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sub-k-pop-archive · 3 years

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what are ur favorite blogs?

Hi! So, I currently follow A LOT of blogs, which made this quite hard to put together, but I tried, lol. If you’re on desktop, you can actually find a few of my favorite blogs listed on my Tumblr page :)

But yeah, since I’m mostly into NCT and SKZ at the moment, this will primarily consist of sub!idol blogs that write for those two groups. Also, I’ve added some non-smut / non-sub!idol blogs that I really like, in case you’d like to check those out too.

With that said, here you go!

Disclaimer: If you aren’t on this list and I follow you, please, don’t take it personally. These blogs are just a small sample of all the blogs I follow and love, so don’t worry, you definitely belong on this list as well! If I follow you or archive your fics, then I love your writing without a doubt ♥

Sub!idol blogs

@drippinlovetalk - one of my favorite blogs of all time. If you’re not following her already, I highly recommend you to do so. Nothing but creative, well-written, and just overall amazing fics. It doesn’t matter who your bias in NCT is, you'll end up reading everyone’s fics anyway because they’re all great.

@lovingonrepeat - love, love, love her blog!! Her fics are so nice to read, I love them. I tend to get distracted easily when I’m reading, but her stories are just so well put together that it’s impossible to stop, lol. But seriously!! I’ve re-read all of her fics multiple times, they’re just that good ♥

@capriccio-con-espressione - oof, this one. Her fics are very intense to me, in a way. I don’t know how to really describe it, but once you check out her work, you’ll understand what I mean. There’s always something to them that makes them really memorable and stand out. And don’t even get me started on her sub!Kun fics, it’s embarrassing how many times I’ve re-read those, lmao. And the sub!Winwin one too!! Gosh, I loved that one so much as well!! Seriously, just check out everything she has, you won’t regret it.

@kisskissbanggang - I love her fics, oh my god. Both the sfw and the nsfw ones, they’re just something else. If anyone wants to read some amazing sub!idol fics with a great plot, character portrayal, and just everything in general, this is the blog for you! I especially love her sub!SKZ fics, but she writes incredible NCT fics as well. They’re just all lovely tbh :’)

@lavenderbexlatte - !!!!!! Another blog that not only writes great sub!idol fics, but they have immaculate plots as well?? And it all just comes together so nicely?? And it’s so captivating too?? Ugh, I just love reading her work so much!! So go and support her as well!! She’s incredibly talented and definitely deserves more love and attention!!

@submissivekpop - one of the first sub!idol blogs I’ve followed, and I still love re-reading her fics to this day. Well-written, great to read, and just overall amazing. I’ve always loved coming back to her blog and checking out her fics whenever I discovered a new kpop group, she never disappoints ♥. Please, give her lots of love and support, she deserves it so much :)

@artificialvoe - another one of my absolute favorites!! I’m a sucker for sub!idol reactions, and this blog is just heaven for me. Lots of different groups, themes, kinks, etc., there’s something for just about everyone. (I’ve also discovered quite a few kinks thanks to this blog, but that is a story for another day entirely-)

@sluttyten - also one of the first sub!idol blogs I’ve followed and one that I still cherish to this day. You have it all here - reactions, imagines, oneshots, series, everything. So much content, talent, and just all things great in one place. I don’t think I’ll ever stop recommending her blog, it’s one of my favorite accounts on all of Tumblr. I’ve literally spent most of my time at my part-time job reading her work, and it made it 1000% better.

@submissive-bangtan - ugh!! The power, the skill, the execution!! If you want to read a perfectly written fic with lots of plot, great dialogue, and beautifully described scenery (in other words: a fic that’s tastefully horny with a great deal of talent), this is a blog for you. It’s also one of the first blogs that introduced me to sub!idol content (and awakened the inner dom), so it holds a special place in my heart. But wait!! There’s more!! Not only does she write great fics, but she has so many interesting astrology & kibbe posts as well!! What’s not to love? Exactly, it’s all amazing. Now go and give Caro the love she deserves, damn it >:(

Non-sub!idol blogs / non-smut blogs

@warmau - my comfort blog, omg. I love her writing style. All of her stories pull you in so easily and are so fun to read! If you ever want to destress, relax after a hard day, or just want to enjoy a heart-warming and beautifully written story, check out her fics!! All of them, in fact!! Right now!! Go!!

