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alltheworldsinmyhead · 4 years

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ON FEYSAND’S PLOTLINE IN ACOSF

!!!!MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE ACOSF!!!!

Let’s be honest for a while, okay?

ACOCF had potential to be SJM’s best book, if not for any other reason then because of the sheer idea of it. Coming-of-age, healing story of the most complex and polarizing character she has ever created set in the time of peace, away from the familiar setting (according to the later changed concept which still remains in the snippet at the end of ACOFAS), development of her arguably most feisty and angsty love story... It could be her absolute trumph. Even with the change to stick to Velaris instead of exploring the Illyrian culture of the Mountains and with the added conflict of the Mortal Queens and Koshei, it still could work quite well.

It didn’t. For many, many reasons, but the most important one, in my opinion, being the feysand pregnancy plot.

Nothing about this plotline made sense. Not a single thing. From start to finish, it was an absolute disaster from the character-writing POV, from the narration POV, from every single context of it. It broke the rules of real-life logic, it broke the rules of this fantasy world setting and it completely exposed that Rhysand, while not a bad guy, is a pretty terrible partner, even worse ruler and an absolutely terrible contender for the High King title.

Let’s break this whole mess down (and expect this post to be mammoth-sized. it’s not my fault, though, write to SJM if you have any complains):

1) Feyre, 21, decides to get pregnant, even though less than a year earlier, she expresses the delight with not being forced to bear children to her new mate and told him herself she wants to wait a while and enjoy her life with him. Feyre decides she wants a baby though and Rhysand goes along with it, even though he is aware how young Feyre is and how hard her life has been up until this point. He wants a baby too much to have an honest discussion with Feyre about it, to stop and wonder what is the reason for her sudden change of heart, to reassure her that they have a lot of time ahead of them and don’t need to rush. No. She mades a sudden decision to have a baby after A YEAR OF MARRIAGE and not much more of being turned fae, JUST AFTER having her whole world put upside down, having received a completely new title and responsibilities, surviving the wat and being mated. Great.

2) Feyre decides to get pregnant and Rhys goes along with it less than a year after the end of the bloody war. It is politically a delicate time, everyone is still not sure how the balance will shift, some countries don;t want to sign the peace treaty, etc. There are a lot of enemies and a lot of turmoil remaining. But sure. Let’s have a baby. Perfect time to add yet another target, another weakness that can be use by the Mortal Queens, Beron or whatever else with malicious intent towards the Night Court.

2) Feyre gets pregnant after approximately a year of trying. I know healthy people of reproductive age for whom it takes ages more than this. Fae’s pregnancies are rare af and precious and happen once in a blue moon, but ofc SJM broke the world’s rules for her darling Feyre. And again, for Kallas and Vivianne who are also expecting the baby, even though it has been a maximum of 3 years since they’ve mated. 3 years is also not a particularly long time to try to have a baby for those who have issues with their reproductive systems like Fae women. Thank you, next.

3) Rhys has unprotected sex with Feyre in her Illyrian form when she conceives, even though he knows full well having a winged baby would kill her. He does it anyway, for shits and giggles apparently. They probably have sex in the sky above Velaris, for all we know.

4) The baby has wings. Now, the whole explanation with Illyrian wings being bony (bc they resemble bat wings) and Seraphin ones being more flexible (bc they resemble bird ones) is so insanely stupid that it takes around 3 seconds to wikipedia this shit and find out it’s exactly the opposite. But okay, the baby has wings and Feyre will die while giving birth, along with the baby. Madja forbids Feyre from turning into an Illyrian to carry the pregnancy because it MIGHT hurt the baby. Now, remember, Feyre conceived while in Illyrian form and then turned into High Fae. The baby survived it just fine. The baby MIGHT be hurt by Feyre turning .... but it will FOR SURE die if she stays High Fae and Feyre will too. Idk about you, but I would take the risk of MIGHT instead of FOR SURE. Especially when she is already in labour and dying. Cauldron or Nesta or idk who alters Feyre’s pelvis after the baby is cut out of her for no apparent reason but to allow feysand to make exactly the same mistakes later on. How convinient. And Nesta also alters her own pelvis bc god forbid she won’t be able give Cassian babies like the little useful mate she is now. She should’ve probably done it with Elain too, just in case she decides to fuck Az in the future, because fuck consequences and fuck the stakes in the story that make the readers actually CARE about characters bc they know the author may actually kill them and not save their life every fucking time.

5) I don’t even want to comment on the fact Rhys hid the true danger of this pregnancy for Feyre and their family went along with it. It is absolutely disgusting. And Nesta telling her and that being condemned as the act of the ultimate cruelty which is a final straw to break her self-loathing back.... is abhorrent. It made my sick, actually, phisically sick. There is no justification for it. No at all. And the fact that they did not even consider abortion sends a message that I really don’t want to think too much about it. Feyre was 2 months along when they learned the baby is winged. 2 months. 8 weeks. It wasn’t a baby yet, let’s be honest. They could’ve at least discussed it. She - oh my god, I cannot believe SJM wrote it this way, I’m gonna be sick.

6) For the entirety of Feyre’s pregnancy, they have no plan to really help her. Labour plan? Haven’t heard if it. They have money and power and access to the healers of the whole land. And did not figure out how to stop her from bleeding out after a fucking C-section. THIS WORLD HAS MAGIC AND THEY COULDN’T STOP HER FROM BLEEDING OUT AFTER A FUCKING C-SECTION. Didn’t even ask Thesan, the High Lord of Healing, to be present. Cassian had guts hanging out of his stomach and survived. Az was fucking slashed apart in Hybern and survived. But yeah, Feyre was on a brink of death after a C-section. Great, Sarah. Keep it up. Let’s force the thought into young girls’ heads that labour is the most lethal thing ever, why not.

7) Also, for the entirety of Feyre’s pregnancy, Rhys keeps quiet about this idiotic bargain. He, as far as we know, doesn’t make any plans for the moment when him and Feyre and possibly their baby are dead. If they died and baby survived.. who would take care of it? Does Rhys have a conversation with his family about it? NAH. Doesn’t write any sort of plan how to keep the Court going, doesn’t inform even the closest of his co-workers how they should proceed to act after he’s gone and his and Feyre’s power go to god-knows-who. Their deaths would mean a sure chaos for the weakend and fragile Prythian and the Night Court especially and yet nor Rhys nor Feyre make any sort of preparations for it. Rhys doesn’t tell his brothers or Mor or HIS SECOND IN COMMAND they will all soon have to somehow manage without him. He was about to just leave them to their own devices and told them in the last. possible. moment.

And this man - this man is, according to Amren, the best candidate to handle the whole country? To unite it? This fool who makes idiotic bargains, who thinks first about his cock and his own selfish desires and considers his subjects and his responsibilities as a High Lord last and least important of all? Who has so much trust in his wife, in his High Lady, the mother of his son that he doesn’t tell her she will almost surely die on a birthing bed because it MAY UPSET HER?

This plotline was the straw that broke my back. ACOTAR, at it’s heart has always been a ya fantasy with added ‘spice’ and I was willing to bend my critical-thinking skills in many cases and forget and forgive many smaller idiotic issues in this series. But this? It is not idiotic. It is massive and stupid to the point when it becomes insulting to the reader. It was a plot straight out of a bad fanfic, not something that should be in a published book written by someone who writes for a living. You could even argue that Twilight has handled this toxic trope better. I have wasted my money on this book and thinking about it will always be painful for me. So yeah.

ACOSF could be great. Ended up quite pathetic.

#acosf #acosf spoilers #a court of silver flames #rhysand #feysand

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vg-sanctuary · 3 years

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Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

Moonsprout Games - Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC - 2019

I don't like the core gameplay of 99% of all RPGs, but the ones I do like have been some of my favorite games I've ever played. case in point, Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, a modern interpretation of the classic Paper Mario formula and an ideal example of indie developers adding to the legacy of a cult classic. its main feature is turn-based combat with action commands, like old Paper Mario or the Mario & Luigi series, and strategy in its intentional design and small health and damage numbers that goes way beyond "spam damage and heal every third turn, use mana items as needed". (in case you want to be 100% blind for your playthrough, past the Keep Reading link are some very minor spoilers: an item a specific cook can make after a side quest, some basic enemies, environments that are about halfway through the game, and the names of some medals.)

“wow, vg-sanctuary posting about a game that's not even two years old at time of writing? and it's an RPG? are you not a retro/legacy blog anymore? who are you and what have you done with the writer?” I still am a retro/legacy blog, mostly, just this time I thought I'd share something that its developers still get money from, and whose developers aren't mega corporations. and I just beat it, enjoyed it, and really felt like writing about it because it still doesn't have the popularity it deserves even after that puppet guy on YouTube talked about it. not that this post is going to reach any significant number of people, but still. I'll write about some more indie games sometime in the future. (and indeed I am writing about another RPG and you better believe it has a lot to talk about.)

anyway, Bug Fables starts with a brash little bee called Vi and a polite and honorable beetle named Kabbu wandering into an explorer's guild and not having a partner to join the guild with. they reluctantly decide they're going to fight together because companionship is a requirement for this guild, foiling off each other and sometimes off their third friend Leif, a blue moth they find in a cave, for the whole game. every character has a distinct personality and all the party members get some valuable character development through a side quest, which I really liked, but I'm no connoisseur of RPG stories. while I'm on story, people that come here looking for a well-made world will get what they want from the many optional lore books hidden around the world.

the plot becomes more complex and compelling as the game continues, though it generally lets gameplay take the spotlight. which is great, because the gameplay is also mostly great. about a third of it is doing puzzles on the overworld using the abilities of each character to move forward a la the Mario & Luigi series. they generally make use of whatever your newest overworld ability is, and some areas early on have inaccessible things you have to come back to, sort of like a Metroidvania except it isn't required to do this for progression. some puzzles take longer they could because they involve using Kabbu's horn to repeatedly fling an ice block many times over a distance. it's never egregious, but it could have been faster if the guy would use his arms. this is a minor caveat and not a majority of the game.

a lot of people probably don't know how the combat for this or Paper Mario works, and it's really important to Bug Fables, so I'll explain that here. it's turn based, which is typical, but basic attacks and skills need you to time a button press to do as much damage as possible. you can also time a button press when an enemy attacks to take less damage. Paper Mario and Bug Fables also both have medals instead of other equipment that give characters higher max HP or a new skill, for example. you have limited medal points and stronger medals require more points.

this is going to sound like a lot, but any RPG's combat will sound like a lot if you try to detail it in a single paragraph. the game introduces these things slower than I am here. in Bug Fables specifically, the character standing in the front of the group does one extra damage but is more likely to be attacked, and you can pass turns from one character to another in exchange for that character dealing one less damage (which is a lot because basic attacks only deal two damage by default). certain enemies can only be hit by certain attacks; some enemies fly, so Kabbu can't hit them until Vi knocks them down with her beemerang. not a typo, beemerang. and many of Bug Fables' status effects have upsides -- being paralyzed reduces damage taken everything by one, poison has many medals that make it a good thing, and being asleep heals the sleeping character every turn. there are others that are straight up bad things, though, and usually don't come until later. all of this adds up to even small encounters having strategic depth, which is great, and if you don't feel like small encounters you can just avoid them. skills that would typically be relegated to one character, like healing and support skills all going to one, are instead split between party members to make decisions more difficult in a good way. there's also a lovely medal that instantly kills any enemy the game deems too easy for you, sort of like in Earthbound.

I figure I spent more time doing housekeeping like cooking (simple A+B=C or A-becomes-B crafting), buying items, and arranging medals in Bug Fables than in any other RPG, which is because it was designed that way. by the way, cooking recipes start hidden, but a foodie at each restaurant will share some strong ones for free, which is a big help early on. anyone who's played The World Ends with You (i.e. me) will be spoiled by its excellent quality of life: no consumable items and you instantly heal to full after every encounter. it makes items seem like a ridiculous formality that RPGs only still have because they've had them for years, but in Bug Fables any item that isn't simple healing -- a lot of them aren't simple healing -- has great strategic use, and the exact way you spend your medal points can determine whether you win or lose any fight, especially bosses. for example, one character having one extra damage for two turns when they typically only do two is pretty important, especially when they use an attack that does multiple hits, and having it in item form saves valuable medal points and skill points. part of that time was kind of a waste, though, because I generally had one set of medals I use for multiple enemies and one I use for single enemies like bosses. being able to save loadouts would have helped a lot. I would like to compliment Bug Fables on allowing you to restart any boss with different medals without having to repeat cutscenes, and commend it for letting you do-over your level up bonuses late in the game when it starts to matter.

it's not like spending a lot of time on strategizing before fights is strictly mandatory. I was mostly playing on hard mode where enemies have more health and more difficult attacks, and mostly with a medal called Hard Hits that makes all enemies deal one extra damage in exchange for extra money after each fight. it can be less difficult if you'd like, but it's never mindless; even if you're doing a strategy that manages 20 or 30 damage (again, a lot in this game) in a single turn, it takes effort to choose your medals to do so much damage and actually play the strategy out in combat. the combat strategy is the best part of Bug Fables, and it makes each fight almost like a puzzle. I've typed some form of "strategy" six times so far, which is fair because it's the best part of Bug Fables. don't let it put you off, though, it's RPG combat strategy, not chess-like or RTS or something, so if you've enjoyed any other turn-based RPG it should be easy to get used to.

it's also worth mentioning the ample side content. each chapter of the game unlocks a handful of side quests, some about trading, some about combat, and almost as many bonus bosses as main bosses. you're allowed to fight them fairly early on, and a few become available after the final boss that are actually a bit harder than it in classic Paper Mario fashion. basically, if you like Bug Fables, there's a lot of it to play. there's even a trading card minigame because of course there is. it's fairly fleshed out, too, and unlike the one in Chocobo Tales the animations between turns don't take six years. the reward for the whole card side quest isn't something that's important for combat, so you can skip it if you don't like it; I didn't especially like it so I think that was a great decision on the developers' part.

rewards for some of the other side content, though, are so good it's kind of a wonder they can be completely skipped. it doesn't make the game harder to not have those skills or medals, but they are some of the best in the game and undeniably really useful. they make great side quest rewards in that sense, but it's important to know for the people that usually wouldn't do side content. I don't know if that's a common kind of player, but just in case. (this game's 100% achievement has been earned by a sky-high 5.9% of players on Steam. usually it's more like 2% or less. the point is none of the extra content is overly obtuse.)

I will complain about the forced stealth sections though. and be astounded that they fixed the main issue with them in the last stealth section. these are minor caveats and take well under an hour total unless you're really, really, really bad at sneaking, but they bothered me when I got to them. I mean, I understand why they're in the game, I understand why Zelda has them, but I didn't really like them. the main issue for all but the last stealth section is that there's no vision cone or other indication that "if you stand here they will see you" or even an opportunity to recover from mistakes which are incredibly important for playable stealth. the last stealth section does have a vision cone and does have an opportunity to recover from mistakes, which is a great step up. I would like to use even more italics to remind you that these sections total less than an hour of gameplay. Zelda: Breath of the Wild's forced-ish stealth was much worse than this.

I don't know where else to put it, so I'll add here that the soundtrack is great and the graphics are perfectly Gamecube-y and the sprites capture the cuteness of Paper Mario really well, even though they're, you know, bugs. each environment is distinct and themed well, and each one’s music matches well. I really wish I knew how to talk about music because there are a lot of different songs in this game that work well for what they go with. boss music sounds intense and boss-y and appropriate for each boss you're fighting, the not-music hits just right, and everything else feels good. some songs use Nintendo 64 MIDI instruments, which I loved. and the bee boss music has a synth that sounds like bees buzzing.

anyone that likes RPGs -- and even some people that don't -- will probably enjoy the story and strategy that make up the excellent Bug Fables. it goes beyond being a homage to Paper Mario and becomes its own thing entirely, though its roots are obvious from the art style. not that this takes away from it -- Paper Mario is a great legacy, and this manages to be even better. for all its little bad things there are a dozen great ones. I admit I haven't played the classic Paper Mario games, but this made me want more -- I guess I'll have to go back while I hope for Moonsprout Games to continue forward.

