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wetthandss · 5 months

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i have never and will never use rails and minecarts in minecraft because they are just so inefficient and expensive for such little gain. theyre incredibly slow unless you use a rare and expensive material thats difficult to find and much more so get in large amounts to make a small number of powered rails that you have to place pretty close to one another if you want to reach an actually useful speed, and if youre making a rail system that small whats the point you can just walk or run there. there are no other relevant blocks for rails except detectors. no bumpers or launchers or stations or anything, very little utility outside of complicated redstone machines for furnace, hopper and chest minecarts that most players arent concerned with. i think theyre a horribly underdeveloped feature but also one that has SO MUCH potential. here's what i would do to make this feature better and how i actually would use it if it was that way.

i would remove the need for powered rails to go at any useful speed. you could travel in the minecart at the speed you can with a powered rail in the game now just by holding the direction you wanna go. powered rails are still there, and you can use them to go even faster if you want. they're like a speed upgrade rather than a necessity for travel. secondly, you dont have to keep holding down the button to keep moving, the minecart wont lose speed as it goes unless it hits a powered rail, where it will decrease in speed similarly to how it does in the base game, but only down to normal speed and not to a snail pace or complete stop. if you push a minecart (without being in it) it will slow down quickly to a stop, because itd be pretty annoying watching it run away on you if you accidentally push it. but also that already happens when you have to place powered rails down every 10 blocks and if the minecart touches them it just runs away on you. in my ideal update, to push a minecart down a track without losing speed, you can either get in it and get out of it when you reach speed, or you can use a powered rail to get it going. ADDITIONALLY, powered rails just act like normal rails when inactive instead of stopping entirely. if you want a rail that automatically stops the minecart, keep reading cause i have a replacement for this usage.

i would allow diagonal rails to exist, including on slopes. this is something i wish for other blocks that connect to each other in minecraft too, like fences, walls, iron bars etc. the zigzagging pattern is very ugly in most use cases and requires you to use double the materials. this would also be useful for setting up proper train stations where a train can be pulled to the side of the track either to let another train pass or to be filled with passengers/items.

i would allow multiple rails to connect to one another, letting you have multiple paths. a redstone activated directional rail could control which path you go on while in a minecart, while the default is just continuing straight.

I would add rail signals with an associate redstone connected rail that can decide when a minecart is allowed to pass or be stopped, or set a precise timer that counts down before making a redstone signal. you can set it to repeat or to only start its timer when receiving a redstone signal. would this remove the need for other forms of redstone timers? yes because i think its such a simple thing that requires incredibly complicated setups to do precisely that are frankly unnecessary to the average player and would allow them to make redstone more useful to them without having to spend nearly as much time and energy fine tuning multiple different complicated timer setups. you can still use the complicated timers if you want. no one is stopping you. anyways, this would let you automate trains a lot easier or automate a round trip rail system with consistent schedules, or to send a minecart back to you after sending it away.

Minecarts will have an updated model with a clear front side and a back side. you can flip directions whenever you want if youre riding in it, its mostly just an aesthetic change, but ive run into situations where if i stop a minecart on an inactive powered rail and activate it again, it will start going back in the direction it came from rather than continuing forwards and that is REALLY ANNOYING. i get that thats useful for sending a minecart back and forth but my bumpers would solve that issue while the clear front/back side fixes the one i mentioned above at the same time, as well as just making it more predictable and visually clear.

I would also aesthetically change the chest minecart cause i think it looks really ugly, i would prefer the chest minecart to show the minecart filled up with the sprites of the items that are inside it. i think that would be way cuter than just having a big wooden chest inside a metal minecart.

finally have actual linkages to tie minecarts together. it can just be a lead idc.

maybe a minecart that can be filled with rails that it automatically places as it goes? idk about this one

another maybe is that detector rails could be configured to only activate one-way.

a third maybe is having "lazy rails" that let the minecart travel at the speeds that they do now, so people who would inevitably complain about these changes ruining their finetuned overly-complex redstone rail machines could have something to use.

