#first time playing shadow dragon so I didn’t know what to expect

[unmeiokaemasu]

marth and my two unexpected mvps

[brittle-doughie]

Introducing the Y/N plush! And the cookies and what they do with said plush!

The cookie in the second image are, shining glitter, pomegranate, chess choco twins, golden cheese, caramelon, custard the lll, black pearl, licorice, lychee, komiho, Affogato, lilac, onion, stardust, space doughnut, timekeeper, shadow milk, white lily, snap dragon, pitya, abyss monarch and fire spirit. And if your wondering, the two drawings took 6 hours total-)

The Earthbread Big Seller!

I can tell which of the two took you the longest. I would like to know what it says next to Snapdragon if you can!

“Amazing Y/N Plush! Collect your very own doll to keep. Be the first one on your block to own the amazing new Y/N Plush! Please do not fight over them!”

[A large line had formed at Butterbear’s shop! Cookies of the sea and sky have emerged too to get their very own plush!]

Many fans had considered Shining Glitter’s latest show to be one of her best! She couldn’t take all of the credit though, she had help!

She cuddled close the Y/N plush she had next to her mic stand. She can count on it to allow her to give it her all, as if Y/N themself was watching her!

Having her own plush hold up a mirror for her to help fix her hair up already made itself more useful to Pomegranate than a certain cookie in the CoD.

She took a quick look around before she took it with her to bed, dozing off with the plushie clutched tightly in her arms.

The Chess Choco duo loved that they now have an observer to their chess games in the form of their own Y/N plush! They didn’t expect one or the other to pull anything tricky, but it was nice to have some sort of reassurance that no sneaky tactics came into play!

They split the time in half with how much each of the two got to have the plush. It doesn’t stop disputes from breaking out that had Earl Grey stepping in from time to time!

One of Golden Cheese Cookie’s favorite things to do with her Y/N plush would be to dress it up in whatever amount of riches she can put on it the little doll.

One of her favorite outfits for it is one that makes the plush look like a resident of her own kingdom, complete with wings to match hers. Something she has planned for the real deal when she gets the opportunity!

Carameleon Cookie was so stoked to have a buddy to call his own within the forested areas close to the Silver Kingdom. It sure beats being alone all the time!

He can tell you that he isn’t too attached to the thing as he waits for the actual Y/N Cookie to come by. He just..doesn’t want to lose it, okay?!

It was good to have one of his loyal subjects always around to listen what he had to say! Even if it was just a plush version of them, Custard Cookie III could spend minutes just talking to the plush as if it were a real cookie!

It’s why he considers it as one of his best subjects in the kingdom! Right behind the real Y/N Cookie, of course!

Black Pearl’s Y/N plush is nothing short of the best thing to ever grace her waters. It was down to the very last detail the cookie of her dreams had.

She’d never tire of it, acting protective over the plush, something she’d be more aggressively so if the real Y/N Cookie was with her! The plush will look amazing within her dwelling!

Licorice Cookie didn’t care about Pomegranate’s venom spewing mouth these days, not when he has his bestest friend, the Y/N plush, with him!

He can truly confide his secrets and feelings towards the little plush, like his feelings towards Y/N Cookie, but it better not blab to you! He even uses the plush as a guardian for his diary!

Ha! Why wait in line for a plush when Lychee Dragon could just swipe it from that fumbler, Kumiho Cookie! She didn’t appreciate Y/N Cookie enough, so why not give it to a dragon that certainly will!

Kumiho was not having it though, angrily coming after the dragon for stealing her darling in plush form! She did not let Lychee’s lies get to her, she’s taking back that plush!

Affogato Cookie could just monologue all day to his plush on how he plans to take over the throne one day and Y/N Cookie will join him as part of that dream!

He’d promise nothing but the best life for you with a luxurious life with no worries or limits as he went to caress the plush’s cheek. The best victory would be to have you for himself while that Caramel Arrow Cookie watched! He can’t stop giggling to himself about it!

With how popular these plushies were getting, Lilac was particularly watchful of his. He already called it his own with the lilac scent and he’ll bring down anyone swiping his plush from him.

He always keeps it on his person, both as a precaution and that he has easy access to it to hold and cuddle close when he’s needy. It’s what he would’ve done to the actual Y/N Cookie.

Blackberry Cookie can always count on Y/N Cookie to help settle down Onion during one of her crying bouts, she enjoyed the company from them too. So it was a total win when she received a plush for herself and for Onion.

Onion always liked to go to bed holding both her doll and plushie to ensure a good night’s rest without the fear of a nightmare waking her up, for she trusts the Y/N plush to help her even in her dreams.

Stardust doesn’t mind sharing his Y/N plushie with his friend, Space Doughnut. After all, they share the same trait of seeing Y/N Cookie as a dear friend. Space Doughnut was just as trusting with theirs to Stardust as well!

Space Doughnut does get overly excited when they could play around with BOTH plushies, making Stardust laugh with a smile as Doughnut happily played the two plushies.

Was it really any surprise that Timekeeper Cookie wanted to be greedy and have a number of Y/N plushies? They’re her favorite, why wouldn’t she take them? It wasn’t like the original owners could prove anything against her.

Timekeeper Cookie cuddled herself amidst her plushies without a care in the world, relishing in seeing the face of the cookie she liked all around her. Though it wouldn’t hurt to try and grab a couple more to her collection…and then Y/N Cookie themself!

Shadow Milk’s puppet show was going to be wonderful with the guest of honor being Y/N Cookie themself! Almost! He was able to obtain a plushie from one of his clown faeries and he was absolutely adoring it!

The plushie is always going to be a part of his puppet shows, interacting with a doll of himself that he made. How romantic it would be if the two stuffed dolls danced and smushed together to replicate a kiss! It even made Shadow Milk himself blush at the thought of you and him possibly doing that too~

One of the faeries had gently opened White Lily’s glass case, placing down a Y/N plush they had gotten for her. She immediately grabbed it and clutched it tight close to her, a smile on her face being the indicator that she liked the plush already.

One of the faeries had gotten curious about what made this plushie so dear to her as she reached for it and tried to pull it out of her arms. She had to quickly reel her hand back when White Lily swiped at it, nuzzling the plushie closer to her body, shielding it from any further attempts.

Pitaya Dragon Cookie didn’t expect Snapdragon to enjoy their Y/N plush that much to the point that they whined for Pitaya to hand it over to them. While this was meant to be for Pitaya only, they didn’t mind it as they give it to the young dragon.

Snapdragon immediately swiped it up and flies around with the doll in their arms, babbling happily as they played around with the stuff toy. Pitaya couldn’t help but smile at the sight, it was just like when Y/N Cookie would play with Snapdragon themself…

Abyss Monarch Cookie didn’t find themself going out much, especially for something as small as a stuffed plush. Yet there they were, having went out and gotten a Y/N to call their own.

This sense of adoration they start to feel for this plush was almost on the same level as they had for Y/N Cookie themself. They gently picked it up and spun slowly around with it, was this feeling a sign and not a temporary emotion? This feeling of…longing…

Fire Spirit was so stoked to have receive his own plush that he couldn’t wait to have simmer down first before messing around with it, too enveloped in his own that his hands start to emit smoke touching the plush.

He started to freak out when he open his eyes to see that he had turned the plush into a pile of ash, crying in anguish as he tried to salvage what he can. He went back to Butterbear Cookie with the news and he was generous enough to give him a replacement, warning him to be more careful next time!

[marthawrites]

Would absolutely love Daemon + number 20 of the location-based smut prompts. Congrats on your followers, sweet Martha! Very well deserved. 💜

Hello secret anon (who isn't so secret hehehehe🤭) Thank you so much! This was a first AND a challenge. I hope I did your request justice!

A Day in the Life

Modern Daemon Targaryen x fem reader

Word count: 2.4k+

Location based smut prompts here with #20 being: while one muse drives,  they describe what they want to do to the passenger who isn’t allowed to touch themselves.

Includes: Established relationship (Daemon and reader live together, nothing else is specified), slice of life, dry humping, dirty talk, daddy kink, implied impact play, implied roughness, implied vaginal sex

Note: Hello lovely reader! This is my first time writing modern Daemon as well as this type of scenario. I hope you like this naughty little slice of life with our rogue prince. As always, reader is nondescript ♥ Please, enjoy!

-

Dawn's shades of pink and orange filtered into the room through lazily drawn curtains. The play of softening shadows and whispering colors sent all of Daemon Targaryen’s features ablaze. Through your sleepy eyes he looked otherworldly. He hadn’t yet stirred awake, and it was the peacefulness of his body that drew you to him. What a shame to wake a slumbering dragon… but perhaps if you were gentle and quiet he might stay asleep. 

Might.

While laying on your side, and beneath the covers, you delicately slung a leg over his waist. Carefully balancing your weight on your knees, your hands splayed over his bare chest as you leaned down to brush the tip of your nose against his. You kissed him. More of a graze of your mouth against his than anything else. Smirking to yourself at the feeling of his morning stiff cock beneath your center, you bit into the swell of his bottom lip.

No, you didn’t want to be gentle. You wanted him up and eager like you were. “I know you’re awake,” you whispered on his cheek before kissing along his jaw.

A rumble sounded somewhere deep in his chest. A groan, a laugh, you weren’t entirely sure, but its reverberation vibrated beneath your hands. “I am now, you little devil,” he said in a voice thick with sleep. 

Music to your ears. "As soon as my eyes opened I saw you. And you know I can't resist you," you said. You flexed your thighs around Daemon’s middle and he sighed contentedly. He only wore sleep bottoms, and you only wore one of his shirts with your underwear beneath. Very little stood in the way of your bodies joining together. It'd be easy. So easy. A tug of his waistband, and a slide of your underwear, and you could be sinking down on each of his glorious inches until he met your body’s end. Your hips shimmied, slowly, on their own accord.

"Are you already wet, princess? Barely awake and already soaking for my cock…," he tsked as if hot blood didn't rush to the entirety of his manhood.

A second smirk played on your lips. Your fingers pushed through his short hair – a fresh cut – and you tugged. Lightly. "You only call me princess when I'm sucking you off or riding you into oblivion."

"You're grinding that wet little pussy all over me. I bet there's a damp spot on my pants right now." His hands squeezed your hips and he gladly guided you along. The lovely hue of his eyes locked on you – a shark smelling blood – and he swelled even harder beneath you.

While you were hoping for a little fun this morning, you weren't quite expecting this. You ached. The low muscles of your belly quivered in anticipation as he moved you to a rhythm he liked.

"Yeah… yeah, just like that. Grind that needy clit all over my cock," he whispered hotly. Just when breath started coming quicker to both of you, need turning into nothing short of primal lust, your phone on the headboard started ringing. 

"You gotta be joking," you whined exasperatedly. Answering, it was one of your coworkers. Your eyes widened as she talked; whole mood shifting. "Oh shit–! Okay. Yeah, yeah. No, I completely spaced it. I'm so sorry. Be there asap." 

"You truly are a devil for waking me up like this only to run away." A shadow of something darker flickered across his features. Yet, somehow, an air of arrogance and sarcasm managed to remain in the forefront of his expression.

"Desmond Manderly’s daughter needs her cake today. I could have sworn it was for tomorrow! I'm so sorry. I'll make it up to you later, I promise," you said as you quickly rolled from atop him and began to get ready for the early, and long, day at the bakery.

Daemon did laugh at that. "Shrewd man. Hope you aren't too distracted today, kitten, otherwise you'll have some serious answering to do. Everything better be perfect for his little girl." The panic on your face was much too entertaining for him.

"Oh, God," you groaned. "I know! I'll see you later!" You kissed him goodbye with such chaste it made his cock ache all over again; how could someone be so quick and innocent with their affection after just grinding and teasing him to full attention? With the full intention of fucking him absolutely silly?

A succubus. Undoubtedly.

Between the cakes, frosting, fondant, and sugar decorations, there were three of you working on the Manderly girl's order. All of you had culinary school under your belts as well as dozens – maybe hundreds – of cake orders completed together. This was just another one. Nothing to get too worked up about. That's what you kept telling yourself, anyway. 

It didn't help that your mind was elsewhere all morning. You had half a mind to lock yourself in the bathroom and rub one or two out to release some of the pent up tension you had in your body. It wouldn't be the same, though, and you knew that. 

You wanted Daemon. 

Fuck. You wanted him so bad. 

A natural break happened between the timing of everything, and you actually were able to slip away into the bathroom for a few minutes without feeling guilty. You snapped a couple selfies to send him. Innocent. At first. It didn't take long, however, for your photos to grow more and more lewd with each press of the capture button. The final round of photos – the filthiest you dared to be in a bathroom at work – you sent with the message:

miss you, daddy

You hung out as long as you could before having to return. Daemon never sent anything back. In fact, it looked like he hadn't even read them yet. He must be busy, you thought, before exiting to return to the job at hand.

Enough time passed that the cakes were cooled enough to begin the decorating process before your phone dinged with a text message. You tried very hard to ignore it and continue working away, but as it went off a second time, and a third, all self-control flew out the window. “Be right back,” you said to one of your fellow bakers before stepping away from them to read your texts. 

Judging by the timing and angle of the photos he sent back, he must have been in a meeting with his elder brother, Viserys, and other important people to the Targaryen business. His family was messy and you tried your best to stay out of the drama. The photo was taken with his right hand, and the angle captured his black slack covered thighs beneath the table, as well as his left hand atop the table. It was such an easy photo. Nothing, really, to someone who didn’t know your relationship. An accidental photo, perhaps. But, no. You knew Daemon all too well to know it was deliberate. You clenched. His message read:

Is Manderly’s cake suffering imperfections? 

A blush instantly bloomed beneath your face. When you took a second look at the photo, you noticed the font of his pants were visibly tighter than what you could imagine was comfortable; the blush spread up to your ears. The rest of this fucking cake was going to be unbearable to make. You replied, with the eye emoji:

can't promise anything now

When you returned to the kitchen the other girls immediately knew something was up. The combination of your blush, twinkle in your eye, and restrained little smile did all the talking you wouldn’t. “Daemon is just being silly,” you told them. “He knows we can’t mess up on this and he’s being a horrible tease. I think he’s going to need the spanking tonight.” Giggles erupted and, surprisingly, the rest of the time didn’t go by as bad as you thought it might. 

Finally, in the early afternoon hours, the cake was finished and you all breathed a huge sigh of relief. Not a single line was out of place. It could have been a professional photoshopped photograph!

Upon stepping outside you were greeted by the most wonderful surprise. There, parked on the side of the road waiting for you, was Daemon in his red Aston Martin DBS Superleggera. Of all his vehicles it was his favorite. And it was your favorite, too. His best car for his best girl. “If I knew you were picking me up I’d have at least freshened up before coming out,” you said, laughing, as he rolled the window down. Thankfully you took your apron off at the very least! But there were still traces of flour, frosting, and whatever else on places the apron didn’t cover.

There was a sly glimmer behind his eyes. “Get it, sugar, we’ll pick your car up later” he said with a tilt of his head.

Happily obliging, you got in and closed the door. He rolled the windows up before merging onto the road. Grinning, he seemed unbothered by the fact you switched the music from his to your favorite instead. “Did you like what I sent you earlier?” You asked sweetly.

A laugh rumbled in Daemon’s throat as his eyes slid from the road to you, lingering. “Very much so. What were you thinking about when you took them?” Much as he wanted to look at you, and only you, he had to pay attention to the road, also. 

