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deck16 · 11 months ago

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I ran the first chapter of a homebrew Guild Wars 2-themed campaign in Pathfinder Second Edition. This post talks about how it went.

Overview

The time: 1325 AE, around the time that Guild Wars 2's Personal Story begins.

The place: The Stronghold of Ebonhawke and surrounding areas.

The starting premise: The heroes are adolescents living in a long-term refugee camp inside Ebonhawke, consisting mainly of those displaced by the Ogre Revolt. The heroes will start with small quests to help out the camp, and in doing so, discover and face greater threats to Ebonhawke.

I tried to keep close to the Guild Wars lore, but I'm certain I will have made some mistakes.

The first chapter dealt with these major themes:

The difficult road to peace. Animosity between charr and humans, featuring Separatist and Renegade forces. The heroes confronted hatreds both violent and more subtle.

Complex moral choices. When is it right to do harm for a greater good?

Found family.

The first chapter ran over approximately 30 sessions over the course of about 6 real-world months. Characters went from level 1 to 4 in that time.

We played using Foundry. The screenshots in this post depict actual Foundry scenes, albeit with post-hoc recreations of character positioning.

The Player Characters

I won't name names because I don't want to over-share characters that aren't mine. I will instead refer to them in this post by class. The party was:

Male charr fighter

Male charr kineticist (fire)

Nonbinary sylvari druid (art source)

Female human cleric

Female human psychic

(See more about the Guild Wars races here).

I made custom rules for these ancestries:

Humans were PF2e humans, with a few extra Guild Wars options added.

Sylvari were lightly-modified PF2e ghoran, with a few extra Guild Wars options added.

Charr I created as an ancestry from scratch.

No asura or norn. No-one chose those races, so I didn't need to make custom ancestries for them.

No custom rules were made for classes. Some were natural fits: kineticist as elementalist, psychic as mesmer, fighter as warrior. Cleric and druid did not fit the game's classes so well (unless you include the Guild Wars 1 monk), but in my opinion they fit the game's genre just fine.

All PCs were refugees living in the camp. Non-sylvari characters were aged around 13-16 years. The humans were twins, who emerged from the Ebonhawke asura gate with no memory of their past.

They started out as a group of friends, and that developed as they adventured together.

Player Character Arcs

Fighter

Fighter was the group's self-appointed leader. He called them "The Great Warband". He was brashly over-confident, optimistic, cheerful, and naive. This personality would be worn down by harsh realities of the world.

Of most impact, he wanted to be able to join Psychic and Cleric in a human-only public speaking competition, going so far as to appeal to the human government. This would lead to double tragedy: his request was officially denied by a harsh panel of Ministers, despite an emotional appeal. Worse, Separatist thugs would ambush the party and beat Fighter badly for daring to make the appeal, causing him to lose an eye (on the player's suggestion!) and some amount of his childish innocence and optimism.

Supported by the twins, fighter makes his case to Lord Faren and a number of human ministers.

Kineticist

Kineticist was stoic and sensible. Devoted to Mara, the camp, and his friends, he worried over intra-group tensions. He kept his fire-magic a secret from non-party onlookers, lest he be mistaken for Flame Legion.

Moral but pragmatic, he was tested when he had to perform dark deeds for the greater good, the prime example being when he was forced to kill a Flame Legion charr cub who was moments away from activating a dangerous flame effigy.

Kineticist moves to kill a charr cub before she can light a flame effigy.

Psychic

Psychic was head-strong and confident; and a skilled talker. She was independent, always wanting to tackle problems directly rather than seek aid. She resented the deference other members of the party had to adults, thinking her comrades were as capable as any adult.

While far from being evil, she was the party member with the least compunction when it came to doing harm. To her, the ends justified the means. She fiercely protected her sister Cleric. Sometimes this would put her in trouble the rest of the party would have to help her out of. Other times this led her to cruel acts, such as killing a non-combatant Separatist child who sneered with delight at the party being in danger.

Cleric

Cleric was kind and hopeful, but also a realist. She accepted that dark deeds sometimes were needed, but did everything possible to avoid them. A devotee of Dwayna, she sought to help those in need.

Non-confrontational and empathetic, she clashed least with other party members. Pragmatic and phlegmatic, she was affected least by the dark moments of this first chapter, as she was always motivated to do measurable good no matter how small that seemed in the grander scheme.

Sometimes I would use maps that were more "mood-setters" than actual battle-maps. Here's Gwen's courtyard. Druid's animal companion Thunder was a Krytan Drakehound that originally belonged to Gwen. Gwen was happy enough to give the animal away to a better owner.

Druid was non-violent and carefree, even to the point of taking a mostly-support role in combat. Though technically younger than the others, Druid believed themselves wiser, and sought to guide the party. Mainly, they wanted the party to be less hot-headed and less risk-taking. The advice wasn't always welcomed: to some characters at some times it felt more scolding than sage advice. Late in the chapter, Druid decided to shed some of their more idealistic ideas for a harder stance, the ramifications of this as-yet mostly unseen.

Story Arcs

Several story arcs were interwoven together chronologically. I am going to present these by theme, to be less confusing.

Some elements of the story are not fully explained; I am only including things the players are aware of! No spoilers here for the next chapter!

In an early adventure, the heroes were sent to gather scrap metal from a charr war machine. They needed to fend off Gwen's gang who were hoping to do much the same.

Chores

A charr called Mara Trenchleap was the group's defacto parent figure. Leader of the refugee camp in Ebonhawke, she assigned duties to the PCs.

Early adventures dealt with doing chores to help the camp. Collecting devourer eggs. Chasing away pesky skritt. Helping members of the camp. Fairly innocent stuff.

Many of the chores would lead into the story arcs below.

Later they would help Mara prepare for an attack on an Inquest lab (explained below). They would help her find old comrades, and help secure weapons and equipment.

A skritt called Rikkitiktikka shows the party to her then-abandoned scratch. Don't worry: the heroes would go on to rescue the lost skritt from an Inquest lab, find them meaningful employment with the charr legions, and collapse a cavern that links the scratch to an area populated by dangerous Destroyers.

Gwen Thackery-Stubbs

Gwen Thackery-Stubbs was an NPC and daughter of a noble. She was about the same age as the party. Skilled with her father's pistol, she led a small gang of children. She and her gang would often rival the PCs during early sessions.

The party kept things from escalating, so this rivalry did not escalate beyond non-lethal fights. In fact, Gwen would later seek the party's help as her father was investigated by Ebon Guard for smuggling weapons. The party helped destroy some evidence, but it was not enough to keep her father free.

Ultimately, her father was arrested, and Gwen chose to live with the PCs in the refugee camp. Now devoid of money, her old gang had little interest in her, which cemented her allegiance with the PCs and especially Psychic who she looked up to. She even joined them as an NPC party member (at the player's insistence) in the final dungeon, where she did well as a gunslinger.

Later in the chapter, the heroes assaulted the main Separatist HQ in Ebonhawke. The Separatists were away, leaving younger delinquents from Gwen's old gang to guard the place. Despite being badly outnumbered, the party prevailed thanks to the advancements they had made since first tussling with these gang-members. It was mostly a fiery slaughter at the hands of Kineticist.

Separatists

The party interfered with some Separatist plans, especially those to smuggle weapons. Mostly this involved infiltrating various Separatist hideouts within and without Ebonhawke. The PCs also stopped crazed Separatist gunman, and managed to sabotage a Separatist public rally for support.

The party parleyed with Flame Legion. No good; it ended in a fiery fight. Despite outnumbering these Flame Legion five-to-two (there are two non-combatant cubs pictured), these were adult charr and so more mighty than the adolescent PCs.

Flame Legion

Curiously, a Flame Legion shaman was acting this far afield from Flame Legion territory. This shaman had displaced a group of skritt by causing volcanic activity and fire creatures to appear in their cave system.

The party destroyed a large Searing crystal held by the shaman. They killed the arrogant and dangerous Shaman and his Bladestorm comrade in a close battle. In a less-dangerous but darker battle, they killed one of the shaman's cubs as she tried to activate a flame effigy; leaving the shaman's mate to flee with the remaining cubs.

By collapsing the cave system in a bottleneck, the party sealed off the dangerous fiery areas of cavern, allowing the skritt to safely move back in.

The party confronted an icebrood Son of Svanir out on a frozen lake. Knowing this was far too dangerous to fight, they disrupted the ice beneath it, causing it to sink into the chill waters.

The Sentinels and the Inquest

The party would discover that the Sentinels were working with the Inquest to study the Brand. Inquest researcher Materialist Zirri was operating from Sentinel's Perch and used a private asura gate to travel to various Inquest labs.

The party took a job to investigate why one of those labs was not contactable. This lab was in the Far Shiverpeaks, and was unpowered. The party dealt with escaped troll specimens, restored power to the base, reprogrammed golems, and even dealt with some icebrood outside the facility. They rescued surviving Inquest researchers and freed a number of skritt.

During this, the PCs learnt more about Zirri and her research. It quickly dawned upon them she was Inquest -- a fact she had not mentioned. Moreover they discovered evidence and journals that the lab was experimenting on live branded specimens, including from Mara's old 'band: Trench Warband. They told Mara about this.

Mara's history was presented as a little combat, where players took the roles of Hastati, Mara, charr troops, and even branded monsters and the brand itself!

Trench Warband

Part-way through the chapter, Mara told the PCs about her history.

During the Ogre Revolt, she was a part of Trench Warband. Some of her warband were on patrol on the far side of the newly-created Brand. Her Legionnaire -- Hastati Stormtrench -- set out to rescue them, and ordered Mara to collect weapons and the rest of her 'band mates as reinforcements. When she did so, she detoured to help humans stop branded from entering Ebonhawke, knowing that the Branded could spread like a disease from creature to creature. This delay left the Legionnaire without reinforcements, leading to loss of life in the rescue mission.

During all this, Mara's leg was injured and was amputated to prevent her from becoming Branded. While she could still walk with a prosthetic, her reduced mobility saw her removed from the warband.

The PCs met Stormtrench in passing. They became wary of him due to his Inquest allies. They became highly suspicious of him when they met him outside the caverns of the Flame Legion shaman (see above), seemly waiting for some liaison with the shaman. Hastati became irritated when he believed the PCs had fragments of the Searing crystal (which they did), and demanded them. He and his soldiers chased them through the cave, but the PCs managed to lose him.

In Nolan's recreation of Regent Valley, the heroes worked with Mist-exploring asura to force a dangerous aatxe back through its portal deeper into the Mists.

Nolan Mullenix

Nolan Mullenix was a nobleman from Divinty's Reach, and a philanthropist who donated to Mara's camp. To express her thanks, Mara had the PCs do chores for him.

Nolan took a particular interest in the twins, due to their strange origin and their magic talents.

Early on, this included a journey to the ruins of Rin, where the party saw the ghosts of Ascalon. They also ventured into an old Ascalonian tomb.

Later on, they entered Nolan's "sanctuary" in the Mists, which he had modelled to look like pre-searing Ascalon. He tasked them with clearing out some Mist-entities from a corner of his sanctuary. In doing so, the PCs met a group of asura Mist-explorers and after a brief confused combat about who were the real Mist creatures, they teamed up to banish a nasty aatxe and some its shadow-minions.

Later, the party participated in a two-person-team magic duel, as well as a public speaking competition. Fighter lost his eye in challenging the human-only nature of this competition (see "Player Character Arcs" above). The twins won the Ebonhawke regionals, going to the finals in Divinity's Reach. Much of their preparation they did in the peaceful environs of Nolan's Mist Sanctuary, with his permission.

Nolan was friendly to everyone, including the PCs. But they were wary of him, largely because of his power. Not only could he carve out areas of the Mists for his own use, but on a number of occasions the PCs witnessed him using powerful mesmer abilities.

Vistawhiff

Castella Vistawhiff was an Ash Legion spy who was initially encountered when she was investigating Gwen's father on suspicion of arming Separatists.

Vistawhiff would take a liking to Fighter, as Fighter would volunteer any information when asked. Their relationship spoiled when Vistawhiff requested help from Fighter, but Fighter would not abandon the twins during their public speaking performance during the Ebonhawke regionals.

The Necromancer

Early on, the PCs found evidence of a necromancer named Kofi Duskwynn working as a mercenary in the Ebonhawke area. They eventually discovered she was working both sides -- Separatists and Renegades -- taking money and corpses from each to assail the other with necromantic minions.

The PCs explored a dungeon where she had operated from, and witnessed her deal with Separatist forces on a few occasions.

She worked with the Separatists on a new plan. Using a number of special amulets, they planned to create Risen within the charr camp inside Ebonhawke. This would leave the Ebon Guard little choice but to shut the camp down.

The PCs caught wind of this plan, but it would not come to fruition as Kofi abducted Separatist children. Equally furious and scared, the Separatists abducted charr cubs to offer in exchange. They marched on Kofi's lair, hoping to trade, but prepared to fight. The PCs were close behind on all of this, following the Separatists to across into Shiverpeak Foothills to Kofi's lair.

Kofi had not just abducted Separatist children. She had taken Renegade children too. Both Separatist and Renegade forces met outside her dungeon and fought. This was Kofi's plan: the dead would become her army, which she would grow with conquest, all to please Zhaitan who she was sure would conquer all of Tyria sooner or later.

The PCs dove into the fracas to save the charr cubs. From there, they entered Kofi's lair, encountering more squabbling Separatist and Renegades, rescuing more children, and ultimately killing the Necromancer.

In the final battle against the necromancer, Dorothea sneaked ahead with invisibility, allowing her to get the drop on the necromancer when combat broke out.

Chapter End

The story ended with the party split, though this was as-per their choice.

The twins, along with Fighter and NPC Gwen, went to the public speaking competition finals in Divinity's Reach, and won. The prize was a large stipend which could be used for their education.

During their competition, they witnessed Hastati Stormtrench lead a century of charr soldiers through the streets, escorted by Seraph. Announcers calmed the crowd, saying they were heading to the Ebonhawke gate to apprehend "the renegade Trench warband". Though concerned, none of the PCs left the competition.

Meanwhile, Mara was preparing to attack the Inquest lab with some of comrades. She hoped to free her Branded comrades by killing them. Kineticist and Druid were helping make sure the camp would operate as normal without its usual leader.

Vistawhiff had told Legion authorities about Mara's plans, as relayed to her by Fighter. Stormtrench mobilised to strike first, and Mara's plans were halted by his unexpected presence. Mara confronted Stormtrench. Druid tried to help Kineticist escape the scene, but Kineticist would not abandon Mara. Druid's interference led to Druid being skewered by some strange phantasm-like charr conjured by Stormtrench. (Druid would later be stabilised by a charr soldier.)

Kineticist offered himself and the Searing crystals to Stormtrench in order for Mara to not be executed. Little did Stormtrench know that one crystal was left behind, in a hiding place behind the hiding place.

Time Skip

Some time will pass before Chapter Two begins. Probably many months or even some years. What have the players said their characters might do during this time?

Fighter turns vigilante, carving "S" or "R" onto any Separatist or Renegade he can find. He specialises in finding those that try to flee from Ascalon.

Kineticist was spared from execution. Hastati sent him and Mara as prisoners to different work camps. Kineticist was unable to seek Mara, but will have some contact with any who might come to his work camp.

Psychic and Cleric both use their competition prize to study. Psychic studies under Nolan. Cleric seeks a more political angle, and manages to find a position working as Count Anise's assistant.

Druid wandered Tyria, trying to comprehend all that happened.

The Setting

I've always liked Guild Wars as games. I know the setting fairly well. Both of these things made it a good choice for use as an established setting.

It's also a setting that is expansive, yet with plenty of regional detail. It has a living history but with a fairly slow burn, and not a break-neck cavalcade of different world-ending threats. This gives me, as GM, a lot of work with.

A dungeon opened into a secluded valley where moa foraged at a river bank. This valley was purely scenic.

Exploration

One thing I love about Guild Wars 2 as a game is the sense of exploration it fosters. (Check my retrospective if you want to hear me harp on about that.) It was something I wanted to capture in this campaign.

I put vistas into some of the adventures. Literally, I slapped the icon on certain maps. It was fun as a cheeky reference, but it also spoke to the exploration aspect of Guild Wars 2, which I really wanted to capture.

Capturing a sense of place and space is hard in a TTRPG. This was something I tried to do. I went to the effort of getting still shots for many minor scenes. Some screenshots, some not. I curated some of the more iconic music themes from the game. I think it paid off.

A simple cross-the-bridge-in-the-storm scene proved very dramatic. Excellent mileage for something I quickly whipped up with PF2e actions like Crawl, Balance, Grab an Edge; along with Hazard rules giving some random nasty effects to the swaying bridge. The party enjoy a Vista after completing the crossing.

Expository Shortcuts

My players had a mix of Guild Wars 2 experience, from near-zero to quite extensive. This actually worked well both ways.

Working in a well-known setting allowed me, as a GM, to take expository shortcuts. In a typical homebrew world, every person, place, or thing is an unknown to the players, at least initially, and GMs have to work to establish those backgrounds. In a known setting, there's so much to work with that comes "pre-installed" with meaning.

The players learning they were in an Inquest lab meant nothing to the players unfamiliar with the lore. But to those who were, it opened up a whole new bevy of thoughts and concerns. All without me having to lift a finger.

The other fun aspect is that the players that know can explain the lore to the players who don't know in-game and in-character.

This simple mood-setting scene was used a few times. It's a screenshot from Guild Wars 1, in pre-searing Ascalon, and despite dated graphics it still conjures a certain peace. As a scene, it was used for travel, to allow a bit of light role-play between scenes. Later, I'd use this scene after Fighter's brutal beating at the hand of Separatists. He narrated taking the party out of Ebonhawke to the sight of his mother's grave, where he gave a heartfelt speech.

Arcane Influence

There were two major influences for this campaign. The first obviously being Guild Wars 2. The second being Arcane. Arcane's influence was mainly in the story structure: an initial chapter where the characters are adolescents, a time skip, then a continuation of story with them as adults. The first chapter has been the adolescent arc.