And finally i would have a bumper rail that can bounce back a minecart at half its speed, or its full speed with no loss if powered with redstone.

so i would definitely use rails and minecarts WAY more if these features were in place, they would be actually efficient for long and short distance travel, more versatile and less rigid in how you can actually place them, you can use redstone and train linkages to create more complicated railway setups if you want, it would all LOOK better, and it could actually be useful for putting in mineshafts. as it stands now, you have to put powered rails all over the place (a full chest minecart can only move 16 blocks per single powered rail boost! and it will slow down heavily before reaching the next too), fill up your stupid looking chest minecart and push it down where you then have to have a big redstone setup to automatically send the cart back, timed with a redstone timer (either a massive repeater one or a smarter comparator/observer one) so that the cart has time to unload into the hopper below it before being sent off again where it can make its way back to you.

in my update, you can fill the (good looking) chest minecart and use a single powered rail to push it where it will continue to the end (slowly, but at a far more consistent and as a baseline FASTER pace) where it will reach a detector rail connected to a rail signal which will start its timer, stopping the minecart. the cart will unload into the hopper, the timer will finish, sending the minecart into a powered bumper rail on the end where it will flip directions and be sent back, it will pass through the rail signal (because the detector block is on the other side) as if it were a normal rail, and come all the way back to me.

#i am not tagging this with minecraft im afraid if i do then rabid vanilla minecraft fans frothing at the mouth will attack me for not liking #their precious underdeveloped lost potential features that go #“umm actually i do it like this and its just fine *shows me the most unnecessarily complicated rail system ive ever seen in a video game*”#like come on. the game is called minecraft. there are even naturally generated mineshaft structures.#using minecarts as an actual utility WHILE YOURE MINING would be really fucking cool!#im not a modder and dont ask me to just get this mod or that mod. im talking about one of many underdeveloped features in vanilla minecraft #a game i do not even like without dozens or hundreds of mods. so yes i know. you can just mod it.#but sometimes you have to consider that if you have to mod a game so heavily to make it fun its probably not a fun vanilla game.#i want vanilla minecrafters to flourish and have a game with actual thought put into its features that havent seen any #meaningful updates in 10 years. unfortunately thats not what microsoft does with the game.#heres 8 new mobs that dont match the aesthetics of our game at all that have one super hyper-specific use that youll do once and then ignor

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swampthingking · 5 days

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oh! oh </3 oh!! okay!

#he KNEW that apologizing in the nest was futile but when he thought riko was back he STILL APOLOGIZED #HE DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHO WAS TOUCHING HIM BUT HE WAS ALREADY APOLOGIZING #his genuine confusion makes me SO SAD #he’s been through so much but he's still like. so...innocent #his “normal” is so fucked up. he can’t even fathom how wrong the things that happened to him were #he knows firsthand that apologizing does nothing to break his fall and he's like... “is this a trick?”#like “what do you mean you’re not going to beat the shit out of me after i accidentally hit laila in a triggered state?”#“what do you mean there are ways to solve problems without violence?”#and him saying “i can't promise it won’t happen again” (lashing out when triggered)#as in: when it happens again i am expecting to be punished #as in: i will apologize if that's what you want. if that means you won't hit me. if it pleases you.#as in: but when it happens again-do what you must. i will deserve it.#he’s been hurt so often so badly that protecting himself is second nature #he has never been around safe people #his first instinct is fight or flight #his body is protecting him before his brain can catch up #and he obviously does not want to hurt them #but its so fucking HEARTBREAKING because he KNOWS he won't be able to control it when fight or flight kicks in #and if they are going to be around him it is inevitable he will resort to violence. it is all he knows.#but he still cares enough to prepare them for that reality #like. “i can't promise i won't hurt you again” and “i don't mean to” and “punish me as you see fit”#he's giving them permission to HURT HIM for protecting himself #tsc spoilers #tsc #the sunshine court #all for the game #aftg #jean moreau #the foxhole court #tfc

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thebluestbluewords · 2 months

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anti-Valentine’s Valentine’s date

I tried SO HARD to write the adorable Jal prompt that I received for Jalentines day, and instead of cute all my brain wanted to write was angst. Set in approximately D2, it’s a 3k lead-in to a longer Jal fic that I’m probably not going to finish writing.

Mal kicks the door of the boy's dorm open with the heel of the stupid, impractical strappy sandals she's been wearing since before dinner.

Or at least, that's what she tries to do. Instead, because her life is a curse and the very existence of high heels is a prison, the delicate silver heel of the shoe that Evie spent hours sourcing for her snaps off.

Great. Perfect. This is just how she wanted the night to go.

Mal pounds on the door with her fist instead. "Open up! I brought misery and disdain for the institution of love!"

A thump. "And chocolate?"

"No, I didn't steal any chocolate at all from my date with the king of Auradon," Mal says, as sarcastically as she can manage with one shoe on and the other broken to pieces in her hands. "Just let me in already."

