#there's a lot of mechanical depth to this stupid fight

[cloudninetonine]

I will get on my knees and beg for a yandere!Mecha drabble.ლ⁠(⁠・⁠﹏⁠・⁠ლ⁠)

"I would do anything for you."

The following pause was almost thunderous despite the complete lack of noise. 

You eyes had moved from your fishing pole slowly, similar to your usual comedic effect but lacking the actual comedy from the real confusion shown as you stared up at Mecha. His own artificial eyes stared back, company made plastic that shone an aquatic blue as they studied your rigid form with not an ounce of emotion behind them.

"...What have you done?"

Your tone held an accusation but not the angered kind. No, the feelings behind it felt more similar to the tone you’d address a pet, waiting patiently at the front door awaiting the arrival of it’s owner when they finally walked through the door and realised their furry roommate seemed a little too nice that day. What had he done? What had he left behind? And would you be the one cleaning up the mess after it all?

“Nothing, nothing, I swear.” He chuckled, turning back to his own fishing pole- a gift from you, so he wouldn’t have to sit stagnant alongside you. Something that made him feel a little more human. “I just…I thought you should know.”

Your eyes narrowed suspiciously, lips pulled in an overly mocking pout before you kissed you teeth with a growing goofy smile, turning back to the slow stream. “I would do anything for you too.”

“You don’t need to, I am perfectly fine with doing anything.”

“Nu-uh.”

“Ya-huh.”

“Are you calling me incompetent?”

Even with a forever permanent smile, he stilled seemed to he smirking. “What if I am?”

“Then you better put those hands up to fight.”

You really were adorable. Did you really think you stood a chance against him? Your shorter, meat filled arms that could so easily snap under the pressure of even an inch of his strength? Something he knew too well, when he had killed those monsters that got too close or that odd Hylian who thought being in your presence didn’t have such dastardly consequences- bugs. The whole lot of them. Bugs beneath his feet, just like he was compared to your radiance, a mere bug that you could so easily step on but chose to spare from the depths of your love filled heart.

You playfully punched his arm, cringing and shaking off the pain that came with beating hardened plastic when he caught your wrist, fingers gently running over your knuckles.

Such delicate skin. So soft and so warm- not that he could feel it of course. But he knew. Mecha knew deep down in his soul, so broken and decayed, that your whole being was perfect. One of these days, no matter what, he would feel it. He would do anything, would kneel before the goddess and beg, would detach himself from this wretched prison- would steal a body of one of those stupid heroes if it meant he could feel the warmth of your skin against his.

Mecha longed for humanity, longed to be with you- he craved it. Craved it like the bees craved pollen, craved it like the fish craved water. Mecha didn’t just want you, he needed you. Screw those heroes who bore the same name as he, Mecha loved you more than they ever could. The animatronic was simply the best, even with this disgusting body of metal he could protect you with no sweat on his brow and that was what he was made for. His true purpose wasn’t to be just a hero but your hero.

Carefully, Mecha brushed your knuckles against his plastic lips. He may have not had the assets but the intention was there and to see you giggle, flustered before returning the sentiment, your lips presumingly gently kissing his mechanical knuckles was worth it.

Mecha would bleed this land dry if it meant he would be the one you would hold dear.

[bizarredawdler]

FF14 all expansions and post patch quests done!

I've always been hesistant to try this game out before, due to my bad experiences with other MMOs before (it doesn't help I didn't have a whole lot of people to play them with lol), but this surprisingly won me over.

The story and characters were the highlight for me. However, it did start quite slow. Starting with "A Realm Reborn", the story is mostly just kinda there with some predictable beats. But then, once I hit the first batch of post patch quests, the game really hooked me. It was a twist I didn't see coming, and added much more depth to something that I usually thought was more of an afterthought in MMOs. It then just kept getting better and better, only really hitting a snag in the Stormblood post patch quests (I found the whole memory loss arc with Yotsuyu incredibly stupid and a waste of time; cool boss fight though). Then I reached Shadowbringers and Endwalker, and that's when the game's story and characters really hit their stride, and I was now fully engaged. What amazes me with this game is that the writers are able to keep the story going in interesting ways even after 4 expansions (and soon to be 5 with Dawntrail), which is absolutely insane to me.

The gameplay was fun! With the help of some friends, I was able to slowly grasp some of the more subtle mechanics of the game and gradually started getting better with my class (although I still fumble my rotations sometimes even at lvl 90 lol). Although I didn't do a lot of side content, since I was mostly focusing on the main story quests, the structure of each quest was still really solid and rewarding, and I was surprised to see how chill the random people I played in a party were, always being cheerful and understanding when I was making mistakes in some boss fights. Compared to WoW and Maplestory, this felt like a breath of fresh air.

The music was also really good! It would be a crime for a Final Fantasy game to have a terrible soundtrack, and this game has some really great variety of awesome tracks that I still listen to on Spotify. Again, incredible production value for an MMO.

I think my only real nitpick, aside from the aforementioned stormblood post patch quests, is that although some of the visuals are great, because A Realm Reborn was originally released in 2014, some of the character models and lighting are dated by today's standards (and even then, a lot visuals are gonna get an overhaul in the next expansion Dawntrail, so that's not really too big of an issue).

Overall, this was well worth the 354 hours of playtime I put into it. Really excited to play Dawntrail with my buddies!

[din-skywalker]

Just wanted to leave a little thank you for being a beacon of factual info on Miguel. Like for the parts that peak through in the ATSV they still get muddled if you don’t know or you refuse to look deeper than, ‘He opposed Miles = he’s bad’.

Like no.

He is a very traumatic individual that has the coping mechanism of ‘I’ve done this wrong now I will make sure it will never happen again.’ He overthinks, but genuinely wants to do good and gets very irritated when it doesn’t happen. His fights with the Specialist for Kasey and Vulture 2099 being his monstrous self come to mind. He’s not quippy funny, but flat sarcasm because it’s how he deflects. And on that note he’s never against the jokes, he just doesn’t do it (Peter B is being used as an unreliable narrator). And he cares or he wouldn’t have been so haunted and committed to fixing something when at first as Spider-Man he hated it and himself so much.

Just really a thank you to highlighting things about his personality or ability set. It wonderful!

PS. I saw an ask-answer where you said you have a discord server for 90’s Miguel, is it still open?

hehe! i try my best to spread true info about miguel, since he's my skrunkily. i've loved him for around 6 years now...

and yes! there's so much depth to his character that so many people ignore. they make him so flat when he's not... the movie doesn't do the best job at showing he's more than one dimensional at times, however, especially for people that won't look too much further into it

there's also the fact that he's shown as angry a lot. angry characters are typically viewed negatively because anger is viewed negatively overall. which, is stupid. just because someone is angry a lot doesn't mean they're not a good person... and miguel isn't only angry anyways... that's just most of what we see in the movie (god i wish he had more screen time. people wouldn't misunderstand him as much if he had more time i think)

for the server- yes! it's an overall miguel server that discourages nsfw content, so if you're into that there's only one channel where that's allowed (also minors are NOT allowed) im a mod there so lemme know it's you that joined :^)

[beesmygod]

So TotK seems to be clicking where BotW wasn't. Any insight on what the key differences are that work for you?

note: i played botw up until the calamity ganon fight and then went "yeah ok ive played a zelda game before", put it down and never went back. didnt play the dlc

i dont think anyone would be surprised to know that im a "majoras mask was the best zelda" guy but the reason has little to do with the "darker tone" or the lore but because reusing assets allowed the dev team to greatly (GREATLY in this case holy shit) expand on the actual contents of the game itself. i love gold/silver best for the same reason.

botw is like running around an empty movie set. theres nothing in that fucking game. at the time, due to the proliferation of crafting mechanics infesting literally every AAA game, it felt like nintendo was more focused about hitting all the checks on a checklist of tired mechanics that were included just for the sake of saying they had it. crafting! weapon durability! open world! pbbbbt.

none of these things proved to be enjoyable to me. keeping in mind that ive been playing zeldas since the snes (skipping only a handful of handheld games), the changes felt like steps away from what makes zelda games unique. crafting felt like an arbitrary step between me and potions. i wanted to swing my master sword with power, not experiment with clumsy weapons that stop existing after i finally get a feel for them. and the open world, frankly sucked.

mm rewarded me for my curiosity. experimentation and exploration would lead to interesting or gratifying results (did you know theres a paper airplane in ikana canyon...). botw is like playing in the window xp background. theres barely any landmarks, except shrines, or anything to do outside of getting the yiga clan's ass. theyre easy to pick out because theyre literally the only people on the road. the world is put to waste; i cant play with it, i can just observe and be extremely artificially hindered by its vastness.

this doesnt really fit anywhere else in the above open world rant, but trading the shrines for small and sparce dungeons was a huge let down. i was hoping for a series of cohesive puzzles intended to help my mastery of my newest weapon or ability. you know. like a zelda game

totk fixed this and every other problem in the best way possible; the devs dumped a ton of toys into my playpen, gave me a hot glue gun, and told me to go buck wild. i love to build a horrible contraption to solve my stupid problems or kill me instantly. i love that experimenting with weapons involves actual experimentation if you desire or you can have an inventory exclusively full of spear type weapons with vastly different properties by gluing a bunch of rocks or monster parts to it. but most importantly....the "stock up->head out->explore->return" loop no longer feels like i have to go to the dmv over and over.

sure, the depths are artificially large in the way that the map in botw was; theres not a lot to do except reveal the map and do plot stuff. but the overworld was given a complete overhaul using the empty map as a starting point. theres actually stuff to look at, ruins to explore, caves to investigate, holes to jump into, and all that shit in the sky to explore. the sky map might be sparse but its meticulously crafted so that just the process of explorating the archipelagos feels like a puzzle you need to solve, as opposed to a hurdle you have to jump.

there is so much more to do in totk that im pretty sure im over 20 hours in and havent done any of the regional main quests. ive been running around picking up side quests, uncovering the map, exploring the depths, fucking around in the sky, and dying my clothes. but its not annoying or overwhelming. it feels more alive and less like a weird map in an abandoned gmod server. im having fun.

for crit: imo, one of the biggest criticisms i have for both these games is that the voice acting is horrendous. nintendo has too much money to be tapping people who sound like they just got out of the shenmue soundbooth. zelda was not improved by voice acting and they should probably go back to everyone just having short exclamations like "HEH HEEH!" or "hmmm...".

also link doesnt roll anymore and its really fucking me up. im really struggling here lol. i keep trying to do dark souls shit and every fight involves me accidentally zooming in with the sheikah slate instead of locking on, hitting l1 istead of shield, and whistling for my horse instead of drinking estus.

also nerf rain

[mrslittletall]

I finished The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom today. That final boss was cool! Really enjoyed it. Now what are my thoughts? Especially compared to Breath of the Wild? I first want to say what I liked more in TotK.

The main dungeons and the boss battles. Those were such a glow up compared to Breath of the Wild! The dungeons actually looked unique from each other, had fun mechanics and the boss battles, holy shit, the stupid Deathblights are getting soooo boring easily but ToTK has four very distinct bosses which you actually beat with the help of your companions and wow! I loved them so much I was fighting the underground variants all the time! Caves! Oh god that was the BEST idea! Zelda always did have caves and they were sorely missing in BotW. I loved going delving in this game! The caves were amazing! That is one of the things I might come back for to find all the caves I missed. I also enjoyed the wells for the same reason. The sky! That was FUN! Everything being so disconnected meant you had to get creative to get from island to island. And they had a lot of clever puzzles up there, especially to make shrines appear. And the things I liked less? Shrines. Yeah, sorry, TotK. BotW actually gave me really thought out shrines designed around the four main abilites, cryo, stasis, bombs and magnesis. ToTK had one shrine. BUILD! And yeah there were different mechanics in it but it got old quick. You just always were building. The naked survivals were pretty nice but only after you got a couple hearts or they were brutally difficult. I also don't like how many shrines just had to be found. No clever overworld puzzles, just find the cave and the shrine. Done. The ones in the sky sometimes had overworld puzzles so they were more fun ^^ Stuff I am pretty neutral about: The story. It was perfectly serviceable and the Zelda stuff made me weep but I get the criticism of the ancestors being completely bland characters and Ganondorf being a one not villain without depth. Because that is 100 % the case. But some of the new characters are really good, like Rauru, Sonia and Mineru, really fun characters and I liked that we got more an emphasis on the champions of the present, BotW seemed to have a lot more emphasis on the champions from the past who were long dead. And also completely gone from this game. I guess they moved on after Calamity Ganon died? I don't really remember BotW's ending in full detail. In conclusion, this game is BotW 1.5 with some great ideas and some things that feel a little meh. I had my fun with it though.

[quirkle2]

nobody asked but im typing out all the gripes i have w totk . they're mostly nick-picky tho i loved this game. complaints first, praises after

single biggest gripe i have with totk is that the main selling point of the game, the sky, does not feel nearly as expansive as it should. i feel like there coulda been waayyy more islands up there, and Bigger ones, like the one u start out on. i want bigger pieces of land to explore, not these tiny little rocks. it feels i've seen everything there is to see the moment i land. as far as i remember, there's no biomes in the sky islands either, except for the great sky one. there's no differences, and many of the islands are copy-pasted. still fun to explore and still beautiful, but i was expecting... more

while i love the depths with all my heart and being down there is an Experience, i do think it could've been improved with a little bit of variety. it looks the same wherever u go, with the exception of the eldin region and a few other lavafalls sprinkled about. i think some different biomes woulda been so cool

no post-game. i don't even necessarily want a fully fleshed out post-game, i literally just want the game and the world to acknowledge i beat ganon instead of dumping me back in time moments before the fight i just started. this is a common thing, i know, but i Hate the practice

u can't pet th efuckign dogs

what the hell happened to ganon's face in that one scene . i thought we were past weirdly impossible expressions like that one midna grin. why did it happen again in the year 2023.

why did ganon's intro scene before the final fight pan to his feet so much

kinda predictable story, in the sense that zelda turned into the light dragon. saw it comin a mile away, but this is just me being bitchy the story itself is still very fulfilling and good. just predictable, which isn't necessarily a bad thing

okay that was 7 complaints 2 of which were memes now sit back as i ramble abt the good stuff. already made a thread abt the little stuff i liked now it's the bigish stuff

the music in some of the areas is genuine fucking art. some of my favorites are the wind temple theme and it's approach track, the construct factory theme, dragonhead island, the bits of the calamity ganon theme in this game's final boss track, frozen rito village,,, so many pieces of genuine skill and talent

the wind temple is absolutely one of the best experiences i've had in a video game, not because of the puzzle design, but the temple design. the moment where you look up into the clouds with tulin and you see a giant airship silhouette highlighted by lightning,, the approach track that plays when ur getting higher into the air had chills running down my spine. what a cool fucking concept for a temple

there's already a post somewhere on tumblr abt this, but i love that the citizens of hyrule don't follow the typical "every man for himself" apocalyptic mindset. they help each other, constantly. they seek out people to help in their spare time. they shelter each other and volunteer to do hard work for the sake of everybody else. i just think that's rly endearing n nice. a good message

the entire fuse and ultrahand mechanics are SUPER fun. so endlessly creative. and i love that a lot of the time, the game doesn't hold ur hand. it doesn't even Grab ur hand, it pushes u off the ledge to teach you how to fly. it Makes u get creative with ur solutions. it makes u feel stupid a Lot, but sometimes it makes u feel like an absolute genius (anybody else have trouble with that one rail shrine? anybody else just launch themselves across the pit and rail grind to skip the thing entirely?)

tulin.

the vibes of the thunderhead isles were Incredible. i went up there before the clouds cleared, and i gotta say, even if the game Wants u to go up there later in the story, exploring those islands while the storm is still active is an entirely different experience, and i recommend it. if ur reading this before you've finished this part, just don't go to the actual dragonhead island . leave that for when it prompts u, trust me.

ganon's dragon design ? fucking killer

a lot of the new armor pieces are really beautiful. the miner's set looks so fuckin stupid but the headpiece is cool. all the torso pieces for the elemental dragon sets r Gorgeous

loved that the first half of the final boss took place in the depths, and the second half took place in the sky. nintendo has always been good at linking game elements with stories and this is no exception imo

LOVED when ganon's health bar stretched super far to the right. that was so silly and intimidating

in the final fight, the way ganon would only be affected by flurry rushes at first and not any random attacks, but then random attacks were the only way to hit him later. i know it was scripted, but it genuinely made it feel like he was learning to fight link better

the theme of cycles and the circular nature of time throughout this game is wonderful, and how it's mirrored in the first/last settings of the game is genius. how the game starts in a cave, and then part of the ending is in that same cave. how link dived alone into that pond below the great sky island at the start, and then at the very end he dived For Zelda in that very same pond

[clarissaexplainingitall]

Is Octopath 2 worth picking up? I held off on Octopath 1 just due a general disinterest after the demo. That said, I enjoy a good JRPG!

Oh boy long post ahead but in short? Yes. Absolutely.

The longer answer depends on what you did/didn't like about Octopath 1 or JRPGs in general. Am going to put this behind a cut because I have a lot of thoughts about this, will avoid massive spoilers. But my other recommendation is I do very much like Octopath 1 still, so if you do try 2 and end up liking it, it's definitely worth going back IMO. But I digress:

Mechanics:

Octopath 2 overwhelmingly improves a lot of the mechanics that were already good in 1.

They expanded path actions (each unit now gets 2 active and 1 passive) and added a combat specific "latent" action that works well with their primary class.

So for example, Ha'anit in Octo1 had access to Provoke and then in combat could capture beasts, Therion had Steal and could unlock purple chests. Ochette (Octo2's hunter) can Provoke, but at night she can Befriend (trade various foods to NPCs to make them summonable in combat), and they added 25% chance of auto-capture on any creature she KOs (which made Beast combat much more viable and useful). She can also turn captured beasts into foods for Befriend purposes (but also party buffs). Throne (Octo2's thief) can steal, can KO based on level at night (Ambush), and automatically buffs all allies at the start of night-time combats.

This isn't to speak of their latent actions, which are special chargeable actions they can take in-combat (I won't spoil those - some are very good). The range on those is really nice.

They also got rid of the stupid purple chests, for which I thank god every day. So the primary thief is no longer mandatory to avoid backtracking (bless).

Skills were reworked and reassigned to ensure all characters had more even utility. For instance, the Thief ability Steal SP was removed from thieves and given to clerics, which lets them be more self-sufficient, etc. It just means you can mix up party comp a lot more without feeling like mechanically compelled to bring Hunter, Apothecary, or suffer.

Bewildering Grace was improved, more interesting options were added, some hard hitting debuffs were reworked. Farming, while much less necessary (thank god) is now also easier.

The focus is a lot less on long-slog dungeons and more on the boss fights and story, which I prefer. They weren't afraid to try out some more interesting fight concepts in late game (rather than sticking to just one debuff and theming the fight around that). Several of the bosses vary dramatically based on party comp, forcing you to strategize beyond "Idk, bring leghold trap, bring a heal/rehabilitate caster, bring chunky damage." Hikari has killed my party like three times because I brought his overpowered ass to the wrong fight. It's been great.

Story:

Honestly, this is the meat and potatoes. I think... Octopath 1 had a tighter overall narrative with the combination of the eight paths, but Octopath 2 had some of my favorite characters and extremely strong individual paths, gave most of them* a ton of depth, and really the only places* where the ball was dropped were the back half of endgame.

They also added additional chapters focusing on two characters per pop, which start off as seeming side-stories and then circle back around to be relevant for endgame.

