#my year of content is making me suffer but at least i'm finally getting around to scaling my teaching

[essential-randomness]

I made some pages in HTML and CSS, now what?

For this week's Content™, I answer a question that troubles all buddying web developers: what should you learn once you've become somewhat comfortable with HTML and CSS?

In this article, we explore 3 paths:

Static Site Generation, for those who like creating a lot of content (and my recommendation for fannish folks). If you've heard me continuously rave about Astro, this is where you'll learn to set it up.

Playing Around in the Browser, for those who want a taste of JavaScript without committing to installing anything (or are looking to add more complex interactivity to their pages).

The Server Path, for those who want to learn how to work with data to create things like guestbooks and comment sections!

I hope this is useful, and let me know what you all think!

[r0uke-k4nten]

HUSH MY CHILD

007n7 & child reader

Your beloved father, 007n7, adopted you and c00l kid when as a pill baby, every day he loved you and so is your brother...until he went missing. When everything goes down, he still cares about you, of course, but maybe a bit distant, you're not gonna be mad at him because you know that he's sad, but don't worry, you will help find your dearest brother :D.

x/xx/xxxx

Deer, Diary.

Today, my PaPa Brought me this diaryes book that I really want as a birthday gift  :D.

C00lkid is really really happy after dad brought him a red sword, he can't stop swinging the sword !!

I hope tomorrow is just as great as today.

- (y/n)

"What are you writing?"you've heard a similar voice right behind you, quickly you closed your diary, not wanting for him to see. You quickly turn around as you yelled at him, " HEY! DON'T SNEAK AROUND LIKE THAT." he just rolled his eyes. he quickly gave you a hand as you slowly stood up. 

"What are you waiting for? C'mon, dad is waiting," he said as he excitedly ran into the kitchen, waiting for their dad to get their food. You signed as you slowly walk away from your room, where your brother abandoned you a few minutes ago.

After a while, your father is back from the kitchen, as he brought them a...cake?. You looked at c00lkid as he looked at you before returning our gaze to the cake, before turning up to your dad..."woah..., this-this is the best cake that I've ever seen haha-, right c00lkid?" you asked c00lkid, "uhhh, dad... is that a fire?" you looked at him with a surprised as you looked back into the cake... 

HOLY MOLY, THERE IS THE FIRE. You jumped out, surprised as the fire is expanding, "DAD, DO SOMETHING," you both said as the fire reached the table wood, with a reflect, your dad brought a fire extinguisher, finally pulled the fire out...

007n7, began to sit down into the floor completely exhausted and battered up, "kid, are you okay??" your dad said as your brother responded with that we were both alright. He sighed before laying down and beginning to close his eyes. 

"I'm sorry kid..., I should just buy some instead of making it" he said apologetically, we all stayed quite for a long while until you proposed something "uhhh, how about we watch something on the TV?, yeah?" you said as a thing to forget this...

Remembering that day, although a bit chaotic, but at least you have your family together to share those memories....

You prefer that memories happen again, then having to suffer now..

xx/xx/xxxx

dear, diary.

My brother is still missing after years of searching,

I'm afraid that we won't find him very soon. Dad keeps telling everything is alright, that c00lkid will come back very soon.

I don't believe that.

And I know that he doesn't believe that.

-(y/n)

You finished the writing and began to close the book as you went to the kitchen to find a note on top of the sealed food. You came closer, picking up the note and reading it as you see your father won't be here for a while, and he wants you to know that.

You sighed as you crumbled up the note to the trash bin before eating the food. Your mind began to wonder what would happen if you tried to help your father? Would you find him? If it does, does he remember you? It's been years, is he really gone?

A sound of a phone ringing behind the red telephone, making your thought cut off, you sighed as you stood up and walked closer to the telephone, and picking it up, " hello?"  the caller said before continuing, " is 007n7 is here?" he asked, " no...sorry he's busy,..but I'm his child do you want to tell me something so I can assist you." you answered solemly before contently respond. 

"Uh- no I'm fine kid, I- " you cut him off. " please, I insist." the caller sighed. " fine,but you must talk to your father after this." you nodded even they didn't see you, he took a deep breath "we...we may have find your BROTHER."

You went quite for a moment "...where is he?" you stated....

and that was all you took to find him.

You finished your food halfway done as you began to pack up, 'You do it now or never, ' you thought. You pack your food, medkit, clothes, some essentials into your bag and begin to walk out before looking back...

You pick up the paper and begin to write...

Dear father,

I won't be home for a long time

I know you will be mad,

but don't worry.

I will find him,

and we will be home as fast as we can

-sincerely, (y/n)

You put it on top of the once-burned table, a memory you once cherished. 

The sound of a door closing echoes through the empty house...

You don't know how much longer you stayed in this bus, all you know it was already late afternoon when you see a town where the caller lives, you immediately walked out of the bus after you paid and left you in the bus station, instead of coming to the caller home, you make a sharp turn to the left where there's an abandon park filled with a dead houses and moss...

You quickly sign up for a cheap hotel room and begin to eat at the nearest cafe, waiting for the night to come...

DIFFRENT POV:

It was already dark when I got home...

'Why is the light still off?' I asked myself before shrugging that (y/n) must be tired...

I walked closer and closer to the door and finally unlocked it only to reveal an empty place. I pulled down my bag into the nearest counter before roaming into the kitchen, before realizing that the table had half-eaten food on top of it...

Okay, this is freaking me out I said as I ran into (y/n) bedroom only to reveal an empty room with a few places are now gone...

'GOD, WHERE ARE THEY NOW' 

...

Note: 

Aight that's all I have no idea how to continue it, T<T.

Maybe a sequel if I had the idea, but no promises.

[2tcs]

I love your content so far from what I read and I had a crack I did just hit me

After a while the bat family finally decides to get rid of Ra al Ghul like take him down and take his position from him as the leader of the League of assassins to dismantle it

Ra al Ghul never warned anyone if they want to actually become like the main watcher over the Lazarus pits but they have to go to a 2000 door haunted house run by the ghost King who is 15 years old

So I'll be entire bat family is practically being put through spooky's haunted house 1000 doors except it's Phantom haunted house 2000 doors

Danny believes that anyone that wants the Lazarus pits is undirectly like a bad person so he kind of uses it to a trauma dump on people and be mentally tortured these people so they drop out of taking it

He's getting help from Ghost like Ember Techn, Poindexter, Wulf even cujo

Like they put Ra al Ghul through hell and now they're going to put the bat family to that because they have no idea or not if they're good people

So it's just Danny traumatizing them by making with the horrors and some of the deaths of the ghost the last shocker is at the last door they have to relive Danny's death then Danny will come out and hand them a key and then proceed to give them the whole feel about being the new owners of Lazarus pits

I just enjoy the idea of Danny and the ghost being terrifying

I don't think Danny knows enough ghosts to pull off 2000 doors but he does know Ghost Writer. As well as several ghosts who could make them relive each other's worst/most traumatic moments. Ras probably went alone when he did his trial. But if the whole batfam is going in? So much ammo.

It could start out simple. Lure them into a sense of ease.

---

"Huh. When the scary voice said we would be facing trials to prove our worth. I didn't expect sentient, cuddly blobs." Duke said petting one of the blobs that was chirping happily. Not noticing as his fellow vigilantes and friends also began to cuddle the blobs.

It takes them three hours before they realize that they've lost time and begin to fight the calming effect that the blobs exude and head towards the door on the other side of the room.

---

And maybe embarrassing.

---

"Once upon a time."

"WHY THE FUCK AM I WEARING TIGHTS!"

"I don't know. I think they look good."

"Shut up dickface."

---

Even a bit annoying at times.

---

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!"

"WTF! This guy is more annoying than Condiment King!"

"At least he isn't dumping ketchup on us!"

---

The first few hundred doors could even be called easy for people like the bats.

---

"Quit hitting yourself. Quit hitting yourself." Jason said after he ripped off the robot's arm and started to use it to beat the robot.

"Hay. Don't you think you're going too far Hood?"

"Stop your incelence! For I. Skulker. The greatest hunter ever. Shall be the one to skin you alive and use your pelts as a rug in my den!"

"You were saying Dickolase?"

"Give me the other arm. I want to break this pinata open."

---

But that ease does not last long. Soon they are faced with the suffering of others.

---

"What was that. What was that!" Steph shouted as she clung to Tim. Trembling from the adrenalin rush.

"I think. I think we just died? In a motorcycle crash? Did we just get hit by a CAR while on a MOTORCYCLE?!"

"That motorcycle crash was quick compared to how I died! So shut the fuck up!" Jason yelled before stomping toward the next door. And if his hand was shaking as he reached for the doorknob? No, they weren't

---

And even faced with the consequences of their failures. Failures that nearly tore them apart. Failures that could still tear them apart.

---

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Shut up old man! You never asked! You weren't there! You're Never There!"

---

And temptations.

---

Dick looked around as his family piled into the living room of the manor. Everyone was laughing at something Duke said. Jason laughed the loudest as he slung his arm over Tim's shoulder for support. (Wrong, this is wrong, why is this wrong?)

---

And nightmares.

---

"Give them back! GIVE THEM BACK!" Bruce screamed to the sky as he clutched his kids as close to him as he could. Falling into despair as their bodies, their corpses, grew colder. The echos of their own cries of pain and anguish ringing in his ears.

---

They still manage to fight through the physical and psychological horror. Even when they are pushed to experience torture that not even their most vial villain would do to them.

---

"I'm alive! I'm me! Mom! Dad! Please! Please!" "Shut up you freak! Honey, get the muzzle. I don't want to hear its lies anymore." The woman, the monster, in the teal hazmat suit said as she pulled out their intestine and hung it on a rack for further examination.

---

They persevered. And when they leave the last door behind? And are faced with a young boy, no older than 14, who looks like an amalgamation of all of the Robins when they were that age?

---

Danny watched as the would-be-owner of the Lazarus Pits stumbled through the door. Only for an entire group of Kevlar waring fruitloops to fall out of the door.

"So you are the fools who think to control the blood of King Lazarus. So far you have seen many facets of the horrors that can come from..." Danny started his monologue before he was interrupted by the one wearing a cloak reminiscent of a bat falling to his knees.

"Please. Please say we don't have to fight you. I can't. I can't." He said before breaking down in tears as several others joined him in his cry fest.

"Shit." Danny said as he looked at the people before him. Panicking over what he was supposed to do.

[spicywreck]

heyyy, working on something with AFAB enby!Mike (they/he/she) and wanted to share! And of course there's Marvey; Gabriel, you should've been allowed to kiss your male co-star at least once on the mouth ❤️

warning for insecure!Mike at the end AND mild sexual content (dom/sub undertones bc it's Harvey + Mike y'all)

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Mike and Harvey have a great relationship. They've been together for over eight years, moved in after just a few months, and have been married for five, which coincidentally is the same amount of time Mike's had the X gender identification mark on both his ID and passport.

Which isn't a coincidence at all. The second Mike got the documents in the mail, Harvey took them to their favorite cozy spot—great burger place with crisp thin onion rings, that plays "actual good jazz" (Harvey's words)—and waited till desert to slide the ring box across the table; careful of the greasy napkins in its way.

"Mike Ross," he said, in that soft tone they were accustomed to behind closed doors, where Harvey allowed himself to be vulnerable, silly, agonizingly sappy—just for Mike. "Would you do me the greatest honor of becoming my spouse?"

Mike knew it was coming. They talked about it, often, but wanted to wait till the law caught up with Mike's actual gender. Then it did. And Mike still found themselves staring dumbly at Harvey Specter. The best closer in New York City, the most stubborn man he's ever met, the most infuriating jackass she's ever had to deal with—the man Mike will spend the rest of their life with.

They stared. Then stared some more. 

Harvey held on, patiently.

Finally, their super hyperactive brain found something to say. "I thought you were supposed to get on one knee, old man."

To which Harvey sighed, "In these dirty floors?" 

But before Mike could tease him further, this impossible man got up from his chair, stepped around the table, and got exactly on one knee. Opened the box to reveal a golden band with one single small jewel. Simple. Beautiful. Sensible. Just to Mike's taste.

"I'll ask again," Harvey said, flashing that closer smile. "Mike Ross, will you do this old man a favor and marry him, before both his knees give out and you'll have to help him up the floor?"

They laughed, almost hysterical; happy.

"Fuck, Harvey," Mike murmured, overwhelmed all of the sudden. "Yeah, I'll marry you."

"Good," Harvey said, simply. Yet his eyes shone under the ugly fluorescent lights. "Now give me your finger, hon. Let's do it before people start clapping."

Mike smiled to himself. Watched as Harvey delicately slid the ring onto his finger, sucked in a breath as those gorgeous lips bent down to kiss the diamond. 

(Thank God they were in public, because otherwise he would've had Harvey right there, on that dirty floor among the scattered fries. It would've been a good time, don't get him wrong. But Mike is still quite possessive of Harvey. He wouldn't have wanted anyone to listen in as this beautiful man came apart beneath him, rough voice turning into a whine, hands gripping Mike's waist, just as Harvey pushed further inside and filled him up.)

"Can you imagine the horror?" Mike said, after gathering his wits about him. "Harvey Specter, actually showing emotions in public!"

Harvey grunted, lifting himself at his own pace. "More like, Harvey Specter suffers the humiliation of having to ask their betrothed to give them a hand while he stands up."

"Betrothed?"

"Do you prefer fiancé?"

Mike shook his head. "Nah. Let's go old fashioned. Makes me feel like I'm in Bridgerton."

"Lemme guess," Harvey said, getting back to his seat. "I'm the old rake who is swayed by the young man who is pure of heart."

They snorted. "No, you'd be the rich old dude I seduce to get my own land and title and use, to my own discretion, whenever I want."

Harvey threw him a look; and Mike wrapped their ankle around his. 

"Of course," the older man said, amused. "I'm clearly the victim here."

"The ol' ball and chain."

"There are worse fates. I could've died alone. I could've married Louis." He waits a few seconds before adding, "See, it's funny because I love you and adore you and I just asked you to marry me."

Harvey Specter. The guy who says the most romantic things in the guise of a joke. 

"You're right," they said, leaning over the table; greasy napkins be damned. "There are definitely worse fates besides marrying a pain in the ass like you, babe."

Harvey smiled and Mike just had to kiss him. Which they did. A sweet gentle peck, which would've turned breathless if Harvey hadn't taken control of the situation and brought Mike to heel, with one hand around their neck, gently pushing them back.

"Good pup," Mike heard Harvey whisper just for their ears. 

God, that voice was like strong scotch on the rocks. Like a fresh clean shave. Sharp cologne applied on warm skin. An innocent enough laugh, followed by wandering hands. 

Or maybe that was just Harvey Specter being Harvey Specter; and Mike Ross loved Harvey Specter.

"C'mon, let's finish desert," Harvey said, in his own teasing way. "I have a feeling somebody is gonna come up our table to congratulate us soon."

"The embarrassment!"

Mike stole from Harvey's side of the chocolate soufflé just to be a bitch. But his fiancé didn't seem to mind that at all. They ate with a quickness though, because now they were both bothered—by the engagement, they told themselves, but really, they were always bothered by each other's presence—and they had to rush home to take care of it. The two paid their bill (with Harvey's card). Got in the car (Harvey's hand always on Mike's thigh). Made out on the elevator up their floor. Then proceeded to fuck on every surface of their apartment: the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom… Funny enough, all they did in their bed was sleep through the whole morning.

They have a great relationship. 

Sometimes, though, Mike Ross-Specter can't help but think they're taking advantage.

[blooming-dahlia]

My Dear Friend, I Love You - (Late) Valentine’s Day Special! [Riddle Rosehearts]

╰ Ace sighed heavily as the red and pink heart-shaped cards fell out of the box onto the floor. This year, he and Deuce were in charge of the special Valentine's Day mail at NRC because Riddle wanted them to do something more productive than the things they usually did. And Valentine's Day happened to be right around the corner, so as their beloved friend, you suggested they should volunteer as mailmen for that special occasion.

╰ “I had no idea the students here are so affectionate. How many are there?”

╰ “Come on, Ace. We have to sort them and deliver them to the right classes before our first lesson starts.” Deuce was already on his knees, picking up the cards from the floor and reading the classes written under the students' names. Then he started sorting them carefully, making sure nothing gets mixed up. “I could use some help, you know?”

╰ Dissatisfied and still a bit sleepy, Ace knelt down beside his friend and picked up a pink heart made of paper. This one was addressed to Idia Shroud, the housewarden of Ignihyde. A mocking laugh escaped the redhead's lips.

╰ “That’s an interesting one, let’s see what’s written here.”

╰ Suddenly, Deuce snatched the valentine out of Ace's hands and put it on the class 3-B pile. They weren't supposed to read personal things like love letters, but it was obvious that Ace didn't care. As fast as he could, he began to read the contents of another card he spotted.

╰ “Dear Vil Schoenheit, I'm free on Valentine's Day after 7 PM, so maybe we could meet and watch a movie or eat something delicious at a fancy restaurant. If you're interested, please wear your favorite high heels, I want you to step on me with them- what the hell is this?!” Ace burst out laughing like a maniac before placing the heart on the class 3-C pile.

╰ Another minute passed. Deuce still tried to concentrate on his work, while Ace continued to make ridiculous comments on almost every next letter. Some of them were indeed genuine, full of sweet words of affection, while others were more questionable and not entirely serious. Or at least Ace hoped so.

╰ Vil turned out to be the winner in terms of the amount of valentines received, which wasn't surprising. Somehow Malleus Draconia also managed to get the most cards, both from his class and dormitory. Finally, Deuce picked up the last one, which was visibly different from the others. First of all, it wasn't a heart-shaped piece of paper, but an elegantly wrapped letter. Someone definitely wanted to stand out and impress their crush, they thought. But that wasn't the only reason this valentine was intriguing. The mysterious letter was addressed to [Y/N] [L/N] of class 1-A, the non-magical student and best friend of Adeuce duo.

╰ “I don’t trust them.”

╰ Riddle read the draft of his letter once more before turning to Trey, who was standing in the doorway. The special mail was scheduled to start tomorrow and last until the early morning of Valentine's Day before Ace Trappola and Deuce Spade take the mailbox to sort the cards and finally deliver them to their addressees.

╰ The main problem was the fact that this year's mailmen weren't the most responsible people in Night Raven College, and Riddle was well aware of that. There was no way he was going to take the risk of writing an entire essay expressing his true feelings for you, not if it was going to end up in the hands of those two troublemakers.

╰ “Maybe it's time to finally give them a chance and let them do something that would prove their sense of responsibility?”

╰ “No, they will read it, I am absolutely sure.”

╰ “And that’s why you decided to write [Y/N] a love letter starting with ‘My Dear Friend’? Or maybe you’re not certain about your feelings towards them?” Trey noticed. In fact, Riddle had been struggling with his confession to you for some time, and the upcoming Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect opportunity to end that suffering. You were his first love, after all, and it was obvious that Riddle was nervous, even though he tried to act cool most of the time.

╰ He was also curious if you had made a Valentine's card for anyone. Maybe for Ace and Deuce, since they were your best friends? Or maybe a tuna-scented one for Grim? Unless... no, that couldn't be true. Riddle didn't even want to think about you being in love with someone else. He knew it was selfish of him, but he had fallen head over heels for you and there was nothing he could do about it. He had to confess before it's too late, before some other guy steals your heart.

╰ With a sigh, Riddle took a formal paper and concentrated on rewriting his letter on it. Most people cut colorful sheets of paper in the shape of a heart, but that wasn't his style. Trey went back to the kitchen some time later, allowing Riddle to bang his head against the desk in peace. Why was it so hard to confess to someone, even if it was just through a simple letter?

╰ “My Dear Friend- damn, [Y/N] just got friendzoned through a valentine.”

╰ Deuce tried hard to resist the temptation to read the card, but eventually ended up listening carefully to every word Ace read. This time there was no mocking or laughing. While reading it, they weren't quite sure if this was a love confession, since the person who wrote it seemed to think of you more as a friend than a crush. Either it was a friendzone declaration, or this person was just terrible when it comes to feelings.

╰ “I would be honored if you would accept my invitation for a cup of tea and a nice walk afterwards. Sincerely, the housewarden of Heartslabyul, Riddle Rosehearts.” Ace’s eyes widened immediately, his hands almost clenched on the letter. “No way. I mean, I know the housewarden and [Y/N] are on neutral terms, but him sending them a valentine card seems... oddly out of character.”

