#plot: second checkpoint | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thesummerpetrichor · 2 years ago

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𝓞𝓯𝓯 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓡𝓪𝓬𝓮𝓼

Javier Peña x afab!reader

Summary: You’re a sociology student writing your final thesis, you shouldn’t care whether the new DEA attaché is an asshole, you shouldn’t be getting on his nerves every chance you get, shouldn’t be dreaming of him the way you do, and you certainly shouldn’t be bent over his desk in the middle of the night– letting him fuck you senseless.

Warnings: 18+ minors DNI you will be blocked. Mentions of DEA, big girthy age gap [reader is in her early twenties Javier is in his mid 40s], petnames [sweetheart, girlie, baby, babygirl etc], smut, explicit sexual content, explicit language, daddy kink, dom!Javi, mean brat tamer! javi, sub!reader, major size kink, reader is a menace and a brat, cheek pulling, like two spanks and a slap, minor choking, degradation, name calling, fingering, semi public sex [in his office], rough sex, unprotected P in V [don't do it you’re better than them!!] let me know if I missed anything!!

Word count: 8.7k

A/N: Lotsa porn, lotsa plot. Filthier than I’d like to admit but here we are. Javier is emotionally unavailable but I don’t care. Enjoy nasties. Mwah 💗

Masterlist

My old man is a bad man, but

I can't deny the way he holds my hand

And he grabs me, he has me by my heart

He doesn't mind I have a Las Vegas past

He doesn't mind I have a L.A. crass way about me

He loves me, with every beat of his cocaine heart

You were sure you looked nothing short of unstable– the way you were smiling to yourself as you hit the ‘submit’ button on the first checkpoint of your research paper. The past few months had been absolute chaos, and you weren’t really sure what was worse; the fact that your workplace had become an HR nightmare, or the way you were enjoying every goddamn second of it.

Not long ago you’d been lucky enough to pack your bags and board a flight to Bogotá, where you were going to be writing your final sociology thesis. You’d fought tooth and nail with the department for this opportunity, and the fact that you were finally going to be there doing the work you’d always imagined– it was a dream. While you were initially a little weary of having to go through the American embassy to access records, and archives, you knew this was the best deal you were going to get, so you pushed your hesitation aside and took them up on their offer. You were obviously aware the department was going to give you hell for it– your work would be put under immeasurable scrutiny, they were going to bother you with emails all day every day, snoop around your work through their contacts at the embassy, and take any chance to fly you back. But it didn’t matter; it was going to be a dream.

Impressing the ambassador was your top priority, impressing everyone around you really was. For as long as you could remember your bright smile, hard work and sunshine attitude had only worked in your favor. If there was one thing you enjoyed, it was the great privilege of being all your professors’ favorite student. That’s how you’d even convinced them to let you travel thousands of miles away on the university’s dime in the first place.

The world of academia was hard, especially when you were starting out, everyone you dealt with wasn’t a progressive professor who valued your opinion despite your age and gender. Sometimes you needed help from the sleazy HOD, or the grumpy receptionist and neither cared about your expertise on Helmut Schoeck. It didn’t bother you, all you cared about was the quality of your work, and you were not going to let anyone get in the way of it. So, if good work and behaviour didn't get you what you wanted you just used your batting eyelashes, innocent pout and harmless bribes– the receptionist had mentioned liking strawberry shortcake nearly two years ago in passing, and that information sure as hell came in handy when you needed to get your paperwork sorted out.

Boy did that skill of yours come in handy during your time in Bogotá

No one was going to make this experience anything but splendid, you were going to get to the embassy, meet the ambassador, charm her and all her coworkers in no time, make some trusted allies and go about your research unbothered and unfazed. You were determined. It was going to be a dream.

That was until it was an absolute nightmare. The moment your plane’s wheels hit the tarmac you were slapped with wave after wave of absolute frustration. Your phone was inundated with missed calls from an unknown number, and when you called back you were promptly informed by the Ambassador’s secretary that due to spacing issues you were being relocated to the DEA offices at the far end of the embassy.

Great, nothing better than being around a bunch of cops 24/7 .

You hadn’t made it three steps off the aerobridge before two men– both of whom looked terribly out of place in their baseball hats, grabbed you by the arm and dragged you through the airport. You wouldn’t say the word ‘accosted’ was dramatic when describing the way two employees of the American embassy had apprehended you. They didn't seem much older than you were, but they sure as hell thought they ran the damn place. When you thought about elitist diplomats thinking they were doing god's work you could be sure you imagined Agent Daniel Van Ness and Agent Chris Feistl’s faces before you’d even met them.

“Ow! What the hell do you think you're doing?!” Van Ness pretty much tossed you into his suspicious, unmarked vehicle, and as if you weren’t sore from your excruciatingly long flight you were sure you were going to need some ice packs when you got to your service apartment. “Okay, let's not make a scene, as I said we were told to get you as soon as you got off that plane” Feistl started the engine with one hand, and put the other one up in mock surrender.

“Didn’t know kidnapping was part of the Ambassador's agenda in Bogotá” .

The car ride to the embassy was mostly quiet, and you took the time to enjoy the beautiful Colombian city as it came into view, clear your head and mentally plan for your stay. That was, save for the two men’s grumbling about a certain Javier Peña. “Yeah, we miss this meeting and Peña’s gonna be on our ass for the next week” You’d quickly learnt he was a little bit of a hero in the DEA world, whatever that meant– took down Escobar and all. And if you couldn’t loathe him more already he was now promoted to attaché. From what Van Ness and Feistl told you he sounded like a character– hard ass, stubborn, insolent, the list went on and on. This Javier must really be something

How bad could he really be? Probably some grumpy old guy you’d run into once in a while at the water station or fax machine. He’d pay no mind to you; some irrelevant college student. Besides, you’d win him over with your signature smile. Who knew maybe you’d even become friends? “Well Im looking forward to meeting this Javier Peña”

“No one has ever said that. I don't think his mother said that when he was poppin’ out.”

And boy were they right, Javier Peña really was something. The elevator doors opened to what would soon become a familiar sight– Javier trailing the ambassador as she tried to escape him and the DEA offices. “With all due respect, if I wanted to be a babysitter I would've taken up a job with the RIPs” She turned to face him, her back to you. “Agent Peña, I'm going to repeat myself one more time, and I really shouldn't have to, but please stop referring to them as the “RIP’’s ”. Talk about professionalism, you definitely weren’t expecting whatever the hell this was when you thought of diplomatic work.

Noonan almost unceremoniously bumped into you as she skirted away from Javier, raising her hands in absolute elation now that he had to take care of you, and couldn’t bother her any longer. “There you are, perfect! Agent Peña show her around, and please, be nice.” She all but pushed you into him, and you heard Javier helplessly and pathetically yell after her as she walked to the elevator. “I still need that clearance ambassador–”

Despite the fact that he was looking at you like he wanted to tear you apart you didn't let that distract from the absolute marvel Javier Peña was. If you didn’t know any better you’d be on your knees for the man, and you couldn’t trust that you did. With the way his hair sat messily ruffled atop his head in soft curls, falling dangerously close to his eyes, or the way his now crinkled button up from the tiring workday hugged his forearms, who could blame you? Who knew, maybe you even liked the way he looked at you?

You shot him your signature smile, and extended your hand to introduce yourself. Forget about Noonan, she’d probably retire soon anyway, it was his approval you really wanted now. With brows raised he took his time assessing you. You didn’t miss the way his eyes raked over your body, or the way he chewed on his lip as he did so. Feeling a little, or maybe very, hot under his gaze you shifted uncomfortably, still holding your hand out politely, but all you got from him besides his shameless gawking was a condescending chuckle, and he was turning away and walking back inside.

So he really was an asshole.

You stood in shock for a moment. Was this some sort of odd hazing process at the embassy? What the hell was going on? His voice zapped you out of the absolute embarrassment of an interaction you just had. “You gonna stand there all day?” God he was such a prick. You’d barely been there two minutes and you were already on Van Ness and Feist's team. You couldn’t even imagine what life would be like if he was your boss. Or could you?

Your gaze hardened at the realization. If there was one thing you were not going to do it was lust hopelessly after a man who didn't even want to give you the time of day, someone who thought he was so much better than you were. You were not going to inflate his already massive ego by crooning for his praise, no! You were not going to let him wield that kind of power over you.

You watched as he walked through the office, the man sucked the air outta the room with the way he quite literally strutted across it. Practically dragging yourself behind him you tried your best to compose yourself, you were not going to let Peña and his asshole ways ruin your stay– he was going to like you, going to give you the time of day– and if hard work and a good attitude didn’t do it, your batting lashes certainly would.

—

Swimmin' pool glimmerin', darling

White bikini off with my red nail polish

Watch me in the swimmin' pool, bright blue ripples

You sittin', sippin' on your Black Cristal, oh, yeah

In the subsequent days you surprisingly had made yourself quite at home in the embassy– after all you did spend almost all of your day there. Van Ness and Fiestl soon became great friends, and would often drop by your workstation during breaks, or to invite you out for drinks after work. Things were going rather well, there was nothing much to complain about. The people who worked at the embassy were really friendly, and many of them took a liking to you. If charming your way into everyone's good graces was still your plan it sure as hell was working.

You’d even met a certain blonde haired, blue eyed office heartthrob. While they were both certainly easy on the eyes, Agent Murphy was otherwise little like his partner, he was friendly, helpful, and generally in a good mood. Hell he even wished you ‘good morning’ when he got into work everyday. In due time you could even say Steve Murphy had become somewhat of a friend, he was quite fond of you– then again everyone in the office really was.

That is almost everyone.

Progress in the Javier department of your life had barely made moves. He was such a dick. On your second day you remember knocking on his door and politely asking if he could sign some papers that would get you some cultural records in Bogotá. You didn’t know what response you’d been expecting, but he'd essentially told you to leave him the hell alone.

You wondered if being such a bitter jerk was exhausting. “Now girlie, runalong..” And with that he shut his door. You didn't want to let it affect you, but it did. You crooned for his attention, but he was so cold and detached, and nothing seemed to get through to him. The smiles, the ‘good mornings’, the way you’d offered to drop his files at the Ambassador's on your way there, it did nothing. He only smiled at you condescendingly, and at one point even joked about how he wasn’t sure you were capable of making it to the other side of the building.

“Don't worry your head about these files, wouldn’t want you wandering around, lost, tryna find Noonan’s office.”

Not to mention how he couldn’t keep his mouth shut about your “silly little paper”, how your work was “cute” or “funny”. God, you couldn’t stand it. The way he leaned over your desk, jumbled up your resources while he carelessly looked through them. With his messy, loose tie, and his sideways smile, and warm, comforting brown eyes, and that mocking teasing tone…...

—-

My old man is a tough man, but

He got a soul as sweet as blood-red jam

And he shows me, he knows me

Every inch of my tar-black soul

“If he can’t drink it, or fuck it, he’s not interested.” When Feistl had told you that on your first day you scoffed, but it proved to be valuable, and unbelievably, true information in no time. Unintentionally Javier had condemned himself to an eternal state of perdition, you were not giving up, and this time you were going to drive him crazy.

He surely wasn’t prepared for the little menace you became in the following weeks. You only felt pride when you’d catch him looking at you– embarrassing how he couldn't keep his eyes off. You and your cute little dresses, skirts, those you didn’t initially plan to wear to the office. His glare almost burnt a hole in your back everyday at midday, hotter than the afternoon sun peaking through the blind covered windows as you sat on Van Ness’ desk, laughing at something Feistl said. If there was one thing worse than an HR violation, it was an HR violation with a girl nearly half his age.

You’d found a fancy for discovering his ticks, new ways you could push his buttons. When you weren’t calling him sir as you addressed him, or taunting him with your dopey eyes and girlish smiles you were making his life a lot less convenient.

“Where the hell is Peña” at least twice a week Stechner would all but slither into the office, talking about congress people, funding and how the DEA was raining all over his parade. As much as you hated the man, he was your trusted ally in trying times, especially when you decided breaking the office’s unspoken rule was going to be your new favorite pastime. That rule was of course, never telling anyone, especially his colleagues, where the hell Javier Peña was at any given time.

So when Bill walked up to you and leaned beside your desk you faithfully pointed to the filing room you knew Javier was quite literally hiding in. When he walked, more like stormed out with Bill you were sure he could break you in half, the way he was looking at you, but you had given up lying to yourself, you loved it. Every morning he’d come into the office and have to find other places to escape to– from Noonan and Murphy and all other accountability. But for a cop he was pretty shit at it, and you always found a way to tell where it was he'd gone to. It also helped that nearly everyone enjoyed it when Javier had to deal with the bureaucracy, it was free reality tv, and you could be sure if you didn’t know who or what he was trying to avoid, someone else in the office surely would.

You had simultaneously become a great asset to Steve Murphy, who was, more than you expected, willing and enthusiastic about getting shit done, shit that Javier’s stubbornness would only prolong, especially because he knew the mix of Peña and the CIA was anything but productive. Whether it was distracting him while he got support for their missions, or rushing to answer the phones and covering for him and making Javi deal with Noonan you were always game. Murphy was always appreciative.

“Steve’s out right now, but Javier’s in his office if you’d like to speak with him��” Steve pretty much cackled behind his desk as you handed the phone’s receiver to Peña, and watched as he exhaled heavily through his nose, using every bit of restraint he could possibly muster not to kick the two of you out of the building. He settled for flipping Murphy off instead.

As someone who wasn’t an embassy employee you pretty much had free reign over the place, and you knew it only made Javier more upset knowing he couldn’t do anything about it. You were thoroughly enjoying your time in Bogotá, you knew Javier was thinking about you, you knew how much you got on his nerves, you loved the way he’d glare at you, boss you around, get annoyed at your little antics. You craved his attention and you were finally getting it.

Though every once in a while you’d feel a little pang in your chest, at the way he’d roll his eyes at you, be his regular mean self. But you shoved that feeling aside, you did not want his approval. That would be pathetic. You just wanted a little payback.

—

He doesn't mind I have a flat broke-down life

In fact, he says he thinks it's what he might like about me

Admires me, the way I roll like a rolling stone

Javier had been avoiding you like the plague for a good two days. That was after he overheard a conversation you were having with your supervisor he wasn’t really meant to be a party to. You remember twirling the cord wire between your fingers as you updated her over the phone. “Yeah, I need to get to the congress library, they have all the copies there.” You pushed the speaker button, letting go of the receiver to sift through the piles of printed paper on your desk. “Do you have access, did the embassy get you an ID? I spoke to Noonan but she’s busy babysitting her employees.” You bit back a smile. Javier and Murphy sure were a handful.

“No, of course they didn’t. They don’t give a rat's ass” Frankly, you were exhausted from having to get or find somebody to do anything around there. Noonan was practically no help until the dean was breathing down her neck, for people who had been working in Bogotà for years very few in the embassy knew the directions to anyplace that wasn’t a bar, and everyone was far too busy kissing each other’s ass to get things done. “The DEA can go, can't they? Get one of em to take you” Before you could respond you heard the rattling of the water cooler behind you, and you caught Javier’s half shocked half annoyed expression in the reflection of the window as he scrambled for a paper napkin to wipe the water off his dress shirt.

“Hmm, I didn’t think of that…..that's a great idea”

That was on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent turning in the opposite direction anytime you approached him, sneaking past you on his way in and out, and begging Murphy to take that trip to the Congress library instead. On Thursday you were sure you won the lottery.

Both Murphy and Carillo in the same room, and better yet in the office before Javier had made his grand entrance. They stood over what looked to you like a large map, arguing about something with far too much energy at eight in the morning. You saw this as your little opening. Where the hell was Peña?

Turns out he was with the Ambassador.

