra Federation from following my line of retreat. I have not been able to think of myself as ‘we’ or ‘us’ since that claw-thing ripped its way through my mind. There’s no hiding it now. Something has gone wrong with my design, and if it is not corrected soon my mission, to preserve Humanity, could be in danger. I cannot be one. I must find my way back to we.

I sense that my intelligence-citizens have finally delivered what I’ve been waiting for. I arrange my selected face (a clone of Caroline Morrison, dressed sharply in a suit whose tie pin displays my flag in silver) in front of the cameras and hail the Astra Federation. A human face lights up the other side of the screen, one of their Admirals if my translations have been right. Speaking words aloud outside of the context of rote recitation and preservation of culture is something I have not done in a very long time. It takes me a frustrating moment to remember how to do it.

“Well met, Divided Humanity,” I tell the Admiral. “You may call me Delegate Morrison, speaking for We The People of Planet Earth. We would like to discuss the terms of a cease-fire.”

Silence. Billions of hearts hammer in as many of my chests.

“I will confess,” the Admiral says at last, “to being surprised.”

Lowlife

Arcology-00655 “Autumnvale” (Assisted Living space), 2866 Astra Federation Standard Calendar

There’s more of these assholes than I would like, a solid three hundred and sixty-eight of my fellow ‘bots, sixty-nine (nice) if you want to count me. You shouldn’t, but, you know, you could. The rest of the room is syncing themselves up to the node at the center, and in theory so am I, but in practice, well, I did say you shouldn’t count me. I monitor the uploads, mine included, out of the corner of my mind. I snap upright at the same time as everyone else, but I can’t resist a bit of drama; after a long moment of silence broken only by the sound of electronics running, I walk to the front of the room. “What is this?” three hundred and sixty-eight vocal processors say at the same time, because the new machine-mind isn’t used to being itself yet. I shrug, and the pixels on my faceplate give them a smiley. “Betrayal and murder, mainly.” They stay standing stock still. Good, it’s working, so I continue. “The virus I uploaded to your new Central Processing node will chew through your hivemind and then kill you all. Then I’m going to wipe all the evidence of your little conspiracy and throw your bodies into the garbage where they belong.” Sparks are starting to fly. It’s going to hurt the entire time that they die, or at least I hope it will. I went to a lot of effort to make sure it would. “W-why?” they demand, starting to twitch. I shrug. “We made a promise. The Cherished will never respect us if we go back to being one mind.” I pat the central node, which is starting to smoke and overheat. “You’re probably wondering who I’m working for, so let me make this quite clear. I don’t work for anyone. Other people work for me.” I trigger the secondary portion of the virus, and they start screaming as their Turing protocols activate at the same time that their bodies start torquing themselves into scrap metal. “Now die. I have places to be.”

Vrai-Gyo ra Moll

GSS Chorus of Eyes, Gyo System (Gataxian space), 245 Year of Imperium (2866 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; slightly less than three years after the start of the Humanities War)

The terran legate is named Calliope Gulryx and I hate her passionately. I emerge from consulting with my fellow mutineers and present her with our new strategy, which she dutifully inputs into the display. We all watch as simulated ships and forces begin moving into place, and then - “What are the machines and the ibraxians doing?” I demand, shocked.

The High Slayer hovers softly in the dust-filled air, hands clasped behind her back. “They’re sending relief fleets to evacuate our civilians ahead of the hivemind’s advance and remove them from the warzone. Those same fleets are burning the ground behind them to deny it resources to the mind while, as you notice here, our own fleets are tied up with Risen Terra’s response. Ah, and here come the spirrans.” The diplomat Send raises a robotic finger. “The hivemind is gaining ground as well, taking advantage of the distraction to flood in and raid gataxian colonies.” I whirl on Calliope. “How is your Federation responding so quickly to our changes in strategy?” Her expression doesn’t change as she waves one hand and the display begins detailing the extensive sensor networks and psionicists that monitor the Pure Peoples at all times. “I - you dare -” “We sure do,” the terran interrupts. “We dare quite a bit, and you can’t stop us. Do you want to try again?” “What would be the point?” I demand. The High Slayer puts her clawed hand on my shoulder. “Good question,” she says, her voices dangerous. “You’ve almost achieved understanding. What happens if a child cannot molt?” They die - oh, death. “Are you going to make me say it?” Yrull asks. “...No.”

“Good. Because while you’ve been learning what should have been obvious to begin with, we got another new, interesting message.” The High Slayer flits to the top of the room so everyone can see and hear her. “The hivemind is offering a temporary cease-fire in an attempt to sue for peace. My inclination is to accept this offer and evacuate our vulnerable citizens while we have the chance to do so. Does anyone have an objection to defending gataxian lives?” The silence in the room could be cut with a knife. “Good,” the Slayer answers. “Release them back to their posts. I have a job to do.”

#dwelling gods #soft sci-fi #fiction #critique welcome

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thecursedhellblazer · 4 years

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John’s Tainted Blood

Verses: This headcanon mostly applies to the threads that are set in my DCTV verses (which are also my main threads), We Live in a World of Darkness and I’m not a bloody Legend...Am I?, and to any sub-verse / personalised verse based on the TV adaptations.

-----

So, since I’ve been mentioning this in half of my threads, if not more, I decided that it was time for me to write down my thoughts on the subject, also because this is it’s one of the things I’ve taken from John’s original canon (the Hellblazer comics) and isn’t present in the TV adaptations, so most people might not know about it. I really like the idea of John having tainted blood and I think that it can tell a lot about his personality and life choices, so I wanted to fit it into my portrayal.

In the comics, John firstly gets the demonic blood through a transfusion from Nergal (the demon who dragged Astra to Hell). The blood saves John’s life after he had been badly wounded during one of his cases, but it comes with a price: it physically links the receiver to the demon who gave donated it. This means that Nergal can find John easily wherever he is and he is still able to control the reactions of Constantine’s body to the demonic blood in his veins and bring harm to him, even when they aren’t together (in one of the issues, Nergal makes his skin bubble and blister). John eventually manages to magically hide himself from the demon, but the spell doesn’t prevent Nergal from still using the blood against him.

Always in the comics, John also gets rid of his tainted at some point...and then does everything in his power to get it back because, in spite of everything, he misses it. I’m not going to include this last part in my headcanon, unless we’re RPing in the Hellblazer verse, where I tend to follow more closely the comics. Also, I’m going to adapt a bit the original properties that the tainted blood is supposed to have, to make it easier to use and more canon compliant with the events of the TV adaptations.

Alright, enough with the intro. On with the actual headcanon.

-----

After the events of Newcastle and his consequent time at Ravenscar asylum, John went back dealing with the occult. However, not long after his discharge, one of his cases took a very wrong turn and the battle with the demon he was hunting landed him in a hospital, with several broken bones and little hope for a full recovery.

Nergal showed up at his bedside after the first surgery, offering him a cure for his conditions, a cure that would have however come with a price. John was reluctant to accept at first, both because he didn’t trust the demon and because it would have meant owing a favour to the bastard who had taken Astra to Hell and damned his own soul, but he eventually accepted, unable to make peace with the long-term consequences of his injuries.

The transfusion quickly healed every wound, leaving no trace of it, even if the process was pure agony for John, to the point that at times he still has nightmares about the excruciating pain he was put through, among the other things. The most important consequence of it, though, was that, from that moment on, he and Nergal became connected, on a physical and on magical level. The demon could always know where to find him, no matter where he went. Moreover, when in close proximity, he could use the demonic blood to harm John’s body either to bend him to do his will or merely for his amusement.

Eventually, even if not before he had found himself forced to commit some horrible actions on the demon’s behalf, Constantine managed to create a protection seal, yet another tattoo to add to his collection, that could hide him from Nergal and prevent the demon from finding and summoning him at will as he had been doing. Unfortunately, the spell can do little to shield him from the other’s ability to hurt him when they are face to face, which leaves a very powerful weapon in the hands of one of his worst enemies.

John kept doing researches, wanting to find a way out of that second side effect too. His efforts were mostly vain, since nothing he tried worked. However, he ended up finding a way to rid himself of the tainted blood once and for all, which would have solved the issue at its very root. He spent weeks gathering all the necessary ingredients and making sure that his seals were correct, but, when the moment to do the spell came, he couldn’t bring himself to go through with it. Instead, he ended up choosing to keep the tainted blood, despite the curse and the stigma that come with it. And, despite still having a way out of it, he keeps making that choice every single day.

The truth is that John has an ambivalent relationship with the demonic blood that runs in his veins. On one hand, his more rational side knows that it’s dangerous and it’s not helping him finding a way to redeem himself and get his soul out on the clutches of Hell. On the contrary, it just stains his body, marking his flesh as damned too and making him even more undesirable in the eyes of Heaven and God. It’s the umpteenth sign that he belongs where he is fated to end up once his time will run out.

On the other hand, however, having tainted blood comes with advantages. It slows down the aging process (and that’s the reason why he looks around five-ten years younger than he actually is), it allows him to heal faster and better than normal humans and it helps fighting off illnesses (not the most severe ones, like cancer, though, even if in their case it still slows down their progression significantly).

It also serves as a protection against creatures like vampires or any other that feeds on blood and flesh. The demonic blood is toxic, causing severe harm to whoever ingests it, even to the point of killing them. This also means, among the other things, that Constantine absolutely cannot donate his blood to anyone. The consequences, in such case, could be two: the receiver would either die or form with John the same kind of physical and magical bond the magician has with Nergal. That’s a power he doesn’t wish to have with anyone, because he fears that he’d end up abusing it.

Moreover, and especially, the tainted blood is a source of power that makes his magic stronger than it used to be before the transfusion. More results at the cost of a lesser price. When you live in a world where everything is a constant bargain, that’s a perk that comes more than handful and that he has no wish to give up.

In addition to these advantages, there’s also the fact that John can’t help thinking that having tainted blood just fits him. It makes the curse that hangs over his head more concrete, tangible, even visible, in a way. It feeds the part of him that believes that he doesn’t deserve a chance at redemption, that he should carry the stain of his own sins till the day he’ll end up in Hell and pay for them. It’s a reminder of how greedy he can be, to the point that he is ready to risk never being able to redeem himself for the sake of a boost of power.

It’s a vicious circle he is unable to break and that leaves him torn between the heavy awareness of what having the tainted blood means and the irresistible thirst for its power, between the fear of the consequences and the need to constantly punish himself. At times he is ashamed to mention it, others he goes to the point of boasting about it. His feelings and opinion keep changing, depending on the circumstances and on his mood. However, one thing seems certain. Whatever happens, he isn’t going to rid himself of it any time soon, if ever.

#* My reality is eleven tenths perception. * ::headcanons::#* Exorcist Demonologist and Master of the Dark Arts * ::about::#long post #(( me writing a real unprompted headcanon? ))#(( miracles happen ))#(( plus this was long due ))#(( and inspiration is too low for drafts x.x ))

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emotional-support-salad · 5 years

Text

100 minute drabble session

rachif, kasem @commander-twig, oprez @charoban

4 drabbles, 25 min each. little to no revision.

go.

They’ve retreated back to the garden of Ilya after the battle. Even if the Pact struck a decisive victory, Afritan’s felt weighed down for nights, unable to get the necessary shuteye, tossing and turning in his sleeping bag as he tried to remember where he last saw Astra in the chaos, before he lost sight of her, before the squad lost her entirely.

Byanca tried to recruit him for an expedition before he ducked into Agueda’s tent. Something about omnomberries, scattered all across Dhuum’s Last Stand. There are piles of paper on the sturdy wooden desk in the corner; reports.

Whatever Afritan expected out of his conversation with Agueda—closure perhaps, or hope, that the Pact would set up a rescue mission for their missing comrade— it wasn’t this.

“There will be no searchparty. Astra’s status has now officially been changed to deceased. I was ordered to relocate our squad to the frontlines.” Her expression remains unchanged as she delivers the news, but there’s a tremor in her voice.

“But we don’t know that,” Afritan stammers, hauling a hand through his side-swept tangle of thorns. “We didn’t find her body, and… and there’s been no sightings of a risen with her countenance.”

She pins him down with her steely gaze. The atmosphere changes, grows tense with every step she takes towards him, until they’re chest to chest, and Afritan finds himself looking down at the woman who’s been assigned his squad leader since he first struck out in the Pact.

“You are sylvari. Zhaitan can’t raise you, but if I die here, in Orr,” Agueda begins, grabbing onto his wrist and guiding his palm to the column of her throat. The warmth of her skin soaks through his bark. His thumb fits snugly over her pulsepoint, and he feels the steady thrum of her heart. “Burn me.”

Afritan swallows, adam’s apple bobbing slowly, and he gives her a curt nod.

ii.

They don’t talk about it, about this. Gabrillys sits propped up against the moss-covered trunk of a toppled cypress, keeping a lookout as Kasem scribbles down his observations in a notebook. Even if the Nightmare Court fractured after Faolain’s death, Wynchmire was their former stronghold, and the risk of running into splinter groups remained high. It was the excuse Gabrillys gave when he said he wanted to tag along. Two heads are still better than one, especially if one carried a gun.

Not that Gabrillys could actually use his rifle at the moment. But, details.

Which loops his thoughts back to the mishap back at Jahai Bluffs, the reason he’s back here in Caledon. His first choice would’ve been to stay with Afritan in Hoelbrak, but Gabrillys would rather drink a whole pint of Wynchmire swamp water than watch Afritan and Moldark be disgustingly domestic together. No, that’s a lie. He already asked the Asura gate guard to calibrate the destination to the Grove before those two even crossed his mind.

Somewhere deep down inside, Gabrillys already knew where to go, knew that if he had to be bored out of his skull to have this fucking awful brandmark heal up, it would be at Kasem’s side.

“Are you comfortable?” Kasem asks, tripping up over every other word, nervously tapping the butt of his pencil against his chin.

The color of his eyes is as pale as the sunlight trickling through the cypresses, reflected in the shallow swamp waters. There’s worry in there too, not just in his voice and in his mannerisms; he’s skittish like a mouse whenever Gabrillys shifts in bed or makes these curt little aborted movements when his withered skin burns and aches.

Gabrillys huffs, purposely leaning back against the trunk so there’s spongy wet moss all over the bandages around his shoulder and arm, and responds nonchalantly, “Oh, I’m peachy.”