The door pops open. "You're late." Carlos informs her. "Evie already went back to your room."

Wonderful.

"I don't care," Mal informs him right back, and shoves her purse, which is tiny and lilac and stuffed to the brim with all the chocolate she could fit, into his hands. "I need this princess shit off my body yesterday. I am not cut out for valentine's day, that's what I've learned, and also Ben's going to dump me and I don't care."

"Woah. Uh. Maybe you should care--"

Mal spins around to glare at him, and Carlos immediately throws his hands up. "I MEAN, your judgement is impeccable and we all hate Ben now!"

Ugh.

"I don't hate him," Mal snaps, yanking her earrings out and throwing them sort of in the direction of somebody's dresser. There's still enough empty space on the top for her to recognize it as a dresser, so signs point to it belonging to Carlos. "I hate love. And valentine's day. And dating."

"You said you hated froot loops yesterday." Carlos points out. "Because I took the last of them. So like, I'm gonna take this with a spoonful of salt here. Did your date not go well?"

Mal rips the pins out of her hair with so much force that one of them flies into the mirror. It doesn’t shatter, which is a fucking shame. She would have liked to make an awful mess. "I hate love, and I'm going to die alone surrounded by the bones of my enemies. No, it did not "go well,”” She stops ripping out pins long enough to add air quotes, which are essential to the dramatic effect of it all. "He asked if I love him back, and I told him, again, that I don't know how to love people, and he made this horrible face and was so kind about the whole thing, and just-- ugh!"

Carlos is hovering. "I’m…sorry?"

"I'm sorry we ever came here." Mal spits, yanking her other shoe off and throwing it somewhere in the direction of Jay's shoe pile. "I don't-- I can't be a princess. I hate that I just-- I don't know how to do anything, and I hate when people look at me like I'm supposed to know what I'm doing, and there were all these cameras, and--augh!"

"Jay's in the shower," Carlos offers. "If you want to bother him about it."

"I want to hit something," Mal admits. It's not a perfect solution, but she's already feeling a little bit less like her skin is on too tight now that she's got her hair loose and wild around her shoulders and her earrings and stupid, uncomfortable, impractical shoes off. "I think-- d'you want to spar with us?"

"Can't. Homework." Carlos gestures to the textbooks he's got spread out on the neater one of the boys’ beds. "I've got a test tomorrow and if I fail I'll have to retake the class."

Mal leans over so she can see the textbooks. It looks like history, maybe. Something with a lot of dense text and no visible math problems. "I can't imagine you failing any test, furball." she says, meaning it. How well they thrived on the isle of the lost isn't a perfect gauge for how well they're doing in Auradon, but school is school no matter where they are, and Mal can't remember her little nerd ever failing a test.

Carlos goes even tenser at her attempt at reassurance. "First time for everything."

"Still, you failing?" Mal scoffs. "We're in Auradon, not Wonderland. Not everything is upside down and inside out and topsy-turvy. Or whatever Allie’s sayings are.. You'll be fine."

"I'll be better if I study. Sorry. No sparring for me tonight."

Ugh. Mal rips another pin out of her hair and throws it towards the mirror with the others. "Suit yourself. I'm going to go bother Jay into letting me beat the shit out of him."

Carlos flashes her a little half smile. "Have fun."

“Oh, I will,” Mal assures him, and spins around to go invade the sanctity of the boy’s showers.

The short, barefoot walk down the hallway to the boy's bathrooms gives Mal critical time to think about her plan of attack. She's wicked and awful, naturally, but she's also not especially interested in getting shouted at by a teacher for being out of bed and in the boy's showers tonight. She's had enough of being shouted at by adults who think they know better than her. She's not some Auradon girl to be controlled, so she's simply not going to get caught.

Which means she's going back to the boys room.

At least she'll remember to grab some different shoes this time.

"Fuck off, Mal," Carlos calls through the door when she knocks a second time. "You can't steal my shoes."

"I can steal whatever I want, actually," Mal corrects him, opening the door and barging in, as is her right as their fearless leader. She is Mal of the Isle, and she's not a prize to be won or a princess to be wooed. She's going to steal whatever shoes she likes. "Jay's shoes don't fit me right."

Carlos throws a pen at her. "Neither do mine, you're just delusional about the size of your own feet. At least take my sneakers if you're going sparring. I hate when we have to dig out the poison kit after hours."

