#no. not only do you think they should die you think even non bandits should be killed as long as j*ck deems them bandits | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lotus-tower · 7 months

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WHY WON'T TUMBLR LET ME POST A READMORE

not really well read enough in philosophy Or dnd history to truly understand everything it draws from but i think dnd's conception as good and evil as natural forces in the universe is so fascinating from both a pure worldbuilding perspective and a game design perspective. but in a way that is severely undercut by how it tries to apply that onto realistic human morality

like, the idea of gameified moral alignments is genuinely interesting to me because rather than being an effective shorthand storytelling tool (which i don't think it really is), what you end up with is a cosmology heavily mired in futility due to being shaped by the demands of ceaseless gameplay. good can never truly defeat evil, but "balance" is not the goal like in a, say, taoist sense. instead the good guys should still strive to defeat evil, but there will always be more monsters and enemies to defeat, because if there weren't there would be no more adventure to be had. because dnd operates on "enemy" logic where if an entity is evil-aligned, you can kill them without thinking twice about it, whether they're an amorphous monster or just like, a normal human bandit.

the way it appropriates eastern and other non-western mythologies and mixes everything up in a blender for its cosmology is also interesting because its mixture of apocalyptic vs cyclical also feels like it's only tenable because of game utility. bad guys are always biding their time until they can unleash something that would presumably Destroy the World. but if it's not relevant to your specific story or campaign, that day will literally never come. but if you do want to roleplay through that crisis, there are a million apocalypses to choose from.

dnd lore feels like it's constantly aggressively chasing itself into a corner for no reason with regards to wanting mindless, one-dimensionally evil enemies who are evil because they're born evil, yet also wanting fleshed out villains because bad guys are cool and there will always be people drawn to the evil races. this leads to just frankly hilariously nonsensical lore for races like the drow. you can read their wiki page and actively Feel the writers adding caveats and then going 'but they're still evil' and then new caveats and then 'uhhh but still Evil' over and over. enough people have talked about the actual racial dynamics in fantasy race design, but i'm weirdly interested in the underlying philosophical issue as well.

the alignment system is simultaneously something meant to showcase your guys' character development and make it feel visible and codified, in a game that is all about, y'know, roleplaying and acting out the fantasy of your guy Doing Stuff, and something that imposes a significant level of determinism to the whole setting. lawful evil isn't just a label to describe a type of sentient creature. instead it becomes a cosmological force of its own, or like an element. creatures have to be predisposed to a certain alignment, or how could that alignment be a tangible thing in the cosmos? there HAS to be straight-up evil races because there is a straight up evil plane. lawful evil people automatically go to the lawful evil afterlife when they die. everything is neatly categorized taxonomically, with even the 'world tree' type cosmological structure resembling a taxonomic tree. i think it quickly becomes obvious how futile it is to think of something like "defeating evil" when you look at a cosmological tree like that. that wouldn't mean just fighting against designated bad guys. it would mean destroying entire planes of existence, including... afterlives? how would that even work?

but you still DO need to fight against designated bad guys. that's what the whole game is built around. you need a clear divide between "civilization" and the "savage" so that you can have random monsters to kill out in the wilderness, "monster" itself being its own special category that is separate from flora or fauna, you need to preserve that sense of undefinable chaos so that there are just random beings you can kill with impunity without needing to work in some kind of narrative about it. even for obviously irrevocably evil enemies like devils, there's a distinction made between them (who you can reason and bargain with) and demons, who are mindless because something something chaos. lawful forces exist for interesting interactions you can have with them, and chaotic forces exist so you can just have enemies hellbent on destruction for absolutely no reason. you need a clear divide between "good" and "evil" for the same reason. player characters become the only characters possessed of full freedom of will, so that players can act out any fantasy they want. but that same fantasy would be weakened if they felt constrained in what kind of violence they can dish out.

and, you know, why are good and evil dragons colour-coded? isn't that super silly? well obviously it's to make obvious at a glance what npcs are enemies and what aren't. it makes perfect sense from a practical game design standpoint. like, you can try to justify it however you like in-universe, but the fact remains that making all of a certain Type of creature uniformly enemies is the most standard RPG thing ever.

but what does it mean for your characters' free will to only be able to be exercised in a setting where they're the only ones that have it? what does it mean for a person's relationship to god, knowing that that god is more static, less capable of change, less containing of possibility? it's not that gods can't change alignment at all, but it's so much more unlikely than a person. "only humans (as in, sentient playable races etc etc.) have free will" is another standard theme in fantasy and religious thought. and my personal art. i guess. but in dnd this isn't a theme that's explored, it's just the playground set up for the players to have fun in.

what does it mean to be an ardent crusader for good, to fight against "evil"? if that evil is just a force in the universe? is it exhausting, knowing your life's work will never get to the root cause, that there will always be more evil? does it mean you just have an infinite number of enemies to slaughter mercilessly? do you spin it into a "but someone has to do the work to hold the monsters at bay this generation" thing?

there's a lot more you could say about law vs chaos but i don't want to get into that lol

#txt #TOO MAD TO KEEP REWRITING MY OLD TAGS

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sacred-stanning · 7 months

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Chapter 3! We take on the Bazba gang!

These nefarious villains have plundered local villages during the unrest caused by the invasion. Eirika will not allow them to live!

On the way there, we bump into Neimi. She is a sweet treasure, and everyone should always be nice to her.

I also discovered that Colm's name is more like "Kohma" in Japanese.

But before we head into the den of thieves, let's see what kind of crew we're rolling in with here:

Gilliam is a GBA armor knight, which means that he is slow and doesn't double, so it's easy for him to fall behind if you don't make an effort to get him kills. I'll use him for now, but there are other high defense units who will come along later.

(Actually, there's already another unit with higher defense than Gilliam, more speed, and more movement, Seth. Sucks to be Gilliam.)

Vanessa is a pegasus knight, and I love pegasus knights. Also, I love Lute, and Lute loves Vanessa, so Vanessa is extra cool in my book.

Moulder is a pretty bulky early-game healer. I usually like using him more than Natasha since she joins later, and I don't feel like she offers anything Moulder doesn't also have.

Ross, our amateur warrior. I think last time I played Sacred Stones, I used his dad, so maybe this time I'll use Ross. Or maybe I'll use both???

Garcia has a cool beard, and is a pretty good early-game axe unit I think. If he gets decent level ups, I might keep him around. He had a moustache until recently, but he was put to shame by the high quality of Moulder's moustache, so he shaved it off and just kept the beard.

Here she is! Everyone cheer for Neimi! She's trying so hard.

Sometimes I hear people call Fire Emblem lords "loss conditions" since getting your lord killed is a game over. Seth, on the other hand, should be nick-named "win condition".

I like Eirika a lot, and I usually choose her route when I play this game. Her attitude towards war, and the choices she makes in the latter parts of the game resonate with me a lot. Even, no, especially, that choice, which if you've played the game before, you know what I'm talking about. I honestly think I probably would have made the same choice if I had been in her place.

Franz can become pretty good. I'm going to keep investing in him for now and see how he does.

Oh, and here's Colm. I forgot to get a picture of his stat screen, but he's an early game thief, so no one cares about his stats. The only status that matters for him is the status, "Has lockpick in inventory".

I kind of skipped turn one, but here we are on turn 2. I broke the two cracked walls where the bandits are standing now, and I left sword-equipped units in the way to take the enemy phase attacks.

This game isn't as silly unbalanced about hit rates as Binding Blade, but sword vs. axe is still pretty safe.

Also, here's the top of the map. Neimi can recruit Colm, and then Colm can get the chests up there.

Colm also gets a chance at combat. He won't see very much combat probably, so he might as well take it.

Colm and Neimi have really fast support growth I guess, because it only takes one or two turns with them next to each other to get C.

Garcia had an awful hit rate on the archer, like 50% or something, so I opened the door above with Gilliam, who has no items in his inventory, just his lance.

Why does that matter? Well, you see that thief at the bottom. I've learned the hard way that that guy will prioritize stealing your junk over anything else, so I put in a questionable amount of effort to avoid letting him do that.

Step 1: Move Neimi next to Franz and take all of his non-weapons.

Step 2: After breaking the wall next to Garcia, move Vanessa over to Garcia's right, give away her worldly possessions, and then attack the archer from 1-range.

Step 3: Send empty-pocketed Franz down to finish off the archer. He could miss twice here potentially, and then I suppose Vanessa would likely die, but I have faith in our boy!

The end result is that no one in range of the thief has any items, so the thief just attacks Vanessa for 1 damage.

Yes, this was all necessary. If I didn't trade all of these items around, the thief *dramatic pause* might have stolen my pure water!

My pure water!

My!

Pure!

Water!

And you know I'm having none of that.

Vanessa kills the thief and gets a very pegasus knight level up.

Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get strength at some point. Right?

Right?

So here we are about to take out the last couple of fools and rush the throne room. (Why is there a throne in a bandit base? For that matter, what's up with all the barrels? Are they making moonshine on top of all of their other illegal activities?)

We'll continue this in the next post since I think Tumblr has a limit of 30 images per post.

#fire emblem the sacred stones #fire emblem #sacred stones

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yeeyee-alumni · 3 years

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Joel did not doom humanity (no matter how much the second game wants you to believe that)

To demonize Joel’s decision at the end of the first game (saving his surrogate daughter’s life) you need to bend over backwards and ignore any and all context the first game gave us with regards to who the Fireflies truly are. Because the truth of the matter is: a) they knocked Joel unconscious while he was trying to revive a young girl b) they drugged Ellie immediately to tear her body apart for their needs c) THEY DID NOT ASK ELLIE FOR PERMISSION to give her life for their cause, they didn’t even tell her she would have to die (Ellie was making plans with Joel after the giraffe scene, “Once we're done, we'll go wherever you want. Okay?”, clearly indicating she had no idea she would have to die) d) they did not let Ellie and Joel see each other to say their goodbyes e) they were about to walk Joel out into the wilderness without any of his gear/resources, which during the zombie apocalypse is a certain death sentence f) they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain (remember how Marlene promised Joel guns in return for delivering Ellie?) So even if you show them as much goodwill as possible, the Fireflies are still a bunch of assholes. If the exact opposite had happened, they let Joel go all on good terms and then he suddenly decided to turn around and murder everyone I would have called him a terrible person, but that is not what happened. As it stands, the Fireflies are shady and questionable at best. But it actually gets worse:

a) the procedure that would 100% kill Ellie had an incredibly low success rate (the doctor mentioned in his recording that every previous operation with other test subjects had failed) b) the same recording mentions cerebrospinal fluid having been extracted, meaning they were capable of performing a non-lethal spinal tab, but they’re unable to perform a non-lethal biopsy or craniotomy on Ellie? (this may seem like nit-picking, but actually further solidifies my point about how incompetent the Fireflies/Abby’s dad were/was) c) to add to their immense incompetence, mere hours after receiving Ellie they decide to IMMEDIATELY KILL THE ONLY PERSON KNOWN TO BE IMMUNE as oppose to keeping her alive for as long as possible to run every single test in existence on her. But let's paint a picture of the best case scenario, which is Jerry, the absolute legend that he is, actually manages to get a vaccine out of Ellie, what happens then? a) How are the Fireflies, who are nearly extinct at this point, supposed to MASS PRODUCE and NATIONWIDE DISTRIBUTE a vaccine? That is logistically impossible. b) More than likely, they would use the vaccine as a bargaining chip against FEDRA (granted, this is more a guess than a fact, but to believe they wouldn’t take advantage of the vaccine in the fight for political power against the government they’ve been fighting for years is beyond naïve). But let’s be even more generous: turns out the Fireflies are the most altruistic resistance group to have ever existed, they actually manage to produce and distribute the vaccine into every last corner of the country, everyone is immune. What now? a) You might be immune to spores and bites, but your immunity doesn’t help you when a clicker rips your throat out or a bloater crushes you to death, the infected can still kill you in numerous other ways. b) The faction wars going on are not gonna disappear overnight. WLF and Seraphites will continue to kill each other by the dozens every day, one could even argue that introducing a vaccine into the conflict would only cause things to escalate further. c) Numerous cannibals, hunters and bandits still roam the country, they will not abandon their practices overnight and they are arguably a much bigger threat than the infected to begin with. Just because everyone is immune does not mean that the world returns to sunshine, rainbows, and flowers. To imply that it would, means being simplistic and naive beyond reason. It should be obvious by now that Ellie’s death WOULD NOT HAVE IMPROVED ANYTHING. The chances of actually getting a vaccine are slim to none, the chances of vaccinating everyone are even more dour, and even then the overall situation would not improve much. With such bad prospects I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my child either. (I am aware that an argument can be made that none of these factors had an impact on Joel’s decision to save Ellie, yet they’re still crucial when making a judgement about the Fireflies/Abby’s dad). To summarize: a) Abby’s dad was incompetent and a horrible person (his conversation with Abby in the second game tells us that he would not be willing to sacrifice his own child, but if it’s someone else’s it’s a-okay for him). b) The Fireflies were a malicious and incompetent terrorist group with messed up morals. c) No, Joel did not doom humanity. Subsequently, Abby’s quest for revenge was not justified because the Fireflies and her dad were never justified in their actions to begin with. And this is only solidified by the second game having to retcon the hell out of all these arguments I just painstakingly illustrated and explained in order to even attempt to have Abby’s motivation be seen as justified. Only one example being how it was clearly established in the first game that they had MULTIPLE doctors in Salt Lake City (Marlene: “The doctors tell me that the cordyceps, the growth inside her, has somehow mutated.”; Ellie: “She said that they have their own little quarantine zone. With doctors there still trying to find a cure.”). Yet in the second game we are told by

Abby that actually no, turns out her dad was the only doctor that could have developed vaccine. And it doesn't take mental gymnastics to see why the second game takes it upon itself to alter most of the context of the first one: to (retroactively!) condemn Joel. HOWEVER, a sequel doesn’t get to pick and choose which established facts from the first entry it builds upon or what it gets to retroactively declare as non-canon only to have it fit their preferred narrative. Quite frankly, that’s bad writing. A sequel, in order to be considered well-written, has to not only be a natural continuation of the events, but has to stay consistent with the characters and the world that were previously set up. And if you have to alter much of the context to make it look like Joel condemned the world, isn't that the most obvious sign that he never actually did? And all of this effort for just one goal: to justify Abby’s quest for revenge and yet it still wasn’t and here’s why: Joel killed her dad in order to PREVENT HIM FROM KILLING HIS DAUGHTER. Abby on the other hand WILFULLY SLOW TORTURED Joel for what appears to be hours, prolonging his death for as long as possible, all for her own gratification (and we won't mention how she went through with it despite Ellie's crying and pleading). And don’t even try to make the argument about Abby wanting “justice”, Joel didn’t torture her dad out of revenge or for his own gratification - this is not justice, this is simply sadistic. A man killing someone who is about to murder their child in semi-self-defense cannot be compared to someone wilfully slow torturing someone to death for their own gratification, like Jesus, I didn’t think I’d have to spell that one out. I am aware that the second game tries to do whatever it can, including retconning their own original story, to paint Ellie and (especially!) Joel as evil. And for a considerable amount of the player base this actually worked, and while I cannot find it in me to condemn them (we all experience stories differently after all), I reserve the right to reject arguments in defense of Abby such as “all people are forced to do bad things during the apocalypse” and “does context even matter?”. If the only way you can defend/justify Abby's actions is to remove all context and nuance, then your reasoning is built on quicksand.

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shad0w-ink · 4 years

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Arthur isn't royalty!AU

Arthur and Merlin meet because while Merlin was travelling(to deal with some random magical threat, because he’s a magical scholar and has actually learned a bunch of stuff) he is attacked by bandits and Arthur hears the commotion from where he is currently hunting camping, and comes to the rescue, but instead of helping it keeps Merlin from using his magic(at least too outwardly), and then after that Arthur insists(”can’t let a helpless buffon like you walk around all on your own”) in accompanying Merlin to wherever he is going so that Merlin doesn't die(it has nothing to do with him being cute), and anyway, the sword in the stone ? an actual thing, but no one knows the myth so Merlin's like "are you a knight ?" and freaks out a little cuz magic is outlawed and he's been doodling that sword his entire life, and Arthur is like "naw, I found this sword in a boulder" and Merlin is like, "the fuck??" and anyway, they pass by Arthur's village and he is equally hated and loved, most people know he is a good man but some people think he is a thief because of the sword with the gold accents that looks very expensive. then thE VILLAGE IS ATTACKED, AND THEY FIGHT SIDE BY SIDE LIKE THE BADASS DUO THEY ARE(and should have been), AND ARTHUR IS LIKE "U GOT MAGIC ??" AND MERLIN FREAKS OUT CUZ MAYBE HE HAD STARTED LIKING THIS GUY BUT THEN ARTHUR PULLS HIM TO A CORNER AND IS LIKE "my mom had magic! :’0" AND THEY BECOME CLOSER FRIENDS, AND THEN THEY TRAVEL THROUGHOUT CAMELOT GETTING KNOWN FOR GETTING RID OF MAGICAL(or non-magical really) THREATS AND THAT'S HOW THEY UNITE CAMELOT, AND THEN THE WHOLE KINGDOM(including most knights/guards) TELL THE KING TO FUCK OFF AND THEY'RE LIKE "ur king now" AND ARTHUR IS LIKE "WHAT THE FUCK, HOW WHY ???????" AND SOMEONE IN THE CROWD SAYS "That's Excalibur you're holding ! Only The One True King can get that sword!" and Arthur is like "oh no what have I done", AND EVEN THO HE DOESN'T KNOW ANY ETIQUETTE HE'S LIKE, REALLY GOOD AT BEING KING, AND THEN HE GOES AND MAKES MERLIN COURT-SORCERER, AND AFTER A MISHAP WITH A LOVE POTION THAT DIDN'T WORK(because Arthur is already in love with Merlin obviously) A LOVE CONFESSION HAPPENS AND THEY GET MARRIED(in the future obvs) AND ANYWAY, FROM RAGS TO ROYALTY I GUESS. (and if u want, here’s a playlist of the songs that inspired me: Glitter and Gold [ “Do you ponder the manner of things”] Soldier, Poet, King [ "There will come a poet, who's weapon is his word, he will slay you with his tongue oh lei oh lai oh lord" - Merlin / from "there will come a soldier, who carries a mighty sword, he will tear your city down, oh lei oh lai oh lord" to "There will come a ruler, who's brow is laid in thorn, smeared with oil like David's boy Oh Lei Oh Lai Oh Lord" - Arthur] I’m not famous What’s up)

#merlin bbc #merlin (bbc)#bbc merlin #bbc merthur #merthur #merthur fanart #u can use this as prompt #if u rlly want to #idrc #merlin emrys #merlin #Arthur Pendragon #merlin x arthur pendragon #arthur pendragon x merlin #arthur x merlin #merlin x arthur #this is sorta a redraw from some very old merthur art #I say old but its like a year old or something #also sorry this post is so damn long

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delu-jean · 3 years

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𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 (𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭)

Hello! As this event takes place, requests will be closed since juggling both will be a little tiring!

