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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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R-r-r-rewatch thoughts for The Mandalorian S2 Ep2

(or Chapter 10 as they seem resolved to call it)

- can I just express my joy for a moment that in one episode we get peli, the answer to my pleas for female representation in the ‘sketchy middle aged car mechanic’ niche, and a female alien designed with no consideration towards sexiness. (I mean I’m sure there’s someone. There is always someone somewhere on the Internet, is the bitter truth history has shown to us. but it’s not the intention behind the design haha)

- they do take great pains to deliberately show you boba’s armour several times both in the recap and in the episode itself, so never despair he is very likely still on his way onto our screens once more

- this dude holding the baby hostage wanting specifically the jetpack in exchange is the one (1) break this whole episode gave din lol

also the Patented Mando Finger Curl of Stress while he talked softly and calmly to not promp this asshole to make a sudden move... the most endearing character tic, I love my space cowboy dad so much

- fun continuity detail: din is all out of whistling birds now, and you can see it here!

I wonder if he could still use the same mechanism with different ‘ammo’, it’s just not as effective? from the way the armorer spoke whistling birds seem quite rare and it would be an inefficient use of beskar if that’s the only thing it can be loaded with

- I love how after the last episode, a 50 min epic with a bunch of original trilogy significance and impressive technical achievements and exciting character reveals, I was like ‘yeah okay I suppose that is quite interesting’, and this mess/comedy of inconveniences is the thing that fully makes my brain tip into the obsessive ‘BABY AND DAD SHOW!! BABY AND DAD SHOW!!!!!’ mind state lol

- ah the traditional ‘mando trudging slowly but steadily through the desert’ montage we all love to see (I hope this is going to be a Thing for the second episode of every season from now on)

Also I assume his suit has some sort of temperature regulation built in and that’s how he didn’t, y’know. die under the blazing desert sun

CAT FIGHT CAT FIGHT man I love the jawa. also mando doesn’t even glance over at them, really emphasizing how he’s like. done with this entire day (and it’s all barely even getting started din! i’m sorry)

yodito’s look in this scene tho... he’s like ‘we’ve Seen some shit lady’ (actually I think he’s staring at ‘dr mandible’ like O___o. it’s been a long day for a lil boy)

you get to see dr mandible’s cards a few times, so I assume anyone who knows the rules of... sabacc? probably? could figure out beforehand that he was in a bad spot. (the star wars fanbase is one of those where I KNOW the rules exist somewhere, and I know people who know those rules exist too)

- that sound the baby keeps making -- the ‘boo-a’, sometimes with a p-sound at the end -- if that’s the precursor to him saying any variation whatsoever of ‘dad’ or ‘papa’ or ‘baba’ or even ‘buir’ or anything, I will die. I will sink to the ground in a heap and never get up (the way he keeps seeking out gaze contact with the helmet and seems perfectly satisfied with it too... fasdhfaskdjhl my FEELINGS)

- it seems confirmed in this ep that the mandos who died on nevarro did so while holding off the enemy so the rest(probably especially the children) could get away; some of them appear to have escaped. which I guess is a small relief

frog lady stepping out of the shadows and into our hearts

I like that her firm nod after Peli translates ‘her husband has seen them’ lets us know she understands... basic? is that the common tongue thing in star wars there’s just so many to remember across fandoms lol? perfectly well, even if she can’t speak it.

- mando might be running low on ammo for the pulse rifle, if the fact that he hasn’t replaced the missing cartridge on his... bandolier belt thingy is any indication

ETA: actually ignore me this has been a thing since the literal first episode of the show my brain just had a hiccup lol

- so baby seems to use a little bit of the force to pull the eggs towards him -- I wonder how often he ‘taps into it’ or if it’s always ‘on’ in the background for him. if so I guess there’s no wonder he’s so hungry (but also... kid you can’t end this lady’s entire family line like that one cat who singlehandedly made extinct a whole species of bird! D:)

- din so rarely gets openly angry, he just gets passive aggressive and grumpy. and that’s probably not the healthiest way to deal with things but I love him

- frog lady reacts so strongly to when din sends the ping when nothing else woke her up, I wonder if she can hear more frequencies than a human

hello darkness my old frieeennnddd

proof nr 1508 that din does not starve this baby you guys, he even has his own little tray just the right size for him! as it happens the baby simply seems to prefer eating things that are... still alive in some capacity. which, uh. maybe they can invest in some form of non-sentient crickets or something for him to hunt down and.... oh dear

Look how they massacred my boy

By the way I finally managed to put into words why the Razor Crest -- and particularly the way it keeps getting beaten to hell and back and patched up again -- is so symbolically important and meaningful to me in this show in this post over here! it’s always a great relief to me when I can finally understand what the hell I’ve been going on about all this time and this was one of those lol

- honestly if it weren’t for frog lady and (more importantly) the baby I think there’s a slight chance din would’ve gone ‘well I had a good-ish run of it for a while there’ and just let the ice claim him haha

- “Why don’t you come over here and give me a hand. Make yourself useful” This is the one time in the episode I think he crosses the line into just being a dick for a moment (but noticeably the baby isn’t just a little hurt at this reaction, he’s clearly surprised and confused, which means this really does not happen often. after the time mando’s been having recently I guess a moment’s snappishness is understandable haha. he does follow up right after with being much more responsive and attentive when the baby toddles away from him, so it feels like it’s going to be okay)

also the ‘boo-ap’ sound is there again when he’s trying to get din’s attention. just sayin’

when din comes over to see the footprints baby makes a declarative little meep like ‘see??? I did tell you!’ haha

- it is very funny that mando is using all his technology meant to track down dangerous bounties in the grungy depths of the criminal underworld... to find a naked lady just chillin’ in a hot spring

cue the ‘father is evil?’ memes fsadfda. actually the funniest thing about this moment (apart from the fabulous finger acting) is that din actually snatches a few eggs out of the baby’s reach more subtly right before, and that baby only whines for ALL OF ONE SECOND before he goes to sniff around for other food possibilities fkadfhjkds. from my experience with human children he’s a lot less prone to tantrums. yodito doesn’t get mad, he gets even

- baby running towards din through the hatching spiderlings like ‘DAD I FUCKED UUUUUUP’, din’s little strangled ‘ngh’ sound as he picks the baby up and watches all the creepy crawlies come out... *chef kiss* impeccable

(that little ‘ngh’ and the soft shocked ‘ah ah AH!’s from when he goes flying at the beginning of the episode... pedro pascal and his voice work for this character gives me so much life. in some ways din has this sort of dignity and grace and in other ways he uh extremely doesn’t. he gets to be cool but also vulnerable in ways a lot of male main characters don’t and it’s probably why I love him so much)

btw here is that moment when din moves to hold the baby tightly against him with both hands as the big spider appears, because it gets me right in the heart... it such an instinctive thing of holding on to the dearest thing you’ve got before something bad is about to happen

fdsafhsdakjlfhsdkjlhfsdajhf oh my god the baby is clutching din’s finger with his little hand during the chase!!!! 😭😭😭

this FUCKING SHOW has just WEAPONIZED putting in small details everywhere to convey the love and tenderness and attachment felt by a little muppet doll even where only weirdos like me will frame by frame their way through the video to see it I am so MAD

- frog lady going ‘fuck this’ and bounding along is e v e r y t h i n g

- din is an amazing shot, though, he doesn’t seem to miss a single one in this whole scene (then again there’s something to shoot at basically everywhere one can take aim so lol)

baby hiding behind/half hugging din’s boot as he tries to get the doors closed hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can’t breathhhhheeeee

honestly every single one of the baby’s proximity seeking behaviours in this ep has me on my knees

- it’s very unfair to play the heroic happy mando music like everything is going to be fine and then have a huge fuck-off spider drop down from the ceiling and break it off mid-tune, the mandalorian, you have trained me in certain ways and now do you betray me??? how can I trust again

- the camera work in the scene with the new republic guys gives such a good sense of the discomfort of being judged from on high by someone or something you can’t really see -- the glare of the lights blocking out everything in the shots from din’s pov makes it feel like a tense interrogation (the new republic dude who is actually dave filoni has such a look of fondness as he watches din tho it’s kind of sweet)

- ...oh no I think baby was actually considering munching on that dismembered spider leg YODITO NO JUST EAT YOUR KRAYT DRAGON BABY

- hngh this is a weird filler episode and it has my entire heart. I suspect we might get some episodes of a more stationary baby between active ones like this -- you can tell a little bit in this episode that especially having him running around fast is quite difficult to have look natural, they likely save that effort up for when it best serves the narrative

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian meta #the mandalorian spoilers #mmmm brain empty only dad and baby show in here #(actually that's not true there's some tf/graves activity going on at all times too haha)

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moonchildsaurora · 4 years

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Before the sun is rising up

✤ knight!Jongho x knight!reader ✤ genre: royal AU // angst, fluff (if you squint) ✤ t/w: sfw, non-descriptive battle fight, sad reacts only, rated PG ✤ count: 1.6k ✤ [ part 1 ] of Lacuna miniseries

a/n - o m f g it’s finally done. . .well overdue one shot for our precious maknae & the 1st of 8 parts for my new miniseries! Here I was thinking that it’ll be a more condensed piece, but yet again my mind decided to be loud. Perhaps I’ll be able to reign it in a bit more with the others (who am I kidding really tho). I hope I wrote well enough for Jongho’s character, even though it still feels slightly rushed. Thanks to @a-tiny-8iny for insightful convos which gave me the idea of considering the focus around platonic bonds too (which honestly gave me a plotline I was much happier with)! Also @hereisleo @monbae @s1ardusk @barsformars I remember yelling bout this series idea to you guys ages ago and here we are 💙

It was rare for a champion knight to be able to bask in serenity, especially on the eve of the final battle. The kingdoms of Rivaria and Nethilor have long been at war with one another, what once was a united empire now torn apart from betrayal and greed. There simply wasn’t room for two powers to rule, and so by the time the sun rises tomorrow, only one will be left standing triumphantly. How twisted fate must be, to have childhood friends who had endlessly supported one another since their gruelling training days when they were mere squires only to end up serving royalties of opposite sides.

The cooling night breeze played around with your hair as your legs dangled freely over the cliff’s edge where you sat waiting patiently for him. You leaned back on your arms, hands gently curling into the slightly damp but still soft grass and face tilted up towards the star-lit skies. The moon was out in full tonight, somehow knowing it may be the very last time it could greet you.

Your ears managed to pick up the familiar sound of steady footsteps from behind, without turning around and a grin already forming on your lips.

“And here I thought you’d best me in arriving first for once, Sir Choi” you said, trying to hold back a chuckle.

The sound of metal clinking against another indicated that he had let his sword, Shadowmist, rest against the tree next to your Windsong. Forged by the same swordsmith, intended to be wield together as a complementary pair.

“My deepest apologies, had to use the good ol’ distraction to sneak past the night guards of my own camp.”

“How rebellious of you.”

Jongho gave a playful shove to your shoulder as he sat down next to you, an immediate comforting warmth radiated off him. You noticed that he was in his casual tunic, the soft linen matching your own one. It’s almost a foreign sight to you considering how used you are seeing one another in the heavy metal of armour rather than something more care-free.

Just as you were about to ask how long he had before his troops would start noticing their own commander’s absence, a bundle was unceremoniously dropped on your lap.

“And pray tell, what is this?”

Your fingers fiddled with the thin leather cord that wrapped around the cloth, managing to unwrap the cover and your eyes crinkled with glee immediately upon seeing the contents inside.

“I made my squire swear not to tell the others that I was stealing extras for my supposed woodland friends,” a dramatic sigh escaped Jongho.

That caused you to burst out laughing, “You mean to say that the great leader of the Nethilorian army secretly befriends little creatures?”

“I always did say that your resemblance to that of a raccoon is uncanny.”

Now it was your turn to shove him, though you had to admit that his cover-up reasons were ridiculously endearing. “I wonder how your squire puts up with you at times, must be confusing for the poor lad.”

“What will it take for you to express your gratitude without mocking my pride?”

“Fortunately for you, I may be more inclined to accept certain incentives at times…” and picking up a Goldhorn biscuit, you held it towards Jongho, “Truce?”

Instead of taking the biscuit with his fingers he proceeded to bite down lightly, stealing it right out of your hold.

“You fiend!”

“Now we can have a truce.”

You purposely wiped your fingers on his tunic, earning a protest from him before tasting one of the sweet treats for yourself. These were the biscuits that you and Jongho used to eat regularly as children, the same honeyed taste bringing back fond memories. A fleeting image of your parents and home came to mind, the echoes of childish laughter and, “Watch where you’re running you two little rascals!”

“Remember that time you chased me with your mother’s rolling pin and it got us in so much trouble?”

You turned to look at Jongho, still to this day you haven’t quite figured out how he always seem to be on the same wavelength as you. Another biscuit was popped into your mouth before you replied, “Only because you not so accidentally spilled the rest of my potato stew.” That particular memory managed to coax a smile out of you, silently apologising to your parents for being the cause of their grey hairs.

A comfortable silence settled, the little fireflies were coming out to dance and the night breeze was still calm as before. From where the both of you sat on the cliff, the view of the valley was magnificent. It was a pleasant surprise that you discovered this hidden spot during the training camp and it became yours and Jongho’s meeting place ever since.

“I’m going to miss this.”

You could feel your heart clenching at his words, knowing full well what he meant. Setting the food down, you shuffled around a bit so you could retrieve something from your pocket. Dangling the two silver chains right in front of Jongho seem to break him out of whatever nostalgia trance he was in.

He blinked owlishly at the pendants, each holding an athesotile gem. You gave his one over and Jongho observed the iridescent glow it had under the moonlight.

“You sure know how to make a man feel special,” said Jongho as he teasingly held a hand over his heart .

“Had it been a confession token, sure. Unfortunately for you it’s only a lucky charm.”

“Trust you to still believe in that old tale,” he chuckled as he looped the pendant around his neck. This particular gem was sought after in the past for supposedly bringing great luck or so it has been old across generations by your elders. You had found these pendants as you were passing through the major town of Millbelle after a successful patrol.

“I’d trust in anything that will bring us hope at this point.”

The breeze picked up a little bit, rustling the trees around as if it became restless at your words. You really hadn’t mean to dampen the mood but reality was starting to sink heavily on your entire being. Anger and fear both seeped in, for being placed in such a predicament – you didn’t even get to bid your family a proper farewell with how fast war was declared. Your hands gripped the pendant tightly as you forced the choked sobs back down, though the corners of your eyes had tears already gathering.

“I’m terrified Jongho. I don’t want either of us to –“

“Hey now, are you forgetting something?” Even if he holds his gaze so strongly, you could still feel the slight trembles in his hands that interlocked with yours as he spoke.

“What do you mean?”

“You remember when I said I’ll be with you till the end?” His thumb caught a stray tear and wiped it gently from your face, “I intend to follow that through.”

A million and one thoughts ran through your head as you looked at him, endlessly thanking the gods above for blessing you with Choi Jongho. Though death lingered over yourselves, knowing that you wouldn’t have to face it alone eased your soul that little bit more.

With a wet laugh you leaned into his touch, “I won’t hold back if you don’t either.”

Jongho stood up from his previous seating spot, pulling you up with him. You watched as he made his way over to the swords and retrieved them both, quickly using the sleeves of your tunic to dry your eyes before Jongho held Windsong out towards you for the taking.

Tilting your head to the side with a silent question that you only got an answer to after Jongho unsheathed Shadowmist. He directed the blade to be pointing at you, no hostility behind the action, just a determined glint in his dark eyes and a solemn nod of his head.