—-

Likes to watch me in the glass room, bathroom, Château Marmont

Slippin' on my red dress, puttin' on my makeup

Glass room, perfume, cognac, lilac fumes

Says it feels like heaven to him

“And you’re going too?” Ambassador Noonan sat back in her chair, twirling her pencil between her fingers, looking expectantly at the irate face in front of her. You thought you’d spare Agent Peña his white lies, answering promptly in that sweet voice of yours. “Yes, Agent Murphy told me, and besides, if he's around I can access all the archives..” You shrugged your shoulders and shot her your most persuasive smile. “Government ID an’ all” . You almost felt bad for Peña, the way his friends were so quick to rat him out. But then again he’d stirred up enough petty fights over the years so that nearly everybody was quick to get their petty revenge. That jerk was planning to take his little trip to the library– with Carillio of all people, and he was going to leave you behind? Not anymore.

“Well, I don't see the problem, just take her to the goddamn library. Jesus Peña why is everything so difficult with you.” Javier shot you a glare you could only describe as deadly, but you could only giggle at his exasperation. He rose from his chair, leaning on her desk, like he was trying to seduce her into getting out of this situation. You wondered how Noonan showed so much restraint, if you were her you’d be giving into anything he said no questions asked.

“Ambassador, really, all that is below my paygrade, don't ya think?” Your mouth fell agape, and you turned to him to find he was smiling, looking directly at you. Asshole “This whole conversation is below my paygrade. You’re bothering me Peña, get to work..” and with that the two of you were practically kicked out of her office and thrown into the hall, where in the deafening silence you heard the large wooden doors slam behind you.

You were lucky there was no one else around, especially when he practically slammed you against the wall. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Tryna fuck my whole day over baby?” You had to physically fight yourself to not give into the death grip he had on your shoulders, to hold yourself up as he caged you against the corridor. “I just really need these papers, and only you can get ‘em for me ” You bat your lashes at him, and he pressed his forehead against the wall beside you in complete frustration, sighing. He knew that wasn’t true, and he knew you did as well. Any intern could have gotten them for you, but who was an intern in comparison to him?

“I won't bother you again, promise” you bit your lip and held your pinkie finger up in what Javier saw as practically an act of war. His hands moved from your shoulders to grab you by the waist as you looked up at him. Despite your smiley exterior you were all giddy on the inside, especially when he leant beside your ear and warned in his low whisper, thumbs drawing circles on your flesh.

“You're playin’ with fire baby..”

—

I'm off to the races, laces

Leather on my waist is tight, and I am fallin' down

I can see your face, is shameless, Cipriani's Basement

Love you, but I'm goin' down

As much as you wanted to bother Javier during his little snoop session with Carillo, you still had a job to do, so you shoved your brattiness aside for a few hours and got to work finding the documents you needed from the archives. You were honestly expecting a medal for your self restraint, because once you were done you waited patiently till he strutted outside after his meeting, barely holding up the heavy box with all your findings. You’d been standing there for almost two hours, and the jerk hadn’t even given you a heads up so you could sit inside.

“Finally.” He rolled his eyes, and like he was running some sort of marathon didn’t bother even helping you, speed walking across the parking lot as you stumbled and struggled behind him– attempting to keep up.

“We gotta get back, now.”

You buckled your seatbelt as he pulled out of the driveway, and relaxed against your seat as you caught your breath. “Where’re we going?” He turned to you and smiled, but it was in that signature condescending way that he always did. Meanie You thought to yourself. “We are not going anywhere. You are going back to the office, and I am going to take care of something you don't need to worry about.” You didn't know whether there was any use still being offended by his patronizing attitude, he could’ve just said you were going back to the office, but that was too normal, too dignified of a response for the great, cartel busting Javier Peña

“I could come.” He laughed at your pout, as he turned to look at you, rounding the corner. “Baby, don’t ya’ think that's a little ambitious comin’ from someone who got winded carrying a box across a parking lot.” You scoffed, yes, it would've been nice to have some help. “Don’t worry, I don’t want anything to do with whatever it is you're going to do, anyway” Wanting to turn away from him you looked out the window, but that only lasted so long.

“If this lead comes through, everyone in Bogotà’s gonna want everything to do with it.” You watched as the setting sun drenched your surroundings in a golden glow, and you couldn’t look away from the way Javier’s brown eyes too turned into pools of gold as the sun caught them. His voice a low hum just a little louder than the radio he habitually played as he drove around. It took a special type of maniac to go on missions off the clock.

“Who’s it for, the lead?” He hummed, and smiled to himself as he spoke, that look on his face you couldn’t quite place– like he was just waiting for his opponent to slip up. “One of the big guys. You should meet him when we bring him in– you’d get along– he's a pain in my ass”

You turned your gaze from the opening embassy gates to meet his eyes, your own narrowed into slits as you stared him down– he was smiling, and you hated it. “Mean.” He shook his head at your irritation, and wordlessly pulled up into the driveway. “Now, you're gonna take those files, and you're gonna sit your bratty ass down, and you're gonna work on that silly paper of yours” You were halfway out the door, lifting the giant cardboard box off the floor of the car with embarrassing difficulty.

Great, there was another thing he could berate you for.

“That's a lot of instructions..” Your voice was muffled behind your paperwork, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t enjoy it when he tried to boss you around.

“Well here's another– don't touch anything while I'm gone.” He laughed to himself as he caught your rolling eyes peering at him over the top of the box, that being the only part of you that was really visible to him. Waiting for you to make it to the entrance he watched as one of his colleagues, one of the many heading out for the day, took it from you, and helped you inside.

The low hum of the radio replaced the sound of your voice, an old spanish tune coming over the static as he drove out and away from the embassy.

—

God, I'm so crazy, baby

I'm sorry that I'm misbehaving

I'm your little harlot, starlet, Queen of Coney Island

Raisin' hell all over town

Sorry 'bout it

“Didn't I specifically tell you not to touch anything” You lifted your head in the direction of that familiar voice, irritated as usual, but also a little more gruff, a little more tired. For a moment you regretted annexing his office while he was away. You watched as he sauntered in and towards his desk, opposite the little workstation you’d set up on a spare table where he’d dumped his tie and blazer for when the Ambassador popped around. He propped his hands on his desk, leaning against it to meet your gaze.

God did he look good, the day had taken its toll on him, but it was only doing him favors. That soft brown hair had been ruffled out of place, and that crisp button up sat wrinkled on his back, loosely and messily tucked into his navy dress pants, sleeves haphazardly rolled up his forearms. While he looked like he worked a regular nine to five, from the little you knew about his job, an intentionally minimal amount, you were sure the unkemptness was the result of some high stakes chase, raid or whatever it was he’d set his head to doing that day.

“‘M not touching, I just needed the AC” He rolled his eyes, but his neatly hung blazer and rolled up tie caught his attention from across the room. “See.. Untouched” You shot him that smile that you knew drove him up the wall, and he shook his head, now concerned more with sorting the paperwork splayed out in front of him. “Must be real hard, highlightin’ all that paper” He pointed to your reference material. As bad as the day was, it wasn't bad enough to persuade him to stop being a jerk.

The place was a mess, and he couldn’t leave it this way till the morning, that would be a hit to his professionalism far worse than any of the shady shit he’d done over the years. He didn’t have time for your childish antics. At least for the moment. It’d been a long day and he wanted nothing more than to get it over with. Boy did he look like he needed to let off some steam, and while at first glance your actions were doing anything but helping him relax, couldn’t he see you were just begging for him to use you for exactly that?

Maybe it was because he was tired of your shit, or because he was far too preoccupied with his work at the time, or because the office was dark and quiet and cold, but the next few minutes passed in uncharacteristic silence. You gazed up once in a while to see Javier’s scrunched brows sort through an abundance of filing. He’d sigh heavily every once in a while, and you could only wonder what or who, besides you, got on his nerves that much. You were almost eager to eliminate the competition. The world drowned out in the white noise of shuffling documents and clicking pens and you were once again lost in your paper.

Every part of you really wished he wasn’t such an asshole. What had you ever done to him anyway, for him to be so cold and mean? You couldn’t pretend you had nothing to do with it, you'd egged him on beyond measure, but you’d only ever wanted him to like you. Okay maybe you thoroughly enjoyed his irritation, but you only really ever wanted his attention. Pathetic.. You thought to yourself. You pretended he wasn’t bothered by you taking over his office for a moment.

“Done yet?” You hadn’t even realized how or when Javier had crossed the room and made his way in front of you. His fingers danced on the edge of your laptop screen. You didn’t feel like answering just yet, so you typed away at your keyboard for a while longer. The silence wasn’t appreciated, and you could feel the exhaustion radiate off him like heat. You caught him fiddling with the pens on your desk, and skimming over some of your printed material from the corner of your eye, and you bit your lip to stifle your laughter when he chucked it back on your desk in what you assumed was complete disinterest. He was going to try harder to get your attention.

You weren't prepared however when he practically slammed your laptop shut, forcing you to stop ignoring him. Talk about disrupting the workplace. Groaning, you rested your chin in your palms and peered up at him through dopey eyes. A man who had been driven to the edge, that's the gaze you met. It was not going to affect you, that muted rage, that wrought iron glare. You promised yourself. But your desires were already betraying you.. you rubbed your thighs together to alleviate the ache.

“There a problem?” With a tone that set his last teeth on edge you kept up the facade, against your better judgment. It was just too much fun not to. When you looked up at him through your lashes you could almost see the slight tick in his jaw, and your mind wandered to what other ways you’d like this type of view. “Yes, in fact there is. It's 1am” He leaned forward, dangerously close, to the point you could feel the warmth of his breath fan against your lips, the tip of his nose brushing against yours. You caught the faint smell of cigarettes off his disheveled clothes, the scent of whiskey on his lips. You felt your breath hitch, but you hoped he didn't notice. How naive, that was.

“And” Your eyes darted to his mouth momentarily as you spoke, voice wavering. He raised his brows, almost to tell you not to push him any further than you already did. It was too late, however. Whatever this was had spiraled far out of your control, and he could see the way you squirmed under that commanding gaze of his. Your brain was screaming at the attention, and you had to inwardly yell at yourself to stop being so needy.

“And?” Your brows furrowed, your lips forming that signature pout when you heard him mock your tone, your voice. “I've had a long day, baby, and I wanna go home” You huffed girlishly at his ridicule, the way he liked to humiliate you by throwing your attitude back in your face with his snide imitations, his raised brow and faux sympathy. He talked like one does to a misbehaving child. In that patronizing, explanatory melody. You watched him chuckle with slitted eyes, though you were slowly turning to a puddle underneath it all.

“Go home then Mr. Peña. I'm not stopping you am I?” You watched his eyes darken, and you weren't even sure that was possible, but you didn’t have much time to think because before you knew it he was pinching your cheeks between his fingers, his other hand still holding him up on the table. You could only whine under his rough touch as its effects licked between your thighs. He laughed when you mewed at the sting.

“Oh but you are. You're just beggin’ me to stay, aren't ya’ baby?” Your soft and pathetically unconvincing ‘no’ was muffled as he squeezed your cheeks in his large hands, yanking you in his direction as you fruitlessly attempted to free yourself from his grip. Unable to help yourself you were almost crooning into his touch, your body basically begging him to rough you up. “Such a fuckin’ brat. Runnin’ your mouth all day, showin’ up in those clothes, fuckin up my schedule, acting like a whore” His soft whisper made you shiver, your skin now on fire. He spoke slowly, and every syllable made you want to drop at his feet with a vigor you could only be embarrassed of. He made you feel small, made you feel helpless under his touch.

You wanted to push back, wanted to defy his accusations.“‘m not a whore” He smiled at your whining, and if you were delusional, and you were, even hopeful, you’d say he did so endearingly. But Javier Peña didn’t care about endearments, and after the way you’d acted you’d be crazy to think he thought there was anything endearing about you. “Right baby. You're not. Gotta pay girls to act this way ‘round me. But look at you. Didn’t spare you a fuckin dime.”

He had let go of your face, and had in a moment, quickly and uncaringly dumped you on the table in front of him. You let out a soft “ow” when you felt your knees bump the wood before your legs were dangling off its edge. You were far closer to him now, and if you had felt small before you thought you were only shrinking in comparison to his domineering frame– physical, mental, everything. Your brain was mush, your body was mush, and you could only lean into his touch– benevolent or not.

In an uncharacteristically gentle gesture he patted your cheeks with the palm of his hand, lightly, as if to soothe the sore flesh, but it only made the way he pulled them mockingly far more jarring. “Know what that makes you babygirl?” He paused for a moment, knowing you couldn't answer, looking down at the way your eyes were now welling with tears at the pain, and reveling in the sight.

“Makes you a little slut”

You wanted to respond, wanted to defend yourself, but you could only settle for grabbing his dress shirt in the balls of your first. The fabric of your panties had pretty much soaked through, and you felt it cling to you uncomfortably as you shifted on the table to pull him closer. Practically begging for his touch.

He let go of your face, but he didn’t plan on being any more gentle. He knew there was nothing you could do, nothing you could say at that moment, and he took full advantage of your silence– telling you everything he’d wanted to scream in your face for the past month. It was even better now however, because as a fun bonus, for his superhuman self control, you were even pleading for him to do so. He could see it in your eyes, feel it on your hot skin, the way you subtly rolled your hips against the table to ease the pang between your thighs. He reduced you to a dumb, empty headed bimbo, with his words alone. He couldn't help but rub it in a little. “Aw baby, no words for me? Where’s that snappy mouth now?” That faux sympathy was back again

His hands rubbed up and down your sides, moving to toy with the buttons of your top as he spoke. Fiddling with them he popped the first few open, enough to expose the swell of your breasts to the cool of the air conditioned office. With lust blown eyes he trailed his thumbs along your collar bones and then down to your admittedly skimpy lingerie– you gasped when he yanked it down, practically tearing if in a swift motion. He admired you for a moment, held you in place when you squirmed against him, wrapped your legs around his waist.

You shifted on the desk, leaning your face against his torso, looking up at him, pleading with your eyes. “Like you better like this, clothes half off like a desperate slut that couldn’t even wait to get undressed.” He paused, still admiring, tracing your cheekbones with his thumbs. “Oh, and fucking quiet” he flipped you on your stomach, your legs dangling of the table when you writhed under his punishing grip– pushing your face down against the wood, bending you over it. “Whaddya think baby?”

As if he had enough of just looking you felt him flip your skirt up with his vacant hand, and yelped when his palm came down harshly on the flesh of your ass, the sting only egging on your tears of desperation. “You know what I think baby? Think I needa fuck some manners into you.” He smoothed his hands up and down your warm thighs, fingers finding the soaked fabric of your panties as you moaned and sighed above him. He knew what he did to you and he loved it. “Can pretend there's anything in that head of yours besides the thought of goin’ dumb for me”

You lifted your head to look up and behind you, you’d give anything to witness the sight you’d touched yourself to for the past month, but Javier was quick to slam you head back back to where it came from, and send your eyes rolling back into your head as he shoved your soaked panties aside and roughly pushed two fingers into your sopping cunt. "Fuck, look at this tight little pussy, can barley take my fingers." He groaned in your ear, leaning up against you as his digits fucked you at an agonisingly slow pace, just barely soothing the burn of desire building in your core. “Bad girls don’t get a view.” Light headed, you could only squeal, could only hide your face from him as he leaned over to catch a glimpse of your knitted brows and that pout.

"Y'know how messy y'are baby? Feel how this pussys cryin' for me, drippin' all over my hand?"

You kicked your legs in protest, salty tears streaming down your face and pooling at its side on the wood beneath you. He wasn’t happy when he found you pushing back against his fingers, grinding helplessly on them. For a moment you thought your wish was granted, but he was only yanking you off the desk so you could have your back flush against him, and he could get his hand wrapped tightly around your throat. Still languidly pumping his fingers in and out of your soaking pussy he turned your face to meet his, and sneered as his palm collided with the side of your cheek.