-> Thanks: Thank you guys for 100 follows! I’m glad my writing is something others can enjoy, and I’ll keep on doing my best to both improve, and deliver.

Event:

-> Song-Fic/ Song Lyric Event: There are forty five prompts with different song lyrics! Some angst, and others fluff, but all revolve around romance~

->Each fic will revolve around the lyric specifically, or the entire song!

->Eg of fic with just the lyric (specifcially): I may use the lyric as a line you, or another character would say, it might pop up when needed, and etc. A fic example would be: “Before You Go” (Nanami Kento x fem!/reader).

->Eg of fic with entire song: Basically a song-fic

->Eg of fic wihtout lyrics in it: I present the lyrical prompt at the beginning of the fic, and write w/o needing to use it as an actual line, or anything else.

->Whichever is found fitting, will be used!! ^^

->Either way, the fic will be written about that lyrical prompt!! :))

Rules: (A must)

This event is one for (fem!xreader) x (<inserted male reader>)

He needs to be a character from one of the five fandoms I write for!

Jjk, Mha, Haikyuu, Aot, and Demon Slayer

If your guy isn’t on the list, by all means, request and I’ll tell you if I feel like I can write for him!! ^^

-> Link to the M.list <-

This is a non-nsfw event, and topics over 18+ aren’t allowed!!

You can only request one character per prompt, unless, the prompt calls for two! (Even then, you can choose to only ask for one)

My rules still apply for this event, if you would like specifics, please do ask, or look through the rules post!

-> Rules <-

Key:

Angst

Fluff

You can request more than one character (max would be two) = ☆

Prompts:

"What if I said I'm sorry, what if I made a scene? Wouldn't that make you mine again, you're all I'll ever need," -What If I Said I'm Sorry (Caliber)

"You won and she chose you, and she loved you, and she's gone…" -Its Over Isn't It? (DeeDee Magno Hall) ☆

"She's a she's a lady, and I am just a boy without a line," -Line without a hook (Ricky Montgomery)

"Knew I was falling when I looked inside your eyes, and you said…'I know you are but what am I?" -What Am I? (Why don't we)

"I need a man who loves me like my Father loves my mom," -Like My father (Jax)

"You make my heart beat faster than adrenaline, you kiss away the pain of all the hell I’m in," -Medicine (James Arthur)

"It's always one step forward, and three steps back. I'm the love of your life until I make you mad," -One step forward, and three steps back (Olivia Rodrigo)

"Let's write our story, and let's sing our song. Let's hang our pictures on the wall," -Memories (Shawn Mendes)

"Maybe you and I have history, but I don't think you know me. Have we met before?" -Have we met before (Eric Nam, Sarah Barrios)

"Hey baby won't you look my way, I can be your new addiction~" -Everybody Talks (Neon Trees)

"She gets the flowers...right? The post made about her. A love that is perfect, a love I deserved, yeah. A love that I gave,” - She Gets the flowers (Betch MCcarthy)

“I just heard you found the one you’ve been looking, that you’ve been looking for. I wish I would’ve known it wasn’t me,” -We Don’t Talk Anymore (Charlie Puth)

“Even when we go through changes, even when we’re old. Remember that I told you I’d find my way back home,” -Way Back Home (SHUAN)

“You say that it’s all just a blur, but I see you kissing her. No no, you gotta go, go, and I’ll be just fine without you,” -Goodbye Boy (Peg Parnivek)

“You say that I'm too insecure, you want me to be someone else, but if I'm not the one you want...Just go ahead and walk right out the door,” -Who I am (NIve)

“She’s In The Rain, you want to hurt yourself I’ll stay with you. You want to make yourself go through the pain. It’s better to be held than holding on,” -She’s In The Rain (The Rose)

“If all it is is eight letters, why is it so hard to say? If all it is is eight letters then why am I in my own way?” -Eight Letters (Why Don’t We)

“Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful angel. Love your imperfections every angle. Tomorrow comes and goes before you know...so i just had to let you know~” -Beautiful (Bazzi)

“Congratulations, I heard you’re doing great...congratulations, how are you okay? I hate that you’re happy, I hope that you can’t sleep,” -Congratulations (Day 6)

“I know I can treat you better than he can. And anyone like you deserves a gentleman,” -You Better (Shawn Mendes) ☆

“Congratulations, you’re finally leaving. Let’s throw a party here tonight, and toast to the end of you and I,” -Congratulations (Eric Nam)

“Wise men say...only fools rush in. But I can’t help, falling in love...with...you,” -Fools Rush In (Elvis)

“Don’t say you miss me, when you don’t call. Don’t say you’re hurting, without the scars. Don’t say you’re here tonight without tomorrow too. Don’t say you love me, unless you do,” -Don’t Say you Love Me (Fifth Harmony)

“A lifetime of laughter at the expense, of the death of a bachelor,” -Death Of A Bachelor (Panic At The Disco)

“She told me that she loved me by the water fountain. She told me that she loved me and she didn’t love him. And that was really lovely cause it was innocent, but now she has a cup with something else in it…” -Water Fountain (Alec Benjamin) -> Oikawa x Reader ☆

“And I don’t need a reason to keep on dreaming. That we can with this stupid thing...called love,” -Lose (Nikki)

“Don’t take this personal, but personally, I think you should get with somebody like me. But worst of all...you don’t even see,” -Personal (The Vamps)

“But you got a lot of great songs 'bout a lot of shit guys, you did more with 3 minutes than they'll do with their lives. And we'll buy ourselves houses with our heartbreak songs, screw everybody else who ever treated us wrong,” - Three Minutes (JP Saxe) ☆

“I’ve got all my money on you, got all my dollars on you. And I feel like a million bucks, a million bucks, and I give no f**ks when I’m with you,” -Million Bucks (Smallpools)

“She put my name in yellow hearts. Her favourite colour like the stars. I didn’t listen very hard, when she told me she was crazy from the start,” -Yellow Hearts (Ant Saunders)

“And I want you to cry, cry for me. Like I cried for you baby, cry for me,” -Cry For Me (Twice)

“Please don’t let this love die young, please don’t let this love die young. If I’m going to lose someone, don’t let it be you,” -Love Die Young (Eric Nam)

“Ain't never felt this way, can't get enough so stay with me. It's not like we got big plans. Let's drive around town holding hands,” -ILYSB (Lany)

“Maybe I don’t want to be just friends, see you only on the weekends. Sorry hope you understand, I like you a little too much for that,” -Just Friends (JORDY)

“Golden eyes, if it ain’t you girl I don’t want to try. Baby, baby, baby you’re my diamond shine,” -Golden Eyes (Layto)

“I like me better when I’m with you. I like me better when I’m with you. I knew from the first time, I stayed for a long time cause~ I like me better when I’m with you,” -I Like Me Better (Lauv)

“Hey pretty Stranger, I think you look cute, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like you,” -Your Text (Sundial)

“And They say, Chivalry is dead. So let a real man pick up the slack, and treat you with respect,” -Chivalry Is Dead (Trevor Wesely)

“And I Know there’s no making this right, and I know there’s no changing your mind. But we both have each other tonight. So if love is nothing more than just a waste of your time, waste it on me,” -Waste On Me (BTS)

“I hope he treats you better than I ever could. Cause you deserve the world times two and the perfect afternoons. For you to find who fills your heart even if I’m not the one you choose,” -Chicken Tendies (Clinton kane) ☆

“It’s bittersweet to think about the damage we do, cause I was going down but I was doing it with you. And I say that I hate you with a smile on my face,” -Favourite Crime (Olivia Rodrigo)

“Find me, in another place in time. If only, if only you were mine. But I’m already someone else’s baby,” -Baby (Clean Bandit)

“And I might never stop your sorrow, fix you up good as new. But that don’t mean that I can’t hold your hand in mine,” -Someone You Like (Girl And The Dream Catcher)

“Cause when you said jump I said ‘how high?’ But when I jumped you said ‘goodbye,’ “ -Walked Through Hell (Anson Seabra)

“I want to love me, the way that you love me. Oh, from all of my pretty, and all of my ugly too, I love it when I see me from your point of view,” POV (Ariana Grande) -> Giyuu x Reader

Have fun :)

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theaviskullguy · 3 years

Text

since yall need to see it

i have a coroika fantasy/dnd au (it has some dnd elements but its not directly a dnd au) so have this

Goggles: Chaotic neutral human rouge

Noble background

thief

he a stealy boi

but he’s got a heart of gold

back when he was a noble he saw that there was a lot of people that needed help that his family didn’t even think about helping

so goggles took to stealing from his family and other’s riches and giving them to the poor.

As a result he was disowned and cast out from his family and earned the name “Blue Bandit” due to his thieving habits and his blue hair

Rider: Neutral good human barbarian

Soldier background

Basically Rider was born into a magic-using family but was known as the family disappointment by his parents and extended family since he had none of his own (his siblings were chill about it)

So he thought that he could make them proud by joining the military and becoming a hero of his village

And he did but his parent’s still hated him simply because he had no magic

So, Rider left his village to find something else to do

Army: True Neutral half-elf warlock

Noble background

Patron: Actually one I came up with named Phyria. She’s a fiend patron but she give extra fire spells

anyways, Army comes from a line of kings, each worshipping Phyria, known as the Blaze Kings.

Army’s father was the first to act as a Tyrant. He wanted to rule the world and groomed Army to do the same.

Basically, Army was manipulated to believe that he was the only one who was “pure”. Everyone else were filthy wrongdoers.

When Army’s dad died, it wasn’t made public, and Army ruled as The Blaze King with people still believing his father was the ruler

He got news of a rebellion (basically the gang having decided to go and stop him) and decided to go down and masquerade as...well, himself kind of.

As he traveled with them he began to question all he was taught to believe.

So basically the gang lead him through an unintentional redemption arc.

Aloha: Chaotic good human bard

Entertainer background

of course aloha’s a bard

anyways, his parents died when he was 5 and he was taken in by his uncle, who ran a tavern.

As he grew up he learned how to make food, serve drinks, and became pretty well-liked in the town

But what Aloha really liked was the traveling bards that came and went at the tavern. He’d learn their songs by ear and sing along.

It came to the point where he was gifted a lute by one of them and his uncle sent him off to learn how to be a proper bard

And when Aloha came back ten years later his town had been burned down. Literally no one was left, and everything was just in ashes

Other than this one knife that had the tavern’s symbol on it.

So, Aloha took it with him in his travels.

He still has it and he still uses the lute given to him by the bard so long ago.

Mask: Chaotic neutral undead drow necromancer

hermit background

“Dude you made him an accidental lich” -My DM friend when I was explaining my idea to them

Basically Mask always had a close connection to the dead

He’d be mourning people he didn’t even know, he would talk to seemingly the void whenever at a grave, and he was always pretty close to death himself, being a pretty sickly person

So when he became an adult he hid himself in a cave, practicing his craft of necromancy

He brought back a sick cat he named Ash who decided to follow him around

Anyways as for the undead part

One day Mask got a nasty infection and he went to the market to get a cure

and he was scammed, getting a nasty poison instead

so Mask drank it and died, but somehow he came back as an undead himself

he decided “fuck it” and went off adventuring along with Ash

Skull: Lawful good Drow-Wood elf ranger

Urchin background

So basically Skull was born to two moms; a drow huntress and a wood elf archer.

He tends to look more like a drow though

anyways, he learned how to fight, hunt, gather, and shoot a bow and arrow thanks to his moms

he was also raised in a really pretty forest

his parents do be living the cottagecore dream...

anyways one day skull came back home after hunting (he had caught a raven all by himself and wanted to show his moms) when he found-suprise suprise-that his house had burnt down

his moms were alright and sent him to live in the city with his grandparents, while they go on a mission to find out who did this

problem is his grandparents hadn’t seen him before and don’t really like drow

so they kicked him-a 12 year old in elf years btw-on the streets

he taught himself to survive in the city-he didn’t know the way back to the forest-and after a few years of begging on the streets, and occasionally stealing, he finally had enough for a bow, quiver, and arrows. And he knew he could sustain himself by hunting for his own food and selling what he didn’t need

so he did just that

he commissioned a bow, arrows, and quiver and in the process met aviators- a wood elf who really loved crafting of any kind-who took on the job and made him a beautiful bow

as thanks, even though he payed, skull always made sure to give avi and his family extra food he collects.

and as time went on he and avi fell in love because aviskull supremacy

But later avi was relocated to a different city, so Skull and him made a promise to get married when they next saw each other

since then, skull joined the gang, took down a tyrant, and is now just searching for avi along the gang’s adventures

Prince: Lawful good High elf cleric

Acolyte background

basically-this is also emp’s backstory too-prince, emp, and prince’s twin regent are royals of a magic-based kingdom

but you see regent didn’t really like non magics, and thought they should be slaves under his rule

Prince and Emperor didn’t like that, so Emperor challenged Regent to a duel

you see, in the case of multiple heirs to the throne, the strongest one would ascend to become the ruler.

it would be prince, seeing as in addition to being a healer, his patron had given him a spellbook, filled with plenty of dark and powerful spells

but clerics and priests are forbidden to take on positions of political power.

so regent and emperor fought in battle and regent won, becoming king and his first act was exiling prince and emperor on the spot, not even letting them take the things in their rooms.

regent thought that, since prince had left his spellbook in his room, that he could now have access to the power his twin had, but prince was clever

when he had received the book, he placed a curse on it so only he may use it without repercussions. Anyone who even so much touched it would get a nasty curse only Prince or his patron can lift

anyways so now regent’s paranoid that prince would somehow return, take the spellbook, and kill regent

also prince has a familiar with him; his kitten, kia.

Emperor: Lawful neutral High Elf Sorceror

Noble background

basically same backstory as prince tbh not much to say

Gloves: Chaotic Good halfling Druid

Outlander background

Basically, in the village they lived in, pink eyes are considered bad luck. so when gloves opened their eyes to show pink, their parents left them to die in the woods

jokes on them

Gloves was found and literally raised by wolves until they were 10 in halfling years

Then they got found by two human hunters and was taken in

Gloves just. ran away from them. They hated being constrained and punished for even mentioning that they missed the pack

They never found the pack again, but after years in the woods, they learned how to transform into a wolf themselves.

Nothing too big after that, just the bab joins the group and now the gang has a wolf enby!!!

And i dont have anything for Vintage...suggestions are welcome!!!!

#splatoon #coroika #coroika au #coroika aloha #coroika army #coroika rider #coroika gloves #coroika prince #coroika emperor #coroika skull #coroika mask #coroika goggles #Galax Writes #dnd au

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duhragonball · 4 years

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Yamcha if you're still doing the character meme?

I am still doing these, and I’m enjoying it, so keep ‘em coming. Before I start, let me promote the original post, in case anyone else wants to start their own thing. I’d link to the OP, but I guess they deleted this from their blog, probably because their notifications went nuts.

Give me a character and I will answer:

Why I like them: Let’s be honest, Yamcha doesn’t get a lot of big “hero moments” in Dragon Ball. Or Dragon Ball Z, or Dragon Ball GT, or Dragon Ball Su-- Look, you get the idea. In most arcs, he’s the first one to get benched. In tournaments, he always loses in the first round. He spent the King Piccolo Saga recovering from a broken leg. Against the Saiyans, he was the first one to die. Against the Androids, he was nearly killed and had to sit out the rest of that arc. In the Buu Sagas he was retired. In a number of major storylines, he just isn’t there, because no one called him.

But he remains a fixture in the franchise anyway, because he’s always showing up for more. Let’s take the Buu Saga as an example. It didn’t surprise me to find out he had retired, mainly from a dramatic standpoint. There’s a lot of new characters in the Buu arc, and it made sense for some of the older characters to step aside and make room for them. But he’s still there, because he wants to see Goku one last time, and he wants to hang out with his friends and watch some of them kick the crap out of each other. It was kind of sad to see him stay behind while the others rushed off to follow the Supreme Kai, but he’s retired, after all. Also, they didn’t stop to fill him in on what was happening. I suspect he might have tagged along if they asked.

As it was, he still ended up getting involved, and he was with the Dragon Team right up until Super Buu cornered them on the Lookout. And the next time we see him, he’s on the Grand Kai Planet with Krillin, and King Kai seriously considers sending them in to take on Buu in case Goku and Vegeta can’t get the job done.

And that’s a big deal, because it even comes up in the anime. King Kai tells them that he arranged for them to keep their bodies as a precaution, but he’s totally in favor of letting them remain on the Grand Kai Planet with all of the other honored warriors, like Goku. So you start with this desert bandit, a highwayman without a highway, probably because he’s afraid of all the women that use the interstate. But he gradually overcomes his fears and insecurities, never completely, but just enough to put one foot in front of the other and become a better man. And finally he ends up receiving a place among the great heroes of old.

So why doesn’t that get more attention? You could make a whole epic story out of that, except it’s not Yamcha’s story. He’s a supporting character. So the franchise itself tends to play it down. Even Yamcha doesn’t really take it all that seriously. I don’t know if that’s modesty or cluelessness or Big Himbo Energy or what, but that’s why it’s so easy for everyone to write him off as a loser or a failure. They’re overlooking the bigger picture.

youtube

The best way to illustrate this is with this TFS short that serves as an epilogue to their DBZ Abridged series. Yamcha goes back to playing baseball for the Taitans, only to get fired, because he’s so talented that he’s literally broken the game, and no one buys tickets anymore. But he gets a gigantic severance package, and he still goes down in history as the greatest ballplayer in history. What always gets to me is that they have to explain to him that this is actually a win. As his coach puts it, “you do nothing but win.”