With the moon as a witness, a final oath was made by the crossing of swords.

The thundering of hooves and roars of the cavalries were enough to shake the land, as the Rivarians fearlessly gave their war cry. The grip on your mount’s reins was painfully tight as you stood observing the enemy ranks across the battle field. Dawn was upon you, the rosy hues of red and orange matched the accents on your silver suit of armour. It was a harsh contrast to the striking black and gold that the Nethilorian army wore.

Another war horn sounded, this time from the other side and your jaw clenched with tension as you watched Jongho lead the charge down the hill.

“Leave the Commander to me, cover the flanks and keep your formations in order,” your voice resonated with finality as you addressed your elite guards.

“Archers! At the ready!”

A wave of a flag with a griffin, your kingdom’s emblem, embroidered on it signalled a rain of arrows to be let loose. You couldn’t tell how long you held your breath for as you watch the arrows land around Jongho’s charging form, his soldiers bringing up their sturdy shields as protection. Relief ran through you as the arrows took out the slower foot soldiers around him instead.

Shadowmist was raised high and proud, equally deafening war cries echoed in multitude getting closer and closer to your side. You drew out Windsong and walked your mount towards the front lines.

“We ride…for honour,” the visor of your helmet was flipped down, “…for the safety of our people….for our lives.” You kicked your mount into a gallop with your riders following your lead, raising their spears and swords.

“FOR RIVARIA!”

Ironically everything seemed to slow down as you faced head on towards Jongho. Even the noise have become muffled, all you could focus on was your breathing within the helmet. Your eyes never wavered from his figure and when his mount stormed faster ahead of the rest, you matched his change in pace as well.

“To thee I swear this oath, only by your blade will…”

As the first ray of light pierced over the horizon, the waking sun was greeted with the resounding clash of two blades; and the mourning for two loyal hearts.

“…we meet once again at the elysian fields, my dearest friend.”

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sleeplessandstubborn · 4 years

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Emily in Paris episode 4, or how I never got that thing about peanut butter

It's been a long time since I had revisited Miss Cooper's adventures in Paris, and many of you are over it anyway, but I was asked to go on with this so, why not? For that I had to rewatch again episode 4 and be reminded of one of its better characters/reasons to watch/whatever you want to call her. Camille. Oh I love Camille. Just like I love Sylvie. It's harsh, when in a series your least favourite character is the main one. Isn't it? but let's take a look to episode 4.

At the beginning of this episode we find our heroine trying to communicate with a very mysantropic flower seller. As we discover few minutes later, it's not that she's hostile with Emily and wants to give her a bouquet of wilting roses because she's a bubbly American but because she hates humanity. This last part is relatable but it's not good to have a job when you have to confront it constantly. Calm down Madame.

Fortunately a young, gentle Frenchwoman shows up and comes to Emily's rescue, not in a shining armour but with a smile the size of Jupiter. Evil flower seller is defeated and Emily walks away with this charming stranger and a perfect rose bouquet. Our new character's name is Camille, and she speaks good English because she watched a lot of series in her childhood. That's why we Spaniards are legendary bad at speaking other languages I guess. Everything is dubbed! Including this episode when I rewatched it. Not a copy in the original language available right now for me. Disappointing, I know.

Camille also invites Emily to the art gallery where she works at and where a famous hotelier is supposed to show up, along with other people from Chicago. Emily is a fan - its a bit weird to be fan of a hotelier, but who am I to judge - , definitely, and wants to meet him. It's also a good professional occasion, probably. The two girls part ways after accidentaly kissing on the mouth. Emily apologizes. Camille is not sorry at all and disappears from scene, big shining smile and all. We agree and are not sorry at all.

Back at home she finds the packages she was expecting from home have finally arrived. Gabriel helps up to take all that stuff inside her apartment. Unfortunately for her, the peanut butter exploded and has made a mess of what looks like a pile of magazines and the framed photo with her ex. Gabriel makes that unmistakable face. Peanut butter? Yours truly, having spent her childhood and teenagehood watching movies and series from the other side of the Atlantic, always wondered what was that thing. When finally tried it it was... so weird. Maybe it was the brand, maybe it was the concept. Who really knows. Whatever, let's go on.

(Yes, he makes that face, the face of a puzzled European I meant).

Also, I am sure Emily can find that thing in Paris, too. I live in a not very big town in Southern Spain and that thing can be found in our supermarkets. So why not in Paris? Big question that the series doesn't answer, tho, because Gabriel proceeds to ruin peanut butter forever with a simple omelette. Well done, Gabriel. But it's time to go to the office, isn't it?

So here we are, with Antoine and Sylvie clearly in the middle of an argument. While claiming she hopes she's not interrupting, Emily does interrupt the scene. Remember that thing from the last chapter when she claimed she had given up in her quest of being universally liked and/or being friends with everyone including her boss? Yeah, nevermind, that's in the past, it no longer matters. Emily tries to mediate and says Randy Zimmer (that's the hotelier's name) is overjoyed to hear Antoine's company is creating an exclusive scent for his hotels.

Sylvie goes on with Emily's lie, even if we can see she's not happy and later states - while throwing the bouquet or roses she just gave her as a "happy Tuesday" present on her desk - that she doesn't need to be rescued, and she doesn't want to take credit for ideas she doesn't know if she really likes. Sylvie is always the voice of reason and adulthood here. She teases her about the lingerie thing, tho. Emily claims her new friend Gabriel gave it to her.

I don't know about Sylvie, but Luc and Julien clearly don't believe that last bit, as they say clearly to Emily over the lunch. This is a dysfunctional workplace, she complains. Hey, smart girl, you are causing all the drama, Julien answers. His mood during the entire scene is exasperated. They tell her how Antoine and Sylvie became lovers in the first place, and warn her not to come between them. I don't think Emily has that intention.

Later that same day, Mindy is full of chaotic energy. Who cares if Antoine is married and with an official misstress? Why is Emily so disperate about becoming friends with Sylvie - yeah, Mindy, why, many of us are questioning that part of Emily's behaviour - why don't just enjoy Antoine's attention? What's more, why doesn't Emily introduce her to Antoine, since she doesn't care about what's her name? Is Mindy shipping Emily and Camille? Yes, she's one of us.

Our favourite French girl is there and warmly welcomes Emily, introducing her to Randy Zimmer who, clearly, goes to the same hairdresser than Antoine. No, really, I have certain difficulties to make the difference between the two, if Randy was wearing a suit with a tie I couldn't tell. As Camille and her fabulous bun walk away, Emily behaves like a dork with Randy. She has memorized his interviews and all. Is a bit awkward, but who am I to judge about memorizing completely irrelevant things in interviews. Randy goes from feeling a bit awkward to intrigued to totes wanting her card and finding her proposition interesting. By the way I really liked these paintings.

Randy shows up the next day at Savoir, and after smelling fragances all they agree they could go on talking about the deal with Randy's hotel empire over a good dinner. Sylvie decides to put again our heroine in difficulties by asking for an impossible reservation. By the way, I love her outfit. Sylvie, not Emily's. As she tries to do her best, Emily confronts Antoine over the lingerie thing. She clearly says it's inappropriate which is a thing I can agree with, he says he bought it for her not for him (eeeeh... are you all right?)

Even in front of the restaurant Sylvie is esceptical Emily really succeeded in her mission of doing that reservation. As usual, she's right. Emily got the dates backwards and made a reservation for November, not August. It should have been easy to find that bit of information online, as most of the world follows another datation system. Fortunately Emily lights the Gabrielsignal on and he comes to her rescue again.

The dinner is, as expected, a success, since we are in the last minutes of the episode a.k.a. in the Emily is saved time. There's a deal, Antoine is very happy with Savoir AND Sylvie. Even the latter makes a compliment to our heroine as they leave after the dinner. Less enthusiast individuals would have felt overjoyed in her place, so it's not strange that Emily decides to thank Gabriel for saving her ass, even if it's with another part of her body, that's is, her lips. Gabriel doesn't seem to object to this.

But, oh surprise in this Paris that is like "a little town" (ok... series... I am rolling my eyes at you again) a she goes out of the restaurant she bumps into our dear Camille, all smiles and charm. It turns out that she is Gabriel girlfriend. Ouch. This could be solved with a civilized chat and our three characters, that, we are about to find in the next chapters, get along together, being happy with this situation and riding into the sunset while enjoying themselves. Yeah, the three of them. Writers, unfortunately, have decided otherwise. But that's another story and will be told in another post.

#emily in paris #I am very late to the party but I don't really care #next time I am watching it on the original language promised

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reader-writer-fucker · 4 years

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The Old Guard

Chiwetel Ejiofor is in the old guard so ik this funna be good

Like ik he's going to be the bad guy

Andy kinda sexy tho

Really dont fuck wit army

Im actually nauseous watching this

Really dont fuck wit army ppl but she hella fine

Yass ma'am rat him out

I definitely wont be eating anymore groundbeef

Dudley Dursley

Damn she knocked the shit outta Freeman

Im not comfortable with a white woman shooting a back woman in the head

She stabed andy

She got blood in her braids :/

Is she gone shoot her again???

Butch let her be religious

How she hypnotize u

Thats what im talking about

She shot the fuckin pilot that's that white ppl shit

Aww fuck them

This fight kinda 💦💦💦

Ohh ouch coochie shot

At least she dont give up

Eww gross bone went back

Blue eyed immortal is sus im getting a bad vibes is he a rapist???

They gay gay huh

How old was that black guy

The found family bby

Baby thats not just a bad dream

She need a hug

They need some milk

Oh Quynh

They fighting

Yikes i def don't want to be burned alive

Oh god im sick

Oh they being surrounded NO

Shut up Nile

This shit suspect

So nick and Joey gone but booker still here

Hell nah

Hey dude next to Chiwetel Ejiofor kinda sexy

Ohh they stabbed her in the shoulder back

Damn she got me

Nile dont trust him and i dont either

Bitch yass that's his mans

Thats too romantic for the back of an armoured van

I need fucking more

They killed them bitches

"There's a TV Joe." Bitch I love them

1150s ma'am what

Who tf is Rodin

Who's Copley?? We gone have to kill them

Shut tf up Dudley

Pls take the cuffs off

Noey is cute in a mother fucker

Chiwetel dont trust this white man

She doesn't trust booker

Oh God she bleedin

Why now?? Is bc Andy dying

Oh booker is Rosalie he betrayed them huh🥺

That wound is disgustang

Shop girl is correct

God i could use a fabric rustle rn

Noey is sweet

Damn i couldn't imagine forgetting my asshole sister's

U miraculously find something out something in london shut up fucker

Big pharma real evil tho

Steve said always and look where that bastard at

Exactly Nile

Fuck u Booker

Dudley evil evil

The CIA has done shit like that they still doin it

Bc he betrayed yall he a punk ass bitch

Ok Nick

This is why they not just kids they end up in positions of power

"I'm new."

All ceos are corrupt

Nile dress like an anime boy and I stan

I love joe

Fuck u Dudley

Take they ivs out bitch

Kill that dude

He handed it to him over da shoulder

They fightin

Oh thats homophobic

Andy a certified bad bitch

Nick scared the dog shit outta me

He said fuck Dudley

1843 bby

Keene kinda sexy

They waiting for that baby

He shouldn't have shot nicky period poo

Bye bye Dudley

Her axe

They betta blow up the labs

They got yall dna and shit

They older than that bartop

But they can put yo ass in an iron suit

They gone get Qyunh right

Like i really hope they find her b4 Andy die

He a low down dirty asshole 200 years would be better

Period Joseph

Andy cheated

Ahhh baby Quynh hell mother fuckin yes

#the old guard #the old guard spoilers

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notrobyn · 4 years

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okay gang i watched artemis fowl and my thoughts are SO LONG. (i literally was taking notes everytime something struck me lmao) so this is obvs gonna be under a read more!! (also there’s probs minor spoilers sorry!!)

the tl;dr for my opinion though is: it’s probably fine if you read the books but weren’t that into them. like if ur a hardcore fan u will be most likely not be that impressed, and if u have never read the books i am FASCINATED to know if u kept up with the plot!! there were bits i didn’t understand at all lol

okay so point no. 1 is that to me most of the changes from the book felt either a little unnecessary or straight up pointless. point no. 2 is that i don’t know how to organise my thoughts so im gonna separate these out by character lmaooooo i have s o much beef.

artemis fowl ii: the actor is sweet! he’s having fun, we’re introduced to him via him surfing and then on a lil hoverboard thing with one wheel? which is a frankly bizarre choice for book!artemis who notably doesn’t do physical activity. (this is a dumb thing but until about 2/3rds of the way through he wears jeans. unheard of for this lil snob). He’s also called ‘Arty’ several times without rebelling. aside from that though he really didn’t start out too badly!! we see him with his guidance counsellor where he is as much a little shit as he is in the book, he’s very self-assured and he clearly knows what he’s talking about. It does kind of go downhill from there though - his character development pretty much doesn’t even start and by the end of the film I have NO idea what his motivations or even his personality are. We hear more characters straight up Telling us “ARTEMIS IS SMART AND ALSO SCARY” than we see evidence of it.

artemis fowl i: the dad! this is Colin Farrell. which is fine. he’s fine. He wasn’t really in the first book since he’d been kidnapped before the events and wouldn’t be rescued til the next one but he’s.....not bad! He doesn’t give me ‘criminal mastermind’ vibes and he certainly doesn’t seem to have passed any of that down to Arty II. The whole ‘hostage’ shit was wild, i’ll talk abt that later lmao

butler: oh MAN did they misuse butler!!! I fucking LOVE book!butler. he’s such a perfect surrogate-father-figure to Arty while being totally in charge of his welfare and stuff like I literally love him. what a badass. but in the film......he’s basically just the fowl’s servant??? Like he’s not even specifically in charge of Arty? He goes on stakeout on his own, he knows all about Artemis Fowl I’s private collections and secrets, and worst of all - Arty calls him Dom/Domovoi. What the fuck. (he also at no point puts on a suit of armour)

juliet butler: god okay I also love juliet, she’s so cool. change no. 1 to juliet is that she’s about artemis’s age? I’m pretty sure she was older. but not convinced. change no. 2 is that she’s butler’s niece??? why? what a pointless change. She’s really not in this film a lot, even parts that in the book were for her have been changed. don’t love that

holly short: okay, holly short in the books is my absolute fav. she’s the first female officer in LEPrecon, she’s making waves, she’s held to a higher standard and is angry about it. but film!holly........she’s just sort of a normal fairy. Apparently her dad was some kind of human sympathiser so I guess she’s working through that but other than that she just seems nice. Not much characterisation, she’s the same height as Arty though so I guess he must be 1m tall. Cool uniform, cool wings, she did say D’Arvit once.

mulch diggums: tbh I did like him in the books but he got overwhelming in the film. He’s like....the main framing of the film? So it’s like him reporting everything that happened to HUMAN police (wtf). but for some reason he’s really tall. Why is he really tall. The jaw unhinging is truly horrific to watch though which is tbh probably the goal. idk he’s fine, he just...felt like too much, especially compared to the weaker characters of Arty and Holly.

julius root: so this is Judi Dench. and honestly it wasn’t awful. I was super worried about this one because having Commander Root be a woman genuinely takes away so much from Holly’s character of struggling in a male-dominated job. but since Holly didn’t have much of a character, judi did a fine job. She wasn’t quite as angry but she is intimidating, and she did also say D’Arvit so that’s cool. I don’t hate it.

opal: why the fuck is opal in this film. she didn’t become an antagonist for a while. her motives were wild: there’s a new secret fairy artifact called an ‘aculos’ or ‘acuros’ (at no point did i understand what they were saying, i had it written as akhiros for ages) that artemis senior got hold of, so she kidnapped him to......get it? Even though she could have just stolen it? I don’t really understand this.

foaly: nowhere near as paranoid, nowhere near as fun. horse bit looked cool from a distance, BAD movement though.