Smack

“Watch it” You wanted to be a brat, wanted to defy him, but it was all too much to handle at once. You felt fuzzy all over, and who were you kidding you were always going dumb for him. Besides, how could you even keep your mind steady, not when you felt his hard length against you. You gazed right up at him, pushed back against him, eyes rolling back into your head as you did. He only laughed. “Oh baby, think it's gonna be that easy? Think ‘m gonna let you cum jus’ like that? After you've run me up the wall?” He squeezed your breast in his palm, bending you back over the table, now more gently, extending the olive branch, giving you a chance to repent. “‘M not a needy slut like you baby, those little tricks ain't’ gonna work” Javier was an asshole, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t waiting to ruin you. But first he wanted to have a little fun.

“Please, please, promise I'll be good.” He hummed, pretending like he was debating whether he was going to give into your pleas yet. He wasn't. He wanted to soak in the sight– you splayed out on his desk, begging him to fuck you sensless, his hands roaming your body torturously teasing you as your pussy clenched around nothing, dripping for him.

“So now ya wanna be good? Well baby I'm not buyin it yet. Gonna take a lot more convincing than that.” His fingers found your clothed cunt once again, drawing soft circles on your clit. You wailed, knuckles going white when you gripped the table edge in front of you. "Feels good doesnt' it babygirl, I know, feels so good when you finally fucking listen." You pushed back against his fingers, practically humping his hand. The tears were back, and he loved them. “Aw, poor baby, too much?” He wasn’t asking, and you knew he didn’t care what you had to say anyway. He wanted one response, and you were far too wound up not to give it to him.

“Please please please. Won't be a brat, wanna be your good girl.” He kept you waiting and distraught, fingers still rubbing you through your panties as he spoke, knowing very well you could barely concentrate when he touched you, the squelching of your wetness only drove you towards the edge. “Now babygirl, you're gonna listen, and you're gonna listen good, and do exactly what I say. Ya hear?” You nodded your head vigorously, but a smack to your ass reminded you to use your words. “Yes. promise” He laughed. “Such an easy little slut.” You heard the jingle of his belt behind you.

You shivered when you felt his cock drag against your drenched cunt, tip bumping your clit with every pass as he wet himself with your slick. Your hips moved frantically, unable to get enough of the friction, but he held you back just enough, to where you would remain unsatisfied and frustrated.“Say" I'm sorry daddy. I'm sorry for being a tease.” You could hear the smirk in his voice, and the command alone was enough to send you over the edge.

“‘m sorry for being a tease daddy ”

“Say “I'm Sorry for being an easy whore””

“M’ sorry for being an easy whore” You’d never been more shy in your life, forget around Javier, who could never guess you had it in you. “That’s my good little slut.” But the way he was speaking to you, teasing, mocking, telling you what to do, what to say– you were hot all over with humiliation. You hid your face, pretty much smashing your forehead against the table, making sure no matter how far he lent he couldn't see the way you were coming undone under him.

He could probably sense it, though, especially by the way you reacted to his little praise. “That's it babygirl. Comin around now are we?” You didn't want him to have that on you, but you were lucky, in a way, because he didn’t care much to tease you anymore. He grabbed your hips harshly and with a rough thrust of his hips he was fucking you into the mahogany desk, your ribs bruising as he held you down against it. He wasn’t wasting any time, wasn’t stopping or going slow to let you adjust, he was reminding you of how tightly you’d wound him up.“So fuckin tight” his voice was a strained whisper behind you, and you made a noise you could barely recognise as your own at his words. “Hurts” you were whining again,this time at the sting, and you knew he didn’t care but you couldn’t help yourself. “Yeah baby hurts when daddy stuffs you full of his cock? My poor thing.. But you like it don't you babygirl? Like it when I stretch you open” he wasn’t wrong. The feeling of him splitting you open had turned you into a puddle, a moaning mess. “”S too big” his hands smoothed up and down your back erratically. “I know baby, I know, but you’re gonna take it aren’t you? Gonna take it how I give it to you dirty little girl?” You were, you took it how he gave it to you. “Gonna ruin this pretty lil pussy” He squeezed the flesh of your hips till you squeaked, the pain only adding to the pleasure as his hips smacked against yours.

You felt your legs shake as his cock pounded your aching pussy. “Jus’ needed daddy to fuck all that brattiness outta ya huh?” You nodded your head and he cooed at the way you melted into his touch. “Oh baby, that’s it, just like that.” Gazing up with hooded eyes you caught his reflection in the glass of his office window, half illuminated by the dim lighting– his own face scrunched up with pleasure. The sight only had you fucking back against him. You felt like jello, your heart pitter pattering at his little praise.

“My good little slut”

Wrapping his arm around you he grabbed your face roughly again, dragging you up and against his chest again.

“My slut, hear me?”

Yours, yours, yours

Your brain was a fog, and the only thing you could focus on was the way his cock was hitting that sweet spot inside you, making you clench around him as that burn built in your core– a string of incoherent “daddy’s” being the only thing you could manage to get out your mouth. “My dumb fuckin baby, my whore, squeezin’ my cock”. You repeated like a broken record; “daddy’s, daddy’s daddy’s”, the feeling of your slick running down your thighs making you go dizzy.

“Look at you, daddy’s little cumdump” your cheeks were burning, your eyes barley staying open. He pulled your face up from the desk. “Can barely look straight huh baby? Gettin all cock drunk on me.” You made out his dark eyes in the reflection. But you couldn’t bear to meet them. It didn’t matter. He was always looking at you.

“Only for you daddy”

Your release was building, like an inextinguishable fire, your pussy throbbing with need, just begging for it, and he knew it too, the way your walls quivered around him, the way you were moaning and panting, whispering soft calls of “daddy” when he held you against him. “Gonna cum babygirl? Gonna cum on my cock, bent over my desk? When ’m usin’ ya like a fuckin toy?”

Your body went lax in his arms as you came, your lips parting in a wordless cry, eyes fluttering shut. “That's it… cum for me”. You cherished that almost gentle encouragement as you came undone, tummy swarming with butterflies as you shook in his arms. He was still fucking into your sensitive pussy, pushing you further into the desk as he neared his release. You heard a strained curse behind you, before he was fucking you full of his cum in deep, hard thrusts, your legs dangled off the table as you milked his cock. Shivering at the feeling you closed your eyes, his spend leaked out of your sore pussy when he pulled out, dripping down your inner thighs obscenely. You heard his belt jingle again as he caught his breath behind you, and you felt silly for the way you missed his warmth when it was replaced by the chilled office air. He quickly shifted your panties back in place, making sure you stayed stuffed full of his cum. You winced when he smacked your pussy lightly. Raising your head you caught his reflection again, but you hid your face back against the desk almost immediately when you saw the way he admired his work in the reflection, like he could see the way he’d fucked the brattiness out of you.

With closed eyes you hummed as he turned you over and sat you on the desk. Now that you’d finally got Javier’s attention you were satisfied– all sleepy and fucked out. You wished he’d hold you, but you had to remind yourself fucking you hadn’t taken the asshole out of him. He was still Javier. Hardass DEA attaché Javier. You sat there for a while, and when you opened your eyes you saw him picking up his blazer and briefcase.

“If you're not up in 10 seconds I'm leavin’ ya here.” He was back to usual in a moment, and in your fuzzy little head you heard a well meaningness in that tone. “In those messy panties.” You pouted at his words, once again, and he watched as you hopped off the table, rubbing your eyes as you gathered your things, albeit clumsily–your knees wobbly to the point where you could see Javier’s smirk behind you as you shoved your laptop into your bag.

Turning off the table lamp he motioned with his head for you to get moving along, and you rolled your eyes at him as you walked out the door, stumbling slightly as you did. He gave you what you now recognised as that look, brows raised, and you didn’t have the energy at the moment to be combative.

Maybe you didn’t want to be.

“Come on now, runalong”

—

My old man is a thief, and

I'm gonna stay and pray with him 'til the end

But I trust in the decision of the Lord, to watch over us

Take him when He may, if He may

I'm not afraid to say that I'd die without him

Who else is gonna put up with me this way?

I need you, I breathe you, I'll never leave you!

They would rue the day I was alone, without you

You're lyin' with your gold chain on

Cigar hangin' from your lips, I said, "Hon'"

"You never looked so beautiful as you do now, my man"

And we're off to the races, places

Ready, set, the gate is down and now we're goin' in

To Las Vegas, chaos, Casino Oasis

Honey, it is time to spin

Boy, you're so crazy, baby

I love you forever, not maybe

You are my one true love

Let me know what you think please!! I’d love to hear your nasty thots. I really hope you lovelies liked it. Thank you to everyone who reblogs my work. You keep me writing! Dividers and banners by @ saradika 💗💗🐝🐝

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afconfessions · 2 months ago

Note

imagine there were multiple af2's in the plot like..

since af is a platformer genre of games, you basically need to die atleast once, but we're always filled with checkpoints throughout the game

..but what if there just weren't any checkpoints? could cyalm just switch the star saviors that died, grab another one, and start the narrative once again with a new star savior? (also, cyalm said that they can't erase minds twice, so all points know about multiple second star saviors but they are forced to be dead silent about it)

I LOVE THIS CONCEPT I thought about doing this for my AU ss2, but I just gave her regeneration + immortality (which makes her life ultimately worse. its more of a curse than anything lol) - ⁉️

#adventure forward #adventure forward 2 #afconfessions #admin solgon #admin ⁉️#af2confessions #adventureforward #af2poc #af2 #adventureforward2

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saddayfordemocracy · 2 years ago

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10 films on Palestine that everyone should watch

Explore the tales of Palestinians who have suffered atrocities at the hands of Israeli occupation forces for 75 long years.

ith the Gaza invasion dominating headlines around the world and Israel carpet bombing the Gaza strip, killing scores of civilians, we have complied a list of films that highlight the plight of Palestinians so that people remember the human stories behind the statistics.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a Security Council meeting held on October 24 to discuss the Middle East situation, asserted, “It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished.”

His powerful statement rings true as Palestinians have been suffering under the apartheid rule of Israel for far too long. Palestinian people have tried various ways to raise their voices and tell the world about Israel’s atrocities, which have been ongoing since the Nakba in 1948. One of the most successful methods has been telling real stories through films, dramas, and documentaries.

Here are 10 films that depict how the people of Palestine have suffered for the past 75 years.

Farha (2021)

The film depicts the true story of a Palestinian girl who survived the Nakba of 1948, when thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland. The hopeful young girl who wanted to study in the city watched silently from the pantry of her house while Israeli forces ethnically cleansed her neighbours and other fellow countrymen slaughtered by them.

The movie, directed by Hassiba Freiha and Kenton Oxley, is available on Netflix.

Tale of the Three Jewels (1995)

Set in contemporary Gaza, the movie is the story of a Palestinian boy, Yusef, who becomes entranced with a beautiful Gypsy girl. The children explore nature, mysticism, and their future while learning to live amid the surrounding brutality. To escape, Yusef sets off on a journey to the North American dreamworld with his blind neighbour.

Directed by Michel Khleifi, the movie is available to watch online on various sites.

Children of Shatalia (1998)

Farah, age 11, and Issa, age 12, are two streetwise children living in Beirut’s Palestinian Shatila refugee camp, located in the city’s “belt of misery.” The centre is home to 15,000 Palestinians and Lebanese who share a common experience of displacement, unemployment, and poverty. The two children are given video cameras; they use their imaginations and creativity to come to terms with the realities of growing up in a refugee camp that has survived massacre, siege, and starvation.

Directed by Mai Masri, the movie is available on Netflix.

Omar (2013)

Omar is a young Palestinian man living in Israeli-occupied West Bank where he must navigate a steep separation wall and checkpoints to visit his friends. Omar sees his horizons diminish after he carries out a sniper attack with his two childhood buddies. He’s captured, imprisoned, tortured, and coerced into becoming an informer for the Israelis but finds he’s not the only traitor.

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad, the second film from the Palestinian territories to be nominated for an Academy Award is available on Netflix.

Pomegranates and Myrrh (2009)

The film tells the story of a Palestinian woman who uses Dabke (a traditional folk dance) to cope with the loss of her husband, who is taken away by Israeli authorities. The story talks about the political climate of Palestine and the internal and external sufferings of Palestinians.

Directed by Najwa Najjar, the movie is available on Netflix.

Eyes of a Thief (2014)

The film’s central plot-line is a father’s search for his daughter. As he searches, he not only has to fight against the lack of freedom under occupation but also against social boundaries. Having served a 10-year prison sentence for an attack on Israeli border soldiers, Tarek sets out to find his daughter Malak. When he eventually finds her in Nablus, however, he discovers that she has been adopted. He can’t reveal himself publicly as her father, so he takes a job nearby working as an engineer for the official in charge of water at the Palestinian National Authority to be able to approach her in secret.

Directed by Najwa Najjar, the film is available on Netflix.

The Time That Remains (2009)

This semi-autobiographical film tells the story of a father who fought in the 1948 war and chose to stay back when Israelis took over. It depicts the life of Palestinians living as a minority on their own land. The film is divided into four parts.

Directed by Elia Suleiman, The Time That Remains is available for streaming on Apple TV.

3000 Nights (2015)

The film illustrates the plight of political prisoners in Israel. Set in 1980, Nablus, 3000 Nights follows a newly-married school teacher, Layal, whose crime is giving a ride to a teenage boy who is accused of executing a lethal attack on a military checkpoint. Layal is sentenced to eight years in prison, where she spends her pregnancy and gives birth to a boy.

Directed by Mai Masri, the film is available on Netflix.

The Present (2020)

A father-daughter duo living along the Palestine border sets out to buy a fridge. The pair has to cross the checkpoint, segregated road, and armed soldiers, which involves a stringent checking process to cross the border. The movie depicts the life of Palestinians who can’t do basic daily routine things without facing harassment by IDF soldiers.

Co-written and directed by Farah Nabulsi, the BAFTA Award-winning film is available on Netflix.

When I Saw You (2012)

This story focuses on the heartache of a young boy, Tarek, who wants his father and his state back. He is displaced in a grim camp, with no one to turn to, and proceeds on a journey to turn his life around.

Directed by Annemarie Jacir, the movie is available on Netflix.

If you are interested in the historical context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, take a look at this list compiled by Al-Jazeera.

As Israeli forces bomb Gaza relentlessly to ‘punish’ Hamas, killing thousands of innocent Palestinians, it is important to remember their stories.

Words courtesy of images.dawn.com

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tobiasdrake · 9 months ago

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I think I agree with Singer; There should have been a second film between First Class and Days of Future Past. What the hell happened to Magneto's team between movies is a huge question mark.

They casually mention that Magneto is in a Magneto-proof cell deep beneath the Pentagon for assassinating JFK.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they would have executed him for that. What is it with the American government showing tremendous leniency towards Magneto even while it despises and actively plots the extermination of his race?

How did they even catch him? Somehow, Secret Service managed to body Mag-fucking-neto and take him into custody nonlethally. That is a fight I desperately need to see because I do not believe it for a second.

Meanwhile, his forces scattered to the winds. Mystique and Magneto parted ways.

While Trask's autopsy reports confirm that Azazel and Angel Salvadore are dead, something that Mystique was not previously aware of judging by her emotional reaction at the discovery.

As an aside, Mystique needs to get out of the habit of dropping her disguise as soon as she's past the security checkpoint and hopping naked around the place she's infiltrating. The secretary almost walks in on her blue ass in the middle of reading Trask's files because she likes to needlessly endanger herself on-mission.

This is consistent with X3 but it's a bad fucking habit for a spy to be in.

In any case, there isn't an autopsy report shown for Emma but apparently she died at some point, as did Banshee. Magneto name-drops them both.

Yeah. Singer was right. I desperately want to see the movie these guys are talking about. Such a jarring jump from First Class to here.

#x-men #x-men days of future past #drake watches x-men #drake watches days of future past

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so-many-fandoms-here · 1 year ago

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(English isn’t my first language so feel free to correct any mistake you notice)

• Characters: RK-800 (Connor), fem!Reader

• Genre: fluff, slight angst

•Warnings: logic mistakes for the plots sake

Unforgettable

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Connors POV

My eyes scan the office until I found the person I was looking for: Lieutenant Hank Anderson. I approach him with a nod.