#bug fables #bug fables the everlasting sapling #my writing #this was also on amazon luna but i didnt figure anyone would care if i omitted it #also screenshots i took myself wow

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theoriginalladya · 4 years

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“ why do you walk around as if you’re somehow less valuable than the rest of the world? ” for Alexandre

from this list

On AO3 here

Oh, thank you for asking about Alexandre!!!!! *cracks knuckles* Time to dig deep for all that French I learned in school! lol ;)

Huge thanks to @nightmarestudio606 for looking this over for me! <3

~~~~

2178, Alenko orchard, BC Interior

It astounds Alexandre that he and Kaidan were able to get shore leave at the same time yet again. After the last time, he thought it might be impossible. Sure, the Skyllian Blitz was far from their fault, but the Alliance is not known for their sense of humor, dry or not. Then again, just how ‘wild’ could the interior of Canada be in the middle of winter? Certainly not on the same level as the Blitz. Right?

It has been a long time since Alexandre last visited the Alenko orchard, and so much has happened since then. And though it was only a short stay last time – just under a year – he did fall in love with the place. The scenic views. Kaidan’s welcoming family. The instant acceptance of him and his biotics without question; such a different experience with family than his mother and brother, one that left him with a far greater appreciation for family.

Since his enlistment, however, finding opportunity to return has not been easy. Add to that, he is used to being on ships, traveling the galaxy, no ties to any one place. So, the idea of returning to BC to visit is difficult to process for him, more so because, unless Kaidan is with him it doesn’t feel right. Then again, the only time they have been able to get leave together before now they were both deployed. Elysium was closer, relatively inexpensive, and someplace new worth exploring and experiencing. Had he known how it would turn out, he might have made more of an effort to head back to Earth instead.

This time around, however, they head home. Kaidan arrives first, a day ahead of Alexandre, so when Shepard lands at the transport station in Kamloops the next day, he is met by all three Alenkos. As before, he is welcomed with open arms, quite literally, and all of this despite his current disreputable-looking condition. Logan and Nathalie cannot hide a startled expression at first, but he reassures them all is well, he is fine and very grateful to have leave among friends. Kaidan hides his reaction better, though Alexandre still notes a tightness at the corner of his eyes. He does not make a big deal of it, quietly asking as they climb into the back of the skycar, “Migraine?”

Kaidan shakes his head, raising a finger to trace the new N7 insignia on Alexandre’s collar tab. The same finger slips beneath the material, brushing against an inch-long medigel-covered wound. “I want to ask how things went, but I know you can’t talk about them.”

Alexandre chuckles softly, tiredly, but grasps his hand, pulling it away and squeezing gently. “All that matters is the outcome, is it not?”

Kaidan’s lips press into a thin line. “You look half-starved!”

“I am fine, mon étoile,** I promise!”

Alexandre does, however, lie his head on Kaidan’s shoulder as Logan Alenko guides them in the direction of the orchard. Though he expects Kaidan to continue the discussion, he does not, and Alexandre is able to fall into a light doze until they pull up in front of the house. Stretching and yawning as he exits the vehicle, he grabs his duffle and heads inside the house and up to his old room, one that, Nathalie assures him, is just as he left it.

For the rest of that afternoon and over the next couple of days, Alexandre settles back into civilian life. It takes a bit of time to get used to, especially after the trials of completing his N7 training, but there is no pressure, no tension, nothing like what he would have faced with his mother and brother. More importantly, he has time to simply be with Kaidan. Whether assisting around the orchard or the house or relaxing together, just being in proximity to his partner brings with it a comfort he has sorely missed.

But this comfort, he notices early on, may only be one sided. While they do spend time together, and outwardly appearances seem normal, Alexandre senses something troubling Kaidan. At first, he says nothing; after being apart for so long, it takes time to become familiar with one another again, he understands this. And yet, when their fourth day, nearly half of their leave, passes and he it feels as if a wall is growing between them, Alexandre decides it is time to talk.

That evening, he finds Kaidan sitting on the porch swing watching as a summer storm blows through the area. Rain and wind, occasional flickers of lightning, but nothing so severe to warrant an immediate retreat indoors, Alexandre joins him.

The swing drifts lazily, barely moving as Kaidan’s arm rests along the back edge, his head upon the arm. Alexandre settles in the space behind him. “I have brough tea, mon étoile,” he murmurs quietly, gently nudging the mug against his arm.

Kaidan half-turns to take it from him, but says nothing. Not even offering thanks. This is when Alexandre knows something serious is wrong. He sips at his own mug and listens to the rain fall and the occasional crack of thunder. Having grown up on ships most of his life, it fascinates him and finds he misses it when he is not around it. It soothes him in ways he cannot explain.

After a few minutes, after attempting to slide his hand around Kaidan’s shoulder as he leans closer only to have the other man pull stiffly away, Alexandre remains silent no longer. “What is it, Kaidan?”

Kaidan says nothing, staring out across the yard to the rows of trees beyond.

It tests the limits of Alexandre’s patience, yet if anyone can get away with it, it is Kaidan. “Mon étoile? Talk to me, s’il te plait.”**

A sigh, heavy with regret and reluctance, escapes the man’s lips. “What do you want me to say?”

“I wish for you to tell me what troubles you,” Alexandre replies quietly, honestly. Again, he attempts to slide his arm around Kaidan to join their hands. This time, Kaidan accepts it, lacing their fingers together. Alexandre slides closer behind him, resting his elbow on the back of the swing and holding his tea off to the side so as not to spill it on him. “Why is it you walk around as if you think you are somehow less valuable than the rest of the world?”

Kaidan stiffens, the hold on Alexandre’s hand tightening briefly, almost painfully, as if guilt or shame guides him now. Alexandre presses a light kiss at the edge of the neck of Kaidan’s t-shirt, just where the neck and shoulder join. Kaidan sips quietly at his tea, stares out across the yard, eventually inhaling deeply and releasing the tension within as he exhales. “You always could see right through me.”

Alexandre smiles against his skin. “As you can me,” he points out. “If our positions were reversed, would you not call me out?”

“I don’t deserve you.”

Alexandre does not even acknowledge that comment, instead repeating, “Qu’est-ce qui se passe?”**

A bright flash of lightning, nearly blinding in intensity, arcs across the sky. Within a second or two, a violent wave of thunder shakes the earth beneath and the air around them. In that one moment, Alexandre feels a tremor skitter across his partner’s shoulders. “Kaidan?”

“Akuze,” he whispers tightly. “It’s still Akuze.”

Carefully, Alexandre sets both mugs aside so they do not spill. When this is done, he wraps both arms around Kaidan, resting his chin on one shoulder, hugging him close. “What about it?”

Another shudder. This time when he speaks, Kaidan’s voice cracks. “I … can’t. Alex, it isn’t fair to you!” He turns, facing him at long last but averting his eyes.

One dark eyebrow arches in surprise. “Pourquoi?”** Reaching out, Alexandre gently nudges Kaidan beneath his chin, urging him to look up at him. “Have we not agreed to share everything with the other?”

Sniffling softly, Kaidan nods. “But we aren’t –.”

Dipping his head lower, he presses a light kiss to Kaidan’s cheek. “It has not stopped you before,” he insists, “nor has it stopped me in past.” Kaidan lifts his head, slowly lifting his eyes so they meet. Alexandre smiles and frames his face with his hands. “I am here for you, mon étoile, however, whenever you may need me.”

Kaidan traces his finger over the now mostly-healed wound on Alexandre’s neck. “But you are still recovering from your last mission!”

“All the more reason to know I can handle whatever you have to tell me,” Alexandre insists. “Trust me.”

“I do!”

Thunder rumbles around them again, the wind gaining strength as rain picks up tempo, heedless of what is in the way. Neither of them pay it any attention. Instead, Kaidan’s arms slide around Alexandre’s chest, pulling him as close as he can, holding on like one desperately holding onto life. It is not unfamiliar, having been the same reaction he displayed after being rescued off Akuze the year before. Patient as always, Alexandre moves willingly, allowing the other man to guide him as he needs. It is some time before Kaidan relents, quietly whispering. Once he starts, however, he keeps going until he releases it all, including the tension that acts as a wall between them. By that time, the storm is well past, the sun is set and above them, the skies shine brightly. Wrapped around the other, they stare up at the night sky in silence, savoring the closeness.

“That one,” Alexandre murmurs near Kaidan’s ear, lifting their joint hands and pointing towards one star. “One day, you and I will go to that system together. On a mission.”

Kaidan chuckles softly. “For what purpose.”

Alexandre smiles against his ear, replying, “Why, to save the galaxy, of course.”

Kaidan’s hand tightens. “I think I would prefer shore leave …”

~~~~

**mon étoile = literally, “my star,” a term of endearment

**s’il te plait = if you please

** Qu’est-ce qui se passe = what happened

**Pourquoi = why

#writing prompts #ladya writes #Alexandre Shepard #mshenko #Kaidan Alenko #OTP: Copains de Combat #assumes Kaidan Alenko was on Akuze #mass effect #French Shepard #maxrev

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itzfreakingbats · 6 years

Text

Surprises

Quentin Beck X Reader

Word Count: 1847

Prompt: Ok hear me out for a x reader thing with Quentin Beck 😂 Let’s say the reader doesn’t know about his whole “Mysterio” alter ego and doesn’t end up finding out until they go on vacation in Venice or wherever the trailer shows him fighting off Hydron/Hydro and the only reason the reader finds out is due to getting in the path of Hydron/Hydro when it’s attacking and Quentin goes to save the reader 🤔 Maybe something like the scene in the trailer where Pete gets knocked over by the blast of water 😂

A/N: The trailer’s been out for twenty four hours, and I’m already writing fanfiction for this doofus. I’m already writing a part two. Let me know if I should post it! Enjoy <3

Part Two

The vast Venice landscape rolled and rolled before you, and you fell into a peaceful silence, enjoying the small moment you had to yourself. Quen had insisted that the two of you go to Venice together, and with your upcoming anniversary, you thought it appropriate. Venice had always intrigued you, and it was a dream come true to say the least. However, even the two of you couldn’t hide from responsibility for long; the morning of your sixth day in the city started with Quentin receiving a memo about a meeting with Oscorp later that day. You had been slightly irritated when Quentin had told you, but you decided you’d use the hour or so to explore the area around the hotel. You were currently leaning against the railing of a bridge, with your gaze on the breathtaking cityscape, and your fears and stressors far away, it seemed.

You heard the footsteps k approach you.

“Ma’am?” the voice said, and before you was the kid who had just walked past just moments before. You looked around quickly before sizing him up.

“Hi, can I help you?” you asked politely

“Oh, thank god you speak English,” he said more to himself than anyone. “Uh, yeah. I was just wondering if you could maybe help me?”

You nodded.

“You lost?” you asked the kid.

“I, uh, was with some friends, and I managed to get-get lost, yeah,” he stammered slightly, sounding somewhat embarrassed to admit it. You hummed to yourself, before asking, “Do you have a phone on you?” He shook his head, and you hummed once more as you opened up the internet search on your own phone.

“Which hotel are you and your friends staying at?” you asked.

“Uh, the Ca Foscari, I think?” he replied, shoving his hands in his pockets. He looked over his shoulder, something you did not miss.

“Okay, just let me text my honey, and I’ll pull up a map. What was your name, kid?” you asked, your eyes never leaving your phone.

“Uh, Peter,” he said, and you politely gave him your name in response.

“It’s more or less a straight, twenty five minute walk from here,” you said, observing the map, but a quick glance at the kid told you he was busy looking elsewhere. The kid was staring at the sky with narrowed eyes and a perplexed expression. You were taken aback by that, unsure of what he was so anxious of. ‘Then again, if you’d been lost in a city at the age of sixteen, you might feel the same way,’ you reasoned with yourself.

“Okay, we’re gonna head south to start with,” you began, but stopped when the kid walked in the opposite direction, with the perplexed expression more prominent upon his face. You frowned, and whistled to get his attention.

“Kid— Peter, we want to go this way,” you said, inching away from him. When he looked back at you, there was an unparalleled fear in his eyes, one that made you stop in your tracks.

“Something’s not right,” the kid murmured, and you shot him an incredulous look.

“What are you talking—” you started, but you fell silent at the mysterious sight before you. You could have sworn that you had just had your eyes checked, that you were fitted for the right contacts, even; but in that moment you were almost sure you were seeing things. In the distance, a mass of water almost shaped like an outline of a body was manifesting in the sky.

“What the fuck?” you asked yourself. It seemed to be getting closer. You stepped back slightly, when the boy caught your attention. He was, understandably, running away from the incoming visitor. However, he seemed to brace himself, before flinging his body onto a nearby roof.

“Hey! Hey, kid! What are you— how in the hell…? Get down from there!” you called, still unsure of how he managed to attempt that.

“Peter, I really think we should drop you off at your hotel now,” you started, before a monstrous roar was heard in the distance. You nearly dropped your phone over the railing at the noise, and you whipped around to see that the creature was slowly moving in your direction.

“Okay, we can leave now,” you said fearfully, wondering where Peter had escaped to, but your eyes never left the monster before you. You shrieked as the monster’s pace increased and in the next moment, all you knew was water. You were suddenly aware of a body around yours, as if it was holding you in place. After a few moments, the rush was over, and you coughed up the extra water in your lungs, as you braced yourself against the ground.

“Holy shit,” the kid said as he sat against the railing.

“Are you okay?” he asked, wiping the excess water from his eyes. You nodded slowly, still unsure of how to appropriately react. Was this another extraterrestrial attack? Of course this would happen on your vacation. There was a beat, when the boy prodded your arm gently.

“It’s coming back this way,” Peter said, and you nodded.

“Let’s get out of here,” you said, and Peter acted suddenly. From his wrist was a string of what looked like webbing, and before you could react, you went up.

“What the fuck?” you nearly shrieked for the second time that day as he swung himself to the top of the nearest building, away from the creature. When the two of you landed on top of the building, you pulled yourself out of his reach.

“Ma’am,” the boy said, his tone almost cautious.

“You...are you...Spiderman? That kid from Queens?”

One look at his wrist and you saw that he indeed had what looked like the devices that the Spiderman was seen wearing.

“You are!” you breathed. “You’re the one that fought Captain America at that teeny little airport, aren’t you?” .

“Why, uh, yes,” he said, making his voice lower when he spoke next. “Why, yes, I did fight Captain America.”

You almost laughed at how ridiculous the situation was: all you had wanted was some peace and quiet, and somehow, in Italy of all places, you met the webslinging teen himself and you were attacked by some sort of extraterrestrial creature. What would Quen say? You groaned suddenly as you thought about your now drowned phone. How the hell were you going to get ahold of anyone in this blasted city now?

You were suddenly distracted by the feeling of someone pulling at your wet sleeve.

“M-ma’am,” Peter said, pulling you out of your reverie.You looked up and saw the boy staring with his jaw open, and you followed where his gaze was set: the monster was getting closer again. Instead of becoming soaked once more, you opted to turn around and leave, but Peter acted before you could do so. He shot as many webs as quickly as the could at the mass, trying to somehow quell it. However, it was useless. It only angered the creature. Just as the creature roared and began to tromp toward the two of you once more, a green light jutted out and struck the mass in the middle. You looked for the source of the blast, and saw a shimmer of green smoke when suddenly, a man appeared.

And before you was...Quentin?

You felt your jaw drop as your partner appeared before you, decked out in what you could only compare to something a Roman general might wear. He didn’t seem to notice you, as he instead issued what sounded like orders.

“You don’t want any part in this,” he said to the two of you, before throwing green light from his hands at the mass of water. You couldn’t bring yourself to move, even as the kid was attempting to pull you to safety.

“Ma’am, we gotta go, now,” he said insistently. You nodded slowly, but refused to pull your eyes from the sight before you; Quentin, in all of his dramatic glory, was throwing bolt after bolt of light at the water thing, and was narrowly dodging the hits that the creature was throwing his way.

Peter seemed to be perplexed by the man’s actions as well, and you didn’t blame him. You kept up on the news, and you knew about all of the superheroes, and the gods that graced the earth. You knew about the Avengers; hell, everyone did. But for Quentin to be one of them? A...a goddamned costumed hero? No, he was more than that. He had capabilities that you could hardly comprehend, capabilities that far surpassed your own.

“Who is this guy?” Peter asked, confounded by the twisted sort of dance happening between Quentin and...that thing.

“That’s my fiance,” you said, and you started shivering from the cold.

“Sorry?” Peter said, his voice going up an octave. You hoped that the look on your face was enough to keep Peter from asking further questions.

“Let’s go, please,” you said, carefully maneuvering your way around the tilted roof. Fate had a different idea, however, and your wet sneaker slipped from under you, and you fell towards the water with a yelp. When you didn’t feel the impact after a few moments, you opened your eyes, and saw that the Spiderman had caught you in a string of webbing. You almost cried out in relief, and you thanked him breathlessly, before you were thrown into the midst of another blast of water.

Your shriek was cut off as you were drenched once more, and you prayed to whatever deity would hear you that Peter wouldn’t let go of you. The force of the blast was such that you fell from Peter’s grip after a few moments, and you were barely aware of the noise that you released as you plummeted toward the river.

Time seemed to stop however, or maybe you did? The sky, instead of rushing past you, seemed as still as it had been when you’d been admiring it on the bridge. A bright green glow surrounded you, and you felt your breath leave your body when you saw that Quentin had you in his arms. You gazed at him, and it was a moment before he recognized you. His blue eyes widened comically at the sight of you, and you couldn’t stop the breathless quip that escaped your lips.

“How’s your meeting going, dear?”

#spiderman: ffh #smffh #mysterio x reader #quentin beck x reader #tom holland #jake gyllenhaal #mysterio #quentin beck

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divinion1990 · 5 years

Text

Sabretooth; Dusk/Dawn

One year ago, the Grand Magic Games were held in the capital city of Crocus. It had been a triumphant year in so many ways, even as Sabretooth had suffered a surprising loss at the hands of the reformed and renergized Fairy Tail. The battle itself, however, was vastly overshadowed by the near miss of the dark magic ‘Eclipse’. Everyone in Fiore knew how close the world had come to a terrible fate of ten thousand dragons. Only the sheer determination of Lucy Heartfillia’s future-self had managed to save the world, making sure that not a single dragon could escape Eclipse in their timeline.

“Are you going to be much longer?” Minerva said, throwing a less than playful glare in her master’s direction.

“Hang on, hang on,” Sting said, raising a hand to silence her. The new guildmaster refused to be rushed. He’d been studying the small piece of paper intently for a good five minutes now, making small hums to himself as he took in each word and strung them carefully into their set phrases. He must have read it a thousand times already, but he had to be completely certain that he wasn’t missing something important. “I need to make sure that everyone gets the right missions in my guild,” he explained.

“No, you don’t. That isn’t your job. You gave all mission approval to Rufus, remember?” Rogue pointed out to him, holding out his hand to take the mission request.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to double check,” Sting said with a small pout, giving the browning paper reluctantly back to Rogue. “I want to know you’ll be safe.”

“Don’t worry, he’s a big boy. He can do a mission without you,” Minerva said, a smile twisted on the corner of her mouth. “And even if he couldn’t, I’ll be here to protect him.”

“Fro thinks so too!” came a smaller voice from below.

Sting smiled as he leaned down to Frosch’s level. Minerva had a point; it wasn’t as if Rogue was going to be left on his own. Knowing that he had a very capable friend by his side made him feel a little more at ease. “You’ll make sure everyone comes home safe, Frosch?” he asked the smallest member of the party.

Frosch didn’t even need to think about it. He nodded and looked up at Minerva and Rogue, and then back to the approving, kind eyes of the master. “Frosch will look after everyone!”

Sting’s grin widened as he put an affectionate hand on the exceed’s hood with just enough pressure to make the cat giggle and shake away. He stood, sharing the expression with his other two friends. “Knock ‘em dead, guys.”

With the approval, both Minerva and Rogue let out a sigh of relief. It had taken some time, as had every mission before this one, but at least Sting was beginning to accept this would be an ongoing trend. “We won’t be long. If it all goes right, we’ll be back before dawn,” Minerva assured him.

“Dawn?” Sting asked again, the confidence fading as he looked back to the doorway. There weren’t many windows in their guild, but as the door opened and closed, he could see the glimmers of red light shimmering over the horizon. “But it’s just about to turn nightfall. Are you going straight away?”

“The mission was clear they wanted it actioned immediately,” Rogue reminded him.

“The quicker we can have it done the quicker you can get him back, Sting,” Minerva said, already taking Rogue by the arm and beginning to lead him towards the door. Just another subtle gesture to make Sting feel even more uncomfortable, even as her words remained kind and filled with reassurance. “I’ll bring him back soon.”

“Fro thinks so too!” Frosch told them, waving to Lector and Sting as he disappeared out of the guild door for the very last time.

Sting had tried to sleep. Really, he had. It was just a mission. Rogue and Sting had taken plenty of missions without one another over the years. They’d both worked alongside Minerva. Naturally, it made sense that Minerva and Rogue would take missions with just the two of them. And Frosch, of course. It was just normal. The natural progression of friendship.

He stared up at the ceiling, listening to the steady hum of Lector’s sleep. There was no reason for the dragon slayer to stay awake and think about the wellbeing of just one member of his guild, just one friend amongst so many. He had an entire guild to care for now. He had the responsibility of a family that had adored him enough to put him into that position of power. The shackles that kept him firmly inside the guildhall while people like Rogue could go and explore the world.

