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Dreams of the Kingdom - Chapter 20: Four Seasons

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Seagulls played in the breeze as you glided over the waves. Link had the helm, or rather the tiller given the size of the boat. “So where are we headed?” You asked, squeezed in on the edge of the boat next to the mast.

“We need to get a ways out to sea first,” the King of Red Lions said.

Once you were in the open sea, you glided to a halt. Link grinned, “You might wanna hang on tight.” He pulled out a silver baton, and the wind fell still. He swung the Legendary Wind Waker in four beats, and the wind swirled into a cyclone. Slowly, you began to spin, until the wind whipped you around, lifting you all out of the water. You clung to the mast as you spun faster and faster. “Woo-HOOOOO!!” Link shouted.

The wind carried you to a sacred pool, isolated from the ocean. The cyclone set you down gently, but you still clung to the mast, hoping the world would stop spinning. “Wh-where are we?”

“Shh,” the King of Red Lions said. “She’s here.”

Before you could ask who, the altar at the center of the pool began to burst with magic, filling the air with energy. Suddenly, a small girl seemingly made of glass appeared. She turned around to look at you with empty eyes. The doll in her hand dangled limply beside her, yet it seemed alive. She giggled, a sound that seemed anything but innocent. “Tee hee, if it isn’t the little boy who controls the wind!”

“O powerful Fairy Queen, we come with a request,” The King of Red Lions explained. “Our friend here has run into a bit of trouble.”

The diminutive queen bore a striking resemblance to Fi, but appearance was where the similarities ended. She looked at you with mischief clear on her face. “Aren’t you a pretty boy?”

“We were hoping that you could help him travel across time,” the King of Red Lions continued.

She pondered that for a moment, holding her doll close. “I suppose so, though as for when…” She clapped her hands together. “I know just the place. Another Great Fairy could use your help when you get there. It appears Ganondorf thinks he can seal our powers as well, but we won’t let him. Step into the water, boy, and I will help you.”

You complied, surprised how warm and soothing the mystic pool was. You looked back at Link and the King of Red Lions. “Link, good luck on your quest. I… I hope we can meet again to talk.”

“Sure! You’ve gotta tell me about all the new monsters you’ve fought, okay?”

“It’s a deal,” you laughed. You then turned to the King of Red Lions. “Thank you, for everything.”

“I wish you calm seas and fair winds, my boy. I know you will bring peace in your time.”

You gave a slight bow, before turning back to the spirit before you. “I’m ready.”

“Hold still now,” the Fairy Queen giggled. She raised her hands, and her doll floated out before her. A magic lotus appeared around you as the doll danced like a puppet. The petals closed around you…

==============================

You stirred from a deep enchanted sleep to the sound of soft voices talking around you. “Wonder how he got here?”

“Do you think he’s supposed to be the other half we’re looking for?”

“Doubt it, he’s a guy, and pretty sure she identifies as a woman. Also, he’s not a Zora.”

“Maybe he has Force Gems for us?”

“Stop being greedy, Blue.”

You stretched and groaned, slowly sitting up. You rubbed your eyes to see… Link!

And Link…

and Link…

and Link.

“I have several questions.”

“Yeah, we get that a lot,” the four answered in unison.

The one in the classic green tunic spoke next. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you said, still wrapping your head around the four Links. You then felt your pack was lighter than expected. “Guys, did you see some weapons anywhere?”

“Nope.”

“Nah.”

“Nothing.”

“Zilch.”

“Great,” you muttered. That Blue Lynel Reaver was not easy to get the parts for. Thankfully, you still had your other supplies, armor, and most importantly, Link’s hair band around your wrist. “Bet they fell out on that damn cyclone. Alright then, next question. My name’s [Y/n], and I’m guessing you’re all ‘Link,’ but what should I call you?”

“We’ve just been going by our colors,” Red said.

“Except Vio,” Blue added. “He’s gotta be different.”

Vio huffed. “I refuse to be called Purple, and Vio sounds so much cooler.”

“Four of you…” You really didn’t expect your journey to turn into one giant history test, but you thought back through your mother’s stories. You also remembered what happened with Sahasrahla and tried to be a bit more careful. “The Four Sword, right? So, you’re fighting… Ganondorf?”

“Ganondorf?” Blue snorted. “He’s a legend. Nah, we’re fighting Vaati.”

Oh, right, the Four Sword was used against him. “Vaati? Dark Mage of Wind Vaati? The Picori guy?”

Vio shrugged. “Dunno what a Picori is, but he’s this evil dude who was sealed away like, forever ago. We were-”

“I was,” Green interrupted.

“We areyou!” Red groaned.

Vio rolled his eyes. “Whatever, he was checking on the seal with Princess Zelda, but Vaati ended up escaping and weakening the Four Sword. And like that, here we are, four of us fighting the big bad dude.”

“Not the first time he’s done this,” Blue added. “One time, I guess he kidnapped one of the old princesses and took her to his Tower of Winds.”

“He’s not super original, he basically did it again,” Red muttered.

At least that helped narrow things down to Hyrule’s Shadow Era. “In that case, think you guys could help me out, I need to find the Fairy Queen.”

“Funny you should mention her,” Green said, motioning to a River Zora, sitting not far from you. “She came to try and help but Vaati split her in two and she turned into… this.”

“I see… in that case, we’d better find her other half!” You said, getting up and stretching. “Do you guys mind if I borrow one of your weapons?”

Red had trouble meeting your eyes, his blush almost as red as his tunic. “Um, you can borrow my Fire Rod… if you want…”

“Red and [Y/n], sittin’ in a tree…”

“SHUT UP VIO!”

You fought to hold back your laugh. “Thanks Red, appreciate you letting me borrow this.” You took the rod in hand. It was much more well-crafted than the cobbled-together ones used by Wizzrobes in your time and looked like it’d never run out of magic. “So, I just point and…” A burst of fire shot out, lighting up Blue. “Oh crap, I’m sorry!”

“Watch it!!” Blue shouted, as Force Gems fell out of his pack, which the others sneakily picked up.

You followed the quartet of squabbling Links as they made their way around the castle, easily reaching the second-floor balcony. Here, a dark figure emerged, taking the shape of the Links. You had heard so many legends of Shadow Link, twisting the hero to face their greatest weaknesses. You could only imagine what he would say to affect this version of Link.

“Oh look, it’s STINK.”

Well, in all fairness, they were kids. Furthermore, it struck a nerve as all four soon had their weapons drawn. “You weaklings are no match for Vaati, I’ll just stop you right now!”

Shadow Link seemed weightless, hopping between walls, just out of reach of the Links’ swords. You, being an adult, had no such problem.

“OW!” Shadow Link cried out. “Did you just hit me with the Fire Rod?”

“What can I say? I’m more used to two-handed weapons.”

Shadow Link stamped his feet. “But you’re supposed to use it for magic!”

“Oh, you mean like this?” You said, a massive ball of fire bursting forward and lighting the shadow’s tunic on fire. Before he could react, you wound up and smacked the shade with a perfect swing, sending him flying into the air and leaving a trail of Force Gems behind. “Maybe I should’ve gone easier on the poor guy?”

“Nah, he’s been annoying us for a while,” Blue said in between shoving Force Gems into his pack. The other Link’s weren’t far behind. “Oh, look he dropped a key!”

“Got it!” Green said, picking it up and running to the locked castle door – much to the annoyance of the others.

Inside, the second Zora awaited. The two River Zora held each other’s hands and in a flash of light, they merged back into the Fairy Queen, who looked almost identical to the one you had just met. “Ah, that’s much better. Thank you for your assistance. Now, let me return the favor.”

She led the way back to the mezzanine. “A rather weak magical barrier for someone as powerful as Vaati. No matter, I’ll take care of it for you.” With a snap of her fingers, a blast of magic lit up the castle, striking Vaati’s forces with the power of Ether.

“Thank you, ma’am!” Green cheered.

Blue drew his sword “Let’s go guys, let’s get Vaati!”

“Are you coming with us, [Y/n]?” Vio asked.

“I’m afraid [Y/n] and I have some business first,” the Fairy Queen said.

“Aww,” Red said, as you handed him back the Fire Rod. Suddenly, his sword – and the others – began to glow. “Guys… what’s going on?” The energy of the four swords merged together into a golden flame, floating in the air. Before any of you could ask what it was, the flame flowed into your chest, filling you with a mystic warmth.

“I-is that okay? You aren’t hurt, are you?” Green blurted out.

You tapped your chest. “Actually no, I’m fine. Doesn’t burn or anything.”

The Fairy Queen floated to your side. “It seems the excess Force Gem energy of the Four Sword has been passed to you. For what reasons I can’t fathom, but a flame is supposed to help temper a sword, isn’t it?”

“Temper a sword?” You thought for a moment. “Oh, wait, do you mean…?”

“I’ll never tell,” she giggled. “I won’t forget your help, kind prince, but I think you are needed elsewhere. Don’t want to run out of time now, do we?”

“Right,” you said, though you weren’t sure how much time you had left. All you wanted was for Link to be safe. “Good luck guys.”

“See ya!”

“Come back and visit, huh?”

“Yeah, we could use you to kick Shadow Link’s butt again!”

You leaped through the Fairy Queen’s portal, and into the parts unknown.

==============================

Awakening in a bed was an odd but welcome change. It took some time to work up the willpower to get out from under the cozy quilts. You found yourself in what appeared to be a small room, filled to the brim with personal effects. You slid out of bed to find your armor and supplies nearby, but once again you were without any weapons.

The floorboards creaked under you as you washed up. As you did, you realized the room was actually a wagon. The sun was quickly setting outside, and you could hear joyous voices just beyond the door. You took a deep breath, hoping for the best, and opened the door.

Outside, you found a circle of wagons and a variety of people all happily talking and cooking together. “Ah, you’re awake!” said one, a heavy-set woman with a warm smile. “Good to see you up and about, we were worried when we came across you. Seems we’ve been finding a lot of strays these days.”

You figured it best to play it safe. “Sorry, I don’t remember much from before. Who are you, and where are we?”

The cook frowned. “Oh, you poor dear, maybe you should rest a bit more.”

“Oh, I feel fine! I just have a bit of…” You wracked your brain for what Symin called it. “Retrograde amnesia?”

“Oh, I see, well then, I guess we’d better see if we can help jog your memory!” You breathed a silent sigh of relief. “We’re a traveling troupe of performers from Holodrum. One of our other recent additions found you collapsed in the forest and brought you back here. You’re welcome to join our caravan, stranger. There’s always room for another!” the chef said as she stirred the stewpot. “Dinner’s almost ready too! Why don’t you meet the others while I get the plates ready?”

The traveling troupe were a varied bunch, including jugglers and musicians, as well as two guys who seemed to only be there to get drunk. Two, however, stood out more than anyone else. The first was perhaps the most beautiful woman you had ever seen, twirling to the music by the fire. Magic seemed to encircle her with every move, only enhanced by her long red hair that made it look as if the fire was dancing with her. When she saw you, she gave you a wink, and motioned to a log by the fire, beckoning you to sit and watch.

The other made himself known rather quickly. As soon as you sat down, he slid next to you, a little too close. He wore long, flowing purple robes and a black and blue scarf. Most characteristic of the stranger was the giant, purple, buck-toothed rabbit hood that completely covered his face. “Hey there, I’m the one who found you. Passed Out. Alone. Strange, if you ask me.”

The dancer laughed, watching him slide closer to you, but she didn’t comment. “Uh, thanks?” You said, eyeballing the strange little creature that now perched itself on his head. “Been trying not to pass out alone, but it seems to be happening a lot lately on my travels.”

He giggled. “You’re funny. My name’s Ravio, seems like you and I might have something in common. Traveling, not the passing out part. I’m a traveling merchant.” The strange creature squeaked. “Oh, and this is my buddy Sheerow.”

Ravio… the name did ring a bell in your head, though with all of the time-travel it was getting hard to keep the facts of history and the fiction of legends straight.

“Ravio, you’re shameless. Could you let the man rest for at least five minutes?” The dancer chided, forcing herself between the two of you. She turned to you, eyes sparkling with mischief. “You’ll have to forgive him, but you two do have something in common, being not from these parts, if you catch what I mean.”

“Hylian?” You guessed, trying to keep up the façade.

She leaned in, a little too close, and whispered. “From another time, silly. I’m Din by the way.” Your jaw dropped. “Not that one, of course – or am I?”

“Right,” you said, straightening back up as she pulled away. This was turning out to be a very weird era. “How did you know?”

“You’re nearly glowing with time energy. People like me are a bit sensitive to seeing it. Oh, and since Ravio was clearly thinking with something else than his head-”

“I would never, I’m a gentleman!” Ravio pouted, forcing his odd-bunny hooded face forward. “But, you know, if you’re interested…”

Din pushed him back. “As I was saying, what’s your name, traveler?”

You bit back a laugh. Ravio may have confused you for the moment, but Din was much easier to place. “I’m [Y/n], and probably best I just leave it at that. If you know about time energy and you’re a dancer named Din, is it safe to say you’re the Oracle of Seasons?”

“Bingo, though I typically don’t announce it everywhere I go. Helps to hide who you really are sometimes.”

“Believe me, I get it.”

Again, there was that twinkle in her eye. “Oh, I bet you do.”

The look was way too familiar to you: unwavering confidence and a little danger just below the surface. The red hair and Gerudo heritage certainly helped put the rest of the picture together. It wasn’t hard to take a guess whose ancestor you had just found. The words were halfway out of your mouth before you realized it. “Your descendants really take after you.”

“Is that so?” She laughed. “Now you’ve got me all curious.”

“I really shouldn’t say more,” you said, a little embarrassed by the slip-up.

“That’s alright. Anyway, I’m glad we found you,” Din said, ignoring Ravio’s complaints. “This part of Holodrum is rather rugged, and we’re nearly at the Hyrulean Frontier. Who knows what might have happened to you? In fact, just a week ago, I was captured by General Onox – good thing another boy who joined our little group saved me!”

“Holodrum… after Link…” you muttered. Then it clicked. “Dammit! I’m back where I started!” You were back in the same era you had met Sahasrahla in, give or take a month or two.

“Time travel takes some getting used to,” Din soothed. “Kinda part of my job. Not as bad as my sister’s got it, but she gets soooo uptight about time travel, don’t get me started.”

“Dinner’s ready!” The cook shouted.

The stew smelled mouthwatering, but you didn’t have a chance to try it as a small twister appeared, sending the other performers skyward. The twister stopped before you, revealing a massive man wearing golden armor. However, you noticed something else about him – a fiery pink aura around his head and gloom oozing from the armor joints.

“Onox?” The cook gasped. “But that’s impossible, Link defeated him!”

“It’s not really him,” you said, watching the Hollow carefully. You reached for your sword, only to be reminded, you had no weapons. Before you could grab something, anything, Onox raised his gauntlet, creating a pool of gloom under Din. The gloom rose and crystalized around her pulling her farther into the dark forests of the frontier as Onox disappeared.

“Din!” You shouted, but the crystal was whisked away into the night. You turned to the rest of the performers, some with minor gloom burns. “Stay here, and stay in the moonlight, that should help ease the pain.” You then ran into the woods.

For a guy in armor, the Hollow Onox moved blazingly fast. Soon, you lost sight of him and slowed to catch your breath. You scaled a nearby tree, hoping to catch sight of Onox or Din. Instead, you managed to catch a pair of long bunny ears bobbing through the undergrowth. You slid down the tree. “Ravio, what are you doing?”

Ravio wrung his hands. “I… really don’t know. I saw you run off and Sheerow didn’t-OW!” Sheerow pecked him on the head. “Fine, I got worried about you being alone.”

“Thanks, but I’m alright. I’m glad you’re here though, having help against Onox will be great.”

“Cute guy says what?”

You stopped and stared at him. “Ravio, you’re supposed to be a hero, aren’t you? We need to save her!”

Ravio scratched his head. “I mean, of course, but… well…”

The stories of Ravio were coming back to you now. “Isn’t that the whole reason you came to Hyrule? To save your kingdom?”

Despite the eyes being sewn on, his bunny hood sure looked nervous. “Well, I was trying to bravely stop an evil wizard from coming after your Triforce. I was in the middle of a tactical retreat-”

“You ran away.”

“T-tactical retreat! I’m not all that great fighting monsters, so I was trying to find a hero! But when I used my bracelet to jump through the portal, I ended up here instead…”

“I wonder…” You crossed your arms.

“Wonder what, handsome?” Sheerow pecked his head again. “Ow! Whose side are you on?”

Ignoring that, you continued. “Ganondorf isn’t just messing with our past to change the future, he’s weakening the fabric of time itself. You’re not supposed to be in this time’s Hyrule. I don’t want to think about what might happen if it gets any more messed up.” The thought of Ganondorf bringing back all of his old servants to modern Hyrule was bone-chilling. “Alright, first, need to save Din. Second, need to make sure that you get back to your time. We’ve just got to make sure history goes the way it should.”

“Can’t you be the one to just come to Lorule and save us?”

You shook your head. “Nope, there’s another hero already meant to do that.”

“Aww c’mon! A cute guy like you isn’t gonna be the hero that saves little ol’ me? I don’t kiss and tell… it’ll be a secret to everybody.”

“I really can’t take you seriously with that hood of yours,” you muttered.

“Awww, you leave me no choice. Just try not to be overcome by my good looks.” He pulled his hood back, revealing…

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

He bore an uncanny resemblance to your Link, just with black hair and emerald-green eyes. “Pleaaase, pretty please?” He said, giving you his best puppy-dog pout.