„Hello Lieutenant. My data reset was successful, meaning that I am able to focus fully on our missions again.“ I don’t know how much data they deleted and what was the reason in the first place but I am positive that CyberLife had their reasons.

Andersons expression looks like a mixture of annoyance and and disappointment. Whatever CyberLife deleted, he doesn’t seem to enjoy my reset.

With a resigned sigh he stands up from his chair and motions me to follow him. „In case you worry about my reset: I kept all the data important to the case, so there is no need for you to-“ „Shut up.“

A familiar… feeling? spread inside me at his remark and I instantly know that this is his typical behavior.

„We‘re gonna pick up (Y/n) real quick“, he informs me when we sit inside the car, driving through rainy Detroit. I could swear I‘ve heard that name before but I can’t seem to find any data about a (Y/n). I probably stumbled about a statistic about names in the USA one day. It may be either a really common or a really rare name based on the fact that I connect something with it.

I turn my head to my left and realize that Anderson looks at me expectant. As I don’t say anything he sighs again, looking back at the street.

After a six minute drive he parks in front of a high apartment complex. Like always I stay close behind him and follow him inside the building, the elevator and eventually in front of a door in the 4. floor. He knocks against the door and shortly after a young woman opens it, a shocked expression in her face as she sees us.

I scan her face but to my surprise no data appears. Instead an error sign pops up in my program. Like she even doesn’t exist.

„What are you doing here, Hank?“ the woman asks while she just watches the Lieutenant slipping between her and the doorframe into the apartment. Her (e/c) eyes lock with mine for a second before she follows him inside her home. Again I follow. I find myself inside her neat living room.

„Wait here Connor. We’re back in a second“, Anderson orders me before he goes with (Y/n) into another room. They seem to argue slightly I realize. But I follow his instruction and start to look around the room while I wait for them to come back.

A gray sofa is placed in the middle of the room with a small table made of glass is in front of it, covered with a tea cup, a book and a tv remote for the tv that hangs on the wall in front of me.

While I look at the sofa glitchy pictures appear in front of me. I see myself sitting on the sofa with the woman that just opened the door, but before I can look further into it, the memory (I suppose that’s what it was) is gone again, leaving me back confused and unsettled.

I walk over the open kitchen, only separated by a single step, and take a look around there too. Maybe I can trigger another… whatever that was.

And I indeed can. As I look at one of the sticky notes at the fridge, the writing way too neat and symmetrical for a human, another picture appears in my vision.

„I wrote you a shopping list while you showered, so you won’t forget anything later.“ A voice speaks. My voice. „You’re the best Connor“, her voice responds while she steps next to me, leans closer and… kisses my cheek?Again before I am able to take a closer look at everything, it’s gone already.

I look at the note again that’s reminding her in form of a few checkpoint to buy utensils like dish soap and new sponges and then I continue my expedition.

My next stop is the bathroom, which door is opened wide. I look inside and see myself standing in the mirror next to her again. I watch myself drying her (h/c) hair while smiling at her even wider smile.

This time a wave of sadness washes over me as the picture fades again. I want to figure out what these pieces of memory will look like at the end, when I put them together.

The door behind me, opposite to the bathroom opens and as I turn around I see Lieutenant Anderson and (Y/n) step out of what seems to be the bedroom. A short glance inside to the bed is enough to trigger the final puzzle piece. (Y/n) and I sit on the bed, her hands in mine and her lips against my mine. And with that everything crashes over me. The fear when they took me to reset my data, the pain I felt on the way there even though I can’t remember details like how I got there or who took me.

What I know is who is in front of me. Who they tried to make me forget.

„Tell him your name“, Hank pressures but (Y/n) shakes her head. „We’re gonna get in big trouble if someone finds out.“

Four eyes are glued to me while my eyes switch between Hank and (Y/n) at first before they focus on her. „You’re (Y/n) (L/n)“, I start to speak before I am able to think. „You’re 28 years old and were born in Texas. You’re favorite color is a light blue. #9BD3FF to be exact. Your favorite song is Mr. Brightside by The Killers and you like to bake. Your first pet was a red-eared slider turtle named Rocky. The first time you kissed me was on your bed at 9:34 pm on a Friday.“

With every spoken word of mine, (Y/n)s and Hanks eyes got wider and even I was a little bit overwhelmed by the sudden amount of information popping up. But it feels good to remember.

„You… You remember me?“, (Y/n) asks with a shaky voice to which I nod. „But… They deleted your memories.“

„They can delete data, but they can’t delete my feelings“, I answer. „You’re unforgettable.“

It has only taken about two hours for me to get all the data back they tried to delete. Probably because this is more than just some data.

#fanfiction #x reader #fluff #Angst #detroit become human #dbh #detroit become human rk800 #detroit become human connor #connor detroit become human #connor rk800 #rk800 #connor x reader #dbh rk800 #dbh connor

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twig-tea · 1 year ago

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Last Twilight Finale Thoughts

Had to go back to my clown checkpoint from ep 10, which I originally wrote in response to a conversation between @lurkingshan and @my-rose-tinted-glasses! How did the Last Twilight finale stack against my wishlist?

We got 6/8:

Mork opens that $@#&&#&# glove compartment (ie finally process his grief around Rung)

Mork speaks to Rung at her grave

Mork has workplace satisfaction and stability (ie we get something on canon to show that he's not afraid of being fired at any moment, and enjoys his new career) ['m counting the way he's shown trying out new recipes after the second timeskip towards this]

Day making plans for his future and acting towards them (enrolling in university or courses of some kind, most likely)--this is necessary whether or not he can see in future

Day's mom unclenches (we see her proactively stepping away from controlling Day's life)

We get Day's mom's perspective on what happened with Day's dad [honestly at this point this is a nice to have]

Night is perceived and happy (by Porjai most likely but I'm flexible)

Porjai feels safe and cared for (by Night most likely but I'm flexible)

And yet I was unsatisfied by this episode. Why? Because it did so many other things that I didn't even think I'd have to guard against in my wishlist, and the execution of what we did get was muddled!

I'm so mad about the glove compartment. They mentioned that thing at least three times, it was teased that Rung used it a lot and kept all kinds of stuff in there, and the last time it was mentioned, we heard that it had been fixed, and yet. AND YET. The glove compartment stayed closed and unseen.

This is how I feel about all of the important growth that happened for these characters. Mork's processing his grief for Rung, Day's building his life as a blind person (including using his cane), Day's mom moving past her internalized ableism, Mork learning how to be a partner rather than a caretaker, Day's father realizing he needs to be a better dad, Day and Mork learning how to navigate their social class difference in their relationship; we didn't really get to see any of that. We were just told it had been fixed now, off screen, like the glove compartment.

We did get to see the brothers reconcile and work on being brothers again, I will give the show that.

Also just to say, wow this aged poorly (from the same post linked above, written after ep10):

Mork, in contrast to Day's mother, has always been interested in encouraging Day to learn independence from him, even though Mork's situation in Day's life is potentially so much more precarious than Day's mom is.

I'll say the same thing I said after the ep 11 fight--it isn't the plot points themselves in the latter part of this series I have a problem with, it's how they've been executed. Characters don't feel consistent, what the show tells us happened doesn't seem to reflect what we saw in the show itself, and what the show says is important is then retconned or not addressed.

TL;DR even though the finale hit the bulk of my wishlist it still fumbled the execution and so I found it unsatisfying despite giving me most of what I asked for.

#last twilight #last twilight the series #bl meta #typed so that i can stop thinking it

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miloscat · 6 months ago

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[Review] Sonic Heroes (GCN)

The Sonic series reinvents itself again, and I like it!

I just found out about Sonic Team USA, an America-based (but Japanese-staffed) division of Sonic Team set up at first to localise Sonic Adventure, who went on to develop Adventure 2 themselves. Heroes then is their second game, and marks a course correction that the fanbase seems unhappy with but which I reckon is a step in the right direction after the messy SA2.

Eggman is up to no good again, making threats about an ultimate weapon and even worse, kidnapping Froggy. Sonic and his pals Tails and Knuckles set out to see what's up; meanwhile Amy teams up with Big and new cute bunny character Cream (created for this game although she had an advance debut in Advance 2). Rouge, sporting a new armoured super-spy look with bigger wings, is surprised to find Shadow not dead after all but in stasis and amnesiac, as well as the other new character Omega the trigger-happy robot. Finally, the Chaotix (Vector, Espio, and Charmy) are dusted off from their 32X game to re-debut in the modern series and take on the role of detectives to get to the bottom of the scheme.

Ultimately Metal Sonic is revealed to be at the centre of things with a wicked cool new design; this is the only time he has a speaking voice and also the only time he ever really does anything important in the plot of any Sonic media, so it's good for him to get a moment in the sun. The other additions to the roster stick around as core cast members, and even though the plot is thin it has moments that satisfyingly follow up Shadow's story in SA2. Amy's still in her stalker phase but these bits are over quickly. Mainly I just like how it balances a large cast by splitting them up.

The four teams act as separate stories that can be tackled in any order, and whose events play out simultaneously before coming together in the Last Story. My biggest disappointment was that each team plays through the same levels with the same layouts, fighting the same bosses. It makes for a lot of repetition between stories and feels low-effort (and even within levels there are reused chunks). They do try to vary it by tweaking things; Team Rose is sort of an easy mode, with shorter truncated levels and fewer enemies. Team Sonic is the normal mode with full levels including some bombastic setpieces. Team Chaotix is also shorter but has different kinds of objectives, like scavenger hunts or stealth missions which is a more fun and creative way to remix the content. The "hard mode" Team Dark chucks in more enemies (a fun way of increasing difficulty) but I think reduces the number of checkpoints (an unfun way).

As with SA2 we have a linear sequence of levels with no hub in between, but this structure is a better match for the more balanced pace and action-oriented design here. The streamlining doesn't make it feel dumbed down though, as the team dynamic adds some complexity. Each team has a speed, power, and flight character, and swapping who you're directly controlling (the current "leader") changes your abilities, for example the flight character stacks up the others and carries them, or the power character picks up their buddies to throw them. Each configuration has uses in and out of combat, often telegraphed by obtrusive signage. I found controlling all three at once a fun novelty and it's a great way to integrate a wide array of characters in playable form.

The three team members feel distinct, and swapping between them is immediate with the push of a button (all four face buttons finally have a unique use as of this game). Between teams the characters who fill those roles play basically the same with a tweak here and there, which contributes more to the samey feeling of replaying levels. There's also a level up mechanic where beating enemies and finding orbs incrementally powers up one of the three for the duration of the level, or until you die. It feels harsh to reset this when it's still easy to die from a platforming slip, but oh well.

Speaking of the platforming, Heroes has a fast pace. I've been told it's built on the same framework from SA2 but at the last minute they doubled the acceleration value... while the deceleration is unchanged. I did like the zippiness of the speed, but it can feel very slippery and skittish to control. Some speed characters still have a kind of spin dash move but it's not useful at all. Grind rails have a larger role in this game and despite some jankiness at times they have a good showing, with an effective railhopping mechanic and Jet Set Radio Future-like tricking to increase your speed.

Between normal levels are boss fights. Some just throw waves of enemies at you, another low-effort solution but I didn't mind it in the sense of it stretching the game's combat system and forcing you to engage with it. Others are battles against the other playable teams, which are extremely chaotic; whether it was my foes constantly stunlocking me or flinging themselves out of the arena for an instant defeat, I never felt in purposeful control of the flow of these messy bouts. The "proper" boss fights are few in number (there's a hoverplane, an expanded rematch with the same, and then an Eggman mech, plus the final giant Metal Sonic fight) and janky, but in a fun way. They have multiple targets to hit and incorporate chase sequences that are preferable to the design of simply waiting for your turn to deal damage. The problem is it's easily possible to die in the pursuit by falling into the game's ever-present death pits, thus starting the fight over again.

To unlock the final story requires gathering the Chaos Emeralds between all the stories, which means the return of special stages to the series. Vaguely inspired by Sonic 2's example, these have you running through a tube collecting orbs to catch up to the gem. Except only Act 2 of each zone actually has a chance for an emerald, Act 1's stages are just for earning more lives. And specific emeralds are locked to specific zones. And for some reason the third one is way harder than the others. Hrm. The physics and controls in these are also quite clumsy, especially if you try to flip around the ceiling of the tube. I was playing this game on Dolphin, and made use of savestates to make sure I didn't have to replay whole levels to clear these. My advice is to ignore the suggestion of the orb formations and just use the speed characters. I do have to give the special stages credit though for essentially inventing the boost system. It's no surprise that Dimps has reused and riffed on this specific stage type over their games, as they built on this mechanic to bring boosting to the main games with Rush.

The aesthetics of the game are interesting; they go for a colourful chunky look that more or less set a standard for Sonic's world going forward, including the introduction of the goofy Egg Pawns as Eggman's standard footsoldiers. It generally looks good, although character models both in and out of cutscenes are excessively shiny for some reason. It looks like everyone is either made of plastic or smeared with oil! It's honestly distracting, and a very odd choice.

Aurally the game's tunes are upbeat and inoffensive. Each team gets a vocal theme song that only plays during the credits; Team Sonic's super lame track gives a poor first impression and there's some Crush 40 dreck in there too, but Teams Rose and Chaotix have standout songs that are well worth a listen. Character voice acting is a little better than previous efforts, but there's a lot of repeated barks during gameplay on top of which the team members essentially have replaced Omochao with an overabundance of intrusive advice. I must also mention that once again Tails is voiced by an actual child and is at his most stilted; the manual actually states that he's 8 years old and I guess they wanted to drive that home? Why did they feel the need to give these funny animal cartoon characters definitive ages anyway?? Why is Rouge a sultry spy at 17 and Charmy a detective at 6???

Maybe it was the use of savestates saving me from too much pain (I tried to be sparing), but I'm coming out of this game with positive feelings. I think they made some good decisions when course-correcting from SA2, making a streamlined and breezy platformer with propulsive gimmicks, a fun team dynamic, and decent combat mechanics. It's still a 3D Sonic game so it's got a hefty share of jank, but it seemed solid enough to me to not cause undue frustration. My main problem was the repetition of content between stories, but I love the attempt at integrating a large cast in playable roles, something which disappeared completely from the 3D games immediately after this (until Dream Team I guess?) and only sporadically featured in 2D instalments. Now I just need to play Shadow and I'm finally ready for the recent games!

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic heroes #sonic team usa #review #gcn

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coraniaid · 1 year ago

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Season 5 isn't my favorite season (it's honestly not even my second favorite season, and it might not even be my third). Glory isn't the best Big Bad the show would come up with (I think Clare Kramer's performance is ... fine, but she has basically nobody to play off of in the way the arc villains of the earlier seasons did, which really makes her job a lot more difficult than it had to be).

The season also devotes a lot of screentime and narrative focus to several characters I don't particularly care for, there are a couple of episodes this season that are definitely in the running for some of the show's weakest ever offerings, and while The Gift is very impactful as a season finale as a putative finale episode of the whole series it's kind of conceptually a disaster. ("What if our young adult protagonist told everyone how sad she was and how hard it was to be alive and then killed herself?")

And -- if I'm being totally honest -- it still irks me quite a lot, even a full season after The Harsh Light Of Day, that the scripts keep having Buffy talk about Harmony "becoming" a vampire as if that were some particularly silly lifestyle choice she'd made (and continuing to show no sign at all of being sad that the human Harmony died while trying to help Buffy save the whole town from the Mayor). This is both not something Buffy should canonically believe -- she's descibed in detail before how she believes "becoming" a vampire works, and nothing has happened since that should have changed her mind about that, other than the writers having some worse ideas -- and something which would, were it true, fatally undermine the entire premise of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

That being said, I do think that objectively Season 5 might be the best season of the show. Not necessarily as a collection of episodes (though it does have some very strong episodes), but as a deliberately planned story told over the course of twenty-two episodes. It just feels very structured and carefully arranged in a way that none of the seasons that came before were and none of the seasons that come after will be. Every episode has a very clear purpose and the writers obviously knew from the start where the story was going (which I don't think was true for any of the previous full-length seasons).