Like Yamcha himself, we often see him from the lens of these insane Dragon Ball adventures, where you have to have glowy hair and a hot cyborg wife to be considered a success. But to the rest of the world, he’s a jacked up millionaire with fantastic hair, and he’s a real sweetheart. Who couldn’t like this dude?

Why I don’t: As you may have noticed, I tend to only use this section to talk about why I disliked the characters initially. I have to think back to 1999 when I was still having trouble keeping track of who’s who. In particular, I found Yamcha’s presence frustrating because he looked and dressed almost exactly like Goku, but not quite, which seemed bizarre. Later, I picked up on the context, and it didn’t bother me as much.

Yamcha does have a bit of an overconfident streak in some situations, which might look like unfounded arrogance, but I think it’s really just his carefree nature and enthusiastic can-do spirit. He was confident about their chances against the Saiyans, but I don’t think that was him being cocky. He just knew they had all trained hard and he was stronger than he’d ever been. But that’s easy for people to jump on as a reason to hate the guy.

Future Trunks claimed that he fooled around while he was involved with Bulma, but come on. Does anyone really buy that? Besides, at best, that would only apply to Future Yamcha, the one who died in the other timeline. Once Trunks changed the past, all bets were off.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I’m gonna get a little nuts here and go with TFS’s playthrough of Legacy of Goku I, where they decided to level up Yamcha and have him solo Broly.

youtube

Basically, in an RPG game like this, Wolf Fang Fist can do monster damage, so they maxed out Yamcha’s stats to wreck the game’s hidden superboss. You have to skip to 1:40:00 or so to see the successful attempt, but I loved this video. This is where I learned to respect the utterance of “Roga... fufuken!” Broly probably would have respected it, too, except he died from all those hits he took.

Favorite season/movie: You know, that fight with Tien was a classic. Not sure it’s in my top ten, but it’s on a lot of people’s lists, and I absolutely get that.

Dumb as it may sound, I enjoyed seeing Yamcha in the hospital, wrestling with his own despair as he recuperated from his broken leg. And when he shows up at the end to congratulate Tien and accepts Tien’s apology, well, like I said, Yamcha has this great character arc, but it’s easy to overlook with everything else that goes on.

Favorite line: I forget which game it was in, maybe Budokai 3, but one of his pre-fight taunts is “Watch this, Puar! I’m gonna win!”, which always makes me think of Puar sitting just off-camera, watching the action from a little lawn chair.

Favorite outfit:

I may take some heat for this, but I like the Androids/Cell Saga version of Yamcha, with the short, spiky hair. This dude’s long, luxurious rockstar ‘do is a national treasure, sure, but I dig this look more.

Also, I consider Yamcha to be the only guy from the Turtle School who pulls off the slippers and no-blue-undershirt look. It looks off when I see it on Krillin and Goku, but with Yamcha it just feels right.

OTP: This guy gets shipped with a lot of people, probably because he’s one of the major characters without an established love interest. Folks still carry a torch for Bulma, some people ship him with Tien, Frieza hit on him in FighterZ, and I’m still trying to make sense of that. He flirts with your character in the Xenoverse games. Years ago, I considered doing something with that, but I’ve fleshed out my OC enough to where I don’t think that fits.

At the end of the day, I can only see Yamcha getting together with @cozymochi ‘s OC, Marzi.

Brotp: Tien, Krillin, Goku. Hell, I always figured Yamcha was one of the few people Vegeta could get along with to some extent.

I mean, Tien couldn’t stand to be one the same planet as Vegeta, but Yamcha keeps coming over to have hot dogs at Bulma’s place, long after the Namekians have left.

Head Canon: He’s Luffa’s type, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t see any room in my fic for a whirlwind courtship. The stars just don’t align.

Unpopular opinion: I’m not really behind this notion that they should give the humans more stuff to do in future series. When it comes to supporting characters, sometimes they get phased out, and there’s no point in phasing them back in unless there’s a compelling story idea for them.

I think it’s dumb how they teased Yamcha in the Tournament of Power prelude, only to leave him out of the tournament itself. On the other hand, they put Tien on the team and barely used him, which tells me that even if they’d put Yamcha on the team, it wouldn’t have amounted to anything.

I get it, people love these characters and want to see them used more, but I’d rather have one strong Yamcha story than a hundred non-starters. And at this point, I think the only thing anyone can do is rely on fan-created content. Be the change you want to see in the world.

A wish: Crap, it’s after ten pm. I dunno, I wish Marzi was canon.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: I feel like the character’s already been through worse than I could come up with for him.

5 words to best describe them: Cat loves food, yeah yeah yeah. That’s six, but who cares?

My nickname for them: Yeah, I don’t have one.

#ask duhragonball #dragon ball #yamcha #yamucha #Anonymous

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bgnmagic · 3 years

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Finding Peace - a/b/o Merlin Fanfic

Crying out in pain as he fell, Merlin could only clutch at his ankle and pray it wasn’t broken. Desperate to escape the group of alpha bandits he’d encountered Merlin had run as fast as his long legs would take him. However, running through the forest was always a dangerous game. Now he was out of breath, in pain, and about to be found by people that most likely meant to do him harm.

Pushing his tired body up, Merlin positioned his back against a large tree trunk and watched as four men came running over. They were all alphas based off the wretched scent they were emitting.

“Thought you could outrun us omega? Not very smart are ya?” One of the men raged as he stepped closer.

“He’ll get us a good price, just grab him and let’s go!” Another added.

“I want to have some fun first, he made me work harder than necessary,” the first man sneered as he unsheathed a knife and crouched down as if ready to strike. “Jared, hold him down while I see what he’s hiding underneath those ratty clothes.”

Merlin had heard enough, these men were not going to leave him alone. The man with the knife edged closer and Merlin wasted no time in throwing his hand out. The blast of magic he let loose sent the two men closest to him flying a good twenty feet back; they did not get up again. His magic was always more powerful when Merlin felt threatened.

Of the other two men, one went wide eyed and turned running away. Unfortunately, the one remaining alpha didn’t need to run, he had a crossbow. Alphas disliked being belittled by omegas, and it seemed this alpha was very upset at what had just transpired.

“You’ll pay for that!” he hollered as he aimed the crossbow.

With only a second to react Merlin again used his magic and sent the man hurtling backward. It was only when Merlin attempted to curl in on himself that he noticed an odd stinging sensation that was steadily growing in intensity. Already in shock from the brutal encounter Merlin began to panic, he’d been struck. Looking to his right revealed the end of a bolt lodged in the meat of his shoulder.

Flinching at the sight of the wound Merlin cried out in pain, again he tried to move but realized he couldn’t. Dear gods, the bolt had gone straight through his shoulder and gotten stuck fast to the tree trunk. The loose grip Merlin had on his sanity was slipping. A twisted ankle and now this! If the other bandit came back and Merlin was passed out, he’d be a sitting duck.

Unable to think of the best course of action Merlin distantly wondered if he would die here, alone in the forest.

The sight of a grown man running through the woods in utter fear should have been enough to make Arthur turn around. The man in question was an alpha and simply changed course to avoid them as he continued on like a bat out of hell.

“Sire, we’d best be on guard,” Leon commented right before he drew his sword.

Arthur was going to grace his first knight with an opinion on the matter when a faint scent hit him. The aroma was unmistakable, a distressed omega. “Right, of course, let’s go investigate.”

“Are you sure that is a wise idea, that man was an alpha and he looked absolutely terrified.”

“There’s an omega nearby, we need to check,” Arthur added while urging his horse forward. “Besides if bandits are in the woods this close to Camelot then we need to gather more information.”

“How do you know there is an omega? I can’t smell anything.” Leon asked quickly.

Arthur furrowed his brow in confusion, how could Leon not smell it? “I smell it plain as day, and it’s getting stronger; they may be hurt we need to check,” replied Arthur while drawing his own sword.

Leon nodded but didn’t say anything more as they rode in the direction the man came from. The scent only increased as they pushed onward. The subtle hints of something sweet had been harshly covered by a sharp burning smell. The urge to find the omega and offer help was overwhelming. Arthur had never felt a pull like this before. His inner alpha was chomping at the bit to call out to this omega even though they’d seen no sign of them.

The sound of harsh panting reached Arthur’s ears before he noticed the bodies. Then in a rush his world stopped. All Arthur could hear was his blood pumping and his own ragged breath at the discovery of the omega. There in amongst the trees was the most perfect omega Arthur had ever seen. The shock of black hair and vibrant blue eyes staring him down were magnificent. Leon’s frantic calls were the only thing that broke his stupor a moment later.

“Arthur! Careful with that one, he may be a sorcerer,” Leon worried as he dismounted and held out his sword in defense. “These men didn’t die naturally.”

Seeing Leon aim his weapon towards the omega made Arthur’s blood run cold. His father’s view on magic being purely evil was being roughly suppressed by his inner alpha’s need to protect this omega. The scene surrounding them looked more like self-defense versus an unprompted magical attack. Jumping off his own horse Arthur went to stand in between the two when the omega raised his hand and took a shuddering breath.

Having seen enough attacks from magic users Arthur recognized what was about to happen. Rushing to face the omega he threw his sword aside and held his hands up in surrender. “We mean you no harm,” Arthur spit out hoping to avoid a battle. From the looks of it the omega was in a bad way. His shoulder had a bolt sticking out of it, and his breathing was labored.

The momentary pause the omega made gave Arthur hope. “Leon put down your sword,” he ordered. Leon made some sort of strangled noise behind him, but Arthur could tell from the way the omega’s arm fell slightly that Leon had done as instructed.

“What are you doing?!” Came next from the knight, “Arthur, this is dangerous, he’s a sorcerer.”

Arthur answered right away and was even surprised by his own reply. “I don’t care if he knows magic; he’s my omega I have to help him!”

“What?!” was the resounding shout that echoed through the forest. This time though, both Leon and the omega had said it.

“Ignoring the shocked look from the omega Arthur tried to get closer, “Can I treat your wound?”

The omega shook his head and winced, “You’re an alpha, get away from me.”

“I’m not going to hurt you, let me help.”

“No! Get away.”

Hearing the omega, who clearly needed help, reject the offer made Arthur angry. “Why can’t I help? I’m not going to hurt you, I’ve just said so!” The omega simply shook his head again and glared at Arthur. Deciding to risk his wellbeing Arthur slowly began walking forward. “I’m going to help you whether you like it or not, and then we’re going back to my home so I can take care of you.”

“Do I not – do I not get a say in the matter?” The omega panted, obviously in pain.

“What is there to question?” Arthur exclaimed still moving closer. A few more steps and he’d be close enough to inspect the bolt wound.

“Just because I’m – I’m an omega doesn’t mean – you can order me around!”

“I’m not ordering you I’m only trying to help you!” Arthur was sure with each step he edged closer that this omega was his mate. The thing his father said he would never find because he was too good for such follies. Arthur was to wed for political gains not love. However, the bond he already felt just from the scent alone was driving Arthur mad. How could he ignore this feeling, this utter and complete urge to protect?

The omega was about to say something more but Arthur quickly interrupted, “Just shut up, and let me help.” By now Arthur had gotten close enough that all he had to do was reach out an arm to be able to touch the injured man. Slowly raising his arms he hovered them above the bolt waiting for the omega to protest. When no such words came Arthur gently touched the omega’s shoulder. The skin was hot under the tunic and the sensation left Arthur’s fingertips feeling tingly. “What do I call you?” Arthur asked softly, trying to be as non-threatening as he could.

The omega swallowed hard and seemed to be considering his options. After a long few minutes he answered, “Merlin.”

Hearing his omega’s name spoken aloud only cemented the idea that Arthur had in fact found his true mate. “I’m Arthur and that’s Leon,” he responded in turn. Merlin simply sighed heavily in response; it appeared his energy was waning fast. “Trust me when I say no harm will come to you,” Arthur added when he caught Merlin eyeing him warily.

“Even if you wish -- to kidnap me and take -- take me to your home?” Merlin rasped in between pained breaths.

“It’s not – you’re twisting my words! Can’t you feel the bond between us?” Arthur asked with a hint of desperation. Merlin went to respond but stopped and slumped down as much as his body would allow. Watching intently Arthur felt a pang of relief when Merlin nodded minutely. “Let’s get to work on bandaging this wound, if we work fast I can get you patched up and have our physician Gaius che--.”

“Gaius?!” Merlin spluttered. “Are you from Camelot? I know him – of him.”

“Yes, I’m Prince Arthur and this is my first knight Sir Leon.”

Merlin paled at the mention of his full title, “I wasn’t meant – I didn’t mean – shit. My mother told me to be careful there, magic is outlawed and now – now, fuck I’m a dead man,” Merlin whispered, looking that much closer to passing out. “Why are you helping me?” he asked with wide eyes.

“Whoa, whoa I’ve already said I won’t hurt you. Don’t panic, we need to get this wound attended to before we continue,” Arthur pleaded.

“I’m magic – I’m not supposed to let – to let others know,” Merlin gasped. “You’ll only kill me later!” he groaned.

“Merlin you need to shut up, and we need to get this bolt out. I swear on my mother’s honor I will not hurt you.” Arthur suspected that if Merlin hadn’t been literally pinned to the tree he would have already attempted to run away. His immobility was forcing the topic of what happened to magic users in Camelot, which was something Arthur hadn’t wanted to talk about either.

“Listen, I know you don’t want me helping but you have to trust me, ask Leon, I never go back on my word.”

Merlin’s eyes darted from Arthur to Leon who was still standing near his horse. His labored breathing was only getting worse, they needed to act fast. “Leon is going to come over here and we are going to get you patched up,” Arthur paused when Merlin whimpered from the pain. “Will you let us do that?”

The omega nodded and only marginally flinched with Leon approached. After a few minutes of intense conversation about how best to remove the bolt it was decided that Leon and Arthur would quickly pull Merlin away from the tree, leaving the bolt stuck instead. Once the end of had been shortened and removed of any splinters Merlin was freed of the horrid thing. The omega cried out in pain when they pulled him forward, but quickly quieted once he’d been drug away from the tree base.

The first attempt to access the wound to dress it resulted in Merlin pushing Arthur’s hands away. “Don’t -- touch me,” he hissed with a wince.

“I have to in order to staunch the bleeding, you idiot!” Arthur shot back. Merlin made another weak attempt at shoving Arthur away but gave up when an apparent wave of pain swept through his lithe frame. “Now, be still and let us handle this. I swear no harm will come to you.”

“So says – so says the alpha prat,” Merlin gasped as he tried curling into a ball.

Arthur had never felt so conflicted in all his life. This man was an omega with magic, Arthur should have wanted to run the other way, but instead he wanted nothing more than to protect Merlin until his dying breath. They didn’t even know each other! Arthur was trying not to dwell on the magic part too much, that was a whole other bucket of worms he couldn’t process.

Frustrated with the lack of progress Arthur was unable to hold his temper, “Do you want me to leave you here to bleed out?!”

“No!” Merlin yelled equally as angry, “Why can’t you –you understand? I’m scared!”

Hearing the omega admit his fear out loud broke Arthur’s inner alpha. Merlin must have noticed his internal struggles because he calmed almost immediately or maybe it was his pheromones. Arthur wasn’t trying to mask his emotions at all; Merlin had to know how he felt.

Taking a deep breath Arthur very carefully took hold of Merlin’s good shoulder. “I’m going to help you take your shirt off now, so we can dress this wound and then we are riding back to Camelot so Gaius can treat you properly.”

Either Merlin felt light headed or he was finally willing to believe Arthur, but after a second he allowed them to treat his injury. Any longer and Merlin would have lost even more blood, risking his recovery. Once Merlin’s shoulder had been tightly wrapped and his arm put in a sling to minimize movement Arthur went to help the omega stand.

“My ankle got twisted,” Merlin ground out as Arthur tried to right him.

“Shhh, I’ve got you,” Arthur replied hugging Merlin close. The places where Arthur’s bare hand gripped Merlin’s exposed skin nearly burned. Pushing aside the thoughts of what the rest of Merlin would feel like under his touch Arthur hobbled over toward his horse. He had no idea that an alpha omega bond could be so strong. Distantly wondering if Merlin felt the same thing Arthur quickly shoved the thought aside. This was no time to get distracted. Merlin still needed help.

When Arthur was about to get Merlin up into the saddle the omega began pulling away. “I can’t go with you, I’ll get burned alive,” Merlin exclaimed. “Please let me go.”

“You can barely stand up on your own, and you want me to leave you here alone?!” Arthur asked in disbelief. “There is no way I’m doing that; it’s my duty to take care of you.”

“But the laws of Camelot,” Merlin whined pathetically. “I was born with magic; I won’t be able to simply cast it aside if that’s what you think. Maybe we aren’t supposed to be together,” he adds worriedly.

“Damn the laws! I won’t let anyone touch you!” Arthur seethed. “I’m your alpha, I just know it. Why else would I feel this way?!” Stopping to really look at Merlin, Arthur considered what the omega had admitted. No one was born with magic, were they? Maybe Merlin was lying, but Arthur had a sinking feeling there was a lot more to magic then he’d been lead to believe. “Merlin, I’ve been raised to hate magic in all its forms, but I cannot turn away from you now, especially if we are meant to be together. I promise I won’t harm you.” Arthur finished with conviction.

“Yet,” Merlin mumbled.

“Gods save me,” Arthur grumbled. “Leon help me, we are riding out now!” Arthur could tell that Leon was struggling with the current line of events. He’d been subjected to Uther’s teachings on how terrible magic was and here they were aiding a sorcerer. The implications that one could be born with magic, sent bile crawling up Arthur’s throat, how could they have not known? Remembering the raid he’d done when he was younger, against the druids, Arthur realized some of them may not have had a choice in their practice of magic, and he’d slaughtered them by order of his king.

The ride back to the castle was nearly silent aside for a few quiet whimpers from Merlin. Arthur had ended up wrapping his red cloak around the younger man, since his shirt was bloodied and in tatters from the bolt. Arthur had to lean back away from the omega at least twice to keep from rubbing his neck all over Merlin’s scent gland.

Suddenly a thought struck him, and Arthur worried he’d been enchanted, but that was stupid, Merlin had done nothing but try to get away since the moment they met. So no enchantment, this was real. Arthur had found his mate. Next, he had to get his father to accept the truth of the matter. Magic was coming back to Camelot whether he liked it or not.