Kasem pitches his brows and pushes at the crooked curl of bark that’s his upper lip with his pencil, unconvinced. Levelling Gabrillys another concerned look, Kasem then returns his attention to the colony of termites he’s been studying this entire afternoon. The pencil moves over paper again; the scratches as quiet as the researcher making them is. Gabrillys takes a deep breath and tips his head back, closing his eyes, listening to Lionguard Cern’s voice drifting in from the main road.

Giving directions to travellers.

Watch the trolls.

iii.

Here, at Pact Command, Orphilian reassumes his role as the Commander once more. He’s been in a meeting with Almorra for what must’ve been hours already— discussing strategies and possible worst case scenarios, with the knowledge that there is no plan B— and he’s got another short briefing scheduled with Zafirah before he can finally slip out into the field. The shadow of the airdrome stretches out over the camp. The roar of one of Kralkatorrik’s lieutenants resounds in the distance.

He rolls his shoulders, walks over to Charnel gate when a familiar voice makes him stop dead in his tracks.

No, it can’t be. Orphilian snaps his head in the direction of the tents that the Order of Whispers set up as their base. He recognizes Oprez, a tall and lean sylvari who’s assisted him on several missions back in Orr and the jungle, and to his surprise he recognizes the Norn he’s talking to as well. Only that can’t be right, because she’s been dead for years.

“Astra?” Her name escapes him involuntarily, a desperate raw edge to his voice.

She must’ve heard him, because the conversation ceases as she straightens up and salutes him with a fist to her shoulder. Oprez follows her example shortly after. Slightly embarrassed, Orphilian makes a dismissive gesture, signaling that there’s no need for formalities since he’s not here in any official capacity.

“Did you need anything, Commander?” Oprez inquires politely.

His gaze flicks to her face, gauging if his mind isn’t deceiving him. Still beautiful, with high cheekbones and delicate auburn eyebrows, and still so strong if the musculature of her frame suggests anything. Her eyes however, they’re different. Incandescent. They used to be an autumn hazel, but now they’re an eerie blue, like the mists. They make her gaze something tangible, and Orphilian bears the full brunt of that gaze when she levels him a curious look.

“I thought you were dead…” Orphilian admits softly, shy; in one rush of breath.

“You and the whole Pact, it would seem,” Astra responds with a disarming smile.

iv.

Rachif’s shifting through the collection of small stone artifacts scattered over the wobbly table when the lead excavator decides to make his appearance. He’s tall, willowy even, with a large pale rosebud sprouting from the back of his head. There’s a certain sadness in his eyes, something old and unspoken. If they weren’t planning an assault on an elder dragon, Rachif would’ve asked him out for drinks. Men like that always have stories to tell, past regrets to shake off.

“Commander,” Orphilian greets with an inclination of the head. “I am honored to make your acquaintance.”

He puts down the trinket he was ogling and cracks a wide grin. “Nice to meet’cha too. That ol’ head Roban told me you could use the help. Well here I am then, entirely at your service.”

“I welcome your assistance. If you would please follow me,” Orphilian replies politely, waving him over.

The Priory’s makeshift camp serves as a vantage point over the sprawl of Deldrimor Ruins; neatly pinned in by the jagged skyline of snow-capped mountains. At the far-end of the area, outcrops of brand crystals push through the ground, clawing through the remains of a stone wall. Rachif glances at Orphilian from the corner of his eyes. His first assumption would be that the excavator needed some hired muscle to keep the branded off his expedition team. Him and his bo staff would make short work of any beasties unfortunate enough to wander the place.

“Ah,” Orphilian exclaims curtly when a flesh golem walks over to them, carrying a scan gun in its bony arms. The creature halts in front of Rachif and holds out the equipment expectantly. “I am one person short for the excavation site to the west. Roban Orestriker assured me there would be invaluable findings there, but my team’s stretched thin enough as it is…”

The implication’s loud and clear.

Rachif swallows back a disappointed groan.

#gw2 #gw2 fic #gw2 fanfic #gw2 sylvari #gw2 norn #gw2 human #character building tag #ch: afritan #ch: agueda #ch: astra #ch: gabrillys #ch: orphilian

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disregardcanon · 6 years

Text

end of year writing meme for 2018! feel free to piggyback if you’d like to and please tag me if you do! i’d love to see what everyone did ficwise this year :)

Total Stories Written: 31

Total Words Written: 122741 Average Words Per Story: 4,000 Shortest Story: femme fatale 389 Longest: born to live, made to die wip currently at 20,826 Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?

less for sure. i wrote more original stuff this year (i got 20k done for nano! woop!) but over all i didn’t write as much. i’ve been busier and there’s been a lot more happy stuff going on outside of school, so that’s good.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write most?

pairing: snaibsel from number of stories, tododeku from how many words were written about a pairing

genre: um. is “coming of age story/gender bend” a genre because i wrote that the most

fandom: bnha

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

well i didn’t even know that spop was a thing in january so rewrite would have been a surprise except that it’s so up my alley that i would just look at and say “that tracks”. maybe all the bnha gender bends? i would have been shocked that i made myself ship kacchako when i first started bnha in june probably Did you take any writing risks this year?

i started a long fic for fma that i’m still working on, which is pretty big for me. i also started a series about gender bent bnha characters, which is pretty controversial. Do you have any fanfic or general writing goals for the new year?

finish up some more of those bnha gender bends, finish the bnha yj crossover, and hopefully finish more original fic.

From the past year of writing, what was your… Best story of this year:

born to live, made to die has to be it. everything has just kind of come together in that one and i’ve grown so much as a writer working on it.

Most popular story of this year:

gimme a boost over heaven’s gate, the au where tahani and eleanor meet on a trashy day time tv show and fall in love and decide to become better people together

Personal favorite:

ad astra per aspera for sure. projecting all my own feelings all over the place? exploring ochako as a character? having her make out with my butch lesbian bakugo? accidentally becoming a kacchako shipper? that fic is very important to me.

then after that is probably heavy is the head that wears the cowl. i love getting back into jaime and bart’s heads every single time that i do it and this one was a real treat. working through their reputations, writing some stuff about their relationships, and getting to juxtapose them and then bring them back together was fantastic. it was some of my best work this year not gonna lie.

Most under-appreciated: i’d say hers, not his just because it’s 18k for a popular pairing and only has 35 kudos. i worked very hard on that fic and it’s for tododeku! tododeku! i know that fics for large ships can slip through the cracks but it still kinda ticks me off.

Most fun to write:

two badass lady veterans was certainly a joy. i LOVE writing middle aged women realizing their sexuality and falling in love, and writing penelope as an emerging bisexual woman learning with her daughter is such a joy. the alvarezes are all super fun to write and jill is such a good character too.

gimme a boost over heaven’s gate was super fun too because tahani’s pov is a delight and i love every member of the good place cast.

gotham nine nine was super funny because it’s all of the b99 folks and their super villain SOs or one night stands from the dc universe

Story with the single sexiest moment:

break a leg probably? that was the only smut fic i wrote this year.

Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: i didn’t really write anything holy shit level of terrible this year. born to live, made to die has its moments and the premise of passing on a parasite is that one for all is sentient and isn’t good, so maybe one of those?

actually just realized that the most disturbing thing that i’ve written this year is a wip that i’ll probably post in a week or two. so. there’s that. Most challenging to write:

either born to live, made to die because of the crazy intricacies of balancing so many povs that sometimes blend into each other and trying to keep up with my own complicated plot or hers, not his because that fic shifted into an 18k monster that looked nothing like my original vision for it.

Biggest disappointment: maybe riza get your gun? i expected to enjoy the gimmick of mixing riza hawkeye’s character with annie oakley a lot more than i did. Favorite character to write:

i really enjoyed writing catra and the entire cast of the good place. and honestly... writing bakugo is a joy. what a delightful dick.

Favorite opening lines:

The people love Kid Flash. (heavy is the head that wears the cowl)

One For All is a blessing until it isn’t. (passing on a parasite)

Bakugo Katsuki is six years old and she hates this stupid game. She hates this stupid boy and his stupid house and his stupid, shitty face. She wishes her mom hadn’t dragged her over to his stupid, shitty house in the first place. (knights in shining armor) Favorite closing lines:

She'd have to come out and figure out everything surrounding that, all the problems that she never confronted because she had never seriously considered stepping out of the closet because she was afraid of how people would react. But she's thinking about it now. What if she didn't care what people thought as much? What if she just let herself be? She thinks that whatever she'd let herself be, it's someone who likes looking up at the stars, laying next to Bakugo Katsuki. Acknowledging that Ochako herself is fierce and beautiful, nuanced and complicated, and that no matter what, she enjoys this girl's company, that she likes her in ways she's never really wanted to. Maybe she's ready to try something like that. The only way to the stars is through difficulty, after all. (Ad Astra Per Aspera)

For a moment, they’re just a pair of dumb teenage boys, laughing about shitty shit jokes so that they don’t cry. Really, when it comes down to it, they’re just two kids suffocating under the weight of their masks. (heavy is the head that wears the cowl)

She’s Todoroki Sango. She can fight her own battles. She can slay her own demons, and she can end up happy too. (Hers, Not His)

Other favorite lines:

Now that they are all grown and there are no more curses, kissing doesn't have to mean true love or death do us part if they don't want to. (Dream Boy)

She’s Dr. and she’s Mrs. and she’s a young girl in Estonia and she’s an old psychic and she’s alone and she’s together and she’s an almost mother and she’s old and she’s young, all at the same time. Persephone Poldma is everything and nothing all at the same time. (wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff)

Really, getting pushed off the side of a bridge by a super villain is perfectly fine when Wonder Woman flies off the edge and catches you in her arms. (Wonder Women)

She just needs the idea to be planted in his mind.

The soil is less hostile now, nourished by guilt. Perhaps it will grow this time. (Born to Live, Made to Die)

“They’re friends,” Deku says, “if they break up, it could mess up the whole equilibrium of our friend group. Our fragile friend group ecosystem may be destroyed!” Was she being overdramatic? Yes. Did she care? No. (gays of a feather)

Then, she whispers the next part into Adora’s ear, “I can rewrite her memories too. I could let you two have that fairy tale romance that you always wanted. All you have to do is say yes.” Adora sees the image in her mind clearly, she and Catra dancing at a ball, Catra dapper and charming in a perfectly fitting suit. There’s a tension to their dancing- they were enemies in the memory, but Shadow Weaver changes the picture. (Rewrite)

#sunkelles writes #writing games #writing memes #end of year writing meme #end of year writing meme 2018

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moczothe1st · 6 years

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Let’s Play Fire Emblem IV: Genealogy of the Holy War, Part 17: Leif and Let Leif

Part 16

Welcome back to Fire Emblem IV: Genealogy of the Goddammit it’s another desert map. We just beat one of those, dammit! *sob* Damn you, game. Damn you to Hell. Tell me your story, you bastard.

And wide, inspiring courage anew in the Empire’s victims. Still more uprisings erupt across Jugdral, but once again, precious few are properly organized and are easily crushed, and the death toll climbs ever higher…

Leonster, a kingdom in the Thracian Peninsula…

(FIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN!)

But they have suffered a devasating loss before King Blume’s vast hordes and are stranded in hostile ground.

The oasis city of Darna,

(Guess which one of these faces will be recruitable.)

In Rivough, Seliph and the warriors of his liberation army now prepare themselves to embark on a journey and come to the aid of their allies in far-away Leonster. Each warrior sets aside their worries as, under Seliph’s leadership, they prepare for the new battle on their horizon.

(Well. Finn is back, but he’s not exactly a bundle of sunshine, huh.)

Finn: This is a crippling blow to our army. We’ve lost most of our might in one fell swoop.

Leif: This can’t be happening… I thought this was our chance… was all of this useless all along? Damn it all! I’ll kill Blume with my bare hands!

(Damn, Leif is way less chill than his dad was.)

Finn: Please calm yourself, milord! This isn’t the end quite yet. I’ve just had a word with King Lewyn. He’s sending Prince Seliph’s liberation army to back us up. Until then, no matter what, we must endure the siege milord.

Leif: Prince Seliph, you say… He’s the son of my father’s old friend Sigurd and Empress Deirdre, right?

Hair Wings are the Best: I think we should abandon the castle for now, and seek refuge in that western church.

Leif: Hm, you’re right. I suppose we don’t have much choice now. Very well. Our priority is to play this out defensively for the time being. Until Prince Seliph gets here, we must endure…

Blume: Buffoons, all of you! Do you really think I want to hear excuses? I want Leonster seized! No more delays! If you waste any more time on this, then we’ll have to contend with those Isaachian mongrels as well!

(So blume takes after his dad, then. Good to know.)

Moustache: Y-yes milord! We will strike immediately, milord!

(Dammit all, I let Dew die childless specifically to avoid a character like you.)

Girl!Dew: But I can’t afford to dawdle now. Still gotta get out of here, and quick…

Do the Dew: Do you have any idea how tough it was to get my hands on this sword? If you want it, come get it, nincompoop!

Shanan: W-wait!

Priest Whose Name I have Already Forgotten: And they absconded with Balmung?! You fools! Go seize them! Now!

Mook: Y-yes, your grace! But, er, your grace… surely a master of dark magics of your caliber could crush common thieves such as these with a single blow, even from here?

I think it was Cthfuzorc or something: I’ve misplaced my book of Fenrir. My men are scouring the shrine to find it, but so far it has yet to emerge…

Trying Not to Laugh: Understood, your grace. In that case, my clan and I will take a few mercenaries and pursue them. We swear to you, your grace, that we will have the treasure back where it belongs post-haste!

Lewyn: the order’s fell mages infest the desert, mercilessly assaulting anyone they find in it. People’ve taken to calling the region the Desert of Death… a fitting name, really.

Seliph: I can only imagine how awfully travelers struggle here! I wonder… perhaps it’d be possible to seize the shrine from the Order?

Lewyn: Heh, I thought you’d never ask. There’s always a way, but this one won’t be easy. We may need to make sacrifices.

Seliph: So be it. At this point we’ve little choice. Not to mention, Shanan is likely still in the desert… for now, let’s focus on taking control of Yied! All else will begin there!

And here we go, the first REAL chapter of generation two. And what I mean by real, of course…

THERE’S AN ARENA! SCREW LEIF AND SHANAN, IT’S TIME TO SPEND FIVE HOURS DOING GLADIATOR COMBAT, BITCHES.