Mal sticks her tongue out at him. Her shoes are all perfect, and she's also perfectly aware of the size of her feet, which are currently half a shoe size smaller than the one Carlos wears. As such, their shared approximate size gives her the right to steal his shoes whenever the princess ones she's been dressed in are too much for her to manage, physically or mentally. . "I'm taking the ones with spikes."

"Are not."

"Are so," Mal says, diving under the bed to where he keeps all four pairs of his shoes lined up. "I'm going to add more spikes while you're not looking. Poison-tipped ones. Razor-sharp."

"Use porcupine quills, they're barbed." Carlos says helpfully, making absolutely no motion to get up and defend his shoes.

Mal shoves aside the fallen textbook, grabs the hoodie shoved under the bed for later, and ah. There’s her prize. Boots (with spikes), dress shoes, cleats (more spikes), and there at the end, sneakers.

"Fishhooks," Mal suggests. "The giant ones that rip holes when they come out. And I'll dip them in bleach powder so it burns the whole time they're inside."

Carlos shudders. "Gross."

"You're gross," Mal rips her dress over her head, and does not wince at the popping noise the shoulder seam makes. Evie can fix it again later, or they can burn it. Whichever. "I'm taking your clothes too."

"Wash the bloodstains out before you put them back."

Shirt. Pants. Hoodie. Sneakers.

Ill-gotten disguise on, Mal flashes him a thumbs up on her way back out the door.

“Hey,” Mal calls out, keeping her voice intentionally low. She’s got the hood of Carlos’s stolen hoodie pulled up over her hair, and she’s relying on the sight of a familiar size-shape-color-scheme to deter anyone from looking too closely at her. Not that there’s many students around the boy’s bathroom at 9pm on Valentine’s night, but still. She’s not exactly looking to get caught. “Jaybird?”

There’s no noise in the bathroom except for the irregular drip of a shower head that hasn’t been turned off quite hard enough. All the money in the world, and Auradon Prep still doesn’t have showers that actually work how they’re supposed to.

It’s ridiculous. If Mal were in charge of the school budget she’d be putting all the money into showers. A hot shower and a fireplace in every dorm, so that none of the students have to feel cold if they don’t want. That’s the budget priorities Mal would have. Warmth, and then food. The dining hall could stand to leave leftovers out longer after meals.

…princesses don’t think about food. She’s been around Evie long enough to know that one. Princesses are tiny and perfect without even trying. Princesses eat salad and fruit and don’t order fries with anything. Princesses are the sort of people the king is supposed to be dating, and Mal is never, ever going to become that sort of person.

“Mal?”

Mal does not jump. She just— startles. Just a little. “Hey.”

There’s a smile playing at the corner of Jay’s mouth. “Hey yourself. I thought you’d be out with Ben still.”

“You know price charming,” Mal waves a hand. “Had to have me home by midnight or else he was afraid I’d turn into a pumpkin.”

“It’s nine thirty.”

“Localized curse. The younger you are, the earlier it thinks you should be home. We picked nine, just to be safe.”

“You can just say you had a bad date, killer,” Jay says. “I’ll be your alibi. You need a shovel?”

Mal snorts. “It didn’t go that badly, give me some credit. I just freaked out when he started talking about love. While we were on a date to talk about love.”

Fuck.

A lot more of the evening makes sense when she frames it that way. None of the bullshit they’ve found online talks about dating the king of the entire country, but there’s a lot of website with mind-numbing names like psychology today and buzzbees news that make it very clear how important Auradon brats think nonverbal communication is.

She went on a date. On Valentine’s Day.

With Ben.

“…Killer?”

Focus.

“Fuck off.” Mal snaps reflexively. “I’m fine. Just. Plotting.”

Jay dodges around her for a pile of fabric, which reveals itself to be his Auradon-blue team hoodie. “You wanna plot somewhere a little better?”

“What I want is to go home, but I’m not going to get that,” Mal says thoughtfully. “I was going to ask you to spar with me, but if you’ve got any better ideas I’m open to hearing them.”

“Breaking and entering.” Jay says immediately. “We should blow this place. There’s that all-ages club in town—”

“If I have to touch another human being I’m going to scream.”

Jay touches her arm deliberately, a sustained pressure that doesn’t even read as touch, just comfort. Mal drinks it in like he’s pouring the comfort directly onto all the jagged, awful pieces of her soul. “I’m not a human being?”

“Shut up. You’re mine, it’s different.”

“You’re mine, then.”