OKAY that’s all the characters i can think of?? here’s some general shit though!!!!! sorry this is so long!!!!!

the music was great! it’s patrick doyle so that’s always good, but he did some really gorgeous things with having Irish-inspired folk music when we were in Fowl Manor and then an orchestral score for action scenes, and then darker music for Haven. I do like hearing those little bits weave in and out!

didn’t love mulch being the framing device. not every film needs one, sometimes a film can just stand on its own!! kenneth branagh i hope you’re listening!!

don’t know why they didn’t just leave the main driving force behind arty kidnapping a fairy as being gold?? it had to be this weird new fairy secret acorn thing. nonsense.

there was a VERY confusing sequence with holly’s magic being “blocked” by the LEP that i would love to know if anyone understood. also if anyone actually understood the time freeze i very much did not. what was arty’s plan??? lmao

this is so long im so sorry. IN CONCLUSION: IT WAS FINE. I WILL NOT WATCH IT AGAIN, NOR DO I WANT THEM TO MAKE ANOTHER. I WISH IT HAD BEEN MORE ACCURATE BUT I UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE CHANGES WERE MADE FOR A DISNEY AUDIENCE. SOME OF THEM WERE NONSENSE THO.

#artemis fowl #artemis fowl movie #artemis fowl film #artemis fowl spoilers #okay im so sorry this is the longest thing ive ever written #but i love artemis fowl so so so much #and this film? wasn't it

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sunsetsover · 5 years

Note

Talk about yesterdays episode.. tell me everything you enjoyed in detail lol.

first of all lemme just say i’m SO SORRY this took me so long to get to i know i said i’d answer this like last sunday but sometimes shit happens!!! but you asked for me to go into detail so i very much went into detail so!!! buckle in!!!

i’m doing this in bulletpoints for clarity otherwise it will just be an incoherent mess lmao

(also for reference this is abt the 8th nov ep aka the ‘you’re my boyfriend’ ep!)

ok so let me preface by saying i fuckin adored this ep it’s like god tier for me rn i love ben and pam’s relationship so mf much i hope she comes back soon

like the fact that she just knew!! she knew smth was going on w callum and ben more or less straight away and ok granted those two were not exactly being subtle what with the domestic they were having in the middle of the albert but u know... for all she knew callum was straight and had just broken up w whitney so the fact that she knows ben well enough to just be able to Know smth was goin on despite all of that?? i love that it says so much abt their relationship!!

and then her being the nan that she is and taking it upon herself to fish for information with jay like ‘callum seems nice.... shame abt whitney 👀’ and then jay covering for their asses by not saying anything but pam is Not Stupid and jay was also tellingly vague so she was instantly like i see 👀👀

and then ben entering the parlour shouting about ‘bring out your dead’ or w/e it is he says like the little shit he is and pam rolling her eyes and just the easy affection of that whole interaction like her gently slapping his face and calling him a little devil like ur damn right he is!! almost literally!! but there’s sm overt affection and love there and it’s so nice to see bc ben doesn’t really get that from anyone else (he does from callum now, and jay in certain situations, but it’s just different u know?? like u dont even see that energy from his own mum v often so it’s just... nice to see idk)

like i just love her she has such nan energy and it’s so comforting and warm and she needs to be around forever not just for ben but for jay and lola and also callum like ? pls come back forever pam

ben innocently trying to help callum out by getting him promoted to manager when he hears jay is gonna take a step back like!! he was really just tryna help bc he knew callum was struggling w money... and alright, he probably shouldn’t have meddled and i get why callum wasn’t happy abt it (i’ll get to that) but i also truly believe that that wasn’t him tryna control the situation or interfere or whatever but him genuinely trying to help out his bf and jay was gonna take a step back anyway so it wasn’t even like he was the one to suggest it or anything idk i just thought as misguided as it might have been it was very sweet and thoughtful

also the fact that ben’s reaction to jay being like ‘i suppose callum could be ready to be a manager’ was basically ‘yeah man have you seen him in that suit!!! he makes my dick hard!!!’ like !!!!!!! he was so sincere and enthusiastic as well like he’s fucking diabolical i love him sm ..... pair that with jay’s reaction basically just being like ‘........................ anyways’ sdkfjsdkfsl iconic scene

and then later!!!! you’ve got ben practically chasing callum into the parlour when he sees him go in there!! he’s so excited to see callum and tell him the good news abt the promotion!! bc he’s done good!!! he’s helping!!! bc he knows damn well he’s in the doghouse bc of what had happened with pam and like the energy he radiated when he walked into that parlour was very much ‘i am coming to u w my tail between my legs bc i know i fucked up but instead of saying sorry i’m going to give u the sad eyes and hope u relent’ and like u can see he was practically buzzing out of his skin as he waited for jay to tell him abt the promotion and he’s looking at callum like ‘look! look at what i did!! i’m fixing it! i’m making up for my mistake!’ bc this is obviously how he thinks he can fix things instead of idk having a conversation and talking abt things but!!! i love it ben’s so cute

but ofc it backfires bc callum doesn’t want ben to fix things!! he doesn’t need ben fixing things!! he can look after himself! and we the audience know it wasn’t like ben went to jay and was like ‘you need to promote callum bc he’s struggling with money’, it was more of a two birds one stone situation. but ofc callum doesn’t know that, and it comes across very much as ben meddling and also - as callum says - very hot and cold. like ben can’t tell pam abt their relationship and will ignore him for hours but will (seemingly) wade in like some kind of knight in shining armour bc callum said he’s having money troubles? nah. i said it at the time but i completely agree w callum’s reaction, i would have reacted the same way if i were him. and maybe on any other day callum wouldn’t have reacted so strongly, but after what had happened that morning w pam it’s completely understandable why he goes off on one.

and like poor ben is so confused like he obviously really thought this would be good news and put him back in callum’s good graces but ofc it doesn’t bc what callum needed was an explanation and apology. and you can see how confused and crestfallen he is bc he doesn’t want to fight w callum and he really didn’t want to make things worse but he evidently has and not only that but jay is there witnessing his massive fuck up in action. and u can just tell from the body language that he straight up doesn’t know what to do or say so he’s just kinda floundering bc he really thought he could fix what had happened with pam bc what? he half talked jay into giving callum a promotion? bless him lmao

then he goes full grovel mode - even if he is still very ben about it - and is leaving him voicemails (meaning he’s tried to call him multiple times, he probably tried texting too lmao) and moping abt in the cafe looking all sad and stressed and it’s just so good bc he knows he fucked up and he’s trying not to let it fester which is a v good and v adult thing to do. plus the juxtaposition of ben being like ‘u know ur gonna forgive me so stop being a diva and call me back’ and then that soft little ‘please 🥺’ tacked on the end??? delicious

and then pam walking up to him and standing there and just sighing. like not a word, she just stands there and sighs like dkjfkjsdkfjlsdkf mood !!

no but ok that whole scene of ben and pam in the cafe really had me welling up like just. everything about it. the layers to it all. and i won’t sit here and dissect every little thing even tho i probably could bc we’d be here all day but like just. all of it.

like pam’s exasperation at ben not telling her about him and callum (bc obviously she’s found out from someone - probably honey, who wouldn’t think to lie abt it if pam asked outright), ben not even being marginally surprised that she knows bc even he must know how obvious he’s been, and she was bound to find out from someone. the fact that he jumped when she raised her voice and pointed at him - i could make a whole separate post about that honestly that just. says so much about ben. but yh.... the fact that she knew without him even having to open his mouth that ben was gonna say it was to spare her feelings (like that’s essentially what he says to callum later in the ep). the fact that he didn’t really have a good excuse to offer her and he knew that. his sad little face and the fact that he made himself smaller and ducked his head like just his body language in general (max bowden is SO good at playing on that shit, he has a way of making ben seem physically smaller in certain situations and i love it sm). ben being like ‘idk i thought it’d be easier’ and pam immediately being like ‘yeah for u not callum!!!’ like the ‘u silly boy!!’ was so heavily implied throughout this whole scene u can practically taste it.

and pam! pam manages to effectively have a go at ben and call him out on his shit without belittling him or being cruel or nasty (and no naming names but like. certain mothers could learn a thing or two 👀) and actually have ben listen to her. because she listens to him and hears him and respects and loves him and he respects and loves her so she can have a go at him and his back won’t go up and he won’t lash out because he knows she’s not going to try and hurt him or be unnecessarily harsh. and that’s why their relationship is so special. also i’m still v bitter abt the way kathy handled calling out ben’s shit as opposed to how pam handled it but 🤷🏻‍♀️

like it’s such a little thing but it’s the way she waited for ben to speak. ben said ‘i didn’t-’ and then cut himself off, obviously either struggling to find the right words or struggling to say them out loud, and she just waited for him. waited for him to find the words, to figure out how to say it. she didn’t rush him or try and put words in his mouth or anything, she just sat there quietly, patiently waiting for ben to explain himself in his own time. that is the difference between her and everyone else, and that’s why ben listens to her. because she listens to him - and i mean really, actually listens rather than just hearing the sound of his voice ygm

and then they get too the root of it all: paul. he says he didn’t want pam thinking he’d forgotten paul - which is only half true, imo. i think he was (and maybe still is) just as scared that he’s going to forget paul. i think he has a lot of unaddressed issues when it comes to paul and what happened in general. and i think he definitely needed permission specifically from les and/or pam that it was ok for him to move on now - bc other ppl have tried to tell him that but u can tell from how he’s reacted in the past that he doesn’t like ppl who didn’t really know paul talking abt what he would or wouldn’t want. but pam did know paul, probably better than anyone. and she’s telling him that it’s ok. that she wants him to be happy, and that’s exactly what paul would want too. and she would know - she’s his nan. so ben can allow himself to listen to her. he trusts her, trusts that she would know what paul would want, how he would feel. and now he has permission to let go of the past a little bit and finally start moving on.

and that’s hard!! like as much as he might like callum, that’s still a hard thing to do for him!! you can see on his face that it’s hard for him to digest and accept what pam’s telling him - that maybe it’s finally time to let go. it’s just as hard for him to confess that yeah, he does care about callum - he gives her the tiniest nod of the head because he can hardly even bring himself to say it, but he can’t deny it either. and it’s hard for pam too, is the thing. you can from the way her voice shakes as she tells him it’s time to start showing callum that he cares how hard she’s trying not to cry. not because she’s not being sincere, not bc she doesn’t mean it or she doesn’t want ben to move on and be happy, but it’s still a hard thing. the world has moved on without paul, and now ben - the last link to him in a lot of ways - is too, and as necessary and as good as that is for him, it doesn’t make it any easier for them. grief is a weird and difficult thing and i think they both did a good job of portraying the struggle of it in this scene.

and then them having this moment right at the end at the end where they’re just smiling at each other w their heads rested together and it’s not an easy thing and they’re both obviously a bit upset and broken but it’s so sincere and warm and she just pulls him in and kisses his head and he just lets himself be comforted by her and by this point i had a big lump in my chest bc it was a very real and important and sweet moment and i was a lil overwhelmed

the tiny mick and callum scene!! i want more of them!!! we haven’t had a proper mick and callum scene since before the wedding i think and i know realistically it’s bc danny dyer has been doin other stuff and hasn’t been filming much and then when he has been filming obv the focus has been on the ollie/linda stuff but!! i miss them and it was so good to see them acknowledge that they haven’t seen each other much and for mick to acknowledge callum’s relationship w ben (calling it ‘matters of the heart’ 🥺️) it was just Good i love their relationship sm and i miss them and i need more!!

mick being so happy to see pam was just !!!!!!!!!! like everyone loves pam!!!!!!! please can she come back and stay forever pls

ben’s face when he tried to approach callum only for callum to turn his back on him like that boy was CRUSHED and he didn’t know what to do like he just stood there for a moment unsure what to do w himself and it was Gud

the shot of callum drinking his beer looking all mopey and dejected with ben staring at the back of his head obviously pining even if he wasn’t in focus and then pam telling ben to basically get his shit together and fix this and practically shoving him towards callum while ben’s lookin like he’s trying to psych himself up and mick’s just there looking between all of them trying to figure the whole thing out??? high art

ben approaching callum looking visibly nervous and out of his depth... and then callum seeming genuinely surprised that ben had come over... bye

the fact that the first thing ben said was ‘i’m sorry’!!! ben saying he understands why callum flipped out the way he did!!! callum saying he understands that ben was just trying to help!!!! ben acknowledging that callum is hurt and upset and then explaining why he did what he did and how he felt but still acknowledging that he hurt callum!!! the fucking communication!!!!!!!! like honestly it hasn’t been smooth sailing for these two so far but they always seem to be surprisingly good at communicating and talking when smth is going wrong, at least after the fact (esp ben) and i LOVE that it’s so healthy!!

callum doing the very callum thing and being like ‘it’s fine, i get it’ even tho he’s clearly still upset bc he doesn’t wanna rock the boat but then ben being like ‘no, it’s not fine! what i did is not fine! you don’t have the pretend that it is!’ and callum seeming lowkey taken aback by that :-(

(pam and mick just watching on in the background of all of this like the pseudo parents they are like honestly??? maybe the best part of the scene LMAO)

that little bit of nervousness before ben says ‘you’re my boyfriend’ like he said it in a very sure way but you could tell he was nervous bless him... and then the way callum’s face lit up but he tried to hide it and not smile and play it cool with his ‘you’ve never called me that before’ but then it cuts back to ben who has the biggest smile on his face but u can tell he’s tryna suppress it a lil too but failing miserably AND THEN shy ben makes an appearance w his little ‘well you are, aren’t ya?’ like he just wants to be sure!! he wants to ask so callum has the opportunity to say no (though judging by both of their faces he knew callum wasn’t gonna say no lmao) but he’s still ben so he’s gotta ask in this roundabout way... man it’s so cute

combine that with callum’s little pout and squint like he was pretending he really had to think abt it and the tone of his little ‘yeah’ like he was like ‘i suppose so’.... the subtle banter of it all i love it.... but he can’t keep it up for long bc then he’s the one with a massive smile on his face like bro... the sun doesn’t even shine that bright

and then ben’s little disbelieving ‘yeah?’ like he had to make sure :-(

AND JUST PAM AND MICK BEING LIKE AWWW WHEN THEY KISSED AND MICK BEING LIKE ‘HOW LOVELY’ AND JUST STANDING THERE SMILING AT THEM IT TOOK ME OUT FR

ben asking callum if he’s happy and callum tapping ben’s chin and telling him he is...................... the two of them looking at each other Like That....... talented brilliant incredible amazing etc

pam being like ‘my work here is done’ i love HER

ben making a point of being like ‘pam i want you to meet my boyfriend’ he’s so fuckin cute i love him

the whole pam and callum exchange from the hug to her holding his hand and telling him how lucky he is to have ben and then telling callum that ben has the biggest heart of anyone she knows but saying it to ben bc she knows he needs to hear that too bc like... when has anyone EVER said that about ben?? when has anyone ever thought that about ben?? but she sees through all the bullshit and sees him for the kind, soft-hearted, loving but equally damaged boy he really is and she wants callum to know and understand that but also for ben to know that too and i’m crying just thinking about it bc you can see ben’s face change and how emotional he starts to get not only bc it’s pam and everything that must be going through his head abt paul, but also just?? someone being kind to him?? saying smth nice?? god i’m broken

like pam really almost had me in tears in this scene genuinely esp when she was clearly getting emotional (as was ben) and she took both of their hands and told them to look after each other, given everything that happened with paul, and them both saying ‘we will’.... like that really fucked me up.... it felt like a Moment.... and then follow that up w pam and ben resting their heads against each other and whispering ‘i love you’ and it was so warm and full of love and adoration .... the ‘i hate goodbyes’.... the palm kiss.... the fact that ben looked like he was abt to cry as pam left... i was a broken woman truly

and then they just went on as if nothing happened and they didn’t just have a very significant relationship moment with the ‘i am lucky’ ‘i’m glad you realize it’ banter lmao

ben being like ‘u have the support of ur boyfriend 🥰️’ when callum was explaining he wanted to leave the parlour like he really couldn’t keep that word out of his mouth huh 🥺️

and the way he grabbed callum’s hand but only managed to get 3 fingers and then callum putting his hand on top of ben’s like for some reason that really fucked me up......... like gays and hands am i right

the journey ben’s face went on when callum told him he wanted to join the police.... the way it went from ‘haha good joke’ to ‘..................... wait he’s being serious’ to ‘oh god what the fuck’ was amazing lmao

and then him interrupting jay and lola w his massive dramatic freak out was so fucking funny like the way jay just shoved lola off his lap when ben come in KILLED me honestly and like ben’s on the verge of a breakdown and his brother and the mother of his child are just taking the piss and laughing at his expense.......... i love family

yeah so perhaps i went a bit overboard w this one but i did make you wait like a week and a half so perhaps this will make up for it lmao ??? but rlly tho i loved this ep sm there was so much good abt it and i want to keep pam forever thank u for ur time 💖💖

