#I really don’t feel like starting the dungeon over from the very beginning just to change my team either

[tariah23]

The boss fight is impossible for me 🗣️… Kromer…. This shit is a gazillion worse than 2-10 Arknights and I think I’ll still have a better chance of beating that eventually over THIS. This difficulty spike in LCB is so scary right at the very beginning…

#and how the hell is Sinclair supposed to really do anything when he’s weak #to #everything she does like I know that the mechanic has it so she’s constantly targeting him but oh brother #and everyone else is just constantly getting obliterated before I even have the chance to really do anything #made it to her second form again and by the time I got there most of the team had already gotten killed so it’s always too late #I really don’t feel like starting the dungeon over from the very beginning just to change my team either #maybe I just won’t play anymore if I can’t get passed this it’s too hard even though the game and story is so fun #I’ve tried sm times and watched gameplay and team comp videos but this game also relies heavily on rng so they seem to never work all that #well for me #I need help lmfao #I just want to play the hell’s chicken event.. looks like I’ll be missing out on chef Gregor and the new ego for don #unless they do a rerun and let those who didn’t get to play the event before do it #I’m bogus but I will give my acc to someone else just so that they could fight her for me I am ass out out here #but I don’t have many mutuals who play limbus….

[bebeyeyo]

the good vs. the evil

genre: angst

pairing: empress!mina x fem!reader, empress!sana x fem!reader

setting: ancient japan

content warnings: implied abuse, concubine!reader, mentions of eloping(?)

the palace is crowded with villagers, other royals who are very known, as well as body guards.

you held your hands tightly in front of you, alongside mina who was staring ahead at the emperor, who would also occasionally side eye you.

“try anything and you’ll end up back in your dungeon,” she said.

you had to put on a fake smile, greeting the higher status of the emperors and empresses while also using your hair to partially cover the red mark on your cheek.

while you could fool everyone else in the huge room, you couldn’t fool someone who was keeping a very hard eye on you.

an empress of cherry blossoms, one of the nicest royals that everyone has come to love and respect.

minatozaki sana.

you look around the room, finding yourself making eye contact with the girl.

sana looks at you, giving you a small smile which you reciprocate.

you felt your stomach hurt from the nervousness you felt. not because of this huge ceremony.

but because of mina, your empress, and your job as her assigned, more like her favorite concubine. you’ve been caught in an unfortunate situation. one that you couldn’t escape.

after seeing who empress myoui mina really is, you would’ve never agreed to become her property if you’d have known. you’ve grown to love the empress, but now all you feel is hatred.

and you weren’t the only one.

sana hates to admit this, but she hates mina. being the best of friends, sana never thought of mina turning into a monster that she is.

no one in japan knows how the girl is, except for the ones who work in her palace, knowing how cruel she really is.

after knowing the torture mina has put you through, sana wants to put her ex friend through the same.

but not now, not yet. all she wanted for you was to get you safe first. and if that meant going to war for you, then so be it.

but you were smart.

which is why you were so tense tonight.

your plan to escape mina once and for all.

you then look around the room once more, seeing momo who’s giving you the look. the look of a servant who’s going around with the wine that’s being served.

“are you okay, love?” mina asks in your ear making you quickly turn your head to look at her.

you nod, “yes, you’re highness. just a little parched,” you smile before looking at the servant who goes to you.

you grab the glass of wine, looking past at momo who directs her eyes to the door where she’s walking near, giving you the signal to start.

you use your foot to slightly grip the server, when wine gets splashed all over you, and you let out a fake gasp.

“how dare you!?” mina angrily scolds the server who only looks with wide eyes and pleads, “oh my goodness, i’m so terribly sorry!”

you shake your head, “it’s fine, m’lady. i will go to the restroom.” you reply.

“i will go with you.” mina says but you instantly reject that.

“no, you’re highness. you stay here. it is only a little mess that i can fix. and besides, if someone acknowledges you, will it not seem unprofessional?”

the anger in mina’s eyes fade down, seemingly convinced with your argument before taking your hands.

“okay. be back soon.” you quickly nod as the empress places a quick kiss on your cheek before you lift your dress up, going through the crowd.

you soon reach the door where momo was standing near. you feel your heart pounding fast and hard once you reach her.

“don’t look back, just go!” momo whisper yells practically pushing you out of the room and letting the doors close as the heels of your shoes click further away.

you continue to run until you’re at the front of the palace courtyard where you see a carriage sat out front.

“my love!” you hear the familiar voice of sana running up behind you.

you turn to look behind you where you see the empress with a happy smile on her face as she begins to approach you.

you don’t hesitate to let her bring you to into a heartwarming kiss, one where it knocks the breath out of you. you wrap your hands around her wrists, her hands holding your cheeks in the palms of her hands.

your lips move in sync with each other before pulling away for air.

“we need to leave. mina will know sooner or later,” sana says with a sad smile on her face.

with worried eyes, you look back at the palace doors, to sana once more.

“what will happen? what if mina tries to hurt you? or momo?” you ask frantic, your heart pounding from out of your chest.

she shakes her head, “don’t worry about that, love. what matters is that you are safe with me. she will not hurt us.”

“hopefully now, i will be able to make you mine forever with a ring,” she speaks happily.

“but, what if mina finds out?”

“she will not,” momo speaks up as she walks quickly to the both of you, “we are known empresses, her reputation would most likely go down if she ever to try something such as cruel as that.” she explains.

“thank you, you’re highness. for helping.” you thank momo as you bow respectfully.

“y/n!?”

your heart drops, as well as your smile within only a second hearing the familiar haunting voice of the empress who claimed you.

sana and momo look over to the doors seeing an angry mina, her eyes wide, jaw clenched.

“we need to go. come on, my love.” sana grabs your hand, pulling you quickly to the carriage where momo follows behind.

sana let’s you in first, before she follows in behind, then momo.

“what do you think you are doing!?” mina yells as she shouts for her guards.

“please go and hurry!” sana begs the guards who guide the carriage.

you look behind as the carriage takes off with some speed, enough to lose mina and her guards.

your hands shake, which sana can feel before she takes them into her soft ones, bringing them up to her lips kissing your knuckles.

“you will be okay, as long as you are with me. i promise.”

you sigh shakily as you place your head on sana’s shoulder, feeling as if you could finally breathe for the first time in forever.

“we will go on a ship and travel to korea for a while. jihyo will be waiting for us. until it is a little safer to come back to japan, we cannot stay here. not as long as mina is on the hunt looking for you, my love.” sana explains.

you nod slowly with tears blurring your vision.

you’ve finally managed to be free from empress mina’s grasp. finally being able to be free from any more torture.

although that last part isn’t true, you’re only care about the warm embrace of your empress sana.

#darlinggtwice #sana x reader #mina x reader #concubine!reader #empress!mina #empress!sana #twice angst #empress!momo #twice imagines

[mama-scarebear]

So glad sharing my first blushy fantasy (the baby food feeding & cuckholding🙈) helped brighten your day. If I may, I’d like to share another?

I’m pretty enthralled with the idea of a strong dominant woman picking me up from a bar. Persuading me to go to her place though mine is much closer. Feeling pretty tipsy from the few drinks at the bar. I’m a giggly, easily distracted mess. She jives at me that I’m such a “lightweight it’s cute” as she assertively grabs my hand and helps lead me into her place, her domain, her cave. Unknown to me she was a predator of the highest order. Expert at capturing her prey. At this moment I was basically the equivalent of a baby deer with a broken leg. I had no hope in hell of escaping from a trap I didn’t even realize I was entering so willingly, smiling the whole way through the door. As she shut and locked the door behind us I caught a glimpse of her cunning, maniacal smile. I felt a slight tinge of fear and my heart began to race, but she was well-practiced in her craft. She saw me begin to wobble and put her arm around my lower back to support my weight. I began to apologize over and over for my drunkenness and for ruining our night. I was in awe at how she basically supported my entire weight with one arm. She was absolutely mesmerizing and utterly enthralling.

She asked if I was willing to show her how sorry I was. Without second thought I said “yes of course I feel so bad! We could have had such a great night together.” Slightly slurring my words. Before even finishing my sentence she seamlessly hoisted me up and flipped me over her shoulder, feeling her strong arm secure the top of the back of my thighs to her body. I was stunned, unable to move or speak at first. I heard her voice, “Oh I WILL be having a great night especially since you seem so desperate to show me how sorry you are for your behavior.” She seemed to almost growl out those last few words. My panic rose, but I also started to feel a strong throbbing between my legs.

At this point she had carried me up the stairs. I couldn’t really see anything, which made the anticipation build to an almost unbearable level. I heard the click of a door lock being opened, door opening and subsequent closing. She spoke, “well this lovey ass of yours is going to show Mommy tonight just how sorry you are.” Emphasizing what she meant by grabbing each of my ass cheeks hard with her hand. Instinctively I immediately tried to wiggle from her grasp. But she was far too strong and I was basically Bambi at this point. I couldn’t move a muscle. She laughed saying, “You think it’s going to be that easy to escape from me, little one? I don’t think so, but I do love that you have a bit of struggle in you. Mommy is definitely going to have her fill of fun with you, that’s for sure.” Thinking to myself did this woman really just refer to herself as my mommy, what the fuck did I get myself into?

She broke my thought by flipping me over and setting me on the floor in front of her. My head dazy from the combination of alcohol and being upside down, I slowly began to look around and became confused. It looked like I was in a combination of a bdsm dungeon and a nursery for a giant ass baby. She giggled as she saw my flabbergasted look, “Do you like it baby? Welcome to your new home!” My mouth dropped open in shock. She continued, “I know you must be so excited to explore, but first things first.” She seated herself on the comfy couch just behind me.

I saw that as my one opportunity for escape. I shook off the shock and made an attempt to get up and flee to the door. Almost immediately I felt a very firm force retracting my long hair, rendering me unable to move forward. I thought fuck why do I keep my hair so long. I then felt a hand grab my upper arm, hard. She used my hair to pull me back towards her. “Where do you think you’re going, hmm? Trying to escape is very very naughty. Such a shame for you as that means I will be spending much more time torturing your pretty bottom tonight.” The thought of what that could mean made me start to leak wetness into my panties, but at the same time it brought a level of blushiness I couldn’t handle. I all but squealed out, “No, no you let me go right now if you know what’s good for you.” She remained unfazed, calmly grabbed my chin and turned my head, forcing me to meet her gaze. I began to cower almost instantaneously. Fuck, she had me and she knew it, I knew it, but I was not ready to give in. She had her work cut out for her, but the night was just getting started…

Oh sweetie now this is such a lovely little fantasy as well and you really should consider writing them out as stories. You've the talent for it and goodness knows we need more MD/lg content out there especially of the super fucked up kind. Gold star for sharing this and you can earn more by sending in more stuff like this. ⭐

[brighteststar707]

Daydreams

I’ve been trying to get used to writing again, so I thought I’d be self-indulgent and write about kissing my number one boy.