@jenomark - I’ve been reading her work today for like what? 5 hours straight? Well, guess what? I don’t regret it in the slightest. As I’ve said, I’m a sucker for reactions/headcanons/imagines/etc., and there are just so many!! And they’re so good too!! How have I not discovered this gem of a blog sooner?? I’m in awe :’)

@neokollection - even though she’s on a hiatus right now, I love going through her blog every now and then and re-reading her work. Another blog that’s just great for whenever you want to relax and be all soft and comfy :> Please give her lots of love, she’s an incredibly talented and hard-working writer ♥

@hoe9for9kpop - so many groups to choose from!! So many incredibly well-written fics!! I’m in love!! One of the first blogs I’ve followed and one that I definitely have a soft spot for. Her content is very diverse, so whatever it is that you’re looking for, you’ll definitely find it here. And not only that, but you’ll discover so many other amazing fics too! Please read them all, they’re great :’(

#this was so hard to choose from #i need to make a part 2 to this #there are just too many talented people here!!#and like i've already said #if you're not here #that doesn't mean that your writing is bad AT ALL #i just couldn't fit everyone here :((#sorry :(#also i hope i got everyone's pronouns and stuff correctly #if not tell me!!#Anonymous

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leviathans-watching · 2 years

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if it isn't too much to request, could we get a more gender neutral thing with the MC being on their period? i'm on mine right now and it's been hard to find comfort writing that isn't for female readers which ESPECIALLY sucks because im. well. Not A Girl dhwhs

AH but of course you don't have to if you feel like it's too repetitive!!!

mc on their period

includes: the bothers x/& gn!reader (no pronouns mentioned)

wc: .6k | rated g | m.list

a/n: i'm sorry you're feeling this way!! i know it's a little late but i hope it helps next time it rolls around or just in general haha. thank you for requesting and i hope you enjoy!! my inbox is open to chat, req, or leave feedback so come say hello <33

warnings: vague and brief mentions of dysphoria

please like and reblog hehe

burying your face in your arms you groan, slumping down.

“what ever is the matter?” lucifer asks, and you lift up your head a little to look at him. he’s got his finger marking where he left off reading and his gaze is steady on you.

“i’m just not having a super great time right now,” you reply, semi-honestly. “life sucks.”

opposite you, belphie nods. asmo smacks him on the shoulder.

“i’m sorry you feel that way,” asmo says, a pout forming. “is it something in particular? you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“yeah,” satan agrees. “and if there’s anything we can do for you, please let us know. we’d be happy to help.”

you smile a little, touched. “thanks, guys. it’s just, you know, that time of the month so i’m extra moody.”

everyone softens slightly at that, familiar now with your feelings about your period and all of the complicated feelings that usually arise along with it.

“that sucks,” mammon says, normally brash tone quieter. “i know in the past chocolate and stuff has helped, do ya want any of that?”

“theoretically, yes,” you sigh. “but i’m not even close to hungry. sometimes my appetite gets screwed up.”

“so that’s why you didn’t eat much for lunch,” beel says, and mammon snorts.

“of course that’s what you’d notice.”

cutting off the potential squabble, lucifer speaks once more. “i’m very sorry you’re feeling like this. i know you don’t feel your best during menstruation but we’re all willing to do whatever you need. and if you want us to just drop the subject and not bring it up again right now, we’re more than willing to do that too.”

looking around at all of their stupidly sincere and kind expressions makes you know that what lucifer’s saying is the truth. the boys rarely agree on anything, but when it comes to you and your wellbeing, you’ve found their thinking aligns more often than not. you bury your face in your arms once more and bite your cheek.

“uh, mc?” levi says after a moment, and you hear a soft thud, followed by a quiet ‘ow’. asmo could probably reach him too.

“i’m okay,” you say. “just trying to get a handle on these stupid emotions i suddenly have. thank you, lucifer. i really appreciate it. and i’m okay with talking about it, but it was kind of you to check my boundaries.”

“of course,” lucifer replies, and a soft touch lands on your shoulder. beel, probably, since he was on that side of you. “kindness has nothing to do with it, though. it’s just basic decency.”

“that’s true.” you huff out a laugh, sitting up fully once more. beel’s hand- you’d assumed correctly -shifts but doesn't fall. you lean into the touch slightly. “but still, thank you.”