#ballum #eastenders #i fully went overboard with this looking at it now but i have a lot of pam feelings allow me #anon #question

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newgeht · 6 years

Text

Leur Amour S'épanouit

Chapter 2

Summary: Only so many things could stand in the way of Sting and Rogue's destined path. At this point, it was just Yukino, but Rogue couldn't let her go. Was it because of shame or stubbornness? Characters: Sting Eucliffe, Rogue Cheney, Erza Scarlet, Makaroc Dreyar, OC Rating: T Words: 6,575 FFnet | AO3

It was an ongoing cycle of boring meeting after boring meeting with no end in sight. This conference made Sting discover one of his worse nightmares and he was living it every single day. He just wished for the next two days to be over and take that sucky train back to Azura with Rogue. The thought of the shadow dragon slayer twisted his whole body, in a ways equally pleasant and painful. The brooding man was always in his thoughts creeping in at the most unexpected of moments, moments such as this.

Some old guy from Toad Stool was speaking about reward increases. Which was followed by a heavy argument from a couple of the larger guilds. Who made him guild master again? Rogue would be so much more suited for the job but he was in another large meeting room.

He kept his eyes down on his paper, gripping his pen as he doodled on the margin. Small swirls and lightning bolts were drawn onto the piece of parchment, maybe he should become an artist instead of a mage. He would be the best at it, hell, he would he the best at anything he tried. Becoming more determined he scribbled some more on his paper, his tongue poking out at bit from his deep concentration. The black ink spread around his meaningless notes, he didn't understand economics so they were of no importance to him.

His ears perked up from a familiar voice, cerulean eyes looking up on the form of the newest head chairman, Makarov. A small portrait of him would be nice; Sting quickly drew a body and gave him his infamous scruffy hair. To top it all off, he drew a large comediacly large bulbous nose. When he looked back up at the small old man, the noses didn't seem completely right but at least he tried.

An abnormally large mallet slammed down on his paper, Sting sitting up as straight as a board. His pen went flying overhead as he saluted the councilmen in front of him. “Yes sir!” His voice a higher pitch than normal as he looked over the small stout man, that was Makarov. The tiny man had become the senior chair in the magic council after the events of Tartaros due to his title of wizard saint. The Magic Council also needed someone they could trust, so Makarov was really the only option. In his stead, Erza Scarlet became the next guild master not his grandson. It was a shock to most but a welcome surprise, the red head truly deserved the honour.

“Hehe,” the old man chuckled, “you seem to be writing down some excellent notes, Master Eucliffe. Would you like to share some of those…” Makarov’s attention turned to the paper, a grin almost larger than his face appearing. “Wonderful diagrams with us.”

All eyes in the room turned to face the young guild master, his whole body heating up with embarrassment. “Well you see uhhh…” Sting grabbed the stack of papers and held them at a inauspicious length from his body and looked over them, speaking in a louder tone than normal so everyone could hear. “This diagram is not really complete yet,” a knowing grin came from Makarov, “I will present it when I'm done.” The blond rubbed the back of his neck, beaming a small smile to the circled table of guild masters.

“I see,” the old man was really out for blood. “We will chat about this later then young man, I would love to see your ideas.” Makarov still stood on the white table, waddling as he continued his previous speech.

“Of course,” Sting grumbled but Makarov was too far away to hear. Not like it would have mattered if he disagreed, that perverted old man would find him if he tried to give him the slip.

After the meeting was over, Sting lounged around until the other masters left. This took a longer amount of time than he thought as everyone had to chit-chat. Didn't they all have time to go out for drinks after all the meetings were done?

He sat up on the table, looking over the packet he had received. Most of its contents were lost to him, when would a mage ever have the time to learn the fundamentals of running a business (also known as keeping the guild afloat) and then managing money; he felt as if they expected too much of him. Sting had trouble with these concepts, he knew once he got back to the hotel room the packets he had received today would go straight to Rogue. His partner always knew how to explain things in a way that he would understand.

Sting grew giddy as he thought of seeing Rogue again, even when the man was not in the best of moods. Just the presence of the shadow slayer lifted his soul to new heights, he never understood how Rogue didn't see it. He had always needed the ruby eyed man in his life.

Sting chewed on his inner lip, older couple shuffling out of the conference room. Shifting in his seat, it appeared as if Fairy Tail’s previous guild master had left too -leaving him all alone. How rude.

“Sting, my child.” Makarov’s voice was calling him and Sting turned to see the old man in front of him. It was odd that he not only referred to him as a child but as his own.

The young guild master smiled at his elder, looking down at his figure. He always forgot how small he was in person. “Heya, Makarov. What did ya need?”

Makarov's mustache twitched as he eyed Sting, his hand enlarging to pat the dragon slayer on the back. In a teasing voice, “I just wanted to let you know those ‘diagrams’ you drew were stellar but maybe you should pay more attention. That would be a nice change for once.”

Denying his accusation, the blond shook his head feverishly. “Sir, I was paying attention the whole time! Those uhm… diagrams were just my understanding of the presentation.”

A smug grin appeared on Makarov’s face as he held Sting’s interpretation of how he looked up to his face. “I think I look quite nice, though the nose could have some better work. Hehe.”

“How did you get those,” Sting exclaimed, swiping the documents from his hand. This made Sting admit to his folly, “Alright, fine. I wasn't paying attention but I did for the first part.”

The elderly man chuckled, holding his hand to his chest. “You're so easy to poke at. I didn't come here to scold you but it was just too easy.” His laughter was a clacking cackle which was refreshing to the youthful laughter he typically heard in his own guild. “I just came here to say you're doing a wonderful job with Sabertooth. I'm glad my children have such wonderful shitty demons.” The old man’s brows drooped sullenly at the last words, Tartarus not a good memory for anyone. “You really lead a good group of mages.”

The blond was taken back by the councilman’s statement, he felt a surge of honor well up in his chest. The great Makarov was complimenting him, out of all the more experienced guild masters here. “It's nothin’, old man. It's my newfound duty to protect my friends and guildmates, nobody is gonna stop me even if it's a bunch of lame demons. That's why we went to get our lady.”

At the mention of the lady the wizard saint perked up. “How is Minerva doing these days?”

Sting was unsure of how to answer without revealing too much private information. He stumbled over his words, “Well… she is fine but still coping. She's become a much better person since…”

Makarov seemed satisfied with this answer and pulled his mustache between his fingers, rolling the tip between his thumb and forefinger. “I hope she's having an easy time on the path of light, keep an eye on her. The darkness will try to snatch her right back up.” With this cryptic statement, Makarov made his leave.

Following the motion of him, the dragon slayer left the empty conference room. The word's deeper meaning utterly lost to Sting, making his head hurt as he pondered on the old man’s small speech. Minerva had made great progress in the time since Tatarus, even becoming an idol to the younger mages in Sabertooth. Surely nothing bad would happen anytime soon. And if there was the chance of any evil awakenings, Sabertooth would put a halt to it -they always did.

Makarov was waddling down the hallway and stopped in his tracks, looking back at Sting. “I hope to see you at the party later tonight.” The stout old man turned and kept going, his wishes were more like a command.

Like hell Sting was going to go to some party with a bunch of old geezers. All they did was talk about politics, and he didn’t understand a lick of it. But if Makarov expected to see him there, then he had to go.

Pushing through the large doors of Era, the greatest star of all was reigning high in the sky. Its great radiant beams granting Sting a highly needed boost of energy. The small pamphlet given to them on Monday held all the dates, times, and information on the meeting the guild masters and their chosen representative would be attending. Pulling the beat up paper from his pocket, Rogue had just started a meeting. He grimaced at the fact, Sting was hoping to buy them a nice lunch.

Walking down the concrete steps a breeze pushed the familiar scent of strawberries his way, a small tinge of iron mixed in. His nose was now leading him toward the intoxicating scent, an armour clad woman sternly speaking to someone. Red hair flowed gracefully with the breeze, turning in small rivulets along the gentle slope of her back. The scarlet color accentuated by the metallic plates adorning her torso.

Sting was always attracted to the color red, it’s beauty held the most bittersweet of feelings. Erza’s hair reminded him of Rogue’s own ruby orbs and he grit his teeth as he thought fondly of the shadow dragon slayer. He really hoped they would be able to have dinner together later.

Taking his eyes off the scarlet beauty, he made his way down the steps; hoping to avoid Fairy Tail’s guild master -his stomach was in much dire need of attention.

The blond licked his lips at the thought of all the possible food choices within Era’s central market place, he was going to have a great time there. Moving his arms behind his head, a spine-tingling cool hand caught his forearm. Sting groaned internally, he really thought he managed to avoid Erza.

“Sting,” the woman’s voice in her always mildly serious tone. He didn’t really think there was anything important to discuss, but the red head always seemed fixated on the most minute and meticulous of details. “It’s nice to see you today. I find it surprising you didn’t stop by to greet me.”

Sting pulled his arm from her armoured hand, awkwardly chuckling as he rubbed the back of his head. Could he really think of a plausible excuse for the great Titania. “Well uhhh… You seemed kinda busy back there. I didn’t want ta bother ya, ya know?”

The requip mage’s arms crossed over her stomach, giving the blond a hard cold stare. The two had been fond of each other since he was Natsu’s ex-boyfriend, but he could never get used to the judgemental stares she would give.

The blond continued to babble under her stare, “Plus, I was just going to get some food. My stomach is literally eating itself.”

Her brown eyes lit up and she grabbed his wrist, beginning to drag him off the marketplace. “What a good suggestion, Sting. Getting lunch together is such a marvelous idea.”

He could practically feel the sweat starting to form at the tops of his eyebrows, as he was dragged along by his fellow guild master. This situation was something he had never expected out of today but maybe he could get her to pay for the food. It would be a win-win for the both of them.

Shortly after paying (as in, Erza payed for it all) and waiting for the food to be made, the guild master duo found themselves sitting at a small dining table. The marketplace was vibrant and full of various oddities of all kinds of wonders,as was to be expected of Fiore’s magic capital. New magic technologies were on display in the crowded booths, every seller trying to catch the attention of those walking by. This did distract Erza and himself on multiple occasions -who didn’t want a ring that changed color by your mood? Though he could see the stars in Erza’s eyes whenever they passed a weapon’s booth. Unlike the blond, she proved quite resistant to the charm of all the shiny new toys.

The metal chair was certainly not inviting as he settled into it, the seat’s rusty exterior scratching his arms. He had a large tray of food, stacked sky high; compared to Erza who only had a small piece of strawberry cake. Sting had never seen the red head with anything other than the sweet pastry in front of her -did she ever eat anything else?

Like a pig, he began to dig into his platter of food shoving the street food down into his mouth. It was oh so satisfying to feel his belly fill up with the tasty foods. Crumbs and inedible debris flew about, shoveling his food down into his mouth nonstop . He was sure Erza was speaking but his focus was entirely on the platter of dwindling food in front of him. Sting’s throat bubbled up, placing his hand on his stomach in content -satisfaction and comfort now enveloping him. Opening his mouth, he emitted a loud burp everyone around the two looking at them in disgust or amusement.

Sting wiped his face off with a napkin, completely unashamed of his bad manners. Erza’s plate was barely touched, only a small bite taken from the spongy yellow cake. “Say ‘excuse you’, Sting. You would think a guild master would set a better example.” She sent a playful look his way, but her tone was serious as always.

Sheepishly he blushed, finally noticing the stares the two were getting. “Yeah… ‘Scuse me,” he interrupted himself by laughing, “The food was just too good.”

Erza nodded her head, placing her fork down beside her cake. Her gaze turned to him, her brown eyes narrowing, “I see, but I need to discuss some things with you concerning your guild.”

Sting let out a groan in response, this whole week he had been talking about Sabertooth. Couldn’t he just take a break from boasting about how amazing they were? The scarlet-haired woman responded by swatting his hand. “Ouch! What was that for?!” He exclaimed, rubbing his now pink hand.

“Sometimes you’re as disrespectful as Natsu,” he could tell Erza regretted the words as soon as they tumbled out of her mouth. The dragon slayer’s name burned his heart, he never wanted to be compared to his ex ever again. “Please forgive-”

The blond held his hand up, “No need, Erza. I was out of line and you are a woman who demands respect from her audience, ya know. I can give that ta ya, just forgive me for being so… childish.” Another word that put him down. He rubbed his hands against his legs, trying to get away from his typical behaviors.

Mocha eyes softened, the air settling into a much more mellow atmosphere. A pleased glint crossed those same eyes and she took another bite of her glorified strawberry cake. “You are very surprising sometimes. It’s very admirable to say that of yourself, Sting. I can see why those in Sabertooth look up to you so fondly. You’re a great leader, when you really want to.”

A smile was latched onto his face from her compliment. Another chuckle slipped from his lips, taking kindly to the guild master sitting in front of him. “Thanks, Erza. I have made a great effort to be better for the guild’s sake -we have come a long way.”

It really had been, it had been a real struggle to break from the reputation they had previously attained. The were seen as bullies, the unconquerable king of the hill (until Fairy Tail had regained its status), and the new example for all newly formed guilds of the time. Cruelty and viciousness had swept through the guilds in Fiore because of this imaginary competition of being the best, although it had never existed in the first place. There was no such thing as “the best”, every guild had its pros and cons. Sabertooth having many negatives but it was perfectly balanced out by the positives, and he assumed that of any other guild.

He started the reformation by kicking members who were stuck in the past or who had a current criminal reputation. Sting welcomed them to come back once they had found the light, but he had a larger group to care for. Then their funds were tidied up and placed in fair order for renovation. He was so proud of the job he did with the guild hall. His last revision was the roles everyone had played in the guild, everyone was equal now and free to do as they choose (as long as it was legal).