╰ “It looks like he's just grateful he can count on [Y/N] and nothing more, we don't need to make any serious assumptions based on what we just read. Anyway, let's just put this on the pile and wait for classes to start so we can finally deliver them and get it over with.”

╰ Meanwhile, you've entered the school building together with Grim, who's been annoying you with questions about when you're going to buy him tuna cans for Valentine's Day. He could at least try to pretend to like your gift for him, a cute sweater with "World's #1 Cutest Cat" written on it.

╰ Your first class started few minutes ago, but there was no sign of Ace and Deuce. As you pulled your textbook out of your bag, you stumbled across a nicely wrapped gift with a note attached, and immediately remembered why your friends weren't showing up. You didn't drop your valentine in the special mailbox set aside for the occasion. Instead, you put a lot of effort and love into your gift for Riddle. The worst thing that could happen now was for him to reject you. That thought was the only reason you hesitated to give it to him.

╰ The door opened and the Adeuce duo made their grand entrance. Professor Trein was about to make a comment about them being late, but Ace quickly made that impossible as he began his speech, or rather, shouting. “Class 1-A, here comes your special Valentine's Day mail! We have a lot of them because we're the best class at Night Raven College.”

╰ You watched as your friends handed out Valentine's cards to particular people. At first, you had no idea that the students at NRC celebrated Valentine's Day just like the ones at your old school. It was heartwarming to see the joy on your classmates' faces when they received their cards.

╰ And then Ace placed a card next to your textbook. You looked up at him, confusion in your eyes, but he just grinned and sat down next to Deuce, who was already reading the contents of his own valentine. What had just happened? Someone sent you a valentine? You studied it and noticed that it wasn't a regular card, but a fancy looking envelope with a letter inside. Feeling a bit uncertain, you decided to open it after classes.

╰ It wasn't surprising that Riddle didn't receive any valentine, but deep down he was hoping to see a card with your signature on his classroom desk. He should have known that this feeling was one-sided, and besides, there were no signs of your interest in him on a more romantic level. You often attended the Unbirthday Parties and even spent some time with Riddle privately. When you needed help with your studies, he was always willing to help. But Riddle was drawn to you more than he should, and it was killing him inside.

╰ You stumbled upon Riddle in the school library. At first you weren't sure if you really wanted to approach him, not after reading his letter. It was sincere and sweet, but something about it made you feel uneasy. Riddle thanked you for everything you'd done for him so far, wrote a simple compliment, emphasized the word ‘friend’ a few times, and invited you on... you didn't know if this was a date or not. You felt stupid for expecting more, knowing that Riddle was trying his best.

╰ Riddle looked at the nearby clock and realized it was time to finally leave the library and return to Heartslabyul. You had to act quickly or you would lose your only chance. Just as he got up from his seat, you threw the gift on the table, causing confusion on Riddle's face. Heartslabyul's housewarden blinked a few times and then turned around to see your cool gaze.

╰ “For you.”

╰ And that was it. Riddle didn't even manage to say a word as you ran out of the library, leaving him alone and confused. That wasn't your plan, of course, but it was now or never, right? The only thing you could do now was to hope that Riddle wouldn't think any worse of you, especially since the way you gave him the Valentine's Day gift wasn't the right one. It wouldn't be surprising if he started to ignore you after that.

╰ Opening the box, Riddle found handmade heart-shaped chocolates. He examined them to make sure everything was all right, then carefully took a bite of one. It tasted like heaven, the strawberry filling doing its job perfectly. Riddle ate another chocolate before he began to read the note attached to the box.

╰ There was no doubt that you were smarter than him. Riddle could always give you the letter in person, one in which he wasn't playing around with hiding his true feelings, instead of throwing the other one in the mailbox just because he didn't want Ace and Deuce to find out about his crush on you.

╰ “Dear Riddle. I'm sorry I didn't have the courage to send you a valentine card by special mail. Instead, I wanted to do something different. Trey gladly agreed to help me make these chocolates for you, especially with your favorite flavor filling. Today is Valentine's Day, when both friends and lovers spend time together, give each other gifts, and so on. Let this gift be a reminder that you have people who love and care for you, that you deserve everything that's good and sweet in this world. And if you don't have anyone to celebrate this day with, I would love to be your valentine. Sincerely, [Y/N], your Dear Friend.”

╰ Those last three words were written with a different ink color, which made Riddle quickly realize that you had just added them, probably after reading his letter. The boy sighed, a soft red blush spreading across his face. Then he grabbed the box with the note and made his way back to the Heartslabyul dormitory, where someone special, his dear friend and valentine, was waiting for him.

It's been a long time since I posted something here, I promise to be more active from now on :D

[tuliharja]

BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Conflict episode 3 review

*Screaming, crying, shouting, giggling, rolling around, shouting, crying, screaming.* I just knew this week's episode would be hard on me because it would be centered around Ukitake, and as a manga reader, I just knew the cruel fate of Ukitake. While I'm happy we finally got almost a full episode of Ukitake at the same time I'm deeply sad and upset and not at all okay. Mainly because Ukitake got the super short end of the stick. He was always living with a bomb inside of him, because just because some local God healed his 'illness' (and even that failed, because hello? Ukitake was still sick!) in exchange for getting his all organs? What kind of deal that is? A poor one! Super-duper stupid and poor one. Then again, there is always a catch when someone promises you something that seems too good to be true.

And before anyone starts 'but Ukitake lived centuries, so if you really think about it...' I don't want to read that. I still think Ukitake (and his parents) got tricked, though the parents knew (?) that in exchange for curing Ukitake's illness, he would lose his organs. While it's obvious his parents loved him dearly, I still think to cure illness = get our son's organs? In moments like these, I can't help but think doesn't anyone know anything about anatomy? Even I, who is very bad when comes to anatomy, I'm pretty sure without your all organs one can't live. Be it a soul or not. So, if Ukitake was going to die because of his illness...how did the pact with Mimihagi change anything? Expect made Ukitake's life...still? That flashback with Kyoraku gave us more info about that, but I couldn't help but question the end of Ukitake's sacrifice...was it worth it? I feel like Ukitake had decided to pause his life for this grand moment and that grand moment was basically his death, so in a way (at least to me) it felt like he never truly lived. Or, if he lived it was shadow life. I don't know. I feel like I'm missing some key point about Ukitake's character or it's just that I don't agree with his philosophy of 'there are two kinds of battles'. After all, it felt like his whole life did go with that mentality, which is...sad. But I suppose without that endless suffering and constant shadow of death over his shoulders, he wouldn't have been as kind a person as he was. Still. This was a very hard episode for me, especially because I know how things will turn out...

What I found interesting was the fact that Yhwach didn't see Ukitake's move. It made me think of that saying "don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing", which actually makes a lot of sense, once we progress in the anime. Manga readers will understand this statement. But even without some people knowing what that truly means, it made me wonder why Yhwach couldn't see Ukitake's move? Because he can't see what Soul King (or his parts at least) does? Because Soul King is/was (is he still in his frozen state or dead-dead?) above him and because of that, his parts were also above Yhwach? I hope the anime will answer that question somehow.

It was also interesting the rumor of Soul King's parts dropping from the sky (heaven?) was somewhat common knowledge at least among noble shinigamis...that's...when I now look at my sentence, that sounds pretty grim and horrible, doesn't it? But it begs the question: why Soul King's parts were severed and seemingly scattered all around the places? I'm pretty sure in one of Bleach's light novels' they explain that, but I can't remember that. Not to mention I hope the anime will explain that properly at some point. After all, we've got lots of filler content that has been crucial when comes to explaining certain things.

That flashback of Ukitake was bittersweet. In a way, it was very lovely to see him grow and become the man he was, but at the same time a bit sad. It was also interesting how unlike how fandom usually likes to portray everybody the newer generation of Gotei 13 treated Ukitake when he would cough blood, at least in that flashback when he was having a mock battle against Kyoraku they didn't halt it just because Ukitake coughed some blood top of him. Sure, Sasakibe (talk about him being a pretty boy in his youth!) ended the fight, but only after it had reached a certain point. I think that also explains why Ukitake had such respect for them all! After all, while he was sick, that wasn't all that he was. He was kind, and witty and stood firmly on what he believed in.

The scene of Kyoraku, Unohana, and Ukitake looking at Yamamoto's broken Zanpakuto was very...sad and grim. After all, Kyoraku all but probably knew he would be the only one left to live. Unohana was ready to throw her life for the sake of passing the Kenpachi torch to Zaraki Kenpachi and Ukitake was prepared to be a substitute for Soul King. Does that mean Ukitake knew or sensed Soul King would go down? Because if he hadn't...why else he would have been praying Mimihagi? It was an oddity that I hope will get some explanation at some point.

It made me chuckle when Urahara said for once 'I don't know about this topic at all' as usually he knows just about everything. But I suppose his non-noble roots were revealed at that point? Because at least to me it felt like Mimihagi was noble shinigamis' closely guarded secret or maybe Urahara didn't know about it and things involved it because it was just some "random local god"? But it was pretty amusing, despite the grim situation. And again Soi Fon got called out when she tried to be the 'I know this all is very sad and emotional, but the crisis isn't yet over, people!' while both me and Rukia were screaming for Ukitake...aaaaah!!!

But moving on. Finally, we saw Aizen in action. I feel like the fact he was shown in this episode and the fact the episode ended with him served as a nice contrast to Ukitake's loyalty toward Soul Society. After all, Aizen was all but scoffing at the idea of going out there to breathe air in Soul Society. Or maybe he was against it because Yhwach had ruined it? But somehow...thinking how Aizen was, I find it to be the first one. He has always been against Soul Society or rather the system of it as it's rotten. He went openly against it, while Ukitake went too against it in his own way. Once again, we were back to contrast in this episode, which was very interesting! And more contrasts were brought with that last bit of Uryuu's ending poem. The next episode's title...kind of gives a hint of what it might be about.

[slushiesandshowtunesat3am]

people saying that rape is just a kink to them makes me so incredibly mad. Like how fucked up is that?

such an ugly and horrible and disgusting thing that sadly happens to way too many people. Something that can ruin someones life, damage it in such an irrevocably way. And it’s a kink to you?????

like how dare anyone even say that. It’s not like this could, in any way, be twisted into something enjoyable. There’s some kinks that weird me out (like pee kinks) where I can understand how someone could find it enjoyable because it’s not something inherently bad.

But rape/noncon is just bad. There’s nothing about it that could in any way be twisted into something that isn’t bad.

If dark writers seriously write rape fics because "it’s a kink“ then jfc, stop writing and get some help because that’s just so fucked up.

I think I really have to agree.

The ask above and the text below is a response to concern about the growing number of infantilization and dub con/non con content that is taking over certain fanfiction spaces.

I will be using tags from those spaces to spread the message and further encourage conversation, so if you do not want to see my posts, block me now

Like I said, maybe there's some underlying psycho-sexual understanding I need to be able to grasp it, but just from a point of empathy, I don't think I can understand why we're writing about this.

It's one thing to write about a form of violence, it's a complete other to seek any form of gratification, sexual or otherwise for it.

I know too many people who have suffered from form of sexual abuse or sexual violence to understand.

I remember I read a dub-con fic once, just to see if there was any form of understanding I could garner from it. I have explored kinks in terms of dominant and submissive dynamics, degradation, and power play, and although they're not something I receive much pleasure from reading, I understand that there is an art in letting go in certain sexual scenarios.

That fic was not representative of that mentality at ALL to me. It made me physically sick when I read it, angry, and although I didn't say anything to the writer because I understand that this was an issue far beyond her, I blocked her immediately and spent a months off of Tumblr to get my bearings.

I couldn't believe that we were sexualizing non-consensual and coercive dynamics, I mean, I was literally shocked. And I thought okay, some people will always lack some form of empathy and understanding for traumatic experiences -- we've seen people sexualize serial killers for fucks sake -- so there isn't much we can do but block and move on...but now it's like it's every other post in some communities and I feel like a conversation needs to be had.

I'm drawn back to an incident that occurred on TikTok months ago. There was a convicted felon, accused of murder, rape, and frequent abuse of his partners, named Wade Wilson. A video was shown of one of his court hearings and the comments were...atrocious to say the least.

I suppose he fit the "bad boy" image so many women in these comments were looking for, as they were comparing him to characters in dark romance novels they had read and explaining how they would happily be one of his victims, even vying for his release.

I do not want to see that continue. I do not want to see dynamics like this, even subconsciously, be normalized, and certainly not looked at for sexual gratification.

Thousands, if not millions, of women are victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse every year. It's quite literally an epidemic...and now we're turning around and making it into a kink?

As if victims aren't already afraid of speaking up?

Reading those comments, I couldn't help but think about the woman who finally had the courage to put that man behind bars, and how absolutely deplorable I would feel seeing those comments and realizing fellow women not only refuse to support and sympathize with me, but actively support and want to fuck the man who made my life a living hell. Because that is the type of content they choose to consume.

[reshiram]

You mentioned that Seofon means a lot to you and I just felt the need to say that, yeah, same

I used to be a pretty casual Granblue player who was mostly around for Belial and about a year ago I developed a strange fascination with Seofon, to a point that I got a bunch of my friends into him as well (including Shades, it's my fault). I was apprehensive about recruiting an Eternal, so I got Seofon from the freebie I got after Seeds of Redemption in early February

...I then recruited the other nine Eternals over the course of the next seven months

Just yesterday I transcended Seofon for the third time

Which meant clawing my way to victory against Ewiyar in a grueling solo battle, but I pushed through. For. For him

I used to be so casual and I've been getting nonstop Platinum every month since March. I've gotten so much stronger, especially in Wind. Can you guess why? It's all his fault

First perpetuity ring and everything

I used the free revans weapon we got from the anni event to get a Sette di Spade because I can't do revans raids yet and I've been using it ever since too -

He just gives me a lot of feelings

The friend group keeps making jokes that ever since he noticed my interest, we've been getting a lot of content for him as well, Heart of the Sun and Last Sumo Warrior and Relink and the Grandcypher Kitchen and his art for the orchestra concert and who knows what else

I also had to grind like crazy in Relink to unlock him immediately when I hadn't unlocked Proud quests yet so I spent hours farming Ahrimans, so I'm used to suffering for him at least

I just wanted to get that off my chest as I am the resident Most Normal Seofon Anon

Anyway, he's pretty great I guess (understatement of the century)

OH. YOU... So you're finally in my inbox hmm?~ heheh... yes i have seen you around, what a lovely pleasure it is to answer an ask from the fabled Most Normal Seofon Anon...

anyway... this is a beautiful story. like actually... seofon really is contagious 97% of the time... i really understand where you're coming from, because most of my seofon insanity is posted on Other Sites and such, which means Tumblr is Spared from half the things i say... but it made me... really happy? to see that people found out who seofon is because of me on those sites! like i ran a poll on twitter and a huge chunk of people said they found out about him because of me... so you anon, are my kindred, truly. i get you. you get me. 🌟

like people even call me an authority on him and send me posts with him and it makes me go Woah. I've had an impact on the people. they see this freak and think of me... let's spread the illness together...

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME, LET ME JUST. SAY. GOOD JOB WITH ALL OF THAT!!!!! CONGRATS ON STAGE 3 TRANSCENDENCE!!! YAY!!!!!! 💓 let's work on stages 4 + 5 together... ^__^ i'll think of you from now on when i work on 5*'ing the other eternals~

i get going crazy over him and doing crazy grinds over him. i actually logged my progress on his first stage last year, where you can see i went pretty insane in a short period of time. 😳 unfortunately due to my health i have this tendency of going Wild for a bit and then taking breaks. but hey. if it works...? (do not get me started on the evoker grind pre-rank 200. i fought 1300 six dragon raids in three days to get 3 sands... >_< but that's offtopic so---)

i'm over rank 200, so i get to visit seofon whenever i want (i also have my siero academy permanently stuck on the v2 battle with seofon)

BUT YEAAAAAAH THANKS FOR DROPPING BY SEOFON ANON!!!!! feel free to keep me updated on how you're doing~ maybe to inspire you i'll drop a silly picture of my seofon mochi kororin in a Situation next time you're in my inbox. for now i'll leave you with this video. which i think will really resonate with you.

lore about this video is that i just got out of the ER and just felt the need to make it. the hospital drugs told me to.

[leggerefiore]

I am feeding you some content, both as a Valentine's Day treato and because I know you've been worrying to death over how the mouth pain has impacted your content (which I'd rather you rest than burn yourself out and suffer).

Here's my take at a Cyrus x Reader timeline. Mostly based on what's been written and discussed, but I did add a HC or two (like Cyrus falling in love 1st because that's hilarious to me. Remember how we talked about Cyrus already assuming he was already reader's BF when they confessed and asked him out? Just imagine him waiting YEARS to tell reader how long he had assumed they were already a couple and it's something ridiculous like 6 months or more. Maybe it doesn't even come out until Lenie gets old enough to have crushes of her own like 20+ years later. Comedic Gold.)

I'm doing better-ish today. Some days are more manageable than others lol. I still want to try to write when I can since it's my favourite hobby and I like writing cute things... And I'd be remiss not to write something for this lovely holiday.

Anyways, on topic to the timeline... I see a friend group mention after becoming BFFs with Cyrus, so I'd like to imagine him being weirdly jealous in his own... Cyrus flair...

His teenage years after being forcibly separated from his friend group and having to focus solely on the activities and studies that his parents want his attention on... Poor guy probably feels like he lost to Volkner in some strange way. Though, he does have his awkward moments of rebelling, certainly... He can only take so much loneliness and difficult feelings before s/o finds themselves with a wordless Cyrus at their side who clearly doesn't want to go home.

Him falling in love first could also be a product of that loneliness, but not necessarily solely that.

As for later on, I think around 18 or 19 would probably be when his parents would want to look into "arranged style" marriages for him with their business partners and it would make him go more mad about his life not being under his control. (Maybe another reason he is so obsessed with order and what not.)

I do wonder what would make his final spiral happen. Maybe one of those old business partners tries to force a marriage by doing something to s/o? Or something maybe more canonical would just be the stress on him from running such a company at a relatively young age with his already rough upbringing.

Interpol custody arc is where s/o starts making Mob Wife Tiktoks or something lmao. Saturn begs them to stop. (Poor Cyllene, though. It would be a difficult readjustment for everyone.)

Pokemas Arc aka(gi) Cyrus Is At It Again! at least Cyllene would effectively nerf his true intentions in this AU. (She gets to be a sync pair with his Rotom, so she's extra effective, too.)

[jazlynriddle-legacy]

Welcome to your life - Pt 3:

It's My Own Design Ch 16:

Summary:

Ominis fought to control his expression, to keep his hands from trembling. Five years. Five years since he'd seen his parents, and this. This was the reason they'd given him the honour of their time? This was the reason they'd sought him out at Hogwarts?

The bitterness welling up within him was thick enough to gag on.

New year, new allies, new responsibilities, new avenues of revenue, and new aspects of their own Ancient Magic to explore. As the Keeper and their partners enter their last year at Hogwarts, it remains to be seen if the new school year will bring with it new problems or adversaries, but they are confident in the strength of their relationship with Sebastian and Ominis. The three of them would endure, no matter what befell them.

And if they were wrong?

What a joke, they would suffer no alternative.

Warnings: Sebastian x MC x Ominis! Drug Addiction! Spoilers! Slow-burn corruption! Dark content! Fucked up 1800s orphanages! MC has no love for Anne or Solomon! Dubious happy ending (it's happy for MC, Seb and Ominis at least).

You can also read on AO3! (chapter specific warnings below)

Notes:

Warnings: Cliffhanger, sort of.

Oh lord, over 11k words now. I really wanted to split this chapter up, but it would damage the effect I was going for, so, yeah x'D

I also wanted to do art for this chapter but I was so damn tired this month, so I'll probably add art later. Next chapter might be shorter if I can cut it earlier because 2 weeks really isn't enough time for a 10k+ chapter, lol I wanna try to go back to 8k-ish if possible.

Inb4 next chapter comes in at 15k.

Edit: I drew the art! Yaaaay, I finally drew the art for this chapter- So congrats to you tumblr readers, you get the art at the same time as the chapter lol

“Expecto Patronum!” Ominis flicked his wand and then paused. “Anything?”