You groaned, rubbing your forehead. “Saving Din will help make sure Lorule goes back to normal… I think. Just please behave and do exactly what I say.”

“Typically, I wait until after dinner before I do that.” You shot him a murderous look. “Kidding! Kidding, seriously! Golly, are all hunks as angry as you in your time?”

You rolled your eyes. “Come on, we’ve got a general to defeat.”

Ravio followed after you, sticking to you like glue. “Okay, but you mean you’ve got a general to defeat right? I’m not really much of a fighter.”

“If you don’t want to fight, you can always go back to the troupe.”

“But it’s scary in the forest!” He squirmed a bit. “And… I don’t want you to get hurt.”

You stopped. “Ravio, it’s sweet of you to worry, but I’m kinda already seeing someone.” The poor guy looked devastated, so you quickly changed the topic. “If you don’t want to fight, maybe it’s safer for you to stay back.”

Ravio thought for a moment before looking up at you, fists clenched. “I’m not a fighter, but I can’t leave you alone. I-I-I’ll try to be braver from now on!”

You smiled. “Good, c’mon then.”

“I’d feel braver if I had a kiss…”

“Ravio!”

==============================

The Hollow Onox was in a clearing not far away. The plant life shriveled at his feet as the gloom started to spread. “We’ve got to stop him soon, otherwise he’s going to turn this whole forest into a wasteland.”

“R-right!” Ravio trembled, behind you. He took a step forward, but slipped, faceplanting on the ground. Onox immediately turned to you with a twisted grin, swinging his ball and chain.

“Okay, so much for surprise,” you muttered. You quickly shoved Ravio behind a tree for safety as the ball sailed past you, barely missing your shoulder. You turned, ready to fight. “Wait… shit. No weapons!” Going hand-to-hand with a guy who had a ball and chain was not a great idea. “Ugh, why now?!”

“Here, you can use my hammer!” Ravio pulled a massive mallet from his bag that must have been half the size of his body. At the top, it even had two small purple bunny ears.

You took the borrowed hammer and almost immediately your nose wrinkled in disgust. “What the… why does it smell like that?!”

“Smell like what?”

“Smell like you shoved it up the south end of a northbound Lynel!”

“Hey, you wanna complain or do you wanna beat this guy?”

“Urgghhh…” you muttered but tried to hold your breath as you dodged Hollow Onox’s attack. You swung your new Hammer in a spin attack, knocking the armored general back, before dodge rolling your way out of the path of his ball and chain. Before you could attack again, he summoned Din’s crystal, using it as a shield as he backed away, winding up for another attack.

Suddenly, Din’s crystal dipped out of the way as a boomerang clunked against it. The boomerang sailed back into Ravio’s shaky hand. “Thanks!” you shouted before leaping forward and smashing Onox once more. The Hollow general melted into gloom, the pool hissing as mist began to evaporate in the moonlight.

Ravio gleefully bounced over to the remnants of the Hollow. “Let’s see… there’s gotta be something I can sell…”

“Where did Din’s crystal go, though?” It was then that you remembered the rest of the tales of Holodrum. “Wait, Ravio, get away!”

“Eep!” The gloom pile began to tremble as the Hollow Onox shifted into his true form, a massive dragon made of stone. The terrible creature took to the sky and roared.

You studied the dragon carefully. It was a far cry from the dragons of your time, but it did remind you of another monster. The gloom filled crystal on his forehead looked like the weak spot of a Talus. It was just begging to be smashed – the problem was getting up to it.

“Ravio, do you have a bow in that bag of yours?” He threw one to you – also with little bunny ears on it. “Thanks!” You took aim and fired, but your arrow merely bounced off of the gem. “Dammit… you wouldn’t happen to have bomb arrows would you?”

“Fresh out of bombs!”

“Great…” you groaned. You slid out of the way of Onox’s claws, working on a new plan. You needed something with real weight to hit that crystal, and you didn’t exactly have the strength to launch the mallet up there. Onox’s attacks were relentless, but they did have a pattern. As his claws landed next to you, there was a split second where you could crawl on. If you had enough of a head start, you might be able to leap off of them to hit the crystal – but then Onox would need to be distracted long enough for you to do that. “Listen Ravio, one of us needs to distract him while the other attacks. You need to fight!”

“I’m scared!”

“You don’t think I’m scared too?! Courage isn’t being fearless, it’s fighting when everyone else is too scared to!” Your hand instinctively drifted to Link’s hair band. “It’s fighting for the people who need you!”

“B-but I caaaan’t!” The poor guy looked more like a frightened rabbit than ever, knees knocking as he looked up at the stony dragon. Looking like Link’s doppelganger didn’t help either and your heart twisted. You quickly pivoted and ran for him, narrowly missing another slash of Onox’s claws, and tackled Ravio into the underbrush.

Onox growled as he searched for you. “Okay, bought us a couple minutes. C’mon Ravio, snap out of it. Everyone is going to be in danger if we don’t do this. Do you wanna distract him instead?”

“Hell no! Are you kidding?!” Ravio squeaked.

Suddenly, an idea. If you couldn’t motivate him by heroic calls to action… well, there were other options. You grabbed Ravio by the collar and pressed him against a tree trunk. “Ravio, this is what we do. We are the good guys, and we fight to save people who can’t defend themselves.” You swallowed hard and said a silent apology to Link. You leaned in, your voice husky as you shoved the mallet into his hands. “…And I know you want to be a good boy for me, right?”

Ravio’s grip on the mallet tightened. His face turned bright red, only a small squeak coming as a response.

“Good, now, you’re going to go up there, and smash him.”

“Wait!”

You already jumped back into the fray. “Hey, over here!” You shouted, launching arrows at the dragon. Onox turned, determined to squash you and your pesky bow. “Ravio, now!”

“WAAAAAAAH!!” Ravio screamed as he ran onto Onox’s claw. As the distracted dragon lifted him into the air, he wasted no time in leaping and smashing the hammer into Onox’s face, cracking the dark crystal. The entire forest lit up in a purple light as Onox exploded into gloom mist, and Din was freed.

“HEEEELP!” Ravio screeched as the dragon crumbled around him. You ran and with a flying leap, caught him mid-air in your arms – unintentionally in a bridal carry. “My hero!” He cheered, trying to wrap his arms around you.

“Still taken,” you said, but smiled and added, “Great job up there, hero.”

Ravio’s eyes sparkled. “You really think so?”

“For sure.”

Din’s crystal shattered and she emerged, thankfully unscathed. A warm burst of orange light flowed from her, just like with Komali. Again, just like before, it seemed you were the only one able to see it. “Well now, maybe I should have had you around the first time.”

Seeing how happy Ravio was, you decided not to say that the Hollow Onox was probably a lot weaker than the real thing. “Well, couldn’t have done it without Ravio.”

Ravio blushed. “I still don’t think I like fighting a lot, but glad you’re safe Din.”

Din gave you both a peck on the cheek. “Well come on, let’s get back to camp. I’m sure everyone else is waiting.”

“Really?” Ravio asked. “That was a pretty big wind…”

“They’re hardier than they appear,” Din said, with a wink.

As you walked along, something was bothering you. You whispered to the Oracle. “You were never trapped, were you?”

Din scoffed in mock-offense. “Why Prince [Y/n], I can’t believe you’d even suggest I faked getting kidnapped.”

“I didn’t say you faked it.” You stopped. “Wait, I never told you I was a prince either!”

The Oracle of Seasons simply laughed. Ravio, meanwhile, watched you in awe. “You’re a prince?!”

“Uh yeah, didn’t I mention that?”

“No!! Oh man, are you trying to torture me, you couldn’t be any more my type if you tried!”

==============================

The next day, the caravan dropped you off in Kakariko, and soon you found yourself before the elder’s house once again.

“Ah, Prince [Y/n]! I wasn’t expecting you to come visit me again so soon! Have you found what you needed to save your friends?”

“Not quite.” You gave him an awkward smile. “Let’s just say I got turned around on my way and ran into my new friend who’s not in his right time either. Do you still have the Gate?”

“Of course, just a moment,” Sahasrahla said and went back inside his home. He soon returned with the portal, and in no time, you had the gateway open.

“So, this is it, huh?” Ravio said, standing next to the portal. “You sure you don’t need a charming and funny merchant to keep you warm at night on this quest of yours?”

“Ravio.”

“I know, I know. Can’t blame a guy for trying,” He scratched the back of his head before pulling his hood back up. “Go save your guy, [Y/n], and don’t forget to visit if you’re ever in my era. Oh and he better treat you right!”

“Thanks, Ravio, and remember you’re a hero.” Ravio beamed as you let him through the gate.

Sahasrahla seemed deep in thought. “Strange fellow, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, you could say that again. I wonder what Lorule is like in my time?” You waved your hand, and the gate opened again. “Alright, let’s try this again.”

==============================

You landed with a splash. “I swear to Hylia, I better not be back in the Great Sea,” you muttered, spitting water out of your mouth. Lucky for you, the water wasn’t salty, it was fresh. Less lucky for you, you found yourself in pool in a castle completely foreign to you. The dark architecture was stark and geometric, rather than the artistic, sweeping designs of Hyrule. “Am I in a different kingdom?”

You emerged from the water and walked to the balcony, which seemed to open up over an endless abyss. It was then that you realized just how dark it was here. The sky almost appeared fixed in endless sunset, just surrounded by dark clouds and an unnatural yellow light. The more you thought about it, sunset wasn’t quite the right word.

Your stomach lurched as a rush of nausea hit you. You doubled over, clinging to the balcony railing. A deep throbbing pain rolled down your joints as your bones began to shift. Red hairs grew from your skin, crawling up your arm. Your mouth ached as your teeth shifted and your face pushed out into a muzzle. You gasped, feeling a tail begin to form, tearing through your clothes.

As your body was wracked by the transformation, you heard someone approach. Your vision blurred as you tried to focus while fighting the pain, until all you could see was a bluish shape. The figure knelt next to you as you blacked out.

“What a sneaky little fox,” she giggled. “Such a naughty boy breaking into my Palace of Twilight.”

==============================

A/N: I believe this is the longest chapter so far, and it certainly wasn’t intended to be.

I know you typically don’t have the Fire Rod during the level at Hyrule Castle in Four Swords Adventures, but I couldn’t resist not including such an… infamous, shall we say, item. Also, Ravio was so fun to write in this chapter.

So, you may be asking, why are you/the Prince a fox? A wolf wasn’t a proper fit, since that is already taken by Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time/Hero’s Shade Link, while a bunny (a la Link to the Past) also doesn’t work since that was chosen to reflect that Link’s “purity”. I chose the fox in line with Japanese mythology, like the developers did for the previous examples. The fox is tied to the kitsune, a being able to transform their shape, and since the Prince is the reader-insert and meant to be malleable to you, I thought that would be fitting.

Side note, looking at how the rest of the story is currently mapped out, I’d like to mention that if you have any recommendations/requests for bonus chapters like in the original, I’d like to hear them. No guarantees and probably won’t do too many, but I’d love to chat about ideas.

Next week, we duel an evil even Ganondorf can’t control and get help from a familiar face. Can you stop time from unraveling, or will more and more slip through the cracks like Ravio?

#tears of the kingdom #legend of zelda #link x male reader #x male reader #x reader #my stuff

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ladyimaginarium · 6 months

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HENNYWAYS I SAID I'D MAKE A LIL POST ABOUT IT SO. i think that loretta really was the missing link & was a key factor in bringing marco & connie together.

we already see that from a very young age loretta was clearly very attached to marco & vice versa & luca completely trusted him around his only daughter, that's a big deal.

loretta may have been playing with marco with her laughter being heard outside. also we gotta appreciate the fact that connie was running a business at literally 15 y/o.

its very clear that connie absolutely adores loretta & deeply respects galahad. which i have a hitch that galahad may have brought marco along because 1) loretta likes him & b) he may be interested in marco & connie's dynamic & want to see where it goes.

& her whole demeanor completely changes the second she sees marco outside.

then connie subtly tries to get galahad & loretta upstairs so she can speak with marco, mostly because she doesn't want tiny loretta to get caught up in their business considering she's so young & sweet. it's Very obvious that loretta & connie have a sisterly relationship considering loretta considers joel to be a grandmother figure already & that hasn't changed even when she's years older as a teenager.

i think connie may have been reminded of her own childhood looking at loretta with galahad here. she was prolly the cutest kid that ever lived. she was four at the time.

so she approaches marco to talk to him. word spreads & it's no secret that she knows he's changed & how he's actively proved this in the stories that were passed around him being the one saving the club from the hate group by killing every member there brutally & she's also entirely aware that loretta adores marco. so she's testing him.

connie has repeatedly told him not to come back because he's a living breathing reminder of the day her parents died, his former allegiance to the destroyers who killed them, & the trauma but he still does so. but notice how she has her door almost completely open, like she's almost ready to let him in. interestingly, marco doesn't face her either, almost like he's too ashamed to look at her or at the very least not having connie see his face out of respect for her & offering her at least that much.

& marco himself acknowledges this much to connie's exasperated annoyance.

a very obvious lie, he's never been good at lying to her, & connie sees right through it.

as she says, marco literally always comes back to her which is heavily implied out of how he feels is his obligation to keep her safe & makes sure she's alright despite everything that's happened between them & his blooming deep feelings for her.

& marco acknowledges this & apologizes to her; he genuinely doesn't like causing her pain even if he himself wasn't the one responsible for her parents' deaths but he can't stay away from wanting to protect her. notice how in all of her flashbacks of him, marco's eyes are always hidden. but you see, the windows are the eyes to the soul.

this is the first time we ever see connie smile around him. this is a first for her. connie's finally beginning to let him in. because if luca & galahad & loretta trust her, then maybe she can, too. look at how tenderly he looks at her. this entire scene is the beginning of the bittersweet end for both marco & constance several years later.

loretta's having some cookies & milk & galahad's very interested in their conversation.

& connie asks for his name while reaching for the door that separates them to open it. after all these 5 years of him in ergastulum, she's never once asked for his name nor asked for anything about him. this is a sign she's showing interest in him as a person. so marco turns around almost like he's in awe of her & then proceeds to tells her his chosen name. like. jfc get me sb who looks at me the way marco looks at connie.

#arcana.txt #fandom: gangsta.#HE'S IN LALA LAND HE'S GIVING HER GOOGOO GAGA EYES WHEN SHE LOWKEY LIGHTHEARTEDLY CALLED HIM DUMB & A CURSE LITERALLY JUST LOOK AT HIM !!!!#n e wayz i love them sm ur honor

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thegeminisage · 1 year

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its DUNGEON TIME!!! finally. i didnt do this yesterday bc i was wiped and i didnt wanna teleport away with poor riju...i have no idea if she'll leave or get stuck there or what

this one looks really complicated...but i'm gonna see how far i can get w/o a guide

omg when you go up on your glider riju is like...i'll leave that area to you link! she can't fly 😭

i see mirrors up here but no light source.......MAN the nostalgia im having rn. this is so much like oot

FOUND IT....

omg wait this construct fused a mirror to its shield...mirror shield...WAHHH

oh that took me STUPIDLY long to figure out but i love that i didn't have to look it up (stopping the wheel with the stake)

apparently i can ascend into the final floor but i really don't wanna do that by myself lol

omg lol there was a hive in this room that also had constructs...they fought each other!! i kept waiting for the read to like Jump the construct but it just swung at it. do they truly not do that in this game.........

oops i accidentally warped outside of the temple with ascension...i gotta be more careful lol. quick warp back but the enemies respawned, no blood moon needed

also the puzzle reset itself :/

got the last one! i only wound up looking at a guide for one, but i accidentally read how to do another first, and then the one i was looking for i also discovered how to do while i was doing that one. so all in all a success

eugh i'm scaaared i dont wanna fight a giant BUG!!!

for once im low on food too. im gonna get my ass beat lol

NOOOOO the first half was fine but now shes SUMMONING REDEADS.....................

im not gonna get jumped im not gonna get jumped im NOT gonna get jumped!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS SO SCARY FUCK FUCK FUCK I KEEP SHOOTING THEM FROM ONLY INCHES AWAY THEY ARE SO FAST

IM NOT!!! GONNA GET JUMPED!!!!!!!!!

BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CAN'T GET ME IN THE LIGHT

elated. wow. that was so close. im never leaving this little column of light again

rip i have to. but. don't wanna.

GOT all the hives without getting jumped

GOT HER ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you CANNOT fuck me i am UNFUCKABLE im not getting jumped today tomorrow next year FUCK off

sorry to riju but her ancestor is HOT. ok im taking this seriously

wait. i just realized these expository cutscenes use the sacred realm melody from oot for just a few notes. AAAAAAAAAAAAA that makes me INSAAAAAANE

"he was our chief before he became obsessed with power and changed" HAUGH........good guy ganondorf....................im making him real in my mind palace

wait sorry hold on. im pausing this cutscene again. i was spoiled that the fifth sage was a construct. which i thot was lame cuz it shoulda been a sheikah. but im looking at this image of them - four sages with helmets, one each for rito zora goron and gerudo - then a hylian, zelda - and then a ZONAI, mineru......that makes six! just like oot! and rauru as the leader/seventh sage, like zelda in oot...two hylians in oot and two zonai in totk...THERE ARE SEVEN OF THEM. what if MINERU gets put inside the construct!!! because didn't zelda put her soul in that purah pad or whatever!!!!!! oh my god.........if this turns out to be the case i think i've earned that bingo square. it wouldn't be true to the letter but true in spirit. i've earned that!!!

damn...they way both this ancestor and urbosa feel it's Personal w ganondorf bc he is also gerudo...he's literally staining their good name...