A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth, as she mindlessly toying with the piece of cake. A true predator always played with its prey, Sting grinned at the thought. “Aside from your occasional mistakes in good choices, Sabertooth is just as good as Fairy Tail. I’m glad to call you guys our companions.” They had always been as good as the fairies, or so he liked to think.

His grin turned into a goofy smile, all of it was directed toward the requip mage. She lightly blushed from his smile, it was cute to see the somber mage somewhat flustered for once. The pink tinge of her cheeks suited her features, if he hadn’t been so gay, Erza would have been exactly the type of woman he would want. Too bad she was engaged to Jellal, they were made in the stars.

Speaking of those bright, glittery, and wonderful balls of fire, he knew Rogue loved to go stargazing. Maybe he would take the brooding friend out later, they had avoided each other since the train ride to Era. Only seeing one another during meetings and back at the hotel room; having exchanged a couple words between one another but hadn't really said anything to one another.

Leaning back in his chair, he pushed the shadow mage from his head. Deciding the beratement of flattery was unusual from the woman, he poked at her a bit. “Erza, are ya complimenting me for some other reason? I mean, I appreciate it an’ all but-”

Her back straightened up, surprise evident on her face. Cutting the blond off, she blurted out, “Why do you think so?”

With his contagious grin widening imperceptibly, he shifted forward and wiggled his nose. Erza shifted in her seat, looking a bit squeamish and he prodded at her more, taking a small whiff of the air. “I can smell that you’re hiding something, “ Sting cood.

But Erza had an iron will, not giving into his teasing so easily. “Dragon slayers can’t smell things like that.” She certainly wasn’t wrong, but Sting knew that the woman wasn’t typically so generous.

Now he bared his ivory canines, nearing her piece of cake with his mouth open. The red head looked so conflicted as he closed in on her piece of strawberry cake, slowly prying her fork from her fingers. “Tell me, Erza or your cake will suffer!” In his great exclamation, he flicked his tongue over the vanilla frosting.

He should have known better than to mess with the Great Titania’s cherished food. In an instant, her fork was pressed against his throat and she hoisted him up by the collar of his shirt; brown eyes filled with a burning fire, protecting the delicacy she loved so much. “You play too much, Sting. My cake’s honour will not be diminished by your vile tongue!”

“Heh…” Sting was in awe of Erza, no wonder why Natsu had called her a monster. He liked the flared spark she had shown him and he carefully wrapped his hand around her wrist. “I’ve learned my lesson, Erza! I will never touch the holy grail ever again!” He over exaggerated his words, slowly pulling the fork from his throat -he didn’t want to see how much damage she could truly do with it.

Sting slumped back onto the the table grateful that Erza didn't injure him with a fork. He was sure she could do it anytime she'd like. After the scarlet haired monster released her hold on him. With a small huff, she returned to her seat, “This treat is not for someone of the likes of you.” Erza pursed her lips, stabbing her fork down into the fluffy piece of cake and shoved the rest of the piece into her mouth.

The blond’s jaw dropped, astonished by the guild master’s gesture. She continued, speaking while chewing. “I would have rather savored this piece, but you insisted on getting into business,” she gave him a hard look, “This involves Sorcerer Weekly.”

Ah, yes. That magazine had been up to no good as of late. They had gone from the most reputable source for mage gossip (not that gossip was ever any good, but it was once truthful), to scummy reporters and paparazzi. Every issue was full of blatant lies about the lives of guild mages, new magics, The Council, and mages between those in the guilds. He was curious to know why Erza wanted to talk about it, Fairy Tail and Sabertooth weren’t involved with them as much anymore.

“What about them?” Sure he was interested but his tone conveyed his disinterest in the topic.

Erza sighed and pulled a small piece of paper from her magical storage. “As you may know, Lucy worked as an editor and reporter for them a couple years ago. She ran into Jason recently and he gave her this.” Carefully she slid the paper across the table, seeming scared to touch it. “It’s an article that’s going into the next issue.”

Plucking the paper up, his eyes started to lazily skim across the words. It started out with the details of Rogue and Yukino’s relationship (which he really didn’t care for). Then it took a turn, talking about the scandalous affair between the two top women of Sabertooth -Yukino and Minerva. This was the answer to his prayers, but could Sorcerer Weekly really be telling the truth? They could have written about him and Rogue for Christ's sake. Just because they were friends didn’t mean they were fucking.

He held the paper to his face for another moment, peering at Erza. “What the hell is this?” Then he slammed it back onto the table with a disgusted flick of his wrist. If this was true, Rogue would be hurt deeply.

Her ironclad hand quickly swiped the paper back up, shoving it into her magical storage space. “I’m not usually one to get into gossip,” she paused, deciding her words very carefully, “but this definitely won’t be good for Sabertooth; whether it’s true or not.”

Sting could feel his lips curl in disgust. This could not be true in the slightest of capacities. “Erza, Yukino would never do this to Rogue. This article, is more like a shit stain. I can’t believe they would try to tear Sabertooth apart from with something like this.” His voice was filled with spite, there was no way in hell he would let something like this be published.

“Right.” Erza’s eyes flashed with regret, “I didn’t mean to insinuate anything, it’s just that this… article would boost Sorcerer Weekly’s name in the media again. And if this were to coincide with their upcoming ball, then they would get so much coverage.”

She was right. Their name had been going down ever since their first mistake -the engagement of Lyon and Meredy. Those two were never together to begin with, but the reporters believed anything that was fed to them. This announcement hurt Lyon’s relationship with Juvia, and things had been going downhill ever since. Something about two top mages -Minerva and Yukino- would not only boost their sales but put them in the spotlight once again.

But the dance was a completely different story, if this paper were was to be published before then, there would be absolutely no reason for Sabertooth to show. There would be too many questions, suspicions and judgements. They certainly didn’t need any doubt when it concerned the private lives of his guild mates. The way his mages held themselves in their personal lives, there was always going to be misgivings in life but this would put their own reputation at stake.

Sting leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh. He didn’t want this to affect anything but he had to face the facts. If this story was already in the works then there was no way it wouldn’t be published. “Once I get back to Azura, I’ll make sure to talk to Lucy about this. I’m going to make sure this doesn’t make the front page.”

With that said, he stood and left. There would be no other discussion about what had fallen into his hands. It was his duty to protect Rogue, and Sting wasn’t going to take any chances when it came to his heart.

Shit was going to hit the fan soon if he didn’t stop this. Maybe he could let Rogue know without telling him directly.

Rogue was assured by his best friend countless times that they didn’t have to dress for this party, yet everywhere he looked was a nice cocktail dress or a buttoned up dress shirt with slacks. Holding his glass, he nudged Sting, “I think the right phrase to use right now is ‘I told you so.’”

The blond scoffed and lifted his hands in exasperation, “That old man said it was a party. How was I supposed ta know that all these old geezers would play dress up?”

Rogue took a lengthy sip from his glass, disinterested in Sting’s whining. “We are in Era, Sting. Everything here is always held to the highest standards, so naturally, this would be turned into a cocktail party of sorts.”

“Your head is too small to hold that big of a brain. You should be guild master instead, ya know.” Rogue rolled his eyes, the first couple times Sting suggested that he should take his place as Guild Master was a good confidence booster but now it was just annoying. Though being in the holy dragon slayer’s presence was always calming to him.

Rogue was about to comment on Sting’s remark, but a woman with billowing green hair came sauntering up to the both of them. Her face was plastered with the latest makeup brands, an unruly blend of colors and foundation. He never knew if she trying to pose as a drag queen, but her blending and eyebrows were always so horrible. She was known to everyone as Sorcerer Weekly’s hottest new reporter (hot as in still in progress), Lulu Nimby. A name as ridiculous as the woman standing in front of him.

“I thought reporters weren’t allowed into prestigious establishments,” Rogue said rather sarcastically, unhappy to see her.

Overly large pink nails pulled a pass from her bra, waving it in front of him. “As always, I have a pass, Rogue Cheney. I just have a few questions for you and your partner.” Lulu’s shrill voice mockingly emphasized the last word, a pen and notepad appearing in her hand.

Sting beat him to the punch, “Get outta here. If we were interested in answering questions we woulda’ve come right to Sorcerer Weekly.” His blue eyes flashed with dislike and hesitance, that was certainly odd.

“Oh, please,” she dragged out, those same pink acrylics flashing in the dim lighting. “I only have a single question. It won’t take long, I swear on it.”

Even though it was only once question - and seriously, how bad could that be? Sting interjected once again. “Nope! We aren’t accepting any questions at the moment. I'll only repeat myself once, get outta here Nimby.” Sting’s over-protectiveness was catching Rogue off-guard.

As nicely as possible, Rogue nudged Sting.. “I can take a question, but there won’t be any follow-ups. You better make this one question count. Knowing you, I can tell you came prepared with far too many.”

A pleased smile formed on her lips as she flipped through her pink notepad. “No, it’s ok, I really did just have one question.” Her eyes lit up with a mischievous deviance once she stopped flipping through the pad. “I just wanted to know how your anniversary with Yukino went. I assume you two went out before you came to Era with Sting.”

Sting looked at Rogue, his gaze sending an unsettling feeling down his spine. “Ya really don’t have ta answer this. You know they’re just going to make it something more than it is.”

The blond wasn’t wrong, but it would look worse if he didn’t answer. Rogue completely downed the rest of his drink, the question making a jab at his heart. Setting the glass down, he answered truthfully. “We didn’t do anything, our train ride was scheduled midday. I did make her some breakfast, even if I failed miserably.”

His comment gained a fit of giggles from the green haired reporter, her pen scribbling away at the small pad. “Uh huh… Anything else you want to let me know? Like morning time loving, or the gift you bought her?” Lulu sounded like she was on top of the world with the information she just gained.

“No follow-up questions,” the shadow slayer completely dismissed her. Rogue really wasn’t interested in what was to come from this, and he took another glass of champagne from a passing server. “I’m sure you have other people to interrogate.”

Her red contacts masked her disapproval, and she frowned. “Be like that then, I guess I do have other people to get the scoop on.” Her ridiculous heels clacked crudely, hardly blending in with the crowd as she walked away.

“I think we should leave…” Glancing over Sting, the dark haired mage could tell he was anxious about something.

Rogue nodded, making his way toward the bar’s doors. “It is getting very stuffy, I think I’m going to take a breather. You look like you could do with some fresh air too.”

Sting nodded and quickly pushed through the doors, the cool November air enveloping the duo almost immediately. The night was far from being young, the bright street lamps lighting their way to the hotel. Era was slumbering, those still awake emitting soft snores from the beast of a city. Walking along the cobblestone path, small puddles of water whispered to the sky and called for a greater fulfillment. Large gray clouds forming over the city, hiding the jewels of the sky. Not one bright diamond shining beyond those dull walls. He wished they would bring him another form of comfort, the darkness filling his thoughts with doubt.

He followed Sting, but soon realized that they were not on track to their assumed destination. He was leading them somewhere far from their hotel room. The blond was a good distance ahead of him, his feet eagerly yearning for a place that wasn’t made of stone. “Sting…” He quietly called, setting his pace faster.

The orange rays of the burning street lamp tinted his hair a melodramatic yellow, Sting huffing as he stood still. Rogue, brushed his hand against the man’s shoulder grazing the small tendrils of hair on the back of his neck. He could feel the blond shudder, shakily intaking a small breath.

In a soft tone Rogue spoke again, “Are you ok? You seem to be going for more than a walk.” It was always common for Sting to go for a stroll in order to get his frustrations out but this was much more than usual.

The smallest inclination of Sting’s head was his agreement. “I’m fine. I’m just taking you ta this place I found earlier this week.” His voice wasn’t lively, it had taken on the toll of recent events.

“Alright.” His blue satin gloved hand was open, Rogue’s own hand itching to fill the emptiness. He reached out, but Sting began to walk again. “Where are you taking us then?”

“You’ll see,” now Sting held a small amount of playfulness in his tone.

Rogue was surprised when he was led beyond the streets of Era. The serenity of the surrounding forest filled him with a calmness, the leafy boughs singing soft melodies with the accompanying winds. Enchanted with a dark green shine, small june bugs lighting their path up a lofty hill. On top the sky had opened up, the stars shining down on them. Brightly they twinkled, welcoming the duo in their holy presence. Sting smiled just as wide as those sparkling jewels, his expression more beautiful than anything Rogue had seen before.

The said man turned and gestured to the grass, “You wanna sit for a bit? I had a feeling that you might like it up here.” The stars reminded him of Yukino, but he pushed her from his thoughts.

Tugging the small string situated around his neck, his cape came undone. Rogue laid the fabric on the grass and sat upon it, patting the space next to him for Sting. “You’re like a magnet to these types of places.” Rogue chuckled, warmth spreading through his side as Sting plopped down.

“Nah, I think I just have the knack for finding beautiful places, things too. The shinier the better.” They both were now laughing, the air warming up too. Sting nudged Rogue, his finger pointing to the sky. “Like those stars, I think you call that one the little dipper.”

He shook his head, “No that’s the big dipper. You see how the smaller spoon is under it?” Rogue used his hand to point out the two constellations (the only two he could identify). He had amassed knowledge galore, but his interest had never lain in the stars -only the one next to him.

In awe, Sting grinned and pointed at another set of jumbled fragments of white jewels. “Ya know what that one is then? It kinda looks like a man.”

Rogue couldn’t really see anything, blaming his inactive imagination . It was rude to point at people, but if it looked like a man… He believed Yukino mentioned him once. “I think you may be talking about Hercules.” The only Greek hero to be put in the night sky, as legend had it. Someday he wished to be recognized in such a way.

Sting brushed against him as he sat back, head tilted up to the embroidered firmament. His blue eyes closed, a small hum of delight coming from his throat. Those same stars illuminating his tanned skin, making him glow. An ethereal being in his presence, someone so far from his touch but so close.

“You ever take Yukino to a place like this? I bet she would love it.”

The words rolled off his tongue so casually, the atmosphere seeming to heat up, a small burn rising in Rogue. The shadow slayer shifted to give them some much needed space, the stars dimming from the question.

“No, I don’t believe so. We went to a museum once…” He took Yukino wherever they wanted to go, she didn’t ever mention sitting under the stars. Maybe he should have asked, she really would have loved this. He grimaced and shoved his hands into his lap, the itch growing greater.

That same gloved hand taunting him by being placed so close to his leg. The tanned skin then flashed to a much more slim and pale hand, one he knew so well. Those hands had touched him in the most affectionate and sensual ways possible, there was no way he could betray them. But when he looked up at the stars, he felt a tug he had never felt before. Something that assured him of different possibilities.

All their luminescence was cascading onto Sting, feeding into him as a great spotlight. Sting coated in the cheerful cries that hailed from the large sky, a lackadaisical smile swiped across his mouth. He was basking in their light much as Rogue was from their absence.

Beautiful…

A serene expression a mask until those blue eyes bored into his own. Sting grinned and waved his hand in front of Rogue’s face. “Cat got your tongue? You started to stare off into space all the sudden.”

Caught in the act, his cheeks were buzzing to life and he shook his head. “Sorry, you just made me think of Yukino.” No, it was the two of them but this wasn’t the time to complicate the situation. The train ride was a rollercoaster of emotions, he couldn’t face those feelings again right now.

Sting’s face went unreadable, and Rogue internally cringed. The blond turned away in deep thought, still bathing in the night’s light. “Ya ever believe people could be written in the stars?”

Every internal alarm was set off, Rogue’s entire being frazzled by his inquiry. Sting wasn’t so articulate, but he knew exactly what the holy slayer meant. Looking back up to the sky, the burnette dwelled on the question. He was never much of a romantic, so he never thought of such stereotypical ideas. It was mind-boggling that it was presented to him in the first place, Yukino never mentioned anything like this before.