There’s a piece of her heart that fits perfectly again the broken edges of his. Mal couldn’t let go of Jay if she tried, not for anything in the world. Not for her mother breathing fire at them, not for Fairy Godmother insisting that it’ll be good for them to make other friends, and not for a stupid holiday that says she’s only supposed to be tied to one person, and not even the one holding on to her right now.

“Sure.” Mal agrees, because she can’t put words to the enormity of feelings she’s experiencing. Villains don’t have feelings, but she’s reformed now, and it’s harder to describe the feelings with words than it is to have them. “We can sneak out, see what trouble we can find.”

“You’re all the trouble I need, killer.” Jay says, too honest. “I’ll take you out of here whenever you need. Wherever you want.”

“Sap.”

“Princess.”

“Do I look like a princess to you?” Mal leans back to gesture at herself. The sweatshirt she stole isn’t Auradon-blue like Jay’s. It’s an old one, ratty in the way that all their old isle stuff is, and nearly transparent at the elbows. The seams are held together with Evie’s neat machine stitching, but the thread is three different shades of red and grey all mashed together, and there’s a hole in the edge of the hood that’s exposing the soft inside of it. Her sneakers are a size too big, and laced tight to compensate. Her hair is still a mess from the violent undoing that she’d subjected it to, and she can’t be bothered to try and tame it, not when her chest is bursting with feelings that don’t have any place to go except for out of her body, in tears or screams or whatever violence she’s able to inflict that will drive the awful right feeling out.

“The prettiest princess in all the land,” Jay says, and jumps back before the words are even out of his mouth, out of the range of Mal’s swipe. “C’mon, killer. You’re the fiercest baby dragon I know. Come out with me. We can find trouble somewhere better than this.”

"You're trouble already," Mal grumbles, but there's no bite to the words. She wants, wholly and completely, to be somewhere else. "The gates are locked for the night, you know."

"No problem. Besides, you can just say you're on an important errand for the king and get through all the school security."

"I could," Mal agrees. It's not like she's afraid of a little misplaced power when she can wield it. "But it's more fun to sneak out."

Jay's grin is a bright flash in the darkness. "Hey, I've got a stupid idea."

Mal grunts. "Shoot."

"I could toss you over the fence."

"The twenty foot fence."

Jay shrugs. "It's more like twelve feet. At least according to the build specs."

"Which you came across..."

"Totally legally. They're in the library, if you know where to look for 'em."

"You're impossible," Mal sighs. "Okay, once you toss me how are we getting you over?"

"I'll jump."

Over the twelve foot fence. "Sure, and when you break your leg falling back down?"

"You'll magic me back together again. Humpty-dumpty this shit."

"I don't think you actually know that rhyme."

"I know your rhymes," Jay shoots back. "You've got magic for levitation in the spellbook, yeah?"

"I don't have the spellbook with me, wise guy." Mal points out. "I'm not even wearing my own shoes right now, what makes you think I memorized magic that'll get us over the fence?"

Jay's eyes are too bright. She's going to have to use a spell just to hide him, and the magic will burn her out, and they'll get stuck on the wrong side of the fence, and-- that's what she would think, if she were Jane, or someone will less awesome magic powers. She's Mal of the Isle, and she's got this shit under control.

"Dragon magic," Jay says cheerfully, like it's not late and they're not doing something totally against all of the rules they're supposed to be learning by sneaking out to the city. "I trust you, killer."

"I could kill you," Mal grumbles, but she raises her hands and lets the magic gather there, blue-green sparks catching on her fingertips as she pulls the spell out from her mind. "Make this boy as light as air, hop the fence without a care."

The magic falls over Jay in a net of shimmering sparks. They absorb in after a second, but the look suits him. Mal spares a thought for her sketchbook, which is tucked away in her locker with the rest of the books she hasn't had the time to touch in weeks, and the drawing her fingers are itching to make. "You can hop it now. You'll be light enough to jump over the fence with a regular leap."

"Sweet!" Jay turns and drops to a knee. "Hop on."

"Piggyback? Seriously?"

"No better way to hop it together. Unless you'd rather I throw you over."

It's dangerous, and not just physically. Mal's been doing a pretty fucking good job at squashing down the feelings she's not supposed to have for her best friends, but this...

She's emotionally illiterate, but Jay's offer to take her out tonight is like a picture book. Or one of those furniture instructions that doesn't even have language, just pictures to follow.

He cares about you, Mal's traitorous brain whispers. More than your boyfriend does.

Ugh.