Jealousy. He decided it was pure jealousy. Because he should have been alongside them both. He should have been fighting with his partner, with his friend, for a great many years until he even began to think about anything like the responsibility of ‘master’. Maybe he could get out. Take on a few more last-minute missions. Go out with Rogue and Frosch and Lector just one last time, like the good old days.

Even with that explanation, there was a twisted feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Lector woke around the same time that he got up, though he insisted that the two were unrelated. Whatever the reason, Sting was happy to have his company as always. He could cope without Rogue and the others for a night or maybe even longer, but never without his exceed. They would do everything together – getting ready for the day as a unit. They left the house side by side, walked into their guild and made the same greetings to their nakama. They got breakfast together, eating and drinking almost in complete unison. And both of their eyes wandered back to the doorway time and time again.

The sun was rising in the sky. Dawn had passed a couple of hours earlier, and still there had been no sign of the small team. Sting had suspected from the start that they’d been overambitious in their prediction to be home so quickly, but that didn’t make him feel any better. Maybe they had got themselves into some kind of trouble, some distraction, or maybe just an adventure that Sting was now missing out on.

“Sting, we need to talk about the mission acceptance process.”

“Uh huh…” Sting said, more distracted as he took a sip from the coffee mug. A new obsession he’d developed with his promotion. “I told you, just go with whatever. I trust you.”

“That’s just the thing. We have a lot of new members and I don’t think I’ve seen enough to know-“

“Instincts, Rufus,” Sting explained to him, knowing that would prove to be difficult to someone that worked solely on memories. “I…”

He trailed off. He thought he caught something, a shift that was as familiar as his own heartbeat. A scent, filling the air. Finally! He thought to himself, quickly turning back to the doorway.

It opened, but it wasn’t the team that he’d expected to see. Another newcomer, another Sabretooth member that Sting had yet to build the incredible relationship with yet. Even more so now, he felt his heart dropping in disappointment. It wasn’t who he thought it was, but he’d definitely smelled-

“Sting?”

“Sorry!” Sting realised he’d stopped talking midsentence. He turned back to Rufus, pledging to himself to give him his undivided attention this time. “What was I saying? Instincts! Use your instincts. You’ll do great, I know you will,” he said, clasping his hand over Rufus’s shoulder.

The smell… There it was again! To make matters worse, as Sting tried to focus on Rufus, his eyes were drawn away. A shadow where there should have been light. A quivering black mark that scooted around the floor of the guildhall like a mischievous rodent. His eyes stayed wide as he watched it, not sure what to make of it. Why was a shadow there- why was this shadow acting in such a peculiar way?

“What are you looking-?”

“Ah! Nothing! Nothing- don’t worry about it!” Sting said suddenly, drawing Rufus’s attention back to the conversation as he shook his shoulder. At least, just long enough for the memory maker to miss the dark mark finally disappearing through the far door. He might not have understood why, but it was clear that the shadow was trying not to be seen. “Um, why don’t you make a list of, uh, the missions? And you know, categorise them or something. Alphabetise them. Colour code! Uh, be right back.”

He didn’t bother looking back. He just knew that Rufus was giving the back of his head a perplexed look. That was fine, at least it meant that he didn’t know enough to raise a question. Not that Sting would have known how to answer him. Not until he had this chance to disappear into his doorway of his office.

The small room was quiet. Almost too quiet. He sniffed against the air, more certain than ever that he was not alone, even if he couldn’t locate the mysterious shadow. Not only that, he could see the evidence. Sting was a messy individual, but even he wouldn’t have left his study in this condition; papers strewn across the floor, books pulled from bookcases and ornaments pushed around haphazardly across their surfaces.

“Rogue?”

There was no answer. Sting took another step forward, trying to work out which of the shadows was cast by light and which were a perpetual darkness. His mind was racing. Rogue would never keep himself hidden. He would never disappear from him, upturn his entire office and remain silent. This didn’t feel… right.

“Rogue, I know you’re here…” he tried again, keeping his voice softer.

There was a sudden scuffling. A shot through the light. The black mark bounced from under the desk, to the far side of the room. More books tumbled out of the bookcase, more letters flew into the air. The darkness shot up to the ceiling, curling into the corner.

“Rogue!” Sting found himself shouting, taking a step back from the mess. This was animalistic. It was blind and destructive. “What the hell…? Come down - talk to me!” he said, keeping his voice steady and clear. He was supposed to be an authoritative figure as master – but more than anything, a friend.

The shadow shivered. It twisted in the dark corner of the room, swirling ominously. The void had hollow eyes somewhere beneath the layers of mystery, and they were staring at the guildmaster. The darkness was quivering, ready to pounce, ready to fall, ready to attack, ready to surrender-

The shadow slipped into the empty patch on the floor, swirling into an inky black stain just in front of Sting. Although he’d seen it a thousand times, it was always mesmerising to watch Rogue’s body swallowed in reverse by the gaping hole, a dark silhouette gaining form and twisting into a vaguely human figure. The textures softened to skin and fabric and hair, the colours shifting to white, grey, and a deep crimson red.

Sting took a staggered step back. As the shadow dissolved into the familiar man, the scent of his best friend filled his nose. It was as overpowering as it was distorted, a sickening harmony of sweat, dirt, and blood. So much blood. His eyes traced over the dragon slayer’s body, across his chest, his arms, his legs, his sides, his shoulders, his neck… barely finding a patch on his outfit or skin that wasn’t cracking with dirty red stains.

“What happened to you? You’re hurt-” Sting whispered out, stepping forward.

“It isn’t mine.”

The words stopped Sting in his tracks. Rogue didn’t sound much like Rogue anymore. His voice was deep and filled with a frightening power when it felt it should have been at its weakest. In just a few words Sting had the overwhelming urge to fall to his knees, to beg for mercy. He swallowed instead, struggling to keep himself from shivering. “Who’s is it?” he asked.

Rogue didn’t answer. Instead, his eyes silently swept across the office. They were cold and filled with purpose even as they darted around. Suddenly, he launched himself across the room. Another pile of papers was torn apart, scattered in all directions as Rogue desperately poured over them.

“H-hey wait!” Sting said, still more than confused. The snowstorm of paperwork was drowning him, the red fingerprints staining every other sheet. “Slow down! What are you looking for?”

Rogue hissed under his breath. He seemed to struggle with himself on that answer, rocking back and forth as his eyes darted like a caged animal. He glanced up to Sting several times, before staring straight ahead, an argument he seemed to be both winning and losing raging in his mind. “The shadow,” he whispered eventually. He turned back to his counterpart, finally letting Sting see the redness in his eyes and the hollow horror trapped inside. “You have a plan, a way to get rid of the shadow. Where is it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about-“

“Yes, you do!” Rogue screamed, throwing yet another pile of papers around, this time for nothing but the pure destruction. He glared at Sting, the pain congealing into helpless anger directed at his friend. “Don’t pretend you don’t know! Don’t lie to me! You know exactly what I’m talking about so where is it-where is it??”

Sting tried to take another gentle step forward, even if every one of his instincts were telling him to step away. He’d never felt this way about Rogue before, never felt this throbbing fear that ran riot through his mind. He wasn’t a threat, he had to remind himself; he was a friend. Not just any friend. That special friend, that friend that meant more than the world to him.

Except his exceed.

Sting stopped in his tracks. He could only detect one smell, one person mixed with the salty sweat and metallic blood. He’d thought there was something so strange about Rogue’s scent from the moment the shadows had parted, but could only assume that it was solely the blood-

“WHERE IS IT?!” Rogue shouted.

This scream was suddenly with something new. Less of the restless and nervous desperation, a passion that he rarely got to see from his subdued friend. Sting’s eyes grew wider. He kept his own body from shaking the same way that Rogue’s was, kept his anger under control while Rogue’s ran away with itself. “I’m telling you I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he answered.

“Bullshit!” Rogue screamed at him, the aura around him dropping into a rippling darkness. “You know how to stop it. You can stop the shadow before it takes over. You have one chance, you have to stop it once and for all-”

“Rogue, where is Frosch?”

There was a sudden shift. Rogue bit back his screaming and rambling. The arguments stayed inside of his head, twisted and turned over one another, fumbling without finding voice. Though it was clear he was trying. His mouth opened and closed, eyes staying wide and staring back at Sting for the explanations that failed to materialise.

Sting took the silence opportunity to continue, his own questions now overflowing. “Where’s Minerva, Rogue?” he asked, ignoring as his mouth threatening to become too dry to keep asking.

“I don’t know,” Rogue shook his head, quickly answering under his breath.

So… if he didn’t know about Minerva… Did that mean he knew where Frosch was? His scent had become so foreign in such a short amount of time, not just from the mixture of blood and battle, but distinctly missing something that always should have soaked his clothes. Sting frowned to himself. “Whose blood is that?” he pressed yet again, his voice slower and filled with his own growing fears.

“Everyone.”

He stopped. “Everyone?”

“Avatar. Army. Village. Everyone. All dead. All gone.”

Sting tried to tell himself not to let his heart break. He tried not to let the pity creep through his expression, to keep himself strong while Rogue was weak. But one word… one shaking word threatened to ruin all of that.

“…Frosch?”

Rogue looked away. His eyes closed. His breathing slowed to a chill shudder. And he nodded.

Shit.

It had been exactly what Sting had feared. That feeling that lurched in his chest. And no doubt felt a million times worse for Rogue. Sting knew more than anyone that a bond between a dragon slayer and their exceed was more than any simple friendship, even more than family. It ran deeper than the bond than a human could have with their own limbs. It was a part of them, the heart that beat inside their heart. And Frosch… Frosch was just so…

Sting blinked back his own tears. He didn’t have time for them. They weren’t his to have, not right now, not with Rogue standing in front of him. “Rogue I’m sorry…” he started, feeling dangerously close to losing his own voice. Damn. His voicebox hurt, his eyes hurt, everything hurt. But it would be manageable. It had to be manageable. “I’m so sorry, Frosch- he-“

“I know you’re keeping it from me.”

Sting blinked. “wh-what?”

“The failsafe. The plan, the cure. You’re keeping the way to stop the shadow. I know you have it.”

Sting’s mouth hung open. He was still talking about that… whatever it was? He watched in sheer disbelief as Rogue shifted away from him and back to exactly what he had been doing before. Tearing apart the office, searching for some meaningless trinket or manuscript that simply didn’t exist. As if he hadn’t said anything at all, as if he hadn’t just let Sting know how much his life had come crashing down around him.

“Rogue… You should sit down…” he said, pulling back one of the chairs.

Rogue shook his head. “I know-You have to know how to get rid of the shadow. Before it takes over again, before anyone else-I can’t let anyone else-I can’t-”

“Rogue,” Sting whispered sharply, but he knew that he was powerless here. He still didn’t know what the ‘failsafe’ or ‘shadow’ were. He didn’t know if it was anywhere near as important as what Rogue was telling him, but he knew nothing in this world could have meant more to him than losing Frosch.

That was something that the shadow dragon slayer was failing to realise. He ignored his strangled breathing. He walked on shaking legs. He caught his tears on his eyelashes and refused to let them fall. And he continued to search. He stormed away from the unwanted conversation, determined to continue pulling apart the office.

Sting could do nothing but let him get it out of his system. Stopping him now wouldn’t help him. It wouldn’t take away an ounce of that pain. It would still be waiting for him on the other side.

Rogue blindly destroyed the room under the premise of searching for the impossible. He was like a man possessed, using his magic when his reach could not yield results. It was unclear where the shadow ended, and the man began. Pictures were ripped from walls, bookcases toppled over to reveal the empty walls. He let the room fall around him in chaos, spreading his red fingerpaint across every nook and cranny.

Sting wasn’t surprised when he heard the scream. That strangled, painfilled scream that only came from losing everything.

Only about five minutes had passed when Rogue fell to the floor, his body finally giving in to the emotional weight. His hands gripped the ground in tight fists. His eyelashes could finally take no more tears, and the first streams running down his cheeks. He punched the ground. Again and again and again while that hollow scream echoed around him. Finally. After everything he’d been through, after all the anger and the pain and bloodshed, there was the weakness.

Sting might not have been surprised, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. He no longer saw a reason to hold back his own tears, if only a little. He kept his movements slow and gentle, approaching his friend over the minefield of broken glass and carnage. “Rogue, listen to me…” he began slowly, reaching out to him as he crouched to his side. His hand gently pressed onto Rogue’s back, feeling the grief-stricken ripples through every breath. “I’m… so sorry… We’ll get through this. Together. We’ll get through this, I promise. Whatever it takes.”

“I can’t-“

“Yes, you can…” Sting promised, feeling the pain slipping through his fingertips. He felt like he should have been able to share it, the way they could share their energy and magic, he wanted to take away some of that turbulence inside of his friend’s mind. It wasn’t enough just to have tears at the same time as him. It wasn’t enough to just be able to put a hand on his shoulder and hope for the best. He needed to help him.

“No, I can’t-“

“-Rogue-“

“I can’t stop it,” Rogue whispered, taking in a longer, shaking breath. “I can’t stop it from taking over. I can’t stop it. It’s going to- It’s going to- Sabretooth- Everyone- Everyone-”

“Rogue, calm down...” Sting whispered to him, squeezing his shoulders and gently pulling him closer.

“No, I can’t calm down, I can’t stop!” Rogue insisted, his voice swimming through the confusion of emotions. Even as he sat upright, he couldn’t meet Sting in the eye. “It wasn’t my fault- Avatar they- he- it was him, he did this-”

“Shhh shh shh…” Sting said. Rogue’s tears were all he could see, and he felt the overwhelming urge to brush them all away. His hand rested on his cheek, feeling the sticky heat soaking into his palms.

“You don’t understand. You can’t-! If I calm down the shadow will-I can’t-I can’t let anyone else get hurt-”

“Rogue, look at me,” Sting commanded. His eyes held him captive, stern and kind, the way he’d always wished that a guildmaster could have been towards them. Only when he was certain that he had his undivided attention did he tell him the all-important words. Words that would soon become an unfortunate lie.

“I am… so sorry for what happened to Frosch. I just… I can’t believe it. And I don’t…” he could barely speak. The image of the small and most innocent of exceeds was in his head now. He had seen him only a few short hours ago, just before dusk. He’d spoken to him, wished him all the best… It was too much to process. If he tried, he would have lost all ability to speak. Instead, he shook his head, continuing before he lost all will. “… Rogue, listen. I can’t take back what happened, but I will do everything to make sure it never happens again. Sabretooth is my guild now, under my protection. You are under my protection. That means I won’t let any cult or dark guild or-or- ‘shadow’ risk that. Not because I have a plan or some kind of ‘failsafe’, but because we have to. We have to look after each other. And you and me… we always have, haven’t we?”

The words swelled new tears from Rogue’s eyes. They didn’t seem to be sinking in the way that he’d hoped they would, though. The shadow mage was tense, his face completely drained of all colour, his body weakened. Words of lightness and kindness had no hope of getting through to him, it seemed.

But all of a sudden, Rogue gave a heavy sigh. He leaned forwards until his body lost all balance, falling into Sting’s arms. There was no reason to fight it anymore. No reason to stay upright, no reason to feel anything but darkness. Even so, he let the warming arms of his friend wrap around him. He closed his eyes when he felt a warm breath on his neck as he was held close. He chose to say nothing as Sting continued to tell him over and over again that he would take care of him. That he was so sorry for everything that happened. And that no shadow could harm them.

#shadowlightweek2k19 #sting eucliffe #rogue cheney #stingue #angst #ohgodsomuchangst #All the angst #Seriously #frosch #just too cute #hurt/comfort #but mostly hurt #fairy tail #fanfiction #did i mention angst?

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obsidian-dovahkiin · 5 years

Text

Until death do you part

What a glorious day it was. The sun casting its warm rays onto the magical land below it. There were a few clouds dotting the sky, and birds flew on by. Obsidian felt the soft sand she was lying on. It was warm and almost felt like silk. The crashing of the waves lapping on the shore filled the air. It was so peaceful.

Obsidian's experience of Summerset so far had been wonderous. The customs, the traditions, the people; they all intrigued her. Summerset had been a place she always wanted to travel to. All those years protecting Skyrim, she deserved a break. The past few days had mainly been exploring Shimmerine. However, that day was when she was going to visit Alinor, the capital of Summerset. She'd longed to explore the confusing and winding streets, taking in the scenery. Ever since she was a small child, she wanted to visit Summerset. Her parents believed it was some kind of obsession. She believed it was destiny.

Obsidian didn't travel alone on this adventure, however. The light snores coming from her husband Hefdet and her wife Serana's content sighing as she watched the ocean. It had been a rather spontaneous trip, but so far, it was definitely worth it. Hefdet had disguised himself as a Dunmer, and Serana made herself look less vampiric.

Obsidian yawned as she sat up, gently stirring Hefdet.

'Wakey, wakey. We're going to Alinor today and I want to spend as much time there as possible,' she told him, helping him stand up.

'Alright then. Let's be off,' he yawned, packing his sword he placed on the sand next to him.

Obsidian was so excited as they walked down the sandstone paths, sometimes taking shortcuts through the beautiful forest areas. They encountered various characters on their travels: merchants, wizards, scholars, musicians, dancers, travellers and many more. They occasionally stopped by rivers and waterfalls to have a rest and truly take it all in.

Then there it was. After what seemed like hours of walking, they'd finally arrived. The city itself was built onto large mountains, the towers of the city piercing the sky with their height. Every building was made of a lovely white stone, reflecting the nature of the Altmer. Many bustled about them. Initially, it was merchants and vendors but as they waded through the crowds, it eventually turned into the higher class denizens of the city. The views were breathtaking. It seemed as if anywhere you looked, there was something beautiful you could gaze at for hours.

As Obsidian had predicted, they continued to get lost in the winding streets. However, Obsidian didn't mind. It gave them more time to look out at the city and the incredible views it gave them. After wandering for a while, they came across a very large house. For some reason, it was as if she'd seen it before.

'Obsidian? Are you alright? You've gone as white as a sheet,' Serana asked, concerned for her.

'Yeah I'm fine it's just...it's as if I've been here before,' she explained, stuttering a little.

She couldn't place it but it was really as if she'd been in the house before. It was as if it meant something to her.

An Altmer was stood by, observing the scene. He stood back at first but noticed how Obsidian's expression changed as she looked upon the house.

'It's wonderous, isn't it? Stood here for almost three thousand years now. Although no one's been inside for at least two thousand.'

Obsidian broke out of her little daze to talk to the man properly.