Now the cat really had his tongue. “Uhm… In this magic filled world, maybe.” His answer was broad, but he didn’t want Sting to get the wrong idea.

“I think it’s a yes or no question, Rogue.”

He was foolish to think Sting would take what was originally given. He always pushed for more and that was one thing he loved about him. Desire, passion, a fire that was always burning… things that were lost to him and Yukino.

“There is a possibility…” Who was he kidding? “Actually, I believe it can be true.” Rogue smiled, his body surging with a happiness he never had known.

Sting had the same look on his face, love sweeping down from it’s high position. The two had fallen from those glittering jewels from above, this he knew to be true.

“Someday people will see the two of us up there.” Sting proclaimed, standing with those same stars by his sides.

Rogue nodded, a pleasant silence accompanying them as they meandered their way through the streets of Era. Coming to the consoling darkness of their once empty hotel room. The night was dark and light, much as the magics contained within the two mages.

#stingue #sting eucliffe #rogue cheney #erza scarlet #makarov dreyar #fanfiction #fairy tail fanfiction #wwtdp #finally done with this chpater oml

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riverdaleroundup · 7 years

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Riverdale Roundup: 2x06 “ Death Proof”

Okay so here we are, back at it.

So first of all does Jughead just live in that white tank top now? I just don’t dig it and I honestly need him to put a proper shirt on. I get that he lives in a trailer park or whatever but it’s just trying too hard for me.

So Betty is racing down the street to the five seasons and you know she’s frazzled because her hair is down. She arrives to the St. Clair suite to see Nicky just chillin in a bathrobe with his fucked up face and she’s honestly shook that he isn’t dead yet. I don’t get what her plan was here? Did she think she was going to burst in to find his dead body or like the black hood mopping up blood stains? If she was going to stop the murder wouldn’t the first step to have been to call Sheriff Keller? Thankfully Sheriff Silver Fox is already on the premises ready to take names. Despite the drama of this whole scene I just can’t get past Nick in the bathrobe, he looks like such a little bish. He should not be brooding with that much ankle exposed so casually, it’s just not fitting.

By some mercy of God Betty has learned how to put her phone on silent and I am so very very grateful. I could not take one more round of “ lollipop”. Archie texts betty “ You up?” like the true Fuck Boy he is but honestly it’s like mid morning at this point so like what’s the game arch?

We see Penelope sitting down with the Lodge Loons to discuss the Nicholas issue and she’s such a stone cold bitch and like not in an iconic Alice Cooper way. What a heartless Wench. Also how is her face not fucked up? How is she not completely messed? From the first episode I thought that she was going to be bedridden but like she’s fine. Not even a scratch. Okay we see that her arm is burned later but like come on? Did Mark Sloan himself come back from the grave to reconstruct her horrible burned face back to sheer perfection?

Toni and Jughead are having breakfast and she’s all like “ Yeah we aren’t going to happen. I don’t want to be your rebound” even though the second that Jughead was like “ Betty isn’t in the picture anymore “ she was all up in his business. So like what’s the truth Toni?

Archie and Betty are coming to Pops and Betty claims she won't be answering the blackhoods calls anymore but I mean come on that sounds fake. She also claims that the people “ at the farm” are going to help Polly disappear for a while. What kind of farm is this that they take in Wayward pregnant teens and also double as a projection program? They see Toni and Jughead eating breakfast together and it’s honestly drama.

There’s an emergency meeting at the cooper house where Alice basically tells everyone that their kids are trash and huge whore’s but that Betty is an angel. Kevin learns that Bughead is no more and is honestly shook. It’s so going in his blog.

Josie’s mom is ready to lock her in a tower for taking “ jj” and decides to clear out the south side in retaliation. Archie races to South Side high to be Jugheads knight in shining armour, but Jughead just assumes he’s there to break up with him again and is v pissy about it. The cops burst into the school ready to arrest anyone wearing leather and Archie basically has to drag jughead out of there by his ear. Also Sheriff Keller and his boys are pure fashion in those hats.

Veronica doesn’t want to tell her dad about Nick getting handsy with her because she knows that Daddy will straight up murder him and not even think about it. Kevin is very disloyal to Betty honestly. I get that he’s friends with Veronica as well and that Betty was super bitchy to her but he’s only known V a few months and Betty is supposed to be like his ride or die. Could he not at least hear her out for a minute before slaying her with alliteration?

Black hood calls Betty and she obviously picks up even tho she said she wouldn’t because she’s a fucking liar. Black hood is like “ Infiltrate the dealers. Find the supplier.” sending betty out in search of the Sugar Man. For once Betty realizes that she isn’t in the FBI and is literally a fresh 15 and reminds BH that she’s “ Just a high school reporter” and he’s like “ I don’t give a single fuck. Infiltrate the dealers. Find the supplier.”

Archie is willing to break up with Jughead for Betty but he wouldn’t get back together with him for her so he tell’s Jughead to go talk to her.

Betty rolls up to the new Thorn Hill to find Cheryl lounging in a bathing suit, reading a book and enjoying a little spread. Here’s the thing. What month is it? There was literally just snow everywhere and Sweetwater River was frozen. School hasn’t been in session that long. In theory is should be like November/ December ish if that. But here Cheryl is in a bathing suit, everyone's walking around without jackets, and everyone shows up to the race in like tanktops and shorts. What is good!?! What month is it? On the subject of months how many months pregnant is Polly? She was with the sisters for like 5 months right? And she’s been home for a good while so when are the children of incest going to vacate her womb and enter riverdale where they will probably be accused of murder or something by the time they’re 6 weeks old.

Betty asks Cheryl about the Sugar man and Cheryl is like “ Duh Betty he’s a scary story my crazy ass mom created. Try to keep up.” Cheryl proceeds to rip Betty a new one about trying to ruin literally all of her childhood memories and shoos her away so she can enjoy her trail mix in peace.

Papa Andrews tries to make sure that Archie is taking care of Jughead and Archie is like “ yas i’m trying but it’s fucking hard”, meanwhile Jughead is slithering into the Goolies lair where Tall Boy is chilling saying they should all be BFFs.

Cheryl goes through a box of her and Jason's old stuff and finds a crayon drawing of Sugar man and decides that he’s real. But like??????? How is that proof?

Betty and Keller chit chat about the Sugar Man and Sheriff says that Old Clifford was the Sugar Man so now it could be anyone and they are shit out of luck. Veronica is lurking in the background so she and Betty share some milkshakes and Betty comes clean about the black hood calls. She enlists Veronica to help her find the Sugar Man and now they’re tight again.

Jughead is pacing the trailer ranting about the Goolies and it’s really dark so I did not see Archie sitting there and I honestly thought he was just ranting to Hot Dog and I was like okay how very relatable. I bitch at my dog all the time. He’s a great listener. Archie suggests they go to FP for advice and i’m like yas I miss you come back. He says they should challenge them to a street race and i’m like are you sure we shouldn’t just have another rumble at midnight. That worked very well the first time.

Cheryl tries to talk to her mom about the sugar man but her mom just calls her a crazy bitch and reminds her that she literally burned down their house so maybe she should just shut up.

The gang has to clean up this nasty ass park and Kevin is so disgusted by it that even he wouldn’t troll for stray dick there. Reggie and Josie awkwardly flirt and i’m like ohhh this is a thing now? Veronica ruins their romantic banter by demanding the number of Reggie's dealer. Infiltrate the dealer, find the supplier.

So Veronica rolls up to the south side to get the JJ from one of the Goolies goons. I get that both gangs couldn't just wear straight leather but having the Goonies wear studs and animal print really just makes them look like jokes.

“ What about my change Asshat?” This wouldn’t happen if the dealers were kind enough to take credit.

So we see some of the Jingle Jangle production and they’re literally putting these things together with hot glue and i’m dying.

There’s a truly tragic exchange of Veronica, Betty, Archie, and Jughead all saying each other's names and then saying “ what are you doing here “ in unison and i’m like again with the scooby doo?

Jughead and Archie gotta take their bitches and skanks and get the fuck out, but Jughead having been a serpent for a solid 45 minutes decides he has the authority to bet the family farm and offers up their bar and the trailer park as collateral on this race. A bitch is ballsy.

Nick shows up at Pops and calls Nick “ Sharon” and I literally want to vom. Nick tries to play all innocent. Although the “ Desperate tart from a truck stop town” was a pretty solid insult he’s still a huge douche canoe. At least he paid for her lunch.

Betty is helping Jughead fix Reggie's car and I know she said she used to help Hal fix cars but I have a ton of trouble picturing Hal in his tight sweaters fixing a car. Oh shove it Hal. Jughead calls Betty out on being heartless and dumping him via Archie and she’s like “ Ohh i can explain but like not now” and i’m over here being frustrated as hell like bitch you’ve been sitting in awkward silence just tell him it won’t affect his driving skills. You know what will tho? THE FACT HE’S 15 AND DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE.

Cheryl finds the hush money cheque in her mom's room and i’m like yass that’s what people do with cheques for large amounts of money. They hide them in their underwear drawer and hope that the cash just magically appears in their account. So more likely Mrs Blossom is above going to the bank and took a picture of the cheque to deposit it and now Cheryl is just holding a piece of meaningless paper hostage.

Veronica and Archie are lounging in bed together and i’m like where is Fred? Does he allow this sin under his roof? Cheryl kills the mood by telling Veronica that the St.Clairs are still investing in SoDale so she goes to Daddy and Daddy promises that he’s going to fuck shit up.

So we come to the drag race and everyone has put on their fourth of july best. Kevin is pissed that Ru Paul isn’t there but is glad that there is a lot of eye candy. He clearly has a thing for gang members.

Instead of offering Jughead a lock of her hair Betty gives Juggie her declaration of love and some driving advice. Cheryl tells Toni/Cha Cha to stuff it because this is her moment and the race is on. In what world would the Goolies race that old ass car that was never made to go more than 25 miles an hour?

Archie is a little baby and pulls the E break which should basically guarantee that they lose but Archie called Sheriff Keller with a hot tip ahead of time. Everyone is pissed at Archie but I mean they won so……

Penelope threw that cheque that i’m convinced now that she already cashed in the fire and finally spills the tea to Cheryl. Cheryl calls Betty with the intel about who the sugar man is and like a fucking sane normal girl who doesn’t live in fucking Rosewood she calls the police. The Black Hood is pissed and we find out the Sugar Man is Charles Fucking Percy, whose name in this is like Mr Phillip or some bullshit I really don’t care.

Betty is threatening the black hood being like I’ve solved all these mysteries so I can totally catch you and i’m like Betty maybe like back the heck up, I say again you are 15.

So does Fred pop pills on the regular now? Is this going to be a story line?

So the Lodges ran the St. Clair car off the road and they all sit around and smile about it while playing chess. Not at all menacing.

Despite all Betty's best efforts, the Black Hood is still putting a hit on Percy/ Aka Robert Phillips/ Aka The Sugar man. So sad… but….not really.

That’s it.

#riverdale #the cw riverdale #Bughead #varchie #betty cooper #jughead jones #archie andrews #veronica lodge #cheryl blossom

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undertsums · 5 years

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Review of Pokemon Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution

Spoilers below

So I’ve seen the AWFUL trailer.

I know I will HATE the look so I am going to try and ignore it, style is style.

The opening is cute by referencing Pokemon Yellow. Researcher: No one’s gotten a good photo of Mew Todd/Snap: Am I a joke to you?

Now I gotta be honest the DETAIL of the scenery is amazing, but it’s the HUMANS that are just really off, I am okay with the Pokemon since ya know it’s happened before with Pokemon Channel. Mewtwo’s voice sounds okay, it’s another male (tho this is sub, dunno if it’s gonna be male in the dub)

Mewtwo: Did God create me? Arceus: Am I a- Reasearcher: The only beings capable of creating life in this world are God and humans. Arceus:

Glad they kept in the scientists dying, A FAMILY SHOW! AAAAND THE NEW ARMOUR IS FUCKING STUPID! Like OMG it’s like Power Rangers bad, like the old classic armour was fine, nothing was wrong with it.

GARY CAMEO!

Mewtwo: This isn’t an attack or an act of war, I’m just striking back Me: BUT THAT’S STILL AN ATTACK YOU TWAT!

Me: The theme song BETTER BE THERE! Japanese theme song starts Me:

HAH the Golem got replaced, good job Pokemon, you got your types right. Joy: Ash, Misty and Brock Me: Lady how did you know that? Okay Brock and Misty are well known but Ash is still small

Sooo I’m not saying much because there is no changes, like I still wonder why they did this? If it was to test the CGI you could have done something else? Awww Team Rocket ain’t vikings. Mew is still damn cute

Okay movie is getting boring because it’s all the same, gonna start skipping little bits at a time. Cool the tubes are still there too, that’s so cool. Awww boo the process of the Pokemon coming out of the tubes is less gross, BOO. Now it’s all sciency and it’s boring.

Okay Mewtwo’s pokeballs are the same design cool. Also JUST noticed the lack of music...Which isn’t good.

Brock: I have seen pictures Todd/Snap: THANK YOU!

Meowth: Mew said real is real and the real won’t lose to their copies. WOW Mew is a jerk and is pink. ...Why are pink things all jerks?

Me: Brother my brother Movie: “plays generic music* Me:

PIKATWO HAS THE UNIQUE BLACK EARS YES! Pokemon aren’t meant to fight, not like this ???: NOT LIKE THIS!

This scene is more powerful than the CGI, like the CGI is so wimpy and pathetic.

Also Mew has pink while Mewtwo has blue now I’m imagining that Joyce @bettinalevyisdetermined and Neela @fastrainbowdas own Mew and Mewtwo and the hyjinx that happen. Strangely enough Mew and Mewtwo do suit Joyce and Neela, Mew being playful and joyful, Mewtwo always questioning why and is more of a loner (and can be very sad at times).

Here comes the tears and uhhh the Pokemon aren’t making noises? Uhhh...Hope the DUB fixes that.

So tears bring Ash back and all is happy! Soooo Mewtwo is gonna make em forget the moral they learned.

So what do I think?

Well I say stick to the original, the CGI is bad for the humans but looks amazing for everything else. But it was good, no big major changes to the plot and the small things are small at best...I just wonder WHY?

Like why not make a new movie or make a movie based off another Pokemon concept (Shadow Pokemon, Pokemon Snap, Mystery Dungeon). Just seems stupid to remake an already okay movie.

So that’s it.

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blahblahblippyblah · 7 years

Text

Nico's Quest (happens after events of THO)

Chapter 1: Nico gets a prophecy

full story: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11403567/chapters/25542171

Summary:

Nico must go on a quest to stop Orpheus bringing back souls from the dead. there only one person who can help him out. Will

Nico was relieved when Apollo finally left, scratch that he was overjoyed. He wasn't the biggest fan of the former god. It didn't help that he managed to destroy half the camp before parting. But now that Apollo was gone they could all take a breath until the next terrible incident happened.

The night after Apollo left Nico's nightmares started again. Not that he wasn't surprised. He always had nightmares. But this nightmare was different this time. He was in his father's castle in the underworld. His psychopathic step mother Persephone sat on her throne looking bored while his father stormed around the room shouting and breaking things. Yep just a regular old day Nico thought. Eventually his father calmed down and turned. When he saw Nico standing there he straightened up.

"Good you here. Well here enough. I need you to do something" his father said.

Yep world best dad. No ‘Hi son’, no ‘How you doing son’, just ‘Hey I have more chores for you’.