Merlin awoke to shouting, when had he even fallen asleep? Moving to sit up brought with it a wave of pain that sent him back down on the bed he was currently tucked into. Sucking in a harsh breath Merlin worked to remember what had happened. However, he didn’t have a chance to ruminate for long before Merlin heard footsteps getting closer. The door to the oddly well-appointed room he was in burst open and there was Arthur.

All of his memories came flooding back, the attack, the bolt in his shoulder, meeting Arthur, and finding out he had a mate, a prince no less, that could kill him should he decide to. “Don’t hurt me!” Merlin blurted on instinct.

Arthur looked upset by the very thought, “I’d never do that, I told you remember?” Without waiting for a reply, he continued on. “Your scent is strong, what’s wrong? Are you in pain?”

Relaxing slightly Merlin tried to figure out what had occurred since they’d gotten on the horses to ride to Camelot. Before he was able to comment another person came into the room behind Arthur, an older gentleman who looked angry enough to spit nails.

“Is this him?!” The man angrily said. “I can see why you’ve seen fit to hide him from me Arthur! If you think I’m going to let you throw your life away on some omega whore you find in the woods then you are sorely mistaken!”

Merlin was not going to let that slide, he didn’t care who this man was no one talked about him that way. “I’m not a whore!” he shouted.

“Don’t talk unless spoken to boy.”

“I’ll do no such thing; you can’t accuse me of such things without any proof. I’m not a whore!”

“Listen, you horrid imp, I can say whatever I wish. Do not speak to me again!”

“Father, don’t address him that way,” Arthur growled.

“Arthur, don’t start with me, this ends now. Cast him out in the streets immediately or I’ll have the guards do it.”

Merlin watched as Arthur took up a fighting stance between them, even though he was unarmed. Perhaps having an alpha wasn’t such a bad thing. The king however, didn’t like that turn of events and in a blink of the eye had drawn his own sword. Only able to react to what Merlin thought was his impending death, he outstretched his hand and prepared to defend himself. His magic came bubbling to the surface and was seconds away from unleashing a strike against Arthur’s father.

Arthur’s body was there a split second later, pressed into his hugging him tightly, the wound from the bolt twinged painfully but Merlin couldn’t seem to care about that in the heat of the moment.

“You’ll have to kill us both father,” Arthur exclaimed. “I will not let you harm him so long as I have breath in my body.”

The king had stopped frozen in place with a look of utter shock. “He’s a damned sorcerer, Arthur you fool, you’ve been enchanted by this whore! He just tried to use magic on me, I saw his eyes glow!”

Arthur only hugged Merlin tighter, the contact was the only thing grounding Merlin so he opted to wrap his good arm around his alpha’s back and pray for a swift death. When Arthur began to pull away a moment later Merlin whined involuntarily. The safety he was promised was slipping away.

“I’ve not been enchanted father, believe me Merlin didn’t want to even come here, I had to convince him,” said Arthur as he looked up at the king. “He’s also not a whore, so please stop calling him that.”

“Merlin, eh, what a lovely little name,” the king spit out sarcastically. “Get him out of here; I will not tolerate this any longer.”

Arthur took a deep breath and growled menacingly at his father, “I will not let you separate us either kill us both now or accept this for what it is. I’ve found my true mate.” The prince was still shielding Merlin from the king and it seemed that he had every intention of dying with him.

“I’ll go!” Merlin exclaimed, “I don’t want to be the reason you can’t live your life. You don’t deserve to die because of me.”

“No! I will not let you go, not after I just found you!” Arthur shouted.

“Are you telling me that you’d willingly die for this omega?” the king asked in disbelief.

“Didn’t you love my mother once?” Arthur returned with a fiery expression.

That comment seemed to deflate the anger out of the king in an instant. “Arthur I’m warning you, once you make up your mind there is no going back.”

“If you are willing to kill your only son then I think I’d rather not be a part of your legacy.”

The king stumbled back a few paces and let his sword hang limply by his side. “You would cross me for this, this omega?”

“He’s my mate, father. I can feel our bond. Why can’t I have what you and mother did?”

“No, this can’t be happening. After all I’ve done to protect you from the wiles of evil and magic. You go and find a sorcerer for a mate.”

“He was born with it father, he doesn’t have a choice.”

“I cannot accept this, I won’t.”

“Why?!” Arthur all but shouted. “How are you able to do as you please but others cannot have their free will?”

“Magic is evil that is why.”

“Not all of it, I’m sure of it,” Arthur defended. “Why would the gods fate me to be with someone evil?”

“I don’t care, this cannot be so!”

“Well it is, so what are you going to do about it?” Arthur demanded.

The king shook his head and continued to back away. “I must think on these things, I suggest you keep your pet locked up until we’ve reached a decision.”

Merlin wanted to argue that he was no pet, but staying silent had worked better so far. He really didn’t want to get run through and hopefully if things came down to it Arthur could request a quick death for him instead of the pyre.

“The only decision I see in the future is Merlin becoming my bonded mate, father,” Arthur answered vehemently.

The king didn’t respond but simply shook his head again and slowly walked out of the room. Merlin was sure he could hear the older man mumbling something about why magic had corrupted his only son. There was something much deeper about the king’s hatred of magic. Merlin knew a hatred like that wasn’t created over something small. A catastrophe had occurred at some point, one that most likely featured magic.

Arthur sprang up from where he’d been sitting on the edge of the bed and slammed the door shut bolting it securely. Spinning around he rushed back over and fell to his knees beside the bed. “I swear to you I won’t let my father hurt you. I’ll sneak away with you if we have to. Can you magic us out the window if the guards come?”

Merlin was a little surprised by the turn of events. “Um I think I can, but will your father really try and kill us?” he asked worriedly.

Arthur frowned and shrugged. “I hope not but he’s not known for being lenient.”

“Oh,” Merlin managed weakly. “I don’t feel so good,”

“Shit, I’m sorry did I hurt you earlier when I hugged you, what do you need? How can I help?”

“What have you gotten me mixed up with? I’m a lone peasant boy trying to avoid problems and now I might be killed all for finding my mate.”

Arthur’s face softened at the comment, “So you believe we’re meant for each other now?”

“Considering I was about to start crying a second ago when you went to lock the door that might be the case. I thought you were leaving me.”

“I was serious Merlin, now that I’ve found you; I’m not leaving you ever again. I’ve dreamed about finding my mate for years. Now that it’s finally happened I won’t let that opportunity pass by without a fight.”

Merlin could only sigh in relief at hearing Arthur’s confession. “Um, do you think I could have another hug,” Merlin asked quietly. “I think I might need another one after waking up to that.”

Arthur offered him a genuine smile for the first time since they’d met and went to move up onto the bed. “Let me know if I hurt you, I was a little bit in a rush the last time, I thought my father was about to run you through.”

“Don’t remind me Arthur, I’ll be reliving that moment in my nightmares for a while.”

Arthur quirked an embarrassed smile at the admission, “Sorry about that, I did mean what I said earlier. I’ll protect you.” Arthur then gently scooped Merlin upright to hold him.

The hug was warm and solid and Merlin felt himself melting into the alpha’s embrace. How could they be so comfortable with each other only after just meeting? The power of their bond must be strong for there to be such emotions. “I can’t believe I’m about to ask this considering what’s happened, but can you hold me while I rest?”

The blinding smile Arthur flashed him made Merlin laugh. “Anything for my omega, I promise Merlin we’ll get through this together, no matter what.”

Merlin had the pleasure of drifting to sleep with Arthur cradling him against his chest. This moment of peace alone was worth it, even if they didn’t survive this ordeal. Merlin had never felt so cherished in his whole life.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33447787

#merlin #fanfic #alpha beta omega dynamics

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kob131 · 4 years

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You know, I use to think the Ace Ops fight was bad but like always, whenever I argue about this point, it ends up looking better.

I’ve seen people bitch that Team RWBY won the fight because of plot armor but if you pay attention to the fight, you see that not only are they acting irrationally and emotionally but also they rarely fight together. Elm and Vine kind of work together but Elm is too busy trying to take revenge on Team RWBY to actually work with him properly (or even warn him like when Yang stuck a bunch of bombs onto a piece of rumble and tricked Elm into grabbing it) while Harriet and Marrow DEFINITELY don’t work together, which ends with Marrow getting beaten by Weiss who goes onto save Ruby and defeat Harriet who was so concerned with beating who she saw as traitors that she didn’t even notice the second enemy. If Harriet had helped Marrow or stayed close to protect him, she probably would have won by taking down Weiss first then Ruby (You know, just like Yang and Blake did to their enemies.)

“But Team RWBY should have been just as disorgnazied!”

Why? They weren’t the ones lied to and they weren’t missing their leader. Yeah, remember how the Ace Ops are a FIVE person team and Clover is their LEADER. Not to mention Team RWBY all agree on the same thing while Harriet and Elm want to beat the shit out of Team RWBY while Elm and Harriet don’t. What little could unite them is missing and their differing views and attitudes have now come back to bite them.

“Pfft, the Ace Ops don’t have differing views and attitudes, they’re just ‘following orders!’“

Gee, is that why only Marrow, Vine and Clover act professionally like every depiction of an orders following soldier while Elm and Harriet go in like Yang beating down an Ursa who cut her hair? Fuck, they ARGUE amongst each other. Even between Marrow, Vine and Clover they all have differing ways as Marrow tried to calm everyone down, Vine wanted to arrest them peacefully and Clover was the only one who actually acted like he was following orders (suspiciously like a certain avian themed former bandit use to for a certain Emerald wizard huh?).

“B-but they never question Ironwood!”

Why would they? They’re all tired from a Grimm invasion , just learned their new friends stabbed them in the back and believe staying will kill everyone. It might seem insane but people actually do think this way. And you don’t need dissent to be an individual. They do it on their own.

“W-w-well, Winter was talking about following orders-!”

And then proceeded to do nothing to stop her sister from escaping. And don’t give me that ‘she was too injuried’ shit: the type of character you’re describing would keep trying even if it didn’t make sense.

“H-How do you know? RT probably just has an anti-military sentiment!”

Because I can remember RT shows OUTSIDE RWBY. Specifically Red Vs. Blue Seasons 12 and 13, where we learn about the character Locus. Despite the fact that he preaches the same thing you guys say characters like Winter and The Ace Ops do, Locus is portrayed as sympathetic and pitiable even as he pretends he’s doing this because of orders.

Meanwhile, the far less soldier-like Felix and Sharkface are portrayed with more malice, less sympathy and unlike Locus who gets redeemed, they die. Rather pathetic ways too. In fact, the two militaries of Chorus are portrayed as good people being tricked into fighting each other while the non-military Charon is portrayed as unsympathetic as possible. Even Ironwood back in Volumes 2 and 3 wasn’t portrayed as a bad guy for his show of military force, just misguided.

All this shit doesn’t work. Peroid.

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chibivesicle · 4 years

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Golden Kamuy chapter 246; the icon of the Ainu indeed

Well it is that time again, time to dig into the most recent chapter of GK for some meta thoughts and Ogata comments of course. The chapter starts off with the continued brawl between Sugimoto and Ushiyama which Sugimoto is definitely losing despite his killer efforts. See those white eyes on the title page.

But knee to the face only results in less than a reaction from Ushiyama as he blows the blood out of his nose and pulls his head back up.

The chapter title has been translated as the “icon” of the Ainu which will become important as events progress.

Shiraishi desperately calls for someone to stop them and Boutarou shows a hidden strength as he hits Ushiyama in the head with a table as he yells at Ushiyama. Ushiyama is pleasant enough in calling him a pirate and remarks that it has been awhile before he flings him into the wall upside down. A rather dejected looking Boutarou remarks to Shiraishi that it didn’t work.

Trying to stop the insanity, Kadokura, of all people runs into action but gets tripped up on his fancy monk footwear. Thankfully, his fellow ‘old man club’ member Kirawus comes to check in on him asking if he’s alright and Kadokura suspects he sprained his ankle. Toni adds in color commentary that he’s wondering why the two of them even came to Sapporo.

The fact that Toni is questioning their presence tells me that both of these men are definitely hiding something that will come into play in the future. I already previously wrote a meta stating that I’m suspicious of Kirawus and his possible involvement in the gold since he’s older, single and his forehead is always covered. Kadokura’s ‘thing’ is that he’s inept and has bad luck, but Hijikata likely knows more and he’s not a loser per se. He’s been able to pull of many things including making sure that his own men at Abashiri couldn’t interfere with the plans to rescue the fake Wilk (which he clearly knew was fake). If he were as inept as he’s implied to be, he would have died years ago. He’s fronting a bit in my opinion.

Hijikata then approaches and tells Ushiyama to get out of the way so he can shoot (and kill) Sugimoto finally. Of course, Asirpa intervenes to prevent any further conflict while Ushiyama proceeds to own Sugimoto in the background. She confidently stands before Hijikata and gestures with her left hand reaching out to halt Hijikata. She is in a complete ‘power pose’ as she stands between the rifle and the tussle behind her. There is a close up on her determined and calm face which is then looked at by Hijikata.

Really, I feel like this is back to channeling the ‘Asirpa as Jesus’ vibe. She is intervening in a situation in a calm and non-offensive manner. Her determined facial expression has a level of maturity that we haven’t seen before and you know Hijikata is sizing her up.

The next page already shows Hijikata has lowered his rifle and now is covering his wound in his upper left arm with his free hand while Asirpa stands before him with closed fists. Sugimoto and Ushiyama are still fighting and Kadokura springs into action. First off, he highlights that if they don’t stop fighting the police will come. And if the police come the 7th won’t be far behind which would be a bad thing.

Additionally, in order to make sure that their entire group is together, he orders Kirawus to find Ariko and Ogata to make sure that they are able to safely retreat and not attract too much attention. Kadokura is not a real loser, just his own flavor of loser.

This statement clearly gets Sugimoto’s attention as he asks “Ogata?” while still fighting with Ushiyama. This completely distracts Sugimoto as Ushiyama begins to put him in a tight arm lock and he starts shouting at Vasily aka hood guy (hoodie-chan in Japanese) that Ogata is there which falls upon deaf ears so to speak.

Sure enough, Ogata is back on his game and he’s clearly been well aware of the current events for some time from his ideal fire tower sniper location. He’s modified his use of binoculars for his single left eye and some of his fake mustache remains painted on his face from his ironic disguise. He simply threw his handy cloak over his commoners clothing which was seen in chapter 240.

Here is his commoner outfit from 240.

I am curious where he had his rifle and cloak? As he has clearly stated that one never leaves one’s rifle more than an arm’s length away (unless naked, then in the general bath is good enough). I would assume with his neurotic tendencies the rifle and cloak are inside of the Yuusaku themed puppet which he has ditched somewhere to quickly climb to his clutch location to watch things as they unfold.

He is able to spot Asirpa in the mix of things as she turns around to look at Sugimoto who is desperately trying to communicate to Vasily that Ogata is nearby. After what I would say was an embarrassingly long amount of shouting by Sugimoto, he finally manages to produce one of Vasily’s drawings of Ogata to get his point across. I’m really unsure why Sugimoto would have Vasily’s drawing of Ogata unless it is his only option since Ogata likely did not have his photo taken at the studio. Vasily again takes a few minutes to put things together, but once it sinks in he is beyond excited. I find Vasily’s reaction to be out of character, he is a man who is a cold blooded sniper who let his friend Ilya die so that he could pursue Ogata, yet he’s shown to be flustered, so much so that he grabs Sugimoto’s rifle.

So not only does he grab Sugimoto’s rifle but he’s going to have an issue when it comes to firing it. I’m going to assume that Sugimoto got a type 38 from Tsurumi when he went to ‘rescue’ Asirpa which takes the 6.5x50mm Arisaka cartridge. Unless he’s changed his own beloved sniper rifle, Vasily should still be using a Mosin-Nagant which would use a so called ‘7.62 Russian’ cartridge. Therefore, Vasily is going to have to either hope that Sugimoto has left his rifle loaded, with the safety on, or he’s going to have to calm down and take his own Mosin-Nagant. But the fact that he has grabbed some ‘spoons to go’ tells me that he isn’t thinking very clearly.

Now, let’s pause for a moment and ponder if Sugimoto’s rifle is loaded. When we first met him panning for gold, our first convict pulled his own rifle on him but was unable to shoot due to the safety being on. This would imply that Sugimoto kept it loaded. In chapter 235, our postman from hell is able to use Sugimoto’s rifle and sure enough he fires off most of the shots and this also implies that it is loaded at all times.

Of course in direct contrast to Sugimoto’s reckless rifle use, is Ogata’s anal retentive rifle care and use (and more care!). When the group were at the hot springs during the new moon attack, Ogata had his rifle stashed away in the corner as well as a single cartridge. As he had to load the cartridge while pursing Toni and his gang, it is clear that he does not keep his rifle loaded at all times. It is clear that when he goes into action or needs to be on guard he clearly has his rifle loaded. But when they are in more public places and his plan of action would be to find a nice place to snipe from he likely uses his time to get into position to load his rifle and ready himself, since it isn’t a rushed situation. Due to his extreme skill with the rifle, I’m under the indication that Ogata feels comfortable enough to have time to load his rifle with little effort if he needed to when a situation takes a turn for the worse.

Okay so back to the action - I’ll say that ‘borrowing’ Sugimoto’s rifle isn’t a bad idea since it is likely loaded, which makes Sugimoto’s use of fighting with the rifle even more terrifying; what would happen if he knocked the safety loose? And yet again, I can hear Ogata’s voice scolding Sugimoto for leaving his rifle unattended. In an even more scolding and disappointing voice, Ogata is berating Vasily for not having his trusty and familiar Mosin-Nagant ready to re-start their sniper battle.

All in all, Vasily’s entire reaction is completely out of character and confuses me. This is not the man who tried to draw Ogata out so that he could continue their sniper battle here.

And again, even though I said it in my meta before, I’ll say it again.

Vasily, you lost.

With Vasily off to find an adequate location to continue where he left off with Ogata, the action moves directly to our wildcat sniper himself.