WAAHHHH riju going "my responsibilities as a leader, as a sage, AND fighting alongside you............sounds like fun >:)" she is TOO YOUNG...so much responsibility...wah

omg you can just walk around here now? without crossdressing? did they chicken out of a crossdressing plot in this game...............smh nintendo. i know it wasn't perfectly executed in the first game but they could have just tried again

FINALLY here is mattison...idk why i couldn't find her before the shroud lifted!!!

ok, i gotta take a break and do Chores, i'll figure out what i'm doing next later!!!

#personal #loz blogging #totk lb #totk spoilers

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aiden-png · 4 years

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Shadow being a lil gremlin with reflective eyes who doesn’t sleep = heart attacks for anyone getting a glass of water in the middle of the night

(check out my $5 kofi commissions!)

#four swords #fsa #shadow link #aiden draws #I just love this headcanonnnn aaaaaaa #also realized I haven't posted NEARLY all the art I've drawn here wha #I have such a large backlog and only half is intentional oops #I'm v hype for the final TBiYC update tmrw!#I gotta draw the sketch for it and I'm not sure which scene I wanna do yet hmmm #it'll have to be one w/o spoilers ofc but mmmm which oneeee #also gotta update the tags oops I've been forgetting to do that XD #and this new fic is going super well eee! can't wait to release it!#and work on the Blue/Green and vidow ideas I have next hehe

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

Text

Dream SMP Recap (June 21/2021) - Prison Podcast: Ep. 1

Techno and Dream start a podcast together. Divine intervention occurs.

---

VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Foolish

Technoblade

---

- Ponk commits arson

- Foolish works on Las Nevadas in a Batman skin and gets Slime a slime

- Techno and Dream are together in prison. Techno asks if they ever get fed and Dream tosses him some potatoes that he’s been saving. Sam hasn’t been there in two weeks

- Dream tells Techno they torture him

Techno: “You’re getting tortured?”

Dream: “Yes!”

Techno: “Bro I cannot relate at all. That is a you problem. Maybe I’m just like their favorite prisoner so they don’t do that.”

Dream: “They haven’t even been here since you got in here!”

Techno: “That --that could -- also po-- maybe it’s ‘cause they just know that I’m their favorite prisoner. They don’t even have to check up on me ‘cause I’m just so obedient.”

- Dream walks over to the lava

Dream: “I have been in here! For months!”

Techno: “Oh yeah!”

- Dream tosses a potato in the lava

Dream: “Does this hurt you?”

Techno: “...I mean a little.”

- Dream throws another

Techno: “How many of those do you have to be throwin’ them away, man?”

Dream: (mumbling as he walks back) “O-okay well I don’t have that much [unintelligible].”

- Techno comments on how wasteful the Netherite block floor is. He wonders how long it takes to punch through it

- He asks what Dream does for fun. Dream says nothing now. He tells Techno about how he used to have a clock that he’d throw in the lava to get Sam to visit. Techno thinks it sounds like Dream was vandalizing his own property

Dream: “It was something to do, but now there’s nothing.”

Techno: “Well, at least we can hang out and be friends.”

- He starts going up to Dream and bumping them

Techno: “Friendsss.”

Dream: (walking away) “Personal space!”

Techno: “Frie -- bro what personal space! We’re locked in this tiny room!”

- Techno goes over to the lava wall instead

- Dream spends most of his free time writing his diary. Techno asks if he’s published anything to Wattpad

Dream: “...No...”

Techno: “You hesitated.”

- Techno asks for Dream’s pen name. Dream insists he’s never written on Wattpad

Techno: “So it’s a different website, is what you’re saying.”

- Dream instead wants to focus on getting out of prison. Techno asks for his ideas, but Dream says it should be Techno with the ideas

Techno: “Eh, yeah, I’ll get to it later man.”

- Techno encourages Dream to have a more optimistic outlook. Dream says that at least he’s not been tortured since Techno’s been here

Techno: “You gotta go with the flow!”

- Dream walks over to the lava

Techno: “Not that flow -- not -- not that flow. No -- no, don’t go -- don’t go into that flow!”

- Dream steps into the lava and sets himself on fire, then goes over to the water to extinguish it

Techno: “That’s the better flow right there.”

Dream: “See? It’s -- it’s exhilarating.”

Techno: “That’s just -- I would not recommend that. That is not healthy behavior, alright. I think you should see a psychologist.”

Dream: “WHERE?!”

Techno: “I dunno, what kinda prison is this? They don’t have psychologists?”

Dream: “They don’t have anything! They have torture --”

Techno: “I’m startin’ to think they don’t care about our human rights all that much. You were sayin’ you were getting tortured? Who’s been torturing you?”

Dream: “Quackity!”

Techno: “Yeah, that adds up.”

Dream: “Every day!”

- Dream says that Quackity’s torturing him for the revive book, and Techno asks more about how the revival process works. Dream explains that to revive people, he gets a book and then burns it

- Techno asks if it’s an incantation. After learning what ‘incantation’ means, Dream says it’s something like that. He isn’t sure how Schlatt got it in the first place, but he memorized the book and can recreate it

- Techno suggests Dream give the knowledge to him as insurance, but Dream refuses, as they might go after Techno. Techno asks to see the book, but Dream still doesn’t

Dream: “This is like the house situation all over again.”

Techno: “Oh yeah...well on the bright side, you’re not homeless anymore!”

Dream: “True...this is -- to be fair, I did say I had a giant house. This is pretty giant.”

Techno: “It is filled with redstone! I didn’t think you were telling the truth, but here you are. Here you are...how much is rent to live in this boiling cell every day?”

Dream: “It’s...free.”

Techno: “God, that’s incredible.”

Dream: “Except for I get tortured every day!”

Techno: “Well I mean, California rent prices are basically torture so, you know, you take what you can get man, come on.”

- The subject returns to how they haven’t been visited in two weeks. Dream asks what they’re going to do when they get out, but Techno hasn’t thought that far ahead

- Dream writes in his diary that Techno admitted he has a house

- Dream asks Techno about life. When Techno isn’t in a cell, he usually trains to find new forms of combat to get ahead in the arms race for the fight against government

- He also plays golf

- Techno hasn’t spoken to Tommy, hasn’t seen him. He thinks Tommy stole some things from his house a while ago

- Dream then asks how his horse is doing. Techno tells him about his pet foxes and Steve (who is going to break him out of there any second)

- Dream writes these down in his book because it’s hard for him to remember things

- Dream asks who’s feeding his pets. Techno says that Steve can feed himself and it’ll probably be fine for Carl to find grass

- Techno pronounces it as “gif”

- He asks if Dream would like to start a podcast. The Prison Podcast

- Dream wonders what would happen if he tried to revive someone who wasn’t dead

Dream: “What if I try and revive you? What if it goes wrong?”

Techno: “Maybe there’ll be two of me. And then we can be double friends. Wouldn’t that be nice? Two Technoblades?”

Dream: “Well, doubles the likelihood of me getting out of here, but...”

Techno: “Exactly, exactly. The next time they come to visit us in prison, there’s just gonna like be thirty-five Technoblades. And when they try to torture you, I can be like a human meat shield and just wave after wave of Technoblades swarms them and just beats them up.”

- Techno’s okay with trying it, so Dream writes a book and burns it. When they turn around, though, it’s DreamXD who appears

- Techno remembers XD as the person who broke his table, some sort of god

Techno: “You cloned the wrong person! Dream, you fool! Look at him! ...You know that’s actually something I’ve been meaning to ask you -- how come God looks exactly like you? That feels like a question that should’ve occurred to me earlier.”

- Dream doesn’t answer, confused, but asks what they should do. Techno tries talking to him

DreamXD: what are you doing

Techno: chilling

DreamXD: what do you want summoning me

Techno: yo can you grant a wish

DreamXD: one

Techno: i want a bell

- DreamXD gives them a bell and leaves just in time for the sellout timer to go off. Dream is outraged that Techno would spend their wish on a bell and goes over to stare into the lava while Techno enthusiastically rings it

- Dream wonders what Sam and Quackity will say when they see the bell. They try standing next to each other in front of the bell to block the view

- They can’t summon DreamXD a second time

- They talk a bit more about the books. Dream gives Techno some potatoes (in Techno’s inventory he also has four books by Dream, one of which is titled “information”)

- Dream asks about why Techno rings the bell. Techno says it’s about the rituals, and Dream comments that he put a bell in Church Prime (“which is not to be spoken of here”)

- Techno asks if Dream can even get Twitch Primes and claims that Dream is a heretic due to not being under contract. Dream isn’t profiting off of anyone

- Dream has 51 potatoes remaining

Techno: “So uh...got any friends? Hang out with anybody? You know, before the whole thrown in prison thing?”

Dream: “Not really...I did, and then they...turned against me.”

Techno: “Ah. I know that feeling man, I know that feeling.”

Dream: “Just being betrayed by your closest friends...”

Techno: “Ah yeah, happens all the time. Every Tuesday, really.”

Dream: “I’ve been visited by a few people.”

Techno: “Pog, pog. Did any of them like, not try to torture or kill you?”

Dream: “...Yeah?”

Techno: “He hesitated.”

Dream: “Well...Sapnap didn’t torture and kill me, but then he said if I get out of here, he would.”

Techno: “You GOTTA raise your standards, man. You gotta raise your stand-- you’re just getting treated like dirt out here, man. That is just sad. That is just sad! You gotta meet some new people, man.”

Dream: “I think BadBoyHalo treated me the best, probably.”

Techno: “BadBoyHalo, you say?”

Dream: “He treated me the best, probably, when he visited me before.”

Techno: “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s like a cult leader or something, actually, I hate to break it to you.”

Dream: “Wait, what?!”

Techno: “Yeah, there was like this Egg thing...I wasn’t quite clear on what was going on.”

Dream: “That was months ago! He visited me like four months ago, five months ago.”

- Techno talks a bit about how he attacked the Egg cult, “big crossover episode.” Dream asks when was the last time the two of them -- Dream and Techno -- spoke. It was Doomsday, a while ago

- Dream asks about current events, but Techno isn’t the best person to ask about that. Tubbo has a new commune called Snowchester that Techno’s still a bit suspicious of

- Dream asks how Ranboo is. Techno offhandedly mentions that Tubbo might have nukes, maybe as a hobby. Maybe the crater was just Tubbo trying to scare him

- Dream doesn’t know a lot about the outside world. Ranboo used to visit a lot -- the most of everyone until Quackity -- a while ago, but then he stopped. Sapnap, Ranboo, Tommy, Bad and Quackity all visited

- He then comments that Techno seems to like potatoes. Techno asks how Dream knows Ranboo, which Dream says is “a long story.” Then Dream says he doesn’t know Ranboo that well, he just visited a couple times

- Dream asks about the plan to get out again. Techno says that even with the mining fatigue, they can still break blocks. But most of the blocks would set off the alarms, so he suggests the block beneath the toilet

- Even if they break the blocks, there’s an Elder Guardian beneath the cell

Techno: “I can take him...hey, how ‘bout I jump in there, I start beatin’ it up, and if I somehow die despite my elite martial arts prowess, you can just bring me back and I can jump in again and keep beatin’ it up, and then if I die you can just bring me back and I’ll jump in and I’ll keep beatin’ it up.”

- If people come to check on them, one of them can be the lookout

- Techno directs Dream to start punching the block for 24 hours, promising to feed potatoes to him while he punches if he gets hungry

- Dream starts punching

Techno: “What are they gonna do if they catch us, put us in double jail, man?”

- They continue chatting as Dream punches, wondering why the icon for the mining fatigue effect is a spoon. Dream talks about the cat they used to have in there. Eventually the sellout timer goes off again.

Techno starts ringing.

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #long posts

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rebelwrites · 3 years

Text

What Happens In Vegas - Part Five

Clay Spenser x Reader

Join The Group Chat Here - If You Want Tagging Manually Let Me Know 🖤

Clay Spenser Masterlist

This Months Writing

Part One || Part Two || Part Three || Part Four

“Where’s Clay?” You asked Danny, as you pulled your sunglasses over your eyes as you walked out of the hotel, letting Clay’s hoodie slip off one of your shoulders.

“Over there,” Danny grinned, pointing at the roadside, the moment your eyes landed on him you squealed, making Danny laugh.

“Is that reaction to me or the car?” Clay smirked, raising his brow at you.

“Definitely for the car,” you winked, as you ran your fingers over the body work of the Shelby Mustang he was leaning on. “How did you know this was my favourite car?”

“A little birdy told me,” he smirked, putting his arm around your shoulder.

“Well little birdy did good,” you giggled, “Do I get to drive?”

“Nope,” Clay laughed, “the little birdy also told me how you drive and I think I choose life.”

“I’m gonna kill said little birdy,” you laughed, as Clay opened the car door for you. Sliding yourself into the car, you took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down your heart rate.

You couldn’t believe how in just a few short days Clay had broken down the walls you had put up, showing you how happy you could be.

“You ready?” Clay asked, pulling you from your thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing what you have planned,” you smiled, as he linked his fingers with yours.

You had no idea where you were headed but you didn’t care, this was the most normal you had felt in years and even the happiest you had been, reaching over you turned the radio up.

“No, there ain't nothin' that I gotta prove. You think your words will make me black and blue. But I think I'm pretty with these old boots on, I think it's funny when I drink too much. You try and change me, you can go to hell. 'Cause I don't wanna be nobody else,” you sang out of tune, making Clay laugh as you danced in the seat.

“You are crazy, you know that right,” he smirked, glancing over at you with a grin on his face.

“I like the chip I got in my front teeth and I got bad tattoos, you won't believe. So, kick out the jams, kick up the soul. Pour another glass of that rock and roll. Turn up the band, fire in the hole. Gonna lose control tonight. What do you want from me? I'm not America's sweetheart,” you sang loudly, letting the wind blow through your hair, “So beat the drum with me. I'm not America's sweetheart. Well, they say I'm too loud for this town. So I lit a match and burned it down. What do you want from me? I'm not America's sweetheart. But you love me anyway”

“Okay, before you make my ears bleed,” Clay laughed, turning the radio down. “If this is what you are like all the time god help me,”

“Now that’s just rude,” you pouted, following it with a giggle as the car came to a stop. Glancing around you saw you were at the crazy golf course. “Is this where you are taking me on a date?”

“Fuck, I knew I should have gone with the classic meal,” Clay sighed running his hand over his face.

“Clay, it’s perfect,” you whispered, taking his hand in yours, running your thumb over his skin. “I don’t need a fancy meal or anything like that, you have only known me a few days and I feel like you know better than anyone.”

“I may have a got a bit of help,” he laughed.

“Either way, you listened to what I like, Alex never did that,” you whispered. “So come on it’s time I kicked your butt at crazy golf,”

“You really think you will beat me, Princess,” Clay smirked.

“Yuup,” you giggled, kissing his knuckles. “Now come on, let’s go.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said you were gonna kick my ass,” Clay laughed, as he followed you to the next hole.

“I’m just a pro at this,” you grinned, spinning around.

“You know what I’m a pro at?” He smirked, stepping forward, closing the gap between the two of you, dropping his club on the floor and placing his hands on your cheeks.

“What’s that, Mr Spenser?” You giggled, leaning into his touch.

He didn’t say anything, he just pressed his lips against yours, your lips moved in sync as you wrapped your arms around his neck. You felt like you were floating, the sparks that ran through your body made you realise that you never had a connection like this before. The kiss left you breathless, and left you wanting more. He was like a drug that you couldn’t get enough off.

“Yeah, I think you are a pro at that,” you breathed against his lips. “I think I don’t want this just to be a holiday fling,” you confessed, “I think I want to see where this goes when we get back home, I want to get my life back on track and I think you are going to be the right person to help me do that.”

“I will be by your side as long as you want me,” Clay whispered, “always,”

“I know your line of work and I don’t want to get you distracted whilst you are in a war zone,” you sighed, your brain taking over.

“I can’t exactly ask you to put your life on hold for me,” Clay whispered, “but what I feel for you is real and if you are willing to give us a shot then I know we can make things work, look at Jade and Danny.”

“You just have an answer for everything don’t you?” You giggled.

“Pretty much,” he smirked. “Now give me another kiss and let’s finish this game and go get some food and just drive around the city for the rest of the night.”

“Sounds perfect,” you hummed, kissing him gently.

As you got back to the hotel, Clay got out of the car and ran to the boot, pulling out a gift bag.

“I may have got you something,” he grinned passing you the bag.

“Thank you,” you smiled, taking the bag off him, slowly opening it to reveal the cutest teddy bear ever, dressed in its own camo uniform. “Clay this is so fucking cute,” you grinned, hugging the bear, instantly realising that it also smelt of him.

“You like him?” Clay asked.

“I love him,” you grinned, still cuddling the bear, “Did you really go to build a bear for me?”

“Yes I did Princess,” he smiled, “I may have dragged Sonny along with me as well,”

“I’m gonna call him Clay,” you winked, keeping the bear tucked under your arm, as you linked hands with Clay, making your way back to his room. Nothing could wipe the smile of your face right now.

