#it has such a detailed description of a solar eclipse that i decided i absolutely needed to see one. and then i did 8 years later!

[thestarmaker]

rereading The Most Formative Book Of Your Childhood is something that can be so personal. Wendy Mass I owe you everything ⭐

[userdjarin]

“ you’re bleeding! ” w din ??

hi anon!! thank u so much for participating!! and sorry this took a while i suddenly got busy with life afgfsdf

hope you like it :))

shortcuts | joanne’s 1k follower celebration

pairing: din djarin x f!reader

rating: teen (for brief descriptions of injury, brief sexual suggestions)

summary: you take a shortcut on your route, even though din has taught you all the ways to not take a shortcut.

genre: fluff, some hurt/comfort

wc: 1.2k

“That took you a while,” Din greets you from the top while you climb up the Crest’s ramp. Where his words seemingly lacked warmth, he made up for with an earnest tone in his voice that inexplicitly asked whether you had met trouble on your trip.

You did, in fact, meet trouble on your trip. You had offered to do the supply run into town this time instead since Din had his hands full with maintenance around the ship, and the two of you were on a schedule to leave for the planet of his next quarry.

But, you decide a minor charade is harmless – he’d make a fuss otherwise. So, you play out a light feint, choosing to reply with a playful quip that’ll eclipse with any colour you’ll happen to give away. “Flirted with the shop owner a little bit to get the nut loaves for cheap.”

But ultimately, you’re no match for him. No little detail about you ever escapes his register.

He’s helping you take the pack brimming with provisions off your back when all his movements die as soon as he finds the slightest speckled pattern on the sleeve at your elbow. “You’re bleeding.” The pitch of his baritone never needs to stray for him to still deliver the heaviest magnitude of gravity.

It startles you – the way such a simple string of syllables manages to cut through the air with such solidity. And then you curse inwardly at yourself for not knowing better than to make sure you didn’t bleed through your shirt. You diffuse the situation the only way you knew how. “You should’ve seen the other guy.”

A joke. But his temper blinds him to the sarcasm, so it only inflames the situation.

“Tell me who did this to you.”

Stars. If his actions were to share even a fraction of the severity that his speak takes on now, whoever you would’ve pointed your finger at would surely no longer have all their limbs by the end of the day.

“M-Maker, Din—I’m joking! No one did it. I—” You’re embarrassed to have made a flustered spectacle of yourself in front of such an ironclad certitude. “—I fell,” you finally admit, and it falls from your lips as a shameful whisper.

“You… fell?” The tension that spans his shoulders doesn’t let up, but his helmet dips to one side as if that could utterly confuse him more than you getting into a spat with someone.

“Yeah. I, uh—yeah, I took a sh-shortcut. Through the woods. Didn’t see the drop off in the terrain. Fell and scraped my arm.” You brace for the reaction you’re expecting.

And you get it when he sighs with the same quality that expires the wrath from his muscles. “Sweet girl, what did I tell you about—”

“—taking shortcuts, I know, I know. Never venture into unknown grounds on my own.” You can’t help but pout since you already feel like an adolescent being reprimanded. “I was going to take the roads back, then I saw the woods and—pack was heavy—and thought cutting through it would be quicker. It just made sense in my head. I mean, I did make my way out.”

A gentle nod comes after what seems like a whole solar cycle’s worth of a pause. “Okay.” The word falls slow, like he holds onto it for a bit before he lets it go, because he’s hesitant to agree with a reckless choice but still has to admit that it was fair enough if you held up your end of it. “Good. You found your way through. But, beloved, you have to remember to—”

“—mind my surroundings, extrapolate my topography, I know. I wasn’t being careful enough. I’ll remember next time.” The feeling of defeat dampens your volume as you’re embarrassed to have demonstrated absolutely none of the tracking lessons and navigation tips he’s taught you.

Din finally decides to retire the lecturing, thinking he should pick up some of the pieces of your spirit that he might’ve splintered himself. All the hard edges to his voice erode to something soft and honeyed when he utters, “Let me have a look at you.”

He simply only holds out the spread of his fingers in front of you, but the warmth of it calls for you like a magnet. You offer him your arm without waste, dropping your elbow into the leathered cave of his palm. The wrap of his grip is immediate but is so careful, so gentle.