✦ Saeyoung x Reader (set during his route)

✦ Words: 1607

✦  Genre: Fluff

Here’s the thing: Seven really wants to kiss you.

Here’s the problem: he’s stuck in his dungeon of an office, a safe (but frustrating) distance away. Here’s another problem: he isn’t supposed to be kissing anyone, or even thinking about kissing anyone. As Vanderwood has reminded him several times, attachments are dangerous.

Even so, he wants to kiss you when you shamelessly flirt with him in the chatrooms and join in on his ridiculous pranks. He wonders what your smile would feel like pressed against his lips. It’s a good thing you can’t see how hard you make him blush.

Once or twice, you’ve called him up late at night and, in a tone more serious than he’s ever heard from you, told him that you hoped he was taking care of himself. How was he supposed to say that you’re in more danger than you think (thanks to him) and that he’d work himself to the point of exhaustion rather than see you get hurt?

He doesn’t. He does tell you a joke about how he’s the invincible God Seven, but even over the phone he can tell that you’re not convinced. When he hangs up, he rubs his aching eyes and wonders if you’d hold him if he asked nicely. If you’d kiss his temples and tell him that this headache, this stress, this exhaustion will pass.

It gets worse once he starts obsessively watching the cameras. He stares at his screen so intensely that he starts to see it behind his eyelids when he closes his eyes. It’s all worth it, though, for the glimpses he catches of you when you leave the apartment. Surely, you must know that he’s always watching for you, because you often take the time to wave at the camera before you go. A little sign, just for him. It gives him butterflies every time you do it.

It’s a problem. He is supposed to be focusing on protecting you, and instead he’s fantasizing about what it would be like to be in that apartment with you. No hacking, no bomb, no threats. He’d be the Seven you like, not the liar Luciel who keeps nasty secrets. You’d still talk to him the way you do now, maybe with more cheeky flirting and less concern. 

Instead of obsessively watching the camera footage for the off chance that he’d get to see you for a second, he’d be there, sharing space with you. Maybe you’d mention that you’re out of groceries, that you needed to go out for more. And instead of staring at the screen intensely like he does, he’d walk you to the door.

Maybe, just maybe, he’d kiss you goodbye. He’d cup your face between his hands (you wouldn’t mind that the skin on his palms was callused), and gently bring you close to him. You’d smile at him, that smile he has only managed to see once or twice so far but has imprinted in his memory. And then, he’d kiss you.

It’s all very distracting. And embarrassing when Vanderwood comes back into his study and asks him why he’s so red.

Hey, even agents can dream. 

✦✧✦✧ 

  It’s not like he has never kissed anybody before. From the beginning the agency had made it pretty clear that he was to use all the tools at his disposal in order to achieve his goals. It didn’t take him long to realize they meant his body, too.

He could probably count all the kisses he has had, if he tried. But those kisses were different from what he pictures when he thinks of you. They were stolen in dark, hazy rooms, his mind was always elsewhere, trying to get to the next step of the plan. Most of those memories don’t feel like they belong to him at all, that’s how far he has dissociated himself from them.

So, really, it doesn’t matter how many people he has kissed. Nothing has ever felt like this before. His fantasies about kissing you leave him feeling hot and fuzzy. He fixates on every detail, lingers in the moment and wonders if you feel the same way. He isn’t sure what he wants the answer to be. 

  ✦✧✦✧

It’s funny how quickly things can change.

A week ago, Seven was sitting in the safe solitude of his office. He was in his element, protecting you the best way he knew how, and fully in denial of how quickly his feelings for you were growing.

It was easy, back then, to dream up fairy tales, knowing full well just how ridiculous they were. The thought of sharing the apartment with you was outlandish enough, let alone the idea of the two of you kissing. It was all just harmless daydreaming.

Turns out, those feelings were a lot more real than he had let himself believe. You were no longer an image on a screen, a voice through a phone, but a living, breathing person. You had cute little habits he never could have guessed at before, and you were frustratingly fixated on getting close to him.

Oh, and now you’re close. So impossibly close. With your arms resting on his shoulders, hands fiddling with the hair at the base of his neck, looking at him with such certainty in your eyes.

And oh, he really wants to kiss you.  

The strange sequence of events that led up to this point is one he still can’t piece together fully. Despite everything he said and did over the past few days, you still treated him with the same kindness you had always shown him. You somehow still want him, somehow seem to like him as much as he likes you.

His own hands rest uselessly by his sides, caught somewhere between the overwhelming need for you and the fear of what will happen if he gives in.

In all his fantasies, he was perfectly in control. His head was clear, his every movement intentional. He was the one holding you close, giving you that look you’re giving him now. However, he had failed to consider the overwhelming sensations that would cloud his head in the moment itself. The scent of you surrounding him completely, the intensity of your eyes studying his face, the burning in his cheeks.

The world is shifting on its axis, and it’s a wonder he’s still standing upright. And he hasn’t even kissed you yet.

It’s in the way you play with his hair, so at ease, even in a moment like this. He isn’t sure if anyone has ever touched him like this. It’s making his stomach do somersaults and his thoughts run wild. He can’t focus on everything at once, and his gaze drops to your lips.

You smile.

That’s what does it. That smile, the one he has only seen a few times, and seen only directed at him over a pixelated CCTV feed. It breaks through the buzzing in his head and the pounding of his heart and gives him the push he has been looking for.

He cups your face in his hands (you don’t seem to mind the roughness of his palms) and pulls your face towards his. The last thing he sees before he closes his eyes is your smile.

The first kiss is something soft, experimental, your lips just moulded together. A taste.

Against his lips, he feels you hum softly. That’s all it takes for his remaining hesitancy to melt away.

Instead, it is replaced with a sense of urgency so intense that he can feel it in the back of his throat. All the fear, the loneliness, the desperation of the past few days catches up to him and he needs to make up for all the time he has lost, right now.

His hands move to the back of your head, and he pulls your face back towards him. You crash together again, this time all notions of gentleness forgotten. He kisses you hard and you nip at his lower lip until he opens for you. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wonders if you haven’t been harbouring any fantasies of your own. Then, he feels you tug at his hair and he doesn’t think anything at all.

Where the first kiss was soft, this one is hungry. He cannot have you close enough, cannot catch his breath, cannot think about anything but you you you. His hands drop down to your waist to pull your bodies flush together. After enduring several days of self-imposed distance from each other, he relishes the feeling of you under his hands.  

When you break apart, you keep your arms around him. He’s glad. He isn’t sure what will happen if you let go of him now. You smooth out his hair where you tugged at it before, and he shivers. His hands linger on your hips, fingertips still buzzing with the thrill of touching you. Nothing feels quite real, like the colours are too bright and his skin is too sensitive to your touch.

It must show on his face, because your expression goes from giddy to concerned. “Are you alright, Seven? Was that okay?”

“Okay… Hah…” He has apparently also forgotten how to speak. There is a piece of hair that he must have messed up earlier, and he reaches out to fix it. His brain usually doesn’t have any trouble keeping up, but today it feels like he is wading through deep water, like everything takes more effort than it should. He takes a breath, allows his heart a moment to slow down.

“It’s like... I’m dreaming.”

#saeyoung unknowingly practices manifestation #mystic messenger #mystic messenger seven #mystic messenger saeyoung choi #mysme saeyoung choi #mysme seven #mysme 707 #My writing

[strangefellows]

I’ve been shouting about it on Twitter for the past two days, so I’m going to put it here too:

CANTO IV PART 3 SPOILERS! Or, why the Yi Sang and Ayin parallels in this chapter got me extremely fucked up.

Like. Dear sweet absolute FUCK, I was getting the parallels already from the basics and the fact that both Fourth Match Flame Yi Sang (the outfit) and Spicebush Yi Sang (the eyes) make him look incredibly similar to Ayin, more than he already does with the exhaustion and similar dark hair. But then the dungeon came out and hit me like a warp train.

Like. Okay. There’s a lab. A group of people with like minds that came together to better the city and make people happy, even if it’s just in small ways, under the leadership of someone they all looked up to. Little by little, it begins to crack and crumble apart...and then it is betrayed, raided by City officials. Some people die. Some kill themselves. Some give up and let themselves be caught. Some flee. Some fight back tooth and nail til the very end. But in the end, two people are left alive...one of them completely, utterly broken; the one who had always had trouble expressing themselves and their feelings towards others, but who cared deeply for them.

That broken person ends up in a room, trapped there by their own misery, working on their project, their dream, given in part to them by the person they looked up to-- to the point they’re wasting away little by little, drowning in despair and depression, wishing for the people they loved and the place they felt they belonged. There is a person, the other survivor, who had only ever been there for their sake in the first place, that wants to keep them there forever. There is their other self, who at turns seems to want to help them and seems to want to take advantage of their pain.

Who am I talking about?

Then there is the script-- the scripts Yi Sang left for the others to read, to play out what happened.

Then there is the fact that the dungeon backgrounds are an exaggerated, overlarge tableau of the lab-office in Yi Sang’s memories, similar in no small part to the Keter Suppression’s office background -- and how that white room looks very similar to the white room of the final day in Lobcorp.

Then there is the finale of the fight with Dongrang (who spoke to Carmen by name and whose mechanic, though this is reaching, involves seeds) -- where he has one final conversation with that other self, who encourages him and comforts him and who guides him to the beautiful finale of self-realization: wings made of shimmering light. This reminded me so much of Day 50 in Lobcorp that I almost cried just thinking about it again today.

Then there is the last little bit, that final narration, the last letter from Yi Sang, where he says of the Sinners, paraphrased “I would like to consider them my friends, even if I don’t know how they feel about me”. Maybe a bit of a reach, again, but I feel as if it mirrors how Ayin feels about the Sephirah, though it might be conjecture here.

I’d even venture to point out how this whole canto has Yi Sang’s narration take forefront even over Dante’s in some places, similar to Ayin narrating his own flashbacks. 

There’s just so much there that it’s impossible not to notice after a point. I really appreciate all of it among the insane lore drops about the City and the wonderful character development of the other Sinners beyond Yi Sang, who the chapter stands on its own for without thinking about the parallels and who is now firmly one of my favorite characters in the game. 

(Not to mention the hints about Dante, which considering all of this just solidifies my theory that they’re Ayin, but that’s a whole other post.)

Nonetheless, whether or not my theory is true, this is so good, and what I feel like is just the start of them giving Ayin’s character more room to breathe and context for Lobcorp he never got before.