'Sorry, it's just so beautiful. If it's not too much trouble, do you know anything about the history of this house? It's so facisnating,' she explained.

'Of course, it's not any trouble,' he smiled.

'Well, this house used to belong to a pair of star-crossed lovers. Two of the greatest warriors the world has ever known. They did Summerset a very large service by saving the Crystal Tower and I've heard they helped in Morrowind too. It's a sad end for both of them,' he told her, his voice lowering a little.

'What happened?'

'Well they were discovered inside the house, both covered in blood. No one's really sure what happened, but it's almost as if they were assassinated and then made to look as if they killed themselves. Back then, mixed-race couples were highly frowned upon. She was an Ashlander while he was the son of the royal adviser. You can see the obvious divide. It didn't help that his father didn't approve of their relationship. I met both of them once. I was only around 13, but their love for each other was so strong, it's almost like it followed them,' he sighed.

'Despite the house being out of bounds, the garden isn't. Their tomb resides in there. If you'd like to, you can go and visit. Many people still go and pray as they did save Tamriel many times.'

'I think I'd like that. Thank you for telling me. It sounds as if they were amazing people,' she smiled at him.

The three followed him into the garden, while more feeling of familiarity struck her. It was only when she reached the tomb she realised something was off.

'Aranaga Gaeus and...Obsidian Dovahkiin?' She asked a little shook.

Serana and Hefdet looked confused and went to look at the engraving.

'That's them. The star-crossed lovers of Summerset as they are known.'

Obsidian didn't know how to react. How was her name on the engraving? Did someone else happen to pick the same name as her?

'This might seem rude, but is it okay if you leave us?'

'That's fine. Many are overcome with emotion when they first visit here. If you need anything else, I'll be waiting where I was before,' he told them before leaving the large garden.

'I-I don't understand. How?' Hefdet asked.

'I don't either. Serana do you still have the black book? I need to ask Mora.'

Serana silently handed her the book, looking upset and confused. Obsidian made sure she was hidden behind the tomb when she opened the book. She felt the familiar atmosphere of Apocrypha call to her. She accepted the call and opened her eyes to the bright green skies and endless stacks of books.

'Master? I-,' she started.

'I know what's just happened. Don't waste your energy. The one thing I need to ask is do you want to know? This knowledge may cost you a lot.'

'Yes! Of course, I want to know!' She exclaimed, not really thinking her answer through.

'Alright then...well. I'll send you back. Then you'll be able to understand. Goodbye for now,' he dismissed her.

'Master, wait!' She cried as she wasn't finished speaking to him yet. He ignored her and sent her back, her vision fading to black.

'Excuse me? Are you okay?' An unfamiliar voice called out to her. She could feel the soft sand beneath her and the sound of the waves again.

Perhaps it was a dream?

She struggled to open her eyes, but once she did, she was met with the sight of a tall Altmer, almost towering over her.

'Y-yes thank you. I simply fell asleep.'

'Are you here alone? It's not safe for an outlander to be by yourself.'

'No my partners are-' she started looking around to find Hefdet and Serana missing. There was no sign of any life except where she lay.

'My partners must have gone on without me,' she sighed.

'Well make sure you take care of yourself,' he smiled before getting back on his horse and riding away.

What did he mean by not safe? She wondered. Obsidian stood up, stretching as she did so. She wondered where they had gone. She decided to look back in Shimmerine for them. As she walked through the streets, she noticed the obvious change in attitude. Nobles whispered and giggled to each other as she walked by, people obviously avoiding her. Odd. She thought about the mysterious man and his message. Perhaps, it had all been a dream. But where could Hefdet and Serana be?

While she was in thought, an Altmer child tugged on her armour.

'Excuse me Miss, but were you just speaking to Warlockin?' A small boy asked her.

'I'm afraid I don't know who that it sweetheart,' she replied turning to look at him.

'The man in the shiny armour who was on the beach.'

'Oh yes, I did. he was just asking if I was okay. Is he important to you?'

'Of course! He's my hero. He just came back from stopping the Planemeld!' The boy exclaimed.

'The Planemeld?' She asked in shock.

'This sounds like an odd question, but what year is it? I can't remember much.'

'It's 2E 583 of course! Well, thank you, Miss!'

Obsidian was struck into silence. Surely she couldn't have gone back in time. Such a thing was impossible.

'Master please,' she muttered under her breath. 'I don't know what you've done but I don't like it.'

She left the city and went back outside, onto the beach. It took her a while to get to terms with her new reality. She cried for hours onto the soft sand. Her partners, her children, all of it was gone. Gone in the space of a few minutes. She was unwanted and unloved, with no one to look out for her, but herself.

She miserably got up, regained her strength and aimlessly walked on, pretending as if nothing had happened. Her new life would be very odd and extreme, but she'd have to get used to it. As Mora said, it would cost her. She saw what he meant.

#eso au #obsidian and warlockin #fanfic

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littlemisscancer · 6 years

Text

“Save the last dance for me.”

a little story about a sororitas and an inquisitor. definitely. bent some lore a little bit for the sake of the setting, but it was fun to write.

The room was lively and full of merriment, as the crew aboard the Crocuta Invicta welcomed their guests to the main observatory.

Captains, Inquisitorial representatives, and Imperial officials of all sorts coming from across the fleet for this particular celebration. One of these Inquisitors had brought aboard his contingent of Adeptus Sororitas, with gowns that flattered his own formal attire.

The various attendees mingled together, glasses of alcoholic beverages being passed around via Servitors. Part of the observation deck had been cleared for an improvised ballroom floor, the distant stars shining upon mirrors set around the room to create ‘disco’ lighting. Quite a few of the couples and working partners had already made their way onto the dance floor, swaying and skipping to the joyous tunes being played by a very eager band of Imperial Acolytes.

Not all those attending were that happy, however. There was an Arch Magos, the head honcho Explorator of this fleet in attendance. He was sulking near the punch bowl, quite by himself. No one dared approach the hulking mechanical monstrosity, for fear of starting an intergalactic incident. Not even the Skitarii typically accompanying him were around. They had all been assigned other duties by him personally.

An Inquisitor, freshly Graduated from Inquisition School of the Arts™ leaned in towards a Celestine, remarking in a low tone, “He sure seems to be the life of the party. Any idea who pissed on his timepiece?”

The Sister merely laughed, her eyes sliding over to the miserable mechanicus, responding in kind, “Oh, he’s always like that I’ve heard. Never one to so much as give his peers the time of day normally, much less at a gathering like this.”

The Celestine elbowed a nearby Sister, nearly causing her to spill her undrunk champagne. She scowled, and readjusted a small brooch that adorned her dark black hair. Her superior continued to laugh, and tried to include her.

“Have you ever seen something as pathetic as an Arch Magos that’s on it’s last limb? Truly, Sister Anna, it’s an abhorrent sight.”

The blonde haired Celestine lifted her chin, head being held with a beaming pride.

“It is a disgrace to this Imperium, and a creature that cannot hope to be held as highly in regard as us.”

The Inquisitor laughed, and gently took the Celestine by the elbow to the dancefloor.

Sister Anna furrowed her brows, before shaking her head. Her grip on her champagne glass had tightened considerably, a small metal ring around her left ring finger glinting in the funky lights. It was shaped similar to that of a horseshoe, or the insignia of the Ultramarines. The sign of Omega… But it was more like a horseshoe.

She looked up, to find the Arch Magos staring directly at her. Although his face was now metal and motionless, his augmented eyes looked very sad. A pang hit her heart like a boltround, and she quickly looked away.

The brooch upon her head began to slide off her hair once more, and she narrowly avoided having it fall in her drink. Sister Anna was starting to feel slightly miffed, and stopped short of ripping it out of her hair. Confound Inquisitor Jarris, and his pining for them all to wear these wretched things! She’d rather wear her veil to show she was a Hospitaller, not some fancy hair clip that said the same thing!

Another pang to her heart. She didn’t even deserve to wear that veil, and she knew it. It felt like the ring was burning into her hand, but she dared not remove it.

The agitated Sororitas began to walk quickly towards the dance floor, handing her glass to a genuinely surprised Tech Priest. They let out a brief high-pitched squeak of thanks before she marched past.

The Inquisitor, called Jarris was chatting cheerily with his fellows of their various Ordos. But he wasn’t so enthralled as to not see Sister Anna walking straight towards him, so it didn’t catch him off guard when she placed his left arm in a death-grip.

“I… I wish to dance with you, Inquisitor Jarris.”

He blinked in surprise at that, however. The grizzled Inquisitor knew that this one was a handful, Hospitaller or not. But he thought it best to humor her outburst. Besides, she was definitely not the worst looking Sororitas in his retinue.

Arm in arm, the pair began to walk to the dance floor. Once the music kicked in once more, they faced one another, hand in hand, eyes locked, with barely any room between them.

It was a calming waltz, from some composer hailing Holy Terra itself. It was an old piece, but it was a piece that Sister Anna knew very well. She had listened to it often while aboard…

It was as if her heart was being twisted into a vice.

Anna gasped, and nearly tripped over Jarris’ quick footsteps. He caught her as the music dipped, faces inches apart from one another. His eyes, bright green with flecks of gold stared into her darker hazel ones. But it wasn’t just his gaze that she felt. She felt something, no, someone else’s eyes boring into her.

It was as if the God Emperor himself was glaring at her.

The music ended and there was much applause, Inquisitor Jarris gently lifting her back up onto her feet. Anna noticed that one of his hands was placed on her lower back, but she made no move to distance herself. She looked around, having this sinking feeling she knew precisely who had been looking at her. But no matter where her eyes lay or how far her neck craned, she didn’t see anyone. Not so much as an awkward Servitor had been looking at them.

Perhaps it was her overwrought nerves, she reasoned internally.

Inquisitor Jarris in the meantime had been guiding her back towards his small circle of friends, and she barely heard one of them remark on their well-executed performance. Jarris laughed, wincing a little bit.

“Well, Hospitaller Anna had a future in dancing herself before being tragically moved to my ship.”

He gave her hip a light pinch, and she perked up immediately. A smile flashed and she giggled politely, quietly admitting her thanks.

The smile, however bright it may have looked to the other members of the Inquisition, was quite fake. It felt wrong, all of it did. She shouldn’t be there.

Anna looked up at Jarris with her tired eyes, leaning into his broad shoulder much like a wife would her husband.

“Excuse me, but I am quite dehydrated after all that dancing. Will you be alright with me gone?”

A few chuckles from an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, a hearty old fellow with a big red mustache.

Jarris rolled his eyes at him, before looking down admiringly at Anna, “I do believe I will find a way. Go one now, can’t have you dying off the battlefield now can we?”

She gave a much meeker smile, before not so gently removing herself from his embrace and making a beeline for an exit. He wouldn’t be able to spot her sneaking out through all these people, she mused.

And so, the Hospitaller slipped out of the main observatory, and found herself in one of the much smaller rooms adjacent.

The entire ceiling was comprised of glass, and for a moment she thought she had stepped out into the vacuum of space. Nebulaes floated off in the distance, adding wonderful colors to the forever night sky.

To think that beyond her vision, countless battles were being won or lost across the entire Imperium made her feel… Very, very small.

It took her a moment to realize she had walked to the very edge, hands pressed up on the glass as she looked up and around.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” A familiar voice said, sounding as if the owner of such a voice was right behind her. Anna did not move, for she was not fazed in the least. He always had a habit of sneaking up on her, anyway. At that moment she also realized that something had placed its hands on her shoulders.

“It’s rare to see it completely still like this outside of a painting.” She replied, now looking directly above her head.

All she could see were red robes, the shine of a medallion, and the beginning of a metal encased face.

“Yes, just as it is rare for me to find you alone.”

Arch Magos Explorator Velut Equo looked down at her, the augmented eyes dimmed to mimic a blink. They were blue, an ever curious and never changing bright blue. They were merely lights, artificial. Hers were the true beauty.

“You normally like these sorts of things, I thought. What’s changed?”

The Sister sighed, and she turned her gaze back to the stars.

“Do not play coy with me, Velut. You know why tonight was different.”

All she received as a response was a mechanical ‘hmm’ noise, and a tightening grip on her shoulders. It quickly relaxed however, but she still flinched.

“You were upset by me merely hanging about those of my… Status. You truly are terrible at being subtle about it, too.”

Again, no response apart from the sound of him breathing. They stared together in silence, the faint sound of music being heard through the thick walls. The Arch Magos began to sway slightly as he listened, gently tugging on her shoulders as he did so.

He finally let out a mechanical sigh, and lowered his head. His face, or what would constitute as one was buried in her hair.

“In all my years, and after all I have seen, you must understand that this kind of emotional attachment is… New to me, as much as it is to you. I do not look it, but I am still… Human.”

Anna didn’t say anything, instead looking up once more at him. Even though his face couldn’t move anymore, he still looked sad. Like a lost puppy that thought it had known the way, but was sorely mistaken.

“Oh, a… And you, er… You dropped something.” Velut let go of her very suddenly, backing up a step or two. She turned around, confused until she saw what he was holding. It was her brooch - Bearing the insignia of the Hospitallers. A pained smile crossed her face, as she graciously accepted it.

“It is not a good idea to lose important trinkets such as this, you know.” He eyed her very carefully, his forever unamused expression illuminated by his eerily lit eyes. She knew he wasn’t talking about the brooch, and she also knew he didn’t mean the veil she had left behind.

The ring felt like it had just been removed from a forge on Nocturne, and she twisted it nervously. Velut’s eyes brightened as she did so, and knelt down in front of her. His hands, cold and metal, gently clasped her own. One of the metal fingers rubbed against the ring, a faded out set of markings coming back into the light.

It had been inscribed in binary, that short summer ago. A quiet evening, stealing away to the barracks of the Cadian infantry. Then, with the help of his Guardsman acquaintances, a short get-away to one of the nearby lakes.

Tears welled up in her eyes, as she suddenly embraced Velut. He was only slightly surprised, gently putting his arms around her. Her body shook as she sobbed, and he murmured words of comfort she could barely understand.

Her eyes moved to the galaxy surrounding them, the twinkling lights creating a strange silhouette of the starstruck couple. Funny that.

“Anna Ciocanu, will you do me the honors of… A dance?” Velut asked shyly, looking down at her.

The Sister looked up at him, the tears having left streaks down her pale cheeks. She nodded shakily, smiling.

“Yes, it would be an honor and a privilege to dance with you… My dear.”

If he could have smiled, she was sure he would have. But she knew that she had somehow messed up, as he didn’t perk up nearly as much as she thought he would.

Odd.

Velut took lead, gently guiding her across the floor. The humming of the engine mingled with the distant music, creating a strange and erratic melody. The pair did not mind, as Velut moved off-beat regardless. He watched in silence as Sister Anna danced alongside him, keeping in step with his less gracious ones. Her tired face seemed to brighten with each beat, as if she was finally becoming… Comfortable.

The Arch Magos had only seen her expression like that once before, and in snippets as he would find her whilst in the midst of his work. If it took him around the fleet, at least.

Soon the music stopped, and the distant sound of applause could be heard as the pair bowed before one another.

Velut rose last, and rather stiffly at that. His breathing had become more ragged, but only now that she was not distracted did poor Anna notice. She stepped towards him until there was no space between them, reaching up to touch his face. He bent down so she could grasp onto the tubes that allowed him to breathe, her hands gently caressing the intricate carvings that made his face.

“When will I get to see you again?” She whispered, her smile beginning to fade. The realization that they would be separated again was dawning on her, as she came back to reality.

The old mechanical man looked away from her, staring out into space. His shoulders sagged, and the mechadendrites milling beneath his robes clacked in anxiety.

“I’m… I’m not sure. But I will tell you this.”

He sank down to her eye-level, robes swathing around her as he did so. His hands were on her shoulders as he pulled her close.

“You will join me and never have to worry about this again. It will be soon, I promise you that.” A mechadendrite snaked out and caressed her cheek, wiping away at the tears that began to reform.

“I just need a little time. Then you can be my wife without fear.”

He brought his left hand and placed it in her right, the light catching a similar ring to her own. The medallion around his neck jangled as he moved - The symbol of the Mechanicus, and his own Forge World glistening. A permanent reminder, as if his appearance wasn’t enough, that the two of them would never truly be one.

Anna smiled tearfully, and gently placed a kiss against his mask. Velut’s eyes dimmed completely, as his head craned downwards.

“I will wait for you, as I always have Velut. For I am yours, and you are mine. I will be your wife, faithful as always.”

Her eyes locked with his, as they flared to life once more. He stared at her in silence for a few seconds, his artificial eyes narrowing.

“And I will be faithful in return.” He stated, monotone voice wavering. Albeit what he said earlier was true, she was more prone to human flaws than he was. This evening proved that in his mind. She was painfully aware, but her expression didn’t change.

The eyes gave away her fear, though. The way they darted off to the side towards the main Observatory told him all he needed to know.

He did not say anything.

Instead he gave her a reassuring wheeze, and squeezed her shoulder as he stood up. Instead, he waved her off, telling her he did not mind it when she danced with others. Instead he hung back, claiming to not like the noise.

Instead he stood there and watched the love of his life walk away with what felt like would be the last time.

Instead he saw the door close with a hiss, as the room sealed off. Instead he stayed completely still, not even moving to look back at the starry void behind him.

Instead, he just stood there and waited.

Completely alone.

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the-record-newspaper · 6 years

Text

My first love and the truest of all true love stories

Carmel Schmidt Toliver

By JERRY LANKFORD

Record Editor

Sweet Home Alabama was playing in my head in the summer of 1982, as I left Birmingham, Ala., in the window seat of a Greyhound bus on my journey back to North Carolina.

I was 18 and was a troubled young man. I was leaving my sweetheart and first love, Carmel (pronounced Kar male), behind. We had been nearly inseparable since we began our relationship the previous summer in Upward Bound – a college prep club in which we spent six weeks each summer on the campus of Appalachian State University.

Carmel was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. We were partnered in a canoe during a week-long trip on Lake Watauga in Tennessee and really hit it off. We started dating and quickly fell in love. Our first kiss was on a rooftop in lower Manhattan on a field trip with that club. We were looking across the river into New Jersey and were happy.

A year later I’d wound up in Alabama.

I had ridden to Atlanta with my late brother, Mike, who went there to finalize a divorce. The Lankford brothers slept that night in Mike’s old sky-blue Ford Maverick in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the rough side of town with pistols under our legs. Mike drove me to the train station at daylight, walked me in so I could buy my ticket to Birmingham and waited until I was safely on the train. I still remember his smile as he waved goodbye.

Carmel had been living in Boone with her father and stepmother, Sigurd and Leah Schmidt. She had left by train from Greensboro in the middle of the night to go visit members of her late mother, Eva Slaughter’s, family. My buddy, Mark Brooks, and his girlfriend drove us to the train station because I’d blown up my Chevrolet Vega, and after several wrong turns, we finally found the depot. I walked with Carmel as far as I could before she boarded an Alabama-bound train.