It was such a small, strange thing, something your friends didn’t quite understand, but… you loved, absolutely loved, the way Daemon looked driving. Especially his Superleggera. There was something about the set of his face when he concentrated, and something about the sharp focus of his eyes when his foot sank on the gas pedal – powerful engine roaring and rumbling – that made you want to open the front of his pants and take him in your throat. “Was thinking about you, of course,” you answered with dreamy eyes. Fuck he was so handsome. “I thought about making myself cum right there in the bathroom…,” you admitted, coy. “But I knew it wouldn’t be enough. Only you’re enough, daddy.”

“The first photo was my favorite. You’re so fucking cute when you look all innocent like that. Especially when I know how quickly you turn into a little slut. Fucking yourself in the bathroom? Even that is low for someone who woke up as needy as you did this morning,” he said, voice morphing into the tone that made you weak in the knees.

Blood blossomed behind your face. “Don’t act like you didn’t like it… the one you sent back made it very obvious. God. It made me want you even more.”

“My lap? Or cock?” He asked with a slow arch of brow.

“Both.”

“Perhaps I’ll bend you over my knee for distracting me like you did. I had to leave the meeting early. Viserys was livid.”

You stared at his hands on the steering wheel and squeezed your thighs together. Wide palms, fingers decorated with rings, skin rough and smooth alike. Your boundaries were always respected. Even moreso when you were over his lap receiving whatever punishment he deemed necessary. “Daemon…,” you whined, leaning further into his space. “Don’t tease me like that.” You rubbed one of your hands along the inside of his thigh, feeling over the front of his pants and the bulge which began to swell there.

He pushed your hand away. “Did I say you could touch me?” He asked, smirking despite the scolding.

You pulled back with a shake of your head. “No. But I want to.”

“And I want to stuff that pussy until your eyes roll back. But you don’t see me trying it right now, do you?”

Again, you shook your head, but this time you giggled, too.

“I bet you’ve been wet all day. I can’t believe you didn’t fuck yourself silly in that bathroom. Mmm…,” he paused, chuckling. “The next meeting, tomorrow, won’t be in person. Only online. You’ll stay home with me and I’ll find a good use for you. It’ll be dreadful anyway. I’ll need the distraction. And what better way than you? My pretty little princess slobbering all over my cock.”

That pet name always triggered something in you. “What about a distraction now?” You asked as you angled your body towards him, legs spreading apart, as you began to unbutton and unzip your pants, ready to tug them past your hips in an instant.

“While I’m driving? You naughty thing. If I won’t have you touch me, why the hell would I allow you to touch yourself?”

A part of you wanted to tease and touch yourself regardless of what he said... if only to see how angry he might get, and what he might do to you afterwards. Another day, perhaps, because for now all you could think about was how you left him this morning.

“I saw you think about it… good girl, baby, for not pulling those pants down. Here I was, too, thinking about all the ways I might bend you over my lap and smack your ass until its red from all the shit you've pulled today. You only call me ‘daddy’ when you want to get fucked brainless. And you've been moaning it all day."

Daemon's voice dripped down your spine like liquid fire and pooled in your core, quivering with the need to be taken by him. To be claimed, marked, and filled by his seed. "Oh my God… please. Yes, yes, yes. Please," you begged.

"Fuck, I'm so hard thinking about your ass pounding against me while I take you from behind. You like that best, I know you do. My hand tugging your hair… pulling it… squeezing your hip, scratching your back… you make the prettiest sounds." His voice graveled with restraint. Each word seemed heavier than the last. He flickered his attention to you and smirked, eyes dark. "You turn into my perfect slut. Cock hungry and fucking soaked, just like you should always be for me."

You actually moaned. "Get me home right now and fuck me before the door is locked," you said, mirroring him.

Small as your moan was, it went right to Daemon's uncomfortably constricted length and throbbed. He sped down the final stretch home, not needing to be told twice.

He was true to everything he said and more. You finally got to ride him, too, before taking a very long, very hot, and very distracted shower. Together.

-

Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed, please consider a follow, and/or reblog, and/or letting me know as it all makes me vvvery happy! ♥

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Masterlist

Main taglist: @watercolorskyy @melsunshine @girlwith-thepearlearring @arcielee @barbiedragon @dreamsofoldvalyria @bel-bottoms @fan-goddess

Daemon taglist: @sahvlren @vhagar-burns-for-him@boofy1998

[teaberrii]

Chapter 24: Cold Dragon Young

You've been Cupid for as long as you can remember. You've brought countless soulmates together, yet you've never found love.

When you're assigned to bring two childhood friends back together, it should be simple until you unexpectedly catch feelings for the mysterious and cold Ph.D. student, Dan Heng, the man with a soulmate… the man with answers to your past.

Dan Heng/You

Notes:

Cross-posted on Ao3

Female reader

Chapter index at the end of chapter one

You were late.

You were never late.

When you didn’t show up to the meeting spot, Pom took to the skies to look for you. The situation had begun spiralling out of control if not already. Zombies began appearing in the village. Hospitals and clinics were overwhelmed with people reporting symptoms of paralysis. Before the chaos, Pom had sat in a meeting between the North and the South as a fly on the wall.

“Forget about using them as weapons of war. It's clear they cannot distinguish friend from foe, Luocha had said, shooting the King of the South a sharp look. "We’d be lucky if this disease doesn’t spread beyond the North’s borders.”

“I’m afraid that’s already happening, Master Lucoha.” One of the nobles had an anxious expression as he said, “We’ve received reports just this morning about an attack in a small fishing village on the border with the South.”

"Have the news reached the Middle Kingdom?" Jing Yuan asked.

The nobles glanced at each other until one of them said, “We… We haven’t heard anything.”

“Is this really the time to be worried about them?” The King of the South sternly looked around the room. “I’m sure they can look after their own. Perhaps they are the ones who started this disease, and we played right into their trap.” 

“O-Or…” Everyone turned to a timid-looking, young noble. “W-What if we all worked together and—”

The King of the South started clapping slowly. “An excellent idea. Let them know that humans are suffering. It’ll be the perfect opportunity for them to off us all.” He glared at the noble. “Did you forget how much they know about magic?”

“That’s why—”

“Enough.” Jing Yuan’s command silenced the room. Then, his gold eyes swept the room. “Our priority is to get this disease under control.” He looked at the King. “I trust that those in the South are educated on what to look for, and the army is well prepared.”

The King of the South stood. “Of course. Look after yourselves first, Jing Yuan. If anything, the North would be the first to fall.”

Soon, Jing Yuan and Luocha were the only ones left. The room was quiet with the shadows of the men illuminated on the walls.

“I never expected things to turn out like this,” Luocha said quietly. “...Our revenge got out of hand.”

“No. This disease showed up out of the blue and killed the king before we could act. This was planned.”

A pause.

Then, Jing Yuan said your name. “There’s a pattern I’ve noticed amongst everyone who’s been infected. They all saw her.” He sighed as he remembered his wife's outburst. "She must've learned enough about magic to change her appearance."

Luocha crossed his arms. “Or… she used a concealment spell to make sure others would see her as a different person like what someone did.”

Jing Yuan put a hand on his hip. “Are we talking about her or me?”

“There’s something else I’m curious about.” Luocha began pacing as he said, “You’ve been awfully concerned about the Middle Kingdom."

"Your point is?"

"Are you worried about your mother?"

Silence.

Luocha walked up to him. " She turned you away. That's why you came to the North. To take revenge for your father and make her accept—”

“...Enough.” Jing Yuan had his hands on the table. His head was down. Finally, he looked up. “If the Middle Kingdom falls, we’re all in danger.”

Then, Pom flew out of the room.

Now, Pom was a crow, his eyes scanning the forest for any sign of you. He knew all of your secret shortcuts by now, so he wasn't worried that he wouldn't find you. It’s who or what could’ve held you up.

“Jing Yuan must’ve tricked her,” you had said. “Told her that he would be killing me instead of him.”

You and Pom had narrowed it down to one person who could’ve helped Jing Yuan conceal Young’s execution, and that was his mother.

“...That’s brutal,” Pom muttered. “I don’t want to imagine what she could’ve felt once she finds out the truth.”

“What I don’t understand is why she would help him,” you said, watching the black liquid in the pot come to a boil.

“What if she comes after you?” Pom asked.

“...I’m going to kill her.”

“What?” Pom forced you to look at him. “That’s reckless! You don’t know what she’s capable of. And… what about her connection to Jing Yuan? What if you kill her… and Jing Yuan comes after you?”

Your silence was deafening.

When Pom finally found you by a river, he wasn’t sure if you were the one whom he should be worried about.

Pom has his hands on his knees, tired from all the running. Where else could you’ve gone? He stands upright and checks his phone. There’s still no word from March who said she'll let Pom know if you've returned.

Eventually, Pom leaves the market and starts wandering in the surrounding area where, by a stroke of good luck, he finds you, Dan Heng, and Stelle in an empty park.

When Pom gets closer, he can see everything on Stelle’s face. Confusion. Frustration. Anger? Did you and Dan Heng tell her about Caelus?

“This is… some kind of joke, right?” Stelle finally asks. “Past lives… Gods… Curses… You possibly killing me?”

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” you say, “but I—”

“If what you said is true, then you killed Dan Heng’s mother.”

“And if what you said is true, she tried to kill me," you say, frowning. “I’m not here to start a fight with you, Stelle. I just want to know what happened. Sampo may have returned your memories, but it didn’t sound like he did it out of goodwill. We don't even know who he is."

As if sensing Pom’s presence, Stelle turns and sees him slowly approaching you. “...Well, Pom seems to know him."

"...Y'all were taking a while," Pom says, approaching you and Dan Heng. "I was getting worried."

You frown when you see the bruises on Pom's neck. “What happened?”

“Er, Sampo paid me a visit earlier today.”

“What did he want?” Dan Heng asks.

“He didn’t really say. Said a bunch of things that I didn’t understand. Something about gods making verdicts.” He exhales sharply. “I think we should talk to Lan and Nanook.”

“Already one step ahead of you, Rabbit.”

Stelle takes a step back when she sees two unfamiliar men appear from the shadows. Nanook walks up beside you.

“Who… Who are you?” Stelle asks.

“They’re harmless,” Pom reassures.

“Not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult,” Nanook says, rolling his eyes. Then, he looks Stelle from head to toe. “Damn. You look so much like your brother.”

“...You know Caelus?”

Nanook awkwardly scratches the back of his head when he catches the warning look from you and Dan Heng. “Ah… uh… I’ve seen him once.”

“Sampo is a mercenary from Hell,” Lan says. The Grimoire suddenly appears in the god’s hands. “He wrote how to create the Withering”—his eyes land on you—“and you were the one who made it into a reality.”

“He watched everything unfold from the sidelines,” Nanook says with a sigh.

When you close your eyes, you suddenly smell burnt, rotting flesh. You’re sweating from underneath the scorching heat. You hear a scream and then a man’s voice:

"You have something of mine, dearie.”

You put a hand to your forehead. Upon noticing your discomfort, Dan Heng puts an arm around you. “What’s wrong?”

But before you can say anything, Stelle asks, “What does he want? Why is he giving me back my memories? Why now?”

Lan looks at her. “Sampo said something about giving you a head start. Not sure what that means, but”—Lan suddenly appears in front of her—“now that you know everything that’s going on, I trust you won’t be foolish enough to side with Sampo.”

Stelle looks up at him. “...You’re wrong.” Lan narrows his eyes. “I don’t know everything that’s going on. I didn’t know about you or…” Stelle’s eyes eventually land on Nanook. “How do you know my brother? Does he have something to do with this?”

“Stelle—”

Stelle clenches her fists. “I thought we were friends, Dan Heng,” she interrupts. “If you knew something about him… you would never hide it from me. Not the Dan Heng I know.”

“Look, girlie,” Nanook says. “It’s complicated, all right?"

“Keeping a friend in the dark? That's not very nice, is it?”

Everyone freezes at the sound of Sampo’s disembodied voice.

“Too afraid to show yourself?” Nanook asks, frowning. “Coward.”

Suddenly feel someone’s hands on your shoulders. And, when you slowly turn, you see a set of familiar teal-coloured eyes.

“You’re looking well, Cupid.”

Dan Heng tries to pull you closer to him but your body refuses to move. So, he glares at Sampo and says, “Get away from her.”

Sampo looks at Dan Heng and smiles. “Let’s let Cupid decide for herself, shall we?” Your body is shaking as you desperately try to move. Dan Heng can see it in your eyes. Confusion. Terror. And frustration. But before he can do anything, Sampo suddenly appears in front of him with an intrigued look in his eyes. “The reincarnation of Cold Dragon Young… It’s like I’m looking right at him.”

Dan Heng slaps Sampo’s hand away, and Sampo’s eyes turn cold.

“Hey!”

Pom and Nanook’s cries mix with the sound of flesh being torn apart. Dan Heng’s face turns pale, and your eyes go wide as blood drips onto the ground.

Sampo’s lifeless eyes land on you. “How nostalgic. Am I right?”

As Pom landed on a tree, he overheard the conversation between you and this mysterious woman.

“If only you hadn’t gotten involved with him,” she said, her voice breaking. “Young would still be alive.”

You didn’t have time for this. As soon as you saw her, you knew this was Caelus’s sister. When you and Caelus were still friends, he mentioned he had a sister who looked exactly like him. Young had also told you he saved a human girl before he died.

“...From the way you describe her, she sounds like Caelus’s sister,” you had said.

“Caelus has a sister?” Young asked.

“A twin, apparently. I never met her though.”

You’d never thought you’d meet her like this. 

“You’re Stelle, aren’t you? I heard a lot about you from your brother.”

“...You know Caelus?”

“You said that if Young hadn’t gotten involved with me, he’d still be alive.” You scoffed. “Hate to break it to you, but your brother helped Jing Yuan kill him. You’re hating the wrong person.” You turned around, but before you could walk away, you narrowed your eyes. Then, you swiftly raised your blade and blocked her attack. “What part of you hating the wrong person did you not understand?”

“...It’s not just about Young,” Stelle muttered. “Your family—”

“Yeah, I know,” you deadpanned. “They were terrible people. Tell me something I don’t know.”

Stelle frowned. “My brother lost himself trying to get revenge for our mother. You… You’re the last of them. If you’re gone, my brother won’t have anything to do with Jing Yuan anymore.”

“Drop the knife.”

You didn’t need to turn to know who it was.

“Sorry for the holdup, Pom,” you said, easily pushing Stelle back.

Pom came up beside you but was looking at Stelle. "Drop the knife," Pom said again.

“...Stelle. Do what they say.” You turned around just as Caelus emerged from the shadows. “I’m going to be the one to kill her.”

Caelus suddenly charged toward you. A clash. Then another. And another. When you had him on the ground with your blade drawing blood from his throat, you said, “Eavesdropping, were you?" You smiled. "You’re making this too easy for me, Caelus.”

You glanced to your right upon sensing someone coming up behind you. Then, you closed your eyes and moved so fast that Stelle didn’t have time to stop her blade from piercing his brother’s heart.

“No!”

You catch Dan Heng when he falls to his knees. Lan glares at Sampo who’s holding Dan Heng’s heart in his hands.

“What are you trying to do?” Lan spat. “You don’t gain anything from killing him.”

Sampo smiles. “Well, I wouldn’t say that.” He looks over his shoulder at Stelle who’s shaking and looking at her hands. “Seems like I sparked something.”

