#i thought it was just tracking time that the console was in sleep mode on my first playthrough????

[korattata]

...i dont think i've ever seen a game calculate your play time by what the date/time is since the last save.

I fixed my system clock in the middle of playing bc i forgot i had been outbreak resetting in pokemon & it displayed my play time as -17 hours

So i tested and yeah. Putting it back a whole year did this lol.

[silhouetteonpaper]

Vengeance

Summary: You decide to take matters into your own hands and get revenge on the person you despise most. But what happens when you keep it a secret from the entire team? Natasha Romanoff x Reader WC: 1,585 Warnings: Mentions of killing, running away

VENGEANCE

The entire team is on edge, each Avenger crowding around whatever device they have on hand in Tony’s lab. Frantically typing, tapping, calling, or watching—you’ve been missing for the past hour and no one has any clue where you could be.

It’s unlike you to step foot out of the compound without letting anyone know, whether it’s a quick text in advance or by word of mouth. But this time Natasha knows something is up, there’s a reason you didn’t let anyone know you were leaving.

The only evidence that led the team to worry is the singular missing quinjet from the landing pad. Tony attempted to track it earlier, but all communication with the vessel had been cut. Now, desperate for answers, they venture to use whatever resources possible to figure out where you could have gone.

“It’s a blank trail. Wherever she’s going, she made sure no one would know.” Tony voices, scrolling through maps of different flight radar. A part of him feels guilty for even teaching you how use stealth mode on the jet. Natasha’s expression furrows as she scans security camera footage for any other signs, inhaling sharply each time the grainy deleted footage appears.

“C’mon Nat. We’ll keep an eye out, but until then I think we all need to get some rest.” Steve states as he places a comforting hand on Natasha’s shoulder. She’s reluctant to listen, but eventually complies as the entire team heads to settle down for the night.

The last thing Natasha’s able to do is sleep, she lies in bed trying to shake her worries about you. You seemed fine just the other day, maybe slightly quieter, but on the outside no one could have suspected you were planning anything.

Usually, you’re someone who is eager to please others in work and in life. Always a smiling face as you complete a mission or hang out with the team. Natasha feels lucky to have you around, but now she worries that something she did caused this.

In the past, you had shared your grief over the live you lived before coming to the compound. In an attempt to console you, she helped you look on the bright side as you began training. But now, replaying all those interactions again, she wonders if it was enough.

Her thoughts begin to spiral, the blame she places on herself growing as the redhead concludes she caused you to leave. These flowing thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the sound of a ringing phone.

Natasha sits up, seeing a call appear on her phone from an unknown number. At this hour, she was confused why anyone would be calling, let alone a contactless ID. Hesitantly picking up the phone, she hits the answer button.

“Hello?” She says into the dead air. Silence. Natasha’s brows cave inward in confusion.

“I thought I was doing the right thing, but now I’m not so sure.” Your familiar voice fills Natasha’s ears, making her sigh with relief. You’re alive, and hopefully safe. She clearly wants nothing more than to bring you back to the compound.

“Where are you? I can come pick you up right now.” The redhead asks, hoping her urgency doesn’t scare you away.

“No, Nat. I…” You trail off. You can’t reveal what you’re doing at the risk of the Avengers trying to stop you. For months you’ve been planning this mission, and you knew no one on the team would support this endeavor. So, during the time spent planning you were careful not to reveal what you were up to.

But why risk your safety over a mission? The answer is simple, a crystal clear priority in your mind. For years, an agent who killed your mother has roamed free. Leaving you with nothing but a desperate search of support, the Avengers took you under their wing. But the anger building inside you had not subsided regardless of time passing.

It’s unfair to even consider the idea her killer gets to live on, with no consequences for his actions. Sure, the team had promised to take care of him when the right time arrived, but those empty words were starting to make you even more impatient. Everyone had thought you were over the idea of getting vengeance, multiple years passing without a word.

But today, you hide away in a secret bunker waiting for the man to show his face, a slight unsettling feeling finding its way into your chest. You had hoped calling Natasha would help chase away the unusual feeling inside, so far just hearing her voice calms your nerves. You take a deep breath, the phone staying silent on the other end as Natasha prays you’ll give her any details on your whereabouts.

“I need to do this,” You state, shaking away the doubts inside. Justice has to be served, even if it’s morally wrong. But what would mother say? The thoughts circulate your mind, the simple task now seeming more difficult than before.

“Do what. I need you to tell me what you’re doing.” Natasha breathes, the tension rising between her concerned state and your spared details. You know she’s worried about you, that the entire team probably is. But you also value executing this mission a lot more than their feelings. Is that harsh? Possibly, but everyone knows how much you value family.

“I think there’s a chance you already know.” You respond. It’s almost too difficult to say the words yourself: I’m killing him. If Nat thought hard enough, maybe she could recall the times you talked about getting your revenge all those years ago.

A sharp inhale informs you that she figured it out on the other end. “Please don’t do this, please come home.” She pleads through the phone. You can practically picture her worried expression, and the usual protectiveness it often came with.

“You know I can’t do that, Natasha.” Your response brings silence across the call once more, the redhead taking a moment to process. Will she still attempt to stop you? Will she plea for your return again and again?

“We all have monsters in the closet, but you can’t risk your life over trying to get rid of them,” Nat suddenly starts, “You can’t ever make them go away completely.”

Maybe her words have some truth to them, because a pang of guilt in your chest now rises into your watering eyes. “I can try, I have to try!” You remark, your tone growing defensive with anger. Nat killed most of her enemies, she doesn’t understand. You feel betrayed that she’s sitting here telling you what to do while contradicting her own actions.

“Killing him won’t bring your mother back.” Natasha states firmly. You choke on your tears, covering your sobs with your free hand. You won’t let her hear you like this. You won’t let her know she’s right. “Come home, please.” Her words force their way into the swirling grief inside your mind.

Overwhelmed, and now regretting your call, you hang up without another word. Natasha is left in the dark, unable to call you back due to the unknown number leaving no trace. It’s just how you want it, yet something feels wrong about the entire situation.

Nat is right. You never thought you would say that, but it’s true. Killing him won’t bring your mother back, and if anything she wouldn’t support that endeavor either. It’s time to make a decision, one that will change the course of your life either way.

Do you kill the responsible agent and loose trust with the only people you can call family, or do you go back to the compound and feel unaccomplished? Neither sounds appealing, but if you want to leave the dusty bunker you have to make a choice.

The answer that fills you with the least dread was the one that still involves the only family you have. You know that the right path is the one that leads you back to the place you call home. So, you prepare to head back to the compound empty handed. You pack up your things, taking the same route on the jet back to the large white building on the water while your motivation to make a change for the better grows.

Unaware you’d be returning, the landing pad out front is empty as the sleek black quinjet touches down. It doesn’t take long for pattering footsteps to replace the sound of the cooling engine, the entire team now running outside at the sight. The person at the head of the group is none other than Natasha, a sad smile covering her face.

“You were right, killing him won’t bring my mom back.” You admit as you step off the jet, walking up to the redhead. She nods once, putting both her arms on your shoulders before enveloping you into a hug.

She takes a deep breath, relieved to have you back in her arms. “Even if you can’t see how proud your mother is, know how incredibly proud I am.” She voices. It hits you that you didn’t even realize in all your time planning that you didn’t need to prove anything to your mother. You didn’t need to prove anything to anyone. The real love that you so desperately wanted was in front of you this entire time, you just happened to be looking in the wrong place. And thankfully, Natasha would always be here to help you find your way back.

[nautiscarader]

2020 in animation - recap

So, 2020. 

Yeah, I have to say I’m not entirely satisfied. Would not recommend, 1 star. 

But I would be willing to bump it to 1.5, if only because of one factor: the animation. 

Because I have to say, this was the best animated end of the world so far! And if there was something that kept our spirits up, it was the cartoon industry!

Just like last year, I should preface this by saying that this is highly subjective selection. Even when one is confined to their Hobbit holes for better part of the year because of *waves hands* everything around, 

day still only has 24 hours, so I have missed a few shows. (I should also apologise for omitting a few major ones last year, like Milo Murphy’s Law S2, Ducktales, or She-Ra. This is why I started keeping a track this year). I’m sure I will catch up with those I missed this year some time in the future, but for now, let’s see what this year has gifted us with.

And right from the start, January opens the race with very interesting propositions. We were still riding on an incredibly high wave from last year, with Infinity Train season 2.

This one focused on Tulip’s mirror, and pushed the season towards a much darker and complex story, diving deep into one’s personal journey and identity. There were tears, math, deer, and cops being murdered. Brutally. 

t was followed by two newcomers: The Owl House and first season of Kipo and The Age of the Wonderbeast. Both of them would dominate first half of the year, with The Owl House’s traditional, week-to-week airings, and Kipo's seasons appearing in  June and October.

The Owl House, a strong contender in "What will be the Next Gravity Falls?" contest, invited us to a world full of magic, mystery, elongated owl demons and some dark secrets. It has also created a milestone for Disney, introducing an LGBT couple with characters of bisexual Luz Noceda and lesbian Amity Blight. Their Grom dance has risen to the top of my animates scenes, polling very closely to the unforgettable Kataango.

On the other hand, Kipo has taken us to the post-apocalyptic world filled with mutant animals, revealing that despite the end of the world, our old vices and animosities have survived in underground burrows, and we have infected the overworld of giant doggos and suit-wearing frogs with them. 

Kipo did not pull any punches regarding commentary about our society, at the same time giving us hope in the form of the main protagonist, who was able to spread friendship and understanding amongst the mutes, as well as the humans that had to survive. And in the world that we have found ourselves in, it was a pretty darn good lesson.

February would bring end to two seasons of airing cartoons, Big Hero Six season 2 and Miraculous season 3, as well as another newcomer that won the hearts of fans: Glitch Techs, with its "second" season arriving in August. And while in my opinion he show wasn't as good as the other two new titles, I am clearly in minority, as the show about Ghostbuters-like team of game console technicians gained huge popularity... though not enough to keep the show afloat. As of writing this, it is currently in limbo, which is a shame, as the second set of 10 episodes finally added some much needed ongoing story.  

in March, another show from last year ended - Steven Universe Future. As we have expected, it tackled slightly more mature themes, showing how much Steven needed that therapy we have wished him, telling an important tale of finding one's worth and one's self. its ending might not have been as explosive as those of the original show, or the movie, but it left Steven’s story as open as an open road, and deep in our hearts, we all knew it would look like this.   

March was also the time when majority of western world caught the coronavirus, and that caused quite a turmoil with the movie and animation industry. One of the first victim of changed schedule was Disney's Onward, which was released on-line on Disney+ quickly after its theatrical release.

I have mixed feelings towards “Onward”. For such interesting promise, I think it made a few questionable and down right boring turns, though the unorthodox message at the end of it was its strongest point, and it was one I haven’t seen in a while, so it was worth watching just for that.  

April was relatively quiet (aside from more end of the world stuff); brought us third season of Ducktales that spread throughout the year, while May gave us final, fifth season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. 

To my eternal shame, I missed on this show when it premiered, and due to the lockdown, I binge-watched the previous four right in time for powerful and explosive season 5. And even though Catra and Adora finally gave us exactly what we needed, some fans felt slightly unsatisfied, calling for a movie, like the Steven Universe one to be made. And I’d be all for it, the rest of universe needs saving from the Horde! Also, cats in space - hilarious. 

May also revealed a new player on the streaming field: HBO Max, who surprised us with new Looney Tunes Cartoons, much more in the spirit of the legendary originals than the often-criticised Looney Tunes Show from 2011-2014. And in my opinion, it did; one could feel the same fluidity in animation, dedication to slapstick, and synchronisation with music than in the very first cartoons with Bugs and Daffy.

HBO Max would, however, return in June with first of series of Adventure Time original movies called "Distant Lands". The first centred around BMO, with second one - Obsidian giving us a glimpse into Bonnibel and Marceline's lives.

Distant Lands allowed people to revisit the odd, odd world of Ooo and learn about its colourful inhabitants, taking turns to seeing their past and the future, an, as usual, showing us that post-apocalyptic world can teach us valuable and meaningful lessons.   

Just in time for full lockdown in our burrows, aforementioned Kipo season 2 premiered in June, together with another cartoon movie, this time featuring We Bare Bears. While their movie wasn't anything to write songs about, it was exactly like the show, providing some wholesome content right when we needed it.

And just in case you needed more wholesome adventures, Craig of the Creek's second season ended, and its third season began, reminding us of HOW COOL LIFE WAS WHEN OUTERNET WASN’T SCARY AND WE COULD STILL WALK OUTSIDE FOR FUN AND NOT TO HUNT TOILET PAPER.

Just like last year, July was not dogs' days, but frogs'. Amphibia season 2 started raining on our heads, but unlike last year, its schedule wasn't a daily one, spreading the episodes throughout the Summer and early Autumn, with its second part arriving in February of 2021. There were more roadtrips, more mysteries and MORE MARCY.

August was equally strong: aforementioned Glitch Techs "season 2" premiered, offering better and more plot-heavy episodes than the first ten episodes. Unfortunately, the show's future is unclear; the uneven divide of plot between the seasons probably contributed to the show not being renewed. 10 new episodes apparently are written, but await in sleep mode, until Nickelodeon remembers about it.

HBO MAX picked up Infinity Train for its third season, after being derailed by Cartoon Network. And if you thought that killing a mirror cop was shocking... then this season has pushed the limit of what can be shown in modern children's cartoon to a frightening degree. The schedule was once again, weirder, with first five episodes airing on the day of the premiere, ending with a cliffhanger (literally) that only contributed to the shock factor and made us wait anxiously for its conclusion. It was bold, it was dark, it was memorable. 

And just like Glitch Techs, Infinity Train waits on a side track, unsure if it will be picked up, or will it be abandoned and left as a canvas for graffiti artists.

However, to end the Summer, a truly amazing TV movie has arrived on Disney Plus, where we came back to good, old Danville and could witness Candace against the universe. The new Phineas and Ferb movie brought back the glorious memories of this fantastic show, with the same humour, writing, abundance of catchy songs and a surprisingly deep moral.

In September we have seen the start of Big Hero 6 season 3 and a odd change of format. Instead of standalone 22-minute episodes, the show now consists of two 11-minute segments. In opinion of many, this weakened the stories, forcing them to be more comedy-oriented, and shortening the potential emotional drama. Still, it gave us funny, short stories, but they did clash with the two previous season, not to mention the movie.

However, if that wasn't up to your taste, Ducktales season 3 also started airing, and continued its first part up until December with more action- and plot-driven episodes, including the Darkwing Duck crossover, serving as a pilot of the spin-off. 

Later in December fans have learned that Season 3 will be its last, which broke the hearts of many duck fans; however, it seems that the season has been written as the last one in mind, and the news of the ending was known to the creators, which gives us hope for a kick-ass finale somewhere in 2021.

Miraculous New York, telling arguably one of the most mature storylines, opened the "Heroez" world to some new characters and new opportunities, with two more specials, taking place in Shanghai and Brazil, meant to air somewhere next year. AND I DO HOPE WE WILL SEE MORE LOCAL FOOD VENDOR SUPERHEROES LIKE HOT DOG DAN. 

October was the month of two season 3's: Carmen Sandiego and Kipo. In case of Carmen, as it is usual with Netflix, the "season" was only a half-one, with just a handful standalone episodes, and just a dash of more ongoing plot. 

For Kipo, however, season 3 was the end, and what a glorious one it was. Fans were saddened to learn of it, but Kipo was always imagined as a 3-part story, and it showed. The finale proved more than satisfying ending to the plot, elevating Kipo to one of the smartest cartoon characters we should all try to aspire to.

In November, Distant Lands: Obsidian aired, focusing on everyone’s favourite candy/vampire couple, and the long and complicated love between Bonnibel and Marceline. And as usual, it showed us that relationships are not always as straightforward as we would like them to be, but with enough music and teamwork, no enemy is big enough. 

For the next new show, I’ve waited with the most amount of excitement and anxiety. Because while I was completely fine with other reboots and re-imaginings to take creative takes, new Animaniacs, (airing on Hulu) had to be perfect and had to be the lightning that struck twice. 

And sadly... it wasn’t. It was still good, but some people criticised (incorrectly imho) the amount of political topics, while I mourned almost total cast-ration of additional characters, aside from Pinky and the Brain. This truly weakened the possibilities it could have had. It was still very good, but you can feel that some of the original charm was lost, due to these odd, odd limitations. 

December brought us a new original Apple TV movie, Wolfwalkers. A beautifully animated folk tale of friendship and social divides, and how short-sight can cause the collapse of both arguing sides, reminding me very much of the intelligence and heart of original “How to Train Your Dragon”.  

We’ve had to wait two years for the return of arguably one of the most wholesome shows out there: Hilda. Second season dived into deeper mysteries that permeate the rich and colourful troll-ridden land, we saw the return of some familiar characters, and introduced a whole new storyline, that ended with a surprising cliffhanger. Still as wholesome, but now with a tiny bit of Police incompetence. Also Twig, lots of Twig.   

Just like Onward, Pixar’s highly anticipated Soul aired on Disney+, telling a very mature story about finding one’s purpose in life, what that purpose actually means, and whether it exists at all. Beautifully animated, with fantastic soundtrack, it was a stunning tribute to creativity, and it never dumbed down its profound, open message about following your dream.   

And just if you thought that Soul was going to be 2020′s last note (pun very much intended), right before the year ended, DC Super Hero Girls concluded its first season on a rather anti-climactic two-parter. That being said, the season, running from March of last year, was packed with short, bite-sized, funny stories, taking interesting spins on existing comic book characters. For a comic book noob like me, it was perfectly fine, and I can’t wait for the second season next year. 

And so, we have reached the series finale of humanity. 

2020 ends in just under a day. What will 2021 bring us? I do not know, and if the animated shows of this year have taught me anything, is that the future is an always open book, full of worries and challenges, but also opportunities and possibilities. 

...

And in reality I was too lazy to check any news sites about upcoming projects.

[obeymeluv]

Signs they Love You

Back for my 1 post a week to prove school hasn’t totally killed me! When I get a semester break, I’ll post more often. In the mean time, feel free to leave me chats or PMs for stuff you want to see! :) Something nice and sappy for an okay Saturday

These turned out really long so I only did Lucifer, Mammon, Levi, and Satan. I have to get back to studying :/. Maybe I’ll have part 2 next week?

Lucifer

You wouldn’t be able to notice it because his pride wouldn’t allow you to. One of the brothers (or, to Lucifer’s extreme mortification, Lord Diavolo) would have to tell you

He’s not sure if it’s just the appreciation of you not being as totally chaotic as his brothers or genuine human naivete that has somehow worn off on him, but he loves you

Will be outed by sappy, soft stares that last 2 seconds too long.

Asmo and Satan are the first to notice and he LOATHES that

If he’s tasked with waking you up that morning, his knock will be firm but his voice will be gentle. Almost persuasive or commiserating

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by school workload, he may have a private conference with the teacher and grant you a minor extension. Will you know it was him? No. Is he happy to see you brighten up and refill with hope just a bit? Definitely. Is it worth the teasing from Lord Diavolo? ...Sure.

If he responds to texts in the wee hours of the morning when he’s still pouring over paperwork, he likes you.

Anyone who knows him can see how his eyes soften when someone else talks about you. There’s a fond slowness to his actions, how he glides his hand imperceptibly over his chest as if to feel where that emotion is coming from. Boy is whipped.

Should Lord Diavolo invite him out for a meeting, he will bring you back something small. Something he thought you’d like. Beel is upset. Levi yells “SIMP!” from the second floor and prepares for Armageddon.

Actually reminds you about assignments if you’re not already up on it yourself. Your success is his joy.

Is very keen on if/when you burn the candle too long and has a sixth sense for bad sleeping habits. Will put you on a stricter schedule for your own health

It may take almost all of the brothers to do it (or just help from Diavolo) but if he gets drunk on Demonus you’re getting a whole BOOK about why he likes you. He almost charms your memory away but everyone practically dog-piles on him not to because he needs to deal with his feelings.

You’re the only one he won’t chase out of his study when he’s doing paperwork. He’ll even set up a little fire if you like the fireplace.

How he confesses: tries to take you on a fancy date to Ristorante Six. Does not know that Lord Diavolo and Barbatos know about this (damn time-travelling butler!) and basically crash the date just to encourage him. Just long enough to encourage him.

Kind of an, “So you chose this idea, Lucifer? Admirable! I’m sure your date will be amazing! Enjoy your evening!” as Diavolo walks back to his table.

Does Lucifer deny it? Look and see how red his face is. If you’re really not sure, ask Diavolo. He will gladly yell, “I cannot lie!” across the restaurant.

Mammon

For all his talk, when he really, really decides he likes you, he doesn’t know what to say.

He can console himself with how obvious it is and how you made the best choice, but he has to show it! What to do?

Mammon’s kind of confused about it because he doesn’t really change how he behaves. You didn’t catch on already?! C’mon, human!

What, does he have to spell it out for you? Do an interview with Majolish?

His first tactic is to just be around you. Be subtle, and maybe cuddle a bit more than usual. Things to show he’s kittenish and at your mercy. Comfortable with you.

You don’t seem to be getting the hint so he throws the net a little wider by trying to find things you like or that you’ve been talking about. They mysteriously show up at your door.

It sends the others on a gossip train about who your admire could be and when they list off everyone BUT him, he wants to slam his head on the table.

Feeling tired? Coffee! Backpack heavy? Silly human, the BEST man can help you with that, OBVIOUSLY! Mammon jumps at the chance to do any little thing for you because he cares. His actions always speak louder than words.

Feeling kind of defeated and embarrassed, Mammon will go talk to the flock of crows that meander around the House of Lamentation’s yard when he really needs them.

For the next few days you’re accosted in the nicest way, birds chirping at you and dropping off various shiny things

You collect them, finally showing them to Mammon and he’s embarrassed that his representative animal has taken to courting you on his behalf.

He calls them to him, embarrassed and ready to rant or fall into the ground never to be seen again, when they start talking. Repeating all the things he’s practiced saying.

“Hey baby,”, “Hey human,” “Love you!”, “Silly! Silly!”, “Dummy, no, dummy!”, “My human.”

It’s broken and confusing, six or seven bird children cawing in your face and bobbing, but you get it.  

Levi

Levi’s not the best at expressing himself but it counts, right? As much as he hates to admit he’s some kind of shy tsundere, you know what that is, right? He doesn’t have to say it?

Yes. Yes he does. His brothers are getting too chummy with you and you don’t understand his signals. Time for Plan B.

If you get invited to stand in line for a midnight release, he hopes you take it. Then it’s just you two hanging out in line? What’s this? He brought snacks? Totally not for the two of you BUT you an have some if you’re hungry. It’s whatever

When he’s not doing boss raids and playing with online friends, he’ll ask if you want to play something with him. A Player 1 needs a Player 2, you know?

I headcanon that Levi knows how to play some unusual instruments like the kalimba or a real ocarina. I could see him making you a song on one of those. Or just playing it because you inspire him. He’s very good with a harp and will play it when he’s in the mood.

Boy also likes to draw and paint. Especially loves watercolors. Would it be weird if he gave you a painting of you as a mermaid? Just you and the ocean. Beautiful.

Was there a really cute plush or knickknack you liked? Levi has his ways, regardless of how rare or limited edition it is. It will be yours. 

He has a hard time understanding a passing comment of interest versus a genuine want because he genuinely wants everything he’s interested in, so if you hear a whisper about him almost securing something, stop and look it up. Make sure it’s not super expensive!!

Probably outed by Belphegor, who feels like Levi’s broadcasting all of his stress, frustration, and hope through his dreams. (”His dreams are weird. Just different ways of asking them out, and if he messes up it restarts like a simulation. My brain hurts.” he says to Beel)

 You’re allowed to come into his super-restricted bedroom haven when everything’s too much. It’s very exclusive since the Mammon incident. Be happy.

Might go swimming in his big tank and pick a seashell or rock to make a necklace out of. He hopes you like it.