We were happily in love — as much as we could possibly be. It was the kind of love that glows red in your belly and typically consumes all rational thought. It made me sick to see her go.

After a couple weeks, and hours of long-distance telephone conversations, Carmel convinced me I should come to Alabama and that I might want to stay. I knew that would be a hard sell – trying to convince me to move there - but I wanted to see her badly.

It just so happened that at that same time Mike needed to make his trip to Georgia. He said if I was really serious about running to Carmel, I could save train fare money if I left from Atlanta instead of Greensboro.

If you’ve ever ridden on a train, you likely noticed that they mostly travel through the more industrialized sides of towns, leaving the scenery a little less than pristine. Along my way there was some lush greenness to savor, although there remained an unpleasantness due to very frequent stops, the unceasing bumpy-bump rhythm of the tracks, and the obnoxious porter who flirted continuously with an unwilling lady passenger.

Finally in Birmingham, Carmel met me at the station. One of her family members (I can’t recall which one) drove us to her Grandmother Lorene Slaughter’s home on the outskirts of the city. It was hot and mosquitoes were fearsome.

Lorene Slaughter

Mrs. Slaughter’s home was an oasis – with a “Welcome Home” feel and filled with love from room to room, and from corner to corner. As for Mrs. Slaughter, she was a pure pleasure to know. She had sparkling eyes and a great head of beautiful white hair. Her food was incredible – especially her homemade pimento cheese that rivaled my Granny Lankford’s. And her soul was huge – speaking in a Deep South dialect I’d only heard in movies.

She took me into her home as part of the family.

Carmel and I each had our own separate bedroom and very generous amounts of cool air blasting from the vents.

There was a little store around the corner where Carmel and I would walk. I'd buy her M&M's and we’d play the big quarter-fed Space Invaders video game machine. There was also a nearby park with a large pond where we would go exploring in the waning hours of those lazy afternoons.

Finally it came time for me to leave. I was missing home and by that time - much to her family’s chagrin – Carmel had agreed to return to North Carolina a couple of weeks later.

We had learned from the Schmidts that some of their friends – Joe and Cindy Pacileo – at that time, were in Gadsden, Ala. That’s about an hour or so by bus from Birmingham. The Pacileos were there visiting Joe’s relatives. They’d offered me a ride in their van from there as far as Boone. My momma, Willa Mae Lankford, said she’d pick me up there. And thus my return home was arranged.

Again, I was parting from my love. I watched her wave goodbye to me until the bus turned the corner and I could no longer see her.

I was heartbroken when the Pacileos retrieved me from the bus station in Gadsden. They are wonderful people. I remember Joe as being a collector of many great paperback Westerns and a great cook who puts raisins in his meatballs. Cindy - whose sweet smile would warm the coldest of hearts - is a well known artist, having created many forests of little sculptured critters over the years. My sister, Ellen, still has one of her tiny frogs.

As we started out for the Blue Ridge Mountains, I remember Cindy handing me their copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull to read on the way back. It was as if she knew exactly what I needed. I didn’t just read it, I devoured it. I never realized how much that little book would come to mean to me.

It wasn’t long before Carmel returned to Wilkes. We were married in August of that year in Momma’s living room in her home in Millers Creek with a few close relatives and friends there as witnesses. A year later, our first daughter, Jennifer, was born – on Aug. 22, 1983. Anna came on Dec. 22, 1988.

Carmel and I divorced, found other loves and married them. But as years passed, we again became good friends.

My Momma and Carmel truly loved each other. She and my sister, Ellen, also maintained a strong bond. I always loved Carmel, too, somewhere deep down inside — if nothing else but for the fact that she was the mother of two of my three wonderful daughters — the third being Gabriella, who is now 16. Carmel had four more daughters, Diana Pless, and Destiny, Cassidy, Samantha and, stepdaughter, Leslie Toliver.

Carmel’s girls: back, left to right, Leslie, Jennifer, Destiny, middle row: Samantha, Cassidy and Anna. My daughter Gabriella is in front. This photo was taken in 2012. Inset is a photo of Carmel’s daughter, Diana.

Carmel was born on Oct. 9, 1963. She died of pancreatic cancer on Sept. 6, 2014. Hospice had brought her home to Wilkes from Forsyth Hospital in Winston-Salem on a Friday afternoon to spend her final hours with her family. She was surrounded by daughters along with our little grandsons, Sammie and Charlie. Throughout the night, her husband, Ken Toliver – who has become one of my dearest friends – held her hand until she took her last breath the next morning.

That is certainly the truest of true love stories.

Carmel and her husband, Ken Toliver

Before Carmel died, she told her husband, Ken, that she wanted to be buried near my mother in the cemetery of Arbor Grove United Methodist Church in Purlear. He made sure that she was.

I know it sounds strange – or maybe I’d just never noticed a particular occurrence around here in September — but right after Carmel died, I saw dragonflies nearly everywhere I went. This past September (when I wrote the first draft of this column) I saw the reflection of one hovering in the glass of the front doors of The Record offices as I came into work. I thought it was going to follow me inside.

It is likely that dragonfly that brought Carmel and that period of time of our teenage years back to mind — the memories of my first love, that journey, and a little book entitled Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

I guess at that stage of our youths we are all trying to learn about life and flight.

Carmel, thank you for the two daughters you gave me and the entire beautiful family you helped create. May you always be carried on dragonfly wings.

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michael-hearteyes-wheeler · 6 years

Text

Movie Night

Hey Everyone! So this is the first oneshot of my new series. Its all based on an au where The Losers Club and The Party are childhood friends. Its going to be sweet and sappy, and explore the hilarity that would come from having all thirteen of these teens living in one town (and more or less all living at the Byers house).

Hope you Enjoy! And Check out @losers-party for headcanons based on this verse. (Read on AO3)

“Are you sure we can trust you with this?” Stan crosses his arms, looking down his nose at Richie.

When the prospect of a movie night was suggested, the entire Byers home excitedly debated potential films and genres. After much bickering, Richie ‘graciously’ offered to walk to the blockbuster himself. It seemed like a good idea, but Stan was unconvinced of his motives being pure.

“Aw come now Stanley! I'll make sure to pick something brilliant.” Richie, chuckling through his famous british guy and winking.

“Ugh I'll go with him.” Max groaned, rolling off of the couch.

“So that you can get some cheesy gore fest? No thanks. I'll go.” Mike W sighed, rising from the floor next to El and Will.

“Why don't you all just go.” Joyce offered, emerging from the kitchen with a smile that said ‘its not an option’. Mike and Max shrugged, and joined Richie on the lawn.

It was the perfect day for a walk, so no one bothered to grab their wheels. Even Max left her board at home. The blockbuster hadn't been open long, but the kids frequented it enough to know the best shortcut, and for the bored store clerk to know them by name. Mike debated between The Goonies, and The Breakfast Club for awhile before getting both. Max slipped in line behind him and cleverly hid the title of the undoubtedly horrifying movie she picked. The two of them waited outside, taking in the afternoon sun, waiting for a suspiciously long time for Richie to finish finding his movie. It probably was for the best that he didn't go alone, because when asked, he only smirked in reply and clutched the black plastic bag tighter to his chest.

Back at the house, Dustin and Ben were back from their own trip to the supermarket for snacks. Dozens of boxes of candy, bottles of soda, and cookies from the bakery lined almost the entirety of the Byers kitchen counters. The smell of burnt popcorn seeped out from the open windows and filled the yard at they walked up the dirt driveway.

After some bickering over who got which box of candy, who got to take the couch, and who got to sit where, it was almost sunset. Max and Richie whispered and giggled with one another as they hid there vhs tapes, and squeezed into the weathered armchair.

Mike W ignored them and decided to play The Goonies first. It was one they had rented before, but the magic of the film, and the inspiring group of kid characters was all too familiar. It felt like a life each of them had lived.

Mike W, El, and Will crowded the couch next to Joyce. Dustin emerged from the kitchen with the last of the bowls of popcorn and found an open place on the floor next to Lucas and Ben. The coffee table had been pushed against the far wall long ago, leaving room for the tangle of blankets and pillows that seemed to permanently litter the living room floor. Thirteen teenagers crammed together, eyes transfixed by the movie on screen, laughing at jokes they had heard dozens of times before.

Stan and Mike H held hands under a warm blanket. Bill doodled absentmindedly in a sketchbook while Bev leaned her head on his shoulder. Dustin and Lucas tossed popcorn back and forth before Hoppers booming voice filled the room.

“Hey, if you are going to have a food fight then you need to actually clean it up.” The police chief got home just as the credits began to role for the first movie, and an inky blue night sky settled outside.

“Oh like you didn't start the last one.” Bev teased, turning to look up at him.

“And I won too.” Jim winked, leaning over the back of the couch to kiss Joyce's head and ruffle El’s. All he had to do was snap at the giggling kids in his chair to send them to the floor. “What’s playing next?”

“I grabbed The Breakfast Club.” Mike stood to change the tape, stepping in between the unoccupied spots on the floor.

“Actually, now that it's dark, I thought we could watch something a bit more... thrilling.” Max smirked, unearthing her secret movie pick. Dr. Terrors House of Horrors. A horribly dated looking and well loved box cover depicting the classic style of 1960’s horror.

“God Max! I knew you would pick something messed up!” Mike sighed, but reluctantly let her play the movie. He could see where this was going, so he pulled Will’s hand and dragged the smaller boy into the dining room. Neither being a big fan of horror, whenever Max got her way they would settle for finding something else to occupy their time.

As the sounds of sweeping orchestral music played from the tv set, Mike grabbed the scrabble set from the shelf. Everytime a shriek from on screen made the smaller boy flinch, Mike would grab his hand or make him laugh by placing down a ridiculous word. Mike was no scrabble champ, at least not compared to Stan or Max, but he was good enough to keep Will’s attention away from the gore on screen.

After the first act, Stan and Mike H joined them at the table. Stan looked practically woozy from scenes that were making Max and Richie cackle with delight. It didn't take long for him to get in the zone however. Playing words like ‘Foliage’, ‘Oxazepam’, and ‘Philanthropist’. They had an unspoken rule to not even bother keeping score if Stan was playing (although he kept his own score in his head). One round turned to three, and then five, and then they lost count. Giggling and sipping sodas and ignoring whatever was happening in the living room.

Eventually the numbers in the living room dwindled. Ben and Bev decided to leave to one of the back rooms when they had been aggressively shushed for the last time. Bev thumbed through a magazine while Ben put his New Kids on the Block tape in Jonathan’s old boombox.

Eventually Lucas joined them too. Not even lying shoulder to shoulder in between Max and Dustin could save him from the headache all the screaming was causing. Lucas really enjoyed spending time with this quiet couple. Lucas curls up at the foot of the bed and flips through a stack of comic books, making sure to share his favorite panels with the other two. Ben has his nose buried in a journal. He keeps sneaking glances up at the other two on the bed, and Bev takes notice. Part of her wonders if he is writing another poem, and the way he curls the edge of the journal up to block her view, she thinks he might be. She blushes at the thought.

Some point later they can hear the stomping of a sleepy Hopper make his way to bed. As well as the giddy laughter of the board game turning into more of a ‘lets see how ridiculous of a sentence i can make’ game when Bill and Dustin join the table.

That leaves only Richie, Eddie, El, Max, and Joyce in the living room. Eddie fell asleep some time during the beginning of the movie. Richie runs a lazy hand through his hair while his eyes stay glued on the screen. Joyce smiles out at the group of kids in the dining room, and silently wishes Jonathan could be here too, as well as those two terrific partners of his.

Stan and Mike H get up to get ready for bed after Stan realizes his nightly routines have run a few minutes behind. Not long after, a sleepy Will shuffles back to his room as well, followed slowly by the others one by one. Mike W collects El from the couch and walks with her to Will’s room that has more or less become a community slumber party room.

Mike H comes back out and scoops up Eddie, carrying him to his sleeping bag with a smile. The chatter in the house quiets to only a few hushed whispers as one by one the kids drift off to sleep.

Once the movie ends, Max drags herself to curl up in between Bev and Lucas on the small bed, certainly only meant for one person.

“Are you tired?” Joyce smiles down at Richie, the only person left on the mass of blankets in the darkened room.

“Not really. You up for one more movie?” He swaps out Max’s tape for his own and Joyce nods.

“What do you have in store?” Joyce smirks. It has become a secret tradition between the two near-insomniacs. Richie makes a game out of finding the strangest movies in the ‘foreign’ section. Whatever has the most interesting box art, or the most obscure description.

“It's called ‘The Holy Mountain’. Its spanish, from 72, but the back said that it isn't for the faint of heart. I figured we could handle it.” Richie took his seat next to Joyce on the couch and let the film play.

Usually Richie feels the need to make jokes during movie night (much to everyone's chagrin), but that need is never present with Joyce. Her unceasing understanding and patience. It's like she just gets him, no strings attached.

Inevitably, the droll of spanish lulls him to sleep. Slumping against the arm of the couch with his glasses falling crooked. He never remembers it, but he always wakes up in his sleeping bag next to Eddie.

Movie nights don't get to happen as often as they all might like. Given their various schedules and after school activities, but it's always a reminder of what they are. A family. Strange and often chaotic, but full of love and acceptance.

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tigerwalk3 · 7 years

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Kindred Spirits

Thanks to @nattah-gudgrrl for this idea!

“I’m stuffed,” Rick said, rubbing his palm over his flat stomach, and pushing it outward for effect. They stepped out of the cozy bar and grill into the brisk, January air, and he stood in front of Michonne to block the wind that was whipping specks of snow around like confetti, as she fastened her coat.

“Me too,” she said, letting her eyes roll back to exaggerate her sated state. “That was amazing.”

“What do you want to do now? The night’s still young.”

“Let’s walk off that meal,” she said, slipping her arm through his and pressing against his side for warmth. “We can window shop, really do the tourist thing.”

They started down the cobblestone sidewalk, no particular destination in mind, and Rick allowed himself to be led from jewelry store, to antique shop, to bakery; rows of storefronts still decked out cheerily for the recently passed holiday. She pointed out numerous treasures, and he pretended to be interested, all while his gaze fixated on the way the cold brought a rosy tint to her dusky cheeks and nose, and her brown eyes gleamed with contentment. They walked until the winter sun began to prepare for its evening rest, dimming the light and pulling up a blanket of horizon to retire behind. Rick noted the neighborhood was getting less handsome as the sky became more murky, and he began to think better of their self-guided tour.

“Let’s go back to the hotel,” he said, leaning in to run the chilled tip of his nose against her ear as he spoke.

She smiled, about to agree to his proposition when something caught her eye. “Look!” She pointed to a sidewalk sign with a woman’s name written in scrolling cursive on the chalkboard finish, and a hand drawn image of a crystal ball. “A fortune teller!”

“Michonne…” Rick groaned, tightening his arm around hers and planting his feet to keep her from rushing toward it.

“Oh, please!” she begged, holding in a chuckle at his expense. This was exactly the type of thing he would hate on principle, but it could be fun. “Come on. She can tell us what the new year has in store.” She batted her eyelashes at him and he was useless to resist.

Rick hung his head in defeat, and followed her for a few more steps until they stood before a purple, velvet curtain where a door should have been, a small windchime hanging in front of it, in lieu of a doorbell. Michonne looked at Rick and shrugged, lifting her gloved fingers to brush them across the metal rods, making them ring. As if beckoned by a Siren’s song, a dark haired women appeared, wearing flowing robes and gold bangles around her wrist that jingled as she walked. She pushed aside the curtain, squinting as if they had woken her from a nap.

“Welcome,” the woman said, in a thick Eastern European accent. “You have come for me to read your good fortune?”

“Of course,” Michonne answered, with a beaming smile.

“How much is it?” Rick asked, with considerably less enthusiasm. Michonne nudged him in the ribs with a soft elbow and smiled at the woman.

“It is thirty for your reading,” she said, unmoved by his attitude. “Well worth it, I assure you.”

Rick rolled his eyes, pulling his wallet out of the back pocket of his worn, black jeans, and thumbing out two twenties. He held them up to Michonne with a shrug, indicating his lack of exact change, and she plucked them from his fingers gleefully. “A tip,” she said, handing the cash to the woman.

She nodded, then jutted her chin over her shoulder and turned to lead them into the small room where she had just emerged from. Their eyes adjusted to the dim, yellow lamp light, filtered by a scarf draped over the shade, and they both scanned their new surroundings. There was a small wooden table in the shape of a circle, with three folding chairs set around it and a glass orb on a stand in the center of it. The set up almost filled the closet sized room and Rick had to shuffle between a chair and the wall to find a seat. Soft, twangy, instrumental guitar music floated from an unseen source throughout the space and the dark walls were decorated with black and white photographs, featuring groups of people with their hands joined around a table and lights glowing in odd shapes above them. Rick pulled out the chair he had passed up, offering it to Michonne and she removed her gloves and slipped her arms out of her bright, teal pea coat, hanging it on the back of the chair before taking her spot.

“I am Madame Rose,” the woman said, taking the last chair. “I am a clairvoyant.”

“What’s that mean?” Rick asked unzipping his own suede, shearling lined coat that was far too heavy for the overwhelming warmth emanating from a tiny wood stove in the corner of the room.

“I can see your destiny, but also your past. I can read your soul’s journey and decipher it for you.”

Michonne glanced at Rick with a look of sudden apprehension. “Is that always a good idea?”

“The knowledge and insight I give you is yours. It can be good or it can be bad, but it is yours, whether I tell it to you or not.”

Michonne nodded at the response, settling into her chair while Rick leaned back, looking skeptical beside her.

“Each of you lay a hand on the table,” Madame Rose instructed, “palm up, then join your other hands together.” The woman hurried them along with a wave of her fingers when Rick hesitated, and Michonne urged him with her eyes to comply.

She felt him squeeze her fingers in his beneath the table and she grinned, her shoulders loosening a bit. Madame Rose closed her eyes and tipped her face to the ceiling, an almost imperceptible hum vibrating across her pursed lips as she exposed her own palms to them on the tabletop. Michonne chanced another glance at her boyfriend, while the woman was occupied, finding an incredulous squint framing his clear blue eyes. She mouthed for him to stop and he begrudgingly adjusted his facial expression to one of simple disinterest before Rose opened her eyes again.

The fortune teller reached across the table, tracing her index fingers along each of their palms, exploring the unique creases and indentations for what seemed like an eternity, until she finally spoke. “You’ve been together for a long time,” she said.

Rick’s face curled into a cocky smirk instantly. “Zero for one,” he said. “We’re here celebratin’ our one year anniversary.”