With Nanook supporting Dan Heng, you stand and make a grab at Sampo's throat. His eyes widen at your swift movements, but rather than being scared, he’s intrigued. Your eyes are wide with anger, and Sampo feels the air leaving his lungs.

Then, in a strained voice, he asks, “Are you sure you want to kill me, dearie?”

Pom appears beside Sampo and grabs his wrist, forcing him to drop Dan Heng’s heart into his hand.

“He won’t be the same. The man you knew… He’s already dead.”

Then, with a snap of his fingers, Sampo is gone.

“You’re putting it in wrong!” Pom cries.

“Well, gosh, Rabbit, I didn’t know you were also a fucking surgeon!”

While Pom uses his jacket to stop the bleeding, you get on your knees and put your hands over Dan Heng's wound. “I’ll heal him,” you say, voice shaking.

“Sampo's going to pay for this,” Nanook mutters as he watches you work your magic.

“...What are you doing to him?” Stelle is now beside Nanook.

“What do you think, girlie?” Nanook answers for you. “None of us want the kid to die.”

You’re so focused on Dan Heng that you don’t notice a small light coming from inside your pendant. Lan is the first to notice but keeps quiet. When the light inside your pendant dims, Dan Heng slowly opens his eyes.

“Dan Heng!” He slowly turns to you, but his eyes are strangely bright as if they’re glowing. You have a hand on his cheek as he gently smiles at you.

Pom grabs Nanook’s hand. “He’s okay!” The god shakes it off.

“Can you stand?” you ask as you put an arm to support him.

When you help him to his feet, Dan Heng takes your hand. “I’m fine.”

You help him walk a few steps before Stelle catches up and asks, “Are you sure?” Her eyes land on his wound. “That still looks pretty bad…”

Nanook is the first to notice Lan staring at Dan Heng. “You’re staring at the kid pretty intensely. You think he cheated death?”

“...Hard to say.”

Before Nanook can ask, Pom sighs. “What are we going to do about Sampo?”

“You mean Mr. Drama Queen?” Nanook asks flatly. “Even though just ripped the kid’s heart out, I doubt he’ll do that again. He doesn’t gain anything from killing him.”

“But that doesn’t mean we should take him lightly,” Lan says. Then, he looks at Stelle. “Whatever you saw… it’ll never be as bad as falling into Sampo’s trap. It’d be in your best interests to let us know if he comes to find you again.”

“...Right. Sure.” Stelle looks at Dan Heng. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Dan Heng gives her a small nod.

Pom clears his throat as he looks at his phone. “Well, I just stopped Gepard and March from calling the police on us. We’d better head back.”

Nanook smiles. “What’s the occasion?”

◆◆◆

When March opens the door, her jaw nearly drops. “Nanook?”

“Long time no see, my sugarplum fairy.” March gags and Nanook gives her a sarcastic smile. “May we come in?”

“What took so long?” Gepard asks as March steps aside and watches everyone walk inside.

“We… got held up,” Pom says. He tugs on Lan’s arm. “And it was Lan here who got us out of it! He’s an old friend of ours.” Pom looks at Lan who has the most intimidating expression. The god narrows his eyes at the shapeshifter when he tries to make him smile.

“Why am I here?” Lan mutters under his breath.

“Lighten up and have some fun with the humans once in a while," Nanook says quietly. “Besides, if Mr. Drama Queen shows up, having some extra manpower wouldn't hurt.”

"Don't you mean godpower?" Pom asks.

They give him a deadpan look.

“What happened to your shirt, Dan Heng?” Gepard asks worriedly upon noticing the badly patched rip near his chest.

“He fell,” Pom says quickly.

March raises a brow. “How did he fall to get injured near the chest?”

“We’ll explain later,” Stelle unexpectedly says. Then, she looks at him. “...You can change into one of Caelus’s clothes.” She gestures for him to follow her. “Come on.”

“...Caelus,” Dan Heng says quietly.

“He wouldn’t mind. He borrows your shirts all the time.”

Dan Heng looks at you, and you force a little smile and let go of his hand. While Nanook and Pom are getting drinks with March and Gepard, you subtly watch Dan Heng follow Stelle upstairs before Lan comes up beside you.

"Your locket," he says. "I saw it glow when you were healing Dan Heng."

You take it out of your shirt. "...Is it possible?" Lan looks at you. "Is it possible for someone to come back from the dead?"

Lan narrows his eyes. "Are you saying..."

"Young was killed. I saw it with my own eyes," you say quietly. "But he's..." With slightly shaky hands, you try opening it and succeed.

Upstairs, Stelle stops in front of Caelus’s room. But she doesn’t open the door. Dan Heng observes her, a hand in his pocket. Stelle relaxes her shoulders and finally turns around.

“...You’re not Dan Heng.” Stelle steps toward him. “Who are you?”

"You're very observant," Dan Heng says. "We've met before, Stelle. But not in this period."

“You’re…”

“Young. My name is Young.”

Stelle puts a hand on her forehead. “...I remember you. I… Oh, God.” Then, when she gets a hold of her emotions, she asks, “Where’s Dan Heng?”

“He’s safe.”

“How are you here? What’s going on? I… Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

“I’m here for one reason alone.” Then, he says your name and looks Stelle in the eyes. “I want to take her back with me.”

Downstairs, Nanook is getting increasingly annoyed at Gepard having his butt in his face in a game of Twister.

"Left hand green!" March says.

Pom taps your arm and gestures for you to follow him. In another corner of the room, he says, "I, uh, I have news."

“Me too,” you mutter.

“Well, you first.” Then, quietly, “I bet it’s not going to be as shocking as mine.”

Pom takes a sip of his drink. “Young’s back.” Everyone turns when Pom chokes and starts coughing. You give him some hard pats on the back before turning to everyone. “He’s fine. Don’t worry.”

When everyone goes back to whatever they were doing, Pom coughs and says, “How”—he hits his chest a couple of times—”How do you know?”

Dan Heng was alive. He was holding your hand, but… it was a feeling you couldn’t shake. Something was off. Perhaps it was the way he was holding your hand. While Dan Heng loved interlocking his fingers with yours, this time he's firmly cupping your hand. When you glanced at him, he also looked at you. Then, he leaned closer, and you heard him whisper, “...I’m back.”

Your eyes widened, and that was when you saw it. The horns. The tail. But it was all for a second before they disappeared again. You weren’t the only one who noticed.

“How…?” you ask quietly. “How is this possible?”

“When Sampo ripped out Dan Heng’s heart, he became an empty vessel.” You looked away, and your uncomfortable expression didn’t go unnoticed. “...He is my reincarnation. My doppelganger. When I died that night, I didn't go unprepared.”

You had so many questions. Did Young really die that night? Or, did he use magic to preserve his soul in your locket? Did that mean Dan Heng had to die for Young to come back? No. That couldn't be true. That—

"Dan Heng's alive," Young said as if reading your mind. "We're sharing the same body." His grip on your hand tightened. “I can feel everything he feels. He cares about you… a lot. Our feelings are the same.”

Young was your past. Dan Heng was your present. But who was going to be your future?

After telling Pom about the conversation between you and Young on your way back, Pom had to sit down. “Well, gosh,” he mutters. “Maybe that’s why Young couldn’t tell us how to open the locket.” Then, in a slightly lower tone, “All you have to do is to rip out your boyfriend’s heart and poof! I’m back, baby!” Pom looks up at you. “...What are you going to do?”

“I… I’d rather sleep on it for now,” you say. “What’s important right now is that Dan Heng is alive.” You sit next to Pom. “It’s your turn. What did you have to tell me?”

Pom is fidgeting as he contemplates telling you what he knows. Is Young taking over Dan Heng's body a mere coincidence? Is this the happy ending everyone is hoping for: You moving on with Young?

“Pom?”

Pom looks at you. “Ah, well, um… I… I had a dream about us.” You wait patiently for him to go on. “The thing is—”

Someone’s phone suddenly starts ringing just as Stelle comes down the stairs.

“Hey, Stelle, your phone’s ringing!” March says.

Just as Stelle picks up her phone, Young comes down the stairs wearing one of Caelus’s shirts. Gepard passes Young a drink just as Stelle says, “...Missing? What do you mean Caelus is missing?”

◆◆◆

The bright lights of the city are a complete blur as Caelus stares straight ahead. He has only one person on his mind, and that is you.

Stelle was still shaking. Her hands were still on the blade that had impaled her brother. She could see the life leaving his eyes as she cried. Without thinking, she began lifting the blade just when she heard your voice.

“I wouldn’t do that.” You crouched and looked down at Caelus who was staring at you. Without lifting your head, you looked at Stelle. “Take that sword out of him, and he’s a goner.”

Pom came up to Caelus’s side and watched as he spat out blood.

“Get… Get out… of here, Stelle.”

“I’ll fix this,” Stelle cried. “I… I promise. I…”

You and Pom glanced at each other. Then, with a small smile, you said, “There is a way to save him.” With a snap of your fingers, a vial with black mist inside appeared in your hand. “With just a little bit of magic.”

"No!"

You found the outburst amusing. "Caelus mentioned you weren't a fan of magic. You won't even use it to help heal your brother?" When Stelle said nothing, you pointed your blade at her. She froze. “If not for your brother, Young would still be alive.”

Caelus knew what you were trying to do, but he was powerless to do anything about it. The words wouldn’t form, and even if he tried to speak, his heart felt like it was being pierced by a million needles.

"Your brother won't die… unlike what he did to Young." You could see everything in her eyes. They may be family, but you could tell there was bad blood. You opened the vial. "I was never your enemy, Stelle. Caelus took away someone important to both of us."

With tears in her eyes, Stelle looked up at you. “But you’re a part of them. You’re still one of—”

“There are some things in life you cannot change. Your family is one of them. But I can change who I am, who I choose to become.” You put a hand over Caelus’s mouth. “This is but a small payback for what he did to me. To us.”

Caelus gagged and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as you forced him to inhale the mist.

"Wait!" Stelle tried to stop you, but it was already too late. You quickly pulled back when the deed was done. " ...C-Caelus?” Stelle held his brother's arms as he convulsed on the spot.

You stepped back, and Pom walked up to you. “The curse is getting stronger…”

“...Let’s go.”

Just as you and Pom turned around, Stelle screamed, and the sound of flesh being torn away was all that could be heard.

But you and Pom were already gone.

Caelus stops within a crowd. Looking around, everyone is either staring ahead or at their phones. No one notices the fog in Caelus’s eyes or how his veins are slightly darker and more noticeable than normal. He finally remembers everything, and the vicious cycle begins again.

Now, he’s out to find you. 

Chapter 25

End notes:

Surprise updatee! Well, I think it's a surprise lol I don't usually update at this time. But I took sick leave from work and used some of the time to work on this chapter.

I'm planning for just 3 more chapters of this story. It'll definitely not go over 30 chapters lol the next chapter will show more of your past friendship with Caelus.

Tag list: @suoshiii @lordbugs @seirenspinel @lxry-chxn @tanspostsblog @theprinceofkhaos @nqctre @lunavixia @akwardbiscuit @sunsethw4 @hiqhkey @n8mareee @vintagepoetryluna

[blysse-and-blunder]

In lieu of a long weekend

sunday, may 19, 2024 ~ 11:30pm

technically tomorrow is a day off but the nice thing about grad school is that means essentially nothing for me, and tonight still feels like a sunday night—but it was a beautiful, mostly work-free weekend up until now

reading i forget now whether i mentioned this in my last ilcb, but last month i listened to the audiobook of jenn lyons’ the ruin of kings, which means that now it’s time for the sequel! started these huge fantasy epics on the recommendation of @booksmithereens, who has yet to steer me wrong—but i will say that upon first getting started, I didn’t especially follow (or care) all that much about most of the world building, especially since trok starts in with a lot of slavery and physical / sexual violence. upon second read-through, because i did go back with the ebook as soon as i finished listening to trok the first time, i think i was able to take more pleasure from the characters’ dialogue—there are very funny moments—and from the originality of certain features of the series’ take on deities and magic. i’m 28% through the audio book of the second novel, the name of all things, and i adore that we’ve got a new snarky editor leaving footnotes and editorializing comments, and that we have a new female pov character who really adds to the (intentionally) one-dimensional view of her we were given in the first one. these are good companion books for when i’m toiling in the hollow knight mines (have i explained how i have hacked boss fights for myself by turning off the game sound and instead relaxing, listening to an audiobook, and just getting to focus on the visuals—the flow state this induces can last for. hours. and has yet to get old), and they are another worthy entry in the dragons/magic/demons/swords/prophecy type fantasy canon.

watching finally finished (screaming, cringing, laughing, etc) season one of the white lotus with g and @hematiterings. all things considered, an easier ending than i feared, weirdly? i lost count of full-body cringe reactions (from sheer gut-churning dialogue, not the way kids use ‘cringe’ these days) at like 10, and then we started season two (which we’ve all seen the first few episodes of) and the counter had to start over at the beginning. still fun though. still fun.

also watched the first three-four episodes of dungeon meshi! which i thought were excellent, but i now have just enough context to be really actually affected by casual spoilers, so i may have to blacklist it here on the blue hellsite for now, and watched episode 4 of house of the dragon this evening whilst folding my laundry. i am holding out for when this show introduces the new lead actresses because I have seen their interview in gifs going around and i would like to see it. so far though, i’m distressed by the politics and bored by the action, as is to be expected from a game of thrones show.

listening hmmm chappelle roan Hot to Go has been stuck in my head for a while now so let’s go with that. initially I thought the lyrics to most of her new album really didn’t live up to pink ping club (see my 2021?2? Ilcb where i went on at *length* about how good that song is) but you know what, we’re capable of admitting when we’re wrong and this is one of those times. H! O! T! T! O! G-O!

playing i got the sharp shadow charm in hollow knight today! Nosk and the enraged guardian have been kicking my ass by turns. i had so much geo I had been carefully carrying around and reclaiming every time i died because millibelle had her career pivot and closed my account 😝 and i finally lost it today. Alas. but since there was nothing i could buy at any of the three vendors i visited, it was all going to end up in the fountain anyway.

making this was a little while ago now, but i finally did it, i made a recipe following a b. dylan hollis video! the coffee loaf from 1959– surprisingly, i had all of the ingredients on hand (including powdered milk?!) and i was so excited by this that I didn’t stop to ask whether i *should* make this caffeinated baked good. recipe worked well, the consistency was great and all, but a single square inch of it and i feel like i’ve single-handedly drunk a pot of strong coffee. this is a me problem, i’ll grant you, but it is amusing to me that i’ve made a cake I physically cannot eat too much of in a single sitting. it is drying out in the fridge as we speak. heart palpitations aside, i am proud of it though.

working on it occurred to me today to look back at the timeline i made for myself at the beginning of the month, and i’m four days past the first deadline on it without having even really touched the chapter itself. blargh. sent two emails yesterday, and two that had been worrying me the day before, and worked a bit on the newsletter today. chipping away at things.

[numberonecameraman]

📢 Champions

When the Pokémon World Tournament happened a while ago, I was assigned to follow the contestants to get footage of them for the media. Never in my life have I met so many stuck-up, inconsiderate, and selfish people. I could talk about most of them for hours, so I’ll try to be brief.