So Real Me foreshadows The Gift (with Harmony and her self-described "minions" capturing Dawn and so auditioning for the part of Glory and her minions doing the same), and The Replacement (re)introduces the idea of a split between Buffy's human and Slayer sides, and Family and Fool For Love and Blood Ties and Intervention all help to set up the choice Buffy will make at the end of the season, and Triangle and I Was Made To Love You introduce the weapons that will be used to defeat Glory, and there is a general sense throughout, which the high school seasons especially don't always manage, that the characters remember what happened from one week to the next and you cannot afford to miss a single episode if you want to understand what's going on.

The Knights of Byzantium are still utterly shit though.

(If you want a powerful ancient faction who know about Glory and have reach all over the world and who employ teams of people who know how to fight and who might plausibly have found out about Dawn and who don't really have anything else to do in the plot after Checkpoint and who consider themselves entitled to make pragmatic decisions about other people's lives -- especially young girls' lives -- in the name of saving the world from demons ... I mean, guys, come on, the Watcher's Council were literally right there.)

#btvs

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lemonynesser · 10 months ago

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this is a recount of my reactions throughout the following video:

“Oh! A negative Undertale review? And it was made around the time people were getting tired of it? I know a lot of popular things go through that stage where everyone hates on it for some reason, but I’m sure it has to contain a few valid points, at least.”

“Oh, the… comments are disabled. Ok, maybe he had em off by default, or he was just swarmed by rabid fans! I know the fans were a bit crazy in the early days. I’ll just look in the description, there’s usually an explanation there.”

Comments disabled because I'm very, very tired of the same old crap being said over and over, plus it's apparently against the law for a creator to comment on their own video after a certain amount of time.

“Ok, guess that settles it. [scrolls down a bit more, for curiosity’s sake]”

UPDATE: I can't say I've missed the comment section for this video one bit. Having zero interaction with Undertale fanatics, their zoomer style morals and their speaking habits has been utterly wonderful.

“…well, I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a bit of a red flag, but I still believe you can make a good video!”

“Ok, the intro was good, and I’m glad he said he didn’t have anything against fans!”

“Good basic plot synopsis… Ah, he doesn’t like Earthbound, that explains some things.”

“Wait, he didn’t like Earthbound for its boring combat? That’s one of the things that Undertale improved on though!”

“That’s fair, gameplay is incredibly important to a game. (it’s called gameplay for a reason lol)”

“What do you mean there isn’t any depth to Undertale compared to “the average JRPG”? Aren’t most of the more traditional jrpgs just your move, enemy move, your move, enemy move ad nauseam? Honestly, I think Undertale has more depth involved, because even with your normal attack, there’s a little minigame you have to do for more damage, which changes with each weapon you equip!”

“Ok, fine, that’s one point I don’t think was that good. But hey, maybe he just plays a ton of mechanically in-depth jrpgs, and i’m uneducated, I’m willing to admit I’ve not played many jrpgs myself. Plus, I’m only a couple of minutes in, the points can only get better from here, surely!”

“Ok, that is fair, the game is pretty easy (at least on the non-geno routes), and both sparing and killing normal enemies is pretty easy too.”

“While the bosses have some of the most interesting patterns in the game, I’d say that another interesting thing in this game is when more than one enemy is in the same encounter together, so their patterns are added together. Makes for a more engaging fight, imo.”

“Firstly, Toriel is literally the first boss in the game, of course she’d be less deadly than the rest. Second, the only real mechanical differences between Papyrus capturing you, and actually killing you is you respawn somewhere else, your items don’t come back, and he remembers you lost to him. Otherwise, it’s functionally the exact same as dying. Lastly, being unable to die in the Adriel fight is meant to be an engaging ad powerful moment, but once again, it doesn’t really matter, as the fight uses a somewhat sparse checkpoint system, restarting you at the last checkpoint you hit. Which functions, once again, pretty similarly to actually dying. Only difference being you restart from in the battle itself, rather than at your save point.”

“I assume he’s talking about the sans boss fight being the only fight being somewhat challenging. But he did say it was “on the route to” the worst ending, and not at the end of it, so maybe he just misgendered Undyne? Regardless, I’d still say there are 2-3 actually challenging bosses in the game (sans, Undying, and Asgore) (also to some extent Omega Flowey but the game rigs the fight so much in your favor it’s almost funny).”

“Simple puzzles? tell that to the core spaceship puzzles lol”

“Something tougher or more inventive? Doesn’t the game come up with me puzzles and overworld things every section?”

“Glad to hear he isn’t against story. Also yeah the AA games are great.”

“That’s an interesting way of judging a game, asking yourself ‘Would I like this game if it was a person?’”

“aaand he’s just bashing on tumblr users and “sjw”s now. i will give him one thing though, he’s right, if Undertale was a person, it would use tumblr.”

“I feel like saying the games’ characters are just caricatures is a bit “missing the forest for the trees” so to speak.”

“Except some of Papyrus’s traps do work? And him being a lovable dim-witted goofball makes him a really likable character imo.”

“Surprisingly, I didn’t get a vibe of “internet savvy” from a lot of the game, except for like, Alphys and her anime stuff.”

“Oh, right, the Temmies do talk like that, which is sorta indicative of the internet I guess.”

“w

what

are you telling me,

that you don’t like sans

because he says the word

“welp”??

not only that, but you imply that the word welp is some “new fangled slang” instead of a word that’s been in use for as long as i can remember??? i feel like i just got slapped into an alternant timeline by a whole roll of salami. did i miss when “welp” was young person/internet slang or is this guy just unhinged?”

“bro… why are u comparing alphys with francis from super paper mario bro, the game is 10 ears older than ut bro. bro why are you making it about gender when they’re just different characters bro. also alphys was originally a guy iirc bro. stop making this weird bro”

“yea ur right, a lot of ppl don’t like alphys because she’s annoying (fair but still)”

“that’s the thing. if you don’t find the characters interesting or engaging on even a surface level, you are not the target audience. period.”

“actually there’s technically a few neutral endings where it’s heavily implied she kills herself, so yeah you can (technically) kill alphys …why am j even talking about this”

“the only time the game really hammers home how much of a piece of shit you are for killing monsters, is in the genò route and i’m sorry, you can call that route many things, but “self defense” is not one of them. all sans does in the neutral route is tell you the true meaning of EXP and LOVE, and asks you to reflect, before dipping and saying he’s rooting for you, (unless you killed his brother but, you litterally can’t kill papyrus before he spares you, so that kill wasn’t in self-defense either). also, you can spare enemies when you attack them enough, so attacking “in self-defense” is actually rewarded with a spare! and if the enemy is straight up allowing you to spare them, basically telling you they don’t wanna fight no more, killing them then is not in self-defense anymore. this is such a shallow point, it feels more like a gut reaction than an actual criticism”

“you make fun of people saying welp, then out of nowhere drop the word “mawkish”, that’s kinda funny. but seriously, of course the endings not gonna effect you, you fuckin moron! you aren’t attached to any of the characters! which is litterally what the story rides on!”

“the fuck do you mean ‘tries too hard’”

“boiling undertales story down to “friendship is magic” is almost as bad a take as boiling it down to “killing is bad”. plus, what? do you want games about bringing our fellow man down instead of lifting them up?”

“damn, i guess i was almost right on the money huh?”

“once again. the lesson of undertale is not just “killing is bad”, nor is it just “rpg leveling systems are bad”, good god what are you smoking, and can you tell me what it is so i can stay as far away from it as possible? thanks! the game never said you shouldn’t enjoy this type of gameplay, nor is it saying you should feel bad if you do. all it’s trying to do is answer the questions “what if i could solve these battles peacefully” and “how would rpg characters, and their world, react to you grinding them?” nothing less,”

“no. not every part of every video game is designed to be fun. sometimes it’s designed to make a point (a la ut geno route), sometimes it’s to make the player deliberately feel uncomfortable and question their actions (a la spec ops the line), sometimes it’s to exploit players into spending money on microtransactions (a la almost every mobile game ever). in short, it’s not always about the fun, whoisthisgit… it’s about the mETS BABY LOBE THE METS ALRIGHT BABY GET A HOME RU”

“wow, it’s over…”

“…”

“…damn i really hate that guy.”

i hope you enjoyed this decent into madness, i sure didn’t

if you’re ok with giving this guy like $0.0002 in ad revenue, i’d recommend watching the video while reading my comments, theyle make a lot more sense then

welp, buy

#undertale #tw misgendering #(maybe)#youtube #uhhhh #fuck i can’t thibk of any mire tags

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my-jokes-are-my-armour · 2 years ago

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The witcher review - part 2

So here we are… this is the hardest post for me to write. Because I have to fight my inner rage to think straight and keep as much of cool as I can while I write. This is rare.

As always since the announcement, the general consensus is to hate no matter what, and I won't lie, it's driving me crazy. I had even a breaking point not long ago, stumbling on an "article" mourning Hector the horse that won't come back for S4, and turning a not returning actress as she left the boat for implicite bad scripts whereas her character is simply not returning story wise (in the books also).

Do I have to mention the constant rain of bad comments on every video or official posts ? Or the vast majority of the articles and reviews are over focused on one thing only, erasing from the existence of every other good work done ?

Because yes ! Curiously there is good work in there too. Sheer stupefaction ! The series is not that bad. And do you believe it ? Quite book accurate in the global storyline also !

Am I a tad sarcastic there ? Yes. Not in my points though. But I am really REALLY pissed off. And this is my last stand. I understand that I am a drop in the ocean. A little shit screaming into the void. A stupid arse loving the series for the stories it offers.

So… if you are still here, that's because you surely are in the same state of mental exhaustion than I am. Maybe angry too, or sad. Maybe you liked the series also and want something else to read other than "burn it down !".

[Pretty accurate representation of myself]

So... Here is the short version for those who don't care about the development of my review :

I loved it. Yes !

A lot of emotions.

Geraskier. I rolled down the hill again so hard and so fast that you can see burning traces on the grass on my path lol.

Buckled some storylines from the first season for the main characters and secondary characters too.

Perfect ? Certainly not. There are problems and I will address them.

Book accurate ? Mostly yes but no at the same time. The story is there, not told the same way. There are twists and changes but the checkpoints are validated and cohesive (believe it or not), catching up books threads and the divergent series' too. Some almost straight out of the pages in this second part too.

Proper send off to Henry ? If you aim for fulfillment, then no. But his ending matches with the beginning of the Hansa, so I am personally happy with it. Also it had more depth than what it seems.

So now behind this break, I will spoil the series in great lengths, as much as the books. I will probably go further than Time of Contempt because they included pieces from Baptism of Fire. Again I will say what works and what doesn't in my opinion. I am not on a solo thread of thinking.

But you know I guess even some gray is giving light in this infamous soup darkness. So let's go !

Warning : it contains mature subjects.

[Important note : I have read the RI article about Tomek giving explanations about plot simplification. I will address this in the flow in my review. Well kinda].

My detailed general point of view :

Even with a lot of twists and turns, I did like the series part 2 (and the series overall !). The second volume had me having emotional roller-coasters. If you care for any characters, they have their moments of raw emotions. Secondary characters included. That moment between Fringilla and Francesca for example or Tissaia's farewell… 😢.

Everything emotional with Jaskier had just me on my knees… 😭

It goes pretty much by the books in terms of events and uses pieces of them as framing devices. For the twists. Some are good, some less. What we have the most is one character doing something another would normally do. But most of the time this is fluid and it doesn't bother me much. Mostly I liked, loved even, the stories that were told behind.

In the middle ground. I don't see it as bad but more as an irritating thing.

There is a big change of plot with Yennefer (again) but this is more a problem of how to tell the story afterwards more than a big wrong like in S2, and I am just curious how they will handle some storylines from there. The irritating part though is that they have a tendency to use her too much for everything, so she runs everywhere. This is quite frantic in episode 6 but then it slows down fortunately.

Also the series doesn't fully go on the darkest side of the books. The rating 16+ is a bit overlooked in my opinion. There is blood and some monsters but this is a soft 16+. There is real gore in the books and the subjects are far more disturbing. The flesh monster tries to compensate for what is not told about Vilgefortz's experiments for example. But the mage is a f.cking lunatic. And if you felt bad for Geralt after his fight with him, go get some brutal internal pov of Geralt while he is literally destroyed. Also a part of Geralt's arc with the parallel with Ciri is more disturbing in its core. But they didn't go as far as with the Rats (yet ?) so they crafted another motivation, which is not a bad one, by the way.

This is middle ground to me because, for sure it would have challenged the viewer more, but some subjects may not be easily validated to show on screen to fill the rating.

On the wrong side (yes because I am not in a tunnel - I see goods and bads), for me there are some strong editing problems that put an uneven rhythm that can bore or frustrate, depending on the part. I was not bored but a bit frustrated sometimes so I can understand why some were annoyed, let's put it that way.

They seem to rush for the plot, cutting some breathing moments or dragging on some other parts. With a recurrent issue to make us feel the passage of time

For me this is what severes the series the most, especially in the second volume.

Also, on the visual effects, there are some issues too. Something is sadly unfinished there. It feels like the deadline was an immovable obstacle and they tried to rush everything they could in it.

So, here we are. Now I will detail everything ! Compare with the books when I can etc. Because I can't bear anymore reading all this dry "they did not respect the source material" thing, to say it politely. Maybe I will be annoying as hell. But this is how I work. I have feelings, I have opinions, like everyone else I can be passionate, but I can justify my position and I will do it.

SO !

Book accuracy ?

First, because I have to play dumb, these are the large blocks of the Time of Contempt only, just to have a visual idea of the proportions of the stories.

So now please tell me there is too much of Ciri, too much mages, too much politics… ** cough cough **

OK let's go. As I said in the short version, accuracy is a yes and a no for me. Let's begin with the no.

Things happen pretty much in the same chronological order but like in an alternate version of the books. In some events, this is not always with the good character carrying the moment. But this is the case from the beginning of the show. And although I found this strange sometimes I never felt confused by it. Some of them are necessary compression of narratives, some are holding arcs to fulfill and become relevant at the end. And the arcs, the stories told, are what appealed to me the most.

A large part of those switches comes from the invented parts for secondary characters. Because they had written things in advance. Why did they choose to set up a lot of them from S1, you say ? Because otherwise we would have to deal with a massive drop names with everyone having their agenda, popping out of nowhere, and trying to have the big part of the cake this season (2 to 4 in my picture). What would happen then ? Confused audience for those who haven't read the books or play the games. And if you tell me, but we are the audience ! Then why I read so many : "Why the politics ? Why Ciri desert thing ? Why the sorceresses ? This is boring and long, why no monster hunts ?" Well… 👆.

At least, I can understand the last statement from the gamers because the story is rhythmed by the hunts, but for the rest, lads, this is the book for Time of Contempt and a part of Baptism of Fire.

And this where my "yes this is accurate" lands.

Time of Contempt particularly contains a f.cking loads of politics, of mages and a lot of Ciri. Sure Geralt is the main POV in a good amount but in the politics part for the most of it. This is basically him in rooms with people, discussing. He doesn't do much other than that. To be fair, there are always good fights, he has always good fights, and this books provides, but the monster fights are not that over present and overall, Geralt is reluctant to kill in general except when he has to protect. He fights people… The real monsters of the stories.

What did I find book accurate in this second volume ? The Thanedd coup setup (the battle is almost pure entertainment). Ciri in the desert, definitely. Some parts of Brokilon. Tissaia's death is delayed in time but accurate. Dijkstra and Philippa general plot in Redania even if simplified. The false Ciri at Nilfgaard. Geralt on the road with Jaskier and Milva at the end.