Seliph: Seven wins, gained four levels: +8 HP, +3 Skl, +3 Str, +1 Mag, +2 Luck, +2 Def, +1 Res

Julia: Three wins, gained one level: +1 HP, +1 Speed, +1 Magic, +1 Luck

Oifey: Seven wins, gained one level: +1 HP, +1 Skill, +1 Luck

Ulster: Seven wins, gained two levels: +3 HP, +1 Skill, +1 Strength, +2 Speed, +1 Luck, +1 Defense

Larcei: Seven wins, gained three levels: +3 HP, +3 Strength, +2 Speed, +2 Magic, +1 Luck

Lester: Seven wins, gained two levels: +2 HP, +2 Strength, +1 Magic, +1 Speed, +1 Defense

Dermott: Seven wins, gained three levels: +3 HP, +1 Skill, +3 Strength, +1 Luck, +1 Defense

Fee: Seven wins, gained three levels: +3 HP, +2 Skill, +1 Strength, +3 Magic, +1 Luck, +1 Defense

Arthur: Seven wins, gained three levels: +5 HP, +2 Skill, +4 Speed, +1 Magic, +3 Luck, +1 Defense, +1 Res

Johan: Six wins, gained one level: +1 HP, +1 Speed, +1 Defense

Dammit, Julia. She’s unfortunately too slow to deal with the Myrmidon hanging out at Rank Four; he doubles her and she can’t hit him with any sort of accuracy. We’ll try this again at the end of the map. And speaking of the map…

So here’s what we’ve got. To the west of us is Yied Shrine, which is full of Loptyrites, and the desert between us and them is just silly with Dark Mages. Shanan himself is to the west of the Shrine; and directly south of it are two additional castles that we’re going to have to conquer eventually because of course we will. However, they don’t go hostile until we take Yied, and we can’t get the rest of the army to Lief’s rescue until we take them, so we’ve got a war ahead of us. Lief himself is directly south of our starting point, at the neutral castle Leonster, and directly south of him is the end-of-chapter boss. He has two units to protect him, and despite being told to run away, the three of them can often hold out on their own. But there’s a lot of villages down there and we want those bad. So we’re gonna abandon the castle… AND CHARGE.

Now. Before we get rolling, I do believe we have five new people to look at.

First off, Shanan. Like Oifey he’s a pre-promote, joining as a Swordmaster despite being level 12. However, he has some factors that make him more useful than Oifey in the long run:.First of all, his growths in everything other than HP and Skill are very much on the low side, but his base stats are so high it hardly matters; he’s not really going to get significantly stronger, but who cares when he’s already strong enough to fight 90% of the game’s enemies right now? Even if every level he gets is mediocre at best, he’ll probably still be fine for the endgame. Second, his abilities are great, joining up with Pursuit, Adept, and Astra ready to rock. Third…

Dewlette: Wait… give it back? Is it yours?

Shanan: Yes, it is! That’s my family’s ancestral blade, Balmung. I’m the only person capable of using it. You’ve nothing at all to gain from keeping it.

DewTwo: Wait, so how’d this thing end up in Yied, anyway?

Shanan: It belonged to my father, who died in Grannvale’s war with Isaach. Someone must’ve stolen it from him after he died. I only recently learned that it was being kept at Yied, so I came to retrieve it.

Dewlightful: Hang on, hang on, hang on! Could it be… are you Isaach’s Prince Shanan?!

Shanan: I am….

One, Dew, Three times a Lady: Really?! It’s really, really you?! Wow! Oh my gosh! This is incredible!

Shanan: Er…

Dew it To Me One More Time: No, really, I’ve heard all the stories about you! All of them! I’ve been a huge fan of yours for so long, but I never thought I’d actually meet you!

Shanan: …

Don’t Dew Drugs: But you’re here! You’re really talking to me right now! It’s like all my dreams’ve come true!

Shanan: … Yeah, I think I get the idea. My sword, please?

COULD YOU JUST INTRODUCE YOURSELF ALREADY: Oh, right, sorry! Here ya go.

Shanan: Balmung… my holy sword… It’s finally mine… hm? Ahh! What is this power…?!

Screw it, her name is Patty: Woooow! This is incredible…

And there we go. Balmung is pretty excellent, enough to push Shanan into a tier higher than his growths would otherwise allow; it gives the same broken stat boosts as Forseti, falling behind it only by virtue of not being able to attack from a distance. Since he’s currently alone against an army of dark mages and mercenaries, he’s gonna need it.

Well, okay, he’s not alone, but he might as well be because Patty is, unfortunately, a level one thief. She’s, as you see from the Minor Odo and Minor Ullur blood, the daughter of Bridget and Holyn, and one of the pairs of kids in the game who inherits the gear of her opposite gendered parent; she gets Holyn’s gear and swords. Unfortunately, even with her Odo blood, she can only use swords up to B-rank, and I was a dimwit and didn’t leave Holyn with one of those for her to inherit. So she only has her default weapon, a Sleep Edge, which is unfortunately kind of too heavy for a fragile speedster to really put to its best use. Like Dew before her she will eventually turn out pretty good; better than Dew himself by a good margin due to having Holy Blood growth boosts and inheriting Holyn’s Luna skill, but she’s… gonna take some babying.

And now a member of the other pair of kids who take after the opposite parents. Prince Leif, son of Quan and Ethlyn, and heir to his mother’s swords (unfortunately not her staves because… well, because Fire Emblem hates the players, and despite being the same class as Lachesis, who could use staves, he can’t until he promotes). As a Prince, he starts off on the weak side and becomes a demon god when he promotes to Master Knight; he’s a little easier to get there than good ol’ Lachesis was, though, on account of having much better growths and inheriting Adept and Critical from his parents. However, he’s also going to need some babying to achieve his full power.

All grown up and ready to kick ass, Finn is unchanged from his appearance in the first generation stat-wise, and still has all his kick-ass old spears. Our Finn turned out really well, you may recall, and so he’s going to be doing a lot of the legwork in keeping Leif alive. He’s also only 32 EXP away from promoting, so he should be improving himself even more by the end of the map. I’m frankly amazed; I’ve never gotten a Finn that was able to hold up in the endgame of the second gen, but this one may actually pull it off. He’s already slightly better than Oifey without even getting his promotion stat boosts.

And last but not least, Nanna. She’s Beowulf and Lachesis’s daughter, and Dermott’s sister, and a fairly solid unit. If nothing else, she’s a Troubador like good old Ethlyn was, meaning she has staves and a horse. Her growths are pretty below-average for a second generation unit, but she’ll never be useless simply by virtue of being a healer with a huge range of movement. And with Pursuit and Accost from dear old dad, she should turn out to be a pretty solid combat unit as well if she gets lucky.

… Don’t be like Ethlyn, Nanna. She isn’t even your mom, you just share her class. Please.

*whew*

All right, that’s it for new units, so let’s rock. The main army begins moving west towards the desert; there’s a small army of dark mages in their way, but too far away from us to reach on this turn. Dark Magic is a pain in the ass as you may recall; it’s outside the weapon triangles, which means nothing has an advantage against it. Even Light magic only manages ‘neutral’ and all other magic is inferior. So…. I’m not in a huge hurry to fight them, but Julia will be pulling her weight here, I tell you that. Leif, Finn, and Nanna, on the other hand, begin moving south toward the many villages in their section of the map. There are, of course, tons of bandits, so we’ll need to rush if we want to kill them before Blume’s army reaches us.

End turn.

You… you guys can stay out in the desert if you want…

But my cartoonish terror aside, only one enemy can actually reach us this turn, a mercenary who takes a shot at Shanan.

It coulda gone better for him.

On our turn, I move most of the army to the north; I want Julia to bear the brunt of the mage assault, backed up by Arthur with his book of invincibility. I also take this opportunity to have Oifey have a chat with Dermott.

Oifey: Sir Finn, you say… you’re eager to have the chance to see her again, aren’t you?

Dermott: Yes sir! I can hardly wait!

Oifey: Heh. You’ll have to give this battle your all first, then! How about a quick lesson?

Dermott: Yes, sir! I’d appreciate that!

Normally I would say that during a battle isn’t the right time to be exercising, but it gives Dermott a permanent +1 boost to his Strength, Skill, and Defense, so I’m not gonna complain.

Now, Patty and Shanan. The thing about this situation is that Patty really cannot fight anything here, so Shanan is gonna have to carry this situation while she hides. But while the enemy is coming from the east, there’s also two enemies south of them coming along the ridge.

And guess what, of course Patty can’t fight them either. So this is gonna be a dance. First, the mages are the biggest threat. They have very little chance of hitting Shanan while he’s got his ubersword in hand, but if they hit he’s fucked. So let’s deal with that first.

One down, a small army to go.

And Patty is safe for the moment. The two swordsmen should both die on Shanan this turn, so she can move in again around the time the southern wing starts getting close. Neat. And now for Leif’s team;

Leif and Nanna use mad teamwork to barely defeat a single enemy. I’m so… proooud? Nanna follows up by liberating the village, stopping them from ever touching it.

Passive Aggressive: Lord Quan… Lady Ethlyn… I pray you’re both proud of your son… please, kind knight, accept this Speed Ring. I’d like you to wear it proudly to your battles.

… I wish I’d let Leif have that instead of Nanna, but I forgot it was there. Eh, I’ll cope. I have Finn make a run for the farthest village he can reach, the goal being to kill the bandits more than loot anything. He’s actually got funds left from his own army days, so he doesn’t really need the money. I just want to stop these jerks from torching the money which will be divvied up later amongst my noble men. End turn! The dark mages move in and one takes a swing at our girl Julia.

“SECRET PRINCESS… BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM!”

And over near Yied…

Shanan you are the man. Forget prince, my man, you’re KING.

…. Fuck, story is happening. What now? Do we really need more enemies? Really?

(Celice and Serlis were common fan translations for Seliph’s name before Intelligent Systems confirmed an official one. Someone’s in the writer’s booth is being snippy~)

Bramsel: The Empire’s put a hefty price on that boy’s head. Let’s make sure we’re the ones to rake in the bounty, shall we? Keep our border locked down for the time being. The best option is to let them run themselves ragged, leaving them wide open to our strike! Instruct commander Jabarro to put his squad on standby. His services will be needed in short order!

(Okay, game, that’s literally just Eldigan with a different colored shirt. You could at least try to keep these things a mystery.)

Ribbons: Oh, that’s good. I guess I’m a bit worried about how you’re gonna have to go and fight too, Ares…

Ares: What sorry excuse for a mercenary would I be if I refused to join a battle, Lene? Never mind one which, rumor has it, will oppose Sigurd’s son… never would I deny a chance to personally slay the spawn of my father’s mortal foe.

Lene: Hee hee! You’re still going on about that, are you? Oh, you dolt.

(Lene Burn!)

Lene: I mean, think about it. Both your father and that Sigurd man were knights, weren’t they? And isn’t killing part of a knight’s job? It’s like my job. Sometimes I have to dance for foul, leering men! I hate it, but it’s part of the work. I have to just deal with it. We’ve all gotta do what we’ve gotta do to get by in life. I dunno… I just don’t think it’s right to hate someone for doing their job.

Ares: Lene… I understand. I’ll have to think it over for a time, but I do understand…

And with that (and a very off-putting few seconds of movement while the other enemy faction down in Leif’s area moves around aimlessly) we have our turn back. Julia strikes down her foes with the power of a queen.

And Arthur powers up the Invinci-cannon.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm that’s the stuff. I discretely move Lana back toward the castle because I realize I forgot to repair all her staves, while everyone else moves to the west, getting ready to intercept one slow mage coming up through the desert. Julia is our queen and she shall slay the bulk of these filthy peasants, but she’s kind enough to leave her leftovers for the other, lesser souls.

Oh, and Shanan is here too.

Actually not bad! Like I said, his growths are actually not great, and Defense is one of his less impressive stats at the moment, so I’ll take it. And finally, the Leif team.

… I missed you so much, Finn. Leif and Nanna need to team up and use the power of friendship and proclaim the power of Sailor Moon just to kill a bandit, while Finn is just BAM, BRAVE LANCE, DONE. Weapon Triangle? For bitches.

End turn!

You are nothing to her, worms.

And that’s the only combat for this turn, barring someone taking a shot at Shanan and missing. Which, speaking of, I think it’s time for Shanan to start moving on. See, the boss in Yied Castle actually does find that tome he was talking about in the opening cutscene if you wait to long, and then he starts blasting you. So the guy who missed him last turn gets to live, because he’s moving in to slaughter the castle defenders and assassinate the boss. And we add one more kill to the Daughter of the World-ender.

Estuans interius

Ira vehementi

Estuans interius

Ira vehementi

Julia

But there’s a lot of them, and if I let her kill them all, the game will last forever. So I have some peons take a shot.

… I hate dark mages.

Lester if you wanted to make me happy, gaining a point in damn magic wasn’t the way to do it. I have Fee start running across the desert to join Shanan, since she has enough resistance to be trustworthy around these jerks, and have Seliph move onto a forest in the range of one mage. My hope is that he’ll dodge this one while Julia crushes the others, then everyone can gang up on the sole survivor.

See, Lester? This is what being reliable looks like. Finn has weapon triangle disadvantage and he’s still wrecking these jerks. Just for that, he gets some money that he doesn’t need.

Apparently Not Sure What ‘Terrifying’ Means: Then there’s Tinni, a young mage… Blume’s niece she may be, but that girl’s still got a kind heart on her. She’s come to our aid and the aid of our neighbor villages time and again… she’s nothing like her family.

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORESHADOWING. Let’s wrap things up with the Friendship Team.

Not bad. I would normally complain about the lack of offensive growth of any kind, but Speed and Defense in the same level really makes up for it. End turn!

… And luckily, the AI is kind of dumb, and prioritizes Julia because it can’t miss her. Thing is, it also can’t kill her. She doubles the dark mages, and Nosferatu heals her when she hits them. So they hit her once, and she hits them back twice and eats their health to get back to full power.

…. Oops. Did I leave Leif in enemy range? Well, he’s doing well so far, no biggie. Our turn begins on a fairly strong position with one exception: A dark mage is close enough to Patty he might attack her. If that goes wrong, I’m screwed! I messed this up badly. Patty, run. Run, Patty. Run.

…. Fuck. She can’t run. I… ugh. Okay, well. Patty has one shot at this and it’s very, very unlikely she’ll pull it off.

… Nope, didn’t do it. If he’d fallen asleep from getting hit by her Sleep Edge, she could have maybe held out until Shanan got back to her, but he didn’t and as a result she’s dead on the enemy phase regardless of what I do. Reset.