@chibsytelford @mrsmarvelous1995 @supervalcsi @talicat713 @disasterfandoms @bravo-four-seal-team @jasonbabymama @jayhalsteadfan-2417 @lotsoflovefromlea @seik-o @velvetcardiganbucky @phoenixhalliwell @pancakeisreading @itsonautopilot @pinkrockstar19 @galaxysanduniversesinmymind @softi92 @abby-splace

#Clay Spenser #clay spenser x reader #clay spenser imagine #clay spenser oneshot #seal team #seal team x reader #seal team imagine #seal team oneshot

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gumnut-logic · 3 years

Text

Fabio Blue Nose

Aaaargh, this was supposed to be a short, but it has demanded to be longer and I’ve run out of time. I did not want another WIP!

But anyway, here be Fabio Blue Nose, or a start of some kind at least. I hope you enjoy this random fluff so far.

Many thanks to @tsarinatorment and @janetm74 for their support.

It should also be noted that no sea shanties were harmed in the creation of this fic. Nor are their any sea shanties in it, despite there being an urge to add one.

Aaaargh, it is 12.45am. I gotta go sleep, damnit.

-o-o-o-

The first time was an accident.

None of the brothers owned up to it but chances were it was Gordon, no matter how many times he swore complete innocence.

Though, come to think of it, Scott was rather more compliant than expected, so Virgil threw a little unspoken suspicion his way as well.

But anyway, it happened and it was a good thing.

There was always press at rescues that they could reach. Scott was fully aware of the importance of the media, particularly where communication and, to a certain extent, promotions were concerned. But when they got in the way of a rescue, the commander was well known to be intolerant.

This particular time, however, the press was managed by the GDF who were also onsite due to the scale of the disaster and possible sabotage, so International Rescue didn’t have to worry about them so much while they dug fifty miners out of a kilometre deep hole.

All but John were on the rescue. All but John were dirty, sweaty and ever so tired. There had been a chunk of rock that had needed demolition charges to get through, causing enough headache that even Virgil had been heard to spit profanity over comms when one of the charges misfired and nearly took his head off with shrapnel in the tunnel.

Eleven of the fifty men didn’t make it and there was some body recovery after the far too many trips it took to get them all back to the surface. In short, it had been an ugly, hard day. All the Tracys just wanted to go home and disappear into whatever distraction worked best for them.

Scott had to liaise with the GDF regarding red tape and reporting circumstances in the mine...that they should probably go down and see for themselves instead of relying on a civilian rescue organisation to do their dirty work for them. But whatever the reason, Virgil, Gordon and Alan were left to pack up and wait while all the dots and crosses were applied to appropriate Ts and Is.

It took longer than expected.

Virgil, sporting an aching shoulder, was reduced to pacing the length of Two’s open hatch. He should just take his brothers home and leave Scott to tackle the GDF.

But Scott was just as tired as they were and he had only just returned from another rescue when this callout came in. His big brother was exhausted and Virgil feared that if he left him behind they might end up a few GDF personnel short before the sun went down.

And the press were watching.

It was probably at this point the photo was taken.

It was iconic, even Virgil had to admit it. Emotive and made a statement about who they were and what they did.

The shot was from a forty-five degree angle, using a zoom lens that caught every detail of Two’s open module. Virgil stood in the middle of the ramp, paused mid-pace and staring off at something, probably Scott, in the distance. The shadow of Two in the evening light had his head in shadow, adding a heroic seriousness to his expression.

That alone was dramatic, but behind him from the camera angle, sitting on the top of the ramp to one side of the open hatch were Gordon and Alan.

Gordon had his arm around his little brother as they both stared in the same direction as Virgil. All three brothers were grimy and exhausted, Alan’s head was resting on Gordon’s shoulder.

It must have been an extraordinary lens to capture the detail because the media were fenced off a considerable distance away, but there was enough clarity to see one tear track in the dust on Alan’s face.

Their littlest brother claimed he had scratched his cheek, but they all knew better.

So, yes, this photo was taken and thrown across the planet as an illustration of three heroes of International Rescue.

There were rave reviews. Whole swaths of text praising everything their organisation did, what had been achieved that day and what had been achieved in the past. Inevitably, the history of International Rescue did the rounds again, their father’s legacy and all that. An unfortunate reminder of both the parents they had lost in the process. Being proud didn’t negate the pain that came along with it.

But due to the quirkiness of human attention, none of the above was the source of the impact the photo finally had.

It wasn’t Thunderbird Two or any of the three brothers photographed that captured most of the public’s attention.

It was a teddy bear.

Virgil kept a number of cuddly toys on Two. Some he had knitted himself, or purchased, a few were donated, but all were kept and given to children and occasionally adults, who were terrified during a rescue or evacuation and found themselves secured in Two’s module.

Perhaps the bear had fallen out of its storage, perhaps one of the brothers had shoved it aside. Whatever had happened, in the iconic photograph of three hardworking Tracy brothers, right at the back, inside the module sat a dark grey teddy bear with a blue nose and shiny eyes that caught the setting sun.

Staring right at the camera.

And the world went nuts for this bear.

It took less than a day for the fame of the teddy bear to become enough to alert Thunderbird Five and, in turn, roust Virgil out of bed - it’s lunchtime, Virgil, time enough to wake up.

Virgil’s answer to that was clear, precise and rated for adults only.

John triggered the coffee maker in the kitchen to start working its magic before his brother busted up something other than the English language.

Eventually, Virgil made it down to Two and dug out the bear responsible.

It was still sitting on top of the storage locker, which added kudos to Virgil’s flying skill.

He was going to shove it back into the locker when John asked him not to. Apparently, the bear had a following on social media.

So, Virgil picked it up and took it back up to the comms room. He placed it beside him at their father’s desk and pulled up a search screen and typed in ‘bear’ and ‘International Rescue’. He could, of course, ask John to forward him whatever his brother had obviously found, but he didn’t.

The search results that sprung up made it very clear that the world was most definitely obsessed with that bear.

There were zoomed in pictures of the inside of the module – a fact that had Virgil a little worried regarding security until he realised that anything that could possibly be compromised was just that little bit blurred. No doubt that was Eos at work. Probably snared the original photo before it could perpetuate.

But even then it was obvious that the posters had no interest in the technology. Several photos had the bear circled in red.

Various comments attempted to give reasons as to why the bear was there. The explanations were rather fantastical in the majority. A few were actually disturbing and linked Alan’s tear track to the bear – Virgil threw that bit of information at Thunderbird Five and that line of thought suddenly disappeared from the results. Some suggested the photograph was posed, a few mentioned that Thunderbird Two did carry such things and that was followed by a wave of genuine thanks and admiration for what they did…and then completely ignored when more fascinating ideas were presented.

Virgil was quite frankly amazed at what people could concoct from a photograph of a bear.

Said bear sat and stared at him the entire time. Its nose was very blue.

But ultimately the outcome that had occurred somewhere between all four brothers making it home last night and the time John dragged Virgil out of bed, Fabio Blue Nose had become a mascot for International Rescue.

Yes, ‘Fabio’.

Some inspired person had mentioned ‘F.A.B.’ as IR’s callsign and it went downhill from there.

Fabio stared at Virgil almost accusingly. His curly fur was a shade darker than Scott’s baldric and his eyes as golden as Gordon’s. His blue nose shone in the sunlight.

They had a teddy bear with a fan base, fan art and a dash of fan fiction.

Virgil caught his own name in one of them and shut it down so fast the browser crashed.

It didn’t help that an hour later Gordon found the same story and promptly paraded it around the villa for all to see and hear whether they wanted to or not. Apparently, because Virgil was the pilot of Thunderbird Two, Fabio was his crewmate.

A very heroic crewmate at that.

Could a teddy bear really rappel down a grapple like that?

He shook his head and threw a lounge cushion at his brother’s head. He really didn’t need to know.

But in any case, they now had a mascot that wasn’t Alan.

Gordon was hit in the head again for that assessment.

So, Fabio found his way to being sat on Two’s dash and accompanying them out on rescues.

The second photo was more than they had ever expected.

-o-o-o-

TBC?

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderbirds #Virgil Tracy #fabio blue nose #Gordon Tracy #I don't know what the hell I was thinking

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lumilasi · 3 years

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I’ve been struggling to write this one for a month or something now, so I decided to give y’all a sneak peek on the latest Spinaraki one-shot request I’m writing. IDK when I’ll finish it tho, I’m still struggling to decide how to end it. Also I’ve been wanting to focus on writing all the remaining chapters for Depths as that one is nearly finished. Tomura/Tenko is almost home.

Anyway, here’s the sneak peek:

Going through the third week, the weather was still very warm, so warm that Spinner finds Tomura awake one night, clearly unable to sleep due to the heat - or maybe he was insomniac, at this point he wasn’t sure.

Tomura was only wearing loose-fitting black pants with a thin canvas to them, glancing up at him from the couch he’d sat on, TV running in the background while kept on low volume, probably had been to try and not wake him up. Spinner could tell he was sweaty from the heat with how his hair was sticking to his skull. It was totally just the hair he was looking, not anything else.

”Your AC seems to be malfunctioning.”

Checking on it, Spinner notes he was right.

”Damn. I’m sorry. Guess gotta call someone to repair it tomorrow.”

”M’fine. Used to sleeping very little anyway.”

Huh, so maybe he was insomniac?

Spinner sits down next to him hesitantly, trying his best not to look while also kind of looking - again. What was with him lately anyway? He’d seen people half naked before during his schooldays in boys’ locker room, and on the beach and so on. Why did Tomura being like that bother him so much?

”Heh. Spooky folklore and urban legends reruns during the night? Guess it makes sense, fits with the dark atmosphere.”

Spinner looks up at the TV screen, quickly realizing what Tomura meant. There was a show he’d seen before, talking about urban legends across the country. This episode was one he hadn’t seen before, revolving around ancient ninjas or something.

”Well would ya look at that? What a coincidence.”

Tomura muses out and Spinner looks at him confused, before looking back at the TV. The episode legend was talking about some sort of group of supposed near mythical ninjas of assassins or something. Wait weren’t those kinda the same thing?

”What’s this legend about? Never heard of it.”

”It’s called the Yokai King. A master assassin of legendary skill that people to this day debate whenever he existed. According to the legend all the assassins under his command were some form of yokai, from bakenekos to kitsunes, and even a jorogumo.”

”W-what? Really?”

Tomura shrugs, cracking his neck slightly.

”From what I understand - and what the show is talking about right now - it is suspected the ”yokai’ were just humans who used a name of a creature to describe them. There are some rumors that these people might’ve had special kind of mutations that give no outward changes but ’internal’ abilities that cannot be seen.”

”Huh...that’s...kinda cool? I mean as a legend, the assassin part is a bit...”

”To be fair, the legend states the Yokai king only sends his ilk against those he deems unworthy of life. In most stories the victims of his children - as these underlings are called, though how many of them actually are his kids is a debated matter - have been criminals of worst kind. Child abusers, rapists, serial killers, stuff like that. Rich Tax frauders.”

”.....what?”

Tomura turns to look at him with a smirk. That smile was giving him a weird funny feeling, but Spinner was too focused in on the story to care about it.

”There’s more modern versions of the tale about his ’children’ going after rich landlords who abuse their wealth.”

”So they just...”

Spinner makes a slitting motion across his throat, gaining a slight shake of head from Tomura.

”Not always. The ’death’ dished out isn’t always physical. Sometimes it can be mental, social, or financial kind. Tax frauders end up dirt poor, prideful child abuser holding up appearances gets shunned away from their community, etc. To some people there are fates worse than simple death.”

”O-oh...”

”Yeah. I think in a lot of tales the King typically has four assassins; one for each type of ’death.”

Tomura holds up his finger now, smirking amused at how closely he was listening.

”First, is the ’financial death’ often known with the nickname Tanuki. This one is typically the one in charge of dealing with unruly greedy people and leaders, making sure they lose all they hold dear - their finances and influence typically.”

”Why Tanuki?”

”There’s lotta stories about it. Some say the first holder of this title in the legend was an actual one, or had Tanuki-like tendencies with gambling, playing tricks on people and such.”

Tomura shrugs, glancing at the TV briefly. The program was currently discussing this same topic, but Spinner found himself more interested in hearing Tomura tell it, as he seemed to have knowledge of the legend.

”Second is usually either known as the Jorogumo or Snow woman. As you can guess this ’child’ is typically a woman in these legends, often linked to the more psychological death - though arguably they also often literally kill their prey. She is often depicted as stalking their victim for a while, keeping an eye on them and causing psychological turmoil. Other times she’s said to even lure the victims into a trap, until it is too late.”

”...Kind of clicheed in a way, that the woman does that.”

”That’s how these old folk tales are. Didn’t make ’em. Plus there have been some stories from what I remember that dispute whenever this ’child’ was always a woman.”

Tomura shrugs and cracks his neck, now holding up a third finger. His red eyes looked almost like they were shining in the surrounding darkness, with the TV screen reflected on them. It was kind of eerie but also mesmerizing to look at.

”Third, the kitsune, is said to be the one for social deaths. This one will burn all the bridges around you, making you isolated for everything and everyone you had control over, before devouring you. In the same sense the kitsune also protects the victims from the person they punish.”

”And...the...last one?”

Tomura holds up a fourth finger now, the light from TV dimming down as the screen switched to a darker scene.

”The Shinigami. The ultimate death. This one’s often said to be the yokai king’s strongest child, for they represent an absolute death. No mercy, no second chances. If this child goes after you, you are a goner.”

Tomura drops his hand slowly, and Spinner swallows down hard, frozen in place. He stares at the pale face for a long moment, up until Tomura closes his eyes suddenly, starting to snicker. It eventually grows into a full blown laughter, making Spinner blush and frown, asking what was so funny.

”Your face! You’re real freaked out.”

Shigaraki laughs and tries to get his breath back under control, wheezing almost.

”It’s a folktale Spinner, a legend. Not real. Relax.”

”Can you blame me for getting spooked? It’s dark and you’re really good at storytelling stuff like this apparently!”

#spinaraki #fic sneak peek #this scene is Tomura lowkey telling Spinner exactly what he is #but Spinner doesn’t realize it lmao #you’ll understand once I finish this thing #shigaraki tomura #bnha tomura #spinner x shigaraki #bnha spinner

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lovetenya · 4 years

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𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐲𝐚 𝐢𝐢𝐝𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐜𝐬 (𝟐)

pairing: tenya iida x gn! reader

warnings: a couple of swear words. nobody’s angry or swearing at each other.

word count: 1.5k. i’d count it as a oneshot if it was more organized. :)

author’s note: thank you so much for the love on my work! your reblogs and comments make me so happy!! this one isn’t extremely romantic, but there is some fluffy reassurance. tenya deserves so much more love than he gets.

click on the star to read part one -> ✧

Dating Iida Tenya would ALSO include...

Tenya facetiming you to tell you all about the book he’s reading and to help with homework when you can’t be together

He’s so passionate about his books! I mean, I hope so, because he has so many of them and I can totally see him thinking reading is a “worthy” hobby because it’s productive and “intellectually challenging”

Tenya: “I can’t believe the main character dies! That very rarely happens in literature! I wonder if the author was trying to say something about...”

If you’re not as much of a reader as he is, please act interested and show him you care what he’s talking about!!! He thrives on genuine interest because he’s familiar with being used for homework answers!! (more on that later)

If you thought his nerd rambles were bad, get ready for literary nerd rambles!!! They’re so much better!! (or worse, if you’re a hater)

He will proofread every single essay you write and read draft after draft and never complain

“Hm... I see where you were trying to go with this point, but your line of reasoning needs work.”

“Is this claim evidence based? You really shouldn’t make assumptions without studying the bias the researchers may have possessed when gathering the data. It’s really easy to use the same statistics to prove two sides of the same argument and you shouldn’t--”

“Tenya, it’s a worksheet. It’s worth five points.”

“Even so! You should always put forth your best effort!”

He will offer his help, but vehemently insist that he’s not going to just give you the answers. No, you don’t get a break just because you’re his s/o. You’ve still gotta work for your grades.

He’ll make sure you’re the one figuring it out. (He wants you to succeed, duh. What kind of class representative would he be if he enabled academic dishonesty???)(A bad one)

People seem to forget that he tried to kill someone, had a sword driven through his shoulder and never really regained full control over his arm. Also, I’m pretty sure it’s confirmed that Iidas have to rip out their mufflers in order to grow new, stronger ones? That’s so scary? I think we should discuss this more. The man is a badass. He called Midoriya the famous “Mr. House Arrest” and called Bakugo a cretin??? He deserves so much more credit for his sassiness than he gets credit for. Just let him be a bossy legend, alright?

He would snap at you to start focusing when you’re studying together

Don’t get me wrong, he likes you a whole lot, but he also cannot stand being behind on lessons and is not gonna let someone get between him and his hard earned A+++s

He doesn’t like to be together in the common room because he doesn’t like to be teased about the relationship he’s very proud of but very protective over

You’re both surprised you manage to juggle your hectic lives, but it just makes every moment more special

So you usually end up sneaking into his dorm room while he’s making rounds making sure everyone is safe in their rooms.

(Okay so, I lied. This is the exception to the rule of ‘you don’t get breaks’. This time, he lets it (you) slide.)

He doesn’t want to be a bad role model for the others and give them any ideas, but he also doesn’t want to be a hypocrite

So if he were to see one of his classmates sneaking into someone’s dorm…. No he didn’t.

He’s the kind of person that doesn’t care what his classmates do as long as they’re being safe. He’s not interested in the details.

