#something about this arc is making me even slower than usual

[oceandiagonale]

AT LAST, ONE GUY HAS REALIZED AT LEAST SOMETHING.

✨💡✨

[ushiwhacka]

WISH I COULD | love sick! gojo satoru + gn! reader | 1,995 words | fluff | mutual pining, hurt/comfort, very idiots in love trope-y

*:･ﾟ✧ summary: set around the time of the hidden inventory arc. gojo comforts reader after they've been injured on a mission, kisses it better. but he's a bit pathetically in love about it all. *:･ﾟ✧ warnings: mentions of canon - typical violence, minor injury

The damp air of the bathroom clings to your skin uncomfortably, making it hard to breathe. You lean on the sink, trying to steady your tired limbs. The buzzing noise from the LED and your laboured breathing becoming increasingly louder with each passing moment as the quiet feeling of unease spreads through your body. You take a swipe at the foggy mirror, trying to ground yourself and ward off the onslaught of panic that was sure to follow. Two bright red cuts - one between your eyebrows and one just below your right eye - mark your skin. They are quite shallow. Probably won’t leave a scar. But they sting just enough to make moving your face uncomfortable. And they will make for an annoying reminder of a night you’d rather forget for at least a few days. 

Your hairs stand up at the change in temperature upon leaving the steamy bathroom. But the feeling is almost refreshing. You stretch your body down on the bed, clinging to your towel. Really, you just hope you are tired enough to drift off. Usually, the familiarity of your dimly lit room would provide a sense of comfort and safety. Tonight you find the silence more disturbing than anything, your eyes drifting to dark corners and the high windows. But every time you try to close them, you see the same flashing images. Its disfigured face. Sharp claws swinging too close to your neck, almost making contact. You’re not even sure if the memory is real anymore, and not just amplified and made worse by your distressed brain. But it feels real enough.

So you lift yourself off the bed, rummaging through your piles of clothes for something comfortable and clean to put on. Despite your general uneasiness you walk through the halls a bit slower than you normally would, your arms folded across your chest, gripping the loose t-shirt. Just outside, the trees are swaying in the wind, branches colliding with the windows periodically, making your skin crawl a little bit more each time. You don’t really have a destination in mind. It is late. In fact, you aren’t really sure exactly how late it is, but there is always a chance someone else might be roaming about. Maybe in the kitchen. Or by the vending machines. 

You stop in front of a familiar door. It’s almost automatic, muscle memory. Your eyes trained on the door, you consider your options. He’s not exactly the most tactful of people, but you cannot stand the thought of spending another moment alone with your thoughts. You knock gently, praying he’s fast asleep but almost immediately the door cracks open.

“Uh, hey” Gojo was clearly caught off guard. Worn out sweater hanging off his broad shoulders, he looks cozy and you feel a stab of guilt for disturbing him. “What are you doing here anyway?” He chirps. You don’t want him to know about your near-failure of a mission. You just cannot bear his smug reaction and his smart-mouthed comments. 

“Don’t tell me that semi-first grade gave you trouble?” Satoru has always had a talent for sniffing out weaknesses and he wasn’t one to hesitate or show restraint in his delivery. “I’m almost disappointed, you know.”

“Is it that hard for you to show some basic human empathy every now and then?” That was harsh. But you were disappointed in yourself, too. It shouldn’t have been such a challenging mission, but you hesitated, you pulled back. You felt that paralysing sort of fear that was almost foreign at this point, that you know cannot allow yourself to feel out there all alone.

His body shouldn’t be drowned by such a rush of guilt for simply stating the truth, yet it is. He finds no anger in your eyes. The usual curious glint replaced with dull exhaustion. Then he feels worse. He scrambles to find the right words but they simply won’t come. After all, he has never been good at this, so why would you expect anything else? But when he sees you, you, trying to steady your trembling limbs, pulling at the wide sleeves of your shirt to find some sense of protection, he wishes he was better. He wishes he knew what to say and what to do. “What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Gojo doesn’t ask about your injuries. He watches you intently, noticing every small movement of your face and every twitch of a muscle. You don’t notice how his eyes soften, how his face is tense with worry. 

“I just need some company, if that’s ok?” Need. It’s silly and maybe a bit selfish of him to be analysing your choice in words given the situation. But he can’t help the way his heart swells at the thought. You need his company. Need him. It’s not that he doesn’t usually feel needed. People need him every day. He’d argue they need him a bit too much sometimes. Well, what they need are his abilities, his strength, so they have no other choice. But you chose to come to him. The realisation makes him light-headed. His mind racing as he tries to regain his composure. 

Suddenly he is too aware of the silence hanging heavy between the two of you. He doesn't trust himself to speak, so he just opens the door wider, stepping out of the way. 

You brush past him, heading straight for his unmade bed. The room is doused in the mellow blue light radiating from the TV. Satoru kneels down to rummage through his disorganised drawer. There’s a familiar bright smile on his face as he turns to you, holding a few different DVDs. “I’ll be nice and let you choose the movie”. 

“I don’t mind. Just pick your favourite.”

He narrows his eyes and squeezes his cheeks between long, slender fingers. Arms wrapped around your knees, you follow his movements. You watch as he fumbles with the case, mumbling about the dwarves and the elves, and grey and white wizards. Sparkling, wide blue eyes hold your gaze, are you listening? It’s amusing, the exaggerated hand movements, the animated facial expressions. His overwhelming presence lulls you away from the fear and uncertainty that had so completely overtaken your every sense. 

Satoru doesn’t mean to ramble so much. But he’s so nervous and he cannot stop himself from explaining the plot of the film in great detail, making silly jokes that he knows won’t make you laugh. Suguru would tell him to shut up. Shoko would also tell him to shut up, but in a harsher, meaner way. But they’re not here to do that, and that’s exactly his problem. It’s not that the two of you don’t ever spend time alone, you do. You train together, eat lunch together, even go on longer missions together. Never like this though. You have never been so alone that he has to keep looking at you, can’t look away to still his dizzying thoughts or the blood rushing to his ears. It has never been so quiet that he could hear your rhythmic, shallow breaths, periodically interrupted by a huff in response to his nonsense. It’s so much more than he is equipped to deal with. “And then she takes off her helmet and sa-”

Of course he catches the pillow flying towards his face and snuggles it to his broad chest. He looks at you with pouty lips and wounded eyes. “Why do you always have to spoil every movie we watch?”

“Why do you always have to be mean?” He slumps his shoulders as he walks towards you.

The bed dips beneath his weight as he settles on it with outstretched legs and arms tucked beneath his head. You try to follow his lead but you’re too fidgety, suddenly overly aware of the heat radiating off his body. The way his chest rises and falls with each breath. The way his pretty eyelashes flutter. You realise then you have moved to your side, openly staring at him. You make no effort to stop yourself as the overdue exhaustion finally takes over. Your body feeling heavier with every passing moment, sinking deeper into the mattress. 

The movie is just background noise to Satoru’s struggle for self control. He tries so hard not to look, to focus on anything but the way your body curls at his side but he just cannot. So he turns to look at your face. You’re so beautiful. He always thinks you’re so beautiful. When you look at him with stern eyes, arms folded over your chest, challenging him. When your mouth is pressed in a tight line at something that annoyed you. When you laugh with your nose scrunched up, trying to hold back cute little snorts. And he always wants so desperately to be closer to you. 

Before his common sense can catch up with his body, he extends his hand, gently tracing the claw mark between your eyebrows. “Does it hurt?” Your watery eyes, heavy with exhaustion flutter open at the contact. “Just a little”. He hums in response as his hand moves to cup your face, his thumb inspecting the cut on your temple. The clean, soapy scent of his skin drowns your senses. He is so very close. And his hands are so tender, so reverent on your face. Blood rushes to your cheeks in embarrassment, and you hope he doesn’t feel your skin burning at his touch. 

Wet lips part just slightly as he meets your gaze. His chest tightens and aches with these feelings that he cannot even begin to understand. All he knows is that, in that moment, you are the whole world. The rest of it fades to black, it’s insignificant. You are gravity.

“Can I kiss it better?” He really should be embarrassed about how absolutely pathetic he is being. But he cannot find it in himself to snap out of it. He needs to be closer to you. Closer than this. He needs to show you what he could never say. Not only because he would be too much of a coward to, but because he doesn’t know if the words he needs to say exist. 

You can hear your heart pounding in your ears. But it is him that feels so raw and vulnerable, waiting for you pull away. To crash against you and not into you. 

You nod. It’s small and reluctant but it’s there. You feel as though you might never move again as he inches closer to you. His lips hover over your forehead and you can feel his warm breath on your face. Strands of his hair tickle your skin as his thumb draws circles on your cheekbone. He hesitates. 

He is crumbling at the sight of you. Eyes wide in anticipation, you feel so warm, so welcoming. And he tries to memorise every little detail. The way your soft skin feels underneath his hands, the smell of you slightly damp hair. The way your eyebrows knot just a tiny bit. The colour of your eyes. The way your eyelashes curl and move. He wants to remember it all. Just in case he never gets another chance to. 

Then he kisses your injured face. His lips so soft and warm. It’s such a careful, caring kiss but so incredibly intimate. Your whole body trembles at the sensation.  He kisses your temple too. And somehow he’s even closer. You can feel him with every particle of your being. You want to pull him into you, melt your body with his. You want him to consume you whole. But that’s not something you could ever say. So you smile into the crook of his neck, and you hope he knows that he makes everything better. 

Not another word is said between the two of you as you let yourself succumb to overwhelming fatigue. Satoru doesn’t sleep for a single moment that night. 

thank you for reading! interaction is very much appreciated! ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

@nathalunalune @utahimeow

[andorerso]

I love your last reblog about Jyn and Cassian. I know we usually think Jyn is the one always wanting to leave because it’s easier to leave than to be left one more time which makes sense but specially after Andor I think this fits Cassian too. I guess the rebel alliance is the place where he stayed the most because in a way or another he was always leaving and didn’t have many connections (as it’s implied in Rogue One) because he always felt displaced and was really trying to figure out who he really was. They fit each other so well, I’m going to cry.

mmhm yes, if I'm honest I think both descriptions fit them to an extent. but I guess I always saw Jyn as someone who's greedy for love and affection and thus greedy with the people she loves. she spent a lot of time on her own, disappointed by everyone in her life, so I see why she'd be the one who wants to leave at first, but I think that's more pre-RO Jyn and her character arc in a way was also about finding a home again. people she can call family. and not just Cassian, but she got along amazingly fast with Bodhi, Baze and Chirrut as well, and even made truce with Kay. she's close to all of them by the end of the movie. I could still see her having doubts and fears but I think ultimately, unless something happens or someone (coughs Cassian) tries to push her away, she'd try to hold onto them with an iron fist while also trying to appear super casual about it. she doesn't want to admit how much they mean to her but they do.

with Cassian, I'll admit I was thinking more about his first backstory as it's still the default to me, but yes, Andor fits too. with the first backstory though, I see a man who's been isolated and lonely for so long, who's been playing roles and putting on masks for the better part of his life, that he just isn't really used to anyone knowing him, his real self. he probably feels like he barely knows his real self. and I think he spent most of his life leaving people behind or sacrificing them for the cause (like Tivik) and he's used to that. he comes back for Jyn but I think she's an exception he didn't anticipate. I think his life as a spy didn't really allow him to form attachments or stay in one place for long, and I think even in the rebellion not many people actually know him all that well (exceptions being Kay, I like to think Draven, maybe Melshi). so he's definitely not used to being known or staying. I think even with the Rogue One team, he'd be slower to allow them close to him.

but on the flipside, I think once he gets over that, he like Jyn would be clinging to them just as fiercely. so conclusion... they're definitely once again mirroring each other

[wizardofrozz]

ARC Trooper Fives x fem!reader, Commander Thorn, OCs

Word Count: ~2.1k

Warnings: swearing

A/N: Well look at that, Thorn makes another appearance 😂 

You glanced up from the blaster rifle you were cleaning, the time on the chrono seeming to crawl slower every time you checked. The GAR shooting range was only filled to about half capacity, troopers from a few battalions blowing off steam. It was a little surprising to see so many battalions home the day before Life Day but the only color you longed to see was missing. Brown, green, orange, and of course, red littered your domain but no blue. Having your boyfriend home in time was a pipe dream but you had still held onto a sliver of hope. 

You jumped when a familiar red helmet dropped onto the counter; with a huff and an eye roll, you looked up at your most frequent guest. 

         “Come on, you’re too pretty to frown,” Thorn chuckled, leaning on the counter with a smile. You scoffed at his sweet talk and set down your rag.

         “Aren’t you supposed to be making Commander Fox want to pull his hair out?” you teased, crossing your arms.

         “Met my quota for the day,” he shot back, looking far too pleased with the idea. “Now, come on, what’s got you lookin’ so sour?”

         “Tomorrow’s Life Day,” you sighed, setting your crossed arms on the surface beside Thorn. 

         “Do you hate the holiday or something?” he wondered, resting his chin against his red shoulder bell. 

         “No,” you snorted, dropping your cheek onto your arms to see him better, “but I was hoping a certain someone would be home to celebrate.” Thorn hummed, tilting his head back in understanding and you hated the pity shining in his eyes. 

         “Well, what are you going to do instead?” 

         “What I usually do,” you mumbled, silently laughing at Thorn’s curious expression. “When I was a kid my parents took me to volunteer at the soup kitchen in our town the day before Life Day. A few other families did the same thing but I think I’m the only one that enjoyed it so it’s my yearly tradition now.” Thorn’s smile lost its usual mischief, shifting his face into a softer expression.

         “You know, for a while, I had lost hope in nat borns,” Thorn stated, unfolding his arms to rest a gloved hand on your arm, “then I met you. You’re one of the few that remind many of us clones that good people exist.”

         “She’s the best of the best.” You jolted, lifting your head at the sound of another familiar voice, and nearly tripped over your own feet. Twinkling honey eyes were the first thing you noticed, his thousand-watt smile being a close second. 

         “Lucky man,” Thorn laughed, bumping hips with Fives. 

         “You’re home,” you breathed, blinking rapidly just to make sure he wasn’t an illusion. Fives laughed when you lunged over the counter, pulling him into an awkward hug but you didn’t care how ridiculous it looked. Fives ran a soothing hand across your shoulders, turning his head to hide the kiss he pressed to the side of your head. The need to feel him, to know he was really there was almost overwhelming but you held off. Relationships were no secret amongst the clones, hells, even you had met a few of the 501st and the Guard’s partners, but outside of the GAR, most people weren’t that accepting. The senate included. 