"Don't do anything stupid," Mal says, even as she's the one climbing on. "The spell should be good for a few leaps, but--"

"Can't hear you, too busy blowing this place!" Jay grunts, pushing them both upright. "Let's fuckin' go--"

"Don't--"

"Hup!"

Well. At least they're on the other side of the fence now, even if they crashed directly into the school holly bush on the landing.

"Oww," Jay groans. "Might need a little more practice on that spell. I think there's something wrong with your magic assist on the landing."

Mal yanks a leaf out of her arm. "There is no magic assist, dumbass. I tried to tell you, but somebody decided to go full steam ahead without listening to my warning. We're over now, and that's what matters."

Jay mumbles something unintelligible. She can only assume it's rude, given the circumstances. Ugh, holly leaves are not the hot new accessory of the season, not even when they're doing a levitation act and sticking with a single thorn into her nose.

"Speak up or shut up, jaybird."

"I said--" It's impossible to tell in the darkness, but it looks like he might be blushing. The school grounds are supposed to have automatic lights, but a little wire cutting took care of that for them, and they're sneaking out under cover of darkness tonight. Mal's good at knowing her crew, but she can't be sure. "I, uh, you're important. To me."

"Don't get mushy on me."

"I'd never. Just. We're sneaking out together, and I wanted you to know, I'd never commit crimes and misdemeanors with anyone else."

"Liar."

Jay flashes her a smile, but he's doing the thing where he's got a hand tangled up in his hair, and it makes him look heart-wrenchingly sincere. "Yeah, but not to you."

Oh, gods. "Don't go having feelings on me," Mal says, swallowing down the wobble that wants to creep into her voice. "I can't handle it. Not tonight, please."

Just like that, Jay's posture melts into something different. Not quite his usual confidence, but something closer to normal. "Sure. No feelings. I can do that."

"I don't--" Mal scrubs a hand over her eyes. "I didn't mean that you can't have feelings, just. I can't be the one to handle them tonight. I'll do whatever you want tomorrow, just-- can we just go be somewhere else tonight? I can't handle all this lovey stuff."

Jay's shoulders melt even further. Mal can't look him in the eye, she can't, she won't--

He's smiling. His hand is so, so warm in hers. "Killer."

"I'm sorry."

He shrugs. "Whatever. You're allowed to have a bad night. I'll take you out, we can forget this ever happened tomorrow. Easy."

"You should have someone better," Mal cries, and the horrible realization that she's crying sets in. "I don't want feelings for you!"

"shit," Jay whispers, so quietly that Mal is sure she wasn't supposed to hear it at all. "Dragon, we don't have to do feelings like the Auradon brats. You can just be mine, and I can be yours, and we don't have to do any of the mushy shit that's freaking you out. We can just run away."

"Together."

"Yeah. Unless you spelled somebody else over the fence while I was distracted."

Mal wipes the sleeve of her stolen hoodie across her nose. "Ugh, no. I don't use magic for just anybody."

"See, there you go. I'm honored to be worthy of your magic, your royal evil-ness."

“Fuck off,” Mal groans, and then before she can lose her nerve she steps close enough to cup his face in her hands. There’s no magic this time, but Jay’s skin is hot and soft under her palms, and it feels like there should be magic between them. “I’m the worst girlfriend in the world, so I won’t ever put you through that. I’m selfish, and I’m flaky, and I can’t say that I love you, and I can’t ever promise that I’ll be able to say it.”

Jay’s face is a thundercloud. “Did Ben say you needed to say it back?”

“No, but— Ben’s not here right now. That’s the point. He’s not the person I run to when everything in the world is too much for me to handle. Ben’s sweet and all, but he’s not who I want to be with when I’m upset. Can you imagine what he’d say if I suggested running away from the grounds?”

“What ho good chap, let me summon a car to escort you from the venerable grounds of our fine institution,” Jay picks up her thread, mocking. “And yeah, I guess when you put it that way, it’s pretty silly to think about Ben taking care of you.”

Mal sucks in a breath. “Exactly. He’s sweet, but I don’t know how to deal with sweet, and it feels like the pressure of it is killing me. You know how to push back when I’m being a monster, and I don’t know how to fit that into one of the relationship boxes I’m supposed to use here.”

Jay tips his head into her hands. “We could make our own box.”

“We could.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to be my girlfriend.”

Mal leans in. “I know,” she tells the space between Jay’s parted lips. “I know.”