Asirpa has now turned away from Ogata’s direction and he puts his binoculars down. He holds his rifle ready as he vocalizes his thoughts aloud, a very unusual situation for Ogata. When Ogata was sniping Tanigaki with Nikaido he was relatively chatty with him, but this served a purpose, he was telling Nikaido what he was doing and why he was doing it. Once he set Nikaido up as bait, and he settled down to his true sniping position we only get his inner dialogue. In Barato, he didn’t order the other men in the battle until he had given away his sniping position on the fire tower. At the hot springs he had inner dialogue as he snipes the blind bandits. Interestingly, during his sniper battle with Vasily, we do get a few lines of spoken dialogue from Ogata.

First off, he states that one of the major merits of a sniper is to be so cautious that he’s almost a coward as he must be afraid to give away his location in order to succeed.

After a few pages, he then follows up with the following remark on Vasily’s dedication to his sniping. Kiro killed and seriously wounded the other border guards, but Vasily could care less, he’s sniping and nothing will come between him and getting his target.

I personally realized that this spoken dialogue is incredibly out of character for Ogata during the sniper battle. We do not get speaking from him during a serious sniping situation. I can see two reasons for this: i.) the rest of the page is covered with Vasily’s internal monologue about sniping. It very well may have been an editorial decision to have Ogata speak on both of these pages just so that the poor reader wouldn’t get lost between Vasily’s and Ogata’s thoughts as they describe each other during their set up. It would also give more weight and importance to Ogata’s thoughts on things if he says them directly to us, the readers. ii.) Ogata feels safe enough to vocalize this before things get serious. When Vasily doesn’t respond to the dead and dying man, Ogata knows what type of sniper he is and promptly shuts up. This may have added to the drama as we see Ogata’s breath clearly on the second image above which meant he didn’t start eating snow until he realized that’s how serious things were going to get with Vasily.

And with that Ogata is 100% back in character silently sniping away. The rest of their sniper battle is full of Vasily’s inner dialogue and we get no additional dialogue of any sort from Ogata until he makes his mark.

Back to the current chapter, Ogata is aimed towards Asirpa. He’s got a clean shot at her.

He mulls aloud that “If I did this. . . . [shot Asirpa] I bet it would really throw things into chaos.” followed by a rather flat sounding “ha hah”. The final bottom panel zooms out to reveal the boots and pants of what appears to be an officer’s uniform.

So this entire page is showing so many things. Ogata is recognizing the power that he could have over the hunt for the gold. He’s in a unique position to silence the most powerful person in the entire quest, Asirpa. Yet, even as he states this aloud to no one but himself, it seems to invoke Yuusaku and the guilt associated with him. Ogata completely hesitates this entire page. He puts the binoculars down, states the obvious and then holds his rifle at ready.

The readers are already shown his guilt from killing an innocent icon like Yuusaku approaching him from behind. The next page appears where Ogata senses his guilt as he thinks someone is behind him. We only see him glancing out of the corner of his left eye and he does not turn towards the putative Yuusaku ‘presence’.

This then shows Ogata finally turning to see if anyone is indeed behind him, which there obviously isn’t. Before I get any further, I’m going to state right here that I do not believe that Yuusaku’s ghost is here haunting Ogata, if so he would have been haunting him all the time since he killed him back in the war.

Instead, Ogata’s guilt towards killing an innocent, like Yuusaku, is manifesting itself as the appearance of his brother whenever Asirpa is involved. This has held up since the end of the sniper battle led to his fever and the mental link between Asirpa and Yuusaku. When he had the very bad fever, Kiro translates that something has ‘taken hold’ of him, which really I’ve always read was Ogata feeling the guilt from killing Yuusaku. The guilt itself has taken hold of him and it isn’t letting up after the sniper battle. The sama helped Ogata overcome the thing that had ‘taken hold’ of him which makes sense. When Ogata wakes up he links Asirpa to Yuusaku as icons. So now, instead of his guilt taking hold of him, his guilt is now something that he is aware of which is most tightly associated with Yuusaku as the manifestation of the guilt when he sees Asirpa and her role in the hunt for the gold.

Due to his guilt distracting him, Ogata is able to notice Vasily getting into a sniping position. As he makes a very hesitant but surprised statement of ‘ . . . . what?” This shift from 100% sniper chaos mode has given Ogata the chance to see the bigger picture and Sugimoto stupidly helps by yelling at Asirpa to get someplace safe since Vasily is in position to hunt Ogata. Great job their Sugimoto, yell loud enough that Ogata is aware that you know he’s around and you want him sniped by Vasily.

So this is a pretty awesome and dramatic reveal that, hey guys, guess who feels guilty? Ogata!

The rest of the chapter focuses on Sugimoto, Hijikata and Asirpa. This page alone has so much to unpack. Sugimoto while still held by Ushiyama ,angrily yells at Hijikata for setting him up in Abashiri, and he’s upset that he purposely separated Asirpa from him. For good measure he adds in that because of Hijikata’s plan he got shot by Ogata. No one will deny that Hijikata’s plan was to separate them, however, it was Sugimoto who found Wilk and drug both of them out into the open in plain sight of Ogata for sniping ease (Ogata and Kiro thank your effort Sugimoto). He could have done something else instead of being in such an easily visible and vulnerable place.

As Ogata shooting Sugimoto was not a part of ‘plan Hijikata’, Hijikata completely ignores most of what Sugimoto says and instead plainly states that ‘he should have’ killed him in Abashiri. That’s right as I predicted in the previous meta, Hijikata doesn’t give a damn about you Sugimoto, you are just a really whiny fly in the ointment. Sugimoto grits his teeth as he goads Hijikata into trying to kill him.

Again, Hijikata is able to calmly reply that he knew Sugimoto would be a problem. Sugimoto being Sugimoto let’s him know that he’s of course going to cause problems and he then summarizes that Hijikata with Nopperabou (note how Sugimoto doesn’t say Wilk) were turning Asirpa into the icon of Ainu and with the power of the printed press, she would be the leader for the independence of the Ainu. We already know that Sugimoto’s read on this is based on his limited knowledge of Joan of Arc from “Girl’s Monthly” and his conversation with Wilk before he was shot. Now, Wilk confirmed that he trained Asirpa so that she could be adept at guerilla warfare. This makes sense for Wilk and for Kiro as well since they fought from a young age for the partisans. But Hijikata isn’t a native nor mixed race individual from the minority groups, he isn’t going to come from the same cultural context.

We already had many hints of this throughout the manga. The fact that Ogata confirmed that Wilk was working with partisans and his partners are hiding among the Ainu. His tenacity to try to figure out Kiro’s true identity, and how even Ushiyama knew he never trusted Wilk.

And here is where Hijikata’s Japanese ‘samurai’ mindset comes through loud and clear. He first off makes it clear to Sugimoto that he has no intention of using Asirpa as a leader in a guerilla warfare. This 100% makes sense that he would completely disagree with using women or children as soldiers to fight in his war. Instead, he lays on the passive aggressive idea to Asirpa that she could help his cause by caring about her own people’s future or return home.

This says so much, he is committed to having Asirpa play some role in his plan, but he has made it quite clear that it isn’t her place in the conflict as both as a female and as a child.

Asirpa then speaks directly to Hijikata and Sugimoto, declaring if this is the case than there is no point for them to fight. Hijikata still looks calm but a bit miffed and Sugimoto is still angry.

Asirpa is able to directly ask Hijikata about the Ainu’s future. He replies that through deforestation many of the other resources will run out e.g. things that the Ainu have relied upon are being used by the Japanese at an unsustainable rate. He then says that the economy will be based on coal. [Yay! An even worse resource to use and it will destroy the environment even more!]

Aside from my very sarcastic statement, it is true that the demand for coal will only increase from the turn of the century up until well the heydays of the 1950s, so Hijikata’s plan does work. Hijikata will use the coal industry as a way to feed into non-Japanese immigration to Hokkaido. Interestingly, he states clearly that Japanese who are only used to Japanese will combine with the Ainu who have more intermixing with other groups as well as his ‘unknown/unstated’ other peoples will combine together in a multi-ethnic state.

What I find most interesting is that Hijikata is showing that he has a more open view to a mixed race/strength through diversity thought process than I originally thought. The difference is that Hijikata’s plan is still based on modernization and the immigration of different groups to create a powerful buffer state. This is different than Wilk’s dream with Kiro and Sofia, as he wanted to create a confederation by the minority groups for the minority groups and not centered around an industrialized economy.

Wilk and Kiro wanted to preserve their way of life and their cultural practices and it showed with the fact that Asirpa was trained in an “Ainu” way to fight the colonial powers.

Hijikata, instead, wants to mix the different groups together to create something new, but it implies that she would not be preserving her way of life nor her full cultural practices as the more cultural mixing that would occur the less of the old ways would be kept.

In that way Wilk’s plan was quite unique, he recognized that he was a mixed race individual as well as Asirpa but he did not put that much of an emphasis of her adopting any sort of Polish cultural aspects. Sure, he highlights that because she is not 100% Ainu it makes her a new woman, but she didn’t not culturally synthesize Polish-Ainu practices. Even Wilk’s name is an indication of that, he was named per Karafuto Ainu and Hokkaido Ainu practices but he got a Polish name. In a way, he used his European background as a partisan but he only passed on Ainu cultural practices to Asirpa.

Asirpa seems engaged and thoughtful as Hijikata speaks while Sugimoto is just, well angry. Ogata’s got Sugimoto all constipated. . . .

Before Asirpa replies, we get the inner thoughts of Bouratou and Shiraishi begins the lay the groundwork for rejoining team Hijikata. It is clear from Bouratou’s down turned mouth and thought ending with a question mark that he’s not keen on this whole Republic of Ezo concept. I would guess that he’s thinking the same thing that Ogata said when he approached Hijikata about it. It is a poor idea and many men will die for no reason. Shiraishi states the obvious that they have been presented with the lesser of two evils.

Asirpa then gets to have a nice long monologue. She makes it clear that she does not want the gold to go the 7th and Tsurumi. She also states that Sugimoto’s skins were ‘stolen’ from him by Tsurumi. I’m not sure if this is a deliberate lie by her to Hijikata to imply that he didn’t willingly work with Tsurumi (which he totally did) or if it is a lie to herself (Sugimoto didn’t sell me out for Umeko). Even though we the readers don’t know what Ogata told Hijikata when he came back, he made it quite clear he had a run in with Tsurumi’s men and Sugimoto was with them. She instead, presents that since they are missing those skins and now that they have skins that Hijikata lacks, it is the only option but to team up again.

To really make it clear that the Karafuto trip matured Asirpa, we get some surprise from Ariko. He looks nervous as he asks Nagakura if that is her. Nagakura who is frequently depicted as a generally wise man, comments that she has changed since he last encountered her. Furthermore, he states that she is standing on even footing with all of these powerful men. Clearly, we are getting nice vibes that Asirpa has some Sofia characteristics growing. Plus, they both have a love of poop. I can’t wait for the Sofia-Asirpa reunion. I’m certain a poop joke will be involved.

What I find concerning is that after the profile shot of Asirpa there is a zoom in on a still nervous looking Ariko with his face a bit more shaded and serious looking. Clearly, he’s got orders from Tsurumi (as a spy) and Kikuta (as a spy and his trusted friend) and who knows what else (Ainu intel) that makes very unsettled with this entire situation.

Ushiyama only after all of this realizes that he let Ueji escape. Dammit man, you were supposed to kill him remember?

And then a finally shot shows Vasily searching in vain for an Ogata who is long gone.

The chapter then ends with Asirpa sitting down alone, with Hijikata as she drives her part of the deal. She will share the skins that they have, Boutarou’s and Heita’s in exchange for a chance to look at Hijikata’s skins. Now, smartly, Hijikata only allows her to look at them alone, no one else. I’m not sure if Hijikata knows that Asirpa is illiterate or not but both of them are controlling the flow and exchange of information between them.

This final panel shows Asirpa looking at Boutarou’s with Sugimoto, so he’s likely helping her out with the kanji on his tattoo. She also is looking down at Heita’s so she thinks she’s figured out a commonality between the skins.

And we know that it should be linked to the code that she remembered, Horkew Oskoni. Unfortunately, the chapter ends with a dramatic look of shock and concern from Asirpa after looking at Hijikata’s skins.

She can’t put things together as she thinks that I can’t not be Wilk’s Hokkaido Ainu name! And with that our chapter ends! Dum dum!

Now, I hope that Asirpa remembers that Hijikata has 5 fake skins that Edogai made for Tsurumi. I hope she remembers that they would be in the mix and therefore, they would not correspond to the characteristics that she thought could be on all of the skins that are key for finding the gold.

Well that was a lot to unpack in this chapter! I enjoyed it for the most part, it really hit a lot of unknowns and mysterious motivations that we are still missing for some characters!

#golden kamuy #golden kamuy meta #asirpa #sofia #sugimoto saichi #Shiraishi Yoshitake #hijikata toshizo #nagakura shinpachi #ushiyama tatsuma #tsurumi tokushirou #wilk #kiroranke #ariko rikimatsu #kadokura #kirawus #ogata hyakunosuke #Hanazawa Yuusaku #boutarou the pirate #vasily

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yukipri · 5 years

Note

Hi. Can I ask about Sabolu/ AceLu #40

Thanks so much for sending this in! Sorry it took a while, my response is LONG ^ ^;;;

40. Describe their first time (if any).

Oooh boy, here goes

AceLu + SaboLu, in that order.

This ended up being LONG, so this is just Part 1, Ace & Luffy -> AceLu version. I’ll make a second post with SaboLu! *SWEATS*

Mostly lead up on Learning about the Existence of Sex, as well as slight non-graphic mention of sex with the younger party age 17 at the end.

Contrary to gossip among Ace’s more raunchy crew mates, there was nothing sexual going on between him and Luffy prior to Ace leaving the island. There weren’t really even any pre-pubescent growing-up episodes, or weird questions.

The reason being, neither of them had any clue what “sex” was.

Clueless Luffy aside, one might assume that Ace at least would have known. He certainly looks and acts like he does, and Luffy certainly assumed Ace Knew Things.

And of course Ace acted like he Knew Things! He’s the Big Brother after all, and he has his pride, and when tiny dumb lil Luffy stared up with his sparkly eyes, all admiration and expectation, of course Ace had to have an Answer.

And before, Sabo was there, laughing quietly when Ace turned to him in wide-eyed panic while Luffy was facing the other way. And Sabo would explain, simplified but not mocking of his brother’s ignorance, and Ace would turn around and boast about his knowledge to Luffy while Sabo snickered in the background.

So, when one day, Luffy sees a pair of frogs on top of each other, he turns his ever inquisitive eyes on Ace, and asks, “Ace, what’re they doing?”

And Ace turns to ask Sabo, and…

Sabo’s not there.

Hiding the stab of pain (which would turn into a full three hour bawling session if Luffy noticed), Ace thinks. What would Sabo say? What’s the Smart Right Answer?

“Luffy,” Ace says. “Look, the frogs started the pile for you. They’re asking to be stacked. So we should find more frogs to stack!”

Luffy accepts the explanation with glee, especially since it comes with a quest! And so the brothers spend the next hour finding additional frogs to stack on top of the first pair Luffy found, who croak indignantly at having their activity interrupted.

It continues like this, and seven years is a long time for two boys with little to no guidance to find misunderstandings to pile together, much like they piled together random animals they found in the middle of copulating (Look Ace! This morning, some boars wanted to be stacked! And look there, the bears want to be stacked too! The brothers certainly had no idea they were creating unwilling animal orgies).

When Changes began happening to their bodies, Ace makes up additional, well, Bullshit.

While Luffy accepts Ace’s words as the Real Grownup Truth, some part of Ace should have remembered that it was all stuff he’d made up in place of actual facts from Sabo. But as the years passed, he’d come to accept them as How They Are.

Their ignorance certainly isn’t just the boys’ fault. They live with bandits after all, and there’s certainly plenty of vulgar talk going around. But if any of the bandits try to explain in any greater detail when Ace starts showing mild interest, Dadan thwacks them, daring them to imagine facing Garp’s wrath when the marine discovers they’d corrupted his darling grandsons.

Makino and the Mayor come by and help with their education, but it’s mostly things like manners, how to read, and how to fix their ripped of clothes. Stuff like their Bodies is something they left to family.

But unfortunately Garp, of course, also avoids The Talk, because of all the many responsibilities he’d avoided in the raising of his grandsons, this is certainly one he’s especially keen to avoid. He gives Ace an incredibly vague explanation to “If you do the Do, make sure to wrap it!” before disappearing, leaving Ace to mutter to himself, “Wrap what?” An even more garbled and meaningless version is passed from Ace to Luffy.

Ace leaves the island at seventeen, confident and strong, and completely oblivious to much of what the world has in store.

Shortly after he leaves the island, Ace meets his first crew mate, one ex-med student who goes by “Masked Deuce.”

To Deuce, Ace looks like a fine roguish young man in his prime, his chosen Captain, and Deuce hates to admit it, but definitely popular with the ladies. At their first island together after escaping the deserted island where they met, Deuce is proven right when the ladies hanging around the brothels crowd out to wave and call at Ace. Deuce wonders darkly if they’re going to make a stop, but Ace just waves cheerfully back, and they continue on their way.

“They sure don’t look very sleepy for people who want to sleep so much!” Ace laughs, and Deuce thinks he’s one to talk. But they head back to their raft with supplies and without further incident. That’s when Deuce has his first Bad Feeling that something may be amiss.

A few years later, after they’ve joined Whitebeard’s crew, a drunken Deuce will screech that one day, he should get to bash Monkey D. Garp’s face in. Garp OWES it to him!!! After what Deuce went through, after realizing how freakin’ EMPTY and beyond neglected some parts of Ace’s education had been!!! The Whitebeards are lucky, because the Ace today exists because of Deuce’s suffering!!!

Because Deuce realizes quickly that when Ace heard that ladies want to “sleep with him,” he thought it was an offering to nap together. When Deuce asked with mounting horror whether Ace knows what sex even is, his Captain responded with the most blinding pure smile and enough confidence that Deuce almost believed him, “Naked wrestling!” When Ace saw animals copulating (and in one memorable case, a random human couple in the alleys), he took it upon himself to generously stack a third, and if possible a fourth creature on top.