         “I guess you missed me,” Fives teased, reluctantly pulling away. You shot him an unimpressed look that only seemed to make his smile grow wider as he held his hands up.

         “Yes, I did, smartass,” you huffed, chewing on the inside of your cheek. The last thing you wanted to do was give him the satisfaction of getting a smile out of you, although based on Thorn’s fond eye roll, you were failing miserably at hiding it. 

         “Be good you two,” Thorn ordered playfully. Fives shot the commander a two-finger salute that Thorn just waved off before he disappeared through the front doors. The chrono showed you had less than an hour left of your shift and your stomach fluttered. 

         “So, princess,” Fives started, leaning against the counter, “where’s the soup kitchen you usually go to?” You nearly dropped the rifle you had picked up again, staring at Fives with wide eyes.

         “What?” 

         “Your tradition. Where do you usually go?” 

         “We - no, this is your first Life Day on Coruscant,” you argued, carefully setting the weapon aside. “We’ll do something fun.” The infuriating little smirk that you secretly loved lifted the corner of Fives’ mouth and he glanced around before reaching for your hand.

         “That’s fine but I want to experience your tradition too,” Fives insisted, squeezing your fingers. “I missed out last year because I was stuck on the Resolute in the middle of a campaign so let me tag along this year.” You just gaped at your boyfriend for a moment. In all honesty, you didn’t think Fives would have any interest in volunteering after facing death for nat borns almost daily. 

         “Are - are you sure?” you sputtered. Fives shook his head with a faint smile and squeezed your hand again, waiting for you to meet his eyes. 

         “I’ll meet you at your apartment in two hours,” Fives stated, leaving no room for argument. He quickly pulled your hand closer so he could press a light kiss to your knuckles before letting go. You could only watch him grab his helmet and stroll out of the shooting range, still stunned into silence. 

         “I’ll ask you one more time,” you started, dodging a preoccupied Ithorian.

         “I wish you wouldn’t,” Fives mumbled, directing you with a light nudge to your back. You shot him a dirty look over your shoulder that was met with a cheeky grin from under the hood of his poncho. “You’re worrying too much.”

         “No, I’m being realistic,” you huffed, lightly elbowing him in the ribs. It was still a little odd to feel soft flesh instead of hard plastoid. 

         “Is that what that’s called?”

         “Blow me, asshole,” you grumbled, stifling the urge to cross your arms. 

         “If you had a dick, I would, dear,” Fives snickered, pinching your side and forcing a startled yelp out of you. You almost wheeled around with a retort when you realized the Level 2685 soup kitchen was within view. 

         “No turning back now,” you noted, jerking your head toward the crowded building. You led Fives through the mob of people waiting their turn, smiling or waving when someone looked in your direction. Fives stiffened slightly, shuffling a little closer to your back; you crossed your fingers that his DC-17 was hidden well enough. The doors were already open and your eyes immediately landed on the red, female Devaronian running the show, a smile lighting up your face.

         “I thought you ditched us!” Veme shouted with a smile full of sharp teeth. Veme weaved through the other volunteers and enveloped you in a tight hug, a few strands of her silver hair that fell from her bun tickling your nose.

         “I’d never leave you hanging,” you giggled, pulling back to smile at your friend. Perceptive brown eyes darted over your shoulder, immediately noting the figure lingering close by. 

         “And you brought a friend,” Veme purred, nudging your arm. Fives forced his attention to the conversation and pushed off his hood, smiling at the Devaronian. You choked on a laugh when Veme blanched, her mouth falling open. You’d seen her personally escort a drunk Weequay out, temporarily take in a young homeless Twi’lek, and defend herself against a handsy Rodian. Yet you’d never have guessed that the most well-known face in the galaxy would be what threw her for a loop. 

         “Hello, ma’am,” Fives greeted, putting on his most charming smile. If you hadn’t been volunteering with Veme for so many years, maybe you would’ve been concerned by her silence but you knew how much she appreciated the clones. 

         “H-hi, sweetheart,” Veme stammered, blinking a few times and managing a smile. “Aren’t you a surprise?”

         “Vee, this is Fives,” you stated, stepping aside enough that Fives could offer a handshake. Veme seemed to finally get her brain back online and grabbed his hand, cradling it between both of hers. 

         “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Veme beamed, squeezing his hand. “I’m Veme, I run this place.”

         “It’s very admirable, what you do here,” Fives said sincerely, glancing around with a smile. Veme laughed, shaking her head and you already knew where the conversation was heading.

         “Let’s shelf this conversation,” you laughed, standing on your toes to scan the line of volunteers. “Where do you need us?” Veme released Fives’ hand, ‘accidentally’ elbowing you with a smothered grin, and rested her hands on her hips. 

         “Jasi could use your help with the bread,” Veme mused, her eyes bouncing around the room. Her attention lingered on an unfamiliar human halfway down the line before she looked over at Fives. “Think you can handle ladling soup?” 

         “If I can’t do that, maybe I should leave the army,” Fives joked, crossing his arms. 

You sighed, although it sounded far too fond. “Be good, please.” 

         “I’m an angel,” Fives gasped, resting a hand over his heart. Veme giggled behind you and you wished he didn’t look so fucking cute. 

         “Rex would beg to differ,” you snickered, arching a brow. Fives took a step closer, one of his large hands cupping your elbow as he leaned in with a more sober expression. 

         “Don’t worry, princess, I’m looking forward to doing this.”

         “Find me if you need me,” you whispered, reaching up to squeeze his bicep. 

Everything was a bit of a jumble as you moved back and forth from the kitchen to the dining hall. Jasi, the older Kel Dor baker entertained you with sweet stories about his children and grandchildren as you worked but that didn’t stop your mind from wandering to the clone stuck in the thick of the action. Finally, after about two hours you managed to slip into the dining hall for a bit of a break, moving to Veme’s side out of habit. 

         “Now, tell me, where’d you found him?” Veme asked. You followed her line of sight, finding Fives with almost no effort. He was smiling at an old Twi’lek woman, nodding along to whatever she was saying with rapt attention. You watched his lips move as he replied and almost scoffed when the yellow Twi’lek blushed. Fives, always the charmer. 

         “Fives and his brothers always stop by the range when they’re on-world,” you replied, trying to not sound as lovesick as you felt. 

         “Everyone I’ve talked to adores him,” Veme noted with a smile. The Twi’lek gently tapped Fives’ cheek, and to your surprise, his ears started to turn pink at what she was saying. He gently squeezed her hand before she walked off and he was forced to acknowledge the next person in line. 

         “He’s a good man,” you whispered, suddenly overwhelmed with love for your ARC trooper. 

         “So back to my original question,” Veme snickered, nudging your shoulder, “where’d you find him?” Your laughter was louder than you meant, accidentally drawing Fives’ eyes and you waved, swooning a little when his smile brightened. 

         “Sorry, he’s one of a kind and he’s mine,” you said, holding back a dreamy sigh. You stood at Veme’s side for a little longer, watching Fives interact with the lower levels of Coruscant like he was born to do it. You eventually had to go back into the kitchen to give Jasi a break, letting out a slightly disappointed sigh as you turned away.

A few hours and hundreds of bowls of soup later Veme was chasing you and Fives out with the threat of bodily harm. The trip upward to your apartment was quiet, Fives gladly letting you use his shoulder as a pillow. Finally, after your door slid shut he was sweeping you up into a bone-crushing hug and burying his face against your neck. 

         “Thank you,” Fives mumbled against your skin. You leaned back, trusting Fives to keep you upright, and raised a brow.

         “For what?” 

         “For sharing that with me,” he whispered, lacing his hands behind your back. “I really liked doing it. Talking to all those people.” After fighting the urge for so long, you almost hesitated before catching his lips in a tender kiss, cradling his scruffy face. 

         “Tell me about it,” you urged, resting your forehead against his. His answering smile sent your heart rate jumping and you kissed him again just because you could. “Okay, now you can tell me.”

         “Okay, so…” Fives started, mindlessly steering you toward the nearby couch. You curled up in the corner opposite Fives and listened with a loving smile as he animatedly recounted all the beings he came in contact with in grueling detail but you didn’t mind. There were very few times you got to experience this kind of pure, innocent joy with Fives. 

You weren’t going to waste a second of it. 

25 days of Life Day Masterlist

Taglist: @sleepingsun501​ 

[likeshipsonthesea]

want

coda fic for 6x07 Cursed a.k.a. the episode where we all heard way too much about buck’s baby batter (blame @somaybeamystery for that one). i had a lot of feelings about that episode and the way they handled it--mostly it being for comic relief--so here’s a more serious, introspective look at buck’s donation arc, and what i hope happened after 6x07

warnings for infertility references and references to the buckleys/daniel

“What’s with the sand?” Buck sweeps a hand toward the light dusting of sand Eddie’s created by taking off his shoes on Buck’s welcome mat. 

“Ah, shit, sorry.”

Buck rolls his eyes. “I own a vacuum cleaner, don’t worry.”

Eddie elects to ignore their usual argument over Buck’s stupid-smart vacuum cleaner and answer the question anyway. “I just dropped Chris at Andrew’s house for a sleepover and didn’t have time to change after his surfing lesson.”

“Is Andrew the one with the ridiculous video game set-up?”

Eddie smiles but shakes his head. “No, that’s Ricky. Andrew’s the one with the gerbils.”

“Ricky gerbils, got it.” Buck nods slowly and goes silent, continuing to nod at nothing slower and slower until Eddie’s nearly forgotten why he’s nodding at all. He puts the six pack he brought down on the counter and the sound makes Buck snap his head back up, eyes refocusing on Eddie rather than somewhere in the distance.

Eddie lifts his eyebrows. “You good?”

“Yeah,” Buck says, belated. “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.”

Eddie can tell by the way Buck’s jaw twitches that he’s worrying the inside of his lip. He’s been doing it so often lately that he even refused Eddie’s tomatoes over lunch during their last shift—he didn’t say it, but Eddie knows it’s because he’s broken the skin and the acidity of the tomatoes would sting.

“What do I do about it?” Eddie asked Frank, during their last session.

“What do you want to do about it?” Frank replied, infuriating as always.

“Ask him what’s wrong.” Eddie shook his head. “But if he wanted to talk about it, he would.”

“Then you have to choose,” Frank said sensibly. “Either don’t ask and stop worrying about it until he brings it up, or ask and deal with the consequences.”

Eddie hates when Frank doesn’t give him an easy answer. Not that Frank’s ever given him an easy answer. Honestly, Eddie hates almost everything about therapy, except the getting better part.

Eddie takes a deep breath. “You tell me to shut up, I’ll shut up and we’ll drink and watch the game and I won’t say another word about it,” Eddie says, and almost doesn’t continue when Buck looks at him with his big dumb eyes, so lost Eddie wants to do something stupid like invite him home or kiss his freaking forehead. “But I know there’s something wrong, and if you want to talk about it, I want to listen.”

Buck stares at him for several long seconds. Yeah, Eddie’s surprised with himself, too.

“I, uh.” Buck ducks his chin, looking down at his kitchen counter. He has both hands curled around the edge of it, his fingers spread wide, the skin going stark white with the pressure he puts on them. “I had my donation appointment today.”

Eddie’s face does something drastic at that, but he has an extra second before Buck looks up to school his expression into something neutral and open. 

“Oh?” Eddie says, because he’s not sure what else to fucking say and it works well enough for Frank when he’s trying to get Eddie to keep talking.

But Eddie must not have done it right because Buck looks back down at the counter and nods again, just saying, “Yeah. Yeah.”

“So.” Eddie tries to think of the appropriate thing to say when your best friend (and the guy that several therapy sessions would indicate you’re stupidly in love with) tells you he’s donated his sperm to a couple you’ve never met. “So, uh. It’s all done, then?”

Buck’s shoulders tense as he presses even more weight into his hands. Fuck. Eddie probably should’ve just gone with “congrats.”

“It’s not,” Buck says without looking up. Eddie winces. He didn’t know about this whole thing until yesterday, but if he did, he might’ve seen this coming. It would be hard for anyone to father a child and then just not be involved in the kid’s life, let alone Buck, who clings to everything in his life like it’s going to be taken away if he loosens his grip. Eddie’s pretty sure that’s why he eats the way he does—like someone will take away the plate if he doesn’t finish fast enough. Knowing there’s a kid out there with a part of him in them but not being allowed to see them, raise them, love them—Eddie could’ve guessed that would kill Buck.

But it’s not Buck’s kid.

“It is over,” Eddie says as gently as he can manage. “You did your part, and now it’s over.”

“No, I didn’t—” Buck’s jaw clenches and releases. “I rescheduled.”

“Second thoughts?” Eddie asks, trying not to sound hopeful. If he knew the couple, he might feel a pang of sympathy for their situation, but he only cares about Buck, so he can’t manage anything but relief.

Buck shakes his head abruptly and Eddie’s relief fizzles in his chest. “No, no—not—not like that.”

“The moon wasn’t in the right position, then?” Eddie tries for a smile and grins when he gets one, accompanied by a soft huff of laughter and the slight loosening of Buck’s shoulders.

“No.” Buck glances up, smile still playing at his lips. “Not anything like that.”

“Then why reschedule?”

Buck sighs deeply, his shoulders falling further. “When Connor and Camryn asked me, I did all this research.” He gestures aimlessly with one hand as he speaks. “What to eat, how much to exercise, how involved people tend to be, how donor-born people feel about the whole thing. I wanted to do it right, you know?”

Eddie nods, smiling faintly. He’d expect nothing less from Buck.

“Well, uh.” Buck rubs at the back of his neck with his gesturing hand. “One thing they recommended was to abstain from, uh. Giving your own sample. Before the appointment.”

Eddie nods in a totally casual and not incredibly controlled way because he’s a normal friend that’s not going to be weird about his best friend’s ejaculations. Mhmm.

“Well. I was supposed to have my appointment a month ago. But stuff kept getting in the way. The tech fainted, the power went out.” Buck gestures dismissively. “All this stuff.”

“So it’s been a month since…?”

Buck smiles tightly. “Yup.”

“So you’re…”

“Pretty pent-up, yeah.”

“Ah.” Eddie imagines a small box with a lid and puts the thoughts and feelings he has about this information into that box, then puts that box into another box, and repeats that process until he can take a deep breath without wheezing. It’s a neat little trick he learned when he was a kid. He calls it the box method. Frank calls it repression. “So, how does rescheduling help with that?”