#my fic #descendants #descendants fic #mal bertha #Jay son of Jafar #carlos de vil #look I have a lot of feelings but they’re all tied up in the complicated nature of being a new student who’s terrified #of being sent back to the isle #and like. I WANT Jal to be cute together #but I think they have to wade through a lot of feelings before they can acknowledge each other and I love them #but they are soooo emotionally incompetent #anyway I am sorry this isn’t the cute Jalentines fic I was trying to write for today #but it’s written and it’s something!#and the name of the game today is writing all the ficlets #quantity not quality babey

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summertimemusician · 7 months

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Linktober Shadow Day 6

Shadow Beast

The Twilight Princess fan in me really came out on this one huh? I blame the sleep deprivation. We never quite addressed the effects of the Twili Magic on Twilight and how it's only sheer force of will and the fact he's so darn kind, Midna's influence and Time teaching him the Song of Healing first being the main factor in making sure he doesn't fall huh? Even more so than the One Cutscene. We also need to talk more about the fact we technically kill Midna's people and how by the end of it all Twi is so changed by the Twilight Realm who's it's own can of worms that, much like Time he can't quite go home as himself me thinks, as a treat to myself

Mostly Twilight x Reader, this goes out to all of the folks who never quite recovered from Twilight Princess and the fact we never got that sequel (I mean it gave us BOTW and TOTK and Wild, but at what cost?), but can be read as Link x Reader either on the platonic or romantic.

Don't think there's any warning this time but might edit later if needed.

Actually yeah there is one warning

TW:

References to body horror typical to Twilight Princess, though I recommend not reading it I'd you're squeamish period.

Even after so long, you and Twilight could still remember the beauty and solemnity of the Twilight Realm, with it’s zircon skies with clouds of trapped fire and rains of viper obsidian.

The silence of the infection upon the realm of light broken only by the echoes of the howling elegy of the Twili and Interlopers who came before creeping over the land like rot and wither over flowers, the lament of the lost spirits of the people and animals of Hyrule falling over your spirit like a shroud, a shared hymm from two worlds reality had been twisted, only both of it’s princess, one filled the luster of empyreal sorrow in her mind and one with the scorch abyssal fury in her heart knowing to see the reflective tragedy befallen to their people. With Link as the one who restored the memory of what once was in both worlds as divinity and calamity sang in his bones and you a witness to the restoration of harmony to the discordant symphony, the two different songs of light and shadow refusing to let go of either of you in an eternal duet.

(Once touched by magic, it shall never leave the one if holds onto Twilight may have been the one with the Beast in his soul, with the howl of a wolf, the bite of shades in his veins and the lament of innocents taking precedence over anything purely because he learned how to silence the whispers of the one’s who made a grab for heaven’s throat and we’re pushed in the cracks of reality for their prideful vánitas even as he could taste it in the back of his tongue, twining around his ribs and overgrowing into his shattered mirror heart like vines, flowering with the divinity and eternal nature of the Hero’s Spirit, already having the hunt of the Fierce Deity in it’s veins and the remains of cursed divinity welcoming the new aspect merrily so he could bear it. The song of the innocent wrongly punished among the sinners rang into your mind, scratched at your skin and dug it’s claws around your throat, chocking you with sorrow and regret, more willing to leave gouges than to let go of someone’s who’s looked into the reverse side of the sacred realm and wept with grief for it’s people and the curse of it’s beauty.

It would never leave you, Link or Zelda, who learned who love the darkness the way Midna did, madness and unsightly delight and all.)

While the people of Hyrule merely became trapped as observers at best, if they were lucky, Midna’s raging grief and resentment quickly became obvious, once she revealed that rotten Zant had done to her and her people, twisted into a new form, distorted in body and trapped in mind like the animals and beasts of Hyrule, their pain driving them in becoming feral attack hounds for the usurper, their howling screams as much sorrow, wailing in an attempt to let their agonized, tortured souls to escape from it’s mouth, a futile attempt to flee from the strain of reality forgetting their true form in favor of Zant’s twisted design, of being used as sentient canvases for cruelty and ruthlessness, of their will being stepped over in favor of corrupting recreation.

Of how it only didn’t quaff down at Midna’s mind because of the nature of her ephemerality, fully beloved by the Realm of Darkness, of how she loathed him for it and wouldn’t wish her fate of that of her people’s on any living or dead soul, once she came to love the Realm of Light through Zelda’s sacrifice.