Madame Rose’s lips twitched ever so slightly into her own smile, before returning to a thin drawn line as she continued to trail her fingers across their open hands. “Ahhh,” she said. “But your souls have been dancing for lifetimes.” Rick rolled his eyes again, as Michonne leaned forward, intrigued. “Mmhmm,” she hummed, nodding to herself. “Yes. They are drawn to each other like the waves to the shore.” She stopped her feathered touch suddenly, gripping both of them tightly with a small gasp. “I see you meeting...your eyes meet from afar...through a window...no...a fence.”

“We met at a friend’s barbeque,” Rick said, not attempting to hide his chuckle.

“You did open the gate for me when I got there,” Michonne offered.

“That’s a stretch, Michonne.”

“This meeting was not the first,” Madame Rose said. “You’ve met a multitude of times, all different, all like lightning striking.”

Rick leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out beneath the table, his face wearing his disbelief proudly. “I only remember the barbeque.”

“Rick,” Michonne said, shushing him.

“The fence is around you both, a prison of your own making,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “Oh.” She gasped again.

“What?” Michonne leaned forward further, riveted by the tale the woman was weaving.

Her face contorted then, a look of agony washing over her drawn features stretched with thin, pale skin. “Oh, dear.” She squeezed Rick’s hand hard, causing him to shift uncomfortably in his seat. “The pain in your heart...it’s so heavy. Guilt...sorrow. Your soul is wailing and your mind is lost in the thicket of grief and misery.” Tears started to form in her eyes and her mouth parted again, a silent sob wracking her.

Rick looked at Michonne who suddenly looked pained as well, as if she was really buying this act.

“And you,” the woman said, turning toward her. “You are a shadow. You are hidden from the world. You’re alone...wandering...carrying your own pain like a weapon on your back.”

“We’re actually pretty happy people,” Rick interjected, annoyed that Michonne seemed to be disturbed by this nonsense. He didn’t pay the woman to upset her. Her eyes bounced around Rose’s emphatic features, searching for the meaning behind what she was saying.

“You became friends,” she continued. “Partners.” Her eyes went wide, focusing on Rick. “She saved you.”

He opened his mouth to deliver a smart retort, but it got stuck in his throat. He lived a pretty uneventful life; a responsible, Southern man who did what was expected of him, but the woman beside him had certainly changed him. Maybe, in a way, she had saved him from the boring, predetermined path he would have ended up on, if she hadn’t walked into his life that day. He had built a life around duty, obligation; she showed him a deeper fulfillment.

She turned to Michonne now. “And this man revived you,” she said. “He took your shadow and gave it depth, life!”

Michonne looked at Rick and smiled. Maybe she was a shadow before she met him. She lived for her career, her independence; he sparked a different side to her, one that felt things, that giggled at corny jokes and got lost in the gaze of a man.

“You traveled together on a desperate road, lost but no longer alone, until one day you recognized each other and, when you looked into each other’s eyes, you saw all of the planes across which you were seeking each other.”

Rick swallowed a lump in his throat, swiftly overcome with a love for the woman beside him that was so rich, it ached in his chest. He pulled his hand back from Madame Rose, joining it with the one that already held Michonne’s. “This is ridiculous,” he whispered to her, his wide eyes saying the opposite. The old woman was a charlatan, he told himself. She was making it up as she went along. She was bound to get a few things right.

“It’s silly,” Michonne said quietly, her breath hitching on the words she didn’t quite believe.

“No, child,” Madame Rose said. “It’s not silly at all. It’s actually quite amazing. Some people search through all of their lifetimes and never find their soulmate. You’ve been with yours in all of them.”

Rick watched the words sink into Michonne’s expression, as she shrunk back into her chair with a sharp breath. He squeezed her hand again, leaning into her ear. “You done?” he asked her, avoiding Madame Rose’s gaze.

She nodded and released his hand so he could stand. Rick reached for his wallet as Michonne pulled her coat back on. He found another five dollar bill and tossed it on the table, then placed his hand on her back to lead her out of the room. “Thank you,” he said carelessly over his shoulder, as they exited onto the cold street, now bathed in darkness.

“That was crazy, right?” Michonne said, stepping to his chest as he joined her on the sidewalk.

“Of course it was,” he said, forcing a playful grin. He grasped the lapels of her coat and pecked her cheek with a comforting kiss. “If you're a shadow, you're the loudest one I've ever met.”

She chuckled, timidly. “And you only lose your mind during football season.”

“You make me lose my mind sometimes.”

Michonne nudged his arm again, then slipped underneath it as they began the walk back to their hotel. “It was strange, though,” she muttered.

“Hey,” he said, stopping her and bringing his hands to her face. “I love you. Right here, right now.”

“Me too,” she said. “In this lifetime you’re mine.”

“Forever.”

#richonne #richonne fanfiction #richonne au

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travelcenter-uk · 4 years

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From Las Vegas to Utah, The Ultimate Holiday Guide

Are you looking for an all-inclusive 7-night holiday deal? Well, you’ve come to the right place, Travel Center offers an all-inclusive package from Las Vegas to Utah; whether it’s gambling in the Entertainment Capital of the World, Las Vegas or Glamping in Utah, this deal is the perfect one for you!

Are you convinced as yet? Well, read on and I’ll show you what you can expect from these two exciting cities in the US.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a metropolis in the state of Nevada in the United States. It is the most crowded city in the state and is a globally famous resort city, recognized mainly for its casinos, shopping, elegant dining, and famously lavish nightlife, which has an extensive variety of entertainment choices. The city calls itself “The Entertainment Capital of the World”. For this reason, Las Vegas is one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. The biggest and most popular of the mega-casino hotels in Las Vegas are located in the area identified as the Las Vegas Strip. Amongst Las Vegas’s other appeals is the world’s biggest buffet.

Top Places to Visit in Las Vegas

The Strip

The 2.5-mile-long central unit of Las Vegas Boulevard, which goes across the city from northeast to southwest, recognized as the Strip, is bordered with enormous entertainment palaces, several constructed with a central theme and home to performance sites, extravagant hotel rooms, and elegant dining. The Strip is mainly remarkable at night when the city is lit up by a never-ending chain of splendid neon signs.

Fremont Street Experience

In old downtown Las Vegas, Fremont Street is a pedestrian-only region with all types of unique locations. A five-block part of Fremont Street is shielded with a covering of LED lights that light up the sky in a display of various colours and designs as you stroll below. Recognized as the Fremont Street Experience, every night extraordinary music, and visual displays take place overhead. Street performers and special entertainment act frequently perform outdoors in this region.

Paris Hotel and the Eiffel Tower

What could be better than seeing two cities in one day? The Paris, Las Vegas, offers you the opportunity to do just that. Situated outside the resort is the replica of the Eiffel Tower which makes it into many of the Las Vegas pictures. You will also come across a ‘Paris Opera House’ together with the romantic Eiffel Tower restaurant in the building. Take the lift to the forty-sixth floor and revel in the sights of the metropolis just like you would have on the Eiffel Tower itself. If you are travelling with your partner, it is easily one of the best places to visit in Las Vegas.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

There are plenty of guided tours offered for Red Rock Canyon, which would take you far away from the lights and noise of the metropolis. Relish the tranquil 25-kilometre long drive to the desert in the middle of nowhere. Take a trek here or merely revel in the Mojave Desert with its red hills. Choices are unlimited, which makes Red Rock a main feature in the Las Vegas tourism scene.

Las Vegas might be neon lights and luxury but there’s plenty more to it. The desert landscape could be a heaven for outdoor fans with paths that are as plain as they’re stunning. One of the main things to do in Vegas is to trek the paths in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. They vary from easy to hard and consist of the Moenkopi Loop, Keystone Thrust, White Rock – Willow Springs, and Turtlehead Peak to name a few.

Stratosphere

Another entry on places to visit in Las Vegas is the stunning and magnificent Stratosphere Tower. At a height of nearly 1150 feet, the tower provides many great reasons to visit. You can relish some exciting rides on the top like Sky Jump, Insanity, and Big Shot. And if you are someone who does not like the adrenaline rush, the outdoor deck provides some brilliant sights of the city, making it one of the top places in Las Vegas.

Bellagio Resort and Fountain Show

The Bellagio is a premium, remarkable resort with plenty of gems concealed away in its corridors. You can explore the Gallery of Fine Arts, Botanical Gardens, and also the Conservatory here. It has numerous restaurants and also a spa and salon, aside from the famous Bellagio casino which is one of the largest Las Vegas tourist appeals.

Aside from all this, the gorgeous fountain here is another popular feature. Every fifteen or so minutes, the fountain goes off with an attractive display of water together with a music set. This fountain show is a must if you are searching for free things to view in Las Vegas.

Mirage Hotel: Erupting Volcano and Secret Garden

The Mirage Hotel is simple to recognize while walking down the Strip. In front of the resort is a volcano, which explodes at regular intervals. At night, the shining red fire shooting out is one of the most distinctive sites noticeable from the sidewalk. Inside the Mirage is the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. You can view an extensive range of exotic animals, which include white lions. The Dolphin Habitat has a huge amount of trained dolphins in its 2.5-million-gallon pools.

High Roller Ferris Wheel on the Linq

What better to do than get on a Ferris wheel in Sin City? Situated at the Linq Promenade, this wheel is the symbol of the city. Standing at 550 feet high, this viewing wheel offers a complete sweeping view of the city and also its most popular destination, the Strip. One whole rotation would take around 30 minutes. Riding the wheel at night provides an even more remarkable sight of Las Vegas in its magnificence.

The 28 cabins are different from standard to Happy Half Hour cabins and those that could be hired for special events such as weddings with deals that comprise of wedding planning too.

New York-New York Hotel

The New York-New York Hotel in Las Vegas is on the other side of the street from both the MGM Grand Hotel and the Excalibur Resort Hotel. Strikingly gorgeous, the hotel is designed to look like New York’s skyline, complete with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. A giant roller coaster circles in and around the hotel.

Caesar’s Palace and The Colosseum

Possibly one of the best known of all the Las Vegas hotel resorts, Caesar’s Palace continues to change. Presently Caesar’s Palace is a huge compound in the centre of the Strip, complete with every conceivable entertainment choice. Of course, you have to try your hand at the casino games as that’s one of the best things to do in Vegas! If you’re a passionate poker player you can’t miss playing at the 24-hour, 4,500-square-foot poker room. Regular tournaments are held, offering you an opportunity to win big!

The hotel is closely linked with shows held in its enormous concert venue famous as “The Colosseum.” Leading performers (which have consisted of Celine Dion and Elton John) perform here for prolonged periods, and shows are frequently reserved ahead of time. Travellers planning a trip and wanting to see a performance here will have to look at dates and ticket availability very early.

Things to do in Las Vegas

Catch the Cirque du Soleil

The primary thing to do in Vegas is to see a Cirque du Soleil show. You could see world popular magician Criss Angel perform remarkable tricks that seem to bend reality or view dancers and acrobats put on a memorable show through performances in KA and Mystere. No matter which shows you pick to see, you’re guaranteed a night to remember!

Helicopter Rides over Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon

For an exceptional aerial view above Las Vegas, or even the Grand Canyon, travellers might want to take a helicopter ride. This is a brilliant chance for anyone with less time to view not just Vegas, but the encompassing landscape and one of America’s most remarkable and popular natural appeals.

Visit the Neon Museum

The Neon Museum started as the “neon boneyard,” a fenced-in yard where most of the Strip’s neon signs were kept after being taken off from casinos that were either refurbished or imploded. Around 120 signs, mainly created by the YESCO corporation in the 1950s-80s, lie in the “boneyard” next to the museum. On a guided tour, travellers could learn about the styles in sign design and technology, which played a big part in the Las Vegas history. The museum also holds the transported lobby of La Concha, an old motel, which was saved from levelling and now works as the visitors’ centre.

See the Seven Magic Mountains

Now that it has opened next to Jean Dry Lake, the huge-scale public work “Seven Magic Mountains” could be viewed by anyone arriving (or departing) Las Vegas through I-15, 10 miles south of the Strip. The enormous, 30-foot-tall neon-painted limestone totems cut a magnificent picture against the desert. Artist Ugo Rondinone’s piece took many years to plan in this region, but all you have to do is follow the driving instructions and show up. The work will be on view until 2021.

Gondola Ride at the Venetian Hotel

If you don’t have time to tour Venice, Italy, that’s okay. An unwinding way to relax in Las Vegas is on a canal tour by gondola (tiny boat). With a singing gondolier, you’ll be rowed across the Grand Canal, go below balconies, and beside cafes as if you were in Venice. With a real Venetian street that looks like Italian construction and the alleys of Venice, it’s an entertaining escape and quite romantic. Now, that’s amore!

Reasons to visit Las Vegas

Las Vegas is recognized as the ultimate playground, the metropolis is colourful and vibrant, making it a perfect destination for numerous travellers looking to tour its entertainment, cuisine, and nightlife scene.

World Famous Casinos, gambling is raised to an art form in Las Vegas, where you could pop into one of the dozen casinos just by walking down the road.

Las Vegas isn’t just a destination for grown-ups anymore. In fact, in current years it’s become the ideal place for a family holiday. Appeals like M&M’s world and the Shark Reef Aquarium are made for family entertainment.

Some of the top golf courses in the world exist in and around the Las Vegas strip.

Utah, the Mormon State

Welcome to nature’s most ideal playground. From red-rock mesas to thin slot canyons, powder-bound hills, and slick rock tracks, Utah’s varied land would amaze you. The biking, trekking, and skiing are world-class. And with more than 65% of the state lands public, which include 14 national parks and shrines, the access is just excellent.

Utah has rapidly turned into one of my favourite holiday destinations in the USA – seriously! The National Parks in Utah are absolutely magnificent and a must-view for any outdoor admirer.

Top Places to Visit in Utah

Zion National Park

If you’re travelling into southern Utah from Las Vegas (which is the route I took on my most current Southwest road trip), Zion National Park would be the first park you’ll come across. It became a national park during 1919, and most people quote it as their favourite national park in America. (It may be my new favourite, too!).

Zion is recognized for its high mountains and red canyons, which was cut out by the Virgin River. It’s also well-known for famous (if tough) treks such as Angels Landing and The Narrows.

Bryce Canyon National Park

The next park down the Utah national parks path is Bryce Canyon, which you can get to by travelling on the US 89 from Zion. Even though it also is packed with sandstone like Zion, the rock developments here are completely different.

Bryce Canyon is renowned for its windswept sandstone towers identified as hoodoos – the National Park Service says Bryce has the biggest selection of hoodoos anywhere in the world! Stopping at all the vantage points, therefore, is the most famous thing to do at Bryce Canyon (Sunset Point and Inspiration Point are my favourites).

Capitol Reef National Park

As far as national parks go, poor Capitol Reef is the park that gets ignored the most frequently in Utah. If you travel east from Bryce on UT-12 and UT-24, you’ll drive across a slice of Capitol Reef beginning in the town of Torrey – but most people don’t stop.

If Capitol Reef was in any other state, perhaps it’ll be really common! But, in Utah, it’s generally the park people spend less amount of time in. (And I’m guilty of it, too!).

Canyonlands National Park

Next up is Canyonlands National Park, in southeastern Utah nearby the town of Moab. Canyonlands is split into three diverse parts: Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze, and has two main visitor centres (one at Island in the Sky, and one at The Needles).

True to its title, Canyonlands is renowned for its canyons and buttes that have been cut out by the Colorado River (the same river that cut out the Grand Canyon). It’s also recognized for its brilliant mountain biking, with the 100-mile White Rim Road at Island in the Sky being the most common track.

Arches National Park

The last of the Mighty 5 national parks are Arches, also next to Moab in southeastern Utah. This park is very diverse from the other four on this list, and I also think it’s one of the most reachable since it’s just around 15 minutes from Moab and is packed with short, simple walks to view the renowned arches.

The sandstone arches, of course! The park has nearly 2,000 natural stone arches, together with pinnacles, cliffs, and balanced rocks. The rocks are also a dazzling orange-red, which looks exceptional in photos.

Salt Lake City and the Mormon Temple

Salt Lake City is frequently linked with skiing and winter pursuits, and definitely, most of the top ski resorts in the state can be reached in about an hour’s drive from here. But this is a city worth exploring, regardless of the season, and provides many attractions and things to do.

Standing on Temple Square you’ll find the late 19th-century Mormon Temple, the biggest Latter-day Saints temple, and one of Salt Lake City’s main appeals. The temple can only be entered by Mormons but it is certainly worth strolling by to take a look. Other attractions in the city consist of the Mormon Tabernacle and the State Capitol.

Most Popular Thing to do in Utah

Try Glamping

Glamping, short for glamorous camping, is one of the newest trends in experiential travel. It’s a method to tour the great outdoors without the problems of customary camping. Think king-sized beds and Egyptian cotton sheets other than a foam pad and sleeping bag. Think gourmet food other than burnt hot dogs. Utah glamping is thriving as more properties are offering guests with a more immersive way to encounter the remarkable countryside and world-popular rock formations that characterize this state. There are a handful of properties that presently provide glamping in Utah: Capitol Reef Resort is one of those places.

Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Jesse James… they’ve all had us mesmerized featuring in dirty old Western movies, and over at the Capitol Reef Resort in Utah you could get a taste of it all. But with some additional extravagant twists!

Here you would be surrounded by the remarkable Red Rock Cliffs in an astonishing site with an option of generous lodgings to select from, from extravagantly decked out cabins, to teepees and lavish Conestoga Wagons – all founded on genuine 19th Century designs.

Also included are private bathrooms, just a couple of steps away, while you’ll come across a fire pit directly outside. Ideal for roasting marshmallows!

Other facilities consist of an outdoor pool and hot tub on-site, and you could take delight in horseback riding trips, Llama escapades, and lots more…!

Travel Center offers the best deal to experience luxury glamping in style and the chance for you to take in the beauty of the surrounding scenery!

Reasons to visit Utah

You could go from winter to summer in one road trip.

Biggest ski resort in the country.

Camping beneath the darkest night skies and the sunniest morning sunrises.

It has five national parks.

It has the best snow in the world.

It’s a hiker’s heaven.

Now that you know all about the places to visit, the best things to do, and reasons to visit Las Vegas and Utah, we hope you will take this deal for an immersive experience.

so what are you waiting for? Call us, text us, and get in touch with our travel experts and grab this deal before it’s too late, it’s certainly an experience that should not be missed!

Read More:- https://blog.travelcenter.uk/from-las-vegas-to-utah-the-ultimate-holiday-guide/

This Article, Information & Images Source (copyright) :- https://blog.travelcenter.uk

#travel #travelvibes #travelcenteruk #wanderlust #traveller #travellife #travelgoals #bestplacetotravel #Holidaymakers

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queenieofaces · 7 years

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Some reflections on writing ace and aro LARP characters

This post has been cross-posted to The Asexual Agenda.