Buck doesn’t answer for long enough that Eddie considers just offering to turn on the game, but the little wrinkle between Buck’s eyebrows keeps Eddie from speaking. Finally, he says quietly, “My Jeep broke down on the way to the appointment. Between the pressure of doing it for Connor and Camryn and the whole thing at the station yesterday, and the frustration of saving up for so long, I just. Wanted to get it over with. So I ran. I ran through the streets, almost knocking people over, got there with four minutes to spare, and the nurse gave me a cup and a magazine and left me alone in the room and I just.”

Buck screws his mouth to the side.

“I was sitting there. Sweaty, breathing hard, looking at this cup. And it just—didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel—I wasn’t—I forgot. With all the secrecy and special diets and whatever, I forgot why I was doing it in the first place.”

“Why are you doing it?” If Eddie were Frank, he wouldn’t have asked. But Eddie’s not an impartial party, he’s half in love with his best friend and he has no fucking clue why he’s agreed to this whole thing, and he just really wants to know.

The tension in Buck’s face releases slowly until he’s got a faint smile sitting on his lips, eyes firmly on his kitchen counter. “It’s awkward, unbelievably awkward, to ask someone for their sperm. The whole thing—wine and dining me, explaining to someone you haven’t seen in years this seriously intimate thing, talking about sperm count and donation appointments. Most people, you get pregnant, it’s easy. No awkward conversations, no third parties. This whole thing is awkward and stressful and takes five times as much work.” Buck looks up, meeting Eddie’s eyes. “Even if I wasn’t sure they’d be awesome parents, and even though I don’t know if I’m going to deal with the whole “having a kid without being a parent” thing well, I’d still do it. Because I know without a doubt that they want this kid more than anything in the world, and this kid is going to grow up knowing that.”

Just like that, Eddie gets it. This is probably the furthest thing you can get from having a kid for spare parts. That comprehension must be evident in his face because Buck looks away again. Clears his throat.

“I know it’s dumb,” he says, self-deprecating and minimizing, and Eddie could just shake him and yell you matter, you asshole, but he doesn’t. He thinks Frank would be proud, though, both for having the thought and restraining himself. “But I was sitting there in that room and I knew that if I donated in that moment, it wouldn’t be because I wanted this kid for Connor and Camryn, it would be because I was frustrated and stressed. So I rescheduled.” Buck worries at the inside of his lip for a long moment before adding, “Every part of this kid’s existence should be because they’re wanted.”

Eddie loves him. It surges in him at random moments, overwhelming and sweet. It’s happened more and more often since he’s been working with Frank. He’s never said it aloud, but he thinks dealing with all his other shit has left more room in him for love. Different flavors of it—pride and joy when Christopher talks about his newest science project, contentment and warmth when he’s squished between Hen and Chim on the firehouse couch, delight and surprise when he listens to his dad’s misadventures in retirement. Buck’s somehow all of those flavors in one bite, bursting across Eddie’s tongue like a well-executed recipe.

“I didn’t think I could feel like that anymore,” Eddie told Frank once, stilted and embarrassed and probably too honest, but pleased anyway.

Sometimes it hurts. Hurts with how big it feels, hurts with how much it is, hurts because this person he loves so much it’s stupid doesn’t see how much he’s loved—or how he should be loved. All the shit Buck’s been through with his parents and his near-deaths and his unlucky love life and he’s still so fucking kind. Reckless and impulsive and self-destructive to the point that he blows up everything within the blast radius, sure. But still so unrelentingly kind.

“It’s not dumb,” Eddie finally manages to say through all the cresting emotions in his chest. Buck looks at him, surprised, wide-eyed. “I don’t think it’s dumb at all.”

Buck cracks a smile, the one Christopher pilfered from him, the one Eddie gets when he relents to “five more minutes” of video games. A smile of victory and surprise. A smile of gratitude.

“Thanks, Eddie.”

Too honest, Eddie says, “Anytime.”

Eddie only lets Christopher have another five minutes half of the time he asks for it, but Buck? Eddie would choose that smile on Buck’s face over almost anything else.

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 3/5

Book Blurb: This captivating sequel to The Buried and the Bound draws readers into the twisted and irresistible world of the Fair Folk—perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and The Hazel Wood.

As a new coven, Aziza, Leo, and Tristan faced evil and triumphed. All that’s left is to put their lives back together, a process complicated by the fallout from painful secrets, the emotional and physical scars they now carry, and the mysteries that still haunt them.

But with the approach of the solstice comes the arrival of strange new visitors to Blackthorn: the Summer Court, a nomadic community of Fair Folk from deep in Elphame. They’ve journeyed to the border between the human world and fairyland, far from their usual caravan route, to take back something that belongs to them—something Leo’s not willing to lose.

Refusing to give up without a fight, he makes a risky deal with the Summer Court’s princess and regent. The challenge she proposes sends Coven Blackthorn into the farthest, wildest reaches of Elphame.

But when you play games with the Fair Folk, even winning has a cost.

Review:

The sequel to The Buried and the Bound further delving into faerie politics, risky deals, and fights. Aziza, Leo , and Tristan have survived the hag... only to now face a new threat. The Summer Court, a nomadic community of Fair Folk from deep in Elphame. They've come back and want one thing: Hazel, Leo's changeling sister. Leo will do anything to keep her safe. Tristan is still keeping it a secret that he is Leo's forgotten true love and Aziza is dealing with the mystery of her family and a new librarian witch in town who is hiding many secrets. The three friends will have to find a way to work together to stop the threat at their door or risk losing each other. This is the second book in the trilogy and I can't wait to see how the story ends and where the characters go next. This one was a little less exciting than the first book, it kind of felt stagnant at certain points, but that does not mean this was a bad book in any way, it was just slower than the first one. I loved the first one a lot and this one was a pretty decent follow up to the story, it does suffer a bit from sequel syndrome, however I am excited for the third book. Aziza is my favorite hedgewitch trying to protect her coven and find out about her family. I wish there was a bit more progress in Leo and Tristan's cursed romance but alas, that is fort he next book. I did enjoy the fae court we got to see and how Leo played into it too. Overall its an interesting way to see how the story had continued and I look forward to the final book.

*Spoiler: Leo is the new prince of the summer court and he sacrificed his eye in exchange for the ability to see past all fae tricks (deal with the nymphs) while his sister hazel has gone off to train with the fae. Leo and Tristan end up sleeping together. Aziza finds out more about her family and what happened to them and meets some of the former members of her mother's coven. One of the members, Castor Thorn, had betrayed her family and was helping the faeries.*

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Roaring Brook Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[inkblackorchid]

I was doing a re-read of some of your work (love it by the way! I love it when writers take away things from canon and go wild on extrapolating their own take of it, it’s my favourite type of works I like reading! You’re really in depth with focusing on a character’s motivations and fears and driving it home in their own arc you spin in ways that are so satisfying and makes complete sense considering on who they are and what defines them. The girls really needed some love and I’m glad you give Aki and Carly this kind of attention, and don’t ever apologise for your word count! I love tearing through a writer’s words and thoughts and noticing more things on re-reads!), and I just noticed something that I missed the first time around. Crow grumbles about Jack missing the groceries because he cruised around with Carly, so did they go on a casual motorcycle ride on their d-wheels on the freeway or a turbo duelling date? It’s funny to think they’ve come a long way developing in the background of the Brimstone series while Aki’s having a whole emotional rollercoaster with her powers. Carly’s runner has less horsepower, so if that’s the case then Jack would have to accomodate for it by driving a little slower than he usually does? Or would Carly just not care and gas it anyways to maybe Jack’s surprise? This would extend to Aki just cruising around with the gang as well right? Even having some turbo duelling practice with Yusei or just having a fun drive around together, kinda picturing the gang or even just Yusei just rocking up when Aki’s classes are over and picking her up to drive back home with, this time side by side on a runner and not haphazardly slapped on the back of Yusei’s runner.

First of all, thank you! I'm always happy to hear people like my stuff! And "taking things from canon and going wild on extrapolating my own take on it" pretty much sums up how I operate in 5Ds fanfics, haha. I'm honoured you think my characterisations are that good—they're defnitely something I spend a lot of time on. For me, characters make a story, so I try to really do them justice. I'm always happy to hear that people don't get exhausted at the sheer length of my stories, too. I worry about narratively overstaying my welcome sometimes, so it's reassuring to hear when people say they like the long stories.

Ah, yes, you're talking about the moment near the end of Be Careful, right? As far as that Jack/Carly date going on in the background is concerned, I intentionally left that vague. They could very well have been duelling, since I think Carly is at that point more than gutsy enough to just challenge Jack out of the blue sometimes, but it's just as fair to assume they just went for a nice drive—plenty of neat tracks for that in NDC, anyway. I do actually still wanna dig into that Jack/Carly development I so often hint at in the background, but with the way Aki's holding my brain hostage atm, the Carly fans are going to have to be patient a little longer. And less horsepower or not, Carly would absolutely challenge Jack to a race. Sure, she'd also appreciate a leisurely drive where they're just cruising side by side, but I think sometimes, she'd like surprising him a bit.

I think Aki and the boys absolutely just drive around and turbo duel for fun sometimes, Aki and Yusei especially. I think she takes any advice on turbo duelling she can get from the boys to keep up in the WRGP, and between Yusei, Jack, and Crow, that's nothing to sneeze at, they do know a fair amount of tricks.

And Yusei picking up Aki from school just because he can is a very sweet mental image, thank you for that anon! Headcanon accepted. <3

[redstringraven]

found this while moving posts between blogs and wanted to do it for raphneth. a bit of self-indulgence, as a treat.

send me a pairing and I’ll tell you who:

falls asleep on the couch

they both do. gwyn has little to no "sleep structure/schedule", and she basically only sleeps when she decides she needs it. the turtles are usually active at night, whereas gwyn can only be human-passing during the day, so she might snag sleep according to how she intends to spend her time. by the time she and raph are dating she's comfortable sleeping around anyone who lives in the lair, so grabbing naps on the couch instead of on her cot (or eventual bed) is no issue. sometimes she even prefers it. raph has just slightly more structure to his sleep schedule due to regular training sessions, but he's not too much better. for the most part he prefers sleeping in his room/in his hammock, but if he happens across gwyn dozing on the couch, he'll flop down with her. there's also a period during gwyn/ash's story-arc where he severely struggles with sleep and tends to grab naps on the couch or in places around family members, so he doesn't wake up alone.

makes friends with the neighbors

surprisingly? i'd say raph. it's no secret raph's ran into a human or three and wound up befriending them in one way or another while he's out getting some air. raph's prickly, sure, but he's willing to take pause and help those who can't help themselves, sometimes forming relationships in the process. gwyn is sus of any and everyone by default, and this hesitation to 'make friends' sticks around for a good long while even after 'her story' winds down. if leo's the one usually willing to help any and everyone while raph searches for any strings attached, raph is the helper now and gwyn is the one scrutinizing potential ulterior motives. gwyn is more than aware of how genuinely kind the boys are (she has first-hand experience), and their sincere generosity and selflessness will NOT be taken advantage of; not on her watch. (she is especially protective of leo in this regard, as leo tends to extend compassion and an open hand toward those who don't deserve it). this, of course, isn't to say gwyn won't eventually grow to like said 'neighbors'. just, if raph's slow to 'open up', she tends to be much slower. with a handful of exceptions to the rule.

is the adventurous eater

they both are, but gwyn slightly more-so. i think both raph and gwyn have gone through periods of their life where they didn't have the privilege to be picky about what they ate. raph's was likely more in his youth/early years when splinter was the only one responsible for feeding them, and it faded out at least a little as the boys became more capable of finding and getting food for themselves--as well as meeting casey and april. gwyn's period of food insecurity was much more recent, and she sometimes still behaves as though access to food will be taken away from her. the reason i say gwyn might be the more adventurous eater is primarily because gwyn has more experience with food across the universe. raph might hesitate a bit if something foreign is put down in front of him, questioning if it's actually food (i'm sure he remembers mikey getting food and floor wax confused), whereas gwyn would go "yeah it's food" and shove it in her mouth without pause. i imagine raph would also struggle with bugs being common snacks in various cultures; gwyn wouldn't bat an eye.

hogs the covers at night

raph. gwyn's not only used to colder climates and environments, she prefers them. she doesn't mind raph cocooning himself in whatever blanket they have; she'll usually end up curling around him, too, so her body heat provides a bit more warmth.

forgets to do the dishes

neither of them 'forget'. raph will do the dishes when it's his turn in the family rotation, and gwyn will fill in for mikey when mikey """"forgets"""" to do the dishes (or argues that since he cooked, he doesn't have to do them).

tries to surprise their partner more often

neither? i don't think either of them really go out of their way to create a surprise, the surprise element comes more from that they, individually, just didn't expect certain gestures. like. gwyn bringing raph home a bouquet of flowers. to her this is an obvious gesture--the flowers reminded her of him, her culture values plant-life and she values him--but raph is kind of taken aback by it (in a very good way). outside of situations like that, neither of them are too fond of surprises nor enjoy being surprised. and they know this about each other, so... they simply do not try.

leaves dirty laundry on the floor

gwyn, mostly on account of being the only one who really has 'laundry' to leave on the floor. she's usually pretty good about at least keeping it to one place if it's not already where it's "supposed to be". raph doesn't like wearing clothes that much, but he has a punching bag he slings his biking jacket over when he's not using it.

stays up til 2 AM reading

neither of them are big enough readers for reading to be the reason they're up at 2am.

sings in the shower

raph. it's canon. this dumbass sings in the shower. while song is a huge aspect of liáfsian culture, gwyn tends to be utterly silent in the shower. it's a vulnerable position to be in, and she tends to be as 'small and quiet' as she can be when doing things like that, as well as doing it as quickly as she can. get in, get out. done. as the years pass, however, i can see her easing up enough to start humming or singing liáfsian songs while in the shower IF raph is nearby. him being in earshot/in the room provides an element of security, because nothing can sneak up on her. raph also starts learning aspects of liáfsian culture and language as the years pass, too, so he might even know a few songs. he's obviously not the stronger singer of the two, but. who cares? it's nice.

takes the selfies

i don't think either of them like having their picture taken, so they aren't a couple who takes selfies. if they're going to appear in photos, it's going to be because someone else is taking photos of them, like bree or april. during gwyn's story-arc, she hates having photos of her taken and will either hide the photos or destroy them outright. post-story, she's a bit more relaxed about it but might get twitchy if a camera comes out OR if she realizes someone took a photo of her without telling her first. raph can get grouchy about it, but the people who would be taking pictures of him in the first place are people he already trusts and loves.

plans date night

they rarely 'plan' dates. usually their dates are just like "hey, y'wanna hang?" "yeah, sure." and they head out on either foot or on the shell-cycle. every now and again one of them will have a loose 'plan' or maybe a sense of direction/something specific they want to introduce the other to, but for the most part they just kind of see where the wind takes them.