Which was why, when you saw three of the victims of the telltale twisting from darkness utilized with the intent to drive one insane, a familiar looking plate of stone engraved on the remains of ashes from their identity, the curling of distorted, solid darkness making crooked mishapen manes, bent out of shape from their too long torso and long, long arms adorned with twitching, deformed claws, you feel very justified in way your blood froze, holding onto Wild’s arms and yanking with all you had so his shot will miss, his yelp of surprise swallowed by the bone cracking, blood curdling screech from one of the beasts as a Skyward Strike grazed it’s petrified flesh.

You feel something warm drip down your ears, taste the promise of violence and the cry of lost souls on the back of your tongue and swallow it down as the memory of the Twilight Realm attempted to bite and crack your ribcage to quaff down your heart, to devour it bones and all, calling out in desperation, “Don’t! That’s a person!”

Sky freezes, as still as a statue, Legend curses the heavens crimson in a way you are so glad Wind isn’t around to hear as he retreats Twilight snarls, the wolf in him revolted and disgusted, you wonder if the Twilight is singing in his mind too as he restrains himself from reaching for the crystal as nails just a tad too sharp invite droplets of blood to one hand, grimm as a graveyard “We need to get them together anyway, felling just one won’t be enough.”

You grimace, releasing Wild, keeping your eye on the Shadow Beasts and another on your group, pointedly not mentioning the twitch in Four, amethyst clouding his gaze and the prism of his eyes turning gray with memories you and Twilight both knew all too well, of the grimace in Time’s otherwise stony countenance, you’d wished to avoid bloodshed of whoever was turned against their will, but you and Twilight both knew that might not be possible, death, unfortunately, might be the greatest mercy you can grant these poor souls.

(The Twilight is harmonizing in your ears, jeering, you feel the Interlopers insanity and the Twili’s lament on your teeth. As lovely as it could be cruel, the merry feeling upon meeting, the sorrow at a parting.

If you ever see the Shadow, you might just try indulging the echo by offering it’s blood as tribute. You'd make it hurt. The fact it learned the spell used to deform reality in such a way was cruel and vile.)

“Legend, how is your magic?” shoots Warriors, analyzing, calculating, it snaps the purple back into Four’s gaze, brings his mind back to focus as he reaches into his inventory for his Moon Pearl, Twilight is circling the beasts with single minded purpose, herding them together and prowling as he would as a wolf, Wild thankfully listened to your warning and had switched from the more destructive Flame and Lightning Arrows to ice ones. It doesn’t contain them for long but it gives a few precious seconds to strategize.

Legend catches on, switching to the Ice Rod on one hand and grasping his own Moon Pearl with the other, Sky has another Skyward Strike ready, but doesn’t release it, you switch from your sword to accepting a Magic Rod tossed at you from Wild, “Good enough.”

You breath in shakily, the symphony of the Twilight Realm has quieted, more lament than anthem as it’s Hero steps back, returning to your side, he nods grimly, “... Then, let’s end this quickly.”

You know your will boys will do their best to heal them, and failing that, you hope that they’ll hear the requiem of the Twili rather than the lament once they’re at peace, that they'll find some form of threnody.

It is a horrible thing, to be forced to die as a beast.

#linked universe x reader #linked universe twilight x reader #We really need to talk more about how the Twilight Realm sticks with Twilight and how it's magic never really leaves him #Heck I also want to know what it was like learning to turn into a wolf on his own. I bet that it was quite the process #friendly reminder that Time Twilight Midna and her people can all shake hands over identity and technical body horror #And how the Twilight Realm also likely has it's form of sentience due to the duality of both people like the Interlopers and the Twili #Something something how the difference between light magic dark magic is more about how willing much each reality changes you #and how Twilight more than anything and anyone who was with him on his journey would embody that fine line #Also the conflict between not wanting to kill the people that remind you of your old friend and the echoes all you have left of her realm #and knowing that their fate is so darn awful that death is a mercy #The reason Reader sees the Twilight as they do is because the dark magic latched onto them via association and Twilight's fondness #Maybe I'll elaborate on that later idk lol #Also the reason Dark Link knows the curse Zant used is both because of his nature and a reference to the TP Manga if you know you know #Hero's Shade mauls Zant in it. It's arguably the best thing in any manga I am begging any people who like Twilight and TP to go read it #summer writes linktober shadow 2023 #summer writes #I could go on an entire essay about the relationship between the Realm of Darkness in each game and the Realm of Light and magic in loz #but I doubt anyone would want to hear about it lol

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