Red was fine. He was extremely quiet, to the point he only said five words to me in almost a week of shadowing him. “Cool hat. I like it.” He also didn’t do much. He spent most of his days in the green room staring absentmindedly at a wall or playing with his Pokémon. Fine on paper, but the higher ups hated my footage since it wouldn’t make “good TV”. Not necessarily his fault but I associate the memory with him.

Blue… Imagine the most annoying teenager you’ve ever met times 10. I’m sure Blue could be a fine person in a vacuum, but since he was an “esteemed guest” at the PWT, he could essentially do whatever he wanted. I’ve never seen anyone eat as much as he did. He also loved being on camera. Every other second he would be pulling a stupid pose or asking me to record him during a practice battle. Just a pain to be around, overall.

Lance. The first words he said to me were, “Are you a fan of the Dragon Type?” That’s all he talked about to everyone and anyone he met for five days. Every second I spent with him was agony. The best part was when he challenged me to a battle right before he left and Laguna sweeped his team with Ice Beam, including his ““invincible”” Dragonite. Needless to say, he didn’t do as much bragging after that.

Steven is Lance with an off button. He loves rocks, he’s practically obsessed with them. The day we met he showed me his entire collection, which I have to admit was pretty cool. But after that, he rarely brought it up! He mostly kept to himself after that and even tried to have normal conversations with me. He also lives like a minimalist. He brought two bags to the event, one of which was entirely filled of duplicates of his standard suit. How he can afford those, I have no idea.

Wallace acted as though everywhere he went was the Nimbasa Music Theatre. Everything had to be a performance. Whether it was ordering food, talking to people, or signing autographs, every action was done with a dramatic flair. He also never stayed still for more than a few minutes. His catchphrase was, “You there [Me]! Let’s go someplace fun!”, even if it was 40 feet down the road. In his defense, a couple of them were pretty fun like the Marine Tube.

Cynthia and I seemed to share a “Let’s get this over with” attitude so we hit it off pretty well. However, despite getting along with her, I essentially became her answering machine. She would never make a decision without my input and it got old really fast. Her “body guard” Garchomp also took some getting used to. She’s a massive softie, but I think I still have rashes from her impromptu “hugs”.

I have mixed feelings on Alder. On one hand, he shot my dream of being Pokémon League Champion into the void. On the other hand, he seemed like a good person. He cared about my feelings and offered to talk with me about the Champion thing. Though that was more of a curse than a blessing. He loves to talk. A simple conversation about the weather can last up to 30 minutes. His jokes are terrible too. I want to like him, but never will.

Iris seemed like a repeat of the Blue situation at first. She was loud, bratty, and really irritating. But, as time went on, she calmed down and was genuinely fun to be around. She was incredibly mature but wasn’t afraid to be herself. Her team was awesome to see in battle too. If it weren’t for the horrendous first impression, she’d be my favorite Champion. Maybe I have a soft spot for kids.

That’s all the Champions I’ve met. I know there are others, but I can’t speak on them. From what I’ve seen, Diantha seems like a snob, the Alola League Champion is a boxer so I don’t know what to expect, Leon’s probably really stuck up, and I assume Geeta acts like my boss, which means I hate her by proxy.

[tkrbthree]

I started playing my first ever TTRPG a year or so ago.

Last week I was kicked off the table because I stormed out after being made to feel unwelcome and stupid and not listened to. It wasn’t cute. It happens.

What I’m most sad about is that my character is just in limbo now. He didn’t get to say goodbye. He won’t be just killed off.

He’s just a shadow.

The host/GM refused to let me send a little goodbye story I wrote, so I’m gonna post it here.

•••••••••••••••••

Tavish opened his eyes and looked around his room in the Otari village. It was very early in the morning. He stayed still for a moment and listened to the breathing of his companions around him. Every now and then Zoro would let out a great snore that made the others stir, but no one moved. It had been an exhausting day as they fought their way deeper into the Gauntlight.

It had been harrowing. The dark corridors; locked door after locked door; not knowing if a being they found was a friend or, more often, a foe. Always going deeper and deeper underground, getting closer and closer to the source, closer and closer to Belcorra’s secret.

He sat up slowly in bed. Those stealth lessons he had been taking from Mitoh had started to pay off. He didn’t think anyone stirred. And if they did, he’d tell them to go back to sleep, that he was just going to the bathroom or some residual terror was coming back from the day.

He didn’t expect the life of a hero or an adventurer to include so much death, so much murder, so much abject destruction. He knew there would be battles, he wasn’t that naive. There were forces of good and creation in the world and there were forces of evil and destruction. He hoped that he had at least been putting some good into the world. But he wasn’t so sure anymore. It was starting to feel more like the influence of Belcorra was taking over the group.

He swung his feet out over the bed and found his boots. These boots had seen so much destruction. So much just murder for murder’s sake. How many times did he cast a spell at something in the dungeons because it was ugly or scary? How many times did he murder someone who just wanted to get home at the end of the day?

He tied up his boots nice and tight and grabbed his pack. He looked around at his companions and he found odd bits and bobs of his. Some of the faces were still strange to him. He had always been friendly but honestly couldn’t remember a conversation with many of them. Did he remember their names? When was the last time he had an actual conversation with Twink? Who even was Argot? Rhymar was the newest to the crew and things hadn’t gone well between them. But there was no time to dwell on that.

Zoro’s quiet but bullish nature was always a comfort. He was a steady rock of the group. Sure he was often distracted by something shiny, but he was always ready to hit back if one of his friends was down.

His favorite little mushroom, Morel, was the heart of this group. Constantly ready to defend and laugh at whatever stupid joke was said.

Bron was the bitchiest, but that worked so well for him. Tavish smiled as they called themselves the Backdoor Queens, always being at the back of a hall because they just did better from that vantage point, reveling in the work and vigor of their companions.

Mitoh was new, but was proving such a worthy ally. Swift and deft, they could move around and surprise you in the best ways … or the worst ways if he was helping you out.

Tavish had reached the door and felt a tiny tug on his pant leg. He readied the dragon claws, afraid that one of the newer companions was actually a spy. He turned around and saw no one there, just the sleeping crew. He looked down and saw that it was Bron’s raccoon familiar. He looked at home with big eyes. Tavish swung his pack around and found a morsel of dried food to give him. The raccoon was grateful and waddled away.

Tavish looked at his companions and pulled his cloak close around his shoulders. He was going to miss them, but they were going to be fine. There were so many of them now. Belcorra should worry.

This is not how he wanted to leave. He thought for sure that he would die, and he nearly had, before he just left, absconded in the middle of the night, but he knew no other way forward.

He closed the door behind him and went out to find a new adventure.

[fortifice]

His father’s tirades were often callous reminders that his children were thankless as they were negligent. all the assiduous work of their forefathers could be rendered nugatory by two children and their predilection for not adhering to his rules, failing to meet his expectations over and over. Those proud, detailed portraits lour at them as they are steered into their father’s study, his voice raucous as its timbre pitched higher and more fierce. They could not hope to fathom the importance of their family, their noble heritage more than a child’s mind could comprehend. Serval was obdurate, even at such a young age she would rebut without thinking of the repercussions, the punishments she received only served to harden her will not break her into a more congruous form. Gepard was quiet, reticent, in the long, commanding stretch of his sister’s shadow he was far more malleable, he would listen, learn, become what was intended of him. Their father had to appraise his children not as youths but as potential, they would be crafted to up hold their esteemed family’s banner, it was their destiny. Gepard never understood why his sister and father fought, often, he would cover his ears with cupped hands and drown out their ire. It didn’t make sense, that afternoon had teemed with so much delight that even Gepard had returned him with a brisk skip to his stride, his sister’s laughter dulcet. He had known they would get in trouble, they always did when they circumvented their father’s lessons but the joy had been so palpable that it had left him humming pleasantly. 

His sister knew a secret place, one where only children could go, the time permitted to adventuring was endless, there would be other kids like them there. The Landau siblings were familiar with the aristocratic circles of society but their children were always haughty and indifferent, forming any sort of meaningful bond with them felt impossible. His sister’s expression would often sour when their father suggested they make nice with the other children, they were always so boring she would say, he agreed because their glacial hostility made him balk. The children who played out on the old, scrap heap were excited just to meet new faces and quickly ushered Gepard into their game of kings and monsters. For the first time he wasn’t scolded for acting brazenly but encouraged to and as their narrative came to a conclusion he found his chest puffed out with pride as he guarded his pile of resplendent gems and gilded treasure, which was infact just tangled wire and metal scavenged from refuse. Serval fit the role of valiant princess much more than the insipid one of noble’s daughter, the children rallied behind her as she approached his den, the piece of wood she christened her blade lowered and pointed at her brother. He laughed, it sounded almost as arrogant as those other children, his hands poised on his hips as he barked “ You won’t take my treasure from me you..” he paused, considering how he should insult his elder sister “ fool !” and he waved his tiny clenched fist at her. Serval met the challenge by swiping her blade through the air, narrowing her frosty eyes and taking a confident step forward. “ It’s over for you dragon.” How could it be a bad thing, he thinks, as Serval bickers pointedly and his father glares down at her with contempt, if everyone else was having so much fun. “ You cannot be messing around with commoner’s children.” his father’s cadence is withering, his fury makes the room feel suffocatingly cold.  “ we didn’t hurt anyone, we were just playing.” she retaliates, her hands on her hips now as a defense, there’s no pride in that. They were just children after all, they didn’t know any better but what did better mean when the sliver of joy was pilfered by adult’s with selfish motives. “ I won’t hear another word of it.” he stands behind Serval in that moment and she is much like she was as a princess hardened by battle, a pillar of protection for any who gathered before her. The argument was over, their bedtimes would be straight after dinner and there was no more room for disagreement. As the two of them marched off to their room, Servals fists balled at her side, trembling, he felt like he did not understand how this was fair, that those children who had welcomed him so readily could be branded as unworthy. He wanted them as friends far more than he had ever wished for friendship from a noble’s child. He wants to ask her what it means - why they can’t but he can see his sister is on the verge of tears and it makes his chest tighten. How could their father believe something like that ? that those children could never be their friends. 

[lya-dustin]

Someone will remember us

Chapter 22

Gif by: @girly-blogging

Taglist: @fyeahhotdocs @arrthurpendragon @ocappreciationtag @stargaryenx

“I am fine, there is no need for one.” Fuck. This was such awful timing. “I get these from time to time, just ask Teora.”

She needed to write it down before she forgot it.

She can’t tell him he will die by Daemon’s hand.

“What do you mean you have had these before?” he checks her pulse on her wrist and refusing to leave her side.

“They are atonic fits, sometimes it’s just my head, or my eyelids or one arm or both, one leg or both. Very rarely it’s my entire body.” She answers and foolishly hopes Alicent nor her father learns of it. “I’m fine. Now I need you to swear on whatever gods you believe in not to speak to anyone about my condition, especially not the queen nor the Lord Hand.”

“Does your mother know about these?” he asked, still holding her hand and refusing to let go of it even when Teora comes in.

“Yes, had one when Vis was anointed and one before I left. My grandmother knows, as does Uncle Vaemond and your sister.” She explained and then adds to Teora’s horror, “Sometimes they come with visions. I have dragon dreams; it was how I knew you would lose your eye that night you claimed Vhagar.”

“And you didn’t think about telling me that?” he asks thinking she deliberately kept it from him.

Aemond lets go of her hand and moves away when she tries to reach out for him.

“I tried, believe me, Aemond. I tried to tell you so many times and I did everything I could to stop it from coming true, but I couldn’t stop it from happening.”

Just like Aemma won’t be able to stop Vaemond from dying, Jace and baby Visenya from dying also.

He will die too, and her heart will die with him.

“Sometimes you cannot stop fate, Aemond. Aemma claimed Silverwing to prevent Helaena’s prediction of Laenor’s death coming true and my nephew was still murdered in his father’s own home.” Teora says gently.

“What did you see?” he asks Aemma, his back still to her as he stands leaning on the back of her favorite reading chair.

“I saw you die. You and your dragon are killed above the God’s Eye under Aegon’s banner.” She chokes on the words, but continues to speak. “War is coming, Aemond. The moment your father dies Aegon and my mother will fight for the throne and the realm will burn.”

“Aegon doesn’t want to be king, but he didn’t want to marry Helaena either. My grandfather knows no limit to his ambition.” He scowled and resumed his pacing. “There has to be a way to stop it.”

“There is one way we could try and stop it.” Her aunt, the Septa was the last person she’d expect to even say it.

----

“I cannot marry you, Lord Stark. I have been betrothed to Prince Aemond since we were three and ten and I wish I was able to tell you sooner instead of letting you think I was in a position to accept your suit.” Aemma tells the Lord of the North and wished Aemond had been there with her instead of waiting for her in the shadows.

There was a way for them to get married without resorting to running away like thieves in the night.

Aemond wanted them to marry properly and Aemma could care less how they married as long as she could avoid the headache of having their families under one roof.

On the evening of her six and tenth nameday in the first hour of her nameday feast, they will ambush the court with their wedding. The mummers were set to stage some musical rendition of Jaehaerys and Alysanne ,but instead of a play Aemma has seen a thousand times

Aemma had her wedding cloak and Aemond had enlisted his brother and sister in obtaining the Targaryen wedding cloak.

There was no wedding gown ready, but somehow Teora had found mother’s old wedding dress amongst the trunks in their apartments.

It fit like a glove and thankfully had a long enough hem to take down.

“Your grandmother made no mention of it, your highness.” He comments but doesn’t seem to react too badly.

There is a sting, but there is also relief in his eyes.

“How would she know; we kept it a secret from our families. You know how famous our mothers’ feud is. The realm itself is divided because some cannot fathom the Seven Kingdoms being ruled by women.” She explained her deception.

It was a lie, Aemond hadn’t meant the sapphire as a betrothal gift, he meant is a courting gift only.

But who was there to say it was lie?

“To be frank, I did not wish to marry you either ,but when the queen sent a letter with her condolences and insinuated that a match between the two of us would benefit the north, I felt pressured to agree.” He confessed and Aemma is not surprised that this was planned by her soon to be goodmother.

“My late uncle ,Bennard, disliked my Arra. He would have married me to his own daughter had his wife not interceded on our behalf. I wish you all the luck in the world, your highness.” He conceded defeat so easy, but the fondness and pain in his expression when he mentioned his Arra let her know this was the best decision they could have made.

“You have our gratitude, Lord Stark. My betrothed and I wish you can find someone who loves you as my Aemee loves me.” Aemond swept in like a dark wind and like the most romantic of knights, took her hand and kissed it like a man in love.

He was prone to jealousy, when they were little, he disliked when anyone else took his mother’s attention from him or when Aegon would partner up with Jace or when Criston Cole would be too busy teaching the other boys.

They have agreed to hint at their romance in public, at the cost of their reputations.

Vaemond had begrudgingly agreed and gave him his support, they had also made it impossible for him to say no.

There will be consequences, niece, you know there will, Vaemond had warned before turning to Aemond and threatening him with torture should he break her heart.

There will be consequences, Aemma had seen it in the eyes of Alicent’s ladies as they stared with mouth agape as she and Aemond passed them still holding hands.

----

“We win Vhagar to our side with him.” Vaemond had contingency plans for this impending war.

They had the advantage with the dragons, the fleet, and the north despite Aemma refusing Stark.

“She told him about the fits and the dreams.” Teora whispered and Vaemond cursed.

“He will tell his mother; the boy is too attached to the infernal woman. If they know they will make sure she is shut up somewhere once she gives her husband a son.”