As some of you may remember, I played New World Magischola (a Live Action Role Playing game set at a wizard college) last year. Since then, I’ve played a couple of other LARPs (including the second semester of NWM). At some point in the past year my friend @algebraicbubbles and I started tossing around the idea of writing our own LARP.* Our concept was simple: we’re both queer kids who love superhero fiction and often read superpower narratives as metaphors for queerness, so we wanted to write a superhero high school game (think Sky High in terms of aesthetic) that had queerness front and center. We jokingly called the game Superqueeroes because we both love terrible puns, and then we couldn’t think of a better name so it stuck.

Anyway, one thing led to another, we recruited another friend to our team, and then we wrote and ran the game this past summer. (If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, well, I was writing 11 character sheets, a world doc, and a whole lot of plot.)

This is less of a post about LARP and more a reflection on the process of writing ace and aro LARP characters, and how that’s different from (or similar to) writing ace characters in fiction. My hope is that this post will still be interesting to you even if you know nothing about LARP, and will be interesting to LARPers who aren’t that well-versed in asexuality or aromanticism.

Note: I’ve avoided plot spoilers in this post, but I necessarily have to talk about some character backstories. If you’re planning on playing Superqueeroes and would prefer to go in without any knowledge, it’s probably best to skip over this post.

In order to understand what the heck I’m going on about in this post, it’s probably necessary to give some background on the game. The premise is that the characters (there are 17 of them) are all seniors at a high school for kids with superpowers. The game takes place during graduation, when all the characters get to find out which superhero team they’ll be placed on after graduation, announce their new superhero name, and take their first steps into adulthood. (Needless to say, graduation doesn’t go entirely as planned, but what exactly happens is a spoiler, so you’ll have to play if you want to find out.) Some questions the players get to explore include: What does it mean to be a hero? How far would you go to achieve your goals? Who are you and who do you want to be? What kinds of relationships do you want to have and with whom? Who matters in your life, and how far would you go to keep them safe? Needless to say, it’s a game that’s really heavily about identity and relationships (of all kinds) in addition to being about having sweet superpowers and saving the day. It’s also worth noting that nobody has alignments, per se--anyway can become a supervillain if they so desire, or could become the greatest hero ever known. The path of the character is decided not only by their backstory and the game plot but also by their player and the relationships they choose to focus on. (For example, there’s a character who we expected to be played as a sweet, friendly social butterfly, who wound up being played as an incredibly socially savvy, kind of manipulative mastermind...which was 100% in line with what was written on the character sheet, even though we weren’t expecting that outcome.)

We decided early on that we wanted to have characters with a variety of genders and sexualities written explicitly into their character sheets. Some characters have their gender/sexuality explicitly defined (e.g. “you are bisexual” or “you are non-binary”), some have a list of other characters they’re crushing on (and the player can interpret how they identify in whatever way they like), and some were left undefined so the player could decide what felt best to them (although the understanding is, other than The Token Straight TM, every character is some flavor of queer). Some characters are dating other characters, some are hoping to date other characters, some are trying to figure out how to resolve the love quandrangle they’re stuck in,** and some are really tired of all the high school romantic drama. Non-normative genders, sexualities, and relationship structures are not that big of a deal in the Superqueeroes universe--nobody is going to face violence or backlash by coming out,*** although of course people can still be nervous about coming out or unsure if coming out is a good idea. Even without the possibility of negative consequences, disclosing part of yourself can be really scary and cause complications in your personal life. Again, some characters are explicitly out, some are explicitly closeted, and some are left up to the player to decide what feels best.

There is one explicitly ace character and one explicitly aro character in the game (although there are a couple of additional characters who could easily be played as ace or aro spectrum if their players so desired). I wrote both of them--in fact, I wrote a total of 11 of the 17 characters (and looked over/edited the other 6, while the other writer did the same for me). For the sake of this post, I’m going to refer to the ace character as G and the aro character as M. Most of the characters are written to be gender-neutral, and then we assign them genders and pronouns based on player preference--in run 1 of the game, for example, G was female and M was genderfluid. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll refer to both characters with “they/them” pronouns in this post.

One of the first challenges was that we wanted to keep our character sheets fairly short--I think almost all of them are in the 2-3 page range. We kept them concise to prevent people from having to memorize a boatload of information (it’s only a 4-hour game after all), and also to give people leeway to interpret characters as they saw fit. Our character sheets generally include information on the character’s family, power, gender and/or sexuality (although there were some we left up to the players as already mentioned), any past experiences that might be relevant (history of being bullied, for example, or a mysterious encounter with a superhero in their youth), their hopes for the future/general life philosophy, other characters they have relationships with (friends, rivals, siblings, study buddies, etc.), and a list of two or three possible goals for the character. As you can probably guess, that’s a whole lot of information to pack into a very small space, which meant that we could usually devote no more than a paragraph or two to a character’s gender and sexuality.

This, needless to say, made writing character sheets for the aro and ace characters hard. While in a work of fiction you might be able to really delve into a character’s backstory and motivations and flesh them out as a whole person, in a 2-3 page character sheet all you can do is gesture at a rough sketch and hope that the player can fill everything else in themselves. And while there are a lot of short-hand gestures that I can make to aro and ace experiences that I would expect aro and ace players to pick up on, I had no guarantee that the player we cast would be aro/ace or, in fact, have any knowledge of asexuality or aromanticism. So I had to come up with a really compact way to gesture to ace and aro experiences without creating a character that would be easily reducible to stereotypes.

First, I didn’t want either character to be defined solely by absence. There has been a lot of discussion about positive vs. negative definitions of asexuality over the years, and while I don’t object to negative definitions of asexuality in general, it was important (especially since I didn’t know who would be playing the characters) to define the characters not only by what they didn’t want but also by what they did want. M, for example, grew up with a huge extended family, and has always wanted that for themself, but knows that they don’t want a romantic partner, which makes the standard path to a big family tricky. G is an empath (which is how they figured out that they’re asexual), and sometimes has trouble understanding their peers’ romantic drama, not because they lack empathy (ha, puns) but because they don’t understand why people can’t just talk to each other and stop pining from afar. They have a classmate who they know is attracted to them, and they get to decide how they want to deal with that--do they want to take their own advice and hash it out with them or just keep avoiding them? M and G are both in situations that are directly linked to their orientations, but require more complex solutions than just saying, “Do not want.”

Second, I didn’t want either character to have no powers or a “late-bloomer” narrative. There are a couple of characters who have no powers at all, including one who is the child of two of the most famous heroes and who everyone is expecting to develop powers any day now. While having no powers seems like a really obvious metaphor for ace and aro experience, I didn’t want powerless ace and aro characters, especially if there was any chance that they were “late-bloomers,” since that would cast asexuality/aromanticism in a really negative light (it’s not just an absence--it’s an absence of what makes everyone else in the game special, yikes).**** Instead, both G and M have consistently undervalued powers, and a good chunk of their plot is trying to get people to take them seriously (also, arguably, an ace/aro experience, but one that’s a lot less value-laden than making them powerless).

Third, I didn’t want either character to be isolated or be a lone wolf. Especially in a game that’s so heavy on romance plotlines, the most stereotypical writing choice would have been to have G and M be the two characters uninvolved in romance plotlines. (There's a lot of commentary to be made here about the ways that aromanticism and asexuality are often equated, but that's a whole separate post in and of itself.) The second easiest choice would be to substitute very strong friendships for G and M’s romance plots. What I wound up doing instead was making very strong friendships normal for pretty much all the characters--most characters have at least one positive relationship (like a friend or a mentor) and one antagonistic relationship (although some characters have more of one or the other). M has no romance plotlines and G has a potential romance plotline they can pursue if their player wants to play them as romantically-inclined, but there are other non-ace non-aro characters who don’t have romance plotlines--there’s a bisexual character who thinks dating is way too much trouble, for example. Both G and M have figuring out what kinds of relationships they want in their life listed as one of their goals...but they’re not the only ones with that goal. They also both have very strong relationships with their families--M, as already mentioned, has a huge extended family and is in close contact with their siblings, while G has two university professor dads who would really prefer that they go to college rather than becoming a superhero straight out of high school. Basically, in a game about relationships and queerness, I didn’t want to paint M and G’s relationship desires as uniquely weird, and didn’t want to make romance a foregone conclusion for every other character.

Fourth, I wanted to avoid stereotypes about aromantic and asexual people--especially stereotypes about them being heartless, emotionless, robotic, alien, innocent/naive, etc.***** G directly counters a lot of ace stereotypes--they’re really emotionally fluent and not naive by any means. M is aromantic but cares about people really deeply and is far from emotionless (some might say that they have too many emotions). There is a cyborg character in the game, but it’s not either of them. I also wanted to avoid a lot of the “insufficient aro/ace” tropes that can appear in fiction--in a game where queerness is accepted and celebrated, I didn’t want either of the characters to be saddled with a plot where their orientation was “hurting” (or perceived to be hurting) someone else (as I have unfortunately seen happen in other games with ace characters).

I think I managed okay at all my goals--our first run, at least, suggests that I did. G and M were both fully fleshed out characters rather than collections of stereotypes. In the end, they became a superpowered duo (called “Emotional Assault” and “Battery”; yes, I have been crying about that truly awful pun for months) and also decided that once they got older, they were going to adopt kids together. They also schemed with some other students, brainwashed their principal, and helped a supervillain escape justice, but, you know, nobody’s perfect.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens when we run the game again--we were very careful about who we picked for our first run and how we cast, but if we run the game at a convention, for example, we’re going to have a lot less control over our player base. Even with our carefully curated group of players, we had a lot of trouble casting M in particular, in large part because not many people said they were comfortable playing an aromantic character. (Talking to players afterward, it seems like that was mainly because A. people wanted romance plots or B. they weren’t sure that they could accurately and sensitively portray an aromantic character. We had similar difficulty casting one of the trans characters.)

I think the big takeaway here is that writing ace and aro characters for LARP (especially if you’re going for compact character sheets) is pretty different than writing them in fiction. The space constraints are very different, and you ultimately don’t have control over the character--all you can really do is point the player in the right direction and hope that they follow your signposting. But the upside is that since character creation is collaborative, the players can take your characters in completely unexpected but delightful directions.

If you want to learn more about Superqueeroes, I have a whole tag for it on my other blog, which, granted, is mostly all caps text posts about how bad I am at naming things as well as some beautiful mood boards made by one of our run 1 players. There will almost certainly be future runs of the game, so keep an eye out for announcements about that if you’re hanging around New England LARP communities.

*For those of you wondering what a LARP is, there are a whole bunch of different styles, but in our case we were running a four-hour low-mechanics theatre game, so imagine doing improv theatre for four hours. Alternatively, imagine the games you might have played with your friends on the playground where you pretended to be ninjas or pirates or wizards. Basically, we got everyone together in a room and pretended to be superpowered teenagers for four hours. The three writers played NPCs, so I got to be the slightly douche-y, America-themed principal. It was good.

**I was very proud of the run 1 players for resolving the love quadrangle by all dating each other. Good job, kids.

***Although there are definitely LARPs that deal with heavy themes around gender and sexuality really well, we more or less wanted escapist fiction. We let people decide how dramatic they wanted to make being queer for their character--for some people it was really not a big deal at all, whereas for others it was a really central part of their identity. (Multiple characters wound up picking superhero names that were puns about their orientations, for example.) But removing the possibility of violence or negative backlash from the picture meant that people could pursue their love quadrangles or figure out how to tell their friends that they were non-binary without having to worry about whether they’d be fired or disowned or ostracized.

****There’s some good commentary from the author of The Wicked + The Divine about similar choices they made with regards to asexuality in their cast. (Major spoilers for WicDiv at the link, of course.)

*****Hey, have you read the Ace Tropes series yet? If not, you should do that! It’s really good!

#asexuality in LARP #actuallyasexual #asexual #ace safe #asexuality in fiction #superqueeroes game #cross posted to the asexual agenda #hopefully someone will find this interesting...hopefully...#hey look! it's an upbeat post from me! frickin' finally!#LARP

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gamerszone2019-blog · 5 years

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No Man’s Sky Beyond Review - And Beyond The Infinite

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/no-mans-sky-beyond-review-and-beyond-the-infinite/

No Man’s Sky Beyond Review - And Beyond The Infinite

Three years after release, the universe of No Man’s Sky continues to evolve. With each expansion, I spend weeks as a blissful wanderer, seeing an already vast universe become more populous, more beautiful, more capable of sustaining a home for anyone who dared to voyage within it. Beyond, however, is no mere evolution and refinement. It feels like No Man’s Sky approaching its final form, having shed a great deal of what was previously limiting and restrictive. But there’s one new factor specifically that makes the update live up to its name: No Man’s Sky is now a VR title. And it is utterly breathtaking.

It is breathtaking right away, waking up for the first time completely immersed in an alien world literally no one else has ever seen. Everything has a new fascination: the way the flora moves and shifts under harsh weather, the way the ground is pockmarked and windswept, the vast, unknowable vistas stretching across toxic interstellar perdition. It’s all beautiful before you even make the first flight into space.

An incredible amount of additional work has gone into making inhabiting that Exo-Suit even more of an experience. On PS4, you can play in 2D or VR with the DualShock, something that also gives you a Smooth turning option, but two PlayStation Moves are the real way to go. With the Move, your Multi-Tool is strapped to your back, ready to be whipped out more like in Blood & Truth than an ever-present floating gun like in most VR titles. The Analysis visor has you pressing the wand to the side of your head, like you’re Cyclops preparing to fire an Optic Blast. Getting in and out of your ship involves physically pulling the handles, and escaping from a hairy situation with sentinels or the local wildlife with that lightning quick motion adds an even greater layer of tension. Best of all, the menus are mapped to a little hologram in your hands that activates when you point at it. It’s a simple and intuitive implementation of such an elaborate and persistent mechanic.

Still, even with the new perspective and tools at your disposal, it should be said upfront that at its core, No Man’s Sky: Beyond is still, well, No Man’s Sky. Whether you’re in VR or not, many of the early mundanities of the game remain. You have to repair your broken ship, gather a specific resource, create fuel, drop a refiner, and so on. Beyond, however, brings varying kindnesses that welcome you to a new universe instead of prodding you into space with a stick. The UI holds your hand, telling you exactly why you’re collecting these things, what it is you’re trying to do, and exactly how to find what you need. Once you’ve found everything, having an expanded inventory and an absurd amount of space to hold items–each block can hold thousands now–means mining constantly in your travels is worthwhile. There’s always something you can use later, and you have the space to contain it. The game is much more patient and generous with the breadcrumbs that teach you how to play, guiding you into the stratosphere not only painlessly but purposefully.

That extends into the rest of the game once the tutorials stop and the training wheels are all the way off. All of the larger narrative pieces from the previous updates feel organically woven into Beyond. Dialogue and instructions from one mission from the Atlas Path may be rewritten or tweaked to reference Artemis or some new action you can take in Beyond. Direct links have been made where the next logical step in your current mission involves learning more alien language instead of just trying to get your next cell to warp to the next galaxy. The missions and their objectives have a synergy now, where lines of dialogue and specific mission objectives weave narrative strands together. It’s a bit of minor housekeeping No Man’s Sky has needed for a while now. The overarching subtle tale of both exploration and acceptance in the great unknown remains, but it also has quite a bit more meaning now that it’s not your sole purpose in the universe.

When your only task was just to keep hopping from galaxy to galaxy towards the center, there was plenty to see and take in, but you couldn’t really live in the universe because you were so busy trying to survive. The Atlas Path asked some big, existential questions, sure. Artemis helped with that a great deal, giving you an Other to truly work towards understanding and fathoming at least one small mystery of the universe with. But there’s a huge difference between looking at a vast wilderness from a hypothetical distance and trying to figure out the very real challenge of laying down roots there. The latter is a much more fundamental part of Beyond’s gameplay loop. It’s the difference between Next telling you that yes, now you can build bases and here’s how, versus those bases being more of a necessity to sustainably start traversing the universe. The way menus and options are streamlined for you in Beyond make it easier to create, leave, and return to a place of solace and safety, and to depend on a planet, your base, and the resources within. It’s a much stronger experience, and the undercurrent of humanism running throughout the Atlas Path lands much harder as a result. Beyond’s biggest improvements are all in favor of fostering that relationship between players and the universe around them, and that includes its people, playable and non-playable.

No Man’s Sky has long had one of the more positive and welcoming online communities in the gaming landscape, and there was always the worry that removing the barriers between players would invite the worst elements of online play into what’s typically a place of zen. This is far from the case.

The new Anomaly, summonable to any galaxy at any time, is no longer a sparse, glorified save space, but a bustling 16-player hub of activity, full of greetings, proud ship captains, aliens who look upon you with curious eyes, and players more than happy to bring you to the worlds they call home. Just like the first spoken line of the game, so much of the Anomaly’s layout, from its menus to the way it presents the current state of the area, is about reminding you that you’re never fully alone out there. Beyond has made it so much easier to find allies to either assist in their mission or share what you have from your own inventory. Everything you pick up and mine may have a price, but the game quite often reminds you via the descriptions that those items can also be given to others. Clicking an item while on the Anomaly gives you a list of everyone in range that you might possibly hand it off to. Checking mission boards reminds you there are people who may be looking for the same thing you are, and when it’s the other way around, the request shows up in the lower left. During my time with the update, there were good Samaritans everywhere in the Anomaly, giving out extra rare items to whoever wandered into range.

That’s a rather huge and heartening factor, not just because you can now jump in and help strangers shoot things down and collect loot, but because it creates a strong sense of community in what was previously a fairly lonely adventure. The Anomaly feels like the petri dish for No Man’s Sky to develop an actual culture, a place of cooks, pilots, space frontiersmen, and traders looking for the next big score. It feels alive and connected in all the ways the game used to feel isolated and cold. And it does so without overshadowing the fundamental element of peaceful solo exploration if you so desire. That new emphasis on connection is never so obtrusive that it prevents you from performing one simple task or speaking to one specific NPC and leaving, but it also doesn’t feel arduous to connect with another human being the way it did before this update.

There’s still some legwork involved, though. While joining games and having others join yours is a quick and simple matter (and much less finicky than it was in Next) players can occasionally spawn on drastically different locations on the same planet. That said, searching for stranded partners wound up being a weirdly fun adventure all its own.