“I-It’s just a scrape,” you quickly try to curb any grand reaction before it starts. He’s come back with way worse before and handled those times with much less care.

He rolls up your sleeve with the most delicate pressure, and he finds himself the telltale sign of your elbow being the first to catch your fall by the light abrasions that pepper your forearm. Bacta patches will heal you in no time. But Din is faithful to his traits of precision and thoroughness. So, he lightly ghosts the pads of his gloves across the scuff marks. “Does that hurt?”

You shake your head.

He takes a short step forward, but it’s enough to completely crowd your space, almost crushing your face against his chest plate. He takes both hands now and circles them around to the back of your head, where he soothingly cradles and squeezes the nape of your neck. “And that? Can you feel that?”

You bite back the sigh that nearly rolls off your tongue like a savouring purr. “D-Din, relax. I just got cut up by… a patch of dirt”

“Just making sure you didn’t concuss yourself.”

A light scoff breaks through your lips. “Well, what do you think, Medic? Will I make it?”

He responds by shifting his weight to one foot, helmet dipping in the same direction as the hip that juts out, and you can almost audibly hear the sarcastic Really? that would’ve sieved through his vocoder had he used his words instead. It’s enough to tear down your tension with a coy chuckle.

He drops his hands but still keeps himself on you by a thumb against the zipper of your vest. “Take off your clothes.”

A fever rushes you before anything else. “G-Gods, Din. Is this your way of comforting me?”

“For me to clean. You have dirt all over you.”

Although, he is finding it intriguing just how many different shades of rouge could swath your face from a simple prompt of his. How much more could he make you blush? He’s certainly one to follow through with things.

A strong palm flattening on the small of your back fixes you in place as the hook of his thumb drags the zipper down your chest. “But if you want me to make you feel better…”

And how could you answer with anything but complete surrender to that dark, gravelly cadence you have never been any sort of match for?

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[sizzites]

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah and I’ve recently decided to begin dipping my toes into gaming journalism. I’ve always liked writing and LOVED games, so why not combine them? I recently had the honor of attending Square Enix’s reveal event for the newest installment in the Tomb Raider series… Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I was able to attend this event due to winning the “Path of the Stars” contest. It’s one of those moments where you almost don’t believe it’s real… no one ever wins those contest, right? That’s how I felt until suddenly I had a congratulatory email and 7 days to prepare myself for a trip to LA!  All in all, things all seemed to come together as the perfect opportunity to start up a blog and get working on things. So here we are! I’m going to walk you through my experience at the reveal event as my first piece.

When we arrived at the event, we were immediately blown away by the venue SE had chosen… the Mayan Theatre. From the outside, it was a beautifully crafted tribute to Mayan artwork. Stone hieroglyphs from the floor to the roof of the building immediately pulled my brain back to all the “Path of the Stars” puzzles which had landed me here in the first place. This was a wonderful little gem hidden away among the city streets of downtown LA. Entering into the building, I felt my excitement levels jump even another level higher as we entered into a dark corridor full of smoke, vines, and amber colored lighting. In front of us was a decorative podium holding up each of the different case designs for the different versions of the game. There were also a few small placards showing some details listed out as well as explaining what would be given to those of us who are able to throw down some cold hard cash for the deluxe collector’s edition of the game.

We pushed past this display and moved onto the doorway into the main theatre. Vines hung down from the ceiling and obscured our view of the next room. As we pushed past the vines, I felt like my jaw would hit the floor. The beauty of the sculpting on the outer walls was nothing in comparison to the magnificence of the decorative walls surrounding the stage. Larger than life sculptures of hieroglyphs and deities were lit ominously from below with bright amber spotlights. The bar was lit with saturated purple and blue light as the bar tenders served up some wonderful themed cocktails. Turning towards the stage, there was an enormous screen with an animated version of the box art for the upcoming game. On either side of this screen were too smaller (but still quite large) screens which ran through each contributor’s logos as well as a small clip from the trailer (which we would be the first to see in just a short while). The floor in front of the stage had a few “standing room only” tables with small candles on the. The floor in that area was awash with fog. It swirled around the feet of those who mingled down in that area. It was somewhat spooky, but totally set the mood for the Mayan/jungle themed event.