Forget knowledge of the Act, Ace didn’t even know that some people, well, had Different Parts down there. And Deuce groaned and restrained himself from bashing his head against the mast, because why would he? According to Ace, he grew up 95% with mostly just himself and his precious lil bro Luffy. He knew a grand total of two women, Dadan and Makino. The former, the thought of whom naked made Ace pale, and the second, who only stopped by occasionally but certainly had no reason to uncover herself. Ace didn’t know what a textbook was, and squinted when Deuce desperately asked if he’d at least seen porn magazines.

Sure, some women have biggish chests, but so do fat people, and Ace’s chest isn’t so bad either if he says so himself. So of course Ace had no reason to assume anything else was different.

Deuce remembers the agonizing incident where he’d hired a few hookers to help educate Ace. The ladies had been cackling non stop, Ace had cheerfully announced, “Ah, I see, so they’re like Fishmen! Similar, but with a few different Mystery Parts.” And Deuce couldn’t even applaud Ace’s open-mindedness, because he was too busy wanting to dig a hole for himself to die in due to mortification, cursing how the subject of his embarrassment didn’t even share a sliver of his shame.

Ace slowly filled the gaping holes in his knowledge with help from his crew (mostly Deuce), taking his own ignorance in good stride and laughing brightly with each new discovery.

But the thing that concerned Deuce most, was every time Ace Learned Something New, he’d scratch his head and mutter, “Oh shit, that’s not what I told Luffy.”

Deuce is extremely concerned for one Monkey D. Luffy, and occasionally mutters a prayer for the unfortunate youth who had apparently obtained the vast majority of his worldly knowledge second hand through Ace.

But despite now having knowledge of sex, Ace still doesn’t particularly express any interest in trying it himself. He continues to just wave at the ladies and even men who want his attention, just as cheerfully as he had in the beginning.

When Deuce cautiously inquires why, Ace just shrugs. “You’re supposed to do it with someone you love, right?” And Deuce doesn’t really have the heart to tell him any different.

Three years after Ace sets out for sea, Luffy follows.

The brothers’ reunion comes faster than expected, for which Ace’s grateful, because not only does he get to see his precious little brother again, he also has the chance to maybe correct some of the things he’d told Luffy growing up before Luffy spends too much time in the outside world.

And so when night comes in the desert in Alabasta, Ace takes Luffy aside and they go a ways away from the men’s tent where Luffy’s crew sleeps, far enough away that the fire Ace lights on his arms to keep them warm can’t be seen, and their voices are washed away among the dunes.

They’re catching up Ace wants to hear all about Luffy’s adventures, yes, but Ace also feels responsibility to clear up any misunderstandings he’d caused. And his crew had warned him, including his new Whitebeard family, that it might be dangerous to leave a little brother as adorable as Ace claimed in such complete ignorance.

Ace insists that Luffy is strong and can beat up almost anyone who wishes him harm, but their words still catch on something that makes Ace feel a weird twist of something in his gut. Would Luffy know what kind of intentions are behind a wandering hand, a lecherous sneer? Wouldn’t Luffy also assume sleeping just means napping? This is a new kind of potential danger, something that Luffy’s definitely not aware of, and the thought of it sneaking up on Luffy unawares makes something dark and ugly rear in Ace’s gut.

But a lot of Ace’s complicated doubts and fears are swept away by the desert winds when Luffy crawls into Ace’s lap and leans back against his chest. Luffy likes human contact, he always had, but Ace used to like to pretend he didn’t (they both knew otherwise), so Luffy usually wasn’t clingy unless he was feeling especially vulnerable.

Luffy’s thin, rubbery arms wrap tightly around Ace’s torso, and his grip is strong, but vibrating, somewhere between shaking and tension. The flames on Ace’s arms sputter out, and Ace carefully puts his own arms around Luffy, now more open with himself than he’d been three years ago, and accepting of how he craves this too, and had felt starved of Luffy’s affection during their time apart.

It can’t be more obvious how much Luffy had missed him, and Ace feels the same.

Luffy’d grown over three years, from a gangly child who still worried Ace, to a still gangly but strong young adult who’d already begun earning a name for himself as a pirate. His lanky body fits perfectly in Ace’s arms, because even though Luffy’d grown, Ace’d grown too, and Luffy still feels petite in contrast.

Ah, Ace thinks as he squeezes Luffy tightly, burying his face in his little brother’s neck and drowning in his familiar scent, allowing himself to openly display his affection in a way he’d only done a handful of times on the island. Luffy practically purrs, leaning back and nuzzling Ace’s cheek, practically begging for more attention.

Something stirs in Ace’s gut as Luffy’s lithe form squirms against his bare chest, pushing fruitlessly against Ace’s unbudging arms before deciding that it’d be easier to just contort himself so he’s sitting facing Ace. And then suddenly their eyes are meeting, and Luffy looks so happy, and Ace thinks oh.

Someone I love.

Ace leans in to press their lips together, and Luffy is curious but doesn’t hesitate to push back and attempt to imitate.

It never crosses Ace’s mind that this is something that he shouldn’t be doing with Luffy. They’re Brothers, yes, but the word can mean a lot of things. Ace is Brothers with all the Whitebeard pirates too, and they’re undeniably a family and their bond means the world to him. The brother he shares with his crew is a bond of shared admiration for their leader, a bond of family through how they all see Whitebeard as their chosen paternal figure. It’s about a shared goal, a shared experience, a shared choice.

But brother in that context is different from brother with Luffy and Sabo. With Luffy and Sabo, their brother means an unbreakable bond, of connection that is stronger than anything they were born with, something that overcomes Ace’s hatred for his blood father, Sabo’s disgust for his heritage, and Luffy’s own missing parents. It means a willing and deliberate promise of permanence, a steady and stable treasure that will continue glowing at their core no matter how they change and grow.

It means love, Ace thinks, and knows Luffy feels the same.

“So Luffy, that thing the frogs were doing?”

“Yeah?”

“This is what they were doing.”

“Oh, okay! So they were feeling good.”

“…Yeah, they were feeling good.”

Ace leaves it at that.

(and then the war happens. And their first becomes their last.)

*COUGHS* or DOES it?

ANYWAY, barely a “first,” but a long rambling rant, ty for reading

Get to know my Shipping Preferences & Ships Ask Meme

#YukiPri replies #One Piece #AceLu #Portgas D. Ace #Monkey D. Luffy #Text headcanons

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tomeandflickcorner · 4 years

Text

Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: Apocalypse- What, Now?

Interesting premise, but unfortunately it got dragged down by too many unnecessary jokes.

This episode begins with a prologue scene, with a moment from the distant past. You can tell it’s the distant past because the scene is presented with a dull yellow tint to it. The scene apparently takes place in the year 1684, but we’re not told that until later on. Bandits are in the process of breaking into the Monastery of Saint Theophilus, which we’ll eventually learn is located on a mountain in Greece. Now, granted my knowledge of world history is limited, but while I have heard of monasteries being raided by Vikings from the 790s through the 11th century, this event is taking place during the 17th century, long after the Viking Age came to an end. (Not to mention the fact that I actually did a little research and there doesn’t seem to be historical evidence to suggest the Vikings ever invaded Greece.) So that presents the question of who exactly these bandits are, and why they chose to attack this monastery. In any event, the abbot of the monastery opens up an ornate looking box and removes an old book that he refers to as The Codex of Saint Theophilus. The Abbot refers to this book as the monastery’s greatest treasure, and announces that it must never fall into the hands of non-believers. The Abbot entrusts The Codex to a monk who was with him, reminding him that the wax seal holding The Codex shut must never be broken. The monk entrusted with The Codex’s safety then attempts to escape from the besieged monastery by climbing out the window and down a rope. But the rope was apparently not long enough for the Monk to reach the ground safely, and we hear him screaming as he falls from the mountain. So, did this monk just die off-screen? If so, it can probably be concluded there weren’t many survivors of the monastery’s siege. I imagine there was a lot of bloodshed that day, as I expect the bandits would probably have killed anyone they came across during the invasion of the monastery.

We then flash forward to the present day. Ray and Peter are attending a rare book auction somewhere because Ray heard that one of the books that will be auctioned off is a copy of Benz & Frank’s The Ectoplasmic Gourmet. And the nerd in me is wondering what this book is even about. Based on the title, it sounds like a cookbook. So is it a cookbook listing recipes made exclusively for ghosts, or are we going into To Serve Man territory here? Anyway, before the Auctioneer gets to the book Ray is after, he presents the next book on the list. Which, as you might expect, is The Codex of Saint Theophilus. No idea how they managed to recover it in the first place, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. The Auctioneer begins the bidding on The Codex, but because the dust that the auctioneer blew off the cover ended up going into Peter’s nose, Peter ends up sneezing at the worst possible moment and therefore accidently buys the book for $1,000. Which seems a bit contrived, particularly since you’d think the Auctioneer would have dusted the book off before the auction even begin. Or at least have not blown the dust off in the direction of the people attending the auction.

So Peter ends up with The Codex. While they do approach the Auctioneer afterwards, they’re told that all sales are final. But they are welcome to come to the next auction so they can sell The Codex again there. Until then, though, they’re stuck with the Codex. Peter and Ray then return to the Firehouse where Egon is attempting to build something he calls an Ectoplasmic Disintegrator. Which strikes me as quite disturbing. If it does what it says on the tin, it means this new invention will disintegrate a ghost. Isn’t that the same as destroying a ghost? I think there should be some ethical consideration here. Though the Ectoplasmic Disintegrator does blow up pretty quickly, so hopefully Egon will take that as some sort of cosmic sign that he shouldn’t dabble in such a thing. When Peter and Ray return, Ray informs the others that they hadn’t been able to obtain a copy of The Ectoplasmic Gourmet because of Peter’s poorly timed sneeze. The surreal thing about this is that Ray’s tone suggests he’s annoyed, but he has a large smile on his face.

When Ray heads off to sulk, I guess, Winston brings attention to the wax seal on The Codex. Though only Janine seems to understand the significance of having a seal, as she’d learned about them in high school. Winston and Peter seemed to think someone had just accidently dripped candle wax onto the book’s cover. But as Janine begins to explain about wax seals, Peter cuts her off and tells her to answer the phone. Janine points out that the phone isn’t ringing, but seconds later, it does start to ring. (Though someone in the sound editing department didn’t do a good job at syncing things up, as Janine reacts to the phone ringing before we actually hear it ring.)

The phone call turns out to be a person complaining about a ghost haunting their chimney, so the Ghostbusters suit up and head out. After they leave, Janine decides to take her lunch break. But she can’t locate the book she’d planned to read while eating her lunch, so she decides to read The Codex instead. Strangely, Janine ends up heading out to what I think was supposed to be Central Park. Okay, I can understand why you might want to eat your lunch outside if the weather is nice, but how far is Central Park from the Firehouse? Is it right around the corner, or would Janine have had to take the subway down there? How long of a lunch break is Janine planning to take? Anyway, Janine takes a seat beneath what I think is supposed to be a statue of some Civil War generals. (Not sure if this statue was based on an actual statue in New York, but I guess that’s not important.) After taking a bite of her sandwich, Janine manages to break open the wax seal on The Codex. Immediately, lightning flashes across the sky, but Janine barely blinks and simply pulls out an umbrella she just happened to have with her. She starts to read The Codex and seems to not find it engaging, but she still doesn’t notice the statues behind her transforming into four ghostly horsemen until they jump down and rush past her. Even then, Janine doesn’t seem to have much of a reaction, simply deciding that maybe she should skip lunch.

Sometime later, the Ghostbusters are returning to the Firehouse. It seems their last call was a false alarm and the sounds coming from the chimney were caused by a stuck cat. (At least they got the kitty out.) Before they arrive back at the Firehouse, though, frogs start raining down from the sky. Which is highly unusual weather. They then catch sight of the Four Horsemen. The Ghostbusters get out to try and shoot the Four Horsemen with their Proton Packs, but the Four Horsemen escape into a nearby department store. So the Ghostbusters head in after them. After a while, they do manage to capture the Four Horsemen in a Ghost Trap after the ghosts get stuck in the revolving door. Of course, the episode hasn’t quite hit the halfway point yet, so of course things aren’t resolved that quickly. As the Ghostbusters start to drive off again, the Four Horsemen manage to break out of the Ghost Trap and fly off, blowing out the Ecto-1’s windows in the process. And causing the car to crash headlong into a fire hydrant.

The Ghostbusters limp the Ecto-1 back to the Firehouse, where we see Janine has returned and is struggling to answer the number of phone calls they’re getting. She tells the Ghostbusters that they’ve been receiving calls from people all over the world. It’s even implied the U.S. President phoned them. Winston turns on the news, which announces that the Four Horsemen are causing disturbances at the Nation’s capitals. (Also, we see a brief commercial ad for Stay-Puft Marshmallows, which did make me laugh.) At that moment, they hear the front doorbell ringing. Winston goes to see who it is, and a bearded man in a long black robe enters. The man introduces himself as Father Yanos. He explains that he came from the Monastery of Saint Theophilus and goes on to say that a thousand years ago, Saint Theophilus managed to seal the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse inside The Codex. The monks of the monastery had kept the book safe for seven centuries before The Codex was lost. Father Yanos had traveled to the city when he’d learned The Codex had been located, but laments that he hadn’t arrived in time before the wax seal had been broken, which resulted in the Four Horsemen getting released.

Okay, question. How did Father Yanos track down The Codex to the Ghostbusters? I guess it’s possible he found out that The Codex was being sold at that rare book auction and, upon arriving too late, got the information of who bought The Codex from the Auctioneer. But considering The Monastery of Saint Theophilus is located in Greece, I find this highly unlikely. What are the odds that he’d hear about a rare book auction being held on the other side of the world?

It turns out the only hope they have in stopping the Four Horsemen is by re-sealing them with the Seal of Theophilus. Which is back at the monastery in Greece. (And Peter makes a dumb comment about how the seal must be very slippery if it’s kept in grease.) So the Ghostbusters and Father Yanos book a flight back to Greece with Balkan Airlines, which was an actual airline carrier at the time. I get the feeling the show writers didn’t have the best opinion of Balkan Airlines, because Winston seems to be very uneasy about being on the plane. And it’s not as if Winston has a fear of flying. Not only has he shown no issues with being on a plane in past episodes, I distinctly remember it being mentioned in the sequel series, Extreme Ghostbusters, that Winston eventually becomes a licensed pilot. And in the IDW comics, which I believe take place in the movieverse, Winston had enlisted in the U.S. Air Force before joining the Ghostbusters. So I don’t think we’re supposed to think Winston’s aviophobic. Either way, when they arrive at Athens International Airport, Winston begins joining Father Yanos in kissing the ground. I’m guessing this is a religious or cultural thing with Father Yanos, as he mentions it’s the ground of his homeland, but Winston is simply happy to be back on solid ground. At first, Peter teases Winston, but when the wing of the plane they’d just gotten off falls off (because the Four Horsemen attacked the plane while it was in midflight), Peter also starts kissing the ground. Yeah, this whole scene was really weird. Did Balkan Airlines planes have a reputation for being poorly crafted or something? Were the writers just mocking the airline because it was owned by the Bulgarian government? I have no idea.

Of course, they still have a ways to go before they can reach the monastery. Because after leaving the airport, they have to take a train to some remote village near the monastery. And then they have to ride some donkeys up the mountain pass. And the whole time, the Four Horsemen are apparently following them. And I’m wondering how they have the time to make such a time-consuming trip, considering the apocalypse is supposed to be upon them. The Ghostbusters even comment on how dark the sky is during the train ride. Finally, the Ghostbusters and Father Yanos reach a large woven basket-shaped lift. Father Yanos explains that, ever since the raid we saw in the prologue, this lift has been the only way to reach the monastery.

As the Ghostbusters board the basket-like lift and ascend up to the top of the mountain, the Four Horsemen appear and end up severing the rope, causing the lift to fall and crash. Right atop Father Yanos. Miraculously, none of the Ghostbusters broke any bones, and Father Yanos didn’t die from having four full-grown men landing on him. But now the Ghostbusters have to climb up the side of the mountain to reach the monastery. All while dodging falling rocks and strong winds. Peter ends up losing his grip when a bolt of lightning nearly hits him, and he falls. But he once again narrowly avoids death because he lands safely on a rocky ledge. Peter decides to stay put while the other Ghostbusters continue climbing. (And we get an animation error in which we see Egon and two Rays reaching the monastery.) Upon reaching the monastery, Egon, Ray and Winston instruct two monks to fetch them the Seal of Theophilus and some wax. The two monks hurry inside to retrieve the items as the Four Horsemen are seem approaching. Egon announces his plan to trap the Four Horsemen within a Ghost Trap as they fly overhead. Then all they have to do is seal the trap with the Seal of Theophilus.

The Four Horsemen are once again successfully trapped in a Ghost Trap, but when the two monks return with the Seal and a block of wax, the monk carrying the Seal trips, and the Seal falls over the edge of the mountain. Fortunately, Peter (who is still standing around on the rocky ledge) catches the Seal, but apparently doesn’t think he can manage to throw the Seal back up to the other Ghostbusters. With time running out, the Ghostbusters decide to toss the loaded Ghost Trap down to Peter so he can seal away the Four Horsemen. So Winston throws down the Ghost Trap and wax down to Peter, but the wax falls onto Peter’s face. (The wax is apparently soft enough to splatter over Peter’s face. Granted I’m not that familiar with wax seals, but don’t you have to melt sealing wax to get it that soft? If so, that wax should probably be scalding hot.) Fortunately, Peter is still able to get the wax onto the loaded Ghost Trap by tripping and happening to fall face first onto the trap. But he still has to place the Seal onto the wax, and the loaded Ghost Trap is starting to smoke. And here, we get one more unnecessary joke with Egon urging Peter to make the seal impression, and Peter responding by imitating a seal. (Oh, knock it off!)

Thankfully, Peter is able to quit acting like an idiot long enough to press the Seal upon the wax. As a result, the Four Horsemen are once again sealed away. Right away, the dark clouds overhead dissipate and the sun begins shining through. If that wasn’t enough to indicate everything is now okay, grass and flowers instantly form atop the mountain, and a flock of doves appear. Even though Peter doesn’t seem to appreciate having the doves flock around him.