“Just light mist.” Sebastian shook his head, and the blond boy sighed.

“Expecto Patronum!” The Keeper cast as well, before sighing when they conjured nothing but glowing mist. “If it's any consolation, I'm not having much success either.”

“Seriously, Sebastian. How did you do it?” Ominis folded his arms with an irritated expression.

“I told you, I just think about how lovely both of you look when you're happy.” Sebastian answered with a shrug, while his small glowing otter swam through the air around him.

“Well that's not very helpful for me, now is it.” Ominis grumbled.

The Keeper shook their head with a huff. “All that does is make me horny.”

There was a moment of silence, before Garreth gave them a disgusted look. “For Merlin's sake, can you three go ten minutes without flaunting your relationship in front of us single bastards?”

“Speak for yourself, I think it's quite sweet.” Natty waved off his complaints.

“Aha! So, you aren't single?” Garreth asked with a grin.

“I never said that.” Natty gave Poppy a nervous glance and seemed relieved that the Hufflepuff wasn't paying attention, before shooting him an annoyed glare as she flicked her wand. “Expecto Patronum!”

The funnel of mist that poured from her wand was probably the most corporeal besides Sebastian's, with the almost discernible form of a dog.

“Oh, almost got it!” Poppy clapped for Natty, who had on somewhere between a proud grin and a frustrated grimace.

“Still need more practice, Professor Sharp says that being able to cast a corporeal Patronus counts for a lot when being considered for admission to the Aurors.” Natty sighed, shooting Sebastian a mildly jealous look, which he returned with a cocky smirk.

“Don't worry, Natty, I'm sure you'll succeed. Christmas holidays start next week and there's still half a year before graduation.” The Keeper patted her on the shoulder, when a single freezing drop of water hit them on the arm.

Looking up, the Keeper eyed the dark clouds that had gathered overhead while the group had been practising spells in the courtyard after classes ended for the day. It wasn't cold enough to snow yet, but it was getting cold enough to hurt.

They were about to suggest that everyone head indoors, when the unmistakable sound of thunder rumbled across the moors, followed by a flash of light in the heavens.

Poppy gasped. “Is that!?”

“Lightning!” Sebastian and Garreth exclaimed at the same time, before glaring at each other.

“Come on!” Natty lifted her wand to create a barrier against the falling rain as she began to run towards the forest.

Exchanging excited grins, the rest took off after her, while Amit scrambled to shove his book into his bag. “Wait for me!”

The rain fell heavier and heavier with every moment, until it was pelting against the group's magical umbrellas as they filed into the forest. Each quickly dug up a box containing their crystal phial, before rushing back to the castle. The rain now a deluge that made it difficult to see or hear each other through the darkness, thunder shaking the earth with every rumble.

The group stood in the castle entryway for a few moments, catching their breath and lowering the hood of their school robes.

“The classroom we use on Saturdays should be empty by now, right?” Amit asked.

“Yes, hopefully. We don't know how long the storm will last, so the sooner we start, the better.” Natty nodded. “Let's go.”

The group made to follow her, when Poppy looked about, realising that there were only six of them present. “Hang on, where's-”

The doors opened again for the Keeper to slip in through them and lower their hood.

“Oh, there you are!” Poppy gave a relieved sigh.

“Sorry, tripped on a root.” The Keeper explained as they rejoined the group.

“Great, everyone's here, now can we get a move on already?” Garreth complained, getting several glares in response. “What? We're on the clock, I'm just saying it like it is.”

Natty rolled her eyes but didn't disagree. “Alright, let's go.”

Fortunately, the lightning storm continued to rage outside and didn't seem like it would let up any time soon. The group of teens were soon sitting in the middle of an empty classroom, removing their crystal phials from their dirt crusted boxes and unstopping them.

“Of course it would be red.” Garreth sighed, holding up the phial. “All I can think of is that this used to be a baby moth.”

“Thanks for reminding us.” Amit side eyed him.

“Alright, everyone, you'll need to do the daily chant one more time.” Natty instructed and the rest of the group, sans the Keeper, drew their wands to point at their hearts.

“Amato Animo Animato Animagus.” The five chanted and their wands glowed with a soft gold light that also shimmered around the crystal phials a moment later.

“Well done!” Natty clapped. “That glow means everyone has been doing the chant correctly. Now you just need to drink the potion. You'll have a vision of your animal form and then the double heartbeat will become painful, but don't panic. If you do, you might lose yourself to the animal.”

Nodding with varying degrees of nervousness, the five drank their potions, Garreth holding his nose as he did.

“Well, that wasn't so bad.” Ominis smiled as he passed Sebastian his empty phial and the brunet set both down on a nearby table.

“Speak for yourself.” Garreth grumbled as he set aside his phial as well.

“Oh!” Poppy suddenly exclaimed, while Sebastian pressed a hand to his forehead and Garreth shook his head.

A moment later, each of the five doubled over with a groan of pain while the golden glow shone from their skin.

“Alright everyone, take a deep breath. Don't fight whatever your body wants to do, listen to the second heartbeat and focus on the animal form you see.” Natty instructed and the Keeper could see everyone struggling to follow those instructions.

The Keeper desperately wanted to comfort Ominis and Sebastian, but didn't want to distract them either. So, they were forced to watch as the two boys collapsed to the floor with expressions of pain, sweat beading on their brows, and fists tight around their robes.

Several minutes passed this way, until Poppy cried out, her body contorting as a swirl of light shone around her and then, in her place was a brown coated deer with pale spots speckled across her back.

Natty immediately ran to her side, brushing her hand over Poppy's pelt and whispering comforting words to the deer.

A moment later, Sebastian grunted and the same happened, his form changing in a swirl of light, into a large dog with long brown fur and patches of white across his snout and belly. The Keeper finally allowed themselves to go to his side as well, and soft whimpers of pain came from the dog as they cradled him close.

The next to be enveloped in light, was Amit, who seemingly disappeared. Until the Keeper realised that there was a palm sized tortoise shell where he'd lain, its spiky black shell patterned with geometric star-like lines of orange. A few seconds passed, before a tiny orange snout poked out from under the shell.

The Keeper was relieved when Ominis finally finished his transformation too, becoming a rather large and beautiful white feline that was just slightly smaller than Sebastian, and had tufts of fur extending from the tip of his ears.

Dragging himself to his feet, Sebastian plodded over unsteadily to lie down beside Ominis, dwarfing the cat with his form. The Keeper too followed to his side, and with one hand, stroked the large cat's soft cream fur as he panted for breath, while with the other, ran their fingers through Sebastian's thick warm fur to soothe him as well.

Finally, the last to transform was Garreth, and he made a rather amusing squeak, before turning into a raccoon with reddish fur, lying on his back, puffy tail twitching as his chest heaved.

“Webale Katonda...” Natty murmured, smiling with relief. “It looks like everyone managed without complications.”

“Thanks to your guidance.” The Keeper nodded to her in gratitude, chuckling when they felt Ominis purring quietly against their palm. Finding the way Sebastian shoved his snout under Ominis’ chin to be quite adorable, though the big cat seemed to find it annoying and batted at Sebastian with a paw.

“When you feel able, I'd like everyone to try turning back into human form, just to make sure that everything went right.” Natty stroked Poppy's neck soothingly as she spoke.

With a huff, Sebastian pried himself from Ominis’ side to sit up and closed his warm brown eyes in focus. Amit's snout disappeared under his shell once more and Ominis opened his eyes, which seemed to still be unseeing milky pink orbs. A pity, the Keeper had hoped that Ominis might be able to see in his animal form.

A few minutes later, the five kids were kids once more and Garreth groaned, running a hand through his ginger mane. “Bloody hell, everything hurts, even my hair...”

“Quit whining.” Sebastian grumbled, holding his head between his hands while Ominis leaned tiredly against the Keeper.

“I think I need to lie down.” Ominis murmured.

“Best idea I've heard all day.” Amit gave a tired laugh.

“Help me back to the common room?” Ominis asked the Keeper.

“Of course.” They nodded and stood slowly, helping Ominis to his feet, before offering Sebastian a hand as well.

“What's the rush?” Garreth asked, raising an eyebrow at the three from the floor.

“Unlike you, I'd rather pass out in a bed.” Ominis rolled his eyes. “Bit more comfortable at the moment.”

Poppy gave a breathless laugh against Natty's side, and the Gryffindor nodded. “Yes, we should probably get some rest this weekend, we can have our Saturday meetings after school resumes.”

With a nod, the Keeper left with both boys leaning against them, supporting them out into the corridor, which was empty since most of the school was likely at dinner.

“Shall we use the Undercroft to do yours?” Ominis asked quietly, startling the Keeper and he gave them a wry smile. “I know you went to get your phial too.”

“I can help you to the common room first.” The Keeper shook their head, if he was aching enough to want a proper bed, that took priority.

Ominis rolled his eyes. “I only said that so we could leave quickly. If you think we're letting you attempt the transformation unsupervised, you're barmy.”

“Can't wait to see what you end up as.” Sebastian gave a tired chuckle.

“You guys...” The Keeper felt their heart warm with affection, really hoping that they would be something that could cuddle with their partners. “Alright.”

The trip to the Undercroft took a while but the reassuring sound of thunder followed them all the way to the secret entrance. Slipping inside, the Keeper left the boys sitting together on the bench while they set down their satchel, and sat on the floor with their crystal phial.

“Amato Animo Animato Animagus.” The Keeper chanted, with their wand placed to their heart, waiting for the phial to glow before taking a deep breath and bringing it to their lips.

The potion's taste was... weird. Not much of a taste actually, it just felt warm, maybe a tad salty. Like piss- which was a nauseating thought to have while drinking it, and the Keeper was happy to set the empty phial aside.

The strength of the second heartbeat caught them off guard and their vision hazed over for a second before clearing to the sight of... snow?

A white snowy sea, speckled with the occasional tree, as far as the eye could see.

The Keeper was puzzled, weren't they supposed to see their Animagus form? A slightest hint of movement caught their attention and there, in what they'd thought was a mound of snow in the shadow of a tree, a pair of golden eyes peered out at them.

The mound rose up on four legs and they realised that the shadows were grey fur, it growled low and threatening. Then the ferocious beast was charging at them, and before the Keeper could react, it dove into their chest, vanishing as though absorbed into their body.

Then the pain began.

It felt like hair-thin needles were being driven into their skin, four loud pulses throbbing between their ears, heat burning through their chest and searing through their body.

Golden light burned behind their eyelids, and they felt restrained, like they were wrapped in a thick blanket, tight around them, constraining every movement such that even breath could not be drawn.

Free.

They needed to be free. A scream built in their throat, and they fought their restraints but as they tore through their bindings and their mouth opened, a howl emerged instead.

Slumping forward, the Keeper collapsed to the floor, chest heaving for breath. They felt something touch their head and tensed, surprised when a growl rumbled in their chest.

“It's okay, you're safe...”

Sebastian. The Keeper tried to speak, but instead a soft whine emerged from their... snout. Right. Animagus form. Fucking hell, Garreth was right, everything hurt.

“A wolf, somehow I'm not particularly surprised.” Sebastian chuckled.

A wolf, a dog and a cat. The Keeper huffed in amusement, enjoying Sebastian's gentle caresses. Well, at least they'd gotten their wish to be an animal that would easily cuddle with their boyfriends.

A flash of light came from beside them and then there was a pretty white cat rubbing up against the Keeper's side. Huh, they'd thought Ominis rather large for a cat, he seemed smaller now.

A moment later, Sebastian joined him in dog form, and the Keeper was amused to realise that this was simply because they were quite a bit larger than both Ominis and Sebastian. Stretching out so that the two boys could lie against their belly, the Keeper gave a tired sigh and lowered their snout to the floor to rest.

Rumbling purrs came from Ominis’ chest as he started licking the fur on the Keeper's head, while Sebastian draped a front leg over Ominis’ back, nuzzled his muzzle against the cat's pale neck and promptly began snoring.

It was a curious feeling, being an animal, the light of the candelabras was somehow brighter, Ominis’ purrs and Sebastian's snores felt louder, the sound of rainfall audible even from the underground chamber. The smell of melting wax and burning wick, mingled with wood and oil, lit up like paths in their vision.

Most wonderful however, were the scents of Ominis and Sebastian. Somehow, the Keeper knew them. Knew what they meant.

Mates.

Family.

Pack.

Despite the ache still throbbing through the Keeper's body, the comfortable warmth that they felt with their partners by their side was pleasant enough that they considered it rather worth all the effort.

Closing their eyes, the Keeper allowed the rhythm of Ominis’ grooming to soothe the pain, and their tired consciousness soon faded into darkness.

“-which made it difficult to pinpoint since caracals have those tufts of fur on their ears that make them look like lynx. And while there weren't any records of albino caracals, all records of albino lynx were spotted, so I'm fairly certain of my conclusion.” Sebastian finished with a confident nod.

“So, Poppy's a Fallow Deer, Amit is an Indian Star Tortoise, Garreth is a common Raccoon.” The Keeper recited. “You're a Border Collie, I'm an Eurasian Wolf and Ominis is an albino Caracal.”

“Yup.” Sebastian beamed, clearly pleased that they'd listened attentively throughout his lecture. “Amit's is actually pretty rare, endangered species apparently. Albino caracals are basically unheard of too.”

“Of course, our Ominis is one of a kind.” The Keeper smirked proudly. “Though he probably shouldn't go about in Animagus form too often, since he stands out.”

“Bit of a bummer, that. He's only ever wanted to be like everyone else.” Sebastian murmured. “For some unfathomable reason.”

“Not so unfathomable I'd say, since the loveliest rose in the bush gets picked first. I mean, the biggest danger to him, particularly in Animagus form, would be poachers who would sell his pretty arse for a pretty penny.” The Keeper pointed out.

“Fair enough.” Sebastian conceded, before he snickered. “Something Garreth doesn't have to worry about, seeing as he's just a common raccoon.”

The Keeper rolled their eyes, they still didn't know where the odd rivalry between the two boys came from, but at least it was entertaining. “I think it's interesting how compatible Poppy and Natty's forms are.”

Sebastian hummed thoughtfully. “On the surface maybe, but fallow deer and gazelle come from very different environments, and one's got antlers while the other has horns.”

“I mean that they can prance together through the woods.” The Keeper chuckled fondly.

“I suppose they could, but gazelles are actually quite a bit faster than deer. So, Natty might have to wait for Poppy.” Sebastian shrugged.

“Knowing her, I doubt she'll mind.” The Keeper gave him a wry smile, before jabbing a thumb at the large double door that they'd been leaning against this whole time, patiently waiting for Sebastian to finish his verbal vomit. “It's ready, want to give it a try?”

“Sure.” Sebastian grinned and they moved aside.

He reached out to grasp the door's handle and it glowed for a moment, before there was an audible click, and he easily pushed the door open, before rubbing at his thumb absently.

“Excellent, it works despite the features I added.” The Keeper grinned, rather pleased that they'd managed to create a door for their bedroom that would only unlock in response to their Ancient Magic or Ominis’ parseltongue or Sebastian's blood. “I'm still impressed you managed to figure out how the blood verification ritual works with half the page covered in smudged ink.”

“Why thank you! It certainly wasn't easy.” Sebastian beamed proudly. “Though I do wonder why a locking charm this useful isn't more commonly used.”

“Probably the same reason people don't use dark magic, blood is creepy or something equally absurd.” The Keeper rolled their eyes.

“Yeah, probably. Now all I need to be concerned with is making sure no-one draws my blood and uses it for a key.” Sebastian gave a cocky grin. “Easy.”

“Even if that happens, I added a stipulation to the door so it rejects cold or stale blood.” The Keeper shrugged. “Blood degrades after it's been removed from the body, and the only way to preserve it would be to keep it cold, so that should be enough to counteract that.”

“You're supposed to agree that my duelling skill is unparalleled.” Sebastian raised an eyebrow at them.

“Well, can't really say that when I've put you on your arse.” The Keeper chuckled, giving him a teasing smile.

“Yeah, but I've spanked yours. So, where does that leave us?” Sebastian grinned.

“Doesn't count, because I liked it.” The Keeper' smile became amused.

Despite his ears going adorably red, Sebastian gave them a smirk, stepping closer and running his thumb over their bottom lip, murmuring softly. “Did you now?”

Flicking their tongue out, the Keeper caught the edge of his thumb with it and took a moment to revel in the heat that sparked in his eyes, before raising their wand and casting a tempus.

“Alright, now that we've confirmed that the door works, we can set up the hidden door to the basement with the same security design when we get back.” The Keeper patted him on the cheek. “We should get going, or we'll be late to meet Borgok.”

With that, they slipped out from between him and the wall to make for the stairs, and Sebastian let his forehead fall forward to rest against the stone with a sigh.

“Come on, Sebastian.” The Keeper called.

“Coming...” He replied with another sigh, grumbling under his breath. “Sure wish I actually were.”

Laughing internally at Sebastian, as he followed the Keeper down the stairs, they poked their head into the kitchen, where Ominis was lying, curled up and cuddled with the little dragon on its bed in his Animagus form.

Smiling at the adorable sight, the Keeper called out. “Ominis, we're heading out.”

The white caracal's ears twitched, and Ominis waved his tail at them in acknowledgement, so the Keeper chuckled and withdrew to join Sebastian in the entryway.

The two brought out their brooms and were soon off to Knockturn Alley.

The pub was lively as always, and since Borgok hadn't arrived yet, the Keeper brought Sebastian with them to the bar counter.

“Evening, Alasdair.” The Keeper greeted as they seated themselves, Sebastian following suit.

“Salamander.” The bartender smiled at them from behind his glasses. “What can I get you this fine evening?”

“Two of my usual and the house special.” The Keeper answered and when his eyes flickered towards Sebastian, they added. “This is Sebastian, he's assisting me with my work.”

“Is that so...” Alasdair eyed the brunet critically. “You sure about that, kid?”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Sebastian raised an eyebrow at the man, and he gave a deep chuckle as he mixed their drinks.

“You've got bollocks lad, but I know a daredevil when I see one.” The bartender flashed him a knowing smile. “You like the heat of danger, but this line of work ain't a game. You would be ill suited to Mercenary work.”

“It's fine.” The Keeper waved off his concerns before Sebastian could retort. “He's not here to join, he's simply accompanying me to ensure that I do not perish in battle.”

The Keeper found Alasdair’s response rather interesting, seeing as they had been accepted by him on sight. Though they supposed that it should have been plain that it was their reputation and the guildmaster's intuition that made their admission so smooth.

“If you say so.” Alasdair shrugged. “Owl asked me to inform you that he cannot make it tonight, but he's made some headway and identified several potential leads.”

“Alright, thanks.” The Keeper nodded as the bartender set two glasses of chocolate coffee ice before them.

They had to admit that they missed the convenience of Owl's pocket mirror, which they'd returned last week, since they no longer needed to coordinate so precisely. They really wanted to get a set for communication with Sebastian and Ominis, such artefacts were incredibly useful, but also apparently quite rare.

At this moment, the doors opened to admit Borgok and he lumbered over to the bar. “Evening Salamander, Sebastian.”

“Borgok.” The Keeper nodded as the goblin took a seat as well. “I assume you have my items?”

The goblin nodded, offering them the expanded pouch they'd given him before. “As agreed.”

When the Keeper took the pouch from him, a blue flame appeared over their hand. Despite this, they took a peek to verify that the pouch did indeed contain their promised artefacts, while Borgok greeted Alasdair and ordered a drink, before placing it in their satchel.

“How much coin would you like for them?” The Keeper asked and to their surprise, Borgok glanced at Alasdair, before shaking his head.

“In light of the unexpected difficulty and the surplus of silver you provided, I will consider this round of wares paid for.” The goblin smiled, accepting his drink from the bartender and raised his mug. “To our continued camaraderie.”

“To our mutual cause.” The Keeper raised their glass in answer as well, before taking out their contract with Borgok, handing it to Alasdair to be discharged with a stamp.

“Sebastian, I would like to discuss your apprenticeship further, if you are willing.” Borgok asked once the contracts were settled.

The still pouting brunet glanced at the Keeper, and they nodded. “I have things to discuss with Alasdair anyway.”

“Alright.” Taking his glass with a sigh, Sebastian followed the goblin to one of the tables, a distance away, to speak.