Duration

I didn't intend for this first chapter to take as long as it did. As mentioned, it ran over approximately 30 sessions over the course of about 6 real-world months. I think my initial idea was to do half that.

Was it a problem? Not really. While I would prefer my estimations to match reality it was never really the case that the campaign was dragging its feet or meandering without direction.

Part of the of the problem may have been down to my desire to run sessions even when there's known to be low player presence. I made more than one "side quest" adventure for just two or three players. While that makes for a less tight campaign, I think routine and reliability-of-play are imperative for a healthy TTRPG group.

The biggest problem was that PCs went from level 1 to 4 over this chapter. I didn't want to go much higher with them as still adolescents. That's a long time to languish in lower levels, especially for the casters, and that's a mistake I apologise for.

Levels

I am developing a philosophy with PF2e that somewhat mirrors one I settled on way back in 3.5 edition Dungeons and Dragons. Adult humanoid NPCs are, on average, about level 4.

(Yes, this even works with non-combat NPCs. In D&D 3.5e that could be handled with NPC classes. In PF2e, non-combat levels are the way to go.)

I think I kept this sense of scale well. At first the heroes could only contend with other juvenile foes, like Gwen's gang of delinquents (in fact, her gun was quite the frightening novelty in such battles). Later, the heroes could tussle with adults, but they would have to outnumber any that had decent combat training. The PCs might be able to take on some of the weaker "weekend warrior" Separatists, but they could not contend with properly-trained Separatist or charr adults without outnumbering them.

I think it's important to do this sort of thing so the players can intuit what's dangerous and what's not. It seemed to work: they knew serious threats like Sons of Svanir, ettins, and ogres just by seeing them, and either fled or approached with extreme caution.

It's also great for a sense of progression. When, nearer the chapter end, the heroes were able to trounce Gwen's old gang it was clear how far they'd come even with only two levels.

Monsters are a bit of a mixed bag. I wanted a bit of variety, so I did allow some monsters that I thought would be ordinarily too powerful, but just made them weaker versions: that devourer is a juvenile, that spectre is faded, that elemental is lukewarm. I think that's forgivable.

In an especially dark moment, Separatist forces return a charr cub hostage to Renegade forces, along with an armed and timed explosive hidden on her body! This drove home to the heroes how duplicitous the Separatists could be... whether driven by desperation, racial hatreds, or both.

Darkness

Guild Wars 2 is, mostly, a hopeful setting (it's in the theme tune!). As explained above, this campaign was fairly dark.

Partly this was the Arcane influence. The time-skip needed to happen with some uncertainty and looming troubles. Player characters needed to be challenged and maybe even broken. Mentor NPCs needed to meet bad ends.

Overall I do not feel I was wrong to use a darker tone, but I do feel a bit bad about it. It was just a bit overpowering. I don't think there needed to be less darkness. I think there needed to be more lightness: more clear wins, more happy NPCs, more nice moments. A softer mix that could provide a harsher contrast.

Conclusion

Overall, I am glad I ran this campaign. It was a fun TTRPG romp. And there were some memorable moments and powerful RP scenes along the way.

I am always glad when a campaign of mine reaches a chapter-point. To me, it's that same relief as when you see that little "Saving..." notification after a brutally difficult stretch of video game. The progress is "locked in".

I don't like to see campaigns fizzle out, with stories and character arcs left forever hanging. A chapter-point brings enough finale to a story to mitigate this fizzle-factor.

But that doesn't mean I'm content to leave the story there. I hope one day to return for Chapter Two!

#rpg #ttrpg #pathfinder #guild wars 2 #gaming

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niacousland · 1 year ago

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So palworld has gotten me by the balls and I can't help but feel obsessed with it enough to put down what I have for a story ahem

So palworld doesn't have a linear story, it's an open word, crafting, catch mons type of game You have bosses and you can learn more about what they do but in terms of interaction, you really don't have quests or really notable NPCs really

So instead I've been filling the blanks with my own things so what I have is

The archipelago itself is highly dangerous to get close to. Somehow, someway, most ships end up in brutal storms trying to get there and the human survivors end up washing ashore if they survive, which happens to the player character you end up designing

In my own story, I would have of course my OC Kaji, but my two self inserts as well People know of the islands, know about the monsters in some more but there is no communication from the islands itself. It's just massive amount of rumors so the 3 friends end up taking a ship towards it. All for their various reasons

However their ship ends up crashing into something big which destroys their ship leaving them to cling to dear life and washing up in the beach of one island. that's when they find the scattered remains of what was once their ship. The people there gone but miraculously all of them have survived. None of their communication tools survived either

However that's when they find a pal deck on the shore with a cryptic message saying "the key is in the towers"

They wonder what to do next but can't wonder on an empty stomach and almost drowing so they go off and search what is on the island. They meet up with a few other survivors as well as people who are living on the island. all with their same tale that their ships or their airplans, vessels, crashed and they can't get out

Obviously that's when they say that we are all extremely lucky to even have found a pal deck as they are incredibly rare. A few even say to be careful as there are those who would want to own that tablet because it gives the user knowledge on how to craft

HOw it's done? Well some super technology where information can be shared and downloaded into you, idfk Either way, the tablet gives everyone the ability to create what you pull up on it

And of course the balls required to catch the pals. Despite the cute cuddly creatures they first find, it's not as if it's sweet sailing. There are pals who will attack on sight and the other islanders who are alive mention that the further you go, the more dangerous it becomes. Since you have the pal deck, it'll be easier to maneuver

The small base that can be whipped up is easier when you have pals helping you as well. They seem to respond well to the commands even though the friends just caught them. Pretty sure it's some ball magic

anyway at this point, everyone has their own curiosities they want to fulfill And when spending time in a dungeon, more pal decks were found. Now all 3 has them

Kaji wants to know more about the various groups on the islands, perhaps create a book on how they live their lives so far Nia is definitely aiming to find how many pals there are and how strong each one can become Noa is full on survival mode, even thinking of helping other settlements that he comes across

All will eventually go their seperate ways to explore the mysterious archipelago and the humans who made these islands their home after not being able to leave It's obvious there's history Old ruins, churches, what looks like to be a massive wall springing from somewhere, dungeons springing up out of nowhere And the pal decks that connect to the old layers of technology still found across the land I have more stuff on me that I will eventually put down Especially about all the different factions I mean can you imagine if each faction had a quest line, cities, side quests, and memorable NPCs???

#palworld #palworld story idea #palworld head lore #palworld lore #palworld oc #palworld game #palworld is my new hyperfocus

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chaozsilhouette · 4 years ago

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A Revealing Performance

My rendition for the Shadow Play in @winterpower98's Swap Au.

It was supposed to be a simple thing, then it sort of spiraled into this whole deal. For the effects of the Shadow Lantern, I drew some inspiration from her Cursed Au as I never thought simply using her friends was cruel enough for the Monkey Tyrant.

It serves to show just how far Macaque has grown, but also to highlight just how monstrous he was.

_____________________________

Mei refrained from downing her bubble tea as she waited for the play to start. It had been a rough couple of weeks with Spider Queen and that creepy girl. And failing to find where Xiaotian had run off to after the misunderstanding. When Macaque sent her tickets to the local theatre, she was ashamed to think it was a trap.

Pigsy and Sandy were right. After everything that happened, she needed some serious me time. She had been too stressed.

Besides, everyone knew Macaque was a total theatre nerd. Few people knew that the star puppeteer was actually the Six-Eared Macaque himself. He would totally send her tickets from his stomping grounds as a way to unwind.

It was a shame that Tang couldn’t join them. Apparently, he finally managed to schedule a meeting with the Celestial Realm and was Taking the demon brothers to figure out a new way of sealing the Monkey Tyrant. It was also his chance to explain their little break-in during New Years. He encouraged her to have fun and if it was good, he’d join them for the next showing.

So here they were waiting for the performance to start. Although she wondered what the fake mayor was doing here. They hadn't seen him since he gave her the skeleton key. Still wasn't sure why he had it or why he gave it to her? Supposedly she was only supposed to have it for a day, but he never stopped by to pick it up.

_____________________________

Sun Wukong was a monkey of many talents, but even he had to admit Macaque was a far better storyteller and his mastery of shadows was sheer perfection. But that just made this plan all the more perfect. What better way to teach his wayward beloved’s little flower a lesson than through a trusted medium.

Obtaining a spot in the local theatre was child’s play, a little magic and they were all but begging him to take center stage. Apparently, they had been scrambling to find a new performer after their star puppeteer had to leave for a family emergency (three guesses as to who that was). And with a little glamor, a set of tickets was left at the little flower's doorstep. As far as she knew, Macaque was proud of her progress and believed she had deserved a reward for all her hard work. She was so desperate for something to go right she hardly questioned how her mentor, who was in parts unknown, managed to secure tickets for a new performer.

In his personal dressing room, Wukong delicately touched up his human disguise. Even if he was going to be hidden in his hanfu and cloak, it wouldn’t do to spoil the surprise. Applying his eye shadow with artful flair, the Monkey King took time to appreciate just how handsome he truly was no matter what form he took. Honestly, who would have thought such perfection existed?

A pulse of dark magic drew his attention to his latest partner in crime.

The Shadow Lantern gently floated before him. Its dark magic practically purring at the thought of being used. Wukong could almost laugh at his beloved’s foolishness. He was there when his darling created the lantern, when he infused his own shadows into its very foundation. Did he honestly think such a masterpiece would tolerate being left to collect dust in a cave?

Normally a magical artifact would never consider turning on its master, but after centuries of abandonment, all Wukong had to do was whisper his intentions to return Macaque to his former self to secure its loyalty. The second he first made contact, he could sense a twisted hunger writhing within and with each performance granting it the chance to feed on the life essence of the viewers…. hehe, he almost couldn’t contain himself.

Looking up at the clock, he saw it was just about time for his next performance. His clones had reported the girl’s presence along with the pig and the water demon. Strangely the one with glasses and the little matchstick was absent. No matter, he could make do with two hostages just fine.

After all, the show must go on.

_____________________________

The overhead lights dimmed, signaling the start of the play. Smoke slowly poured from beneath the floorboards, generating an air of mystery. In a flash of golden light, a tall man wearing a beautiful cloak manifested on center stage. The crowd silenced themselves at the display.

“Welcome viewers to a performance you shall never forget!” From the folds of his sleeves, an exquisite lantern floated in front of him. A mesmerizing yet familiar purple glow emanating from the center.

“Our tale tonight is one of love, companionship, and how even the strongest of bonds can be severed through the trickery of the wicked.”

In the background, the shadows twisted and grew in the lantern’s light. Carefully they formed a beautiful scene of a mountain covered in flowers and trees. Attention was gradually guided to the top, where a round stone basked in the sun.

“It all began with the birth of a King.”

The round stone broke, revealing a figure that resembled a monkey. But no, this was a monkey demon, a monkie if you would. The King journeyed down the mountain until he found a tribe of normal monkeys. The group frolicked for a while as the King established himself as the undisputed ruler of the tribe.

A large figure with an ax appeared. The monster brought down his ax upon a small collection of monkeys only to be stopped at the last second by the King. The King used his superior strength to steal the demon’s ax and used it to decapitate the intruder in a single stroke. The monkeys jumped around the King and praised his strength, but the King did not appear satisfied.

“The young King was born with great power and strength, but he sought out more to protect his people.”

The King crafted a raft and set out on a dangerous sea. The King was shown to face off against mountain gods, human warriors, and demonic sorcerers always to reign victorious but never satisfied.

“In his travels, he learned much and faced many enemies, in time his efforts were handsomely rewarded.”

The King climbed a fleet of stairs carved into a mountain to reach a humble monastery. At the top, a stern human stood, but behind him was another monkie. This one however possessed six ears.

“His quest for power led him to a Warrior of potential equaling his own. At first, neither was sure how to react to their mirror, but they quickly forged a comradery that took them far.”

The two monkies trained together, mastering new powers as they sparred.

“Their time together increased their power exponentially and as they grew stronger their feelings blossomed into something beautiful.”

The two were on a cliff overlooking the stars, slowly leaning closer to one another. Eventually, the two faced their opposite and leaned in close.

“Their fates had become intertwined. Their power was unmatched. It was then the King realized what he had been searching for all this time.”

The two shadows merged together in a complex dance until they separated into two beings once again, but not as they began. The two monkeys were now garbed in elaborate, yet practical armor and silks. The King wielded a staff and the Warrior took up a spear.

“Slowly their strength grew to where nothing could challenge them, whether in the Celestial Realm or on Earth.”

The King and Warrior were shown battling heavenly armies and powerful demons with confident smirks. Each battle resoundingly won through their combination of speed, strength, and cunning.

“But it was not enough. The King wished to ensure that he and the Warrior would be able to fight together forever and sought the power and respect needed to secure their future.”

The King took to the Heavens, where he stood before an Emperor in the most extravagant outfit, surrounded by massive guards in magical armor. The Emperor was clearly afraid as the King effortlessly toppled one guard after another, slowly approaching the throne at a steady pace.

“The King’s noble actions were viewed negatively by those who feared his ever-growing power. Eventually, a prison was crafted that could restrain the King, one that not even his beloved Warrior could destroy.”

Just before the King’s latest attack could reach the Emperor, chains wrapped around his limbs and dragged him down to Earth. With a quick flex, the chains shattered, but the King was doomed as a mountain landed on him with a seal placed at the top. The Warrior tried to pry off the seal or find some way to weaken the mountain, his acts growing more desperate with time, yet nothing worked.

“Cruelly, the King was forced to wait until he could be freed, forced to watch his precious Warrior defend their Kingdom on his own.”

With a heavy expression, the Warrior abandoned his efforts to return to the original mountain as dozens of terrifying figures surrounded the monkey inhabitants.

“Centuries passed and their love still burned strong. Soon their patience was rewarded, the King was freed but he was soon trapped in a new prison.”

A monk approached the mountain and removed the seal. The King swiftly destroyed the mountain. The monk humbly bowed to the King and offered fresh clothing and a fillet. The King garbed himself in the gifts only to collapse in agony when the monk prayed.

“Enraged the King played along until the time was right. The King and the Warrior reunited in secret and crafted a plan that would allow them to take their revenge on those that dared to separate them.”

The two monkies hugged and nuzzled each other in appreciation. A quick conversation later, the Warrior changed to resemble the King and joined the monk as the King headed into unknown lands.

“Decades later the King was ready to retrieve his love, confident in his regained strength. But when he arrived the Warrior had changed. It was as if the warrior had lost a crucial part of himself. The Warrior tried to dissuade the King from killing the monk and his companions. He even tried to convince him to give up his rage at the Celestial Realm, believing the war that would ensue wasn't worth it.”

The disguised Warrior was traveling with four colorful characters. The King dropped from the sky in front of the group, a massive crater forming around him. The Warrior regained his true form, but instead of returning to his rightful place, he blocked the King’s view of the monk.

“The King could not believe his ears. This could not be his Warrior. His love always understood his goals and knew why heaven had to pay. The King knew this change was the monk’s fault. The King moved to silence the deceiver in one quick strike only to find it blocked by the Warrior.”

The King and Warrior exchanged blows that tore mountains asunder, split the heavens, and burned down forests. The other demons following the monk tried to aid the warrior, but nothing they did seemed to slow down the King, if anything their attacks only served to further enrage him.

“The two clashed until the Warrior fled with the jailers. Time and time again they clashed, but never could the King reach the Warrior he held in his heart.”

The group fled from the battle, but time and time again the King tracked them down. The locations may have changed, but the carnage after each battle remained as world-shattering as the first. In the end, the Group managed to truly escape, and the Warrior vanished into the shadows he wielded, leaving the King alone with nothing but his memories.

“Even now the King yearns for the companionship of his beloved Warrior, knowing that at his core the Warrior craves the same.”

With the final line sending shivers down the spines of the viewers, the puppeteer vanished in a flash of light.

_____________________________

As Mei waited for her family to walk out, she couldn’t help but think about the play. It almost sounded like they were telling the tale of the Monkey King. But that was ridiculous. No one knew the Monkey King’s origins aside from minor details from the Journey to the West. Besides the narrator seemed to view the Monkey Tryant as a hero and victim. Clearly, that guy needed a reality check.

“Hello, young one.” Nearly choking on the remainder of her tea, Mei turned to see the puppeteer standing behind her with a knowing smile.

His cloak shrouding the top of his face in shadow. For a second, Mei envisioned her father Macaque. He would adore that look. Actually, didn’t she see a similar outfit in his closet on Flower Fruit Mountain? Doesn’t he wear that outfit when he’s hosting a shadow play?

Wait. How did he sneak up on her like that? Was she that out of it?

How long has she been quiet? Crap! Say something! “Oh. Ah-hello. C-can I help you with something?”

“I was about to ask the same. You do know the theatre is going to close soon right?”

“What?” Mei grabbed her phone. The digital clock flashed that it was past nine. That couldn’t be right. That meant she had been waiting for nearly an hour. But where were the others? Surely, they wouldn’t have left without telling her. Were they in trouble?

“Is everything alright?”

“Ah- yeah, everything’s fine.” It’s cool. It’s cool. She could handle this. She just needed to stay calm. “No need to worry about me. I just ah-I have a few questions about your play.”

“Yes.”

“How did you could up with the concept? I mean, no offense, but your premise could be taken the wrong way.” Maybe it was the panic over where her family had disappeared to, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being sized up.

“Hm. Have you ever heard the expression ‘History is written by the winners’?”

“Yes. It’s pretty common.” Like one of the most used sayings in the world.

“The tale was designed to show that love is one of the most cherished feelings of all and that in order to protect it, one must be willing to do anything to keep their loved ones safe. The King only wished to keep his beloved by his side, but the Warrior was misled and forced to battle against his love. That story may belong to only two, but similar tales can be experienced in anyone’s life. Tell me, can you think of a time you fought with those you cared about due to a misunderstanding?”

Without even considering it, horrible memories resurfaced. Mei arguing with MK as she tried to stop him from leaving with the newly released Monkey King. Mei forced to battle Red Son as his mind was slowly consumed by the True Fire of Samadhi. Tang lying to them about his true identity. Macaque leaving when they needed him most without saying why.