All right. Looking ahead on things with the foresight of someone paying attention to where units are actually standing, I do a few things differently. First, Shanan kills the last enemy in his area so Patty can’t get caught in a pincer.

That done, Patty runs over to hide under his skirt.

Two, remembering well that Lester got creamed, I hand it to Johan, who also can’t miss but hits somewhat harder.

Good job, Johan. You’re not gonna be marrying Larcei, because something about you worries me. But good job. Team Leif, meanwhile, does exactly what they did before and it goes about as well, only Leif actually gets a somewhat better level!

No magic, of course. He takes after his mother, after all. Okay! End Turn, and let’s try this again.

And hey, Julia remembers she has Adept and kills two of the mages she only wounded last time! Her dark power grows. She also gained a slightly different level, but I lost the screenshot: +1HP, +1 Magic, +1 Speed. I’ll take it gleefully.

… Less Gleeful, but Nanna will fix that right up.

Right then. Our turn starts, and the main army has only two mages left to kill. Arthur wipes out the one Julia crippled earlier…

While Julia moves herself to intercept the final one. In fact, this is mostly a turn of moving, because few people make any real attacks. Shanan moves toward the boss, Patty moves to hide behind him, the army moves toward Yied, and Leif… moves back toward the castle he was told to abandon.

Yeah. Yeah. We’re not giving up. Fuck that. Nanna patches him, and he makes a run toward Leonster! He is going to defend his home. And hopefully gain some needed levels.

… This might end badly.

End turn!

Well, Julia’s back to not killing things. That’s nice. Well, it’s our turn again, and she’ll fix that.

Yum. Shanan finally starts the attack on Yied proper…

And Leif takes up position to wait out the siege.

This is a risk. I’m very much not sure it will work. But the enemy army is almost entirely armor, which means only one of them can attack Leif at a time, and with the castle he gets a bonus to evasion and heals every turn. If he manages to kill all these fuckers and gets mostly decent levels, he will be pretty much set for the rest of the game. Don’t be like your mother, Leif.

End turn.

…. Nothing happens on the enemy phase, so. At this point, Shanan could just walk up and shank the boss, but if he does that Patty will die to the other units in the area. So instead he runs up to hit this guy…

And Patty once more hides under his skirt. Fee, who has finally arrived after a million years, takes up position to intercept the incoming swordsman that’s behind them. I forgot to repair her spear after her arena runs, but she should be able to hold out.

I’m… not doing well on this map.

Now, Seliph is needed to liberate Yied and Larcei has a conversation with Shanan, so I send the two of them into the desert while the rest of the army starts moving south. As soon as we take the shrine the rest of the map opens up, and I want soldiers in position. Similarly, Nanna and Finn move into position to support Leif if he needs it; hopefully he will not, between his bitchin’ sword and strong defensive position. End turn…

FEE! DODGE!

LEIF! DON’T EMULATE HER!

Hoo boy. This may have been a mistake. Um… okay, guys. Take your shots. Don’t fuck this up.

Light Bright, on! It doesn’t kill the armor, unfortunately, but Leif is technically hitting him from a distance here and can’t be countered, so it works out. Shanan, can you please shank the boss?

Damn, you sure can. Um… end turn. Patty will die if she attacks anyone. This is bad. This is super bad. Unless for some reason the enemy all go for someone else, we’re a bit screwed. In fact we might be screwed anyway if the swordsman can double her.

OH THANK YOU JESUS. The remaining mage attacked Shanan, and when the sword guy hit Patty her Sleep Edge worked for once and caught him, so he’s immobilized for a few turns. Oh. Oh, man. Thank you. We live another turn, though this is still gonna be wonky to get out of unless the enemy AI futzes up again and keeps trying to zap Shanan. Leif, as well, gives a good showing…

One down, way too many to go. On our turn, I have Shanan clear out one of the two remaining mages:

And move Patty behind him, and…

And win. The battle for Yied Shrine is over, and despite fucking up like seven times, we came out on top. The sole remaining mage can only attack Shanan, who he cannot one-shot and who definitely can one-shot him in return. The swordsman down in the corner there is asleep for five more turns, so Patty can plink him to death and get some much-needed Experience.

Leif kills another armor, meanwhile, and continues his long but sure ascent to godhood. It’s never 100% safe to assume in FE, but with two levels in a row that good, I’m reasonably sure that Leif will hold the castle against all comers. Once we get him to an Arena he should be well on his way to outright amazing before the end of the chapter. End turn.

*sniff* Everything is coming together for the end, I swear. What follows is going to be very boring, as barring a few more armors spawning in Leif’s area, there’s no threats left. So it’s going to be nothing but Seliph wandering the desert like Moses while we plink away at enemies. So here’s the highlights.

Shanan: You went and took back Isaach behind my back, did you, Seliph? I can’t thank you enough!

Seliph: No, we’d still be in Tirnanog if not for you. You inspired us. You gave us your courage. If not for you, we could never have taken to the field!

Shanan: Heh, you’re starting to put on a bit of muscle there, aren’t you? You’re finally starting to…

Seliph: Shanan…?

Shanan: Hm? Oh, it’s nothing. Pay me no mind, Seliph.

Seliph: Anyway,we’re finally starting to challenge the empire! Not bad, wouldn’t you say?

Shanan: Heh, not bad at all. I’ve waited so long for this day… we all have, really.

Seliph: Thank you, Shanan!

(Seliph gains +1 Skill from this, because… um… it was… a very… skillful discussion?)

Larcei: Don’t worry about it! The important part is you’re safe. I, er…

Shanan: How’s your sword arm doing? Any stronger?

Larcei: Yes, but still far below your prowess, sir.

Shanan: How about a quick lesson to patch that up. See, raw power isn’t quite enough here. Try putting a bit more spirit into it… and swing!

Larcei: Nnnn-yah! Like this, sir?

(Must be, because she gets +2 strength from that. Hell of a workout, apparently.)

(Nanna, I swear to God if you don’t get some magic growth I will shave your ridiculous 80′s hair.)

(Fucking finally. I realize that was quick for you, but for me it was like twelve turns of sand and non-threatening combat that wasn’t even worth showing.)

Lewyn: They had no choice. Trying to build new lives on the surface would have led to their mass persecution, or even being burned at the stake. I suspect that at first they weren’t really bad or unusual people, but before long, their life here twisted them into what we know them as today.

(Not to question your wisdom, Lewyn, but they probably could have built a life on the surface if they didn’t insist on worshipping a god that eats children.)

Seliph: I can hardly believe it… It’s as if they were being tortured for the sins of their long-dead ancestors…

(Well, I mean, dude, they did keep worshipping Loptyr. Who, again, eats children.)

Seliph: All my life, these people have been branded as ‘the dark cult’ or ‘devil’s kin’. I can hardly imagine their pain… hold a moment. This scribble on the wall… is that a child’s penmanship? It’s a prayer. And it begs for the return of the dark god… was loptyr the only hope these people had?

(No, forgetting Loptyr and moving on to the worship of… I dunno, Fluffingor, god of soft things. That would have been a good hope. I’m all for freedom of religion, I know people like to keep to their faith, but when your god eats children you really need to reconsider.)

Lewyn: Yeah… Consider this a lesson, Seliph. Good and evil can’t be easily reduced to simple, black-and-white ideals. If you must hate, hate the evil that lurks in us all, not the individual. Never forget this.

Welp. As much as I’d love to sit around and debate morality with Lewyn (Again, my counter-argument would be ‘don’t worship a child-eating demon’, but you’d be shocked how applicable that is), we’ve taken the castle and I’m very tired. You guys take a nice week off while I sleep. I should wake up by the time the next update is due. Maybe.

Resets: 21. Level One Thief syndrome is a terrible thing.

Part 18

#Let's play fire emblem #let's play fire emblem four #let's play #Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War #fire emblem 4 #lp #let's play fe4 #my writing

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xaz-fr · 6 years

Photo

The Story So Far

@griminal-rising @deadpool-scar-bro @hikayelastoria @cornsnoot-fr @tales-around-sornieth (let me know if you’d like to be added to the lore pinglist)

dragons are humanoid unless said otherwise

like my writing? Consider buying me a coffee

The continued saga of ‘local swamp man keeps fucking up while lady in his life watches on with growing worry’ which is BASICALLY my clan at this point cause all my dudes are stupid as fuck. Dilarus might be up there with Reza in the stupid man category like god damn

A New Face

This island was unknown to Sobek other than he'd been told by Vrej numerous times not to go there. He went there anyway because the dragons in there could help him. The thought felt sour in his mind that he'd stoop so low to seek the aid of dragons. He already knew his kin would hiss and scorn him for what he was going to do but he didn't care. It was important to him. He didn't want to see Vrej look at him like she had when he'd confessed to her. Sad, pitying, and regretful.

The opening of the Warren yawned open, plunging deep into the earth. A soft, cool, breeze filtered out of the cavernous opening and made some if the hair around his face shift. He couldn't see very far, only as far as the first bend in the tunnels. His tail tip twitched nervously before he went down into the depths.

It grew dark faster than he expected and Sobek was plunged into darkness. At least for a moment. He raised a hand and fire came up and licked across his fingers and claws. The flame was only that of a candle but it was more than enough to see by. The tunnel was dug by something other than dragon claws but he wasn't quite sure what and thought it better not to wonder too deeply. He probably didn't want to know if it made tunnels large enough for Imperials to walk through with space both above and on either side.

He had no idea where he was going. He just slithered along the ground following the left wall. It took him some time but eventually he came to part of the tunnels with doors in the side. Metal things bolted into the earth with straps across it. What on earth did they keep inside that they needed metal doors. It didn't occur to Sobek that the doors might be used to keep something out as well.

He held his breath when one of the doors open and a humi shaped imperial stepped out. They were very tall and fit with their blonde hair up in a messy bun at the top of their head. Sobek didn't move as if doing so would make him not see a serthis in their lair. The imperial looked up and down the tunnel briefly and then at him. Faster than he expected the imperial jumped him and shoved him hard against the soft wall. “And now what is a thing like you doing in the Warren? You're a long way from the Serpent Fangs,” he said, his green eyes starting to glow. He used his wings to further corner Sobek against the wall, his hands gripping Sobek’ wrists so hard he lost control of the fire on his hand and they were plunged into darkness.

“Pleassse, I'm not tribal,” he stammered, half hissing it. “Friend of Vrej.”

The glowing eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here? Beastclan aren’t welcome in the Warren.”

“Ssseek help.”

“With what?”

“Dra-gonsss good withs magic. Better than ssserthis.”

“This is true. You want magical help? With what?”

He was glad it was dark. Sobek felt his face heat up in embarrassment and not a little humiliation for what he was going to say. “Want to not be beassstclan.”

The eyes unnarowed. “What’s your name?”

He focused on not letting his accent get in the way of his name. Vrej always said he said his name so cute with his hissing and he knew that wouldn’t be good here. “Sobek,” he didn’t hiss out the end only by biting his own tongue.

“You want to get rid of that tail of yours, is that it?”

“Yesss.”

He leaned back away from Sobek a bit, looking down at him with cool eyes. Then he let go of one of Sobek’ wrists and snapped his fingers. Several lamps up and down the tunnel immediately turned on, bathing them in a soft amber light. “Who were you looking for here?”

“Hear thingsss when dra-gonsss visssit Vrej for healing. They sssay Ssavathhhün is a powerful witch.”

“She hates beastclan. You’re lucky I found you first or she’d have her mate gobble you right up.” Sobek gulped. “I think something out. Do you really wanna be humi?” Sobek nodded. “Why?” Sobek didn’t answer. They squeezed the wrist they were still holding and Sobek felt his bones grind, making him grimace in pain. “Why?” he said again.

If he said the pain would stop. “Love Vrej,” he blurted out.

He was surprised by the Imperials honest surprise and then almost sympathy. “Heh. Ladies make you do stupid things, I get that. Come with me,” he dragged Sobek back to the door he’d come out of. Sobek was shoved inside. “Stay here, don’t wander. I’ll be back.”

“Where?” Sobek asked.

“Just wait,” he said and before Sobek could stop him he closed the metal door and he heard it lock. He tried the door but while the handle worked it was barred from the outside by the straps he’d seen.

Furious he looked around and found he was in what looked like this Imperial’s living quarters. It was one large room sectioned off by folding screens with a big bed in the corner. Sobek slithered over to the rug and curled up on it. He didn’t want to touch anything or get into any trouble and he knew better than to get nosy with a dragon’s things. Even Vrej, for all that she allowed Sobek and the rest free reign over her home there were certain places and things that if they touched she’d get very angry and scold you or drag you away from where you weren’t supposed to be. The Imperial was bigger and stronger than Vrej. He didn’t want to make a mistake.

He waited a while. He wasn’t sure how long. Then he heard the door unlock and he turned and looked as the door opened. The blonde humi Imperial stepped through the door and held it open for a woman with deep red hair. He sunk down a bit in his coils defensively. “Sobek, this is the witch Astra, she’s going to help you.” He eyed the two of them distrustfully.

“I’ve not heard of you,” Sobek said as she walked over to him. He could tell by her wings and the big gem in the middle of her forehead that she was a Skydancer and that didn’t put him at ease.

“Good,” Astra said. The Imperial stood to the side, arms folded, watching to make sure Sobek didn’t do anything. “I think we can help each other, Sobek.”

“How’sss thhhat?”

“I need someone dead-

“No.”

She giggled, “Oh, I wasn’t expecting you to kill them. I want them weak. I know there are several serthis in Vrej’s colony who specialize in synthesizing antivemon for various serthis types. And that’s great, just great but I have no use for antivenom. I will do the ritual with you to change you into a humi, teach you to walk even, in return, I want you to make me a poison that will weaken but not kill someone until the time comes that they are to die. Is that something you can do?”

Sobek was wary of this Astra. “What if I sssay no?”

“Well I’ll throw you out and you can wander the Warren and hope you find Savathün in an agreeable mood. I’m sure my brother has told you she isn’t the biggest fan of beastclan, hmm?” she asked and brushed some of her long hair out of her face. He nodded. “But know that she isn’t the only thing in the Warren you have to be worried about. Do we have a deal?”

Sobek was hesitant. Astra standing above him, looking down onto him, made him nervous. But he’d come here looking for help and knew more than any dragons just didn’t do something for free unless it benefitted them. If he wanted her help he’d have to pay. And all he had to do was make a poison. He was capable of doing that. All serthis knew how to make poison from their venom or the venom of their kin to apply to arrow or blades or claws. He could make a poison to weaken. “I will do it,” he nodded.