It was their biggest fear, that Aemma would be declared insane and have her suffer alone and isolated gods know where.

“He will not, not after he learned she burnt all those letters he sent Aemma and she sent him.” Teora assured her older brother and wished she was as sure as she sounded. “His love for our niece has shown him his mother’s true colors. The Queen will never know, best be assured, brother.”

-----

“You will have to see Luke’s ugly mug, you know.” Aegon passed the drinking horn to his brother.

He loathed Lucerys, loathed him for taking his eye and getting away with it because he was Rhaenyra’s son.

But he loved Aemma, loved her because he cannot imagine his life without her and being the only good thing that ever came from his half-sister.

“I doubt mother and grandfather will lift my dear goodmother’s banishment soon.” Aemond points out and drank the strong Dornish wine Aegon has become fond of.

Laenor had left his prized vintages to Aemma, to celebrate her milestones and her joys. He will drink off her skin the vintage her father had selected for her wedding day. he looked forward to defiling the Valyrian Siren and knowing no one else will ever have her.

“I doubt the Whore of Dragonstone will be fine with you just absconding with her only daughter, you will have to see her on important feast days and I have no doubt she will wish to be there for your wife’s confinements like mother was for Helaena’s.” his brother had the curse of making sense sometimes.

Aemond is not sure he can survive a visit to Dragonstone without wanting to bash little Luke’s head against a table. Just remembering he shares a mother with his Aemee made his blood boil.

He wants revenge, his blood craves it almost as much as it craves Aemma.

Could he set it aside his hatred for her family for her?

“You are lucky your goodmother is mother, Aeg.” He says instead.

“I wager Aemma doesn’t think that, little brother.”

----

“You are playing a dangerous game and I do not wish to so see you hurt.” His mother warned.

“Is that why you tried to keep us apart for three years?” he threw back and she had the audacity to say she did it for him.

“I love her, mother.” Aemond wished his mother could just see what he sees in Aemma. “We will marry and you will embrace her as your daughter, or you will lose me.”

“Her mother is a whore and her father a degenerate, Aemond. You know what the faith thinks of them.” She whispered as if it were a great conspiracy.

“The sins of a father do not fall on the child, you and I know that. She is not them, mother. Aemma is everything that is good and holy. If you only gave her a chance you would see what I see.” He argued knowing he could win her over.

Eventually his mother will see she is not Rhaenyra, to see that Aemma has always been meant for him.

“She will turn you against us, Aemond. If your father names Aegon his heir, she will have you fight your own brother!” she hissed. Alicent knew better than to voice her own treasonous thoughts too loudly.

Aemond knew that his father would be of no use. He loved Rhaenyra because she was born out of love not of duty and lust.

Viserys had made it clear when he lost his eye.

Lucerys should have been punished, maybe not lose his eye as he and his mother wished, but anything would have sufficed.

Even words would have helped him get the closure he so desperately needed, but he got nothing.

Viserys chose Rhaenyra, same Rhaenyra who would have him tortured for telling the boys the truth as hurtful as it was.

Aemma is not her.

“Aemee would never do that, if the king were to choose Aegon as heir she would accept his decision and bend the knee. Aegon has said he will not seek to fight Rhaenyra for the throne, he has never desired it, mother.

No war will come, we will make sure of that and our marriage would ensure grandfather gets his fucking wish to see his blood on the throne.” He takes her hands and tries to make her see reason.

But she cannot and the grip on his hands turns tight as a noose. “Swear to me, swear to me that you will not raise a hand against your brothers when the time comes.”

And because he thinks it will never come to that, Aemond swears it.

[silent-partner-412]

I’m having a weird time with Shadow Dragon.

First and foremost, this game is fine. It’s fun even. It’s nice to play a game in this series that doesn’t feel like it’s constantly out to get me again, and I’ve been enjoying the gameplay and maps plenty enough. Also, it’s been fun seeing where a lot of iconic archetypes of the series have originated. Using Ogma and Navarre reminds me of playing FE6 and using Dieck and Rutger, Merrick with the Excalibur feels like using Asbel with the Grafcalibur, Cain and Abel are fun cuz they’re the OG Christmas Cavs, etc. Simply for the sake of understanding legacy it’s been interesting to play this game.

Except… I don’t know, the fact that all the units feel like other units I’ve used before in addition to the fact that the maps are like… just fine? It all makes this game feel like I’ve played it before, but in better/more interesting forms. Everything else about it other than the core gameplay feels lacking in heart or care, which is extremely weird for this series. I haven’t gotten far in the game but so far the games the story reminds me the most of are FE6 and FE7, which basically means it’s boring and hard to care about. Which like, fine. I was never expecting this game to have a mind blowing story, but not having even support conversations really stings. By this point in the series it was more or less a standard, and in the few games I’ve played that don’t have them the main plots were able to pick up the slack, but it really doesn’t seem like this game’s plot is gonna do that (we’ll see though, I’m only at I think Chapter 8).

Moving on though, the graphics and presentation are, to be quite honest, horrendous for this series’ standard. The character designs and art style are extremely unappealing, the maps have this realistic aesthetic that has aged terribly, and it all just looks bad altogether. This game directly follows the Tellius games chronologically, which on its own feels weird because how the hell do you go from Radiant Dawn to the muddy grossness that is this one? But even then, the GBA games look significantly better. The SNES games look significantly better. I think the only games I could say it looks better than are the NES ones, but even then comparing to the NES games feels like punching down. It’s just bizarre, because if you’re going to remake the first game in your series, why do it like this? This doesn’t feel like a celebration of the series’ roots, it feels like they did whatever was quickest and easiest because they don’t have a lot of resources to work with (which to be fair, they probably didn’t).

This game, as a remake, feels like it has the opposite problems of Echoes. That game felt like a love letter to Gaiden in terms of its presentation, story, and characters. It ultimately failed for me because it was awful to play, but it’s hard to not feel the amount of care that went into that game. I don’t feel any of that with Shadow Dragon. I think I’ll end up ultimately liking it more than Echoes since the gameplay is, at worst, fun, which is more than Echoes could say at any point while I was playing it. What can I say, gameplay is the most important part of a video game to me, and this game has that at the very least. But it has almost nothing else, which is a real shame.

[dandelionette-9]

Ok so update on my Shadow Dragon play-through: That shit is getting put on hold lmao, because instead I’ve started playing Fire Emblem Fates again after seeing a particular someone rant about it, and because I want to try a strategy I’ve always been interesting . . .

That being only using captured units!

Basically for everyone that dosent know fates, you can capture generic enemies during fights and then like, just start using them as regular units. They suck a LOT more than regular units though, so their use is kinda questionable. However, since I love fucking around and finding out, and also imposing personalities on faceless goons, my whole play-through rn is basically dedicated to trying to use my captured units as much as I can with little playable character intervention.

I’m at chapter 14 in Birthright (I’ve been using a lot of scouting missions though sorry) and the current entourage is:

Wenzel, a dark mage - He was the first unit I captured so I kinda think of him as the team leader and strategist for this particular platoon of captured units. He does BIG DAMAGE, and I love him so much for one shotting bitches.

Konrad, a mercenary - Very reliable kinda-tank! I wish he would do a little more, but I’m content with what he’s got going on rn. I imagine he’s like the second in command to Wenzel, very passionate and upfront.

Elmar, a cavalier - He needs to stop getting one stat point a level up or else I will bench his ass. But also he’s a really helpful tank, pairs up very nicely. Quiet type, keeps his head low, but dosent take shit.

Ludwig, an outlaw - I didn’t expect to use him as much as I do, but CRIT KING!!! His accuracy rate is actually dog shit, but it dosent matter when he’s just critting everyone. The wiley one on the team, tries to be a leader like Wenzel but isn’t great at it. A bit of a jokester too.

Hajime, a ninja - The true team mom, I love shurikan support so much we would not be where we are without his debuffs. Also has some crits! He can seem a little serious, but is always down for shenanigans. Like, he’s reserved, but once you know him he’s very friendly. I also imagine he helped built and looks after the one puppet automaton we have at the castle.

Virgil, a cavalier - I didn’t expect to use him, but then some units died, so I brought him out and oh shit he’s great!! Super great tank, him and his guard naginata carry. I imagine he trained (and still trains) under Elmar, still has much to learn but picks up things quickly, a bit of a sensitive soul too.

Tamaki, a samurai - He’s here! He’s honestly just filling ranks, but he’s been kinda a surprise assassin and crit machine, secured some important kills! I’m still figuring out his personality, but I just think he’s pretty enthusiastic! I imagine he has a bit of rivalry with Konrad as sword users, and that him, Ludwig, Hajime, and Virgil form a friend group of younger recruits together!

Komachi, a shrine maiden - Captured in chapter 11, she’s immediately made herself invaluable by being the first generic staff user I’ve had. It feels so nice being able to have everyone at full hp all the time now. She’s very brave and sociable, I imagine she helps tend to the puppet with Hajime. Just super reliable, gets along with the ‘older’ squad (Wenzel, Konrad, Elmar) but primarily hangs out with the younger squad

Yukari, a shrine maiden - Also captured in chapter 11, I was originally only gonna use one shrine maiden and just captured both to see who had the cooler name, but then some units died so she’s here too! I imagine she’s Komachi’s younger sister, and while they do get along, she has that angry younger sister energy about her. On the quieter/gruff side, actually a little artistic, but when you get her going she absolutely goes! Also hangs out with the younger squad when not by herself, and is currently learning under Wenzel.

Edsel, a wyvern rider - Was literary just picked up because chapter 13 is absolute bitch without a flier. He’s already made an impression though! Very brash and good natured, charges right into things and hopes for the best! I’m hoping he sticks around

And that’s the current team, however there have been… casualties.

Fritz, a wyvern rider - the second unit ever captured, he died in a training mission literally right after I recruited Tamaki. I imagine he was a quiet type, and had a very strong bond with Wenzel, Konrad, Virgil and…

Kenshi, a ninja - Died in chapter 11, bitch ass map, because of a wyvern lord. I imagine he was a very accomplished ninja and was training Hajime. He was falling off, but still, he was so helpful for my first ninja

And then there’s Jinpei (samurai) and Sven (wyvern rider) who both died like. Immediately. Jinpei died the second I tried using him, while Sven got to warm the bench before I tried using him when I realized chapter 13 would be impossible without a flier, but then he died, so I got Edsel. It’s ok, I decided to give the personality of a traitor anyway?

But yeah, that’s the run and units so far!!! Love these fuckers

[transmogrified-in-the-void]

How to Create the Universe

    In 2018, I was in a Google Hangouts group chat with some friends, and some of their friends. Someone I didn’t know then posed a simple question: “If I were to make a Dark Souls campaign, who’d like to join?” I had always wanted to learn D&D, but I was scared of embarrassing myself or being bad at it, so this was an opportunity for me to finally learn something. Back then, I didn’t know just how big of a decision I was about to make, I just knew that I had sent back a simple “yes”.

Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ 1d4 Δ

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition is often called the easiest edition for beginners to use and learn from. It’s less punishing in combat, the spellcasting classes are easier to understand, and character creation is less confusing. That said, D&D still has quite the learning curve when it comes to learning how to play the game, much less understand it.

    Almost 4 years ago, I sat in my Dad’s classroom with a friend as we made my first ever D&D character. His name was Pen, and he was a Half-Elf Shadow Sorcerer with a Wild Magic Table. He had high Charisma and low Constitution, and was primarily an effect caster with one or two high damage output cantrips.

    Confused yet? In case you aren’t (and regardless if you are), let me tell you some of the new things I was taught in this one three hour character creation session. I learned that you roll 4d6 drop the lowest for stats, Sorcery Points can either make spell slots (which are used every time you use a spell, and higher slots can be used for lower slotted spells), or can be made using spell slots, or can effect a spell (but you only have a limited number of Sorcery Points and the types of effects you get), the many different actions, the way a turn works, what a round is vs. what a turn is, etc.

    And yet, through all of that, I ended up making a character who made a lasting impact in that D&D campaign. He was unerringly kind and self-sacrificial, he saw his parents die and could therefore see ghosts, and he saw the good in others no matter what they did or said. Did he see some of his fellow adventurers as idiots? Yes, definitely, some of them failed incredibly easy Dexterity saving throws (another thing I had to learn), and got hit by boulders. But because he was a character I was so invested in, it made learning the game that much easier.

◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻ 1d6 ◻

    The thing about D&D that makes it so appealing is the roleplaying aspect; an aspect that is difficult to fully grasp. There are a few things that are important to either understand and know about roleplaying in D&D, or are important to learn to do. Improv, understanding the expectations of different groups, and how to stay in character. Of everything, those three are paramount to making a good D&D rp experience.

    Many expect that improv is the hardest part of the three, but in my experience it has been the easiest. The important part of improv in D&D is staying in character and knowing the general “vibe” and expectations of your group. Once you get into the flow, it’s simply a part of it. It’s the other two aspects that are more difficult. 

    Understanding the expectations is usually never explained, and it’s something that many groups expect players to click into. You look at the general campaign, you look at the setting, you look at the character you created for the campaign and setting, and many experienced players and Dungeon Masters will run/play the game believing that off of that, you know how to act.

    This can be very hard sometimes. In my first campaign, we were playing in a campaign based off of Dark Souls, so the expectations were set and easy. Dark setting, dark campaign, serious tone. However, in a campaign I’ve played in recently, there are aspects of serious plot points, but we’ve also had characters eat space and eat stars as a joke, so the expected tone is much more confusing and hard to grasp. Understanding how to adapt to that flow and that possibly shifting tone is a skill that’s good to learn.

    Out of all the aspects of role playing though, both the one’s I’ve stated and the ones I haven’t, getting into character has to be the most fun of them. Getting into the character of a kind and giving sorcerer, or a harsh and rude mechanic, or even a psychotic mass-murderer who also is a highly respected lawyer, all of that is incredibly fun. Getting to not just mold the mind of a character, but being able to play them off of other characters and players who also have the opportunity to do the same exact thing is a highly rewarding experience. And it’s an experience that can be hard to get into.

    Committing to a character can be embarrassing, or strange, or out of place for many people. To truly get into character means to play their strengths and their flaws. I’ve played characters who can’t speak and instead use sign language, or characters where they don’t understand Common language and need to speak broken sentences. That can be hard to do, but once you figure out how to leave behind potential embarrassment anxiety, it can lead to rewarding interactions and conversations within the game.

    The thing about improv, though, is that once you gain the knowledge of that specific mindset, you start to use it outside of D&D. When I worked retail, it wasn’t ever a “customer service voice”, it was me stepping into a character that worked retail. My language, both spoken and physical, changed. My tonality, the way I thought, it all shifted in the same way that I do when getting into character for a campaign. 

♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢ 1d8 ♢

    There is an entire other aspect of D&D I haven’t talked about, though. Building a campaign. Of every part of D&D I have used and interacted with, making a campaign is the most addicting.

    I always think about making campaigns. Songs, movies, social media posts, games, all of them give me ideas for campaigns. In fact, my first campaign was a collection of multiple pieces of media that I enjoyed, because I knew that making a campaign was difficult. I had to make area maps, enemy stat blocks, NPCs, a storyline, making backup plans in case characters went off the basic storyline without railroading them into doing what I wanted, and more. It’s becoming the god of your own world. It’s creating your own small universe.