“Ah yes, I have something for you.” Alasdair smiled and retrieved a wooden box from behind the counter, presenting it to the Keeper. “As you have completed your first bounty, you are now an official member of the Phantoms. Congratulations.”

Having an inkling of its contents, the Keeper opened the wooden box and found a silver venetian half mask within it. It was simple and elegant, with a pattern of a salamander along one side and the flame emblem of the Phantoms along the other, while intricate swirls were etched into the edges of the silver.

“Figured you wouldn't want anything too fanciful.” Alasdair chuckled. “If you should wish to conceal your identity and wear only your status as a Phantom Mercenary, you need only don this mask.”

Giving him a grateful nod, the Keeper closed the box and placed it in their satchel with a simple. “Thank you.”

“No thanks needed, you are an investment, after all.” The bartender flashed them a small smirk. “Which reminds me, Vesper should be stopping by soon.”

“Excellent, I'll give him his payment then. Speaking of which, are there any new jobs I can take?” They asked after a moment. “The Christmas holidays have started, so my schedule is more flexible.”

“Certainly.” The bartender nodded. “Any preferences?”

The Keeper hummed thoughtfully, they could use more test subjects, now that they had the collars and cauldron to experiment with. Not to mention, they wanted to reassure Sebastian that they could handle Mercenary work on their own, that Gnarlak’s difficulty was really an exception, so a relatively easy job would be good.

“Any jobs with a human target but no obligation to bag a kill?” The Keeper asked, taking a sip of their drink.

“That's specific.” Alasdair cocked an eyebrow at them, but seemed to consider the request for a few moments, before bending down to rifle through something behind the counter.

“This might match what you're looking for.” The bartender extracted a contract to hand to the Keeper. “The target's wife put out a request to retrieve their coin from him. Apparently, he absconded with the family wealth and left her with debt and two children to raise.”

Accepting it, they examined the contract which outlined a request to steal all of worth from a man named Frederick Taylor, with a promised reward of twenty percent of the stolen valuables. It included a family photograph of the man, what was likely his wife and two children... and a familiar looking house elf.

Recognising the elf, the Keeper's eyes widened, and rage coiled within them. Tobbs. The friend of Deek, whom they'd found deceased in the spider infested caves, trapped within those tunnels with barely any supplies, forced to collect fucking leeches for his abusive master.

“I'll take it.” It took all their willpower to speak evenly as they returned the contract to the bartender.

“Alright, if you're free tomorrow, I can ask the contractor to drop by for the signing.” Alasdair nodded.

“Sure, keep me posted.” The Keeper nodded, taking a drink from their neglected glass to cool their anger. At least they didn't need to wait, without classes on Monday, they could afford to be out late into the night.

They'd sworn, a little over two years ago, in that dank cave, standing over the small body, that they would make Tobbs’ owner pay for his cruelty if they ever got the opportunity. Well, it seemed like said opportunity had arrived, and what a perfect candidate for a new test subject.

“If that is all, we'll speak again tomorrow.” The Keeper nodded to Alasdair and the bartender waved them off as they made their way over to the table where Sebastian was speaking with Borgok.

“That was fast.” Sebastian commented as they took a seat beside him.

“Mhm, got a new job too, I'll fill you in later.” The Keeper patted him on the shoulder. “How's your chat going?”

“We've agreed to lessons on Sunday afternoons, starting next week.” Sebastian explained simply and the Keeper nodded, about the same time as their lessons with Rackham then. An excellent time to select, on his part.

“Oh.” The Keeper spotted Vesper entering the pub. “I'll be right back.”

Slipping out of their seat once more, the Keeper left their drink in Sebastian's care and approached the man as he seated himself at the bar.

“Vesper.” The Keeper greeted, drawing the wand they'd retrieved from Gnarlak. “Is this yours?”

Vesper's eyes went wide, before a wry grin stretched across his scraggy beard as he reached a hand out for it. “Well, I'll be damned. You actually completed that bounty?”

Nodding, the Keeper handed him the wand. “Thanks to your warning about a large creature, I was better prepared.”

“What'd it end up being?” The man asked curiously as he gazed lovingly down at his wand.

“A dragon.” They answered dryly.

“A dragon, eh.” He chuckled. “That's a pretty big fish. Surprised you got out alive, how'd you get Gnarlak with a dragon to dodge?”

“By killing it first.” The Keeper shrugged.

The old hunter gave an incredulous snort, shaking his head. “Sure you did.”

In response, the Keeper wordlessly removed, from their satchel, the dragon scale they'd ripped out, and flashed it at the man.

His jaw went slack at the large ventral scale that could only have come from a dragon's belly, for it was perfectly intact and still bore the roots that would have been embedded in the dragon's flesh. There were no further words or proof needed, since dislodging the scale through impact would have caused some damage to it or its roots, and a naturally shed scale would be old and dry.

Thus, the only possible way to obtain a dragon's magically resistant scales in such pristine condition, would be to rip it out, and the only way most people might imagine getting close enough to pry it free with tools would require it be dead. Not to mention, its vibrant and rich magical energy marked it impossibly fresh.

“Well, I'll be damned, indeed.” Vesper laughed and guffawed. “A kid like you took down a dragon and that crafty goblin? Merlin, I wouldn’t have thought such a thing possible.”

“A force to be reckoned with indeed.” Alasdair chuckled and the Keeper belatedly remembered that the bartender was also within earshot, though they supposed it was of little consequence.

“Well, I now know who to ask if I need something done. It was a pleasure doing business with you.” Vesper holstered his wand and offered his prosthetic hand for a shake, which they took after a moment, and he tipped his hat at them. “Good luck, kid.”

“Enjoy your retirement.” The Keeper replied politely, accepting the conclusion of their conversation and made to return to Sebastian's side.

As they did, they saw Borgok standing and they exchanged parting nods, before sitting down beside Sebastian, and he related to them the details of his arrangements with the goblin. That he would work with Borgok at Gringotts for a few hours every weekend and that the goblin would see to it that Sebastian got the opportunity to meet the head of the Curse Breakers’ division, and that Borgok would vouch for him.

Their businesses settled, the two finished their drinks and left for home, the Keeper's heart filled with anticipation and an eagerness to test their new toys. There was much work to begin tomorrow and though they would need their energy for those tasks, they had a feeling that sleep would not come easy.

“Ominis, there's a letter for... you.” The Keeper called as they strolled into the master bedroom at Dìon the next day, after their usual Sunday afternoon lesson with Rackham.

Amused to see their partners lounging on the large king-sized bed, Sebastian reading a tome, lying on his front, while Ominis dozed, curled up with his head nestled comfortably in the small of the brunet's back. Cute.

Lifting his head, Ominis yawned before asking. “Who from?”

“I'm not sure.” The Keeper hummed. “But this has to be the most posh envelope I've seen in my life.”

The emerald green paper was thick with embossed letters and silver decorative swirls along the boarders of the silky smooth surface, and was that fucking perfume they were smelling!? Bloody hell, this one letter felt like it was worth a galleon on its own.

“Give it here then.” Ominis sat up and raised his hand as the Keeper climbed onto the bed, before placing it in his hand obediently.

The moment it touched his fingers however, Ominis stiffened, and the letter almost tumbled to the floor.

The Keeper frowned. “Ominis?”

Hearing the concern in their voice, Sebastian lifted his head as well, turning around and sitting up. The moment he saw the letter, he went. “Oh.”

Giving Sebastian a puzzled glance, the Keeper watched warily as Ominis took a deep breath and opened the envelope, withdrawing the letter with a discomforted expression. Raising his wand to charm the paper, he ran his fingers across the parchment and his lips pursed with disappointment.

“What's it say?” Sebastian asked and Ominis wordlessly held up the parchment for him to take.

Looking at the paper over Sebastian's shoulder, the Keeper's narrowed, an invitation to a yule gala in two days’ time from-

“Huh, it's been ages since your parents last tried to get you to attend.” Sebastian commented and Ominis flinched.

“Indeed, one would think they'd given up by now.” The blond's voice was strained with forced indifference and the Keeper smacked Sebastian on the head.

“I take it that you're turning the invitation down?” The Keeper asked hesitantly, wary of causing more hurt.

“I'll do what I've done for the last five years. Nothing.” Ominis huffed, folding his arms and murmuring quietly. “They can't even bother to invite me in person, why should I entertain such paltry and empty gestures?”

“As you should. You owe those awful people nothing and you never liked those parties anyway.” Sebastian agreed and Ominis wore a conflicted smile in response.

“If you like, we can hold our own Yule gala right here.” The Keeper suggested, giving Ominis a kiss on the cheek, whispering softly into his ear and making him shiver. “My prince.”

“I say, that's a fantastic idea.” Sebastian grinned and bounced off the bed, taking Ominis’ hand and pulling him to his feet, a bemused smile forming on the blond's face.

“Do you even know how to dance, Sebastian?” Ominis asked in a dubious tone.

“Nope, not a clue!” Sebastian announced confidently. “But I've seen dancing before, shouldn't be too hard to copy.”

Hearing this, the Keeper scrambled to get off the bed quickly as well, just as Sebastian began to... dance, to soundless music, pulling a mildly alarmed Ominis along with him as he swayed haphazardly across the bedroom floor.

“And I believe here's where we do a spinny thing.” Sebastian attempted to do a spin and dip, which failed spectacularly, and the Keeper quickly caught Ominis as he lost his balance.

“Oh, you absolute buffoon.” Ominis complained as he straightened with the Keeper's help and adjusted his rumpled pyjamas primly, drawing his wand and marching over to Sebastian's side. “This is how you dance.”

Manhandling Sebastian into the proper position and setting his boyfriend's hand on his shoulder, Ominis placed the hand gripping his glowing wand on Sebastian's hip and with the other, took Sebastian's hand in his. The whole process of which seemed to startle Sebastian somewhat, and he blinked as Ominis began leading him in the most recognisable part of a waltz.

“The box step is the easiest, we just slide one foot to the side and then bring your other foot to match it in a three-beat rhythm.” Ominis explained as he tugged Sebastian to the side. “And you want to keep your feet on the floor as we go, so you don’t step on my toes.”

“One two three, one two three...” Ominis slid his foot forward as he counted, nudging Sebastian's backwards and the brunet followed his lead.

The Keeper watched in amusement, as the two boys danced in a square circle in the middle of the bedroom for several minutes, till Sebastian seemed to get the hang of it, and a rather dopey grin appeared on his face as he danced with Ominis. At least until he made the mistake of looking up, catching the Keeper's wide amused smirk, and Sebastian promptly lost his rhythm, his cheeks going red.

Covering it up with a cough, Sebastian released Ominis’ hand and declared. “I think I've got it now, your turn!”

With that, he dragged the Keeper over and shoved them at Ominis, who took the change in partners in stride, and the Keeper happily allowed him to manoeuvre them into the same position. Having seen Ominis lead Sebastian, the Keeper had an idea of what to expect and it wasn't too long before they were following him smoothly.

When the Keeper tossed Sebastian a small cocky grin, he huffed. “Not fair, you had an advantage.”

“Fair enough. Then, in that case.” The Keeper conceded and tapped Ominis on the shoulder to signal a stop. They then guided him back to the bed, where he reclined, while the Keeper went over to Sebastian and gave him a low bow. “May I have this dance?”

Sebastian stared at them in faint disbelief and with a smirk, the Keeper took his hand and pulled him close. Discerning the Keeper's intentions, Ominis smiled and began tapping a beat on his thigh as they led Sebastian to the rhythm.

“Show off.” Sebastian grumbled, his face still slightly pink.

“Pot, kettle, darling.” The Keeper chuckled fondly.

As they swayed slowly, the first dusting of fine snow began to fall on the other side of the glass balcony doors. The cold winter air went unnoticed by the happy throuple, dancing in the warm home they'd made for themselves, as the afternoon turned to evening, and the time came for the Keeper to meet their new contractor at the pub.

The lady from the photograph was visibly nervous from the moment she entered the pub, jumping at every raised voice, as she approached the bar to speak with Alasdair. The Keeper was mildly amused by how conspicuous she seemed in this environment, they wouldn't even need to know her face to identify her as a contracting guest.

Her expression was, as expected, quite surprised when Alasdair directed her towards the Keeper's table, where they sat with their usual chocolate drink, and in a few moments, she was hesitantly approaching them.

“Are you the Salamander?” The lady asked and the Keeper nodded.

“I am, and you're here to discuss the contract, yes? Please, take a seat.” The Keeper gave her a small smile, hoping to put her at ease and it seemed to work. “Tell me a little more about the job you'd like me to do.”

With a grateful nod, the lady sat across from them and gave them a strained smile. “Well, my husband, Frederick Taylor and I used to run a potions shop together. He'd brew and I'd sell the potions. He was never the most even-tempered man, but it got worse when our business started failing.”

“What happened?” The Keeper asked, though they could guess the answer, they wanted confirmation.

“The elf he inherited from his parents went missing and we couldn't afford to buy a new one to harvest supplies for our potions.” She shook her head. “We tried for two years but couldn't keep the shop open and I wanted to sell the family heirlooms to pay off our debts, so we could start afresh, he was furious at the suggestion and then he disappeared with them and what coin we had left.”

Her lips pressed together into a thin line. “Then while searching for any remaining coin, I found letters between him and a mistress, going back five years. Last I heard, my friend saw him in Edinburgh with her, a younger woman.”

The last words were understandably bitter, and the Keeper mentally noted down the town, nodding as they spoke. “You said in the contract that payment would be a portion of what I steal from him.”

The lady nodded anxiously. “Yes, I know that you could always keep it all instead of splitting the proceeds, but I can assist you with stealing it, whatever you need and-”

“Madam.” The Keeper interrupted with a smirk. “Before that, I'd like to ask if you would mind him... disappearing for good, after I've retrieved your coin.”

“Disa- oh.” Her eyes widened. “What do you-”

“That's my business. Though I can tell you that he will be in a lot of suffering until the moment he dies. Would you consider that fair, in light of the injustices he's committed against you and your children?” The Keeper asked evenly.

It was tedious, but they had promised Ominis that they wouldn’t harm the innocent, and he'd made it clear that he considered their own metric, for determining innocence versus guilt, to be... not up to his standard. So, who better to judge if the punishment fit the crime than the woman who had been the target's victim and wife?

The one who knew all his flaws and sins, and had been hurt by them.

There was a long moment of silence, a thoughtful frown on her face as she deliberated, before she met their eyes with a resolute gaze. “Do whatever you want with him.”

Well, that was that, the Keeper nodded, before asking after a moment's thought. “How was his relationship with your children?”

“Distant, for the most part, but he never raised a hand against our sons at least.” Her tone made it plain that he'd held no such honour with her.

“Do you think he would go to their aid if he saw one of them in what appears to be danger?” They asked and her expression was wary as she answered.

“Yes, I think he would...” She trailed off hesitantly.

“Then if you don't mind, I'd like several strands of hair from one of your children.” The Keeper requested and the lady's eyes widened with understanding.

“Oh! Yes, I can do that!” She nodded with a relieved smile. “Do you want me to take the polyj-”

“It's quite alright, I have an assistant who can handle that role.” The Keeper waved her off casually, they didn't need a civilian to worry about in the middle of a mission. “The man himself and my share of the proceeds from selling the heirlooms will be acceptable as payment.”

“So, you'll take the job? Thank you!” The lady clasped her hands together with a smile.

“No thanks needed, I have my own interests that I'm serving.” The Keeper shook their head and strangely enough, her blue eyes became sad, and they had a feeling that there was more she wanted to say but was uncertain if it would be welcome, so they asked. “What is it?”

“I just- my oldest looks around your age.” She murmured tentatively.

Okay, weird thing to comment, the Keeper raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged. “Pick the younger kid then. People naturally panic more, the younger a child is when in danger.”

Her expression looked somewhere between alarmed and shocked, for reasons they couldn't be arsed to discern, and they instead asked. “If that is all, shall we sign then?”

“I- I suppose-” She stammered.

With that, the Keeper stood with their drink and, leaving the oddly stunned lady to scramble after them, the Keeper made their way to the bar. Somehow, interacting with her was rather tiring, and it would probably be for her benefit if she left the pub sooner than later anyway.

The signing took a tad longer than usual, since Alasdair gave the lady twice the amount of painkiller, making her writing a little slow and wobbly, but it wasn't too long before the Keeper alone at the bar.

“The target is a civilian, if I'm not mistaken?” The bartender asked casually and at their nod, asked. “Any leads?”

The Keeper hesitated a moment, but for now, while they were learning the ropes, it might be good to seek guidance from the guildmaster, so they answered. “Edinburgh.”

A good thing too, because Alasdair hummed thoughtfully. “That so?”

“That's Rogue territory.” Pausing to pull out a paper from behind the counter, the bartender scribbled something on it, before handing them the sheet with an address and directions on it. “Drop by the guild and give the guildmaster a heads-up about your plans, wouldn't want to give them problems.”

“Noted.” The Keeper nodded, tucking away the paper. “Should I wear my mask?”

Alasdair shrugged. “Up to you, but it would make things a tad easier, I should say. Guildmaster Gilfred worked as my second for a while, moved back up north a couple years ago to take over the family business.”

“Anything else I should know?” The Keeper asked before finishing their drink.

“...well...” The bartender trailed off before shaking his head with a wry smile. “You know what, you'll find out.”

They cocked an eyebrow at Alasdair as they slid the empty glass over to him and stood to leave. Well, they supposed they would. It'd be interesting to see how other guilds looked anyway.

Stepping inside their study on the second basement floor, the Keeper opened their satchel and retrieved the pouch that Borgok had given them. The room was still rather sparse, containing only a desk, a single chair and a cabinet that they'd moved their jars of Pain and Fear into.

Both the cabinets’ doors, and that of their study, required Ancient Magic to unlock, as did the doors to the Repository Chamber.

Though, hopefully such measures wouldn't be necessary to begin with, since the door to the basement facility not only had the same security as their bedroom door but was also hidden in the stone wall behind the portrait of Charles Rookwood. So that the magic of the artwork would mask that of the secret door, should someone cast a Revelio charm.

There were still more doors for cells and unused rooms, not to mention, much furnishing to add, but the Keeper was quite happy that they could already live and work comfortably in the castle.

Opening the pouch, the Keeper took its contents out one at a time, to examine and then lay them on the desk, starting with the collars. The craftsmanship of the three collars was quite something, even though they were smaller than the one that they'd retrieved from the dragon's neck, which sat now in their cabinet.

They found, on the inside of the collars, a thin needle. For injecting energies? The needle seemed like it could be retracted too, from its telescopic design. Well, they'd find out how it worked, and the Keeper set the collars aside, looking forward to testing them when they had time.

The highly anticipated armlet was next, and the Keeper eagerly tried it on. The narrow band sat comfortably around their bicep and was surprisingly light, despite how solid it looked and felt. They would probably wear it under their clothing so that it couldn't be seen, and they were pleased to find that its inside was lined with some soft material, so that it didn't shift or chafe.

Excited to test it out, the Keeper removed the armlet, pulled out their jar of C-Pain, and drew the energy from its container with their wand, before lowering it to the band. Fascinated when the lava-like substance melted into the metal, turning the silver to red and black, the rolling magma crawling along the swirls and patterns that were carved into the armlet.

Fastening it to their upper arm once again, the Keeper felt immediately the difference, the band was now warm and they could feel the energy waiting, resting in it. It felt like standing in fog, moisture licking at one's skin, and the Keeper wondered for a moment how they might intake the energy. If it felt like fog, then perhaps...

Closing their eyes, they focused on the cloud of warmth and thought of how it felt to breathe when standing in fog, the feeling of pulling the air, heavy with moisture, into their lungs. As they did so, they felt the energy flow into their body like warm mist, it was so smooth, so fluid, so powerful, so delicious, so easy to take just a little more-

We'll be holding you to your word.

The Keeper's eyes snapped open, and they hurriedly ripped off the armlet, sending it flying across the room and gasping for breath, the memory of Ominis’ voice breaking their trance, his trust and Sebastian's. They shook their head, gripping the side of their desk for stability, chest heaving with the effort it'd taken to resist.

What were they doing? Hadn't they promised that they wouldn't let Pain control them?