#ayin lobcorp #limbus yi sang #yi sang #ayin #limbus company #lobotomy corporation #limbus spoilers #projmoonblogging

[crystaiskiess]

Okay, it’s me, the person rereading OAFK to find where Arthur falls in love with Merlin.  This is very long because I may have gotten a bit carried away.  I’m so sorry, but I wanted to cover all the bases (and then just got really into it because I love this fic).  Although I want confirmation if I’m right, you don’t have to publicly post this or anything, because, once again, this is long and you may not want people to know.

So, I think Arthur’s feelings start when he meets Merlin, which may sound so soon and may be very wrong.  But in chapter one, when they meet for the second time, there are several lines that I feel like radiate the idea of “I have a slight instant crush on this guy, but I’d never know for multiple reasons.  First thing is their banter about the dungeons (honestly, love that part, it’s so cute/funny).  Then there’s the paragraph about Arthur having fun, which I feel screams “instant attraction.”

Arthur blinks, unable to stop himself from smiling.  A thrill runs through him like a surging wave, starting at his toes and ending in the tips of his fingers.  Excitement.  He finally identifies what is so entertaining about Merlin, why he feels this pull to torment him, this desire to goad him into action.  For the first time in years Arthur is having fun.

Arthur, as a character, just isn’t the type of find interest in things that are the same thing he deals with every day.  There’s literally an example of that at the beginning of that scene where he’s like “yeah, let me figure out where I’m supposed to respond because I am so bored right now.” I think the excitement Merlin brings immediately forms a sense of attraction to him (which makes sense because in real life, we tend to be attracted to the people we desire to have in our lives).  In canon, he starts showing attraction to Gwen when she speaks against him (not like Merlin does, but a variation, you know?), which fits into the idea that Arthur wants excitement in his life and he wants people who will create it.  I think half of this doesn’t make sense, but it’s important to have for my next thing.

Going back to OAFK; in chapter two, Arthur thinks about how he doesn’t know if he wants Merlin to change and become a proper servant.  While that’s explicitly said, you go into why he feels like that.  He finds Merlin entertaining and like no one else he’s ever met before, and that Merlin’s rudeness enthralls Arthur.  However, he’s like “yeah, but he’s also infuriating.” I feel like this goes into Arthur not really having someone speak out against him (or friends), so he’s unable to properly navigate how he feels about this.  This back and forth on who he wants Merlin to be is realistic and I very much love it.  Also, yes, he could just see Merlin in a platonic light at this point (anything is possible), but I just think about the scene where Arthur trusts Merlin about Valiant.  Yeah, that’s a canon scene, but it adds to later where it’s like “An odd part of Arthur warms at the sight of Merlin’s slight smile.” Arthur has feelings for Merlin, even if they’re platonic or romantic.  They’re strong, but he’s just a bit unaware.

Now, to where I think he falls in love with Merlin.  This could be too soon, but the amount of passages from it that just make sense he loves Merlin is in The Poisoned Chalice.  I have like 20 highlighted areas that I feel like capture that Arthur loves Merlin.  I will obviously not share all of them because that’s a lot.  The first line is, “a man who understands that Arthur needs Merlin around.  Merlin matters to him.” I adore this line so much, like I think about it a lot because it captures to me how much Arthur’s feeling have grown over the last bit (I don’t remember your timeline off the top of my head, sorry) they’ve known each other.  I am a big believer in that Arthur feels fear, but it’s not exhibited the same way nor is it easy for him to feel it because of how he was raised, but oh my God, the moment where it’s like “He can hear his heartbeat in his ears, feel it in his throat, he’s never felt fear like this,” just hit so hard.  The amount of love and care he has for Merlin makes his situation terrify him. (Also, that entire paragraph containing that sentence and the paragraph above just capture Arthur so well.)

So, this could be debated like slightly of it’s in Arthur’s character, but I’m not entirely sure.  The line “They both hear the words that go unspoken.  If it were just my life, I would risk it in a heartbeat.” Some could say that that’s just how Arthur is.  (Him thinking about how he wishes he could feed everyone and guarantee their safety in The Moment of Truth.) In this situation, I feel like it being Merlin has a big part in this (Also, in The Moment of Truth of why Arthur goes to begin with).

So, to wrap this up before it gets to be over 1,000 words, Arthur starts liking Merlin the second time they meet (or the realization he doesn’t understand is there), but he starts (realizes but doesn't realize?) he loves Merlin in The Poisoned Chalice.

I’m so sorry for how long this is and that parts may not be coherent.  I do want to say that I love this fic and it’s always a pleasure to reread it.

OAFK SPOILERS AHEAD

also now that it’s been quite a while since chapter 28 was posted here is a moment of deep appreciation for this incredible person who got arthur’s feelings revelation so INSANELY spot on that i actually couldn’t post his analysis bc it’s basically spoilers

like incredible, immaculate, i still reread this often just to be in awe

#oafk #tj talks #merthur #not-rome

[slytherinprincess03]

Under the Mistletoe

I wrote this little story for Christina’s (@nebulablakemurphy) writing challenge. Congratz on 500 followers hon x (considering it’s been awhile since I started writing this, you probably have loads more followers now)

I know this is long overdue, it’s been in my drafts for a very long time. But I finally finished it, (I hoped I would have finished it in time for Christmas, but since it’s the beginning of the year, it’s still acceptable right?) so I just decided to post it.

Anyway hope you’ll enjoy reading this :)

I used prompt 10 from humor, it will be in bold

Pairing: Draco Malfoy x Fem!Reader

Words: 1410

Warnings: none, I think. Perhaps semi bad writing?

(Y/N) - your name

(Y/H) - your house

You were sitting at the Y/H table, casually eating your breakfast when suddenly your favorite Weasley's flopped down next to you.

'Well hello there Y/N' George grinned up at you 'Don't you look lovely today' Fred smiled at you cheekily. You raise your eyebrows in surprise 'I'm wearing my school uniform, there's nothing lovely about that.'

'That doesn't matter, love, you still look lovely' he winks at you, which makes you glance at the twins in suspicion. They never complimented you like this and when they do they always want something from you.

'All right what do you want?' You sigh 'what makes you think we want something?' George asks in false hurt, clasping his hand over his heart dramatically. 'We can't even be nice and compliment our friend?' Fred chimes in with his brother's acting.

'I know you two, whenever you compliment me like this, you guys definitely want something from me.' 

'She knows us too well Freddie' George says to his twin 'it appears she does Georgie' Fred sighs dramatically. They give each other a look and George groans 'fine' 'all right, so you want to help us pranking again Y/N?' Fred asks you.

'Depends on who you want to prank' you say, playing with your food while being lost in your thoughts. 'This will be legendary, we were planning on pranking Malfoy' the twins' smirk at you.

'Malfoy? Are you serious? I'm sorry, but you are on your own, I'm not helping' you shake your head and make your way to stand up, but George and Fred force you to sit down again. 'Is it because you like him?' They ask simultaneously while wiggling their eyebrows.

'Are you guys crazy? Of course, I don't like him, what were you thinking?!' you whisper yell indignantly. 'Then prove it, if you really don't like him, help us prank him' Fred smirks  "You are not going to let this go until I agree on doing this, will you?" "nope," the twins grin smugly. "Ugh fine" you sigh in annoyance "but just this once" you continue. "Yes!" Fred and George exclaim excitedly and high-five each other. "What's your plan?"

----

After many eyerolls and sighing, trying to get out of helping the twins, you reluctantly agreed to carry out the plan. The reason you didn't want to help with pranking Malfoy, was because you had a massive crush on him. No one knew about it, although Fred and George might since they were constantly pestering you about it. However, you didn't want to admit to your feelings publicly yet, so you decided to go along with the prank. Seeing as you didn't want Fred and George to know as well, despite having a feeling they were onto you.

Because you desperately wanted to 'proof' you didn't have a crush on Draco, you were setting up the prank in the early morning hours. Fred and George were somewhere on the lookout, they would let you know if someone was coming. The plan was to have Draco be glued to someone who he at the very least disliked.

You were surprised when Fred and George knew he was always roaming the halls of Hogwarts way before anyone woke up. You wondered if he perhaps liked the quietness, you knew for a fact that you did. Fred and George had planned for the prank to play out in the dungeons, specifically near the Slytherin Common Room. That is where you were currently finishing the last touches on the prank.

Just as you were adding the last touches, you heard footsteps approaching. Quickly you went to hide in your hiding spot. You could clearly see the blond Slytherin nearing the prank with every step he took.

However, before you could comprehend what was happening, you felt an invisible force push you towards Draco Malfoy. You stumbled and collided with his chest. You smiled sheepishly at Draco, your cheeks reddening "hi" you mumbled. "Hello Y/N" he grinned down at you with raised eyebrows "fancy meeting you here, do you normally stand this close to a guy or am I an exception?"

"Of course not, do you usually act like a pompous arse?" you ask him innocently, to which he chuckles. "You're cute, did you know that?" You huff in annoyance "I am not cute" Draco smiles to that, but soon his face turns serious. "Well, it was interesting to meet you like this, but I am afraid I must continue. So if you could step aside, that would be lovely."

You take in his facial expression and wonder how he will react to your answer. "I would love to if I could, but if you haven't noticed yet we're kind of stuck to each other." Draco's eyes narrow at that "What do you mean?" You pause, hesitation written on your face. After contemplating for a while you glance at the ceiling. Draco, noticing your glance, follows you with his eyes. His eyes widening in shock when he sees the mistletoe hanging above you.

"So we're stuck to each other until we kiss?" Draco asks horrified "Well yes, that is essentially the purpose of mistletoe" you reply dryly "unless you want to wait for the off chance of someone finding us and knowing how to get rid of it without us kissing." To which he glares at you "very funny Y/N" he replies sarcastically."Yes, I know I'm funny, thank you" you grin "are you serious right now?" he asks with a bewildered look. "No, I'm Y/N" you joke "Salazar, you really have been spending too much time with the Weasley's" he mumbles under his breath. "What was that?" You ask, not having quite heard what he said "nothing" he replies quickly, to which you narrow your eyes in suspicion. Eventually you decide to let it slide, not having the energy to get it out of him.

"Alright, I have an idea" his voice pulls you out of your thoughts. "What if we trick the mistletoe by kissing each other on the cheek?" You look at him to see he is actually serious about his 'idea', baffled by the fact he doesn't know that wouldn't work, you shrug your shoulders. "I know for certain that's not going to work, but you can try if you want" before you know it, Draco plants his lips on your cheek, which causes your cheeks to redden. However, like you said, his action did not work as you are still stuck to each other.