As you can tell, I had quite a few issues with this episode. There was the fact that they didn’t seem to accurately acknowledge the passage of time, considering Janine’s lunch breaks are long enough for her to be able to head over to Central Park. Not to mention they have the time to travel to a remote location of Greece when the end of the world is fast approaching. (You’d think Father Yanos would have brought the Seal of Theophilus with him in case The Codex got opened before he could get there. Wouldn’t that have been smarter?) And Peter’s jokes were more annoying than funny. Yeah, Peter can be a bit of a smart-aleck at times. But even he knows when it’s time to be serious. At least that was always my overall impression of him. So what was he doing here? He felt almost out of character in this.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

#the real ghostbusters #rgb episode review #ghostbusters franchise

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wu-sisyphus-gang · 4 years

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Motion Sickness: I Let You Die IV

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Of course, we argued the whole way there about which we would follow once we arrived. “You just told me you think it’s the second most dangerous Grimm you’ve ever seen.” Her eyes narrowed at me and her nose did too, and she leaned forward. Forward into her walk, not at me.

I watched her slowly speed up and pass me. “Now you want to go chase the bandits? You just told me that they won’t kill again. That makes the Grimm the clear and present danger.

I didn’t speed up to match her. That would trap me in a cycle. I had to wait here and stand my ground. For a certain definition for somebody walking, that is. Besides I couldn’t really outpace her. She’d hopefully meet me in terms of pacing and more.

“Rationally.” I clarified. “If they’re behaving rationally that is.”

“They’re bandits.” She got a little quieter, I stumbled over my own feet. She didn’t turn around, but she probably heard it easily. “What’s so rational about that?

“Not crime in general.” I resumed my walk. “I meant what they want now. Theoretically they just used the Grimm as a weapon to destroy three places. They don’t need food or water or money for a while and if they want anything from the ruins they can realistically go and get it.”

“But the Grimm could kill now.” She wasn’t deterred. Maybe I wasn’t explaining right.

“I know.” I pleaded. She slowly fell into my rhythm again. Her pace coming to match mine beside me. “But they didn’t need to destroy three.”

That made her hesitate. “What?”

“I mean one is plenty, if they just wanted those things.” I tried to explain. “If they were just looking to survive, then even destroying a single town seems excessive. In the past-before the kingdoms, I mean-awakened-horseback-archers riders viewed civilized groups as livestock.”

“Where?” She wondered.

“Uh… everywhere I suppose. The steps of Western Vacuo and Equatorial Mistral, really, though. It’s still the dominant lifestyle in some of those places.”

“Pillaging?”

“No, well, maybe now.” I tried. I knew she was getting frustrated. “But before they just milked horses because that was the only way to live.”

She gave me a curious look, a small smile. “It was on a documentary I saw.” I defended. “Anyways, that’s not the point. Now we may see a return to those kinds of mind sets and lifestyles.”

“But that’s not happening here.” She caught on. “They’re doing something else?”

“Purposelessly killing people.”

“There’s never a good reason to kill somebody, Jaune.” The steel was back.

“Please let’s not get into that,” I begged. “And using the Grimm to do it, maybe.” I confirmed for her with a nod. She released a shaky breath and relaxed her shoulders.

“So, you want to go after them first? You think they’re going to do it again?”

I nodded, glad she was seeing my perspective. “I think we should double back to GaiLong again. I want to make sure they haven’t been watching us this whole time and waiting for us to leave.” I explained, talking even faster.

Her mouth opened a little at me, eyes drifting up at me. “But the Grimm and the tracks… it’ll just get worse if we wait any longer.” She leaned in, “besides they can handle it right?”

I was already shaking my head. “I don’t trust all of the guards back there. If our enemy are just bandits, why did none of the riders get intercepted? None of this makes any sense.”

“Jaune you can think yourself in circles if you worry about every minor thing. We have to trust that Beihfing has his situation under control.” She worried her lip between two fingers, looking far away in thought.

I really wanted to kiss her…

“Do you know where the bandits or whatever are going to do now?”

“I don’t know what they want.” I blinked it away and refocused. Besides there would probably be time for that later, maybe. We were on the job but…

She was staring at me.

Focus up, moron.

“If I did, I would tell you. I can only guess at their motivations.”

Her face grew tight, “so you don’t even know either, but we do know the Grimm.” She was getting a flow to her now. “And they kill all the time. Besides you said they used it as a weapon, right?”

I wanted to get an edge in. “Ruby-“

“Right. So, once they can’t do that anymore they’ll have to do something else, we can find them then or…”

“Or let them go?” I wondered. “Ruby they’re malevolent.”

“So are the Grimm.” She was unrelenting and didn’t even look at me.

“Not with this kind of intent.”

“At Beacon the Grimm were coordinated.” Ruby pressed me more. “Even besides the ones the White Fang dropped. They moved together.” When I didn’t say anything, she looked over. “At Beacon when the Dragon showed up.” She waited for me to figure it out. “They sort of shuddered in unison. You didn’t see?”

What the fuck.

I told her as much.

She just nodded looking grossed out. “They have motive and focus. I know I sound crazy, but Cinder was talking to it. I heard her.”

She gave me this challenging look. It wasn’t some cute flirty thing, like about my sword or something. It was sharp and full of focus but more than that it was angry and a little scared. Her eyes were hard but the corners of her lips and eyebrows were turned out.

She actually seemed to want me to fight her on it, but I just raised my hands in surrender. “Ruby I believe you.”

“So, the Grimm are the enemy.”

“Its sounds like Cinder was somehow in charge to me.” I tried. Her sideways backwards glance conveyed a deep annoyance.

“You’re always so focused on Cinder you can’t see the Grimm for what they are. These bandits are just people, but the Grimm are always, always the enemy.”

I suddenly realized I was walking much faster than I had even a few moments ago, Ruby was already speeding up again.

I sighed.

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Before, the two of us had been distracted as we’d approached Shion. This time we were both wary and ready. Ruby had felt the danger even before the destroyed village came into view. She’d casually pulled her weapon in the middle of the road, not even extending the scythe.

By the time we’d seen the place even I had felt it and we both knew it would be as empty as we’d left it. The recent dead would draw Grimm here like a beacon, spawning them? Summoning them?

It hardly mattered to Ruby because as soon as we approached the gate she’d disappeared in a blur of speed. A haze that seemed to shift from building to building.

It didn’t look like anything worth spending ammunition on to her, so she didn’t. Instead she almost lazily bounced from place to place, leaving bisected Beowolves and Creeps in her wake.

For my part I drew Crocea Mors and let them rush at me. Before, in Vale, I’d been forced to nearly wrestle the wolf-caricatures behind my shield. I was stronger and faster now, and the range afforded to me by the upgrade allowed me to cut them down before they could really approach me.

I stepped aside and Ruby landed next to where I had been standing to cover me from the sides.

“Doesn’t seem like too many.” She reported, “nothing big, either.”

“Heard.”

We slowly and efficiently worked our way through the weakest Grimm, clearing a path to the foot prints. She whirled around my sides, cutting anything that came too close into ribbons. For my part I held my ground against the monsters to anchor us.

Two swings removed the head and leg of a Beowolf and I stepped on a Creeper’s head as it tried to bite me and crushed it easily.

By the time we arrived at where we knew the footprints began, the Grimm were nothing but curls of smoke.

“Jaune!”

“Hm!” I looked up quickly, trying to spot whatever it was that she wanted me to see. I glanced towards her to look where she was looking and look over there so I could look out for whatever it was she saw.

She was just staring at me, though.

“What are you doing?”

“What?” I wondered.

“How are you doing that?”

“Ruby what are you talking about?”

“You’re glowing!”

I looked down at myself. Odd bands of blue light were trailing around me. They almost looked like fire but if they were hot, I couldn’t feel it. The wisps seemed ignorant of gravity, clinging only to me and my skin in soft trails of blue and white.

Ruby walked up to me. “What is this?"

She rolled her eyes. “That must be your semblance!” She reached out and traced a hand through one of the tendrils.

“Um…” I didn’t want to sound too disappointed. She was so excited. I was kind of hoping for more than ‘glow a little.’ “Neat?”

“How does it feel?”

“The same.” I thought about it. “I don’t know. Is it doing anything?” I stepped back from Ruby as though it would give me a better look at myself for some reason and the light faded away.

“What did you do?” She wondered. “It went away.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

She frowned. “Well it didn’t seem immediately obvious.”

“Was yours like that.”

“Um…” She turned an awesome rosé. “Kinda.”

She turned away to examine the hoof marks in the ground trailing away from the village.

I kept a watch, resting Crocea Mors against my arm, while Ruby peered down to get a better look at the print. It wasn’t like she was unfamiliar with it or couldn’t tell which way it was going. “I forgot how big it was… do you think the villages were just destroyed by a horde-phenomena?”

I shrugged. “It seems unlikely, the villages were in a non-linear order. It would have taken an awful coincidence for it to be just a large group of Grimm chasing the closest sadness and growing larger.”

“The bandits.” I nodded at her words. She chewed her cheek for just a moment. “Let’s go, we’re already almost a week behind it.”

It wasn’t like Ruby had really compromised my plans. Not truly, it was always really a toss up which we followed and which town would be destroyed next seemed just as random. Sure, I had some suspicions about GaiLong but Ruby dismissed it when I tried to bring up doubling back one more time.

“Jaune if they are watching us and waiting for us to go far enough away, then you won’t catch them like this and what are we going to do, we can’t stay in every place we go.”

Hopefully the two of us could track it and slay it together. Or, failing that wound it, track it, and try again. It would heal but Ren implied that its regeneration wasn’t a factor in the mid-game of a fight. Only if it actually escaped us would we regret having wasted our resources but wounding the creature and forcing it to flee wasn’t a waste, per se. It could be a tool, too. We had a lot of ground to make up. We were almost a week behind it when we left GaiLong and unlike us, it didn’t need to sleep, eat, or do anything but wander.

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It was after the fourth day of tracking that it finally rained. We’d known it was going to happen, too. After the first crack of thunder, Ruby let out a low whine.

“No,” she just pleaded. It would still be hours before the rain came and washed most our tracks away.

She was tired and wet and cold. And I really wanted to get her into the tent and into her sleeping bag.

I didn’t know what to do or say. We could both see the storm coming, feel the wind pick up and the humidity increase. I could do nothing but start to look for a good place to set up a tent.

Ruby and I had done some light training, but you really didn't push yourself or work out much when you were trying to catch up to something like this. For my sake it was time to take watch and just to top my night off I had to be especially on guard tonight.

It was unusual for me to stay focused on watch, but I had to. I could feel something. It didn't feel like a person or anyone I knew so it was probably not nothing but the equivalent. Grimm.

I waited until it got close enough that I was sure I could destroy it without letting my senses drift from where Ruby slept.

I was sitting out waiting for the creature to stop nagging at my range and actually enter. It was just pacing around my range and eventually I'd had enough.

I kept my body low and my limbs out, but stealth wasn't my strong suite. It jumped through the bracket at me rather than I at it.

I moved in a burst, sweeping the long blade between us to stop its approach. It pushed me back a step and my ankle caught something.

I tripped and it fell on me. My armor held out it's claws buts its teeth snapped at my aura. I grunted and threw it off of me.

It was an Ursa. a different bone structure for a different part of the world but that seemed to be all the difference between those here and those in Vale.

It landed but rolled towards me quickly with a snarl but as I stood, I held my ground. I already knew how to deal with these. I swept Crocea Mors downwards over my head and cut its face diagonally and deep enough that I'd opened up large sections of its ribcage.

It fell and began to dissolve. I stepped back warily. I felt nothing.

Nothing.

I listened and heard no song of Grimm. The animals had gone quiet, too. Fearing a battle between two distant predators might involve them, but it was already over.

Then distinct, in the cold night distant, the zip of the tent.

I sighed.

"Jaune! Jaune, what was that." She was in thick socks that probably didn't feel good in the wet, icy, muck.

She had Crescent Rose ready though. Her biceps and triceps stood out in her shirt. She had nothing on but her simple T and some long bottoms in the night.

I stared at her white clothes in the sleet before coming to my senses. “It was just a small Grimm.

Everything’s fine.”

She breathed hard. “You're supposed to wake me up.”

You needed sleep and it was nothing I couldn't handle.

I looked her up and down. There was brisk and then there was being in PJs, in negative ten, with a wind chill, and at ninety-five percent humidity.

I walked over and dragged her into the tent. I flicked the flap open, but the inside was frigid. Just a few moments of being open had sapped whatever warmth was inside. “You can't act like this was my fault.

“You're supposed to wake me.”

I nodded and rubbed her hands in mine. I pulled her wet socks off too. Her feet were just chilled to the absolute bone. I was considering trying to start a fire.

“Say something!”

“Huh what? You're right. I should have woken you up. Come on get some new socks on and get warm.”

“I feel like I need a can opener with you; you’re just so it's like -ugh. Aren't you frustrated?”

“No, I am.” I assured her.

“Well why aren't you showing it?” Ruby wrapped her arms around her knees under her covers. “And your semblance too, you’re not excited at all when it activates when we train.”

“It only activates when I’m losing, doesn’t last long, and doesn’t do anything but make me glow.” I shook my head and laughed a little.

It was fitting though, if I’d had this power at Beacon I would have been just as able to help Pyrrha.

She hit me hard, enough sting. I gasped, my hand going to my chest where her hand hit my side, through some gap in all my armor she’d casually exploited to jab at just one of my ribs past a strap.

“You were thinking you were useless again. Weren’t you, Jaune?”

Fuck.

“I’m sure it does more than make you look good.”

Whiplash.

I waited.

“Well.” She wondered.

“Well to what in all of that?”

“All of it!”

“I was trying to keep up the pace and find it and be on our way to Haven.”

“So, it’s because I need to get to Haven.”

“Well that is your plan.” I laughed and turned to look at her.

“Ugh.” She murmured and looked down.

Huh?

“What is it? Is it something I said?”

She didn't look impressed by that. She crossed her arms confidently and set herself sideways. “Then what's it like? I forced you out here. To come with me to Haven and trek all the way across the world with me. Even though I had no idea how far that was.”

"Ruby I did know how far it was. And I did know that if you hadn't…"

If she hadn't what, exactly? I was trying to fight but it was hard. It was a little like Weiss had rubbed off on Ruby, in some of her best ways. I'd found that confidence and authority attractive before but when it was directed at me it was hard to fight.

What could I possibly tell her? That I needed her to tell me what to do and give my life direction? She just told me how stressed she was I couldn't add to that. Couldn't have. I clicked my jaw in thought.

My teeth clacked together audibly.

She looked from my eyes to my jaw. Like I'd just bit her hard. “You shouldn't do that to yourself.”

I laughed. “That's what I mean. What would I do if I didn't have you right now? If you hadn't taken me in, I don't know where I would have gone.”

“You would have found something.”

No. My family. I stole this from them. I can't go back. And Nora and Ren they got in with like a scholarship for hunters-to-be without parents or something. They were homeless again. I think they thought I'd abandon them.

“So, when you asked me to come it was just-it was a no-brainer. What would I have done? What l alternatives would I have had. And if I hadn't gone with you, would I have found Pyrrha’s armor even? Would I know for sure what happened? It was like destiny. And this is too.”

“You really think so?” I watched her hands fidget through her hair, somehow plucking at the red ones even out of the corner of her eye. “Well no, it’s more like I need to make this the timeline where I succeed, but we can. You know?” She shook her head. “You think if we're smart and hardworking enough, it'll be enough? That's not like you.”

“Ruby this is just a setback. Even if it takes months. We have no timetable for getting to Haven. No tournament. No obvious target beyond the school and city which should be in a state of high alert.”

Supplies still got traded as far as here so we know the blackout-panic hadn't destroyed the place.

Haven was probably still there, Just waiting for her, even if it didn’t know it.

“But what about your semblance?” She pressed me. “You and me. Are we making progress there?”

“We’ll have to time figure out to use it.” If it had a use.

“Tss” I let out as I clutched a rib.

“You and me.”

“Us?” I wondered stupidly.

“What are we, Jaune.” She glanced at me. “What am I to you?”

Good question.

I thought about it. It wasn't like I could just say she was my partner because that had connotations to huntsmen. If I just blurted out, she was my new partner it would hurt everyone. Besides she had made it clear that Weiss was her best friend. Whatever that meant to her.

"You're my oldest friend for sure." I told her. I knew that much. Whom was there before Pyrrha? Family didn't count. "Things are rough for me right now but it wasn't like I didn't think about you before, too.”

“That's not fair,” she whispered. “Pyrrha was…She made it clear she liked you a lot.”

Ouch. But…

“You were so nice and sweet to me when I didn't deserve it. I could always count on you for advice and it was always good. “

“I don't know…” she trailed off. She pinched her lower lip between her index and thumb. She was listening close, her eyes intense on my every word. “Even if it wasn't what I wanted to hear. So, it sounds dumb to say something like boyfriend, but you can if you want.”

“We're a couple.” Ruby translated listening closely. “You make things so complicated.”

“The thing about that is-“

“Do you love me?”

“Uh, yeah”

She smiled flushing, but she managed to roll her eyes and look right at me. For a moment I could hear nothing but the rain against the tent.

"Jaune I need you to better than 'uh yeah.'" she smiled adorably. It took me a second to realize she was teasing me. By the time I did so, my eyes flicked down to her lips and back up to her eyes. It was too late. Her smile roared across her face.

“You really want to kiss me, don't you? You can. You know. Maybe not all the time but you can kiss me.” I did. I pushed her back against her thin mattress. I could feel her hip bone against my abdomen and the smooth curve of her sides. I put my hands around her back and pulled her in close to my and she let out a tiny sigh.

Her mouth opened in the slightest way and I couldn't help my-self. My tongue went forward at the same time I rolled us more forward, pinning her more beneath me.

She groaned into it, smiling into the kiss as I sucked on her tongue, then lip, then pulled away. Or tried to.

I drew back slightly but she had a tight grip on my shirt with her left hand. I hadn't even noticed. And her other hand became nestled in my hair.

She just… giggled at me, and, without so much as opening her eyes, dragged me down again.

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I got down off the back of the animal before Ruby. She was already waiting for me there.

She called the its name and it came when called. She didn’t even need to pull her hair back as she rode, either, she somehow looked relaxed and focused. To be honest I was just so amazed to even watch her move above me.