Taking a steadying breath, they squeezed their eyes tightly shut, collecting themselves for a few more moments, before opening their eyes and raising their gaze back to the glowing red band of silver, where it lay innocuously on the floor.

Well, it looked like the armlet, while convenient, brought temptation to a whole new level. How could they possibly walk around with that power right there and not partake of it? When it was within reach. When consuming more was as easy as breathing.

They would have to practise, and they couldn't do it alone.

Leaving the armlet where it lay and setting the matter aside for now, the Keeper next removed the blade from the pouch and then from its sheath, eyes wide as they took in the magnificent weapon.

It was incredibly light and almost wavy in its shape, a relatively narrow dirk blade with a tapered tip, and it was breathtakingly beautiful, polished silver so smooth that they could see their own reflection on its surface. Only broken up along the spine, by the intricate etchings that resembled the swirls carved into the armlet.

Taking a jar from the cabinet, the Keeper extracted the Fear-Pill with their wand and then paused. The pill was a solid, unlike Pain energy in whatever form it took, how would this work?

Shaking their head, the Keeper decided to try anyway, it was magic, who the fuck knew how any of this really worked. So, they lowered the black orb onto the dagger's surface and was awed when it melted into the metal, and the silver surface turned entirely pitch black, as though it'd been dipped in paint.

The Keeper wore a sharp grin as they examined the blade, admiring its new appearance with wonder.

It was incredible, the once silver surface now absorbed every speck of light, so black that it almost looked like a flat drawing, devoid of any reflections or any indication of depth. It was tempting to touch the blade's surface, but the risk that their lack of understanding presented was too high.

They still hadn't figured out how the collars and blade injected energies in a harmful way after all. They'd have to thoroughly test the blade, to see its effects and how long the Fear lasted too. The first small Fear-Pill they'd given Selwyn had kept him in his nightmares for three days and even after it wore off, and he returned to his senses, he'd been... different.

Quiet, jumpy, he barely ate and had lost some weight, a haunted look in his glazed eyes. They supposed that the Chinese water torture and Fear-Pill had been enough to break the boy's mind. Macnair was in even worse condition, since he'd lost his emotions, they'd needed to employ the Imperius curse to force him to eat and eliminate, otherwise he'd simply lie on his bed unmoving, wasting away.

On the upside, at least they didn't need to spend much on feeding the two, but at the same time, that made it difficult to conduct experiments when they didn't react properly. Even the amount of P-Pain they'd been extracting from Selwyn had been diminishing over time. He was becoming desensitised to pain, and so he yielded less energy with each torture session.

They were overdue for a fresh face to add to their number, the Keeper grinned as they sheathed and set aside the blade, especially now that they had what they needed to resume their experiments with the energies. Happily extracting the cauldron made of goblin silver, they set it down on the desk.

A quick examination of the cauldron's lid revealed two latches on the side and the Keeper unhooked them, lifting the silver cover to peer into the smooth empty bowl, excellent. Now they could finally find out what Pain and Fear could create.

As they removed the box containing their Phantom’s mask, a knock on the door caught their attention, and the Keeper lifted their head as Ominis’ voice came from the other side. “Love? Are you in here?”

“Yes, come in.” The Keeper replied, setting the box down and flicking a pulse of Ancient Magic at the door. With a click, it opened to permit the two boys on the other side.

“It's been fifteen minutes since tea, darling.” Ominis entered with a wry smile, followed by Sebastian, who was carrying a tray of tea and biscuits, as well as a rolled-up newspaper tucked under his arm.

“Has it?” The Keeper blinked in surprise, they must have been occupied with the armlet for longer than they'd thought. “My apologies, I must have lost track of time.”

“What've you got there?” Sebastian asked curiously as he set the tray down on the table.

“I was just checking out the stuff I got from Borgok.” The Keeper explained, accepting with a smile when Ominis offered them a steaming cup of tea. “Thanks.”

“Oh oh, can I see the dagger?” Sebastian asked excitedly, and the Keeper could practically see a tail wagging behind him.

With an amused smile, they handed him the sheathed blade. “Careful, I've already added Fear to it.”

As Sebastian eagerly examined the blade, Ominis took a seat on the corner of the table and the Keeper's first thought, was that his elegant perch, long slender legs hanging off the side, was a fantastic height for a blowjob. Their second thought was ‘ouch’, as Ominis bopped them on the head with his glowing wand and crossed his legs.

“My face is up here, love.” Ominis sighed. “I swear you're getting as bad as Sebastian.”

“Don't pretend you don't like it.” The Keeper chuckled as they took a sip from their tea, and Ominis lifted his chin with a huff, but didn't deny that he did like feeling desirable.

“This is incredible...” Sebastian murmured.

The Keeper glanced at him, only to exclaim in alarm. “Don't touch it! I already said I've added Fear to it!”

“It's fine, it doesn't seem like contact with the flat of the blade injects it.” Sebastian waved a hand dismissively and, setting down their teacup, they stormed over to snatch it from him.

“Glad to know, but I'd much rather slap Selwyn with the flat side to find out, than to risk you passing out with nightmares!” The Keeper huffed as they sheathed the blade and stuffed it into their satchel before he could do anything else with it.

Sebastian pouted for a few moments, before spotting the box on the table and curiously picked it up. “What's this?”

“Keep your hands to yourself, Sebastian...” Ominis sighed.

“It's just a box.” Sebastian protested.

“I don't care what it is, please put it down.” Ominis snapped.

“Fine.” The brunet grumbled but obediently passed it to the Keeper when they held their hand out for it.

“It's my mask, for work.” They explained, opening and removing the mask from the box. “Apparently it's our uniform and to protect our identities.”

“Have you tried it on yet?” Ominis asked.

“Not yet.” The Keeper shook their head.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Sebastian grinned.

“I'm not exactly sure how to wear it.” They admitted with a sheepish smile. “There's no string on the back.”

“Might have a sticking charm, try placing it on your face.” Ominis suggested.

Following his suggestion, the Keeper raised it to their face and was surprised when it did indeed remain in place after they let go. “That's pretty handy.”

“Huh.” Sebastian squinted at them. “Remarkable, even though it's only covering half your face, you somehow look unfamiliar. Your jaw looks different, and even your hair is oddly difficult to focus on.”

“Is that so...” The Keeper murmured, that was handy indeed, and it was rather comfortable too.

Ominis expression was mildly disturbed as he added. “That's not all, you sound off too.”

“Really?” The Keeper blinked, that was quite a thorough disguise, and they quickly removed the mask when Ominis shuddered at their voice. “Well, it's nice to know that this will be enough to conceal my identity when working.”

“May I see?” Ominis asked curiously and the Keeper passed him the mask so that he could feel its surface. “Oh, this is quite beautiful. It suits you.”

“You flatter me, darling.” The Keeper chuckled, accepting the mask from him and tucked it away.

“And this would most certainly flatten me.” Sebastian joked, peering into the large cauldron like the Keeper had minutes ago, before fiddling with the latches. “This has to be the largest cauldron I've ever seen!”

He eyed the enormous pot speculatively for a moment.

“Here, hold this for me.” Passing the Keeper his newspaper, Sebastian braced himself to lift the cauldron, before pausing in surprise. “Huh, lighter than I expected.”

“I wanted something big enough to mix a large batch if necessary.” The Keeper explained, raising the newspaper. “What's up with the paper anyway?”

“Oh, right.” Sebastian set down the cauldron and leaned against its rim. “Page three, looks like the Aurors finally made their move.”

The Keeper flipped to the third page, finding the article, titled ‘Auror Raid Finds Dozens Of Dead Goblins’.

The article described the discovery of almost a hundred goblins dead, in what the Keeper recognised as Gnarlak’s base, and though it was annoyingly vague on the details, it did include a short interview with a junior Auror. Who, when asked if this was infighting within the goblin rebellion, called it unlikely, describing the causes of death to be ‘strange’ before his superior hurriedly shooed the journalist away.

“They probably died from the shock of cold turkey when their bodies burnt through their remaining E-Pain.” The Keeper murmured as they finished reading the article.

Lowering the newspaper, they noticed Ominis’ lips pursed and fingers tight around the edge of the table.

Touching their fingers gently to his knuckles, the Keeper smiled softly. “There's no danger of that happening to me, we have ample stock available, and it isn't in danger of running out.”

The unspoken ‘because I can make more’ hung in the air and Ominis sighed with a pained expression, giving them a curt nod. He was clearly still not comfortable with what the Keeper was doing, and they were uncertain if he ever would be. The reminder that he was merely tolerating their activities was both heartening and saddening in equal measure.

It felt nice, powerful, to know that he was willing to look the other way out of love, but they also knew that that came at a cost. A cost to his self-image, and that had already not been great to begin with, being a snake that wanted to be a meek lamb.

They wished desperately that he could just accept himself the way he was, to just commit himself wholeheartedly to a decision, and not beat himself up for what he wanted. He would be so much happier, but that wasn't exactly something anyone could force him to do. Sebastian had been trying since they were eleven and he still hadn't gotten anywhere.

Though, admittedly, the brunet was terrible at it, being completely unable to even see what Ominis despised about himself at all. Perhaps understandable, since Sebastian loved him so innocently and wholeheartedly, warts and all.

“What's that, off in the corner?” Ominis asked, perhaps looking to change the subject, he pointed off to the side.

Towards the armlet.

The Keeper almost wanted to laugh, but it would be quite inappropriate at the moment, so they swallowed it as Sebastian glanced over too. “Oh, is that the armlet? What's it doing on the floor?”

The Keeper sighed. “Because I almost took more than today's maintenance dose.”

Ominis frowned. “You tried it on without us?”

Wincing, the Keeper took his hand and placed it on their face, allowing him to see their expression. “I'm sorry, I thought I'd be able to control myself. It was just supposed to be a quick test to figure out how to use it.”

“Did you toss it because you lost control?” Sebastian asked and the Keeper paused for a moment.

“Well... yes.” They admitted.

“Then you were fighting it, and won. I think that counts for something.” Sebastian pointed out and the Keeper gave him a grateful smile for his support. “And they have been doing pretty well despite having to drop dosage after their dragon fight.”

Ominis frowned at him for a moment, trapped between still being upset at their testing of the armlet unsupervised, and not wanting to denounce the Keeper's efforts, for obvious reasons, and they were mildly amused at the corner that Sebastian had seemingly accidentally backed Ominis into.

“I suppose you're right.” Ominis eventually sighed, turning back towards the Keeper. “I'm glad you managed to stop this time. I just wish you could... completely stop.”

“I know.” The Keeper murmured and smoothed out the frown on his forehead with a thumb, rather happy to have their efforts recognised, it wasn't easy to take a gradually decreasing dose of Pain energy every day. “But if we keep thinking of what we can't change, we can't do anything about what we can change.”

“Does anything even need to change?” Sebastian asked, folding his arms. “I mean, let's not pretend that my dagger was the only thing that brought them home. Without Pain energy, they wouldn't have gotten far enough to even use it.”

The Keeper eyed him curiously, while Ominis narrowed his eyes and declared. “That may be true, but they still shouldn't be over-reliant on that stuff. The sooner they can stop, the better.”

“Why?” Sebastian challenged. “As far as we've seen, aside from withdrawal, there haven't been any negative side effects.”

“That's-” Ominis bristled, his hand leaving the Keeper's face to gesture wildly, exclaiming in disbelief. “We've already heard of Isidora going mad and Ranrok turning into a monster and almost a hundred goblins dying from it! Are you really so reckless as to risk any of those happening to them!?”

Sebastian's eyes narrowed at the implication that he didn't care about danger to the Keeper’s life.

“Yeah, sure! They've been using it for two years without problems. I'd take an unknown percentage chance of either happening over having a stick of charcoal to bury!” Sebastian retaliated and Ominis recoiled in indignation.

“So you're fine with them taking something so inherently dangerous forever!?” Ominis’ voice was now pitched high in distressed incredulity.

“We don't even know if it is dangerous for them!” Sebastian groaned in frustration. “Isidora was already insane to begin with, who in their right mind would think losing all emotion and sense of self is a cure!? Maybe their Ancient Magic makes them immune to becoming a monster. And the goblins died from cold turkey withdrawal, but we have the means to create more so that's not a concern.”

“Means to make more.” Ominis echoed bitterly. “How lightly you speak of torture.”

Seeing that none of his words were getting through to Ominis, and perhaps hurt by being painted so negatively by someone he loved, Sebastian growled, low and angry. “Why don't you just say it? You think I don't care! You think I'm a heartless monster!”

“What else am I supposed to think!?” Ominis exclaimed, and at that confirmation, redness began darkening the skin around Sebastian's eyes.

Oh boy, the Keeper sighed, they needed to get their partners back on track, both of them were going completely off the rails.

Raising their hands and voice before things could get worse, the Keeper interjected. “Look, boys. Quarrelling over this achieves nothing!”

The two paused and the Keeper barrelled on before the boys could start shooting again. “The facts are these, I need the Pain energy, at least for now, if I want to achieve our goals. And I'm doing my best to be cautious. I'm thinking of wearing the armlet outside of battle to see if I can train up my resistance and self-control.”

“Or, you can just stick to the jars that have worked so far.” Ominis countered.

“Oh, great!” Sebastian barked a disdainful laugh. “Let's never improve our methodology. Let's keep giving enemies more openings to kill our partner. And all to avoid a potentially dangerous outcome that hasn't even been proven to exist!”

“Sebastian.” The Keeper held a hand up to hush him before Ominis could explode, and the brunet obediently folded his arms with a sulky expression.

Taking Ominis’ balled up fists and coaxing them to relax, the Keeper spoke as soothingly as possible. “Love, we haven't even tried yet, we don't have any information to be afraid over. I made a mistake, I should have tried the armlet with you and Sebastian, but even then, I managed to catch and stop myself. Cast diagnosa on me, and you can see for yourself that I'm alright.”

“Their eyes weren't even red when we came in.” Sebastian added with a pointed huff.

Ominis threw a glare in his general direction, casting the diagnostic charm on the Keeper with an irritated flick of his wand. He frowned for a moment, before giving them a grudging sigh. Well, that's encouraging.

The Keeper placed a gentle peck on Ominis’ lips, before continuing with a smile. “Let's just try, slowly. I'll put a tiny sliver into the armlet. Wear it around the house and to bed tonight. Just a small amount that won't go over tomorrow's maintenance dose, even if I accidentally take some. And you can be right by my side and monitor my condition the whole time. Alright?”

His expression was still sour, but Ominis gave them a curt nod and the Keeper bit back their own sigh, knowing from the look in his eyes that this discussion was far from over.

Notes:

You can also view the artwork in HD for free on my Patreon page!

I feel like Sebastian would get the Patronus charm really quickly, mostly just because he's so one-track minded, ma boi is just super happy when he's happy and just super angry when he's angry. Ominis is constantly feeling a mix of conflicting emotions and the Keeper's just kinda desensitised and dead inside.

Also, fun fact, in cat sociology, the higher cat in the hierarchy grooms the ones beneath them. In other words, that was some dom power move from Ominis, to be grooming a bloody wolf twice his size xP

I really wanna draw these kids cuddling as Animagi, but I'm not super confident that I can draw animals well, so it'll take some experimentation xD Edit: It was hard, holy shit, it was so hard. But I am kinda happy with how it turned out, so yay! God, I love the fold of Sebastian's ear, I feel like it fits him, so I'm happy with how that turned out xP

Wheee! We finally get to torture Tobbs’ owner, it's gonna be great. Hope you guys are looking forward to it xP I feel like one of the root causes of Sebastian and Ominis’ conflict in the game is their differing ways of making decisions.

Ominis uses morality to value things, including himself. Am I a ‘good’ person? However he kinda goes with vibes to decide what's ‘good’, because he's not experienced enough to realise that what feels ‘good’ or doesn't, is subjective. ‘Good’ changes depending on what you prioritise, what angle you view a scenario from.

Sebastian on the other hand, is very critical, very logical and almost oblivious to the vibes around a topic, and that can come off as cold and calculative, when it's the more objective and empirical approach. Especially because it doesn't come naturally to him, to give people like Ominis good vibes before trying to reason with them. Throw in Sebastian's tendency to honestly display his very strong emotions and opinions if he's feeling them, and people somehow decide he's faking them because he's usually so logical.

Which is probably why some people like Ominis more than Sebastian, because Ominis is more visually and vibe-y relatable (especially for people who are also vibes based) and he virtue-signals super hard, and people tend to wrongly conflate that cold/calculative vibe with manipulative. When in reality, Ominis is vibes-based PLUS manipulative, whereas Sebastian is logical and calculative but not manipulative.

The next chapter will be almost entirely dedicated to resolving this (particular) conflict and I hope ya'll will like how the drama goes ;)

[littleladymab]

Still Waiting Duology (a wip intro for @moon-and-seraph's WORDS INTO POTIONS March event)

Genre: Fantasy (low fantasy, magic and second world, but only humans) Summary: After graduating from the country's most prestigious magical academy with no real interest in signing up for a tour of "border patrol", Cateryn drags her best friend and duel partner Jigar to tour the country with her -- hoping that maybe her restlessness will finally settle. She has no home to return to, and no idea of what a future is supposed to look like. When one year threatens to become two, they finally stumble upon three people whose struggles resonate with Cateryn's: Raif, who lost their father, their wife, and their future to one torrential storm and decided to leave home to save their mother the trouble of an heir who couldn't uphold the family name; Kira, a seer whose powers resulted in xir becoming a political prisoner when xir home was invaded; and Arris, Kira's husband who was helpless to save his employer and suffered at the hands of the occupying force before he could get himself and his spouse to freedom.

For the first time in a long time, Cateryn finds herself wanting to stay in one place and to open up to the people around her, even though Jigar thinks they should keep moving on. Because the two of them are destined for great things, he likes to say, but she knows what is best, and he's content to stay with her. Except for the past has a way of catching up with everyone, and they all find themselves dragged into political responsibilities as the neighboring country is getting agitated with an increasing number of border disputes, and rumors of something more than the usual bandits roaming the south.

And when Cateryn's past involvements with her father's spirit magic come back to haunt her, she has to decide if she wants to accept that part of her, or reject it and everything that comes with it before its too late. Etc: writing tag || pin board

My goal this month is to finish the outline for at least book 1 if not both books, and to GIVE IT A PROPER TITLE. And, between this and SD, hopefully write 4 chapters/about 10k.

Main Cast

Cateryn Caddis-Dowell (she/her); between 24/28; skilled at offensive/battle magic || playlist

Raif Van to Yuen-ha (they/he); between 28/32; dishonored heir to the Yuen-ha family; mediocre alchemist || playlist

Jigar Soru (he/him); between 26/30; skilled at defensive magic; "self-taught" spirit mage || playlist

Kira Dittmar (xe/xir); between 23/27; diviner/seer who would like to be retired || playlist

Arris Dittmar (he/him); between 29/33; sword for hire, just happy to be here! (he doesn't have a playlist yet I'm sorry)

Snippet

Raif didn’t even bother trying not to look miserable. If their mother wanted to make a spectacle out of their humiliation, then she’d have to do it with a sulking heir.

“Which part of this is the worst?” Cateryn asks, startling them out of their reverie.

“Pardon?” they ask in return, straightening their posture just a bit now that they’re the center of someone’s attention.

She gestures to the ballroom. “It’s the taffeta, personally. I am sweating like it isn’t the dead of winter in the north, and everyone can hear me from a mile away.” She says it low, conspiratorially, and they can’t help but laugh. “Ah, there it is.”

“The key to the taffeta’s undoing?” they whisper back, reaching out to ruffle her skirt. It whish whish whishes loudly beneath their touch.

“No, your smile.”

They snort into their wine glass. “Please, Cateryn, you don’t need to skulk about with me because you feel sorry for me.” It’s hard to keep the bitterness from their voice as they mirror her gesture towards the room. “My mother isn’t trying to humiliate you.”

They don’t mention how they noticed the way Aiden had been doting on her all evening despite this being a party for him.

“Is it wrong of me to want to keep you company?” she asks innocently. “You know, better yet, want to get out of here?”

Raif pauses with the wine glass against their lips. Leave the party early? Without saying hello, yes, I’m well thank you, yes I miss Linna and my father terribly but I’m sure Aiden will do a splendid job where I’ve failed as a child, but at least I don’t have to be my mother’s son anymore — Aiden can do that, to every one of Uyen’s friends?