“I see you can.” The puppeteer gently guided her back into the main hall, where she took a seat on an empty bench.

“It’s nothing. I just-” She honestly didn’t know why she was pouring out her heart to stranger. Maybe she really was that exhausted. “-there’s so much going on and I’m supposed to be strong no matter what. But sometimes it hurts, just thinking about all my mistakes. Sometimes I wonder if I truly am strong. What if bringing me into this was a mistake?”

“What if it was?” That voice!

Mei turned to see Macaque garbed in a strange outfit, one that honestly reminded her of the Monkey King’s. She was confused. She had never seen him wear anything like that, he looked like the Monkey King’s twisted shadow.

And that expression! Her father Macaque had never made that face before. It looked as though he was reveling in her suffering.

“What’s the matter, little jade? Don’t worry, I won’t leave you alone.” He extended a hand slowly with the intent to cradle her face. A normal gesture he would use to comfort her, but her every instinct was screaming at her to get away.

Mei jumped to her feet and pulled out her spear, aiming it right between the imposter’s eyes. “Enough games!”

Macaque stared at the spear for a second, his fiendish expression only growing more vicious. He threw his head back with a full-bodied laugh, showing how little he thought of her threat. “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

In a flash of light, the Monkey Tyrant was standing before her, still wearing his puppeteer disguise. “Wow. About time. For a while, I was wondering if you’d ever figure out it was me.” His red and gold eyes carefully roved over her body, taking in every shake and fearful twitch. “Put down the spear, kid. We both know you’re not nearly good enough to scratch me with such a pitiful copy of the Dragon Blade.”

That may have been true, but she’d sooner make out with DBP in full view of Queen Iron Fan than leave herself completely open before this tyrant. “So the play was from your perspective. I always figured you were delusional, but this is a new low. Where is my family?” She all but growled, unknowingly her canines had slightly elongated in response to her rage.

“They never left. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize this.” The Monkey King took out the lantern, once more bathing the room in that familiar glow.

“What’s the big deal about a lantern?”

The stone monkie found her ignorance all the more entertaining. To think he hadn’t warned her of his own past.

“The big deal is that my dear warrior crafted this lantern long ago. It was his finest work and like everything he made it has multiple uses.” With a simple hand gesture, the silhouettes of Pigsy and Sandy appeared on the walls. “The Shadow Lantern can do more than enhance one’s skills in shadow magic, it can trap the bodies and souls of its targets. So long as the targets are trapped, the lantern can steal the shadows of its victims so its master can use them as a personal army until there is nothing left.”

“You expect me to believe Macaque made something so disgusting?” Even as Mei said it, she couldn’t help but recognize how similar the lantern’s magic was to her teacher’s. It was cool and soothing, but on the edge, there was an unmistakable edge of malice. “Even if he did, I doubt he made it without you whispering in his ears.”

“Oh child, you have no idea how many secrets he keeps from you. Let me share one with you.” The lantern grew brighter, and the silhouettes of her family members gained more substance as they peeled away from the walls.

Mei adjusted herself so all opponents were in her sight, but nothing could stop the sweat collecting on her forehead.

She sensed something powerful appear behind her. Jumping out of the way as a spear nearly severed her arm. She faced her new opponent. Only to almost drop her weapon.

Standing before her was another copy of Macaque only this one was even more disturbing. Its eyes burned with purple light, the shadows loving curled around it, but worst of all was the sneer filled with razor-tipped teeth.

“Did you honestly think my love was always so nice?”

#lego monkie kid #lego monkie kid au #lmk #long xiaojiao #mei #sun wukong #liu er mihou #monkey king #monkie kid swap au #shadow lantern #winterpower98 #i need to lay down #shadow play #monkey tyrant

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early2000smovieimagines · 4 years ago

Text

Meeting and Dating Harry Potter

(Not my gif)(Requested by anonymous)

(Harry doesn’t get enough love.)

- You and Harry first meet at Hogwarts but he isn’t really aware of your existence until around fourth year when everyone else in the school turns their backs on him.

- He’s making his way through the crowds of ‘Potter stinks’ buttons when he hears someone call his name. He almost doesn’t stop, expecting the same mocking he’d been receiving all week, but he does stop and there you are, giving him a small, kind smile and telling him that you “just wanted to wish him good luck in the tournament.”.

“I-er, thanks.” He replies awkwardly, looking at you for another quick moment before nodding and quickly retreating.

- A few days later, you were walking around the wooded areas of the school and just so happened to come across him sitting alone. You didn’t want to bother him; especially since you really didn’t know him and you sort of had a crush on the famous boy, but a twig snapped beneath your foot and he quickly glanced up at you, taking away your option of leaving before he saw you.

- Giving a quick hello, apology, and excuse for interrupting him, you moved to walk away before you found yourself turning back and asking if he was alright. It didn’t take him long before he was explaining everything to you and; calmly, ranting about the situation.

- You listen and give him a few words of encouragement before you find yourself walking back to Hogwarts with him, as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

- Little by little, the two of you grow closer and become more comfortable with each other; even though he’s sort of forming a crush on you and gets easily flustered by you.

- Probably unsurprisingly, he doesn’t just drop you when Hermione and, more so, Ron go back to being his friends. Instead, you’re welcomed into their little clique, particularly by Hermione who appreciates having another girl in the group and can immediately see that Harry has feelings for you; even if he stutteringly protests to it.

- Funnily enough, initially, he doesn’t even think to ask you to the Yule ball until you’re sitting at breakfast one day and he looks at you and a light just goes off in his head. He’s just as nervous about asking you as he would be with anyone else; probably even more so considering the fact that he’s pretty much in love with you, but he manages to keep his cool a little better with you since you’re supposed to be his friend.

“Erm, y/n? Would you like to go to the ball with me?”

- When you happily agree, he gives you a “brilliant”, his heart racing and a small smile plastered across his lips.

- Godric, the look on his face when he first saw you the day of the ball. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you, his face turning a delicate shade of pink as you first took his arm and gave him a smile. He was so distracted by you that he hardly even noticed that he needed to start dancing with you, he only snapped out of it when you told him to take you by the waist.

- It’s after the ball that he knows for sure that he’s in love with you, and if he’s able to triumph over dragons and defeat Lord Voldemort at the age of one then he can ask out the girl that he’s fallen for, right? Easier said than done.

- Harry is pretty awful with women. He’s awkward and shy and clumsy, and it’s adorable in retrospect; and in some other cases, but it’s not exactly beneficial to the evolution of your relationship. He keeps trying to confess, keeps wondering how he’s gonna do it, tries to do it but is interrupted in some way or just can’t bring himself to actually say what he wants to.

- It isn’t until fifth year that he finally manages to do so. You’re both left alone in the room of requirement as everyone leaves after their most recent lesson. He walks over to you and the two of you talk. You ask him a few questions, make sure he’s alright with everything that’s happening and before you know it, you’re both drifting closer and kissing each other.

- It’s soft and slow, and when you pull away, he’s got this dazed sort of look on his face that gives you butterflies. He gets a hold of himself as you go to grab your things and leave, calling out to you in a quick explosion of words, asking if you’d go out with him.

- He has to repeat himself so that you can actually understand what he’d asked but once he does, a bright smile spreads across your face and his heart skips a beat as you agree.

- Due to a certain frog-faced substitute headmaster, you can’t exactly express your feelings in public, but just knowing that you’re officially his girlfriend gives him a certain sense of comfort and reassurance that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

- The girl of his dreams is finally his and he couldn’t be happier.

- Harry, in general, just isn’t the type of person to be all over you while you’re out in public. He tends to save most of his affection for when you’re behind closed doors, mainly because he’s a bit shy and easily flustered; especially by you.

- Given the fact that Harry was provided with nothing but negative attention throughout his entire childhood, he’s definitely going to be a bit awkward when it comes to affection. That being said: he loves when you give it to him and really starts to crave it after you first pay him special attention.

- Handholding. He’ll tentatively slip his hand into yours while you’re standing together or grip it tightly as you both excitedly run somewhere.

- He could genuinely hug you for hours if you let him.

- Gentle touches.

- Soft kisses.

- Quick kisses in the midst of danger or when he’s leaving to do something important.

- Kissing his scar.

- Ruffling and playing with his consistently messy hair.

- Hair petting. He’ll usually stroke his hand down/through your hair as you kiss.

- Long, loving snogging sessions. Sometimes, you’ll pull off his glasses so that you can kiss him better and he just melts.

- He loves cuddling with you; it’s one of the things that really bring him comfort. You’ll usually be the little spoon whenever you do, he’ll bury his face in your hair and wrap his arms tight around you, not letting go until morning.

- Considering the fact that he has like zero experience with girls, he usually just calls you by your name since that’s what seems most natural to him.

- Flustering him whether you mean to or not; it’s usually quite easy to do since he’s so inexperienced with girls.

- Getting mini gifts. A piece of candy here, a little trinket there, things like that.

- Dates at the Three Broomsticks. He loves kissing you and tasting the butterbeer on your lips.

- Dancing together.

- Spending time alone in the room of requirements.

- Sneaking around all the unknown tunnels and rooms of Hogwarts with him.

- Him using the invisibility cloak to come see you and sneak the two of you out somewhere.

- Study dates.

- Him helping teach you spells and defensive magic. He likes seeing that look of glee on your face when you do something right, and having the excuse to hold and guide your hand/stand close to you.

- Watching his eyes widen in shock and a smile spread across his face when you do something impressive. He’s so proud of you.

- Awkwardly and shyly reading news articles written about the two of you. Your parents have quite the reaction when they find out you’re dating the boy wizard himself.

- Hagrid gushing over and teasing the two of you. He sometimes gets a little sentimental seeing the two of you together. He knew Harry when he was such a wee little thing and here he is, all grown up and in such a lovely little relationship.

- Cheering him on at Quidditch games regardless of what house you’re in. It makes him so happy to see you rooting for him.

- Endearing sarcasm. He can be a smartass when he wants to be.

- Attempting to write to him over the summer.

- Having him stay with you over the summer or at least letting him visit for some time once you hear how he’s treated by the Dursley’s.

- Running to hug him when you’re finally reunited at the beginning of the school year.

- Being teased by Malfoy. Harry has probably almost killed him a couple of times; only stopped by the fact that Ron was holding him back.

- Hermione and Ron giving the two of you looks.

- Becoming a part of the golden “trio” and having double dates with Ron and Hermione.

- Accompanying him on adventures and quests.

- When everything starts to turn to shit around you, he may try to break up with you in order to protect you. He loves you too much to risk you getting hurt because of him.

- Standing by him, even when things go wrong and other people desert him.

- Comforting him. Harry has gone through a lot and though he won’t admit it to most people, he needs a little support. You’re his rock and he couldn’t live without you.

- He always tries his best to comfort you, even though he usually has no idea how or if his plan will work. That being said, he always just seems to know how to cheer you up.

- He’s a pretty jealous person but he tries to hide it most of the time. He hates the thought; and sight, of you with other boys and gets a bit annoyed whenever he sees you with them. He’ll be a bit passive aggressive when you go over to him, saying he’s “brilliant” when you ask what’s wrong. He just doesn’t want to lose you.

- He’s always surprised whenever you actually get jealous over him but he sort of likes it. He feels bad that you’re upset and reassures you that he only loves you but he can’t deny that it feels nice to know that you care enough about him to be jealous.

- Overprotective. After everything that’s happened to him and the people around him, he watches over you like you’re the most precious thing on earth. He’d defend you with his life if he had to.

- Harry tends to give you a sort of silent treatment when he’s mad, usually before saying something passive aggressive or harsh when you don’t really acknowledge his behavior or go to leave him alone. You’ll most likely argue until the issue is solved or until he shuts you out, either doing so by walking away in a huff or causing you to leave by his lack of responses.

- Regardless of whether you were in the wrong or if he was, he’s most likely the one to approach you. If you were in the wrong, he’ll come up to you and make some comment, trying to prompt an apology; because that’s all he really wants.

- If he’s in the wrong, he’ll feel really guilty and keep staring over at you until he can’t take it and finally asks if you can talk. He’ll ask how you are before telling you that he’s sorry and that he knows he was wrong. After he does so, he’ll ask if you forgive him/if you guys can go back to normal, smiling and kissing your cheek when you agree.

- There's quite a few I love you’s in your relationship. He loves hearing you say it; even though it flusters him, and he just feels the need to let you know how much he cares about you; especially as you get older and he loses more people without being able to let them know how important they were to him.

- The two of you will have to go through some difficult situations but he knows he wants to be with you for the rest of his life. You just need to get through this rough patch and then you can have a perfect little life together.

#harry potter x reader #harry potter imagine #harry potter headcanon #harry potter imagines #harry potter headcanons #hp headcanons #hp imagines #hp imagine #hp headcanon

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syndianites · 4 years ago

Text

A Queen Serves and Protects

Chapter One

Current --> Next Chapter!

Summary: Post-Style Queen, Pre-Queen Wasp.

Chloe finds the Bee Miraculous, but instead of finding an obliging, subservient Kwami, she finds the Kwami of Order and Subjugation, and Pollen is not about to let herself be used like Nooroo was.

Granted, the only danger in a teenage girl is the damage she poses to herself. Can Pollen shape Chloe into a hero? Or will she stubbornly refuse to change and remain the bitter, harsh person the city has long since known?

[My take on how Chloe's character could have developed]

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The tap tap tap of nails on a desk was all Chloe could think about as she blankly stared at the board in front of her. This all was tiring. Notes were tiring. School was tiring. English was tiring. How could someone be expected to sit still and pay attention to something so boring for hours on end?

Movement in her purse reminded her that it was what good students do. Sit and pay attention. Do their own work. Put in their own effort.

Chloe grit her teeth.

Well it was too hard! Being a better person shouldn’t mean taking notes and being studious in class! It should mean saving people from getting hit by a car, or stopping people from kicking puppies, or having people look to her for inspiration! Not this boring shit.

Surreptitiously, she took a deep breath.

It was all going to be worth it, she reminded herself. If she had to sit still and be a good student and do all her work herself, it would be nothing compared to being a superheroine.

But as she grew more restless, her mind wandered towards what got her into this situation in the first place....

///////

One might have called it a stroke of luck to find a magical item on the sidewalk. Of course, after a day as shitty as that, anything positive would be considered lucky. Such was not the case for Chloe.

She didn’t know what it was at first and had almost passed it by when she second guessed herself. It looked old, but well cared for. Most of all, the box looked priceless and a quick peek into the box showed a luxurious comb.

Her mom had walked away with a dismissive ‘Come along, Cassandra,’ which had her shutting the box and hurrying to not be left behind.

A limo ride later and she found herself back in her room, ignored by her mother and forgotten by her father as he fussed over Audrey. Typical. But sure, her mom furiously turns her dearest Adrien into a gold statue, then does the same to Chloe when she tries to help him!

Chloe pursed her lips. It’s not like Audrey would have remembered how close she was to Adrien after being away for so long. If she had, surely she would have spared poor Adrikins? Her hands tightened into fists.

Except, she was still holding something.

The box with the comb. It had slipped her mind as she’d arrived home. Barely made a dent against the sickening feeling that curled up in her stomach as her mother hemmed and hawed, not sparing even a glance at her daughter she’d betrayed.

Which was fine. She’d been akumatized. Surely the stress and aftermath of being taken into Hawkmoth’s fold would cause her to forget about her beloved daughter. Later, when Audrey had properly taken her wrath out onto the proper people, she would come up and fuss over Chloe and ensure she was alright.

Or she’d send her daddy to do it.

Returning her attention back to the box, she lifted the lid once more. It was a lovely shade of golden yellow, with black detailing. Upon closer look, taking in the fine detail of what seemed to be insect wings, Chloe realized that she was looking at a beautifully crafted bee comb.

She ran a delicate finger on the edge of the comb only to be met with blinding light. Cringing away, she brought her hand up to shield her eyes. When the light dissipated, she glanced up.

The box and comb clattered to the floor.

A bee was floating in front of her.

A bee with a big head, and big eyes, and arms, and a big stinger, and Oh. My. God.

She screamed.

///////

Eyes flicked towards the window to catch the dying rays of dusk. A trembling hand brought a delicate porcelain mug up to a man’s face. He finished off the now lukewarm tea and let it sit for a moment.

Peering into the remains, he observed the major remnants of the tea leaves. Lazy, wavy lines dominated the cup, with a scattering of imperfect triangles. Finally, a grouping of mountains to one side.

Master Fu hummed in thought.

“What do you think of the fate of the Bee, Master?” Wayzz spoke up from where he sipped his own drink.

Turning back to the nearly navy darkness of the sky, Fu replied, “We will have to see, my friend. Only time will tell us now.”

///////

“Please calm down My Queen. Surely Ladybug informed you of what you needed to know?” Pollen reassured quickly. Except, the small being felt something was off. She was floating safely in an apartment with a girl she’d never seen before, no akuma in sight or mind. Her Chosen was clearly surprised to see her.

And there was no Ladybug in sight.

Still, she kept a smile on her face.

“What are you! What do you mean Ladybug told me what I need to know? Wait,” Chloe broke off with a gasp, “Are you how Ladybug gets her powers?”

Ah, a red flag.

Pollen was plenty aware that Ladybug had chosen her to assist in an akuma fight. If she had not been delivered by Ladybug then something must be amiss. For now, she would watch her words carefully.

“No, My Queen. But I am an ally of Ladybug,” Pollen continued. “I am here to help grant another the power to assist Ladybug and Chat Noir in their quest to defeat akumas and stop Hawkmoth.”

The girl’s eyes lit up. “Does this mean I get to be a superheroine? I knew it! I knew Ladybug would see she needed my help!”

Pollen stopped her there, “On the contrary, My Queen. With Ladybug absent it is my duty to uphold order and ensure you are a good fit to be bestowed my power. Since there is no immediate threat, I see fit to judge your character as you go about your day.”

“What!” The girl griped at her, “Clearly Ladybug knew what she was doing. If you can make me become a superhero I demand you do it!.”

There was a harsh pull in her gut and Pollen fought to bite her words back. She knew she had to obey her holder, but she also knew enough to pull through some loopholes. Poor Nooroo has been stuck in a terrible enslavement for far too long for the rest of the kwami to not prepare for such an occasion.