"What do you need father" I spat.

"Maybe we should get a more handsome and older hero husband. Not that your children aren't capable, but it would be nice to shake thing up" Persephone interjected while filling her nails.

Hades turned towards her. "My children will do fine dearest. Plus I would rather keep this a secret, and Nico is more suited for keeping underworld problems from Zeus"

"What problem? And why can't Zeus know about it?" Nico said.

“I’ll spare you the detail but we have an escaped soul. Many souls escaped during the waking of Gea but this one in particular needs to be sent back." Hades went on walking over to his throne.

"Who is it?" Nico asked.

Hades mouth twitched as if saying the name was going to cause him to burst in flames. Persephone however interjected.

"Orpheus. The handsome lad managed to get out and is now charging wealthy families to bring back there loved one. A clever business plan if you ask me" Hades eyes flared but he ignored his wife.

"You son can see why that is an issue. If Zeus found out I had someone s telling sold back from the underworld ... Well it wouldn't be pleasant."

"So why can't you look for him yourself? I'm kind of busy at camp" Nico said.

Persephone let out a snort which Hades also ignored. Nico bunched his fist. His understood where the stereotype evil step mother came from.

"You don't think I would have him in my current possession if I could find him. Orpheus is clever. He's hiding from me. I looked all over the earth and couldn't find him anywhere. That's why I need you to look for him. Go on one of your little quest and bring him back."

Nico frowned. He was kind of fed up with going on dangerous quest for his dad. Plus he was finally enjoying camp. He really didn't want to go out on his father's errands.

"But..." Nico tried to interrupt but his father waved him silent.

"I hear you have an oracle back online. She'll give you more detail. Now I have to get back to work.” Hades said getting up.

"Wait a minute” Nico started saying but he was immediately awoken by his alarm clock.

Nico put his food tray down on the Apollo table a little too hard when he went for breakfast. Orange juice sloshed out of his cup and onto his pancakes. He fell down beside Will who looked up at him confused.

"Wake up on the wrong side of the coffin this morning?" Kayla joked.

Nico just frowned at his pancakes and began stabbing them with his fork. Will put a hand on his for arm.

"Everything ok Nico?" he asked.

Nico felt bad. He didn't want to upset Will. Why did he have to be so caring?

"Nothing. I just had the pleasure of taking to my father last night" Nico said. He knew he wasn't being 100% honest but he didn't think this was the time or place to talk about his inevitable quest.

Will pouted at him but didn't press him any further.

After breakfast Chiron announced that tonight they would be having a small game of captured the flag with the few year round campers to celebrate the defeat of the Colossus. Also Apollo finally leaving many campers thought.

This cheered Nico up slightly. Even thought there was only around 20 campers he still loved playing capture the flag. It was something he was actually good at. It also helped that he enjoyed showing off in front of Will. Something he would never admit to.

So at 3 o'clock they all gathered outside the forest. Nico had put on his bronze beast plate a thick wool sweater and a more ripped pair of jeans so his good ones didn't get ruined. By the forest other campers had outfitted themselves and we're helping each other strap on armour. Nico scanned the group looking for the familiar mop of blonde hair. He quickly spotter it and headed over to Will.

He grinned as Nico approached

"You’re playing today?" Nico asked skeptically with an eyebrow raised. Will didn't usually participate in capture the flag. His archery skills were mediocre at best. His hand to hand combat was a joke. And he was always needed to reattach Paolo’s limbs.

Will gave a malicious smile.

"Since Percy, Jason and the other aren’t here I thought I'd finally have the chance to wipe the floor with you." Will taunted. Nico raised both eyebrows mockingly

"Ok we will see how well that works out. I hope you brought enough ambrosia for yourself once I'm done with you." Will just smiled at blew him a kiss mockingly.

Chiron called for everyone's attention and separated them into teams. Nico was stuck with the Demeter cabin and a bunch of other not so super cabins. At least the one Ares kid was on his side.

The Demeter cabin came up with the brilliant idea of growing a giant beanstalk and putting the flag on top. Nico was unsure at first when Miranda put a tiny seed in the frozen ground and draped the flag over it. But as she knot her face in concentration the plant grew taller than the tress taking the flag with it.

Sherman came up with an attack plan and Nico made some mental notes in his head about where Sherman thought they might be able to find the flag. When the whistle went off from somewhere in the forest Nico ran a wide flank. He knew that Malkolm and the Hectate kids would make sure he couldn't shadow down travel to the flag so that left Nico with having to actually find it.

He ran thought the tress listening intently for any sounds of movement. Keeping an eye out for any signs of the enemy’s flag. He heard 2 people someone running towards him so Nico jumped up into a tree and did his best to blend in with the shadows the branches were casting. The two people stopped under the tree and looked around.

'I swear I just saw him around here' one of the people said.

Nico craned his neck to see who it was being careful not to move too much so that he stayed camouflaged in the dark. He saw a familiar mop of blonde hair that blended in with his jacket and the snow on the ground. The second person was Connor Stool. Nico gave a grin. Of course it would be will he would run into.

Nico shifted his weight and gripped his sword at a better angle. He then jumped down out of the tree and on top of Connor. Knocking him out cold. Will quickly spun around pulling out his bow and stinging it. Pointting it right at Nico. They circled slightly. Nico knew Will wasn't confident with close combat but Nico didn't like the look of the tranquilizer arrow will had sting on his bow.

"Ready to have you butt handed to you by a healer?" Will taunted with a smile

"If I were you I would watch your footing" Nico laughed.

Before Will pieced together what Nico had said Nico spun down swinging out his leg to catch Will’s causing him to trip. Will's arrow went flying but landed far away. His hand kept tight on the bow. Nico used the hilt of his blade to hit Will’s writs causing him to drop the bow while Will continued to fall back.

This was way too easy Nico thought. He stood of Will who had a disgruntled look of annoyance on his face. This now made it 15 Nico 0 will for capture the flag games. Nico smiled down at Will then offered out his hand to help him up. Will to it but grunted as he stood.

"If you tell me where the flag is I won't knock you out like Connor" Nico promised.

Will's mouth went up at one side disbelieving.

"And why would I do that Di Angelo?: Will taunted.

"Because you realize how superior I am. Also you like me" Nico mocked.

Will gave out a genuine laugh.

"Ya I guess I do really like you." Will admitted. Nico saw Wills eyes twinkle. The twinkle Will got when he was up to something. Before Nico could figure out what it was Will had rushed forward and brought Nico up into a kiss. His arms wrapped around Nico like vipers.

Nico stood shocked for a second but then returned the kiss. He sheathed his sword so he could put both hands on Wills hips. Suddenly Will deepened the kiss. Will pushed into Nico harder an opened his mouth slightly. His tongue came out and began finding it's way into Nico's.

This was very new to Nico and his head spun. If Will hadn't been holding him up he would have fallen over. Everything became fuzzy. Then as quickly as it started it stopped. Nico noticed the sudden absence of warm against him and opened his eyes. Blinking a few times for his brain to come to from the kiss Nico saw Will holding out Nico's sword pointing it at him grinning.

"You sneaking little siren" Nico said half amused that will had the nerve to take his sword.

"Never let the enemy distract you" Will said in his mocking Chiron voice.

From in the forest they heard a shout from Sherman Yang.

"It's on Zeus’s fist!"

Nico smirked. He knew where to go now.

Before Will could reach road to stop him Nico took a step back into the shadows to get closer to the fist.

>>>

Nico stepped out of the shadows and immediately fell over. As soon as his feet touched the ground a log gong like sound reverberated around his head. It sent his head swimming in circles. His eyes unfocused and his legs tuned to jelly. He tried to stand but heard another loud gong like song which sent him back down. Blinking through the disorientation Nico realised he wasn't at Zeus’s fist. He was in the middle of a grove. Surrounded by giant tress so thickly entwined he could see the sky above.

Another gong. But this time Nico relieved it wasn't a gong. It was a voice that reverberated so loudly it shook his bones.

'Stolen soul shall find a pass If shadows fails to break the glass The musician hidden in plain sight Only the sun can find the light. Else the shadows fall to night'

The voice echoed through Nico's head. He could feel his eyes rattling inside his skull. Only two thoughts went through Nico's brain.

'Get Out'

He managed to get on his hands and knees and crawl towards the nearest tree. He used all his willpower and threw himself into shadows one more time. He didn't have a destination in mind. He only concentrated on one thing. Will. I need to find Will.

#solangelo #nico di angelo #Will solace #trials of apollo #Percy Jackon and the Olympians #heros of olympus #nico/will

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tumblunni · 8 years

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Speaking of my dumb story ideas, I’ve been thinking some stuff to flesh out the Cathedral Game’s setting! RANDOM IDEAS AHOY LONG POST AHOY

* I’m thinking I need to make some concrete ideas for the villains maybe. When I first had the dream that inspired this all, it was just some sort of ambiguous ‘demon army’, kinda like a mindless zombie plague or i dunno, maybe the demons were sentient but they were all evil except for florin anyway? It was a more boring cliche kind of enemy than I usually write, with no moral grey area. Just an endless wave of foes that would justify the setting where everyone is stuck living inside a church and you have to defend it and try and turn it into a little town. And I guess if we had to have a 100% evil enemy with very little character development then it makes me less uncomfortable if theyre some sort of supernatural nonsentient plague instead of a bunch of people born evil. But then Florin existing as your sidekick was like the first part of the dream and it was never explained why he was the only non evil, completely sentient demon. Plus now I have a different zombie-themed story so mindless plagues would be samey. PLUS... welll... I need to stop being all ‘because I saw it in a dream it is somehow a cosmic message that it has to be in the story and can never be changed’. Kinda the point of being awake is that i can look at things more rationally and plug the ol plotholes, yo!

* So anyway, the idea I had was that it would... just simply be an actual army of actual villains with actual motivations and moral ambiguity. I was thinking maybe the setting could be like the perspective of civilians trapped in-between a civil war between two countries, just trying to survive and hoping that the promise of reincforcements coming to evacuate is actually true. The gamneplay of holding the fort and constantly gunning down enemies could be even more depressing when you know that not all of them are necessarily evil, they’re just soldiers doing their job. Maybe its ambiguous whether your country or their country shot first, maybe its like their country is suffering from some form of recession or illness or lack of resources and they’re only trying to conquer this other country because their families are dying at home? Maybe its some form of religious conflict, or maybe its even something with a very villainous dictator running the show but the people working underneath them are just normal citizens forcibly drafted into a war they dont believe in. There’s a whole pile of different possibilities for moral ambiguity, yo! Not sure yet which would work best, hmm...

* Might possibly be an opportunity to use a character I’ve been sitting on for a while but couldnt find a story that suited her. After I played Fe: Awakening I felt really uncomfortable about how the game treated Excellus as if he was hateable only because he was ugly and ambiguously gay/transgender. like.. he’s a horrible jerk of a villain yet the plot really overfocuses on insulting his appearance and gender rather than retaliating against the things he actually does. Made me feel sympathy for a jerk I never wanted to feel sympathy for! So I kinda ended up being inspired by the wasted potential and thinking up an idea for a similar character who actually IS sympathetic, and has the ambiguous LGBTQ aspect properly explored as a plotline. I think it could actually be powerfully sympathetic to see this villain who’s constantly degraded and misgendered by her teammates, and has a lot of reason to believe the worst of humanity. Someone who could switch sides if shown some basic decency by our heroes, maybe? And I felt it could be good if she did have a very similar personality to Excellus, just like a good version of it. She could still be a comic relief egotistical person, but not a murderous monster. And the ego could be like... sad, because she’s purposely trying to act unaffected and secure and like she loves herself, when really she’s being treated like shit and doesnt know if she deserves it or not. And I was thinking also possibly she could be a greedy merchant type character, like Anna? (also from Fe: Awakening) That could be the role she takes in the town once you recruit her, she could be a savvy businesswoman badass! Playing rune factory 4 makes me appreciate how cool a trader character can be, Arthur is so neato~! He talks about it like its the most amazing job ever, I just feel like it could be even cooler if we had that passion along with a more goofy greedy personality. Like ‘hahaha im only in it for the money’, but no, she really has this kinda cheesy cute reason why she does the job, she just really enjoys meeting new people and being able to change the world a little piece at a time. It reaffirms her faith in humanity after all she’s been through. (Tho also she’s still a total badass, since she was a former general of the villain country, after all!)

* Oh and I was thinking of a really tragic alternative route for her if you don’t recruit her. You could fight her multiple times throughout the game and then when you get to the final one and she realizes there’s no escape she suddenly drops the comic relief act and it gets really somber. I was thinking maybe she could have a mentor type character or a friend or a love interest or something? Or some other something she was trying to keep safe all along, some reason why she still had hope, some reason why she was fighting for an army she didnt believe in, just to save up enough money for... some sort of life goal? I dunno, maybe she has a sibling who’s in the hospital and she’s trying to save up for treatment, and then on the day of the final battle she gets a telegram hearing that they died and she wasnt even there to say goodbye. (And the death would somehow be directly caused by the player’s actions, thus determining whether you recruit her or not) So even though every time before she always flaked out like a coward with a comedic quip as soon as it looked like she was losing, now she just doesnt have anything else left to lose. This time she WILL NOT LET YOU redeem her, she will not let you SPARE her, she doesnt even speak a single word in the entire battle. Her difficulty spikes immensely in this fight to the death, and she only cracks a smile and gives a parting quip once you’ve dealt the final blow. And I was just imagining it could be EXTRA depressing combined with her plot of facing predjudice for being transgender! She’s spent most of this time being treated by the other commanders as ‘sir [name]’, gritting her teeth and bearing all this degredation, trying not to stand out too much. But in the end now nobody else is here to put her down, all those other ‘brave knights’ are the ones who ran away like cowards and left the ‘coward’ to take the last stand. And she doesnt care if she dies anymore. So she hangs up her armour for this fight and instead decides to go out in all her finery, wearing the dress she’s kept locked away in her trunk the whole time. Walking onto the battlefield like a bloody bride, and being one hell of a monster boss battle despite missing all of her platemail. A whirling dance of death! To go out smiling! To maybe make her family proud, and if she can meet them on the other side she could do it with the face she always wanted to wear.

* ....basically make it super depressing so you regret your actions and go back and see what the other option leads to. But also so badass that people wouldnt regret seeing the scene, yknow? And this might be the height of her character arc, kinda, but she’d be able to have whole new character arcs if you choose to recruit her. And you can make your own badass battles with her now! * Not sure tho whether maybe the family member/mentor/whoever might die either way though? That could fit the bittersweet found-family themes of the game, pretty much everybody’s someone who’s lost their biological relations and found new people to love in this new community. It could just be like... the choice between this person dying tragically and causing merchant-general-lady to commit suicide, or them passing away naturally due to their illness after saying goodbye to her, leading to her joining the heroes to try and prevent tragedies like this. * A possible other EVEN MORE tragic idea I had- an alternative where this person has already been dead for a long time before the start of the story, and the villain leader has been lying to merchant-general in order to keep her working as their minion. So the player choice would be like... you can reveal it to her and purposely send her into a suicidal spiral as an attempt to destabilize the enemy forces and win an important battle. Its a complete dick move, yes, but it could save the lives of all your family and friends! But then if you believe that this merchant-general is actually redeemable you could like... do the same thing but with different motives, in a different way. Reveal it in less of a sadistic, tactically-planned way, and more of a ‘no seriously this is why you cant trust your boss’ way. And she’d be likely to actually believe you if you’d been befriending her before now. * Or perhaps maybe her sibling died years ago and she heard about it but was unable to accept it, since it was her only reason to keep on going. Maybe she feels guilt that she was too busy making money to try and save them, and that meant she wasnt there to hold their hand when they passed away. So now she keeps on hoarding money for no purpose at all, except because this routine keeps her going. And she keeps writing letters to someone who’s already dead. * buuuut that might be too similar to Malachi’s plot, since he has memory problems regarding a tragic event in his past. Though it was his own death rather than a family member’s! ....actually I dunno, maybe a twist could be that he’s actually her lost sibling? That’d kinda be wrapping things up too coincidentally though. But on the other hand it could be an interesting plot to explore his relationship with his newly returned biological sibling, compared to the adoptive relationship he’s been developing with Florin. RIVALS FOR TINY BABBU’S LOVE! Buuuuuut I also liked the idea of Florin’s death being very far back in the timeline, and he’s been sleeping underneath those ruins for over a century. It could be cool to have him experiencing a lot of things for the first time, and to get a perspective on the past before the war...