    I used 5 pieces of media that, at the time, were very important to me, and put them in order of combat heavy to story heavy. In order, it was the worlds of Undertale, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the Percy Jackson Universe, Be More Chill the Musical, and Dear Evan Hansen the Musical. The basic plot was that an omnipotent deity named Arrow deemed four adventurers a good test for their multiversal teleportation system, and selected five major universes for them to go through. In the end, I found that combat is something that I would do anything to avoid (even though, as someone who is constantly a DM, I have to use it a lot), and story is something I thrive in making. 

    Through that entire first campaign, a party member circumvented an entire boss fight by taming the undead boss using bread, and then critically succeeding a Wisdom (Religion) check (another thing I got well acquainted with) to turn the boss into a living creature, and a different party member realized they liked kissing men and got together with an NPC. 

    That first campaign was a lot of small teaching moments for me. I learned that it’s not a bad thing to take charge of a situation, nor is it bad to let things happen as they happen. It’s a hard balance to strike, especially as it happens outside of that D&D world, where control is less guaranteed. It also was the moment I learned that no matter how much you try and perfect your universe (or multiverse), it will inevitably shift out of your control, and that is a wonderful, beautiful thing.

♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢ 1d10 ♢

After that first campaign, I became addicted to creating campaigns. Small ideas made into situations that I could put other people into and watch them play around with, but I hadn’t figured out exactly how to build a world, how to build a universe. I was making ideas, situations, places, but I was afraid to go much deeper.

That was, until I found the game Hollow Knight.

Hollow Knight was, and still is, my favorite game of all time. The story, the characters, the gameplay, it all works so incredibly well for me and my brain. One day, I decided to try and turn the Hollow Knight enemies into D&D characters, and I poured over books like Monster Manual and Volo’s Guide to Monsters to learn how monster statistics were created and used, how abilities and proficiencies were set up, and how attacks were worded.

It was eye opening to see how attacks for enemies and attacks for players were worded differently. For example, if a player used the spell Fireball, it would be worded very differently than if a creature used an ability called Fireball. If a player uses Fireball, the visual aspect of the spell is described before the conditions of the spell and whatever roll is needed is listed. However, if an enemy uses Fireball, the visual aspect and conditions are worded simultaneously, followed by a required roll if any is needed.

In the end, I spent a year and a half creating 178 original enemy stat blocks that even today, I’m learning ways to make them better and more concise. Learning how to create new enemies (or homebrewing) was only one of multiple things I learned how to do. I also learned how to create and balance new spells and items, how to create NPC dynamics and personalities, and how to create enemy maps.

Overall, creating this campaign (called Hallownest Without Time), it really taught me how to research related information to better create and write original work or homebrew. The ability to look at already well regarded pieces or parts of a specific genre I’m creating within, and being able to use it to make something completely new is a skill that I’m forever grateful I have.

⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠ 1d12 ⬠

    It did take me almost 3 years to get out of the “forever DM” role and mentality, and it was a friend’s campaign simply called the Kerrabane Nebula that helped me take my DM creativity and apply it to a player mentality. I looked at the system that I had spent so long analyzing and reading up on from the other side of the screen, and I used that information to create a character.

    My first character in three years is named Liminal Space, affectionately called Lim. Lim is many things. It’s a highly intelligent lawyer, she’s a changeling, he’s a serial killer who’s been alive for 200 years, and it’s highly attached to a homunculus named Emen S. Hubris (pronounced immense hubris, called Emen). 

It’s a sorcerer barbarian, a mix that’s highly unusual because of how a barbarian is typically a class known for being hard to kill and hard to hit with high damage outputs, and how sorcerers have some of the lowest hit points and armor class. It’s a tank class (someone hard to hit and kill) and a squishy class (easy to hit and kill), but both barbarians and sorcerers are known for high amounts of damage per round. It’s playing with what it means to be in a class, and the stereotypes associated with them.

Playing Lim was fun, and I got to play around with the D&D system a lot, which has led me to my current belief of D&D character making. When you start D&D, you make characters by the book, like you do when starting most anything new and confusing. As you get further into it, and you understand more, you start to push boundaries and play with rules more and more. Just like you do when you understand a genre, class, or places.

⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡ 1d20 ⬡

What does this culminate to? What is the purpose of me telling you these various stories, none of which seem to explain what I promised? How do these experiences create the universe? That’s hard to quantify and qualify. Or, it usually is. It would be that way if these experiences didn’t lead me to, quite literally, creating my own universe.

These pieces of information are cumulative. How to filter through the onslaught of complicated bouts of information to find the most important bits, to use the collection of that information to make an entire person, to play that person and react to other people and their actions, and on and on and on. Eventually that information becomes so standard and basic that you grow more and build more on top of it, and that evolves further into going from the one being gently led around to being the one leading.

And that can lead to creating something bigger than what you thought you could create. Four years ago, I believed that I was barely capable of creating the most simple of characters. Four years later, I’m here creating a mythos of the universe, and the evolution of mortals and the pantheons worshiped by them. I’m creating alphabets, systems of magic, the many beliefs of the self, and various social structures that are dependent on the many different countries and continents scattered throughout the world. There’s various planes of existence depending on how much the gods’ eyes are on you, and which gods have taken an interest.

That’s the thing about creating a universe. It takes time, it takes years and experience and taking the initiative to gather and use information and knowledge, but all of that time and energy has led me to being able to hold an entire world created by just me in my hands. It’s the ability to have that one simple, complicated thing that makes it worth it.

[littlegalerion]

Skyrim Asks

Was tagged by @sheirukitriesfandom a little while ago for this, but only getting around to this now. Thanks for the tag!

I tag @godlessbroadcast @oceanlilo and anyone else who wants to do it!

 I’ll focus on Rinyu and Sunnabela, as both do exist together in the same universe. Just Sunnabela is the active Dragonborn, Rinyu is more of a support factor towards his brother. 

1.) Favorite Tavern 

Rinyu: The Stumbling Sabrecat would be his answer. Sure, there is no one to serve him drinks, share the local gossip, or anyone nearby to play a tune for him, but why would RInyu want that? No, he has this taven all to himself. Having liberated the fort, the Imperial soliders outside don’t hassle or intrude. It’s a perfect little spot to take cover in during the day if he’s unable to get home or wherever it is he needs to be. Plus...if he’s careful, once the sun sets, the soliders can provide him with only the finest red liquid to be tapped out into his assorted chalices. 

Sunnabela: The Frozen Hearth always has a special place in his heart. The folks in Winterhold are pretty gloomy, so Sunnabela always loved visiting and playing a song for them in the local tavern. He’s almost postive it didn’t really change anything, given the slurs from Ranmir and the dissaproving “you are wasting your heritage” Nelecar’s lectures after each song, but hey...he tried. 

2.) Favorite Drink 

Rinyu: There is always a deep rooted satisfaction for him whenever he kills and then presumes to drink the blood of any sort of loud, or persistant poltical figure. “A classic...” he tells Inigo.  

Sunnabela: He learned a long time ago it’s best not to drink, what with the family he has. Does letting yourself get tipsy around a demiprince of madness, a vampire lord and the Listener to the Dark Brotherhood, a demigod who never shuts up about possible bad outcomes thanks to bad decision making, and a vampire who hyperfixates on the ingredients that went into making the drink, sound wise to you? If he wants a bad headache in the morning, all he has to do is ask for a late night family gathering. 

3.) Travel Companion 

Rinyu: Exclusively Inigo and Gelebor. Anyone else would bore or annoy him. They round him out in all the right ways, making their party well balanced. 

Sunnabela: As of right now, he has no prefred companion other than Kirr, but Kirr is more of an obligation. Not that he doesn’t like traveling with his brother, but now that he is on his own, it’s the first time he has a choice in travel companions. Time will tell who. 

4.) Wealthy or Not?

Rinyu: You know, if you want to be rich, it’s always said that the best way to get rich is to take on a trade that people will always need, like your local butcher or brewery. In this sense, Rinyu has done well and is quite wealthy. People will always have a reason why they want someone else dead. 

Sunnabela: He does okay, but it’s nothing to write home about. He lives on tips, collected dragon bones and gemstones. He makes enough to thrive, but not to swim in gold. 

5.) Worships the Aedra or the Deadra?

Rinyu: Neither. Hail Sithis. 

Sunnabela: He doesn’t worship anyone, but respects Aur-iel (or Alkosh), Sithis, Hircine, Malacath, and Sheogorath. 

6.) Biggest Fear?

Rinyu: A relfection of his past. Whatever good memories he has from his younger years, they’ve been drowned out by the trauma he has endured. How would someone defeat him? Flood his mind with nothing but memories or shadows of his past, both the good and bad, and watch it overwhelm him with fear until he’s a mewling mess on the floor. 

Sunnabela: That he won’t be enough to live up to what’s expected of him. Oh, that and the Bard’s College. He isn’t explaining why. 

7.) Pet Peeves:

Rinyu: Abusers, both emotional or physical, have a special place of irritation in his undead heart. He usually kills them as sport if the moment allows it, and then feeds the local slaughterfish. Plucky Necromancers are another source of annoyance. You know the type: “Momma and Daddy don’t understand me, society hates me, I’m gonna dress in skulls and black robes and show them this is who I am!” Summoning a servant from the Soul Cairn usually scares the living shit out of them, to Rinyu’s delight. 

Sunnabela: Bad drum playing. I mean, he can understand if someone is bad with a lute or flute- they need practice. But if you can’t play the drums decently, he’s not sorry, you don’t have rhythm and need to stop. 

8.) Do they Like being Dragonborn?

Rinyu: It has it’s advantages, and long ago, Renald had always told him how proud he was of Rinyu for how responsible he was with his abilities and duties with the blessing. No matter how much trouble it may bring, Rinyu will not curse whatever Renald claimed was blessed. 

Sunnabela: No. He had thought, for his whole life, that he’d be the first in his family to not have some epic, world ending prophecy to destroy, but be the normal mortal who just lives his life. Furthermore, his father was an ayleid, and while Sunnabela respects Aur-iel, he does not forget who first was blessed with the Dragonborn abilities, and what they did to the Ayleid people- the good Ayleid people. He isn’t going to mope around over it, but he isn’t happy. 

9.) Favorite Faction?

Rinyu: The Dark Brotherhood. Lucien is with him still..

Sunnabela: He has none. They all expect him to become their leader eventually, like what is up with that? He JUST got there! 

10.) An Object of Sentimental Value?

Rinyu: Trinkets from his time with either Renald or Lucien. They remained locked away, forever, only for his eyes. He is currently collecting the same from his current spouse. 

Sunnabela: A lute made by his step-father, Sheogorath himself. He may be insane, but Sheogorath literally invented the lute so...yeah, it’s a good lute. 

11.) Hobbies?

Rinyu: It may shock you, but Rinyu is rather fond of knitting and animal husbandry. He used to be a warden, and sheep bring wool, meat, and milk to the table! Stop looking at him like that! Sheep are the best farm animal! 

Sunnabela: Song writing, obviously. He always has new lyrics on the brain.

12.) Favorite City?

Rinyu: Morthal. Just perfect poisitioning for someone like him, hence his home is built near there. 

Sunnabela: Windhelm. Now that Ulfic is out of there, it has so much potential. He honestly would like a home there... 

[theshelbyclan]

Castle in the Sky

Summary: You’re the daydreaming sibling of the Shelby’s, but when the adventure spills over into real life, it’s not as great as you’d imagined

(Gif by @nofckingfighting​) A/N: A sweet anon requested: can I have request please Something like this Tommy was very protective over y/n and she gets hurt by one of the bad guys and sees blood on her face now all bruised but Tommy wants revenge Omg if you do so thank you so much for my request! ❤️ Huge fan of your works!This is set around season 1, back in the good old days when the only real enemy was Billy Kimber, remember those days? So easy… anyways, hope you like it J Words: 2933 ***

You were only nine when you started as a bookie’s runner for the Peaky Blinders. Nothing about this was special, half the kids of Small Heath worked for them, but there was just one difference: the Shelby’s were your brothers. It was a good job in many ways, because it meant not only being able to help your brothers, but people were inclined to give you a bit extra, just for being a Shelby. You imagined they thought it good luck.

“Y/N, take this to the other side of town, will you?” Tommy requested as he sat hunched over a newspaper. You protested a little, “Why me? I’ve done all of mine for today…” “This one’s extra, alright?” “Who is it?” you could never hide your inquisitive nature. But you only showed it around your brothers; to the rest of the world you were just quiet and practically invisible. He smirked slightly, “Someone who’ll pay up big. That’s why I need you to do it. Can’t trust any of the other kids not to steal…” “I have some homework to do, Tommy.” At thirteen, you were still at school, which was a minor miracle in Birmingham. “Tell you what: if you just do this one job, I’ll get you magazine you’ve been talking about, eh?” now he looked up and met your eyes. “Book, Tommy,” you smiled, “You might have heard of the concept? It’s a little like a magazine, a little like that newspaper, but with more pages? Some find it challenging, but once you get used to it…” “Alright, little miss know-it-all,” he grumbled without malice, “Go on, take the slip, make sure he bets all. Off with you. Stop outsmarting your old brother, eh?” He winked to make sure you were comfortable and you returned it with a big grin. “Where?” “Digbeth,” Tommy’s nose was back in the newspaper, “behind the Golden Dragon.” ***

As you were walking through the streets of Small Heath on your way to Digbeth, you were daydreaming. In a way it was strange just how different you were from your brothers, because the entire Shelby clan was very realistic, trying to make their way in this hard world, where you would rather pretend all day you were the main character in some story. The books you read, it was all an escape to you. So while you were walking, the people and factories disappeared. In your head, you were walking through the woods, on a secret mission that your king gave you. With the top-priority letter in your pocket, you remembered what he’d told you before you left: “If you get caught, eat the letter. If they capture you, make sure to be brave and never divulge its contents to anyone. And if all else fails, you must make the ultimate sacrifice. But remember, you have to memorize the contents of the letter first…” Wouldn’t it just be easier to memorize it now and destroy the letter immediately? You pondered on the matter… In the distance, you could see the mountains and the towers of another kingdom, and you knew your enemies were near. Without anyone noticing, you put a hand to your pocket and could feel the reassuring rustling of paper underneath your fingers: the letter was still there. If it would come to a fight, how would you go about it? If there were just one man, the small dagger in your boots would suffice. If it were two, you’d distract one, maybe by throwing the veil you were wearing, quickly turning around to kill the other and then back to the first one before he had time to recover. If there were more than three, you’d run, because you were the fastest after all. You’d get to higher ground and attack them from there, like a deadly shadow they could never see coming. As you smiled to yourself, you left the daydream for a short moment. You looked down and saw the muddy shoes you were wearing, marching through Birmingham mud. In the distance, all you saw was smoke and factory pipes. But it was honestly all you needed: your imagination did the rest. The real world barged in when you delivered the slip in Digbeth. Everything went smoothly at first. Your big brown eyes persuaded him to indeed bet big, and you were quite satisfied with yourself, knowing Tommy would be too. But you still had to walk back with a lot of money now in your pocket.