The next thing we witnessed was one of the two big reasons I was excited to be present… the previously unreleased trailer for the game. It was absolutely beautiful and the excitement in the room was palpable from all of the press and game community members surrounding us. The footage cut between Lara Croft sprinting through the forest and what appeared to be a human sacrifice. Lara becomes stuck under a rock while moving through an underwater tunnel. The tension heightened as the Mayan priest raised his knife above the sacrifice and Lara got sucked out from under the rock. Just in time, Lara stops the sacrifice and reaches her hand out to the man, painted in blue, whom she had just saved. He stared at her in fear and ran away instead. Lara looked at herself and the dagger she held in her hand before walking forward to look out over the vast Mayan landscape and into the solar eclipse. After the trailer ended, there was a round of applause from everyone in the room.

A few moments later, a man walked out on stage and gave a short presentation. He began by elaborating and emphasizing that this third game in the trilogy was going to be where Lara becomes the tomb raider she was born to be. Multiple times, he said this game would contain her defining moment… although he didn’t let us in on the secret of what that would be. From his description, and also from the game play which I’ll talk about in a bit, I could see that the character of Lara Croft is going to be much more flushed out in this game. She is much more vulnerable and flawed… she is no longer the innocent student from the 2013 reboot… no longer the survivalist from Rise of the Tomb Raider… she is now THE tomb raider and is taking actions that will has consequences that she must face. Her decisions will no longer be black and white or good versus bad. There is now a gray area which makes Lara feel much more human, but she’s still just as much of the heroine we have loved for so many years.

He ended his presentation which meant that the secretive area for playing the demo was now available for press groups to begin coming in. We weren’t able to play right away, but that only had me chomping at the bit even more by the time it became our turn. We entered into the room to see rows of mid-sized televisions and Xbox Dev Kits. I slid on the oversized headphones and grabbed the controller anxiously. I fired up the demo and held my breath as an introductory cut scene played. From there, Lara was tasked with tailing a man through a beautiful Day of the Dead celebration. The candles scattered all around the scene gave off a warm orange light in the outdoor marketplace. Lara wore a large poncho as a disguise and a skeletal mask. The people all around her felt alive. They played music and games and you were able to interact with a few of them. The colors of this game struck me right away, ranging from deep, saturated colors, dark alley ways, to the bright lights of parties.

I won’t give away much more about the actual story, but I will say I was able to do some tomb exploring as well as a tiny bit of fighting. In terms of controlling Lara, everything feels very familiar. The methods of traversing through the environment are all pretty much the same. There are some new stealth elements were felt brilliant, including the ability to hide amongst vines and bushes lining walls. It made Lara feel much more dangerous now that she is adept at using her surroundings. The game play felt classic, but still fresh. And, of course, how can I even begin to talk about the tomb? It was always the one element that I felt was somewhat missing from the previous two games. Although challenge tombs were present (and fully wonderful) in Rise of the Tomb Raider, they still weren’t enough for me. I grew up on Lara Croft’s adventures and have always been very fond of those times when Lara spent an entire game running around in old Egyptian tombs and other similar locales. In the 45 minute demo, we were able to visit one tomb area with no enemies to speak of. It allowed us time to explore and really immerse ourselves in the absolutely fabulous graphics before our eyes. It felt just like the days of Tomb Raider on PS1 (but with a massive visual upgrade) and I loved every second of it. I finished the demo and left the room feeling more excited than I ever thought I could be for September.

All in all, I can say definitively that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is going to be one of the few games I will pre-order and possibly even get one of the “upgraded” versions right away. If I can make a suggestion, it would be that you plan on playing this game. If you haven’t yet played the two previous games, I would also say you should do that before September rolls around. The story arc in this trilogy has been brilliant up to this point and Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have given me no reason to think they will do anything less than deliver an amazing third chapter with this new game. I’ve been playing Tomb Raider for as long as I have been playing games (and happily watching my Dad play it long before I was able to figure out the controls myself), so I’m admittedly a bit of a fan girl for Lara Croft. That being said, even speaking as objectively as possible, this is going to be a monumental release and I think you’d have to be crazy to miss it!

 XOXOXO Sarah