[crestfallencrest]

if you're taking prompts from that list - "so when were you going to tell me the truth?" with whoever you want from vesperia

Prompt: "So when were you going to tell me the truth?" Pairings: Platonic Yuri & Estelle, Slight Flynn/Yuri (Like just a mention, not even enough to tag it) Genre: Angst with some comfort Warnings: Spoilers for the end of the Second Arc of the game. Word Count: 4,290

I'm always taking writing prompts! Feel free to send some or a request if none of the prompts catch your eye! Just remember that I have a right to turn it down! Summary: Estelle listens in on an argument between Yuri and Sodia and learns something that was never meant to be heard.

Notes: Sorry for the delay on this request! I originally wanted to do a oneshot surrounding Judith and Rita's relation to one another but I hadn't had the time to read deeper into it. And then I thought about Yuri and Sodia and The Great Stabbing tm and my anger about its wasted potential and, as much as I love the fics where Flynn finds out, we need more fics of the OTHER members of the crew finding out. So here we go!

===

Estellise felt like her heart could burst in excitement.  

It had been a good few months since she had last seen one of her closest friends, Yuri Lowell, in the flesh. She had written to him almost weekly, keeping him updated on her life in Halure with Rita, keeping him updated on Rita’s research (‘Rita created this weird little box that is able to warm up food that has gotten cold. It was going so well until we tried to put metal into it. That didn’t end so well’), keeping him updated on her newest book she was writing, even going so far as to give him a sneak peek from it. 

Estelle understood that Yuri was busy so he couldn’t write to her as much as she wrote to him. But she was fine with that! She understood he was busy, especially with Brave Vesperia picking up in popularity nowadays. She appreciated the few times that Yuri responded, rare as they were. She enjoyed hearing about the jobs that he and the others got, how the others were doing (Karol was almost as tall as Yuri now! She made a mental note to go visit soon! She had to see for herself!) and about how Dahngrest was doing nowadays as well. 

She treasured every letter she received from her friend, making sure to save them in a box that she kept, full of letters she had received from friends over the years. 

Despite the letters though, she hadn’t seen Yuri in a while so she was over the moon when she arrived at the castle in Zaphias and saw a familiar looking canine with sword attached to his hip that was taking a sun nap by the front gate. Upon seeing Repede, she nearly jumped for joy as she let out a joyous cry as she ran over to pet the sleeping dog. 

As usual, Repede was awake in an instant and dodged her pets with ease, once again emerging victorious in their constant game of ‘Keep away.’ (“It MUST be a game to him,” Estelle had insisted to Rita one day, back when they all traveled together.) 

She admittedly spent more time than necessary trying to catch Repede before she finally decided to leave her friend alone so he could enjoy his nap in the sun in peace. After all, there was another face she had to see as well. Judging by the open window that waited several floors up, she knew immediately where her friend was waiting. 

She wasted no time in getting there. She had to keep herself from running to Flynn’s room, forcing herself to keep a slower but steady pace as she practically sped-walked to the man’s office. She briefly wondered if she would be interrupting Yuri and Flynn catching up and was promptly reminded of the time Rita had accidentally barged in on them and…

…ahem.

Maybe she should knock first. 

She slows to a stop as she arrives in front of Flynn’s door and takes a moment to catch her breath. She, admittedly, had not been getting enough exercise lately since stopping her travels and it was showing. But as she stood there, trying to catch her breath, she stopped when she heard two voices inside of the room. One a familiar female voice and the other a familiar male voice.

Yuri and Sodia. With no Flynn to be heard. Oh dear.

She could hear their voices speaking, low and mumbled, and it was hard to hear from where she stood. But judging by the tone and just the fact that Yuri and Sodia could never be left alone in a room together without the danger of someone getting hit, whatever conversation they were having was not a friendly one. But they were normally so loud when arguing… Whatever they were discussing must be serious indeed.

…Estelle, unfortunately, couldn’t help herself. She found herself shifting closer to the door, pressing her ear against it. Part of her felt shame at her actions. After all, it was incredibly rude to eavesdrop and if she were caught, Yuri would probably never let her hear the end of it. On the other hand, if there were something wrong between the two of them (besides the usual), then she should know, right? After all, she would like to help if she could. 

“...don’t understand why he puts up with you.” Sodia’s voice is heard first, full of scorn and distaste. “You do nothing but infuriate him.”

“I dunno why you keep asking me that.” Yuri’s voice is heard soon after, low, rough and uncaring. “You keep saying that like I’m forcing him to put up with me. You should really be asking HIM this. Not cornering me so you can interrogate me. I already told you where I thought I stood. Not my fault Flynn thinks otherwise.”

“Corner you? You snuck into his room like a common criminal!” 

“I don’t blame you for turning a blind eye to this, but in case you’ve missed the memo, my preferred method of entering Flynn’s room is through that window right there. It’s a short climb, it’s fun and it always surprises Flynn. He and even some of the guards are fully aware that I do a bit of breaking and entering when I come to visit now.” Yuri’s voice begins to shift into something a bit more annoyed. 

“And I’m shocked that no one finds anything wrong with that!” Sodia’s tone is sharp as her voice begins to rise. 

“It’s not like I’m hurting anyone.” 

“Now, anyway. But pardoned crimes aside, we both know what you are! A murderer!” Sodia growls out and Estelle instinctively steps back from the door. “How long until you decide that you don’t like the way that Flynn is running things?! How long until you decide to take matters into your own hands?! How long until you slip into this window and cut him down?!” 

Estelle had to stop this before it got out of hand. With a deep breath, she places her hand on the doorknob. 

“That’s really rich coming from you, of all people.” Yuri snaps back with a forced laugh as Estelle pushes the door open. “Zaude proved that you’re just as likely to try and cut someone down–”

Estelle stops.

Yuri and Sodia both stop.

For a moment, time seems to stop as Yuri and Sodia both turn and stare at their new arrival with wide eyes, akin to a deer caught in a spotlight. Of course, Estelle likely had the same expression on her face. It actually took her brain a few minutes to catch up with what was said. 

Zaude. That’s right, Zaude was where they defeated Alexei and the Adephagos was set free. That started a down-spiral of events at the time, and it didn’t give Estelle any time to properly process anything that had happened. But that was also the time that Yuri had vanished for a week. She remembered the way that Brave Vesperia and Flynn had searched everywhere for the man, but to no avail. She lost so much sleep that week that when Yuri finally did show back up, wounded and weakened, she didn’t have much energy to question what had happened as she healed up his injury for him. 

Yuri had fallen from Zaude, from what she understood. But she was missing the details. She suddenly remembers now. She remembers Flynn taking the blow for Yuri. Yuri going in for the final attack against Alexei. That giant blastia core falling from the sky, crushing Alexei. She remembered so much smoke. So much chaos but no Yuri to be seen. In the dust and debris, she found Flynn and Witcher and in her panic, she forgot that someone else had been missing.

But later, she had just assumed that she had gone to get help. 

But… But… Surely she couldn’t have… Surely Sodia wouldn’t have… 

But it was such a small wound. Deep enough to cause heavy damage but not big enough to be caused by Alexei’s blade. 

Estelle’s blank and processing expression turned to one of heavy betrayal as her eyes widened and began to tear up. “...Zaude…? It was… At Zaude, it was–” It was you? 

Sodia pales and Estelle notices her hesitation as she quietly takes a step back, confirming Estelle's suspicions. Yuri, however, takes a deep breath and takes a few steps towards Estelle, holding out a hand. “Hey… Estelle.” He calls to her, voice soft and careful but they are just enough to snap her out of her trance.

Without another word, she turns on her heels and runs.

She hears Yuri call after her but she doesn’t look back and instead tears through the halls of the castle. What was she running from? If someone were to ask her that question later, she wouldn’t be able to answer. She didn’t know. Was she running from Sodia? From Yuri? She would never imagine that the two of them would hurt her. Yuri proved to be such a valuable and trusted companion and Sodia was too loyal.

Her mind couldn’t help but linger on ‘was’. 

How could she do such a thing to Yuri? To Flynn?! And how could Yuri just keep it to himself?! Why wouldn’t he say something?!

“Estelle!”

She hears Yuri call out to her again and she realizes he’s chasing her through the halls. She tries to pick up the pace as her lungs burned and her mind screamed at her. Why are you running? Why are you running away?!

“Estelle!!” 

Where was she even going? To her room? To find Flynn? To the exit? Was she intending to run all the way to Halure? What was her plan? What good would running from Yuri do? He was fast, faster than her for sure. If he, by some miracle, didn’t catch her here, then she would have to face him eventually. Why was she even trying to avoid him?!

“ESTELLE!!!” All Estelle can see is a gray blur before a hand slams into the wall in front of her, forcing her to a stop. Before she can even think of backing away, another hand shoots out and places it on the wall on the other side of her, effectively trapping her between it and her dearest friend. 

They both are quiet, heavy breaths feeling the air as they recover from the full on sprint down the palace halls and Estelle actually has a moment to let her brain settle. It was a miracle that there hadn’t been any knights in the hallways, now that she thinks about it, because the image of Yuri chasing after her like that would have probably caused a few misunderstandings. Despite how close the man was to Flynn, he still had not gained the trust of most of the knights.

A supposed ruffian (in their eyes anyway) chasing a horrified princess would have turned some heads, for sure. 

Estelle, finally, looks up at Yuri’s face and she takes note of how flushed his cheeks were from the sudden marathon he had to take in order to catch her. A part of her assumed that the man would be angry. Angry at her eavesdropping, angry that he actually had to give chase, angry that she knew too much. But instead of the dark glare that she had seen Yuri give off in situations like these was absent and instead, she was staring up at gray eyes filled with concern and– fear…? 

She must be mistaken… right? Why would Yuri be afraid?

As they continue to stare up at each other, finally catching their breaths, Yuri slowly retracts his hands when he’s certain that Estelle wasn’t going to run off again and ducks his head slightly. He doesn’t say anything and Estelle’s mind was also going blank as well. What should she say? What could she say? Her mind alternated between shutting down and racing with a million thoughts. 

Her eyes trail down to Yuri’s left side, remembering where the wound had been inflicted. Yuri tried not to show it but she knew from the way his steps would sometimes catch and how he flinched when someone bumped into that area or hugged him a little too tightly that it still had some residual pain. Her magic was strong, this was true, but some wounds would still leave scars regardless. This wound in particular had been left alone for too long before it was properly tended to. Duke, thankfully, did a decent job of tending to Yuri’s wounds at the time but that could only do so much against the chronic pains. 

Yuri would likely live the rest of his life with this pain. It wasn’t constant but it was frequent enough that it affected the man’s daily life when it flared up. And to think that the one responsible was someone so close to Flynn… and Yuri said nothing. 

“...When were you going to tell us the truth?” She finally asks with a whisper, eyes looking up at him, absolutely heartbroken. 

Yuri breathes out a sigh, mouth shut tight as his gaze drifts down the hallway from the direction they came from. He doesn’t answer and this does nothing but cause Estelle to raise her voice. 

“Yuri, when were you going to tell us?!” She exclaims, reaching out to grasp at both of his arms. “When… When were you planning on telling Flynn?!” 

It’s been three years since Zaude. It’s been three years since they had saved the world together. For three years, Yuri has had to keep the peace with his attempted murderer and no one else knew. That fact alone causes anger to rise in her chest as she shakes the man in front of her. 

“Yuri, answer me! Why wouldn’t you tell us?!” She feels her eyes well up but she refuses to let the tears shed. 

Yuri doesn’t fight to pull out of Estelle’s grasp and lets himself be shook just a bit before he finally looks back at her, face sullen as he finally meets her gaze. “It’s not my truth to tell.” He answers as simply as possible, as if that would answer all questions.

It only causes Estelle to lash out. “Not your truth to tell?!” She steps forward, mouth agape in shock. “Yuri, you were stabbed! You could have been killed! Yuri, we could have– have–” 

Lost you. We could have lost you.

“...Estelle, listen to me.” Estelle watches as Yuri places his hands on her shoulders, gently. As she looks back up at him, she finds him staring at her with an unwavering stare full of resolve. “Who am I to you?” 

“...Wh…What?” Estelle blinks, moving to wipe at her eyes. 

“Who am I to you?” Yuri asks again, not faltering, not even once. “When you think of Yuri Lowell, what is the first thing that pops into your head?” 

“I…” Estelle trails off, unsure of what this had to do with anything but she thinks about it nonetheless. “You’re… a very kind man who… who will give anything to protect those who cannot protect themselves. You’ve… you’ve sacrificed so much to get to where you are now. You would willingly put your life on the line to protect people. Not only that, but you’re a very good friend and a valuable ally… and… and…” 

Estelle has to pause as her voice wavers and her eyes begin to billow with tears. Yuri was such an amazing person and such a key part of their group of friends and they almost lost him. “Oh, Yuri–” She chokes out, ducking her head as the tears begin to spill. 

“I think you’re giving me too much credit…” Yuri mutters quietly but he reaches out to cup her face, wiping away her tears. “C’mon… none of that. I’m not even done explaining yet… What are people going to say if they come out here and see you crying like this?” His voice is quiet and soothing as he attempts to calm her down.

“W-What does…” She stops and sniffles as she wipes at her eyes as well. “What does… that have to do with anything?” 

“Just bear with me for a second.” Yuri pauses to pull out a rap from his pocket. It was likely his rag he used to wipe at his sword but he hands it to her anyway to wipe at her face. “Now what did you think of me when you first met me?” 

“I…” Estelle tries to think back to the day she first met Yuri. A small feeling of embarrassment washes over her. Had her face not been flushed red from crying, Yuri would have likely seen the blush appear on her cheeks. “...tried to hit you with a vase. I thought you were a thief, breaking into the castle…”

“Yeah, even though I had just knocked the guards out that were attacking you.” Yuri suddenly has a slight smile on his face. “And even after you knew I was Flynn’s friend, you were still cautious and on guard. You knew Flynn said I was trustworthy but you still had to be careful, right?” 

Estelle ducks her head in shame. “I… I… don’t know what I was thinking.” 