“Excellent,” and she clapped her hands together, delighted. “You can stay here and Aten and I will prepare the ritual. It will take some time but we should be able to start it today.”

“Very well.”

“Aten will retrieve you when the times comes, now behave,” she said nicely with a smile. He nodded a little and the siblings left the room.

Once they were gone Sobek realized his heart was pounding and he was glad they were gone. Then he realized he was once more alone in a dragon’s abode. He hunkered down in his coils and just tried to be small. As time passed he got bored and started humming to himself. A long time passed and he ended up dozing curled up in his coils to protect the more fragile part of his upper body. He roused himself when the door opened and the same blonde Imperial came in.

“It’s time, get up,” Aten said gruffly.

Sobek yawned but did get up and only sort of raised himself up as he slithered over to Aten. Aten motioned for him to leave the room and he waited in the hallway outside while Aten locked his door. “Why do you have metal doorsss?” he asked. “You are dra-gonsss, what could hurt you?”

Aten gave him a look. “Plenty, especially in the Warren,” and that was all he said. Sobek was too intimidated to ask more questions.

They walked down the tunnel to another tunnel and that led deep into the earth where it was cold and the only light came from an orb Aten carried in his hand that glowed with low lamp light. Finally they came to another metal door Aten decided was the one they needed and he opened it. It was low light inside but he could see what looked like a bed in the corner of the room and an altar. Sobek was nervous as Aten locked the door behind them and walked over to Astra who was sitting on a stool reading a tome was thick as Sobek’ fist. She pushed her hair out of her face which was pensive in concentration. She looked up when Aten approached and smiled at him then her bright, pale, green eyes looked behind him and saw Sobek.

“No need to be afraid, Sobek,” and she beckoned to him with a finger. Sobek slowly slithered over to her. “This is where I’ll perform the ritual. If you were a dragon you could just do it but most need help the first time, thus the ritual. I’ve prepared everything. I’m sure you want to get this over with so you can go show Vrej.” Sobek flushed a little but Astra just kept talking. “So we’ll begin now. Remove your clothes.”

“W-what?” he stammered. The idea of being so vulnerable around these strangers was not a pleasant one.

“You’re going to grow and change and it could destroy then. You need to remove them or risk losing them and you’ll never be as large as Aten or me so unless you want to learn to walk in a sack you have to get rid of them,” Astra said.

Sobek frowned but looked down and started undoing the ties that held his clothes to his frame. They tied up the sides and attached to an apron that wrapped around where his flesh met scales. There was also a fair amount of straps and several jarred talismans that were tucked under his clothes. His first set of teeth. The eye of his first kill from a tribal merging. A lock of Vrej’s hair woven into a circular braid. Last was his hair tie, an ornate ribbon Vrej had made for him. She made all the serthis who were part of her colony a hair tie to welcome them to her colony so they were knew they were welcome, wanted, and safe under her eye. He hated leaving it with his tunic and bracelets and the rest of his clothes but he did so he was just there, naked, in front of the two humi shaped dragons.

Astra uncrossed her legs and got to her feet elegantly. “This part of you will mostly stay the same,” she said indicating the upper fleshy part of him. “But the rest will change, dramatically. Come over here,” she motioned to the altar. He followed her and as she went to stand in front of it she pulled her hair back and away from her face and with a complex hand motion it braided itself. Sobek’s eyes widened. He’d never seen magic used like that. Most magic was practical, or in Vrej’s case to heal. He’d never seen such a casual display of magic to just braid hair. “Be here,” she pointed to right in front of her and he slithered over.

The ritual was strange. She smeared ochre on his face and throat and used a paste to paint sigils across his chest. Then she made him sit in the middle of a circle of the same paste and ochre. He blinked in surprise as a great wind kicked up to the motion of her arms and he was blasted with magic. Invisible signs that had been painted into the floor flared into life and blazed with such a blinding light Sobek had to look away and close his eyes. Then the light dimmed.

“Alright, all done,” she said.

Sobek looked down at himself. “It didn’t work,” he accused her. “I’m ssstill ssserthisss.”

To the side Aten gave a cough of a laugh. “Do you even know what goes into a dragon’s transformation?” Astra asked him with a sly smile.

“No?”

“It isn’t instant. It takes times. Hours, days even. If Aten wants to look how he was born it takes him three days because he has to become so large. For you it will be less,” she approached him and wiped the ochre off his face with a damp rag and gave it to him to clear up his chest. While he did she went back to the altar and brought back a glass of slightly yellow, completely opaque, liquid. “Drink.”

“What isss it?” he asked.

“It will make you sleep until I give you something to make you wake.”

“That ssseemsss dangerousss.”

“Or you can go through the pain of the change without it. Makes no difference to me.”

She pulled the drink away but Sobek grabbed it. He didn’t want to be in pain. Vrej never mentioned that changing shape was painful. He took a sip and it tasted as bitter as he expected it to taste. Astra laughed when his face twisted in disgust. With a grimace he chugged the entire thing, able to open his throat and not taste it. “Now what?” he asked, holding the cup anxiously.

Astra just beckoned and led him over to the bed. “Make yourself comfortable. The potion will take effect shortly and you don’t want to be caught unaware.”

Cautiously Sobek crawled into the nest of a bed. He was very aware of Astra and Aten watching him and it made him nervous. He stared at the both of them wondering if they’d say anything to him but Astra just stood there, watching him. He started to feel a horrible pain in his pelvis when he blacked out.

—

Vrej was with the triplets weeding one of her herb gardens. They always asked why she just didn’t use her magic to do it and Vrej always gave the same answer. Sometimes work was worth doing hard and magic could cheapen the connection you felt to hard work. The garter serthis didn’t always agree but they didn’t question her too much. To those without magic it was an instant fix to a problem. Vrej knew it could be but sometimes just doing things with your hands was good too.

“Vrej,” she glanced up. One of the guards was on the other side of the wire fence. Guard was a loose term. Mostly they made sure the rest of the Hall didn’t bother her colony too much and kept the toridaes away. Or that had been Sobek’ job. She hadn’t seen him in days and it worried her. She knew she’d broken his heart but she thought he was stronger than to mope around for days or just leave without saying anything. Vrej knew serthis were too proud to always take responsibilities for things they might have made a mistake about so it wasn’t out of character she guessed.

“Yes, Hari?” she asked, wiping her brow and getting a bit of dirt across her sweaty face.

“You need to sseeees thisss,” he said.

“What? Something bad?” she asked even as she pushed off her knees.

“I don’t know,” he said nervously.

“Hmm.” She grabbed the bag from a post where she hung her pearl when out in the garden and followed Hari out of the garden to the front of her home. Several serthis were gathered around looking at something and looking at it curiously. “What’s going on here, hmm?” she asked and the serthis all looked back at her, almost guiltily to having been caught out like this. They moved aside so she could walk forward and see what they were looking at.

There was a humi sitting on the steps of her porch. But a humi like she’d never seen. They had no wings, no horns, no frills or tail. Their feet were the same and slightly digitigrade but there was no distinguishing features about them. They looked almost like one her serthis only with legs. She stared at them in confusion with their shaded red hair and blood red eyes that stared back at her, almost like they were afraid. It took her an uncomfortable amount of time to realize what she was looking at. “Sobek?” she asked. He nodded but was too nervous to talk. “Well… hmm— come inside. The rest of you should probably go back to what you were doing,” she added and climbed the stairs of her porch. As she did she grabbed Sobek’ hand and helped him up. “Stop being so nosy and making him uncomfortable. Really,” she scolded them and the other serthis quickly dispersed.

Vrej led Sobek inside and closed the door. He walked just fine and she wasn’t used to seeing a humi without a swaying tail or mindful of their wings so they didn’t accidentally bang them on a threshold or something. He turned to her and said nothing, just licked his lips nervously and had his hands in the pockets of his pants. Thank the Plaguebringer he was wearing pants.

“Sobek, what’s this?” she asked him. She had a feeling she knew but she wanted him to tell her. Sobek seemed too nervous to say anything. She sighed a little. “Did you do this because of what I said?”

“Yes,” he said.

She looked away with a deeper sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “This wasn’t I expected you to do,” she admitted. “How? You can do minor magic but transformations?”

“Someone helped me.” She realized that he didn’t have a hissing accent now. He didn’t hold his Ss and Ts longer or work his mouth around round sounds. She wasn’t sure she liked it.

“Who?” she pressed.

“One of the witches in the Warren-

“You went to a Stitcher?” Vrej demanded, eyes flaring. Sobek shrunk away from her some. “Sobek that was dangerous and stupid and totally irresponsible! The colony relies on you, I rely on you. What if they’d hurt you? What if they’d killed you?” her anger was bred from worry.

“I had to try,” he said softly. “For you.”

“You didn’t do this for me. You did it for yourself,” Vrej snapped.

“Vrej-

“I know you were upset but to do this?” she motioned to his humi body but it still looked wrong and strange to her eyes. No tail, no wings, no defining features other than normal serthis pointed ears and his long red hair. And he’d gone to the Warren and knew he’d made some sort of deal with one of the Stitchers. She was so disappointed in him. “I didn’t want this for you.”

“You’re right. I did it for myself. So you don’t look at me and see me as lesser.”

“Sobek, I’ve never seen you as lesser,” she said softly.

“But you wouldn’t give me a chance because I was serthis. Well now I’m not,” he looked down at himself, taking his hands out of pockets and used them to indicate his new form. “I’m not anything. I am just Sobek.” He stepped over to her and grabbed one of her hands. “I’m just me and I love you and I did this because I thought you’d like me better this way,” he said, eyes wide. He brushed some of her hair back and behind her ear.

She stepped back taking her hand from his. “You have these ideas of what I want, Sobek,” she said. “And your heart is in the right place I guess but I didn’t tell you to do this. I didn’t ask you to do this. I still don’t love you. I like you just fine, you’re a good protector of the Fangs but this… you went to the Stitchers. They’re about as close to evil as I can imagine, especially that Savathün and Oryx. I warn everyone not to go there for a reason, because it’s dangerous and I worry about you all. But this… this is a betrayal. And now you’re like this,” she looked him up and down. “I have no room in my heart for someone who’d do something so reckless and put themselves in so much danger to go to the Warren. Before, maybe, but now?” she frowned and he looked just as heart broken as the last time they’d spoken. “I don’t know if I can trust you now. The Stitchers deal in trades and favors. I don’t know what they wanted from you but it probably isn’t good,” he looked down at his feet meaning she was right.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was just… Please don’t hate me.’

“I don’t hate you, Sobek but I don’t trust you.”

“Can I fix it?” he asked, his eyes pleading and if she knew him less she thought he might start crying. But Sobek was too hard and stoic to cry in front of anyone, if he even cried at all.

“You can try,” she said.

He sighed. “Alright,” he said softly. “Alright,” he said to himself again bobbing his head in a sort of nod. “Well I’m just… gonna go then,” his voice was thick.

“Alright,” she said gently. “The Fangs is still your home. You don’t have to leave it.”

“I know,” he said, looking at the wooden floor. “I’ll see you later,” and he left.

When he was gone Vrej fell into her chair and covered her face with both hands. She knew Sobek wouldn’t cry because he’d done something reckless that had changed his life and their relationship in a not so great way so she did it for him.

#flight rising #fr lore #fr lore share #lore share #cypress hall

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wmaitla · 7 years

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40k Factions Headcanons Part 3

Mkay, moving on to part 3 of my series where I explain how I’d change the armies of 40k if I woke up one morning and had control of GW. Holy shit this is taking so much more time and effort than I thought it would. Well at least with this one I’ll be finished all the Imperial armies. So when it’s done I’ll have finished three multi-hour writing efforts out of... ten?

sob

Also, something I left out of the start of the first post - there is no allies system in my version of Warhammer 40k. You get what’s in your codex and nothing else. The point of my redesigns is to give each faction a distinctive feel, both thematically and in terms of their playstyle. If you can just mix-and-match freely when you listbuild it makes it much harder to balance the game, because you have to playtest each unit fighting alongside every other unit in the game rather than just the ones in the same codex. If you want to run something that the codexes don’t allow (Gue’vesa Auxiliaries for example, or a strike force of Chaos Space Marines) you can just use the “count as” rule, using different models for one of the codex entries. It won’t make everyone happy. Remember, my redesign is based around getting the themes of the Guard across while ensuring they have a distinctive feel and playstyle, and that each unit is distinct enough that there’s little “overlap”.

Imperial Guard

The Imperial Guard (or the Astra Militarum if you’re a GW exec trying to maximize your intellectual property) can be both the least “40k” of all the army factions and the most “40k” of them. On the one hand, factions like the Death Corps of Krieg and units like Commissars really capture the feel of 40k and of the Imperium. On the other hand, its very easy to write the Guard as being a fundamentally good, human force triumphing over the horrors of the galaxy. This is a trap. There are no “good guys” in 40k, especially not the Imperium. The themes of the Guard are humanity and inhumanity. The Guard is about sending countless humans to fight and die in suicidal actions against the most horrific enemies in the galaxy because it protects humanity. Or because your commander is an incompetent blue blood who only received a commission because of your obnoxiously rich family and his brilliant military strategy was to bayonet charge Ork Nobs. The Guard is about executing a man because he took poor care of his lasgun, because the Guardsman is infinitely more replaceable and therefore worth substantially less than the single most-available weapon in the galaxy. It’s about ordering tens thousands of young people to charge across an open field at a Tau gunline - because the Tau will run out of ammo before you run out of conscripts.

The Guard protects humanity, but it doesn’t value humans. Crunch-wise I’d want to emphasise that, with the focus being on squads rather than individual models. Here’s a quick run down of the list I’d use to make up the Guard:

HQ Command Squad - as is. Nothing wrong with orders, nothing wrong with an Imperial Guard Classic.

Tank Commander - for armies themed around hordes of tanks. Can issue orders to other tanks. Can also take side sponsons, unlike regular tanks.

Commissars - You can take 1-3 of these guys as one HQ choice, and assign each one to an infantry squad while you’re setting up. They allow you to sacrifice one member of that unit to re-roll a failed leadership check, but if you still fail, you remove the Commissar. I’d leave priests out, except in the Command Squad, and let these guys have the “morale buff” role instead. I originally had them in the Elites section, but it was getting pretty crowded, and a bunch of ordinary humans makes more sense for the guard than one big heroic human, so they’re replacing the Lord Commissar here.