If he’s not outed by Belphie, some of his online friends made a game demo they wanted him to try. They specified it was two player so he asked you to join in. While he’s in the middle of bragging about how he knows people, knows developers, he totally misses the dating-sim like dialogue and the big reveal.

Doesn’t really kick in until he realize the characters look like you two. You’re busy saying ‘Yes’ to “Do you like me?” as Levi absolutely threatens to rip them apart six ways to Sunday. Almost in full demon mode, too.

Everything falls out of his brain and quiets in his throat when he realizes the characters are kissing and ‘THEY SAID YES!’ flashes on the screen.

“Y-You like me?”

“Yep.”

It was that easy all along. Levi thinks he’s going to faint.  

Satan

Becomes aware of it pretty quick but ignores it for a looong time

Is it rude or foolish of him to assume you would also like him back?

Run away into books. A solid plan. If you don’t think about it, it’s not an issue

Oh, but it is an issue when you fall asleep after a mutual day of reading, forced in by bad weather. He finds his heart fluttering in a painful squeeze as he quietly whispers all the things he dare not say when you’re awake

It’s nervous poetry, and it’s beautiful

Satan tries to get himself back on track, to focus on reading, and he gets frustrated when he’s stuck on the same page almost an hour later

When you’re on the brain he just can’t do anything else

How does one show their affection? He’s swimming in books for a new reason now, as voracious as ever

He brews you a pot of Melancholy Coffee and is a bit disappointed you don’t know the meaning behind the bitterness. Wants to break the pot when Lucifer jokes about how it tastes exceptionally bitter to him as well.

Okay, so coffee didn’t work. What else do people do when they show their affections?

Asmo suggests a ‘not a date’ date and Satan sighs inside. Sounds like a lot of work and effort. It’s not that you’re not worth it, but he has a feeling that everyone will know and look at him the whole time.

Tries anyways. You guys go to a beautiful nature conservatory and take a tour of the plants and some indigenous animals

You’re starting to realize it now, he can tell. Satan tries to answer your question without saying it while you’re at school. You walk together, he offers to carry some of your books, and always requests that he be your project partner

Nearly there. If there was a single defining moment for him, he’d want it to be classic. He shows up at your door with a rose and asks you to go on a moonlit walk.

Mammon’s poking fun about how cheesy and cliche it is, Asmo’s gearing up to shut Mammon’s stupid mouth, and Satan just whisks you out the door with an aggravated sigh.

No matter what side of the house you’re on, Asmo throws up the biggest, gaudiest handmade sign that’s like ‘CUTEST COUPLE! 10/10!’

[xplr-beauty]

Ateez: August Dates ~ Week Two

Second part to the Ateez date series! (If you haven't read the first part, it's fine they aren't super connected)

Also it's 4:24a.m. and I did not proof read so sorry for any mistakes I am the tired.

Hongjoong:

Drive-In Movie

You and Hoongjoong got dressed up and headed to the store to buy snacks for your movie night

One of your favorite movies was playing at a park near your house and your boyfriend thought it would be fun to take you to go see it

At the store you guys raced through the aisles to get all the snacks and drinks you wanted, then to checkout in a hurry so you wouldn't be late for the movie

Hongjoong kept telling you to calm down and relax, saying you have plenty of time before the film starts as he laughs at you softly and slowly looks at all the options just to annoy you a bit

You would pull at his arm telling him to just hurry up and pick a snack so y'all could go, at this he would tease you with a 'hmm but maybe I want this snack? Or to try this one?" As he grabbed several packages and read the ingrediates in them very slowly

You would pout a little, or give him an angry glare, either way it would be enough to make him hurry up and choose a snack much faster

Finally leaving the store you guys drove to the park that the movie was being held at, everything was set up old school cinema style and looked pretty retro and 50-60's themed

Making it in plenty of time before the movie started, Hongjoong drove up to the perfect spot and parked the car asking you if you'd rather sit inside the car and watch or if you wanted to sit on the trunk/outside of the car

Whichever you decide, you guys began setting up.

OUTSIDE THE CAR: Hongjoong took the blankets and laid them out on the hood or back of the car while you grabbed a couple pillows and set them up. Joong took out the snacks and set them between you guys before picking you up and sitting you down on the car, before sliding up beside you. He took an extra blanket and covered you up, asking if you were warm and comfortable. After you were ready to go, he laid his head down on you shoulder and leaned up just far enough to kiss your cheek

IN THE CAR: climbing into the backseat together, HongJoong plopped his feet up onto the middle console and you laid your legs over his lap. He pulled you onto his chest and got you all comfy, he made sure you had plenty of blankets, sat the snacks within arms reach, got whatever else you needed set up for you before he wrapped his arm around your shoulder and began eating snacks while staring at the screen waiting for the movie to start

Soon, the movie began to play!!

You guys laughed together, said the lines in perfect timing with the characters, he pointed out his favorite part "ah, this is my favorite scene!" With an excited squeel like tone as he edged closer to the screen a bit

Every now and then he would kiss the top of your head or feed you some of the snacks, offer you some drink silently or squeeze your shoulder/hand just as a reminder he's there

Once the movie was over he 'woow'd the film and complimented it, discussing the film with you before cleaning up the mess and either walking around with you for a bit or driving you straight home if you were too tired

If you fall asleep on the drive home, he'll be in pure heaven with how adorable you are! He wouldn't even bother waking you, he would carry you straight to bed once you got home. (Even if you don't live together, he would also pay respects to your parents/roommates before he leaves thanking them for letting him carry you to bed so you didn't have to wake up from your precious dream) of course, he would leave you with a kiss on your forehead

Seonghwa:

Amusement Park

It's been a while since Seonghwa has been to a good amusement park but hearing you talking about them for weeks on end now, he feels like it would be wrong not to take you

Once you both have free time on a day of nice weather, Seonghwa would take you to a fairly new amusement park only a couple hours away

On the way to the park, you guys would decide what rides you were most excited to try out, discussing taking pictures together and eating some good food. You were both really excited

The worst part of the day was standing in the line to get into the park. You were so eager to go on rides and see the park it felt like hours before you got inside

Once in the park however, it was worth the wait! Everything was better than you imagined, more magical than you were expecting. Every single ride looked tempting, all the characters in the park walking around looked fun and so cool, there were little food stalls full of unique and aesthetically pleasing foods, you didn't know where to start.

Seonghwa pulled out his camera secretly while you were in awe of the park and he managed to snap an embarrassing photo of you in front of the entrance, in the photo you looked like you had drool running out of your gaped mouth in excitement!

Seonghwa pointed out three rides for you that were all at the entrance, suggesting you start with a ride to get your blood pumping before heading around the park

The first option was a Go-Kart themed bug mobile racing arena, the second a 'BATMAN' rollercoaster ride, and lastly the 'CYBORG' a 7 story high anti-gravity thrill ride

GO-KART: if you choose the Go-Kart racing, Seonghwa would chuckle slightly as he takes you by the hand and leads you through the crowd of people and towards the colorful building near by. Inside you both got to choose your carts, he got into a purple and orange spotted beetle with a silly face as you got into the one beside his. Seonghwa struggled to put on his seatbelt, looking around the kart in utter confusion. You roll your eyes a bit before hoping out and running over to help your man buckle up, teasing him lightly before getting back in your kart. Once the race started, you guys drove around the garden like track racing up and down the four lane track as you cheer and laugh as you pass by one another. The ride was short but oh so sweet! You would hollar at him a bit as he sped past you on the last lap, though you were able to quickly catch up!

BATMAN ROLLER COASTER: If you decide to pick the roller coaster, Seonghwa would nod in slight anxiousness as you run towards the ride and he follows after you slowly. After waiting in line for a good while with Seonghwa squeezing your hand beside you, its finally time to ride the coaster. Sitting beside you, he would shake the bar a bit to make sure it was locked in tight before the roller coaster began creaking it's way towards the tall climb. The ride was really cool and full of high top drops, loops, and swirls. Sometimes you were upside down, sometimes you were dropping down 15 feet at 50 miles per hour before going on a wingover corkscrew descent fast enough to plaster you to your seat

CYBORG: heading down to the metropolis section of the park that was close by, Seonghwa made a few jokes saying you may be too short to ride and teasing you a lot. However once you made it, it became clear you are not too short! Getting onto the gondola side by side, Seonghwa locks his harness in place and checks yours to make sure it's tight and secure enough, feeling very overprotective in this moment. Soon the ride would start lifting off the ground and spinning on all three axis flipping you guys upside down and all around as it goes fast and then faster and you fly head over heels. The ride had you laughing, maybe screaming, maybe aloud Maybe on the inside. It just had Seonghwa making that 'what am I doing with my life?' Face as he questions silently how the rest of the day will go. Soon the ride lowered to the ground and you were let out of your seats. You would ask Seonghwa if y'all could ride again as you teater totter side to side finding it hard to stay balanced on your own two feet

After this, you walk around for a bit and take photos, either with Characters or fancy props around the park

Between photographs, you two go on more interesting rides, maybe stop for food and some drinks. He takes you into a couple gift shops if they look interesting enough. Basically, he let you dictate the day for the most part

Every now and then he would go all 'mama Hwa' mode on you, yelling for you to stop running, telling you to take his hand as you walk through crowds so you don't get lost, squatting down to tie your shoes, wiping your face as you eat. He would pull you into a gift shop and purchase sunscreen, helping you apply it in the middle of the store saying its too hot and you're gonna get burned if you don't take precautions. He would scold you a bit if you hurt yourself before taking care of your injury for you. He was just, very protective! He even had you guys stand in the shade after every few rides just to make sure that you wouldn't over heat

As the day went by, you guys rode most of to every ride you wanted to go on, he bought you a few things you wanted even if you insisted he didn't have to. He got a keychain with your name on it to add to his key ring so he'd always have a piece of you with him

Before you guys went home, Seonghwa with you on his back and bags in his hand, he stopped to buy a year round pass so you could come back whenever you wanted to. Afterwards, he carried you to the car and buckled you in, kissing the top of your sleeping head and scolding you quietly for making him carry you (though he really didn't mind and he actually quite enjoyed it!)

It was quite dark when you guys ended up leaving and Seonghwa struggled a bit to drive the few hours home but every time he looked over and saw your peaceful face, he felt stronger and was able to get you home safely

Yunho:

Stargazing

You both were very excited to watch the stars together tonight, all day you walked around looking for the perfect spot which ended up being; the roof OR the garden in the backyard right

Either way, Yunho carried out blankets and set them up to make it more comfortable for you both, he also took out a telescope (if you chose backyard) to make things easier to see

BACKYARD: Wrapped in blankets and standing at the telescope, Yunho looked first in order to place it prefectly in a gorgeous spot before passing it to you to look through. You took turns using it, either him bending down to see little things as you gaze between him and the sky, or you looking through the scope as he holds your waist from behind

ROOF: Sitting on the roof together and pointing to different sections of the sky he traced random patterns out with his fingers, one eye squinted shut as he talks in a cartoon voice pretending the stars are cartoon characters and trying to make you laugh

Throughout the night you look for the constellations and Yunho 'helps' you look for them before eventually asking what they look like and what exactly should he be looking for cause all he can find is an octogon cluster, a few small hearts, Spongebon and Patrick playing leapfrog and a pirate hook

Upon successfully making you laugh, Yunho would grab you by the waist and lay both down together with you in his lap as you stare up at the stars and talk about how peaceful the night sky is

You share your dreams, talk a little about astrology, and discuss your future together as you hold hands and cuddle closely while crickets chirp quietly near by and the faint sound of an owls howl fills the air

Soon it begins to run and Yunho runs you inside so you don't get wet and sick before he grabs the blankets & other things to keep them from getting damaged and unusable

Inside together, you a little wet but mostly dry since he covered you with his body and Yunho soaked from head to toe, you guys both laugh a little

You pull out a towel you had grabbed while he was getting the blankets and things, and you immediately begin to pat him dry as you scold him for risking getting sick

"If I get sick it just means you'll have to nurse me back to health." He whispers a bit while staring into your focused eyes

Yeosang:

Skateboarding

At the skate park, Yeosang was teaching you how to skate (or teaching you a new trick if you already know how to skate)

He would demonstrate the steps going very slowly so you could learn and understand what he was doing before letting you try step by step

Teaching you how to kick off for this special move Yeosang would show you 2-3 times before helping you onto the board (if you need it) and watching you try to do the same thing he did as he follows semi close behind to help prevent you from falling off just in case

You guys would practice as many times as you needed too before you got it right and he would fist bump nothingness in excitement before cheering you on and letting you know he knew you would get this. "Yes, I knew you could get it! Fun isn't it?"

He would help you step by step repeating this as many times as possible until you learned the full trick, he would catch you every time you began to fall, teach you in different ways if he saw you struggling to much and even when he got frustrated he just took a deep breath and let you know he's proud of you even if you are struggling to get a hold of this

Once you finally nailed the trick he clapped and jumped up into the air cheering in joy for you before running over and pulling you into a big hug or high fiving you, or both as he shows that big smile of his and asks you to do the trick once more as he secretly records you and saves the video to a private file full of photos and videos that he has taken of you

Before you guys leave the park, you both free skate a bit, you may both stand on the skateboard together as he holds you waist and takes you around in a circle, or you may play a little game of skateboard tag together

If you get tired and want to sit for a bit Yeosang would ask of it was okay for him to skate alone or if you'd prefer he sat with you, he didn't want you to feel alone but he really wanted to skate as well and today was the perfect day for it

Eventually you guys leave hand in hand, Yeosang lets you ride his skateboard on the way back home as he holds your hands and guides you, confusing him as he skips the turn onto your street and instead leads you to the ice cream joint and pizza parlor near by insisting ice cream & pizza tastes best after skateboarding all day, you would have to agree to this!

San

Beach Volleyball

Playing volleyball together on the beach, you and San ran back and forth on your repsective sides chasing after the ball and taking turns hitting it back to each other

You both let out little grunts of exhaustion as you ran, occasionally you would fall and he would let out little laughs before going up to net and checking on you

You would get so happy when he fell so you could laugh back at him before checking on him

You both were being very competitive today not wanting to lose, but also not really keeping track of points

One time you went to hit the ball and it bounced off the net hitting you in the face instead. San laughed so hard he fell to the ground holding his ribs unable to breath, you laughed as well which is why he didn't feel bad for laughing

In the end, you were alright but slightly annoyed at your lovers behaviour

Soon, another couple came up and asked to play against you guys meaning you and San had to work together

You thought it would be really easy since you guys are dating after all meaning you know each other pretty well but uh no, no it wasn't so easy

Throughout the match you and San kept running into each other, accidentally tripping over one another, or just avoiding the ball all in all cause you thought the other one would get it

The couple asked for a lunch break, upon seeing you guys struggling

During lunch, you and San discussed your game plan, one of you would take the front the other would take the back and you would call out your moves as you went to hit the ball

After getting back to the game you again realised that maybe this isn't as easy as you thought

Yes, one of you took front the other took back and yes that made it easier but you both forgot to call out your moves ending in each of you chasing after the ball or running into each other

Eventually, you got things worked and you were able to work well together resulting in a good game! And a fun time

After the game once it began to get dark, the couple invited you to a beach bonfire and roasting food for dinner. San let decide what you guys should do, he was fine either way!

Mingi:

Driving Through the City

It was about 10pm and you and Mingi were driving around the city, blaring the radio and dancing as well as singing along to all your favorite times

As you drive past buildings you point out special memories together. "That's where we went to watch that musical for your birthday" he pointed to a Broadway studio. "We used to get ice cream over there when you were stressed and needed an escape from work!" You pointed towards an ice cream joint two buildings down

This continues for a while as you turn down random streets and explore the city lights and the beauty of the nightlife after hours. Suddenly 'Photograph' by Nickelback (or any song you like about fond memories) plays and you both sing along, or really belt out, the song while holding hands and being very dramatic and extra with your little car performance

The windows were down and your hair was flying all over the place, the sunroof was open and the moon was shining perfectly onto your face it was a picture perfect moment straight out of a music video or movie

Until Mingi handed you his phone and asked him to take a picture of him at a red light. "Make me look sexy!" He joked loudly as you laughed and rolled your eyes taking pictures of him and treating him like he's your own model "oh right there, ah yes, perfect! That's the one, okay I see you!" You cheered and complimented him making him turn red

Handing him back his phone Mingi asked "do I look shmexy baby?" He went all geeky on you but you still told him he looks perfect before asking why he cares so much just for him to reply with

"I'm sending these to a hot girl!"

You were turn to him so slowly and smack his arm so hard it turned red in an instant. You kept hitting him a bit and yelling at him asking who this 'girl' is as he only screams 'ow' repeatedly

Soon your phone dings and you back away slowly, turning to look at your phone to see he sent all the pictures to you, with some random lettering from his hand slipping between you smacking him

"YOU! You're my hot lady/baby. My sexy girl/man!" He faked cried as he held his arm before the light turned green and he started driving again

You kept apologising and laughing awkwardly, to which he would only stick his tongue out at you and 'tsk' at you

Soon he pulled over to a cookie place on a not so well corner of a secluded street, you guys come here a lot. They have the best white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies ever! And even better fudge chocolate cookies. Actually, all there cookies are bomb.

Getting out of the car and running over to Mingi you kiss up and down his sore arm as he opens the door and walks in after you

You guys order your cookies and grab some drinks before sitting on a staircase outside, Mingi makes you sit in his lap as your payback for the car incident. As you sit together he keeps begging for a bite of your cookie even though he ate all of his without sharing

You have to deal with his 'aaahhh's the whole time you eat, even if you did decide to share he would keep doing this with his mouth wide open like a baby bird

After eating, you walking up and down that one street hand in hand. Mingi usually runs ahead of you but with it being night time, he wanted to stay close by you in case something happened to you or someone came by

After your little walk y'all hop back into the car and finish up your drive home

Wooyoung:

Spa Day

You and Wooyoung decided to stay inside today

You made homemade face masks, that you are each currently wearing, you did foot soaks and you have him a massage as a way to relax him

Currently, Woo was laying on the floor on his tummy his legs crossed in the air as he hums and paints your toe nails his favorite color, black.

You were falling asleep on the sofa, laid back a towel in your hair that Wooyoung washed for you, your face mask on and cucumbers over your eyes. Your hands flat on top of news papers on either side of you, the polish on your finger nails still needing time to properly dry.

Wooyoung began to sing acapella softly belting out and singing one of your favorite songs as you lay there relaxed

After he finished painting your nails he set the heels of your feet up onto a fluffy cushion to give you the utmost comfort

Next he took a bottle of lotion/cream and began rubbing it into your legs, slowly massaging the lotion from your ankle and rolling it up your calves, behind your knee and back down again giving both of your legs a massage as he continued to sing

You whispered words of thanks that be smiled too and felt happy about

He moved onto your arms and shoulders after finishing your legs

After that you both washed your faces off and took silly pictures in the mirror before Wooyoung asked you to please do his eyebrows

YES: You hopped onto the sink counter, tweezers in your hand as you pulled your boyfriend closer to you. You began plucking away stray hairs and he began complaining about the pain while still asking you to keep going. You were as gentle as possible and finished soon

NO: If you don't feel comfortable with this you would simply explain to your boyfriend that his eyebrows are perfect and they don't need to be plucked or touched up.

Your Spa Day was full of relaxation and spending time with Wooyoung, win-win for you!

You end your day by cuddling together on the sofa/in bed and taking a nap together peacefully

Jongho:

Summer Festival

The two of you wore your flower crowns that you mafe each other at the last stall as you walked from stall to stall chucking out goods and participating in lots of activitred

They had an archery stall where if you won you got a teddy bear, it was really cute. A brown bear in a sunflower tutu wearing a sunflower crown

Another stall was for pottery, either making your own pot or you could buy someone else's

The booth next to that one was full of beads for making necklaces or bracelettes, there were a lot of tutorial sheets available to help out

Of course food stalls were located between booths - spread out of course but you did have options - from Indian food and some great Chicken Tikka or Tacos a few stalls down. A Korean stall offering tteokbokki and gimbap a little ways off, or you could eat at the food court on the other side of the festival

After visiting all the stalls that caught your eye, you and Jongho set up a blanket in the shade and sat down to play some card games and other games such as Mancala and whatever small game fit in his bag

After hours of playing games, maybe kicking a soccer ball back and forth, the concert finally began.

You guys turn to face the stage, your drinks in your hands as you lay together in the back away from everyone else

Mid concert you would stand up sort of wobbly and reach your hand out to Jongho, pulling him up and making him dance with you as you laugh with him side by side

You both had fun as you swirled in circle to the melody, waved your hands in the air and jumped up and down. The night was beyond perfect

[sweetwritertanya]

Stormy Night (Original)

Summary: A snow storm leads to you losing your chance to not only see your boyfriend, as it was planned, but also communicate at all with him as the blizzard worsens. Little did you know, that would be the last time you would ever spend a stormy night alone.

Warnings: HORROR! Nothing too bad, hopefully it just sends those spooky scary tingles down your back. No trigger warnings, no violence or anything of the sort. Tell me what you all think of it, if you can! Did it spook you a bit? Did you guess what was about to happen?

Word Count: 2345

“Hun, I hate this” you complain into the phone in your hand against your ear, pacing around in the living room and looking out the window to the dark threatening sky.

“I know, muffin, I know. I hate it too” your boyfriend reciprocates on the other side of the call.

“I mean, I had everything ready, I was going to make your favorite meal, went to the supermarket and got all the freaking ingredients and whatever, bought the expensive wine, booked the tickets to the play and…” you sigh heavily. “All for nothing.”

“We couldn’t have predicted this, Y/N. I mean, this storm came out of nowhere, not even the weathermen saw it coming” he tries and console you, like he always did whenever you were frustrated at something you couldn’t quite control.

“It just… sucks! I haven’t seen you in three months!”

You didn’t mean for the last sentence to come out almost like a sob, but your pent-up feelings surface quickly and you start snuffling as you try to keep the tears from falling.

“Fuck, baby, I know and it’s killing me too. I just want to hold you in my arms again and kiss the pout I know you have right now away” he confesses, sounding every bit as disappointed as you. A small smile comes to your lips when he mentions the pout that you, in fact, had been sporting the entire call. “If only I had booked a flight one day earlier, I could have been snowed in with you during the storm. Keep you protected and warm.”

“It’s not your fault you’re so busy with work. You know one of the things I love about you is how dedicated you are.” It’s your turn to console him and that somehow helps you feeling better, focusing on making him feel better instead of pitying yourself any further.

“The only thing I hate about my job is how it keeps me away from you so much” he murmurs, groggily.

“You know what? It’s fine. This is fine” you decide with a renewed determination, walking out of the living room you were at and making your way to the kitchen. “We’ll meet after the storm is all over and we’ll make it an even better stay! I’ll get refunded for the tickets, use the money to instead take us out for dinner so I don’t have to cook and we can have our own movie session at home. Which is better anyway, because we can get comfortable and snuggle how much we want without disapproving eyes all around.”

You gasp loudly and jump in place as a loud thunder shakes the ground, lightning tearing apart the cloudy sky outside. The wind seems to pick up in response and you can only see a blur of white snow falling out your windows.

“Y/N? M-ffin, are yo- o-y?”

The signal of your phone call weakens and you can barely make out what he is saying from the other side.

“Babe, I’m okay! Can you hear me? I’m fine, but I think I’m losing signal” you yell into the phone, hoping that he can still comprehend what you are saying so he doesn’t worry.

“I hea- you. Ok-y, you’re oka-. Cal- -morrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll call you tomorrow! Love you!”

“Lov- -ou, bye muff-” And the call ends abruptly.

“Damnit…” you whisper in a sigh. “Was supposed to be spending the day with him and now I can’t even have a phone call or a video chat with him. Stupid weather!”

As you had predicted, both your wi-fi and even the television feed were struggling due to the conditions outside, so you weren’t even bothering turning them on. Taking out all of the candles you had available, which were mainly scented candles you received from people you barely knew, you left at least one in each room and picked the largest one to carry with you around the house, expecting the lights to go out some time during the storm.