“You must be a good person to be a superhero, first.” The pull in her gut lessened, but remained. “If you can prove to me you are worthy of holding my power, I will make you a superhero.”

Pollen received a scoff in reply. “I am a good person! Just ask anyone at all. My daddykins always tells me I’m doing good, so why wouldn’t I be?”

The pull began to intensify again. Worry started to drum through her. If Pollen couldn’t convince this person to let her check her history first, she wouldn’t have time to find and return to Ladybug- or, at least, inform Ladybug who possessed her Miraculous.

A low, angry buzz started in her chest. A Queen never let her hive be hurt by her own actions. If she did not stop this girl now, she could harm the rest of her kind, as well as Ladybug and Chat Noir.

And, well, who was she to let that happen.

She faked a sigh, “Yes, of course My Queen. Now listen closely.” Pollen risked floating closer to the girl, who leaned in in response. For a moment, she felt bad. The girl seemed earnest enough, if conceited and arrogant. A good Queen would have these traits in modesty, just enough to benefit and little enough to avoid harm. Then the pull in her gut worsened and she chose to make her move.

With a sweet smile, Pollen leaned forward slowly. Then she turned in a swift movement and struck the poor girl in the junction between her left arm and shoulder. The girl let out a choked screech before her body came to a full stop, paralyzed.

Floating back so that she could be seen in full view, Pollen gave a more genuine smile. “That, my Queen, is one of my powers. Immobilization. Now,” she paused, watching the girl’s eye twitch for a split second. “You will listen to me. My first loyalty is to Ladybug. If you are not fit to be her ally, I will not allow you to use my Miraculous. From what I can tell, you stumbled upon my Miraculous by chance.”

A quiet part of her whispered that Master Fu could have had a hand in this, but she dismissed it.

“Ladybug chose me to help her with the latest akuma, and they are gone. However, I am willing to give you a chance. While I serve both my Master and Ladybug, I am my own being. If you can prove you are good enough to help Ladybug and Chat Noir, I will grant you my power to help them. If not, I will reclaim my Miraculous and return to Ladybug, telling her that you are not fit to wield any such Miraculous.”

Pollen clasped her hands behind her back and puffed up her chest, portraying an image of regality in such a small body. “So I will offer you a deal. You will not ask me to make you into a hero. You will not order me to do anything. Most importantly, you will not reveal me or my Miraculous to anyone other than Ladybug or Chat Noir, or my Master. In return, I will spend time with you to decide whether you are fit to be my holder- and if you are, I will see to it that you are trained and informed as much as I can do for you before you go into the fight with Ladybug and Chat Noir. If at any point you break this deal I will immediately take my Miraculous back and you will never be allowed to see it again.”

She lowered her eyes to look down upon the still frozen girl. “Do you accept the terms of the deal?”

The girl, for her part, didn’t move. Rather, her anger and impetulant thoughts swirled in her head. While Pollen was no Kwami of Emotion or Mind, she could feel her inner chaos. As the girl realized that she would not be set free unless she made the deal, her fire wore down.

Pollen broke out into a smile. She floated forward, ready to let her free of her grasp. This was a risk. If she didn’t accept the deal, this girl could turn the tides on her in an instant. If the girl realized she could command her to do whatever she wanted, it would be over. Just under her display of confidence, fear swam in her stomach.

But she was nothing if not determined. With a tap to the young lady’s face, she was unfrozen.

For a moment, the girl fumbled over her words,” I- you- how did you- how dare you!”

When Pollen pointedly swept down to pick up her Miraculous and floated back, the girl stopped.

In her head, her mind ran on the idea of being a hero. Being beside Ladybug. Being loved by all of Paris. Being good enough for her Mother to remember her name. This was her chance! Her chance to change everything! To prove herself! If she just said yes and passed the stupid little test, she would get to be a hero.

Besides, she could bend and break the deal if she needed to.

Brushing down her capris, the girl stood up straight. With all the dignity she learned from being the child of the mayor, she calmly spoke, “I accept your deal.”

Pollen fought down a crushing smile. Instead, she reached a paw forward to shake on it. The girl, to her credit, only eyed her a moment before giving a finger to shake.

“Excellent. My name is Pollen. For the next twenty-four hours I will be watching you go about your life as normal to determine if you are deserving of my power.”

“Well, Pollen, I am Chloe Bourgeois, Ladybug’s closest ally, I can assure you that you will find nothing but good things about me!”

////////

Above the Dupain-Cheng Bakery, a sleep-deprived girl sat up hastily working through homework as the night ticked on. Perhaps from the late hour, or her finally caving under all the stress of her life, she felt like laughing. Giggles escaped her to the alarm of a sleepy Tikki beside her.

“Marianette, are you okay?” The kwami asked in concern.

“Yeah,” Marianette stifled a laugh. “I just suddenly had the thought that something super funny happened.”

Tikki shook her head disapprovingly. “You need to sleep. Staying up this late is not good for you.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” she sighed, “It has been way too long a day after losing the Bee miraculous.”

Tikki patted her shoulder in sympathy as Marianette got up and began her bed routine.

A long day indeed.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #chloe bourgeois #pollen (ladybug)#ml fanfic #ml

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theggning · 4 years ago

Note

Perfect timing for me to ask you this: what's your thoughts/opinions on Deacon?

It's always a good time to ask me to tl;dr, friendo, I love never shutting up, ever.

Ah, Deacon. The man of mystery, the liar, the Railroad's number one agent (though he'd rather you not believe it.) Everybody's favorite egg in shades. I really like Deacon. He's hilarious, handy in a fight, his voice acting is phenomenally fun, and has a lot of wise things to say about the lies people tell you to make you act in their interest.

Of course, Deacon's main character trait and personality is that he lies constantly. He is, admirably, upfront about the fact that he's a liar, and doesn't expect anyone to trust him. Sometimes his lies are clearly meant to be a joke. Sometimes they're a test, to teach the Sole Survivor a lesson about spycraft. But when it comes down to it, Deacon doesn't lie about important things, or things that will get someone in danger. He lies, with varying degrees of believability, so that when he *needs* to lie, nobody will know whether or not to believe him. He disguises himself, often poorly, so that when he *needs* to disappear, nobody will spot him.

But the thing Deacon lies about the most is himself. As with all the Railroad agents, his name is a pseudonym. He lies about being a synth (he isn't) and going places and seeing things. He lies about escapades he's been on and missions he's run. Even his appearance is a lie, as he admits he undergoes surgeries to change his face every so often. Every one of his affinity conversations ends with a charisma check revealing that he was lying.

And lies are all that you get from Deacon, until you reach his final affinity conversation. There, Deacon, unusually emotional and distraught, confesses that in his youth, he was a member of a gang called the University Point Deathclaws-- a hate group that targeted synths. After a particularly brutal murder turned Deacon away from the gang, he met and married a woman named Barbara. But years later, his old gang showed up at their doorstep and murdered Barbara-- as it turned out, Barbara was unknowingly a synth. Deacon proceeded to butcher every one of his former friends-- and impressed by his prowess and believing him to be sympathetic to the cause, he was then recruited by the Railroad.

If you believe that this story, too, is a lie, then we're left scraping for a motive or a baseline or just, anything we can actually use to pin Deacon down as more than a fleeting shadow.

People much more eloquent than me have dissected this reveal and all of their points are good and sourced, and they will do a much better job of it than I could, but in short, I do believe Deacon is telling the truth about his past. Everything from the acting to the expressions on his face to terrible things he confesses about himself point to real, genuine heartache under his usual glibness, and it also provides us a motive, one magical golden key that unlocks the most important facet of Deacon:

This man hates himself.

Deacon absolutely fucking hates himself. He hates his past, he hates his choices, he hates how he used to behave and believe, he hates what it did to the woman he loved. He views his service to the Railroad as atonement, that he also doesn't deserve and never will. Not only does the Railroad necessitate secrecy, making up lies, changing his face, turning himself into a mystery, but it also allows Deacon to pretend to be anybody else but himself (as MacCready ice burns him in one of their exchanges.) He fears that if anyone finds out the truth about him, spots even a small sliver of his real self, they will hate him as much as Deacon does. And he'll deserve it. The only future Deacon sees for himself is to die in service of the Railroad, in service of freeing the synths that he used to hate and victimize, in service of an organization he feels he's completely unworthy of belonging to.

This, I'm sorry to say to his fans, is the actual characterization/meta reason why Deacon isn't romanceable. Deacon hates himself so much that he's unwilling to let anyone know who he really is. He only barely feels comfortable exposing part of his past to the Sole Survivor at the end of the affinity conversations-- a romance would require letting someone in further than that, and Deacon not only refuses, but feels like he doesn't deserve it. Like, I cannot stress enough that in a canon full of companions struggling with self-image and varying degrees of hating themselves, Deacon is the undisputed Grand Champion of hating himself. He has a LONG way to go to finding even the slightest bit of worthiness in himself.

And that's really the sad and poignant part of Deacon. We can believe Deacon is a fun and likable guy with good intentions and a good cause. We can believe that a person can change at heart, can try to make up for their mistakes by doing good things. (I believe it!) But the tricky part is making Deacon believe it-- a man so thoroughly sunk in his own self-hatred that he truly doesn't believe he deserves to be forgiven.

Well, that was kind of a downer, so I'll rattle off some other fun facts about Deacon to close this out...

Deacon seems to be very well-read, with an interest in pre-War literature. OR MAYBE HE'S LYING?!

He is, however, very likely the same person as John D., a Railroad agent mentioned in Desdemona's terminal who came up with the dead drop system, the pyramid structure of secrecy, was the only survivor of an earlier Institute raid on Railroad HQ, and was also instrumental in rebuilding the organization. This raid took place in 2266, over 20 years before the game starts, so it's actually very likely that Deacon is in his 40s or even his 50s.

We all know Deacon (poorly) follows Sole through the early parts of the main quest, but he's been following them a lot longer than that. Deacon discovered the Institute's apparent interest in Vault 111 and theorized there was something inside that they wanted. This led Deacon to stakeout Vault 111, where he apparently sat and watched the doors for some time until the Sole Survivor emerged. (You can find his spot in the trees on a hillside overlooking the Vault doors. There's a chair, a few bottles of water, a sun shade, and the Railsign for "ally" carved nearby.)

And stolen verbatim from the wiki:

At one point in 2275, Deacon was kicked out of HQ by former leader Pinky Thompson because he was "sick of the lying, face-changing son of a bitch," after Deacon had spent a month as a ghoul, which "freaked a lot of people out."

#gg answers #fallout 4 #fallout meta #deacon #fallout railroad #poor deacon #i hope his past story is true because i like the themes that people can change and do better #and also if it's not then we just have nothing to work with #but deacon would want it that way #sighs loudly

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jq37 · 4 years ago

Text

The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 5

Through a Glass, Darkly

Welcome back to the Temple of the Earth Defiant where the girls and their magical horses (and one pony!) have found refuge from the strange, twisted, fae creatures that have been chasing them. The statue of Asha Hammerheart that Ost animated last episode is still alive and wrecking house on the remaining harpies and beasts that are foolish enough to keep fighting and the rest soon get the hint and flee.

Ost does some healing (boosted by the ambient Hallow effect of the temple which gives everyone a short rest) and then, seeing the damage to the temple caused by erosion, starts using Mending to fix things up. Her friends help out too with Sam and Yelle being most effective--Sam by repairing water damage and Yelle by creating tree cover and other druid-y tricks. But of course, we can’t overlook Katja’s crucial addition of carving “A Horse is a Home” into one of the walls of this sacred temple.

Anyway, the girls are nesting super hard, the horses are having their scrapbooking reviewing club (an insane thing that was established last episode) and then Sam asks a question. Did y’all mention something about a photo of me going viral? Everyone’s like yeah, but don’t worry, you looked super hot. That’s not the part Sam was worried about. What she’s worried about and what all the girls except Zelda don’t really seem to know is that Sam doesn’t really have a social media presence. So like, 180k and climbing views (as decided by a dice roll) isn’t really what she wants. She scrolls through the comments really quick and sees that they’re not awful but one person is like, “Hey that girl looks a lot like that character from that old show”. Which Sam doesn’t love. She says that she’s fine but also that, even without an Insight check, she’s obviously not.

Sam kind of looks to Zelda to bail her out and Zelda is like, “Hey, I’m gonna delete this video.” The other girls follow suit, even though they don’t quite know what’s happening. When they have to split up to investigate, Sam has Zelda kind of bail her out again and they split up to go check a nest outside--Zelda waving off Danielle when she wants to go with. Ant and Yelle decide to check out a cache of some treasure they saw earlier and Ost and Katja stay with the horses to keep fixing the temple up. Penny initially goes with Ant and Yelle but rushes back to be with Ost and Kat when Ost discovers a hidden lock while she’s fixing a wall.

So, the girls are split up, let’s run all these scenes.

Antiope and Yelle

Ant and Yelle go see the pile of treasure (near the statue of dwarven paladin Yvonna) which they learn is like a “take a penny leave a penny” situation for weapons and items. They were left by adventures who were similarly chased here and you can take what you need as long as you leave something to help others. Like, “Oh no I only have an ice sword and I need flaming arrows.” It doesn’t have to be equivalent exchange, you just need to leave something useful.

In this space, Yelle feels a weird melancholy and like they’re within the watch of something vast and powerful. She tries to check for TK’s presence but rolls low. Antiope leaves her Kalvaxus killing shortsword and takes some really nice, white feather fledged arrows with mirror tips and an ax Kat wants as a present for her dad. Danielle takes a bandolier of potions (3 healing and 2 mystery I believe) and leaves a bunch of mushrooms. Some of them are psychedelic and Ant takes one because this is probably a good time to be high, right?

It’s not messing with her competence obviously though because she rolls a 25 on Primeval Awareness and gets a weird sense, like something is closing in on this place. And like something very powerful is bleeding, which combined with the chaos of the mountains might explain the weird harpies and the cat/dogs. But she’s high so she explains this is a very spacey, stoner way. Probably a good thing she’s with Yelle.

Sam and Zelda

Sam can fly and Zelda can basically walk vertically with her goat legs so they check out the nest. Well, ostensibly that’s what they’re doing. Really they’re just having a heart to heart. Sam thanks Zelda for saving her ass and apologizes profusely for being so short with her. Zelda gives her a huge mid-air hug and says it’s not a big deal because she knows Sam is just lashing out because she’s hurting but Sam says it’s not a good enough excuse and she’s truly sorry. It’s been her coping mechanism for so long but she doesn’t want to be that way. She tells Zelda that the Everpetals are divorcing and that she’s living alone and Zelda says that any one of the girls would be happy to have her stay with them. Sam further explains that this is a big part of the reason she’s been so broken up about the possibility of their group splitting up and Zelda immediately takes out her crystal and texts her “I’m in” in the thread, breaking Sam again.

Since they’re in heart to heart mode, Sam tells her that she talked to her bio-mom and an agent and she’s not sure what to do. Zelda says that she’s gonna be spectacular no matter what she does and she doesn’t have to do any of them but it’s cool doors are opening for her but also Antiope and Penny are gonna be PISSED that she’s out here making side plans after she gave them so much shit for theirs. Lol, well it’s a nice moment in the meantime and we cut to…

Penny, Ost, and Katja

While Penny is lockpicking (and also trying to teach one of the horses to lockpick because sure) Katja and Ost go talk to the statue of Asha Hammerheart. It seems to be animated with at least some level of her true consciousness from beyond the grave and that she can kind of woge into her statue when she wants, which is cool. She’s been there for like 250 years so that’s a lot of history to see.

Ost is maybe the most polite we’ve ever seen her talking to Asha (at least to begin with lol) and they ask her about TK. Asha says she saw TK show up 12 years ago but she never left, at least not through the front door. And then about 2 years ago (right around when they were in the crystals) that’s when the harpy queen showed up. At first they were normal and then they started mutating. Also, recently, Korra (one of the other statues/heroes) saw a woman in the mountains--not TK.

Ost then takes a page from the book of one St. Kristen Applebees and asks, “Hey. What’s the deal with our god? He never talks to us, does he just suck?” Asha--who has never talked to him even though she’s a martyred hero and literally in dwarf heaven makes some excuses for the guy but Katja scoffs at them. “If people wanna take care of you, they do.” Ost then straight up asks if Logran Soulforger is even real which sets Asha off but Ost isn’t mad AT her, she’s mad FOR her. You go and do all this cool shit to the point where you have this cool ass statue, you fully DIE for him and he doesn’t even say hi? With a 21 Persuasion check, Asha admits that yeah, she would have liked some recognition. She decides she’s gonna go do some talking to some people and leaves after getting Ost’s number but before they can ask more about the woman Korra saw (who they think is Charity).

OK, that’s all the small group stuff! Everyone comes back as Penny finishes up with the lock and they go down into this room that’s full of polished, precious stones. This is probably where people who were upkeeping the temple stayed. While everyone else is going down, Sam feels some powerful magical pull--much like her episode 1 Lightning Lure--calling her from the top of the stairs so she goes back up. We’ll get back to her in a bit.

Penny rolls a high check to clock what’s going on down here. First off, she finds flintlock bullets and airship uniform scraps which makes it seem like there was a battle here involving some airship guys from the Baronies. Which is not just the place of origin of Riz’s imaginary Romance Partner. It’s a cluster of nations known for high rates of monarchical turnover and renaissance style intrigue. I’m picturing just a nation of [REDACTED]s from Crown of Candy.

With all of this stuff, Penny finds an emblem of a billionaire airship mogul named Lord Talcidimir Tallbreeze who is a friend of her dad’s. Yelle is immediately like FUCK billionaires which isn’t plot relevant but it’s nice to know she’s always on brand.

Oh also, Penny just casually finds the Legendarium so that’s neat.

To be safe, Ost casts Protection from Energy on Ant (who is the one who knows how to use it) and brings out her Spirit Guardian (who is a combo of her mom, nona, and Asha, with her dad’s rings). Ant checks it out and sees that there are currently no A, B, or C quests in all of Spyre. While Penny cross references the bylaws to see if there’s a way to get around this, Yelle does some druid BS that I still do not understand to use the crystals in the cave to jailbreak this super powerful magical Artifact so they can just have copies on their crystals. While that’s happening, let’s check on Sam.