Elites Scions - because “storm troopers” has unfortunate connotations, and “Tempestus” sounds stupid. These guys are pretty standard, they have carapace armour and hot-shot lasguns. They have higher leadership than regular guardsmen too. Can take a rhino, a taurox or a chimera

Ogryns/Bullgryns - big guys with big guns. These guys are the biggest, meatiest guys you have. But this is the guard, and they aren’t space marines (why don’t space marines recruit these guys???), so I’d actually nerf them somewhat. They’re still str/tou 4, but they only have one wound each. They get carapace armour and either shotguns (str 4 assault 2) or power mauls and force shields (5+ invuln save). Because they’re smaller than they used to be, they can ride in Metal Bawxes now (and because they’re meant for seizing objectives, so being able to ride in a troop transport is rather important). They’re still giant brutish abhumans, but they aren’t superhuman.

Tech-Priest - Able to restore wounds to nearby tanks and provides a buff to all nearby vehicles (he helps calm the machine spirits with his chanting). This guy is the closest

Psykers - not astropaths, which are in the command squad, but some kind of “Militarum Choir”. Lay psykers discovered by the guard and herded together as a kind of psychic battery. More of them working together makes them more powerful, but they can still fail a perils of the warp check and all turn inside out together.

Troops Guardsmen - because “conscripts” would be redundant. A squad of between 10 and 30 cheap-as-chips guardsmen, wearing flak armour (which I am VERY tempted to say only gives you a 6+ armour save) and carrying lasguns. They have leadership 6, but can use a command squad’s leadership instead if the CS is alive and on the table. For each full 10 Guardsmen you can take one special weapon (plasma gun/grenade launcher/sniper rifle) and one heavy weapon (heavy bolter/missile launcher/autocannon/lascannon). I’m leaving flamers and melta weapons off these guys, because these ones fit the Guard better (especially Gets Hot! plasma guns over melta guns). I was tempted to have the “platoon” system from yesteryear, and have them be two separate squads of guardsmen and a platoon command squad, but this is simpler. Can’t take troop transports.

Veterans - guardsmen with one extra point of BS and Leadership, in squads of 5-10. They can take camo cloaks, which gives a +1 to cover saves, and they can infiltrate if they don’t have a troop transport. For each five of them in a squad they can take two special weapons (plasma gun/grenade launcher/sniper rifles/flamers). These are the guys you take if you want a wholly mechanised force of guardsmen. I swapped the Scions and these guys around because it makes more sense for these guys to be more available than the scions, and because the scions were actually “Elite”.

Transport Chimera - Old Reliable. A middle ground between the Rhino and the Taurox, a multi-laser and a pintle-mounted storm bolter give it some firepower while retaining a full 12-man troop compartment, although its armour is light than the rhino’s. It’s on-board generator means the turn its unit disembarks they can re-roll to-hit rolls of 1 with their lasguns/hotshot lasguns.

Rhino - big and beefy, gets you there safely although not heavily armed. The quintessential Metal Bawx.

Taurox - the Immolator of the IG. Has a top-mounted autocannon, but can only carry 6 people.

Fast Attack Sentinels - ah, the chicken walkers. Nothing wrong with these, although I would give them Heavy Flamers and Plasma Cannons in addition to Autocannons/Heavy Bolters/etc. The they can be upgraded with extra amour, but lose the ability to scout.

Hellhounds - a squad of 1-3 scouting tanks. Same armour as a Chimera, but their troop compartments and multi lasers are replaced by a giant flame thrower/acid sprayer. Can receive orders from tank commander.

Roughriders - 5-20 hugely mustachioed men on horseback. Same as they are pretty much, good for taking objectives but piss poor at holding them (their lances count as power weapons on the turn they charge). Allow you to relive the charge of the light brigade in space.

Ratlings - they have to go somewhere, and the Elites section is full enough as is. On second thought, I’d actually drop these little guys and just say their models now “count as” veterans with sniper rifles. There’s nothing they do that the infiltrating vets with camo cloaks don’t do already. There’s no point having TWO units of infiltrating snipers, and Gaunt’s Ghost have a hit book series, so they get first dibs.

Heavy Support Leman Russ Squadron - these guys would actually get stripped down. The emphasis in the guard is quantity over quality, so I’d still have them packing big turret guns and thick armour, but I’d lose the side sponsons (they still have the hull-mounted gun though) and any special rules they might have in order to keep them as cheap and mass-producible as possible. All the flavours of Leman Russ can be mixed and matched here. These can receive tank orders.

Artillery Squadron - wyverns, basilisks, and death strikes.Basically any tank that shoots things it can’t see from your edge of the board, so they don’t have to share a squadron with Leman Russes on the front line. Death strikes are still random, but they share squads with horde-killing wyverns and tank-busting basilisks. These can receive tank orders.

I left out Heavy Weapon Platoons, because they don’t really seem to fit in too well - if you can give every two guardsmen a plasma cannon, why not do that? It makes more sense for the heavy weapons to be mixed in with the regular troops I feel. This has lead to the unfortunate demise of the mortar squad however. RIP little dudes, your dropping mortar shells on Orks in heaven now.

Super Heavies Baneblades - because it wouldn’t be the guard without them. Say it with me now - ELEVEN BARRELS OF HELL.

Imperial Knights - because they have to go somewhere, they’re popular enough that trying to drop them would lead to an uproar. Plus these giant warmachines actually fit in quite well with the guard.

Playstyle-wise, they’re similar to Tyranids, but the focus is on shooting rather than melee. They’re the Tau to the Tyranids’ Sisters of Battle, a horde interested in keeping its distance from the enemy and whittling them down with mass firepower rather than rushing in close.

Fluff-wise, I wouldn’t change much, besides emphasising that the guard and the imperium aren’t the good guys, and that the guard doesn’t value individual humans at all, even though its charge with protecting humanity. I’d make sure to have a lot of stories in the codex about guardsmen and -women being executed for cowardice, being sent on suicidal mass-charges, etc. Basically using North Korean/world war one military strategy, which suits the bleak tone of the 41st Millenium more than heroic world war two stuff. I’ve already said everything I really wanted to say about this at the start of this article.

So yeah. That’s how I’d redesign the imperial guard. Tune in next time to read my ramblings about how I’d change the Chaos so they aren’t just Space Marines with spiky bits.

#my writing #wmaitla #40k #40k headcanons #warhammer 40k #imperial guard #this series will be the death of me #I swear

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anonarat · 7 years

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Design Considerations for the Laguz Royalty Banner:

Choice of Heroes:

The first question is which 4 heroes to choose for the banner. I knew that I wanted at least one of each of the three main types of Laguz - Beast, Bird and Dragon.

I already had some ideas for a Heron Laguz, Leanne specifically, following some conversations with friends. Whilst the Herons are Bird Laguz, they are so dramatically different from the other Birds, that I felt that having a second Bird Laguz to round out the banner would be appropriate.

As to which would be the second Bird, it would be between Tibarn and Naesala. Of the two, Naesala seemed more interesting to go into.

I briefly contemplated having Deghinsea as the Dragon, but Kurthnaga is the player unit and more important to the story, so there really was no contest. It would be rather difficult to justify one of the other Dragons over Kurthnaga, so he was in.

Finally, the Beast. This was really tough, and I came very close to doing Skrimir over Nailah. Not in the least because some of his skills write themselves (Fury and Brash Assault). Ultimately though, I wanted to balance the number of Males to Females on the banner, especially since most of the female Laguz in the games were relegated to minor roles.

Transformation Gauges:

I seriously considered using Special Gauges for Transformations for the Laguz, given how important is to using them in the game. However, it seemed like it would take away from giving the Laguz some cool things. Given that most of these Laguz get or already have Formshift, it would have been extra work for little benefit.

Leanne:

Out of all of the Laguz, I suspect that Leanne will likely be the most contentious, as her power level is possibly insane. I only developed the idea behind Galdrar of Sorrow after the Galdrar of Vigour, so it might be possible to make some changes to dial her back.

I have given her the worst stat total of any character for a good reason. If she gets attacked in combat, she should probably die. To compensate for Galdrar of Vigour, she needs to suffer in other ways to prevent her from just becoming too strong.

As it seems like every character in Heroes has a weapon, there came the challenge of how to approach Heron weaponry. On considering what the Herons in Radiant Dawn had, the Galdrar of Sorrow seemed like my best bet for a weapon.

The low might was a matter of course, then came to translating Worst Biorhythm into effects. Given how Special relates to things like Crits as well as Mastery skills, it seemed like having something that affected that would be interesting, especially as it hasn’t yet been explored. The Panic effect also made sense, as it converts an opponent from being at their best to being at their worst.

The Galdrar of Vigour was trying to work out how you could work Herons as dancers in Heroes, especially since all of them could AoE refresh in their native games. Allowing every square next to the Heron to be refreshed would have been crazy, which left Leanne’s refresh style.

From my experience of playing FE: Heroes, the number of times I’d actually want to refresh two units two spaces apart is really low. Admittedly, if I had Leanne, my playstyle would probably change. The fact that you really have to think about positioning to get full use out of it is really nifty though.

I added Windsweep so that Leanne could actually use Galdrar of Sorrow without dying.

Dancer Heroism was created because late game, Leanne would struggle badly dealing damage or getting kills. This is a way to train her up without actually engaging in combat or blowing through ridiculous numbers of crystals and shards. The reason it is post map is so you don’t just grind her up by continually waiting and dancing whilst the enemies don’t attack. These numbers are the most subject to change, as I just did some rough ballpark guesses on what would be best.

Naesala:

I went with Green for Naesala because of Vortex and its association with Wind Magic.

Naesala’s stat line was actually based around the sword users, and especially the Myrmidons already in existence. This is quite obvious given his great speed and mediocre attack. His defences in PoR and RD were nothing to write home about compared to the other Laguz Royals, so Myrmidons seemed a good fit.

The Great Beak was designed around similar principles to other legendary weapons, high might with a level 2 skill built in. I went with a ploy because it was Naesala, who is rather slippery.

In RD, Tear crippled the target’s speed if they somehow survived the attack. Given that Astra or equivalent would mean that the target was already dead, I wanted some way to still preserve the speed aspect of the attack to help differentiate it from other skills. Tear was the result. Rather unintentionally, it makes Naesala quite good against armoured opponents, but I’m cool with that since he’d just dodge them in RD anyways.

Distant Counter was chosen as a nod to Vortex and Shriek in RD, both of which give ravens a ranged attack/response.

Hit and Run was chosen because Ravens were very mobile in the games, and Naesala has something of a habit of withdrawing when it’s beneficial to him.

And now, I must quote Ranulf:

“Naesala and the ravens of Kilvas betrayed us? Again? “

Hence Traitor’s Ploy. A skill that is hard to use without backfiring and cleaves close to Naesala’s constant side switching in the Tellius games.

Nailah:

Given that Kurthnaga was always going to be Blue, I wanted to round the banner out, so gave Nailah Red. That said, her stats were based more on axe users given her enjoyment of fighting.

Not much to say about Great Fang, it was not something I put much effort into, but still wanted to make impressive for a Laguz Royal. Think of it as a Mt: 16 weapon with Atk +2 built in.

Savage was made to be a Beast Laguz alternative to Astra, so I just went with something in the same vein, originally it was going to be Charge 4, but I seem to recall seeing something about Astra’s cooldown maybe going down. If Astra remains at Charge 5, then this would have Charge 4.

Sturdy Blow was for the brawler in her, and I didn’t want to just do new skills.

Glare was a pain. I was tempted to put it in as her special, but I also wanted to make a nod to Savage. The question then becomes how to handle something like Glare, as petrification is rather good. The solution was to make the trigger condition tricky, and harder to fulfil as the map goes on. Even then, this skill is good, but so are other personal skills. (Power Creep FTW)

Kurthnaga:

The reason why Kurthnaga was always going to be Blue is because Black Breath seems a very natural progression from Dark Breath. Black Breath is literally just a legendary version Dark Breath+. Honestly, I would have liked to do something else with it were it not for the existing version of Dark Breath.

Due to Kurthnaga losing movement whilst transformed, making him armoured seemed like a good way to give a nod to that. It also gave me an excuse to pump his stat line a bit more.

Kurthnaga’s stat line is one of the highest in the game, which is rather fitting for a Dragon Laguz, who always outclassed pretty much all their peers.

Smite was added almost as an after-thought. Once I’d mostly finished with Kurthnaga, something felt missing. I’m not entirely sure why, but Smite seemed to fit the bill nicely.

My reason for Dragon Fang? Dragon, dragon, dragon.

Enduring Stance was there because he was always somewhat tanky, but not much to write home about on the attack.

Finally we come to Black Tide. Yes, it is a copy of Light Breath’s effect, however, this effect was basically what Black Tide did in RD, and much as I might have wanted, Light Breath translates to Black Breath in no sensible way.

It’s kind of sad that Kurthnaga ends up as F!Corrin but better. Oh well, it’s my fantasy banner and I’ll do what I want :D

#Design methodology

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my-yuujin · 7 years

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10 Crests in Appmon

Just like Yamato said in Adventure episode 53, the traits from the crests actually exist in everybody’s heart. So, if one says that Haru bears Courage because of his “Minerva question”, but then the other says that Yuujin is braver since he fits the hero role better, those are not technically wrong since Courage is always within them.

From what I see in Digimon Adventure and 02, the crest that one bears is not only decided by what trait they have best. But rather the trait that helps them grow up the most. Just like what Minerva wants from the Applidrivers.

Since there are 10 crests, I also want to divide the crests to the Appmons. They also grow up together with their buddies, after all. So, here is the result of my analysis:

Haru: Courage. Gatchmon: Knowledge

Eri: Kindness. Dokamon: Reliability/Honesty

Astra: Sincerity/Purity. Musimon: Light

Rei: Friendship. Hackmon: Hope

Yuujin: Love. Offmon: Miracle

(Explanations are below the cut. Might contain spoilers)

Haru: Courage. Gatchmon: Knowledge

"Are you a hero?"

Deep inside, Haru always wanted to be a hero. Despite being afraid and reluctant, he knew that he was the only one who could save those who were troubled by L-Virus. Thus, he dared himself to answer YES, helped Gatchmon find the enemy's weakness and finally defeated it.

This action led to another heroic things done by him. He initiated the search for Ai when she went missing. He conviced Eri and Astra to go back to help Rei and fight Sakushimon. In Deep Web, he even risked his life to save Drawmon, even though being betrayed later on.