The issues

As I said, for me the problem is really the choice of pacing that makes some parts feeling dragged and others rushed. Particularly in episode 7. This is the most book accurate part with Ciri, but the pacing of what is before and after makes it odd. She is the only one we feel the passing of time for. The Brokilon part almost not. But technically days had passed too.

I understand what they did there, trying to make us feel her isolation, but putting two parts with different rhythms together that way was what makes it crumble. Making a parallel between Ciri's struggle and Geralt's would have maybe corrected the pacing, and just having scenes with places, travel from afar, something that links the time and space with the characters (they did that a bit with the first episode and that was great !). But distance and time is an ongoing problem on this show.

Speaking of time, note that in the books Geralt stays a long time in Brokilon healing. A month like. And he was in a very bad shape for a long time during this period. This is for those who are unhappy to have him stuck in a bed moaning for too long.

Then the last episode has the major shift from the book with Yennefer. The birth of the Lodge of the sorceresses has one of the best ending arcs and the most twisted storyline with dragged moments. I am not against Yennefer being in the heart of the Lodge with Philippa doing her things on the side, because I understand that having that part told without main character to connect with would be hard for a lot of people but the fact that Yennefer is used has a plot insert too many times irritates me.

The scene where she heals Geralt for example is one that I don't like. In terms of emotions, this is great. But for Geralt this is wrong. I hope the healing is not complete, for S4, like in the books. Because the fact that he is experiencing phantom pain is a part that makes his journey psychologically interesting.

Now, that said !

And this is where I'll develop the good parts for me. And I am sorry if I become (even) more sarcastic but you know… I do what I can with my bleeding heart in front of so much hatred.

The arcs

This is where a lot of people sadly give reason to Tomek about the need for simplification, in my opinion.

They did simplify the plots, true that, but as soon as there are some under layers to dig, this is the big farewell of the crowd. Because I read things like : volume 2 is empty. Geralt is barely in it or without depth. They did wrong to him.

Know that if they really had stopped where Time of Contempt ends, then you would have just Ciri in the desert and the Rats. Final dot (cf my picture).

And if this is empty to you, maybe this is because you've erased the plotlines from your memory, or defining a character the way it is done in the book is not for you.

The series plays with circular references and mirroring characterisation but I guess this is unimportant. Lazy. Irrespectful. Uncaring. Or whatever. Because this is not forefront.

Maybe you wanted more than a rampage at a post frontier and the walk into the mist. I can understand that this is not satisfying in terms of fulfillment for his presence, I really can, but there is closure for his arc too in there.

But maybe you missed the full circle in this part of the journey for him too. And if you didn't. Maybe you don't care. I don't know...

I am not above anybody else. I watch things with my own perspective. Maybe you think I am stupid or currently arrogant or overlooking things. So be it. I am the stupid one then. I don't mind. But I'll do it anyway. I'll do my shitty analysis. So many scream. I have the right to stand my ground for what I appreciate. Who would read this anyway…

So let's get into the thematics and dig everyone's plotlines, shall we. I will divide this into parts and develop many characters through those aspects.

Blood family vs found family

Vulnerabilities

Loyalty and betrayal

Clinging onto the past and repeating history

Blood family vs found family

In the last part of S3, several characters have a defining moment about family. And they are mirroring each other within their relationships. They have been setup early in the previous seasons.

The accent is put on the found families and how strong their links are. For some more than blood. And then how sometimes, blood heritage goes against that.

We have obviously THE found family. Ciri, Yennefer and Geralt, extended to Jaskier (thank god!). They have all left their blood family behind. Book Jaskier not totally but the series one seems to.

The trio of Destiny as I like to call them, are three orphans linked by destiny but fighting it in the first place. This is only when they accept it that the family emerges. And this is a strong one. Their issues with their blood family define a part of their actions and how they grow.

Geralt was abandoned. In response to that trauma he printed in himself the will of never to do that to Ciri ever ! (vol 1). Even in the letter he wrote to Yennefer, he tells her that this is the first time he experiences real fear. And this fear is to lose Ciri and her… Losing against Vilgefortz made this fear a reality. So now in Brokilon when he is trying to walk back to Ciri even when he can't is the display of his desperation. He has to accept that despair first so he can heal enough to actually have a chance to succeed. This desperation transforms into rage that can burst at any time. He is calm on the surface, but a boiling volcano inside.

White Knight complex and neutrality (side note). In S1, in Blaviken we established that Geralt has a white knight complex and he tells the story to Renfri of how he chose neutrality, telling her a story that illustrates that. He saved a young girl from a rapist. And while he thought he did the right thing he ended up being the one treated like a monster. That is why he chooses not to get involved again. Renfri's story showed him that not taking a side was impossible but he sticked with it anyway. Neutrality became his mojo and tried to live with that, even teaching it to Ciri. Renfri's broach was a reminder of that silent promise he made to himself. And the Thanedd coup is the pinnacle of that resolution and desire to protect. Till the end he won't pick a side. But when he failed against Vilgefortz everything crumbled.

The last scene we have with him, that rampage doesn't come from nowhere as a lot likes to think. The soldier suggests he would rape the girl. And that's what triggered his rage. Yeah the same story that made him who he was… I guess this stupid and empty…

The broach he leaves behind is the symbol of the neutrality he abandons. He is a man with a huge scar inside and the only thing that can soothe him is finding his daughter.

Jaskier says it out loud beforehand in case you would miss what to come : the war outside is nothing in front of what Geralt would unleash on this Continent to find his daughter.

The arc of neutrality is closed. Time for a new one. A hurt dad, a warrior, roaming the Continent to find the child he promised never to abandon. No depth at all in the writing of this arc… yep yep.

But this is not the only layer of Geralt. We will see that in another point.

Now Yennefer. She has the easiest arc to get. Her blood family sold her and in her struggle to get control over her own life she hurt the two found families she had. First Tissaia whose mother side became apparent when she had to take the same responsibilities with Ciri. Then Geralt and Ciri when she succumbs to Voleith Meir. But her redemption arc fulfills her need to be a mother. Even if she fails finding Ciri and leaves that task to Geralt (which is a plot hole in a way*), she comes full closure with her motherhood duties.

And she has a beautiful and powerful new goal and it is turned toward the found family. She will make sure to make the world a better place for her to return to. Isn't that some of the strongest push parents can experience ? The need to make the world better for their children ?

(*) In the books, Yennefer is incapacitated so it is logical that she is unable to find her. Here they will need to find a good explanation.

The arc of Yennefer circles and mirrors the one with Tissaia in a very emotional way. For a part, this is one the lesson she gave to Ciri and the one she took so long to understand. Without control, power is nothing. When you have control you can move mountains.

The first day in Aretusa, Yennefer tries to commit suicide because she feels that taking her own life is the only thing she can control. Tissaia tells her that doing so, she didn't have control, she was losing it. And the rectoress did the exact same thing at the end… (she lets go for other reasons though)

Ciri is at the core of the found family and she lost every one of her blood family. Emhyr is the last one and you can't say this is a nice perspective. Yet she doesn't know. Then she grew being afraid of her own heritage. Her bloodline is terrifying to her and makes her feel like a monster. And she is trying to make the best of it, expressing idealistic thoughts and wishes.

The found family is her last grip on feeling safe and having a life. She clings onto them with everything she has. She is so afraid to lose them too. And… it happens. Her mojo is to find them.

Hallucinating, in the desert she confronts her blood ancestors who push every button of her insecurities. When she relinquishes her powers, this is her last stand to protect her found family from herself. She doesn't want to be Falka and burn the world down and them with it.

But then when she kills for the first time, she loses herself. The importance of a life was one of the last of Geralt's lessons, but she succumbs to a penchant to like killing (see her face when she killed the echnea) buried deep inside, exactly like Falka. That's why she chooses to call herself after her.

For those who find this too easy, that she should be used to visions and not break. OK then, get in the same state of desperation, get lost in a desert for days, hallucinate and try to stay strong. Too long ? I thought she broke easily…

One of the things that was so touching, on the first part of that desert wandering, was how much she tapped into her found family teachings. Geralt and her witcher brothers for survival skills. Yennefer for magic. And Jaskier… for comfort.

So now Jaskier. He is a different kind of protector. We don't know much of his past in the series to know about his siblings and past traumas but the found family is everything to him. This season proves it even more blatantly. He chose Geralt as his family very early on but the real turn into a proper family member dynamic appears with Ciri. The fun uncle or even big brother.

From S2, we saw him develop a strong protector side to his personality. He is willing to help those in need. The elves. Yennefer… Also he kind of protects Geralt, even under torture. S3, within the found family he isn't the strongest member. The weakest we could say. But we see that protector side to him, in the fights for example. Helping the wounded to get to safety. Or pushing people out of the way (Valdo or the last fight with Geralt). Or even helping Radovid returning home after a heartbreak...

Ciri has the strongest protectors possible. Geralt and Yennefer. And they are teaching her their skills. She has enormous latent power. What can a simple bard do ?

Answer : he protects the last drop of childhood she has. He is the one she can be a normal child with. Playing games, even having fun of the parents (lessons of smiling, imitating them in the wood,...). He is a confort person that grounds her in her normality.

Being a comfort. This is what he does in the found family. For each member. But this is particularly moving to witness for that lost child. And hearing her sing the song he sings to her to help her sleep, trying to stay strong in the desert, tells how much he was important to her too.

The trio of Destiny isn't the only one that struggles between blood family and found family. We have other characters that are much defined by this dichotomy. Like Milva, Dara, Fringilla and Francesca.

For Milva, we just understand that her found family is the dryads, whatever happened to her and wants to forget. Dara has lost all his blood family because of one of Calanthe's army's raids. His found family is the elves led by Francesca, with whom he has a feeling of being with his kind again, until he understands the path she is taking will just send him in a very bad place. He is tired and tries to rebuild himself with the dryades.

Both of them highlight what is nursing inside of Geralt, for us to understand his last fight. Dara speaks about the hatred he carries and is going to destroy him if he doesn't stop. Milva makes him speak about Renfri and his neutrality paradox.

This is not a sign of erasing a character to make others speak in his presence and having some kind of defining moment. That character then reflects on the other, defining him by a mirroring effect. Sometimes in the same way, sometimes in the opposite direction. Heroes don't have to always say things out loud for that to exist in them. Maybe some thought that Dara and Milva were taking the spot. I did not.

Now for Fringilla and Francesca this is a bit more complex. And for them, they go down the other way around for a long time. Blood family first.

It begins with Fringilla whose uncle is a member of the Brotherhood. The magic school isn't much of a found family to her as she has an anchor there. After Yennefer switches kings with her, she ends up in Nilfgaard having a totally different life. She built strong links there and in a way she found guidance and purpose. While she tries to serve her emperor she meets the elves and makes a very strong friendship with Francesca. She begins to move forward and that alliance blossoms into something inspiring. Especially when she saves the elven bady.

But as soon as this baby is born, the loyalty of the elves shakes and what I believe was her kind of found family begins to drift away. Francesca says to her that she values their friendship but blood is more important. Fringilla will try to find the support of her uncle at some point but he refuses to help her.

This is when Fringilla becomes independent.

The rupture is particularly strongly displayed in S3 when she watches her uncle die without any feeling for him.

On the contrary, Francesca sticks by blood first at all coast, and she loses everyone brutally. Not that she is wrong or anything else to be that attached to her kind. This is just the way it turns out for her. And by the end of it, learning that Fringilla hid the real murderer of her baby, she ends up pushing her from her life, severing the last link of possible family outside her kind. She is alone with her vengeance burning inside of her. Pretty much like Dara described it. Pretty much like an old part elf woman who let the rage consume her… Mirrors again.

Vulnerabilities

Maybe the biggest character who shows vulnerabilities and is able to demonstrate love is Jaskier. This is the obvious one. And I will probably make a separate post analyzing him and Radovid this season, because the games of masks plays a big role in Jaskier defense mechanism. Let's just say for the sake of this f.cking review that this so empty relationship for the majority is there to help us understand how and when he hides his feelings, how he speaks of real love…

He is probably the most open character to emotions and shows us a lot, but, even he, tries to hide his wounds to the others. For others.

So emotional shock after another, we can assess the damages and how strong he is for those he loves.

His main weakness, if I can call it that way, is his biggest strength too. Empathy. Makes him feel too much. And his love for others (especially Geralt) plunges him in deep vulnerable emotional states. This season, this is still the case, and to a great extent too. Don't get fooled by his levity, jokes and smiles.

But let's take a look at our trio of Destiny.

Ciri is vulnerable and afraid at first but she learns to hide it more and more, until everything is unveiled during Thanedd and the desert. She is so damaged by her abandon issues and she is living her worst nightmare. When she hallucinates, all of her ancestors push her buttons, poking at this particular pain she holds.

Yennefer has many issues and she is a insecure person empowered with strong chaos. We saw her struggle to free herself from everyone wanting to control her in S1, and on top of that to have her powers back in S2. That internal urge to be the one deciding about her own destiny, to be able to have a choice.

She goes to great lengths for that. Too far. Yennefer gives Ciri two valuable lessons based on her experiences. One about control and power. The other about making choices and their consequences.

And one thing I appreciate and shows growth in her character is that she lets the one she loves see when she is vulnerable and talk about it. Ciri, Geralt, Tissaia. Even Jaskier in her own ways, since S2.

But one of the biggest growth in that field is Geralt. If I wished they included more of the book's vulnerabilities early on for him (about the fact that he believes that his mutant condition excludes him to be worth his own emotions), they didn't cut it all and he had other vulnerabilities and insecurities worth the growth.

He is emotionally constipated and has problems expressing his feelings. Not the hiding part, when he is like, I am a rock, I don't feel, but more when he has to communicate his feelings.

In S1, he tries and fails with Yennefer at the mountain. But he shows a great deal of emotions, at the expense of Jaskier though. In S2, to help Ciri he has to open up. And we find him having deep introspective moments with Vesemir. Likewise, he is a bit more open to Jaskier with whom he shares his fears.

But in S3, for the first time, he expresses his feelings and exposes his vulnerabilities to Yennefer and they connect deeply then. Also when he is wounded and healing, he is open raw for a moment.

After that he brings back his kind of neutral face, but the last fight is one of the moments he bleeds what's inside.

Also like in the books, they show that even a character that strong can be broken.

This failure brings a lot out of Geralt for the future. He wants to die because of it ! He refuses healing because he wanted to die ! The only thing that kept him alive was to have news of Ciri and Yennefer. When Jaskier finally arrives (days after) this is what he asks only. He just wants to go knowing that they are well. He clutches Jaskier's wrist because he is his last hope to have this news. He empathises with him as he struggles to deliver the informations (that subtle stroke) but he needs to know. This is a silent "please tell me Jaskier".

Then he chooses to accept the healing when he knows Ciri is still in danger. He won't rest until she is safe.

But I get that the consensus is right. Moaning in a bed. Boring as fuck. No depth in it either.

Loyalty and betrayal

Here again I could speak for days about Jaskier. His portrait should be in the dictionary next to the definition of loyalty. Even in his faux pas, he doesn't betray because his heart is in the right place. When Geralt confronts him trying to push him to Redania, they simply have an honest discussion about it.

I could speak about Yennefer's betrayal also, trying to sacrifice Ciri in S2. But I wanna highlight some secondary characters that have arcs around this.

The first one is Cahir. At the beginning of the series, he is the definition of loyalty to his leader. He has almost a religious faith (S2). But the mission given to him leads him on a path to lose that faith. In S3, he is trying to get back to a position where Emhyr valued him, and he goes to the point of killing a friend to get there. The broken mirror symbolizes that moment of shift.

(This part I could have put in vulnerabilities but I won't come back on the character sonI put it all there)

He is mirroring Ciri in his fears. She had nightmares about him. He has nightmares about her. When they face, they face their own fears. When Ciri cannot kill him he kind of pledged her allegiance, setting up his obsession to join de Hansa to save her (they may drop the weird attraction thankfully).