Sam goes back up the staircase where she sees Ending who doesn’t look menacing at all, just extremely sad. She’s looking out the mouth of the cave and, when she turns, Sam can see she’s crying blood.

“What’s wrong?” asks Sam, the acid-tongued but good-hearted. “Can I help you?”

With a 25 Persuasion check to get her to talk, Ending apologizes for scaring her and her friends before. She didn’t mean to. She sometimes forgets that her very nature can be frightening and dangerous to others. She says that when she escaped, she tried to rejoin her sisters but found their mirrors shattered and them gone. Sam thought they escaped but that doesn’t make sense to Ending. If they had, why wouldn’t they have freed her as well?

Sam asks who her sisters were and we finally get true names for Ending and her sisters:

Chrona, Terra, Pyrria, Nira, Zefira, Anima, and herself, Talura (which is what I’ll be calling her now that we know). Talura is the baby, the youngest. Sam realizes she’s talking about the Eidolons and Talura seems surprised and a bit pleased that Sam recognizes them.

Sam asks if she can hug her and Talura hugs her tightly in a very cold embrace that doesn’t hurt. Downstairs, she hears her friends (Penny specifically) freaking about about the lack of quests but she doesn’t break the hug.

“My own sisters are struggling right now but I’m gonna stay with you because you don’t know where yours are. But maybe we can find them.”

Talura clocks that the way that Sam is being is her true nature, not the bitchiness she often uses as a shield. Then she starts to talk about her history. That she and her sisters were sealed away when the gods were done with them (Sam can relate to being used and set aside) and the only way out was death. Talura has been crying and looking for her sisters to no avail. Her tears of blood leaking seems to be what caused the monsters to mutate which is in line with what Yelle and Ant were sensing.

Talura doesn’t think anything could have destroyed her sisters so she’s very confused. Sam offers Talura her Mirror of the Past because it almost knocked out Sam to get god-tier information but Talura presumably won’t have that problem. Talura offers her a boon in exchange for this great kindness but Sam says she doesn’t need any quid pro quo. “This is just because you’re hurting.”

Talura is supremely touched and still wants to do something for her new...friend? Sam accepts the title and says that what she needs is some help on her GED quest. Once she explains what she means, Talura again recognizes Aguefort and is like, Oh, you need a quest? I can totally help with that! As we learned earlier, these guys are kinda genie connected so it’s not super surprising when Talura very happily goes full your wish is my command.

Downstairs, a Class A quest suddenly appears in Spyre on the screen.

Back upstairs, Talura says that it’s been too long since she got to grant a wish and seems really happy about it. Sam gives her the mirror so she can check what happened to her sisters but when she does, she totally flips out and gets super angry--not at Sam, just at whatever she’s looking at. She can hardly believe it. Sam tries to figure out what’s wrong but she just gets super big and then disappears into a puff of smoke, leaving Sam's mirror on the ground, covered in frost.

Downstairs, the Class A quest expands across the entire globe and then the Legendarium cracks. Ost’s spirit guardian disappears because of alarm bells ringing in the afterlife. And the girls learn that a Class A quest is a quest that affects the whole MULTIVERSE. Yikes!

So anyway, they girls go upstairs to check on Sam (on a bear that Penny makes because sure) and they see that something clearly just happened with Sam. Yelle asks if she’s good and Sam is like yeahhhh I don’t think ANYONE is good right now. Sam seems like she’s about to cry and Antiope instantly forgets all the petty bullshit going on between them and rushes to make sure she’s not hurt.

Sam gives the girls a rundown of what happened and Yelle concretely puts together what I said earlier about Talura’s tears messing with nature.

Sam wants to check her mirror to see what Talura saw and Brennan says she can do it the safe way with risk of failure of the surefire way with risk of personal harm. She, of course, picks door 2 and rolls a 13 on her con save which means she rises into the air like Storm from X-Men, eyes wide, and then instantly passes out and goes into shock. Antiope is there to catch her as she does.

Also, she looks SUPER hot while falling on a 31. Honestly, it’s a shame she doesn’t allow herself a social media presence.

Anyway, we’ll get to what she sees in a bit. Yelle and Ant make sure she’s OK (she is, but the has to be knocked out for this or she won’t be able to handle it).

Penny tells them what she knows about each Eidolon from her earlier research which is what element each goes with:

Chrona: Time (Related to astral and elemental planes)

Terra: Earth

Pyrria: Fire

Nira: Water

Zefira: Air

Anima: Life

Talura: Death

They also talk about TK never leaving via the front door and all this airship stuff being around. Maybe she left out the top of the mountain on an airship? Katja has the hookup with this Tal guy (she’s met him when she was younger) so they decide they need to check it out once Sam is good.

The girls fix the Legendarium and Ost, when she goes to pray for her spells for the night, doesn’t pray to her usual god. She prays to Asha. And not only does she get her spells, she also gets a new one--Commune.

And now let’s get to what Sam is seeing in her Vision Coma.

She was told by Talura that the only way out of the mirrors given to them by the gods was death. And what Talura saw that drove her to do whatever multiverse threatening thing that she did was every one of her sisters walking out of their mirrors and choosing death. I will specifically highlight that the oldest sister leaves almost immediately with a small, “Oh,” of realization and Anima, the closest sister to her seems terrified before coming to a joyful realization and leaving.

And that’s the end of the episode! Join us next week when apparently there is talk of a masquerade ball?????? Brennan, you shouldn’t have!

Superlatives

Sam: Most Likely to Accidently Snag a Brand Deal

Did you guys ever read the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche? Where Psyche was born so hot that it was basically a curse and she was miserable because she was so hot that Aphrodite hated her? That’s Sam. She is incapable of almost dying in a non-aesthetic way. It’s like a Pantene commercial every time. This is my favorite running gag.

Random Thoughts

Man, I have so many feelings about Sam. She’s such a BITCH in so many ways but it’s so obvious that she has a good heart. Every time she has an opportunity to be nice with no gain--helping Lola find her dog, magically turning the pages for the horses during book club, fully refusing a boon from Talura--she does. And I’m glad she gave Zelda such a sincere apology and didn’t let the extenuating circumstances absolve her because she said some pretty uncalled for things. But at her core she’s so kind and I want only good things for her.

Also those of you who know me from my FH recaps know I’m a messy bitch for sister stuff so Talura and Sam both referring to the other maidens as her sister had me dead. You can tell when something in this show is f’ing me up when I just start directly quoting instead of paraphrasing.

Katja being richer than Helio but having no idea what any of the brands Ost is mentioning are is peak comedy.

As is Ant’s response to the take and penny leave a penny translation from Ost, “No, Penny didn’t come with us.”

Ost: I get service in the afterlife.

You could really tell which of the players watched Sophomore Year because the Baronies came up and all of them went into fight or flight immediately.

Very Elsa vibes from Sam during the top of the scene with Talura. (Sam is, of course, a better sister but we simply do not have time to get into my feelings on Frozen 2 right now).

I was wondering why this season was called just “The Seven” when it dropped initially. Like, was it snappier? Did they not want to use the word “maiden”? But they still call themselves the Seven Maidens in the show so it’s probably not that. Now I’m wondering if it’s just to parallel the 7 of them w/ the 7 Eidolons.

So it seems clear based on the reactions of the first and sixth sisters that they didn’t just “go gently into that good night” as Ant would say and ditch Talura. It seems like they figured something out. Also Brennan isn’t really a “and then they all died, the end” kind of DM, you know? Credit to my friend @camwritery for getting here before I did but the gods said the only way out was death and she is death so you know? Those def seem like puzzle pieces that go together.

The only crit rolled this episode is a 1 by Penny which she gets to reroll as a halfling.

#the seven #the seven spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers

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shima-draws · 5 years ago

Photo

Aww yeahhh time for Kiyo to make his entrance!

I wrote an entire essay about him (again whoops) so it’s very long and under the cut for your viewing pleasure ;)

Kiyo

Age: 29

Hair color: Green

Eye color: Brown

Element: Stars

Kiyo, the Guildmaster of the Asterstone Guild! He only took up the position recently and has had the Guildmaster title for about a year and a half. He was the previous record holder for youngest Guildmaster until that title was stolen by Taku. (Kiyo holds a grudge about it but it’s playful.)

Kiyo, just like lots of other characters in ATS, was taken in by the Asterstone Guild at a young age. He’s similar to Shima in that he has no previous memories before showing up outside the guild one day, battered and bruised. (That marks three characters in this series with amnesia now! Wrow) He grew up under the watchful eye and tutelage of the previous Guildmaster, and because of how attached to him she’d gotten, it wasn’t long before he began to express desires to take over the guild once she retired. After a lot of thought and contemplation she eventually handed over the position to him. This initially resulted in a lot of outrage from the guild members because they did not think Kiyo was suited to be the Guildmaster, but he eventually proved them wrong once he stepped up to the plate and showed them he could act like a true leader!

They did have good reason to be nervous about that, though, as Kiyo is normally a very laid-back and carefree person and is strictly non-violent. This has lead into lots of situations where he’s opted out of fighting, leading his guildmates into lots of trouble when they needed a hand, and they labeled him as both a coward for avoiding necessary battles on missions (which is practically a requirement for a guild member going out on dangerous quests, you sort of have to have a battle prowess to take on any foes) and lazy for not participating when he should. Initially this bothered Kiyo a great deal, but the previous guildmaster assured him that not everybody is suited for battling others, and that he can still pave his own way to success in a non-violent manner. While Kiyo may not have a liking for fighting, he has an extremely smooth tongue and is very capable of talking himself out of sticky situations (mostly by bribing. He is VERY good at that lmao). He has a talent for manipulating others into doing what he wants them to, though he rarely uses this on people he considers friends. When Kiyo’s able to complete a mission and win the day without resorting to using their elemental powers in a fight, his guild members have to stop and think for a second like. Hold on. He just did that so easily, he made it look so simple, we really need to stop underestimating him and calling him totally useless (Kiyo: Hey. HEY).

Kiyo’s pretty close to all of his guildmates despite their constant ribbing—the one person he’s close to that adores him completely is Lacie, because he was the person to bring her into the guild (she was around 10, he was 17), and being the first person to genuinely show her kindness that wasn’t for ulterior motives, Lacie became very attached to him. Kiyo acts like an older brother to her, and Lacie supports him in whatever he does. She was thrilled when he took on the Guildmaster position, and he has a very soft spot for her :’) She always sings his praises to anybody outside who will listen, and gets angry at Emrys the one time he called Kiyo incompetent.

After becoming the guildmaster, Kiyo actually does a good job at taking charge despite the general opinions that he wouldn’t. He’s still very casual about it though and is a bit more flexible with how the guild is run, preferring to let the guild members do things their own way and be less strict about the overall rules. He’s basically got the “Do whatever you want!” and “Just wing it!” outlook, and while a lot of the members don’t like this attitude, a lot of them do. At the end of the day they all do respect him, though! While he isn’t a fighter he’s very good at giving orders and keeping things in check around Asterstone lol

Despite Kiyo’s insistence on staying out of battles, he’s actually an extremely skilled fighter, and is probably the strongest and most dangerous person in the entire guild. The issue with this, though, is that whenever he gets into a fight, he tends to get too “serious” and starts going off the walls, treating the battle as a game and something fun and entertaining. This leads into him not knowing when to stop, and nobody else being able to stop him, so he’s seriously injured other people without meaning to—revealing that he’s actually terrified of violence because he loses himself in it, and why he prefers to stay on the sidelines. It’s only when Kiyo gets really serious in battles that a darker side comes out, and where the star mark in his eye appears. It’s only been seen a few rare times throughout his life at the guild, so nobody really thinks much of it or notices it. It’s only after the star mark appears that Kiyo passes out afterwards, having exerted a lot of power and extremely skilled battle prowess nobody has ever seen before. However, after a grand guild tournament where Kiyo faces off against Taku and gets too into it, revealing his star mark and almost slicing Taku’s head clean off, one of Kiyo’s advisors at the guild starts to look into it out of concern for both Kiyo’s safety and that of others.

In the middle of all this mess, Kiyo meets Toru, and after nearly forcing him to join Asterstone, the two start growing closer 👀 Toru joins the squad of not putting up with Kiyo’s bullshit, but that’s only after he gets over his starstruck fanboy phase. Because Toru is newer to the guild and because he’s a non-elemental not suited for fighting, Kiyo instantly becomes attached to him, finding similarities in their preferences and backgrounds. While Toru does think Kiyo’s an idiot sometimes he treats him very kindly, and is usually the first to defend him when the other members playfully tease him, so Kiyo’s just like you are an angel sent from heaven just for me and I adore you. Still though with Toru being a non-elemental Kiyo stresses about his safety CONSTANTLY, even after Toru gets official training in self defense. If Toru’s in danger Kiyo will blow off literally everything else to go rescue him first, which the other members have to get used to as it happens more often than they’d like akdasbmlads

Later down the line the guild is caught up in something terrible, and find themselves being targeted by a descendant of a great inventor and sorcerer (not Elymas this time tho lol). She’s apparently seeking what’s known as the Velle Nova, and has reason to believe Asterstone is in possession of it. After Kiyo’s forced to fight and unleashes the power behind his star mark, the descendant reveals that Kiyo has the Velle Nova, and then the truth finally comes out…

Kiyo remembers everything about his past. Years ago, his town had been caught up in a great disaster, and he was the only survivor. He was forcibly taken in by several scientists, one of them being the ancestor of the girl descendant. They were attempting to recreate the Velle Nova, one of the great sorcerer Elymas’ inventions, which is said to grant any sort of wish imaginable. They wanted to claim that power for themselves and possess the powers of the universe itself. However every attempt had failed, and without the real Velle Nova they couldn’t achieve what they were after. So they decided to pour all of their research into Kiyo instead, and try to create the weapon inside of a human being. This ended up making a twisted, broken version of what should have been the Velle Nova. But Kiyo couldn’t contain its power—it was going to unravel the universe itself and either destroy everything or alter it tragically into something unimaginable. One of the scientists working with the group realized how awful their experiment was and, being a Time elemental, decided to erase Kiyo’s memories (with some help) and send him centuries into the future so that the rest of the group couldn’t get their hands on him. Hence Kiyo winding up outside of Asterstone with no memories, and the truth behind his star mark. It had been granting Kiyo his wish the whole time—the longing to protect the things he cares about by being able to defeat any threat in his way. Of course with the unstable power that he can’t control, it usually leads into disaster;;

Kiyo, now having recovered his memories, realizes that the same thing is going to happen again, and decides to seal himself off to protect Asterstone and the world before the universe unravels. Cue an epic PMD-esque goodbye scene where he bids farewell to Toru, gives him his trademark scarf, and vanishes, escaping into a dimension between time and space where his power can be contained. *Starts playing I Don’t Want To Say Goodbye*

Toru, absolutely devastated by Kiyo’s farewell, decides he’s going to break time and space to save his man, except there’s one small issue...nobody else remembers that Kiyo even existed, and Toru only managed to by some miracle (and also maybe bc Kiyo handed him his scarf idk some magic soul connection thing). But after a while...a long while, maybe like a year or more...they finally unlock the key to finding Kiyo!!

Toru and Kiyo share a tearful reunion, and Kiyo cries a lot because it had been so lonely sitting in that black hole all by himself for so long. Toru begs Kiyo to come back, and suggests that Kiyo separate himself from the Vella Nova in order to live a normal life, but Kiyo informs him that he and the Vella Nova...are the same. They’re the same combined entity! Kiyo says that if he tries to unfuse, he’ll just end up destroying himself, because there’s nothing to separate, being one singular existence. So Toru points out uh hey since you’re the same thing, don’t you get a say on how your power is used? “It’s your power, Kiyo” yes we’re referencing Tododeku here we go

Kiyo’s like hmm uh yeah I guess you have a point;; so we went through all that for nothing huh. And Toru tells him you’re a fucking moron and Kiyo’s like ahh yes but you loved this moron enough to come rescue him from the void ;) And they kinda sorta confess but not really? Kiyo’s too nervous and Toru’s too distracted trying to figure out how to get them out of there but no worries they sort it out later. Kiyo tells him that hey I’m still dangerous and I could lose control at any given moment and Toru’s just like well I guess we’ll just have to stop you and bring you back to yourself. So with the knowledge that he’s got a whole guild of awesome people backing him up and a boy who broke the laws of the universe to save his ass, Kiyo and Toru escape the rift and finally return home together 💕 And that’s pretty much how their arc ends!

Extra personality traits

-He has a really short attention span so this makes things painfully hard on mission briefings, which leads to Kiyo usually screwing up the mission one way or another

-He often charges ahead without thinking and is the first one to become a target in a bad situation. Nobody really feels bad for him though because most of the time it’s his fault for walking right into it LMAO

-He can be very childish sometimes and most of the time he does it on purpose. His guildmates complain that their leader is a whiny, immature brat

-He is an expert on how to annoy people do not test him oh my god

-He can be incredibly selfish;; He’s gotten better with it during recent years, but he got scorned for it a lot when he was younger. He’s also very emotional, and you can read what he’s thinking like an open book! When his friends can’t read him that’s when they start getting worried.

-He has no experience in romance whatsoever and it’s the one (1) thing that can get him flustered. Nobody at the guild has ever seen Kiyo get mildly embarrassed or caught off guard, so they begin to think it’s impossible to make him blush. Then Toru shows up and ruins everything lmao

-He has a great sense of humor and can always make others laugh! He’s also very mischievous and sometimes plays pranks on other members of his guild.

-He’s very stubborn when he wants something and not in a good way. He also pouts a lot when he gets like this

-He loves his guild and his guild members man :'( If any of them are ever in any real danger he's quick to offer himself up first as a target. He's protective of his friends and will do anything to keep them safe!