*we aren't talking about Throne. I can't do it, I'm not strong enough. Throne's arc frustrates me immensely because I know, in my heart of hearts, that they could've done a better job. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and it's just gratuitous layers of playing up the creep factor of incest, which is not really what I'm here for. But also it depends on your level of JRPG exposure - like, some fire emblem games are kind of worse, so it really varies. It's like if you crossed the worst parts of Prim's story (sexual assault/harrassment, being constantly put in situations where oh look, she has to masquerade as a prostitute again and be deferential to a guy who likes to be called Daddy) with the weakest parts of Therion's (instakill collar that can't come off).

****

TLDR:

My biggest hell yeahs:

DRAMATIC QOL improvements to UI and combat system, all the changes in mechanics fucked. Better spread of talents that made using certain underutilized abilities from Octo1 more worthwhile.

Greater monster variety I feel???

Dramatically improved environments, more variety in dungeons

Unexpectedly deeper characters - only one feels tonally off to me, but even she gets to have a really great fight etc at the end.

General better handling of stories with narrative weight? Most bosses make sense when included. Every final chapter boss was great, there were no more Alfyns with big birds that weren't relevant. Death is given narrative weight in this game more than 1.

That one sequence in postgame where you find the journal entries. I am being vague on purpose. Anyone who's played knows what I'm talking about.

Castti's chapter 3.

My biggest oh my god ceases:

Throne's narrative abandoning potential every five seconds so someone can abuse/harass her

No fucking boss rush before the Superboss : (

The superboss thing a second time, I'm so sad about that

I thought for SURE we'd circle back around to Roi since he didn't die but no. No Graham 2.0, Redeye 2.0, etc. Boo.

[mbabol]

GAMES I'VE PLAYED RANKINGS (2023)

STORYTELLING

Disco Elysium - The complexity of the writing of this game is stupid beyond. It's thematically rich, well-researched, deeply interrogative, engaging, and well-crafted. Also it's funny. It's not my favorite novel but the fact that it's up for comparison speaks volumes.

Pentiment - I'm so sorry to say it but Pentiment feels like Disco Elysium but about 16th century Bavaria. It is similarly well-researched, thematically rich, and well-crafted, but is a little more restrained in its political statements and therefore doesn't reach its full potential in storytelling, in my opinion. Still interested in making political statements, however, and interrogative about them, which is appreciated. Could have gone harder on the complexity and ambiguity of their writing, but I understand that might not have been the audience they wanted to reach. Still a Fucking Good Game of Writing.

Undertale - Could be the nostalgia talking, but sorry I'm not immune. Everyone's already said what there is to be said about Undertale's writing. Only thing I'll say is that I think Toby Fox has actually managed to improve his writing for Deltarune, but Deltarune is an unfinished game so I'm going to leave that one in the Honorable Mentions.

Hollow Knight - Sheer detail. Complexities and ambiguities in the writing, rich for interpretation. Don't love the weird hints of orientalism, but not as egregious as it could be. The craftsmanship of the writing is the real star of the game I think, it's deeply dedicated to the quality of its storytelling.

Portal 2 - AGAIN. COULD BE BIASED. AND I WON'T LIE I HAVEN'T EXACTLY PLAYED A TON OF GAMES. SO THIS MIGHT JUST BE BECAUSE I LOVE LESBIANS. But goddamn. Lesbianism. Cartoonish capitalism. Craftsmanship. It captures my imagination .

Honorable Mentions:

Deltarune (Unfinished, Disqualified Until Completion)

Hades (Sheer Volume of Shit To Read)

Warcraft III (Really Racist yet so detailed and effortful in it's writing quality that it offers the most interesting look at written manifestations of whiteness, cisheteronormativity, the enduring literary tradition of the imperial imagination of The North, ET CETERA its the horrible horrible gift that keeps on giving. Rich for tearing apart in frustration.)

GAMEPLAY

Hades - Controversial pick but I've never felt so feverish trying to learn the mechanics of a game. Had the perfect learning curve and yeah, the replayability is insane. Engaging, rewarding, effortful, yet not overly frustrating.

Overwatch (1 and 2) - ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL PICK. I WON'T EVER DEFEND THIS SHIT-ASS DOG-TIER GAME FROM ITS MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY DESERVED CRITICISMS. BUT I CAN'T DENY THAT ITS MECHANICS DO SOMETHING TO ME. I love the blend of FPS mechanical skills and almost MMO-like strategization. Love the emphasis on movement as part of the gameplay, love how many characters are movement-based. Love that despite being a "competitive FPS" it's still full of Really Stupid Silly Moments. <- all the words of someone out of their mind

Portal 2 - Finally a normal answer. I like puzzles. I like fun movement. Wee. This one's pure personal preference. I just like Portal 2 gameplay.

Hollow Knight - IF I WAS BEING OBJECTIVE THIS WOULD BE HIGHER. SO, SORRY. Complex, well-tuned, rewarding gameplay. A lot of depth to the learning curve as a metroidvania combined with challenging boss fights that all have unique attack patterns. Customization via the charms. The only thing that pushed it down the rankings is that I'm Bad, and when I got stuck on boss fights it was The Worst. Part of the frustration might have also just come from the downtime of walking back from a bench to the boss fight. I assume that's a mechanic that's Meant to be frustrating and add to the competitive/hardcore nature of the game, but I didn't really find any satisfaction from that mechanic, especially when the walk back was particularly long and full of mobs. It just felt like a chore and got in the way of any exciting momentum from learning the boss fights. To compare it to a game like Hades, which arguably has a similar mechanic from having to redo a run, something that kept those repeated runs from getting stale or frustrating was the RNG of the rooms, enemies, builds, and character interactions. I was still invested in getting to the boss fight to try again, and having to competitively retrace my path to add to the difficulty of the fight, but that time in between was also consistently engaging in its own right for various reasons. As I write this I'm realizing that my gameplay rankings are kind of in order of the amount of frustration I felt throughout the game.

Deltarune (?) - I had to disqualify Deltarune from the storytelling category because I don't feel like it's fair to judge an incomplete story, but I think the two chapters we have of Deltarune are enough gameplay to rank the overall gameplay system. And goddamn. It's way better than Undertale's. The combat system got an upgrade in the form of it now being an RPG style party system, there's new combat options unique to party members, the bullet patterns feel more complex with more variations of attack types even for regular mobs, THERE'S A POKEMON STYLE COLLECT MOBS TYPE MECHANIC, there's bonus boss fights! Per chapter! That are more difficult than the normal chapter boss! There's puzzles! It's got it all! I have to rank Deltarune lower than the others because it's not quite as novel, engaging/challenging, or focused on the gameplay as the others, but for ME it was still GREAT. I got a lot of enjoyment out of fighting even regular mobs, which I didn't feel in Undertale, and I don't even feel at the same level for games like Hades or Hollow Knight.

Honorable Mentions:

Stardew Valley (I have So Many Hours In This Game. It Has to get points for that. The feedback loop is insane. And I love fishing.)

Minecraft (I Also have So Many Hours In This Game. It just works. Humanity just like building thing. Also you can collect pets.)

Pokemon [Esp Gen 3 & 4 games] (Sorry. It just works. I honestly considered giving it the #5 spot but figured that was mostly nostalgia talking. I fucking love collect creature. And I love chill, no time constraint, strategy turn-based combat. I don't love open-world games which is why I haven't really been as in love with the recent versions, but goddamn those early ones. I still replay them. I love finding fakemon games. I love this formula.)

VISUAL ARTWORK (note: this list is even more subjective than the others. EXTREMELY influenced by personal preference than any kind of rigorous ranking of quality)

Disco Elysium - Yeah. Sorry. The quality? Untouched. The interaction with the rest of the game? Genuinely some of the most intertwined with the storytelling/gameplay of any game I've played. It's a central element of the game. Every piece of visual art produced for this game was thoughtful, meaningful, and can be analyzed for meaning as much as any piece of text or gameplay. A little unfair to other games, since this is a game that has as one of its central themes the meaning of art (of all mediums). Jesus christ. I'll think about Disco Elysium art until my dying day.

Pentiment - THIS IS A LITTLE BIT CHEATING. BC VISUAL ARTWORK OVERLAPS A LITTLE WITH STORYTELLING JUST BECAUSE OF HOW VISUAL ART AND TEXT INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER IN VIDEO GAMES ESPECIALLY. YOU KIND OF CAN'T SEPARATE ARTWORK FROM STORYTELLING IN THESE KINDS OF GAMES BECAUSE ALL OF THE VISUAL ELEMENTS ARE COMPONENTS OF THE COMPOSITE STORYTELLING. Anyway Pentiment is also a game that has as one of its central themes the meaning of art, so of course it's going to be really thoughtful and evocative in its visual elements. The way the text is varied calligraphy (or print!) and communicates character information like class and occupation because that's literally what handwriting was in that time period, literacy in general actually, communicative of your class background. How there are so many "typos" that were actually such a unique and real trait of old and middle English because there was no standardized spelling of words for most of its existence. The bolded or color-printed words that were also a defining trait of old and middle English texts, AUGH. THE DIFFERENT STYLIZATIONS OF DIFFERENT CHARACTERS IN ART STYLES EVOCATIVE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS OR CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS MY GOD. The way that the older pagan townspeople/peasants are drawn differently from the younger Christian townspeople/peasants, the way that the stylization is all evocative of artwork from that time period, whether it was Bavarian/European-Christian or Ethiopian. It's good.

Undertale/Deltarune - Sorry. This is a lot less meaningful than the first two. I just like it. It sticks to a theme. It's charming. It's beautiful. It's funny. It's haunting. So versatile and memorable. The artwork of these games also adds so much to the storytelling and characterization of the game, the ambiance and emotional resonance. Thank you Temmie Chang and all the other artists, and, of course, Toby Fox.

Hollow Knight - AGAIN I FEEL BAD GIVING IT SUCH A LOW RATING BC IT'S STILL REALLY FUCKING GOOD. LIKE INSANELY GOOD. Also so communicative, thematically appropriate, charming, beautiful, well-crafted, flexible. I love looking at stuff. And I Love Ghost.

Hades - Cheap answer, but I can't deny that without the art I don't know if I would've picked up the game. There's easy and justified criticisms of the character designs tending towards fatphobic and without enough body diversity, though that's a criticism that I don't think any of my top ranked games avoids. I love the color, I love the dynamic compositions, I even love the particle effects. There was stylistic effort and I liked it.

Honorable Mentions:

Validate (REALLY good art, lovely and vibrant and personal. Just maybe not as large a scope/individually purposeful)

Baba Is You (No real justification. Just think it's fun and cute. I enjoy stylized art.)

OFF (A story I can't make sense of, gameplay that's admittedly kinda cool just for the novelty but not anything obscenely entertaining, I think the artwork of OFF still really sells it and makes it memorable.)

[gaykarstaagforever]

I finally saw Battle Royale from 2000. And its importance now as a landmark of cinema that has influenced 20 years of global pop culture puts me in the uncomfortable position of admitting that I think it is overrated and kind of stupid.

I understand that it is a broad satire of the enormous pressures and competitive structure of the Japanese public education system. I get that it is intentionally melodramatic. I get that I am supposed to appreciate how goofy it can get. But the commentary is obvious after 10 minutes, and the joke of the whole thing stops being funny soon after.

This movie is unbearably long. I get it: teen soap drama and then gruesome murders. In 2000 this was edgey and intriguing (probably). But by the 17th time, you aren't saying anything remotely new with or about that. And we're only halfway done? What else is there? This basic premise alone isn't that complex of a thing to explore.

I kept waiting for more layers of depth or parody. There aren't any. And while I am not offended by fake movie gore, if school children doing murders is literally all you have and you just keep doing that for 2 hours, that is the definition of gratuitous.

No I didn't identify emotionally with any of the characters. They're not characters, they are broad tropes performing mechanically in a broad satire. There is nothing to identify with. They do murders, act like they're in Degrassi, do more murders, do more Degrassi, isn't that an ironic juxtaposition? Yes it is. Once or twice. More than that, it is just unrealistic and obnoxious.

Of course no real teens would keep up petty relationship drama in the face of real murders. That is part of the metaphor. But again, if you keep doing that for 2 hours, my attention is drawn to the goofiness of it all, it creates an unrelatable universe with weird rules, and now I'm watching aliens do arbitrary things for confusing reasons. I'm mired in your nonsense and I've lost the thread of your satire.

Maybe 2023, after all the years of me absorbing the references and knock offs of this thing, is too late for me to appreciate it. Maybe part of the appeal was how novel the concept of Saved By the Bell + a slasher movie was in 2000. I guess it would probably have been then. But it certainly isn't now.

Relatively few people saw this movie outside of Japan before like 2011. It was notorious among film critics and international cinema buffs years before that, and was hugely influential to at least a couple generations of young filmmakers, like Tarantino, i.e., when he made Kill Bill. I specifically remember Volcano High, an early South Korean "tribute" that was basically just Battle Royale but they were all wizards. And I like Kill Bill, and I liked Volcano High.

But both of those movies had more substance and deeper characters. The gore in Kill Bill wasn't just ironic novelty, it was part of a wild story. The parody and melodrama of Volcano High was sharper and funnier, if only specifically because the fights were not lethal (the stakes were lower so the persistence of the goofy teen relationship drama made more sense).

Battle Royale is a 10 minute short film stretched out to an abusive length. And at that point, unless you are getting off to Japanese teens murdering each-other, there isn't much else here.

Yes I DID notice the weird psuedo-upskirt shots of what are supposed to be children. Blah blah blah, "Japan is not the West, not woke enough for you, snowflake?, maybe you aren't wordly enough to appreciate the brilliant cultural satire of repeated longing glances at schoolgirls' thighs," etc etc.

Except here is the thing: I am an American, and so are many of you. You are NOT appreciating it on some kind of profound Japanese level. Even of you think you're supposed to. Assuming there is one. I think a lot of you are getting off to it, and so are the filmmakers, and I'll allow you 10 minutes of that, but then I'm kink-shaming. It is kind of trashy. And not in a sarcastic, artful way. It's just sexy teen cheese shots mixed with gore. For 2 goddamn hours. I'm not disgusted, I'm embarrassed and bored. I'm not masturbating to this so why do I need to be here, you weirdos?

It isn't a bad movie. It is competently made, and I appreciate how it is shot to look like a TV teen soap. And I guess the performances are fine, such as they are. Hambone is the order of the day, and they are that. I can't blame the actors for doing what the director wanted, even if I personally don't appreciate what he was going for.

But yeah, this has NOT aged well. Maybe if you are presently in high school and mad about it, you can connect with some of this. There must be a market there for this sort of thing, or they wouldn't keep making new animes of cute teens who do horrible murders. And they certainly do that. I don't know.

As far as I am concerned, it all lacks profundity. And inspired a generation or two of people thinking it is okay to sexualize teenage girls so long as they are doing stabbings. And it isn't, unless you have a point to make with that.

And you don't, because this movie came out in 2000 and already made that point. Such as it is. Over and over again, exhaustingly, across two very long hours.

Ugh.

[slumberinglabyrinth]

I've already spoiled the punchline to this post, but the extra boss of Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a joke. A sick joke.

I'm writing this primarily from the perspective of Vanilla and not Encore, but I'll bring up Encore's relevant changes (that I know of) when they come up.

I think that part of the fun of the extra boss, M-DEUS, is finding your own solution to beating him, so I'll be putting how to deal with him at the end if you want to avoid it.

---

M-DEUS is based off of the second phase of the final boss, Medeus; he's physically identical and mechanically just. Harder.

Much harder.

Before I get into the boss itself, some background info for the uninitiated:

Your main cast is the characters in battle, your subcast is the playable characters not in battle, and your supporting cast are NPCs who get skills that have passive effects. By endgame, your main cast has 3 people, your subcast has 4, and your supporting cast has 3. In Encore, characters in the supporting cast can also learn a session skill.

The main gimmick in TMS is Sessions; if you strike an enemy's weakness and an ally has a session skill that corresponds to the element you used (which contrary to what the term ‘element’ usually invokes, includes sword/lance/axe/bow), they'll follow up with an elemental attack of their own and start a session. Each team member except for any that perform the initial attack that starts the session can then perform a follow up attack of their own, until either everyone who can act has or an enemy nulls/reflects/drains a session attack.

Some things to note

The game optimizes the session order to maximize damage, so it's possible that the session you perform will not be the longest session possible.

Session skills only go up to medium strength (the highest normal command skills are Heavy strength, but there are a few (like. 4) Severe skills that certain characters can learn), limiting their damage output compared to regular command skills

In addition to that, characters not in the main cast deal half damage.

Bane skills (which cover Wyvern/Dragon, Armor, and Cavalry enemy types but *not* Fliers), always start a session against the relevant enemy type and pierce elemental resistance (including Reflect, Null, and Drain) for both the initial attack and it's entire session.

there is a random chance that during a session you will be granted the opportunity to choose between performing one of two random Duo Arts, which will occur after the session ends. Duo Arts are attacks involving two characters (they have to be alive, but don't need to be in your main cast) and have bonus effects ranging from healing to status ailments to SP generation. Duo Art also have the piercing effects that Bane skills have, and will, most importantly, start another session with everyone who hadn't taken part in the Duo Art. Duo Arts can appear up to twice per Command Skill use.

In Encore, the session skill learned by each supporting cast member (Maiko, Tiki, and B****) performs a follow-up attack based off of if the skill before was a weapon skill or a magic skill (it doesn't include almighty element attacks, which is only relevant in one specific instance). This means you can perform up to 9 follow-up attacks during a regular session and, unlike in Vanilla, start a session from a Body/Spirit-element skill.

Enemies can also perform sessions, under the same rules as you

In addition to regular command skills (which cost EP), you have Special Performances, which cost SP and are stronger across the board than any equivalent command skill (either through flat DPS or the effects they grant). Think of them as something like a meter-based super in a fighting game

SP is generated by performing actions (any skill, a session, using an item, etc.) and taking damage; a gauge fills up as these things happen, and once it's full, you gain a point of SP

you can store up to 3 SP at a time

some skills cost 1 SP, but stronger ones cost 2 (none cost 3)

In addition to their other effects, Special Performances will pierce resistances and always start a session if there's a skill that can follow up on it

When you use a damage-dealing command skill of a specific element, that character may instead do an Ad-Lib attack if they've learned one. Ad-Libs:

behave like Duo Arts/Special Performances (starts sessions, pierces elemental resistances)

are stronger

usually also become aoe

sometimes have a bonus effect (often a status)

there's no real downside, but they’re entirely random

While in dungeons, certain enemy spawns can end up as either 1) Rare or 2) Savage

Rare enemies run away after a few turns but give items used to craft weapons that give off-element skills or have atypical weaknesses and resistances for that particular character.

the level of Savage enemies are scaled based off of your own level, and are always meant to be A Challenge. They are the only renewable source of Detritus, an item you trade for incenses (which give +3 to a specific stat) with an NPC in the arena. You get 2-3 Detritus from each Savage enemy encounter in the main game, and incenses cost 9 each (there's no upper limit on the number you can obtain or use beyond being able to hold up to 99 at once and the hard stat cap (which you don't need to get near for ANY content in the game))

By endgame you'll have a field skill that increases the rate both rare enemies and savage enemies appear at. Farming them isn’t really hard once you get to the point where you’d want to.