"Well, that did not work" Draco mumbles dryly "yes, just like I told you" you replied. “Obviously, smart arse” he rolls his eyes in slightly annoyed. Before you can reply, a piece of parchment suddenly floads between you and Draco. You look at each other in confusion. "Well go on, what does it say?" Draco eggs you on, you roll your eyes and take the parchment out of the air. "It says: oy stop with the chit chat already and kiss each other for Merlin's sake." Your brows furrow at that, until you've come to the realization this was the twins' plan all along. Get you and Draco in a secluded spot and trying to get you to confess your feelings towards him.

"Bloody hell, someone's watching us? My father will hear about this" Draco is now seething. "Well maybe we should listen to the note" you suggest while shrugging your shoulders. Which results in Draco giving you a bewildered look "are you sure you want that? I don't want you to feel pressured, we could just-" he gets cut off by you grabbing his face and planting a kiss on his lips "I love you even more for caring about my consent" you say with a smile "did you just say you love me?" he asks with a grin. You open your mouth to say something, but he cuts you off "it's a good thing, because I love you too."

You can't hide the smile forming on your face "good" you answer and lean in to kiss Draco again, your hands gripping his blond locks.

  After a much needed air break, you lean your foreheads against each other "where have you been all my life?" Draco murmurs contently "hiding from you" you answer with a grin plastered on your face. "Merlin, you are going to be the death of me" he says while grabbing your face to kiss you again.

Meanwhile Fred and George share a high five "Mischief managed" they whisper to each other simultaneously, grinning from ear to ear.

#christinas500celebration #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy #draco #draco malfoy fanfiction #draco fanfiction #humour

[team-heavenly]

Drumroll‚ please! 🥁

It’s been some time, and I managed to slip on my promised deadline once again (thank you for your patience)... But finally‚ we return to the story of Teresa and Andrea in our Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Randomizer!

A few items of note before we get started (and yeah sorry this is overly detailed and lengthy because idk what it means to be concise, just scroll down if you're not interested):

Please be aware: updates to Team Heavenly’s story will not be as frequent as they were during main. I now work a full-time job in a field where my schedule is somewhat contingent on unanticipated emergencies. And in general‚ I’m just a very busy adult! So I unfortunately can’t give you an exact (or even rough) timeline of when posts will be released— It basically comes down to whenever I have the time to do it. But rest assured‚ the entirety of this tale will be told… eventually!

I’ve gotten my hands on a newer tablet since last year, so my camera quality is much better now! …However. While snapping pics for this post‚ a seemingly unavoidable digital blue glare persisted‚ no matter how I adjusted my screen brightness. When I subsequently ran these photos through the auto function‚ they didn’t really… improve? So I had to do a lot of manual tweaking… Anyway‚ all of that to say if one shot doesn’t look visually consistent with another, it’s because each image got edited a little bit differently.

I will link multiple posts for a single "chapter" (see last bullet) in the same manner as before, with preceding and succeeding parts linked at the beginning and end, respectively. I’ll also update the table of contents in the pinned post for continued ease of navigation.

Also, please note... last year, my older iPad somehow managed to circumvent any sort of (consistent) image limit. But that is not the case this time! There is a strict hard limit of 30 images per post. It's therefore likely that post-game chapters will have more parts than the main-story chapters ever did. (Though whether that actually equates to a "lengthier" chapter is up for debate.)

As the post-game content does not get separated into official chapters‚ I will be partitioning the story based on subject matter! For example, this first act will focus on the guild’s graduation exam, the next will include Sky Peak, and so on. I also intend to use a random number generator to select chapter names from this list. (I mean, c’mon, that's part of the fun of a randomizer!) But for the sake of clarity, I will be including the actual subject matter after the chosen title in (parentheses). Thus‚ this first unofficial post-game chapter is known as…

Chapter 21: Would you like to eat moss?

(AKA: The Guild’s Graduation Exam)

As a result of Teresa and Andrea’s heroic actions… The destruction of time was stopped and peace returned to the world of Pokémon. They went back to Totodile’s Guild and fell back into their daily routine of vigorous training.

One morning‚ several months later…

Pineco: “:/ Hey hey, why can Teresa and Andrea take the graduation exam before we do? We’ve been around a lot longer…”

Tropius: “…They literally saved the world and have proven themselves to be worthy many times over. Also skill issue lol.”

Don’t feel bad for Pineco though; he’s not the only one getting roasted.

Lol rip.

Anyway‚ Andrea asks the very sensible question of what exactly this exam entails…

Dark Chasm? Evil MANSION?!

Are you— are you sending us back to the future‚ Totodile?! WTF??

Oh! That’s easy enough though. I mean‚ compared to scaling a collapsing tower while Time itself crumbled at our feet? Pshaw! This will be a cakewalk!

...You know, this is really the first thing that should have tipped me off as a kid 🤦‍♀️

🤨 How convenient.

Okay, so he's not gonna be any help, unfortunately. Looks like we're going in blind. (Haha unintentional pun...unless?)

But for real, anything that makes Mewtwo cry out in fear and run away is a force to be reckoned with indeed.

As we enter Nautical Cottage to begin our preparations, we run into our stand-ins for Teddiursa and Ursaring! After a quick chat, Horsea reveals they are also headed to the Dark Chasm...

*seen (sorry).

Also, at the risk of beating a dead Horsea (aHA! TWO FOR TWO ON THE PUNS!), y'all go play WHERE? *gets hit immediately by a Snipe Shot*

Andrea immediately suspects something is sus. Unfortunately, this is the smartest she's ever gonna get about it.

Anyway, it's been a hot minute, so I go to check my storage and evaluate what I have to work with...

BRUH?? I do NOT remember picking this up omg 😳

So my plan is to equip this for the exam, right? But then I totally forgot to do that 😅

Also I don't have a picture for this but I was able to buy 3 Poké from the Finnkecleon shop for free lol

✅Mission: set ✅Destination: arrived ✅Chance of success: 💯😎🎆

Oh my god, this really is the future of darkness!! I guess our efforts to save the world weren't enough, damn 😓

🎶I'm starting with the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways🎶

A couple of Gummis later, Teresa learns the Lava Evader IQ Skill! Neat!

Me when Ivysaur used Fly:

Believe it or not, this actually almost killed Andrea at 96 damage. But the stairs were nearby and I wasn't too worried about it until...

Go figure, amirite?

Then Andrea reminded me of the awesome power of Blizzard and we knocked out everyone except Combusken and the Kabuto on the first turn <3 And she got right back up again in no time with the Fast Healer skill!

Does anyone remember that one time when I had the foolish idea to forget Quick Attack in favor of Helping Hand? Yeah, not one of my smartest moves. But I managed to find a TM in this dungeon that does the same thing as Quick Attack but better!

Here's the info for Quick Attack:

And here's the info for Mach Punch:

Higher power and hit ratio? Yes please! (Yes, I'm aware both are only one star stronger. But hey, every bit counts.)

I teeechnically have enough room for three more images, but this feels like a natural transition point so click here to advance to Part 2!

#pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd explorers #randomizer #post game #the guild's graduation exam #chapter 21

[toonqueen]

Duckvember Day 29th: Brother Duck

So for some reason young me decided that my main OC for Mighty Ducks had to be the little sister of Duke. Having a bit of that cool Han Solo energy and a sword fighter.  In the episode ‘Beak to the Future’ the fact he votes to go back to Puckworld had me headcanon he still had family there and that led to me having the little sister character that was still on Puckworld.

My headcanon backstory for him and my char Duluna starts with their parents dying in a car accent. They weren’t in the car for that. Duke is a teen at the time and Duluna still a kid. They’re left with their Aunt Lilly on their mom’s side. Now Lilly is a good person but didn’t expect to raise kids. She’s also busy with a billion jobs. Lilly was supposedly a magic user.  Though I never had her do any actual spells. She had knowledge of stuff but then didn’t do anything? Had the kids meditate to feel energies but they weren’t doing energy blasts or anything. I threw a ‘magical’ aunt in there since Duke seemed thrilled about magic in the ‘Dungeons and Ducks’ episode. That he had heard the concept of such and was raring to go.

Aunt often left them to be babysat by Erik Vanderflock, who was not actively her boyfriend anymore but they were still friends. Erik was Tanya’s older  cousin, but in the past that didn’t come into play at all. Just a small world coincidence. Erik worked as an appliance repair man that was undervalued for his intelligence. On the side though he was doing some hacking and minor theft with a thief team he had. Do ho ho. Duke gets involved with Erik’s thief group eventually. 

Now I had Duke be a very protective brother but I wouldn’t say over protective. Like he still let Duluna make her own decisions. When Duluna was old enough to join the thief group Duke did his best to talk her out of it, but when she made the final decision he did not stop her. Even though Duluna can give her brother an attitude she looks up to him a lot. I headcanon that Duke’s hockey number as a kid was 10 so she chooses to take that number later on. 

At some point Lilly dies in an unknown situation. Thats a whole other storyyyyy. Duluna and Duke end up being thicker than thieves (ha) seeing each other as their only family left. There's other extended fam somewhere I’m sure but EH. Erik acts as a big brother/family to them as well. 

Through thieving circles Duke comes across the Brotherhood of the Blade. Lo and Behold he finds out his father used to lead the Brotherhood. He joins without saying who he really is to see what he can find out. Duke begins to get suspicious that his parents car accident may have been a hit. He finds out his father was retiring from the group and had declared a new leader which others weren’t happy about the pick. Duke informs his sister about this and she wanted to help to but Duke didn’t want her to get messed up in it. Of course she does though. They really don’t find a clear answer to what exactly happened. Duluna gets to a point of, ‘we need to think forward and not about the past anymore, so let's blow this joint and go back to what we were doing. Working with Erik and doing their own thing. Duke those becomes more obsessed with finding out what happened to their parents and stays on with the Brotherhood.

Duke and Duluna have a bit of a falling out over this. She says with Erik and their small group. It was during this time that Dragaunus attacked. They tried to find each other after the attack but with no luck. Erik and Duluna actually spent time on Puckworld traveling around helping where they could. Duke of course joined the resistance. The siblings were pretty sure the other one was alive. Duluna never thought to look for Duke among the resistance though, since it was very left over military/police force and they were ACAB being thieves and all. LUCKILY at some point Duluna gets to Earth and that's a whole other story. Yay reunite and big brother Duke is happy woo. 

Comparing Wildwing and Nosedive’s brother relationship to Duke and Duluna is like a dog owner vs a cat owner. Wildwing being dog owner and Duke being cat owner lol. Duke does know his sister can handle herself but still has to state his case. Duluna is an indoor/outdoor cat. He trusts her to get back on her own. Lol. I do ship Duluna with Nosedive which Duke wasn’t thrilled with at first either. But when Duluna does share the same feelings back with Nosedive, Duke doesn’t get in the way with that. 