“You were thinking the same thing that Sodia thought.” Yuri points out, squeezing her shoulder. “When Sodia looks at me, she sees a thug. A ruffian. A thief. A troublemaker. A murderer. And she’s right. I’m all of those things. I assaulted knights, I stole when I was younger in order to survive. I threw the Tweedles into a river and broke into buildings I had no business being in. Escaped from jail. And then…” His smile fades and his gaze darkens as he looks down towards his left hand. “I took multiple lives.”

Estelle shakes her head and grabs onto his left hand, squeezing it. “I’m a murderer too, Yuri! After– After Belius–” 

“Belius died. There is no taking that back, Estelle. But… it’s different.” Yuri frowns, trying to step over this topic carefully as he pulls his hand away. “You didn’t intend to kill Belius. You were intending on helping her. For me, though… Ragou, Cumore, the Don, Alexei… When I took out my blade, it was with the intent to kill. When I held the blade in my hand, it was followed with one thought in my head. ‘I am going to take this person’s life.’ I intended to follow that conviction, even if I didn’t always like the result. And I was fully prepared to face the consequences for it.” 

Estelle stays silent, eyes wide as she stares up at Yuri as he continues the explanation, eyes moving to gaze out of the window rather than at Estelle. 

“When Sodia looked at me, she saw me for what I was. A criminal. A murderer. She didn’t have any of the bias that you guys had. She hadn’t grown up with me like Flynn had. She hadn’t traveled with me for months like you guys had. She hadn’t watched me grow up in Zaphias like Leblanc did. She had no ties to me whatsoever. And all she could do was take Flynn’s words at face value.” Yuri shoves his hand into his pocket, his dark eyes scanning the sky as he speaks. 

“Flynn’s reasoning never made sense to her. Her Captain was advocating a wanted criminal by insisting that he genuinely was a good person. That the situation was misunderstood. Even after I murdered Ragou and Cumore and threatened to kill Flynn if he continued the way he was going, he still spoke highly of me.” Finally, Yuri looks back at Estelle and she feels her breath catch in her throat. “After seeing all of my crimes, you think Sodia could, in good conscience, let that go?” 

Estelle felt sick to her stomach as she listened to Yuri speak, as if he had rehearsed this over and over in his brain. Was this what he was telling himself this entire time? That he deserved it? She opened her mouth to reply but nothing came out. 

Yuri squeezes her shoulder once more before pulling away. “I can’t say I agree with her reasoning completely. She did it more for Flynn’s sake than anything and afterwards, she left his side and came running to me for help, of all people. And, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t me saying that I forgive her for that stunt.” His nose wrinkles in distaste as his hand slowly moves over to cover the area where the wound was inflicted. “I’m not exactly happy that she tried to kill me and I’m definitely not happy about the chronic pain from it. But if I, a murderer and a criminal, got a pardon for my crimes but Sodia, who couldn’t even finish the damn job, was punished, then I…” 

Yuri trails off this time and Estelle notices how his face twitches as he stares down at his hands. “... It’s not what I want. A world where crimes like that can just be glossed over? I don’t want that. Even the pardon feels like a kick to the teeth. Knowing that people can go out and kill as many people as they want but can get off with a slap on the wrist, simply because they do one big good deed? I hate that.” 

Yuri falls silent after that, glaring at the ground between them. As the silence grows between them, Estelle ponders over Yuri’s words and feelings. It wasn’t often that Yuri let his true feelings show and on any other day, she would feel rather blessed that he would open up to her like this. But knowing that he had been carrying this inside of him for years caused her eyes to well up with tears, once again. 

With a tiny sniffle, she reaches out a hand and gently grasps Yuri’s before pulling it to her chest, holding it close. A few tears drop onto his skin and she made a note to apologize for crying on him later but for now, she just needed to hold onto him. To remind himself that despite it all, he was still there. He was still breathing. 

“Yuri… Everything you did was… for the good of someone else…” She sobs softly, gripping onto his hand like a lifeline. “Because of you… so many innocent people got to keep on living. Don’t you understand that?” 

“I do.” Yuri answers, voice barely a whisper. “I know, Estelle. I don’t regret killing Ragou or Cumore. I don’t regret stopping Alexei either–”

“Then stop it, okay?” Estelle’s head shoots up, cheeks tear stained and eyes red and swollen. “Just stop it. Stop holding it in. Talk to us.”

She just wanted him to stop hiding things. Stop mulling over everything alone. She wanted Yuri to reach out to someone if he began to have doubts. If he began to doubt someone’s intentions, if he felt like he had to kill again, she just wanted him to talk to someone. She wanted to make sure that the road that he carved out for himself wasn’t traveled alone. She just wanted him to understand that they were friends for a reason! 

“...I am.” Yuri says, taking the rag back and making sure to wipe at Estelle’s tears again. His hardened gaze is gone now, replaced with a soft grin as he looks down at her. “So… you can stop crying now. Your nose is running.” 

Estelle instinctively sniffles, snatching the rag from Yuri’s hand so she can blow her nose into it. Yuri gives a tiny look of disgust when she hands it back to him and she decides to take that as her tiny act of revenge against the man. 

“That’s not very princess-like…” Yuri grimaces, only to flinch when Estelle punches his shoulder. “Whoa– That’s not very princess-like either! The hell is Rita teaching you over there?!” 

“S-She’s… teaching me how to deal with people like you!” Estelle sniffles again, rubbing at her eyes. 

“I guess I deserve it.” 

“Y-You do.” Estelle manages to stop the tears but her entire face feels like a wreck. “So… so, are you going to ask me to stay quiet…?” 

Yuri just shakes his head. “I’m not going to tell you what to do. It’s your choice, not mine. If you do say anything, though, at least let me know when you do so I know when to avoid Flynn’s fist.”

“You would deserve it…” Estelle mutters, earning a weak laugh from Yuri.

“I think I should go have a talk with Rita about her influence over you. This is getting scary.” 

Estelle still wasn’t certain on whether or not she would tell Flynn about what happened. She wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to face Sodia either. She still felt uneasy and she knew that even taking the time to think through the situation would not yield any easy answers. The future was uncertain and was likely full of more hardships to come. But she had at least one victory today.

“Hey, Yuri…? You know you can talk to me, right? If something is bothering you? If something hurts you?” As she and Yuri begin to walk back to Flynn’s office, side by side, Estelle asks the question, needing confirmation from the other.

She knows that he won’t tell her everything. She knows that he’s simply just the type to hold in his troubles, for as long as he can. But even still, he smiles down at her, moving to bump his fist against her forehead. 

“Yeah, I know.”

Even if Yuri only opens up a little bit after this, as long as he knows that the option is open…

…well, that’s just fine with her.

[yumichikah]

-- I tried to sleep, but my brain was screaming at me about analysing just how strong are the vines coming out of Ruri’Iro Kujaku in it’s true shikai release form. We do see Charlotte restrained by them and not being able to break free, yet in the filler arc with zanpakuto spirits Yumichika does manage to break free with kido and his blade. In that same filler arc the amount of vines is all around the place too – in one scene there’s only 4 while in another there’s 9 and yet another brings the count to 14. Of course it’s just a filler episode, but let’s look at the manga… First there’s 7 vines, then 9 and finally 16! It’s just as all over the place as the filler episode was so it doesn’t seem like Ruri’Iro is limited to any certain amount of vines every time(Or maybe the vines grow in number the longer they are attached). Can’t he then just wrap the vines all around his target, preventing them from even reaching a blade or doing a spell in the first place? I think it’s possible, but thanks to aesthetics, not a thing Yumichika(nor Ruri for that matter) is willing to do. Because of course they want to see their enemy wilt away beautifully like a flower.

So a single vine can’t withstand an offensive kido spell or a straight hit from a seated officer’s zanpakuto blade if we’re looking at the filler episode. Then again using a kido spell concentrates your reiatsu, making the flowers on the vines bloom faster a.k.a your energy burn out faster. This isn’t a problem for someone with a high enough spiritual pressure since there’s just so much energy that it won’t burn itself out before the spell is cast and the vines are destroyed. But I bet anyone under lieutenant level(Kubo has stated before that both Ikkaku and Yumichika are at that level) would struggle casting a spell fast enough and therefore would get their reiatsu completely eaten before setting themselves free. Yumichika himself struggled a bit with this too. Then their only option would be cutting themselves loose with a blade, but just how long would it take to cut through 16 vines anyway? The first ones would take the longest for sure, seeing as your movement would be the most restrained at that point. Trying to cut through something that’s basically half of the thickness of one Charlotte Chuulhorne’s wrist would be a task in itself, but then imagine doing it with only using your own wrist’s movement range. Not much power behind those swings…

I wish I had more proper material to go through and analyse Ruri’Iro further. I think it’s shikai form can hold down anyone lieutenant level and below, unless you have offensive spells that can get you out of the situation fast enough or some other trick up your sleeve. Someone at a captain level would most likely have so much spiritual pressure that it would take a while for Ruri to consume it all. Of course captains have differences in their capabilities of controlling their energy, which would also affect the end result. Someone like Zaraki would feed his energy to Ruri in terrible speeds as he can’t even hold it all in, but there’s just so much of it that it would take lots of time to get that digested for sure. If the ferocity of his reiatsu didn’t burn the vines first, of course. Then a person like Kyoraku, who doesn’t let his spiritual energy out much in the day-to-day life would most likely be able to control how much he feeds the vines and thus would gain so much time for freeing himself.

...then there���s the issue of just how much energy can Ruri’Iro absorb. Is it infinite? If you just give it time, it can steadily suck just anyone’s soul dry? Does Ruri ever reach a point where ‘it’s tummy is full’ so to speak? Does this shikai have such limitations other than the speed of sucking the energy? The speed obviously is slower when you don’t actively try to use your reiatsu(according to that filler episode again).

We do know that vines in a wild jungle can hold a lot of weight without snapping, but they’re usually pretty dried up and actually more likely to be roots(or at least attached from the both ends). They’re not flexible, living vines like we see here… Then again living plants tend to be softer and easier to break than slightly hardened ones. If Ruri’Iro even is a plant in any way – the last time I did research, he was more about peacocks and phoenixes than any garden flower. So maybe it’s vines are made of something similar to muscle tissue? Or if they’re plant-like, do they burn easily? Why does it produce lilies when lilies aren’t even vine flowers or anything close? If the flowers are for the aesthetics then the vine itself could be something not even related to those flowers, right? Gosh, I don’t know.

In the end my tired brain can’t come up with a finite answer here. But I’m certain Ruri’Iro can hold down a lieutenant level soul with no issues – as long as they don’t have the chance to cast spells, that is.

[universitypenguin]

Hiya, beautiful ❤️ thank you for dropping chapter 11 so quickly after the tenth 😅 they were very very interesting to read as it is everything you create, you wonderful amazing writer you!! So i have a question if that's okay, i'm probably wrong here cause i'm not so good with the technical terms but would i be right to think that these two chapters were kinda like fillers?! Like they dont further the plot or the story as much as they help reveal certain aspects of the characters' personalities like this new side of Lloyd, the remorseful hunted-by-his-ugly-past side. I only ask cause you are THE smartest writer on here, dear Alice, and everything you write has a structure cause you've mentioned being the Architect kind of writer so i'm just wondering where to place these two chapters on the blueprint?! 

Also, i honestly doubt the stalker is actually Aiden, this is you so there's no way in hell its that easy 😅and the second body is just throwing me off like i know there is a big ass plot twist just waiting to happen but we still have yet to earn it as readers 🤫 

In all earnestness, you are truly gifted when it comes to storytelling, babe ❤️ and we're genuinely blessed that you chose to share your gift with us 💛

When you get a question like this, it’s usually a sign that you’ve done something wrong. There’s a plot error that went awry along the way and snowballed into a larger issue. After a lot of thought I’ve realized what I’ve done. I kept too many B-Stories and the overarching story has suffered for it. 

Firstly, the hardest part of a story is Act II. This is where I'm the weakest as a writer. But what I hear, it's where everyone is the weakest. Keeping too many plot elements is why the story is suddenly looking a bit frazzled. I did my best to smooth over it, but there are definitely too many threads being braided together.

You might be right about some of the last few chapters being filler. My definition of a filler chapter is a scene that if you remove it from the story, doesn’t affect the rest of the plot. Some of the character building scenes in Chapter 10 technically meet that definition. In Chapter 11 there was a lot of information released and two new characters were introduced. 

The root of the problem is that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, and now I’m just still chewing, trying to wrangle the plot in a manageable direction. My problem is that I decided to craft three different plots into one story. Plot #1 (the primary storyline) is the romance - Lloyd and Princess’ relationship. Plot #2 is the thriller - Princess’ stalker, and Plot #3 is the mystery - the murder case. 

Blending these three ideas into one chapter isn't easy. It makes the story hard to follow. I think a lot of my readers experienced whiplash from the content on Lloyd’s character development, to the insertion of new information about the case, and then I introduced two new characters to each subplot - one of which I didn’t even show on page. The confounding variables just kept piling on. 

My justification for it not being filler is that we created necessary development on the murder case. Also, Princess is beginning a character arc by choosing how to handle Aiden’s stalking. The piece of Act II that I liked most was Lloyd’s emotional exploration. But since that’s not the pace I started out the story with, dropping back into a slower, more character focused beat, created even more whiplash. 

I wanted to write that chapter to give him context. Lloyd does get a lot of love on Tumblr (particularly among my readers), but he’s rather unsympathetic in the books. I have such a good time writing his dialogue and keeping the side of him that’s a jerk alive, but I also want to show off the soft underbelly he’s hiding. Though, after analyzing my work, I spent far too long on this beat. Here’s the other news: I’m planning on doing more of it, because I’m already this far in and I don't want to change direction mid-stream.

Not to give away too much, but we have probably five more chapters of character backstory, growth, and unexpected twists and turns. I want to take a deep dive into Lloyd and really find out more about who the character is. Even though it doesn’t match what I’ve set up, I consider this version I’m sharing with you to be the first draft of the story. Some of those scenes probably could be cut without affecting the main plot. But at the moment, that’s just not what I want to do. I want to take the long way around and look at the scenery, rather than stick to the high speed, plot focused pace I began with. 

And you’re absolutely right about the turn into what might be considered “filler” territory. My explanation is that I’m going to be spending the first half of Act II explicitly on Lloyd’s character development. Chapters 12 - 15 are all going to be at about this pace.