When living alone in a small one-bedroom house in the outskirts of town, one could never be too prepared. Especially a woman living alone. So, you have thought of every situation you could find yourself in and came up with solutions that didn’t depend on someone else coming over to fix. The candles were a wise decision, as it turned out, since early in the evening, while you were trying to entertain yourself by reading a book in bed, the only lamp turned on by your nightstand went out and the moonlight was all you had.

“Figures” you dryly say, reaching for the lighter you kept on the first drawer and lighting the large vanilla and coffee scented candle.

Even though it was earlier than when you usually went to sleep, there was really not much you could do without the modern commodities you were used to, especially in the dark of the young night, so you just laid down in bed and covered yourself with the blankets, keeping the candle going in case you needed to go to the bathroom during the night and the lights weren’t back on yet.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t take much for you to fall asleep, even with the wind owling loudly outside and the occasional thunder. And yet, it was a loud crash coming from somewhere in the house that wakes you in a jerk, sounding like one of your plant pots had fallen and shattered on the ground. You grimace just thinking of having to get up and clean it all up, but the thought of just leaving your plant on the ground to wither guilt trips you into doing so.

With a grunt, you remove the covers and put on your slippers, picking the candle up and opening your bedroom’s door. Walking to the kitchen, much like you suspected, you find that the plant you kept on the windowsill above your sink had fallen to the ground and the window’s doors were blasted open with the furious wind, making you shiver from head to toe at how cold it was.

Automatically, you go and close the window before anything else, making sure to close the latch securely this time. It was such a mundane task, something you did every night before going to bed, that you almost missed it.

Just as you were about to turn around and pick up the broken pieces off the floor, your numb mind picks up something strange. You look back outside, frowning as you don’t quite understand what seems strange. It takes you maybe five solid seconds of staring for you to see it.

The footprints, on an otherwise completely immaculate white veil above the ground. The snow was falling so quick and so much that the tracks were starting to be covered up again, soon to disappear beneath a newly fresh layer of pristine snow. But you still saw them.

And they were leading straight to your window.

Your whole body freezes, heart stops and your breathing comes to a frightening halt. Blankly, you stare at the outside for a few more moments before the terrifying realizations hits you. Your silent hammer switches to a hammering beat against your chest, blood rushing loudly in your ears and sold sweats prickling up your skin as you slowly turn around and scan your house.

The dirt of the pot, it had been moved. A snow trail melting in your wooden floors, from your sink where the open window was to across the kitchen. Your eyes follow it and you fight back a fearful whimper once you notice the opened door to the small basement. A door you always closed and seldomly opened.

Your mind races, working in overpower as survival mode seems to set in. There was someone at your house. Someone broke in. Your first thought is to run to your phone and call for help, but your last phone call proved that the storm was interfering with means of communication. And you didn’t have a landline.

You slap your hand against your mouth as a shriek escapes you and you scrunch down to your knees when a creak comes from bellow. Your eyes start to swell up with dread and you force yourself to silently move away. The basement door was made of cement, which meant the creaking could only be made if someone was coming up the stairs.

There were only two options in your brain now. Fight or flight. You couldn’t call for help, hiding would do you no good when there were only a handful of places to do so, and even if you screamed in hopes that your only neighbors from across the street would hear you, the loud storm would drown you out.

The stairs creak again and you are maybe seven feet away from your front door. The door to the basement is still within your view and you wide scared eyes miss nothing at this second. So you see it. Even with the only light sources being the candle you left on the counter and the streetlight from outside, you see it.

The large grey hand with dark dirty nails that clutches around the side of the door, as if about to open it. And the sparkle of something metallic coming from the darkness.

Gathering all of the strength you could master in your panicked state, you stand up and run towards the front door, fighting with the latch to open just as you hear heavy footsteps that didn’t belong to you. Swinging the door open, you run into the blizzard with a shrieking scream that contended with the owling wind, barefoot and only in your pajamas, too caught up in the moment to even feel how cold it was.

You are screaming the entire path across the street, even as you hammer against your neighbor’s door so heavily you might actually break down their door.

“HELP! HELP, I NEED HELP! SOMEBODY! HELP!”

The man from the mid-aged couple is the one who opens the door for you, looking half worried and half annoyed, the woman coming down the stairs hurled up in her robe with concern.

“What the hell is go-”

“Call the police! Somebody broke in to my house and they are there right now. Please, call the police!” you beg, starting to shiver as the cold starts to get to you.

“Dear God, let her in a lock the doors!” the woman tells her husband immediately, taking off her robe and giving it to you as you enter their home.

Thankfully, their landline telephone was still functioning despite the storm and the police was contacted. They arrive an excruciatingly long thirty minutes later, knocking at your neighbor’s door and asking what happened.

That’s when the weirdest thing happens. You walk with the officers back to your house, feeling more secure now that you had two people with guns next to you. The blizzard had almost erased the footsteps from you running away from the house, your door still swinging open and moving with the strong wind. Looking around, you don’t see any tracks other than yours leading out of the house. One of them goes inside the house first, the other keeping you safe outside.

“All clear!” the policeman yells from inside.

Frowning and uncertain, you and the other officer enter the house to inspect.

It’s mind boggling, really. How immaculate all of it was. The flowerpot that had fell to the ground was gone, no indications of any dirt on the ground, all completely clean as if it never happened. The window was still shut just as you left it, candle still burning on your kitchen’s counter. No snow or water trails on the floor anywhere.

They checked the basement and found nothing; it was just as you always left it. The policemen made you search for any lost valuables, any expensive items you might have had that could be stolen, but everything was in its place. Nothing was missing.

You beg them to look for fingerprints, namely on the door where you know you saw a hand. After a bit of pressure, they grant your request and gather all of the fingerprints around the spot you assured them the person had their hands. It would take a few days for them to come back with any result.

Obviously, you didn’t stay back in that house. In fact, you were almost entirely decisive on moving out as soon as possible. The only way you would even consider staying there again was if the police found and imprisoned the person who broke in.

They never did. The fingerprints they collected at the scene, as it turned out, were all yours. There was no indication of anyone ever having broken in. And with nothing stolen or damaged, they couldn’t continue the case and it was closed.

Up until months after you moved out, you were still bothered by vivid nightmares of that night. If you were ever home alone and it was dark, you would see grey nasty hands in the darkest corners. And you made sure from the on to never spend a stormy night alone ever again.

[swanqueeneverafter]

The Once & Future Queen Pt.29

Morgana’s New Hideout. (A hooded man enters and stands before Morgana between four flaming torches. Mordred is stood by her right side.) Morgana: “What a pleasure it is to see you again, Ari.” (Ari pushes his hood back. There is a druid symbol on his neck.) Ari: “The honour is all mine, my lady.” Morgana: “Your arrival has been keenly anticipated, I can assure you. (Glances at Mordred:) I have boasted of your powers. Though not all believe.” Ari: “People may believe as they wish.” Morgana: “Oh, well perhaps some small proof of your talents is in order. After all, seeing is believing. Is it not?” Ari: “I’m not an entertainer my lady.” Morgana: (Chuckles:) “Of course not. (Her tone sobers immediately:) Think of it more as a demonstration. Extinguish those flames.” Ari: “My lady, I must protest.” Morgana: “Indulge me.” Ari: “Forp fleoge!” (The fires go out.) Morgana: “Impressive, indeed. Who here now could deny your powers? (A guard brings forth a box to Morgana. Ari recognizes the symbol on top of the box while Morgana stands to open it. Ari tries to move back but the guards grab his arms. Lifting the lid, Morgana begins to chant:) Aweax thu metethearfenda! Thicge thu thone drycraeft the thinan deorcan mode gefylth.”

Ari: (Struggling to free himself:) “Not this. (The guards force him down to the ground:) Please, Morgana. My lady, I beg of you. I’m begging you.” (A slug-like creature slithers its way up out of the box and leaps at Ari, landing on his face. Ari struggles with it for a while. The creature then slithers away as Morgana returns to her throne. Ari lies motionless after the creature has attacked.) Mordred: “Is he dead?” Morgana: “If I had wanted him dead, I would have put a sword in his gut. (Ari takes a deep breath. The guards help him to his feet:) Don’t despair Ari, we’re nearly done. If you’d do me the favor of relighting those fires.” Ari: “You know… I cannot.” Morgana: “For the benefit of my friends.” (Ari jerks his arms free from the guards.) Ari: “I will not humiliate myself before you.” Morgana: “You will if you want to see your family alive.” Ari: (Reluctantly:) “Bael onbryne!” Morgana: (Yells:) “Again! (Calmly:) If you please.” Ari: “Bael onbryne.” (Ari weeps. Morgana motions for the guards to take him away.) Mordred: “He was a loyal soldier, in robbing him of his magic you’ve lost yourself a powerful ally.” Morgana: “Perhaps. But now we know the war can be won. (A door shuts:) For Merlin stands in the way of my destiny and Merlin is nothing without magic.”

Storybrooke. The Three Bears Day Spa. (While receiving treatments, the Mills sisters discuss Maria, who is currently sleeping on the chair between them.) Zelena: "When you think about it, I should be spending even more time with Maria." Regina: "And how do you come to that conclusion?" Zelena: "Well, out of the three of us, I'm the only one who was born with magic and practiced it in their infancy. Neither you or Emma can say that." Regina: "That may be so, but Maria is our daughter, not yours." Zelena: (Waves this off:) "She may as well be, given all we have in common." Regina: "Zelena, I came here for your advice, not to sign over my parental rights." Zelena: "Okay, fine. Look, whatever you decide, just remember how important it is to show Maria support right from the start, not like my so-called father back in Oz who did everything he could to make me feel ashamed about my powers." (While Zelena is momentarily lost in her memories, Regina reaches out and gives her sister's hand a consoling squeeze.) Elsewhere. (Meanwhile in the back room, Emma watches Drizella make herself at home.) Emma: "So you're working here now?" Drizella: "Not quite. I've convinced the owners to take me on as a consultant." Emma: "A consultant? Do you know much about spa treatments then?" Drizella: "Other than receiving the occasional gift certificate, no I don't." Emma: "So how can you-" Drizella: (Talking over her:) "I've also convinced a half dozen other businesses to hire me." Emma: "All right... to do what exactly?" Drizella: (Smiles:) "To let them know everything they're doing wrong and show them how to fix it." Emma: "Ah, I see. Something tells me you're really going to enjoy this line of work." Drizella: "I know, right? Plus it can only help my chances of becoming Mayor." Emma: (Points a finger at her:) "Don't you start winking at me again, I mean it." Drizella: (Smirks then walks behind the desk and takes a seat:) "So, what can I do for you?" Emma: "It's about Maria." Drizella: "Ugh. Let me stop you right there, okay? We may be family now but that doesn't mean you can just expect me to babysit at a moment's notice." Emma: (Dryly:) "I'll keep that in mind. Actually what I wanted to ask was about your magic." Drizella: "Oh, that." Emma: "You were born with it, right?" Drizella: "I was. Not that it ever did me any good. It's not like I could practice my skills without fear of what the people around us would think. Although I do remember when Ana and I were little, I would make the stuffed animals on our beds come to life and we'd have these elaborate tea parties. Then one day my mother caught me and just screamed at me to be normal, to be like my sister. (Looking down:) The irony being that they both would surround themselves with magic long after mine had faded away. (Looking up at Emma:) I bet you didn't know magic could do that, huh?" Emma: "I hadn't really thought about it." Drizella: "Yeah, well it's like anything I suppose - use it or lose it. (There is silence between them for a long moment before Drizella sighs and continues:) Later on, as my resentment for my mother grew and Gothel came into my life, my magic would return under her guidance. I think Gothel had hoped that I would be the one to lead her to great things, but well, you know how that turned out." Emma: (Nods:) "So, you don't miss having your magic?" Drizella: "Sometimes. It would've been nice to have back in Morgana's pit obviously, but generally my experience with magic is that it's more trouble than it's worth." Emma: (Considers this, looking uneasy:) "You could be right." Drizella: "Don't worry, Emma. (Emma looks to her:) I'll wave my consultancy fee, this time." (Emma gives her a small smile, then turns and leaves the room.)

Dun Broch. (Merida stands at her father's grave, accompanied by Anastasia.) Anastasia: (Noticing the wineskin in Merida's hand:) "What's that?” Merida: “Magical ale. Merlin gave it to me. Do you know the legend of Seonaidh?” Anastasia: “No, I can’t say I do.” Merida: “Well, one cup of this can summon the spirit of anyone who's passed to the Underworld.” Anastasia: “So you’re going to try and talk to your father?” Merida: “That’s the plan. (Sighs:) Here goes.” (Merida splashes some of the ale on the ground, but nothing happens.) Fergus: (Appearing after she tries again:) “Don't waste that. (Merida turns to face him:) It's good ale.” Merida: (Breathing shakily:) “Dad.” Fergus: “Merida... You did it. You became queen.” Merida: “I'm sorry.” Fergus: “For what?” Merida: “For Annis. I tried to reason with her but-” Fergus: “There’s no reasoning with my sister, there never was. Don’t worry about Annis, she’s here with me.” Merida: “And I’m sorry I lost faith in you. Back when I thought you used the enchanted helm to lead your troops into battle.” Fergus: “It's all right. I lost faith in meself when I went to the witch for that helm.” Merida: (Walks closer to him:) “Why didn't you use it? What made you change your mind?” Fergus: “You did... The night before the battle. After I spoke to you, I realized if I wanted to show you what it took to be a leader, I couldn't use magic to do it.” Merida: “Aye. You showed me what a true leader is. And I will never forget that. (Voice breaking:) I just want to make you proud, Dad.” Fergus: “You already have.” (Merida cries and runs into her father’s arms.) Merida: (Crying:) “I wish you were still here.” Fergus: “Me too, but you have someone else to look out for you now.” Merida: “What?” Fergus: (They part:) “Just don’t let the blonde lassie slip away.” Merida: (Fergus disappears:) “Dad... I love you.” (Merida cries, then exhales deeply. Composing herself, she turns around only to find that Anastasia has gone.)

(After deciding to give Merida her space, Anastasia wanders into a field. Watching her from behind a tree, Morgana incants a spell. At that moment, a snake slithers up and startles Anastasia. Hurrying away from the snake, Anastasia runs into Morgana who stares at her curiously. Preparing herself for a magical duel, Anastasia is beaten to the punch when Morgana uses her magic against her, blasting Anastasia backwards and knocking her unconscious.) Morgana: (Standing over her:) “Sleep, milady. For it could be some time before you do so again.“ The Land of Untold Stories. (It is the night of Emma and Regina's wedding anniversary and to celebrate, the ladies are attending the premiere of a new stage performance.)

(Standing outside the theatre, the ladies have their photo taken by the persistent Reporter who is also covering the event. Hoping for a few words, the Reporter is disappointed as both women are rushed inside by one of the excited producers.) Camelot. Night. (Merlin stands meditating alone in the courtyard at the site where his tree form once stood. Suddenly, Merlin sees a vision of Mordred surrounded by flames walking towards a future version of himself. Mordred draws his sword and runs Merlin through. Opening his eyes, Merlin shakes himself out of his trance like state, clearly concerned by what he's just seen.) 

Forest. Night. (After hours spent trying to find Anastasia, Merida spots a lone figure in the distance. She draws nearer, tracking her target silently until she's upon them.) Merida: (Drawing back her bow:) "Stop right there! Don't you make a move." Mordred: (Smirks:) "Merida, I presume?" Merida: "Aye, that's right, now who the hell are you?" Mordred: "I have a message from Morgana." Merida: "I knew it. All right, let's hear it." (Suddenly, Merida's bow is flung across the field. Reaching out and grabbing her by the throat, Mordred pulls Merida tightly against himself.) Mordred: "My lady wishes to tell you that if you ever want to see your girlfriend again, you must do exactly as I say. Are you listening? (Merida nods, her eyes wide:) Good, then I'll begin." The Land Of Untold Stories. Theatre. (While the packed house watches the performance on stage, an entirely different show is happening backstage. After sitting through the first act and only having eyes for each other, Regina and Emma took it upon themselves to make their own entertainment for the evening. With her dress bunched around her middle and her legs wrapped around Regina's waist, Emma holds on for dear life to one of the ropes nearby.) Regina: (Grinding her thigh against Emma's centre:) "Careful, we don't want to bring down the house." Emma: (Breathing heavy:) "I gotta hold on to something or I'm gonna fall to the floor." Regina: "Mm, allow me. (Regina steps backwards, allowing Emma's dress to sink to her ankles. Motioning for Emma to step out of her dress, Regina guides her back towards an old arm chair which was used during the first act. Taking a seat, Emma smiles at Regina before the brunette takes her hands and places them on the back of the chair:) There now, hold on to that." (At the sight of Regina slowly sinking to her knees, Emma obeys and grips the chair tightly. Soon finding her legs lifted over Regina's shoulders, Emma is grateful for the music of the ongoing performance as it helps drown out the sounds of her ecstasy.)

[sparrowkingsley]

Co-Captains, Misson Update

Even at four years old she knew the moment she saw it. She had stopped in her tracks as her gaze fell upon it. Looming over her. Taunting her. Challenging her. Yes, even at four she couldn't turn down such a challenge.

"I'm gonna climb the frack out of you tree!"

Then Laurel started to ascend.

"Laurel, love, that tree seems a little too big of climb for you. Why don't you come back down before you get yourself hurt."

"Nuh uh, I'm a big girl mom! I can do it!"

Sara Lance let out a sigh as she watched her daughter climb higher and higher. The urge to climb up after her and bring her down tore into her but she resisted. Laurel had a tendency to leap into situations, it was something that reminded Sara of herself honestly. She weighed the option in her mind. The risk was low in this situation. Even if her days as an assassin were over Sara still had the reflexes of one. Her toddler was safe. So she stood at the tree watching and waiting.

Laurel was so confident as she climbed higher and higher up the oak tree. She would climb so high she could touch the sky. Higher, higher, she wanted to climb so high. Till her foot slipped.

Her heart leaped into her throat, her hands shook as she gripped the branch she was clinging to tighter, her eyes growing hazy as they were focused on the ground. The ground was so far. Her mother was so far away.

"Hey, hey kiddo, you doing okay up there? I'm right here. Not going anywhere. You're okay, you're okay love. Come on down. I'm here."

Laurel tried to be brave. She tried to do what her mom asked. Except she was frozen. Frozen in fear.

"I... I can't, I can't do it. MOMMA I'M SCARED!"

Laurel burst into tears, screaming that she was too scared but before Sara could respond,

"LAUREL?! WHAT'S WRONG? OH MY GOD, SARA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING LETTING HER CLIMB SO HIGH! I'M COMIMG SWEETIE, HANG ON!"

Ava Sharpe was up that tree as fast as a speedster. Laurel wrapped her arms around her neck still sobbing. Ava held her close and rubbed her back as she made their way back down to the ground.

"M-mommy."

"Shhh, it's okay sweetie. Mommy is here. I have you. You know I'll always have you."

Even when they were safely back on the ground Laurel still clung to her neck, unwilling to let go right away. Slowly she calmed down as Ava continued to console her little girl. When Laurel finally relaxed somewhat in her arms, Ava's attention went instead to her wife, and her eyes turned from worried to furious.

"Sara, what were you thinking? This was too dangerous. What is had fallen? What if she had gotten hurt?"

"Well she wanted to climb and didn't want to listen to me so I let her. She was fine, I was here and I had the situation under control."

"Oh, you had it under control huh? She was fine? Okay, okay then tell me why my baby was screaming and crying and stuck up a twenty foot tree?!"

"Okay you're exaggerating, babe. It may be a twenty foot tall tree but she wasn't even half way up it. She got scared. But I was here. She needs to learn these things. Sometimes things are scary and she needs learn that."

"Sara, she's only four."

"I know but I was literally right there. Do you really think I would let anything happen to her?"

They had been walking back to the house as they spoke but now Ava stopped as the made it up to the foot of their porch. They stood face to face again. Laurel's face still tucked against her neck as she let out a sound of frustration.

"If you were right there how could you just let even be in that situation. How could you just let her go head first into danger like that?"

"Again. Laurel was not in danger. I was right there. I would never put our daughter in danger."

As the tension grew between them Laurel slowly pulled her face away from Ava and reached out a hand toward Sara. Sara took that tiny hand at instinct. It was a hand she could never turn away.

"Momma, Mommy, please don't fight. I wanted to climb the tree. I wanted to be brave. I'm sorry I wasn't. I'm sorry I'm not brave like you."

All the tension and anger fell away and the Lance family pulled together into a group hug. The mothers held their child and each other, all three of their foreheads touching one another. Together they were like that oak tree. Strong and stable.

"You are so brave, kiddo. So very brave."

"But I was scared and I cried and I didn't climb down by myself."

"Being scared doesn't mean you're not brave, sweetie. Being scared is a part of being brave."

Laurel giggled, "That doesn't make sense, Mommy."

Sara pulled her into her arms, "Hey now, I thought you said we know about being brave? So when Mommy says being scared is a part of being brave she means it."

"Really?" Laurel looked between them.

"Really. And your Momma is the bravest person I know. So she knows the true meaning of being brave too."

Warmth filled Sara's chest, even after all these years, that feeling never went away. This was it. Her beautiful, loving wife. Her brilliant, highwired kid. This was the perfect time. This was the perfect place. Because with them, Sara was home.

Laurel scurried out of her arms suddenly. Her mood lifted and her hands suddenly in a flower pot that sat on the porch. Sara laughed and Ava let out a sigh as their kid squished her hands in the dirt, telling the seeds they had just planted that morning to just grow already. Then the two mothers slowly came together. Holding hands and their eyes locked.

"Can you believe we actually made that together? Something so bright eyed and perfect and just into everything she can reach no matter what it is?"

"Hmm, all it took was a little bit of future science and we have the beautiful combination of my clone genetics and your most bad-a and somewhat annoying traits."

"Oh, I'm a badass and annoying. Keep those compliments coming."

Ava winced, "Babe, don't cuss in front of Laurel."

"She isn't paying attention but you know something," Sara leaned in closer, "I'm definitely paying attention to those lips of yours. Looks like, they are need of mine."

"That was so cheesy, babe." Ava rolled her eyes but she couldn't hold back her smile.

"But am I wrong?"

"No. You're not wrong. Not all."

They could kiss a billion times and it would get old. It was electrifing and grounding at the same time. Always needed and never enough.  Higher, higher, they could only go higher.

"Moms! Stop being so gross and look at this awesome frog I just found in our water pot! I'm calling him, Sprout! I'm gonna keep him in my bedroom and we can sleep in my bed toghether at night! Can we make a pie together? Or can we go visit Heywood? Oh, oh let's go see the Waverider! I want to steal stuff with Uncle Rory again!"

Later.

"Slow your roll, kiddo. And release that prisoner at once! Sprout is a wild frog! He knows no boundaries!"

"Then I am a wild girl and we will live in the wild together! Run Sprout! We gotta escape the moms!"

"You'll never escape! Ava, back me up! We must capture the  child at all cost!"

"Co-captain mission mode activated. Let's do this babe."

Laurel squealed in delight as her moms chased after her and her poor, little captive. The spontaneous "mission" sending them running around the house, inside and out. Till they finally ended up collapsing on the living room couch together. Piling together in a mound of laughter. Eventually all four of them falling asleep together just like that. Frog and all.

Another Legend mission complete. With so many more to come. Higher we go.

[phoenotopia]

2020 March Update

Happy New Year! Well, I guess it's a bit late for that...

Much of what transpired in the past few months will fall under polish and bug-fixing. Will and I have a mutual friend who got married, so I had the occasion to visit Will to attend the wedding as well as have Will playtest the game in its most complete form yet. He logged 24 hours of playtime and just reached the entrance of the final dungeon. Then we had to call in for the night since it was 5 AM, and I had a flight to catch in the morning.