The thought sends a frisson of rebellious delight through them, and they pass their half-finished glass to a nearby server. “More than anything,” they say, and Cateryn answers with a grin.

She takes their hand — in front of their mother, the family gods, and everyone — and tugs them towards the exit on the far side of the ballroom.

Uyen doesn’t call after them, but Raif can feel her disdain follow them into the hall.

[thistleation]

I’m so obsessed with your eldritch space fic, I just can’t get it out of my head! I swear I catch myself thinking about it at least once per day. It’s got me really wanting to finally get into sci-fi media again and I’m wondering if you happen to have any recommendations?

Oh wow.

Damn.

Okay well first of all, holy shit, thank you!

I knew BoSaS was well liked by a handful of people, but until now I didn't think anyone besides me belonged in the "thinks about it daily category" 😭💖

As for sci-fi recs... well this is going to be a bit scattershot.

I've honestly not really kept up with recent sci-fi due to over a decade of major depression and not having my shit together, and I'm not a huge fan of a lot of the sci-fi that comes out these days in visual media, so I'm trying to make some time to read some of the sci-fi stories of recent years, but again, that's a work in progress, so can't really rec much in that regard.

First things first though, if you like Beyond our Space and Starlight, I absolutely have to rec luminous beings by @daisychainsandbowties .

It's warrior nun, it's star wars, it's got the suffering and the crying and the patented Cas poetic beauty amid the despair. It's SO fucking good and if you've not read it (and its companion pieces in the same setting) you absolutely gotta.

And also before I go any further, shouting out the Bifrost Incident which @the-darkness-does-not-bargain so kindly introduced me to. (don't look up anything about it, just listen). I assume that the main motivation behind you asking is something along the lines of "what kind of sci-fi was the inspiration behind this?" To which I'd have to say it's a mix that's a little eclectic and mainly old.

But let's talk about them because why not:

First off, the biggest influence is probably the original Star Wars trilogy, with dashes of the prequel trilogy.

I could write an essay about this, but I guess I could condense my opinion on Star Wars (and its relation to BoSaS) very simplified into something like: "Yes! You SHOULD bring swords and myth/magic into sci-fi... no, not quite like that!"

Rogue One brought it back and did it pretty well. (Only truly good recent Star Wars movie) I'd also draw from other sci-fi classics like the original Alien movies, the first two Terminators and Blade Runner.

Not to be all "the original is always better," but I feel like an issue with a lot of modern sci-fi is that the setting is too effaced, it lacks story and it's just a vehicle for spectacle. I like sci-fi stories where space is BIG and scary, and being on a ship surrounded by millions upon millions of miles of vacuum, utterly hostile to life? That should feel a little claustrophobic! Or at least occasionally unsettling.

If you hit the original movies, you're more likely to catch more of the vibe of the setting itself being an important character in the story, which to me is an essential aspect of my favourite kind of sci-fi content.

Okay this is getting long, let's go over the rest faster.

Ghost in the Shell

The original movie and the Stand Alone Complex (second season especially).

This is probably one of my biggest formative experiences on my "didn't realize they were trans at the time" adolescent brain.

High concept, transhumanism, guns, fast action, and enough of a spiritual/philosophical vibe to keep it from getting bland.

Then in a similar vein of physical dissociation and occasional body horror, but you want it to be even more fucked up?

Battle Angel Alita/Gunnm

The original run in particular. This along with Ghost in the Shell was what shaped my interest in sci-fi around my adolescence. I liked how both weren't afraid to introduce philosophical, almost spiritual and mythological elements to their futuristic stories.

Ghost in the Shell especially is like, the powers of mythical creatures, achieved through technology, and it leans into that and so you get an almost spiritual experience as an end result.

This story gets fucked up at times, but it's beautiful and heart wrenching all the same.

Prey

In contrast to my "watch the originals" statement of earlier, this is a recent predator movie that's actually good.

Thorgal

Okay this one isn't sci-fi, but I'm adding it to the list because this takes my love of adding magical/fantasy elements to sci-fi, but from the other direction: a story of a viking outcast, featuring gods and mythical creatures, but ALSO sci-fi elements as the lead character is of a race of spacefaring human(oids?)

Again, the first 20-odd books especially.

A powerhouse of the classic Franco-Belgian comics, nothing quite like it.

It's getting late and this is getting long, if any mutuals wanna tag on their recs for weird and not-so-weird sci-fi, please feel free.

[phantom-witch]

Phantom's Finished: Persona 5 Royal

Where do I even begin? It's taken 20 days at least to even start writing this. This is one of the most impactful games I've ever played. I've seen the impact on games as a whole this game has made, and this released the same year as BREATH OF THE WILD. The way games have used 2D stylisation especially as part of a limitation has been super inspired since this. This game is a masterpiece despite all its flaws and I'm okay to say that!! I'll split this up into many sections so this will be very long, you have been warned...

Context & Importance:

Before getting into the game itself, I wish to go into the significance of this. I was a closeted Trans girl who had heard of this game from the 2017 game awards, I then looked into it and became obsessed, I watched a whole playthrough of the og Persona 5. I wanted Joker in smash AND GOT THAT! But it took forever for me to have the opportunity to play it on switch. I almost gave up hope until last year in July it happened.

This was basically my most anticipated game of all time, of which had given me comfort alongisde playing Xenoblade 2 and Pyra helping me realise I was a girl. So these two games have very close and personal connections to me. Not only that, my partner and friends got to hear the majority of my reactions to this game whilst I projected a trans girl headcanon onto my beloved Ren Amamiya! (she/her will be the pronouns I use here) That's why this has been so hard to start, how important this is... it's overwhelming!

Final note, I'm not going to shy away from spoilers on both Persona 5 and the Royal content at any point, as it would be hard to discuss a lot otherwise, so SHOO if you don't want that!

Story:

I will be going over my favourite and least favourite parts and then Royals segment on its own!

The Amazing:

Where do I begin? This game has so many amazing moments! The entire build up to Sae's palace, Joker's awakening, Akechi's justice?? That last one I'll save for Akechi's section but gosh this game has so many moments! A favourite is how Futabas palace is really a gamechanger with both Futaba herself but the mystery around everything to do with her mum and how that effects Sojiro and even carries over into his second half of his confidant.

Then there's the whole build-up to Shido and the super close connection he has to Ren, after ruining her life. You feel the personal importance so powerfully as the game has built up connections to him and the main crew so well! Which in my opinion overpowers the obvious "save Japan" element of it in the best way. Once you send the calling card too, you get the coolest reveal ever with a takeover of Japan's network revealing Joker to be alive and it is SUCH a satisfying feeling!

Even the calmer moments of this game are beautiful. Whether it's a lovely dance with Kasumi at the festival, or Maruki's sessions, or the lovely time at the beach! Even in Hawaii when Ann and Ryuji have a lovely bonding moment with you. Simple moments like that make this game the beautiful experience it is...

The Awful:

Before I get into my three main things, I want to cover some minor things.

Firstly I believe that Ann gets way too sexualised throughout the story sadly, especially by Morgana. Furthermore, it feels the balance of the cast is sometimes a little off. Ryuji and Ann suffer this a bit but Yusuke is the worst for this and reduced to a bit of a joke sadly in terms of story. There's also a lot of gender stereotypes pushed for no reason on the cast at times that feels out of place for the rebellious message this game tells.

However, 3 things in this game bug me the most. First off is honestly just... Morgana. I'll get into him a bit later but he is such a hypocrite that when he finally gets negative talk back to him he immediately bails and it causes the games design and structure to awkwardly change focus and takes away partly from Haru's introduction! The one character that didn't need less screentime. Then there's how Ryuji gets treated especially in the out of place beat up scene after Shido's palace. He is literally disabelled despite managing to run so it comes across extrememly abelist having the girls smack him so hard like that. Bad vibes after an incredible moment. Finally, Yaldabaoth. I don't hate this at all for it's moment to moment experience, but my main issue is for a finale it really doesn't connect to our party like the Shido and it doesn't feel like the finale for the characters, moreso the world they're in.

Speaking of...

Royal:

The moment I started this part of the game, the eeriness was immediate... everything was wrong, completely incorrect. Morgana was a human, Makoto, Haru and Futaba had their parents still alive whilst Ann still had Shiho. And then Akechi arrives, fully aware of everything going on. With Kasumi's support after some sweet moments with her, they enter the palace they had encountered during Okumura's arc and the atmosphere is potent. Maruki shows a wish to help the world be better for everyone by creating a reality fit for them. But it's all artifical, fake, a lack of choice. Due to this pursuit, Kasumi is forced to learn of her true identity of Sumire, as her sister who is actually Kasumi is dead. Learning of the dancing sisters and how Sumire felt so low of herself and behind Kasumi, we also learn Sumire was saved from a car by Kasumi, causing a massive trauma and survivors guilt in her. Maruki altered her reality to make her think of herself as Kasumi.

This is how far Maruki is gone, to the point Akechi was even brought back to life due to the bond he and Ren share. The reason this is so much better than Yaldabaoth is because it's about every party member choosing freedom over a fake happiness. As what is living if you don't get to choose for yourself? This whole game happened due to this groups choices and will. Allowing Maruki's reality goes against everything they've gone through and being ignorant again. This new semester allows us to see more of Akechi shine, Sumire become her true self, Ren show her resolve and the phantom thieves stick to their truth. Whilst having an antagonist that is deeply connected to the main group. I'll go into Maruki himself later but wow, this third semester concludes the themes of the games perfectly with an ending that had me going "no, don't go..." because i grew in love with this group of teens so much. An amazing story with a lot of lovely moments and some hiccups.

Characters:

Here I'll be going over the party members, villains and any other's of note! To start with...

Ren Amamiya (Rin Rivamiya for my playthrough):

Never have I seen a protagonist designed with minimal lines to be so well characterised! She is such a lovable dork and I love her so much. Constantly trying to be cool and IS cool as a Phantom Thief, constantly expressing herself through the prompt options beautifully.

As stated, I projected onto her a lot whilst also seeing her as her own character as a trans girl who helped me a lot with my gender identity when I originally discovered Persona 5 in 2018. Ren makes this games personality and charm all by herself whilst everything around her compliments the charm she brings. I admit that I headcanon a lot but overall she is handled very well still! However, there are some questionable lines sometimes given this is adult men trying to write a teen boy poorly. But, this is a given with Persona sadly, and I'm willing to look past this for my own enjoyment.

With an amazing dynamic with most characters and beautiful climax to her ideals with every phase of the true final boss of Maruki... what a beautiful character I found such huge comfort in and glad how popular she now is.

Her Persona, "Arsene", is a beautiful representation of her will, strength and rebellious spirit. Arsene represents Joker's energy and the pallet and visual design of Persona 5 as a whole perfectly

Ryuji Sakamoto:

I already covered the poor moment for Ryuji earlier, but I feel this game doesn't take him seriously at all and that is such a shame. Morgana belittles him and that is never taken seriously, having his self-esteem constantly put down by another party member and sometimes treated as a joke despite having some lovely moments!

That isn't his fault though, and instead the short comings of the writers. This boy is loud, passionate and has one of the biggest hearts ever! If he makes a mistake, he tries to learn from it. A brilliant example is how after Okumura's palace he realises how he lost his resolve and sincerity for a while, too focused on the fame over helping those in need. Once he realises, he talks a lot about this mistake and genuinely grows massively from it.

We get to see how he looks out for others often in both the main story and his Confidant, alongside how he manages to get by with his injury and supporting his mom. I feel they balance his involvement out pretty well throughout the whole game.

Ann Takamaki:

Ann has to be the girl that gets treated the worst by this game, and that's such a shame! Funny how I'm formatting the images as I feel one of the biggest issues is how they designed her Phantom Thief outfit. It's super sexy which is exactly what Ann isn't comfortable in, to the point she expresses discomfort! That sucks and I think the design is actually quite poor and even fails at the catwomen inspiration.

Sadly she also gets quite dumbed down as the game progresses and her role is extremely non-existent for a while with a few high moments. This infuriates me as it is one of the rarer moments of hypocrisy this game goes for with a character that could have been much more empowering for young women.

Despite all this, I still adore the positivity and vibe she brings to the group, she absolutely is the one to lift people's spirits whilst being the very extroverted one in the group to help support those more reserved or introverted and especially has a lovely dynamic with the other girls and Ryuji, helping them all to express themselves wonderfully with a Confidant that slips a little as I wish it went over her growing stronger for Shiho and helping her to recover but instead is about an infuriating model. I love Ann but it's so weird how much problems this games has for me with how she is handled, which is very comparable to Rise who is another Lovers arcana in Persona 4.

Morgana:

*sigh* This is the can of worms character. Persona has a tendency to take their talking mascot designs and write them in the weirdest ways possible. Teddy in P4 was unnecessarily creepy and with Morgana they went, what if it wasn't as bad... but still a thing. Especially when it comes to Ann it really infuriates me how infatuated this cat is with this teenage girl and constantly calls her "Lady Ann" in a very flirtatious way. It sucks!

The thing is, he has moments of a good character shining through with his dynamic with Ren, and in the end of the base game with how he is a metaphor for people's hopes genuinely got me emotional! To the point it makes me so wish he was written differently.

Then there's... the Okumura Arc. Morgana loses his mind with the group because of his own insecurities and gets mad at a single time Ryuji belittles him. Which, would be understandable if Morgana hadn't been doing this to Ryuji for literally the entire game. He is one of the most hypocritical JRPG party members I've ever seen as someone whose favourite genre is this JRPG's. Plus he takes away from Haru's introduction in that arc which is such a shame as despite that Morgana and Haru have a lovely dynamic!

Yusuke Kitagawa:

Yusuke very much reminds me a lot of myself in many ways. He is extremely autistic coded with how his mindset is very unique and has an wonderful art focus. Even his Confidant is a wonderful showcase of him rediscovering his love for art beyond the Madarame Arc.

Speaking of, he is so heavily focused on in that arc and it is so beautiful how that arc handles him! Going over how he was manipulated and abused without even realising and how he learns and accepts this fact, whilst finding reconciliation with his late mother and the art she made to represent her love for him. It is very wonderful seeing his recovery from everything he went through and learning to recover.

However, as the game progresses, his involvment slowly dwindles more and more to the point he is more the comedic relief character and I heavily dislike that. I like the comedic moments but I wish he got more serious moments in the main story as I feel there's multiple missed opportunities with him. That being said, Yusuke grows a lovely dynamic with Futaba in such a lovely way that contrasts each other wonderfully! It made me smile whenever they interacted.

Makoto Niijima:

If I had originally played the original release of Persona 5 and not started with Royal, Makoto would have been my favourite character. Originally I didn't really understand the hype around her, but she has now become one of my favourites right next to Ren and two others I'll get to soon.

Makoto is really inspiring to me, she is very intelligent whilst still having sincere flaws or shortcomings (for example her social anxiety and struggle to connect with others). Her Confidant is about her overcoming some of these flaws as a genuine way to help her newly made friend whilst trying to feel more in touch with her peers. Not only that, she is an active member consistently playing a role in the story whilst having a nice contrast with her sister Sae Niijima whilst complimenting her too. In fact when the Sae Arc happens she gains an even more active role again which is awesome! My only criticism is that she seems to be portrayed strong and I feel they could have leaned into that with her building up her muscles past the game as her being strong in the real world would've been amazing (and I would've crushed hard over that in Strikers given she's a young adult now)

none of this has even gone into when she's introduced! Which smartly ties to everything that happened with her father to do with crime lords and how people around her that are old adults pressuring her instead of doing the work themselves to the point she snaps completely after the Phantom Thieves help her out and she decides to join for her own truth. Accompanied by an amazing Persona design with some very unique animations! She is very much a highlight of the original game for sure.

Futaba Sakura:

Whilst I clicked more with Makoto, I believe Futaba is the best written party member of the base game by a mile. She is full of personality that shines so bright, funny and they know how to be serious with her character beautifully.

Futaba has one of my favourite palaces in the game because like Sae and Maruki, it isn't an inherently evil person and more someone struggling a lot with their mindset on reality. Futaba's arc heavily focuses on this and how she copes with the survivors guilt towards her late mother, Wakaba. We learn how much adult's victimised her as the reason Wakaba was driven to her death to the point it caused genuine hallucinations. This isn't the kind of trauma that can heal after her treasure is stolen instantly. Sure, it's a huge help to her recovery but we see how after they take a lot of time with her as a group to help her be more comfortable and allowing herself to manage more overtime

This carries over into her Confidant where her sister (yes I said sister as that is very much the INTENDED dynamic don't be weird) Ren helps her to further her recovery, by supporting Futaba's checklist. This is the one Confidant I'm really upset I didn't finish as I adored her! Her dynamic with the group is funny, has amazing battle lines and has amazing use story wise which is shown off and contextualised super well! She is probably right behind Makoto for my favourites and any Persona game without her genuinely feels it is missing something.

Haru Okumura:

This is one of the characters heavily effected by the extra time in Royal. I've already covered how Morgana completely overshadows a good chunk of her introduction compared to how every other party member prior gets proper spotlight. But the reason it's so bad here is because she's the last standard party member in the base game so gets even less time than already due to Morgana overshadowing her arc.

However, not all is lost! As what is there is amazing, alongside a wonderful character design and lovely performance by Xanthe (love all her work). We get to see how she accepts and stands up to her father for her beliefs and how her family legacy is important to her over being rich. She is very sweet but deadly as she shows a more brutal side under that sweet tone. It's used for both endearing/comedic moments as well as a way for her to be more powerful in moments.

Her Confidant is fantastic as it goes through both the grief of her father dying in one of the rawest moments of the game but also her having to run the company he left despite only being 18. For the grief, she didn't even get to hear her father apologise for everything he'd done. Every other chapter allows for reconciliation except for this one and it hits so heavily. Haru has to continue on with that whilst learning to manage to support a company and it makes her one of the strongest characters mentally in this game. Furthermore, she learns and gains her goal for her future to go back to her family roots with her own personal homemade café and is able to be supported about that. I adore what we do get and how she's able to shine in Royal a lot better!

Goro Akechi:

Goro

Akechi...

One of the best characters of this game. He gets a lot in Royal but let us start with the base game content for him. Akechi is one of those twist villains that the twist isn't that he's a villain, but instead the how and the why. I find that is always more interesting when that is the focus on a mystery over "who?" He is established pretty early on as an opposing force to the Phantom Thieves ideals, of which builds him up throughout the game as a striving Detective that's also investigating the Phantom Thieves.

However, one Royal I can't save for later is his entirely new Confidant. It establishes his rival dynamic with Ren so well in a very positive way compared to how it develops later on to be more of a serious rivalry in the latter of the game. He almost lures the group in perfectly if it wasn't for a single slip up of him overhearing Morgana speak, to which it causes the best comeback and moment in the whole game. Akechi's jealousy shows so strongly whilst he wants an opportunity to get to his father to get his revenge. It gets to the point he is so determined to prove himself to Ren and the Phantom Thieves, only to see his true self with how aggressive and insane he is. Akechi's true self is amazing to see as we get an amazing design with amazing Persona and one of the best boss fights in the game. Combine this with a beautiful performance of how desperate he is to prove himself, to the point he is killed by himself, leaving Ren devastated. Akechi shines in vanilla and the new Confidant establishes his relationship with Joker adds so much to Akechi's build up to his highest moments, like when he kills Joker (technically) all in the name of his own Justice. Already a top 5 character here alone!

And then there's the entire new third semester in Royal. Suddenly appearing as not dead taking Ren's place to turn himself in. As mentioned, Akechi is brought back to life by Maruki through his new reality. Akechi being a smart detective is able to put the pieces together and learn this himself. One thing about Akechi that I really enjoyed is how he always sticks to his own beliefs, to the point he would rather stay dead over be brought back to life just to live some reality he never earnt. Stopping Maruki with Ren, fully aware of what will happen to him as we see him fully shine as a party member fully unhinged. No niceties, no compassion, just a fully blunt ready to get the job done man without having a façade to the world. Robbie Daymond does a fantastic job with him, as we hear such conviction to every line he delivers as Akechi is consistently firm about his beliefs. That's the brutal reality, Akechi was always meant to die and he knows it. Ren was the one that couldn't accept this as we see Akechi fighting for free will and the justice he chooses.