As for me being an architect, I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am. I’m more of a hybrid between gardener and architect. Do I have a plan? Yes. Can that plan change at any given moment? Absolutely. My method is chaotic. It’s more like deciding that I’d like to travel from Seattle to Miami, but leaving my options for how to get there pretty open. My ideas form more in this way: 

“Well, for sure I want to travel through Salt Lake City, and I’m probably going to hit Pensacola on the way. But should I stop by Panama City, or go directly to Tallahassee? You know, that’s a long way off. Let’s see how I feel when it’s closer.” 

I have a definitive midpoint that I’m writing towards, and until I get that written, I’m not going to apply too much thought to the later chapters. Until I see the midpoint I can’t be sure how they’re going to look. We have to see what the characters react to the trials I’m going to put them through first and how much they develop. 

I hope this is clear, because you’ve asked an excellent question that really made me think over my plot choices. I really appreciate your candor. Taking the time to carefully consider these elements of story, plot, and character is how I grow as a writer. 

Please feel free to message me if you have any other questions! I love talking about this stuff.

[whirlybirbs]

FEVER-DREAM    ;    echo/reader 

summary: echo is fine-tuning his new prosthesis. you have experience, you help. unspoken feelings are acted on. adoration blooms. you learn what mesh’la means.

word count: 3k

pairing: echo / f!reader

tags: mutual pining, lots of tender looks, victorian-era hand-touching sluttiness, echo is a gentle soul, reader is head over heels, a touch of ptsd mention, set on ord mantell, mention of our boy fives, in this house we love assistive devices, enough sexual tension to power the death star

a/n: this is me round-house kicking the bad batch writers in the throat because they made echo cosplay a droid — but, also because this man deserves to be treated as more than a means to a mission’s end. majority of you know i am ~bitter~ (understatement of the century) of tbb’s plot/design/writing. but echo has been a favorite from the original days... so have some very soft fic.

i reference character redesigns by @nibeul​ in this piece — please go peep them here, and some updated character spreads here! they’re really beautiful and add a phenomenal layer of storytelling to the existing designs that’s lacking. nibuel’s art and writing is lovely. please give them a follow — i can’t rec their work enough. 

“How does it feel?”

The words are nearly whispered; it’s clear you didn’t want to startle him, and Echo can feel the pinch in his brow soften at your sudden appearence in the doorway. 

His bunk, at the back of the Havoc Marauder, is small — the space itself even more so. There’s a makeshift partition, hooked together with spare parts and meant to offer a bit of privacy on the cramped vessel. Its slate grey color has faded, and the edges have become tattered in the cycles of use. 

When Echo pulls his dark eyes up from his work, you’re leaning against the frame — your expression is earnest.

For a moment, the once-ARC Trooper is quiet. 

He wonders if he’ll ever get used to your attention. Each and every time, it sends him into a spiral; his heart catches as he inhales and tries to push down the warm stir in his gut. The sight of you is enough, nowadays, to melt Echo’s well-maintained irritability. His attention is stolen from his ever-present pain, if only for a bit.

There are plenty of days where he misses the old him — the wide-eyed, eager ARC Trooper who had his brothers by his side. His real brothers. Hevy, Cutup, Droidbait... Fives. 

Fuckin’ hell, Fives was probably staring down at him now laughing. 

No matter what changes, you’re still shit with the ladies, vod’ika. 

In a way he hasn’t fully admitted to himself, you make him feel like himself again. Like... Like some shiny cadet, on leave and distracted by the promises of pretty smiles passing-by. It’s good.

This makes him feel... good. 

He flexes, and his right hand — the new, gunmetal durasteel cyberized-prosthesis — closes into a tight fist. It’s taken him a bit, but the feeling isn’t so foreign now. It’s still... slow. Slower than he’s used to, but you’d mentioned it may take some time. The phantom feelings get better, too. All in all, it’s a good thing.

Your own hand, your left, glimmers back in the same gunmetal color.

(Echo had never pressed you about the missing limb — not until one day, in Cid’s, you’d joined him in a quiet corner. You’d spilled your drink and a complaint about getting the star-cherry syrup out of the joints had slipped out. Echo had laughed; a real laugh, the sort that was so rare coming from him, it had you staring at him as if he’d hung ever star in the sky. 

Can I ask how it happened? he’d said, breaking the heavy silence when your eyes never left his.

The Pykes, you’d said, and that was enough.)

“I haven’t, uh... Haven’t gotten the sensory calibration right yet.”

Then, his prosthesis cramps. His fingers go rigid, and Echo curses sharply as he reaches around his forearm to quickly reboot the appendage. It goes slack, then hums alive once more.

You wince.

You’re slow to move into the room — and you settle atop one of the crates Echo had stolen from the belly of the ship, an old Mantell Mix shipping container. You’re mindful to set his datapad aside, to not disturb his space too much. Before you reach for his hand, however, you lift your chin and open your hands in your lap.

“May I?” you ask, just as soft as before.

Echo feels small under your gaze.

Truth be told, you’re doing more than just... asking. You’re taking him in — appreciating him. It’s a habit that’s grown more and more apparent to not only himself, but the others.

In recent rotations, Echo has let his hair grow out — not long, but the once close buzz he’d kept has begun to curl at the top. Not entirely dissimilair to how it was before the Citadel. The dermal implants, the ones the Techno Union installed in order to parse the nuerological data in his head, stand out against his warm-colored skin. 

His usual AJ^6-inspired headpiece is resting on his bunk.

That damn thing.

A neccesary tool. One that, given the amount of user data Tech had procured when working on modifying the implant, Echo found himself immediately distrusting. It wasn’t as if the AJ^6 cyborg construct had a beautiful track record, and frankly, Echo would like to keep his personality in tact, thank you very much. There were plenty of days he felt machine enough. 

It wasn’t often you saw him without the headset; you knew it made linking in via his scomp easier to handle, it made the visualization of data transfers as easy as breathing. For Echo, it was a part of his vast kit, an important tool. For you, seeing him without it bubbles up a bit of a smile.

Echo catches it.

His eyes narrow playfully.

He looks... well. You — hell, are there words for it? For the way the sight of him makes you feel? It’s like there’s a world full of potential there, a thousand words unsaid, and feelings that have steeped in the warmth of longing gazes and half-there touches.

You’re still looking up at him, knees bent on the crate.

You blink, realizing you’ve been caught staring — not for the first time and certainly not for the last. In the beginning, it had left a sour taste in Echo’s mouth. But, now... Well, it stokes a sort of pride in his chest that he hangs onto. 

It never gets easier to recover from — certainly not when Echo smirks. He moves to allow you to take his prosthesis into your lap. The gesture is gentle; your fingers cradle the firm yet pliable metal.

“What?” he asks. His voice, low and rough and warm, is tinted with amusement.

“Nothing,” you say vaguely with a shrug — as if that’s supposed to explain any part of your enamored stare. Your attention moves to the prosthesis.

“Nothing?” he asks, moving to thumb his left ear with his free hand with a dash of nervousness. A habit. Echo tilts his head as his fingers brush the cochlear implant there. The panel rests neatly against the side of his head, a small rounded-off square. The bite of self-consciousness has dwindled around you — but still, it creeps back up every now and again.

The Corporal’s brows knot playfully as you turn his new hand over in your lap; you’re admiring the upgraded feel, the more seamless panelling in comparison to your own. Echo watches your lashes flutter in silent thought.

Then:

“You’re a terrible liar, you know.”

You blink slowly at the hand, swallow down your sudden sheepishness and ignore his gaze. You bite back the smile digging into your cheeks. “Maybe.”

“Do I have something on my face?” he asks suddenly, and you look up.

A baited trick. He’s smiling. 

The warm sort — the sort reserved for you and for Omega. The two souls that hold a piece of his heart, with all its ticking valves and electric timed pulses. There are machinisms that keep him alive, and then there is you. Your wide-eyed expression melts, giving way to the sort of smile he’s tried to memorize over and over. It’s the same smile that has warded off that reoccuring nightmare of the night on the tarmac at the Citadel, the same smile that has pulled him through the grit of phantom pains.

“What—” a sudden laugh bursts from your chest, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You were staring, mesh’la,” he rumbles out as a reminder, enjoying the fact he’s suddenly become the center of your attention. Echo leans back, his boot toeing yours. You nudge it back. Your face feels hot. You ignore his pointedly teasing look with a roll of your eyes.

The nickname started a few weeks ago. You haven’t asked what it means — no, for now it’s meaning hangs in the balance. Untouched but there. The affection the word carries makes your heart feel heavier and unbelievably full.

“Bad habit,” you chirp back, looking up at him through your lashes.

His laugh is warm.

“Maybe not.”

“No,” you say quietly; your voice is soft as your eyes bounce across his face, tracing the lines of his face with your gaze, “I don’t think it is.”

There’s a silence that slips between you — a comfortable one. It’s heavier than before. That has begun to happen recently, especially with the petal-soft utterance of mesh’la becoming more and more frequent. You hold his gaze. Echo lets out a soft, contented sigh.

Then, you remember the task at hand.

You clear your throat.

“Uh... The access panel I’m looking for,” you say slowly as your raise your finger to point to your own arm, “It’s on your bicep.”

Echo blinks. He clears his own throat before looking down — he hadn’t even noticed that access panel. That could explain the jarring miscommunication stalling the limb. This model had more bells and whistles than he initally realized. 

Better than a fuckin’ scomp link, that’s for sure.

Wordlessly, Echo makes room on his bunk. You move to settle beside him, your bent leg resting aginst his hip as you half-straddle the bed; your other knee brushes his thigh — and Echo tries to sit still. You’re close, now. 

“Is it okay if...?” you trail off, fingers tugging on the short sleeve of his blacks; you pause until Echo offers a curt nod. You catch him swallow. You push onward, fingers nimbly rolling the fabric up over his broad bicep. 

Echo steals a glance your way as your fingers pass across a slip of his bare skin. 

In his lap, both his hands twitch.

He’s no small man. Lean and athletic, Echo is built like a soldier. Omega had said once that Echo was an ARC Trooper, one of the best of the best. You believed every bit of it, and you’d hung on her words when she’d rambled on about ARC training, about Kamino, and about who Echo was before you knew him. It was all in the past, though. That Echo is a part of this Echo but... They’re different men. He’s been changed by the things that have happened.

You don’t press him on the details. 

In time, they’re slipped into conversation here and there — between the here and now.  

In the beginning, when you’d found yourself amongst the crew of the Havoc Marauder — be it for a simple job on Cid’s behalf — Echo had hardly paid you a moment of attention, though you admit you’d been curious from the start. It had taken three jobs for you to finally see his face. Then began the slow and gradual bonding over catching joints, grating plates, and hardware updates. His legs, your arm. Two pieces of a pair.

Now, he has this. A beautiful new upgrade — something he’s wanted for a long time. A part of his old self is back, in a way.

You liked that it was more than just a tool. That, in having this piece of his body back, he felt like more than a tool. More than a scomp link. 

After all, he is a man — a... a very handsome man. One whose proximity is sort of distracting you, again, from the task at hand.

“The panel here,” you say as you slowly press on the seam that enables the settings panel to be revealed; you’re mindful to explain, “It controls sensory outputs, as well as synchonized synaptic commands. The panel on my forearm does the same to my hand, yours is just... well, you’ve got the new and improve version.”

Echo ducks his head as you work, watching you from the corner of his eye. “Feeling a bit jealous, mesh’la?”

“Maybe,” you breathe out with a smile. 

Then, you lift your eyes. You intended to see that he was still comfortable, but instead you come face to face with the Corporal. His nose nearly brushes yours when you lift you chin, completely dragged in by the closeness shared.

There’s a beat of tension. Echo’s mouth goes dry.

You fingers pause. You swallow hard. “How... uh, how does it feel?”

Echo tightens his grip, then releases. His breath tickles your cheeks. His eyes, a deep, warm brown, flit from your eyes to your mouth, and then back. His voice is a croak. 

“...Same as before.”

You tinker with a dial, eyes never leaving his; your voice is above a whisper. “And now?”

It’s immediate. Like a rush of cold air up his arm — and on instinct, Echo’s hand twitches. His fingers grip the fabric of his blacks, along his thigh, and... he feels it. The smooth, stretch of the material. It’s... it feels like a lot. His fingertips, metallic and cyberized, tingle. It’s distracting.

He can feel. 

His hand is slow. It moves across to bridge the space between you. His pointer finger settles on the curve of your knee; the feeling of your tactical pants beneath his fingertip is ignored, instead he chases the heat of your body.

Your breath catches at the touch. 

Echo’s face is turned to you, but... his attention has settled on his hand. His palm then sweeps across your thigh. He follows the curve, soaks in the feeling. You’re frozen in place, beating back the desperate sound of appreciation that threatens to be pulled from your throat. The touch is... more than welcomed. 

The closeness itself is making you dizzy.

Then, Echo turns — and the warm, durasteel-plated palm finds your cheek.

Your skin is hot. 

“Is this okay, mesh’la?” he whispers, words riding on a quiet exhale — the sort that make you feel... well, you don’t even have words for the way he makes you feel. Echo is... kind, honest, and loyal. Above all else, he’s gentle. Despite it all, despite every bit of horror he’d been put through, he’d never lost sight of the importance of a gentle hand. Especially now in a moment as intimate as this. It coaxes you closer.

You lean into the cybernetic attachment, cheek resting in his palm. You nod, then, with eyes eager to take in every bit of this moment.

He chuckles at the enthusiasm. Echo’s thumb, deft and smooth, then traces the line of your lower lip.

The feeling is... the gnawing pain that he’s felt for nearly a year has melted. Finally, the itch has been scratched in his brain and the hollow ache of his bones is gone. It’s relief, and comfort, and excitement and all these beautiful things — and you. 

You’re stuck — you don’t want to move, you won’t move. He’s rooted you completely, and when his other hand — the calloused and warm one of flesh and blood — finds it’s spot along your thigh, you swallow a lovesick sigh that would only exaserbate your desperation. 

Your mouth is moving before you realize it. 

“What does it mean?”

Echo’s eyes narrow, only a bit, and he runs his thumb up your cheekbone.

“What does what mean?” 

“Mesh’la,” it sounds foreign on your tongue. It’s not Hutteese or Twi’leki, not like any language you know, “Will you tell me what it means, Echo?”

The corner of his lips quirk. Your eyes jump to it.

You feel like someone’s reached right into your chest and given your heart a squeeze — and it only worsens when he laughs. He laughs, deep and quiet and warm, like a thunderstorm on a summer night. It feels cruel, to string you along like this when you’re here, lips parted, hanging off his every touch and his every word.

“Beautiful,” he says quietly as his other hand touches your jaw — it’s so damn reverent, this little moment in time, that you almost don’t believe it’s real.