His completion rate where we stopped was 42% of Heart Pieces, 33% of Energy Gems, and 44% of Moonstones. So... I think we have a pretty lengthy game!

This will take a while to playtest & polish... Will's daytime profession is QA Engineer so he's pretty great at catching bugs. From his playtest, we jotted down 200+ items to fix/adjust. Some as small as a simple misspelling, and some more significant (like Gail being unable to jump when standing at the edge of a steep slope). I'm about half-way through fixing that list...

(Will’s living room where much playtesting was done)

Here are some other things we've accomplished in the past few months. A lot of it falls under polish and bug-fixing, which won't sound outwardly impressive, so I'll dive in a bit under the hood.

-------------------------- Item Balancing --------------------------

There are over 200 items in the game. Of which, 90+ are healing items. While much of their flavor text was already written, their stats weren't yet finally decided. So a large effort was spent to balance them as well as possible. Initially, I balanced items by observation (ex: "The player is relying on this item a lot, so I will nerf it...") Now, I've moved to a more systematic way of doing things. I made an equation that takes in all of an item's parameters, and spits out a score. The higher an item heals, the higher the score. The longer an item takes to consume, the lower the score. And so forth.

As usual, I used google spreadsheets, since they support equations. I could tweak the values of a healing item, and immediately see how its final score was affected. I also made use of automatic color formatting, so a field becomes highlighted red, if it's particularly bad, or green, if it's particularly good. Of course, the sheet is just a guideline. The aim wasn't to make all items have the same final score, but that they made sense for what they were and when you could get them. Late-game items tend to have higher overall scores versus early-game items. Some items, like doggy biscuits, have notoriously low scores across the board - as a joke!

-------------------------- Cooking Systems --------------------------

Another thing that had to be done with the healing items was finally determine their cooking sequences. 38 healing items could be cooked and will transform into something else. The way I specified that an item could be cooked was to add a a little snippet to an item's "meta data". An example would look something like, "COOK,57,62,ABXY,10,1.5,1".

In order, this specified the item_ID that would result on success (57), the item_ID that would result on failure (62), the button sequence (ABXY), the time you had to complete the sequence (10 seconds), how quickly the cursor should move (1.5x speed), and if the item multiplied on success (1). The system appears simple enough - but it was actually extremely inefficient!

For one, this system didn't allow random button sequences - all "berry fruits", when cooked would have the same button prompts and in the same order every time (ABXY). Initially, I thought having set button sequences would be a feature, but in practice, it was less fun. 

Two, this system wasn't human-readable at all. I'd see a sequence of numbers, forget what they were, and have to look them up over and over.

But the biggest problem was that you couldn't evaluate an item's cooking difficulty from these numbers without manual testing. At 1.5 cursor speed, how many times does the cursor pass the center panel in 10 seconds? Maybe that's 15 times... for a 4 button sequence, the player has 11 opportunities to miss - that's too wide a berth for failure. The system also had variable penalties - if you misspressed a button prompt you loss time on the cooking meter. If you didn't press anything, you missed the opportunity, but not the time - but the clock was still ticking, so you did lose time, just not as much. In the end, the difficulty of cooking each item was all over the place. It was also possible to create "unwinnable" scenarios if I made the button sequence too long, the time too short, or the cursor speed too slow. Testing each item manually to ensure doability was too tedious and unreliable - it was a mess!

Which is why, the underlying cooking system was revamped. The new meta data looks like : "COOK,57,62,seq_length,5,spd,1.5,ease_add,2". This is a lot more readable. Beyond the first 3 entries, the arguments could be specified in any order. And their meanings were easy to understand.

"seq_length,5" means a random button sequence of 5 will be generated (no need for me to personally generate it)

"spd,1.5" means the cursor moves at 1.5x speed. I could also leave this field out to get a default value of 1x cursor speed.

"ease_add,2" - the biggest improvement to the system is how we now approach difficulty. We streamlined a miss-press and a missed opportunity as the same level of "mistake", and difficulty is framed as, "how many mistakes is the player allowed to make and still have a successful result?" By default, the player is afforded the ability to make 2 mistakes, and "ease_add,2" bumps the number of allowable mistakes to 4. We then automatically calculate how much "time" the player should have to cook something based on its cursor speed, how long the button sequence is, and how many mistakes the player is allowed to make. This was a more sensible and efficient system that let me knock out all 38 healing item cook sequences in one sitting!

-------------------------- Badges Nearly Done --------------------------

As you may recall from the last update, I was working on implementing the badges.

Thinking up the badge and having its graphic drawn is just the first half. Underneath, the code also needs to be made to track all the relevant player stats - how many times the player fished, ate, got money, used a certain move, etc. Some badges require extra guards, because they can be spoofed. For instance, the "Treasure Hunter" badge is obtained when the player has collected XXXX RIN through the course of your journey. However, there is something like a "gold exchange" in the game, where you could circularly trade gold and RIN to boost this number artificially. It's important to guard against cases like those.

So far, 30 of 33 badges are implemented. The last three have to do with late-game things that have inter-dependencies that we're still figuring out. The Speed running badge for instance is still dependent on two things. One, I need to speed run the game a few times to see how fast it's possible to beat the game and decide finally what's a reasonable time-limit. Two, there's actually a time-keeping bug which can inflate the game time if the system is left in sleep mode. I don't expect either things will be too hard to figure out - just gotta find the time for it.

-------------------------- Script Extra Polished --------------------------

We continued to polish the script, which I thought was basically done before. We added some extra NPCs here and there, and fleshed out the world with lore text where it seemed appropriate. In the end, the game's script ballooned to over 100,000 words! Hah... It's definitely DONE now however!

Some interesting things I noted as I was polishing old text - there were quite a few instances where Gail talks. I began the game's development with the idea that Gail should definitely talk since I wanted her to be a more active participant in what she chose to do. But I discovered later that if Gail talks, but only talked a little, she comes off as a very reticent person. There's no middle lane here - you're either all in or all out.

If Gail was a silent protagonist, she still talked symbolically. She is understood to be talking based on how people react to her - kinda like Link. So that's the direction I went with in the end (again). When Gail has occasion to talk, it comes in the form of a player dialogue choice. She also has an inner voice when she needs to remind the player to do something.

Another reason I went with this direction, is for brevity. Take this exchange for instance: QUEST GIVER : Can you help me find this super rare ingredient? GAIL : Maybe. I can't make any promises...

If Gail is silent, I can reduce those 2 lines to 1. QUEST GIVER : Can you help me find this super rare ingredient? GAIL : ...

-------------------------- Business Taxes --------------------------

Not too exciting, but new year means I gotta do taxes for the business. They're a lot more complicated than personal taxes, and more expensive! Since the game hasn't sold anything, you would think there'd be nothing to file. Hah! If only... The business is there so we can act as a legal entity and record expenses for when we do start selling. I really want to focus on making games, but there’s a small percentage of it that is sometimes boring and dreadful (-_-) ... still it needs to be done.

------------- Why no Public Beta Testing? -------------

As you may have noticed, I haven't put out any public calls for testing help despite being at that stage. Some have offered to help, which I appreciate! But sadly, I cannot accept. Here's the story for that.

Two and a half years ago, I got my hands on a console dev kit - that's very exciting, so I hurriedly took the steps to convert my dev station to be console-capable. After about two weeks, I had the console version working and integrated into my workflow, so all appeared good...

4 Months later, an artist needed an updated PC build to test some new art assets, so I went to build a new PC version. We use Unity, so generally you just need to click your desired build target, and hit "build". However, I now discovered that by attaching the console "hooks" into my work environment, I could no longer build to PC... It was possible, from my end, to test the game from the dev station in dev mode, which was why it went undiscovered for so long.

I did try to excise the hooks, but proved unsuccessful after a day of work. I decided to take this as an opportunity to focus exclusively on the console version first, which afforded me some niceties. Knowing that there's a standardized control scheme meant I could make full use of the control stick for the fishing mini-game. I also didn't need to create a rebindable keys menu - which is a MUST for PC versions... Most importantly, it lets me focus on making the one version as good as possible before moving onto the next. I have NO idea how those other guys release on all platforms at once...

Chalk it up to inexperience. In my defense, this will be my first commercial release, so bear with me. Don't worry, I still plan to make the PC version! It's a bit unconventional, but we're just going to go in the reverse direction of the usual. Console first, then PC, then other consoles. Wherever it makes financial sense, there we will be. (Sorry Ouya!)

Back to the original question - that's why I haven't sent out any public calls for playtesting. Current playable builds of the game are locked to my console dev kit. So actual playtesting unfolds in a very closed setting. Like what I did with Will, I literally sit behind the playtester, breathe down their neck, and watch them play, taking notes all the while.

But since I'm observing the player directly, even just one playthrough nets me a TON of bugs and adjustment tasks. So it evens out I think.

-------------------------- Trailers, Release Dates, etc. --------------------------

Alright, get your frowns ready...

We finished two trailers, and they're raring to go. BUT! We can't show them yet... We're sort of at an awkward spot where we're waiting on some conversational threads to conclude. Say we win a slot in a show - that'd be a HUGE plus for us - but that may also be contingent on us having NOT shown anything substantial yet. The game in its unrevealed state is a negotiating chip. So we're trying to leverage that... and you can only do the reveal once...

We also want to have some "actionable" items in the trailer - a launch date you could mark on your calendar, a wishlist, a website you can visit, etc. So since those things aren't entirely lined up yet, we can't let the trailers rip just yet...

Right now, I can only say we're *aiming* for a late Q2/early Q3 launch. But I can't commit to anything concrete yet. As soon as we know, we'll happily sing it from the rooftops. I hope I can update this blog sooner with good news, but if things move slowly again, I'll send out the next "we're alive" update 2 months from now (end of April).

I know it's frustrating to have nothing major after so long still, so I captured some gameplay footage... May it sate your hungers!

-------------------------- Footage 1 : Fishing --------------------------

You've seen pictures of the fishing, but never video of it in action. Well, here it is!

(And right after I uploaded the video, I noticed there actually was a video of fishing before. D’oh)

The idea is simple. First, get the lure in front of a fish, and assuming the fish isn't scared, it will soon bite. Then begins a fight sequence, where your energy meter is pitted against the fish's energy meter. Whoever's energy outlasts the other's wins.

The fish's resistance is represented by a red moving circular subsection. You fight the fish by pushing the control stick and keeping it on the subsection, which will dart around and try to escape you. Bigger and tougher variants of fish will do a "shake" which will reverse the wheel. When the wheel is reversed, so too are the controls, so it gets extra tricky!

While fishing, your energy meter doesn't recover, so one of the ways you level up your fishing ability is by finding energy gems to increase your max energy. There's another way - but we'll keep that a secret.

-------------- Footage 2 : Kobold Boss Fight --------------

You can actually skip the next section if you'd prefer to be surprised and you find your hunger for info sated. That's how I prefer to consume the games that I know I'm going to get. If you're still hungering for info, and you don't mind the slight spoilers, then feel free to proceed!

The next video shows the new Kobold Boss fight. Let's take a moment to reflect on the old game's visuals and how far it's come...

(we've come a long way since the time of the flash game)

You'll notice the Kobold boss has a name now - Katash! He's a significant enough character that he's earned it. The second thing you'll notice is that he looks better!

Some people have humorously pointed out that the old boss looks like Wolf O'Donnel from Star Fox. There's a funny story behind that. Basically I asked an artist to draw me a space wolf. And the artist, whom I'm assuming wasn't familiar with Wolf O'Donnel, drew that - all of it - all the animations and everything. The first time I laid eyes on it, it was already done, so it was too late to ask for edits. So I just ran with it.

That was seven years ago. Nowadays, I know to involve myself more in the process. I ask for just the design first, and we don't move forward with animations until we're happy with the design. Life lessons!

By the way, if you like Katash’s personal boss theme, give it a lesson on Will's Sound cloud (LINK)

-------------------------- Fan Arts -------------------------- Lots of fan art came in over the past 3 months!

This one is a pixel animation made by Pimez, and shows Gail singing a Christmas carol in various parts of the game. So cute! Years ago, I too was making little animated gifs for my favorite games, so it really brings me back!

This one was made by cARTographer (twitter link) after a request by Deli_mage, so thank you both. Gail rocking stylish boots with a pose that shows confidence in her batting skills. Very anime - Love it!

Another submission of laptekosz of the Last Song of Earth area. Whereas the last picture depicted the night sky, now the orange trees are lit by a rising sun. Artfully done! Kinda makes me want to eat eggs. I hope you'll like the new Last Song of Earth area just as much :D

A new artist to the scene, Not_Quin, submitted two pictures, one of Gail and one of the Sand Drake re-imagined as a centipede. I'm always a fan of these re-imaginings! I like how it's spiky all over and appears to be wearing a skull mask. The Sand Drake is often pointed out to be too similar to Zelda's Dodongos, so maybe a long slithery body would have indeed served better. Fun fact, long ago, when we were working on Phoenotopia 2 in earnest, we actually had a giant man-eating worm planned - WIP animation depicted below. One day... one day...

Negativus Core made two cool new arts! I'm really impressed by their use of unique perspective! Having characters run towards the screen or reaching close to the screen from afar is tricky since the proportions get all distorted - but not an issue for Negativus Core! Love the blur on Gail to show speed, with 66 in focus - really skillfully done! And the cube. Amazing!

--------------------------

I'm really honored by the huge fan art community. Thank you all! 

[vs-redemption]

Featherlocks and the Three Interns

I posted this a while ago but the text got deleted somehow and I only just noticed. Anyway, this is just me being funny.

Enjoy Hawks, Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki as Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Once upon a time there were three aspiring heroes living in a small cabin in the woods. They were all passionate about reaching their goal to be the top hero in the land, so they each woke up early every morning for training bright eyed and bushy tailed. None more so than Katsuki Bakugo.

“Hey idiots! Breakfast is ready! Come and eat or go and die!” The spiky haired blond pulled three bowls from the tiny cupboard and served up a helping of porridge for himself and his comrades. A boy with messy green hair and freckles shuffles into the room, rubbing the sleep from his big green eyes.

“Kacchan, this is a small house,” he mumbles. “You don’t have to shout.”

“Shut up, nerd!” Bakugo shoves the All Might themed bowl into the broccoli boy’s hands. “Where’s that icy hot bastard?”

“I’m here. Good Morning Bakugo. Thank you for making breakfast for us,” a taller boy with red and white hair steps into the kitchen. He takes the other All Might themed bowl from the counter and moves to sit next to Midoriya at the small round wooden table.

“Don’t get the wrong idea half and half! You’re just lucky that there was some leftover for the two of you!” Bakugo glares at the remaining bowl of porridge which was in an Endeavor themed bowl. “And why the hell did you take my bowl!?”

“I haven’t touched mine yet, Kacchan!” Midoriya slides his All Might bowl towards Bakugo’s empty seat. “I’ll switch with you if you want!”

“Like hell, Deku!” Bakugo pulls his chair as far away from the other two as possible before plopping down. “Stop trying to be nice to me!”

“Ah, this is my father’s fault for hiding his merchandise around here, hoping to trick me into supporting him even if it’s very indirectly,” Todoroki shakes his head. “I’m sorry you two have to be involved.”

“Quit bringing up your family drama every five seconds and eat your damn breakfast!” Bakugo growls while shoveling a spoonful of porridge into his mouth. Three loud knocks on the front door suddenly startled them.

“I hope you three are ready to finally keep up with me today,” a loud bellowing voice shakes the house. “Be out here in five minutes or you’ll be eating my flaming hot dust!”

“Dammit!” Bakugo flies out of his chair and towards the bedroom, Midoriya and Todoroki hot on his heels. The three of them rushed to put on their hero costumes, hoping to be the first one ready. “We didn’t even get to finish eating!” Bakugo wasn’t pleased. “That damn bastard could let us know what time he plans on showing up!”

“It’s okay Kacchan,” Midoriya tries to console the raging boy. “I’ll help clean up once we get back.”

“Shut up Deku! I don’t need your help!” Bakugo thrusts his arm into his grenade gauntlet and dashes out the door. “You snooze you lose, extras!” Todoroki and Midoriya were out the door mere seconds later.

————

Meanwhile, a gorgeous bird man was wandering through the same forest. He wasn’t usually one for relaxing strolls in nature since he was so busy with being both a hero and a villain, but he had not been able to turn down the invitation to play hide and seek today with some of the other pro heroes. The game had been fun at first, but now it was Kamui Woods’ turn to hide and finding him was pretty much impossible. Hawks had been wandering around for hours looking for the wooden hero and was getting pretty hungry.

“It’s like looking for a needle in a needle stack,” Hawks sighs and pushes his visor up on top of his head of fluffy golden feather hair. “Or a tree man in a tree stack. Damn, I’m starving.” As if fate had planned it all along, a small house came into view at that exact moment.

“Someone actually lives out here?” Hawks was surprised and thought it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. He knocked on the door which had scorch marks on it. “Hello?” Hawks calls out, “Is anyone home?” Of course there was no answer. Feeling slightly concerned, he checks the knob and finds the door to be unlocked. He pushes it open and steps inside.

“Mm,” he looks around with his golden eyes, “smells good in here. Oh! Sweet Endeavor bowl!” He picks up the bowl but immediately drops it back onto the table. “Shit! That’s too hot!” He reaches over and puts his hand over the second bowl. “And... that’s too cold. Wow someone really iced it up.” He picks up the third bowl and smiles, “this one is just right! They even added a splash of milk and a pinch of cinnamon! ... too bad I don’t like porridge!” He puts the bowl down and grabs a bag of potato chips off the counter.

Hawks snacks on the chips while exploring the next room where he finds three chairs. He usually flew around with his giant wings, so all the walking that day had made him tired. He sits in the first chair. “This chair is stiff as a board!” He complains before testing the second chair. “Too squishy!” He groans, “if I sit here too long I’ll never get my ass back up!” He plops in the third chair and sighs “yep! Just right!” He watches an episode of Stranger Things before going to check on the bedroom.

“Time for a bird nap,” he rubs his hands together eagerly. He lays down in the closest bed. “For crying out loud, this bed is harder than Kirishima’s ultimate hard mode!” He crawls into the second bed, “too soft... figures.” He hops into the third bed which was totally decked out in All Might bedding. “Oh hell yeah, this is just right! Would be better if it had Endeavor sheets though... you know what?” He gets up and checks the linen closet. “Bingo!” There was a brand new, unused Endeavor comforter. He remade the bed, took off his huge coat, and nuzzled in. He was out cold in moments.

———

“Who the hell got porridge all over the table?!” Bakugo was livid.

“I don’t know but they broke the Endeavor bowl...” Midoriya frowns as he collects the pieces. He was glad the All Might bowls were still intact.

“I like them already, whoever they are,” Todoroki says with a ghost of a smile.

“What kind of intruder eats a whole bag of chips and gets crumbs all over the chair?!” Bakugo’s red eyes flashed when he saw the living room.

“I don’t know,” Midoriya looks at his phone, “but it looks like they paid for our Netflix and Disney plus for the next 2 years.”

“Midoriya, I found a red feather stuck in the cushions of my squishy chair,” Todoroki hums. “I think it’s a clue.” The green haired beansprout comes over to investigate.

“Deku!” Bakugo had already moved on to the next room, “Your stupid All Might bedding is all over the hallway! Didn’t you make your bed this morning?!”

“I did!” Midoriya comes sprinting into the bedroom with Todoroki close behind. “Oh, why is my bed Endeavor themed now?!”

“And why is there a lump in the blankets?” Todoroki asks.

“Hey! Wake up!” Bakugo rips the covers off, explosions popping in his palms. “Do you have a death wish or something? You picked the wrong house to break into!” Hawks eyes flutter open and he sits up looking groggy. The blankets fall down and reveal two giant red wings.

“It’s an angel,” Todoroki surmises.

“No!” Midoriya bounces on his feet excitedly. “It’s Hawks! The number two hero!” He dashes to the bookshelf to grab an empty notebook. He had so many questions.

“What are you doing here bird brain?” Bakugo sounded a little less hostile now, probably because he’d been disarmed by Hawks’ sexy sleepy smile.

“Sorry,” Hawks yawns while stretching his arms over his head. “I lost track of time after I lost track of Kamui Woods. You kids are the three interns working for Endeavor right?”

“Yeah...” Bakugo confirms. “So what?”

“So, you must be exhausted!” Hawks climbs out of Midoriya’s bed and pulls out his cell phone. “Let’s order take out and watch Frozen 2! It got released early because of the corona apocalypse.” All three boys were shocked. How did Hawks know that Frozen was the only thing they could all ever agree on? He really was a great hero, even if he did like sleeping in Endeavor themed bedding. After cleaning up the porridge, chip crumbs, and All Might bedding, the group of Interns plus Hawks cozied up in the living room for the best movie night in recorded history. Endeavor wasn’t invited.

They all lived happily ever after.

The End

[sellyripley]

Layover in Paradise (Fan Fic)

Title: Layover in Paradise

Fandom: Robot Trains (no crossovers) 

Word Count: 1,857

Summary: After his self sacrificing effort to save Train World by helping Kay reach the Alpha Train’s cargo, Duke awakens in an empty white space and meets a mysterious stranger.  

Warnings: Near death experience, reincarnation, existential stuff. 

Characters: Duke, a mysterious stranger, (also minor appearances by Kay, Selly, Alf, Moss and Das)

Pairings: None

Author’s Note: This fic is basically meant to bridge the first and second season. I was disappointed with how the second season retconned all of Duke's great character development and made him into the bad guy. This story is meant to put a better spin on Duke's plight. This is probably the only non-horror/non-tragic thing I’ve written since the fourth grade. I’ve done it out of my great love for Duke because honestly enough horrifying and tragic things have happened to him.

                           -----------------------------------------------

Duke could feel his engine dangerously overheating as he pushed Kay towards the Alpha Train’s cargo.

Duke knew he could not survive absorbing any more of the Alpha Train’s energy, but Kay would be able to use that energy to defeat the virus clone invasion threatening Train World’s demise.

Right, wrong, or otherwise, Duke couldn’t help feeling responsible for the calamity that had befallen Train World since he’d been infected with the virus.

Maybe it wasn’t his fault. But maybe… maybe he could have done something differently. Maybe if he’d just allowed himself to go into sleep mode when his platform first warned him of a virus. Or if he’d never felt jealous of Kay in the first place, maybe the virus wouldn’t have been able to turn him against Kay the way it did. Or maybe…if he’d just resisted the virus a little harder, somehow.  

But dwelling on self-blame was no use at this point. All he knew was that he had to do whatever it took to put things right. He couldn’t fail this time. Even if that meant sacrificing himself.

Besides, no one would miss him. Except maybe Becky. Everyone else had been willing to evacuate to safety leaving him locked up in his base as the virus clones drained all remaining energy from Fountain Plaza…

He engaged his boosters and struggled to overcome the repelling force emanating from the Alpha Train’s cargo as he continued to push forward, disregarding all warnings from his platform and confident that – this time – it was the right decision. 

Finally, Kay made contact with the cargo. Time seemed to slow down as Duke was thrown backwards. He shut his eyes, thankful that he’d succeeded in this final mission and hopeful that, though he wouldn’t be there to see it, peace could finally be restored to Train World.

There was nothing but black and silence for a moment.

Then Duke opened his eyes. He was in his train form, he felt almost as though he’d been sleeping and was awakening from a dream.

Duke looked around in surprise, and inched forward.

He found himself in a seemingly infinite white space.

“Hm. Looks like some kind of training simulation.” He said

Another train suddenly approached. She was lavender colored with silver accent and dark eyes. Duke did not recognize her but she did not appear imposing nor particularly remarkable.

He wondered if she was as surprised to find herself here as he was.

“Hey.” Said Duke “What is this place?”

“Paradise.” Said the stranger in a decisive but genial tone.

“Hmph. Well, it doesn’t look like much to me.” Replied Duke a little bemused and questioning whether this stranger would be of any help.

Duke transformed into his robot form and took stock of his surroundings, casting about for some clue as to what was going on. Nothing. Nothing at all in any direction. Just this stranger.