I also remember some vague plot thing in one story where the villain (maybe Falcone?) Leaving Duluna to decide to save Duke or Nosedive and she ends up not choosing and saving them both like a badass. Anyways. Brother just as important as the idiot you’re dating. THATS FINE.

#duke l'orange #duckvember #duckvember 2023 #mighty ducks the animated series #mdtas #duluna l'orange

[citrus-cactus]

For the character ask game - Haru (appmon) 1, 2, 11, 12, 23!

HAAAAAAAARU! THANK YOUUUUU~! <3

The character ask game is here!

1. My first impression of them

Honestly my first impression (from seeing promo images and such posted on this very website!) was something like “Whoa. Clashing colors much?!” So I guess you could say it was not the best 😂

Obviously I got over that, but I did learn recently that trying to apply his color scheme to any other character is still quite a shock! ROTFL Click for proof if you dare!

The rest is cut! For! Spoilers!!!

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

The first time I watched Appmon, I felt like basically the whole first half of the series was a bit of a crapshoot, quality-wise (not in terms of the animation or anything, but how I felt about it). Like, if you tried to graph my enjoyment of each episode right after I watched it, it would look like a jagged mountain range. The first episode was ok, the second episode was “eh,” the third and fourth episodes was pretty good, the fifth was back to “eh,” etc. I don’t know, pacing and tone and kind of unsympathetic character introductions and it just being “different” were all things that were working against it at that point in my mind, and made me wonder what the writers were really trying to do (honestly, what REALLY sold me on watching Appmon at all was @firstagent’s pitch at a con, which explicitly plugged Offmon and Yuujin’s dynamic!).

(I should say here that despite those rough beginnings, Appmon is probably my favorite Digimon series now, so yeah I take time to warm up to things sometimes but the right combination of factors makes me fall and fall HARD)

All that said, I know exactly when I really start to like Haru, and it was during the third episode (the dungeon one with Roleplaymon). He’s just so excited and happy throughout, while also being a complete nerd, and instead of a big Appmon fight at the end (well, being unable to have one due to an evolution whoopsie), he just talks to Roleplaymon… and it works. That felt kind of revolutionary, and it was the episode that I started to not only understand his character, but (maybe) gain a bigger picture view of the series and what the show was going for. This episode just crystallized a lot of things for me.

Me after episode 3: Haru is kind. Oh, and also he’s my son now, I want to see him grow up strong, I WILL keep watching FOR HIM actually (best decision ever!!) 💖

11. What’s the first thing you think about when thinking about the character?

Joke answer: “Do I need to be working on the blog queue right now, or can I procrastinate a few more days?” 🤔

Real answer: No thoughts anymore, just feelings (rotfl). After watching every episode in order to look at every single shot of Haru and find the very best frames, I can still say definitively that he’s so cute and I love him and all Harus are good Harus 🥺🥺🥺

12. Sexuality hc!

Bisexual! And uh… one specific android-sexual? You cannot deny his crush on Ai, and Haru/Yuujin is so good. They’re one of my OTPs, they’re soulmates (by some definition of the word “soul”), they were made for (and made by) each other, they’re actually making eyes at each other from across the room in my head right now 🤫

23. Future headcanon

Oh, he’s definitely going to be an AI researcher, that much I believe! One who is very literature- and ethics-minded, and thinks a lot about what what “existence” means, and is hyper-aware of beings’ rights and the need to advocate for both humans AND AI, in a world where both appmon and general artificial intelligences actually exist. These beliefs are the cornerstone of his work, regardless of what he actually does with AI. Would he follow in his Grandpa’s footsteps in being an academic designing his own? Maybe borrow a page from Koushiro Izumi’s book and start a company? Or go the Susan Calvin route and become an AI psychologist? Any! All! Idk 🤣

Honestly, so much else about specific future headcanons depends on how you interpret the very last moments of the series (literal or symbolic), and for me it could go either way. I really like interpreting it as literal, if only because it’s such a great hook into the nebulous Appmon Season 2 that exists in my head. Yuujin’s back, but how? Cue mystery and more Appmon shenanigans.

Regardless, I’m most interested in the future where Yuujin comes back in some form at some point during Haru’s lifetime, and no matter how, when, or why that happens it’s going to be a joyous occasion, but also a bit of a rough transition. Yuujin may have changed. Haru may have changed. There would be a LOT anxiety about “is this ok?” and “how do you feel?” and “what does it MEAN that this is how you feel?” and “what does ANY of this mean for us as individuals, and us together?” because it’s all very complicated when you bring the android that was programmed to be your best friend and your ideal version of a person back to life. Is there even a happy ending out there for them? Again, for me it could go either way.

So yeah, a bit rambly, because to me there is no one answer I could ever 100% decide on. They’re all possible. And that’s kind of the great thing about the vagueness of the ending! I will say I like drawing them in happy-ending mode best though, even though I would probably write their future in a way that involves more drama, because it’s way more interesting, and nothing in life is ever that easy (I’m rooting for them though!).

Again, thanks so much for the ask!!

#asks #julbilines #appmon #appli monsters #appmon spoilers #haru shinkai #green-haired cutie pie #<- my original tag for him hehehe #the cactus runs a sideblog

[bohemian-nights]

So true! GRRM even mentioned recently that he would love to write a book about N so no way are they cutting her or replacing her with Rhaena.

I feel like because this show is focused on the Targ family it attracted the worst type of fans who think Targs are really gods and believe in the blood purity BS so I’m not surprised they’re into Daemyra who’re the poster child for that(no offends to those who just ship them and don’t buy into that crap but the amount of people I’ve seen on twitter making those arguments is ugh)but like exploring the relationship between D who’s a literal Targ supremacist and N a low born bastard girl and how things like class and race(I know ASOIAF doesn’t have the same construct of race as we do but N’s treatment as well as the Dornish shows pretty clearly there’s racism in their society even if the author didn’t intend did that to be the case)affect them,etc. I mean we see hints(maybe foreshadowing even?)of that conflict on the show when everyone’s scandalised over D saying he will marry Mysaria and that she’s pregnant. It also pushes her to break things off with D because she knows the consequences it would have on her while pointing out D’s privilege. Btw,I feel sorry for Matt Smith you can tell he wants D to be more dimensional and maybe the writers wanted that as well but they had no idea how to write a character like him(possibly because he doesn’t really start his character arc before he meets Nettles?)so they ended up cutting a bunch of scenes of him being more affectionate/emotional which led to Targ stans believing they have vendetta against him imo. But he was def one of the characters that suffered the most due to these time jumps the last time we see him before the first big one is him killing his wife and intending to reclaim her land but then later on he self exiles himself like why? If they wanted him to have a complicated relationship with his daughters fine we don’t really know what kind of a father he was in F&B but then make the effort of having him interact with them instead of tearing them like extras who just smile and stand around. And don’t get me started with how they treated Laena seriously WTH was that ?! You make her a black woman on the show and then proceed to have her be a second choice for her husband (with one of their daughters being ignored by him)and dying the most awful way possible away from her family while trying to make it look “empowering”.Sorry for the rant but the way the POC have been treated so far makes me very nervous about Nettles like FFS don’t treat her like a plot device and while we’re at it have her be friends with Baela and Rhaena this show needs more well developed female characters and friendships as well!

I would so love to read a book on Nettles. She(and Daemon) is/they are my favorite characters in the ASOIF universe. Her story does not end/begin with the Dance so I’d like to see more about her. Replacing her with Rhaena will not cut it.

Some Targ/Daemyra stans are willing to miss out on a fully fleshed out story in favor of Targ supremacy. There are parallels between our world racism and racism in ASOIF universe as well as classism. Writers can’t really escape their biases. I hope season 2 fleshes things out a bit because the story can be much more than it actually is.

I’m actually a Daemon stan so I think the HOTD writers do have a vendetta against Daemon. Daemon is described as less jerky to those he loves. In the show it seems like Daemon is really only there for Daemon. The only one he actually seems/seemed to love was King Dumb Dumb(Viserys), but now he’s dead so he’s got nothing.

Daemon leaves Rhaenyra alone to fend for herself multiple times. He even abandons her in a sex dungeon in the sketchy part of town. And yet she is supposed to be the love of his life? 🫠 Well I guess so since he literally murders his first wife and bangs his niece at his second wife’s funeral. At least Rhaenyra only got choked out by her man!

If I was Matt I’d be shaking my head cause the writing is just 🫠 Daemon has recieved essentially 0 character development since episode 3. Thank God Matt is charismatic because otherwise Daemon would be the least likable character on the show.

Rhaena and Baela do seem like extras/window dressing. It irked my soul when Rhaena kept calling Rhaenyra “my queen.” I understand she’s the queen, but she’s also her cousin/stepmom. It makes it look like Rhaena is the help. Some of Baela’s lines were cut which is also irritating considering the lack of screen time for both her and her sister.

The Laena situation is just 🙃 I could do a whole essay on that. The fact that you have delusional racist stans arguing that it’s somehow empowering to watch a Blackish woman light herself on fire is just🙃 I have no words. Like please go read a book on misogynoir then come back to me on it(it probably wouldn’t help, but can’t hurt to try).

That was one of the most traumatizing things I have ever watched. I am not joking when I say this. That hurt. Her book death was a 1000x more “empowering” than that crap.

What’s “empowering” for Black women is not the same for other women especially white women. Black women are rarely seen as soft, being taken care of, and loved in media.

Laena is supposed to be mixed(and the actress’s that played her were mixed as well), but the casting seemed deliberate. They picked a brown skinned mixed woman to light on fire(literally) and be someone’s unloved second choice(again not book canon, but people will gloss over this and try to claim that is somehow is). While the white woman is somehow the first choice and Daemon’s one and only love.

Having Daemon literally ignoring his Blackish kids(who by the way should look white/whiter than they do since they are at least 75% white, but the HOTD writers don’t know how genetics work🫠) is also a choice. Someone said that you could start watching HOTD at episode 7 and you wouldn’t know that Rhaena and Baela are Daemon’s daughter’s. Which isn’t far off from the truth.

You can’t make this ish up and yet people will deny it all the damn day long 🫠 They don’t have a problem with it cause if anything, it helps to solidify their wack ship. I’m going to leave it there cause I will literally start ranting all day long.