One of the dlc maps in Vanilla is literally just "every enemy is Savage and every item on the ground is detritus"; you get 9-12 detritus from each encounter instead of just 2-3, and you can grab another 18 from items laying around on the map. This map is included in the base game of Encore

-----

okey

Like most megaten extra/'ultimate' bosses, you need to be on NG+ to fight M-DEUS. To unlock his fight, you must trade for incenses with Nieg (who is located in the arena and involved in a seperate sidequest) 36 times. This translates to a minimum of 27 Savage Enemy fights and a max of 36 fights if you use the DLC map, and a minimum of 108 and a max of 162 without DLC, minus a couple fights from the handful of chests with Detritus in them scattered throughout the game and a couple other sources like the Arena itself.

When you hit the level cap these fights become relatively consistently in your favor if you're prepared for them even if you don't abuse Elenora's AoE Special Perfomance which has a sizable chance to proc an instakill on any nonboss enemy (remember that), so this step isn't difficult as much as it is tedious (as is reaching the level cap if you don't use DLC lmao).

This is unfortunately also a megaten tradition.

Because M-DEUS is based off of Medeus, his general pattern is relatively simple:

He takes two actions per turn, like all other bosses after the Prologue

This may sound cheap but... it’s better (for the player) for bosses to take two actions than for them to take one really strong action based off of how atlus makes their games

the alternative is like, stuff like disaster cycle or literally anything mem aleph does

"i don’t know what that is” try to keep it that way

Counts as a dragon for skill interactions

Interestingly, the only boss (alongside medeus) with a unique class that has an effective-weakness

Every few turns, or after he's taken a certain amount of damage, he summons two additional enemies (this does not use up an action and occurs at the end of/”between” turns).

if you let any of the adds live for 2-3 turns, they will use an AOE almighty (untyped and unblockable) attack that kills them and deals a bunch of damage to you and will probably kill you if they haven't already

this isn’t a problem with medeus because he’s like. a normal boss

The enemies will probably kill you if you don't kill them first

His attacks include

Single Target Sword that pierces repel/absorb/null (it doesn't auto-start a session)

AOE Almighty ("Dies Irae", he uses this every 3 turns, this might inflict Seal)

Single Target Elec

Single Target untyped physical ("beast"/"monster") attack (might be the attack that inflicts Seal instead)

As his HP drops, he gains access to a few more attacks that get added to the "things he can do" pool

Maragidyne (AOE Fire)

Energy Drain. Deals damage and steals your HP and EP. (he uses this infrequently, but it doesn't seem to be scripted)

Dark Breath. debuffs all stats (also used infrequently, is probably scripted)

But! There's more:

If there are no adds on the field, he repels every element.

remember how he’s the only boss that has a bane weakness? yeah. that’s why

If there are adds on the field, he's weak to whatever they are and repels everything else

Because of how the rest of the fight goes, you're not going to want to try to take advantage of this.

Damage dealt to him is capped at 499 per attack

literally the only instance of a damage cap in the game

on top of the damage cap, his stats (and the stats of the adds) are inflated quite a bit

Before incenses, I was dealing like. 300 damage while in the main cast at level 99 and half that for the subcast (so a full session of 1500 instead the max of 2495)

The adds are noticably more squishy and DON’T have a hardcoded damage cap, but they pack enough firepower to make up for it.

If a party member dies, his attack increases for the rest of the fight

This is outside of the buff/debuff system, so it can't be dispelled and is effectively permanent.

He has 65534 hp, which equates to a 'soft' minimum of 19 turns for most team comps, assuming no Duo Arts

Encore can cut off a turn or two since it can have 3 extra attacks per session

the adds all suck

By default he only summons two Mercenaries, then at 75% HP he can summon two Axe Generals, then at 50% he can summon two (Lance) Wyvern Riders, and then once he's at 25% he starts summoning two Clerics. the percents are approximate.

The Mercenaries

are weak to Lance and I think Electric

kinda a pushover. mid-line bulk, but dangerous if left along

not immune to elenora's instakill

will use concentrate before their self-destruct which boosts it by 2.5x so you're just gonna mcfukin die

are summoned less often as the battle goes on

The Axe Armors

Weak to Sword, Ice, Wind. Maybe more

deals respectable damage

has like max defense and next to no resistance. physical attacks deal single digit damage and magic damage easily enters four digits.

has high hp (maybe 10,000?)

also not immune to elenora's instakill

The Wyvern Riders

Weak to Axe, Bow, Wind. Maybe more

counts as a dragon for bane skills

deals LOTS of damage

has an aoe fire attack that also poisons you

these guys suck

low res and medium def

still not immune to elenora's instakill *or* Itsuki's sword Ad-Lib (which will instakill any non-boss dragons; there's no luck involved in the instakill once it activates, and even though getting the Ad-Lib itself to activate is luck based if you happen to be using a sword attack from him on that turn there’s always a chance that it’ll come out)

The Clerics

weak to sword/lance/axe. maybe more. probably more.

have 3000 hp and barely any defense

guess what! not immune to instakills

cast mediarahan and nothing else worth mentioning

yes

the aoe full heal skill

extra bosses in a couple other games involve diarahan/mediarahan (like Margeret and Demi-Fiend) but they only use it once, use it around 50% hp (and certainly not when the boss is in the red!) and have their next hp thresholds close enough for you to be able to reach them before they cast their full heal, making it a once-off dpt check that punishes you by effectively just making their HP 1.5x higher instead of a recurring dpt check that punishes you by making his hp nearly twice as high (or three times, or four times...)

this is unscripted and will happen as many times as you let it

the hp thresholds don't reset so he keeps summoning clerics and using all the skills he gained during the fight despite now being at full HP

fuck you atlus

can you believe people thought the worst part about this game was idols?

----

Okay, so how do you fight this?

You could just grind until you take like no damage but uh. that's going to be mind-numbingly exhausting and kinda defeats the point of actually fighting the boss. So don't do that. You're going to have to grind incenses no matter what, but it's the difference between being at it for a few days or being at it for a full month.

My general game plan was tailored to

be consistent

reduce the amount of time I had to spend preparing (be it grinding for incenses or materials for weapons or whatever else i needed)

beat the boss in as few turns as possible, mainly to give it fewer chances to make choices that kill you and to make sure you don’t turn it into a battle of attrition (which you’ll lose).

This ultimately means 1) start at least one session against m-deus each turn 2) have everyone hit the damage cap against him and 3) have a person with a dragonbane skill in your main cast (sp consumption is too high to rely on special performances every turn)

be able to kill the adds before they can act because if you can’t do that at the very least for the clerics, you lose.

Some specific points that need to be addressed if we assume you're not spending 100 hours grinding incenses:

The immediate concern is making sure nobody dies. Ever. Medeus already will deal a lot of damage, and he can and will pierce tetrakarn/makarakarn (at bare minimum Dies Irae is almighty and its damage can’t be nullified, only dodged), and if he can ramp that up, you're not going to stand a chance.

He has access to an AOE fire attack and so does one of his sets of adds. Itsuki (who cannot be removed from the party in Vanilla) is by default weak to fire with nearly every weapon of his (including his ultimate weapon), and Mamori, who is your party's dedicated tank, is also weak to fire on most of her weapons. getting hit by something you're weak to will cause any adds to session and you'll die, so you want to avoid being weak to fire.

nobody in the fight has dekaja or dekunda or any buffs, so buffs and debuffs remain effective

Dark Breath will set you back, but if you keep your buffs *up* it'll just negate Dark Breath instead of Dark Breath sticking around for three turns, no matter how many turns they had remaining

The adds will cause problems. just in general. they can kill you or at the very least set medeus up to finish you off, since they tend to go earlier in the turn than him.

going before all of them is a priority, as is killing them before they act (especially the clerics)

Medeus has a damage cap. once you consistently hit 499 with all of your party members in a session, there's not much point to trying to boost your damage output

this also means you have a point where you can skip using charge or concentrate (x2.5 damage to phys or magic skills and phys or magic attacks in their sessions sessions) on anybody starts a session off of M-DEUS, since hitting the cap through stats and passive skills alone will allow you to save an action during the fight

Itsuki cannot be removed from the party in Vanilla which is both a blessing and a curse because

outside of his two rare weapons, every weapon of his including his ultimate weapon is weak to fire (bad, because this usually means more damage sustained)

has a heavy dragonbane skill (good)

He doesn’t need Adds or SP to session off of M-DEUS

itsuki's entire niche in endgame is using bane skills

he has two passives that each boost Wyrmicide by 1.5x (1.55x when fully upgraded) because it's a sword element bane skill. they stack.

this means less grinding for str for him, saving time

One thing to note is that Kiria is the only other character who has access to a dragonbane skill, Naga, but the problems with that are

Naga is Spirit element, which has no corresponding sessions in Vanilla. You should not use her as your damage against M-DEUS in Vanilla at all because you just can’t.

In Encore, Tiki's session can start off of Spirit

Itsuki kinda sucks at support, but Kiria doesn’t, so if you were to hypothetically have both on field, he’d be the one attacking M-DEUS

he doesn't get endgame buff or debuff skills, and doesn't get diarahan/mediarahan, and so on

less of problem when you can remove him from your party in Encore

Kiria's bulk and defenses are the worst in the game, which means more grinding for incenses in order to prevent her from dying

all of Kiria's weapons are weak to sword, which means you can't ensure her weakness is never struck because M-DEUS will, from turn 1, use a piercing sword-element skill

Kiria's main niche is using ice skills, so while she gets a 1.5 multiplier to Naga from True Casting (1.5x to all magic), she doesn't get a second bonus which means more grinding for incenses compared to Itsuki

None of the adds are immune to instakills. this includes both Mass Desturction (Elenora's AoE special performance) and Firm Resolve (Itsuki's anti-wyvern sword Ad-lib)

Regarding Elenora:

Even if Mass Destruction's instakill doesn't proc, she'll still start a session because it's a special performance

One of two characters with access to Debilitate, which applies all three debuffs and saves you at least one action compared to other characters with debuffs, if not two actions (the other character is Touma)

Debilitate is on her ultimate weapon, so while it's a pain to max the skill (which just makes its EP cost lower and is arguably not worth the time), you'll be getting 6 out of 7 of them anyway (for reasons I'll explain in a bit)

also has access to Fog Breath, which debuffs Atk and Hit/Evade but not Defense; this means that in a pinch (ie. energy drain took too much EP), you can apply the debuffs that will help you survive because that's more important than ending the fight faster

her ultimate weapon is only weak to Axe (which should die before her) and wind (which nobody in the fight uses); while she's squishy, you don't need to worry about sessions against her and won't need as much def/res incenses, saving time

Elenora naturally deals very respectable damage in and out of sessions because she has incredibly high Skill and reasonably high Str

Skill increases crit rate

You'll already be boosting her Skill to get Mass Destruction's instakill to proc more consistently, this means less Str incenses

In addition, she has passives that

greatly increases crit rate

increases crit damage

greatly increases dodge rate

applies a 1.5x damage boost to bow skills (incuding Mass Destruction)

that gives her a high chance to act first in the round (ie. before any adds that’ll ruin your day)

increases hit rate

gives all her attacks a high chance to make any enemy hit move to the end of the turn order during the current turn (or the next turn if they've already acted)

makes her less likely to be targeted (not as much of a concern because a lot of things in this fight are AoE and you'll mostly be using AoE healing, but still a plus)

has Radiant skills (seperate passives that don't take up a skill slot) that

make crits deal more damage

increases evade against phys attacks

boosts ailment success rates from any party member as long as she's in the main cast (not something that’ll be relied on much, but if it helps it helps)

While Elenora's instakill is reliant on luck, you can get it to proc reasonably consistently and even if it's just on one and not both of the adds, that gives you a session's worth of damage on the other add, some chip damage on M-DEUS, and one less thing that could wipe the floor with you.

She's not absolutely nessacary, but using her cuts out *a lot* of grinding and even without the instakill the access to both a high crit/evade rate and access to debilitate makes her a very strong choice for one of the characters you'll use alongside Itsuki. If you’re not trying to tank everything (which is... dumb), she’s basically the best choice for debuffs and offensive support

Because we'll be using a 2 SP special performance relatively frequently, it's vital that we increase SP generation as much as possible. In addition to stuff you’d have anyway (ie. Radiant Skills):

Everybody's ultimate weapon gives a passive boost to sp generated from their own attacks

this is why everyone except for Itsuki will have theirs equipped

Itsuki will instead have his lategame rare enemy weapon, which removes his fire weakness and isn't a significant drop in atk

you can kinda. cheese the enemy spawning system in certain parts to just give you rare enemy after rare enemy so once you figure out *where* to do it, you can max that rare weapon’s atk pretty quickly so compared to the amount of time you save over trying to max his ultimate weapon you're really just missing the sp generation

it also gives a passive chance to cause seal but since M-DEUS seems to be immune to it that doesn't really help you directly (niche use if he sessions

In a pinch, you can use Clap Tracks, an item that give you 1 SP but cannot be bought (try to carry as many over through NG+ as possible)

I found that I wasn't really needing to use Clap Tracks much, but, y'know. better to be overprepared than underprepared

Mamori and Tiki also have a Duo Art that grants half a point of SP; unless someone’s about to die and you have a healing Duo Art as your other option, you should always pick it

Okay so we have Elenora and Itsuki, but who else can we use to round off the main cast?

What we still potentially need:

Buffs

Healing

Tanking and/or Dodgetanking (including through buffs)

a source of magic damage (Itsuki has Ziodyne/Thoron, but he'll be busy)

One thing unique about TMS relative to other megatens is that there are no normal skills that apply multiple buffs, only three special performances, which will save you at least one action per turn

Debut Smile (Tsubasa, 1 SP) - Provides a medium heal and raises Def and Hit/Evade

Raindrop Memories (Mamori, 1 SP) - Prevents ailments for 3 turns and raises Atk and Def

Wild Charge (Touma, 2 SP) - Gain Charge (phys attacks and phys attacks in their sessions deal 2.5x damage) for the next two turns and raise Atk and Hit/Evade

Both Tsubasa's and Mamori's have defense, which is good, but hit/evade is more important than raising attack with regard to both surviving long enough to kill M-DEUS and saving time while grinding incenses (hit is Skill based and Evade is Speed, so you have to boost two stats instead of one to make up not getting that buff). The ailment thing is nice but uhhh I’ll get to why that’s not important if you go with Tsubasa in a moment

Touma's costs too much and doesn't raise defense and doesn't have a secondary effect that's particularly useful in this fight. :shrug:

Mamori also has a few problems of her own

No EP-based AoE heal

does get diarahan though

she has a 1 SP AoE full heal which then allows her to take another action (which could be using a clap track. or a sukukaja stone for max buffs, but you can't carry enough to make them last through the entire battle for this method, and it’ll kinda negate the benefits of her buff skill being )

her hitrate is bad.

like. really bad

she has a passive that boosts it, but it 1) comes on her when you get her and 2) isn't on any of her weapons and 3) is the earlygame iteration of the passive despite her coming after the halfway point in the game

she also has no other direct benefits from boosting Skill, unlike Elenora

she also doesn't have access to Sukukaja (unlike Tsubasa, who gets the buff skill that covers the one her SP buff doesn’t apply (tarukaja))

she is not fast and has no way to move herself up the turn order

her main role is also a tank, which could be helpful, but there's some problems with that for her with this fight in particular

she's weak to fire, which Medeus uses

she's weak to sword, which Medeus uses from turn 1

she tanks by drawing aggro and taking blows in place of an ally

she can only negate attacks if she takes that attack in place of an ally

redirecting the attack is random

negating the attack is random

if she's weak to the attack a session will still start

you don't redirect the attack on AOE attacks

the aoe attacks are the main danger in the fight. Dies Irae hurts. Maragidyne hurts. Corrupting Flare hurts.

itai desu

Tsubasa

is weak to axe and wind on her ultimate weapon (and bow, but that's not used in the fight)

can learn absorb wind, covering one of her weaknesses completely

allows you to freely use mazandyne and also heal off of it if it's reflected

two add sets are weak to wind

this is very good

has access to magic damage spells to deal with any axe generals that survive Mass Destruction

the only other characters with magic spells are Itsuki and Kiria

does almost everything

not an exaggeration

only person who learns either mediarahan or its ailment-clearing upgrade, Prayer (the only aoe ailment clear in the game outside of Duo Arts)

learns every buff skill (only needs tarukaja if you use Debut Smile, though having rakukaja or sukukaja helps conserve SP when possible)

learns Fog Breath (useful if elenora needs to do something else that turn)

has a massive EP pool and learns Mana Gain which makes it even larger

her skills are expensive but she can go longer than itsuki and elenora without having to restore EP

can learn Sexy Dance which is AoE charm

Charm is usable in this fight as like. a last resort but it will prevent any adds that it procs on to at the very least eat up their next turn if not the one after and is by and large one of the most useful skills when grinding outside of full on instakills because It's Just That Strong

charm can make them attack another enemy or use a healing item on you which is also good, but it. usually doesn't. they just do nothing

Regarding passives

learns null seal

has a passive that grants 1.5x to wind skills

has two hitrate boosting passives, one of which also boosts her evade rate 

has a passive that greatly boosts the amount her skills heal

not relevant for mediarahan/prayer, but it does boost Debut Smile which makes using it over mediarahan so you can refresh your buffs noticably safer

Personally didn't use this one but depending on how many mag/def/res incenses you decide to get it might be needed

has radiant skills that:

boost charm success rate (stacks with elenora's boost to every ailment which really puts the sexy into sexy dance)

let her session off of any charmed enemy with a lance skill

useful if you ever have to resort to sexy dance or, god forbid, Dream Catcher (a Duo Art that does almighty damage -which means it can't extend a session- that offsets *that* by also fully healing your party and inflicting charm on your foes) and she doesn't have to heal the next turn

increase her hitrate

gives her a chance of ignoring turn order calculation and act first during each turn

all and all, pretty good stuff

To give everyone else a fair evaluation:

Yasuhiro's main role is damage mitigation through dodgetanking and he's good at it. In addition

has access to Wallbreaker, which pierces null and repel (not absorb)

this is kinda useless, even outside this fight

you can't session with it unless they're weak to swords, which means it's only useful against enemies under the effect of tetraguard/tetrakarn (which nobody in this fight uses and nearly nobody in the entire game uses)

like yeah he can hit medeus but it's for a max of 499 a turn

can use tarukaja and sukukaja

takes two actions to set this up, and doesn't have rakukaja or *any* debuffs

can use Counter (and Counter EX) to ensure he dodges all single-target physical attacks that attack him until his next action, and then delivers a counter attack. Also draws aggro

only works on physical attacks, not magic attacks

only works on single target attacks, not AoE

most of the skills enemies use in this fight are AoE magic

Sound familiar? yeah tanks kinda suck in this fight

has access to passive skills that

greatly boost crit rate

greatly boost dodge rate

increases his chance of being targeted

pierces null

has access to radiant skills that

boosts evade against magic attacks

make counterattacks always crit

doesn't have elenora's "boost crit damage" skill :(

increase damage from counterattacks and repel effects while he is in the main cast

not really useful but. it’s better than nothing

Overall rating: Not a bad character, but bad for this specific fight. His damage mitigation (through drawing aggro and dodging) focuses on single target attacks, which random encounters have plenty of, but this fight relies too much on AoE and he kinda just. doesn't help there. Elenora has better and more consistent damage output and has debilitate, Tsubasa is the game's best healer, can do AoE magic, and has a slew of buffs and debuffs including damage mitigation through Rakukaja/Debut Smile's defense buff, and Itsuki can start a session off of Medeus.