-A very very affectionate person. He mostly shows this through physical acts like hugging and generally touching other people. In return he also craves affection and gets very soft when it’s given back to him. I’d probably say he’s a little touch starved despite being in close contact with others all the time lol

#Me: Time for a new OC! *Writes a novel-length essay about their background*#Kiyo #Among the Stars #ATS #Shima's OCs #This took me way too long to write fnaskbldads god #Original character #Character art #Character design #Digital art #Art #Character sheet #Character reference #Shima arts #Long post #shima-draws

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descendantofthesparrow · 4 years ago

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Remember your past - Prince! Harry Hook x Knight! Reader - Part 20 - The adventure begins

Hours later and Purah had finally let the two of you go, keeping Terrako for the night as so test for any possible clues to what had happened in the last 500 years and to make sure the little guardian wasn’t damaged in any way.

You were stopped just before you started making your way back down the hill, and Purah helped activate the transportation seal in front of the laboratory. Harry mentally celebrated in relief of not having to climb all the way back up the hill to come in the morning at Purah’s request.

You swiped through the tablets inventory slots, humming to yourself as you tapped on some of the new items that had been added to it. You skimmed through the description and looked up as Harry tossed himself over on his inn bed and his eyes burned into your side. “wha?” you whispered, shutting off the tablet and stuffing it in your bag, hiding it with your cloak.

“it's still hard ta believe this is all real…I still think I’ll wake up back at Auradon not even knowing this place exists…yet every morning I wake up to us on a quest to fuckin save it from a red goop demon” he whispered, grinning as you snickered from his description of the “dark one”.

“yeah…I’m still getting ahold of the fact that I’m technically over 500 years old and I was a personal knight to a prince that had some sort of locked magic and I was badly injured and yeeted into a healing shrine for 500 fucking years” Harry buried his face into the pillow and let out a small scream. “I can't tell if you're just reacting to what I said or everything in general.” He lifted his head out of the pillow and scrunched his nose (quite adorably you might add) as he laughed.

“yeeted into a healing shrine” he quoted, laying back down on the pillow and continuing to laugh. You rolled your eyes and tossed your extra pillow at him, smirking as he quietly yelped.

“Go to bed, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow” one of his eyes peeked at you from below the pillow before it disappeared, his body shuffling around until he found a comfy spot. “goodnight harry”

“g’night (y/n)”

Uma tapped her fingers harshly against her arm, her leg tapping rapidly as Ben conversed with the stable owner, asking if he had seen Harry or (y/n). “we got a lot of people comin’ in ‘an out of these stables son, if they were here, I don’t remember ‘em. Might do you better ta ask the riverside stable”

Ben sighed and nodded, walking back towards the rest of the group who were waiting anxiously “any luck?” Phillip asked, curling his arm tighter around Audrey who buried herself into his side.

“No, they haven't seen them, said we might have more luck at the riverside stable, which I think” he took out a map from his saddlebag and unfolded it “is over on this side of the peaks, we’d make our way back to the plateau then take a right just after the bridge”

“Are we sure this is a good idea?” Mal butt in, stepping closer to Ben and looking over the map “I mean, Regina asked us to stay within the village because of how dangerous it is here, and it is (y/n) and Harry but, it could be more of a risk to go out and find them than to just wait for them back at the village. We don’t know what's out there”

“that’s exactly why we are going to go look for them Mal” Ben stressed, closing the map and putting it back in the saddlebag “We don’t know what's out there and they probably don’t either, I can't sit by while they go out and risk their lives if anything we might be able to help them do whatever they are doing.”

Mal sighed and nodded, while she didn’t want anyone to get hurt out in this land that was completely unknown to them, it would be hard to sleep at night knowing she had willingly left (y/n) and Harry to travel it alone and possibly get hurt “Alright then, let's get some supplies and then we'll go to Riverside stable, then we’ll go from there”

Uma let out a small huff and climbed onto her horse, glaring down at the rest of the group “What are we waiting for? Let's go”

Ben stopped Mal from starting an argument, deciding that they would get supplies at the other stable and head out now.

“Anand there we go! All runes upgraded and ready to use~!” Purah handed you back the tablet “I also tried to look through Terrako’s old files but the only thing that was there was stuff I had seen forever ago, so!” she clapped her hands then held them out towards you and Harry “everything Is ready to go! And I set up the sheikah sensor plus as well so if you need to find something specific, just take a picture with it, go into the compendium that’s within the same section as the map, and select that item and it'll lead you to it” you slowly nodded, messing around with the tablet until the rune screen popped up.

“um,” you started, showing Purah the screen “how do we use the runes?” she smiled fondly and took the tablet, tapping one of the icons and turning to Symin. The two nodded at each other and Symin threw a small teacup at Purah, Purah trusted the tablet at the cup and it froze mid-air, a glowing yellow filter surrounding the cup as it did.

“Stasis!” Purah exclaimed as Symin walked in front of the cup and wrapped his hands around it, waiting for the quiet noise of a ticking clock to stop as Purah turned to the tablet towards you and Harry “Time stopping rune, you just have to aim the tablet at the item or thing you want to freeze in time, then you can add kinetic energy by hitting it and the item or thing will fly in the direction you hit it! Easy!”

You and Harry nodded, Terrako jumping up between the tablet and you in an attempt to see the screen “Then there’s magnesis, which allows you to control any type of metal object” Purah demonstrated with the tablet, lifting a spoon into the air, a beam of red, blue, and yellow stringing the spoon and tablet. “Like that, and there's no limit of size or weight of the metal object” Purah released the spoon and switched to the next rune.

“then there are the bombs” you and Harry jumped back as Purah held up her hand and a round blue glowing bomb appeared in her hand “Remote activated as well, come along!” Purah skipped out of the lab with you and Harry following behind her, Terrako scuttling after you.

Purah tossed the bomb over the side of the mountain and gestured for you to watch the tablet as it bounced down the mountain “To activate, you just” Purah trust the tablet forward, a large blue glowing exploding where the bomb was “And that’s the bombs! These two bombs as well, the round one and the square one” Purah summoned the box-shaped one, holding it in her hand for you and Harry to see before she closed her hand, the bomb disappearing as she did. “to send ‘em back into the tablet, you just close your fist, easy peasy~!”

Purah led you back inside the lab and showed you the tablet again, the rune symbol now showing a snowflake “This is the cryonis rune, with it you can create a pillar of ice from any water surface. I can’t demonstrate this one so we’ll just move on” Purah swiped to the next run, now showing a camera symbol

“The camera, we already figured out that one” you muttered, Purah smiled and nodded, handing the tablet back to you.

“Good! There is a hidden rune on there but I've never been able to figure it out, maybe you will! But!” Purah clapped her hands, you and Harry flinching a bit at the sudden action “you two have somewhere to go don’t you~ now remember; stop at the places where the eleven pictures show to see if you can regain any memories, get the towers for the map, and free the divine beasts! Good luck! Goodbye Terrako!” the little guardian chirped and followed after you and Harry as you walked back outside. The lab doors closed behind you as you and Harry looked at each other.

“Well” Harry muttered, rubbing the back of his head as he looked around the mountain top you were on “tha’ was….an experience” you laughed a bit and nodded, pulling up the map and scrolling around, tapping on the shrine that was down in the village.

“yep” in a flash of blue light you, Harry, and Terrako were now outside the shrine, it’s orange/blue glow blinding you a bit. “let's get a couple more supplies and then well head for the nearest beast, which I think is past storybrooke, we kinda went the opposite way but there's another road to Lanayru, we’re in Necluda and we just need to take this path down this way, there is a way directly to the Lanayru tower but it crosses through storybrooke and I don’t think either of us want to risk a run through with everyone?” Harry shook his head, grabbing your arm to guide you back to the horses as you continued to look down at the map “yeah there's a path down this way that should lead to the Lanayru tower, so we’ll head down that way.” You closed the tablet and hooked it on your hip, moving to step beside your horse and leading her backward out of the stall, Harry doing the same with his horse.

“let's head out” Harry nodded, looking down at Terrako who chirped.

“uh, do yeh want a ride or do yeh jus’ want ta’ follow?” the little guardian just chirped and walked back and forth “im guessing that’s walk?” Terrako nodded its body and Harry nodded back “All right then, let's go” Harry swung up onto his horse and followed after you as the three of you rode out of Hateno and down to Lanayru.

Uma sighed and rubbed her face, they had just left the riverside stable, and while the workers there had seen (y/n) and Harry, along with the little guardian, they had no idea where the three went. so once again the trail went cold after a moment of hope. “How are we ever going to find them?” Gil whimpered, crossing his arms and looking off in the distance, scared for his two friends. “This kingdom is huge; they could already be…I don’t know halfway across the map by now who knows?”

Ben sighed and shrugged, climbing back on his horse and taking out the map “I don’t know Gil, we just have to hope for the best to find them before they do anything stupid”

“they could be heading for one of those divine beast things (y/n) told us about” Phillip hummed, scratching his chin as Audrey cuddled into his side “though she failed to mention where they were” Ben sighed again, looking down at his map.

“Yeah, we really have no clue where they are, and who knows, they might avoid us if they find us first. You heard what Regina said, they are dead set on saving the kingdom, from something their past lives had failed in.” Ben folded the map and placed it in his saddlebag, helping Mal climb up behind him and grabbing the reigns “Lets head for Faron, we might get lucky if they headed that way” the group nodded and mounted their horses, Ben leading the charge as Harriet and CJ rode in the back, Harriet's jaw clenched as flashes of the past flew past her on the road.

Regina had told her and CJ that they might have been reincarnated as well, as there were two princesses named Harriet and Calista Jane. And it seemed she was right, the longer they were in Saorsa the more “memories” returned to them, they were hard to understand and distinguish, but it was clear that along with Harry they had been reincarnated into their present selves.

“What are we gonna do Harriet?” CJ whispered, leaning over to her sister and giving Harriet a worried look “are we gonna-“ Harriet gave CJ a look.

“We are, tomorrow night when everyone's asleep, we’ll split off and look for Harry and (y/n) ourselves, and im going to drag Harry back to Auradon by his ear if it kills me” CJ looked relieved to hear Harriet’s ‘threat’ towards Harry, it was good to know Harriet wasn’t as shaken up as her so at least one of them would have a calm head on their shoulders.

“okay” CJ hummed, snapping the reins of her horse and catching up with the rest of the group.

By nightfall you were about halfway to Lanayru, thankfully there was a stable right next to where you and Harry had called it for the night so you let your horses into the stalls for the night and rented two beds till the morning.

You pulled up the map and hummed, from here you could see Storybrooke village was just past the wetlands and up the hill. And the Lanayru tower, you looked up from the map, seeing the orange glowing tower in the distance, shrouded by rain clouds that never seemed to disappear, was just ahead, maybe a half days travel from the stable.

“we almost there?” Harry softly asked, stepping so close to you-you could feel the warmth radiating off him.

“yeah” you talked in a hushed tone, turning to him and holding up the map “can't see it on the map but the tower is here, I marked it” Harry leaned in to look, glancing between the tower and the diamond marker you had placed. He nodded and stood straight, watching you turn off the tablet and hook it on your hip.

You took and deep breath and looked at him, giving a tired smile “come on, it's been a long day, let's turn in and we’ll head out first thing after breakfast” Harry returned the smile and nodded.

“aye, see yeh in the morning”

“see you in the morning”

-end-

yep, part 20 after 5 (almost six) months, not a single person asked for this so...yeah...i request validation pls.

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originalhybridnik · 4 years ago

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harry potter: why it’s not “just for kids.”

the other day, this girl i know told me, “why the hell are you reading harry potter? it’s for kids only.” i’m 17, and, well, close to adulthood. i don’t reply to her, because, often, when someone asks me something like this, i have a huge explanation, lasting for a long time, and people don’t like it. so, i’m gonna give my explanation here.

harry potter. the boy who lived. the whole series is loved by millions of people in the world, from different age groups and from different parts of the world. it’d be an understatement to say that i love the series. i’ve read the books, seen the movies, even read the supplementary books, as well as harry potter and the cursed child. i’ve seen the fantastic beasts movies as well. and i’ve read the books not once, not twice, not even thrice. i’ve read the series 8 times.

here are the reasons as to why harry potter isn’t for any specific age group.

(spoiler alert to everyone out there) trigger warnings: foul language, death, slavery, discrimination.

1. harry potter, the kid who was orphaned at the age of one, the boy who had no family but his nasty muggle uncle, aunt and cousin, the name known to every wizard and witch, the one-year-old who weakened voldemort to the brink of death. this boy has gone through more pain, sorrow and grief than any fictional character i’ve read of. provided, it doesn’t seem so. but, take it from someone who has read the series as much as i have, he isn’t what he apparently seems to be. j.k. rowling gives us a glimpse of his life before hogwarts, just a mere glimpse. this small portion shows us the amount of bullying he has to go through. he has absolutely no friends, and his cousin’s gang was always behind him. his aunt and uncle starve him for the tinniest of mistakes and he did not even know the real cause of his parents’ death. he has no one to talk to, or be with. he lives in a cupboard under the stairs. his aunt and uncle are certain to “bash out” the magic in him by keeping him away from the wizarding world. he is constantly treated like trash, and he has to do all of the dursleys’ work whether he wanted to or not.

2. he gets a letter from hogwarts, and he isn’t allowed to read it. he keeps getting more and more of them, and he still isn’t allowed to read them. the letters arrive at such a pace that uncle vernon decides to move into a small hut on a rock in the middle of a sea. he then gets his letter hand delivered by hagrid, the keeper of keys at hogwarts. he finally catches a break, and goes to hogwarts, the prized boy who apparently killed voldemort. during his first year at hogwarts, he and his closest friends, ron and hermione embark on a quest to keep the philosopher’s stone from voldemort’s reach. the three 11-year-olds have to get past a three headed dog, past the devil’s snare, one of the deadliest plants in the wizarding world, past a door that could be opened only by catching a flying key scattered across many other flying keys, play on a life size board of wizard’s chess-where ron sacrifices himself so that harry could continue, which almost kills ron, past a room with 7 containers of potions which could kill them if they weren’t smart, and finally to a room where harry meets professor quirell who has provided his body as a refuge for voldemort, who manifests on the back of his head. harry faces the man who killed his parents before he could even speak, and he almost gets possessed by voldemort, because he’s probably the only one who could have the stone, as the mirror of erised could give it only to the person who wanted the stone, but not for a selfish reason. he kills quirell, but voldemort gets away. you see, this shows how deep the first book is. i mean, as a kid, i never understood the sacrifices made, by any of the characters. but, as i read the book again, i understood why what happened happened. it became obvious to me. this shows that we can enjoy the book as a child, without realizing the deepness, and as teens and adults, we get the sacrifices made, the blood shed, the connections forged, and most importantly, how important it is to recognize the values left behind, and, for once, try understanding that this series, even if written for kids, is suitable, and, important for older readers as well.

3. ronald weasely, the sixth child in a relatively poor, and commonplace wizarding family that turns out to be the most loyal, brave and worthy wizarding families ever. he grew up as a wizard and knew a lot about the wizarding world, especially it’s prejudices. he’s the perfect example of a trustworthy, loyal and brave friend. he deserves a lot more than the unnecessary hate he gets. he befriends harry potter, a famous kid that didn’t know anything about his true self, and sticks with him forever. throughout the series, we see this brave boy sacrifice a lot for his best friend. book 1, he sacrifices himself, AN ELEVEN YEAR OLD, for a boy that he knew for less than a year. book 2, he’s ready to walk into a forest, following his WORST fear, spiders, into their fucking home. book 3, he’s ready to follow a mass murderer(not really a mass murderer, but yeah) to help his best friends. book 4, even though he gets jealous and stops talking to harry for a while, we totally get what he was gong through. book 5, he fucking walks breaks into the ministry of magic with his best friends to fight the most feared group of dark wizards and witches ever. book 6, he’s ready to fight anYone for his best friends. book 7, HE’S READY TO RUN AWAY AND FIGHT THE MOST FEARED WIZARD EVER, for his best friend.

all of this, ALL OF THIS, just shows how mature he is, how much we can learn from him, and, most importantly, how wrong it is to title this series as one “for kids”. we see a mere boy sacrifice himself, put his life in danger, time and again, for his best friends. if that isn’t something every human being should be exposed to, then what is?

4. hermione granger, another important character, throughout the series, born into a muggle family, living her life as a smart, bookworm, one day, gets a letter, getting accepted into the best wizarding institution, and, unlike the dursleys, her parents are proud of her and she’s all set for this magical experience. she never anticipates the hate or the prejudice that, is shown towards her and children like her, born into a muggle family. “mudblood,” they call them, exactly the kind of discrimination imminent to THIS DAY all over the world. whether it’s on an international standard, or within a country, whether it is race, caste, gender or preferences, whether it’s against a group or an individual, it’s exactly like this. the whole concept of blood status shows us how deep the books are. it shows us how mature we need to be to understand this. it shows us how we need to think more about this and implement this in real life. a kid from a “pureblood” family, namely, draco malfoy, is the first person to use this, in book 2. it just shows us how parents like his encourage their kids to discriminate people based on their lineage. i won’t point to a specific issue but all of us know of examples, whether we’re the offenders or the offended.

5. slavery is a very important issue touched upon in the series. even though we see harry free dobby from the malfoys, there’s very little importance given to the base, the root cause of what dobby went through. he was a slave to a rich family that considered itself above anyone without “pure blood.” but, we see this very issue taken up in a book 4. we see hermione take a stand against the improper and infuriating treatment of house elves, by organizing a committee called S.P.E.W(society for the promotion of elfish welfare). we see her force people into taking part in this, and even though it’s by force, we all see where she came from. if you don’t know, house elves believed they had only one true purpose in life, to slave around for their owners, without being respected or treated well, and no matter what. we see winky, another elf, previously working(for lack of a better word, cuz that wasn’t working) for bartemius crouch, who’s absolutely against the idea of being paid or even being free. despite seeing dobby and how he enjoyed freedom, she was absolutely against it. again, we see how such an important and deep issue was addressed in a way that makes use all understand, despite our age, that EVERYONE is equal, no matter what. if you STILL think it’s a book for kids only, please continue reading.(continue anyways)

6. can we talk about how the magic-folk have had to live in hiding forever because people are afraid of them? they’re treated like they’re inhuman, trash and most importantly, like they deserve to die for being born with a power for magic?