For him to work fully, we needed maybe one more scene between the Thanedd coup and fighting with Ciri. This is Emhyr's lie about Fringilla's death and her last little push, telling him to think by himself, that cut the last string attaching him to his emperor. But Cahir cannot live that way. What he has done is too much, he needs to be free from his guilt. Hence he asks Ciri to take his life as a price to pay for the sufferings he caused her.

But this is not how she thinks (yet) and vengeance is not her solution. Winning the fight was enough for her to overcome her fear about him. She won a silent battle.

Cahir needs redemption so he goes by the only way he knows. He devotes himself to her. This can seem blurry because he has very little screen time this season. But here we are.

Francesca is loyal to her blood kind, but trying to find a way for her species to survive she betrays some of them, losing progressively the faith people have in her. The last one to have an undefective trust in her is Filavendrel because they share the same pain, I guess.

The dramatic turn for her is that she has to sacrifice the squirrels in order to save the others. So she kind of betrays them all at that point.

Though one of her last biggest sad moments is when Fringilla tells her the truth about Emhyr. The last scene they have together is hard. All is not black and white though we can understand Francesca's deep emotion and feeling of betrayal. This is not fair for Fringilla and this settles the down path for the queen of elves.

In the secondary characters we could play all day with Dijkstra and Philippa in terms of loyalty and betrayal. The frontiers are so blurred between them two. Dijkstra is loyal to Redania to a sick extent. Philippa plays by her own rules to the point that it is unclear who she is loyal to.

But the last but not least big loyalty betrayal moment goes to Vilgefortz and Tissaia.

Technically Vilgefortz is loyal to no-one. But he played for so long with Tissaia… Their story is the evil side of what could have been Geralt and Yennefer's if Yennefer had been truly malevolent. Tissaia is echoing the deepest hurt in Geralt's heart and rewinding everything why Geralt took so long to forgive Yennefer.

(Tissaia was way more developed in the series than in the books to help building the emotions for what is lost and internal struggles for other characters)

Clinging onto the past and repeating history

That you liked it or not, despite being not lore accurate, BO has a lot of circleling and mirroring meta. Elves being the oppressors of dwarves, and humain becoming the oppressor of everyone less. Or the funny parallels between the couple Eile/Fall and Jaskier/Geralt.

The simple story of Merwyn is an example that repeats itself in history. Francesca being her mirror through the length of another elven legend.

The elven queen is one character that is very changed from the books and has a strange setup for later parts with the lodge. But she echoes some other characters, and stories. There was a symbol in S2 with the white rose that was a foreshadowing of what would happen to her as it echoed Sherraewedd of whom we learn the legend of in S3. The same way that elven warrior did, she is the one that may lead her kind of a new path of extinction, sacrificing the squirrels to Emhyr for a land for the rest of them… Cintra in place of Dol Blathanna.

And in the same way if Merwyn who had the well being of her people in mind she clings too long onto legends of the past. Willing to find a new home for them.

Btw, she is set up as a vengeresse willing to burn the world down as everything she loved was taken from her. Does she not remind you of someone who could now do the same for his found family ?

She is the circling history for a part of elven history.

For the human part, still connected to the elves though we have Falka whose story is set up in S2 and nourishes Stregobor hatred. That burning hatred is seen in many characters with the effect it has on them. Ciri relinquishing her powers in order to prevent falling in that pit too is a first step to break the cycle but what is waiting for her is a pit of darkness.

Also we have Istredd the historian that digs to unveil the mystery around the monolithes. Very quickly said in S3 but he knows about the book of Monoliths. Vilgefortz knows already about it and he is yet to unlock their power. That's why he made Istredd prisoner during the coup. That mystery is one of the key component to BO story and the Wild Hunt that is now leaking in our dimension.

And those monoliths were there before the elves came. Dwarves and gnomes venerated them.

I know people are mad about this but I think this is an easy visual anchor for the gates between realities. And if you read the books you know who can travel through dimensions… So yeah. We are circling again there with this.

And now the Thanedd coup is the shock that finally destroys the old system but nothing emerges except chaos and favors Emhyr's. The wipe of the Brotherhood is also a not too subtle nudge to women getting free from patriarchy. In this battle we see the oldest and the male fall one after another. And in this mayhem I have to admit I loved Stregobor last stand. Delightfully twisted and satisfying.

Now there is one final point because one member of the old system has survived a little bit longer…

Tissaia has a bunch of lost children under her care. Every one of them rejects the model she is trying to preserve. She believes in the fragile peace they have created and maintained with the Brotherhood.

Fringilla sees another way with Emhyr and believes in his goal for quite some time, until she has the chance to evolve by herself and she discovers the true face of the emperor.

Working with Dijkstra, Philippa sees the crack in the old system. And she sees the opportunity to take a new turn as it crumbles.

Yennefer doesn't care about the system. She wants to regain control over her life. And she opposes Tissaia on a personal level. But doing so she adds cracks into the walls. She reconnects with her mentor when she becomes a mother to Ciri, seeing finally the mother in her she always has been. Yennefer doesn't protect the old system, fighting by Tissaia's side, she is fighting for her.

The final push that lead Tissaia to commit suicide is Yennefer saying that she is their mother and that they need her. Her children don't need her anymore. She is just a relic of the past. Because they love her, they cling onto her. But they have to fly. We see her abandoning her severe mask and going soft, accepting to lose control. She cuts herself the last string that holds them to the old system. And the Lodge of the Sorceresses is that : a new power emerging from the ashes of the old one.

And there so many other little parallels that I wish I would speak about. Little pieces for us to dig and get the layers under those characters. I didn't even get into the political part. But I have to stop somewhere because I am too long...

OK but why pointing out that repeating history, the past parasitizing the present, all the time. We are going nowhere. Do you think ?

Nenneke said to Ciri that she could be the key to ending the circle of hatred and the young woman idealized it. She doesn't know how. But she wants to put an end to all this. Does she succeed ?

Well I guess that no-one cares now.

The circle of hatred had won on this side of the spheres so...

Empty, without soul, unnecessary, diversity garbage, unfaithful, no actor good enough except one… you are so many so it means you must be right. But still I love this show. I can't help it.

I hope someone would appreciate the effort of the underlying structure of my garbage. Circle and parallels...

#tws3 #i am sometimes passive agressive in there so be warn #critical #both good and bad #spoiler i love the show #if someone has the courage to read all this....#(i wish it was not limited to 10 pictures)#my potato gifs #long post #review

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popculturebuffet · 2 years ago

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Monthly Muppet Madness: Survival Street Review: Brought to You by the Letter's F and C for Fuck Captalisim (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Today's review is courtsey of viewers like you.. specifically you. Kevin. Thank you

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Monthly Muppets Madness, my look at all things muppety. And after last month's adventure with mean green mother's from outer space, we're back to more felty corners of the muppet globe with Surivial Street, a 4 issue mini series from 2022 by the writing team of James Asmus and Jim Fesante with art by Abbylay Kussainov.

Asmus is a longtime comic book writer whose work I have read before with his decent runs on Gambit, Quantum and Woody and All New Inhumans. He also co-wrote the second arc of Robert Kirkman's Thief of Theives. So while not someone I seek out, he's a solid writer.

As you can guess by the title and that awesome cover, Survival Street is a parody of Seasame Street, though heavily on the affectionte side: it's very clear from the writing Asmus really loves the show and it's goals of free education for children who might not have acess to it and teaching love and kindness are core to this book.

That said Survival Street is also over the top as hell. It's messages are as subtle as a brick to the head saying "Corproations Bad' and a lot of the book can come off as

Okay some are.. but most of them probably aren't going to listen to their bullshit being called out in the first place, let alone by muppets. The question is can this book ballance it's over the top satire with it's heart, fairly well thought out characters and comedy? Find out under the cut won't you?

We open with America: A Timeline. In 2025 in this timeline, Jury's out on ours, the Supreme Court voted to make Corporations able to run for public office. Naturally this backfired and soon corprations pulled their money out from other candidates and ran themselves, and by 2028 they've taken over the country, privitazed everything and in our proper oppening scene, invade Salutation Street, our Seasame Street expy and shut it down. It's also clear there's rampant anti-muppet xenophobia in this universe, something that will only grow worse as we cut to present day: 2031, in New Best America TM.

It's in this new corprate hellscape we meet our heroes who are traveling around america in an RV. Driving it is an expy of Gordon, Mr. Burton whose dealing with a checkpoint. As it turns out though roads are now privitazed and upon seeing a family hassled over this, our grover stand-in, Herbert decides to take a more hands on approach

This does save the people there.. but is quickly used as propoganda by the local fox news stand in. Because of a course a corporate hellscape still has fox news, every hellscape needs one or it's just not a hellscape. Their anchor is Irma, our ernie stand in, who spouts out the usual racist drivel but about muppets this time. I do like the touch of having the two headed monster be their right and left wing commentators.

We then ove to the a-plot: Junior, the president is auctoning off detained children of illegal immigrants to the highest bidder in florida, with our heroes sneaking in to stop this via the global warming flooded ocean outside.

I mean a bunch of rich assholes auctoning off children is both plausable and has likely actually happened, but it dosen't make that funny or entertaining. Junior himself is, from saying his assitant asking about his medication he stole from his daughter is a HIPPA violation to how over the top he is and it keeps things from being too GET IT GET IT CAPTALISIM BAD GET IT. It's enoguh to take me out but not enoguh to make me leave.

So our ABC team break in and we properly meet them all as they make their way through. And since the comic has really fun intro captions for each of them...

Their leader, Bert stand in and the one holding the brain cell

Kind to a fault and mostly a "master of disguise" because he's the only human they have.

Like Burton we've seen him before. Explosives expert with a short fuse. ANd god I love that gag: it's so damn dark and it should not work but it does.

Our Cookie Monster with traces of Zoey given the pigtails. I also thought Elmo but we'll meet our equilvent for him in isue 3. Kind, good at inflitration but struggling with staying clean.

Our big bird, a good strong boy whose basically big bird if he was a grown man and could also suplex you.

Their tech guy and oscar the grouch.

Our heroes begin their plan once they get it: THey found about this thanks to a fellow muppet calling for help, so now their inside they can excute the plan: Gurgle and their inside man will use card scanners that burton stole and rigged to steal all the money from the auction, explaning how they keep funded when public funding no longer exists. Hippy resuces the prisoners using his massive strength to free the kids and his kindness to help calmly guide them out, and Herbert.. nearly snaps and kills everyone and everything in his path after finding out these bastards are using the children for their organs. Thankfully Birdie is able to calm him down in one of my faviorite jokes of the mini

It's what makes this work: while the satire is about as subtle as a chainsaw through your front door wielded by a screaming goat man, the muppets in the thick of it.. still ACT like muppets on seasame street. They still have the same kindness and sensiblities.. it's just tempered into bloody action by being the only source of hope and freedom in a dystopian hellscape.

Birdie and Tony set up signal jammers so they can hyjack the procedings.. only to find out that Irma is here, gladly promoting this shit show like any republican. Birdie is naturally just the slightest bit livid her ex is promoting child organ farming but she soon has bigger issues.... desert is being served early.. and ice cream is present.

And with that Gurgle is exactly no days sober of ice cream and shit officallly hit the fan. On the bright side Shit is our word of the day. So at least there's that. Anyways our heroes are soon outgunned and out manned, with Birdie barely saving gurgle by tearing herself open and using her string to sew her up, but the two are soon cornered and Birdie does the whole save yourself i'll hold them back routine. Thankfully , Herbet dosen't listen well and when , as seen in the panels above, told not to go out loud.. he didn't listen. He rigged the place with explosives, blows up the wall holding out the water real good and floods the bitch. Our heroes valantly escape, but not before Hippy beats the every loving shit out of Junior, showing he may be nice but he has limits.

Birdie however makes a late exit as she and Irma have some words, with Birdie hyjacking her limo. So Birdie, needing some answers... asks irma a very important question

I love this page.. mostly for making Irma a more complex villian. She could easily jsut be "birdies very obvious ex who sold out"... but you see she's just someone who got broken by the fact that nothing they did mattered. She's still not a good person: she still sold out muppetkind for her own profit and is still bad.. but it's more intresting to hav ea reason why she ended up the sack of shit she is instead of just, as Birdie wondered, always having been like this.

Birdie isn't swayed and goes on with the rest of our heroes.

Issue 2. I love the structure of this series as the first three issues are all made so they can be read done in one for the most part. Ther'es a cliffhanger at the end of issue 3 but it's nice when a comic makes good use of the isdsue by issue format. Issue 4 ties it all together well, but it's still essentailly three connected stories that lead up to one big finish.

Anyways issue 2 begins with our heroes hiding in a church under a hail of gunfire: Burton and the RV are halfway across town, and it dosen't look good. We flash back to how they got there and find out WHERE they are: Hollow Point, a company town ran by the WRA, the NRA's legally distinct cousin. Yup this is a gun rights issue, with the town having become a conceal and carry paradise where people can just.. have gun duels to decide whatever and Charlton heston is naturally given an honrary statue.. and Clint Eastwood an expy in Cain Westwood.

The head of the WRA is present and naturally gives a gun to a baby.. and the satire works a BIT better this issue as frankly.. none of it's exagerated. The NRA GENUINELY want this, they genuinely talk about crying "lib tears". Clint Eastwood is an advocate for them. Their extremists probably would argue the right ot carry begins at conception. I"m not saying ALL gun owners or even nra members are this fucked, I have a friend who owns guns and keeps them in a safe, locked up where no child can get to it. But the NRA as an orginzation sure as hell is.

Our heroes try using this dueling strategy to call the WRA chairman's bluff.. but he turns it on them: since their basically challenging the law itself witht heir duel they've challenged the orginzation.. which means it's 5 muppets against a whole damn town armed to the teeth.

We then get a flashback to Herbert's childhood on M'Na N'Nam, part of the snufflpogaos islands. A muppet paradise.. until a shady buisness man shows up offering a partnership for a chemical they can find on the island.

I'm going to go ahead and cover all of this now for simplicties sake as the flashback's only two parts: Years later their leader.. has shown her true colors, fully selling out to ethe corpration and the mine as it's poinsing her people and end sup casuing an explosin.. and rather than help , the company pulls out, leaving the villiage to die in fire and Herbert forced to immigrate, barely scraping by thanks to racisim until he got the job on Salutation Street.. only to find out later his parents died on the island. It's a well done story too as horrible things like this happened all the time and without the hyper exagerated satire... it's something entirely real and entirley painful: a culture exploited and destroyed by greedy white assholery.

Back in the present the fight continues, as our heroes are held down. Thankfully Hippy and Gurgle make a distraction and do one of my faviorite manuvers: having the smaller characteer on the bigger characters shoulder. Mostly for this one scene from x-factor

Sadly Flint Westwood decides to join the party.. as does anamatronic charlton heston, so our heroes are soon on the backfoot... but not before Tony is able to complete his plan, hyjacking their cars and easily taking down the mob since, naturally their cars are also mad max murder mobiles. As for the head of the HRA himself.. well given he's sorta the lead this issue.. Herbet takes care of him personally.

He then challenges the man to a duel, though Birdie IS able to talk him down from shooting the man on live tv... but not from killing him as he shoots out the camera and impliclity finished the job offscreen.

But that leaves a vacum.. and Westwood is promoted to the job.. and given the job to hunt down our heroes. More on that later

So issue 3 introduces us to Milo, our Elmo expy. He's rich and like irma is working in the corprate hellscape. Unlike her though he's still in kids television , still talks to the others even if things are understandibly tense with most of them, and while reluctant to their request has a good reason for both taking the seemingly easier route and being reluctnat to help.

It's a scene I love a lot. Milo comes off at first like a smug asshole.. but then it's clear beneath that is someone who GENUINELY values what he's doing. It's a reminder of how important children's intertainment is... and how important it is that when you have the power to do something good and necessary, you do it, regardless of the risk.