Touma

has Debilitate!

no buffs though

has a passive that has a high chance of making his target(s) go last

has a passive that greatly boosts crit rate

has a passive that has a chance to make him act first each turn

has a passive that boosts his hitrate

has passives that grant 1.5x damage to each of his main elements (lance and fire)

elenora also has all of those

relatively durable

weak to axe and ice

nobody in this fight uses ice

only person who has luna

helps with the generals if it activates

its random and might not even activate

it can also activate off of sessions

only person who has penetrate, which is an upgrade to pierce (phys attacks ignore resist/null, ellie and yasuhiro also have that) that also ignores drain

penetrate doesn't ignore reflect, which isn't the end of the world since it's not like he could session off of M-Deus anyway

helps him not prematurely end a session against the adds by having his attack be nullified (i think the generals null lance and the wyverns might too)

has a passive that boosts his attack the higher % hp he's at

has a radiant skill that increases his crit rate when performing a followup attack in a session

when he's in the main cast, using an item has a chance to not consume it

useful because the game doesn't let you carry more than 10 of most of the items you'll need to use in this fight

All of that makes him a very good character for this fight, but he doesn't have elenora's instakill :( Unfortunately she does everything he wants to do in this fight *at least* as good as he can, or better :( But! He shines in the subcast for this fight and just in general. his damage output and hitrate and crit rate are all very good, and he needs probably the fewest incenses overall to reach M-DEUS' cap

Kiria

Learns naga

not useful in vanilla

arguably not worth using in encore either

learns both the single target and AoE heavy spells for Fire, Ice, and Wind

also learns the only Severe-tier Ice spell, Fimbulvetr

great utility against the adds

has a passive that gives a 1.5x boost to all magic attacks and one that gives a 1.5x boost to ice spells

these stack

only character with two 1.5 boosts that stack that has them stack on a severe tier spell

knock knock it's fimbulvetr

weak to electricity, which nobody in this fight uses, and swords, which M-Deus uses from turn 1

only healing skills of note that she learns are mediarama (medium HP AoE restore) and amrita (heal all on a single ally, kinda useless in this fight)

doesn't learn mediarahan or prayer

Learns tarunda and sukunda

doesn't learn rakunda, doesn't learn any dual debuffs or debilitate

no buffs either

has other passives that

increases resistance to all ailments

not super useful in this fight

greatly increases EP

has radiant skills that

reduce EP cost of offensive magic

further reduce EP cost of AoE offensive magic

even further reduce EP cost of Ice magic

knock knock it's mabufudyne

increase evade against phys attacks

Kiria is very good at killing things but that's really all she does and M-DEUS needs people to do more. In theory she could replace Itsuki, but her weakness to Swords, which -again- M-DEUS uses for the entire fight, can't be avoided and her HP is so low that you can't even hope that she'll just tank the hit unless you chug 100+ def incenses on top of all the other incenses that you'll be using. You could use her to fill his role, but it's going to be so incredibly inefficent that I think you should do literally anything else.

Okay.

There's one pretty obvious oversight in just deciding 'we'll use these three characters and nobody else in the fight': TMS lets you swap party members in and out (exclusing Itsuki in Vanilla), and it doesn't use up that party member's turn

This has some bonuses...

this means you can swap to people on the fly if you need, say, Kiria to deal with

this means you can adjust to party members who have

you can adjust to basically any situation

...and some drawbacks

swapping party members dispells any active buffs/debuffs/effects (charge, etc.) on that party member and the new one comes in with no buffs on them

in order for the act of swapping itself to be safe, they need higher def/res than what they otherwise would have, which means more grinding incenses

swapping party members means you need those new party members to also get their def/res increased from incenses, which means more grinding

if they stay in the subcast they aren't in danger of dying, so you don't need them to have anything other than their str (or mag, for Kiria) boosted

and the big one:

nobody really does what Elenora and Tsubasa do better than they do, so there isn't really a point in switching to another party member to begin with. during the main game? sure, everyone has their own role to play and you could use whoever you want because you don't have the chance to optimize everything and grind for incenses and the game certainly never asks you to do that outside of M-DEUS, but against M-DEUS you need to bring the best the game lets you make

unless, of course, you grind incenses like no tomorrow

And I don't want to undersell the amount of incenses I felt were necessary because hoo boy i looked at my playtime before and after I started my journey to defeat M-DEUS and it sure Took A Long Time, but using my team the only relevant stats were:

Either Str or Mag on Everyone (based off of the type of the session skill that they use when Itsuki uses Wyrmicide, and only up to the point where they consistently hit M-DEUS' damage cap; subcast needs more because they'll be dealing half damage)

Skill on Elenora (with buffs hitrates become a nonconcern so you're only doing this to get the instakills. more crits are a side bonus)

A Little Speed on Itsuki, Tsubasa, and Elenora (enough so they consistently go first)

Def/Res on Itsuki, Tsubasa, and Elenora (so they don't die)

a Luck incense for Elenora (Luck doesn't work like a typical stat and it's not important for me to explain it outside of the vague idea that it’s like a ‘personal’ stat where people have a different base level (elenora’s is the worst lol) that can be temporarily boosted using an incense or a specific drink from a vending machine, but it'll increase her proc rate)

the general game plan was to have Itsuki use Wyrmicide every turn. Killing Medeus faster gives him and his adds fewer chances to kill someone (or use Mediarahan), which increases your chances of success. I never had Itsuki use anything other than Wyrmicide unless M-DEUS drained all his EP with Energy Drain (he'd use a chakra drop to restore it in that case), but if you need him to kill an add or two it shouldn't significantly extend the length of the fight and will also stop that add from killing you. Generally speaking, you want him to go after Tsubasa and Elenora, but before M-DEUS, so that'll determine how many speed incenses you give him

Tsubasa's main concern was making sure everybody was as close to full health as possible before M-DEUS attacked each turn (and switching to Prayer if he ever procs seal), but having enough def/res across your party to make throwing Debut Smile into the mix safe to keep the buffs up is also key. She's not a bad dps unit either, so because of this you want her to be after Elenora in the turn order so you can adjust to who the instakill fails to proc on.

Elenora's main job outside of add management is casting Debilitate within three turns of the last time she used it, which means you kinda need to anticipate when adds are coming so she can use Mass Destruction to deal with them and use Debilitate on turns you won't need to deal with adds.

This rotation gives you a free action roughly every three turns for Elenora, and whenever you get lucky with dodges or damage rolls for Tsubasa. As for how you use those actions, it depends on the situation, but...

Having a full set of buffs up when Dark Breath comes is important so your damage isn't brought down (and it takes longer to win the fight), so throw in a Tarukaja from Tsubasa or a Tarukaja Stone from Elenora. You can also use these openings to refresh the Def and Hit/Evade buffs prematurely with their skill version or their item version. There's a really low cap to the number of Buff Stones you can bring into a fight, so if its at all possible default to

Making sure you're at 2 SP whenever Elenora has her action and the adds are up is VITAL, especially once the Clerics start being summoned. Use Clap Tracks if you feel like your SP isn't going to be where you need it to be, and try to only use Debut Smile when you don't have any buffs up or when both Defense and Hit/Evade are about to run out (they run out *on* tsubasa's action and not once that turn starts, which is incredibly convenient).

Maintining EP is also somewhat important, but should only be done when close to empty because Energy Drain will empty all of a character's EP and it'd be a waste of an item (though since it deals so little damage, it *could* be a turn where you don't need to heal).

[artbyblastweave]

There was a zombie apocalypse YA book I liked a lot when I was younger called Rot and Ruin, which I think I’ve talked about a couple of times. It was notable in that it was a reaction to and a deconstruction not of the zombie genre, but of the fantasy of the zombie genre.

One of the big ways in which it did this was that it beat the drum of the fact that zombies used to be people, every single one of them is a walking testament to something terrible that happened to a living, breathing person, and as a result, leaning into the whole “zombies as a faceless nationless omnipresent threat you can kill with no moral repercussions” can lead to, or maybe reveal, some moral corrosion; there’s a clear and consistent delineation between characters who kill zombies because they’re dangerous, and characters who kill zombies because it’s fun to kill zombies. But that’s another post.

The part I find really interesting is that the series is rather unabashedly neo-western; the protagonists are cowboy-samuarai, roaming the wastes and righting wrongs. People travel in horse-drawn covered wagons, they fight with six-shooters and melee weapons, electricity is underdeveloped, gangs play nice in town and turn brutal out in the “frontier,” Bounty Hunters with flamboyant handles like “Sally Two Knives” and “Hector Mexico” and “The Motor City Hammer” abound. 

But! Some of the more astute characters point out that this is diagetic; they make the argument that society, within the series, has organized itself along the lines of a neo-western as a trauma response. It’s called out again and again that there’s really no reason for society to still be stalled out in this sort of wild-west situation of towering cowboy personalities and cowering townsfolk; the zombies are stupid, predictable, and fairly easily exterminated en masse by a large enough group of people who have their shit together. The main reason nobody has done that is because it would require a plurality of people to want to leave their compounds and go back out into the world they lost and really reckon with the sheer breadth and depth of their loss. 

And, as a consequence, that means the wastelands are turned over in-practice to people whose coping mechanism is going out there and killing enormous numbers of former people, with a zeal and gleeful carnival violence that’s framed as deeply unnerving. No one has put the brakes on the fantasy, everyone is suffering, society is is collectively turtling and (since it’s a YA book) no forward progress will be possible until the first generation that’s never known anything, but post-apocalyptic society starts to venture out.

A lot of fiction that deals with post-zombie society either optimistically portrays those societies as being forward thinking, problem-solving go-getters (The Walking Dead, World War Z) or as cynical extensions of the same corruption present in the old world (George Romero.) Rot and Ruin, for its many faults, is in this super compelling middle ground where society is back enough to be shelf-stable and sustainable, but that’s all; a situation where society itself is decent, pleasant, but complacent, and willing to overlook immense human suffering in areas of the country that it abdicated out of pain and fear.

[cat-fire]

After reading a few interpretations about Doumeki as portrayed in the latest chapters, I would love to leave my own notes about what I think is going on with him post time skip, in Chapter 44-45 (could even be 46 as I read a lot of spoilers so far, but I won't go in depth since I haven't read it myself).

~Not a native english speaker, so sorry in advance for grammar errors ✨.

I personally agree that Doumeki suffered a transformation in 4 years, but however, this transformation does not mean that he turned into a heartless yakuza or an instigator.

After being separated from Yashiro, he was forced to hide, but not repress, the pure feelings in his heart, the feelings that were at the roots of losing Yashiro. We could argue that the process took place in a similar manner with the way Yashiro repressed his romantic feelings, but not to such extent. The changes in Doumeki are a fascinating example of how Yoneda Sensei's work is constructed on a varied range of colors and shades, not just black and white character development. [I cannot stop observing this and loving the manga more and more.]

Doumeki is colder, not because his feelings have changed, but because he is intelligent enough to never risk losing Yashiro again. He doesn't want to rape or hurt Yashiro, but just puts a show for him, one that will attract and stir tension in his mind and body. Remember how good of an observer Doumeki is? And that he is not as stupid as they first thought when Nanahara introduced him to Kashira? He spent enough time with boss to learn more than the other underlings ever could. But by doing that, he also breached the defense mechanisms of Yashiro and forced them to their limit.

I think that now Doumeki got his assets together because he had no other choice but step out of his old obedient character. After he lost Yashiro once, he had nothing else to lose anymore, so he decided to hide parts of himself, but he never actually gave up on the thing that he wanted the most: the love for Yashiro. He toughened himself up, yes. But considering how high he thinks of Yashiro, how much he wants him, I don't see feelings washing away soon. At this point in the story development, I know and feel that with, or without gloves, Doumeki is in love with Yashiro. It is arguable, again, that the gloves themselves could be a deeper symbol for covering his feelings, not only his skin.

But I think that he has no idea how Yashiro has changed, since Yashiro cannot yet voice anything... What really takes to wake the romantic Doumeki is an input from Yashiro. I am looking forward to a future glimpse of Yashiro confessing and making peace with his feelings for Doumeki, but that will possibly come at the peak of the story.

We also have to understand that Yashiro is so contradicted and fights the good fight right now when he cannot have control over Doumeki as a subordinate and cannot really push him away with orders. This fact equally torments and arouses Yashiro and he only notices the confusion that he feels. When he tries to run away from Doumeki, but D follows, Yashiro is closer to his realization that feelings are also following him everywhere. Wanting to kiss Doumeki haunts him like a ghost, repeatedly, unless he will understand that healing is allowed and Yashiro himself is only a human who deserves to feel love no matter how fucked up his past is. [~There is more to say about this, but we're distancing from the topic which is Doumeki.]

We don't get too many insights on how Doumeki feels, and that is probably deliberate. I like to think that after the shower scene, when their lips were millimeters apart, Doumeki had the same thoughts as Yashiro afterwards. How do we know that Doumeki, once he was alone, did not take his gloves off and with the hand that gripped Y's hair touched himself and came thinking of that blow up of tension between him and his lover? We really don't know, so he might as well have done that. All his teasing when Yashiro was resisting... I wonder if he processed and already interpreted his hesitation. I wonder if he's seen Yashiro's eyes and thought that they express the same sadness from 4 years ago.

To conclude my thoughts, I don't think there will be a kiss or romantic affectionate gesture unless Yashiro gathers the courage to step out of the haze and confess or make a first step. Given how unpredictable and dark the story is, this could be either soon or not: and that uncertainty has its charm.✨🖤

[parachutingkitten]

Y'all suck at dissecting Kai's character, so I guess I have to do it.

And I'm not even a Kai stan. He's a bottom tier ninja for me, which I guess means you can trust me, cuz I'm not biased, but also why am I the one doing this? I don't know about y'all, but recently on my dash, the method by which Kai fans try to make him sound good is... saying the writers hate him, ignore him, and that he isn't written well? Which... I mean there is a little bit of truth to, but like yikes guys, is this the best you got? Kai is a wonderful character with plenty of attention from the writers, a meaningful piece of the cast when put in secondary rolls, fairly consistent character writing with actual progression and valuable qualities that help the team without having to be the smart one- despite what some posts might tell you.

Let's get one thing cleared up: Ninjago isn't the best written show. By high level Hollywood standards, most the character arcs are kinda weak or too heavy handed, character consistency can be iffy, and most things serve the plot rather than the characters. There is no character you can point to and say "wow, this character is written so well! No complaints!" Nya and Jay were butchered by their weird love plot, Cole's one season doesn't actually give him an arc, Zane's been nothing but the robot numbers guy for like 10 seasons now, and Lloyd seems to be incapable of doing anything but relive the same one piece of dad angst for depth. Sorry, it's true. All the characters suck when you look at it from a large scale writing perspective. So when I say Kai is well written, I mean by ninjago kids show standards- cuz that's the scale we're working on. No, you couldn't drop Kai into a well written drama, but as far as ninjago goes... he's got a lot going for him, and by no means is he the biggest victim of poor writing.

(fair warning, wall of text below)

The title is a bit disingenuous. There are plenty of good Kai character break downs. What I am presenting here is a more positive perspective. On the whole, I will tend to give the writers the benefit of the doubt, and credit for what they do right writing is hard guys. That's what I'm doing here. I don't see much sense in getting mad the writers on behalf of Kai, or any other character. Ninjago is a simplistic ensemble show that works because of the identifiable simplicity of its main characters with some deeper layers hidden underneath if you keep watching. They've given us a damn good show with some damn enjoyable characters, so here are some criticisms I feel are a little flawed:

First, let's get the 'focus' thing out of the way. Apparently there are people saying Kai doesn't have a season yet? Which... what? I mean, I get that the pilots aren't a full season, the first two seasons, though he is the central protagonist, aren't "Kai seasons" as we've come to define ninja focus seasons, season 7, though he gets majority focus, he shares with his sister. But like... did y'all just forget about season 4? You know, the season where he had the title card, was on the box sets, got the love interest, and the majority of the A-plot? not to mention it's the best season don't @ me Like... if season 4 isn't a Kai season, I can make a damn good argument that season 3 isn't a Zane season, and I doubt anyone wants to go down that rabbit hole. I really can't wrap my head around this one. And I get that the fandom hates season 11 for some reason, but like you can't just pretend it doesn't exist. Kai has a consistent arc across 30 episodes in which he takes his powers for granted, loses them, and learns that, not only does he have value within the team without them, but that his element is intrinsically a part of him that he reclaims, bringing them back more powerful than ever, and with new respect for them. That's one of the most solid arcs in the whole series- the location is even thematically connected to his element. That's some good stuff right there! (Quick plug for season 11 if you haven't watched it in a while. Give it a rewatch, you might be pleasantly surprised)

Not to mention the writers give him fun side stuff all the time. Lots of fears of tech and water to overcome, a deep protective streak with Lloyd, becoming a chancellor, having a true potential actually relevant to the plot as a whole, blacksmith responsibilities, befriending dragons, hanging out with his dad. Not to mention actual focus stuff we haven't talked about yet, like his whole "my dad is evil" phase, and his "I might be evil" phase with him and Skylor. And on top of that, even when he doesn't have an explicit side plot, he's always just a fun and dynamic side character to make jokes or give exposition.

Now, into character stuff. Let's start with Kai's hot headed-ness. Some people say he's been loosing this quality, and I will admit, that's true! But those that claim this makes him inconsistent... I strongly disagree. In early seasons, Kai's temper would lead him to snap at his friends or make stupid decisions that set the team back (see episode 2 Zane freak out)- these are bad things. These are character flaws, yes? Now, in newer seasons, people say that he's inconsistent, cuz sometimes he'll be hot headed, and sometimes he won't. I'd say, this is exactly how being hot headed... works? It flares up without warning, and as an individual gets control of it, it'll pop up less and less often because they're channeling it into productive things - like say directing the anger towards an enemy (see season 11 end freak out). Kai has gained control of a character flaw, and though it still pops up on occasion, the fact that it's a once in a while kind of thing speaks to his growth. I have a little brother who has this exact personality, and watching him grow up, I can tell you, this is how it is. He used to snap all the time, and he still does sometimes, but much less frequently, because he's a more mature person with better control of his emotions. This is a good thing. This is overcoming personal flaws. This is progression we're seeing.

And while you're hyper focused on this one aspect of him, things like his cocky confidence haven't changed a bit. I mean, that season 3 bit between him and Pixal, and his season 11 "fire maker" streak have the exact same energy. You can not convince me otherwise.

Another adjacent quality that hasn't been dampened is Kai's impulsiveness. This can be a good quality of his, he'll get into a fight without thinking, getting the jump on the enemy. Good stuff. But, this has become such a well defined trait of Kai's that it has been used in a comedic capacity. This is what happens when a character is extremely consistent to the extent that both the audience and the characters in universe would be able to predict their actions. Kai's impulsivity used to be a more serious quality that put himself and others at risk, and was a big power move whenever he did something rash, but it's become such a staple of the show that it's now being used for comedy. That isn't Kai's impulsivity going away, that's Kai's impulsivity being recontextualized for the sake of the show. The season 9 "Who's stupid enough to jump on that thing" isn't a joke at the expense of Kai just for being dumb, it's a joke at Kai's being so predictably impulsive that everyone already knows he'll be the one to put himself in an insane amount of danger without thinking twice (you know, something stupid that might get him killed). But because in this instance, the danger is warranted, this is bravery. It's a complement to his character- it's what ends up defeating the colossus. Why are some people so bothered by this joke?