You often end up cuddled up in his bed under his blankets <3

His laptop sits on his lap and he’d put on a documentary, probably

He would ask you whether you came to talk or to watch the movie if you asked too many questions during it HAHA

“Why are you asking me about this? Haven’t you read chapter 9 in our science textbook? It gives a clear description of--”

“Dude. We’re on chapter four. How and more importantly, WHY are you so far ahead???”

“I was bored and wanted to be productive instead of letting my brain rot from idleness…”

“Oh my god. You’re such a nerd.”

He sticks out his tongue at you and pushes his glasses further up his nose at this blasphemous suggestion.

He’d pick up (or help cook) dinner beforehand so you don’t have to leave the room and risk being discovered!! (Even though literally nobody would snitch, he still doesn’t want to break the rules further than what he’s already guilty of)

I have a feeling he really like classic movies too and when you watch them together he’ll explain how they did all of the stunts or the special effects

He’d know every single word to a movie and would DEFINITELY recite his favorite parts dramatically, while still trying to make as little noise as possible

He’d do god-awful impressions and his silly exaggerated choppy hands to make you laugh

You love that it’s a side of him that nobody else gets to see because he doesn’t have very many opportunities to let loose and be a normal teenage boy

It’s just simple fun and it’s sweet to be there with him and to see him like this, especially when he goes into theatrical mode for his bedroom performances

Again, I’m mentioning the fact that a sword was driven through his shoulder and he allowed the injury to remain untreated because he wanted to have a reminder that he stood for something once.

He had every opportunity to just have Recovery Girl kiss it better, but he’s too determined to be the best version of himself possible. He won’t forget the battles he fought to bring him to his inevitable victory.

Since his arms never returned to full capacity and he’s still in the beginning stages of recovery, his hand and arm cramp sometimes. He’s not one to complain about his pain, so you might have to pay attention to catch the way he hesitates to grab things sometimes, or how he flinches when he twists his arm the wrong way.

He would never ask you to give him a massage, but if you did, he would be so grateful for the way your fingers seem to ease the knots of burning muscle. His muscles feel like corded steel underneath your hands, but they’re still extremely sensitive to touch.

He needs those gentle touches to remind him that he isn’t any weaker than anybody else just because he’s in pain. If anything, he’s stronger, because he’s living and succeeding through the pain that nobody else has. He hasn’t succumbed to the pain and he never will.

Everyone gets insecure sometimes, even Tenya Iida.

He needs reassurance sometimes that his classmates respect him and don’t hang out with him as a joke.

He just wants what’s best for them and doesn’t want them to think he’s being a hard ass for no reason or that he bosses them around for the hell of it

One day, you’re studying together and he’s visibly upset. You don’t want to press him though because if he wants to talk about it, he will. He does.

He starts, “Do you think.. No, nevermind.”

You: “What was that?”

“No. It’s silly, really.”

“Please, Tenya, tell me what’s wrong.”

He sighs, knowing it’s no use holding it in. He hesitates, uncharacteristically nervous.

He’s usually so sure of himself. This is weird, you think.

He says, “Do you think our classmates like me?”

“Like you? Why wouldn’t they like you?”

“Well, I’m not sure. Do you think they see me as a friend? Or just as their class representative?”

“Of course they see you as a friend, honey. For example.. you and I always hang out with Izuku, Ochaco, and Shoto! We’re all still classmates even if we’re always trying to one-up each other!”

With a raised eyebrow, he asks “You don’t think they just like me because I help them with their homework?”

“No way, Tenya. I’m sure they really like you for you.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Well, they talk about you when you’re not around--”

He blurts, “Really? What do they say?”

“All good things, nothing to worry about at all.” He lets out a breath at this (phew!) You continue, “They talk about how responsible you are--”

“They do not!” He sends a glare, but there isn’t any malice behind his eyes.

“No really! They do! They all admire you so much and they all wish they were as respected as you are!”

“Respected?”

“Yes, Tenya. They respect you.”

“Then why do they make fun of me so much? Just because I’m responsible doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings.”

“I know. They tease you because they’re your friends and it’s funny when you snap back at them. They’re trying to get you to lighten up a little.”

“Oh. They think I’m funny?”

“They sure do.”

“Hm…”

“I promise, honey. Your classmates like you, your friends like you, and everyone likes being around you. You’re more than just “a pleasure to have in class”, you know. And I’m not just saying that because I’m biased.”

“Thank you, my love. That made me feel a lot better.”

“Oh, good. Can I hug you now?”

“Yes, please.”

He pulls you into a hug and you both hum, content in each other’s warm embrace. You can’t help but softly smile.

thank you for reading! love, TJ ✮

link to my masterlist

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daimonhalos · 3 years

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More Badlands headcanons: the prequel

I return from the grave to lay upon ye my newfound knowledge: so I was just doodling a sad bbh, then he started looking more like child bbh and it turned into a comic of Bad meeting the other three for the first time and eventually I came up with a sort of backstory for bbh and some initial bonding for the badlands LET'S GET INTO IT

(this is all /rp)

So life in the nether certainly wasn't easy and bad's childhood was definitely fucked up.

One day he had walked away for five minutes from home and returns to it being burnt down and his parents on the ground, stabbed to death.

Baby Bad did n ot have the same attire. His current scarf, he took it from his mom when she died, whilst the sword comes from his dad. That's why he never upgraded from a diamond sword to a netherite one.

Before they died, he had 3 halos, two disappeared after they did and one remained broken until he got over them passing away.

As a kid he had more devilish wings, which became normal angel/feathered wings a little after his parents' death. It had been said that his family had a toll on their heads and only once someone else's vengeance was completed (killing said family), his features would've gone back to the way his species used to be. He wasn't sure much had changed.

(Also sidenote, for once he's on the other side: literally every bad thing reminds him of his childhood in the nether so at least for the first few centuries he's always absolutely nice to people)

Then he goes wild with chaos when hes more comfy and has friends ♥

Once grown up and confident, despite everything he'd heard about the overworld, he decides to find a portal and cross it.

Of course, when he crosses, he is immediately met with three complete strangers staring right back at him, entirely different from what people had told him: there's a biped cat, a diamond person and a creeper hybrid, still staring and blinking at him, quite surprised.

The three immediately notice how he's immediately on the defensive, guarding instead of attacking them immediately

So they understand he doesn't mean bad and they also understand it's his first time out of the nether because of the way he needs to adjust to the sunlight which is the same skeppy had the first time out of the underground (he only ever lived in caves so underground, max/min y levels where u find diamonds.

They take o n e look at bad and go "holy shit. We need to adopt this guy quick"

Bonus: "okay. GOTTA protect this dude at a l l costs. He might be 3 meters tall demon, but he looks sad so he needs to be PROTECTED RIGHT NOW-"

Sam ant and skeppy are in fact together already which means they already are found family tm so they already got each other and helped each other in the past.

Hold the fuck up this is beautiful because. Creepers can spawn or stay in mines WHERE DIAMONDS ARE

creepers can be on the ground as well where CATS ARE BUT THEY'RE AFRAID OF CATS THIS IS ACTUALLY SO GOOD pardon my enthusiasm i had an epiphany

Hence their small backstory: Sam finds skeppy first, then he loses skeppy as the latter freaking bolts around in the overworld for the first time.

Skeppy finds ant and brings him to Sam and Sam is like Oh GOD PLEASE NONONO "Can we keep him" "NO." "Im right here" "he TALKS?"And transforms to his humanoid vers

Actually they keep Ant for a week before he speaks for real because skeppy wants to prank sam

One night a skelly shoots an arrow at ant and Sam has been protective over the two ever since (they are brothers your honor)

Sam stopped sizzling everytime ant is nearby ♡

Skeppy does not feel hot nor cold

He's simply an unbothered king about temperatures ♡

Thats why he wears a crop top anything for fashion,,,/hj (granted to u guys by the great @azaethal)

"We're in a snow biome at least pretend you're cold"" f a s h u n "

"Hey Sam do u think ants like. Constantly naked" "Skeppy it's Four IN THE MORNING. GO. TO sleep" "He has fur in his cat form I know but like. He's basically naked right" "For fucks sake-"

Lol get skepped

It's a blessing when they adopt bad in their friend group cause skeppy finally has a new victim and Sam and ant have some rest. Bad falls for every single prank of skeppy.

The moment skeppy finds out he doesn't swear it's over for you bitches

Then the next problem is when they get into fights and become petty and don't talk to each other like literal kids

Ant and Sam stand there like how does this diamond block fuckin have the guts to yell at a 9 feet tall demon what the f u ck

Is anyone going to make fun of this demon?? Bet. (courtesy of @azaethal)

And that's how our boys know. They just know bad and skeppy are gonna be loooong time friends

ONE DAY THEY'RE LIKE

"YO GUESS WHAT WE JUST DID SOMETHING S I C K"

"WE JUST LINKED OUR SOULS TOGETHER"

"What the ACTUAL F-"

They say it was just for the meme

Deep down they know it's because they got an unbreakable bond

When he joins his soul with skeppy's, the second halo comes back to him. The third will when he finds sapnap and decides to make him his son and take him away from there.

Don't have anything else yet but will add up as soon as I do owo

#badboyhalo #antfrost #skeppy #awesamdude #dream smp #dsmp headcanon #badlands #dsmp badlands #long post #swearing tw #caps tw #death tw

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the Universe or So Sad So Very Very Sad

Hello all you happy Scottaholics! And welcome back to Scottrospective, my 8 part look at Scott Pilgrim: all 6 volumes of the comic as well as the game and movie just in time for their respective 10th Anniversaries. If your just joining us or needa quick refresher, here are links to the other four parts, in order: Precious Little Life, Vs The World (Comic), Infinite Sadness, and last month’s look at my favorite volume Gets It Together. And if that’s not enough to fill your belly with Scotty Goodness, hop over to my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet. There you’ll find reviews of all the content I didn’t have time for in the retrospective proper: Free Scott Pilgrim, The Wonderful World of Kim Pine, Monica Beetle, Style, and the bonus comic strips. It’s only a dollar to get access to the bonus reviews, and every bit you can give not only helps me make these reviews int he first place, but gets me closer to my stretch goals, the 25 and 30 dollar ones including looks at O’Malley’s Other Works: Lost At Sea and Seconds for the former and Snotgirl for the latter.

But more than plugging my past and paid works, there’s something else far more important I need to get to before I get into this one: Thank You. No Seriously thank all of you who have been reading these, liking them. My Precious Little Life Review is easily one of the most liked things i’ve ever had on this blog, getting more viewers every day, and last month’s look at Gets it Together is STILL racking up likes. Given most of my non-duck reviews, paid for and on my own time, tend to be ignored half the time, this just warms my heart. It shows me two great things: that even after a decade Scott Pilgrim still has a huge following and given how young this platform tends to skew that it’s gaining more fans every day, and that people care about what I have to say about htis wonderful comic. It really touches me to both know my voice matters and that something I truly loved as a teen and still do now is STILL picking up more and more fans. What i’m saying is you guys are the best and I wouldn’t be doing these reviews without your support of my very hard work. These are some of the hardest reviews i’ve done at times, but seeing you all enjoy them makes it all worth it.

As for the Volume itself there’s something I just gotta get off my chest right away: I HATED this volume when it came out. To understand why you have to consider my mental state: I was a teenager at the time, in my junior year of high school. Scott Pilgrim was my goddamn world: while I was picking up comics monthly at the time this was honestly the first north american comic I loved and obessed over and Scott and friends were like family to me. To an awkward teen who couldn’t talk to girls, struggled to keep the video game club a friend founded together in a way that in hindsight was wholly unecessary, and getting messed with due to my anger issues by friend, foe and frenemy alike, Scott was my port in the storm. A sunny version of Tornoto where I could retreat to to feel at peace.

So yeah this shattered the fuck out of that peace and was essentially one long slow motion kick to the balls to a younger me: Hollie gets derailed and horribly betrays Kim, runing my faviorite characters life and leading to her LEAVING, Scott and Ramona’s relationship crumbles, the band breaks up , and the volume ends with Gideon still gunning for our hero because life hadn’t punched him in the face enough for one month. I was livid, not stopping the series, obviously, but upset that everything i’d grown to care about was basically gone in a flash and couldn’t understand WHY O’Malley would fucking do this to me. This volume was also what kept me from re-reading the books for as long as I did as while the rest had fond memories all the ones I had of this one were pure misery.

But by the time i re-read it in december of last year I had two important things in my hands that helped me truly enjoy this one: The first was Volume 6 itself: knowing things would work out, that most of the bad stuff would be undone and in a truly awesome and satisfying way helped.

The other thing was the perspective that came with growing older: For one as an adult while I still like Scott as a character and find him intresting I no longer look up to him, nor put stock in his hapiness for his own. Sure I still care about characters and relate to some, but Bojack Horseman taught me the hard way you CAN’T put all your hopes in a character’s fate or them getting better for you to get better.

The other is that while this volume again is pretty bleak after a while.. it’s also NECESSARY. Part of the series charm is i’ts realisim and a sad part of real life is people can drift apart from you, and things can change seemingly all at once. And things moving the way they do is necessary for the ending: every step and move here puts things where they need to be for the final chapter. The pain our heroes go through is necessary so they can all grow.. except Stephen and Wallace. Stephen sucks and Wallace dosen’t need to change. He does need his own spinoff. But for Scott, Ramona and Kim the trials to come are necessary to make them into their best selves by series end.

So join me under the cut as we get sad so very very sad, this is Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe.

Precious Little Life: We open with Scott’s Birthday! Hit it MC Chris!

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But yes it’s septmeber and Scott is now 24 years old. Also Julie is there because presumibly Stephen dredged her out of her swamp for the evening despite Julie likely not wanting to be there and Scott sure a shell not wanting her there. He vows that he will be the best 24 year old ever...... yeah let’s take a brief look into the future to see how that pans out

But we have a full volume and more metaphorical rakes to whack Scott in the face before that paticular one.

A MONTH AND A FEW DAYS LATER

It’s the day of the dead, whoa ho way down in Tornoto. It’s hosted by Satan Herself, who dosen’t realize the holiday for hags was yesterday. This is for remembering the dead and rising out of the grave to go resuce your young wards by ramming a bunch of guys in butterfly costumes with your car or stealing your children’s kidneys. This is Rat Girl’s new place, a fancy loft she and 3 other girls went on to throw the best parties beaause of course. She’s also a bitch to our hero and heroine because of course.

But Scott soon has more important things to worry about: Ramona spots his next two opponents.. the twins hinted at last time, Kyle and Ken Kataynagi, Perfect Jerk and Handsome Asshat respectively.

Kyle and Ken are easily the least intresting of the 7 exes. With the other 4 so far having been a loveable ham, a stoic movie star whose suprisingly nice and dies via skateboard, a gloriously douchey and dumb psychic evil version of our much more loverable dumb douche with personal connections to both him and Ramona, and Roxy who was genuinely sympathetic, held back by her own selfishness and anger.. we get.. two smug assholes who use robots. Their not UNINTRESTING, the robots have cool designs and the fight with them is genuinely exciting.. but they just don’t have the charisma or personal factor. Their jsut two assholes ramona dated at the same time who happen to know more about her well guarded past than the other exes and are more liable to bring it up.. and even then it’s not anything new as Envy pulled similar tactics far more intrestingly in volume 3. THey don’t ruin the volume or anything, thier fine, but I just wish O’Malley had done more. Especially since he clealry had more intresting ideas with them: the sound battle we saw in the movie was an early draft of this and one early draft had Scott’s previously unseen brother Laurence working with them. I don’t knowWHY he scrapped that as it raises the stakes and makes this far more personal for Scott. Which at this point is what the exes SHOULD be: Todd and Roxy BOTH were more personal threats, Todd being his ex’s boyfriend and first love and Roxy being a genuine competior for Ramona. These guys again are just two douchers who show up because we need 7 douchers to complete the doucher circle.

So the twins declare their not going to fight scott.. and instead send a tiny robot to fight him. Awww. But for this fight O”Malley does something really intresting and creative.. he dosen’t focus on it. No really Ken and Kyle are dicks to Ramona so Kim wisely gets her out of there, and the two have a casual talk on the balcony while Ramona smokes. It’s some fun banter between the two that both shows why their shipped to all hell. The two just play off each other really damn well. Though we also get Craphole asking people if they want to come watch Scott get beat up because the worst.

Something important character stuff comes up though: As was shown last time at her rightful rage that Stephen HAD an opportunity to book a gig and kept refusing it for his fecking album, Kim is still fairly salty about the whole recording an album bullshit. The biggest part of it..

It’s something you really DON’T expect to here coming out of kim: that she really LIKED the band. But beneath the pillar of salt she puts out daily... these were her friends, this was getting to do something creative and passionate, and it was a break from the daily grind. Even if her job isn’t TERRIBLE, getting to watch movies and hang out with her best friend Clerks style.. it’s still a retail job and those still weigh on you.. though frankly i’d take one of those over food service but sadly tha’ts what i get most of the time. This was fun.. and Stephen ripped that away from her for his own selfish reasons. No one else in the band really cared about making an album.. if Stephen REALLY wanted to find a more professional band.. then he should’ve just told them so Scott and Kim could find someone else to do guitars for them. Instead he forced them into doing something they don’t want to do and refuses to actually play shows, which COULD help both perfect songs for the album version and get them new fans for said upcoming album and provide them recurring venues to SELL said album, because he really just wants to be with Joseph and fuck anyone else. Stephen is really just an inhernetly selfish git and i’ll get more into that in a bit. But first Wallace has a text for Scott.