A character that was amazing goes to being one of the best in this game, literally in the top 3 of this game easily with how amazingly handled he is.

Kasumi & Sumire Yoshizawa:

Let's get the main thing out of the way, she is my favourite character of this game! I adore her and how she develops over the course of this game, especially as the main new character to this version of the game!

She's introduced in the prologue as someone you know in Sae's Palace, meaning you get a tease that she will be able to go through palaces by that point of the game. From a time perspective, the actual first time you meet is middle of Kamoshida's Arc where during a trip to school you see an act of kindness from her rudely interrupted by a man. She is clearly shocked but doesn't wish to cause a scene, establishing her kind yet non-confrontational as Ren tries to help her. It's not until Madarame Arc onwards she is more prominent role with interactions with Ren, most notably when they properly meet and introduce themselves to each other on a school activity. It even kicks off their Confidant alongside more interactions over the main story!

Her Confidant is only 5 levels long and it goes into her feeling a level of control with her body as she's growing and changing, whilst supporting her family and dead sister, Sumire. It's a lovely and super endearing Confidant where Ren feels equal in terms of the support given in return where her feelings are also considered and I love that! Kasumi really cares for Ren and vice versa which creates such a strong dynamic between these two that is very balanced. We then learn that Akechi and her know of each other and we have an interaction with Ren and those two where she proposes a wonderful opinion about how she really respects what the Phantom Thieves do but also believes people need to help themselves too as that won't last for society if people stop trying to change themselves. It shows a very open minded angle to her and how she's extremely intelligent by having a more nuanced answer for a serious topic in the world of these characters and I really like that, it considers how some might need that help whilst others are over-relying on it.

We get so many lovely moments, ranging from a beautiful dance with Ren smoothly dancing, to her saying Aloha in Hawaii with a cute gesture. We even discover this unknown palace with her, of which she learns of the Metaverse and Persona users. Even awakening to her Persona after showing such will power to fight for herself instead of relying too much on Ren, like she said about the Phantom Thieves! However, that's all we really see for the most part, outside of further lovely moments the game gives us. They intentionally make the awakening feel cool and yet, overall off and different in comparison to the other Party member's awakenings (more on that in a bit). I find a lot of queer-coded elements within Kasumi, in how her struggles of her own bodies feels akin to puberty, especially with a teenage trans girl and I felt very close to that alongside her charisma, self-doubt and struggles. I was like, "yeah I kin Kasumi so much I love her! She's just like me!"

Ah... oh Riley of 2022 how unprepared you were you innocent girl...

Cut to the new Third Semester to Royal, as the whole reality shift happens. The only suspicious people are Ren, Akechi & Kasumi going into the palace where she awakened to her Persona. The further in, the more suspicious I and the trio got that something was up with her, as manifestations of her memories start to show up with weird inconsistencies. Even seeing her get called by her memory as Sumire? Overtime they end up meeting the host of this palace, Dr. Maruki, only to reveal that Kasumi really is dead. The girl with us has been her younger sister all along, Sumire.

Sumire was Kasumi's younger sister, always feeling in her older sisters shadow and struggled to keep a smile on herself or even see her own worth. Because of this, there was an accident where Sumire stormed off after not being able to cope anymore with how low she feels. Kasumi rushes after she tries to call out for Sumire about an approaching car. Too lost in her head, she doesn't hear Kasumi as she is pushed away by Kasumi, saving her but crashing into her older sister. Sumire blames herself for all of this, she feels so low about her self and worth that not only does this all happen but she has such survivors-guilt too. Getting to the point she see's herself as Kasumi partly due to Maruki's influence. Upon remembering this she goes into a downward spiral of guilt and denial, begging to be Kasumi still as the Phantom Thieves (+Akechi) fight her Persona and then herself, rescuing her and escaping the palace as best they can. Recovering and sleeping from mental and physical exhaustion, Sumire wakes up at Leblanc whilst deeply apologising to them all for her actions, whilst thinking hard about how to move on with her life back as Sumire. With support of Ren and the thieves, she is determined to live for her sister since she would have wanted that, unlocking the second half of her Confidant finally.

Sumire is shown to be much shyer, keeping to herself and over-apologising much more compared to when she thought of herself as Kasumi. Exploring how as a dancer and gymnast she finds her own style instead of trying to copy what people liked about Kasumi, with a lovely tutor who is stern yet supportive of her growing. This Confidant highlights how living for someone else isn't really living, you need to live for yourself and I really like this for Sumire. The clear depression and anxiety she has due to how she's been made to feel by society and herself really hits close to home and I relate very hard to her journey, especially when I was her age. Grief and guilt have plagued her for ages, and the death of her sister was only a year ago. Her Confidant ends beautifully with her talking about how much Ren's support has meant to her, with her confessing to Ren as the trans lesbian flirts awkwardly back (love you Ren) at her new partner! Only for Sumire to finally perform her own dance instead of a copy of her older sister. Her tutor even notices this, commending her and being absolutely proud. Traits seen when she was presenting as Kasumi can still be seen as her own personality traits when she's more confident, and how they're easily brought out from additional support due to how little confidence she has. Speaking of "presenting as Kasumi", it's very trans-coded with how one experiences their own self-acceptance of their gender identity. It's easy to say "I wish I was cisgender" instead of embracing the you here and learning to support yourself on your journey.

I only have three criticisms of Sumire's handling. Firstly, I find her reclaiming the ponytail hairstyle for herself as a memory of her sister to be poorly contextualised in the game and feels extremely abrupt compared to everything else with her writing. It feels like they didn't want to commit to her new design in the endgame moments and reversed the design near the end. Secondly, I never got to experience her Showtime due to how easy to miss as the only one you don't get naturally through story. This sucks as it was the one I was looking forward to the most! Finally there is me being so selfish, I wanted her as a party member sooner. I love how she becomes apart of the group naturally but I love her so much I wish I got to use her outside of the last Palace in the whole game.

That being said, I think the length of this segment is a testament to how Sumire is my favourite character in this game, if not one of my all time favourite characters. They did a fantastic job with how they naturally integrated her to the plot of the game, with a beautiful job and range from Laura Post alongside the animators at P Animation Studio, perfectly representing the theme of will power and overcoming hurdles in your life with precise execution.

Sumire Yoshizawa, thank you for bringing me such joy and tears to my eyes 💙

The Villains & Antagonists:

If there's one thing Persona 5 doesn’t lack, it’s antagonists and villains! Every arc has one and they vary in quality, so let’s go over the more simple villains from the first half of the game…

By simplistic, I mean that they are easy to explain and define in how they are portrayed. For example, Kamoshida who starts the game off beautifully with an utterly detestable character praying on minors abusing a power of authority that very much happens in real life. He kicks this game off strongly with a simple yet powerful force for our first Palace. My only issue is Atlus’ hypocrisy with how underage girls in their games, including this one, are treated. Ann especially is treated with sexualisation, which is awful given she was the main victim of Kamoshida. That’s less a criticism of him and more the writers when handling other things in comparison. Next is Madarame, who has a really good aesthetic and boss design. His design for him and Palace are stunning, which is where my huge praise ends. I love this chapter a lot, but Madarame doesn’t have much to him than “the one that stole the Sayuri” as there isn’t much else to him? I can’t separate him from Yusuke whatsoever and it feels like there’s nothing else to him. That being said, he’s still enjoyable, just doesn’t come close to Kamoshida. Kaneshiro has to be the most “this isn’t about him” moments in a game, as it really isn’t. You don’t see him for long at all and yet I like that choice due to him being a crime lord. I find it akin to how Dr. Seuss in “The Lorax” book doesn’t show the face of “The Onceler”, AKA the metaphor of capitalism as to not humanise them. Here I felt similar intent behind Kaneshiro, however he is still an extremely simple villain. His arc is more for Makoto’s character than it is for him, whilst properly establishing the threat of another Persona user. A fun boss and fun palace still give him a leg up though! Lastly is Shadow Wakaba, who is a weird one given the villain here isn’t the Palace holder. Instead it’s Futaba’s visualisation of her mother after so many adults tormented her for Wakaba’s death. Of course this girl would become distorted in how she perceives her mother due to this! Not much else to say since a good chunk of it is covered in Futaba’s part.

Then we get to the nuanced villains, those with more depth either in motivation, or how they connect to the grander story. First up is Okumura, who is a bit of a tricky one to discuss without going into game design and barely linked story content within the same arc. Morgana’s whole fallout not only affects Haru but Okumura as well, giving a bitter feeling throughout that arc whilst allowing less time to develop. That being said, Okumura is a character who clearly started off with good intentions and lost his way and I really enjoy that about him. He is detestable and yet we understand why Haru loves the father she once knew. Only making it more tragic when he is eventually killed and not given the chance to reconcile with his daughter as a changed man. I would love him if not for the association with the worst boss in the whole game, if not any RPG I’ve played. Strong base, weak executions around it with some bad association around it. Next, here comes our first antagonist that isn’t a villain: Sae Nijima. Sister to Makoto, she is actively after the Phantom Thieves to the point of such desperation that it makes her lose sight of her own justice. She’s gone through a lot with Makoto, losing both parents and having to raise Makoto at a pretty young age and trying to get by in the prosecutor department as a woman proves to be difficult due to gender norms in society. This has a heavy impact on her mental health as she is pushed by higher ups, of which are secretly using her, to the point she resorts to scummy and unjust methods. A character so desperate to catch a group of thieves to the point of seeing herself as a protagonist of this story, falling into the trap of those controlling everything. However, she isn’t the true antagonist of this arc and instead built up as the reason the Phantom Thieves survive. Ideals challenged and thinking about her own justice and faith once more. Akechi I’ve gone over but his father, Shido, actually has a little to say. Whilst being nuanced, it’s different to Sae for me, in that the depth comes from around him and not from him. To elaborate, he is overall a very simplistic villain in that very enjoyable way that’s almost theatrical, but is also behind all the wrongdoings the characters have experienced. Ren got put under probation due to him, Makoto had to see her sister go through hell and back because of him, Futaba and Sojiro lost Wakaba due to him, and Haru lost her father. Even Akechi, someone working for him, was so heavily affected all his life to the point of madness and how his true self is revealed to be. Shido feels personal, a fight the Phantom Thieves have been so prepared to finally face and save the world from him. However, they allow a level of selfishness, by also having motivation on avenging everyone’s pain, especially Ren’s. I love Shido because of this huge personal connection with a powerful presence, making for an exceptional villain. 

Along come the last two, Yaldabaoth and Maruki. Yaldabaoth is the final boss of the original release of Persona 5, and I have to be honest, despite the really cool set piece and moment I don’t care much for this and as the final boss think it is extremely weak as it barely ties to our main party with the exception of Ren sort of. Cool boss gameplay wise, super weak story wise. With that brief mention out the way, it’s on to Dr. Maruki from the Persona 5 Royal content of the game. Like I said at the beginning of this review, Maruki is the complete opposite here, as Maruki actively connects to our main cast consistently throughout the game. This is especially the case with Ren as she helps Maruki learn to research the heart of the mind, eventually bonding overtime as his paper gets completed. He also acts as a councillor that the students talk to, therefore allowing us to see the main cast talk about what they’re going through and struggling with. Maruki has such sweet goals, to help the world be a place where pain shouldn’t have to be felt anymore. He had gone through so much himself and seen so many people affected by reality that his will became so strong to the point he was able to alter reality. Therefore, his goal became to change the whole of reality to help people for the better… but the game brings to question if that really is a good thing? And the Phantom Thieves oppose this as free will is more important. I loved this as it ties the overall themes and motifs of the game with rebellion, freedom and individuality. Despite that, Maruki’s intentions come from such a pure heart of a man wanting to help, to the point of trying to be reality’s therapist. Ending with an amazing 3-stage boss sequence and amazing voice acting from the late Billy Kametz (rest in peace and lots of love Billy) and concluding the game masterfully and becoming one of my new all-time favourite antagonists. 

Others of Note: 

Here are the noteworthy thoughts on side characters go! Sojiro is probably my favourite confidant in this game, as he plays such a pivotal role to the found family of Ren with how the injustice she goes through is shown a shift of mentality. He grows to care a lot and show his softer caring side with Futaba and Ren, even their friends by supporting their cares and needs. Furthermore, he grows to regain his sense of justice and it’s such an amazing character growth! On the flip side there’s Mishima, who sucks due to the very incel characterisation he gets that makes him unbearable alongside his constant attempt to insert himself as your friend. It was annoying and I could not stand him. Takemi and Hifumi on the other hand each have a really well done support that I enjoyed a lot. Without going into loads of detail they both go into hardships these women face in their respective industries and it does an amazing job going into the kind of people that wish to hurt them. Yoshida was a fun one despite me struggling to listen to politics so directly (can you blame me as a trans woman in 2023?) but he clearly cared a lot. Kawakami sucks, there's no explaining it. It's gross and hypocritical, moving on. Justine and Caroline/Lavenza are a delight throughout comedically and thematically. The only thing I’ll mention is how forgettable the others felt either due to their intro or their overall support. 

Gameplay:

This is a game after all! However, this game has two very contrasting sides to it, so let's get into both

Social Life: 

Persona as a series likes to have two sides to itself, one of them being the social side. This sees Ren experiencing activities you can do throughout the game in a limited time. This can range from hanging out with other characters, studying, working at a part time job and so much more. The best part about this is how it has a consistent loop for rewarding each other for how they help your journey. Furthermore, they beautifully help with the “Thief Life” I’ll go into more detail soon. But you can get health items, weapons and gear and even abilities in the social side of the game that help for the thieves side! Limiting the time really makes you think about how to approach your stats and activities in what you need (i.e. money, social stats, abilities). Royal adds to this by having additional requirements to unlock the third semester. Speaking of, that allows for some final confidant interactions you wouldn’t get otherwise! Surprisingly enjoyable for what’s the most down time of the game compared to…

Thief Life:

The more typical RPG side of the game, but don’t let that make you think it’s traditional. This is what in my opinion is the peak modernisation of turn-based RPGs, as it enhances and adds to the turn-based formula to such an extreme that it may be my favourite turn-based combat of any game. There’s your basic attack, your gun with limited ammo per fight, guard, item and then Persona. Persona is the most in depth option out of all of them, of which where that character uses their will and inner self to cast magic attacks, physical or gun attacks and even buffs and heal. These all use your Spirit Points, with the exception of physical attacks using Health Points, and each element can have their own effectiveness depending on the enemy you’re fighting. If you expose their weakness, the game awards you with another turn in which you can act again or pass to a teammate and give them a stat buff. This allows for a learning of knowledge in the game and a chain of attacks that reward your knowledge. If every enemy is knocked down, you can do an All Out Attack for high damage and even quickly finishing a fight. This helps a lot with this games pacing for me as you can really quickly finish fights if you know what you’re doing and the game helps nudge a little to help you with that. 

With a decently varied party you can choose between different playstyles that each play into different roles. Ren has multiple Personas too! Allowing for her to customise her options throughout the game through the fusion or interrogate system. This is where you either fuse personas together to make a new one with some attacks from the previous two or bargain with a shadow you knocked down to recruit them as a persona in your selection. Shin Megami Tensei, Persona’s older brother series, has had this for a while and it really works with how they added it within the unique elements of Persona and especially Persona 5 Royal. 

Last but not least is the dungeons, aka Palaces. A Palace is a world with its own unique setting and aesthetic based on the boss of the place in the Metaverse, and that current arcs focused antagonists at that point in the story. These dungeons are all blooming with fun aesthetics, set pieces and level design that all vary in quality. Maruki, Sae and Shido had especially fantastic palaces with Okumura hitting more of a low point even gameplay wise. In Royal specifically, they added these 3 part collectibles called Will Seeds. Exploring rewards you for looking through every nook and cranny of a palace with these and getting all 3 in each palace grants you a huge reward. Bosses are overall good and play to the game's gameplay strengths mostly. Okumura again being the worst case for this whilst others range from pretty neat to some of my favourite fights in gaming. Royal’s final boss uses every mechanic beautifully as it is required to manage it, which Okumura’s boss tries to do but in a way that is much more draining and limits options too much. Instead there is many different approaches that beautifully use every system you’ve learnt the last 100 or so hours and can learn and manage in the way you have learnt to manage. With that there’s one last thing to mention, Mementos. This is a large palace that is a randomly generated dungeon that you can get deeper in throughout the story, sound fun and replayable right? Sadly, the layouts are so simple and repetitive that I found this to be pretty boring and would only do it when I needed to shut my brain off. I get Persona has always hand randomly generated dungeons but to me it’s clearly not working when the layout is so flat and repetitive without much to even do outside fighting.

Art: 

Art is important to any medium, and it couldn't be any more true for this game too. There's a reason this game has stood out so much...

Music: 

I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear this, but Persona 5 Royal has absolutely amazing music. Its use of Synthesiser as the main instrument adds such a smooth yet eerily unique approach to any part of the OST it touches, alongside the piano, violin, jazz instruments and so much more. Shoji Meguro perfectly encapsulates the phantom thieves and how they feel at every turn. Busy daytime? ‘Tokyo Daylight’ constant change of notes represents the mass amount of different people you’re passing by in central Tokyo each day. ‘Is it Boring’ accompanies anytime you’re in school with a long repetition of bars whilst also moments of tensity to show the mundane yet unfocused side of life you have to manage whilst being a thief. However, this OST wouldn’t have the strong identity it is known to have if it isn’t for the singer of any track with lyrics: Lyn Inaizumi. She sings every track with such power and yet grace and confidence that it is a match made in heaven for the themes of this game. The songs show her vocal range beautifully with the slow, tranquil ‘Beneath the Mask’ or the intense, determined ‘Life Will Change’. Persona 5 Royal’s OST is so cohesive and yet so varied that it never loses itself and that is beautiful. My favourite OST of all time.

Art Direction:

As already stated, the Palaces have beautiful varied aesthetics that keep most of them visually interesting. This applies to Tokyo as well, with the advertisements of the subway popping out at you left right and centre, or the town centre bustling with lights. Whilst not perfect, I would say it does what it sets out to do within the budget Persona 5 originally had amazingly and uses these limitations to its advantage. Speaking of, the menus and UI of this game show that in full force. Everything has a red, black and white colour scheme with minor colours accenting from time to time. The use of silhouetting and sharp poses whenever you select a menu option to cleanly transition is eye candy alongside the distorted look of where you’re selected on clearly catching your eye within the stylised font. Even in battles this applies, as the options you have look to come off the character themselves, even with a silhouette of them layered behind their model for additional flare. Additionally, the UI is made clear where every button is as the options are displayed like a controller layout perfectly. Ingenious! Finally there’s All-Out Attacks, which have a barrage of attacks in a cartoonish but powerful manner of black on red visuals. If this kills the enemy, the character that triggered it will come in to do a custom animation into a key pose, where it snaps to artwork of the pose perfectly in time. You are rewarded for playing with visual flare and it does all this within its own limitations perfectly. Innovating on what the industry hasn’t tried to this extreme yet due to a limitation of their team.

Character Design:

The majority of significant characters in this game have a massive variety to them. Even with the main party they come with two main designs. With their school uniforms, each of them have very intentional subtle touches that make them instantly recognisable. Ann’s hoodie, Ryuji’s T-Shirt, Haru’s jumper all show different traits and key elements alongside other key features like hairstyle, hair colour, expressions and much more. With their thief design, we get to see a lot of their personality shine even further. Ren gets to present as cool in an unapologetic way and she comes with a traditional mask worn in the 1900s. Makoto shows her powerful side and even the surprising strength she has, even if I wish she was a little more toned in her design. Yusuke and his traditional art fits the traditional Samurai, Futaba fitting with a more Sci-Fi tech outfit, Sumire having elements of dancer gear whilst also a clear conflict within her own outfit, reflecting off of Ren partly as we learn that’s her coping mechanism. There’s one that isn’t so good though, Ann. She sadly is given a very Catwoman-esque skintight suit, which she herself is uncomfortable in and is sexualised in too. My main issue is how this goes completely against her arc and the message of the general arc of the first game. Owning one's sexuality does not mean being sexualised and should’ve gone for another angle, like her fashionista or model side.

Morgana in both forms is very strong character design, going for a black and white approach akin to mascot characters of the rubberhose era with yellow and blue to make the collar/bandana and eyes stand out as contrasting colours. Every social link design does really well with variety of age, body types and features. From Sojiro’s curved beard to Yoshida’s broader body type. My only criticism is actually body types, despite just praising them, as that tends to apply more to the men than the women and older features aren’t used much if at all to make them more appealing. I want older looking women in games! 