It feels like a dream — like someone has come in and stolen your thoughts from you; like the unrequited yearning has finally stoked a fire large enough to burn you up entirely, a fever you never knew you wanted.

His nose brushes yours.

Your fingers wind into the fabric of his chest. You’re clinging, lost to the moment — and you can’t help wonder if this is how it feels when he catches you adoring him. He’s admiring you so tenderly that you nearly break.

You want to kiss him.

He’s thought about nothing but kissing you for the last five days at least. Longer in his dreams. Nowadays, it’s a constant pull, a constant want.

And now, it’s here — a present and current moment where it can happen. Where he can stop being a shiny cadet and he can make a move...

Enter Omega.

“Echo, we’re back—!”

The telltale hammer of a girl’s boots on the floor signals that the party is back from their supply run — but you’re so far off, spinning in a different universe, you don’t even hear her until its too late... Until Echo is yanking himself away and clearing his throat and rolling his wrist to test the prosthesis in a different way, a less intimate way. 

You blink, then rattle yourself back to the present. Omega is in the doorway staring with a quizzical look. Clearly, your state does little to dissuade the assumptions she’s already making and you can see the gears turning in her head. The dark-haired girl then slowly grins.

“Hi.”

You swallow. “Hi, Omega.”

“...Whatcha guys doin’?”

Echo coughs. “Uh, just fine-tuning the new upgrade.”

“...Riiiiiight.” 

You rub your cheeks and laugh — clearly forced and incredibly pained — as you stand up and nearly ram your head right into the top of Echo’s bunk. It’s met with a hiss of warning from the trooper as he jumps up to try and protect you from the impact. 

“Well! Uh, thanks for letting me help, Echo,” you clap, rocking back and forth on your boots, “I, uh... Oh, Cid called. I should... I should get back—”

“Yea,” he says, straining a bit to find the words, “Yea, I’ll... I’ll comm you if it starts to, uh... If it starts to act up?”

Omega watches the exchange, big brown eyes moving from left to right. 

“Good, great — yea, that’s,” you inhale as you rub your thighs and move towards the door, “Perfect. Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Bye!” Omega calls, waving.

You wave back, smiling. “Bye, Omega.”

Then, once it’s only Echo and Omega in the bunk, the tween speaks.

“...What the kriff was that?”

[redrobin-detective]

What meta abilities would you give to each of the batfam?

I'm always changing my mind lol

Alfred- Immortal, Alfie is definitely immortal and has been around for ages just doing his thing. Working for Thomas and Martha was a temporary thing to humble himself after centuries of being an arrogant warrior but now finds he likes serving his Master/son and their crazy brigade. Also taught B like so much stuff and is a great resource on history and battles. One reason B is so chill with metas and eventually adopts a bunch.

Dick- Telekinesis, he's always this in my mind. I think I read a fic of it and it just stuck in my head. I especially like the idea that his folks weren't metas and he just kind of appeared with this ability by chance. He'd have this whole arc of disliking his powers on and off maybe because he DID fall with his parents but instinctively caught himself midair on part of the broken trapeze. The survivors guilt and not feeling like a "true" Flying Grayson (like he's cheating) haunts him. This was one reason B trained him in human martial arts to kind of ground him.

Babs- Enhanced reflexes/strength, not something to do with technology you ask? NO! Barbs journey is about finding herself and where she fits in. She was a natural athlete d/t enhanced strength and reflexes, not crazy superhuman but enough to give her an edge over normal people when she became Batgirl. Losing the use of her legs devastated her but she moved past that to become the all seeing Oracle. She still can kick your ass from her chair even as she frames you for tax fraud.

Jason- Pyrokinesis, I also usually stick with this for Jay, probably leftover from the ATLA Au me and a friend kicked around for a while but it just fits. Young Jay was so gentle with his fires, lighting candles, warming Alfred's lukewarm tea that when he becomes Hood he just lets loose with these infernos to try and burn away his whole life. The first Bat who is outed as a meta and the rest of the Gotham community is watching Hood commit mass arson like "Bats how did you keep a lid on this kid" not knowing how Robin Jay used to be. Jay lords using his powers in public in his siblings' faces.

Tim- Death Communication, able to speak to the dead for certain periods (how long a person stays after death always depends). Got involved with B bc Jason's ghost came to him begging him to help his father. Tim got scared when Jason suddenly moved on midway through Robin training not realizing he'd been resurrected. Hood hates Tim for knowing what Jay used to be like. Whispers to murder victims and helps solve their cases. Thinks he can handle death fine but is both relieved and devastated when his dead loved ones move on quicker than he's ready.

Cass- Empath and low level psych, Cass's ability to read people comes not just from body language but also picking up on their emotions and some surface level thoughts if she works at it. Also able to project emotions or her thoughts into others minds. Its why she never learned to speak normally, she just communicated with her mind. Always attuned to her families emotional needs, she likes to go around projecting love and safety onto them. Its nice but sometimes Cass forgets things like Boundaries.

Steph- Precognitive Abilities, Steph gets flashes of the future at random, sometimes barely understandable snippets, sometimes long drawn out episode that last minutes and look (from the outside) like a seizure. Its how she got in the vigilante game, foreseeing not only her father's crimes but also her friendship with the fam. She drives B crazy by knowing some future events but not with any accuracy and just kind of making stuff up as she goes.

Damian- Invulnerable, well not quite but Damian is very, very hard to kill and ages slower than most humans as a result of growing up around the Pits. He's not quite invulnerable but it is harder to break skin and he heals much faster than a human. Was at first dismissive of his human father but now sees the value of his mortality. Is probably gonna be '10' for a while and the thought scares him. B is throwing crazy amounts of money to try and let Damian age as normal, even if it means cancelling out his abilities.

Duke- Light powers, nuff said

[arotechno]

Jughead (2015), Issues 9-11: Discussion and Commentary

This brings us to the first arc written by Ryan North, who saw that the aroace Jughead train had left the station and simply could not resist tagging along for the ride. If you’ve followed anything about Jughead as a character at all, then you’ve probably seen many screenshots from these three issues before. It’s the Sabrina arc (that’s right, as in the teenage witch)!

I have a lot of analysis at the end of this one, so buckle up!

The gang ends up at Pop’s, as usual, where Jughead meets the shop’s new mascot, a talking burger lady. Jughead is, unsurprisingly, thrown off his game by this. After all, burgers are his one true love, but girls? He doesn’t really have an interest in them. It’s a confusing moment for him, and when his friends witness this, well… they assume he’s got a crush on her.

This is an iconic page in the “aro Jughead” canon. Here we have Betty trying really hard to be a good friend and doing what in her mind is the best for him, trying to help him through what she and the others perceive as his first crush. Jughead, meanwhile, is diving headfirst into a spiral of confusion (and later, discomfort) at the idea of having any sort of interest in another person.

I want to give my utmost respect to Ryan North for explicitly having Jughead say that he doesn’t get crushes. It’s not the only time that North does this during this arc, and I think it makes all the difference between making this awkward and relatable rather than making it seem like Jughead is being stripped of or “cured” of being aro.

Betty pushes Jughead to talk to Sabrina (the burger lady—it’s Sabrina), and after a while of running into each other day in and day out as Jughead frequents Pop’s on a regular basis, they strike up a friendship. Jughead has gotten what he wanted—to be friends with the cool burger lady—and he seems genuinely satisfied.

…But unfortunately, things do not go as planned for Jughead. The next time they see each other, Sabrina asks Jughead out. And Jughead, in true stereotypical oblivious aro fashion, agrees, without realizing until it is much, much too late that what he has just agreed to is a date. Like, a real date.

If you think about it, Jughead has probably never been asked on a real date before. And this is something I ABSOLUTELY would have done (and may still do today, if I’m completely honest with myself) as a teenager. Jughead’s immediate regret is so palpable here, and so relatable to me as an aromantic.

In his panic, Jughead turns to his friends for help. They are… not helpful. They’re trying to be helpful, sure, but whereas Jughead doesn’t really seem to want to go through with this at all, his friends are more set on giving him romantic advice (with varying degrees of usefulness). Jughead really has to go out of his way to defend himself and insists on multiple occasions that he thinks the girl in the burger costume is cool and interesting, but that he doesn’t like-like her, he doesn’t even really know her!

Unfortunately for Jughead, he ends up going on the date. And who does he call for help? His only other openly queer friend (I say openly because let’s be real with ourselves, none of those kids are cishet), Kevin Keller.

And okay, this scene with Kevin is genuinely kind of funny. You get the impression that Kevin has had a lot of practice dealing with straight bullshit, and that he’s more than a little disappointed that Jughead’s “big emergency” turned out to be something this totally mundane and not worth his time.

Ultimately, Kevin is also super not helpful, even after Jughead steals his phone in an attempt to get him to come to the table and diffuse the awkward situation Jughead has found himself in. So Jughead resorts to what I can only assume is plan Z, which is to call Archie for backup.

Only semi-related, I really love the way Ryan North writes conversations between these two. It just feels really genuine and believable. And anyway, I don’t know what Jughead was expecting, but resident himbo Archie Andrews is of no help to him, and only ends up making things a hell of a lot worse.

This leads to Sabrina rushing off to the bathroom and casting multiple spells to try to get Jughead to at least play along, if not outright fall in love with her, all of which fail spectacularly and only end up making her far angrier with him. I don’t blame her for being upset—the date was a total disaster, and right at the moment Jughead was about to be honest with her, Archie showed up and made things worse. Sabrina storms out, and vows that she’ll get revenge on Jughead for this, somehow.

All of Sabrina’s subsequent spells on Jughead also backfire. She tries to make him fail his classes, and he passes with flying colors; she tries to make him spend the whole day with resident asshole Reggie, but he ends up befriending him against all odds. She even ends up unleashing a giant eldritch horror by accident, and—well, that’s not important.

In the end, Jughead decides to make things right. He never meant to hurt Sabrina, and she seems to be in a tough spot, having just moved to town, so he brings her some food as a peace offering and explains what really happened. And Sabrina is… surprisingly receptive, in fact more receptive than Jughead’s friends were when he came to them for help, despite the fact that this is something they should already understand about him. Being upset with Jughead wasn’t doing her any favors, so Sabrina already seems to be at peace with what happened and is more than willing to forgive him and be his friend despite all that transpired between them.

This is a really great scene. There’s a nuance to it—the way Jughead acted on their date was unfair, both to Sabrina and to himself. He needed to be honest from the beginning, but instead, he just kept trying to escape. At the same time, Sabrina gets it, and it wasn’t very cool of her to try to use magic to get what she wanted, either (not that Jughead knows she did that).

Jughead helps Sabrina re-enroll in her old school and quit her job at Pop’s to move back in with her aunts, so that she can live out the rest of her teenage years the way she’s supposed to. Afterwards, Sabrina and Jughead both seem really happy, and thus volume two ends on a positive, quiet note.

I really like this arc, for the reasons I’ve already stated and more. It’s funny and awkward and endearing (I say that a lot about this series, don’t I?), and it portrays a realistic and relatable aromantic problem without it being aboutaromanticism. It’s more about Jughead being honest about his feelings and making a new friend than about Jughead being aro, even though that contextualizes the situation. A great deal of the series is about that—Jughead being honest with himself and others. In the first arc, it’s Jughead shaking off a persona of apathy. In the second, it’s Jughead being honest with Archie about their friendship and the way Archie’s behavior has been making him feel. Here, it’s about Jughead being honest about who he is at his core, and accepting it about himself—and Sabrina accepts it, too, no questions asked. Even if he never says “I’m aromantic,” the sentiment is there plain as day, and it’s a refreshing beat for the story to land on.

That said, I do have a bone to pick with this arc. There’s a line in the sand here between Zdarsky and North. In the last arc, we saw Zdarsky portray that really subtle but meaningful interaction between Archie and Jughead, in which Archie seems not only keenly aware of Jughead being aromantic—even without the word—but also tacitly supportive of him, such that he knows immediately when he’s crossed a line. Here, we see Ryan North take a bit of a step back from that, such that Archie may be aware of Jughead’s orientation but seems way too quick to assume all that’s changed the moment there’s even a sliver of possibility that Jughead has a crush. That’s the reality of having different writers stepping in to interpret the same characters in loosely connected stories like this, but it still bothers me. I prefer Zdarsky’s style of storytelling in general, but in particular I also prefer his portrayal of Archie, as much as Ryan North’s on-the-nose aro moments and undying love for Reggie make me very happy. As a whole, nobody ever stops to ask Jughead what he wants, they only tell him what they think Sabrina wants. Jughead says so himself:

I suppose one could make the argument that Jughead’s friends, or even Jughead himself, are only really aware of the asexual bit (if at all—for all we know Veronica and Reggie have no idea, for example) and that’s why they don’t only never mention aromanticism but also sometimes seem ignorant of it. It’s possible that the aro side of Jughead’s orientation is still something he doesn’t have the words for, despite it being a truth he knows about himself, and in fact I think that would have been an interesting angle to take, had this series continued beyond 15 issues. But what I have an issue with isn’t so much the fact that Jughead’s friends are unhelpful (because let’s be real, sadly a lot of us have been there), but the fact that never are they asked to apologize for pushing him to do something he so clearly didn’t want to do. Whether he or they know he’s aromantic or not, he was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of going on this date—and not just due to a lack of experience. I would have liked it had Archie, or Betty, or Kevin apologized, or even once asked him what he really wanted. Betty comes the closest, by talking it out with him in the first place, but even she still earnestly pushes him to go through with the date anyway.

Anyway, there are two arcs left for me to discuss, and frankly I’m not as enthused by either of them as I was for these past three, for a variety of reasons. The Ryan North train continues for one more arc, and then it’s on to Mark Waid and Ian Flynn’s big finish. Those two updates might come a little slower. Until then, I was going to include a compilation of Jughead looking uncomfortable, but I've only got one image slot left thanks to tumblr, so instead I leave you with this:

Same, Jughead. Huge same.