Now I COULD have just skipped over this.. but I didn’t want to. Plus we dont’ se Wallace for a while in this story so i’m taking what I can get.

So back to Stephen being a repugnant ass. I’ve been waiting for this scene for the entire retrospective. I”ve hinted at it, and largely blamed it for why I hate him so damn much. The time is nigh to explain WHY.

Stephen is with Knives, as the two are close friends and such. Stephen expalins Sex Bomb-Omb isn’t playing because he and the personfication of bitchiness broke up. Which knives points out is for...

But it’s clear from context this was the LAST time. Why he still got invited I dunno, plot convience. So far so normal.. until Stephen picks up that Knives is STILL hung up on Scott. Which is understandable crushes can last a while but i’ts equally understandable that Stephen is utterly baffled by it. Which I get, I didn’t make an entire tom lucitor retropsecitve because I liked that his relationship with Star ended with him stepping aside due to what the show thought was “true wuv” but what comes off instead as his self loathing casuing him to blame himself for a realtionship that’s crumbling for reasons that aren’t his fault.

And his actions here are incredibly well meant: He bluntly gives Knives the wake up call she DOES need: Scott cheated on her, he dated her because she was easy to date, strung her along for a bit while seeing someone else, then dumped her with not one care for her well being. That is stuff she NEEDS to get into her head so she can move on. She needs to see him for what he IS and not for what she’s built him up as in her head. And while yeah his rant DOSNE’T take into account the fact Scott geninely tried to make up for his actions in volume 3, Stephen wasn’t there for that and Knives probbably didn’t tell him about it. So from his point of view scott broke her heart and did nothing.. and evne IF he knew that, Scott still hasn’t tried to do anything since despite Knives still being obessed with him nor come clean to her or Ramona at any point. Scott deserves this call out and the consequences that come with it.

So your probably wondering WHY I hate Stephen because of this scene when he’s you know, RIGHT. Well it’s simple: being right dosen’t save you from being a MASSIVE hypcorite. He’s railing on Scott for cheating and hurting someone.. when he cheated on Julie and would’ve hurt her if she had the capacity for human emotion, empathy, or self awarness. The ending of the last volume and how bad, even for them, their relationship was implied the hell out of it, with him nervous when she brings up being paranoid over knives.. as if he WAS cheating. on One Face just not with a teenage girl but a grown ass man who hates everyone as much as BLARARARGAGAG does.

Not only that.. but he was with Julie for the SAME DAMN reasons Scott was with Knives: it was easy. Now I WILL grant Stephen some sympathy: he’s a queer man and as one myself, bi for the record, I GET how fucking hard it is to come to terms with that, that what you thought you were isn’t ENITRELY true or, if Stephen is gay and not bi or pan, ENIRELY FALSE. So I do have some care that it was hard for him to sort all this out. I do and that Jospeh could’ve seduced him or what not. We don’t have all the context here. But he STILL cheated at the end of the day instead of telling her he was queer until MONTHS later. And why yes the fact I have to feel bad for JULIE does make it that much worse. And yes their relationsihp COULD simply be that toxic or she could’ve gaslit him, but it seemed more like their relationship was messy breakups and getting back together over and over. While Julie IS vile, she’s not a domestic abuser mental or physical as far as I can tell. She’s a bitch and their relatioship is unehlathy but there was no indication their relationship involved gaslighting or evne phsyical violence: it was just fucked from minute one. So yeah he stayed in an awful relationship beacuse it was easier than coming out, when he should’ve broken it off as soon as it was clear he and Joseph were actually going somewhere. Waiting while he figured out who he was is one thing, tha’ts fiar, but cheating on someone just because you don’t have the nerve to break it off with them when their genuinely awful to you and your only hurting them as much as they can be hurt by dragging this out... yeah that just makes you an ass.

Another point of contention is that he NEVER called Scott out on this. Never. Not even after this scene. Never encouraged him to tell Ramona or apologize to Knives, again he didn’t know Scott already had tried that. Never gets on him.. he just ignores Scott’s shitty behavior like eveyrone else and unlike Kim, whose still got unresolved feelings and is at the very least clearly bothered by his shitty behavior, and Neil, whose young and thus like me likely looked up to Scott at the time, he dosen’t have an excuse other than “Well I don’t want to ruin our friendship by actually calling him out when he does something objectivionally awful.” Especially since Wallace DID actually take action: he didn’t break up the relationship or say anythign to Ramona, which is wrong... but he did tell scott flat out after his first date with Ramona to break up with Knives. And when Scott chickned out of that, Wallace gave him the ultimatium, may it live in empathy, to do so or he WOULD tell Ramona. And at least Wallace has a motive for not telling Ramona other than “I don’t want to risk my friendship with a guy I really don’t care about and think is shitty”. He wanted to see Scott recover from Envy, something Stephen never gave ONE. SHIT. ABOUT. He saw Ramona was good for him and knew telling her, while the RIGHT thing to do, would severely harm Scott, and by volume 4 leave him homeless. Plus Wallace frankly enabled him for some time anyway, letting him live at their place rent free and paying for all his food and frequently letting Scott steal his credit card. WIth Wallace at least while it’s not the RIGHT move, it’s understandable and complicated vs Stephen who really dosen’t seem to like or get along with Scott after volume 1, suddenly cares what happens to his relationship.

And what proves this... is this little exchange that ends the conversation.

Knives despite her issues, despite blinding herself to how Scott treated her, despite everything... thinks Ramona should know. And she’s right. And Stephen KNOWS THIS. He knows it was the right thing to do and just.. takes a swig instead of admitting he’s a fucking hypocrite or explaining himself in any way. He NEVER cared about Ramona’s feelings or how this would effect her or saw her as important in any way shape or form. Kim at least clearly feels guilty. Wallace clearly is only doing so because it’s better for both her and Scott that their together and is a flawed human being. Stephen.. just dosen’t do so out of some masculine bullshit code of not ratting out your friend and his own cowardace. He clearly COULD go walk up to Ramona right now and tell her, but he won’t. And again I don’t buy he honeslty cares enough about Scott for their friendship to TRULY be enough of a factor to stop that. Fuck. Stephen. Stills.

So Scott wins naturally, but is bummed there’s no reward.. but Stephen points out there’s tons of free food over yonder so he noms before he and Ramona leave.

We get some cute domestic bits with Scott and ramona: Scott playing games on her phone all day, the two cooking dinner, and Scott admititng he hasn’t thought of envy at all. “I have you now”. Though through it there are some signs of unease: Scott finds a letter to Gideon, and Ramona asks about her hair and stares out into the window. Nice little hints that even before the big bomb abotu to drop she’s not at ease.. she loves Scott.. but it’s hard for her to let herself BE happy. It’s easy to wager she wasn’t for most of her life.

Can’t Face Up

So next we find Sex Bomb-Omb working on the album. Or rather Stephen and Joseph are. Scott and Kim are praying for death but death won’t come and Kim wonders why the fuck this isn’t finished. Joseph wants her out of his house... forgetting that Kim lives in said house.

Still his expressoin implies he’s going to do a murder on her if she stays in the room and since Drummers are hard to come by Stephen spirits them to kim’s room for a band meeting. Turns out they do have a gig but naturally Rosemary’s Baby booked it... and they haven’t practiced in months because Stephen’s a moron. He theorizes it’s Freddy’s Revenge, which is admitely probably valid though Kim can TELL something worse happened Stephen won’t cop to because he’s a piece of shit. I spent several paragraph’s establishing that. They try blaying and two sucktacular minutes i’ts clear their fucked sunday.

So after a scene of Knives trying HARD to justify Scott’s actions and blame htem on Ramona, to no success, we get one of my faviorite parts of this book: Scott rambling on for god knows how long about the x-men while Ramona gets dressed and is presumibly barely listneing.

I relate so hard to this it hurts. While not this era I wll GLADLY go on and on about X-Men and anything X-Adjacent at any goddamn opportunity and anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis and you know this. I need to tlak more x-men outside of my slowly failing New X-Men retrospective (Which is on the back burner because no one seeems to genuinely care after chapter one). If I did have a signifgant other, they would probably end up in a situation like this quite a lot and i’d have no shame about it.

I also love this scene even more as while I DID love x-men at the time, I wasn’t quite the mega fan I was, nor as familiar with Claremont’s long, epic and often fucking weird in the special wonderful way only comics can run. Given I OWN over half his run at this point, that has changed. Though oddly not this part. So not only do I get Scott’s talking about x-men I Know what SPECIFICALLY.

And for the unitatied, a quick explination of what the fuck Scott’s going on and on about: In the late 80′s, the x-men fought a reality warping malevolent trickster god named the Adversary. IN order to beat him their friend forget had to perform a cermony to lock his ass away that required willingly given life forces. The X-Men did REALLY fucking die.. but the Goddess Roma, daughter of Merlin and enemy of the advesary brought them back to life. With their deaths having been broadcast on live tv, and with tons of dangerous enemies at their heels, the X-Men choose to let the world continue to think they were dead so they could hit said enemies where it hurt.

SO this is where Scott’s story comes in:The X-Men’s first mission was clearing out the reavers, a bunch of racist cyborgs, from a ghost town which they took over as their base. As Scotty said they traveled all over the world, fought aliens, more racists, and then went to New York as it literally went ot hell. it’s a LOT and I haven’t read most of that era. I just know about it. I have read that last part though: the x-men were ambushed while wolveirne was away by said racist cyborgs so Psylocke shoved them through the siege perilous, a gate thingy romana gave them that would give them a new life and amnesia and such, leaving wolveirne to get crucified till Jubilee, who’d been hiding in their base gary busey style, freed him. The two would travel the world, find psylocke body swapped which is why she was asian for several decades, and get into general stuff for a few years real time till the X-Men slowly reunited. And you probbaly dind’t need to hear all of that but your life is better for knowing it.

As you can tell Ramona’s discontent is mounting. And probably not because of Scott rambling about x-men. Last night he told her about the time Magneto beat them all because they stupidly rushed him one at a time then forced them into high tech chairs while a robotic nanny babbied them and then esecaped because shut up before fighting magneto, getting surrounded by lava and having beast ASSUME they were dead because fuck actually coming back and searching just in case like a rational human being because magma or no the x-men have surivived worse, including the depths of space, and restoring all of reality from scratch. I may of just read those issues tonight.

She procedes to make things worse for our hero as when he asks fo rher advice.. she reveals she dosen’t like his band.. and while she means nothing BY that, she’s nice about it, telling him his band sucks days before a sudden show where you guys eat a lot isn’t something you do. Wallace is naturally even less helpful and maybe his not liking the band is why we barely see him interact. Maybe he just figured Stepheen was on the fence sexuality wise but wasn’t willing to put up with Julie to test that. I dunno.

So at the restraunt Stephen’s a dick, refusing to help Scott with his problems. WHich for once are legitamte as he worries abotu Ramona keeping secrets. He just wants to talk about hte band.. but 48 or something hours after this he has no real plan.

Scott mopes to Kim about Ramona and she has some sage advice for him...

Also thing one and thing two are at the bar with a remote. This cannot end well... granted givne our heroes are not at all prepared and are playing two diffrent songs, this was never going to end well.

And things only get worse for Scott in the bathroom.. he’s not there.. but his girlfriend and his ex are. Knives tries to work it out.. but Ramona being a bit short with her, which is fair given Knives tried to stab her a bunch a few months back and never apologized, leading to a quick fight.. but with Knives heart not in it this time and Ramona pissed and this time NOT confsued as to what the hell ihs going on, it ends with Ramona slamming knives into a wall... and Knives sadly revealing the truth to Ramona...

The scene hits like a truck with both devistated.. Ramona not having realized Scott with this shitty.. and Knives FINALLY accepting that he is. Finally letting her obession with him drop and realize what he was and what he did and let the full impact hit. The last part also hits hard “No One Else Would’ve Told You’. It’s a sad hard truth and it’s CLEARLY something that hits both women hard. For Knives it’s realizing Kim and Stephen, who she’s increidbly close to at this point, both don’t have the stomach to do the right thing, and thus hid this from her and Ramona. Stephen DID tell her.. but he still didn’t have the guts to tell RAMONA nor the actual care. It’s the realization the people she looked up to truly let her down and that she had to do what they couldn’t, even if it tore her apart to do it. For Ramona it’s realizing her closest friends outside of Scott could’ve told her and never did. No matter how close she’s gotten to Kim and Wallace, neither gave a fuck about her rights or her need to know.

So Ramona is rattled and barely speaks while Scott has been fighting anothe rrobot and ends the gig accidnetly smashing his bass. Stephen is pissy with him and blames hi mfor runing the gig, which turned out to be a trap anyway complete with fliers.

Ramona decides to gently throw him out as he forgot his keys while his other friends won’t house him leaving him with the one friend he has who dosen’t hate him right now. WALLACE!

The Glow:

So at Casa De Welles, Wallace has some buddy time, not making any bones about the fact Ramona clearly threw Scott out for the night and wearing a neat robe. Scott mopes about the fact he hasn’t met mobile whose apparenlty on the astral plane. I wonder if he has any buisness with Emma.. I mean the x-men did live in san fran sicsio but given decimation didn’t have many psychics. Might’ve been tryign to get another one. THey didn’t have a whole island that walks like a man yet. And while Wallace wasn’t in much of a coaching mood last time he is willing to help. He couldn’t get bupkiss on the twins since Scott can’t even remember their names, but he did pull off a miracle. Despite their being a million Gideons in New York.. Wallace found THE Gideon. Granted all he got was his full name, Gideon Gordon Graves, and a few burry photos, one with Ramona confirming this is our douche, but given he had only a first name and an ex to work with this is some damn fine work. Wallace asks scott about his future with Ramona but he just.. has no earthly idea because of course he dosen’t. He hasn’t REALLY thought about what comes after beating the exes because he never thinks anything through. Interesting stuff The next day Scott meets up with Kim at No Account Video and we get our first, and I mean literally first, indiciation things are falling apart with her and Hollie. Scott wants to say hi, Kim refuses him and gives a smart ass comment when he asks if them being roomates isn’t working out. He wasn’t even being a dick it’s just clear SOMETHING bad’s going on she won’t talk about because she puts up walls around hrself on a GOOD day and this clearly isn’t one.

It gets worse when they stop by Stephen’s place only to find Neil whose both taken up a combination of smoking and moping in a dark room. Never a good sign. Nor is Stephen apparenlty being at band practice.. meaning either he lied to Neil about where he went.. or he already started the band we’ll see him with next volume and is already stabbing his friends in the back. There wasn’t much to like about the guy to BEGIN with, but his behavior just gets worse with every volume and it’s reached it’s apex here. The speech was shitty enough, I spent several paragraphs explaning why, but the rest of his behavior isn’t much better. He abandoned two people who were, for god knows what reason loyal to him and abandoned the band because of some bearded asshole probably encouraging him to.

We also get some telling behavior on Kim’s part. Whlie she’s usually morose around Scott in the face of this both just hang out, it’s plesant. She even smiles when she asks if it’s going to be a regular occurance when he stays with her that night. Granted she brings back her frown soon after, but as has been clear her feelings for him never really went away entirely, and this is the closest the two have been in volumes, just enjoying each others company. It’s also telling that Scott trusts kim with a favor.

We see the favor the next page: Kim hangs out with Ramona.. and Scott marchs in completely on purpose soon after. Granted Kim probably didn’t know THIS was part of the plan, and it’s mildly stupid.. but it DOES show progress for Scott. Keep in mind his usual tactic is “avoid the fuck out of it and hope it goes away’ So ACTUALLY wanting to talk about things and find her again, and not doing it in a creepy way but simply drawing her out with a friend, shows SOME maturlity. It’s still not the most mature.. but with Ramona clearly not wanting him at their place, her work not having a set location as she just picks stuff up and drops it off (And even if she’s picking up packages at the post office we don’t know which one or if there’s multiple and even if we did scott sure as hel l does not), he was out of options. It also WORKS, with Ramona breaking her mopeynesss to laugh and Kim stunned it didn’t just piss her off further.

So we find out what happened with Hollie when Scott brings up jason. She points out they were dating but... welllllllll

Yeah... as you could probably tell I do not like this plot point at all. For one thing we never really got to KNOW Jason, and with him and Hollie getting a little too cozy at the end of the last volume...

It’s clear his ONLY roll in the story was to be there so Hollie could betray Kim in some way. And look I get a LOT in this series happens while we’re not looking, ti’s part of it’s charm. Things not pausing for the side cast is a trope I enjoy: it allows some things to progress faster and allows for some intresting stories when the main cast catches up. Steven Unvierse and Ducktales both used this well as does Scott Pilgrim but all three weren’t immune to someitnes goofing up and taking it too far.

This whole situation is that: Hollie is a character I got attached to: She had a great report with kim, they were really close and she offered her a place to stay when it was clear she was miserable with the four horseman of the bitchpocalypse she lived with. So while having her suddenly heel turn is realistic... it just feels thorughly unsatisfying. We do not see Hollie again after she’s sudeenly derailed, so we never get to see what she’s apparenlty REALLY like or get any explination why this happened. Suddenly Kim’s best friend is a douchebag even though it makes no sense for her character. Just because in real life people can turn out to be really shitty on a dime dosen’t mean it’s a neat thing to READ in a story and it feels like a waste of what was one of the series best side characters. And granted i’ve been through FAR worse treatment of side characters, trust me but this one still blows to this day and if there is a netflix adaptation this either needs to not happen or have actual depth. Seriously Netflix your adapting everything else, get on the bus already.