“That’s because,” replied the stranger “There are no solutions here.”

Now that cryptic remark got Duke’s attention.

“What do you mean by that?” Asked Duke intrigued.

“There are no solutions here because there are no problems. But, you’re not ready for a place with no problems. It takes a long time to be ready for a place with no problems and no solutions.

Everyone thinks they’re ready, but almost no one is. People want to feel helpful. And to feel helped. And with no problems, that isn’t possible. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Duke wasn’t sure how to answer that. Considering the magnitude of the problems he’d faced of late, it felt like a trick question. Duke just stared at the stranger, suspiciously.

Duke wasn’t sure if she was a robot train or just a normal train. There were no tracks here, but she remained in train form. As though she was on invisible tracks in this land of nothingness. She did not seem bothered either by the surreal surroundings nor by his presence.

She continued “I think you are, however, ready for some simpler problems. Problems that are not so serious and are easy to resolve. You and your friends have overcome a lot of difficult tests lately. And it’s time for you all to get a break.”

“Tests?” Asked Duke.

“Yes.” Said the stranger “Even though you have no memory of it, everyone lives life after life. Each life you live is like a training exercise that you’re meant to overcome before you can move on to the next level.

You and everyone in Train World is now ready to move on to your next lives. And, this time, you’ll all be going to the same place. It actually won’t be too different from Train World. But things will be easier. Simpler. More joyful.”

“Who are you?” Duke asked.

The stranger gave a small laugh “That question isn’t easy to answer since when you’re ready to understand it, you won’t need to ask. I’m different things to different individuals. You perceive me as a train, but I think you know that perception has more to do with you than with me.

But right now, most importantly, I’m someone with a mission for you, if you choose to accept it.”

Duke replied “What kind of…mission…could you possibly need performed in this ‘new, easier, more joyful’ world you’re talking about?”

“Well, I wanted to ask you to go on a mission…to cause trouble. You’ve earned quite a lot of experience at it by now you see.”

“But,” protested Duke “I didn’t want to cause trouble. I didn’t want to do any of those things.”

“I know,” replied the stranger. “But, surely you must realize that the problems you caused in your most recent life strengthened everyone else and helped them overcome their challenges and pass their tests!”

Duke understood now. This was going to be an easier, happier, better life…for everyone else. As for him, he was still going to be mistrusted and alone.”

“I know what you’re thinking!” said the stranger with a wink.

“But you won’t have to be alone this time. You’re going to have a family to make mischief with. And, the trouble you cause this time isn’t going to do any real harm to anyone. This isn’t going to be the sort of world where anyone gets truly hurt. Your trouble making will be more like…friendly rivalry.

And this time I’m giving you the option of remembering! Remembering your previous life and remembering this conversation so that you can keep the perspective that what you’re doing is actually for everyone’s benefit!

Honestly, I think you’ll have fun.”

Duke thought about it for a moment a family… Duke had never really been one for social niceties and decorum anyway. If he could enrich other’s lives by stirring up a little harmless trouble maybe this mission would be a good fit for him after all. Especially if it meant that he’d finally fit in somewhere. That he’d finally have a family.

As he considered this prospect a concerning thought occurred to him.

“Wait.” Said Duke, with growing concern. “So, we’re all about to start our new lives? Everyone in Train World? So then that means… We lose? We lose the fight with the virus clones!?”

The stranger, perhaps being too far removed from the nature of worldly attachments to relate, seemed surprised by Duke’s apparent distress.

“Well… You’re all going to a better place afterwards so what’s the difference? Defeating the virus clones wasn’t the test. You were each facing tests of character, which you’ve all passed with flying colors. The test is over, so now you’re all ready to move on.”  

Duke was not consoled. He thought back to everything he’d done to try to right his missteps. Anger and regret tinged his voice

“So then I failed!? Everyone dies?”

“Well…that is usually how one life ends and another begins. A new life just suddenly…starting without any sort of conclusion to the previous one would be a bit of a non sequitur, wouldn’t it?”

“So what!?” Replied Duke

The stranger seemed caught off guard by Duke’s reply, and more than a little amused. “So what…?” She considered for a moment

“So what indeed!” She laughed “Ok, Duke, I admire your faith in the seemingly impossible. Well…then, if it were up to you, what would you want to accomplish before you all start your next lives?”

Duke thought for a moment.

“I need to help Kay finish the intercontinental rail road construction. I’ve got to do it right this time, the way I was going to…the way it should have been.”

The stranger laughed. “Ok Duke, if that’s what you want you’ve got it. As I said, you’ve earned a break. And this test is essentially over so you can have a little fun with the remaining time.

But remember, just this one last thing and then your new lives will just…start.

No deaths, just…a new life in a simpler, happier place. And no one will remember any of this except for you. Remember your mission!”

“Agreed!” Said Duke.

The stranger and the white room suddenly disappeared. Now there was nothing but blackness and silence. Distantly, Duke heard his name being called.

“Duke?” “Duke, can you hear us?”

Duke opened his eyes to see that he was in Selly’s base, tools strewn about the floor. Selly and Alf were standing in front of him.

“Yay! He’s awake!” Said Selly.

“Duke, you saved us all! You saved Train World!” Shouted Alf, a slight hitch in his voice as he choked back emotion, relieved and overjoyed at Duke’s revival.

Before Duke knew it, it was time again for the opening ceremony of the intercontinental railroad. As he linked up to Kay, he tried to put the disturbing memories of the previous attempt’s events out of his mind.

This time things went perfectly. Flying through space with Kay’s magnetic levitation wheels felt exhilarating. Duke felt happy and helpful. Finally he was able to put right what had gone wrong.

As Kay constructed the connecting tracks a brilliant blue light filled Duke’s field of vision. It got brighter and brighter like a brightening blue sky peeking in through the window at dawn.

Duke heard his name being called. He opened his eyes to see two robot trains standing in front of him, one blue and one green.

“Come on Duke, we’ve got to go steal those energy balls!”

Duke felt dazed for a moment. “Steal energy balls!?”

He thought back on Kay and the Fountain Plaza and the intercontinental rail road construction.

Then he regarded these two funny looking trains in front of him. He felt as though he recognized them.

Slowly, a lifetime’s worth of memories flooded him. Memories of a lifetime spent in this silly but cheerful world.

Suddenly he burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! Steal energy balls!” He playfully pulled each of his brothers into an embrace and said “Ok boys, this is very important work. Let’s go steal those energy balls!” then ran off. Moss and Das looked at each other and shrugged then followed after Duke.

Duke had a feeling he would enjoy playing this new role in this new life. 

[summahsunlight]

We Belong to the Stars, CH.1

Word Count: 2828

Pairing: Poe/OFC

Characters: Poe Dameron, Leia Organa, BB-8, Kaleb Skywalker (OC), Evelyn Skywalker (OC), Karé Kun, Iolo Arana, Kylo Ren 

A Resistance spy has sent vital information about the First Order’s super weapon before his untimely death at the hands of Kylo Ren. Now, it's a race against time to obtain the information before the First Order destroys it. Leia sends members of the Resistance's top squadron in the hopes that they can track the information down before its too late.

A/N: This story takes place in the verse that my Drabble series ( Pathways ) verse sets up. You don't need to read those to necessarily to understand what's going on in this story however.  I hope you enjoy it!

AO3

Unknown Regions, 33 ABY

There was no time for escape once the first Star Destroyer showed up in system.

His only hope of getting the information he possessed to the Resistance, then he had to transmit it.  Since no one knew their exact location, there was no way it would reach them directly; he was going to have to get creative.  Plugging in the code for one of his more trusted contacts from his days in the New Republic's Intelligence Core, he slipped the disc into the computer, frantically downloading the information he had gathered for the last six months.  It had been General Organa’s idea to get some on the inside, Lothor had been one of the Republic’s top-notch spies—it only made sense for him to infiltrate the First Order.

He'd made it pretty far up the ranks until Kylo Ren suspected him.

Screaming outside the door announced the arrival of the enemy. Lothor looked at the screen, desperately.  Still fifty percent of the information needed to be downloaded.  He knew that it would take those bucketheads a while to break through the coded door, he just hoped it was enough.   Thirty-five percent.  Something began to cut through the heavy armor of the door, the tip of a red light saber. Lothor could feel the fear running through him—through the tiny little outpost he had taken refuge in when fleeing the First Order.

Kylo Ren, the demon behind a metal mask.

Twenty-five percent.  Lothor unholstered his blaster and aimed it at the door.  He knew it would not hold off Kylo, he’d seen the man stop blast bolts mid-air, but it would provide a distraction, perhaps one long enough for the rest of the information to send to the Senator.

One hand on the controls of the computer, one eye watching as it ticked down, while the other hand held the blaster, the other eye watched as the metal of the door fell away.  Kylo stepped into the room, face hidden behind a mask. “Agent Lothor. The plans—you will stop that transmission immediately.”

“Make me,” Lothor snapped, firing at the dark side user. He wasn’t surprised when Kylo easily deflected the blasts with his saber.

“My patience is wearing thin,” Kylo snarled, holding his hand out and snatching Lothor in a paralyzing grasp. “The plans—now!”

Lothor managed to glance at the computer, even if he was being held against his will with the Force.  It was blinking: transmission sent.  “You’re too late, Ren.  The plans are in the hands of the Resistance.”

Kylo hissed, tightening his hold on the spy. “I will just trace the transmission.”

As if on cue, the computer console overheated, wires sparking and igniting, sending small plumes of smoke into the air. Lothor managed a weak smile. “Doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to. You can certainly give it a try, but I highly doubt you'll be successful.  Even if you are, good luck breaking through all the encryption codes.”

“I will get those plans back, traitor,” Kylo said.

“Like I said; good luck,” Lothor snapped.

Those were his last words. Kylo Ren cut him down and left his body behind.

Resistance Transport Ship

It was incredibly difficult to sleep on a transport ship.

Commander Poe Dameron—formally of the New Republic Navy, now a full-fledged member of the Resistance—had given up an hour ago to catch some shut eye. He laid on a bottom bunk, one arm behind his head, eyes staring up at the sleeping form of one of his lieutenants.  He regarded Iolo Arana and Karé Kun as family; he was both happy and relieved that they were joining him on this journey.  All three were tired of their hands being tied, of being told not to engage the First Order.  Well, the Navy’s lack of response had cost Lieutenant Muran his life and would have cost Poe his commission if Leia Organa had not taken notice.

Rolling over onto his side, Poe took a deep, steadying breath. He’d been shocked to see Leia when he landed back on Mirrin Prime after directly disobeying Lonno Deso’s orders. It had been five years since he’d seen her, five years since she formed the Resistance—five years since he’d walked away from the woman he loved without ever letting her know how he truly felt.  Squeezing his eyes shut, Poe fought his emotions, fought to push the image of Evelyn’s face the night they said goodbye from his mind.  He felt the same twist in his gut, the same clench of his heart, whenever he thought about her. He’d been so young and stupid five years ago, walking away from her at her most vulnerable hour because he had some stupid oath to the Republic to honor…

“You thinking about her?” Iolo mumbled next to him.

“Every waking hour,” Poe mumbled back.

Iolo sat up on his bunk.  The Kershian had been there when things had all gone to hell five years ago, he’d been there when they had gone to hell five days ago.  “Have you thought about what you’re going to say to her when you see her?”

Poe winced. No, he had not thought about it, even though he knew it was going to be unavoidable.  She would be there; she would be fighting right alongside her aunt to protect the galaxy from tyranny. “What can I say to her? I left, Iolo…”

The other man sighed, pushing his hair back. “How about starting with I’m sorry.”

His chest tightened. “Yeah… that probably is a good place to start.”

Karé shifted above him, her voice sleepily calling down, “And then you should probably tell her what an idiot you are, you know, for walking away from her like that—after she pleaded with you to join her, to fight with her.”

“And after giving her that really expensive, beautiful pendant,” Iolo added.

“Right. I forgot about the kyber crystal,” Karé said.  “Stars, Poe, you suck at the romance thing.”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Poe whispered, harshly, noticing that their conversation was disturbing the recruits that had managed to fall asleep on the transport. “I suck at romance.”

Iolo glanced at the commander, then up at Karé.  In the last five years, they’d watched as Poe pined away for Evelyn, even making some desperate attempts to move on from her that never really panned out because, quite frankly, Poe had never stopped loving Evelyn.  “Maybe you should also throw in there that you love her,” he said, then shrugged his shoulders, “you know, just a suggestion.”

Poe rolled onto his back once again, rubbing his hands over his face. What if she’s moved on? What if she doesn’t love me? These thoughts had plagued him for a while now, but more so since he agreed to go with Leia back to the Resistance.  “I don’t know if that’s what she wants to hear… it’s been five years Iolo, anything could have happened in those five years.”

Karé clicked her tongue. “You think she’s moved on? Well… I guess with how you left things… I don’t say I blame her if she did.”

Neither do I, Poe thought, instantly hating himself. I broke her heart, I made her believe that the Republic was more important than she was.  Kun is right—you are an idiot. 

It was with this thought on the brain that Poe fell into a restless sleep.  He was woken by the transport coming out of hyperspace and the lights going from dim to harsh.  Inwardly groaning, Poe climbed out from underneath his bunk, grabbing his duffel at his feet.  He slung the bag over his shoulder and woke BB-8 from his low power mode.  The droid buzzed to life, asking if they had arrived at their new destination.  “We have for now, buddy, let’s go.”

BB-8 followed behind the three pilots, his photoreceptor taking in the scene.  They were on a bright, shiny, refitted Mon Calamari cruiser.  In the hanger there were various makes of starfighters, mostly slightly older models of X-wings.  He was happy that his master had not left him behind, that he believed he could do some good for the Resistance as well. 

A slender, very young woman with dark hair, met the three pilots at the end of the ramp.  Poe tossed her a smile. “Hi Korrie,” he said, recalling the nickname that Leia had often used with her. “Are you the welcoming committee?”

Korr Sella pulled her lips into a small smile. “Commander. Yes, I guess you could say in a way I am the welcoming committee.  General Organa wanted to meet with you as soon as you arrived. I’m here to take you to her. Lieutenant Kun, Lieutenant Arana, someone will be along to help you get settled into your quarters. I’m sure you’re all tired from your trip.  I know how difficult it can be to sleep on those transports.”

Poe glanced at his squad, gave them a slight nod that it was okay, and then left the hanger with Korr—BB-8 following closing behind him.  They were led through the stark white corridors until they reached the General’s private office.   The young woman entered a code in the keypad, and the doors opened.

“Commander Dameron has arrived, General,” Korr announced as they stepped into her space.

“About time,” Leia Organa quipped from behind her desk. She rose her whisky brown eyes to his and smiled, “What took you so long, Poe?”

“Stubbornness?” Poe offered, because he didn’t have any other explanation.

Leia chuckled. “I guess that’s good as any explanation as I’m ever going to get.”

Poe smiled, sadly. “Maybe I just needed to see things for myself.”

“Perhaps.  And now that you’ve seen these things do you see what I was talking about five years ago?”

“Yes ma’am, and I’m sorry that I didn’t see it sooner.”

“I’m not sure I’m the one that you really need to be apologizing to, Poe,” Leia said, softly.

“I know,” Poe replied in a near whisper, casting his eyes downward.

Leia took a deep breath, sympathy filling her brown eyes. “I’m sorry, Poe, about Lieutenant Muran.  He was a good pilot.”

Poe nodded in agreement. “An even better man.”

BB-8 warbled in agreement, which caused Leia to smile. “I see you still have your droid.”

“Wouldn’t trade him for anything in the galaxy, ma’am,” Poe said, with fondness. “He’s saved my life quite a few times.”

“And for that the Resistance is thankful,” Leia commented. “I don’t know how much Korrie was able to tell you, but we lost our wing commander a few weeks ago, my fighter squadrons have been a royal mess and we haven’t been able to send anyone out on any missions, except recruiting.  I’ve thought about giving the job to Kaleb or Evelyn, but they don’t have military training—can outfly most of our pilots—but lack the strategic planning, formation knowledge.”

Poe remained neutral.  He had no doubt that Kaleb or Evelyn Skywalker had the piloting skills to be wing commander, however, Leia was right—neither of them had been trained by the military. “Is this like the old days, when you would comm me and ask for advice on pilots and if I thought they were up for the job?”

Leia smiled and shrugged her shoulders.  “Something like that,” she said. “Lieutenant Kun and Arana are due promotions, both capable leaders in their own right.  I have about twelve pilots that just entered the ranks and I think they could whip them into shape fast.”

He titled his head to the side, glanced at BB-8, and nodded in agreement with the General. “Both are fine pilots, would make great squadron leaders. Although, I’d hate to lose them… it’s time for them to move up in the ranks.  They’ve more than earned it.”

She continued to smile at him. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Poe. Because I feel you need to move up in the ranks as well—you’ve more than earned it.  I only wish I could see the look on the brass' faces when they find out what I’ve done.  You angered a lot of people higher up.”

“I did what I thought was right, ma’am.”

“I know.  And stop calling me ma’am.”

“Do you prefer General?”

“I prefer Leia.”

Poe smiled, shyly. He felt that he needed to earn her respect back before he ever started calling her Leia. “Give me more time with that, General.”

Leia shook her head and handed him a data pad. “We’re going to be working together a lot, Commander Dameron, if you’re going to be our wing commander.”

His dark brown eyes went wide for a second.  Poe could hear BB-8 beeping and warbling, brushing his dome against the pilot’s calf. “Ma’am—General—Leia…are you sure?” he stammered, not sure what to call her or what to say, exactly.

She grinned at him and stretched her hand out, offering a firm handshake. “I never make decisions lightly, Poe.  As I told you on Mirrin Prime, we need passionate right about now, someone devoted to doing the right thing at all times, even if that means getting a little reckless here and there.  So, congratulations. Now, your first official order of business—go to your quarters, get some rest.  I’ll see you in the morning at zero seven hundred to meet with the others.”

“Yes ma’am,” Poe said with a slight grin, finally feeling like he was actually doing something about the First Order.

“Poe,” Leia called to him just before Korr led him to his quarters, “you need to talk to her, and soon; you’ve already waited five years too many, don’t you think?”

Yes, I probably should have chased after that transport five years ago; said goodbye to the Navy—but Papa, how could I turn my back on him? Poe knew that was a ridiculous excuse, his father would have supported his decision no matter what.  “Does she even want to…see me?”

Leia sized him up for a moment, how the usually cool, confident young man was so absolutely unsure of himself when it came to speaking to her niece. “I don’t have the answer to that question.  I can tell you that in the months after we left Hosnian Prime, she kept trying to find answers as to why you walked away.”

Poe winced, his eyes catching sight of BB-8. “Did you tell her because I was a coward?”

“I didn’t tell her anything. Other than you had your reasons for staying behind.”

“I put my oath before her.”

“Common mistake that a lot of good leaders make, Poe.”

“General Organa… I never meant… I didn’t want to hurt her.”

Her stance softened, a motherly look coming to her eyes. Leia knew this, he did not need to tell her.  Poe had been there the night the Jedi Temple had been destroyed, he’d been there when Evelyn and Kaleb had revealed that it was her own son that had perpetrated it all and if circumstances were slightly different, perhaps Poe would have been there when she formed the Resistance.  However, that was all in the past.  “Just talk to her, Commander. You both need closure.”

His shoulders slumped, slightly, and he nodded, looking more exhausted than he had five minutes ago.  Poe heard Leia order him to get some sleep once again, and he was off, following Korr. She made small talk; he could tell she was feeling slightly uncomfortable given all the history that Poe shared with Leia and her family. BB-8 certainly perked up when the young woman mentioned that they had already placed a charging station on Poe’s quarters for him.  Poe smiled, tiredly. “Thanks. He really hates charging in the hanger.  Too cold for him.”

Korr shot him a funny look. “Do droids feel temperature?”

Poe shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know.  It’s just what he’s told me. Besides, he’s my pal, and I kinda hate the idea of him alone in that hanger.”

“There are other droids charging in the hanger,” Korr pointed out.

“Yeah but none as special as BeeBee,” Poe supplied, scratching his droid for good measure.

She rolled her eyes and left him for the night outside of his new living space.  He took a deep breath and keyed the code in.  Stepping inside he could make out a small sitting area with a sofa, chair, and table; there was a desk on the far-right side, and on the left a door to the refresher and his bedroom.  Next to the sofa he could see BB-8’s charging station. 

Poe heaved a sigh as the door closed behind him. “Home sweet home,” he murmured to the droid. 

BB-8 brushed against him, softly beeping.

“I’m fine, buddy, tired,” Poe assured the droid. He dropped his bag down near the sofa. “Why don’t you plug in for the night? Sounds like we have a busy day tomorrow.”

[zdbztumble]

Kingdom Hearts III: re:Write

In the immediate aftermath of Kingdom Hearts III, I wrote up some thoughts on how it might have been better different. However, that re-write was predicated on accepting the rest of the series as-is, when a good number of KH III’s problems were but the culmination of issues birthed long before. I know I’m not the first person to wonder whether the series really could or should have organically and successfully continued after KH II at all, given how conclusively that game ended.

With the re:Mind DLC due out soon, I thought I’d take another crack at outlining an alternative KH III, under this premise: suppose that, after the release of KH II but before its Final Mix was completed, Tetsuya Nomura was taken off the series. Square turns it over to a new creative director. At their disposal are "The Gathering” from KH II, all the Disney films and Final Fantasy games (which we’ll assume turned out just as we know them) produced up to 2010, and a few scraps of notes left behind by Nomura (in interviews, he has claimed that at least the beginnings of BbS and Days, including the names of the past Keyblade wielders, had been conceived by the end of of KH II’s production.) They would also have the series’ penchant for unexpected directions and jumping onto shiny new ideas well-established (can’t just forget about that), and the change-over in Disney management that happened after KH II’s production. From all of this, a development team spend the next several years hard at work, with no side games on alternate consoles, ultimately presenting Kingdom Hearts III in 2012 for the series’ tenth anniversary.

This is an idea of what it might be.

KINGDOM HEARTS III (2012)

Final Mix: There would, under this scenario, be key differences in KH II FM compared to what we actually got. No long hallway scene, no sequel-bait flashback to the Organizers arguing - and no extra secret ending. Or, at least not one featuring Old Man Xehanort, proto-Vanitas, and the faces of the armored Keyblade wielders. There’d also be no Lingering Will secret boss and no hints to Xehanort’s past beyond what was already in the Ansem Secret Reports.

Background: Just as KH II was set a year after KH I, KH III is set one year after the events of KH II. Mickey’s message at the end of that game wasn’t a warning or a summons for another adventure - it was news that he and Scrooge McDuck were taking another stab at their idea for a transit system connecting the worlds. The downfall of Xehanort in all his forms and Sora’s safe travels through the lanes he found in KH II convinced them it could be done. One year on, all the worlds from the first two games, and a few new ones, are part of this system (this doesn’t mean that every world from previous games would appear, only that they would be nodded to.)

All shops in all worlds are now those of McDuck Enterprises, staffed by either Moogles, Disney characters, or both. No two shops have exactly the same set of merchandise, encouraging exploration and back-tracking to find key items and allowing for wider crossover opportunities. In that vein, it would be absolutely essential that, at some point in the game, a cutscene depicts Scrooge arguing with Moogles over something related to the stores.

Radiant Garden has been almost completely restored to a beautiful pairing of castle, garden, and town. Besides the rebuilt town and full gardens, the entire castle - the chapel and library from KH I and the basement labs from KH II - is explorable in gameplay. In the absence of a sage king, a council serve as stewards of the world. Obvious council members would include Merlin, Aerith, and Leon, who has formed a defense force for the garden - and why not give it the name SeeD? Leon’s also taken back the name Squall, thanks to Rinoa turning up in the intervening year. You can take it as certain that Yuffie (and later Sora) refuse to acknowledge this name change, just to get on Squall’s nerves.