Bottom line is I hope season 2 is better and the HOTD writers see fans complaints and try to develop a more fleshed out story. I am kinda dreading what they might try with Nettles, but I’m cautiously optimistic(I love to disappoint myself). Limiting her characterization will limit Daemon’s as well since she’s his final arc, but as I stated, the writers seem like they hate him so 🤷🏽‍♀️

A friendship between Rhaena, Baela, and Nettles would be nice, but they are all supposed to be in different places during the war. Who knows what they will do.

#I’m ranting too #this show is a hot ass mess #house of the dragon #hotd #hotd spoilers #daemon targaryen #fandom racism #laena velaryon #nettles x daemon #daemon x nettles #rhaena targaryen #baela targaryen #houseofthedragon #I have exhausted myself #anti daemyra #anti rhaenyra targaryen #daemon x laena #hotd commentary #ask #answered #hotd ask #nettles asoif #nettles #hotd asks #bnasks #bnask

[notajinn]

Top Games Played in 2023 - Number 4: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

4. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

Despite playing quite a few different 2D Legend of Zelda games as a kid, I never stuck with one long enough to finish it. So I decided I should make Link to the Past the first one I finish.

So yes, I played this for the first time in 2023. Only 32 years late!

What I Like

After how disappointed I was by the dungeons in Breath of the Wild, I was so happy with the dungeons in this game. Every one of them was fun to navigate and had something unique going on. Puzzles are also much more decipherable for me in 2D, so I didn’t have to look things up. Going through dungeons has always been my favourite part of any Zelda game, so getting this right already made this one of my favourites in the series.

Most bosses are fun, even though they often don't require the dungeon item. There is at least one exception I’ll mention in the negatives section, but otherwise they were all fun and fairly fast encounters. The final boss in particular is very fun with how tight the time is to land hits. I played this on the SNES Classic, so I had save states from outside the boss rooms to help. I don’t know how bad it was to return from the closest continue point though, so the constant trial-and-error may not have been as fun originally.

The music is stellar, as expected of a first-party game on the SNES.

The world is fun to explore. I like that it’s small enough that you can get from point A to point B pretty quickly, but it’s so dense in terms of how far you can delve into each screen with the right approach. It’s very refreshing after BOTW was very wide but very empty.

What I Didn't Like

At the beginning of the game, the learning curve of moving around to dodge enemies was really high. Again this is my first 2D Zelda, so I was very bad at moving around with the D-Pad and maintain the right distance to attack enemies without getting hit. I did figure it out around the first dungeon, but it was a frustrating little while.

The shield is practically useless outside of some extremely specific situations.

In the late game, I easily ran out of things to spend Rupees on. Which isn’t a big problem, but it did make it disappointing when I puzzled my way to a treasure chest only to get Rupees I don’t need. And this is considering I found the upgrade fairy and considerably boosted my arrow and bomb capacity.

Some dungeon items are a letdown, like the armor. It’s also weird to get dungeon items that aren’t needed for bosses; 3D Zelda made me assume that’s the main thing they’re for.

Speaking of important items, I find it strange the Silver Arrows are required for the final boss but they're extremely missable! I nearly missed them myself.

Backtracking between World of Light and Dark feels much more complicated than any of the exploring beforehand, so it’s a big difficulty spike. It’s also where I pretty much gave up on getting secrets because there was too much to try with the world-switching.

I hate that stupid worm boss that pushes you off the platform and makes you start the file over. It's just frustrating. Arguably my least favourite Zelda boss ever.

Final Thoughts

I’m glad I finally got around to playing this. I understand why many people consider it the best Zelda game. It’s not my favourite, but I had a great time with it.

#top games of 2023 #link to the past #legend of zelda

[semi-imaginary-place]

FFXVI Rewrite Part 5: Origin, Ultima, and the Ending

With the last Mothercrystal destroyed and the final seal on Ultima broken, the apocalypse begins. The sky breaks apart into dark roiling aetheric stormclouds casting the world into eternal gloom. Aetherfloods spill across the lands poisoning all life and turning it akashic, the remaining crystals fail. There is no nation left standing in Valisthea. The one force that would have fought against Ulima’s rule Waloed is in disarray. The greatest champion fighting for free will was Banabas who is now dead. Congrats on making things worse! Isn’t free will and making choices great? The party much now scramble to figure out what is going on, all the while the realization of how badly they messed up slowly dawns upon them. Like in the actual game’s post Twinside section, the party scrambles to recover from the Waloed attack while also fending off compounding problems of starved beasts, Fallen machines, akasha, and wraiths. Now though Origin has also risen into the sky destroying all hopes of salvaging Twinside. The party travels around Valisthea piecing together the deteriorating situation with the destruction of the Mothercrystals and wonders if this is what Ultima wanted since they stopped bothering them several Mothercrystals back. Doomsday cultists start popping up. In particular will be the savior cult the Circle of Malius who are much the same as the are in the actual game striving to make all people akashic as they see it as the ultimate pure state free of mortal burdens. This formerly suppressed underground faction now runs free now that Barnabas is gone.

I really do like most of the sidequest storylines especially Dion and Harpocrates’ quest, however a complaint I had was that their placement right before the final boss dropped the pacing off a cliff. In this rewrite the last section is being expanded so there is time added here for Clive to rally people and finish their storylines so that the finale can be uninterrupted. This includes the final part of Jill’s character arc where she reckons that for all that she has talked big and tried to help people, she herself still does not quite know what it means to live on her own terms, but she thinks she is finally starting to understand. Jill wants to travel the world, to help the people out there who don’t know how to fight for themselves yet and to find herself. In the actual game the Jill-Clive romance is primarily hindered by Jill’s poor writing having tried to fix her writing here I have no objections to the romance anymore. However, I was never a fan of romances and am of the mentality of that if it isn’t needed it shouldn’t be included. For example, in Tales of Arise the relationship between Alphen and Shionne is the center point around which the rest of the story revolves and while it could have been a friendship instead of a romantic one, there is no Tales of Arise without Shionne and Alphen’s relationship. This is not the case for FFXVI, even in this rewrite Jill is not the deuteragonist (if anyone it’d be Joshua), as such Jill and Clive’s relationship is not central to the story and really while I’m not opposed, I feel a romance just gets in the way of the story, if there’s to be any romance I would rather it just be implied or optional. Dion and Terrance should still kiss because that is bold and revolutionary in a way the portrayal of any straight couple isn’t, also they’re side characters so it doesn’t matter this story isn’t about them. Before the final dungeon is also the time to show how life without magic sucks. FFXVI sort of glosses over this very briefly but I think this point should be integrated into all the final storylines, without magic people have no safe drinking water or fire, disease begins running rampant, industry grinds to a halt, and food production halts so people begin starving in the streets in mass, and Clive has to see all this knowing this is what he’s done to people.

The party eventually learns of Ultima’s plans to destroy the world and enslave humanity by flooding them with aether and turning every living thing akashic. At the same time, they record increased aether concentrations gathering around Origin, as the Blights worsen as Ultima repurposes the same draining mechanisms as the Mothercrystals, He turns the very chains that bound them into his servants. Instead of loredumping via a ten minute monologue at the end of the game, now would be a good place to drop bits of lore and worldbuilding like how in this version dragons, frostwolves, and such were the original inhabitants of the world. Ultima is the last surviving active member of the Fallen whose ancient civilization made all the ruins encountered across the game. Ultima and the Fallen brought humans to Valisthea and created eikons by enslaving the power of the land’s original inhabitants. Eikons are a phenomena of the recent centuries and a sign that the seals were weakening.

As a lover of JRPGs I found it immensely disappointing that Origin was just some cutscenes and not a full dungeon so I’m making it a full dungeon in this rewrite. Ultima is trying to draw in Clive and possess him anyways (as well as the combined Ifit-Phoenix fire eikon) so they would try and cut off the rest of the party. Dion is able to break a hole in Origin that Clive enters into with Joshua, however Jill is cutoff, and under constant assault she seals the hole after them to stop pursuit. In addition, the Fallen forces are marching from Origin to turn every person akashic and Dion and Jill are needed to hold them back. As such Dion and Jill as the two that can fly stay outside to stop pursuit of Joshua and Clive, as well as to try and contain Ultima’s forces from murdering and or turning everyone on the continent into akasha. This would be a nice scene to show all the factions of Valisthea that Clive has met and negotiated with coming together to ward off extermination. Like the Trinity Accord can actually be something meaningful as a defense accord rallying humanity’s last remnants. Origin will be a classic final dungeon boss gauntlet with no way to exit until the player beats the game. Every set of floors (5? 10?) will be a boss as Ultima seeks to weaken Clive.

During the ascent to the top or Origin the final secrets of the game are revealed and the lore scattered throughout the game brought together. To reiterate, the Fallen drained the resources of their homeland and turned it into a wasteland, their civilization collapsed and the survivors fled upon the mothership Origin to a new world. Coming to Valisthea, they came into contact with the native lifeforms such as the dragons and began a war of conquest for control over Valisthea. The Fallen made eikons out of draconic aether to use as war weapons against the dragons themselves thus why eikons are elemental themed. Eventually the Fallen with their eikons and advanced technology kill most of the dragons but not before most of them were killed as well. As a last resort the last remaining dragons sacrificed themselves to seal the last Fallen away the Eldest Wyrm’s body fragments, becoming the Mothercrystals. The Mothercrystals much like dragons themselves have a strong connection to the aether of the land and while not ideal, a side effect of the Mothercrystals is that they feed off of the land’s aether to power their seals. Because this was a last ditch effort it’s full of problems including that the seals take an unsustainable amount of aether and after the land is drained of aether the seals begin to fail. Mining and using crystals sped up the breaking of the seals as well as the spread of the deadlands as the Mothercrystals drained the lands to fuel the seals. Ultima is the last active Fallen who awakened as the seals weakened. The reawakening did not go as he hoped as the other Fallen only remained as aether. Ultima seeks to flood all of humanity with Fallen aether made of his people’s souls to truly reincarnate them, replacing the original aether of the world with Fallen aether. Origin now acts as the focal point amassing aether and releasing Ultima’s forces.

At the top floor of Origin Clive and Joshua find not only Ultima but Anabella and Olivier. Anabella and Olivier transport to Ultima’s eden space ship which is revealed to be the red star Metia; Origin acts as the connecting point between Valisthea and Metia. Ultima reveals that the Fallen are the true humans of this setting. The original humans created soulless shell or dolls for them to later fill with their own aether, reincarnate, and thus save their civilization. All the characters the player has met were these husks created by the true humans, the people of Valisthea were never meant to be people on their own with wills and thoughts. Similarly, Mythos like in the actual game was the chosen vessel for Ultima to fill with the eikons, ascend to godhood, and power the casting. But like most plans, things have gone wrong and now created fights Creator. Ultima tells Clive and Joshua that they and their brethren were only ever imposters wrongfully claiming the title of humanity their masters: the true humans. As creations of humans, they belong to humans, their wills exist only as an extension of the true humans’ wills. “In Ultima's eyes, mankind's greatest sin is the awakening of free will—his servants straying from the path their creator laid out for them and forging one of their own. However, Clive contends that this is a sin by which Ultima is equally stained—and indeed, if humanity is indeed Ultima's creation, does not their every action, every emotion stem from him?” (Mysteries of the Realm: Sin).