7. as long as we’re talking about discrimination, we can also look into the fact that, squibs(non-magic folk born into magical families) are looked down upon? they’re tortured, and they receive as much hate, if not more, as “mudbloods.”

8. a special trigger warning for this: TW /death. THROUGHOUT the series, we see some of our most beloved characters die. spoiler alert: in book 1, we see how james and lily were ruthlessly killed by voldemort, orphaning a one year old boy that’d be famous for something he never knew he did. honestly, it wasn’t even his doing. in the same book, we see the killing of unicorns, the consequences of killing a unicorn and drinking it’s blood, AND the killing of professor quirell/voldemort, and even though he/they were the bad person, it deserves to be a part of this list. book 2, we see a young tom riddle get killed in the end, we see how young myrtle got killed, we see students getting fucking petrified by a monster, an inch away from death. book 3, we see how sirius black apparently killed 13 people and was an accomplice to his best friend’s murder. book 4, we see cedric die as a direct affect from the killing curse. we see harry get tortured by the cruciatus curse. we see the most feared wizard reborn, and, not to mention, we see his weakened form in the movie. book 5, we see the rampage that voldemort causes, killing more and more people, muggles and magic-folk alike. more importantly, we see harry’s godfather, sirius black die. we see the pain harry goes through. book 6, again, we see not only voldemort’s actions, but the use of sectumsempra by harry on draco, and how snape killed dumbledore. book 7, we see SO MUCH death. from alastor (mad-eye) moody to fred weasely, from severus snape to remus lupin and nymphadora tonks, so many fucking deaths. we see harry potter die.

9. can we talk about the phrase “lamb for slaughter”? most of us have heard of this phrase at least once. i cannot think of another explanation of this than the way it’s shown in these books. albus dumbledore literally prepares and protets harry for seventeen fucking years just so he can get get killed by voldemort in the end. this teaches an important lesson to everyone that, sometimes, you need to do what you think is right. even if an adult cares about you more than anything, sometimes they do things they believe in and end up hurting kids.

10. can we talk about how bill weasely got bit in the face by an untransformed werewolf and got deformed for life? even after this, fleur didn’t leave him. if this isn’t a lesson to us about what true love is, then, what is?

11. let’s talk about love. firstly, about how much harry, hermione and ron love each other. they’re the true example of best friends. they were together through everything, there for each other in the worst of times, and for the happiest of moments, and will probably be together until they die. secondly, can we talk about how when people are truly in love, they don’t care about appearances. all they care about is what’s on the inside. this is clearly shown by fleur(check point 10). ALSO, we see tonks sacrifice herself with remus, in the final battle. we see dumbledore care about harry so much, love him so much, despite everything else. we see the love family has. we see harry and hermione become a part of the weasleys. we see harry and ginny fall in love. we even see snape’s love for lily. we see so much love. now, this is something very important for all of us. whether we’re raised in that way, or we are exposed to it later in life, we need to learn that love is important in life.

12. can we talk about the torture neville’s parents, among countless others, went through? because of voldemort? and his death eaters? do you still think these books are for kids?

13. can we talk about how a group of 15 year-olds form a group to learn how to fight in the real world, because of a careless ministry of magic and a cruel teacher? it shows us values of leadership, team work, and most of all, how important friendship is. we see a part of this group march into a battle against death eaters, and, possibly, even voldemort himself, without fear of death. for one moment, look at how brave one is when one is with one’s true friends. this teaches us so much.

14. CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW A CRUEL TEACHER MAKES A 15-YEAR OLD BOY SCAR HIMSELF WITH THE WORDS “I WILL NOT TELL LIES” JUST BECAUSE SHE WAS TOO ADAMENT TO BELIEVE THE TRUTH? do you still fucking think this series is for kids?

15. can we talk about how all the magical creatures are treated cruelly? from elves to centaurs, it’s cruelty at it’s finest. are you still convinced it’s a book for kids just because it has magic?

16. can we talk about how much trauma a reader experiences throughout the series? i mean, i’m absolutely grateful that i went through this trauma, because i came out as a better person, in not one, but, multiple ways. we journey through seven years of happiness, sorrow, pain, love, and so much more. we see our favorites get killed, we see how sometimes, people are misunderstood. we see how everyone is born good, but it’s our childhood and the way we’re raised that makes us bad. this is not something all kids understand. an older person can read this series, go through all of this, and will come out as a better human being.

17. how many of you remember the way snape was treated as a kid? huh? by harry’s own father and his friends. this is a shout out to all the bullies out there that think they can do whatever they want and not care about consequences just because they’re stronger, or more famous, or more good-looking. this fucking teaches kids to NOT bully anyone.

this is more than just a series for me. it let me into this new universe where i experienced so fucking much.

if this wasn’t enough for you to at least consider the fact that these books are not “just for kids,” i’m sorry, but you’re just being morons. you don’t wanna even consider something that goes against what you say and that’s your problem, not ours. so, STOP HATING ON THE WIZARDING WORLD COMMUNITY AND GET A FUCKING JOB.

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digitalvoidheart · 4 years ago

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A Pixelated New Moon

This is a random idea I came up when extremely down in the dumps and also wanted to try writing angst for the first time... (also new moon is a moon completely shadowed soit's basically something in the oneshot)

Also, this is a random au I made up where everyone's life is in a multiplayer game. I know not very original but pls enjoy!

Players/Characters:

♠ Moon (passive nightmare)

♠Nightmare (corrupted nm and a separate being)

♠Horror

♠Killer

♠Dust

♠Cross

Moon knew his team was unstoppable and was proud of it.

Horror, even with that cracked skull from a false 1v1 (his opponent had an accomplice hidden for a sneak attack, Horror came out victorious eventually), his agility is unaffected and he can pack a punch with his attacks.

He may say that he lacks in the defense department but when it comes to combat, he usually attacks when the team is surrounded, creating a soundwave-like attack with his bone weapon constructs, giving him the title of the team's main offence.

Next comes Dust. He's a mysterious one if Moon had to be honest. Not only did he refuse to narrate his backstory or history of his previous teams, but his level on all skills seemed to be on par. No one knows what he specializes in wether it is defense, healing or combat because he has activated his hidden card. A special item which hides the stats of the player. An expensive item but with the high level he's in, it's possible for him to own one.

He could protect the team in one second, heal Horror the next and attacking side by side with Nightmare on the next, all mid battle. Moon found it very impressive.

Another dangerous member is Killer. He may not have the same knockout attacks as Horror, nor the magic abilities like Dust, but he makes up the team by his traitorous speed. His slump posture may make it seem he's lazy but he's far from that.

He could land a good amount of slashes onto his opponent in the least amount of time, immobilizing them temporarily sometimes. He doesn't fear much, proven by the wide cocky grin plastered on at all times and the fact that he chooses close range attacks while his target shaped SOUL was always within the enemy's grasp? Deliciously terrifying.

Lastly, Nightmare. The leader of the team, one who plans ahead, always knowing way the opponents are thinking. He has the highest level compared to everyone under his wing, the aforementioned trio having a small reduction to reach his level, and Moon a LARGE one.

He didn't even know why he was needed in the team. Horror's attack, Dust's magic and Killer's speed made up the perfect balance of a team. His constant request for why they need him always went unanswered by Night. He can't even leave without Nightmare's consent, that being the rules of the life-or-death game they play. Any player who wishes to leave their team has to have their removal granted by the team leader. His permission for leaving went deaf as his questions.

The trio always had their answers on them for him, albeit it's a little untrue.

"Need ya for...shieldin' me. Got low defense, r'member?" You don't need me. You've got Dust.

Dust's minute responses were similar "You're useful..." No Dust, I'm just a burden. You don't need to heal me midbattle either. Use it for Nightmare or Horror instead.

"Pretty sure 'cuz you hold up a shield better than any of us" Funny, Killer. And I'm at least another 25 levels below you guys...

He's pretty sure no one knows of his secret to try up his levels, so that's out of the options. Everyone has their share of G, albeit higher than his for earning more EXP than him for being on the offense. So why do they want him if it isn't money or battle?

His answers come to him when they enter the next quest. The blue screen appearing before each of them reading :

Welcome to level XX!

Here, you will be separated into two groups. Team one with any number of players will be challenged with X number of quests through the white gate while team two with one player will pass through the abyss through the black gate.

Choose wisely!

Oh... A sacrifice.

"I'll go" Moon smiled even when the heavy words sent a metaphorical spear to his SOUL. He can do this. It's for the team. He might not know what the quest in the abyss is but no one's returned once entering the abyss r-right? They needed him so they could pass this level. So why did it hurt to line the facts together?

"No." Nightmare deadpanned, his decision locked with no room for argument. "We'll rest up at the checkpoint and discuss who to go where tomorrow."

What? I-I'm not th- a sacrifice?

Moon's voice failed him from the assertiveness of his leader. And like that, he was lead to the previous checkpoint where they discussed at the inn for whom to go, and honestly? Moon wasn't listening at all.

This could be his chance to detach his leeching body from their assets and give them a higher chance of success! Maybe they can even find a better player with a higher level than himself to benefit the guys more. But why do they need to discuss who to go when the answer was right in front of them?

While Nightmare and the others planned for who to go, Moon made his own plan to carry out during their slumber. As the moment arrived at midnight, he slipped out to carry a few errands quests the inn offered for G and his own personal plans.

He won't let their efforts go to waste. Not when he was around.

***

The next day, the team of five made their way back to gates of the next level.

Moon spared a glance at Nightmare to see him nod at the trio. As one of them stepped closer to the black portal. It was Killer. A valuable and speedy asset to the team.

Moon let out a sigh and exhaled his message to them.

"I'm sorry"

Killer was pulled away with blue magic as his purple cloaked companion whisked past his fallen figure and into the abyss. The portal closed before any of them had time to figure out what had happened.

---

The rumours were false. The Abyss wasn't heavy. Sure, it was dark but you could still see yourself in a white outline only. And apparently, he wasn't the only one.

He watched as players teleport into the Void, some calm, others screaming and shouting for someone (probably they were betrayed by their own team) before they all are faced with a monochromatic screen. Upon his distraction, he didn't notice the exact replica of the screen in front of him as well.

Welcome to the abyss!

This is a test of patience and trust for your team. You will watch as your team completes their quests and at the end, choose your fate

It didn't say much but the pixelated screen then glitched, showing a live view of his team. They look upset and unhappy, except Nightmare.

He looked furious. If he wasn't mad with Moon before, he was now. Maybe he might allow him to leave the team. That is if he can leave the abyss in the first place.

Looking back, he noticed the distraught player a small distance away from him as they tapped on their screen.

He watched, wide-eyed as they disintegrated into pixels. Like monster dust. Death...

Although, he was quickly distracted by another monster watching through his screen.

A skeleton monster they were. The same outline white around him didn't tell the colours the monster possessed but his right eye light and lightning-bolt scar on his right cheek were red. Does that mean eyelights remain their colour?

Getting a response from the new guy was difficult. He refused to speak.

After multiple attempts Moon sighed "Could I get your name at least?" More silence from the skeleton and Moon gave up.

"It's Cross"

His head shot back at the red eyed skeleton. Before he decided to shut up himself and watch his team.

He turned in time to see Horror summon a shield himself to protect Dust from an attack. So it was a fluke. The incapability to defend himself...

"I knew it..." he said to no one but Cross turned to his direction from the screen. "They really didn't need me. It was all a lie..." tears welled up in his sockets, blurring the view of his team effectively.

"B-but why did they wanna keep me if i wasnt for a sacrifice?" He croaked. He watched as Nighmare and the guys cleared the stage in a blur.

Another thing he was. A deadweight.

Completely forgetting that he was crying near a complete stranger, he swiftly wiped his tears and residual magic from his face. He pulled up his cloak's cowl only to hear Cross speak once more.

"You're their anchor." Moon turned to Cross.

"W-what?" What did he mean by anchor?

"Having high levels means you are more likely to loose control of your mind, resulting in messes you never intended on happening. "

Eyes never leaving the team, he continued, "You were basically kept so that they have a distraction from overdoing things. Like that grey hooded guy," he pointed at Dust "he seems to keep healing the guy with a cracked skull mid battle to avoid losing his sanity from his bottomless well of magic"

Moon looked at Dust, then averted his gaze to his feet in shame.

Cross explained how the others may have benefited from him and Moon took it all in.

And even if it seemed like minutes, Moon felt like he'd been talking with him for hours and have been friends for longer.

He didn't want to leave Cross. He could take him with and show him to the team. Maybe they will accept him and-

Ping!

Moon looked up to see hi- Nightmare's team has passed through all quests and now are waiting in front of a transporter. The screen glitched once, twice before turning back to the message screen. This time, it displayed a volume symbol and a female voice spoke.

"Player Moon, your team has successfully passed through level XX. You have an option to go back to your team which costs 78000 G, or stay in the void till you disintegrate. Choose wisely on what will benefit your team."

W-what? Already? He can go back! He has enough G for three tickets from scraping all the G from his secret task job in checkpoints! He can redeem himself, apologise to Nightmare and-

"Congratulations" Cross' voice pierced through his thoughts. He was smiling, but Moon knew better.

"Come with me" he demanded.

"That's against the rules, little Moon" Cross countered. He looked over Moon's shoulder at the screen, which had apparently heard him, giving a robotic 'affirmative'. "Besides, I don't have a team to go back to nor the G to buy myself out"

Moon's eyelights began wavering as he paced. Looking at his options, he only had three.

He took deep breaths to calm himself from the edge of panic. Opening his eyes, he looked at Cross.

He was hiding sadness behind a stoic mask, wanting to be strong with Moon returning safe to his team. It crushed his Soul to know that the determination in it was slowly burning out to a flickering flame.

Cross' stats were a considerably good amount, higher than Moon's obviously. His understanding and calm during a panicked situation is admirable.

But if only one of them can leave...

Who should?

☆********☆

I'll do 3 endings after my exams so look forward to it!

Btw to all angst writers... HOW TF DO YOU DO IT WITHOUT HAVING TO BE SAD?!!! I was only able to write this cuz I was sad. :(

#Void writes #digitalvoidheart #Moon #Nightmare #Killer #Cross #Horror #Dust #Game au #Tw depression #First time writing angst #Tell me how it is #C y'all after exams

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carriagelamp · 4 years ago

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I read more books this month than I anticipated. I should probably wait before doing a February book round up, but I already feel like I’m struggling to decide which ones to cut from my list so I’m doing it this weekend instead of next. If I read much next week I’ll bump ‘em up into March’s round up

Asterix and the Missing Scroll / Chieftain’s Daughter

I got the last two “new” Asterix books out of the library so I could officially say I had read them all. Over all my opinion is… they’re fine! None of these would ever become one of my favourites, but they’re all fine stories. The art is good, it is completely in-line with the original, and the stories are… fine. I liked The Missing Scroll quite a bit more than The Chieftain’s Daughter but I never find a ~hurr hurr teenagers~ plotline that interesting, whereas I do enjoy seeing Romans get chased down by unicorns so that’s probably not surprising. There’s some spark I can’t put my finger on that the new Asterix books just seem to be missing though… a bit of humour or cleverness or something. Still, they’re fine reads if you’ve been hungry for more Asterix and I’m glad I read them. (Though the library gave me the American translation of The Chieftain’s Daughter, something I didn’t realize until I started reading and realized that this is wrong??? I’ve been reading these books since I could read and I know this is wrong??? What the hell is happening??? The I realized the publisher was different and I simmered in fury the whole time I read it — WHY ARE YOU CHANGING NAMES AND WORD CHOICES IN A WELL ESTABLISHED SERIES THAT ALREADY HAS AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION YOU ANIMALS WHY ARE YOU DUMBING DOWN THE LANGUAGE AAAUGH

The Bride Was A Boy

This one was cute! The Bride Was A Boy is an autobiographical manga written by a transwoman recounting her experience with transitioning, meeting her boyfriend, and eventually getting married. It’s mostly done in a 4-panel style and is interspersed with lots of information about the LGBT community, particularly in Japan. A lot of it was stuff I was already familiar with, but I still found it adorable and a very worthwhile read. it would be a fantastic book for young queer people who are looking for more of an introduction into international queer space

Cul de Sac: Children At Play

Cul de Sac is just a weird, fun newspaper comic series about the children who live in a small neighbourhood. It fully taps into the children-as-semi-feral-chaos-agents, and there’s something hilariously nostalgic about the whole thing. Lots of times when stories try to portray children there’s always something… wrong about it, something that doesn’t mesh with true childhood, but in this comic I can see glimpses of my grimy, dirty-covered self as a preschooler running around the pages. I would definitely recommend trying them!

The Cremation of Sam McGee

I reread The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew and man, they don’t stop being buckwild. These are two really famous Canadian poems that were then illustrated by equally famous Canadian artist Ted Harrison. Harrison’s style is gorgeous and distinct and given what strangely grisly stories these poems are they fit the mood perfectly. Everything feels just a little tilted and wrong and unsettling. If you enjoy an occasional poem (especially ones that are super fun to read out loud) and haven’t read these before, I would recommend them! Or do what my teachers did, and read Sam Gee to a young child in your life and watch them be baffled and concerned and horrified.

There are strange things done / in the midnight sun / by the men who moil for gold...

The Gryphon’s Lair

The second book of the Royal Guide to Monster Slaying series written by Kelley Armstrong; I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book! It’s a very cool fantasy series because it really leans into environmental stewardship and the importance of studying animals and conservation so you can find ways to live alongside a healthy ecosystem. In this book Rowan is officially accepted as the Royal Monster Hunter, which means a whole new set of trials and burdens. She has to contend with a baby gryphon that is becoming increasingly large and dangerous, plotting family members, doubt about her abilities, a potential curse, and a daunting quest deep into the mountains in order to set things right. If you’re looking for some very gentle high fantasy, this series delivers.

Hogan’s Heroes comics

What to say here. Anyone following this blog has suffered the knowledge that I’ve been rewatching Hogan’s Heroes lately. When I found out that there was a short-lived, shitty comic series in the 60s? Of course I had to hunt them down. And so I’ve read them! And they sure were a shitty comic series from the 60s! They were, shall we say, of wildly varying quality. Some were actually really funny (like #5, it easily had the best art and best jokes imho), others were a slog, and most were fine and amusing enough to read the whole way through but not much more.