Back on Destiny Islands, Sora, Riku, and Kairi have returned to their normal lives, having plenty of word from their off-world friends but never seeing them or leaving their home. It’s been back to school for them. But the game will feature them as the player’s trio - Riku and Kairi will be by Sora’s side for the vast majority of gameplay, and except when playing as a certain character is mandated by plot, the player will have the option to choose who to control.

Opening: The title sequence would return to KH I’s more impressionistic style rather than a plot recap, juxtaposing Sora and his friends enjoying their peacetime lives with images of mysterious figures battling - figures in armor like that from "The Gathering,” vanishing one by one and leaving their Keyblades in a barren wasteland until only the three from that ending remain.

Tutorial: Of course, we must have a tutorial set in the Dive to the Heart. But this time, instead of Sora (or his Nobody), it’s Kairi who takes the dive, onto her own stained glass. As the least-experienced Keyblade wielder, and the one who hasn’t had a full-fledged adventure, she’s a good player proxy to (re)introduce basic mechanics, though since all three party members will end up playable, tutorials specific to their movesets will appear when appropriate. In Kingdom Hearts tradition, the tutorial will also feature a set of mysterious questions and an option to choose and give up certain abilities (and it will be abilities rather than weapons this time, given the multiple player characters.) Hints of the story to come appear as well, as Kairi ends the tutorial by facing off against a new class of monster - let’s call them the Dream Eaters, and imagine them with the same basic designs as the Unversed from our timeline’s BbS. After Kairi defeats these Dream Eaters, she sees at the end of her stained glass an armored figure, straight out of "The Gathering,” but before any confrontation can happen, Kairi’s alarm goes off, and she wakes up in her room on Destiny Islands, with a voice bidding her to get ready for school as the title appears in-game.

Initial gameplay: The game properly gets underway with a cutscene on the mainland, as Sora, Kairi, Riku, and their classmates file out of school. We got a glimpse of this  area in KH II, but now the full scale of it can be showcased. The impact of Mickey’s transit system can be showcased too - the mainland is a place in the middle of enormous change, with building under construction reflecting the styles of all sorts of worlds.

Kairi relates her “dream” of the previous night to her friends. While they take some interest, given their own past adventures, they still chalk it up to a nightmare, and the trio goes into town for the first bit of gameplay, an exploration of the mainland. There’s a great opportunity for cameos here; perhaps Mrs. Hawkins from Treasure Planet has moved from another world to set up an inn, or Fintheart Glomgold is on Destiny Islands attempting to hawk his inferior wares to compete with the McDuck stores. Combat in this section would obviously be limited, but several minigames would be available. Possibilities for such games might include sparring with an older Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie; racing the sailboards from Treasure Planet; and an opportunity to try a test offered by a SeeD recruiter, perhaps Final Fantasy XIII’s Snow.

The day ends with Sora, Kairi, and Riku slipping over to the old island in the evening. That spot, at least, is unchanged. The trio comes here, away from prying eyes, to practice with their Keyblades, and it affords the player the first chance to see how each character handles in combat. In Sora’s case, this would largely be a further iteration on his established moveset. Magic spells would be added, subtracted, or modified by whatever the developers’ fancy, and Reaction Commands could perhaps be a little more involved than simply pressing Triangle. As Sora is older and in need of a new design/outfit, KH II’s in-game explanation for Drive forms would be gone. Perhaps something akin to the Formchanges from our timeline’s KH III replaces it, though maybe without the element of the Keyblade itself shifting form. As a way to keep Roxas active in the series without pulling a mess of plot convolutions, one of the Formchanges could give Sora Roxas’s clothes, and a moveset and abilities similar to what Roxas used in his battle with Sora in KH II FM. Riku’s moveset would be an interation of what he had in CoM, translated to the appropriate consoles. This would mean Dark Mode in place of Formchanges ( (and yes, the ending of KH II implied he lost some of his Dark powers, but he needs something - roll with it) and no magic outside of Dark Firaga, but the trade-off for lack of variety would be speed and raw power. As for Kairi - perhaps her basic moveset is similar to the Wisdom Form of KH II, standard attacks being shots of magic, with a large number of spells surpassing even Sora’s. And she could have Formchanges of her own, including one that gives her Namine’s outfit and Reaction Commands triggering moves based in Confusion or Sleep. For an extra flourish, the animation could be patterned after Namine’s drawings. Eventually, all three characters would gain movement abilities similar to (but far tamer than) DDD’s flow motion.

Besides showcasing the trio’s movesets, this interlude on the island would also cement their new dynamic, which the writing has hopefully built to by now. Riku would still be the most diligent worker and thinker, but his arrogance and sense of entitlement to leadership are gone, and the toxicity between him and Sora is gone too. He’s thinking ahead to when school is done (a year sooner for him than for Sora and Kairi, remember) and he’ll have a chance to set out for other worlds again - this time, with a more selfless aim to learn and help the transit project, and without scorn for his home. Sora, his task as world savior seemingly done, has reverted to being a slightly lazy, fun-loving teen. He’s the most comfortable and at-home in the peace he’s won, and the most content with a simple life on the islands. Kairi could, as in KH I, set the boys to tasks and sass them a little, but per her KH II development, she would be more active and hands-on in what the group does, and probably be the most eager of the three for a new adventure of some kind. She also has some renewed curiosity about Radiant Garden. The attraction between her and Sora would be more blatant than ever, with bashfulness being the only reason it hasn’t amounted to dating yet. This would give each character a different “dream” to pursue - Riku, a worthy cause to serve; Sora, a peaceful life at home; and Kairi, a chance of adventure and answers.

When the sun sets, and the trio head back home for the night, action would cut over to Disney Castle, a world expanded to include Disney Town (populated by Horace, Clarabelle, various DuckTales and Goof Troop characters, and so on.) Mickey is finally seen in in his royal regalia, as he and Minnie receive Aerith as an ambassador from Radiant Garden. They discuss the year-long peace, how the transit system is working out, and the near-total disappearance of Heartless. But Mickey is concerned that there’s been no sign of Maleficent or Pete, despite all efforts to track them down, and he and Aerith both remark on some strange dreams they’ve been having. Word also comes, via frontier scout Max, that trouble is brewing on the outskirts of the kingdom.

This would lead us to another Dive to the Heart, exploring more advanced mechanics. Kairi faces more Dream Eaters, and follows them to another stained glass - let’s say an updated version of Belle’s. She observes that the Dream Eaters don’t consume or destroy the glass, but distort its image from peaceful sleep to bizarre surrealism. Sora and Riku appear by Kairi’s side, and the three of them face the first real boss of the game - one of the suits of armor, which seems very interested in the Kingdom Key. After defeating the boss in combat, a cutscene is triggered showing the armor making it past Riku and Kairi to target Sora and his key, but a light that fills the screen, and segues to Sora waking up.

Setting up story: The next day - coincidentally, the last day of school - we join the trio mid-conversation as they leave for their summer vacation. The shared dream they had has them slightly on edge - Sora more than anyone else - but as their friends call out for them to join in the end-of-term fun, it’s pushed from their minds. This sets up further exploration of the mainland, with new areas previously locked off now open. New areas mean new cameo opportunities; perhaps Sazh and son from FF XIII are townsfolk, or Balthier the sky pirate pops up on the streets. In any event, a mandatory minigame in this section of gameplay would be a second test by Snow, exclusive to Riku. This would take him out of the party; as he completes that task, Sora and Kairi go elsewhere, and the player jumps over to them for more exploration once the test is completed. Minigame possibilities with them could include an island dance rhythm game with cute, awkward interactions. They’d also encounter a merchant selling armor - the armor from their dreams, leaving them both with an uncomfortable premonition.

They would want to discuss this with Riku when they meet up with him on the island that evening, but before they can, Riku shares a bit of news with them: now that school is done for him, he’s decided to join SeeD. Once again, the foreboding from their dreams is forgotten as Sora and Kairi congratulate their friend. It’s clear, though, that they’re sad at the idea that Riku is leaving them. Picking up on this, Riku suggests they use their summer on a trip around the known worlds, visiting old friends and making new ones, with Radiant Garden as both their starting and ending point so that Riku can register on their way back. Sora and Kairi enthusiastically agree. When the time comes to head home, Kairi leaves a little bit ahead of the boys, and Sora slips off somewhere. Riku finds him picking paopu fruits. Sora explains that he wants to finally share one with Kairi on the trip, when the time is right.

Cut to Radiant Garden, where Merlin and Cid are in the library, going over records and arguing with each other. As they snipe, they find something in the records that astonishes them.

The next day, Sora, Kairi, and Riku leave their home, courtesy of a merchant ship (perhaps piloted by Launchpad; so far as interaction/involvement in the game, his role would essentially be the same as Chip and Dale from KH I and II.) Upon landing in Radiant Garden, they’re greeted by Yuffie and Tifa. Perhaps they also meet a SeeD captain - FF XIII’s Lightning, who Riku will be reporting to once he enlists. As they catch up, Merlin and Sid appear with the news they learned the previous night: Kairi is a princess of Radiant Garden as well as a Princess of Heart. It turns out that Radiant Garden was an elective monarchy, choosing sage kings from various families; Ansem the Wise was just the last one elected before the world fell. Kairi is the only surviving member of those families, and thus the only candidate to stand for the throne. When that offer is extended, Kairi asks for time to consider it - this isn’t the sort of adventure she had in mind, but it’s certainly a chance to reconnect with her old home. The fact that she’s considering it at all visibly upsets Sora, though he doesn’t say anything.

As that awkwardness gets underway, we cut back to Disney Castle, in the midst of a siege. Dream Eaters are attacking. As they defeat the Fantasia brooms and the various Disney knights, it becomes clear that the castle will fall. One reason for this - the only weapon that has any effect on the Dream Eaters is the Keyblade. Mickey orders Donald and Goofy to take the Gummi ship and go for help. He hurries them along, and the ship gets away just before the Dream Eaters reach Mickey. A shot would emphasize the Kingdom Key D being thrown from his grip. Another shot would show all the mouse iconography vanishing from Disney Castle, and the entire world distorts into a more surreal, desaturated cartoony landscape, with the face and silhouette seen everywhere being that of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He is first seen strolling up to the throne, a rather awkward and nervous figure whose crown and cape are too big for him. Flanking him are rows of Dream Eaters.

Naturally, the Gummi ship crashes down in Radiant Garden. Donald and Goofy stumble out and report the fall of Disney Castle. This is an even more serious issue than it looks, because Disney Castle was the center of the transit system. The Dream Eaters can now use those lanes to quickly swarm through all the connected worlds. With Merlin’s magic, our heroes get a look at this in-progress, and observe several worlds disappearing. As three Keyblade wielders, Sora, Kairi, and Riku all promise to stop the Dream Eaters. They take off in the ship they came in on, and Radiant Garden shuts down its transit lanes. Donald and Goofy are left behind this time - at least at first.

Meat of the game: The basic premise is clear now: save the Disney worlds from the Dream Eaters. The Dream Eaters are explained as beings residing in that realm between light and dark, sleeping and waking, life and death - the Dream Realm (this is the reason the Cornerstone of Light couldn’t repel them - they aren’t beings of Darkness). Despite their name, they aren’t naturally predatory and destructive a la the Heartless, and they aren’t conscious agents a la Nobodies. Like the Keyblade, they choose to align with strong hearts, and obey those masters they choose - in this case, the armored figures (who cannot be near the Cornerstone of Light). Defeating Dream Eaters releases no heart or anything comparable; it just destroys them.

The quest through Disney worlds might retain KH II’s episodic quality. Disney characters in any given world would automatically join your party without displacing someone else, though none would be playable. Some of the Disney worlds would have straightforward and story-driven adventures; for example, one of the worlds might be the Dwarf Woodlands, where Snow White has been hiding with the dwarves for years, and the Wicked Queen has entered into a pact with the armored figures to find her in exchange for help in fighting Sora and friends. Enchanted Dominion and Castle of Dreams could fall under this category as well, presumably with post-movie original stories, and Tangled could come in for a loose adaptation as well even if Princess and the Frog is better.

Other worlds might be more lighthearted - “filler,” if you like - for example, Genie turning up to insist that everyone attend the party in Agrabah for Aladdin and Jasmine’s wedding in a loose adaptation of the King of Thieves. And, thanks to the transit system and its implications for the lore, we’d have what we might call shared worlds. As an example: let’s suppose there’s a world named the High Seas on the map. When the trio first arrive, they find themselves on the Black Pearl, roped into helping Captain Jack escape the Flying Dutchman. But it turns out that the waters they’re sailing on are those directly above Atlantica. When you eventually encounter Little Mermaid characters, Triton can once again drop some exposition by confirming that the armored figures are the Keybearers that “shatter peace and bring ruin” in the legends he knows: the Knights of the Key. The boss for this world could be something like a ship-to-ship battle, with an environmental element in the form of Triton summoning storms to aid the player. And, of course, Ariel would become a Summon (though, like with KH II, the lore behind Summons established in KH I wouldn’t be valid here. Perhaps Summons could be a literal summoning of a friend whose heart is connected to Sora’s, Kairi’s, or Riku’s, or at least their spirit and abilities via the magic of the Keyblade. This might let Donald and Goofy remain part of combat too - they could be the first Summons acquired, coming to your side in spirit/heart even as their bodies remain on Radiant Garden.)

Another way to have a shared world would be to take advantage of the settings of certain Disney movies. A world named London could have the riverbank garden from Alice in Wonderland, the Darling house from Peter Pan, Cherry Tree Lane from Mary Poppins, and Roger’s flat from 101 Dalmatians. Or vehicles, like Casey Junior from Dumbo, could appear in the Gummi levels alongside Final Fantasy mech. But whether shared or solo, boss battles on the Disney worlds would be the usual variety platter of Disney villains, special Dream Eaters, and Knights. The Knights prove themselves to be silent figures who, upon being defeated, release both a heart and a white, wispy ghost-like shape. Even as they target the worlds in the transit system via the Dream Eaters, they repeatedly demonstrate clear interest in the Kingdom Key, and sometimes directly target Sora to get it - chasing him, if you will. Like a group of Chasers. (Oh, like the series as-is gave that term any definition at all!) At least one reason for this becomes obvious: while all three of our heroes’ Keyblades will slay Dream Eaters, only the Kingdom Key can sever a world from the transit system and lock it off from encroachment.

It can only do that when the heroes succeed, of course. New to this series is the possibility of a world’s story ending with the heroes failing to save it. When a world falls to the Dream Eaters, it is taken into the Dream Realm, where it is twisted and distorted into a surreal, and sometimes nightmarish incarnation of itself. Places like Wonderland and Neverland - which now can be thought of as pockets of the Dream Realm within London - overrun the world in that case (in that specific instance, since they’re tied to the same London, perhaps they blend together) while a place like the Dwarf Woodlands could come to resemble Snow White’s frightened daydreams from the film. This was the fate that befell Disney Castle, but it is unique among the conquered worlds in that it returned to the Realm of Light after being transformed.

In this section of the game, each of the three heroes would develop, with each of them getting at least a section of a world where they are the required playable character. Riku strives to carry himself as a disciplined, responsive, and military figure, quick to recognize whoever needs help and to provide it; he has an imperfect but broadly successful track record throughout the game. This shows him capable of fulfilling his “dream.” Kairi, the least seasoned traveler, is the most awed, excited, and/or frightened by what’s going on in a given world, and gains an idea of the responsibilities, and the pros and cons, of being royalty. She’s in the middle of experiencing her “dream.” Sora has the easiest time making friends with new and established Disney characters, and is the most consistently (if impulsively) altruistic. But the world-weariness that Sora showed in KH II, and the flashes of doubt he had in KH I and CoM, are more apparent here; for how giving and selfless Sora is, he feels that he and his friends have done their time as world saviors, and that the peace they had won after KH II should have been able to last; in other words, he’s losing his “dream.” He’s also confused and upset at the idea that Kairi might choose to leave Destiny Islands, and struggles to talk to her, something that in turn upsets Kairi. She and Sora both independently talk to Riku about their feelings; he helps them as well as he can, but ultimately, this is a bridge those two will have to mend themselves.

Occasionally, action cuts back there to get a look at Oswald. He’s very quickly shown to be a clumsy and rather innocent “villain” descended from a long-lost line of royalty that ruled over the Disney Castle world before Mickey’s ancestors first appeared. He’s nursed a long-held grudge against Micky for this, but reclaiming the throne doesn’t bring him any joy. It also becomes clear that this new “ruler” is being led and bullied by his vizier - Pete, who moves in with a small battalion of Knights after the Cornerstone of Light is removed.

At the halfway point of the game, a given world falls to the Dream Eaters - in part, because Sora reaches his breaking point with everything going on and fails to do his duty. Being on the world when it falls, the heroes are pulled into the Dream Realm with it, and when they wake up, they’re separated, and the player moves back and forth between their respective journeys through the Dream Realm map, which contains worlds that had fallen and some new worlds unique to it (worlds modeled after Fantasia segments come to mind.) Riku might find himself alongside King Mickey on one world, Mickey having made it off Disney Castle before it was brought back to the Realm of Light and now without his Keyblade. Kairi would meet Queen Minnie for the first time on another world, and realize (if gameplay hasn’t confirmed it by this point) that all the other Princesses of Heart are somewhere in the Dream Realm as well by now. Sora finds himself in the Keyblade Graveyard. At a comparable point in the story in KH I, Sora had the Keyblade forcibly taken from him; in CoM, his memories had been rewritten enough to break him; in KH II, he was subjugating himself before the Organization to try and get to Kairi. In this game, Sora would be suffering guilt for his actions and doubt over his worthiness to wield the Keyblade, despite the Kingdom Key still being in his possession.

(The separation would necessitate each character having a way to travel through the worlds. Let’s suppose one of them is still with Launchpad, another gets a hold of the Jolly Roger after Tinkerbell coats it in fairy dust, and the other gets a hold of a spaceship from Lilo & Stitch. Or maybe there’s some FF mech lying around. Anything that works.)

(This separation, and the trek through the Dream Realm, could also offer an opening for some optional content: the conclusion of Cloud and Sephiroth’s story, with both of them having ended up in the Dream Realm after KH II. Their connection could even be implied to be a result of Xehanort’s experiments, tying him into the proceedings and fulfilling the “Memories of Xehanort” promise from the secret ending without ever bringing him back. None of this content would be mandatory, and the Xehanort connection wouldn’t even have to be explicit, but if the player were to find and complete this material, then it would end with Cloud free from Sephiroth.)

The reveal: While separated in the Dream Realm, the trio each come to learn (with cross cutting to avoid repetition) where the Knights and the Dream Eaters came from, and why the Knights seek the Kingdom Keys. Long ago, in the age of fairy tales, there was only one world, only one realm (of light), and only one Keyblade - the Kingdom Key, which bestowed itself on a chosen wielder to safeguard Kingdom Hearts - the true Kingdom Hearts, source of the light and the final destination of all hearts. In time, some people began to follow the chosen wielder, and became the first Knights of the Key. They made Keyblades in the image of the Kingdom Key, powerful magical weapons born of a strong heart that were surpassed by the Kingdom Key only in its unlimited ability to lock and unlock the Keyholes of worlds, and Kingdom Hearts itself. But some of the Knights began to covet the Kingdom Key themselves, while others wanted to harness the power of Kingdom Hearts, or enter into it. A great Keyblade War broke out, and corrupted Knights became the first Heartless, birthing the Realm of Darkness. By the end of the war, the last chosen one of the Kingdom Key gathered eight true followers, seven of whom expunged the darkness from their hearts. This darkness was joined with some of the Kingdom Key’s power, forming the Kingdom Key D and creating a two-key system as a safeguard for Kingdom Hearts. The seven pure lights could now open the Door to Darkness. Once it was opened, the Kingdom Key passed on to the eighth follower, and the former chosen one took the Kingdom King D into the Realm of Darkness. Together, they all sent Kingdom Hearts into the darkness, out of anyone’s reach, and sealed the door.

The war shattered the world and the light. All that was left of the original world was the Keyblade Graveyard. Those survivors with the strongest hearts - all of them children, none of them Knights - consciously rebuilt the Realm of Light in fragments, and unconsciously created the Dream Realm and Dream Eaters with their dreams and nightmares (the reason why Keyblades work against Dream Eaters is implied to be that, like the Dream Eaters, they are weapons borne of the dreams of the heart.) The seven pure lights continually reincarnated throughout time as the worlds went on. The Knights of the Key still existed, greatly reduced in numbers, still fighting amongst themselves. They fought to harness the darkness that they had brought into the world, or to find the Kingdom Key, which no longer appeared to a chosen one. Their continued fighting ruined many worlds, and opened paths for the Heartless to traverse. There came a point where three Keyblade wielders - Terra, Aqua, and Ven - set out for the Keyblade Graveyard to try and find the Kingdom Key and its counterpart, hoping they could undo the damage the Keyblade War had wrought by restoring Kingdom Hearts. Theirs was a “dream” of restored peace and light.

They found the two blades, and it looked as though they were chosen. But to restore Kingdom Hearts and end the Keyblade War for good, the three friends would need to find the seven pure lights, one of their trio would have to pass into the Realm of Darkness to be on the other side of the door, and another would have to go inside Kingdom Hearts itself to make their desires known. Faced with the possible end of their lives and friendships, the three hesitated, and other Knights began to appear, drawn to the Kingdom Key. Fighting resumed in the Graveyard. The three friends were pulled into the fray, unable to risk sacrificing everything for the greater good and fulfilling their “dream.” But they did use magic to pull the Graveyard, and everyone in it, into the Dream Realm. The Kingdom Keys vanished once again. Cut off from light and darkness, suspended in dreams, the Knights gradually lost their names and voices and bodies; only their hearts and souls lingered inside their armor, keeping the desire for the Kingdom Key and control of Kingdom Hearts alive. The strength of that desire let them bend the Dream Eaters to their will, but they remained in the Keyblade Graveyard, wandering through it in search of the Kingdom Keys.

It was in this state that Maleficent found them. After the destruction of The World That Never Was, she and Pete found themselves in the Dream Realm, and eventually made their way to the Keyblade Graveyard. Though the Knights were mute, Maleficent was able to discern enough to know that they were restless spirits in search of the Kingdom Key, and was eventually able to bind them to her own cause. By her will, the Knights were stirred to leave the Graveyard; by her magic, they were able to return to the Realm of Light through the dreams of Oswald, who was quickly manipulated into serving them. After the Knights overrun all the worlds and take them into the Dream Realm, Maleficent "dreams” of finally ruling over them all, from her newly acquired Disney Castle - once the Cornerstone of Light is removed, and cast into the Realm of Darkness, she moves in and deposes Oswald.

(Some of this information would be revealed piecemeal throughout the game via Secret Reports; rather than written logs, these could be brief cutscenes, flashes of memory from Knights encountered on the journey. Some of it would come out of dialogue with characters like Triton. The majority of it would be revealed after the trio are lost in the Dream Realm, in as elegant a fashion as possible.)

Turning point: Only Sora learns the story of the Knights in full. Riku learns about the Knights’ hunger for the Keyblade and their ties to Maleficent, and Kairi learns about the Keyblade War and the failed mission of Terra, Aqua, and Ven. With their incomplete knowledge, Riku and Kairi get separate ideas of what to do. Riku and Mickey find their way back to the Realm of Light, to Radiant Garden, where they explain what they know. Riku proposes taking the fight back to Disney Castle to win it, and the transit system, back. Squall agrees, and this could potentially open up a way to integrate Gummi ship levels more into story, with ship-to-ship battles around Disney Castle and another gauntlet with the FF characters, this time as Riku. Kairi, on the other hand, gets the idea to try and pull the Knights back into the Dream Realm and find a way to put them at peace. Believing that the Princesses of Heart may be able to do this, she sets out to find the rest of them. On her search, her Keyblade vanishes, and is replaced with none other than the Kingdom Key D, evidently by the will of the Keyblade itself.