Scott is GENUINELY apologetic, we’ve rarely seen him this nice but he genuinely feels bad for her.. and unlike Stephen’s thing it’s okay to feel shitty someone got cheated on even if you were a cheater in the past. As I said Stephen wasn’t wrong about how Scott treeted knives.. he just also was trying to take moral high ground which Knives proved he absolutely did not have in seconds.

This triggers Ramona’s glow, the squggly line thing that shows up over her head ocasoinally.. and while Ramona grills Scott... Kim just finally asks what the hells up with her head. Scott’s reaction is “OH good you guys see it too”. Kim does try to show it to ramona but it’s gone by then and she drops it for now and outside encourages her to come to Julie’s latest shitty party.. I mean their miserable but at least it gives thems omething to do

So we get another instalment of “Scott rambles about the X-Men” or New Mutants in this case as we’re talking about Magik, Aka Illyana Rasputin

So for the long version: The X-Men were staying at a creepy temple that Magneto had been working out of beause the mansion was being repaired. Colossus, everyone’s favorite Russian and Deadpool co-star, had his kid sister Illyana with him as Arcade, a ginger maniac assasian whose gimmick is creating elaborate murder theme parks, kidnapped her in a plot to get the x-men to fight Dr. Doom for him. Given this was during the Cold War they coudln’t exactly take her back, so she stayed with the X-Men and her beloved big brother.

So naturlaly the spooky temple decorated in Cthulu’s had a portal to hell in it and an evil and genirc looking fucker named Belasco kidnapped her to a hell dimension known as Limbo> the X-Men went after her as you’d expect and things got WEIRD as due to some complicated and weird time dialition stuff I sitll don’t quite understand there ended up being two copies of the x-men: ours who came in right after, and a second batch who stayed there for about 7-8 years and got warped by Bellsaco’s magic as he killed or changed most of them. As a result Storm became a sorcerer to fight back, Kitty Pryde became some sort of cat creature and Kurt became a creepy evil version of himself. Illyana stayed htere, learned magics from both storm and asshole, learned to fight from cat kitty, and eventually escaped after a lot of horrible bullshit, hardnered and with her soul scarred from it, now a teenager. She joined the New Mutants, the training class of x-men in the comics, soon after. She’s a member agian in present day, one of the great captains of Krakoa, and one of the two co-leaders of Krakoa’s younger mutants, i.e. 20 something to teens and kids.

This is the best of the two scenes as the narrative , or at least Scott’s versions parallels Ramona’s own; Getting taken in by an evil man and feeling tainted by that.

So at the party Ramona runs into Neil whose a dick about it and with some girl. She WAS going to be fleshed out more in the original draft but Brian ended up scrapping it for time, but does regret it. It’s here we get Neil’s face punchingly dickish comment that’s also a massive hint as to Stephen’s sexuality.

Yeah even if Stephen’s been an UTTERLY shitty friend to him.. this was uncalled for even for the late 2000′s. What a prick. I do like the arc of Neil slowly falling apart though getting more and more bitter as his old friends abandoned him casually, especailly Stephen. While his comment was still HORRIBLY unwarranted even with Stephen being a dipshit.

Speaking of assholes we get our last major with Julie who berates Scott for grabbing some booze and brings in the twist. I’m.. i’m not even bothering to give her an insluting and weird nickname. She’s still a HORRIBLE piece of shit, as she brought Scott’s enemies there to try and beat him to death for her own amusment and berated him for getting booze at a party she CLEARLY expected him to come to, but she’s ALMOST gone. Seriously after this she’s GONE for the volume and barely in the rest of the series. So i’d rather celebrate FINALLY having earned my freedom over worrying about her any more than i have to. Cue the music!

youtube

So with that Kyle.. or is it Ken.

But the blonde one needles ramona, giving her her faviorite booze and telling her “this is all just temproary”

So Ramona gets all glowy.. and Kim gets her phone out....

The Universe Fights Back So in a random bedroom Ramona gives up the ghost: SHe DOES know what that is she just can’t tell Kim. Kim accepts it and they share some drinks. Scott, after beheading the douche bros latest science project, joins them and we get a lovely scene of the three drinking and bonding and geneuinely just having a good time. Though Kim DOES mention that she wants to go back to school.. This will naturally be very important.

What’s more important is this scene is ENITRELY while I poly ship these three dum dums. I mean while part of thier hapiness here is their blasted out of hteir heads, it’s also just Kim’s wall sbeing down. She tells the two she loves them, and I think MEANS IT. Not to mention this...

Okay maybe it’s just the two of them but they also love Scott. And again I get htier VERY obviously drunk.. but given Kim and Ramona are clearly actively supressing any bi parts of themselves most of hte time this is telling. The fact Ramona asks kim to sleep in THIER bed, likely with them, is ALSO very telling and Kim only dosen’t because their using sub space. No really that’s the only reason this volume didn’t end VERY diffrently with the three of htem having a three way before the argument coming up.. and possibly fixing said argument by having kim to mediate. I mean I get Scott’s not a big part of this so if you don’t want to ship him with them and just leave them alone that’s fine, ut I like the idea of them as a throuple: they ballance each other out.. and frakly with Scott’s irresponsblity and Ramona’s emotoinal issues they need someone to call them b oth out in the relationship, while these two are two of the only three people in the work i’ve seen Kim take her walls down for. Not even Jason got that, but Jason was also a carboard cutout.

Things take a turn from Kim.. from an almost threesome where she CLEARLY would be getting most of the attention... to two assholes kidnapping her. Now while I don’t like the twins that much their plan for the final act IS actually clever: their the first ones to think to actually use the people Scott cares about.. or anything resembling strategy really. Matt just charged int here, Lucas coudln’t give less of a fuck, Todd just used brute strength like a teletkentic juggernaught, and Roxy DID use some but it was less to actually fight scott and more to get into ramona’s pants again. The twins see Kim clearly still loves Scott, and that while he acts aloff to her sometimes she really is one of his best friends. No really, think about it. Wallace is his BEST friend.. but Kim sticks by him even when he’s shitty, calls him out when needed, and despite her grumpiness is the one who has the most faith in him out of ANYONE. It’s a large point of the volume: she dosen’t bother watching the fights.. because she belivies he’ll win simply because he’s Scott. That’s love right there. The kind of love that gets you kidnapped as part of an elaborate scheme but love nonetheless.

So we then get the scene that’s been coming for five volumes... after having sex, Ramona confronts Scott. While Scott admits he didn’t cheat on her with knvies, the other way around, that’s not better. He admits he’s been trying to forget about it.. and she calls him a bad person. And that. .hits him hard. While he DESERVES scorn for what he did... as he puts it next he’s been trying to change for her. To BE better. And all she sees, and outright confirms is another evil ex in waiting with Scott DESPERATE to prove her wrong and wrongly thinking beating the next three exes will fix this. It’s a VERY hard sceen to watch as while Scott does deserve this.. it’s also hard not to feel bad for him too. It really sums up the character: He is a dick.. but he’s TRYING to be better. He WANTS to be, he just dosen’t know how. And MAN can I relate to that. It dosen’t help that Ramona is clearly projecting her own insecurties about this lasting, about actually being happy and about this really being her life onto him, using this as an easy out after having a month of doubt. Yes Scott did something unbelivibely shitty.. but both are trying to take the easy way out of it instead of genuinely discussing why it’s shitty, what he did was wrong and geniuinely unpacking if this is the end. Ramona clearly wants to bail, and Scott clearly just wants to punch a few guys to make it better. Neither thing will work. They need to work thorugh their issues to work... but neither is capable of that right now. They both want to run from the problem.

This volume is in part about Ramona herself.. and showcasing her OWN flaws.. and like Scott her biggest is that she runs. She wants to escape her past too and both assumed the other would be an easy fix, that by having a good partner they’d be better.. when really their both mildly shitty people who need to make peace with their past and repair the bridges they’ve burnt and flip off the ones not worht reparing instead of running from it all the time. But sadly before both can.. their just gonna run again. Because sometimes fixing yourself is just not that easy.

So the next morning Scott’s heart stops fo ra second when Ramona is seemingly gone.. only for her to instead be in teh shower. But Scott gets a text telling him the twins have Kim and TRIES to tell Ramona.. but she’s in the shower. As a result she’s worried he just ran off... and makes a decision , her hair cut back down after growing it out this volume, a sign of her hapiness.. now gone.

The Glow Part 2 So at an abandoned wherehouse the fight is on. The twins have the advantage in part because Scott is hung over.. something they take offense to.. even though they were THERE last night. He was at a party. They don’t know he teatotles. What state did they THINK he’d be in this morning?

We also find out their origin: as Scott correctly guessed at the end of last volume, Ramona dated them both at the same time and pit them against each other. They found out and vowed to always fight as one.. which means Scott is not only fighting two equally powerful opponents at once, but two who work as a perfct team and double hurricane kick him. They also mentally break him down, pointing out her previous job and how she’s a runner and she’s here to run from her past working for Gideon.

They aren’t but I already went into that so let’s get onto more pressing issues: Scott is not only hung over but now doubting himself and his dumbass plan to beat gideon and magically fix things, while Kim is naturally not happy about being stuck in a cage all night. And while at first she’s genuinely just grumpy as always as it becomes clear Scott has lost hope and the twins are going to win this one her expression is heartbreaking...

After EVERYTHING she still loves him and can’t bear to see him in so much pain... and can’t loose him.. so she gets desperate and claims Ramona texted him to give him hope.

This is one of Kim’s definting moments, the other coming next month. When faced with the person she loves possibly dying.. she lies to him.. so he can surivive. So he can have hope and make it through this.. despite how much it’s CLEARLY KILLING HER to not only tell him someone else loves him but to clealry lie that person loves him, knowing it’ll hurt him more.. but knowing if she DOSEN’T he’ll die. It’s one of the most painful, heartbreaking and beautiful moments in the entire series. It’s why I said earlier while I don’t like the brothers their climactic fight his excellent.. because it is. Their verbal breaking down of Scott is hearbreaking and Kim’s sacrifice equally so.

And before stomping them into coins SCott shows further growth.. by showing he CAN give off a good one liner now...

So Scott beats them and gets Kim out of the cage, worried about her.. but despite having a chance, Kim lets him get on his way to ramona and morsoely wlaks off... while ominously the sign points out this will soon be the Chaos Theater. There’s still one left to go.

But.. it’s sadly not enough. While Scott gives her a heartfelt speech... even if he quotes the song as long as you love me... he dosen’t care who she is.. but Ramona does.. calling herself a bad person.. as she vanishes.... and I cry my eyes out again. God two really heartbreaking scenes in a row sweet jesus this volume will be the death of me.. and not just because i’ts taken so damn long to write this review. And on top of tha the looses the cat and ends up locked out.

World of Ruin:

So yeah if you thought those bits weren’t easy.. it only gets roughter as we see Scott in the aftermath of the breakup. His dream world is now desolate and he’s alone. Now to his creidt as much shit as i’ve given him Stephen didn’t ENTIRELY abandon Scott: he put him up fo rth enight (though he kicks him out after work) and offers to take him to after work drinks. We also see a nice side of Scott’s intimdating boss as she offers her symaptheties at him crying... while he says it’s the onions... he’s transparenlty lying.

Next up is Kim. Though she dosen’t have a couch because Hollie sold it.. which as dickish as she suddenly is it IS her couch as Kim points out.. so yeah Kim and Scott end up sleeping awkardly in the same bed facing away from each other.. and to add another emotional guttpunch at the worst possible time: She’s going back home.

Stacey is even lesss helpful as SCott continues to ask about cats and is unsypantethic about her leaving despite you know, him REALLY not being at the shit talking her stage yet bud. At least we do get to see Stacey in this one I genuinely forgot she was in it.

So at Wallace’s he’s no help either pointing out she might be with someone else because he’s wallace and we meet a guy with Glases.. and in his bad state Scott assumes i’ts gideon. it’s not though. WE finally meet Mobile!

He’s exactly what wallace needs.. a fellow sarcastic asshole.

So next up is Kim’s goodbye.. which once again is really emotinal..a nd not just because my faviorite character is leaving and again, younger me didn’t know this wasn’t forever.. or that she’d be back for a rather huge role next time. But still it’s a damn good scene that shows how far Scott’s come...

While the first part is standard... the second is Scott realizing that she still had feelings for him, clearly given her actions during the fight, and he’d been a right dick this whole time never dealing with it or apolgoizing for his past. Granted he still has a way to go to REALLY apologize for it... but he’s trying and means it. And with her possibly never seeing again.. she needed that. Also her coat is damn cool. I’d say I want one like that btu i’d really prefer one like Scotts complete with x-men patch. Pax Krakoa bitches.

We get a really nice scene after where we meet Scott’s parents! Their also really kind helping him get a new place and move on... and runs into another glasses guy. But this time it’s Laurence! Who he drop kicks.. and then gives a broken bass back to. Eh... i’ve seen worse relationship with siblings honestly. He didn’t murder scott’s friend or plunge a whole galaxy into war or try and murder his daughter. Other Scott’s weren’t so lucky.

So after that awkardness SCott finds the note to gideon which is a break up letter... she never sent. However there’s something more pressing as he gets a call... and you can probably guess given his luck lately who that’s from.

Eh it’s not that murderoius creep but another one.

The end.. is in a few weeks.

Final Thoughts:

As I said I hated Vs the Universe on first read but re-reading it with hindsight and maturity.. it’s damn good. It’s depressing as hell.. but the things it does need to happen to push scott into a bad enough place for the next volume to work, and are natural: Ramona and Kim leaving, The band breaking up, Scott kicking his brother in the face.. all natural things. It hurts, this was a HARD one to write and I only feel the next one will be harder because it’s way longer with less slice of lifey stuff to skim through in my recapping.

But it’s a damn good one, with fantastic art, really gripping scenes, x-men refrenes and a spotlight shone on my girl kim. Even it’s weak spots dont’ hurt it: the twins are only weak by comparison, and still work well enough for the story, pushing ramona into the bad mental place she needs to be for the story to work. Hollie’s thing DID Need to be written way fucking better... but it does push kim into leaving which is CRITICAL for next time. So they aren’t GREAT elements, but they work. The only real other problem I have is knives just.. vanishes after her scene outside of one bit with Stephen, but that I can understand as the book is pretty tightly packed and she gets a fitting sendoff next time anyway. All in all another amazing entry and the perfect warm up for one of the best endings in comics history

Next Time: I said it and I meant it: one of the best endings in comics history as Scott hits on some exes, fights himself and betters himself as he prepares for his finest hour! Will Ramona Come back? Will Kim? Will Julie?... to answer your questions yes yes, and god dammit. Thank you all for reading, see you at the next rainbow.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #scott pilgrim vs the unvierse #kim pine #ramona flowers #julie powers #julie power #steven stills #stephen stills #joseph #wallace wells #kyle kyatanagi #ken kyatanagi #gideon gordon graves #gideon graves #stacey pilgrim #mobile #laurence pilgrim #knives chau

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daredevilexchange · 3 years

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What’s your fannish ID? ajay_lotte

What types of fanworks do you create? I write fanfics. Lots of fanfics, most of which don’t see the outside of my one drive ngl. I love fanfics because sometimes I can lose that bit of realism: in the marvel universe, basically anything goes, and in fanfiction, it’s even less limited than that. Basically anything goes, and I love that.

What are your favourite types of fanworks, when you’re not creating? Fics, for sure. I’ve read so many great ones, and there’s a fic for every vibe. And also incorrect quotes and Twitter feeds. They’re always brilliant

What do you like in particular about this fandom? Honestly, I’m just here for the double d content. With every fic I read, I’m always changing my mind abt the best ships and tropes, but ones I always love have gotta be the Frank/Matt ones. Wholesome af. Maybe add Elektra to spice it up… ;) And Matt and Jessica, saltmates or romantic jackasses, either works. I mean, they’re basically the same person with their tragic backstories Tm, their whiskey, brooding, and bullshit. There’s also that deaged trope which I gotta admit to liking, any chance for ppl to see an angsty child soldier Matt Murdock is a win, especially when they try to make him all happy too.

Do you like participating in fan events? Never done it before! I’d really like too, though. They always look great :D

What about your creating process? Lmao, “process”. I’d love to call it that. Usually there are just too many thoughts and head canons and my brain’s just a nonsensical place. So… chaotic fanfics! I’ve been trying to write longer fics for a while, but they always get interrupted with new ideas, so I write them instead! It’s always wild to see where they go

Do you interact a lot with other fans? Bro, it took ages to actually register an ao3 acc but I’ve been working on it. Becoming more interactive is definitely a thing that should happen

Do you have other fandoms you'd like to talk about? No, but yes. Important question!! Teenage mutant ninja turtles, right? Same chemicals as Daredevil. Edgy sewer lords. It’s a whole thing. Netflix MCU and main MCU are basically kinda the same universe, earth-19999 or whatever. So that’s fine. The turtles are also featured in the main marvel into thing. That’s 19999 enough. So when Peter Quill brings up the TMNT in guardians of the galaxy, is he referencing a fictional kids TV show, or does he have some inside knowledge on the super secret sewer ninjas?!?!?! I’m pretty sure they’re referenced in something else too. Can’t remember… anyways, but like are the turtles real or not in the MCU? What’s going on Kevin? Why are you like this :o ??? HeLp

Is there any particular piece you'd like to showcase for this post? Yes! The Yellow Car Initiative, featuring a version of Matt who is actually kinda happy in this series of attempted humour. I’d like to showcase it just cuz it’s actually a finished series… even if I’m a write more stuff for it, maybe. Probably. Ugh.