*** Almost home, there were only a few streets to go. Your head was back in the clouds and this time you were imagining you were a spy during the war. Silently, you moved through the streets, making yourself invisible and pretending every man wearing a hat was the enemy. So each time you saw one, you changed directions or hid for a second. It was a fun game, until you realised the enemy wasn’t wearing a hat. “Now, what’s a pretty girl like you doing on the streets, all by herself?” A man with a heavy Cockney accent popped up next to you and your heart nearly jumped out of your chest. You opened your mouth to reply, but no words came out. In your dreams, you always knew what to say, but in reality it wasn���t so easy. The man approached you and you noticed he’d cut you off from your one exit out of the alley, “It’s Y/N Shelby, isn’t it,” he grinned. “No,” you managed to say, “you got the wrong girl.” He grinned again, “Nice try, sweetheart. We’ve seen you at the Garrison. They don’t allow little girls at the pub, unless they’re a Shelby.” This was all true. You felt your hands getting clammy. “Tommy sent you, didn’t he?” Again, you tried to remember what the hero in your stories would do. She’d run, climb the building and then throw a knife right between the eyes of the man. Or she’d say something clever, just to distract him, and then turn around and escape when he least expected it. He took another few steps forward and you could smell him now, a smell of strange smoke and the river, “Do you know who I am?” Nailed to the ground, you shook your head. “I work for Mr. Billy Kimber. Ever heard of him?” You turned to see if you could escape, but then realised the other side of the alley was blocked by two more men. Neither of them were wearing hats. Cold sweat of fear ran down your back. The man in front of you started laughing, “There’s no running, sweetheart. Just give it to me.” At once you realised he was referring to the money in your pocket, but for Tommy’s sake, you wanted at least to try to be brave, “I don’t have anything.” He sighed, “Don’t play with me. I’m not the kind of man to play with, and neither is Mr. Kimber,” his voice was suddenly low and menacing, “Your brother thought he could, thought he would get away with fixing a race, he did, and now he’s going to be put against the post and shot. Don’t think I won’t do the same to you.” You gulped, but still thought of Tommy’s disappointment in you when he would find out you’d been a coward. So you took a deep breath and said softly, “It’s not yours. This money is ours. You can tell Mr. Kimber to go fuck himself!” It didn’t come out as strongly as you’d hoped. Like a crack of thunder, he swiftly slapped you across the face with the back of his hand. All the air was knocked out of your lungs in a second and you stood gasping for air, as you felt some blood trickling down your chin. “Give me the money,” he demanded again. And then, like your heroes, you pretended to reach for it in your pocket. Suddenly, you turned around and started running into the other direction, hoping to slip past the two men before they could stop you. But it didn’t work. One grabbed your arm and when you tried to push him away, he punched you hard. All strength left you in an instant. The second one started fumbling in your pockets and instinctively you kicked him, which earned you another blow to the head. More punches followed and your head was spinning. As you looked up to the sky, you remembered wanting to get back home, to your castle, where all was well and safe.  In the end, they left you on the ground and the money was gone. Your last thought was: Tommy is going to be so embarrassed. 

*** “Y/N?” You opened your eyes, but couldn’t see for a moment. “Y/N,” the familiar voice repeated, “Come on, yes, let’s get you home. Polly, Polly will know what to do, yes…” Strong arms lifted you up and rocking with his familiar limp, Curly carried you back to Watery Lane. When he’d taken you into the kitchen, Aunt Polly flew to your side in seconds, asking, “What’s happened?” Uncertainly, Curly explained and as he did, he started to become upset over your state. That’s when Tommy came in and started to calm him, while keeping an eye on you all the time. “Sweetheart,” Aunt Polly had taken a cold cloth to the cut in your lip, “Wake up… Come back to us…” Again you tried opening you eyes and you finally managed this time. But all your concern was with Curly, who was still anxiously fidgeting with his cap in hand. “Don’t worry, Curly,” you croaked, “I’m alright now. You did good, carrying me here.” “Polly will know what to do…” he kept on repeating. Tommy put a hand on his shoulder and it had an immediate calming effect, “It’s alright, Curly, go back to Charlie, eh? We’ll take care of her now.” Before he left, you said to him, “Curly? I’ll stop by tomorrow, see about that beautiful horse of yours, alright?” That put an immediate smile on his face, “Yes, she’s a beauty, alright… And she needs her princess to ride her! Back to that castle in the sky…yes…” When he’d gone, you lowered your head again and sighed deeply. Carefully, you felt your face and only then realised how awful you must look. “Who did this,” Tommy demanded at once. Polly glared daggers at him, “You did, I presume?” “Me?” “I told you again and again not to use the little ones to run errands. Sending them across half of Birmingham with money in their pockets, and look what happens!” For a moment, Tommy seemed to be speechless. Then he protested, “They’re invisible, Pol. Nobody knows they’re carrying anything.” “This one did,” you interjected, “because he knew who I was.” “How?” “Said he was with Kimber,” you whispered as the memories came back to you, “said he’d put me up against a post and he’d shoot me, like he’d do with you…” In a sudden fit of rage, Tommy grabbed a chair and flung it across the room. Polly snarled at the gesture and then turned to you, “Stay here. This cloth is cold, keep it against your eye, or it’ll turn black in half an hour, and I can’t take you to church looking like that. I just need to have a word with your brother.” You took the cloth and didn’t dare to look at Tommy, who was now being taken away by his aunt like he was ten years old again and in trouble. Aunt Polly closed the door behind her, but you still tried to hear as much as you could. Most of it was lost, but when they started shouting you heard bits like “putting your little sister in danger!” and “this is Billy fucking Kimber, Thomas” and “family first”. At first Tommy protested with “I didn’t know they knew her” and “Kimber is getting weak”, but eventually he shouted out in defeat, “I fucked up, alright? I’ll fix it. I promise.” When they came back, Tommy looked like a dog that’d just been kicked. So he retreated into a corner and started smoking, still sulking a little. Aunt Polly lifted your head up by placing a finger under your chin, “You won’t look pretty for a week, but it’ll heal.” You shrugged, not caring about being pretty at all, and muttered, “I feel like an idiot…” “Why?” your aunt demanded, “because big men decided to go after a small girl?” Tears started forming in the corners of your eyes, as you admitted, “Because I wanted to be brave! In my stories I’m pretty and strong and the hero, but in reality I’m just like a mouse. No one notices me and I’m useless…” “Sweetheart,” Polly softened her voice and crouched down next to you, “Just because you can’t fight like Arthur or John can, doesn’t make you useless. We’re all stuck here, in Small Heath, and there’s nothing pretty about that. But you reading all those books? That’s what’s going to make this easier. You can pretend, and that’s worth more than you’ll ever realise.” You smiled back at your aunt, who always knew what to say to make you feel better. “I’m off to the chemist to get you some powder against the pain,” she kissed the top of your head, “I’ll be right back, love.” After she’d gone as well, you sighed again and dropped the cloth. Her words mattered, of course they did, but it didn’t change the fact that you weren’t happy with yourself at all. For starters, you still couldn’t bear looking at Tommy. “Y/N,” he grumbled, which convinced you even more he was angry and disappointed, “Tell me what they looked like.” “They didn’t wear hats…” Impatiently he waved a hand, “Apart from that. What else?” “I don’t know,” you shrugged, “it all happened fast, Tommy. They had that accent that Kimber has as well.” “Fucking Cockneys…” your brother breathed. “Tommy?” you tried carefully, “I’m so sorry, but I lost the money. I tried to keep it. When they asked I told them to fuck off and then I tried to run and even fight, but they still took it. I’m so sorry…” He held up a hand to silence you and locked eyes with you, “You told them to fuck off?” “Yes, but it didn’t help…” “You actually told them to fuck off?” he frowned, “Usually you’re too shy to even say anything to strangers…” “I was angry,” you explained, “and I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

Tommy walked over to you and much to your surprise, he was smirking, “So you told them to go fuck themselves, and then you fought them?” “Yes?” “Did you hit any of them?” You thought about it for a second, “I think I kicked one in the balls and hit the other in the face.” His grin grew even wider and he mumbled to himself, “Wait ‘till I tell Arthur about this…” “Why?” you protested, “So he can laugh at me as well?” “No, sweetheart, he’ll be the proudest brother ever. His little sister, who everyone thinks is a little mouse too scared to do anything? She fucking hit a grown man and told them to go fuck themselves. Now that’s a hero in my book!” His laugh was contagious and you had to join in. But soon you became uncertain again and asked, “Are you not upset I lost the money?” “The money’s not important,” his face grew serious again in an instant, “but you are.” “Really?” you whispered. “Yes,” he took your face in his hands, “Listen, Y/N, this is what’s going to happen: Billy Kimber threatened my little sister, so I’m going to put himup against the post, and shoot him.” “And then what?” “Well, what usually happens in your books? Maybe I could learn something from them, eh?” A warm feeling of being appreciated for who you were came over you, “You’d take his kingdom and his skull would be put up on the gates, as a warning for all future enemies.” “That’s fucking dark,” Tommy raised one eyebrow, “But I like it.” “Me too…” you smiled at your brother. “I mean it though, Y/N. Kimber touched you, so I’m going to shoot the bastard. I won’t let anyone fucking go near you again.” And just like that, you felt safe enough again to continue dreaming. *** A few weeks later, everything had turned to chaos, both in the Shelby household as in the whole of Birmingham. Tommy didn’t speak to anyone of what happened to you, he hadn’t even apologized, but he wasn’t like that. He told you he’d fix it, promised you revenge, and that was even better. When the men were counting minutes in front of the Garrison and Billy Kimber’s army arrived, you were sitting at home with a book. You couldn’t really concentrate, because you knew there were too many of them. You pretended some angel would appear to save them all. There’d have to be no bloodshed, because this angel would be on your brothers’ side. That angel came in the form of your older sister Ada. She’d always had flair. In the end, only two bullets were fired. You listened to them both. One killed Danny Whizz-bang. The other killed Billy Kimber. Nobody knew, but as Tommy fired, he didn’t have business on his mind.

As he aimed, he saw his little sister’s face, all bruised and battered.

He whispered, “for Y/N,” and shot.

Bang.

***

Masterlist

[peskygirl13]

MK SO-

I just got the Pokémon SWSH DLCs and I was wondering what it would be like for some legendary Pokémon to come to twst and cause some trouble(Legendarys I’d like to do ( you c an pick just one: Kyogre, Giratina, or Groudon)

If you can i want it to be just Diasomina!

This turned out longer than I expected and I got so mad with myself because I was almost done with writing this and I accidently deleted all my new work, so I had to start over from my last save point which is one of the reasons it took so long to post.

I’ve been binge playing the old Sinnoh games and rewatching the anime, so this was fun to write (despite me deleting my work). 

This will have references to the Pokémon Platinum game, so spoilers if you haven’t played the game and plan to. 

Hope you enjoy!

Malleus's favorite time of the day was night time. Night time was the best!

The world was at peace, it was quiet, everything was asleep, save for a few nocturnal creatures much like himself, he could hide from SIlver and Sebek and have some time to himself, and there were no students or humans who would see him and run away in terror.

But his favorite thing about night time was probably when he got to visit his favorite human, (Y/n).

Their situation was a bit odd, having appeared out of nowhere from a world full of creatures called Pokémon, but Malleus didn't care. They weren't afraid of him. After spending a lifetime of having people fear him due to his name, it was a nice change.

Malleus arrived at the Ramshackle dorm to find you already sitting outside, cleaning your Empoleon's feathers.

"Greetings, Child of Man." He greeted, happily walking up to you.

"Hey, Tsunotaro." You smiled, putting down Empoleon's brush to wave at him.

That was another thing Malleus adored about you. Even after finding out who he was, you still didn't fear him and continued calling him by that amusing nickname you gave him.

You both entered the dorm, along with Empoleon, and he was instantly greeted with the rest of your strange creatures. Luxray, Togekiss, Glaceon, Garchomp, and Lucario.

You headed over to the kitchen to make some tea while he got comfortable on the couch. Once he was seated, Garchomp laid its head on Malleus's lap, implying that it wanted scratches.

By the time you had returned with two mugs of steaming tea, all the other Pokémon had already gotten comfortable and most had fallen asleep.

You handed Malleus his mug before sitting down in your chair. Glaceon hopped up and curled up in your lap before falling back asleep.

After you both got comfortable, you began regaling Malleus with stories of your world.

Malleus loved hearing your stories.

From your gym battle challenges to your contests. Catching all your Pokémon and even receiving an egg from a woman named Cynthia that hatched into a Togepi that which layer evolved into your beloved Togekiss.

Malleus has never left the Valley of Thorns, except for school, so he enjoyed hearing about your travels. Your freedom to journey and see so many different places, never being tied down, he envied it.

“May I see your badges and ribbons again?” He asked.

“Sure.” You agreed, getting up to grab them.

At the movement, Glaceon, rather huffily, got up from your lap and moved to Malleus, curling up on his lap instead. He instantly started stroking her with one hand while the other continued scratching Garchomp. He only stopped when you handed him your badge and ribbon case.

He immediately opened them both and admired your impressive 7 badges and 5 sparkling ribbons. 

You had told him that even though you had collected the required number of ribbons, you were transported to Twisted Wonderland before you could compete in the Grand Festival. You also hadn’t yet had the chance to earn your 8th and final gym badge, which allowed you to challenge the Elite Four and the Sinnoh Champion. 

“They are very impressive, Child of Man.” Malleus complemented.

Even though there wasn’t a gym challenge or contests in Twisted Wonderland, Malleus could tell how much value each badge and ribbon you earned had.

“Thanks, Tsunotaro.” You beamed, positively preening at the complement. “Maybe when I find a way home you could come with me and have your own journey. There are a bunch of dragon type Pokémon I bet you’d like. Maybe your starter could be an Axew. Or a Dino. Maybe a Gible seeing how well you get along with Garchomp. There are also rock or electric types. OOH- Maybe a fairy type!”

Malleus tuned your rambling out. His head was both empty and racing.

Him? Go on a journey in another world? The idea was preposterous! Yet... also tempting.

Traveling around with no chains. Nobody knowing who he was, thus no one quivering at the sight of him. No overbearing, but well meaning, guards to coddle him. He liked this idea!

Unfortunately, he didn’t have long to dwell on the tempting daydream when Ramshakle’s door slammed open with a loud bang.

“WAKA-SAMA!!!”

Speak of the devil.

You and Malleus turned to the doorway to a disheveled and hysterical looking Sebek and a normal sleepy looking Silver.

“Sebek.” Malleus greeted, hiding his annoyance of being interrupted during his time with his Child of Man.

“Waka-sama, you mustn’t leave without telling us! What if something happens to y-”

The half-fae was cut off by and ice beam, freezing him solid. You and Malleus looked over at Glaceon who was angry about having her sleep disturbed for a third time. Now quite irritated and huffy, Glaceon angrily marched upstairs to try and get some sleep in your room.

“My apologies.” You jumped when Lilia appeared behind you without warning, hanging upside down as usual. “They ran off when I wasn’t looking.”

You looked back at the other Diasomnia residence. Silver had already fallen asleep, using Togekiss’s soft, feathery body as a pillow, while Sebek was slowly beginning to thaw out of the ice.

You wish you could say this is the weirdest thing to ever happen with them.

After having Lucario use force-palm and free Sebek, you all sat down near the fire.

(You left Silver be since he was already asleep.)

Sebek wanted to know what was so fascinating about you that Waka-sama would continuously come visit you. 

The only thing you could think of was telling them about your journey.

“After I won my seventh gym badge at Snowpoint, I had to meet my friend, Barry, at Lake Acuity and right after that I had to meet with Professor Rowan and Lucas at Lake Verity.”

“Why did you have to go to those lakes?” Lilia asked, genuinely curious as to what value they had.