Sora, with the full picture, continues to wander the Graveyard, at a loss for what to do. He comes upon a Knight, implied to be the remains of Ven. He wants the Kingdom Key, and Sora recovers enough resolve to stand in his way. At the same time, Riku’s gauntlet leads him to the throne room of Disney Castle, where Maleficent is waiting with a Knight implied to be the remains of Terra, though she disappears immediately; and Kairi, having found all the princesses, encounters a Knight implied to be the remains of Aqua. This triggers a multi-stage boss battle, jumping around among these three conflicts. At the end of one stage, Sora would get Oathkeeper and Oblivion to renew his strength, while Mickey becomes a party member for Riku and Minnie one for Kairi. At the end of another stage, Maleficent could appear in the Dream Realm to join Aqua in facing down Kairi, Minnie, and the princesses, who could (at the very least) be a sideline source of additional power. At the end of yet another stage, the Knights each strike decisive blows, and action moves to the Dive to the Heart, where Sora, Kairi, and Riku form a party against the three Knights. They just manage to defeat them. A cutscene would show the Knights’ hearts and souls being released, and lingering just long enough that their true faces beneath the armor could be seen, smiling and at peace.

Our trio quickly make up and get to the business at-hand. Sora, repentant from his past mistakes, now wants to carry out Terra, Aqua, and Ven’s original plan in full. When they return from the Dive, Kairi is to get Maleficent to cast her and the other princesses into the Realm of Darkness, where they’ll form the Door to Darkness. Riku is to return to the Realm of Light, finish reclaiming Disney Castle, and distract Maleficent and the Knights. Sora will follow his heart to the other side of the Door, and work with Kairi to bring Kingdom Hearts, not into light, but into the Dream Realm, where he’ll step into it and try and find a way to put the Knights to rest and restore the worlds. Riku and Kairi object initially; they have no idea if their group can do any better than the old one, and even if they find Kingdom Hearts and Sora enters into it, there’s no telling what will happen to him. But Sora is determined to do this for the greater good, and the others see no other way to put a permanent end to the danger from the Knights. With great reluctance, they agree.

Riku leaves the Dive first, and Sora and Kairi have a chance to have a heart-to-heart (no pun intended.) They finally affirm their love for each other explicitly, and Sora declares that he supports whatever decision Kairi makes about the Radiant Garden throne - he just wants to be with her. It’s the thing he most values from his “dream.” Kairi feels the same way, and before they leave the Dive, they finally share that paopu fruit.

The initial stages of the plan, at least, go well. Kairi successfully goads Maleficent into opening a portal of darkness that she and the other princesses take (Minnie presumably gets away at some point), while Riku, Mickey, and the Radiant Garden crew draw her attention. (Mickey would also find Oswald, forgive him, and bring him into the Disney fold. Oswald might even be instrumental in bringing Pete into permanent custody.) This could culminate in the answer to the 1000 Heartless battle in KH II: Riku facing a swarm of Knights, Dream Eaters, and Maleficent’s goblins. Sora, searching the worlds for the Door, would unconsciously summon Donald and Goofy, and have their spirits in his party until he finds it. But once the Door is formed, something alerts Maleficent to the act, and she becomes the final boss of the game, with multiple stages that see Donald and Goofy’s summons being blasted away, only to be replaced by Riku’s and Kairi’s. Maleficent would summon goblins, Dream Eaters, and Knights to her side, become a dragon, and if we imagine a post-Eisner, early-stage Iger regime at Disney could be persuaded to loosen the shackles a bit, she could even end up merging with the souls of slain Knights to become a mish-mash of Disney dragon and Square monster before finally going down.

With Maleficent slain, Sora and Kairi pull Kingdom Hearts out from darkness and into the Dream Realm. The trio have what may be their final goodbyes; unsaid would be the fact that they’re all prepared to sacrifice their own “dreams” for the greater good. Sora disappears into Kingdom Hearts. The screen fills with light. Slowly, the worlds are all restored, the Dream Eaters and Knights vanish, and new, solid lanes of land begin to connect the worlds on the map. It isn’t quite the one world bathed in light, but it’s a step in that direction. Kingdom Hearts remains in the Dream Realm, the implication being that, as it’s very much the stuff that dreams are made of, it’s ultimately safer there than in light or darkness.

Doors to Light let the princesses return to their worlds, and Kairi to Radiant Garden. She finds Riku being formally inducted into SeeD, fulfilling his “dream.” The offer for Kairi to take the throne is extended again; she’s more than shown herself worthy of being a sage queen. But Kairi refuses. She’s had a fair share of her “dream;” she’s had an adventure and learned something about her past, and herself. But there’s someone out there who sacrificed his “dream,” that included her, for everyone else, and now her “dreams” have shifted. She’ll be going home to Destiny Islands, waiting for them to come true. Cue the ending song.

Credits sequences: Those Disney worlds that loosely held to their films could show their conclusions; those worlds that went with original storylines could show some additional new footage. A check-in at Disney Castle would show the Cornerstone of Light being restored, and Oswald finding a place in court. A check-in at Radiant Garden would show Riku training, the others living, and Cloud returning. And the closer would be Kairi waiting by the tree on Destiny Islands.

Post-game material: If you manage a certain percent completion, you get a secret ending: Sora turning up on Destiny Islands by Kairi’s side. If you manage 100% completion, you get a secret level: a vacation to Disney Town for Sora, Kairi, and Riku! What, you thought I suggested expanding the size of Disney Castle just for fun earlier? Nah! It’s so you can have a super-special super-secret sandbox of fun, with a bunch of activities and minigames themed after different Disneyland rides!

[ruffylorpship]

Introduction: Unfortunate Partners in Life

Right, I made the introduction chapter for this AU I created called Mindshare and I haven’t written anything in so long! I’ll definitely be expanding on this but for now, everything will be its own story with a slice of their life over the years.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21007967

I hope this can grow into something bigger once I get everything down. Gah I wish I had more time ;.; Hope you guys enjoy it! For people who don’t want to go to AO3 I’ll post the introduction under the cut~

Awareness seeped into his brain. He had finally awakened.

Systems were running as they were supposed to. All knowledge pertaining to the Armada’s history and the current objective was loaded. The file given designated him as a science drone to assist in building technology for the upcoming invasion titled Impending Doom. Red errors popped up in his mind’s eye, but he cast them aside, knowing that starting up always smooths out later. He identified himself as the Irken Zim, ready to serve the Empire and the Almighty Tallest. Zim wanted to make sure he was fully functional and ready for duty, so he took his time to run a diagnostic on his pak. Surely his leaders would want him at full-functioning capacity, and he would not let them down during his first moments of existing.

More warnings were popping up, irritating Zim and causing him to dismiss them all in a rush. He had to hurry and open his optics. The world would not wait for him forever to complete his own internal mission and join the rest in glory.

Muffled voices broke through the fog before the world was abruptly ripped away from him. He screamed to himself in the darkness of his brain, not understanding what had gone wrong. Any attempt to send a distress signal from the pak commands were unresponsive, causing his mind to retreat further into the machinery. For a short while, he could feel the cool metal floor of his smeetery chamber and hear the voices of those that would prepare him for the future. For a little bit, Zim had felt complete. Now, in this prison that housed his consciousness, he didn’t know what to do.

XXX

Maybe the armada was testing him? That could have been the answer. The mighty Zim wasn’t going to be decommissioned before proving his own worth! He would wait patiently for them to replug him back into his body and show his Tallest how functional he was. There were a few alerts about intense environmental conditions from the outside, but that was nothing to worry about. The pak was the finest technology in all of Irk. Zim would be safe unt-

XXX

Screaming. A horrible pitiful wail tore through the air. Something was terribly wrong. Only one optic nerve seemed to be working. He breathed in a gasp and paused, realizing something else wasn’t making sense. He was taking in air despite irkens not having to truly breathe. The only conclusion he could come up with was that his pak had latched onto the closest object to reawaken itself, which in this case was another life form. His pak must have gotten lost in space and landed on a distant planet.

Usually, this would be a downgrade from his superior self, but Zim saw this as a perfect opportunity to get back to his body using this borrowed vessel. If he was attached to something that was not his own irken flesh, the creature he was stuck to would eventually die off and give him complete control. Strangely, the repair protocols were being activated, feeding themselves into the life-form and repairing strange damage that couldn’t be properly identified. The energy needed being too great caused Zim to fall back into a dormant state.

XXX

Eyes blinked open, but everything seemed to be slightly blurred. Against the odds, the creature he was attached to was still alive if not a little broken. It seemed to have it’s own mind intact as well. Impressive for a less superior species. Zim could feel the weight of its presence clinging to him like a filthy growth. The mind was not inside his pak, for only one could be encoded to the machine and was binding for life. With no defenses inhabiting the organic squishy brain of the other organic Zim took a chance and pushed through to take control once more, also hoping the other mind would disappear forever. The brightness swam through eyes not his own. A giant stinky monster in some sort of clothing hovered over him, as tall as the Almighty Tallest and draped in white cloth. His eyes were covered by protective gear and his giant gloved hands reached down to pick Zim up, making him realize the host he was attached to was extremely small.

‘Warm...’ Zim thought in awe as he was able to feel for the first time since he had been plugged in. An echo of the same thought came back.

“Why hello there son! My my, you gave the boys and I such a big scare. Turns out that the device is keeping you nice and stable. No more termination for you today.”

‘Termination? Death? How dare this creature try and dispose of me! It will suffer the wrath of Zim!’

With as much power as he could Zim waved his clawless hand in front of the giant face and hissed menacingly. His strength tired out quickly however and he seemed to be pushed back into the background once again, aware that the vessel he housed had started crying again.

“Uhh sir? Why was your child hissing?”

“Oh, it’s probably nothing. He just recovered from a traumatic experience of near-death after all. There there little Dib, no more crying for tonight.” The creature cooed while attempting to rock the crying alien smeet.

‘Shut your whining you worm creature, your yelling is worse than the sqorchmurfs of planet Brakiclax!’

It cried harder as if to defy him. Oh, the creature would pay dearly when he gets control back. He could feel the pain and confusion seeping through the mental connection, creating a small barrage of half baked thoughts that could barely count as actual words or images.

It was literally a primitive smeet without knowledge or understanding. The blankest slate in the universe. Just great… The pain of the creature's emotions was getting progressively worse, causing Zim to try and console the little creature in hopes of getting it to finally quiet.

‘Um... there there little Dib-thing? Shut up so the big monster will put us down!’

Funny enough, the creature now tagged in his database as 'The Dib' stopped its crying and changed his tone to a soft whimper. After he was hooked back up to the medical equipment for monitoring and the giant creatures left, Zim made sure his host was unconscious again before extending a wire from his pak to plug into the mainframe. He had some learning to do.

XXX

Zim tried piloting the tiny legs towards the machine, already imagining many ways to blow up the miserable planet. He discovered the rock was called Earth. It’s natives called ‘humans’ dominated the land with their stink and filth. He figured his pak must have accidentally been misplaced and jettisoned into space, eventually making his way to the far uncharted planet. Even though the earth was not marked for conquering in his database he decided he would take it over and present it as an offering to his Tallest. Even though he was supposed to be a science drone hopefully doing this for his leaders would give him a promotion of joining the Invaders in conquest.

He had overheard with his overly large borrowed ears that the latest machinery the parental unit had created could potentially plunge the world into darkness. Taking over the power would surely ensure that control would be handed to Zim! This would be easier if he waited for the body he was borrowing to grow out of smeethood but there was no time to lose.

The door was big, but nothing his pak legs couldn’t fix. Making sure to not make a sound he crept into the room and prepared to take out the scientists that were hard at work in the lab. Before he could reactivate his legs to engage in attack mode the smeet woke up and started fighting his mind. Not expecting much resistance, Zim prepared his attack again only to have his body sit back down on the cold floor and cross his arms in protest.

‘Give me back control you useless stinky smeet!’

‘No!’

An unexpected reply making him pause in his efforts. The thing had barely been cognitive for weeks. The only exposer it had to the outside world was through the giant humans and through himself… wait…

‘Have you been leaching from me? You’ve been looking at the same resources I have and gathering intel from the mighty ZIM!?’

‘No…’

Well it certainly had a one-track mind, expected of a primitive life form, but ultimately a hindrance.

‘Give me back control and shut down into a sleep cycle for the night you waste of space!’

‘No no no no no no bad no!’

The ultimate temper tantrum resulted in the body rolling along the floor like a sad fleshy ball, which is how the scientists found the smeet later in the night. The pitiful worm-baby had won this round for now.

XXX

“No school! Please no school! Noooo!”

Dib cried as he pulled harder from his father’s gloved grip. He had to pretend to be as smart as a normal kid so his dad wouldn’t try and force him into science bonding time. Dib prefered the quiet life of searching the internet for new things to learn. He didn’t need to be near other people so they could make fun of his life support and his silly hair. Sadly his dad didn’t really seem to agree with him sitting in his room all day.

“Now now Dib, you need room to grow and evolve. While your sister is sleeping I need you to unpack the books I got you so you can learn responsibility. I swear the only words you like to say since you’ve started talking are ‘no’ and ‘alien’ and both words are ridiculous in this household. Now hurry up, I have a science demonstration to attend to.”

With that his dad let go of his arm and hurried downstairs, leaving Dib to sulk on his bed. At five years old Dib Membrane had learned a lot about the world. Some of his teachings were through his father when he wasn’t busy. The internet was full of information, especially about strange and unexplained mysteries of the world that science had no real answers for. The last source was a bit more… unreliable and tended to be bad most of the time.

‘Your parental unit is so bossy…’ His inner voice grumbled as Dib started packing up the books into his arm bag. The life support made it impossible to use a normal backpack.

“You mean Dad?"

‘Yes! That’s what I said filthy worm-child!’

Dib rolled his eyes at the comment, noticing at the top left his glasses had a smudge. Another reason he didn’t want to go to school. The internet said people tended to have eye problems later in their life, while he had the luck to need them very early.

“You use big words a lot. Why are you so smart when I’m not?”

‘Ehh…That’s because… I was created with knowledge already programmed. Despite your fast learning capabilities, humans are born with blank slates and squishy matter that need stuff like time and repetition.’

That caused Dib to pause and scratch his head in confusion from the big words being thrown around, making a note to research them later on the internet. He already had a book filled with words the voice tended to throw around, making him want to understand.

“Aren’t you human?”

‘Yes yes! I am definitely a fully functioning monkey-child! I mean I am you but more superior with my technological upgrades… LEAVE ME ALONE!’

The volume inside his head caused him to wince, even though he knew it wasn’t real. It was strange. People don’t usually develop voices in their heads. Maybe the voice was part of his imagination, like an imaginary friend that also worked as a duel personality. He was smarter than most people his age, he knew that fact because his dad’s lab assistants always told him, but he was also a bit strange.

He stopped at the door, with his bag safely hanging from his right arm, hands pressed together in nervousness.

“I’m scared everyone is going to make fun of me. I’m too different. Why can’t I stay home? I learn enough on my own.”

He really didn’t expect the voice to reply back, but surprisingly it did with a bit of hesitation in its voice.

‘Despite how much I’d rather stay within the close confines of accessible technology, I agree with your parental unit when he says you need to grow and evolve. With height comes power, and with knowledge comes privilege to achieve what you must do. Don’t let those smelly man creatures be the boss of you. Beside’s, gathering intel from this wasteland of a planet will be beneficial for upcoming invas- I mean challenges.’

“You’re using too many big words again, but I feel a bit better. I want to find a real monster someday, and I need to learn about the world to get there. I know that much, I think? So…thanks voice. Or uhh… imaginary friend? I don’t really know what to call you. Maybe I should name you?”

‘I am no pet smeetling! You may address me as the Almighty Superior Leader Ruler Overlord and Master Zim!’

With one last roll of his eyes, Dib pushed the door open and made his way downstairs to meet his fate.

“Right, thanks Zim.”

[marvelmadam08]

The Captain & The Culprit (20)

After escaping from a Hydra lab you’ve been running and hiding since. Afraid of your abilities and your forgotten past, you keep away from people until The Avengers come and find you.

Summary: With your memory completely back, you and the Avengers go after Schmidt. And a long awaited question gets answered.

Warnings: Violence and choking (not the sexy kind)

A/N: Quickly running off to hide before telling y’all this is the second to last chapter. Enjoy!

Steve is right beside you as the two of you chase down Schmidt. He made is way to the roof, where Bucky, Natasha and Clint (formerly known as Katniss) were taking down the last of the Hydra agents, Steve goes to help them out. Tony and Thor were doing their best to get Hulk under control, but your main focus was keeping Schmidt from getting off the roof.

"Here!" Schmidt shouts at a descending helicopter, a rope ladder dropped out the side.

Your hands are quick, shooting whips of blue smoke into the helicopter, shutting it down and causing them to drop from the sky. Red mist catches them before the crash to the street.

"That was a very bad move 813." Schmidt sneers

You take off running for Schmidt, he does the same towards you. His fist flies towards your face, you drop and slide between his legs, swiping his feet from under him. But he's quickly up again, grabbing a hold of your legs and pulling you towards him, trying to pin you down.

"I habe dich gemacht 813!” (I made you 813!) He grasps your throat "Ich werde dich brechen.” (I will break you.)

You press your hands to his face, jolts of electric energy singed his skin, he releases you clutching his face, you rise to your feet again. Hulk lands on the roof in front of you, this time you don't cower away.

'(Y/N) you gotta move.' you hear Tony tell you in your ear, yet you make no effort to get out the way.

Hulk swing a fist in your direction, you catch it pushing back against him. Tony, armed in the Hulkbuster, kicks him square in the chest, knocking him down.

"He's gonna feel that later." Tony looks down at you "Why didn't you move?"

You hear Steve whistle to gain your attention. "Gehe Schmidt nach." He orders you

You scan the roof for Schmidt again, and see him limping for one of Tony's helicopters. You take off running across the rooftop, eyes zeroed in on Schmidt. Striking forward, you catch him by the ankles dragging him back to you.

He turns over, his face badly burned and red.

"813, Ihr Vorgesetzter hat eine Bitte!” (813, your superior has a request!) He yells at you

You pull him up by the front of his shirt. "Du bist nicht mein Vorgesetzter.” (You are not my superior.) You say before punching him in the torso. Schmidt flies back into the quinjet, and against the console, starting it up.

"We're trying to keep him from getting away (Y/N)." Bucky shook your shoulder

"I got it." Tony grunts, tossing Hulk into the quinjet along with Schmidt just before it started to take off.

Schmidt screams and gets thrown out the back of the quinjet onto the hard concrete of the roof. Before you can continue to beat on him, Steve stood in front of you.

"Mission abgeschlossen 813.”(Mission complete, 813.) He says, his blue eyes searching for something in yours "(Y/N), you can stop now."

You blinked, a slight pressure in your head makes you groan.

"Oh my head hurts, my everything hurts." You slightly whine "My arms feel like jelly."

"Do you remember anything that just happened?" Steve asked

"I remember everything." You look over at Bucky "We should talk later."

He nods then jerks his head in Schmidt's direction.

"So what do we do with him?"

"Fury can handle him, he has a nice cell waiting for Dr. Schmidt in the middle of the ocean." Clint pulls out a pair of cuffs, walking over to a half dazed Schmidt.

Wanda, Vision and Sam flew up to the roof, taking in the scene around them.

"You're okay." Wanda wraps her arms around you, the sudden affection throws you off but you hug her back "We saw the jet take off and thought Schmidt took you."

"No, I'm fine. Hulk took off in the jet."

Over Wanda's shoulder you see Natasha standing on the helicopter landing, a tablet in her hand and talking until it shuts off on her, 'signal lost' blinked on the screen.

More S.H.I.E.L.D agents swarmed the roof, detaining the left over Hydra ops and piling them up on the arriving helicarriers.

You take in a breath of air, watching Schmidt being dragged off along with the other Hydra ops. Steve wraps an arm around your waist, and kissed the side of your head. For once you finally felt at peace with everything.

"So what do we do now?" You asked the others

*

*

You and Steve sat at the bar feeding each other cake. Bucky on the other side of you talking with Sam, who was fixing himself a drink. Wanda and Vision lounged on the leather couch, his head in her lap. Clint was sprawled out on the other end with his eyes closed, you doubt he was really asleep though. Tony and Natasha were working on tracking the quinjet from the tower, while Thor was out trying to follow the trail.

"I'm telling you there was a blue firework in the sky, and it came from the building." Sam told Bucky "It was like a ripple effect. How did you miss that?"

You and Steve share a knowing look.

"So on a scale of one to ten, how bad was this birthday party?" You ask Steve

"Surprisingly- a solid six." He feeds you another piece of cake

"Maybe we can aim for a seven next year."

"Why wait? I’m not busy tonight." he winks

Thor lands on the open patio, a defeated expression on his face when he entered the room.

"I had no luck in finding Banner, hopefully he will be able to find his way back home before the jet runs out of fuel." He sits the hammer down next to the couch and continued to walk over towards the bar "Lady (Y/N), I must say you fought with the strength of a mighty Asgardian warrior." Thor claps you on the back

"Thank you." You wince, Steve turns your stool around and starts to massage your aching shoulders

"I hope you have given some thought to what we discussed earlier." Thor makes his way behind the bar, cutting himself a slice of cake

"What were we talking about?"

"You coming to Asgard with me, to see your home realm. I leave in the morning."

"Oh right, that slightly tipsy discussion." You shook your head softly "I don't think I can."

"Why not?" Steve questioned turning you back around "I hope it's not for me."

"My life doesn't revolve around you, Rogers. I've just made a nice little life here, I don't want to run from it."

"You make it sound like if you went to Asgard you wouldn't come back." He pressed his forehead to yours "At least sleep on it. Deal?"

"Deal." You give him a soft kiss on the lips, wiping away a bit of frosting from his chin "You ever thought about growing a beard?"

Tony and Natasha entered the room, with hopeful eyes on Thor. He shook his head sadly, Natasha tried to hide the disappointed look on her face but failed.

"No luck from you guys either?" Clint spoke from the couch

"No, the jet is in stealth mode, completely untraceable." Natasha shook her head

"We'll find him." Steve assured her

"Hey Total Recall," Tony slid a file in front of you while he walked around the bar "Banner left that for you."

You look through the pages of your file, it was slightly thicker than when you first got there. You still didn't have a birthday to put on the chart but still, it felt nice to hold something that gave you further insight on who you were, even with your memory back.

"What's that?" Steve pulls out a sheet of paper "A blood test?"

"Oh yeah, we found something was wrong with my blood when we looked at it again." You return to eating cake "I almost thought I was sick, but he compared it Thor’s, said it was the exact same."

"The same?" Natasha looked over the paper in Steve's hand

"Yeah, but he then said it couldn't be the same, because that's extremely rare to have the same DNA build and same blood type."

"Did he say build or genetic coding?" Tony lifted an eyebrow

"Is there a difference?"

"Just a small- significant one." Tony took the paper next and chuckled softly as he read over it. "Well according to the test, which don't lie. You and Thor are- related."

Your eyes grew wide with shock and excitement, Thor's expression was more of a concerned shock than excited.

"I'm related to The God of Thunder? That's awesome. What like cousins?"

"No." Tony shook his head

"N-niece?" Steve's eyebrows pulled together, you catch a small bead of sweat appearing on his forehead

"Guess again." The smile on his face was clear as day

"Sister." Sam jumped in

"I do not have a sister." Thor scoffed

"You're getting closer though." Natasha sang

Thor's face went pale, Steve cursed under his breath and reached for the beer next to him, you were still a little lost but slowly making the connections through process of elimination.

"You're not seriously saying-" Bucky stared back and forth between you and Thor

"Oh I am." Tony patted Thor on the back "Congratulations Point Break, it's a girl."

“Well it would shed some light on why he thought he knew her, she must look like her mother.” Nat explained

“Thank god.” Clint chuckled to himself

"No." You shook your head, staring back at Thor who looked at you with the same blank face "How is that even possible? Wouldn’t he remember having a kid?"