Is there anything else you want to tell us about yourself? I’m actually chill, I swear Also I unintentionally talk like Clint. I’m pretty sure I’m one “bro” away from an intervention. It doesn’t help I know so many Kates honestly. Or should I say… Katy-Kates :)

Where can your fanworks be found? My works can be found on ao3! Here’s a link to my acc :p https://archiveofourown.org/users/ajay_lotte/pseuds/ajay_lotte

Thank you, @ajay-lotte !

banner by @context-is-for-kingpins !

[ID on a white background, four black triangles that look like spotlights from above. Each illuminates one of the Defenders silhouetted in white: Jessica, Luke, Danny, Matt. A hand on the left is holding a pen writing the words Content Creator Spotlight. There is a little Punisher skull on the pen. End ID]

#daredevil #marvel #Content Creator Spotlight

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thevalleyisjolly · 3 years

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19, 31, and 32 for the D&D ask meme?

Thanks anon!

19. How did you discover D&D?

As with so many things in my life, it’s all down to my fantastic nimble bird friend, who sent me a link to a clip of the love potion prank in Critical Role campaign 1. The rest, as they say, is history!

31. Tell me about your current party!

YES, ok, I’ve been waiting to gush for a while, let me tell you about EWF (names redacted/abbreviated for privacy reasons)

So our party currently has four active members - Vyce (my character, a tiefling rogue), “O” (tiefling monk), “D” (human cleric), and “N” (gnome wizard). We also have three past/infrequent members - “Z” (kyrid (home-brew lizard race) bard), “T” (dwarf barbarian), and “Ol” (half elf sorcerer).

“O” is played by my nimble bird friend, and she’s both a very competent fighter and also very young. Vyce, who has been a little brother his entire life, thinks of her like a little sister, albeit one whom he’s slightly in awe of. In Vyce’s opinion, she’s the beating heart of the party - she takes such joy in things (especially shiny things) and she doesn’t seem to be weighed down by the unfortunate things that have happened in her past. She’s not very smart (aka the best type of D&D character) and she’ll run where angels fear to tread, but it’s that kind of reckless bravery that’s saved the party’s bacon more times than we can count. I personally am of the opinion that "O" should be allowed to use a gun. Would this solve some of our problems? Maybe. Would this cause a lot more problems? Certainly. Should "O" even have a gun? Probably not, but the correct answer is yes. She's got the guns, now let her fire a gun!

We're just wrapping up a story arc dealing with “D’s” backstory, and it’s been so fun to see how his character has grown and changed over the course of the arc. He’s gone from a bit of a directionless adventurer, getting drunk and squabbling with “T” about who is in charge of the party skyship, to really coming into his own as a captain of the wind and waves. Like, it’s truly been so satisfying to watch him instigate revolutions, reach out to old friends and stand up to old enemies, lead fleets into naval battles, and step into the heart of the storm. I think for Vyce, “D” has really gone from someone that was a bit of a dark mirror in many ways, to someone that he respects and admires. Not that there isn't still a streak of recklessness in "D" but hey, that's part of what makes the game fun!

It is impossible not to like “N.” “N” alone has shifted Vyce’s dislike of mages (although with our most recent session, there’s been some regression!) “N” is like that friend who is enthusiastically, 110% up for anything, you tell him the plan and he’ll commit to it so hard. You will never meet an Abjuration wizard, or flat out any wizard, who loves Fireball more. He’s also ended up in so many situations where he’s separated from the party and 1v1-ing a baddie all by himself and no one knows, and the thing is, he’s actually won most of the time? I mean, apart from the time he died, but he’s better now. You’ll also never meet a wizard who uses a dagger so successfully in combat. He’s literally killed at least two bad guys with his dagger, we’re all bewildered and both Vyce and I are delighted, you go you funky lil old gnome you. He’s currently got a running interest in trying to figure out what shape the world is, which is some of the funniest and best wizard RP ever. He’s also come out with some of the most devastatingly poignant lines in the campaign so far, his memorial speech for a beloved NPC friend still haunts me ahhhhhhh.

32. Most memorable NPC you've encountered in a game you played in.

Hmm, gotta be three-way tie between Lynley, Rutley, and Frode. Lynley was an old friend of “D” and was also a cleric (I think?) of the same god. He helped us start and lead the revolution against the pirate lord, and when the pirate lord sent a massive fleet, much larger than our remaining ships, to retake the port, he loaded a ship with gunpowder and sailed it into the middle of the attacking fleet.

(Does Vyce feel guilty because he suggested that as an idea, albeit with unmanned ships, when we first heard about the fleet? YUP.)

Anyways, the party wasn’t in the port at the time, we were trying to retake a temple partway down the coast, but we got to see his death scene in a scrying pool, and just, the way our DM narrated it and the music he put on, it was just this incredibly heart-wrenching and moving scene that will stay with me forever. Our DM is incredible, that’s all I can say.

Rutley is just a goblin with a gun. He is very good at shooting the gun. Naturally, I love him.

Frode is the worst person ever (in Vyce’s opinion). Vyce dislikes mages in general, he very definitely dislikes charmers, and he fears wit and wordplay because he’s not in the least good at it (-2 CHA baybeeeee). Of course, this means Vyce’s mortal enemies are bards (except for our party bard, who is just a lil lizard with a cello and not, say, an obnoxious know-it-all with higher Perception than Vyce’s Stealth). Frode is a mysterious bard we found wandering in the forest, who may or may not be our world’s equivalent of Jaskier. Vyce loathes him with a deep and unshakable hatred, and I the player loved every minute of that interaction.

#thanks anon!#the themes of this post are that our DM is incredible and that everyone else is also incredible #leviathan is sealed! now we gotta go deal with vyce's ex who's definitely involved in some kind of shady business?#d&d tag

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achillestiel · 4 years

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the parent trap only works if you’re identical | part seven of eight | ao3 link

Tag List: @littlerachelbee @imthedoctorlove @deancas-handprint @castiel-loves-dean @wanderermatthews @thelahatiel @priscillahc @mridzyp @multi-fandom-dark-lord @thefantasyfiend @harmonyhelms @imlivingliferightnow @kara-merlin @still-clowning-in-this-house @never-forever-more @continuezmesfilserrants @2musiclover2 @castiels-bitch @stjimmie @cmths5 @chamomilecas @syrille

“Just stay. I don’t know how but we can work something out.” Cas said. “Please.” He said pleadingly. Dean’s reply was to bring their lips back together. Cas sighed happily as they just sat on the couch kissing for a long time. “Dean, come to bed with me.” Cas said breathily, his lips hovering just over Dean’s ear. It sent a shiver of excitement through his whole body.

“Of course.” Dean replied, taking Cas’ hand as one of the phones on the coffee table vibrated loudly. Claire’s phone. Dean was about to ignore it until he saw Eileen’s name on the screen. With a roll of his eyes, Dean grabbed the phone off the table, looking down at the screen and smiling.

Hey! We haven’t heard anything from you for a while. Guessing you’re still in DC. Did you do the car thing? Gotta keep the rest of Team Parent Trap updated!

“You ever feel like your whole family is plotting against you?” Dean asked, showing Cas the screen. “Those kids are seriously doing to be the death of us if they’ve roped Eileen, Sam and Gabriel into this.”

“I think it speaks volumes that they all want to see us together.” Cas said, smiling down at the phone screen as he scrolled back up the messages. “Why are they called Team Parent Trap?”

“You...you’ve...wow. Cas, you’re lucky you’re hot.” Dean said, shaking his head. He threw Claire’s phone onto the couch while Cas flicked off all the lights downstairs. They walked hand in hand upstairs, stopping by Jack’s room and knocking on the door. Jack and Claire were sitting watching TV, looking like butter wouldn’t melt. Claire grinned smugly at Dean when she saw his hand laced with Cas’.

“We’re going to go to bed kids, don’t stay up too long.”

“And don’t even think about touching the car again.”

“We’re innocent until proven guilty with concrete evidence.” Claire said with yet another smug grin.

“Spoken like the niece of a lawyer.” Cas said, chuckling. “You may have gotten away with it if your Aunt hadn’t thrown you under the bus.”

“Dang it Aunt Eileen.” Claire muttered.

“Yeah well, we’ll talk more about your punishment in the morning. Night kids, love you both.”

“Love you too dad.” The twins said in unison. Dean grinned at them as Cas also wished the twins goodnight and headed to their room.

“I honestly don’t know whether to be proud of them or question our parenting skills.” Dean said as Cas led him not to the guest where they had slept the night before but to Cas’ room. He smiled to himself as he walked into the room. It was just so Cas. Nearly every available surface was covered with books, nick nacks from around the globe and photos of him and Jack.

“What?” Cas asked, noticing Dean’s smile.

“Twelve years and you still manage to make any room you call your own a museum of stuff. ” Dean said, looking around the room and smiling at various ornaments. “It’s like a cross between a gift shop and the library of congress.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.” Cas said and Dean just laughed, pulling him close for another chaste kiss. “I was serious by the way, I want you to stay come the morning.”

“Cas, I want to stay but I need to go home. For starters, I’ve been wearing the same boxers for two days but I also have a garage to run.” Dean said between kisses. “How about we just enjoy tonight and try to work something out come morning?” Dean asked. Cas sighed but nodded, letting Dean pull him in for another kiss. Clothes were soon discarded on the floor, both men losing themselves in the touch of the other.

“Dean…” Cas whispered. Both of them moments away from drifting off to sleep. “I...I love you.” he said. Dean was silent for a beat before Cas felt him wrap his arms around Cas’ waist.

“I love you too.”

When Cas awoke the next morning it was to Dean’s arms holding him close, the distance of twelve years effectively dissolved over the course of two days. Dean’s face was burrowed into Cas’ back, making him smile when he felt Dean’s gentle breaths against his skin. Cas knew their time together was drawing to a close, because even he knew that Dean needed to go back to Kansas. He didn’t want to think about it but it was inevitable. Dean and Claire would have to return home, leaving both Cas and Jack heartbroken.

Downstairs, Cas could hear the sound of laughter and clanging pots. He was warm and cosy in Dean’s arms but if he didn’t get downstairs soon then there was a high chance something would catch on fire. Careful not to wake Dean, Cas slid out of bed and dressed in a simple sweater and pants combo. From the bed Dean let a contented sigh, smashing his face into one of Cas’ duck feather pillows. Cas smiled to himself as he looked down at Dean. Even after all these years Dean really was the most beautiful person he had ever met. Another loud clang from the kitchen pulled Cas’ focus from him. He prayed that his kitchen was still standing as he hurried downstairs.

"Hey Pops!" Claire called as Cas walked into the kitchen.

"Pops?" Cas asked, glancing around the room. Pots and pans littered the surfaces

"It was getting confusing calling you both Dad. If you don't like Pops there's also Daddy-o or Padre." Claire said with a grin.

"Pops it is." Cas said.

“How long have you two been up? You haven’t been playing mechanic again have you?” Cas asked the twins.

“Not long, we’ve only just got up.” Jack said. “We haven’t touched the car, we promise.”

“I have a hard time believing that when it comes to you two.” Cas said. “What exactly are you two up to?”

“Making pancakes.” Jack said, grinning brightly.

“And yet it looks more like you’re making a mess, scooch over. I’ll make breakfast while you two try to stay out of trouble.” Cas said as he started to make breakfast. He was just plating up a huge stack of pancakes when Dean came into the room.

“I smelt pancakes.” Dean said between a loud yawn. He stretched out his arms as he walked over to Claire, giving her a high five before ruffling Jack’s hair.

“You could smell pancakes from a mile away.” Cas retorted. “There’s fresh coffee in the pot.”

“Thanks.” Dean said, shooting Cas a warm smile as he filled up two mugs, passing one over to Cas. Neither Dean nor Cas missed the smug looks on the twin's faces. “Shut up and eat your pancakes. You two are still in trouble for yesterday.”

“Yes, we’re now contemplating whether to go old testament or new testament god.” Cas added. The four of them sat in comfortable silence, eating pancakes and drinking coffee. The fact that Claire and Dean were leaving still felt like it was hanging over their heads and Cas noticed just how slowly the twins were eating. Drawing out the departure for as long as possible. After nearly half an hour there was no more putting it off.

"Claire, why don't you go and grab your bag? I just have to talk to your dad for a second." Dean said. Claire nodded but she and Jack walked away Dean heard them both sniffling. Dammit, all it took for Dean was to hear the twins sniffling and his eyes began to water. "Um...how about we come here for Thanksgiving? You and Jack can spend Christmas with us...I know it's not the best but..."

"I can't leave DC right now and it's not the best for you to leave Kansas?" Cas offered. "I want you and Claire to stay so much but..."

"We can make something work, right?" Dean stammered as tears welled in his eyes. He tried to blinked when but when he saw Cas' eyes filled with tears that sent him over the edge. "Dammit Cas, you just had to be so easy to fall in love with didn't you?" Dean joked between tears.

"I'm going to kiss you but it's not a kiss goodbye ok?" Cas said, cupping Dean's tear-stained face.

"Ok Cas." Dean replied. Cas pulled him in close and their lips met. They only parted when they heard coughing. Claire and Jack stood their awkwardly, both of them with red-rimmed eyes. "We...we best be heading off...traffic...you know." Dean stammered out. "Come here dude." He said to Jack, holding out his arms. Jack ran into his arms, hugging him tightly as Claire sprinted towards Cas. The four of them just standing there and hugging for several minutes.

"So, Jack and I will be seeing you at Thanksgiving." Cas said to Claire. Claire nodded but Dean could see the tears in her eyes.

"And then you're gonna spend Christmas in Kansas with Claire and me, that's cool right?" Dean said to Jack. He too was crying as he nodded. Dean pulled his son back in for another hug. Holding on tightly until it was finally time to go. "Love you kiddo."

"Love you too dad." Jack said.

"This is going to be hard but try to stay out of trouble." Cas said to Claire. Claire let out a sniffling laugh and nodded.

"I'll try. Love you Pops."

"I love you too Claire-Bear." Cas said. "We'll walk you out to the car." Cas said to Dean. The four of them walked out to the Impala, Dean towing their bags in the trunk. Claire and Jack exchanged a tear-filled hug. Dean wiped away a tear and felt Cas lace his hand through Dean's. Cas gripped tightly, silently telling Dean that he loved him. Dean squeezed back and watched as Claire gave Jack and Cas one last teary look before she got in the car.

"Um...I'll call you when we're home...maybe we can talk more when Claire and I are back in Kansas." Dean said, giving Cas one last kiss.

"Drive safe Dean." Cas said. He and Jack stepped back as Dean got into the car. Cas and Jack stood in the driveway waving to them until Dean was halfway down the street.

"Are you mad at me?" Dean asked a still sniffling Claire. She turned to glare at him with her red-tinged eyes. "Gonna take that as a yes."

"Yes I am mad at you and I think you're an idiot! You love Pops, I know it and you know it. Heck, Jack, Uncle Gabriel, Uncle Sam and Aunt Eileen know it! Even Pops himself knows it! You love him and he loves you! YOu've always loved him otherwise you wouldn't get drunk and cry watching cowboy films." Claire yelled, her eyes filling with tears again. "I just want my family to be together and instead we're driving away from them! I know we have Uncle Sam and Aunt Eileen back home but Pops and Jack are our family. This whole thing is so goddamn stupid!"

"Claire, we'll see them at Thanks-"

"I don't want to wait until Thanksgiving to see my dad and brother. I want them with us! Don't you want them with us?"

"Of course I do Claire!"

"THEN WHY ARE WE STILL DRIVING BACK TO KANSAS ?" Claire yelled, her voice so loud that Dean nearly slammed on the breaks. "Just answer me that Dad!"

"I...I don't know...holy fuck you're right. I don't know." Dean said, slamming on the breaks and doing a completely illegal u-turn.

“What are you doing ?” Claire hollered, sliding around on her seat as the drivers behind them blared their horns.

“Chasing after your dad...kind of...ok I'm going to your dad...either way, I'm doing something I should have done twelve years ago.” Dean said, racing back down the road towards Cas’ house. The Impala had barely come to a stop but Claire was unbuckling her seatbelt and leaping out the car.

“Dad! Claire!" Jack called, sprinting out of the house and running up to Claire. They both hugged tightly as Cas stood in the doorway just staring at them with disbelief.

“It took us about 30 seconds after we left for us to realise we didn't want to lose you two again.” Claire said.

“We?” Cas asked.

“We.” Dean said, climbing out the Impala and striding over to Cas. “I made the mistake of not coming chasing after you all those years ago. I didn’t want you to have to chase me this time.” Dean said, shrugging like his words were far more casual than they were. Cas let out a chuckle and just shook his head.

“How is this going to work?” he asked. “I’m here in DC and you're in Kansas. What about the kids? How is this going to work?”

“We can make it work Cas, I know we can 'cause...I love you Cas. Always have. Always will.” Dean said, pulling Cas in for a kiss.

"And I love you too Winchester. Until the end of my days." Cas said, grinning from ear to ear.

“I can’t believe we actually did this.” Jack said, high fiving Claire.

“Yes...you two are still grounded you know?” Cas said.

"Aw dang it." Claire and Jack said in unison.

#deancas parent trap #deancas fic #deancas ficlet #destiel fic #destiel ficlet #deancas #destiel #i can't keep looking at this because it's already been chopped and changed so much #i'm just post it then drink wine

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