“Uh, well-- mmh-- pthbbt.” You tried to think of a way to avoid that question, or at least dance your way around it, and the stuttering and raspberry blowing was obviously helping you be discreet in avoiding the question. 

“GLACE!!”

A loud yell echoed from upstairs thatw as loud enough to wake even Silver. You were momentarily grateful that you had been interrupted before realizing ‘Oh shit that’s my Pokémon.”

“Glaceon!” You yelled, bolting from your chair and rushing up the stairs with your Pokémon and the Diasomnia boys at your heels.

You opened your bedroom door with a loud bang and saw Glaceon in a defensive stance, hissing at the mirror with Grim looking frazzled.

“Fgaah! Minion, control your Pokémon! I was asleep and then it started shouting and tried to attack the mirror!” He yelled angrily, before stalking off to the living room to continue sleeping.

You sighed before looking over at the mirror. You held out your arm towards your Pokémon so they knew not to do anything yet. You inched closer to the mirror, pausing only for a second to pet Glaceon and calm her down a bit. You walked forward a few more steps until you were face-to-face with the mirror. 

Now that you were closer, you could see the shadow of something moving within the glass. You didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t Micky. You leaned a bit closer, trying to make out the figure--

“GIRATINA!!”

Everything went black.

~

The first thing you noticed when you could see again was that you were clearly not in your room. Or your dorm for that matter. 

Everything was weird. You weren’t sure of any other way to describe it other than weird.

Weird and familiar.

“The Reverse World.” You muttered, shocked by your sudden return to the feared Giratina’s playground. 

You didn’t have long to stay dumbfounded when you remembered the Legendary who lived in this world. You frantically looked around you and saw that your team and the boys were with you, which did nothing to curb your panic. Grim wasn’t with you all, so you assumed hoped that he was still at Ramshackle.

You first woke up your Pokémon. They freaked out for a second before realizing where they were, putting them all on guard. They carefully scanned their surroundings for anything they found threatening while you quickly crawled over to the boys, traying to shake them awake. 

“Get up. Guys, get up! We need to move!”

The Diasomnia boys hardly registered what was happening and where they were before you pulled them away. Your team created a barrier around you all as you lead the boys through the strange new world. All they could do was look around wildly.

“Careful, gravity gets weird here.” You warned them. 

True to your words, the piece of land you all were walking on started to curve in the air until you all started walking upside down. Even Lilia, who was used to hanging upside down, was a bit thrown off about this.

“What is this place?” Silver asked what everyone was thinking, knowing that you were the only one who could give any of them an answer.

“The Distortion World.” You explained. “Also known as the Reverse World. It’s kind of like the Underworld of my world.”

That explanation only provided them with more questions but went they entered a place that had these large bubbles floating around them they were quickly distracted.

“Hey,” Silver called, gaining everyone’s attention. “This thing has headmaster Crowley in it.”

Said bubble did have a picture of Crowley in his office, working late into the night. Huh. Who know he actually did anything.

Silver raised a hand towards the bubble. 

“No, don’t touch it!” You exclaimed. Unfortunately it was a second to late and the bubble popped at the slightest graze of Silver’s fingers.

The boys looked over to you at the sound of you yell, seeing your panicked expression.

“Don’t. Touch. Anything.” You order, stressing out each word. “Everything in this world effects the real world. If you aren’t careful you could kill someone through this place.

The boys looked positively alarmed.

“Will the headmaster be alright?”

You waved off their concern, continuing to lead the way. “He’ll be fine. Popping that bubble didn’t kill him, but it did feel like he was hit with a bowling ball.

“How do you know this? How do you know so much about this place, (Y/n).” Lilia asked, dead serious. 

You glance over your shoulder at them before sighing.

Guess it was time to come clean.

“There are some things that happened during my journey that I didn’t tell you guys about.” You confessed.

“While journeying through Sinnoh, I constantly ran into an organization called Team Galactic. Their leader, Cyrus, believed that the world was ugly and needed to be destroyed. His plan was to capture the legendary Pokémon, Palkia and Dialga, and the Lake Guardians, Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. Those three were the reason I met Barry and Professor Rowan at the lakes, Lilia, to try and save the Lake Guardians from Team Galactic. Anyway, Cyrus claimed that he was going to create his own, perfect world using the powers of the legendary Pokémon. At least I think that was his plan. He talks like Shakespeare and I have a middle school education. Anyway, before he could create his ‘perfect world’ Giratina appeared and took Cyrus away to here, the Distortion World. This is Giratina’s domain.”

The boys were stunned into silence. They knew you were strong, but for you to have done all that as well as fighting overblots? They were truly impressed.

“What happened afterwards?” Malleus questioned, enthralled by your story.

“Cynthia, the current Sinnoh Champion, and I entered the Distortion World to save Cyrus. Unfortunately, he saw this place as his ideal world and didn’t want to leave. In the end, we had to use force and I beat him in a battle. And, after that, I had to face Giratina itself. But, I don’t know how, but before I could face it, the Dark Mirror called me to Twisted Wonderland.”

You stopped walking, taking a deep breath before turning to face the boys. 

“We need to find Giratina. Giratina’s the only Pokémon that can travel between worlds and its the only thing that can get us back to Night Raven.”

Your tone alone was enough to my the Diasomnia boys understand the severity of the situation.

“Human, if this creature is as powerful as you claim, then how do you expect to get it?” Sebek interrogated. 

You reached into your pocket and pulled out a purple ball with an ‘M’ on it, showing it the the boys.

“This is a master ball. I stole it from Cyrus’s base when I went to save the Lake Guardians. It can catch any Pokémon without fail. All we need to do is find Giratina.”

“Lucar!” 

“Luxray!”

You all turned to Lucario and Luxray who were growling in the same direction. Looking closely, you could see something coming at you all. Your team took their battle stances and sure enough, there was the Angel of Darkness itself, Giratina. 

Even Malleus had to admit, that creature was terrifying. 

It looked like a dragon and centipede mixed together, but it towered over everything, easily dwarfing them all.

You waisted no time.

“Empoleon, Hydro Cannon!” You ordered. Even Sebek had to admit that your authoritative tone was hard to ignore and resist, full of confidence and superiority. 

Empoleon listened without question, fearlessly attacking the towering giant.

“Lucario, Aura Sphere! Glaceon, Ice Beam! Luxray, Thunder! Garchomp, Dragon Rush!”

All your Pokémon attacked at once, hitting Giratina square on. The legendary screeched before firing a move of its own that your team narrowly avoided.

“Great job. Keep attacking!” You ordered shooing the boys out of Giratina’s firing range.

“What do we need to do to help, (Y/n)?” Malleus asked. He was already gripping his pen, ready to fight.

“Nothing. Just stay put and don’t move.” You ordered sternly. The boys were stunned.

“What?! (Y/n) we can help-” 

“I know you can help,” You cut off. “But I don’t need to defeat Giratina. I just need to distract it.”

You ran off before they could question what you meant, whistling for your Pokémon.

“Togekiss!” You called, jumping off the edge of the land and easily getting caught by your flying type, who flew you behind Giratina. 

You let your team get in one last group attack before throwing the master ball at Giratina. 

The legendary effortlessly went in and after a spectacular dive made by you and Togekiss, you caught the ball and returned to the boys.

The boys ran over to you as you climbed off Togekiss, looking at the ball in your hand.

“I can’t believe you actually caught it, human!” Sebek exclaimed, flabbergasted. 

“Thanks, Sebek.”

“So what now?” Silver asked. The group all turned to you expectedly and you rolled your eyes before turning around to the wide open space and releasing Giratina from the master ball. 

“Giratina,” You called, “Please take us back.”

Giratina stared down at you before letting out an echoing screech and lowing its head to your level.

Immediately understanding what it wanted you to do, you crawled onto its head before waving the boys over.

“C’mon. We its going to take us back.”

Hesitantly, the boys climbed on with your Pokémon and once everyone was on, Giratina soared through the air.

This was different from riding a broom or riding Togekiss, who was happily flying beside you all, but it was exhilarating at the same time.

Too soon for anyone’s tastes, Giratina slowed down to a stop before lowering itself down so that everyone could climb off. 

The place were Giratina dropped you all off was a small patch of land with two lakes on it. You and the boys could see your bedroom in one of the lakes, making you realize that you were looking through your bedroom mirror.

“Alright!” You cheered. “Let’s get back.” But before you could step through the reflection, Empoleon called out to you.

“Empoleon!”

“Huh? What is it, Empoleon?”

He was looking in the other lake, pointing at something. 

You, your team, and the boys looked through the refection and you couldn’t restrain the gasp that left your mouth.

You could see the Mesprit, the guardian of Lake Verity.

“That’s Mesprit, Lake Verity’s guardian!” You exclaimed, coming to several realizations at once. “That’s close to Twinleaf Town. I-I could go home!”

You turned to your team and the Diasomnia boys, your eyes sparking with both joy and a few unshed tears. “With Giratina we can go home and still stay in Twisted Wonderland!”

Mallues watched you with soft eyes. He had seen a side if you tonight that he had never seen before. Your courage, your confidence, your skill. He had these too, but yours stemmed from experience. This wasn’t something you were taught since you were born like him, these were abilities you learned through trial and error with your team. Something that he wanted.

With a new found determination, Malleus turned to his most trusted knights and friends.

“Lilia, Silver, Sebek,” He began, quickly gaining everyone's attention, “I have decided that until it is time for me to receive the crown from my grandmother, I want to travel (Y/n)’s world with a Pokémon of my own.”

Even you weren’t expecting that announcement.

“WHAT?! WAKA-SAMA ARE YOU FEELING WELL?!?!? WE MUST GET YOU TO AN INFIMERORY!!”

“I’m fine, Sebek. And I’m not joking.”

“WHAAAAAAAT?!?! YOU, HUMAN, YOU HAVE GIVEN WAKA-SAMA THIS DANGEROUS IDEA!!”

“I think its a great idea.”

“MASTER LILIA?!?!”

“zzzzz”

You couldn’t help snorting at the scene in front of you. A rather calm Malleus simply being unmovable about his choice of coming home with you, a hysterical Sebek trying to talk him out of it, an impish looking Lilia who actually supported Malleus’s idea, and a snoozing silver, who could still sleep effortlessly despite the chaos surrounding him.

You leaned up against Empoleon’s belly, him and all your other Pokémon already lying down, knowing that this was going to take a while. Even Giratina was curled up!

But, You thought, watching the group was a soft smile, you know that no matter how much you wanted to go home, you would've missed this. And this, your friends and NRC, was something that you never wanted to lose.

Bonus:

After sorting everything out with Crowley, you returned to your world to reconcile with your friends and your mom. It took some explaining, but bringing Grim back with you as well as Malleus with his magic and horns was enough to convince everyone what happened to you.

Afterwards, you were able to compete in the Grand Festival. You didn’t end up winning, however you did make it to the finals. Your opponent, Dawn, had only beaten you by a few points.

The Diasomnia gang, as well as Grim, the Adeuce combo, and the Pomefiore Trio were all present to see this and couldn’t have been prouder.

Once the Grand Festival had come to a close, you headed over to Sunnyshore City and won your 8th and final Gym Badge, permitting you to challenge the Elite Four and Cynthia.

The Pomefiore Trio didn’t watch these challenges, but the other did. 

Their nerves were through the roof when you finally faced Cynthia. And when your Garchomp miraculously out sped her Garchomp with the finishing move nobody cheered louder. 

In the end, you took Malleus to the place where you caught Garchomp back when he was still a Gible and caught Malleus his own, whom he unironically named ‘Gargoyle.’ 

Malleus did have to return to the Valley of Thorns, but not without you promising that the upcoming summer would be the start of his own Pokémon Journey. 

I wrote most of this forgetting about Grim, so sorry he doesn’t have a bigger role or more screen time.

Fun story; I got in trouble for writing down my ideas for this at work even though I did it while the store was dead and I’ve worked there for nearly two years and have either written something or drawn something almost every shift I have. Litterally no one but the manager to caught me cares. 

And, just to irritate me more (whether she was aware of it or not), said manager takes my writings and decides to read them and then proceeds to put them back in the wrong order before lecturing me.

So, yeah, that was fun.

[ultranos]

Zuko wasn’t quite sure how to take the news of his sister.

They never really got along. She was always pulling pranks on him, and belittling him, and she always had to be so perfect at everything (always outshining him) and sometimes he wished she wasn’t his sister but that didn’t mean he wanted her…

So he tried to ignore it. Went through his studies and training and tried not to think about it. Spent time with mom when she wasn’t in Azula’s room (sometimes she would just sit on his sister’s bed staring at nothing for the entire day).

His routine went on until one day during training he lost his balance in the middle of a kata and fell straight onto his face. He grumbled and pushed him self up and just… sat there…

And as the minutes ticked by in the empty courtyard, he couldn’t help but notice how quiet it was…

Zuko knows he's dreaming. He's...pretty sure about that.

Although everything since...since Lu Ten got back has been weird. His big and strong cousin looks pale and shadowed. Zuko's even seen him shivering at times, which should be impossible, because Lu Ten is a great firebender. Almost as good as Father.

(Certainly better than Zuko, and even he doesn't shiver in the sunlight.)

Mom's been acting weird. She still spends a lot of time with him, still smiles and laughs with him, but sometimes she'll stop and get a faraway look in her eyes. Like she's seeing something he can't way over there. (He's tried to look but can't ever find it.) Then she'll be sad again and then he almost always finds her in Azula's room. Just standing there. Or sitting on her bed staring at nothing.

There was one time he saw Mom sitting on the bed with an old, ratty stuffed dragon in her hands. (How did she find...didn't Azula burn Sparky? But no, that's definitely the old dragon toy) Her shoulders were shaking so hard, and she was so quiet it took him a moment to realize she was sobbing.

Zuko still doesn't know what to do with that one. Mom crying like that is...he doesn't know. But he knows it's Azula's fault.

And as soon as he thinks that, Zuko feels guilty because, well...yeah.

Father, though. Zuko always hated how Azula made him feel like he was second-best. How she took Father's attention that should have been his, because he was first. Should have been first always. But somehow, Zuko became the one playing catch up, and it was humiliating to be measured against your little sister and never measure up. His tutors and lessons all taught about what a son owed his father, and what the father owed the son in return, but he couldn't even give Father that because Azula kept getting in the way.

Well, not now.

Now Father pays attention to Zuko all the time. Expects things from Zuko and there's no one to measure up against. No one but himself.

He doesn't hate it but...

The courtyard is lit by an eerie blue light. There's a small figure standing by the turtleduck pond, dripping wet with tiny blue flames flickering around her feet. Zuko tastes salt and ozone on his tongue as he steps closer.

"Azula?"

She laughs, the sound wet and garbled. "Forget me already, Zuzu?"

"I..."

Azula turns around and he flinches violently. Her skin is corpse-grey and waxy. Sea water spills from her lips instead of breath, but the blue-wrong-weird flames at her feet don't waver. And her eyes...they look like twin flames of burning gold, like the lights of the dead.

"What is it, Zuzu?" his dead sister whispers to him as she reaches for his face, and he's too paralyzed to move. Her fingers feel like ice when she pulls him down and hisses in his ear. "You got everything you ever wanted."

Zuko jerks upright in bed, gasping.

(He tastes salt on his tongue, but that only comes from tears.

He's not sure if that makes him sadder or not.)