A much bigger caveat is that for a new player to party up with friends, they still have to get out into space on their own, which makes sense. There’s a lot of ways for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to irrevocably screw up a galaxy by accident, or waste a resource, or piss off a planet’s Sentinels, or ruin your relationship with a species of animals. The tutorials do important work of not just showing you how to play the game, but respect the game. If you want to give a partner some of your resources, you can. But if an objective given by the game tells you to build something, giving them the exact item the game wants won’t clear that objective. That’s a limitation the game is all the better for keeping in place. Choosing to assist someone can’t be the same as beating the game with or for them. If you’re with someone, you’re there for the experience. That’s not all necessarily new for a multiplayer experience, but it does feel rare when the game is pushing you to connect with other people for what tend to be for more mercenary reasons.

For my part, I remained a solitary player, only choosing to put down sparing roots on the most beautiful worlds and never building more than I needed. I’m very much a city boy in real life. In No Man’s Sky, I’m a happy recluse with 40 acres and a species of chubby elephantine space mules I named Horace. I’ve been harvesting eggs and milk from the animals on the strawberry-pink and white world I’ve been calling home for the past year or so. Even as the universe got bigger, I would go to the Anomaly to trade, buy new ships, and hang out with aliens, but home remains solitary. So few of the self-sufficient agrarian aspects of my little home were even possible in previous updates. Beyond has made me feel more empowered to sustain that life, have a place to return to and maintain, and make improving it for the laid-back alien assistants who reside with me much easier to accomplish.

The larger technical problems with Beyond come down to problems with VR platforms in general. Despite the visual beauty, my time with the Oculus version was plagued with flaws and odd bugs and glitches. By comparison, the PSVR version caters to performance. Frame rate and gameplay are pristine there, but at the cost of clarity, especially when it comes to the various screen displays in-game. In addition, the PSVR’s old nemesis, the camera drift, rears its ugly head here, and the Recenter VR Camera option in the Pause menu does less to solve it than it should. As of this writing, however, there have been additional patches every few days, and more and more of these bugs vanish with each one.

These tiny frustrations utterly dissolve away in flight, however. No Man’s Sky’s most consistently powerful experience of seamless space travel nearly reduced me to tears as the upper atmosphere melted away into the silence and deep wonder of the galaxy. It’s the kind of thing I dreamt of as a kid. As part of an expanding experience and seemingly impossibly ever-larger universe, No Man’s Sky continues to deliver on the promise of being a space traveler–and VR assists in making it a more immersive experience.

The drastic improvements made to No Man’s Sky in its Beyond expansion are the new gold standard for how to gracefully cope with a game’s flaws post-release. The game laid the foundation with its release, but it took Beyond to elevate it into something magnificent. Successfully transitioning to VR is a creative victory on its own, but realizing just how full and vibrant and rewarding an experience this game has now become is almost poignant. Beyond represents the courage of convictions, a concept that has not only met the lofty expectations it set forth, but transcended them.

Source : Gamesport

#Game Reviews

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teampogostix · 8 years

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RATING THE GAMES

Having played all the PMD games, I thought I’d rate them all based on how I think they stack up to each other, for no reason other than I wanted to! (I actually started doing this in a chat with a friend but I think he was getting bored...) Anyway, I’m ranking them based on a few criteria: Writing/Story content (without going into too many spoilers), Post-credits content, Bonus content (if any exists), and Mechanics, pointing out particular gripes I have along the way. Keep in mind that this is my opinion; I’m allowed to post it, and you’re allowed to think it’s stupid. Without further ado...

RED RESCUE TEAM/BLUE RESCUE TEAM

Writing/Story Content: Compared to later generations of PMD games, the story feels a bit rushed and oddly paced. That said, it’s not entirely fair to compare it to the games that came after; this was the first go, the experimental first game, and they didn’t know if it would be a success or a flop, so they probably didn’t have as many writers and programmers on board. Nevertheless, it’s charming, and definitely worth a replay one of these days. This was the first game to bring me to tears with feels, something all the subsequent PMD games would inherit. Post-Credits Content: To be entirely fair, I’ve never gotten through all the post-cred stuff in this generation. Shame on me! I do remember that the one thing that made me kind of sad, is that your partner stops following you around through town :C Post-cred you get much more freedom, but very little guidance on what you’re supposed to do, which led a young Pogo into a bit of a dead-end before her game of RRT mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again... Bonus Content: To the best of my knowledge, Red/Blue Rescue Team have no bonus content. Mechanics: As stated earlier, this was the first generation of games, and it set all the major mechanics in place. That being said, there were definitely things that could’ve worked better: - Recruitment/Friend Areas. I was always running out of room to recruit Pokemon, and it was improbably hard to recruit certain Pokemon (Mew being the big offender here.) - Inventory Issues: You only get 2 “pages” of 8 items (for a total of 16 items) that you can hold in your bag... which is for some reason a Toolbox in this generation? I guess you could count one extra inventory slot for each team member, as this generation had each Pokemon have a separate 1 item inventory... Anyway, it was hardly enough sometimes. Another thing that could’ve been better: if you selected a consumable and chose “eat” or “ingest,” it would automatically be used by you/the player; the only way that I found to feed an Oran Berry to my partner was to literally throw it at him and hope he didn’t catch it instead. The graphics and sounds were a bit rudimentary compared to later games, but again, it gets a pass on this because it’s the first generation of games. Rescue mechanics left something to be desired; dual-slot communication between Red and Blue only worked half the time if memory serves, and it was a complicated and confusing process of sending/receiving mail. Overall Rating: ★★☆ The white star is a consolation star, because it’s the first generation of games and it’s not really fair to compare it to later games in that sense.

EXPLORERS OF TIME/DARKNESS

Story: The Explorers series has, by far, one of my favorite stories of the entire series. There’s Adventure! Betrayal! Escape! Laughter! Tears! It’s a wonderful sucker-punch to the feels, and remains one of my Top 10 games of all time. If you’re looking to get into PMD, I highly recommend these games, or even better, Explorers of Sky (which has so much extra crap it gets it’s own review).The pacing and dialogue are much improved, and the characters are much more memorable; even the ever obnoxious Chatot became lovable after enough time. Post-Credits Content: The Explorers series has so much post-credit story that it’s basically an entire other storyline, every bit as good as the first. You’ve saved the world once, think you can do it again? Bonus Content: No bonus content for these games, alas! Sky more than makes up for that though... Mechanics: The major differences that I noticed was an over-all smoothing of the inventory system. Now you can choose who eats what, and as your team’s rank increases, your bag gets bigger. Minor inventory tweaks include the team’s held items now being counted in the main inventory, and a change to Kangaskahn storage; instead of being able to deposit up to 99 of one item, which were all collapsed into one stack, the storage system here acts more like a very, very large bag, with each item taking up 1 slot. Again, like the bag, it gets bigger as your team rank increases, but it is finite. About the only gripe here is I’m a notorious hoarder and kept running out of room. Another system they changed a bit was the recruitment system. Actually recruiting Pokemon works the same, you beat them and hope you get lucky, but you’re no longer restricted by Friend Areas. Further, you can send new recruits back to the guild, and they’ll stay in your team even if you fail the dungeon. The rescue system is much improved, taking full advantage of the DS system’s wireless functions; you can even send items and team members to other people. Lots of new mechanics were introduced in this generation: - Treasure Boxes: What’s inside? You won’t know until you open it, but there’s a good chance it’s going to be.... - Exclusive Items: A.k.a. those blue-worded ones you get from treasure boxes, named such things as “Pika-Hair” or “Char-Fang.” These are items that give a passive stat boost for their specific evolution line; they could be traded at the Swap Cauldron for upgraded versions, which is a fun little thing to play with if you’re a crazy completionist like I am. - Different types of missions: True to their names, Red and Blue Rescue Team are all about rescue missions; unfortunately they don’t have any other mission types, and it could get really boring, really quickly. The Explorers series adds lots of different types of missions, including taking down criminals and delivering/recovering items. You’re no longer just a rescue team, you’re an exploration team! - Eggs: Sometimes you receive an egg as a reward for a mission. Chancy will take care of it until it hatches, after which you can chose to have the newly hatched Pokemon join your team (although I find it kind of morbid that people are giving away unborn young as rewards...) - Sentry Duty: A fun little minigame, which can net you some nice rewards if you’re good at it. Some people find it annoying, since you have to play it for a few plot sequences, but I enjoy it! It gives me Reviver Seeds - More options for player/partner characters: Much wider selection of Pokemon you can play as, and choose for your partner.

Overall Rating: ★★★★

EXPLORERS OF SKY

Story: The core story of Explorers of Sky is identical to that of Time/Darkness, with some additional chapters that aren’t in the other two games, namely Sky Mountain and the Shaymin Village. Again, if you’re looking to get into the series, Explorers of Sky is the one I would recommend the most! Post-Credits Content: As with the main story, Sky is more-or-less identical to it’s predecessors. Bonus Content: Aside from additional chapters in the main storyline, Sky has additional “Bonus Episodes,” smaller, separate plot lines that explore the background of the other characters in the game. Most of them revolve around the other guild members, where you play as them and see events that occurred before, but are related to, your arrival at the guild. One episode, however, deals with with a certain grass-type Pokemon, far in the future, and offered some solace to my aching feels. All told, the Bonus Episodes add a significant chunk of extra plot for you to enjoy! Mechanics: Further small refinements to the inventory system; you can give items to a team member out of a dungeon now. Exclusive Items have had the rarity/swap system slightly reworked, so if you exchange an exclusive item via wireless from Time or Darkness to Sky, it might have more rarity stars. Now you can save your game at the small watering hole at the crossroads instead of having to trek all the way back to your bed, which is very nice. Sometimes you can find bottles washed up on the beach, with a rescue request tucked inside, which can help beef up your job list. The graphics are much better looking, and the soundtrack is one of my favorites from any game. The number-one big change, however, is the Spinda Juice Bar: - Juice/Reworked Gummi System: Instead of taking them into a dungeon and stuffing your face, you can take them to Spinda, who will turn them into a delicious beverage. This grants the same IQ boost as a gummi normally would, along with the occasional additional stat boost. If Spinda makes a particularly amazing drink, you could get more than one boost. You can make juice out of most any food item, although only gummies have effects. Word of Warning: Do not make juice from grimy food. It will only end in tears! - Random Juice Prizes: Sometimes you’ll find a piece of paper tapped to the bottom of your glass. These often reveal a new dungeon, which often have treasure boxes on the furthest floors. Other times a Pokemon from across the room will ask to join your team, or give you an egg. - Extra Missions: Sometimes you’ll find a Pokemon waiting near the entrance of the Juice Bar, who will give you a mission request personally. - Your extra team members will wait inside the Juice Bar instead of out by the watering hole. You can buy them drinks too. - Recycle Shop: If you have spare items hanging around in your storage that you’re never gonna use, you can trade them in for other items or prize tickets at the Recycle Shop. Prize tickets can be used in a raffle, and come in three tiers: Normal, Silver, and Gold. The higher the tier the more items you have to recycle to get the ticket, but the better the prizes are. There’s a rather special surprise if you get a Big Win... If enough items are recycled, eventually it will unlock new dungeons. - You can evolve! Hooray! Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Seriously one of my favorite games ever, cannot recommend enough.

GATES TO INFINITY

Story: The story for Gates to Infinity is solid and enjoyable, with many a good plot twist. One I saw coming, the others, I did not! It has just as much feels-punching goodness as the other games, however... Post-Credits Content: ... the story is rather short, particularly when compared to the Explorers series. There’s a brief bit of post-credit story, but it’s short and rather predictable. After it ends, you’re given free rein, but there’s no further achievements to go for; no rare treasure, not much for completionists to aspire to. I’m afraid it got boring rather quickly. There are only a few super-challenging dungeons, and the “hardest” dungeon was not worth it at all, loot-wise which I’m still a little bit salty about. Bonus Content: DLC exists for Gates to Infinity, but what I bought didn’t add much. It also takes space on your SD card, which is bad news if your card is small. Mechanics Here’s the good: - Fancy new 3D graphics! Ooh! - Storage is back to being unlimited - AR Dungeons: You can point the 3DS camera at a circular-looking thing and find a randomly generated dungeon there. - V Wave: Every day a different type of Pokemon will get stat and XP boosts in dungeons; i.e. when the V Wave is Fire, Fire Pokemon will get more XP. You can play a minigame to change the V Wave, but it costs Poke. - Shared Team XP: Everyone on your team roster, even the ones who aren’t in the dungeon, will get XP from each exploration. - Evolution: Evolution is now much easier, not requiring any specific area, but now your enemies can evolve too! - Move Levels: As you use a move, it will get better and better. Every time it levels, it gets more Power, Accuracy, or PP, or any combination of those things. Much like how XP is shared across all team members, move levels are shared as well; if you’re a Pikachu who knows Electro Ball IV, your Emolga team member will also know Electro Ball IV. - Glorious Gold: Occasionally you find a gold bar on your explorations. These are useless on their own, but you can trade them to Cofagrigus for money and rare items! GLORIOUS! SPARKLIES! - Paradise: You basically build half the town. Outside of the Kecleon Shop and a few other core stores, you can buy and clear land to build new facilities. Some of these are shops that specialize in one thing and will buy that at a higher price (For instance, you can open an Oodles of Orbs or a Berries and Seeds), some are Dojos where you can improve your moves (see Move Levels above), one shop is a recycle shop (now named the Swap Shop), and some are minigames. - You can now save from the menu anywhere in town. - You can pick which Pokemon you want to be from the get-go, no more resetting and taking the stupid quiz 24 times to get the one you want! - New recruitment method: You can give gifts, either found in dungeons or purchased from Cinccino in town, to a specific Pokemon to befriend them. Super useful with legendaries! - Dungeon Distortions: After the main game, dungeons will receive a level of Mysteriousness. The higher the level, the more likely something weird will happen. Sometimes you’ll find a floor that only has one kind of item or enemy, or is made entirely of corridors. Sometimes you’ll wind up in a completely different area for a bit, such as the Gilded Hall... - IQ skills are now party-wide, and can be found in treasure boxes, getting rid of the Gummi system. - Multiplayer Dungeons: I never experimented with this? I don’t know anyone else who owns the game. - Rampardos opens boxes by literally smashing them to pieces with his head. This isn’t actually a new feature but I think it’s funny. Here’s the bad: - Almost all Pokemon from anything but Gen 5 are conspicuously absent. - Kangaskahn and the Bank are gone, now both storage and banking are handled by a Deposit Box. - Purple Kecleon is also gone :C - No Exclusive Items And the ugly: - There are only 5 options for the Pokemon you play as and your partner. The 3 Gen 5 starters, Pikachu, and Axew. - They removed Job Stacking, which is the term I use for doing multiple missions in one dungeon run. Why they did this, I have no idea, but it drives me up the freaking wall. Biggest gripe right there. - Completely overhauled the rescue system, now it relies on Street Pass. You have to hope someone else has the game, and has a Reviver Seed in their Passerby Post. This worked well for me on campus but sucks if you don’t live in an area with many other Pokemon fans. Overall Rating: ★★★ Overall, I feel like this game was rushed; it had a lot of potential, but some critical mistakes were made. The only thing saving it from being worse than Red and Blue Rescue Team is the plot.

SUPER MYSTERY DUNGEON

Story: The storyline of Super is very reminiscent of the Explorers series, for reasons that are spoilery so I won’t get into them, you’ll just have to play it and see for yourself! And prepare to have your feels hit hard by the twist at the end! Definitely one of my favorite games of the series. Post-Credits Content: Super is also somewhat lacking in the post-credits storyline, but what there is is longer and put together much better than what Gates had to offer. Also, a certain legendary joins your team... After the storyline is over, there are plenty of achievements to strive for, such as map completion, and a list of rare treasures to collect. Bonus Content: As far as I know there’s no DLC for Super Mystery Dungeon. Mechanics: Things that are new/changed: - Party size: Decreased from 4 to 3. Not a super huge deal. Client Pokemon who accompany you are now additional and won’t take a party slot. - Completely overhauled mission/recruitment systems: The Connection Orb replaces the old mission system, and while it’s very similar, once a mission is completed, the client becomes Connected, meaning they are now in your team roster. You can get all 720 Pokemon this way. No more delving into a 99 floor dungeon to try and find that one legendary! As connections spread, more missions will be unlocked. Sadly this means missions are finite, as far as I can tell... - Kangaskahn now runs the Connection Cafe. Talk to her to receive any rewards you get from missions. - Job Stacking is back THANK ARCEUS! - Motivation: This replaces the V Wave system. Every day or so 3 random Pokemon on your team roster will become Motivated. Motivated Pokemon get triple XP for the day. If an Unown is Motivated, and you bring it along, it doubles everyone’s XP, motivated or not; this means Motivated Pokemon will get six times the normal XP, which, let’s be honest, is the only time you’d ever bring an Unown in the party. - Many, many more options for the player/partner characters: All starters from gen 1 to 6, along with Pikachu and Riolu. The quiz is back, but if you don’t like the result, you can just pick which one you want. - Lucha Tokens: After the credits roll you can take a Lucha Token to Hawlucha to change a Pokemon’s ability, assuming their species can know more than one. - Looplets and Emeras: These replace both the scarves and IQ system; Looplets are bracelets with notches for gems called Emeras. Emeras come in many varieties, and when placed in a Looplet, they give the holder certain effects. Some of these are immunity to traps or bad status conditions, some are like the IQ skills from older generations (finding the stairs, knowing where shops are, etc.) and some are passive stat buffs. One Emera, Awakening, is how Mega Evolution is used; placing an Awakening Emera into a looplet will either Mega-Evolve the holder, or give the holder the Awakened status, which greatly boosts attack power and makes you immune to attacks from the front. Sadly Awakening only lasts a short time and will burst afterwards. - Progress Device: Replaces the Quick Save function. It’s an item that can be placed on the ground in a dungeon, allowing you to save your game there. Unlike Quick Save, this save data won’t be cleared after reloading, so you can reload there multiple times. - World Map: In a radical new step, you can now travel to 5 different continents, each with their own towns and dungeons! After comparing many, many different maps from all the games, I can safely say that these continents (aside from the Water and Sand continents) are, in fact, the worlds from the previous games; the Air Continent is where Red/Blue Rescue Team take place, the Grass Continent is where the Explorers Series took place, and the Mist Continent is where Gates to Infinity took place. (no idea where the Sand Continent is from though, possibly those PMD games that were only in Japan?) In addition to that there are CAMEOS. CHARACTER CAMEOS, EVERYWHERE! Made my inner fan super happy! - Wonder Mail is back. In addition, you can now attempt to rescue yourself, using a team built from your roster. Things that are removed: - No more building of dojos and shops. Sadly this means no recycle shop, but most core shops are readily available. - No AR dungeons and no multiplayer dungeons (did anyone even use those...?) Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Right up there with Explorers of Sky. Another game I would reccomend if you’re looking to get into the series.

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