Clive and Joshua face Ultima in his Ultimalius form as in actual FFXVI for stage 1 of the final boss fight. After beating Ultimalius, Ultima transforms Stage 2 is a giant kaiju eikon battle is space. Like in the Bahamut fight, Ifrit and Phoenix combine, however where Ifrit Prime was an incomplete fusion, this time the fusion is in full and the true Eikon of Fire emerges: Adonaios v2.11 (other possible names are Sabaoth and Belias). Ultima uses the beta testing version Adonaios v1.8; 1.8 comes from the incorporation of all 8 elements plus Ultima, 2.11 comes from Adonaios having to be split into two but left unfinished by Ultima for Clive to collect the remaining eikons. In game Ifrit Prime just looked like the Ifrit model with 2 feathers glued on, Adonaios v2.11meanwhile looks like a 50:50 fusion a molten red eikon with wings, horns, a feathered tail, and a jagged beak. Adonaios is slimmer than Ifrit but overall bigger with the feathers. Adonaios v1.8 meanwhile looks like the figure on the murals, a fusion of all 8 eikons and elements however it is falling apart at the seams even as Ultima fights with it because it’s an abandoned draft version. Late in the stage 2 fight Clive and Joshua are losing and draw upon the remaining power of the eikons of whom only Bahamut and Shiva are left. This drains the remaining eikonic power from Jill and Dion, grounding them and making the Valisthea fight hopeless, the Ultima fight now all or nothing. Stage 3 of the final boss fight takes place aboard Metia. Metia was an alien spaceship all along, but more accurately it is a control satellite from which to coordinate the revival of humanity. Clive, Joshua, and Ultima have all mostly used up all their power in the previous stage. In this final stage of the fight Ultima transcends and returns to his original appearance that of a human, Clive and Joshua are no longer fighting some strange monster but someone they would recognize as human. In stage 3 Clive cannot semi-prime. In the end Ultima is killed and his species is now extinct.

Joshua and Clive are exhausted from climbing Origin as well as the consecutive boss fights but begin to relax with Ultima dead, and then Anabella steps out. Anabella thought she could outplay Ultima by siding with him and then taking over, and now she sees her chance. She steals all the power that Ultima had been siphoning into himself to cast the spell, and redirects it all into Olivier to turn Olivier into a god and who will rule the world, doing what Ultima failed to do. It fails because playing god is a bad idea, Olivier’s body cannot handle the power and it begins mutating him into a deformed humanoid abomination with multiple arms and eyes, bodies seemingly trying to grow out of him. So, the true final boss is mercy killing a child who is falling apart and turning into an abomination but doesn't know it, as he cries that it hurts and begs you to stop. Olivier cannot be allowed to live as they will destroy the world. and the aether is warping his mind and he becomes less coherent as the fight goes on, regressing from full sentences to just screams. Ascended Olivier doesn’t really fight back, he flails around and lashes out when attacked but attacks aren’t particularly aimed at the player and he’s mostly crying and shaking on the ground in pain. Ascended Olivier has a very large health bar and the story will not progress until he is killed, the last save point is before reaching the top floor or Origin. In a game full of epic boss battle, the last is anticlimactic by design, there is no epic music just silence, there is no challenging gameplay, only attacking a child. The gameplay is boring, its grueling, and that’s the point. Clive kills Olivier and then there’s just Anabella.

Much like the Fallen were the creators of modern humans who sought to control their creations and saw them as an extension of themselves, creations that deviated and refused to submit to their will and thus were failures. So too is Anabella a controlling creator who deemed her children failures for not advancing her goals, hating and discarding them to try again with a new child. Olivier was supposed to be her ultimate creation, perfect and subservient to her with no will of his own. The parallels between Anabella and Ultima exist in the actual game so it was disappointing her role ended so early and nothing was done with this parallel. Here is this rewrite, the large-scale destruction of the world by Ultima is paralleled with the destroyed Rosfield family and this final confrontation with Anabella. Anabella is not a warrior, without her soldiers and pawns she doesn’t have and martial power, she is more or less powerless to her fate at this point having discarded all her cards and bet everything Olivier. Clive (and the player) are then given the choice to “do nothing”, “kill”, or “spare” Anabella, Clive after all was the one who suffered the most from her. If “kill” is chosen, then Clive kills Anabella. If “spare” is chosen, Clive walks away but not before Joshua steps in and kills Anabella because even if Clive can forgive her Joshua can’t. If “do nothing” is chosen Anabella kills herself unable to reconcile with a reality in which she has lost.

Clive and Joshua use the last embers of the eikonic power remaining to shut down Primogenesis and Ultima’s plans, landing the Metia at the base of the crumbling Origin. The closing shot is of gang standing together overseeing a ruined Valisthea as the camera pans showing the aether storm clearing, wraiths evaporating, and fallen machines deactivating permanently. The deadlands are still around but a new sprout is seen growing. The credits sequence plays over a scene of Mid yelling to hurry it up she wants to see stoves and water purifiers in every village by the end of the month, shots of people is Valisthea figuring out how to live without magic using technology and innovation, the main characters are seen helping repair efforts. The end card says 4 years, meaning FFXVI takes place over a total of 16 years, from the beginning of the game and Phoenix Gate to the end of the game and Origin. Sun light is streaming through a window as Clive writes in a book which he closes to the title “Final Fantasy XVI by Joshua and Clive Rosfield”. As the timeline is changed here so that Clive is younger for the duration of the game than he is in the real game, his older model can be used here. Clive is using his non-dominant hand here as his dominant hand has been partially petrified from his fight with Ultima. On the desk is a photo of Clive and a bedridden Joshua.

The game’s themes could have been better integrated into the final section of the game. If FFXIV wanted to tell a story about choice, then they should have made Clives’ choices have weight and consequence. If he wants a society free of the Mothercrystals then the game should have showed how he ruined the lives of many many people by destroying them. FFXVI would have benefited greatly from more moral dilemmas like that. There should have also been exploration of the concepts of creation, ownership, makers, what makes someone human. One missed opportunity was not bringing up the relationship between art and artist, is art an extension of the artist or its own thing. The references to Gnosticism were fine but the concepts could have been clearer. There are also just a truckload of small problems and inconsistencies in the game like how Charon is said at one point to have a wide variety of customers across the continent while at another point is said on exclusively trade to the Hideaway. There’s a sidequest about how Murdoch’s nephew joins the Hideaway because he admires Clive and then the game forgets about him (just like they forget about Jill) and only remembers him again to put him on a bus, thus having no interaction with Clive. A lot of worldbuilding is just badly done. I love mysteries but making things misleading and obscure for no reason is not how to do it. So much of it was unclear or convoluted or just pointless even after reading the completed The Thousand Tomes that I just threw the whole thing out and wrote new lore for this reimaging of FFXVI. If a change is not specified than it is the same as in the actual game. I wrote 85% of this in Jun-Jul of 2023, then stopped for lack of motivation. I only finished this for the sake of finishing it because I don’t care anymore. I’m done with FFXVI and it’s poor writing.

It says something that it ended up being easier to throw out the later 1/3 of the game. In earlier drafts I did originally try to make canon work like Barnabas being one of Ultima’s devout and purifying Waloed by turning it all akashic, or Joshua’s probable death at the end of the game. Like it would have made more sense for Barnabas and Ultima as they are portrayed in the actual game to methodically hunt down and kill every person or named NPC Clive has ever talked to, slowly isolating him from his humanity by breaking every connection he’s ever tried to make. But of course, this removes the cast from having a role in the rest of the game and makes it impossible to keep the rest of the game the same. This rewrite ended up being pretty happy and optimistic because that’s the spirit of the original game. FFXVI in the end is pretty optimistic, which I have mixed feelings about. FFXVI tries have an upbeat uplifting ending and message while also wanting to be a dark, gritty, edgy Game of Thrones knockoff, and while this is very possible for a work to do, FFXVI did not succeed in meshing these aspects into a consistent whole, XVI ends up feeling inconsistent or disjointed. So while I did eventually decide to uphold XVI’s optimistic spirit I did consider another possibility leaning into more of the darker ambience. With the rising of Origin and fight to climb the tower, every major character either is killed or sacrifices themselves for Clive to reach the summit. The Cursebreakers buy time of the ground with their lives, Dion finally gets the absolution of death he has been seeking for Sanbreque, Jill joins Clive and Joshua in the tower but sacrifices herself to hold back the tower bosses and all of Ultima’s forces chasing them up the tower. During the second stage of the final Ultima fight to turn Ifrit Prime into Adonaios v2.11 and truly fuse Phoenix and Ifrit, Joshua who is already dying burns himself away allowing Clive to have all of Phoenix’s power. Clive thus kills Olivier alone, and faces Anabella alone, his fate left ambiguous.

Read this in one long post

Read this in parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 .

#ffxvi #ff16 #final fantasy xvi #final fantasy 16 #anabella rosfield #ffxvi ultima

[ss-wright]

D&D campaign.

(Eddie x Chrissy)

Chrissy and Eddie sat together at the bench on a Saturday evening, currently having lunch. Eddie knows about her eating disorder and try’s to nurture her carefully.

“Hey, do you have any other hobby’s beside cheerleading?”. He knows she loves cheerleading, but it’s good to have other interests right? “Oh, uhm. Not really.” And that is the truth, under her mom’s influence and the schools expectations she never really gets time to do her own things. “I actually played D&D once. When I was like 8 I mean.” Eddie’s face lights up, and eventually blushes due to thought of her playing D&D. How could Chrissy Cunningham have played the worlds most weirdest game? “No way! So you know the rules?” He asks, opening an idea to himself. “I mean- I probably forgot most of them but, yeah.” She admits through a bit of her salad. Eddie almost falls out his seat, putting his hands on his head. “This is awesome. You need to play with Hellfire sometime.” She smiles “I wish, but I have cheerleading practice when you guys play.” He smirks at her “That is not a problem for your concern Miss Chrissy” She blushes. “Just meet me at the janitors closet at 12:45 ok?” He says while getting of the bench. “But-“ Sh starts, “No buts!” He says while tripping over the leaves. She laughs and stares at him in disbelief. How could she blush over this man?