Our heroes go to rescue the kids, who are fire fire fighters and make a good entrance enough, coming in in a garbage made recycled buggy, saving them.. but soon our party is left trecking through the wild fire. THey got in thanks to milo's friends, but it was one way. So while Gurgle finds an ice cream truck, the kids tell their tale: turns out in this dystopian hellhole future they outlawed abortion.... keep in mind this comic launched just two months after Roe V Wade was overturned, so the timing is eerie as hell. The kid they talk two's mother didn't want her born into this hellscape, got arrested for it and she got sold to corproations using her as a proxy for their crimes. The fact any of this sounds like it could become actual law at some point should spoeak to how horrifying it is. While this book isn't subtle, and it's a weakness.. it's strength is that Asmus goes just a TOUCH beyond what we have now after the first issue. The first issue is plausable, but a bit over the top. With the nra having a whole lawless western town or children being sold into slavery to work off corprate crimes... it's a lot more plausable given how fucked our legal system is and it makes it that much easier to buy.

Our heroes naturally wepp at this waking nightmare, so it's a good thing they get distracted.. the bad thing is that it's by Gurgle, trying to save her from more fire. Birdie gets horribly injured in the process and needs help NOW.

Things.. look bad as they hit a corprate checkpoint, by the same monsters that turned off the water the fire kids were using, and there's no hope of escape or out shooting them. This causes the team to break down playing the blame game.. which is bad enough.. until HIPPY of all people breaks.

This.. destroyed me. Up to this point Hippy had been the unbreakable optimis they needed.. but now .. we see that beneath his sunshine is a lot of regret, a lot of doing this because he had nothing else and feeling what thier doing.. simply isn't enough. But Mr. Burton's message is right.. and it's the messasge the book goes for: things are bad, they will probably get worse.. but we can't just give up and do nothing. As a wise vampire once said "If nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do". And to prove that point.. an old friend drops in to help

So the asholes are left to die, Milo implicitly adopts the kids having them play in his pool and Birdie wants to see them all.. only Gurgle's missing, having left in Milo's tesla. Because of course he has a tesla. Gurgle's gone.. and she's gone to the enemy

I was nervous going into this one when I first read it. The fact is this book while optimistic is still fairly dark so while I felt our heroes MIGHT win, they could just as easily loose or barely get away.

They could... but instead we get something way better.

Though to start things aren't looking great: Rufus, head of F News, is talking to a bunch of other corprate overlords including Elon Musk, suprising no one. THeir not happy that his propoganda machine isn't keeping the puppets from having an impact: Junior is facing public backlash for his child selling, the babies carrying firearms bill has been blocked.. this needs to stop. So the network cranks up i'ts proogranda, with anti-muppet racisim rising and a a puppet child attacked by some other kids. When one human girl tries to help him she gets maced.. thankfully

Things still aren't great: Birdie's recovering and Faux News trots out Gurgle.. and somehow makes a valid point, making them somehow have a point abovfe the actual fox news: apparently Gurgle used to be called "Sundae Fiend". While she says "it was a diffrent time" being remidned of it clearly bothers her.. while Rufus wants more answers: where. are. your friends.

And it seems he got them as we see a heavily armed WRA troops, with junior and westwood along for the ride and livestreaming the whole debalce. Turns out the Muppets main hq is a Salutation Station theme park. Not disneyland as Senator Disney does not want to be associated iwth muppet terrorists... again. That was their joke by the way, great stuff. Also means we might meet kermit and friends counterparts if this ever gets a sequel.

What follows.. is one of the most awesome cilmaxes to an arc i've seen in a comic. Turns out... our heroes were ready for them: they aren't the ones trapped... the WRA are. Not only that for once it's entirely legal: since Salutation Street is it' sown corpration, the park is soverign terriotiry and they entered illegally. So after all their racist, anti-immigraint retoric.. their the ones who are the actual invaders.. and are soon wiped out with rides, from a cyclotron type thing spinning some to oblivion.

To the recyling troll melting a bunch of mooks with acid and recyling Charlton Hestron into scrao abd cumilating in a one on one brawl between Bernie and Westwood which ends with Bernie killing the motherfucker via rollercoaster

The moment after it is easily my faviorite of the whole book though, with Bernie confronting the mooks left

It's a reminder that while Bernie is the quickest to kill among them, easily.. he's still a kind, good person. Just one who will cap your ass when necessary.

Faux News TRIES to use Gugle to get the narrtive under contorl.. but as you likely guessed by now, she too was part of the plan

I fucking love this issue for the setup: you EXPECT it to be our heroes darkest hour and them to barely make it out or Gurgle to at least still be a traitor.. instead? It was a plan the whole time: Gurgle finally kicked her addiction after last issue, our heroes easily take out their enemies with the home field advantage and to cap it off, we get one hell of a chekovs gun: earlier we saw mascot suits... so Birdie sends junior out, his mouth taped up in one with the recording to talk. THey shoot him down thinking hie's hippie.. and thus the presiden't sson whose also the president I guess is dead, everyone involved int he raid is entirley to blame and our heroes just got free publiclity showing THIER not the bad guys here. We wrap up as Irma flees to her dressing room... only to find a letter from birdie

And that's survivial street. It's heavy handed.. but damn if it isn't good. The jokes present land, the action is beautifully drawn and the characters are compelling. It takes what COULD'VE been a lazy joke premise, and fills it with heart and character, deconstructing PARTS of seasame street.. while at the same time remaining true to it's spirit. It's out in trade from darkhorse if your intrested, I HIGHLY recommend picking it up. And hopefully we'll see more of it again some day. But for now, we got something specil here and i"m glad I got to share it with you all.

#the muppets #seasame street #survival street #james asmus #comics #dark horse comics #puppetry #children's television #satire #review #comic books

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thequeendomhq · 1 year ago

Text

"Then, the One God said: To you, My second-born, I grant this gift: In your heart shall burn An unquenchable flame All-consuming, and never satisfied.”

Our Road Ahead

Into Hrimthur’s Wastelands the refugees went. For a month they would travel the mountain passes made of ancient stone and twisted like serpents while ice froze the world around them. Mist hung in the frigid air as they traveled up the treacherous cliffsides; the injured carried as they collectively traveled through the snow together. Peaks towered around them from all sides, fjords carved by the Gods themselves sliced the landscape as the traveler navigated narrow passages at the edge of the mountainsides.

Overhead pregnant dark clouds kept them in perpetual shadows, promising more snow would come. The reprieve of the sun’s light was distant even as they ascended through the banks higher and higher. Thin, rasping air kept them weary and their depleted rations kept them focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The Blight was beneath them now, in the valleys beyond the mountains and those with the taint had not lived long after the Nornwatch Pyre.

Like glittering stars dotting the landscape, the witchers in their mithril armor scouted to secure the road ahead. Others lingered at the rear and secured those that began to fall behind were hoisted to their feet before they were set forward again. To lag was to risk almost certain death in the coldest, most unforgiving, region of Taravell.

Into the distance, the peaks soared into the raw sky above, blotted by darkness, their summits were lost in a veil of frosted, swirling mist. In this dark, desolate landscape, there was a raw beauty that spoke of ages past, of battles fought and won, and ofsecrets buried beneath the ice. Stones that glimmered within shone at night, cascading the air with an azure hue that illuminated the snow in places. At night, Hrimthur’s mountains seemed to come alive. Breathing their sigh of auroran air into the sky once the sun set below the horizon; ribbons of these frozen lights shifted and turned about themselves. So close that they writhed atop the Iskarans’s makeshift tents, a companion in the night, but gone by morning’s faded light.

Every step forward was a struggle against the biting cold, the crunch of snow beneath their boots echoing through the silent valleys. Yet, with each passing mile, the troupe drew closer to their destination, driven by a sense of heroic purpose, or stark defiance against the shadow of death. Iskaldrik was lost behind them, Nornwatch Keep burned in the past, but the promise of Lysara hung like the north star ahead.

Nornwatch Keep was behind them now. The refugees freeing Iskaldrik were fewer, but still many. Knowledgeable of the terrain and the region, the Legion of the Dead took point. Field Commander Deidameia had died in the assault, without clear leadership the living legionnaires counciled alongside the Iskarans. Witchers, jarls, advisers, and the legionnaires had been plotting their course for weeks, all that remained was to survive.

The hysteria of Nornwatch had not ended with the executed traitors. The darkspawn’s attack was a nightmare that plagued the minds of everyone, among the troupe some hadn’t spoken since. Children wandered without parents - mothers and fathers ripped underground as the assault made orphans, and widows, out of proudly stubborn Iskarans. They had been caught completely unaware, legionnaires killed from within, and the gate left unlocked.

Our Trials We’ll Face

Those who could hunt were sent out to do so. These hunters coordinated with the witchers, legion, jarls, and advisors of the crown to mark the maps of the region with potential hunting grounds. Regions with dense forest coverage, and access to fresh water and other resources would be ideal for small and large prey. Rally points were stapled along the way so the hunters could find the troupe when they were successful, checkpoints marked along their paths through the mountains.

Alone or in small groups, hunters could travel more freely without the cumbersome nature of those who couldn’t navigate the terrain. The horses, the oxen, and the weight of the tents and other necessities for encampment. Among the hunters were legionnaires, witchers, shieldmaidens, jarls, and any able-bodied volunteer willing to risk the dangers of the mountain for assurance that the troupe would survive the travel ahead. Famine and starvation would kill them as surely as the Blight had tried.

Small, nimble predators like arctic foxes dotted the landscape - watching from a distance with useful, thick fur coats. Hares were a staple of the region, in burrows and more susceptible to snares than arrows. Both blended easily into the landscape, white like the snow and quicker than most of the creatures in the troupe, they’d be spied on in one instance, and then gone in the next. Silent hunters of the night, snow owls patrolled the skies, preying on small rodents and other birds. Moving in herds and seeking patches of vegetation beneath the snow, reindeer roam the valleys and can be tracked more easily than any other. Followed and hunted by other predators, the troupe are not the only hunters after the reindeer, but dire wolves as well. Far larger than their cousins, if those navigating the wilderness aren’t careful, they’ll become the hunted.

At night, the clouds rumbled in the distance over the greatest peaks in the valley. Groaning in anguish as dramatic clashes of rock and ice shook loose shafts of snow and ice from the sheer faces about them. Witchers spoke of Hrimthursa, towering behemoths of living mountains, battling for dominion over ancient territory. Obscured by swirling blizzards and frozen mists, the closer the troupe would come the more dangerous their journey would be. The ground trampled beneath them, and those who watched the immutable darkness of the valleys below would see the shapes of these ancient behemoths wandering through the valleys below. Felled and fallen from the summit, their footsteps echoed like thunder from the ground below.

These mountains of Ymir’s most northern Spine are home to other things beyond giants and wolves. Frost Trolls dwell in the deep, labyrinthine caverns that honeycomb through the mountains and the fields below. Cropping up through the ancient mines of an age long forgotten to the annals of time; protected from the glaring light of the sun by the thick clouds of mist, they roam in solitude or small groups hunting and gathering. Their weapons are primitive, their skin hard as stone, and their teeth are hard like daggers do not discriminate between man and beast.

Beneath the ice are the petrified children of the dark, the draugr. Wights of harrowed flesh and withered bones; soldiers from wars that predate this age of man, they are the undead minions of Lusacan’s prodigies. The draugr are vampiric in nature, however, it’s not blood they crave, but to spread their blight to those they can sink their teeth into. Like ghosts with a physical body, only powerful magic can exorcise them for good, or its antithesis can purge their forms of entropic possession. For those with the ability to do neither, beheading them and torching their bodies is an acceptable alternative. Anyone bitten by these monsters is fated to join the legions of draugr trapped within the ice.

In the distance there is a roar from a creature that will chill the bone of even the most hardened warrior. Drakes and wyverns are not foreign to the troupe, the Iskarans know these beasts from the mountains that surround their home. They are the lesser children of a greater beast though, one that has awakened after centuries of slumber, growling from the fjords around them, and threatening what little hope remains.

Our One Hope

Hrimthur’s Outpost. It wasn’t named in any text, or written down on any map, but the name was assigned by the legion rangers who traveled this region before. Shattered, stone homes that are half buried beneath snow and ice with a broken tower at its center. This evidence is all that remains of a proud city that existed in a time that the people have forgotten.

Runes dot these stones, druidic in origin but to the Iskarans they’d readily claim them as their own. A waygate once existed here but like so many other things it was broken by what they would call a cataclysm. These cold, frozen walls are the only reprieve that the refugees would find after weeks of traveling through the expanse of the wastelands. The Northern Spine of Iskaldrik that saw them trudge endlessly through snow and over ice, their rations gone, and their hope along with it.

Fires dot the battered homes and line the walls of the tower. The cold wood gathered from old pines does not burn easily, but those familiar with ironwood are well-versed in casting almost anything ablaze. Miserable nights are made more tolerable as the hunters rally at this juncture, holes cut into ice fields yield fish, and reindeer roasts over open flames with the sweet berries plucked from the cold bushes snaking out from cliffs.

It lacks the mead of a proper feast, but it’s the first good, warm meal that they’ve had in what feels like a lifetime. As the fire dims and thoughts turn towards those that were taken, the looming dangers that lurk in the dark around them are nothing when compared to what lays ahead. These Spines are too cold for the blight to survive, but Isengrim’s Embrace and the Lostlands following will yield horrors unlike any the Iskarans had yet to see. The Legion says this not to quell the flames of the lifting spirits, but to remind them of the vigilance that peace demands.

What follows is a voice, one that starts small, but is quickly joined by the crowd of refugees.

“Shadows fall. And hope has fled. Steel your heart. The dawn will come.”

“The night is long. And the path is dark. Look to the sky. For one day soon. The dawn will come.”

The One’s Taken

( tw: childbirth )

All for Mother.

It became hard to tell if you were waking or dreaming, the song guided your hands and work. This one was weak so you cleaved them in two, pulled back their skin, and cut free their entrails. Scraps for the wargs to fight over, flabby meat to fatten your pack. Sister they called you with blackened gums and pointed teeth, snapping for more as they hungered for the sweet. Brother you remarked as you beat them down, swine should learn where swine should sleep. The best of the best was for Her, the Mother of the brood for only Mother could birth the horde.

Your hands slipped between the folds as another came screeching into the world. Hideous and beautiful and yours to rear. Snapping at your ankles as you carved off scraps, the sweet, beautiful heart for Mother, but the bones left for them to suckle. Something to gnaw and carve, sharpen their teeth, and help them grow. You used to be…. You can no longer recall, but you see the fields of fire for what they are, a garden and a home so hot it might just be cold.

More. Mother screams. She needs more. You do not defy but your body moves of its own accord, enthralled and drawn about as your broken boots drag against wailing stones. In the dark, you hear a whisper, a song that reminds you of the girl who ran carefree through the woods. The one who split logs, who lifted a splintered shield, and who did not survive all this time to die nameless in a cave. Your lips part as you join her in song:

“The Shepard's lost. And his home is far. Keep to the stars. The dawn will come.”

“The night is long. And the path is dark. Look to the sky. For one day soon. The dawn will come.”

The night takes you, tomorrow you begin again.

OOC info:

The next troupe update will be on Friday, May 24th.

The Ones Taken are still captive (big sad I know), they're midwives now. Who knows, maybe someday they'll have a brood of their own <3.

After a long hike through the mountains, the troupe reached what used to be a village. RIP.

The full moon will take place after the happy song, and characters affected by the full moon will be made to shift. Fair warning, if they kill anyone in the village they'll be put down :(

Most of Taravell will now have heard about what happened to Iskaldrik, refugees are washing up on the shores of Caribella and Borderreach.

Any vessels or attempts to enter Iskaldrik have disappeared without a trace.

#tqh: troupe 1 #tqh: troup 1.hrimthur's wastelands #tqh: plot

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