Oh right, cuz for some reason people want to peg Kai as the smart one? Look, Kai isn't stupid, none of the ninja are. All of them have smart moments (all of them have dumb ones too) and Kai can certainly handle himself, but "smart" is definitely not one of his defining characteristics- I think some people are confusing smart for his actual strength. Connected to his impulsivity, Kai has very good simplistic instincts. He sees the big picture and looks at the most surface level solution- which when the situation calls for it, that does indeed make him smart. But the same logic that led him to think "This snake has a glowing target on its head, lets hit it" also led him to think "I'm in a video game, therefore I am immortal." Are you really going to look at me and say he figured out Lloyd was the green ninja through logical deduction and a careful consideration of the facts? No. He had a gut feeling, and he trusted it. Instincts- instincts paired with his impulsive following of said instincts is what leads him to solve problems- and sometimes, that can be extremely effective. This goes for other ninja too. Jay isn't the smartest ninja- I would really only classify Zane and Nya as having intelligence define them (hence their ship name). But Jay is extremely creative and crafty. He also knows his was around mechanics, and as such, this will lead him to come up with creative tech based solutions which are smart. But, idk about you, if I had to point to another ninja as being 'dumb' it would 100% be Jay. Kai is a lot of things. He's passionate and determined and confident and persistent. He's a good improvisor, he's powerful and he's charming! These are all wonderful qualities, he doesn't also have to be the smart one. I am the worlds biggest Pixal stan, and she's a smart, sassy, powerful character, but I'm not gonna sit here and tell you she's also hilarious and adaptable and strong willed. She's a straight man to all the ninja's antics, extremely tied to her samurai x suit, and lets people push her around all the time. That doesn't mean she can't be funny, or self interested, but when she does act these ways, it stems from her other more prominent qualities. That make sense?

And while we're clearing up what Kai isn't, please stop characterizing Kai as an overly protective brother - especially romantically. The only two times he's been romantically protective to Nya are in Wu's Teas which I mean, come on and in the pilots when Jay is literally a stranger. For crying out loud, by the end of the pilot, he's smiling when Jay and Nya hug. That's not overly protective, that's just normal, any reasonable person would react this way, protective. And it's such a great stereotype break for a kids show like ninjago, having an older brother who actually trusts his younger sister to be her own independent person who can make her own decisions. I mean, I guess it's fine if you HC differently but like... idk, I don't buy it.

Now, is there still room to criticize the writers? Yes. Hell yes. But not to an extent greater than any other character. Could he have had more of a defined reaction to events of the most recent season that I won't name for the sake of spoilers? Yes. But could Zane have reacted for more than .5 seconds at being an evil war lord for apparently 60 years? Yeah. Has Kai taken a back seat in the past 4 seasons? Yeah. But so has Lloyd- and he's literally the main character of the show. Not to mention two of those seasons have gone to people who had to wait over ten seasons to get one to themselves, and one of them is a 40 minute special. Kai's doing just fine.

Anyway. Kai is great. He's a fun, stereotype breaking, impulsively driven, ball of energy and confidence who gets a good amount of screen time and some fun side plots.

One last thing to clear up: no hate to anyone. This isn't targeted at anyone specific, this post has been a long time coming, I've just seen some weird overblown claims on various platforms over the past few months and I finally sat down to write about it.

I like the Kai content we have. After all, if the writers were really that bad at writing him, then no one would like him.

Wow this was so much longer than I thought it would be. Um... if you have other long winded rants you'd like to see from me... let me know I guess?

[shazos]

Rouxls is Hiding Something Big: A Deltarune Theory

FORENOTE- For some needed context, it may help reading my previous Deltarune theory here for important details that I will cover in this post. (My previous theory provides notable evidence on why Gaster is indeed the “Knight” figure talked about by multiple characters in Deltarune.)

Now, this is going to sound crazy. But after much time of poring over and analyzing Deltarune, I have come to a conclusion. One that I’ve been convinced of for awhile now. Something that’s been lying right under all of our noses without many of us even realizing it. We have all been bamboozled. Hoodwinked. Tricked. Why, you may ask?

Because the comically stupid and inept Duke of Puzzles is actually... not an idiot. No, he’s the complete opposite. He is a downright mastermind.

As collective players, we are all falling into the same trap once again. Putting faith into a character’s preconceived personality !

When their true personality turns out the complete opposite of what we expected...

It is here, my evidence for this claim begins—and we delve into the true identity of Rouxls Kaard. Buckle up everyone, cause this one’s gonna be a fun ride. 👀

So, to spill the beans up front, and get it over with. I believe Rouxls Kaards identity... is none other than W.D. Gaster in disguise.

Now. I didn’t immediately become invested in this theory—I was skeptical at first like everyone else. But, once I began examining Deltarune and all of its characters a bit closer...things weren’t exactly adding up about the Duke of Puzzles.

Point #1: Anagrams

I initially began to become suspicious of Rouxls Kaard because of his odd name. Sure, it is a play on the words of the term, “Rules card”. But it is spelt in such a peculiar way. If it were just simply a play on words, I think that there would be a much better way of going about spelling it rather than just jumbling a bunch of random letters together. There is a very intriguing reddit post found here that goes more into depth about his name that ties well into my theory. The thing that stood out to me in particular, is that Rouxls’s name is actually also an anagram for “A Dark Soul RX”, (with the left over RX typically being used in terms relating to doctors/medicine.) Not only is Gaster a Doctor, but he’s also always associated with darkness and the research of souls. Toby loves his anagrams—so I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if this was intentional. But it doesn’t end there.

I’ve noticed that Toby Fox has a tendency to tease certain things about his games through merch. And wouldn’t you know it—he has in fact, a particular item on fangamer of a “dark heart.” One which description describes the Angel’s Prophecy. Hm...

But let’s back on track onto my second observation, shall we?

Point #2: The Physical Resemblance to Gaster

Now, there seems to be some interesting foreshadowing related to inverted colors in Deltarune. Before Ralsei takes his hat off, he appears black. But once he takes his hat off, voila, his colors are inverted, and he is revealed to actually be a white goat highly resembling Asriel.

In addition, the entire Dark World is literally just. An inverted version of a normal world.

The Dark World could have hypothetically been the created world/experiment that Gaster had fallen into in the first place. After all, his experiment had to do with “darkness”, and “negative” photons--AKA the Dark Fountains, and the negatively/inverted landscapes of the Dark World.

And how does Rouxls Kaard appear inverted anyways? Well, he looks like THIS.

He even has the strange dangling lip thing—which another character said to directly resemble Gaster, Seam, has as well:

In addition, if you look at Rouxls’ text-box profile very closely, his eye colors are actually mismatched which is a rather interesting detail!

Point # 3: His Accent is Extremely put on.

I think anybody that has read any sort of Shakespearean/Old English writing, can instantly realize that Rouxls is as bad as imitating an Old English accent as a high-schooler reading Hamlet for the first time. Rouxls absolutely butchers it. He practically adds eth, and est at the end of any word he chooses, and calls the job done. What is even more interesting though, is when he gets nervous or panicked, he drops the act all together and talks normally.

Point #4: He is Pretending to be Dumb; His Puzzles are Actually Impressive!

I found it intriguing how there are countless puzzle traps in all the forest areas and in the Card Castle prison that were actually very well done. You have to flip the spades, diamonds, hearts, etc to unlock doors, and open secret chests. They require a decent amount of thinking skills, and are actually competent. But who made them?? Oddly enough if you observe one of them in the forest areas, it appears that Rouxls Kaard vandalized one of the puzzles to make it harder for the player to beat it—which further implies that he actually indeed made those puzzles himself. This shows that Rouxls is much more competent than only being able to make a single box shove puzzle that is comically easy. Where else do we see a place full of plenty of rather well made puzzles + traps seen? All throughout the Core in Undertale—a place which Gaster himself created!

Point #5: Rouxls IS Aware the World is a Game--AKA DON’T FORGET TO READ NPC DIALOGUE FOLKS!

I think it is well aware by now that Rouxls likely wants us as the players to underestimate him--and deem him a fool so we wouldn’t bat an eye at what he’s actually up to. But the most biggest give away to this is something that I have surprisingly seen no one mention at all. And oh boy, it is the most damning evidence that Rouxls is no idiot to be trifled with.

To the left of Seam’s shop, there can be found a little group of former puzzle-makers that used to live at Card Castle, until they were fired and replaced with Rouxls Kaard. They are now all out of a job, and are just barely scraping by since the Spade King didn’t give them any severance pay. However, Rouxls Kaard offered them a way to get money--by selling the tutorials he made.

These tutorials go over TP, stats, information about Susie, Ralsei,  and Kris. Rouxls Kaard has never once met any of the players yet--and he knows everything about them. He knows about stats. He knows the world is a game.

HOW??

In addition, when you talk to Rouxls in his shop, he calls you three the Heroes of Legend. He is well aware of the Angel’s Prophecy. He knows.

Whenever any character in the world of Undertale & Deltarune knows that the world is a game, it is an instant red-flag. It goes to show that they know much more than they let on. Flowey and Sans are big examples of this in Undertale. Pure hearted, dorky idiots that we trust earlier in the game--but wind up seeing the real side of them later on.

...So why should we treat Rouxls any differently?

Point #6: The “Control Crown”

Something that I immediately thought was kind of weird, was the fact that Rouxls Kaard was able to control the K. Round with a “Control Crown” device. If he is so stupid, how was he able to create a full on mechanical device that can brainwash a life-form into being violent/cause it to triple in size?! That is genius material right there!

But things start to take on a much darker side when you begin to look at the subtext of this realization, which I will get to in a moment...

First of all, Seam claimed these exact words.

The remaining king was the Spade King-- as the King of Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs are seen to be locked up in the Dungeon. Therefore, the Spade King put the Knight, and his strange son into power. IF it were the Spade King in power, the dialogue box WOULD have said “himself”. Therefore, the Knight, and his strange son were put in place to control the kingdom. And who are they?

Gaster/Rouxls Kaard, and Lancer.

Evidence to back this up:

Lancer calls Rouxls his “Lesser Dad”. And Rouxls calls Lancer, his Strange little darling/son.

The Spade King is not in charge. During his boss-fight, he states that he obeys the word of the Knight.

If you observe more of Lancer’s dialogue in the scene right before the gang enters Card Castle, he states that his dad, (Spade King), recently forced his troops to listen to Lancer instead. Therefore, Lancer is by all respects actually second in command to the Knight.

One of Rouxls main interests is...Lawmaking. Even though he is just supposedly an innocent Duke of Puzzles.

Another one of Rouxls main interests is...Cages, and long strolls in the dungeon... 

There are innocent puzzle-makers locked up in the Prison who are terrified--they were arrested for the simple act of making a puzzle without a license. HM, I wonder who could have possibly locked them up? *Wink wink nudge nudge*

And what ties this all together, is perhaps the most obscure, tiniest detail that no one would have likely observed on a first play-through. If you go to the first floor of Card Castle and click the description tablet next to the elevator to the Prison, it claims that the Prison used to just be a Basement Which Just Happened to Have a Lot of Cages. This is backed up by the caged animals in the basement, who say that they miss the “good old days” when they used to be the only ones there in cages, and not a bunch of people behind bars.

In summary, Rouxls is locking up a bunch of innocent people, and playing nice to our faces. He IS the knight. And he is not to be underestimated.

Point #7: Rouxls’ Plan is Already Set in Place

The part where this theory gets a little dark, ties back to my mentioning of the control crown earlier.

If you observe the throne room, it looks like it was recently torn apart in a sort of...conflict.

Why was the Spade King the only king left un-caged to begin with? Why wasn’t he locked up too?

Well...Rouxls Kaard needed someone to put him in charge. But not only that—he needed a scapegoat. Someone to blame. Someone to be “The Bad Guy” for the Heroes to fight.

The Spade King...is actually innocent. He is obeying the Knight, because he is being controlled by a Control Crown. The throne room is in ruins because the Spade King likely fought against this at first, but Rouxls won and successfully put the Spade King under his command. I thought it was strange how the King was so...violent. So irredeemably evil, and even murderous toward his own son Lancer. Yes, it could be argued that this is indeed his true personality, that he is a complete, abusive jerk. But, the whole ending battle of Deltarune chapter 1 feels so...set up in a way? It feels so starkly good vs evil, black and white. Almost like a play.

And oh boy. I think I was onto something.

If you pay close attention to the fight with the Spade King, there is a brief moment at the beginning where he is completely shrouded in shadow. Except. For. His. Crown. It glows stark white in comparison to himself. Like a Chekov’s Gun if you will.

And even more interesting, in the supposed good/pacifist ending, the Spade King is locked up in Prison, the other three kings are still locked up in cages, everyone else is freed, and Rouxls and Lancer now have full control of the kingdom...

Guys. We just played right into Gaster’s hands.

Point #8: Seam Knows that Rouxls is the Knight...

The final observation that genuinely makes me convinced in this theory, is a small detail I noticed at the end of the Pacifist run of Deltarune. Once you have beaten the game, and all of the prisoners are freed, everyone comes to celebrate at Card Castle for your victory. Everyone, except for Seam. That is because Seam knows what the “Strange Knight” did to Jevil. He knows who the Strange Knight is. And he knows what the Knight’s true intentions are.

Point #9: Extra Tidbits I noticed:

When compared to the other denizens of card castle, Rouxls seems out of place. He is the one vaguely humanoid character among a bunch of card and chess themed Darkners. 

His puzzle is... too easy.

Rouxls is oddly excited about overthrowing the king/taking his place. 

Rouxls is well versed in calligraphy of all things. (Relation to fonts + letters.)

Rouxls “sparkles” have an odd resemblance to the shining save states...?

He makes pop culture references, such as ones seen here and here. Could just be random throwaway jokes, but often times more “aware” characters such as Sans and Papyrus are keen on breaking the fourth wall at times/making references to relate with the audience.

His hair looks strangely out of place. Especially the hairline which is really receded to an unnatural degree on the left side. It’s a wig guys...

He gets a suspiciously new position for no reason at all. In any normal situation, he would be extremely unqualified for it if he were as stupid as he makes himself out to be.

Rouxls is literally wearing armor, akin to a medieval knights.

If you pay close attention, Rouxls has a few very subtle similar speech patterns to Gaster. They both occasionally repeat words twice. They both use the words wonderful and truly a lot, etc.

When Kris and the gang beat the K. Round, Rouxls said it was just to test their abilities.

Rouxls theme has leitmotifs from Gaster’s theme.

End of discussion. Deltarune’s finale is legit going to be Gaster getting his wig snatched.

[couslie]

Alistair is not a ‘himbo’: discussion of the continuous mischaracterization of Alistair with disregard to his trauma.

Throughout the fandom, Alistair is seen as a ‘cheese-loving himbo,’ and his personality is narrowed down to these two factors. People often see him as stupid, to put it simply, and others see him as ‘annoying’ and ‘whiny’. However, Alistair is quite possibly one of the most in-depth and fleshed out character that BioWare has developed. He is not actually stupid, and he should not be labeled as ‘whiny’ or ‘annoying’ either. Under the cut is an in-depth perspective of Alistair, his trauma, and his personality. 

Disclaimer: this is not going to be a ‘callout’ post to the fandom in any way. It is simply a character analysis on Alistair and his coping mechanisms for his trauma and how it is often misperceived. Warning for length.

Firstly, what is a ‘himbo?’

A ‘himbo’ is described as “an attractive but stupid young man,” most commonly used in reference to Alistair in the Dragon Age fandom. While the jokes are funny, sometimes it is taken a little too far. I have seen many people truly believe that Alistair is dumb and incompetent, and honestly, at first I also believed so. Throughout Dragon Age Origins, numerous characters comment on Alistair’s intellect including himself. This is often misinterpreted that Alistair is indeed unintelligent since he says so himself, right? Not quite.

Trauma:

Anyone who has played Dragon Age Origins knows that Alistair is the secret bastard son of King Maric to a ‘serving-girl in Redcliffe’. Instead of being raised by King Maric, Alistair was hidden away with his half-brother’s uncle, Arl Eamon, in Redcliffe. Eventually, rumors floated around that Alistair was Arl Eamon’s son, a rumor that Arl Eamon’s wife believed. Consequently, Alistair was sent to a Chantry monastery to begin training as a Templar around the age of ten; ten years later being ‘saved’ by Warden Commander Duncan and conscripted into the Grey Wardens. This is the biggest subplot in DAO, and other than the Blight looming over Fereldan/Thedas, is a main point in DAO’s storyline. 

This alone sounds absolutely awful for a child to have to go through. But it gets much, much worse for Alistair. Traveling though Fereldan with Alistair and talking with him gets him to open up a little about what his childhood was like. Most of it is shrouded in humor; however, he lets some truth shine through.

From this we can confer that Alistair did not have an ideal childhood living with the Arl in Redcliffe. Especially since when the Arl would visit Denerim, Alistair would sleep with the hounds. Not only is it hinted that Alistair suffered child neglect, it is also hinted that he may have suffered verbal abuse. As Arl Eamon was one of the only people to know that Alistair was Maric’s bastard, the verbal abuse and belittlement most likely came from him. 

 Throughout Alistair’s life he felt uncared for, and was so ignored and neglected as a child that even grown up he feels invisible and unheard. 

So uncared for, that even the simple act of giving him a gift he acts as if he never had anyone ever give him anything (which is possible except for maybe a few times). 

Or, even just remembering that he mentioned something.

Or, even a simple compliment makes him feel unworthy.

No one would listen to him or what he wanted, and that is another main sub plot of DAO. Going to visit Goldanna, the player can choose whether or not to harden Alistair and basically tell him, “People only look out for themselves. It’s time you did, too.”

Alistair felt he was unloved, unwanted, and a general burden to his family (and especially felt this way after meeting Goldanna). The only person he felt may have loved him was his mother who he believed to be a serving-girl; a main reason he holds on to his mother’s amulet. She represents the only person in his life, up until Duncan, who he thought would have loved and be proud of him. 

Coping Mechanisms:

Now that Alistair’s trauma is laid-out, we can move on to how he copes with said trauma. Alistair uses humor as a defense mechanism to cope with his childhood traumas, and it is very common, especially self-deprecating and dark humor. According to G. Swaminath, “Freud postulated that humor [sic] works by means of two principal mechanisms, ‘condensation’ and ‘displacement’. Condensation entails an economy in thought and expression and conserves psychic energy, and displacement transfers this psychic energy arising from conflict or incongruity to a humorous anecdote, which brings relief. Freud believed that cultivating a sense of humor [sic] could help lift repressions (i.e. unconscious conflictual material) but could also be harmful, particularly in certain forms of sarcasm and irony, directed at the self.”

(source)

Most, if not all of Alistair’s humor, is directed at himself in a very self-deprecating manner. Whether to make the player feel better, to make himself seem unimportant, or because his self-esteem is truly that low.

For Alistair, appearing as an idiot was the easiest way to be under the radar. He never wanted to be King. He didn’t want people to treat him differently, either, for knowing that King Maric was his father. The best way to seem insignificant was to belittle himself and appear that he was an ‘idiotic nobody’.

On top of all this, the player can even callout Alistair for using humor as a defense mechanism and deflecting questions that he doesn’t really want to answer.

It’s not that Alistair is truly unintelligent or ‘whiny/annoying,’ he is using humor to cope and defend in the best way he knows how.

So, is Alistair actually intelligent?

Firstly, intelligence is hard to measure. One person’s definition of intelligence could vary wildly from another person’s. There’s also the perspective that intelligence can be categorized. For example, a person may be book-smart but not street-smart and vice-versa. Who is to say, however, that both are not equally as intelligent, but just in different categories? There is no basis for ‘intelligence.’ Everyone can be intelligent in their own way, and for Alistair, he is intelligent on history (specifically chantry), battle tactics, and knowing deception/people’s motives. 