She slung her legs up and over it and gently held the pommel in one of her small hands. The tips of her fingers just enough to reassure. She hardly needed it for balance she was so graceful.

Her other hand was firmly in the mane of the stallion’s mane. After the night in the rain, we’d returned to Higanbana where they’d offered us horses. They’d already been made aware of our affairs and the local Dono was not to be out down by GaiLong, evidently.

I’d explained to them that an unless they had an awakened horse, they would not be able to carry me, let alone the both of us. Mei-Chi had smiled at me and I knew I would regret it.

“Who taught you how to ride?” I wondered.

“Oh, my mother showed me how when I was young. It’s easy if you know how to care for it.” Or you’re a Nisdy Princess. I watched how easily she controlled it and made it calm. Sure, it was trained but when I’d been encouraged to take the lead on the animal it had given me nothing but contempt.

“Do you know how?” She wondered. “You’ve somehow expertly dodged climbing on the back of one.” She stroked it gently with her hands. Enjoying the sensation.

“I… know the basics,” I hedged. “I have ridden before.”

“Yikes, that bad, huh.” she teased me, and I groaned. “But not in a while and with someone else.”

I shook my head, “this’ll be a first for us.”

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-WG

#rwby #Lancaster #Jaune Arc #Ruby Rose #jaune arc x ruby rose #vol 4 #altsemblance #Cloud Strife #motion sickness #Limit Break #crossover #Ryuugi style #Aerith Gainsborough #Cloud x Aerith #FF7 #war of the roses #eventually

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lovelikedestiny · 4 years

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12. Trusting family

The skepticism that takes hold of Andromache when Yusuf and Nicolo announce that they will accompany her and Quynh on their new mission is clearly shown on her face. It's not as if she doesn't trust her new brothers to cover her back; Joe is a gifted fighter with the scimitar and Nicolo can also handle a sword. However, the fact is that Andromache and Quynh have only trained with them so far and fighting on a mission is something completely different. Even if they can't die, there is always the risk that it will be the final time or that someone will discover their secret and capture them. And Andromache can fucking do without that, thank you very much.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she expresses her doubts directly and without hesitation. The ax on her lap is a familiar weight, and the process by which she sharpens the edge is like meditation. Yusuf stops poking around in the fire with a dagger to rearrange the branches. “Why? We just have to protect the merchants from bandits until the next town. Nicolo and I have already done this a thousand times and you certainly have done it a lot more often.” He throws that broad, glowing grin at her that lets those charming crinkles appear around his eyes. "It'll be easy." She suspected it wasn't going to be simple, but Andromache is not a woman who beats about the bush. “Still, Quynh and I should do this alone. We can still look out for a job that we can do together afterwards." When the underlying meaning of her words seeps through to Yusuf, the grin loses its luminosity a little and he suddenly seems more cautious. “We can do this job together, Andromache. There's not a single reason against it.” The way he emphasizes Not a single reason makes it clear that he knows exactly what she's getting at. And he doesn't like it. Christ, Andromache doesn't like it either. She never took heed of prejudice and when they suspected Nicolo's blindness through her and Quynh's dreams and this was confirmed at their first meeting, they did not turn away and accepted him for who he is. Much to Yusuf's apparent relief. She loves him and Nicolo like her brothers, unconditionally and with every fiber of her being, but she and Quynh feel a great protective instinct for them, especially Nicolo. And even if she would never admit it, she wants to keep him away from this job because she doesn't want him to be hurt. It is illogical and irrational, Nicolo has been killed many times, as have Yusuf and Quynh and herself, but if it is in her power she will prevent it. For this reason, she returns Yusuf's piercing look: hard and adamant. “We'll be moving in unfamiliar terrain and quickly because the caravan wants to reach the coast in three days. There will be a lot of new experiences and strangers,” she lists perfect arguments for her attitude. Yusuf shakes his head vehemently and Andromache cannot help but see the hint of disbelief in this gesture. “You saw how he can fight. He's not helpless!” As always when he talks about Nicolo, his voice vibrates with a passion that makes Andromache's blood sing like when she traces Quynh's skin with her lips. “I thought you would have seen that. And now you want to do exactly what he feared before we met you. " "I want to protect him!" Andromache explains sharply. I don't want to exclude him. "Just like me!" Yusuf replies angrily and gestures around in the air with his dagger in a non-threatening way. Nicolo gesticulates a lot with his hands when he talks and the idea that Yusuf copied it from him warms her heart. “But he can take good care of himself, he has proven that to me often enough. He is not weak, Andromache!" “I would never consider him weak! Neither would Quynh!” She reads in his eyes that he believes her immediately despite his anger. And the affection for him and Nicolo causes a sweet pain in her chest. "So we accompany the caravan together," Yusuf says resolutely and gets up. "In a group of four." She is prevented from answering when Quynh's casual, joyful laughter can be heard and a little later she and Nicolo come into view. Her lover is swinging a hunted rabbit in one hand, carries her bow and quiver on her back and has hooked her free hand in the crook of Nicolo's arm. He smiles too and holds more firewood under his other arm. "Make yourself useful and skin the rabbit," Quynh shouts happily and throws the rabbit to join the ax on Andromache's lap. "Nicolo and I have done enough work for today." Nicolo grins slightly and unloads the firewood next to her belongings, but when he turns in Yusuf's direction by following the sound of his breathing, he furrowed his eyebrows in concern. “Yusuf? Did something happen?" Continue reading on AO3 ;)

#the old guard #fanfiction #music of the mundane #chapter twelve #blind!Nicky #andromache the scythian #quynh #yusuf al kaysani #nicolo di genova

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incomplete-nano-stash · 4 years

Text

Mneme the Forgetter Chapter 1

Footfalls. Breathing. The only sounds coming to the young man’s ears as he frantically rushed through the brush back to the village were the sounds of his own body in panic mode. He crashed through bushes and trees, barely cognizant of the brightly lit sky, the moon hanging high overhead.

Run, boy, or you are finished. The one thought pouring through his mind. Run. Survive.

The dense forest began to lighten, the surest sign that he was approaching the village he called home. Desperate to reach safety, he clung to his satchel, the one thing the beasts had been after, with the passion of a drowning man thrown a rope. His breathing became ragged and quicker as he saw familiar buildings … a smithy here, a residence there … the market roundel where the crop workers brought their harvests …

Where would be safe to hide? Who would hide him?

His senses suddenly became aware of another sound invading his personal space, the loud roar of creatures pursuing him, dragging themselves and each other to push their party faster to catch up. The young man caught a glimpse behind him, catching a quick count of his assailants.

Fifteen. Heavily armed, and all greedy and wanting what he had.

He stumbled, regained his footing, and ran into the closest building, the village inn. Rumor was that zomroll bandits would not go inside human-made constructs. Right now, he prayed that rumor was true.

“Alec! Boy, you know the rules!”

The innkeeper’s booming voice echoed above the din of the assembled crowd within the inn’s modest pub. Slamming down a pint tumbler on the bar, he scowled at the young man.

“Sorry, Theric, but it’s an emergency, and I need to get away.”

Theric, slapping his bar towel over his shoulder, crossed his arms suspiciously. “Sure. So was the last time, when you said you got chased by wolves. I’m not buying it. Are any of you?”

Laughter, derisive and biting, chimed from around the room. Alec was keenly aware of his reputation in the place, knew that it would take a lot of talk, a lot of convincing, to prove his case. His eyes scanned the occupants of the place … many of them were field hands, all of them locals, all of them knew him and wanted nothing to do with him.

Wait, there was one figure that he did not recognize. A slumped figure at the bar, fully cloaked, the only visible part of their body being a single, gloved hand which kept motioning for drinks. Occasionally a silver lock of hair dropped from the cloak’s hood.

Theric quickly passed his eyes between Alec and the stranger, then back to Alec. “No. Don’t even think about it.” He leaned closer to the younger man. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to generate foreign custom in these parts? I’ll not have you chasing my first out-of-town guest in five years away over your blasted issues.”

Alec swallowed. He looked over the stranger carefully. The shape under the cloak was slightly slender, but seemed too muscular to be someone not wearing some sort of armor. A long lump along the figure’s spine seemed to confirm it for the man. This person could help him. He shrugged off Theric’s warning and made his way over to the stranger.

“Alec, what wild stories are you telling today?” A mocking voice bellowed from the back of the room. “Dragons? Orcs? Fairies?” More roaring laughter.

Alec slowly made his way to the shrouded figure’s position, taking the stool next to the mystery individual. He faced the bar, trying not to seem conspicuous, in case the person wouldn’t …

“Seems that the custom here has an issue with you and your actions in the past.”

The enigma’s words interrupted Alec’s train of thought. He jumped slightly at the sound. The mystery figure had an androgynous, neutral voice.

“They don’t understand me. I am pursued by many of the creatures that inhabit this world, and for no reason I can calculate I am meant to be their prey.”

The figure nodded their hooded head slowly. A gloved hand raised. Alec, this close, could see the glove was ringed with plate armor: a gauntlet. “Publican, more mead. And one for my companion here.”

Theric grumbled, but dutifully poured two tumblers of mead, bringing them over to Alec and the mysterious figure. As he set them down, he leaned close to the enigma. “Are you sure about this, my friend? Alec is a well known liar in this town, he makes up stories and sets up panics left and right.”

The gloved hand dismissively waved Theric away. He glared more daggers at Alec … a dirty look that clearly said “don’t bother the clientele” in non-verbal terms … and returned to cleaning up the opposite end of the bar.

“You entered the inn with great urgency,” the enigma continued, catching Alec’s attention again. “Like you were being pursued.”

“Yes.”

“Could you tell who was pursuing you?”

Alec sighed. “You won’t believe me even if I tell you the honest truth.”

The enigma chuckled. “Try me.”

Alec cast worried looks around the rest of the room, at the disapproving looks of the other occupants. None of them gave Alec as much as the time of day any other time in the village, and those that did bother would only give it if it meant they could accompany the information with a clap to the back of Alec’s head. Many felt he was touched, not right mentally. A few questioned his family.

The young man bore up his fears, took a deep breath, and responded. “Zomrolls. A bandit party of fifteen.”

The room’s temperature seemed to chill as soon as the words left his mouth. Alec watched the enigma’s shoulders jump upward. The figure raised up from their slouched posture, taking up their mead tumbler and chugging down the contents in a single swallow. The empty vessel clattered to the bar’s surface, and the figure reached their gauntleted hands up to drop their hood.

She, Alec decided. Definitely she. The stranger’s eyes focused on Alec with fiery intensity. “Fifteen, you say?”

Alec nodded, suddenly struck mute by the woman’s intensity. He picked up his mead tumbler and shakily took a sip to calm his nervousness.

“Very well. You have my sword. We will discuss payment later.” The woman dropped four coins on the bar counter, as Alec finished his mead. “Publican, a little extra for your trouble.”

She stood up, having struck the entire room silent with the revelation of herself. She turned toward the assembled group of rowdies.

“Good villagers, I understand the problem you have had in the past with this young man … what is your name, boy?”

Alec cleared his throat. “It’s Aleciares, but most folks here call me Alec.”

She nodded. “Alec it is, then. I intend to investigate young Alec’s claim of trouble, and if it is proven to be false I shall be dealing with him post haste. If it is proven to be true, however …” Her eyes narrowed and grew more intense. “If his claim is proven true, then all here had better beg his forgiveness, or I shall be hearing of it.”

The collected men in the room looked around at each other, confused. One finally chimed up. “Milady, what puts you in position to back up a bold claim like that?”

She had heard this all her life, it seemed. She pulled the cloak behind her and drew her sword. “I am the slayer Mneme, bane of dragonkind and destroyer of zomrolls. I will come to this man’s aid, for if he speaks truth then your village is soon to be under assault by the zomroll hordes, and may your gods be merciful if that should come to pass.” She motioned toward Alec. “Come, boy, take me to the trouble.”

Mneme strode confidently through the crowd in the inn, many of whom had forgotten about their drinks on the tables, simply to watch her move through their midst. She sheathed her sword on the move and, after making sure Alec was following her, pushed the door of the inn open and walked into the darkness.

They walked quietly through the streets of the village until they reached the outskirts, where buildings became sparse, before the silence was broken. Mneme turned around to her new companion. “Where were they?”

Alec was startled by the woman speaking to him, lifting his face up to hers. “Oh … yes, they were here, they chased me to this point at least. I saw them following me.”

Mneme cleared her throat. “Why were they following you, anyway?”

Alec clutched his satchel closer. “Well, to tell the truth I’m not sure why. I have been foraging all day, there’s really no reason for it.”

Mneme looked back at the village, then back at Alec. “Foraging? You live in a village, why do you need to forage?”

Alec shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I’m not the most rowdy and social person in town.” He sighed deeply. “I don’t have a field position, I don’t have an establishment in town.”

“No income, eh?” The woman sighed. “That explains some things.” She turned her attention back to the thick woods.

“I do odd jobs around town, and I’m generally just the kid people call when they need someone to abuse.” Alec sighed. “It’s my lot, that’s all.”

Mneme’s eyes focused intently. She motioned quickly behind her to quiet Alec down, crouching lower to the ground. Her eyes narrowed, her hand went quietly and smoothly to her weapon. In the distance, a clatter arose, making the woman prick up her ears gently.

“Is it …?”

“Shh!” She planted her hand on Alec’s mouth. The commotion approached faster, the sounds of marching boots and battle cries. Mneme growled. “I hate barbarians, and I hate zomrolls more.” She ground her teeth, unsheathing her sword and coming out of concealment. Alec stood behind her, approaching slowly as she rose to her full height.

The zomrolls, for their part, finally noticed the woman standing up to them. The largest one, clearly the leader of the party, brandished a battle axe and hunched in a threatening pose. He stepped forward and bellowed at Mneme with a scratchy voice. “Woman, you better run if you know what’s good for you!”

Mneme growled. “This village is out of bounds to you and your party.” She assumed a two-hander posture, raising her sword. “Approach at your own peril. Turn back or die.”

The leader’s eyes took on a yellow glow, illuminating the sickly skin of his party, peeling and sallow and rotting. His voice took an even more hellish timbre as he responded. “Woman doesn’t know when to run. Time to die!” He raised his axe and broke into a run toward Mneme, the rest of the party on his heels.

Mneme raised an alarming cry, raising her own sword and rushing toward the fight. The clash of the two weapons reverberated around the field, loud as a thunderclap.

The commotion roused some of the people of the village, one of which approached Alec. “What’s going on, boy?”

Alec turned and pointed toward the battle. The villagers assembling around him turned their attention toward the fight, as Mneme launched herself deep into the party of zomrolls. Weapons clanged, their reports filling the air with the symphony of violence. Soon the screams started.

Screams from the zomrolls.

Mneme was oddly quiet as her sword started cutting through one zomroll after another, as their limbs flew away from the battle site, separated from their original hosts by the woman’s sword. The zomrolls were nowhere near as quiet, emitting howls of anguish as the woman cut through them with little resistance. Blood flew into the night air, the scent becoming heavier the more damage the zomrolls took.

Finally, the only remaining adversary was the leader, cowering at Mneme’s feet. He had no hands, having lost them far earlier in the fight. “Mercy, great warrior, please!”

Mneme glared at the leader, taking in his pathetic display, his kneeling and prostration before her. She crouched down to his eye level, narrowing her own eyes at him. In the moonlight, they seemed to take on a glow of their own.

“No.” The whispered word hit the zomroll like a gunshot, quickly followed by the woman’s sword running through his skull, pinning him to the ground until his body stopped thrashing. When she was satisfied with her work, Mneme withdrew the sword, wiping it gently on the zomroll’s tunic before returning it to her scabbard. She stood completely upright, turning back toward where Alec had been waiting for her.

Alec now had a large crowd of villagers surrounding him, watching the action along with him. Consternation flashed on every face as the woman approached, breathing deeply to relieve herself from the tension of the fight. The glow in her eyes subsided, her breathing deepened, and she slowly approached the assembly.

“They will not be a bother to you any more. To be safe, though, I would recommend taking two of their heads and piking them at the entrances to your village, just to keep others away.” Mneme approached Alec. “Thank you for alerting me to their presence, boy.”

Alec swallowed hard, nodding in acknowledgment. Behind him, though, Theric scowled. “He got lucky, that’s all. I swear, boy, if this had been any other time and another of your stunts …”

“But it wasn’t, right?” Alec challenged Theric directly. “The danger was real, and it’s lucky for us Lady Mneme was here to …”

“Yeah, lucky.” Theric narrowed his eyes at the woman. “Why are you passing through here, warrior? This is a peaceful village, we have no need for this kind of trouble …”

“This trouble came to you. I am hunting it.” Mneme’s calm, neutral voice belied the violence she had been participating in just minutes before. “Perish the thought that those zomrolls were allowed free rein in your village, there wouldn’t be a village left in that case.”

Theric grumbled. He turned his back on both Mneme and Alec. “I think it’s best that you leave by morning, milady. Our village does not need your brand of trouble here.” He began walking back into the main part of the village, with several of the other villagers following him. The crowd dwindled until simply Alec and Mneme stood at the scene.

Mneme looked over at the lone young man. “And you? Are you going with your village?”

Alec sighed sadly. “It’s not my village. Not anymore.” He turned back toward the woman. “Let me come with you, Lady Mneme. I can make myself useful to you, I swear.”

Mneme sighed, picking up her cloak and wrapping it around her shoulders once again. “I’m afraid that the life I lead is not one for men such as yourself. I would be upset if you were to come to harm at my aid.”

Alec scoffed gently. “And the way the village treats me doesn’t cause me harm? I’m the village bastard, how much worse can being with you be?”

Mneme shook her head. “I’m afraid my answer is still no.” She placed a hand gently on his shoulder. “Thank you for your assistance tonight, my friend, but I must ask that our affiliation end here and now. At morning’s light I will be gone.”

Alec let out a sad sigh, nodding. “As you wish, Lady Mneme. You have my thanks.”

Mneme gave an encouraging squeeze and what looked like the beginning of a smile to the young man before making her way back toward the village inn. Alec took a deep breath, looking back toward the moonlit battlefield, where the dead zomrolls remained piled where they had dropped.

“There must be a way.” Alec steeled himself for the gruesome task ahead, and marched over to the pile of zomrolls.

#nanowrimo #nanowrimo 2020 #mneme the forgetter

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