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

[hwrryscherry]

The one where model Y/N is attacked in Paris.

blurb: Harry and Model Y/N are in Paris for Fashion Week 2020 earlier this year. To celebrate her first time walking for Gucci, Harry decides to take her out for a dinner date when a crazy youtube prankster attacks her while leaving the restaurant and Harry get furious as standing up to defend his girl.

word count: 3.5K

warning: rude and disrespectful attitude, invasion of personal space, violence, anxiety attack quote. DON’T read it if you feel uncomfortable.

author’s note: HIII, I know this took me a while. I was working on it when I got a cold and just couldn’t think of anything to finish writing this, but I’m much better now for god’s sake. I’d like to apologize with whoever requested this for taking such a long time to post it and say a huge thank you or requesting this too! This is completely inspired by what happened to Gigi Hadid in 2016(I guess) and I remember seeing this video and thinking why someone would do that, also, Gigi said once that the guy was lucky Zayn wasn’t with her sooooo I guess I just think Harry would be so furious because even though he’s a very chill guy, his girl safety and well being is the one thing that matters the most to him.

gigi’s video for the ones who didn’t see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjsPmjqmcvs

       February 27th, 2020

   Today was the first time that you ever walked for Gucci, and it was amazing, you were beyond happy because getting where you are today being a short model and only being 22 years old it's something to be proud of. It hasn't been easy all the time but you were slowly making your way to the top and that's more than enough. And you were highly grateful for Harry either, of course you walked Gucci's show because of your talent and hard working and no one doubted that, but Harry did a important role in your newest contract with Gucci because you met the team because of him and his Gucci obsession. But anyway, the fashion show was amazing, and you had Harry on the crowd cheering for you all the time and God, he was so proud! He couldn’t even handle himself. He was recording everything and even got up when you did the catwalk next to him as he kept taking multiple pictures. If you have to be real, almost 90% of those pictures looked really bad because he wasn't focusing on the phone but he also wanted to register this moment and when you'd look through them later you'd actually laugh because most of them had a very blur image.

    When the fashion show ended, he had to congratulate you backstage. As you were starting to take off your outfit, you listened to your boyfriend's rough voice making you turn around to face him and see the biggest smile on his face, you could clearly see his dimples on the side of his cheek. He walked over to you instantly wrapping his strong arms around your figure hugging you so tight that you were even afraid that he would get the feat of ruining the rest of clothes you still had on.

— You were so great, I'm so pround of you! — Harry said on a low tone next to your ear before breaking the hug and looking carefully to your face. You had this crazy green eyeshadow that were halfway gone by now which caused him to chuckle — I love your eye look, it looks fabulous! — Harry said making you bend over to stare at the mirror behind you only realizing now you haven't finished taking off your makeup yet. You stand straight again giving him a mocking expression as you grabbed the makeup wipe you were using from the makeup table behind both of you.  

— I know, I'm thinking about wearing this everywhere because it's just really fashion! — you ironically said taking a smirk out of him as you turned around sitting on the chair in front of the mirror so you could have a sight of how you're makeup were doing — But thank you, you know I appreciate it!

— I do! And that's why I'll congratulate you by taking you out for dinner tonight! — Harry said walking towards you resting his hands on both of your shoulders squeezing them gently as he bends over giving you a small kiss on your neck.

— Oh, like a dinner date? — You'd ask with a smirk on as you felt goosebumps on your kiss with his little kiss.

— Exactly like a dinner date! And later, we can have our own private celebration! — He'd say with a  smirk on his lips as you finished taking your makeup off — What d' you think? Sounds good? — He asked you and you nodded at him and just some minutes later you both were out stage going back to your hotel in Paris. Harry called Jeff and asked him if he could make a reservation for both of you for tonight around 8 pm and he glady did, so as it was already 6 pm and as you both were probably the one couple in the world who takes the longest to get ready, you'd come back to the hotel and started getting ready already.

    Jeff made an appointment for both of you to go to Le Cinq restaurant which is located near the Eiffel Tower and Arc of Triumph. You absolutely loved Paris at night, for some reason it seemed more magical and interesting to you. The weather, the lights, the fashion and the language that you learned to master well through the years warmed your heart whenever you’d go there. When you were a child, you got used to always hearing your mom tells you:’’whenever you’re in love, go to Paris’’, and for this reason Paris was one of the first places where you and Harry traveled together as couple. Harry didn’t use to travel a lot for by the way. MOst of the time, he used to travel for work, so this changed a lot since you started dating because you love to travel. You’ve always been a free spirit person, the kind of person that goes wherever the winds takes you so with the time Harry became like this too as you started taking him to do the craziest things on the craziest places around the world.

    You felt the car slower it’s velocity as it got closer to the front of the restaurant, and you both could see by the window that the front was packed. As it was Paris Fashion Week, there were a lot of celebrities in the city and usually, fans settled in front of popular places around the city hoping they’d have a chance to meet their favorite celebs and even though you were already used to crowds at this point of your life, they’d still make you a little nervous, especially when it was in places not well known to you like a city you don’t live on.

— You’ll have to guide me because these shoes are really high and I don't want to step on anyone's feet — You said to Harry while putting your phone in the small black Prada bag you carried with you with your head down looking carefully to it because you’ve lost the count of how many times you thought you had put the phone inside your bag and you didn’t.

— It's alright! Hold my hand because there are a lot of people here! — Said Harry bringing his left hand up to your face to put a lock of hair of yours that fell in your face behind your ear and you nodded to him. Harry was really protective over you, and he has been that way since the beginning of your relationship. He’d always put your safety first anytime you’d go out together. When it was his about his concerts, you’d usually discuss about the fact that you want to be in the audience and he wants you to be backstage. It’d taken you a few minutes to convince him that everything was going to be fine, but it would also have days that it didn’t matter how much time you try to convince him he’d beg you to stay backstage so he could be relaxed during the performance. But you were grateful for him being that way, you were grateful that he cared so much about your well being because you know exactly how much some relationships can be destructive and you felt lucky to have someone this good in your life. Of course he wasn’t perfect, neither of you were but who is? He tried his best and that’s what matters the most.

    But anyway, Harry held your hand tightly and opened the car door, immediately feeling the camera’s flashes burning your faces and listening to some fans starting to shout. Harry’s bodyguards got between both of you and the crowd guiding your way to the entrance of the restaurant and you felt the heat from the crowd instantly even though the weather in Paris was only 59°F, it’d feel lot warmer until you entered the place. And that is one special kind of a place, The decoration was perfectly splendid, gorgeous and marvelous if you must say. The touches of gold and light blue mixed with the yellow coloration of lights and the spectacular french food scent brought a cozy and elegant vibe.The restaurant was a little full, nothing out of the common and you observed the many different sizes of tables and the groups of people in it.

    You both were taken to your table that was located next to the windows but wasn’t actually on the windows at it still had people outside and it feels weird to eat with people watching you. Anyway, Harry as the gentleman he is pulled the chair for you as he always did even though you had told him there’s no need for that. You both ordered glasses of your favorite white wine, neither of you were heavy drinkers but as it was a celebration it was much needed. The date happened naturally, just as all the laughing, talking and even gossips. This the casual couple gossip that you two would have, but it happened naturally. None of you ever felt like you had to pretend to be anybody else except yourself around each other.

    During the night, Harry would get lost in your face admiring your features while you’re talking. He would admire the way your eyebrows move when you’d change expressions, the way your eyes would form a very tiny line when you tried to see something that was away from you, he’d admire your smile and the sound of your laugh anytime you’d remember of something funny or he’d tell you something funny and he’d think of how lucky he is to have you, because even though he knows that sometimes he can be a pain in the ass(just as you can too) , you’re very lucky to have one another and to have someone who would make you feel this great and free about who you are. Because who you are is exactly who you need to be. Of course both of you believes that changing and envolving it’s the most important thing to do and sometimes you’d be surprised to see how much you both grew from the beginning of your relationship until today and that would bring smile to your faces. He feels lucky to be able to call you his girl, and god you loved when he’d do it. You loved when he was about to present you to someone and say ‘’This is my girl Y/N’’, it’d cause you to open a big smile because it felt natural. You’re his and he’s yours, period.

    When you both decided it was time to call it a night Harry paid the check against what you wanted because you wanted to pay this time. You’d honestly hate to have people paying for you, and this would usually be a point of discussion between you and Harry. You don't know why but you hate it, and it's just the gentleman in Harry wanting to spoil his girl again and again until he get tired of doing it, but he never does.

   You were about to leave the restaurant when Harry slid his right hand around your waist bringing you closer to him very calmly to kiss your cheek.

— I know you want to say hi to everyone but just walk to the car, alright? — He'd lowly talk next to your ear making you look at him with a serious expression — It's for your safety, love! It's late now, and we don't know who's there. — And he was right, it was past midnight now and there were still some people out there. How can they stand there in this cold weather? But anyway, you agreed with him as you both walked your way to outside. You felt flashes again, blinding flashing lights making you look to the ground as Harry held his hand on the back of your back guiding you to the car.

    As you walked towards the car, you felt a small hand touch your arm and you looked over to see a little girl with probably 12 or 13 years. She pursued tired eyes, and your heart ached with just the thought of keeping walking back to the car because you had no idea of how much time she’s been outside waiting for you so you stopped walking and bend down a little to get close to her height which made Harry stops walking immediately looking a little surprised but he understood when he saw you taking a picture with the little girl and how your face lightens up after it. You asked her what was her name and her age and she answered that her name was Lily and she was 13 she told you that she wants to be a model just like you when she grows older and that melted your heart. You smiled at her and told her that she could do whatever she wanted to and told her that when she grows up and becomes a model, you’d love to walk a show with her. When you’d stand up again you saw Harry looking at you with a small smile on his lips. He couldn’t deny he loves your kindness to every person in the world. It made his heart happy to know that he’s with someone with the same life philosophy than him. So he turned around to open the car door for you when you felt two strong arms wrap around your waist lifting you up and you froze.

— What the fu... — You'd shout before starting to hit him on his arms with your elbows as you'd move your legs trying to kick him with your heels. You'd feel flashes on your face and heat on your body increasing. It was the adrenaline and you were furious at this point. — Get...Off...Me — You'd shout as you'd hit his face with your elbows as well, Harry looked over to you and stormed out. He'd swear he'd never been like this in his life, he'd basically run to behind the guy's back and put his arm around his neck, Harry'd give him a punch right in the middle of his back and a slightly kick on the back of his knee to destabilise the guy which put you free by the moment he started to fall. Harry's bodyguard would hold you immediately trying to push you away from the crowd as you looked at Harry pushing the guy away from you.

— What the fuck were you doing? — Harry'd shout right into the man's face and watch as the man started to walk away from the crowd but Harry would go after him. Harry swears to god he couldn't even feel his body at the time. He was completely numb, moved by adrenaline and all he wanted to do was to beat the shit out of that man. — WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? — Harry'd shout walking after him getting no response which just made him angrier. At that time he didn't care about the cameras or whoever was watching him, he couldn't calm down when someone threated his girl safety and personal space. It didn't even need to be you. If he saw anyone threatening a woman's safety, he'd freak out in anger.

   You felt the bodyguards strong hands trying to push you away from the situation because that's what Harry would want him to do. He tried walking you towards the car, but you were reluctantly screaming for Harry because he could get himself hurt if he didn't come back to the car now. The other bodyguard walked after Harry grabbing him by the arm and Harry turned over to look at him with so much anger on his look and you'd swear you never saw him like this but then he did started walking over to you again.

   You finally entered the car and closed the door. You felt in panic. Basically paralyzed, you felt your anxiety attacking and your hands shaking. You could literally hear your heart beating so fast and loud that it scares you.

— Go get him! Follow him to hell. I don't care! Take him to the police office! — You'd listen to Harry talks firmly to his bodyguards as he opened the car's door and entered in it. He took a deep breath and turned his face to look at you. His heart broke at that moment. You were a mess. You couldn't even feel the tears leaving your eyes, but he did see them. He saw your hands shaking and how scared your eyes looked and at that moment all of his anger left his body — Love... — He'd sigh getting closer to you while wrapping his arms around your now-fragile figure. He could feel your entire body shaking on his arms. He caressed your hair with one of his hands as he hugged you tight to calm you down. He'd look to the driver and make a sign for him to start driving back to your hotel — Are ya okay? You're hurt? Did he hurt you? — He'd talk on a calm tone squeezing you a little on his arms. You'd lift your head up to look at him with red wet eyes shaking your head to him.

— I'm sorry! — You'd say lowly. He did tell you to walk straight to the car, and you didn't listen to him.

— It's not your fault, love! — He'd say wiping some of your tears and then carefully kissing both of cheeks — Don't worry about it, everything's gonna be fine, alright? It's okay!

   You'd spent the rest of the ride in silence. A comfortable silence. You'd be laying your head on his shoulder while holding his head getting your breathing and heart back to normal and your phones would start buzzing with notifications of what happened but none of you would see it, not now.

   When you got to your hotel, you'd get out of the car in the garage. You'd both walk slowly to the elevator and slowing to your room. You entered the room going directly to the king sized bed and throwing yourself in it because you felt like getting in a coma and just waking up to a time where all this drama would go away. Harry'd walk towards you and sit in bed beside you. He'd put both of his hands on your shoulders massaging them slowly.

— I'll prepare you a bath, so you can relax a little before sleeping, how's that sound? — He'd say trying to cheer you up a little bit.

— Sounds great, thank you love! — You'd turn your head to look at him with a forced smile on your lips. Harry'd bend down to kiss your hair line before leaving to the bathroom.

   He'd try his best to make you feel the most comfortable to sleep tonight. He'd prepare you a bath. He'd give you a message, he'd brush your hair for you but actually, he loves to do that. He loves to brush your hair before you go to bed, it was more like a routine for you both. He loves to feel your long locks on his fingers and to feel the sweet scent of it. He'd cuddle you until you fall asleep too, he'd even be the big spoon tonight so you could sleep on his chest breathing his perfume because he hoped that'd make you have a good night of sleep.

   And after you did, he'd look on the things on his phone. All the posts about you being attacked in Paris and him beating the guy who did it were just too much and he felt sorry that you'd have to see and read all of those stuff as soon as you unblock your phone. A lot of your friends texted him asking what happened and if you were ok. He'd answer the closest ones only, like his mom and Gemma, your mom, Bella and Jeff. He didn't know what you'll decide about the next fashion shows you had to walk, but he also knows that no one would blame you if you just chose to come back home in NYC.

  Harry didn't sleep at that night at all, he couldn't stop looking for what happened and why it happened. The next day, it was everywhere in the media and later you'd found out that the guy was a youtuber and he was making a prank when he posted his stupid youtube vlog with "I pranked Harry Styles's girlfriend and he punched me" as a title. You'd sue him for sure. You don't like taking those kind of actions, but it was necessary, he had to understand that you cannot disrespect people like this, specially people you don't know.

  After that you'd probably understand why Harry is so protective over you and Harry would actually get ten times more protective, if I had to be honest. But as the time passed by and quarantine came you both would leave it behind and move on with your life because in the end of the day you both will still have one another.