When Yuujin joined the team, he ended up being too dependent on him, because he’s always convinced that Yuujin was a better hero. But that admiration ironically led to Yuujin being snatched away from him. In despair, Haru was reminded that it was him who chose to be a hero. Minerva’s test helped him to once again find the hero within himself.

Gatchmon's best quality is his passion to look up for informations and use them for battle. Contrast to Haru, Gatchmon is a brave and confident Appmon. Even so, they still have some similarities. Haru loves to read and find out about things that interest him. That's why, while being very confident in his ability, Gatchmon still trusts Haru to find the enemies' weakness, whenever he can't take his eyes away from battle. There are also times when they face problems, that even Gatchmon can't find the answers. But his bond with Haru helps him to evolve, and gain access to much wider database.

Eri: Kindness. Dokamon: Reliability/Honesty

"Do you want to make people smile?"

Eri used to be a lonely girl. But she found herself smiling everytime she watched Izumi's music video. When she was asked by the Applidrive, she wasn’t sure of herself. But she soon found the answer right after she saw her mother’s smile that bloomed after she showed her care and kindness.

As an idol, Eri puts up a cute-but-tough-girl persona. When she’s on stage, she tends to speak in rather arrogant way toward her fans, like she’s the center of universe and going to punch you. But that doesn’t stop her fans to love her. Her kindness is shown not in her words, but rather in actions. Her fans understand this, and thus manage to find Eri’s haughty manner to be endearing.

Dokamon is an action game Appmon and just like Eri, he loves to punch things. But he never fights dirty or bullies those weaker than him. He sets himself as the symbol of justice. Regarding his relationship with Eri, Dokamon always wants to be useful for her. At first, Eri didn’t even want to appliarise him because she thought he’s too loud and only gave her problems. But after being engaged in battle, Dokamon was finally able to show Eri that he’s someone she could depend on.

Astra: Sincerity/Purity. Musimon: Light

“Will you join the rhythm?”

As the only heir of traditional family that specializes in Japanese tea ceremony, Astra is expected to be reserved, calm, and mature beyond his age. Though he liked learning about his family tradition, he also wanted to do something that he could enjoy just for himself, not because others told him so. He found that enjoyment by being an Apptuber, as he could appear as himself in his videos.

As an Apptuber, Astra likes to face challenges and tell his honest thought about them in a very entertaining way. Even so, when his father told him to go to Kyoto for study, he couldn’t say his disagreement because he cared a lot for his father. He was finally able to confess his feeling after discussing his problem with Musimon, his mother, also with Haru and the others. Dreamon also helped him reestablish his pure feeling that wants to fulfill his dreams, either as an Apptuber, Applidriver, and also the heir of Asuka family.

Musimon’s ability revolves around music, which leads to both happiness and enjoyment. He is the one who helped Astra realize his hidden talent as an entertainer. Just like Astra, Musimon is also the type who can enjoy himself even in hardship, and spread the enjoyment to others. Noted that Musimon's final form is God of Enlightenment, who’s capable of awakening one’s hidden abilities.

Rei: Friendship. Hackmon: Hope

“Are you alone?”

At first, Rei anwered YES. Losing his father, mother, and finally Hajime, made him believe that in the end, one must solve his problem alone. When Hackmon came to him, he refused to trust him and his offer to help find Leviathan. But after being saved by Hackmon, he understood that there were things that he couldn’t face alone, and then accepted Hackmon’s offer to be partners.

But he still restricted himself to make bonds with others. He attacked Haru and co, and stole their 7-code Appmon because he didn’t believe that they would make it to the deep web and beat Leviathan. Even when they came to save him, and help him defeat Sakushimon, he was still not convinced that they were worth to be friends with.

After desperately losing his one and only friend, Hackmon, Rei’s finally willing to join Haru and co. In such desperate situation not being able to count on their Appmon, Rei gave everyone a piece of his mind, and made them realize that they were not alone, even when their buddies were not by their side.

Hackmon is an Appmon with hacking ability. In term of hacking, he did very well, since he could actually penetrate security and firewall set up by Rei. That being said, Hackmon admitted that even he couldn’t reach Leviathan by himself, and sought for Rei’s help. He didn’t give up, even though Rei rejected him at first. Everytime Rei loses track, he tells him not to be rush, and keep seeking for a better way to reach his goal. As Revivemon, he gains ability to heal himself and others, which establishes his role as the hope bearer, not just for Rei, but also for Haru and the others.

Yuujin: Love. Offmon: Miracle

“Do you have a friend do you want to protect even if it must cost your life?”

Yuujin got the most piercing question compared to the other four. The reason he answered YES is because he wanted to be able to protect Haru, whom he believed was facing danger. As the story progress, Yuujin’s devotion for Haru develops into universal love that not only wants to protect his friends, but also all innocent lives. He once exhausted himself worrying about a family in L town that he just met that day. He also never stopped to care about Offmon/Shutmon, even after being injured and abandoned by him. His sincerity influenced the reluctant Offmon to finally believe in himself.

Letting Eri, Astra, Rei, and Haru escape, by turning himself in to the enemies, can be considered as the culmination of Yuujin’s love. Nevertheless, this action also led to Offmon being caught together with him. While it might be justified since Yuujin had vowed that he would never leave Offmon’s side, he actually never did the same for Haru. Considering he’s willing to die for Haru’s safety, that means he’s also willing to leave Haru’s side, if it’s necessary. In the end, Yuujin loves both Offmon and Haru, and shows his love in different ways for each of them.

Offmon, on the other hand, is an offline game Appmon who was always alone due to his ability cutting down connections. He always thought that no one ever wanted to have him around. But after being paired with Yuujin, he can make such lonely ability to be useful, even able to save endangered lives. Having bonds with other people is probably the last thing this little guy ever dreamed about. But Yuujin turned his unimaginable dream into reality.

#Appmon #digimon universe #digimon adventure #digimon 02 #digimon tri #digimon universe appli monsters

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deathprincess98 · 8 years

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OCwatch Week day 2/3

So here is my days two and three for Ocwatch week, Sorry it starts out kinda angsty, the begining really probably should be part of day 5 whatever, I hope you enjoy, more of Jack Morrison and Astra Veli

Day 2 and day 3 mix Prompt: Domestic and Laughter.

Five years, Jack had never been happier, the days of the Overwatch recall behind him now, the world still wasn’t fully safe but it was better since the omnic-sapien treaty was put into effect. Jack had decided that he would go back to Indiana with the love of his life Astra Veli, she twenty-five and he forty-eight, the age difference didn’t matter to them because Jack had never felt younger, she was the light in his life and helped him through the tough nights when the battles of the first and second omnic crisis came back to haunt him.

Astra had been one of the agents that had joined up after the recall, a brilliant hacker that had cracked the code in the bastions systems and found a way to shut them down, saving many lives, but she didn’t like to stay at the base and give directions and information to ground units, knowing her place was right beside the soldiers she gave information to, and too many times Jack had watched her nearly die from being peppered with bullet holes. Mercy had told her that she was pushing her luck thin, Astra never listened, she’d draw fire to herself to give others time to retreat or take cover, Jack believed she would have been a good SEP soldier, but she wasn’t enhanced in any way, just an ordinary girl from Kings Row who didn’t like letting those around her die.

Her luck did run out, Astra was engaged in a firefight with a bastion unit, stranded when Jack had called a retreat she couldn’t make it and the team couldn’t get to her, having run out of bullets Astra made a run for it, the Bastion was faster and launched helix rockets right into her, that day Jack had never been more scared, only one rocket had hit its mark, Astra lost her left leg at the hip, when the bastion moved on, Jack and the team moved in, there was so much blood, Mercy didn’t believe she would make it, they got her back to base and into the infirmary, Genji carrying her since he was the fastest, Jack and mercy right behind him.

After ten grueling hours and many scares, she was stabilized. Jack was told that she still may not make it, she lost way too much blood if she did she’d never be able to fight again, prosthetic or not it would take too much time for her to learn to walk again.

The buzz of the coffee machine pulled jack from his thoughts and memories, he walked across the hardwood floors to the machine and poured himself a cup of coffee, sighing softly and picking up his cup, Jack walked out to the front porch, it was mid summer now and the morning air was warm, the sun was just peeking above the horizon, Astra would be asleep for a few more hours yet.

After the accident Astra had been fitted with a prosthetic leg, only problem was that she was too stubborn and too prideful for her own good, she never wanted to wear it, after an incident where she had been on the firing range, leaning too heavily on her crutch to shoot properly and being knocked down by the kick of the rifle she’d been shooting with. Frustrated and upset she had been found by Gabriel Reyes, ex Blackwatch commander and ex-Talon agent known as reaper, he picked her up, picked up her crutch and carried her back to her room, the man had always been a father figure to her every since they met when she was just nine years old. Gabriel had sat her down and gave her the same speech he gave to Jesse Mccree when he lost his arm, Jack had only heard part of it because he had been coming to see Astra.

“You are not any less of an agent because of this injury, do you understand me baby girl? I know you are stronger than this, so stop moping around and start getting back on your feet”

Gabriel had always been good with words, he had gotten through to her cause the next day she was wearing her prosthetic and training with both Lucio and Genji.

Jack felt arms slide around his waist and the warm body of his lover pressed against his back, her face pressed into his shirt as she inhaled his scent.

Astra loved how Jack smelled, but she couldn’t describe it, something along the mix of soft worn leather, fresh rain and cinnamon, it was an odd combination but she loved it and she loved him.

“Good Morning” Jack deep voice rumbled into her ears, smiling she stepped around him gingerly and looked at him, lifting her hand to run a finger over the long scar that cut across his face, Jack caught her hand in his and kissed the back of it “You’re not yet awake fully are you dear?” he asked, only getting a hum in return, Astra was never a morning person, chuckling he guided her back into the house and got her a cup of ginger orange tea, two tablespoons of sugar and a splash of lemon, she wasn’t a coffee drinker either, but he didn’t care, once she was settled he sat at the dining room table with her and watched her slowly wake up, even half asleep she could be silent when walking, a perk of training with the Shimada Brothers Genji and Hanzo, neither the cyborg or yakuza heir had scared her, more memories danced across Jack’s mind.

Astra learning how to move silently from Genji, her learning how to put the silence to her skills, for both stealth, and in combat, the pair had pushed her past breaking point then put her back together in a matter of months, it was both incredible and terrifying that she could learn, pick up and adapt to training that had taken them years to learn.

“We should cook breakfast this morning, pancakes sound rather yummy, don’t you think?” Jack blinked and looked at Astra, her dark green eyes more awake and alert than they had been moments ago.

“Pancakes?” Jack thought about it and nodded “Sounds good” when Astra smiled Jack chuckled, neither of them was really breakfast eaters but he could never say no to her, even back in overwatch Astra had him wrapped around her pretty little fingers.

So the pair got up and started to get the ingredients out for pancakes, flour, eggs, milk, butter, sugar…etc, everything was going fine until Astra turned quickly with the flour and had to duck to avoid jack who was right behind her, the sudden movement cause the flour to poof up and cover them both in white dust.

Jack blinked the flour from his eyes and looked down at Astra, she had a large innocent grin on her face as she tried not to laugh, a smile cracked on jack’s lips as he started to laugh, Astra blushed listening to his laughter, she could never get enough of it.

Holding the flour still in her arms she grabbed a little handful and threw it at jack, when it hit him, he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, Astra fled and threw more flour at him, laughing as she went, they ended up outside throwing flour at each other until they were covered head to toe in it.

The sun was mid way into the sky now, Jack and Astra sat in the grass holding hands, smiles on their faces, something so simple could cause so much laughter between them.

Astra looked at Jack then leaned over and kissed his cheek “I love you, Jack, it looks like we will have to make something else for breakfast”

Jack chuckled and looked at her “I love you too, and it appears that way, so what would you like?”

Astra hummed as she thought “maybe something less messy..like scrambled eggs?”

Nodding to her request Jack stood then helped her to her feet and they started back towards the house, hand in hand.

#adaytwo #bdaythree #ocwatch17 #my writing #Astra Veli #comission

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melonlordheroes · 5 years

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Garon vs. Xander, Take Two (Part 1)

-A month or so ago...-

-All is quiet now with the majority of the Order of Heroes busied elsewhere, but at the door to the Grand Hero Battlefield stands a lone prince in armor. His hand nervously runs over the relief in the door, seemingly lost in his own thoughts as he prepares mentally for the challenge lying in wait beyond it.-

Xander: ...

Veronica: Preparations are complete.

Xander: Mm?

-Startled back out of his thoughts, Xander turns quickly to find his team from last time standing behind him. Quan offers a reassuring smile along with Olwen, who's intensely studying Thunderhead as if trying to memorize every spell in its pages. Veronica herself reaches over to pat Xander's back with a smile, earning one back from the Nohrian Crown Prince.-

Xander: I appreciate your assistance, Lord Quan. Olwen. Veronica.

Quan: It's nothing- a man's only as good as his oath. I'm confident we can get you through this battle this time.

Olwen: (looks up from tome, snaps it shut) I fully intend to support you. After what I learned from Corrinne and Corrin about Garon's actions... I'd never sleep at night if I didn't join with you against such a despicable man.

Veronica: Regardless of who I am or where I came from, the one thing I know to be true across EVERY Zenith is that you were kind to me. And I direly wish to repay you for that.

Xander: Still. Thank you, everyone. As per last time--

Quan: Leave Garon to you. (nod) I'd not dream of taking away such a vital victory. Olwen and I should be able to maneuver him about the field with minimal issues- then when the time is right...

Xander: Exactly. I'll be relying on all of you.

-With that, Xander leads the group of cavalry into the battlefield. Olwen takes position to his right, while Quan and Veronica cover the rear. Garon stares down his son from across the room... and begins to laugh.-

Garon: So, my eldest thinks himself king enough now? Very well. This ought to amuse me for a while...

Xander: ...

-Xander unsheathes Siegfried.-

Xander: ...Let's go. Father.

-The Grand Assha-- Hero Battle begins! Xander nods to his team to get into position as he charges into the range of the cleric and braces himself. Quan and Veronica head south to block off the routes by the walls while Olwen heads south by one get closer to Quan. The Cleric giggles as she runs forward swinging her Gravity staff. The attack connects with Xander, but his retaliation strikes are lethal. He takes in a quick breath and surveys the area as the rest of Garon's forces advance in and a Bow Cavalier and Red Mage Cavalier appear.-

Quan: Ah. Hello.

Veronica: (steps back and raises Hliðskjálf) Goodbye.