(Alistair not being told what the dark ritual is for)

As @mahariel-theirin​ said: “Right from the start you can just tell Alistair is smart, and not just because of his wit. When the Warden asks him about the origin of darkspawn he says, “You want the Chantry version, or the truth?” When asked about the fight with the mage, he calls out the revered mother’s power play by using him as a messenger. Look at that insight. That awareness. And that’s just from the first 5 minutes of meeting him.”

End Notes:

Take out of this what you will. But Alistair is more of a ‘hunk’ than a ‘himbo,’ and shouldn’t be discredited. He was abused and neglected his whole life. I personally believe Alistair should be given more credit than he has been receiving, and BioWare for creating a character that is so in-depth and fleshed out they have deceived people in believing that Alistair is truly dumb. Which, ironically, is what Alistair wanted in-game. I am not in any way saying to quit joking about Alistair being a ‘himbo’ either! A lot of the jokes are quite funny. This was purely made out of the informational interest of some people not quite understanding Alistair’s character and truly believing he might be one of the most stupid people in Thedas (and potentially misunderstanding his humor/defense/coping mechanism as stupidity). If anything, Alistair is ‘himbo-passing’ at best.

Also, with special thanks to @planesofduality for their Dragon Age Compendium. It was tremendously useful, and I thank you for all the time and devotion you put in to it to make it possible. Many thanks! Also thanks to @sundogsandrainbows, @not-plaidweave​, and @irhinoceri​ for discussing this with me and encouraging me to make this meta.

[softyoongiionly]

Portraits of a Tiger|| 01

Legends of a great and equally terrifying warrior nicknamed the Tiger have been emerging from your fellow villagers for quite sometime. Stories of his skill, his stealth and his supposed wickedness have been passed around to the point where he is more prophecy than person. You have lived your life with a strong sense of conviction, rarely letting gossip influence your opinion. However, you would be lying if you said that his legacy didn’t intrigue you. When the Tiger and his infamous army arrive in your village to refuel, you come face to face with the man behind the myth.

And no amount of marketplace gossip would ever be enough to capture the true complexity of his nature.

Pairing: Merchant! Reader x Warrior! Yoongi

Genre: Adventure, Romance, Smut (later), Fluff, Angst

Word Count: 12k

Warnings: language, depictions of violence both verbal and physical however they are fairly mild, mentions of war and power dynamics, there will be smut in future parts so, (18+ only please).

Current Tag List: @bulletproofbirdy​ @gldnrecs​ @naajix​ @bluewhale52​ @nikkikenji​ @lustedkisses​

A/N: oh okayyyyy HELLO!!! Its here!!! Warrior! Yoongi is finally emerging from the depths of my writer blocked brain and I am SO happy you get to meet him. Once again, this series will be posted in parts just as Mama Mia! is and it may not necessarily follow a linear timeline. 

Also, I know I mentioned her in the tag list post but, SERIOUSLY you guys this story would not be possible without my wonderful friend @bulletbroofbirdy aka Rachel who has literally spent so much time dreaming up with wonderful universe with me. My sweet angel, you are the greatest in the world and I love you. Please go follow Rachel and send her all the love in the universe and thank her for her genius brain because, without her, this fic wouldn’t exist. 

War.  

It’s not an uncommon occurrence where you’re from.  

The ever-present shifting of the borderlines is a constant reminder of the struggle for power.

Many see it as a valiant effort, a noble cause...

But, war is something that doesn’t appeal to you.

It doesn’t sit right with your perspective on the world.

Sure, you understand it’s strengths and why it could be seen as necessary.

However, the consequences of war, of violence- never seem to be worth it.  

Death.

It’s not an uncommon occurrence where you’re from.  

When war is constantly raging on the background, it should be expected.  

It should be normal.  

To most of your district, it is.  

To you?

Every single rise in the death toll sends icy despair into your heart.  

Every drop of blood spilled feels as though it’s your own.  

You’re desperate to find the solution for peace but, you know it’s not that simple.  

Man is never content.

The struggle for power is never ending.  

As you grow up, you learn to adapt.  

Learning a trade is the easiest way to establish yourself so, you take up knitting and medicine.  

You sell your wears and remedies in the market every other day and spend your off days replenishing the stock that you sold.  

Your parents live comfortably but in order for them to do so, you’re in the market for hours on end.  

Today starts as any other.  

You’re gathering your wears in your family’s home as the sun is beginning to peak over the mountains.

The colors it throws through your window are breathtaking and, if you weren’t so exhausted, you’d be able to enjoy them a bit more.  

Thankfully, your preparations don’t wake your parents as they sleep soundly in their bed.  

You wish for nothing more than for them to be at peace every chance they get.  

They have sacrificed so much.

The market displays its usual scenery.  

The fishermen are always first setting up their catches from the evening prior, the butchers are hanging up their kills from the overnight hunt whilst the farmers arrange seasonal produce on their carts...

You always have your cart near the end of the market.  

It’s easier for people to think about softer things such as knitted blankets or healing elixirs once they’ve purchased their food.  

Thankfully, business is decent.  

Your wares are well-made and your elixirs have an exceptional success rate.

The prices are fair so you attract all walks of life but, you focus more on serving the lower class folk such as yourself.  

One of the fisherman, who you’ve grown acquainted with over the last few months, nods to your cart as you’re setting it up.

“What do you have today __?”

With a smile, you hold up a mauve woolen blanket which you’ve spent nearly two weeks on.

“This is the item of the day. I used a root dye to get the color- what do you think?”

He purses his lips, nodding in consideration, “I’m sure someone will snag that right away. It looks warm. It will be very useful over the next few months. Do you have any of that uh- “ Lowering his voice, he cranes his neck to assess whether or not any of his team can hear him, “ginseng mixture that you sold to me last week?”

You bite back a smirk as you nod towards the woven basket containing your various medicines, “I do. I made a new batch last night. Did you need some?”

A rapid nod is sent your way along with a handful  of coins, “Thanks. It worked wonders last time. My wife sends her gratitude.”

Your cheeks heat up immediately but given that you’ve heard worse things in the market place, you merely giggle and file your payment away.

Ginseng is a natural stimulant that you often recommend to men experiencing issues with sex or fertility. Whilst you completely stand by its effectiveness, you won’t deny that it’s slightly awkward working with the men you’ve helped. Especially since they often insist on loudly announcing how many times they had sex the night before.

The rest of the setup goes smoothly and by the time the sun fully takes its place in the sky, you are ready for the market to open.  

As your adjusting the sign on the front of your cart, you hear an interesting bout of conversation ignite in front of you

“Did you hear? The Royal Army is arriving today to refuel.”

“You’re lying. Are you serious? Do they- do you think they have him with them?”

“Of course! They aren’t stupid enough to travel without him. They’d be ambushed immediately.”

“Yah, what are you talking about?”

“The Tiger. He’s coming through town today.”

Instantly, your heart stalls in your chest.

You try your best to appear unbothered but, it doesn’t stop the panic from seeping into your bones.

The Tiger and the fleet of warriors he oversees are well-known in your village.  

Word of mouth is truly a powerful mechanism for spreading information and, stories of The Tiger had been circulating for quite sometime.

They started out simply depicting a powerful new recruit into the Royal Army.

Despite his initial inexperience, The Tiger quickly rose through the ranks due to his otherworldly fighting skills.  

According to the rumors, The Tiger was known for his silent destruction.  

By the time his enemies could grasp what was happening, The Tiger and his men had already completed their mission.  

They had already killed, maimed or destroyed whatever they were after.  

A recent success had led to The Tiger becoming the General of the largest fleet in the Royal Army.

From what you had gathered, he wasn’t much older than you so the fact that he essentially lead an entire army is quite impressive.

However, given the stories of his cruel and cold blooded nature, it makes a lot of sense.

“I heard he beheads the enemy general on the battlefield after he wins...”

“I heard he killed 3,000 men all on his own in the middle of a thunderstorm!”

“I heard he keeps a viper on him at all times and he sets it loose on anyone he disobeys him!”

“I heard that he never sleeps.”

“Do you think he’ll come here? Would he be seen out in public like that?”

“Why wouldn’t he? He has nothing to fear, there isn’t a single soul in this village who could take him on.”

“Plus, he never travels alone. He’ll have his men with him.”  

With a snort, you continue displaying your cart as normal and, only then do you realize that you stand out amongst the other merchants.

Every single one of them has an offering for the warriors.

It’s not customary to do so and, you’re only viable guess is that it has something to do with the market fawning over this tiger character.

“Were we supposed to put something out?” You murmur to the woman beside you, brows knitting in confusion.

She chuckles heartily, “When a normal fleet enters, no. We usually just offer them food and the resources we can spare.” A bit of excitement flashes through her eyes as she adjust the basket of radishes on her cart, “However, this is no ordinary fleet. I suggest you put something out too dear, that pretty face of yours could land you husband on the Tiger’s army, any one of his men would be a worthy mate. They aren’t shooting blanks like my husband over here!”

Her body jostles with laughter as she shoves her hand up against the man beside her, who looks whole-heartedly unamused.

“Jane, please...” He grumbles

You can’t help the grimace that comes across your face when Jane mentions finding a husband but, it’s quickly replaced with a mixture of amusement and sympathy.

“I have something for that.” You offer in a hushed tone and, the man seems to unfurl from his submissive position as he offers a meek smile.

“You do?”

You don’t have time to answer him before the mood of the market shifts into quiet chaos.

“I think they’re coming!” The fisherman whispers frantically, adjusting the sign on his cart for the millionth time.

As much you hate to give in to the hype, you feel compelled to go with the flow and, put something out for the warriors.  

You settle on a basket of your most popular anti-inflammatory ailment that’s proven to be quite effective amongst your customers.  

The long strips of white wood are haphazardly placed into a woven basket as you brace your ears for the piercing sound of trumpets.

Magnificent as the musicians in your village are, the blaring cacophony of noise is far from something you wish to be apart of this early in the morning.  

However, the noise never comes.  

The gates open up as normal as a reasonable size crowd begins meandering throughout the market.  

You turn towards Jane with confusion painting your features, “Where’s the music?”

Jane is adjusting her radishes once again, glancing eagerly towards the crowd of people, “The Tiger does not allow fanfare of any kind. A far away village defied his orders once and played for him and his fleet anyway and- well...” She smirks bemusedly, “it didn’t end well for them, so we respect his wishes.”

Your eyes widen at that as you nod, swallowing back any fear that threatens to crawl up your throat.  

“Got it.”

The usual slew of customers begin filing in and as business begins to pick up, you slowly forget about the famous warriors that were to enter.  

Roughly, an hour later, your basket of willow bark remains untouched and, you begin to consider putting it back in its normal place. This particular bark is quite annoying to obtain and you don’t feel great about giving it away to some warrior after you’ve spent hours trying to procure it.  

However, as you glance at other offering baskets, you notice that some of them have been emptied.  

This means of course that either your fellow merchants put their offerings away or, the warriors are already in the market.  

A strange and unsettling feeling washes over you at the thought of deadly warriors perusing throughout town. You expected that they would be recognizable, especially given their reputation but, nothing seems to give away their presence.  

As a paying customer leaves your cart with an armful of various items, you notice something that normally doesn’t garner your attention: hair.  

You see it amongst the crowd, peeking over the tops of heads.

It’s a shimmering icy platinum and it’s tied up atop a strangers head with a beaded string. It moves throughout the crowd slowly, stopping at various points, likely exchanging words with another merchant before you finally make out the face it belongs to.  

A man dressed in cotton linens maneuvers out of the crowd, dark eyes scanning his surroundings almost anxiously. As he moves closer to you, you’re able to fully take in his features.  

Pointed and smooth, his face is the epitome of contradiction.  

Deep brown eyes, rounded button-nose, pouty lips and strong eyebrows adorn his face whilst his rather large hand flexes instinctually towards the object hanging off of his hips.

It’s a sword.  

This man certainly isn’t a civilian.  

Unfortunately, you’re unable to ignore the beauty he possesses. He is quite ethereal once you get a closer look at him; you don’t think you’ve ever seen another person that looks quite like him.  

As he speaks with the fisherman, your ears perk up to in an attempt to hear the sound of his voice.  

Faintly, you can discern a bit of rasp and calculation in his tone but, you aren’t able to absorb it over the sound of the market.  

Its then you realize that you’ve been staring at this stranger for far too long and, if you’re ever going to meet your quota today, you need to avoid distractions.  

You sell another one of your blanket moments later, increasing your daily total by a reasonable amount. Making blankets is enjoyable yes but, it’s extremely time consuming so it feels good when someone rewards you for your hard work.  

“Please have some radishes! They’re grown in top soil from the northern region! It gives them a certain uh- “ Jane’s shrill voice pulls your attention towards her cart which now brandishes a new visitor: the stranger with the blonde hair.

You're realizing that Jane is pausing mid-sentence because, she is desperately looking to you for answers.

You've assisted Jane with her produce before as she was having trouble with the flavor of some of her vegetables. This was mainly due to the fact that she had been using the wrong kind of fertilizer but, you had also given her several tips to improve the overall taste of her produce.

“A certain crunch...” You finish for her, stabilizing your tone as you brave a glance towards the man. “The mixture of the soils helps with the texture.”

His feline gaze rushes towards you at the sound of your voice, as if he wasn’t expecting you to speak.  

At the sight of you, his lips part momentarily before quickly sealing in a tight lipped smile which directs toward Jane.

“Thank you.” He nods toward her as he takes one of the radishes and tucks it into the pocket of his linen pants.

“Of course! Um thank you- sir for your...services...” She stutters and it’s then you notice that she hasn’t made eye contact throughout the entirety of their conversation.  

A bit of discomfort flashes through his eyes but otherwise, he merely grunts in acknowledgement.  

Jane’s comment is the last bit of confirmation you need that this man is indeed a warrior.

However, his reaction to her words strikes you as odd. Warriors rarely shy away from gratitude. They are often proud and boastful regarding their positions but, he seems to be bothered by what she said.  

The man never looks back at Jane as he makes his way to the next cart. Every so often, you notice him looking over his shoulder or glancing towards the entrances/exits of the market. His presence doesn’t necessarily make you uneasy but, his behavior sure does.

He acts as though he is in danger.

It puts you on edge but, you direct your attention back to the customer in front of you.

“Good morning.” You smile, “Anything catch your eye?”

The man cards a hand through his salt and pepper hair as he leans over your cart, eagerly scanning the items you have on display.

“Eh do you have anything for dry skin? With winter around the corner, I gotta start thinking about this old skin of mine. The wind does a lot of damage on my knuckles.”

“You know what? I think I have just the thing...” You bend down to access the crate beneath your counter and grab a medium sized glass bottle, “This is an olive oil and honey treatment, it will treat dry skin immediately but, it’s meant to treat dry skin over a longer period of time too. I also-” You bend down once more to grab a tin of cocoa butter and place it on the counter top, “have this. This should help with daily wear and tear. You only need a little bit so this tin should last you through the winter.”

The man smiles eagerly and quickly reaches for his pockets before he freezes. You don’t notice until you look up from your counter but, the platinum haired warrior is back and, he’s standing right behind your customer.

“O-Oh go ahead, go ahead. I uh- I'll go next...” The man stutters, gesturing frantically to your cart.

With a quirked brow the warrior moves to step in front of him until you raise your hand.

“No sir, it’s ok. You’re in the middle of a transaction.” You insist, eyeing the warrior sternly,  “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

The immediate crowd surrounding your cart seems to pause, nervously glancing towards the warrior who merely nods and steps back into place.  

The shock is apparent on the faces of the crowd but you ignore it and send a reassuring smile towards your customer, “Ok, that will be 11.50 and-” You slide a bundle of rosemary towards him, “take this too, on the house. Brew it in some hot water to aid digestion, winter food tends to be a bit harsher on the system.”

The man swallows nervously, dragging his items toward his chest, “Thank you—uh so much. Thank you.” He turns towards the warrior, directing his gaze towards his feet as he bows his head, “Thank you for your service...”

The man doesn’t allow the warrior time to respond before he rushes off back into the crowd but, you get the feeling that it wouldn’t matter regardless.  

The warrior doesn’t seem interested in anyone’s gratitude.  

“Let me know if you have any questions.” You nod your head towards him, pushing the basket with your offering towards the edge of the counter before busying yourself with putting a few things back in their place.

He says nothing but, he approaches the counter whilst his eyes shrewdly observe the ins and outs of your set up.

He’s even more striking up close. His smooth, tan skin is mostly unmarked except for the giant scar running down the center of his right eye. It goes up the center of his eyelid and disappears right above the center of his brow. It’s still red and angrily risen against his otherwise angelic looking face.  

A warrior indeed.

The bit of people around your cart haven’t stopped their staring but, they are at least making an attempt to look like they aren’t paying attention. It doesn’t stop you from wishing that you didn’t have an audience.  

“Tree bark?” He questions with an arch to his brow

You look towards the basket he’s gesturing to before returning your gaze back to his.

“White willow bark.” You correct, almost defensively and it cause his lips to twitch.

“Is this some kind of decoration?”

You shake your head, placing your fingers on the edge of the basket, “No. It’s meant to be chewed. It reduces inflammation. I figured it would be useful since I imagine you deal with muscle soreness quite often.”

He smirks, “Amongst other things yes,” With long elegant fingers, he points to the basket, “So- if I chew on this, I should feel relief from any pain I might be experiencing?”

An all too rapid nod comes from you as you continue your explanation, “Well it’s mainly used to treat pain in your muscles and joints. If you’re looking to treat other types of pain, I have other options...”

He shakes his head, his hair swishing to the side as he does, “This should do, thank you.”  

You suspect that he’s done, given that the bark is (annoyingly) free and he’s only seemed to be interested in the offerings thus far so, he surprises you when he asks yet another question.

“Do you have any more of that salve?”

“Of course,” You offer him a smile now that the initial tension is starting to lift, “Did you want a big tin or small tin?”

He purses his lips in thought, looking towards his hands, “What do you recommend?”

Without a second thought, you step towards him and take one of his hands, bringing it closer to your face for inspection.  

The man seems to freeze in place, eyes widening in absolute shock, his own limb betraying him as it goes limp.

His hand displays evidence of the life he lives.  

Rough, calloused and blistered...

His nails are bitten down to a point that almost looks painful but, the thing that stands out the most is how beautiful his hand is to you.  

The strength in his skin is palpable and the indigo veins protruding against his hand are a firm reminder of what he is likely capable of.  

What you don’t notice however, is the utter panic that flushes across his face or the way his eyes dart nervously between you and his hand.

Just as you would during any consultation, you briefly run your fingers over the palm of his hand and up the length of each of his fingers

“Hmm I would recommend the big tin, I think...you have a lot of rough spots but the skin between your callouses is quite smooth so,”  You carefully set his hand back onto the counter and return your eyes back to his, “what that tells me is that your skin is roughened by your environment rather than by an actual lack of moisture.” You slide the big tin towards him, “Apply this to the dryer areas as needed throughout the day but, every night before you go to bed, make sure to put this on. Sleeping with it will allow it to seep into your skin and heal the dryness over time.”  

The warrior’s eyes are transfixed on you and for a moment he is completely speechless, his hand lingering on the counter before hurriedly places them back at his side.  

He can’t understand you and why you just touched him.  

But what’s worse, is he can’t understand why his mouth is suddenly dry.

Or why his skin is on fire...

Or why his heart is thrashing around in his chest.

He clears his throat and nods, “Very good. I’ll be sure to follow your instructions.” He sticks the hand you didn’t touch into his pocket, fishing around for something, “What’s my total?”

“That will be 3.50.” You say with a smile, holding out your hand.