Finally, the Antagonists and their shadow designs. Each represents their main theme perfectly, from Kamoshida’s almost naked body to Kaneshiro’s bug look like a fly to a light as he is to money. Sae has a perfect villainess look to her especially within the context of the palace being a bank as Shido and Maruki both represent very different forms of discomfort especially in their designs (specifically third semester Maruki) with how their uniform is perfectly kept clean and without fault, Shido even having tinted lenses to show his tainted lens on the world. Whilst not perfect, I think the character design is extremely strong despite it and I look forward to seeing how this evolves in the series

Conclusion:

Persona 5 Royal is an extremely important game, to me, others and this industry as a whole. It pushed the boundaries of thematic intent through how even its UI and music so heavily emphasise the themes of this game. Persona games have always used it’s main colour to represent it’s theme (i.e. Persona 3 for blue to represent life and death) but this entry takes that to such an extreme and we are still seeing the repercussions of that today. Breath of the Wild influenced open design in the industry and how mechanically fine tuned and creative it can be, and I feel Persona 5 did this for the art, character design and music and stories of this industry. This is not a perfect game, no game will ever be and sadly a lot of bigoted people worked on this game which affected some qualities like the sexualisation. But I will never let that ruin what this game does so beautifully right as it is an important magnum opus of turn-based RPGs that fine tunes every issue the genre has had prior whilst fine tuning its own series mechanics to a stunning peak. Bias plagued this review and I’m well aware of this, but art analysis can’t be truly objective and this art stole my heart

[mdhwrites]

Thoughts On Honkai Star Rail's First Three Arcs

This isn't going to be comprehensive and I won't talk about it from a gameplay perspective. Gameplay wise, I actually REALLY like Star Rail and wish it wasn't a free to play Gacha game as those elements are mostly what I feel hold it back. However, unlike most free to play games, let alone Gacha games, I find the writing of Star Rail actually pretty decent and even good much of the time. It's why I came back to it after taking like half a year plus off so I could see what new story they had for me. But like I said, this post at least won't be extensive. You can send me asks if you want my further thoughts on other parts. Also, just as a heads up, a lot of this is going off of kind of old memories of content I could literally only go through once. Oh, and final disclaimer: This isn't taking into account side content. Not only have I not done the Xianzhou's side quests yet, I only just got told I need to wait for more story, but reviewing that is a lot harder given the time lapse unfortunately. I could review specific companions but not overall side quest quality probably other than it being alright and the Xianshou have my favorite puzzles so far probably.

With that said:

1: Herta's Space Station and the Antimatter Legion

As a story, it's fine. As a tutorial it's... Bumpy to put it mildly. The biggest issue is a problem that will come back: Proper Noun Soup. You get a lot of information thrown at you and a lot of terms having to be clarified very quickly, made worse if you try to read the DOZENS of documents scattered around even the literal tutorial part of it. It makes sense for that information to be here, this is a research station and archive. There's a lot of info here. It does mean a lot is being thrown at once at the player though.

But as a tutorial, the most important element isn't actually so much if the story is innovative, it's not as it's just saving a station under attack, as much as it is about whether or not it hooks the player. And for that...

7/10 overall for the story here.

It's quick, the action is good, the stakes are high and aren't really undervalued or undersold and the boss battle is an incredibly satisfying conclusion. The enemy may be faceless but the face we get is both literally attractive and narratively tantalizing, giving a lot of interesting questions both about our character and our rival organization just by the act of us coming to consciousness. It's only real issue is trying to retain everything thrown at you and the time that has to be spent mostly explaining stuff to you in kind of awkward ways. It's far from bad though, especially since I use the whole scale so a five is a passing grade for me.

Jarilo-VI and the Eternal Freeze

9/10 overall for me. The biggest issues come down to two things. The first is the general pitch for the world: Final Fantasy 14 Heavensward but without the dragons and gods. That's both actually not a bad thing but also slightly bad for it. Removing dragons from anything is always going to be a bummer and you would think removing gods and cults would be a bad thing but it's not.

I'm actually being reductive even calling it a ripoff. The sort of classist story that it's telling is actually pretty normal fair for speculative fiction. By removing the extreme fantasy elements though, it focuses a lot more on the actual human stakes and the suffering that's being caused by the class divide. It's honestly a very human story with a well rounded cast of all sorts to give perspective and neat twists and turns. Nothing mind blowing but pivots that add charm to the archtype. Buuuuut it's still doing the archtype and so as a fan of fantasy, there's little new about it and what is new makes me chuckle like everyone having came from the same fucking orphanage. XD

And it playing it so by the numbers feeds into its second issue: It's. Fucking. LONG. It moves at a crawl due to its factions and the like, or that's how it feels to me. It had little to escalate to by being so human so it's kind of just buzzing along for at least half of it, which is the majority of the time you're in the slums. You're not making progress outside of turning some hearts and so you're just kind of twiddling your thumbs happily as you wait for when you finally get an option to jump back into the real action.

The climax is genuinely fantastic though and pays off that slow build with a grand crescendo as allies either come in now or have been helping you the entire way. Afterwards, you feel like you genuinely accomplished something and that things will be better. Honestly, I wonder what the production process for the worlds are because this COULD have been split in half probably and been more satisfying to do it.

Speaking of:

The Xianzhou Loufu and the Stellaron Crises

5/10

Like I said, I use the whole scale and I'll admit that this might be skewed due to me having spent so long away from the story right in the middle of it. Or, more like 3/4s which you would not be expecting when you got to the moment where the main story content used to cut off at.

Pacing is the big murderer here. Despite the fact that there is a ticking time bomb somewhere on this planet ship, you don't really feel like you're doing a lot. You're stuck in bureaucracy more than anything and it takes multiple dungeon areas for you to finally talk to any of the actual villains in the ship. Otherwise, it's almost literally twiddling your thumbs and waiting. Once things happen, they happen all at once. Not even with great payoffs but almost like they were just stomping out plot points that were in the way of the final boss and they didn't have the resources to finish the story properly so it could pay off wider elements.

Now, there was this element back on Jarilo but the situation was neither so immediate and the elements being introduced came back around. Much of what makes the Loufu's sky Venice have ANY flavor doesn't really lead to anything. It gestures towards it with the cult that eventually shows up but it's actually only briefly in the story and undercuts any interesting arguments it has by going "WE'RE PURE EVIL RACISTS WHO WANT IMMORTALITY BECAUSE IT MAKES US STRONG!" and suddenly they're not interesting in anyway... Only to then be replaced by a threat that is somehow even MORE one dimensional than 'evil cult'.

There's a real lack of personal stakes in it either. It has an interesting hook by going back to that pretty face who put a bomb in our chest back on Herta but they're more a cameo. Literally for her friend, Blade who gets one moment and then just pisses off because... *shrug* The statement he made about prices needing to be paid never amounts to much of anything besides that being the first cutscene of the entire arc. It doesn't make me excited for the end cutscene of this arc because we'll see where it goes.

BUUUUUT even if the main plot of the Loufu is a lot of wasted potential and kind of meh in general, it is dragged back to treading water by the B plot. This is the first one with a B plot away from your main group and the mystery it presents is actually neat. It shows a lot of good nobility for a pretty stoic character and a pretty interesting backstory that also doesn't have to weight the character down going forward. It's the one element I would say that really pays off with the Loufu.

That doesn't save it and it has a pretty laughable epilogue where a character who died with very little personality besides being good at their job is suddenly made out to be this charismatic saint who was friends with everyone and enriched the Loufu so much and I'm just sitting here going "SURE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SEEN THAT EARLIER!"

Plus side, the gameplay lets me reanimate her corpse since she is a playable party member in the gacha which does make having her death be a big deal less of one.

Overall Thoughts on Star Rail's Writing:

If I am judging its writing quality just by whether or not the writing is good, without context, it actually ranks pretty darn high. Probably a 7/10 which is better than most MMOs, let alone free to play gacha games. That is the draw of Hoyo admittedly. A gacha game that's closer to at least AA quality, if not AAA.

But it being a Hoyoverse property also hurts it. A LOT. I played the first arc of Genshin Impact after all and while I think the plot is better here, there's very little distinguishing the two. That shouldn't happen though because one is fantasy... Star Rail is Scifi. If you look up pictures of the Loufu though and its characters, you would almost never guess that it's scifi. They have divination, they have alchemy, there's a sidequest where you bring someone's soul out of the soul containment part of the ship to put into a robot that's effectively a golem so you can communicate with the dead. The entire final part of the story is all about gods, reincarnation and magic and NOTHING else. Its boats are grown out seeds.

And that IS frustrating. Jarilo VI is also bad about this but they're at least a civilization who's development was pushed back. Them having a contemporary/fantasy style works better there, even if not perfectly. And I am a bigger fantasy fan than scifi but I came to this expecting a scifi game. If I'm lucky, I get a scifi aesthetic, MAYBE a little flavor... But often not even that.

It's why I pause on hard recommending Star Rail for its writing. It took the traveling wanderers excuse and so far hasn't done anything with it that having isolated islands wouldn't do just as well.

And while I may be Nameless, I would like the story to start forming its own identity.

======+++++======

For anyone curious btw: I have bought the first season pass when I completed it but have spent no money on the game otherwise. I don't have the money to spend on free to play games and in general I just don't. If I play consistently enough to clear a season pass though, I usually feel like the devs have earned a bit of money out of me in return.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[pathetic-gamer]

*MAJOR TOTK SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT*

I was anxiously awaiting this game from the moment it was announced. I 100% completed BOTW, including Kilton's monster medallions and full armor upgrades - literally all content except for the sword trials on master mode - and I played and enjoyed AOC, so I was so so so excited

Now that I've finished the game and have had a few months (lol) to reflect on it, here are some of my impressions/reviews for things that stuck with me, aka a long list of what i did and didnt like. (I only did the main story and a couple of key save-my-wife-related side quests, so this isn't about all the content in the game.)

First, things I liked:

Regarding gameplay: the final boss fight was so much more fun than BOTW's. I liked that it combined a massive boss like Calamity Ganon with an actual humanoid boss similar to older games, plus the fight against the demon king was very cool. I especially liked the fact that he could dodge Link's attacks the same way Link can dodge his, but thank God he can't flurry rush lmao. (The last stage I'm particular was VERY cool.)

It was really funny to me how in the last phase of the fight, if you get down to one single heart, his attacks become SO much weaker, so you're basically guaranteed to not die lmao

I liked how the sages could actually follow you around as you adventured! That was fun and cute.

Related to that, it was kinda nice how they prepared you for that fight throughout the game by making you learn his moveset ahead of time

Speaking of sages, the temples were fun and their final bosses were cooler than the ones in BOTW. The lightning temple was especially cool - that final boss was creepy and made me think of Mothula, whom i know from A Link to the Past and Oracle of Seasons

fuck gloom hands, all my homies hate gloom hands (they still go in the "likes" section bc they were cool, but they were. so scary)

fuck gibdos, all my homies hate gibdos.

Actually I think one of my favorite experiences in the whole game was going to Gerudo Town without talking to anyone about what was happening, and therefore finding ruins full of what I briefly thought were actual zombies of the Gerudo, and then running around the town looking for survivors and finding absolutely nothing (until i finally found the main entrance to the sanctuary embarrassingly late). That was legitimately terrifying.

another favorite moment was descending to the final boss - that was pretty unsettling too, especially when I hit the bottom floor of the huge spiral staircase and got the pop-up about the power of the sages being gone.

regarding specific mechanics: I actually really liked the weapon crafting. I thought I would hate it, but figuring out strong combinations and going out to hunt down strong monsters for their parts was fun. I felt like a genius when I managed to create a weapon with 120 attack lol

for the story: the master sword quest!!!!!!!! so good.

Purah!!!!! I loved her change in personality throughout the calamity trilogy, I feel like it really reflected her age and the state of the world. in AOC, she was a super spunky and brilliant teenager, and in BOTW she was basically a 4yo, so having her back to being 20, but now having literally 100 years of horror with her friends, family, and all of hyrule suffering hanging over her, she's way more serious and subdued. She's also clearly scared and worried at Zelda still being missing, which I think speaks to how close the friendship is between all three. idk, I have feelings lol

PAYA 😭😭😭😭😭

I did like how much different it felt overall as everyone recovered from the Calamity. That was nice.

and last but not least: ZELINK CANON ZELINK CANON ZELINK CANON

Now for things I didn't like:

I didn't actually like the shrines very much this time, even though the puzzles were more interesting than the ones in BOTW. that might just be fatigue from doing ~250 shrines (main save file and master mode) in the first game, but I found them tedious. once I had enough stamina for the master sword and enough hearts for the sage of spirit quest, I stopped doing them.

the temples were better than the divine beasts, but I still would have preferred more extensive dungeons. (Worth noting that the games I've played other than the two most recent are Link to the Past, Oracle of Seasons, and the original LoZ. I briefly started OOT and Majora's Mask, but didn't finish either of them, so i dont have a comparison point for recent 3d games.)

I felt there was a lack of continuity specifically because of the sheika shrines/towers. Did they ever explain why they are gone now? Did they disappear into the depths during the upheaval? Even the divine beasts are missing! I feel like at the bare minimum, Robbie or Purah should have mentioned something, let alone the second gen champions who literally already piloted them.

This is my hottest take, but: Zelda could have stayed a dragon. Don't get me wrong, I love her and am thrilled Ultimate Wife Guy Link got his wife back, but I don't like when stories undermine their Great Sacrifice(tm) like that. Keep in mind, I also think Byleth should have died in FE3H's Crimson Flower route and that the Silver Snow route is a more powerful ending if you don't meet the conditions for Rhea to survive. In stories about sacrifice for some 'greater good,' I am simply not a happy endings person.

All in all, I had fun! I felt much more invested in the story and hurrying to rescue Zelda because I felt so much more attached to all the characters, so I think that was a massive improvement.

[casspurrjoybell-31]

Valencio and Milan - Chapter 22 - Part 2

*Warning Adult Content*

Valencio Osiris

"Hmm. Good morning, Babe," I said when I felt Milan O'Dair stir in his sleep and cuddle closer to me.

"Is it morning already?" he asked groggily.

"Yeah, you slept through the whole night."

"Ugh. I only wanted a nap. Why didn't you wake me?"

"Hmm because I didn't want to. You were really worn out and I wanted you to have your rest."

I gave him a kiss on the forehead and we snuggled under the covers for a while longer.

"How sre you feeling?"

"Really sore to be honest. My hole, my ass cheeks and my thighs. Ugh, everywhere," he explained.

"Definitely worth it though," he giggled.

I felt guilty at first hearing how sore he was but I was glad to hear he didn't mind and was in good spirits.

"I put some ointment on your spank marks while you were asleep. I hope that was okay? I'll put some more on once you've had a shower."

"No bath today?"

"You're pretty bruised down there. It will probably hurt to sit down especially if you're gonna sit on a hard surface like a bathtub."

"I could sit on your lap," he suggested.

"And have my knees dig into you whenever you move around? Not to mention having your bare ass pressed up against my cock but not being able to even fuck you again. That sounds like torture."

"Okay fine," my little one said nodding in understanding and once he finally felt ready to get up, I carried him into the bathroom and stood him up by the sink as I got the shower and his clothes ready.

When I came back from grabbing his clothes, I found him looking in the bathroom mirror at his backside and all the bruising where there were lots of thin lines of purple coating his ass cheeks and a few on the back of his thighs.

"Is it okay?" I asked concerned that he was going to be upset by the sight of it.

"Yeah, it's just pretty. I like looking at it," he replied smiling.

I was beyond relieved.

It let me know that he was definitely okay with this both during and afterwards.

If he wasn't okay with any part of a spanking process, then I doubt I would ever do it again because I didn't want to make him upset or uncomfortable or scared in any way.

The pain when he sat down on things would be a nuisance but if he thought it was worth the hassle then I couldn't wait to do it again.

I got him in the shower and joined him.

I helped wash him off and didn't allow him to do a thing.

He had been so good for me last night that I didn't want him straining his body to do anything so I washed him all over and when I went down on my knees to wash his legs, his cock might have ended up in my mouth by accident...

When we got out of the shower, my little puppy was one more orgasm down and hanging off me in contentment as I did everything for him.

I loved taking care of him.

It made me feel important and like my life had a more fulfilling meaning.

More than just amassing mass sums of money but the fulfilment of being someone's happiness and comfort.

I helped him lay down on the bed and rubbed some more ointment on his bruises to help soothe the aching and then we laid in bed talking.

I did everything I could to make him smile and laugh.

His giggles were the purest sound on earth and I hated to think of a time where he might have lost his laugh but with the loss of his brother, I had a feeling he had suffered through a few years where he couldn't find it in himself to even smile very often.

I hoped I could make sure that never happened again at least.

"Oh. Woah. What the heck?" my boy said when he went to check his cell-phone at the sound of a notification going off.

"What's wrong, Baby?" I asked.

We were still cuddling and if I wanted, I could have looked at his phone screen over his shoulder but I didn't want to intrude on his privacy.

"It's just my group chat with my friends. Apparently, I'm trending. What the fuck."

"You are?"

"Yeah, look."

He showed me his cell-phone screen where he opened Twitter where various pictures of the two of us were being shared.

We weren't top of the trending page but we were on the page.

This wasn't a surprise to me as people mentioned my name every now and then to which I was suddenly trending for some reason or another every month or so.

I wasn't famous in the same way as pop stars like Billie Eilish was but more so in the way of Rupert Murdoch.

People knew my name but I wasn't a constant thought in anyone's mind and honestly, I much preferred it that way.

Although, being out of the spotlight completely would have been nicer as there was always a risk of being caught doing something a little illegal or well... very much illegal.

"I guess you're a little famous now," I replied.

I hoped this wasn't too bad of a thing in Milan's mind.

I should have told him that something like this would probably happen if we started dating but it never crossed my mind.

The paparazzi hadn't bothered me in a while now so it was easy to forget about them from time to time.

"I guess..." he said, scrolling through some more tweets.

Some of them talked about how cute we were as a couple and others of course had people throwing homophobic slurs at us but at the end of the day I was a billionaire and they weren't, so what did I care?

Their words didn't hurt me anymore than getting dust on my Gucci clothes that sat forgotten in my wardrobe... I found them a bit too obnoxious to wear out in public.

"I hope my family doesn't see this..." he admitted.

"Would that be such a bad thing?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I don't talk to them at all anymore and my sister, Verona, she's been tryna get in contact with me every now and then for a few years now. I don't want them to see this and think that I just... that I don't miss them."

"If you miss them, why don't you talk to them?" I asked.

I hadn't realised how estranged he was from his family or that he even had a sister as well.

He never liked to talk about his family that much I noticed.

"I can't... I can't just... after everything. Seeing them again it would just bring back so many memories and they're going to ask me questions about what I've been doing, how I made money and I can't exactly tell them I was a high-class escort but what else could I tell them that's actually believable and makes just as much money without being involved in drugs or something. Ugh... it's just too much to deal with."

"Okay. Okay," I said trying to calm him down.

"You're overthinking things now. If your family sees then there's not much you can do about it and if you don't want to see them then I'm not gonna make you, am I?"

"No. I don't think you would make me do anything like that," he replied.

I got him out of bed a little later and eventually had to be stern with him and tell him off for staring at his phone for so long.

It wasn't healthy for him to stare at what everyone online was saying about him for so long.

I understood how addictive it could be as I used to do the same when I gained more prominence after taking things over from my father but I didn't want Milan to go through the same addiction.

It could be quite troubling for one's mental health and well, I knew Milan definitely had a few issues in that department which I hoped we could at least try and work through together.

We cooked some food together, mostly because it hurt for my baby to sit down on a chair because of his bruises and he felt it would just be better if he stood up and helped me cook.

Once I made sure he was thoroughly fed and full, I put on a movie for us to watch though neither of us caught the ending because we had our tongue down each other's thoughts.

Apparently watching movies together meant no actual watching of the movie when it came to us two.

When the movie was done, Milan was ready to go home so I drove him back in my Tesla and gave him one last kiss before I bid him goodbye.

I felt like every time I had to say bye to him now just hurt more each time.