"Well, when a Thor and a woman get really drunk-" 

"This is serious Stark." Steve scolded him

"Well yeah, I'm sure it is. You're dating his daughter." Tony failed at hiding his amusement

"Not to mention they've been frequently intimate as of lately." Vision pointed out "Most recently upstairs during the fireworks display tonight."

Lightning crashed from outside and the lights in the room flickered and the everyone fell silent.

"I assumed you all knew." Vision continued "The blue fireworks tonight we're a result Miss (Y/N)'s-"

Thor jumped over the bar lunging at Steve, tackling him down to the floor. Everyone jumped to Steve's defense, trying to pull Thor away from him.

"You laid with my daughter!"

"I didn't know!" Steve struggled to speak against Thor’s grip on his neck.

Taglist: @pocmarvelworks @teamcap4bucky @classybai @crookedlyscreechingcycle @floralandspice @moisoverennyi-thestarlessone @captainsthor @jamesfrickingbuchananbarnes @geekysimmerthings @theonelittleone @marvelfansworld @lucky-notes @thecauldroncake @emmaschhh @bi-bi-bi-bisexualz @bruisedfaye @ineedhelpmovingtobostonmatoteach @grey-junior @codename-buckybarnes @dontchawishyouknewhowtosalsa @mackyk06 @jovialcalzonepaperzine @marvelousbuckystark @sebbystanlover-vk

[hollenka99]

The Friend

Summary: When Sean is six, he creates an imaginary friend. Jack lingers into adulthood and their friendship isn’t as perfect as the little boy had hoped.

When Sean is six, he spends the night at his friend's house. Max's big brother dared them to stay up all night. As much as he tried, the little boy couldn't stop himself from dozing off before midnight. Max teased him about his failure until it got out of hand. Years later, Sean would look back on it all and conclude that Max was a bad friend. In response to the teasing, he invents an imaginary friend. Jack is kind and forgiving. He doesn't care if Sean is loud and instead joins in with the noise. More importantly, at least to the boy, he never sleeps. He is there for him whenever Sean requires him to be. He has no mind with which to object or act otherwise if he wanted. He is the perfect friend. Jack has more energy than Sean. He can continue to run around the school track while Sean has to call it quits. As children, they laugh and suggest it's because Sean plays too many video games. They know their logic is flawed. Sean runs around with his friends as much as they sit down to play on game consoles. But like all children, Sean grows up. Teenagers aren't meant to have imaginary friends. When he was younger, conversing with Jack was seen as sweet. Now older, he'd begun to leave childish things like invisible buddies behind. However, Jack lingers and Sean notices him on occasions. One such moment was after he plays the PlayStation version of Spider-Man 2 and they design a superhero together. Jack is a ghost, no longer required to serve his purpose. He collects figurative dust in the corner of his best friend's mind. Each time he is brought back, even if he can't express it, he is grateful. It prevents him from completely fading into non-existence. Existing as a faded memory is all he really knows by this point. One day, he'll be able to say barely existing is purely numbing. However, for the moment, he doesn't know better. For now, his 'life' and actions continue to be entirely at Sean's mercy. Soon, Sean is 23 and passing 1000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. Jack is proud of him. He smiles on his own accord. It disappears when he feels the muscles in his cheeks tug themselves upwards. Sean is nowhere to be seen. He hasn't existed without Sean being present before. He's not sure what to do without him or how to find him. Awareness of free will dumps him in an empty room. It is only him, the floorboards, four bare walls and a single door. He needs to know where Sean is. How does he proceed without his creator instructing him? Despite all the energetic activity he was subjected to as a child, he is clumsy as he runs towards the door. He falls on his face in front of Sean's TV. His hands sting from absorbing the impact. Upon laying eyes on his only friend, he realises they are wearing the exact same outfit. Neither of them know how to deal with this development. The two of them eventually progress past 'What the fuck?!' 'Don't ask me!'. Becoming real is the strangest thing he's experienced thus far. If he came into contact with something real like a desk, his body would reacted the same way as Sean's because he couldn't imagine a body clipping through surfaces like a badly designed character model. Now when he sits on a sofa, he actually feels the seat underneath his body. Being alive, being able to feel things for the first time is beyond any expectations he could have had. It's July, summer is underway. If he'll be able to register the sensation now, he wants to have the sun on his exposed skin. Sean laughs when he hears this and says it's a shame they don't live in a place where sunshine is more common. A particularly hot day arrives and Sean brings a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream back to the cabin. It's cold and chocolatey, with little chewy bits of brownie. Jack falls in love instantly. He goes out and buys more flavours any time the sky warms his skin. Sean playfully teases him about getting fat if his habit continues. The Jacksepticeye channel becomes theirs, not just Sean's. They both play games and grumble to each other about how slow things take to get uploaded thanks to the cabin's terrible broadband. Anything personal like a Q&A or comment reading video remains purely Sean's territory. Their arrangement works, especially with Jack editing into the night so Sean could sleep. Months pass and the weather cools. Unlike warmth, he hates being unable to have complete control of his body as it is overtaken by tiny shaking movements. Sean tells him he's just shivering. If he puts on another layer of clothing, it won't be so bad. His friend seems happier in general. He's not quite so lonely anymore. Jack is glad to be able to contribute to that in any way. He notices Sean making himself hot chocolate one day in December. He's confused when he is abruptly forbidden from making or tasting the drink himself. A week into February, everything becomes clear. "Hey Jack, happy birthday!" Sean hands him a mug of milky brown liquid. He accepts it hesitantly. "But it's your birthday. I got you a present and everything." "Yeah but you need to have a birthday too. And February 7th the best day to have one, in my opinion. Might be the tiniest bit biased on that though." He grins. "Go on, I've been wanting to see what you think of hot chocolate." Later, after Jack has made a few cups of the drink for himself, he'll realise this first serving was a little milk heavy. However, his obliviousness is beneficial. He drinks it eagerly once it cools a little, his first ever birthday present. Sean promises to get him something better next year, once they're more sure of Jack's likes and dislikes. Jack tells Angus about it. The Australian hunter appeared three months before him, as a result of the Survival Hunter series. With only the other for company, they rapidly develop a close friendship. Angus understands how strange existence is. Together, they discuss nature and watch David Attenborough or compete against each other in multiplayer mode of various games. In time, he notices something wrong. At first, in the summer of 2014, Angus begins to sleep in longer. It isn't exactly alarming but it is certainly a change in behaviour. By the time they are discussing hibernation, the wildlife expert is getting forgetful. By the end of 2015, he's constantly in his room, resting. Angus is a shadow, quite literally a faded memory, and Jack knows exactly who's to blame for his friend's condition. He returns to Sean multiple times, forever attempting to persuade him to bring the Survival Hunter series back to the channel. Time after time, Sean argues there isn't anywhere he can take the series. If he thought harder, maybe their creator would find a way to stop it all. He's been so accommodating before that Jack struggles to understand why Sean is so unwilling to cooperate. The first crack shows. When Sean tells him about breaking up with his girlfriend, he provides any support his friend needs from him. Months later, Sean is telling Jack about a Danish artist he's befriended. He gushes about how much he likes her art and how easy it is to talk to her. One day, Jack teases him about having a crush on Signe. With a short, self conscious laugh, Sean admits they were actually dating now and that he hoped to invite her to Ireland soon. Jack ruffles his hair, much to Sean's chagrin. Dude's in love again. Good on him. When she does eventually set foot in their home country, Jack keeps away. She may be a twin but Sean definitely isn't. If she saw a duplicate of her boyfriend, there would be a lot of explaining to do. Seeing as she was solely here to spend time with him, it would be best if they avoided having to say "Well, it's a long story...". Besides, Jack had something that required his own attention. He kept spotting Sean lurking around Jack and Angus' home. Except, he could have sworn their creator had a murderous glint in his eye. His appearance wasn't consistent either. Some occasions, his eyes would be dark or he'd have blood visible on his person. Other times, the intruder simply gave the impression of being unhinged. The problem was that Jack couldn't get a good look at the stalker. The guy would always be in the corner of his eye or disappear as soon as the two made eye contact. Jack could almost say the evil Sean glitched out of reality. He questions if this is a new 'ego' as they'd come to call the two Sean lookalikes. Waking up with brown hair and making dinner with the top being green was a little disorientating. He didn't even realise his hair had changed until he went to the bathroom and shocked himself. Yes, he knew Sean was dyeing his hair for charity in response to Mark doing so. He'd even received a photo from the new grass top himself about the change. What he didn't know was that he'd change appearance too. He checks on Angus. No, his hair was still the natural brown. Sean later gives him forewarning before making an appointment at a tattoo parlour. Despite this, Jack does a double take when the Bold Hunter's Mark appears on his right arm. When the summer of 2016 begins, Sean brings up the superhero they'd designed in 2004. After filming with Ninja Sex Party, he's got a red suit and a lot of ideas. The night of July 10th, a younger version of Sean with his current hairstyle stood at his door. The teenager introduces himself as Jackieboy Man, or Jackie for short. Jackie is the breath of fresh air Jack didn't realise he needed. The 16 year old boy is brimming with energy, enough to match his own. He doesn't seem to have actual superpowers but the older ego assures him that's okay. He introduces him to Batman, one of the most famous non-powered heros. More importantly, Jackie is someone to talk to when Angus is busy spending the majority of the day resting. Within days, they are firm friends. Despite his age and having only just been granted autonomy, Jackie proves his eagerness to play the hero he'd been designed to be. He's also very adept with technology. It isn't long before he's made some improvements to the house. Jack catches him trying to access the dark web at one point. The boy shrugs it off as making the most of his skills. After all, he'd been doing just that in Welcome To The Game. Jack remains skeptical. A month after Jackie appears, Sean messes around with a magic kit on camera. Shortly after the video is uploaded, a man wearing a cape and a cat mask finds himself before the three other egos. His cynicism makes Jack question whether they'll get along. He does like the mask though. Jack stares at Sean when he admits the magician was an unintentional character. He swears he will go prematurely bald from wanting to yank his hair out. Sure, Jack could understand his own beginnings as a separate entity. How could Sean have known that by calling himself Jack, his childhood imaginary friend of the same name would be given life? The same went for Angus. Their creator was entirely oblivious to the power a bad Australian accent and a few hundred subscribers held. By now, Sean should have learned his lesson. The new guy believes his name is Jack the Magnificent. It won't do. Jack wouldn't mind there being another Jack if it wasn't for the fact it would get confusing quick. Not to mention there would be two Jacks and a Jackie. Yes, it would be extremely confusing. Jack watches the magician's introductory video again. Fifty Amazing Magic Tricks from Marvin's Magic. Marvin. Marvin the Magician. Marvin the Magnificent. Marvin's face lights up when Jack suggests the name. It's almost like he's had an epiphany. Marvin's right, the name does fit him. Jack is glad he could help. The boost in Marvin's self confidence motivates him to practise his magic. He was able to conjure fire in the video. Logic dictates he can do it again. Jack and Jackie are ready to assist Marvin in whatever way they can with exploring the extent of his magical abilities. Within two weeks of Marvin's arrival, he is dragging a bloodied Jackie into the house. With no medical knowledge at his disposal apart from basic first aid, the incident ends with the youngest housemate being admitted to hospital. He doesn't wish for this to become a common occurrence but they should be better prepared. Perhaps having a doctor as back-up wouldn't be a bad idea. To his relief, Sean is all for it. He purchases a copy of Operation and a doctor outfit. It's a mystery why Dr Schneeplestein is given an awful German accent. Nevertheless, Jack his excited to welcome the doctor. He's unsure about the backstory. The guy's brought into the world with a disloyal wife who is blackmailing him. He knows they have children but can't remember their names or their ages. The doctor doesn't have a first name either. He was simply 'Dr Schneeplestein' in the Operation video. Like he did with Marvin, Jack attempts to find a name that suits the new ego. He goes through baby name websites, specifically ones featuring German names, with the doctor. They eventually bump into Heinrich which prompts a minute of deep thought before the nameless ego announces Henrik is the right name. Several days later, Jack learns of Elias, Heidi and Alina. In mid-October, the morning after Ninja Sex Party upload their music video for 'Cool Patrol', Jackie challenges him to an arm wrestle. He wins several matches. The young superhero giggles as he admits he's going easy on Jack. The two of them spend the following days exploring Jackie's new powers. Marvin shows up, either to watch or practise a defensive spell, while Henrik stood by. They soon establish that, along with technological expertise, Jackie has super strength, flight and lasers at his disposal. By far, his favourite power is the ability to fly. Jack comes out from a recording session towards the end of October to be ambushed by Marvin. He's questioned on whether he'd like a balloon. The minute he accepts, Marvin fetches the 'balloon'. When Henrik spots Jackie being transported around the room, floating while attached to a piece of string, he mutters something in German and retires to his area with coffee. As the month draws to a close, Sean offers him the opportunity to carve the pumpkin this year. He gladly accepts, only later remembering the weird stuff happening to the footage of several videos. He brings it up with his friend. Sean insists nothing will happen. Yes, he's building up to Antisepticeye making his debut appearance but that will be the second video of the day. Jack is skeptical but lets it slide. While their creator could be wildly irresponsible with his ideas at times, Jack trusts him not to deliberately put any of them in harm's way. He is even promised the dangerous upcoming character wouldn't be a threat between videos. During the carving, his nose begins leaking blood so he jokes about how big of a coincidence it was. Off screen he allows himself to be freaked out by the nosebleed. The actual bleeding nose isn't the issue. He's had nosebleeds before, namely when Jackie's aim was off during training. It's the timing that scares him. It's Halloween, with Antisepticeye due to show up today. This is too much of a coincidence. Despite not wanting to, he decides the show must go on. He says some uncharacteristically mean things to Gerald. When he argues with Sean, at least there's some reason to let insults slip. Gerald hasn't done anything wrong. It fails to matter when he is forced to lose control his body. Regardless of how much he'd love to resist, the knife slices through skin. He wakes up in a hospital bed. Dr Schneeplestein explains everything, advising Jack doesn't watch the video himself. He gets incredibly caught up in sudden, painful revelations as soon as he's left to his thoughts. Sean told him Antisepticeye wouldn't target the pumpkin video. Sean had lied. Apparently, his creator could deceive him without hesitation. Worst of all, he now knew how his 'friend' saw him. Expendable; Jack was expendable. He can't believe he'd trusted Sean like that. What was he thinking? Sean had gone against him in the past, namely ignoring his suggestions to improve the lives of the egos. Did he for one second consider how terrifying being suddenly robbed of your autonomy could be? Or suffering through being murdered by your own hand? Sure, the anaesthetic helped dull it to an ache. That didn't change the fact Jack would have a scar as a daily reminder of Sean's willingness to sacrifice the one he'd designed to be everything he wanted in a friend. If his life wasn't as important as Sean's, the difference should be so small it was inconsequential. By the time he is able to be discharged, he had forgiven Sean. Of course he was expendable. He was just made up like the others. No harm could come to Sean, he was too important to lose. None of them would exist without their creator. In a way, he should be thankful for being used as bait. At least he could still be relevant, unlike Angus. He'd been in Angus' position for years. Jack never wanted to feel like that again, as if he was nothing. He's never resented his basic character traits more. He hates that a little boy could force his best friend to always forgive him. He wouldn't be surprised if Sean committed genocide and Jack let it slide. Never sleepy, unable to stay angry at him forever, always willing to provide emotional support should he require it. Well, at least free will had allowed him to bend those rules at times. The truth was that Sean wasn't perfect and Jack didn't want to treat him as such. It didn't matter. The forgiveness comes too late to save Jackie. Sean's visit to the infirmary sparks another row. Frustrated with the disagreements, Jackie bursts into the room halfway through, screaming at them to stop. As soon as he had thundered off, both faces of the Jacksepticeye channel allowed themselves to resolve the latest issue calmly. "What are we doing? This constant arguing is getting us nowhere." "Tell me about it." Jack grumbled back. "Want to call a truce?" "I'm still furious you used me as bait. I don't know how you could have consciously done that." "I know. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Just wanted to give the subscribers something fun for Halloween, I guess. I-" "A community event where they post art would have been more fun." He interrupts. "Hey, I could do that next year." Sean's smile is cautious. "I promise I won't pull something like that again." His friend extends a fist with only his smallest finger out. He's got to be kidding. "What are you, five?" "Come on, humour me. Please?" Jack is reluctant but does it anyway. "You're a fucking idiot." "Don't we know it." Only one laughs. "This doesn't mean I'm going to let it slide just yet." He fidgets. Despite the stuff Schneeplestein had given him, the ghost of Jack's neck wound bothered him still. "Tell me about Antisepticeye. You've made a video with him so he'll be out there now. I should at least know what to look out for." Jack's biggest regret after that night isn't repeatedly allowing himself to forgive Sean. Instead, he becomes remorseful for not getting his friend to follow the young superhero. By the time either of them realise Jackie was yet to return, it was too late. Jack postpones his German studies to focus on bringing the youngest member of the household back to them. His efforts bear no fruit, even months later. The joint birthday celebrations go far better than either of them could have hoped. There are no ill feelings between the two of them on that day. The only fight they have is when Jack silences Sean's complaints of getting older by 'accidentally' smearing frosting on his face. Signe takes a photo of them, crumbs and frost littering their neon green hair. He keeps the photograph with the other reminders the two of them did have great times amongst the disagreements and resentment. He plays the first chapter of Bendy and the Ink Machine while Sean is away at PAX East and the other egos are sleeping. Sean's been hyped for this game for a while, Cuphead too, so Jack is leaving them for him to record. That said, there's no reason why he can't play it in his spare time. Later that month, he absentmindedly watches Sean's playthrough of it. "'The creator lied to us.' Well boohoo, people lie all the time. It's part of life." Jack had found that message on the wall intriguing when he'd played it. As much as he tried not to let Sean's comment get to him, it lingered. At least this time, he could exit the video and never return to it. The week after Angus' birthday, Chase Brody arrives with a name from the get-go. Unfortunately, he also has a wife who's divorcing him and a suicide attempt under his belt before meeting any of his fellow egos. Sean's done some stupid shit before but portraying a suicide? Really? Jack knows for a fact that his friend isn't one to see poor mental health and suicide as something to joke about. Nevertheless, Chase grows on him. Once you got past all the self deprecation and depression, he proved to be a cool guy who loved his two children. Unfortunately, the bullet Henrik has to extract from Chase's brain ruins his ability to perform complex actions with his left arm. "I'm not changing his character." Sean states during a gaming session. "Okay, but-" "Jack, I'm not doing it. This isn't me being stubborn and unwilling to compromise. People split up all the time and sometimes children are involved. A bunch of my subscribers will be able to relate to the situation, either as the parent or the child." "He shot himself in the head." "Unfortunately, that's something people in Chase's headspace consider doing." There's something in the way Sean speaks that worries Jack. "Some of them out there need proof things can change. I could show that." "You're not depressed." He's really unsure on how to have this conversation. "Well, no, but neither are you." They don't go further and Jack's guilt grows. He is sure he's missing something but he can't put his finger on it. They instead discuss topics that were more pleasant. Any miniscule progress Chase makes with his arm, Jack cheers him on. At least he understands where the issues lay with the latest ego. He wishes he was as in tune with Sean. He had been once. Now they were both watching their tongues in case either of them accidentally triggered a disagreement. Home wasn't so bad. He and Marvin still dedicated hours to locating Jackie but, as ever, no breakthroughs were made. However, progress was being made in other places. May brought a second cat into the household. The white feline was usually found lazing around with Jack and Chase or hanging out with Marvin's Abyssinian, Bastet. Jack feels so dumb when he finally learns why he can never find Marvin when the white cat is present. He couldn't be prouder of how far the magician's abilities had developed since August. He had returned to learning German at night. When reading German texts, occasional words begin to become familiar. Every now and again, he doesn't have to check what a word, or even rarer a phrase, means. It takes him a while to remember how accents change the sound of letters. Practising his speech alone, he is convinced his pronunciation is off by miles. Nevertheless, the delight on Henrik's face when he haphazardly makes his way through imperfect sentences proves it is undoubtedly worth it. Henrik coaches him on his native tongue while Jack continued to correct the doctor's English grammar. Henrik's ability to speak French is utilised after Sean plays a game called Passpartout. Jacques Septique often enclosed himself in his room, painting whatever he felt like that day. Once he became more comfortable around the five others living under the same roof, he offered to paint their doors. Soon, the house was a little more colourful. Jack promises himself he won't get too close to the French artist. He'll be kind and welcoming to him, of course he will, but he knows Jacques wasn't made last. He's a fan creation. All you needed to do was visit Angus to see what happened to that kind of ego. He'd been wary of Marvin when he'd first appeared. Unintentional with no name? He couldn't be more fan made. Jack had been an idiot and allowed himself to become close friends with the magician. It had taken Angus little over a year to start going downhill. That meant that by Christmas, Marvin would show signs too. There was the hope that the near 16 million subscribers were more able to preserve Marvin than the hundreds or thousands who saw Angus' ten videos. However, it was just hope. On the last day of July, Jack has a bad morning. He trips on something, spilling scalding coffee all over himself and breaking one of his favourite mugs in the process. After that, he records a video, only for him to notice none of the footage was recording. Frustrated, he calls Sean to see if he's free. His best friend almost succeeds in cheering him up with his jokes and sympathy. Jack is on the brink of feeling better when Sean ruins it all. "I'm burnt out, man." Sean admits. "YouTube needs to sort itself out." "You're burned out?" Jack scoffed. "Sure, how long have you been feeling like that?" "Oh don't give me that. This isn't a contest to see who's more tired. Besides, you don't get tired." He knows he has the power to avoid this argument before it truly begins. But years of Sean not listening have resulted in little patience concerning these topics. His mind isn't able to stop his mouth in time. "No, you don't give me that, Sean. For three years, I've watched one of my closest friends deteriorate into nothing. We could save Angus but you refuse to help me. Plus you don't let me upload any of the videos anymore." "I... I never have." "I'm not finished." He continues. "You need to stop playing God because you clearly suck at it. If we could find a game with wildlife in an open world for Angus, we could bring him back to his original condition. I'm not saying we go back to Far Cry, especially with the 5th instalment coming next year. But can you finally co-operate with me so we can save him? It would be one less mess of yours for me to fix. Not to mention it's practically 9 months since Jackie disappeared. We both know what happened to him. Anti is your creation. I don't care if he has as much free will as the rest of us. You could think of something, shit I'll take anything at this point, to keep him at bay. I'm sick of having to be the one who everyone relies on. That should be your job. You can't create us and then leave us to deal with suddenly existing by ourselves. If you want to keep acting like this, at least let me sleep. Even just once. Everyone can just escape all the problems you mindlessly burden them with for a few hours. Not me, I have to stay up and wait for the next big disaster you throw at us. Joke all you want about never needing sleep. I won't be laughing." Sean looks at him like he's insane. "Sleep? You're... kidding right? Just lie down and close your eyes. It's not rocket science." "I can't! I physically can't fall asleep because that's how you made me." "I was six!" "Yeah, and now you're 27. You have the power to help us but instead, you just create more of us. Stop being so irresponsible." The fight escalates. Jack is a broken record, repeating many of the points he's made over the years that still remain issues. If that isn't a line of argument in itself, he doesn't know what is. He also insists Marvin's name should be made canon already. After all, it was nearing a full year since the magician's first appearance. The spat ends with Jack forcing himself to leave the situation. "You want to sleep, I'll let you sleep." The words sound more malicious than they should. "Bring back Jackie. He's been missing for months. Do something!" At home, he marathons Harry Potter with Marvin and Chase for a few hours. It doesn't take his mind off the argument with Sean completely. If he knew they wouldn't get the chance to reconcile for two years, he would have apologised sooner. Unbeknownst to him, things were already being set in motion. Just three days later, he is overcome with queasiness as he introduces the latest episode of Bio Inc Redemption. He doesn't understand what's happening. One thing he does know is that nothing about this is good. Excusing himself, he stumbles carefully to Henrik's section of the building. "Hen-" He gags, hand flying to his mouth again. "Henrik, I need help. Something's wrong."