He dispenses his payment into your palm before stowing his items away in his free pocket.

“Thank you.” He grunts, the hand you touched still kind of awkwardly lingering away from his body.

Was he going to wash it as soon as he got the chance?

Did you smell weird?

“Of course, have a nice day. Safe travels.” With a wave, you send him off, missing the small smile that momentarily appears on his face.

You’re genuinely relieved that the encounter is over but, you’d be lying if you said that it didn’t intrigue you.

Before you’re able to get your bearings and move on, Jane is rushing over to you frantically.

“What on Earth was that??? Do you know him??? Why didn’t you tell me you knew him?!” She swats your arm, her eyes wide with incredulity.

“Ow!” You grip your arm, “What are you talking about?”

The man has already disappeared back into the crowd but, you’re still attempting to keep your voice at a reasonable level.

Jane does not follow suit.

“You just put your hands on the Tiger!” Jane shrieks causing you to recoil in response, “He could kill you for that! What were you thinking?”

“He’s going to kill me because I touched his hand?” Your brow arches in amusement, as your lips threaten to smile, “I had no idea who he was Jane, I was just helping a paying customer.”

She doesn’t like your answer and quickly swats your arm again, “Y/N this is not a joke! He’s a dangerous man. I nearly fainted when you looked him in his eyes but, then you touched him and-”

“Jane, that’s enough.” The fisherman hisses, gesturing wildly to the crowd of people, “You’re making a scene and he’s still out here somewhere.”

She huffs her hands rushing to smooth out the apron over her dress before rushing a finger into your face, “You won’t be laughing if he shows up at your house with a sword in your face. You need to be careful.”

You smirk at this but otherwise comply, not wishing to fire her up any further, “Thank you for your concern Jane, I’ll make sure to carry my sword around too, you know, just in case.”  

Jane snorts then and rolls her eyes, scurrying back to her cart and mumbling something along the lines of:

“That mouth is going to get you killed...”

You can’t help but giggle.

There’s no doubt that the man you just spoke to was a warrior and, maybe he was some almighty warrior but he other than an intense staring problem, he didn’t scare you at all.

Thankfully, business is booming for the remainder of the day and although you’re thrilled at the money you’ll be taking home, you aren’t looking forward to all the replenishing you have to do.  

The last order of business before heading home is picking a few things for your parents and grabbing the last of the steamed buns for your best friend.

Rachel has lived beside you ever since you can remember. The two of you spent most of your childhood running around the village, causing mini bouts of chaos everywhere you went. Despite the challenges life had brought the both of you, you grew together rather than apart.  

Rachel is the village’s most treasured teacher and she’s been running the school for the past few years. She’s kind of the best and, you have a feeling she’ll be interested to hear about the rather interesting events that had transpired over the course of your day.  

As you turn down the dirt path towards her home, you start to wonder where the Tiger and his fleet would be staying.  

Your village wasn’t run-down but it wasn’t exactly luxurious by any standards.

The rubble near the beginning of the street along with the various empty wooden barrels doesn’t exactly count as décor and, the occasional drunken argument outside the village’s tavern certainly doesn’t add any class to the area but, its home.  

Rachel's house is easy to spot amongst the rest of the street as it’s the only one completely covered in plants.

She’s had a love of greenery for quite sometime and, it’s amongst the many things you two bond over.  

Adjusting the bag on your shoulder, you immediately reach for the handle and use all your weight to shove the front door open.  

Rachel is sitting on her sofa and despite the fact that she was expecting you, she still jumps at the sound.

“Oh my goodness!” She exclaims “Have you ever heard of knocking???”

You giggle but otherwise ignore her and lean against the door dramatically, “Rachel, you better get one last look at me because, this might be the last time you ever see me.”

She laughs lightly and folds her arms, “What did you do this time? Did you call the apothecary a fraud again?” Wiggling her fingers, she reaches out for the snacks your holding.

“Ok first of all, he is a fraud but no....it’s much much worse.” You shove the snacks into her awaiting hands before flopping down on the armchair, “I touched a man’s hand...”

She freezes, the bun lingering near her mouth, “Alright, now I am officially curious, why is hand touching worse?”

You smirk, “I touched...the Tiger’s hand” You point a finger at her quickly as her lips part, “Before you even make the joke, no it wasn’t a real tiger...it was THE tiger.”

Rachel snorts with laughter before going wide-eyed in shock, “You...wha--the Tiger? THE Tiger??? You TOUCHED the Tiger?!!?!? What were you thinking?!? Oh my god, did he bite? Wait, focus, Rachel---Why did you touch the Tiger?!?”  

Whilst she’s rambling on you burst out in a fit of giggles, snuggling back against the chair, “He came to my cart looking for a good salve for his hands. All I did was do an assessment as I normally do to see what he needed. I don’t understand why everyone is freaking out...he seemed pretty harmless to me.”

She leans forward on the couch, “Harmless? He seemed...harmless?!?” She whispers frantically, “He has personally slain hundreds of men with those very hands!!!  

“Why are we whispering?...”

Rachel returns to normal volume, rolling her eyes “Fine. More like thousands if you count how many his army has obliterated. And you just pawed at him--are you insane? He has killed people for less! At least that’s what the rumors say.”  

You keep giggling, completely unfazed as you make yourself at home, “The rumors also say that he killed an entire village because they played their trumpets for him. I don’t know how credible these rumors are.”

“Well....what was he like then? You cannot drop this information on me and not give me every detail.” She insists, gesturing wildly at you before leaning back and sipping from her mug.

“Uh he was fine. I mean- he was normal I guess, I don’t know. He has really long hair, its blonde- like really blonde. He looks young, way younger than I thought he’d be. He has a big scar over his eye. Jane was practically drooling over him...”

Realization crosses Rachel’s face as she watches you intently. She relaxes back into her chair as a knowing smile spreads across her face, “Ohhhh young, blonde, mysterious...Jane must really HAVE been drooling. Seems like she’s not the only one, though...”

“I mean- the fisherman guys were pretty excited too I guess. I don’t know what the big deal is honestly, I know he’s supposed to be good on the battlefield but they were treating him like he was some kind of king or something.” You narrow your eyes “Are you suggesting I was drooling over him? Because I definitely wasn’t...I even told him to wait his turn in line.” You insist, shifting around on the chair.

Rachel crosses her legs dramatically, steeping her fingers as she observes you, “Was that before or after you found out he was handsome? Hmm?” She smirks again, holding her hands up innocently, “I am implying nothing, I am just NOTICING that you are definitely affected by him. I haven’t seen you impressed by....well, anyone.”

She’s not wrong.

“Hey hey whoa...who said anything about impressed?? I’m not impressed. I’m not impressed at all.”

Rachel eyes you suspiciously”...right...not impressed at all. Well, did you at least hear anything about them? Any word on how long the army will be here? We’ve got to be the safest village in the country as long as they are in town.” Suddenly, she facepalms in realization, “My students will be so distracted as long as they are here.”

“Not impressed. He’s just a man with a scar and sword...” You insist, twiddling your thumbs “I guess they are just refueling, I’m not sure how long they will be here. Jane told me I need to watch my back so, hopefully not for long...” You giggle again, thinking of how excited the schoolchildren will be now that the legendary Tiger is in town, “maybe you can make an assignment out of it...”

She stares off into space for a moment and mutters, “that’s not a bad idea...we could get outside, maybe a soldier could come speak to them? There’s got to be at least one that’s not terrifying?...” Rachel shakes her head, unimpressed with your lack of understanding, “Just a man with a scar and sword—he is the most feared military leader of our generation! And I wouldn’t worry TOO much about watching your back. After all—none of the legends involve the Tiger killing civilians, do they? At the very least his presence here means good business for the village. If you can get the Tiger as a repeat customer I can only imagine the profits you’ll turn at that little stall!” She muses, laugh heartily, “Buy the salve that soothed a beast! I can hear the gossip already...”

You point a finger at her, “I like the way you think. If you ever want to stop educating and enriching the minds of our youth and be my business partner, let me know...” Suddenly the humor within you dissipates as the reality of your situation seems to sink in, “You don’t think I should be worried though right?”

Rachel lets out a short laugh, “Thanks for the offer...” She shakes her head, “As far as this Tiger business is concerned...I don’t think your safety is under any threat. How did he react when you touched him? Did he seem angry?”

“He just froze...” You recall, your eyes unfocusing slightly, “It was kind of weird honestly. I’ve never had anyone do that before. It’s pretty normal to get checked out during an apothecary visit. I guess I wasn’t supposed to look at him either but, how the hell am I supposed to do an exam if I can’t look at his face?”

“Hmmm...that is strange. I’ll be honest, I thought he would have scolded you or pulled away based on the stories. Unless...” Rachel slumps back against her sofa, her face relaxing into a smirk, “...he was just as surprised by you as you were of him.”

You wrinkle your nose, “Ew no. Definitely not.”  

Rachel doesn’t look convinced but you continue nevertheless, suddenly wishing to change the subject.

“He looked nervous I guess- I don’t know. His hand just sort of hung there after I finished. Today was weird...anywayyy-” You nod to the dough between your palms, “How are the buns? Did anything interesting happen in the education world.”

“Oh three boys got in a worm eating contest and threw up on their practice parchment so I could go without that kind of interesting for awhile. The buns are transcendent as usual but you-” She narrows her eyes in your direction, “- are dodging. Why would a general be nervous around you hmm? You said he is young...is he also handsome?”

“Ah god I love kids...” You note with a giggle before shrugging, shrinking back into the chair, “I don’t know. Objectively he- he definitely wasn’t ugly.”

Rachel raises an eyebrow, “I sense there is more to it than that.”

“Fine. He was easily the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in my life. There! Are you happy now?” You grumble before dramatically staring off into the distance, “Oh to be murdered by the most handsome man alive...how romantic.”

This prompts a twinkling bout of laughter from Rachel who has finally finished the first of her many snacks, “I can think of worse ends my friend. Perhaps that was your only interaction? I am sure he is busy making preparations; too busy to be executing smart-mouthed apothecaries. I wouldn’t fret too much Y/N.”

With you sigh, you accept her analysis, sending a nod her way, “You’re probably right and, that’s probably for the best.” Despite the conviction in your tone, you can feel the disappointment on your face, “Thank you for calling my mouth smart.” You smirk before nodding toward the door, “I should probably head home. My father has a nasty cough and I seriously doubt he’s taken the medicine I left for him.”

Meeting you at the door, Rachel pulls you in for a big hug, “The smartest mouth in town- that's why I keep you around. Give your father my love and tell him, if he gives you a hard time—I will find out!”

You laugh, hugging her tightly, “The second smartest mouth in town...” You insist, “let’s do the tavern this weekend please. The children have been taking all your time and I miss my best friend!”

“Of course! No pack of tiny ruffians can get between me and a night out.”

You pat her shoulder gently before stepping out of the doorframe, “That’s right.” You smile, thankful to have someone like her in your life, “love you, have a good night.”

“Good night, sleep tight...” She sings, slowly closing the door, “don’t let the Tiger bite!” She laughs wildly before slamming the door shut to prevent your retaliation.

She’s a menace.

The walk back home is pleasant, the fall breeze nips at your skin through your sweater but, it feels refreshing against your flushed cheeks.  

Your parents are asleep by the time you return home.  

It’s common for you to arrive well past their bedtime but, despite your lack of contact, they still manage to make you feel loved.

On the kitchen table sits bowl of stew and freshly baked bread, along with a new blanket for the winter.  

Your mom makes a fresh one everywhere with thicker fabric to combat the icy freeze of the winter climate. The stew will be cold but, your heart will be warm and your stomach will be full.  

In truth, these are the only things that matter to you.  

Living simple certainly has it’s drawbacks but overall, you are comforted by it. Your parents raised you to be thankful for the things you have and to only set your sights on obtaining things that truly matter to you. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have goals but, your parents have always stressed that external success can be fickle and, material possessions only take you so far.  

Being content is truly priceless and, you’re thankful they instilled these values into you.

Climbing into bed, you allow your mind to wander to the man you met today.  

You couldn’t quite understand the legend behind him. Not to say that he wasn’t worthy of such folklore but, it’s more so that you didn’t exactly understand the warnings behind it.  

He didn’t seem scary.

Although, it’s possible his demeanor is something he uses along with his beauty.

It could be that the Tiger lives up his animal comparison.

Beautiful and deadly.

Village gossip shouldn’t keep you awake longer than necessary, you think, it’s time to rest up so that tomorrow’s work day doesn’t feel like a never-ending task.  

With the sound of the whistling wind just outside your home, you slowly close your eyes and drift off to sleep.

Your plan for a peaceful nights rest is completely demolished when you feel the frantic hands of your mother shaking you awake.

“Y/N! Wake up! Wake up! Raiders- they are raiders outside, hurry!” She drags the covers off of you, “We have to go!”

In a haphazard blur, you spring to your feet and arm yourself with a few important possessions and your sword.  

Your parents tow behind you as you make your way out of your home.  

The village is in utter chaos; shouting, clanking metal, screaming, amber flames peaking out from above the rooftops.  

You grab your mothers arm, keeping her close to you as you try your best to follow procedures.

Like most smaller villages, your area is equipped with a protocol that will ensure the least amount of damage if there were to be an invasion.

Collect the essentials and gather your loved ones

Arm yourself

Make your way to the town square; there is strength in numbers.

Allow the raiders to take what they want (with the exception of human lives)

Negotiate

Simple in theory but, rarely in practice.

It’s difficult to keep up with a protocol during times of intense stress.

Amidst the chaos, you see Rachel scrambling out of her house, with a bag slung over her shoulder.

You cry out for her, desperately hoping she will hear your voice over the madness,

“Rachel! Over here!”

With wide eyes, she reaches out for your mother’s hand, bowing her head to shield from any possible debris.  

“The army is here, they will protect us.” Your father murmurs solemnly beside you, his face stoic and rid of any bit of positivity

This could end very badly.  

The four of you rush into the town square, trying your best to remain calm throughout the screaming, back up against a wall. Your grip tightens on your mothers hand as you spot the tents of the armed guests currently residing in your village.

The raiders continue their plundering throughout the town accompanied by the sounds of glass breaking and shouting.  

Suddenly, there is a different sound: the clanking of swords. Briefly, you can see glimpses of armor peeking out of homes, the sight causing your eyes to widen.

“Look!”

Rachel and your parents crane their necks to see what you’re pointing out as the sounds coming from within your village begin to change.

Grunting, groaning, more clanking swords and a bit of shouting shoot out of the main street like fireworks.

“Clear the path!” An unfamiliar voice shouts and it’s then you can see what’s going on.

The raiders have been captured thanks to the ominous group of tourists that arrived yesterday.

Oddly enough, you don’t even remember seeing them leave their tents and it makes you wonder how the hell they managed to move so quickly undetected.  

There are several men, dressed in black and gold armor, dragging the raiders by their shirts to the center of town square. One of them is a tall, doe eyed looking man with shaggy brown hair and biceps that could likely snap a neck if they so desired. He has his sword to the back of one of the raiders who scuffles along on his knees to meet with the rest of his captured teammates.  

As the rest of the soldiers file in, another leader of the troop, tall and equally broad, gestures to Bambi with the biceps.

“Jungkook-ah! Bring the leader to the center; let our general deal with him.”

Jungkook does just that, quickly the toe of his boot into the back of the raider and jerking his head to the center of the plaza, “You heard him- move.” He grunts and the raider reluctantly shuffles forward.

Your fellow villagers are reasonably alarmed but, they all seem to freeze in place as they watch the show unravel before them.

This is already more excitement than your village has had in ages and, you’d be lying if you said you weren’t eating it up.

The man who has now been identified as Jungkook, steps away from the raider, still pointing his sword at him, a smug smirk on his face, “You know for a master thief, you were far too easy to catch. Lucky for me, I made a bet with my brothers here that I would catch you in 10 minutes,” Jungkook walks back towards the man, entangling his fingers in the roots of his hair before tugging backwards, “, and according to the clock tower, it only took me 8.”  

Beside you, Rachel seems to swallow back her surprise before subconsciously starting to fan her face,  

“Goodness, he really is something huh?”

Despite the tense nature of the situation, her demeanor makes you giggle,  

“Stop drooling over the calvary...”

She smacks you playfully which causes your father to shush both of you, a moment which reminds you of your schoolyard days.

A bit of immaturity is actually refreshing after the events of this morning.

“Jungkook-ssi,” A voice bellows throughout the plaza, sending a chill down your spine, “What have I told you about placing bets on our captors huh?”

As the voice grows louder, you see him: the Tiger, stepping out from the main street, his long platinum hair flowing freely in the wind. His hand brandishes a sword, one that most certainly possesses the ability to inflict some serious harm.  

Sheepishly, Jungkook smirks, releasing the man’s hair roughly and stepping back to his original spot, his sword posing to strike.

“Sorry hyung, this one was just too easy. I saw him skirting the perimeter last night, I know it would be a sure win once I saw his technique.”

So that’s how the army was able to move so quickly; they already anticipated this attack.

The Tiger chuckles darkly, his eyes alight with pure delight, “Aish- what am I going to do with you people hm?”  

He moves like his name; slow, deliberate, deadly- you know that you’re about to witness an execution and you aren’t sure if you can stomach the sight, even if these raiders deserve it.

Its your turn to swallow back your reaction to him which doesn’t go unnoticed by your best friend standing beside you.

“Now look who’s drooling...” She teases, giggling as you playfully shove your elbow into her side.

The crowd is dangerously still, hanging on each syllable the Tiger speaks whilst his men, six other soldiers roughly his size, watch intently.

The rest of the raider clan are being held captive by the remainder of the fleet, bowing their heads in shame and fear but, the leader seems unaffected by their defeat.

“You lot aren’t men.” The man spits, his accent thick,  “you’re narcissistic little boys who like to play dress up. You’re cowards, hiding behind your swords, killing everything that stands in your way. You have no idea how the other half live. You have no honor.”

There are gasps throughout the crowd then as your village grows shocked at the way he’s spoken to the Tiger.

If you had any hope that this wouldn’t end violently, it’s been squashed by the time the leader finishes his sentence.

The Tiger however, merely chuckles again, a light smirk on his carnation lips,

“It’s odd that a man who earns his keep by stealing from others would have the authority to lecture my men and I about honor.” He kisses his teeth and slowly raises his sword to brush against the man’s cheek, “Look at all these poor people hm? You've terrified them. Your lack of intelligence isn’t their burden to bear now is it? But you have made it their problem; ripped them from their homes, terrorized their children, their livelihoods and, all because you’re too incompetent to learn your own trade.”

The Tiger’s words infuriate him and the next thing you know, he’s lunging off the ground towards the Tiger, a snarl arising on his mouth.

It prompts your hands to fly to your face and your feet to nearly trip over themselves as you brace for the inevitable fight.

But it doesn’t come.  

With one swoop of his arm, the Tiger has the leader knocked to the floor and underneath his leather boot. Jungkook has reacted quickly as well, his arm raising in the air to slice his sword through the man’s body. With one twitch of his hand however, the Tiger stops Jungkook from following through,

“See? You can’t do things like that my friend. Because if you do, my big friend here with the sword will slice your greasy head in two.” The Tiger smirks again, before turning his head over his shoulder, “You folks wouldn’t want to spend the day cleaning blood of your beautiful plaza now would you?”

Overexcited villagers quickly shout various commentary at him,

“Kill him!”

“Cut his head off!”

“Make him pay!”