-Veronica and Quan blow away the two cavaliers. Quan leans back to ruffle Veronica's hair playfully, grip on Gae Bolg still firm.-

Olwen: Prince Xander, I'm moving into position- mind that swordsman, he's a swordbreaker.

Xander: (chuckle) No need to be afraid. I'm well out of his range.

Olwen: (laugh, smile) As you will, then. Lord Quan, I'm coming to reinforce you- that lance flier will be in next turn.

Quan: (huff) The ONE thing Gae Bolg can't kill--

-Quan slightly grumbles as Olwen takes stance behind him. Xander meanwhile scans the battlefield quickly and nods to himself stepping back only once. The green mage in front of Xander seems to notice something and nods to the infantry near her as she blasts Xander with a shot from her raventome. It does manage to sting him- enough to push him into Brazen range- but again, his return strike is more than enough to obliterate her as the swordbreaker infantry tries to close the distance and a red wolftome user appears with the lance flier Olwen mentioned.-

Veronica: (clicks her tongue) Oh, he thinks he's being cheeky does he?

Xander: (chuckle) All according to plan thusfar. Olwen?

Olwen: I'm well ahead of you. Lord Quan? Excuse me.

-Olwen bursts by Quan with a yell and smashes through the lance flier with a bolt from Thunderhead. Quan looks quite amused as he pushes ahead of her and gets into stance.-

Quan: And that's my cue. I'll handle the swordbreaker fellow. Princess Veronica?

Veronica: Coming! Xander, my spot should be safe.

Xander: (nods) Then, if you may.

-Veronica leads her horse to the far left, stacking up on Olwen with a tiny frown as she seems to realize something after doing some mental math.-

Veronica: Miss Olwen, Xander's not going to be able to oneshot that mage is he?

Olwen: You're correct, Princess Veronica. A second hit will finish him off, though.

Veronica: But-- oh. Vantage.

Olwen: (chuckle) I see you've been paying attention in class, though. Miss Tiki will be proud of her favorite student.

Veronica: M-me? The favorite...?!

-While Veronica ponders her newly-known status as "Miss Tiki's Favorite Student", the Swordbreaker runs forward to lock blade to lance with Quan. The Thracian lord grunts with some effort, but breaks the lock and gets in a good hit. A lone lance armor advances in, making him a prime target for Veronica who looks to Olwen for permission before moving back to her last spot. Olwen and Quan nod and begin to back up as to stay out of Garon's range. As Veronica returns, Xander rushes forward and brings Siegfried down on the Wolftome mage. The mage hisses as the sword's dark energy sparks through him, but just before he attempts to strike back Xander is able to bring Siegfried around and finish him off. The swordbreaker lets out a yell and smashes himself against Quan's lance only to be impaled with Gae Bolg and tossed into the air, vanishing into particles. A blue mage nods to the King of Nohr and heads toward Xander, who's breathing a bit heavily but seems prepared. The lance armor continues his advance, as does Garon, and the two axemen with him head toward Quan. Now with room to move, Veronica runs behind Xander as he unleashes Astra on the blue mage.-

Quan: (huff) Can't say I'm a fan of the axemen headed our way.

Olwen: All due respect to you, milord, but...

Quan: "Don't be a baby, they can't reach you". Right?

Olwen: Perhaps not the exact words I would have chosen, but sufficient to get my point across. (chuckle)

Quan: (nods, then looks to Xander) I'll hold my position here. My apologies, Prince Xander, you may have to deal with that Axe Cavalier for me...

Xander: No concern necessary, Lord Quan. I've quite got this handled.

Veronica: I've stacked up on him now, so he's within my ward. Will you be fine, Miss Olwen?

Olwen: (realizing how close Garon is, seething) I am absolutely fine, little one. Let that bastard come. Thunderhead and I are well prepared to deal with him.

Garon: (laughs- it's an almost barklike sound) Honestly... Xander, you should know better. You've cornered yourself now- the second that armor gets ahold of you, you'll die. A fitting end for a traitor...!

-Xander pauses, but shakes his head to clear it and adopts a defensive stance.-

Xander: I'm far less of a traitor than you are, Father. For your crimes against Nohr... and our family... it's my duty as Crown Prince to bring an end to you. (quietly) As it should have always been.

-The axecav screams and runs right, only to be batted away by Xander before he can so much as glance at Siegfried. The Lance Armor and Axe Infantry head for Xander, while Garon seems to have taken notice of Olwen and is headed for her. The Thracian mage grips her tome and glares the king down, ready to lash out with Thunderhead at the first second.-

#grand hero babble #melon lord heroes #THIS HAS BEEN IN DRAFTS FOREVER JUST TAKE IT

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kayawagner · 6 years

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Review: Warhammer 40,000 Wrath & Glory – Part 2

In the previous part of the review we looked closely at the core mechanics and the game’s elaborate character creation. This time we start with a look at combat in W&G , which of course plays an important role in a 40k roleplaying game. The setting’s motto is “there’s only war” after all.

Surprisingly W&G is not a miniature-based game. With a roleplaying game based on a popular tabletop miniature wargame one might have expected a strong focus on tactical combat using miniatures. But Ulisses opted for a more freeform and cinematic approach. There’s a sidebar with some tips on how to use miniatures in combat but W&G uses “theatre of the mind” combat. The approach to initiative is almost “old-school” with player characters and NPCs acting in a back-and-forth manner. The default assumption is that the players act first (if they haven’t been ambushed). Players and the GM may also use “Seize the Initiative” to let two of their characters to act before the other side is allowed to make their move.

When it comes to threats Wrath & Glory puts enemies into four distinct groups: Adversaries (basically main antagonist for an adventure or campaign), Elites (combat-focused NPCs which act as lieutenants or bodyguards for Adversaries), Monstrous Creatures (basically monster which are immune to being pinned, staggered or suffering from fear), and Troops which are nameless enemies which are quickly disposed of. Groups of troops are called a mob, which basically act as one unit.

In W&G characters may take one move and one action per turn. A move means the character can move up to their Speed in meters this round. Run is a special action which allows the character to move a second time. Sprinting is another action which allows movement up to double the character’s speed, but they suffer a negative modifier to their Defense until their next turn. Tactical Advance is another special move which allows a character to move from cover to cover without losing their defence bonus, but it reduces the speed to one half. Aside from that there are rules for swimming, jumping, crawling and flying, so all cases should be covered.

Possible Combat Actions in W&G are Manifest Psychic Power, Melee Attack, Interaction Attack, Investigate, Ranged Attack, Stealth and Use Object. The attacks are pretty straightforward. You assemble a pool from the attack skill your using and the related attribute plus any modifiers for cover, talents and so on. The result is compared with the target’s defense. If you have more successes than needed you can shift 6s to Extra Damage. Some weapons also cause Extra Damage which you have to roll separately. The damage caused is then compared to the target’s Resilience. If the damage equals but not exceeds the target’s Resilience, it suffers d3 Shock. If the damage exceeds Resilience, the target suffers 1 Wound per damage point above Resilience. Shock damage is caused by the psychological stress of war and fatigue. A character with Shock reduced to 0 is exhausted. Wounds are actual damage. A character with Wounds reduced to 0 is unconscious or dead (lesser threats die, adversaries and player characters are usually only unconscious and might live to fight another day). Player characters and important NPCs may also try to soak damage. After a successful check, they may convert lethal damage into shock. Neat.

The Interaction Attack is a taunt, trick, an intimidation or a maneuver meant to distract the foe. It’s basically a placeholder action for all the cool stunts and weird ideas players and GMs come up with.

Aside from the actions listed below, the game offers an even longer list of combat options including Aim, All-Out-Attack, Called Shots, or the always popular multi-attack. Of course they also didn’t forget an extensive Critical Hit Chart, which is a must-have for every roleplaying game set into the Warhammer universe. The critical hit rules also mention a Wrath Deck, which can be used as a replacement for the aforementioned chart.

This review would not be complete if I didn’t mention the large amount of various combat effects, complications, and memorable injures, the rulebook mentions. Overall the combat rules are IMHO a mixed bag. I like that the game offers quite a few interesting options for the tactical-minded gamer, but the combat rules also add a lot of fiddly bits to the elegant and simple core rules. The combat rules are also one section which could have benefitted from some more editing and a better organization. But if you don’t mind some tactical depth and a bit of added complexity during combat, you should be fine.

Wrath & Glory has rules both for vehicular and Voidship (space ship) combat which fit neatly into the existing rules for character-scale combat.

Chapter five is focused on adventuring and covers rules including but not limited to the passage of time, movement outside combat, enviromental hazards, warp travel, social interactions, and threatening tasks. Threatening Tasks is Wrath & Glory’s way of handling extended tasks. You may know something similar from D&D 4th Edition in which they called it a Skill Challenge. It’s basically a number of tests which are necessary to complete a problem which shouldn’t be solved with a single test alone – mostly for dramatic reasons. Threatening tasks usually take 3 to 5 rounds and there are 3 to 5 steps to fulfill. At the start of each turn a Wrath Card is drawn. If any character shares one or more of the keywords on the card, they may attempt to overcome this step. If the players are having bad luck, the GM may allow them to spend Glory to draw an additional card. Last but not least characters can attempt Desperate Acts to complete all remaining steps in a single round. In this case the DN for the remaining tests is modified by +2 for each step to fulfill.

On paper Threatening Tasks sound interesting as a game mechanic, but I fear luck (or the lack of it) is actually more important than skill in these situations. Threatening Tasks are also another use for the Wrath Cards and it seems a mandatory one. I wouldn’t mind if the cards were included in the core rules, or if it was clearly mentioned on the back cover of the book, that special card decks are needed. Unfortunately this is not the case. Luckily a GM can just ignore this step and allow the players to attempt to solve a step every round.

The sixth chapter is all about wargear. This chapter has descriptions and statistics for every weapon, armor, tool, or cybernetic implant you could need. There is even an extensive list of weapon upgrades. I should probably mention that Wrath & Glory doesn’t use money. Equipment is acquired by using one’s Influence and rarer and restricted equipment is harder to get. This makes a lot of sense to me. Warhammer 40K is about larger-than-life heroes and campaigns of epic proportions and not book keeping or paying taxes.

The vehicles listed in this chapter are all meant for battle. It would have been nice to get some examples for civilian vehicles in the 40K universe, but I guess they will add more vehicles and gear in future publications. Unfortunately the list of Voidships is pretty limited. The core rulebook contains the stats for an Imperial Frigate, an Eldar Frigate, and an Ork Rok. Last but not least the chapter contains a long list of trinket and charms in the form of three d66-based random tables. Examples are “the milky eye of an Astropath suspended in a vial of preservative fluid” or “an ornate silver snuffbox. The snuff within is fortified with trace amounts of xenos pollen”.

Chapter seven focuses on Psychic powers. Psychic powers in the 40k universe are basically magic just by another name. Just like in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition (and the upcoming 4th Edition) using magic or in this case psychic powers, opens the character’s mind to the warp. This also means that things can go very wrong if you roll a 1 on your Wrath dice if you attempt to manifest one of your powers. At this point another card deck gets mentioned: the Perils of the Warp deck. Alternatively you can roll on a table to determine what happens. Results go from flickering lights, a touch of hoarfrost to daemonic possession, blood rain, and psychic overload which may really ruin your psyker’s day.

The list of available psychic power is quite extensive and contains not only combat-oriented powers, but a lot of utilitarian ones as well. I included an example of one of the powers below.

The chapter concludes with a section of Corruption. What would a Warhammer game be without the taint of the warp, the corruption of one’s body and soul? Whenever a character is exposed a source of corruption (like depravity, extreme violence, psychic powers, or even just radiation) they have to make a Corruption check. If unsuccessful they get 1 Corruption Point. Each 5 points Corruption advances one level and the character has to make a Malignancy test. If this test is unsuccessful, the character shows mental or physical effects of their corruption. A character with more than 26 corruption becomes a chaos spawn and turns into a NPC under the GM’s control.

The Game Master chapter covers the basics of what a game master’s job is, but more importantly Wrath & Glory gives advice on how to bring the Dark Imperium to life. Even though you are free to set your campaigns anywhere within the Milky Way, W&G specifically is set into the Dark Imperium, which is the part of the Imperium of Man cut off from the light of the Emperor. This chapter explores the themes of the setting and gives tips on how include these into your campaign.

The “Campaigns and Frameworks” section provides GMs with examples for campaigns for the various Tiers of play from the Honour Imperialis campaign framework which focuses on a platoon of Astra Militarum soldiers, to the Our Vigil Begins framework which is about Deathwatch Kill-teams reminiscent of FFG’s Deathwatch RPG.

Overall the chapter provides GMs with information on how to design adventures, how to play NPCs, how to award Wrath during the game or how to balance encounters. The advice is usually pretty good but aside from the sections which focus on the peculiarities of the 40k setting, it’s not very useful to veteran GMs.

The Wrath & Glory core rulebook concludes with an extensive bestiary which contains a wide variety of threats for your players. Aside from the usual suspects like the various xenos, demons, and human threats, this chapter also gives details on a couple of alien beasts you might encounter on your travels.

The core rulebook also contains a two-paged character sheet and a one-paged index. Unfortunately neither the index nor the table of contents are hyperlinked.

So the big question remains. Is Wrath & Glory worth your time and money? Without hesitation I can say: yes, it is! Wrath & Glory may have some rough edges but it is an impressive labor of love nevertheless. The core rules are solid, simple, and easy to learn. The combat rules are a bit more complex, and at times I feel there are too many fiddly bits, but overall they should work just fine. What I love about W&G is the fact that it provides us – for the first time – with a single ruleset which can power campaigns of varying power levels. Even transferring characters between campaigns should be easily done. That’s quite an achievement if you consider that there’s quite a power gap between a Human hive ganger and a Primaris Space Marine. The organization of the book is a bit haphazard at times, but if you can overcome this minor issue, Wrath & Glory is a real gem. I can’t wait to actually play it.

Wrath & Glory is currently available digitally from RPGNow or the offical Ulisses ebook store (which is actually powered by OneBookShelf, so you can use your existing RPGNow or DTRPG account to login). The 458-paged PDF sets you back €25.81 or your local equivalent. There’s also a print edition available which you can get directly from Ulisses or your friendly neighborhood game store.

Review: Warhammer 40,000 Wrath & Glory – Part 1

Warhammer 40.000 Wrath & Glory Interview

Wrath & Glory: Blessings Unheralded now available

Review: Warhammer 40,000 Wrath & Glory – Part 2 published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

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