* ALSO ANOTHER POTENTIAL CHARACTER IDEA * Another enemy recruit maybe! I seem to be going in twos, I made two demon characters and now two redeemy people XD The idea I had was that this could be just a random soldier that you keep as a prisoner, and have to decide whether to execute him or not. It can be hard to keep prisoners of war when you’re stuck in this seige situation and you barely even have enough food to keep your own teammates alive! Tensions could run high because you’re choosing to keep this guy alive when its making things worse for us all, plus we cant really trust him, seriously?? He surrendered but maybe its just a trap to infiltrate us! He claims a sob story of his country being forced to invade us because of famine, and being drafted against his will, but can we trust anything that comes from the mouth of one of those scum?? And then there’s the question of what exactly you’ll do with him if you think he cant be trusted! Are you able to execute him in cold blood? Do you set him free and hope this decision doesnt come back to bite you in the ass? Do you try and execute him while pretending you didnt- setting him loose in the forest to die of exposure or at the hands of his own former comrades...?? And its very annoying because the entire time he’s insistantly begging you to kill him, and generally being a huge downer! :P This is what convinces you to spare him, if you pick that option. It starts off as just ‘I’m gonna spite you, I won’t let you die if its what you want’, but eventually you realise he really never wanted to be part of this war, and he’s weighed down so much by his sins that his pleading for suicide was completely genuine. There’s no spy plots, he was just a simple farmer thrown into battle with nothing more than the clothes on his back and the sharpest pitchfork he could salvage from the wreckage of his old farm before it was torn down. The famine ruined his business and he had no way of surviving unless he sold his land to the army, to be bulldozed and turned into the site of a new weapons factory. And even after that he ended up forcibly drafted when things got even worse, losing what little livelihood he’d managed to scrape together again. He doesnt have a home to go back to, he just wanted to die on the battlefield, and by all odds he SHOULD HAVE! This is the condition of this latest round of ‘soldiers’, nobody even wastes armour on them, theyre just disposeable fodder to be mowed down as a distraction. What shitty luck, that he just happened to get captured by some bleeding-heart fools who refuse to chop his damn head off! So basically I’m imagining him like a Nanu-esque depressed grandpa who’s kinda sassy sometimes but also really really needs a hug. And like... model prisoner, to a comical degree. When he comes to terms with the fact he aint gonna get killed no matter how much he begs, he’s just like ‘dammit i cant help but help’. He’s just a normal good guy at heart, he’s not really on your side so to speak, he loved his country but he didnt agree with them wanting to wipe out your country either. he misses how his country used to be, and he doesnt know anything about your country or whether its any better, he doesnt have much hope. But when he’s stuck with nothing to do all day, he just cant help subconciously falling into kindly grandpa behaviours! Gotta clean up this cell! Hey, do you want some cookery tips, mr guard? Oh whoops, mr guard you dropped the cell keys, here have them back! Hey this bar over here has poor structural integrity, I tried to rope it back together with a braid of my own back hair! All the time he’s trying to trick you into agreeing to execute him, and being a total sycophant agreeing with everyone who says he’s evil. CMON IM TOTALLY EVIL, PLEASE STAB ME, I’LL BAKE YOU COOKIES! And then as time goes on he just becomes less of a prisoner and ends up making friends with everyone, winning the trust of even those who opposed him the most at the start. All entirely unwillingly! Agreeing with all their oppositions so hard that they stop opposing XD He ends up just pottering around doing odd jobs as a janitor/groundskeeper type guy, even ends up being the one in charge of keeping the keys to the jail he started off in. Somehow the most trustworthy man in the whole town, cos he’s the one person who will never say he’s trustworthy! His humble goodness just shines through~! And he could help out a lot cos he has inside info on the enemy army, and is able to give a sympathetic perspective of the everyday citizens’s life, and just how much dissent there is, how few people are willingly cooperating with the war and how they can find allies and destabilize this regime based entirely on fear instead of loyalty. He’s like a ray of hope that changes everyone’s perspective on this big seemingly-inpeneterable all-evil army! A grumpy suicidal ray of hope, who never shuts up about how hopeless it is! XD of course, eventually he’d be able to find new reason to live in this own, and make friends, and have hugs and joy~! But it’d be a hard journey! And a journey filled with a lot of ‘geez grandpa stop joking about suicide holy shit’ *disciplinary hugs* * Tho actually I dunno if a farmer would be a good career choice for him, I just picked it cos its the easiest to imagine him losing his livelihood in the war. His career in the town would be being this janitor kindly advice man/treasurer sort of guy, but i dunno... if he was a banker before then that makes him too similar to general lady :P ...maybe he was a janitor on someone else’s farm...? Honestly I would love an excuse to have a badass sympathetic janitor man and go on a bit of a small rant about how service work is very physically demanding and deserves a higher minimum wage yknow. RESPECT JANIGRAMP ... actually the name Jani is a good name his name is now jani it is law Jani the groundskeeper, because jani the janitor sounds dumb. SYNONYMS!

* Thinking of ideas for the fictional religion I’m gonna create for this world! Its more fun if we have a completely fictional set of traditions that’re just a general metaphor for topical questions about real life religion n stuff. And it would sidestep the problem of plots accidentally seeming like theyre ‘oh this one religion is evil and false’, when really the point i want to make is about how people of all religions are capable of perverting their faith’s peaceful teachings and using it as an excuse to wage wars. hell, athiests have done the same thing! ‘this religion is inherantly evil bwaaaah’ stuff IS athiests using their own beliefs as an excuse to hurt others. Thats the kind of athiest I never want to be! I completely respect religion and I think that we can never have an answer as to what’s true about creation or an afterlife, we can never know until we die. I don’t believe in heaven, but I dont think I have absolute proof it’s wrong, and I dont care about proving myself right or converting people. I feel inspired when I see people draw strength from their religion, even if I don’t believe in it! Lots of great things have been done in the name of different religions, just like lots of terrible things have. Human beings are great and terrible things, human beings make choices. This doesnt tar everyone with the same brush of whoever made the wrong decision, just because they believe in the same gods! ....man, sorry, I went off on a mini rant there. But yeah, what I hope to do is to have religion as a framing device and discuss some problems with certain so-called religious people, but also show the positive side of it via the protagonists. I mean, the whole point is that you’re living in a church, after all! The idea is that you’d hear a lot of horror stories of other people acting very ungodly in the name of god, both in the enemy army and in the hidden secrets of people in your own country’s government. But the goal is that you see all this hellish stuff and you still choose to be a bastion of what you believe is good and true, you learn from these mistakes and try and make the true sanctuary that everyone was seeking when they fell into the traps of those other monsters. And also I was thinking it;d be like the protagonist’s exploration of being agnostic, after her faith was shaken from her original church being destroyed in this war. She was the only survivor, maliciously left alive by [currently unnamed main villain rival guy], who wanted her to suffer the grief of knowing she’d failed her role as protector. But instead she travelled onwards and found this other church full of defenseless people that need a new guardian, and she is FUCKING DETERMINED to never fail again! It started as just seeking revenge against that evil overlord, but instead its become about protecting these new people and regaining her faith in humanity. And that doesnt necessarily mean regaining her faith, that’s up to the player. She has a journey of realizing that some things about her former church may have actually been corrupt, and that she was just blindly following instead of making her own decisions, She has her hero worship of her dead comrades dismantled, and has to come to her own conclusions about what’s right and wrong in the scriptures she’d learned, and what she’ll do as she goes forward. Its up to the player to decide whether she regains her faith or decides to become an athiest in the end, or even remains agnostic and decides she isnt able to find an answer yet, but either way she will still be forged into a true blue hero, no matter the reasons behind it! I wanna make all options an equally good ending, its just a personal choice that changes some scenes but not necessarily the course of the story.

* Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! Religion ideas! I was considering possibly the legend could involve something about ‘an absent god’. The traditions say that humanity failed the creator long ago, and they left us behind because of it. The direction of all religion is based around this idea that we are inherantly born sinful, and have to do certain things in order to appease our ancestors’s sins and bring the gods back. I’m thinking it would be a good idea to create multiple sects of religion that’re variants on the same original holy text, that’s something that fictional religions dont tend to do for some reason. In this case it could be different perspectives on how exactly god dissappeared, and what exactly god saw as our sin, what on earth we have to do to make up for it. And I was thinking that the idea could be that god shattered into a million pieces that were scattered across the world. This leads to territory wars over places that’ve been determined to contain remains of god buried beneath the earth, and people invading indigenous civilizations in the name of holy tasks to dig for these relics. Power struggles over how many god burial grounds your country owns at any given time, controversy every time a digging operation fails to find a crystal. Pieces of god being used practically as currency, used to power magical weaponry in these wars... lies and deceit over fake godstones that no-one can prove you don’t own... * And this way even though magic does clearly exist in this world, it leaves it ambiguous whether religion is true, and whether any of the different sects is more accurate about the true will of god. It would seem reasonable that athiests exist here even when magic exists, thats usually a problem in fictional settings, you have gods right out here in the open yet some people still dont believe in them? XD It’d be like... yes maybe all these crystals that grant magical powers are actually fragments of an absent god. Maybe they grant those magical powers because of the reasons scripture tells us. Maybe if you bring them all together you can meet god and be granted one wish, maybe you could end the war. Buuuuuuuut.... maybe there’s just a natural crystal that grows underground and grants magical powers. Maybe nothing happens when you put it all together. Maybe it’s just like how people considered electricity to be unpredictable divine punishment before we learned how to harness it for ourselves.

* And there could be like... sects of the religion who believe god chose to leave us out of shame for our sinfulness, sects who believe a certain group of humans betrayed god and shattered them, thus holy war is justified against that country. Perhaps even sects that believe that god being shattered was a positive thing, that god chose to give fragments of their power to humans so they could choose their own destiny. (This is considered as scandalous as satan-worship in-universe) And there’s a related sect that believes that humans only even came into existance after the shattering event, that shattering into pieces was how god granted sentience and free will to the angelic servants we used to be. And this has permenantly corrupted us, thus the sin that we need to undo in order to retun god is... individuality, in all its forms. I think these are the ones who had the very extreme fanatical members who ran Malachi’s former church, and committed various atrocities including his murder. (Though, again, this doesnt mean that the viewpoint is inherantly evil. Just the people who took it from ‘tranquility, enlightenment and fealty to fellow man’ to ‘LITERALLY NO INDIVIDUALITY EVER’) ....hmmm, actually the morality system could be even more complex if I nail down a set of different factions of the religion and let you choose between all of them in the end. (or choosing none of them, or choosing your own interpretation) And there’d sorta be a fanatical/critical morality bar too, which determines whether you get the good or bad ending. In this case ‘critical’ would be the good option, I mean it more like... ‘I’ve analyzed everything about this scripture and come to my own conclusions, I won’t do anything immoral out of blind belief unless I actually have reasons to agree that it’s the right choice’. Aka how any normal good person decides on a religion to follow. And the fanatical side would be leaning towards never questioning. So sometimes you would have to like... take options that would seem like ‘the bad option’. Dont just blindly agree with everything that points to a particular faction viewpoint, that’ll lead to badness! Sometimes you have to question things, take it from the perspective of a character who is discovering their own faith, rather than a player who already knows from the beginning what option they want to pick.

* Man this has got complicated lol, I’m starting to ramble!

* Anyway, i was thinking this would explain what the ‘demons’ are, in this world. Normally humans can only use magic by using godstone as a power source, demon is a universal term for all creatures that are made of magic and can use it infinately as part of their very being. They’re considered unholy and must be destroyed, because they’re ‘imprisoning’ a shard of god inside them. And its really unfair because its a complete and utter random chance if someone becomes a demon when they die, you can live your entire life thinking you’re a normal human until the godstone in your heart activates and saves your life. Your life which is now ressurected in a monsterous form and can never return to your old family. The traditions say that it only happens to people who are sinful, thus they totally deserve to be slain, of course! Oh, and I think the main evil army guys would be using demons as weapons, which is part of why the anti-demon sentiment is like... even worse than usual in the protagonist’s country. Its incredibly depressing because demons are completely sentient, and the only way they become mindless battle monsters is if they’re tortured beyond breaking point. The same way you’d reduce a human to that state. But the protagonist starts off not even knowing that demons can talk until she meets Florin, she’s only ever seen these demonic ‘soldiers’ that’re really just whipped and beaten prisoners chained together and thrown towards the enemy in the hope both parties kill each other. “Yeah but why do so many demons ally with the empire?” *florin looks into the camera like he’s on the office* And I was thinking maybe a more positive religious interpretation of the existance of demons could be that they’re actually angels instead. (Yeah, even if this religion is very different its gonna probably have a lot of similarities to protestant christianity since that’s what I was raised in. i dont feel comfortable critcising someone else’s religion that I’m not personally experienced with, yknow?) ANYWAY SORRY FOR THAT ASIDE Yeah, there could be some very rare pro-demon religious folk who believe that those who are reborn after death are actually chosen ones rather than sinful. These fragments of god blessed certain people who were pure enough in heart to earn the power to be able to enact god’s love to the world. Because even though god is in pieces, god very much wants to forgive us. These magical beings are sent as god’s messengers to help guide us on the right path to redemption. That’s why they have such great powers of creation! (though others would say its destruction...) A single plant demon like Florin could watch over and sustain an entire forest, revive it from drought and become a cornerstone to build a whole city around! Though even this faction isnt 100% correct or incorruptable, there are those who’d interpret this as demons having a DUTY to do that. There are rogue members of this faction who enslave demons just as much as the people who use them as weapons. I was thinking a plot could be that Florin almost gets suckered in by a band of these guys, he’s just so overwhelmed to find anyone who doesnt hate demons! But they want to imprison him and force him to grow their crops forever until he dies of exhaustion, because that’ll mean he’s ~happily fullfilled his purpose and rejoined god~. I mean, if he says he doesnt want to, thats just so sad! That means this pure angel has been corrupted by humanity’s sin, he doesnt know what he’s saying! * man i have so many ideas aaaaa

#cathedral tower defense #sorry long post #i need to nail down a set amount of factions for the religious war and think up names for them and stuff #and like... countries #and which countries have how much of each faction #i think the main villain army would be like a totalitarian state where one religious faction is enforced by law #but for everyone else country doesnt equal faction #i think to make the scope of this thing small enough to fit with a mostly self-contained story in a single town...#it would be best to keep it to just two countries- enemy guys and the protagonists's country #maybe mention other countries in passing to add flavour tho #like 'we were supposed to get humanitarian aid from [place]'#and maybe the protagonist is new to this country actually? maybe her entire country was taken over by the villains rather than just hometown

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