The Tiger chuckles once more, raising his brows as the man struggles beneath his boot, “Well, I guess you’re lucky they aren’t in charge of your punishment...” He looks up towards the remainder of his fleet, nodding his head at the other prisoners, “Namjoon, Jin: ensure that none of these men are here against their will. If the rest of you are here by choice, I suggest you make yourselves disappear into the forest before I allow these fine people to get ahold of you.”

Immediately, the Tiger’s fleet begin following his orders and take the men away towards their tents. As they walk out of the plaza, only Jungkook, the Tiger and the clan leader remain.  

You notice Jungkook scan the crowd then, peering out at the eager faces watching the show he is willingly apart of. Very briefly but noticeably, his eyes land on your best friend and as they do, they seem to linger.

He looks curious, almost boyish in a way as his ways seem to memorize her face but before Rachel even realizes what’s going on, his eyes quickly return to the raider.  

“If you’re going to kill me, just do it. Don’t be a coward, I can’t listen to you ramble any longer.” The man growls which prompts the Tiger to push his foot down a little harder upon his back.

“I’m not your executioner, thief. Your fate resides with the Queens.” He explains, matter of factly before jerking his head towards Jungkook, “Put him in the portable cell. I’ll send a notice to the council that we have a criminal that needs to be dealt with.”

Jungkook nods, eagerly crossing the bit of plaza and kneeling down to restrain the man with handcuffs.

He grips the chain linking them and heaves him upwards so he’s standing between the two men.  

“I’ll hose him off first,” Jungkook wrinkles his nose in disgust, “I don’t want him stinking up our camp.”

“Fuck you-” The man spits, jerking his wrists in Jungkook’s grip which then causes the Tiger to raise his sword once again.

“Behave yourself, thief.” He commands, his eyes darkening for the first time, “I’m assuming if you’ve heard stories of my fleet, you are privy to the fact that we don’t miss our target. Please don’t give me a reason to live up to my name.”

With that, the two men drag off the clan leader towards the rest of their fleet, not bothering to look back at the dozens of people they just saved.

They ignore the applause, the gratitude, the pleas for them to return and feast.

You have to admit that you’re shocked.  

The supposedly wicked and ruthless Tiger sure seems to have quite a bit of restraint and diplomacy.

“Did he- did he really just let him go? Unharmed?”

Rachel asks a very good question and it seems to be the one on your parents minds as well.

“It’s extremely odd. I was fully prepared to witness an execution, he would have been within his right.” Your father notes, his eyes still trained on the center of the plaza.

Generals have a certain level of freedom with the prisoners they choose to capture; they are expected to have good judgement and carry out punishments if necessary.

In essence, the Tiger had every bit of authority to end that mans life and, given that he an eager crowd behind him, it genuinely perplexes you.

“Organized raids come with an automatic life sentence, the leaders are usually executed within a few days of their trial.” Your mother notes and it’s then that Rachel notices your silence.

“Well I think it’s safe to say that you didn’t make it on his hit list. You can’t be worse than a lead raider...” She grins, knowing full well that your confusion also comes with an annoying amount of curiosity.  

She also knows that you plan on finding a way to speak with him again.  

And she is absolutely right.

--------------------------

“Should I say hi to Jungkook for you? Ask if he’s betrothed?” You tease and Rachel promptly throws balled up dress your way.

You went to her house after the excitement in the town square to bake a batch of fresh bread for the Tiger’s fleet.

Bread is increasingly hard to come by these days due to a crop shortage in the northern region so despite what people may think, most military diets consist of salted meat and corn.  

Doughy, fluffy, cheesy, rosemary bread is a luxury.

“I have a feeling you’ll be preoccupied with your mission to court the Tiger.” She retorts but a deep frown comes over her then, as she wraps the last loaf in parchment paper, “Are you sure you should be doing this? Waltzing over to a tent full of dangerous soldiers doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“I want to thank them.” You insist, loading your basket with the rest of the loaves, glancing up at your worried friend, “All the village ever talks about is how ruthless they are, how cruel they are known to be but, the reality is: they saved us. It must be frustrating to refuel just as any other fleet would and have people gossip about you or fear you unnecessarily. I’m not planning on staying for tea or anything, I just want to show my appreciation.”

Rachel raises her brows, “That’s all hm?”

You nod, “Yep.” Your lips pop with the sound of the p and Rachel remains unconvinced.

“This has nothing to do with the Tiger?”

“Of course not.” Your answer tumbles past your lips far too quickly and, it causes your friend to grin knowingly at you.

“I know that look-”

“Ugh what look?”

“The look. That one-” She points at you, “You’re about to do something you know you shouldn’t.”

Her smile is far too contagious and her knowledge of you surpasses anyone you’ve ever known in your life.  

She has your number and there really is no point in lying to her.

“Fine, ok maybe it has a little something to do with the Tiger-” You smirk, trying to stifle the giggle that threatens your disposition, “Don’t laugh at me!”

Rachel’s twinkling laughter fills the room as she rounds the counter. Placing her hands on your shoulders, she smiles fondly at you, “Just be careful ok? I know he intrigues you and honestly I’m not at all surprised but, don’t let your curiosity get in the way of your safety. That’s the most important thing.”  

“I won’t.” You promise, smiling back at her, placing your hands on hers, “I promise, I’ll be careful.”

Rachel helps you out once again, insuring you have everything you need before her soft voice is answering a question you asked moments earlier.

“And uh about that Jungkook boy-”

You smirk, “He’s definitely not a boy, did you see his muscles? He looks like he could bench press a mountain lion.”

She grows flustered, “No, I didn’t see any muscles, I have no idea what you’re talking about-”

“Oh so you also didn’t notice him staring at you in the plaza today right?”

Rachel’s eyes widen, “Wait he was?” She clears her throat, amending her eagerness as you giggle, “He definitely wasn’t staring at me don’t be ridiculous. What I was going to say-”

“What you were going to say is that ‘no Y/N, I don’t want you to check on Jungkook’s marital status directly but, should you happen to come across his left hand, let me know whether or not you see a shiny band around his finger, not that I would care or anything. Because, I totally don’t have the hots for him.’ “

Her mouth opens and then closes like a fish before she playfully nudges you through her doorway, “Shut up.”

With a laugh and a few parting words, you are off to visit the tent of your village's heroes.  

You would be lying if you said you weren’t nervous.

But you’d also be lying if you said you were nervous for the right reasons.

The concept of walking into the basecamp of a supposedly elite and ruthless fleet is one thing but, talking to someone you find attractive?  

Absolutely terrifying.

Your presence is immediately noted by the men inside the camp.

Two of them are seated at a table outside of one of the tents, hands and teeth full of meat, their motions freezing in place as they see you.

As you pass by one of their horses, you notice of them is speaking with a group of raiders.  

The conversation seems amicable, suggesting that many of the raider clan was indeed in your village against their will.

You approach the main but, before you are able to make ring the bell on the outside, you are crashing chest first into a very firm and very broad chest.

“Holy-” The voice sounds familiar and as you look up, you are meet with the bambi with biceps himself: Jungkook.

“Hello I-” You attempt to begin but his panicked voice interrupts you.

“Yah hyung??? Uh there’s a-” He swallows thickly stepping away from you, “There’s a girl here!”

The word seems foreign on his tongue and his behavior genuinely surprises you.

Where was the cocky warrior from this morning, brandishing a sword and placing bets on his captors?

“Jungkook, for the last time- we don’t use that word. We say young lady or woman...” Another voice, one you don’t recognize fades into your scope of hearing before pushing open the fabric of the tent. He is arguably just as beautiful as the other men, tall, dark haired, buff- as if he would be anything else.

“Oh, hello. Are you...” The man narrows his brows as he looks towards the group of raiders speaking with one of his counterparts, “Are you with the group or?”

You shake your head, your basket swinging when you turn back towards the village, “Oh no, no I’m from the village. My name is Y/N Y/L/N...” You bow your head slightly, “I came here to bring you this,” You gesture to the basket, “It’s fresh bread. I wanted to thank you for saving my people today.”

You feel the need to rush out your explanation as the rest of the fleet continues to stare at you. In fact, the way they are looking at you is rather unnerving.

It isn’t disrespectful just intrusive; they are looking at you as if you’ve sprouted a second head.

“You-” The man before you cocks his head, looking befuddled, “You came here to- thank us?”

“Well yes, I know bread is hard to come by and I figured you could use a pick-me-up after your fight this morning.”

He smiles now but his incredulity doesn’t change as he takes the basket from your hands, “It’s warm.” He notes, “Did you bake this recently?”

“Yes I baked it today, just now actually uh-” You decide to speak candidly now since the possible threat margin seems to be closing, “You look confused.”

Jungkook is practically hiding behind the man you’re addressing and it takes a large part of you not to laugh at his behavior.

“Forgive me.” He chuckles, “We aren’t exactly used to hospitality. Most villagers avoid us like the plague, it probably has to do with our General but regardless.” He bows his head, “We appreciate the gesture. I’ll make sure to pass along your gratitude to him once he returns.”  

“Oh is he not here? I was hoping to thank him myself.” You try and mask the disappointment in your tone, not wishing to come across as stranger than you already did.

The man shakes his head, “No. He often takes a walk after an invasion; gotta make sure the perimeter is secure.” He smiles and you are taken aback by how white his teeth were, “My name is Seokjin, I’m the outreach expert on the fleet and unofficial chef. I promise your bread will be put to good use, it’s been months since we’ve had any decent carbs.”  

His comment makes you smile and you are delighted that his demeanor is so welcoming.

“I’m sorry to heart that. Will you be in town long? I can try to set you up with a few more baskets before your departure?”

Seokjin chuckles warmly before snorting as Jungkook paws at the basket, “Easy.” He admonishes but its too late, Jungkook already has half a loaf down in his mouth, his chest rumbling with the sound of his groan.  

“Oh my god hyung, it’s so good...”

Seokjin looks disgusted with him but hands him the basket anyway, nodding to the rest of the fleet, “Share. Make sure you save a loaf for Yoongi and I.”

Jungkook happily obliges but not before turning towards you and bowing, “Uh thanks for the- for the bread....”

His sentence is choppy and over before it even begins as he goes bounding off in the direction of his team.

“Pardon him, he’s been in the army since he was fourteen. We haven’t done an amazing job at socializing him but, he’s getting better. He’s still a bit antsy around women though.” Seokjin chuckles, fondness in his eyes, “Ah but to answer your question, yes. We've decided to set up here for a few weeks to train our new recruits. I would love to more of this bread if it’s not too much trouble.”

You smile, waving him off, attempting to conceal your happiness at the news he’s just delivered, “Nonsense, I’d be happy to bake some more.”

“Excellent!” He chirps, clasping his hands together, “I’m sure Yoongi would be happy to know we’ve finally manage to contact with a villager. It’s been an issue for us, stories spread like wildfire you know? And just like wildfire, they tend to do more harm than good.”

“And Yoongi is?”

Seokjin chuckles, “Ah I believe you’d know him better as...” He flutters his fingers dramatically, “ the Tiger.”

Yoongi.

So that was his name.

“Oh yes,” You amend, “I’ve certainly heard of him but, I prefer to make my own judgements rather than succumb to the gossip.”

He smirks, “That’s very noble of you Y/N. I for one,” He places a hand on his chest, throwing a wink your way, “, live for the gossip.”

Your meeting with Seokjin ends soon after that with a promise that you would return with more bread.  

As much as you wanted to rush back to Rachel’s house to inform of your meeting with the ‘most dangerous fleet in the world’, you remind yourself that school is in session; a necessary but annoying inconvenience.

However, there are plenty of ways you plan on keeping busy for the remainder of the day and one of them involves visiting the river to collect more herbs for your remedies.  

You obviously weren't able to sell your wares today as the marketplace was still littered with evidence of the robbery.  Your parents had insisted you take the day off to restock and recuperate whilst they helped the village leaders clean up.

Reluctantly, you agreed and you are now very grateful that you had.

The river has always been one of your favorite places. It was rich, green, buzzing with life and, always a few degrees colder than your village. Surrounded by mossy trees that seem to stretch as high as the clouds, the river is encased with life. Rabbits, squirrels, tortoises, frogs and a plethora of birds all coral in the area the river resides in whilst bears, big cats, wolves and monkeys hide behind the dense forest. It’s any apothecary’s paradise as it is also the residence of any herbs capable of growing in damp areas.  

Angelica, Blue Vervain, Marshmallow, Stinging Needle and more: the river is your one stop shop for so many of your essential ingredients.

Today you’re after a particular herb though and armed with another woven basket, you make your way towards the large bushels of it growing at the base of a tree trunk.

Valerian is an essential herb in your arsenal and due to its popularity, it’s something you’re consistently having to restock.  

Gathering it carefully, ensuring you don’t disturb the root of the plant.

You are so enthralled with your current task that you don’t even notice that you are no longer alone.

“Is this where the tree bark grows?”

You jump nearly six feet out of your skin, whipping your head around to face your intruder.

Standing before you is the myth himself, the Tiger or as you’ve recently learned: Yoongi.

He’s still in his armor from earlier, his long tendrils pulled back away from his face into a low ponytail. Between his lips, which are curving slightly, is a piece of the bark he had taken from your cart the day prior.

He is chewing it as you instructed.

“You of all people should know not to ambush someone like that...” You breath, placing a hand on your chest, “I could have wacked you with this basket or something.”

He just smirks, “I’ve had worse.” He notes, taking the bark from between his teeth, “I’m sorry I frightened you though, I didn’t expect to see anyone here.”

“Likewise.” You retort, nodding your head at the bark, “Is it helping?”

He shrugs, “Too early to tell I suppose but, it’s tending to my oral fixation so, either way it has a purpose.”

You straighten up a bit more and smooth out your dress, “It will work, it just takes a bit of time.” You assure him before adjusting the herbs in your basket, “I came by your tent earlier to offer my thanks for what you and your men did today, your outreach coordinator Seokjin told me he’d pass along the message but-”

“You did what?”

His tone doesn’t entirely lean one way or the other and you quickly grow worried that you offended him.

“I brought a basket of bread to uh-” You swallow thickly, meeting the intensity of his gaze, “to your camp as a thank you for saving my village.”

Several emotions flicker across his face before he settles on surprise, “I see. Were they polite?”

You can’t help but smile, this day truly has been full of surprises and, Yoongi’s demeanor is only adding to that list.  

“I only had the privilege of meeting Seokjin and well- I kind of met Jungkook but, he seemed a little-”

“Awkward?” Yoongi smirks

“A little.” You amend, “But both of them were very polite. They explained that they often don’t receive any hospitality on stops like this; I was very sorry to hear that.”

Yoongi’s teeth seem to catch the inside of his cheek as he nods curtly, “There’s no need for apologies. Hospitality is welcome but, never expected. I try to teach my men that we should never expect gratitude for what we do as it so often comes with a price.”

“I suppose gratitude should be offered situationally then, there was very little draw back to what you did today. Our village is privy to raiders; maybe if word gets around that you all were in town, that might prevent this from happening again.”

He purses his lips before nodding in consideration, “I see you’re point. Regardless of its necessity, gratitude is always welcome: especially when free food is involved.”

His comment makes you giggle and your laughter makes his lips itch in a way they never have.

“I wholeheartedly agree with that. I get a surprising amount of baked goods sent my way doing what I do so, I’ll have no problem dolling out the gratitude while you all are here.”  

Yoongi’s brows knit in confusion, “Do you people often pay you in baked goods?”

Laughter flows freely out of your mouth then and you shake your head at his question, “Definitely not, I sell my goods for currency as does any obedient member of society,” At this Yoongi smirks again, he likes your wit, a lot, “but I do receive muffin baskets, cakes, pies and whatnot from happy customers. They’re mainly from women whose husbands have taken my ginseng remedy.”

His curiosity blooms, “And why is that?”

You feel a bit of heat rushing to your cheeks, “Ginseng enhances uh- drive, often times it can be used a stimulant to promote you know-” You’re hoping Yoongi will put the pieces together but instead his eyes remain expectant, “passion.”

The word makes Yoongi straighten up a bit and in an effort to look casual, he nods quickly and hums a little too loudly.

“Ah yes. Of course. Well, as I said- free food is free food right?” He wagers, his fingers rubbing at the bit of bark.

Its your turn to smirk now but, you quickly change the subject when you ask, “Is the leader of the clan secure? I didn’t see him when I passed through your camp.”

He clears his throat, bringing the bark back towards his mouth, “He is. I have him locked up just behind the trees so he isn’t able to influence the new recruits. He had an alarming number of unwilling participants within his group, many of them claimed to be brought there with the threat of physical harm.”

You kiss your teeth and shake your head, “I don’t understand that kind of behavior. I understand that sometimes desperate people do desperate things but, to exert power or harm over another person without a viable cause...it just makes no sense to me.”

He’s intrigued now and as he brings the bark back to his lips, his brow knit with curiosity, “Hm. So do you think there is a justification to steal but not to commit violence?”

You can’t figure out why your opinion would matter to him but, you sure as hell aren’t going to question the length of this conversation.

“I think that some people believe they have no other choice but to steal. Wealth and power aren’t possible without a poor man to stand on, to oppress- I don’t support the idea of taking what doesn’t belong to you but, I could see why people are driven to do so. People are growing tired of being the poor man. Senseless violence isn’t something I could find a justification for. What the raiders often do, is both so I guess-” You hesitate, “I’m conflicted.”

Yoongi is captivated by your explanations, not because they are particularly ground breaking but, because they are particularly human. You aren’t afraid to discuss the complexity of life nor are you afraid to admit when certain things confound you.

“That’s a fair assessment. Do you agree with today’s outcome?”

Your smile returns, as you adjust the basket on your arm again, “I did. Especially because it seemed to surprise everyone, myself included.”

His lips return to his smirk, “Why? Because I didn’t behead him?”

“Exactly.” You breathe out a laugh before continuing,  “I for one was shocked to see you deal with the situation without your trusty viper...”  

His face turns to one of incredulity, “Oh my- you're not serious are you? Do people genuinely think I keep a viper on me at all times? Do they have any idea how unpractical that is?”

Yoongi’s reaction sends you into a fit of giggles and the sound makes his lips itch again.

He decides he enjoys the sound very much.

“I’m sure you’ve set a few people straight after this morning,” You offer, wiping a bit of moisture from the corner of your eye, “I doubt the rumors will repopulate the same way after you leave.”

“What do you think of them?”

“The rumors?”

“They’re entertaining.” You shrug, “But I don’t like to make assumptions about people unless I’ve met them, not even scary and supposedly cruel generals like yourself.”

The ghost of a smile shows itself on Yoongi’s mouth and his eyes seem to glimmer, pleased with your answer.

“I wish more people had that mindset.”  

It’s all he says before promptly dropping the subject again, nodding in the direction behind him, “I should probably head back to camp. I have a feeling that the longer I am away, the smaller my chances of getting any of that bread become.”

“You’re probably right, I have to be back before sunset anyway.” Your parents don’t like it when you’re out at the river after dark, “It was very nice meeting you Yoongi. I hope you enjoy the bread.”

His lips as he realizes something vital, “I’m sure I will. Forgive me, I don’t remember catching your name...”

At his observation, you extend your hand towards his, “Oh of course, my name is Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N.”

Without looking down, he grasps your hand gently as if he were afraid to break it, “Y/N- I’ll remember it.” He promises unnecessarily but it still sends a flutter through your heart, “Get home safe.”

When he releases your hand, you step back towards the bushel of Valerian before smiling once more,  

“You too.”

As Yoongi departs from the river, he smirks to himself.

Perhaps this wouldn’t be the routine stop he had planned on.

Perhaps this would be so much more.