(Time skip to 12:40)

Chrissy arrived early, fidgeting next to the janitors closet. She feels the eyes of her peers on her. She starts to feel anxious, what would they think of her? If she was seen with Eddie and his club. As she continued to be lost in her own thoughts Eddie walks up, waving a hand in her face. “Hey Chrissy, didn’t think you would have made it.” She looks up at him and smiles, relived she’s not alone anymore.

He walks her to their club room, explaining the the rules on the way. She was, expectedly, confused over the 100 rules, plus, Eddie’s personal rules he made up. He stopped and opened the door, holding it open with one hand and motioning his other for her too walk in. She blushed at his chivalry move and walked through the door. Her eyes widened as the Hellfire club room beamed. Eddies friends, including Nancy Wheelers.. brother? They were laughing and playful yelling at each other, she stared in aw as they talked. “Alright my slaves, settle down. We have a new member!” I present to you.. Lady Chrissy.” She smiled awkwardly as they stared at her, why would Chrissy Cunningham? The queen of Hawkins High, be here?

As Eddie set up the game with them seated around the table, she felt eyes on her, some snickers and whispers. Her face got hot, she tugged on the sides of her cheerleader skirt. Should she leave? She thought to herself. Yes, I don’t belong here, I should get back to cheer practice- Right when she was about to get up from her chair, Eddie started. “You’re on a mission, a big one!” He nearly screamed, hands in the air. She looked at the other members, who were totally invested. She sat awkwardly, listening to only the beginning of this very long night ahead of her.

(Time skip to middle of the game)

Chrissy listened hard to the dungeon master. She was assigned as a Cleric, the party’s healer. Currently they are stuck in the haunted house in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh. One of the party members have been badly hurt by one of the lizard things, she doesn’t remember what their called. Although she healed him, accurately and well. They still give her dirty looks when she proposes an idea. Eddie looks at her empathetically, knowing what it’s like to be left out. “Alright guys, you’re going to need to accept our new cleric, Lady Chrissy, or I’m going to have to end this campaign.” He said crossing his legs with his hands intertwined. The party looks at him, all shouting different versions of; “What? You can’t just end the campaign? She doesn’t know how to play!” Chrissy’s head swims with embarrassment. “ As Eddie reasons with the group, she scans the game and the little figurines spreader across the board throughly, until she notices something. A way to escape, she immediately stands up. “Dungeon master!” They all look at her. “I know.. I know how to escape! She says with all confidence left in her body. Eddie smirks at her and she smiles back.

The party eventually gives in to her idea and they successfully escape. Nancy wheelers brother and his friend congratulates her while the others just sit in shock. She is shocked herself, but proud. She just found her new hobby.

#stranger things #eddissy #justice for chrissy #chrissy x eddie #eddie x chrissy #oneshot

[incarnadinedreams]

Can someone explain the whole 'Xue Yang is proof that Jiang Cheng is evil' thing to me? I've seen it around a ton and I am just like... genuinely not following this one. It's always pulled out as some sort of zinger without any explanation, and I feel like I just don't get it. I can't even argue against it because I am just confused, lol. I assume it probably comes from some meta I haven't read and the original probably had a more coherent argument than the people lobbing it around on Reddit.

I'll admit the Yi City arc didn't particularly compel me so I've revisited it less than some other parts of the novel, and don't remember as many of the finer details. I started trawling through the wiki and the text to figure out this argument, but I really might be missing something here?

The gist of it seems to be that Jiang Cheng is terrible because he doesn't demand that Xue Yang is executed at Koi Tower, and to me it just seems like a strange argument?

I know that after the Yueyang Chang are massacred, Xiao Xingchen volunteers to find the perpetrator, succeeds, and takes Xue Yang to the cultivation conference at Koi Tower (ch. 30). Nie Mingjue hears about it and demands Xue Yang be executed.

Taking advantage of the Discussion Conference that was happening at the Jinling Tower of the LanlingJin Sect's residence, when the most prominent sects met up and discussed cultivation methods, Xiao XingChen brought him over, explained the situation, and demanded severe punishment.

[...]

The LanlingJin Sect was indeed the sect with the thickest face. Although, on Jinlin Tower, it promised in front of all of the sects that Xue Yang would be executed, when it left Nie MingJue's sight, it immediately shut Xue Yang into the dungeons and changed the original decision to a life sentence. Hearing about the matter, Nie MingJue was enraged and pressed on them again. The LanlingJin Sect rambled about, refusing to give him Xue Yang no matter how hard he tried. All of the other sects watched them from the sidelines, but, shortly afterward, Nie MingJue passed away from Qi deviation.

I'm actually okay with assuming that Jiang Cheng is there, given that it says all the prominent sects are there. But I think it's worth noting that Jiang Cheng is not actually mentioned at all in the entire chapter, or in any of the events described. So it's not actually confirmed that he's even there at the conference. But like I said, I'm okay with assuming he is one of those people on the sidelines with the caveat that it's an assumption.

At the point of the start of the conference, Xue Yang had already been captured. Letting him go on his merry little way is never (publicly) on the table here, it's between life imprisonment or letting Nie Mingjue behead him then and there and ruin the carpet.

So... why should Jiang Cheng need to get involved at this point? I am not sure why Jiang Cheng would or should feel the need to interfere with a prisoner who is already slated for execution or at a minimum life imprisonment? Even if he deeply abhors demonic cultivation by this point, as far as he knows the problem is already solved. Especially given that the topic of the Jiang sect specifically interfering with Jin prisoners is probably a pretty touchy one, considering that's how they got into this mess to begin with (regardless of how right Wei Wuxian may have been in that moment)... especially with the Jin controlling his access to Jin Ling at this point, he'd need a damn good reason to make a fuss, and that... just doesn't exist in the situation? I genuinely don't see any reason for him to do anything here?

Also, we don't actually see any of the conversation except for Nie Mingjue's demands and Jin Guangshan's waffling, and even that we see very little of the actual dialog. It's all written up as a summary/exposition and not like a full transcript of the conference discussion. Everything else the Jins get up to, with pressuring Chang Ping to recant and releasing Xue Yang, happens much later and somewhat on the down-low. If Jiang Cheng has an opinion on it or even knows about it, the novel doesn't say as far as I can find (but please correct me if I'm wrong!).

Is the argument that it's Xiao Xingchen who hunts him down, so Jiang Cheng just didn't care enough to take on sole Demonic Cultivator Extermination Duties for the entire jianghu, therefore he's bad actually for not being like Xiao Xingchen? Xiao Xingchen, the guy with no ties to any sect and no responsibilities? The guy who spends over a month doing nothing but traipsing around through three provinces while doing nothing else to track down Xue Yang? Not that Xiao Xingchen isn't cool and all, but there's something to be said about 'free time' and 'priorities' and 'responsibilities' there...

I'll be honest, I just simply never took the Xue Yang on trial part of the novel as intended to be related to Jiang Cheng at all. (Which may be why I never revisited it that much, lol.) To me it just seems more like a big ol' "not applicable" when it comes to these two plot areas intersecting.

Even when Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao are talking about Jiang Cheng keeping Chenqing in the Villanous Friends extra (ch. 118), it's very much framed like Jiang Cheng has no idea this dude exists, and that was part of the humor of the conversation. (Also the part where they're making fun of him for believing Wei Wuxian will be back some day, and then he is right actually, so...)

For me, the purpose of the trial scene was to 1) tie the Xue Yang/Yi City Trio plotline into the main plot of the novel, 2) show that The Jins Are Getting Up To Some Shenanigans Actually and start revealing that aspect of the mystery, and 3) to showcase Nie Mingjue's violent belligerence and mistrust as his relationship with Jin Guangyao continues to fracture and erode as he approaches qi deviation.

So is there a big obvious Jiang Cheng connection I'm missing here...?

#jiang cheng #thinking too much about jiang cheng yet again

[freddie-mercury-rising]

Day 26: Now I’m Here from Sheer Heart Attack

Now we’re onto the B side of Sheer Heart Attack. So, picture it’s the mid-1970s and you’re turning your vinyl over, placing the needle down and waiting for that crackly sound to start, followed by the notes of your favorite band. Life is good! 

Listening now, you can appreciate the stereo effects of this song, as Freddie sings delicately in your left ear: “Now I’m here,” and then your right: “Now I’m here.” This is such a pumped up song. Really, it has all the elements of a pure banger. No wonder they used this to start so many of their sets thereafter. And no wonder it was performed live at virtually every concert for the next decade. 

They made use of the stereo element even on stage, confusing the audience as to where Freddie was actually standing while singing “Now I’m here” into the darkness, before the whole stage lit up. From Wikipedia: On the Sheer Heart Attack Tour, Mercury would be seen singing the line "Now I'm here" on one side of the stage amidst the darkness and dry ice, and a few bars later, at "Now I'm there," he would "appear" on the other side of the stage, an illusion created by an identically-dressed stagehand. (Imagine being the sound guy being asked to wear a replica of one of his skin tight leotards and act as his body double. Some people have all the luck!)

This song builds up, and what a great way to start the second half of the album. 

“I’m just a…” (Cue the drums) “Just a new man….yes you made me live again!” 

Shit, I can’t count the times I’ve just belted that intro and then rocked out to the music that follows. 

I dig the way the song is written in the second-person (by none other than our boy B. May), speaking to some unknown person. It was written while Brian was hospitalized and supposedly recalls Queen’s humble beginnings supporting Mott the Hoople (hence the “down in the city just Hoople and me”). I love how Brian’s songwriting modes are: soft, folksy romance and angst OR hard, sexual, no-fucks-given rock and roll. 

So many rumors surround this song! Especially the allusion to “Down in the dungeon just Peaches and me”. Now, this is all speculation (or maybe not, don’t kill me) but supposedly The Dungeon was a bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans and Peaches was a gal that Brian met there and had a thing for (or a thing with). According to some Internet sources, that woman’s real name is Deborah Vidacovich. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there, but it’s very interesting nonetheless. 

I love the “Yeah!” right before the second verse. 

“Your matches still light up the sky…and many a tear lives on in my eyeee” (love how Freddie does his voice. This is such a reminiscing song. I feel like this is them just jaw-jacking about their early days in rock and finding themselves as a band. 

It’s great that it goes back to that “now I’m here” echoing before they rock out just one more time to finish the song out. 

OH, OH, OH, one of my favorite bits to this song is “Go, go, go little queenie!” Supposedly, it’s a nod to Chuck Berry. Anyway, I swear that’s such an iconic little addition to the end of a fabulous song. 

#queen a day #queen #queen band #freddie mercury #brian may #roger taylor #john deacon #music review #amateur music review #now i'm here #sheer heart attack album