If you don’t know what Hogan’s Heroes is about: it was a 1960s sitcom that took place in a WWII POW camp, in which the Allied prisoners trapped there had a massive, complex sabotage/spy ring right underneath the camp. The whole show is about constantly outwitting the bumbling Germans while keeping up the pretense that they’re all just normal prisoners. The show is hilariously funny and I would recommend that, even if I can’t say the same for the comics unless you’re like me and are just really thirsty for more content...

Magic Misfits: The Fourth Suit (Ripley)

The final book of Neil Patrick Harris’ middle grade series, The Magic Misfits. In this fourth book, the group is fragmented and forced to meet in secret to avoid notice from the mysterious and powerful Kalagan whose cruel machinations have already turned the quiet little town on its ears, putting people’s lives in peril and destroy Leila’s fathers’ magic shop. The Misfits are going to need all their skills to finally unmask this sinister magician and break the mesmerism he seems to have placed over the entire town before it’s too late to save no only the town, but their friendship and trust.

Super charming series, and the illustrations are gorgeous.

Marsupilami

HOUBA! I watched a very bad TV adaptation of this as a kid that still managed to find a place in my heart, and so I decided to finally try reading some of the original comic! On one hand: it was exactly what I had hoped! The art is cute, the marsupilami is so dynamic and fun to see on the page (and has a way better characterization than he does in the show), and it’s really funny! Unfortunately! It is also pretty racist! Yikes! That seems to be a reoccuring downfall for some of these older Belgian comics... I also tried reading the first book of Les Tuniques Bleues and aye ye ye… I couldn’t actually get through that one. That being said, these were older volumes and frankly, North American media was also real fucking racist at that point so I’m not gonna write them off either. I really liked most of this book, and will probably try to get my hands on one of the more recent volumes of both Marsupilami and Les Tuniques Bleues to see if they get better with time. (If you’ve read either of those series and have volume recommendations hmu)

The Pagemaster

I’m a sucker for novelizations, I have no excuse beyond that. I recently rewatched The Pagemaster and decided to read the chapter book. And it was a solid little adaptation! It’s about Richard Tyler, a young boy with a head for statistics which unfortunately means he lives in constant fear of (in his opinion, statistically likely) injury or death. However that fear is put to the test when he gets caught in a horrible thunderstorm and has to shelter in a nearby library with halls and shelves that stretch beyond the imagination and with untold perils hidden among the pages of the books. Richard, with only his library card and three novels that hope to be checked out, has to venture through the different genres and horrors housed int he library if he ever wants to find the exit and get home to safety.

Pumpkinheads

A very charming little graphic novel. Cute art, and really loveable characters. Josiah and Deja work every year at a local pumpkin patch, and are best friends during those weeks. However this is their last year working there before going off to university and as the last day at the patch comes to a close they realize that they both still have regrets. Deja sets off on a mission to avoid work, eat all the interesting snacks around the patch, and get Josiah to find the girl he’s been crushing on every year and has never worked up the nerve to talk to.

After being deprived of human contact for almost a year, this book really hits you right in the heart.

The Screwfly Solution

A deeply upsetting scifi/horror short story! I read it on the recommendation of a friend and, yes, can confirm that this fucked me up a bit. I honestly don’t even know what to say about this that wouldn’t spoil it, but frankly with everything being as it is, this hit a little bit too close to reality. (That being said, it was very well written, like this is a very good story on a literary level and it does exactly what it sets out to accomplish.) If you feel like reading twenty pages and being really disturbed, give it a go! Otherwise go and read any number of the much happier books on this list!

The Whipping Boy

This was a book I remember reading as a lit circle book back in elementary school and really loving. After telling myself I’d reread it for years, I finally sat down with it again. If you somehow got through school without reading this one, it’s about a brat of a prince and his whipping boy — since it would be unspeakable to strike a prince, when the prince misbehaves it is Jemmy who gets whipped. Unsurprisingly, there is no love lost between the two of them, because the prince is always intentionally causing problems that Jemmy has to suffer for. Things begin to change though when the prince decides to run away and drags Jemmy along with him. On the run, being chased by highwaymen, and desperately trying to hide their identities, these boys go on a fast-paced adventure beyond the castle walls. It wasn’t as special as I remembered it being as a kid, but it’s a fine little chapter book.

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ask-iamnotanalicorn · 4 years ago

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Previous: The Nightmare Moon Timeline

The Tirek’s Reign Timeline

After Nightmare Moon’s return and battle for the throne, Princess Celestia and her protégée, Princess Cadence, subdued the maddened alicorn and managed to imprison her. Celestia had no time to celebrate not having to re-banish her sister for another thousand years; she went into a deep study, searching for the missing key that would activate the Elements of Harmony and free Luna of the poison darkening her mind and feeding on her ancient wrath. Princess Cadence and her husband Shining Armor took over running the throne of Equestria, giving the sisters time to find a solution and reconciliation. She is a wise and fair leader, despite her youth, and the uneasy country began to settle.

But with Celestia so distracted and Cadence not yet trained in monitoring the ancient dungeon of Tartarus, Tirek made his escape unnoticed. He was more cautious now than in his last quest to steal Equestria’s magic: the theft of a few ponies’ magic here, the emptying of a lonely hamlet there. Rumors of a magical plague and a strange monkey-horse creature who ate magic were all Cadence and Shining Armor had to go on, and they and the Royal Service were baffled by this creature or affliction that struck and then vanished again and again. Panic began to spread through Canterlot as more and more ponies on the outskirts of the city reported their magic stolen.

By the time word of a magical plague and centaur sightings reached Celestia, the only pony present who would recognize the significance, it was too late. Tirek had gained enough magic to come into the open and make his attack. First Cadence and her husband and guards fell, unprepared for what they faced. With Cadence’s alicorn magic combined with the many ponies’ he had stolen, Tirek defeated Celestia in spite of her best efforts. And lastly, ignoring her spitting invectives, he drained Nightmare Moon, as well.

With such potent magic flowing through him, Tirek’s lust for more power grew worse than ever before. He set out to steal the magic of every pony and magical creature in Equestria - and there were none who could hope to stop him.

----

In the town of Featherhorn, there lived a young stallion with his parents, brother, and sister. He was a perfectly normal pony... or he would have been, were it not for the wings and horn he was born with. He got on alright - he had a few good friends and a supportive family, a love for his work and a faith that sustained him – but there were a number in the town who disapproved of him. He was the butt of many jokes and accusations, and often distrust. And the cultists who carried on in town caused trouble and made things worse for him, since he got the blame. He found it more and more tempting to stay out on the road, plying his trade and absorbing the confusion of strangers better than he could take the dislike of his own neighbors.

One day while the stallion was home, the town received word that a monster was coming. The monster had stolen the magic of the princesses, and now he was a giant, rampaging across the land and stealing the magic of every pony he found. He would soon be upon their town, and there was little time to flee - for who could run faster than this massive monster? Were they all doomed to lose their magic, and worse, their marks?

There was a small chance: a system of caves where they could hide, deep enough that the monster might not find them. But there was not enough time to get all the townsponies out, especially the sick and old; they could already hear the creature’s thundering hoofsteps on the horizon. If only they could distract it somehow, or slow it down... but who could hope to even do that much with a monster so powerful?

Nopony expected the young stallion, the alicorn imposter, to speak up:

“What if he believed there was another alicorn?”

The plan was dangerous. He would need help; handicapped in both flight and unicorn magic, he wouldn’t be able to fool the monster for long on his own. Few were willing - and of those who were, only a small number had the abilities that were needed. In the end, it was the stallion’s own brother and mother who helped him craft the final bits of his plan.

When the monster came upon the pony town, ready to further engorge himself with pony magic, the brown stallion appeared in the sky. He flew with confidence, bolstered by the carefully-directed winds of his expert flyer mother. His horn blazed with gold and silver light, bright as a star, aided by his magically gifted brother. And the monster believed the facade, and hungered only for more alicorn magic.

The chase lasted an hour, carefully-aimed magically bolts reflected through Sales’ horn by Pitch Black, skillful dodges aided by Pitch Forward. They had no hope of continuing the charade indefinitely, but that hour was enough; the townsponies were able to escape, hiding deep where the power-mad centaur wouldn’t find them. When at last the centaur swatted Salespitch from the sky and drained the magic from his injured body, the monster was enraged to taste such a miniscule amount. Black and Forward attempted a rescue, and were drained as well, their weakened bodies falling beside the unconscious Salespitch.

When the monster turned back to his initial target and found the town empty of all ponies - what’s more, he could not detect pony magic anywhere nearby - his wrath burned the town to cinders. But when he returned to find the ponies who had tricked him, in order to punish them further, their bodies had vanished.

Eventually, the monster left, continuing his rampage across the landscape. In a hollow of a tree, Pitch Black waited with the unconscious body of his mother and the severely injured body of his brother, the three of them blessedly undetectable now that they lacked their magic. But Black did not need his cutie mark to remember his driving purpose: to be there at the zero hour, when those he cared for needed him most.

The townsponies found them eventually; the father and daughter were overjoyed to find them alive. But Sales would not waken, though the best healers in the town mended his wounds. Badly injured and drained of magic, he slipped into a coma. Only alicorn-level healing magic might stand a chance of healing him, but that was lost to the monster.

But the town had been humbled. The one many of them had scorned the most – the pony who so hated being mistaken for something he was not – had taken up the very trait that caused him such trouble in order to give everything for the sake of those who despised him. The townsponies of Featherhorn vowed to protect him until he could be healed, and to keep away the members of his cult should they reappear to take advantage of his comatose state. And should he waken, they would treat him with the respect a hero deserved.

The monster still rampages. None in this group of refugees can hope to defeat him. But they have a refuge where they can stay safe until the nightmare has passed - and but for three of them, every pony and zebra has their magic. Perhaps one day, their fallen few will regain their magic, and the princesses will rise again.

But for now, they wait. And they guard their fallen hero.

-----

Fun Facts About The Tirek Timeline/Art:

- Yup, you guys just got a pretty close parallel to the mysterious Tirek Incident. It obviously didn’t go down quite like this in the comic timeline, but some of the important bits are in there. We’ll eventually find out what happened. I so wanted to avoid too many spoilers, but the story wouldn’t make sense without SOME of them, so... merry early Christmas, I guess XD

- And yes, I did consider letting Sales die in this timeline. But I just can’t kill off my boy. I also snuck in the meaning behind Black’s cutie mark, I’m curious to know what ya’ll think :D

- When Tirek sucked the magic out of Nightmare Moon, he unwittingly drained out the corrupting magic that was so heavily influencing Luna and fueling her rage and paranoia. Additionally, Luna got to see her sister lose her magic while fighting to protect her from Tirek. They reconcile over this event and join with Cadence to search for the missing Elements of Harmony.

- The Crystal Empire will come around because it has to, but Sombra bides his time a bit more when he realizes there’s a GIANT MAGIC-SUCKING CENTAUR hoarding the collective magic of the entire nation of Equestria, and it has bomb-blaster beams that can level towns.

- Meanwhile, a certain race of bug-ponies are infiltrating the Crystal Empire, seeking safety from the magic-eating centaur who is just TRASHING the place for fun now that he’s got so much power to chuck around. Plus there are rumors that this kingdom was once RUN on love, and Chrysalis really wants to figure that out. There’s a whole ‘nother story in there, I’m certain, and it probably involves a few specific changelings making friends with a few crystal ponies and learning about giving love. Maybe this time, without several humiliating defeats via pony love shockwaves and weaponized rainbows to harden her pride, Chrysalis might actually be willing to give it a try herself.

- This is a timeline where the princesses DO find ponies who can wield the Elements of Harmony. Ironically, Twilight was drained of magic along with the rest of Canterlot, but her studies in magic theory and history lead her to studying ancient texts about the Elements, and one thing leads to another until the princesses meet her. Also, Twilight is a bit better at making friends in this universe since she wasn’t constantly distracted with trying to please Celestia (not that I blame Celestia for the canon events, I mean look what could have been avoided in THIS timeline!). They don’t have the special Super Power-Up box and keys, but I like to think the initial power burst of the reactivated Elements does the job on Tirek as well as it was meant to on Nightmare Moon.

- No, Luna does not get the bad magic back when her magic is restored along with everyone else’s. The Elements don’t play that game, that stuff is burned. She and Celestia go back to ruling Equestria together once this is all over while Cadance works on connecting with the newly liberated Crystal Empire and their changeling allies.

- Honestly, I didn’t expect it, but this is one of my favorite of the art pieces in regards to composition and color. I just really like how the color turned out, and the magic glows. I was rather happy to find I could duplicate the effect of Tirek’s magic illustration from the show without too much trouble. :D I also borrowed a lot of tones directly from a screenshot of the show scene. It’s really nice when art things come together!

Next Week: Discorded

#mlp ask blog #mlp #tirek #pony ask blog #alicorn #salespitch #pitch black #pitch forward #celestia #luna #cadance #princess cadance #sacrifice #love

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pawpaw-posts · 4 years ago

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Do to a missing party member, the normal game I run for my kids was postponed. So the three remaining members found their characters, on another quest, unconnected to the normal campaign beyond their characters and items.

The local magistrate has sent out a call for hardy adventurers, to solve a mystery in the nearby woods. Hooded figures have been seen moving through the woods and, while nobody has been hurt, things have gotten weird.

Our heroes found themselves on the edge of the woods, just as the sun dipped behind the skyline. Cautiously entering, the group travels down the solitary path for quite awhile when they suddenly hear, what sounds like, a creaking door in the breeze, occasionally banging shut. A quick look around reveals little, beyond the odd still in the air. No sound, no temperature, no breeze. Nothing.

While staying put, listening and waiting, a single gust of wind blows from the direction they came, and leaving the area still, once more. Leaving our heroes, very uncomfortable. Sarrow backs down the path slowly, listening, and hears the creak again, this time able to place it off to the left of the path. She relates the discovery to her companions, of which only 1, is willing to leave the path. Snow, stays behind on the path, listening. With his keen hearing he not only hears his friends steps through the dense trees, but another set, a little ways off from his friends. Not moving, but pacing? Walking in a small circle? Either way, the hair on snows body, tingles with anxious energy. The possible danger to his friends, outweighs his fear and he creeps into the woods after the others.

Deeper in the woods, Sarrow (our human fighter), and B (our elf bard), step out of the denser edge of the tree line, to a much more open forest. Turning to go to the path and gather their companion, they quickly become turned around, and end up right back where they were. Some investigation, while not helping them find their path, did stumble across a large tree, with a large patch of bark, swinging open and closed, like a door left ajar in the breeze, but there was no breeze.

Snow, creeping through the dense edge of the forest, stumbles across a strange sight. A large circle of mushrooms, surrounding a patch of grass. The grass worn down around the edge, leaving a dirt circle between the grass, and the ring of mushrooms. Feeling it best to leave it alone, not knowing much about fairy rings, he finds his friends path. Soon coming upon them as the approach a large tree with, what appears to be, a cleverly disguised door.

Snow watches quietly, as they slip inside, closing the door behind them. Approaching the tree, he finds no trace of a door, no break or gap in the bark. A wave of panic washes over our rogue, as he begins banging on the tree, pushing, anything the might reveal a door. In frustration snow rests her head against the tree, trying to think of something. A cold chill, slides up her neck, then a voice, echoes menacingly in her head. "Password". Startled, snow tries the usual list; open sesame, please, open, all to no avail. Racking his brain for anything that might hint at a password, his thoughts rest on a single oddity, and the words "fairy ring" softly escape his lips. A click, and the door softly opens.

Meeting up with the rest of the party, they all descend the spiral staircase, that seems to have been grown, with the tree. Reaching the bottom, they step out into a massive cavern, that stretches far beyond view, fill with an equally endless, lake. The black sand stretching the shore far to either side. Snow decides to see how deep the water is and slowly makes his way out, into the cold, dark water. The water is remarkably shallow for the first 20 feet, barely reaching his hips. Then, a drop off. Snow, losing his footing, drops beneath the surface. The cold enveloping his body, barely managing to keep from going into shock. Seeing nothing but dark expanse around him, the water pulling him deeper, he catches glimpse of something and reaches. Catching hold of an oar, with B at the other end, pulling snow back up on the shelf.

Finally reaching shore, Sarrow, had a small fire built, to warm her companions. With Snow freezing, and extremely shaken by the experience, the party takes time to figure out what to do next. After some discussion, hey are interrupted, by a woman, walking out of the water. At least, this blue skinned creature, seemed feminine. Long flowing silver hair to her waist, and a beautiful black dress with hints of silver, and splashes of moving color, that seemed to mirror the night sky. Not seeming to be a threat, the party asks a few questions about the quest they are on, and a few about her as well.

After some conversation, they learn that their "cultists", were the very same that had stolen a valuable necklace from this strange new arrival, whom they learn to be a fey guardian. They were one of many guardians around the world, that protected weak points between the planes, so one, doesn't spill into the other. The party is shown an illusion of a clear globe, about 2 inches across, with a single drop, of something green, like it was frozen in time, the moment it dropped, the "tail" still visible. They are asked to find the cultists within, and retrieve her item, and they agree.

As the guardian steps to the side, the water parts, revealing a dirt staircase. It seemed solid enough, so the began down, beneath the surface. As the stairs descended, the water parting around them, a sharp corner leads them further down along the cliff edge. The party falls into a quick discussion about whether the stairs, were always there, or if they were created with the magic the parted the water, when they spot a dim blue glow in the distance, pulsing erratically, and quickly realize it to be the "weak spot" the guardian spoke of. It seemed to be more of a tear than a weak spot.

As the stairs end, they find themselves stepping into a long hallway, made out of carved stone. A large mosaic stretches across the width of the 10 ft floor, and continued far into the distance in front of them. It looked like the tentacles of a squid, but much, much larger...

Sorry it took so long.

#homebrew #dungeons and dragons #rpg #home game #improvisation #one shot

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