“think nothing of it,” satan cuts in. “i also wanted to add that if we ever do or say anything, not only about this, that is invalidating or insensitive to please let us know. i know i, and probably everyone here just wants to respect and love you in the way you deserve.”

“you’re all doing a great job of that, so don’t worry,” you say. “i’d say something if you weren’t, but again, thank you.”

stupid respectful boys who make your heart feel like it’s going to burst.

getting your period really sucks but at least you have them.

leviathans-watching's work - please do not copy, repost, or claim as your own

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lazzledazzler · 3 years

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Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

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

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

Initial thoughts upon playing...

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

Let's hear some thoughts on...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

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

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's talk about Pros

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's talk about Cons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

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

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

Let's talk about Love~

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

Confessions

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

Love Events

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

Dating

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

Marriage Event

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

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

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

So is RF5 good?

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

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

#rune factory 5 #rf5 spoilers #rune factory #rf5 #spoilers #review #rune factory 5 spoilers

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sugarmaplewings-fics · 3 years

Text

Touch Starved

Pairing: Bakugou x reader

Warnings: Cursing, sfw fwb dynamic (lmao it’s secret hugging)

A/N:

*heavy breathing* I finally finished it!! I’ve had this request sitting in my inbox for literal months and I’m so sorry, anon, that you had to wait so long 😫. I hope you like what I came up with!

Also I ended up using she/her pronouns a bit towards the end, so if you’d like me to edit it so it has they/them I can repost it! Just let me know :)

-Sugar

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● Bakugou's never been much for physical affection

● Or, at least, so he'd convinced himself

● Even around his family, he found himself shrinking back from hugs

● And anytime one of his friends would try to put an arm around him or pat him on the back, he'd flinch and tense up (Kirishima and Kaminari had a few special privileges, but even they were on thin fucking ice)

● A part of him craved that touch, wished it could last longer

● But his ego always got in the way

● From a young age, he'd viewed acts like this as showing weakness and vulnerability. It's no surprise that by the time he arrives at UA, the longing is a mostly ignorable dull throb

● Until he got to know you

● You were one of the most sickeningly sweet people Bakugou had ever seen, and he despised you

● You were just as bad as that Shitty Hair, if not worse; always grinning and trying to include everyone, even him

● He hated how his eyes seemed to have a mind of their own around you, never letting you leave their gaze when you were around him. He hated how your laugh made his cheeks heat up and his heart pound in his chest. And most of all, he hated when the tips of your fingers would brush against his arm, or when you tried to lean on his shoulder. You truly were the most intolerable of beings

● And it seems like you're even worse today

● Class was about to start and you were talking with Ashido, Kirishima, and Kaminari

● He honestly wasn't even paying attention to the conversation, that is, until he heard his name mentioned

● His red eyes flicked to you, since it had been your voice he'd heard say his name

● You had definitely been trying to get his attention. Now your gaze was directed at him

● "I've never seen you hug anyone, Bakugou," you said, your head tilted slightly as you addressed him

● "The hell does that have to do with anything?" he grumbled, already getting annoyed at the topic of conversation

● "Well, I read the other day that hugs can make you happier! And you always seem so grumpy all the time, so I was wondering if you just needed more hugs."

● You seemed oblivious to the way your classmates were staring at you. Even Bakugou couldn't bring himself to speak, merely glaring at you with a confused, almost offended expression

● Panicking at his lack of response, you bent down and threw your arms around his shoulders. You thought you heard a gasp from one or two of your classmates behind you

● Bakugou seemed to have no reaction other than mild shock. He just froze there, neither pushing you off nor reciprocating

● The whole thing was over within a few seconds, but it felt as though it had actually lasted much, much longer. Seconds after you pulled away, the bell rang for class to start, and everyone had to go back to their seats

● There was an abnormal silence in the class after that. It was as if nearly every student was thinking, Holy crap, (L/N) just hugged Bakugou freaking Katsuki

● Bakugou was weirdly silent too. It seemed as if he hadn't had any reaction at all

● Sike—it was pure chaos inside his head

● He's just been pounded with a whole slew of new feelings and emotions—give the boy a break (and a minute to process)

● He can scarcely pay attention during class (which he can afford to do, it's not like he doesn't already know most of this stuff)

● Katsuki can't tell if he hated it or not

● His immediate instinct is to reject it and say it was awful . . . but he can't deny that there's a teeny tiny part of his brain that wants you to do it again

● No one can ever know this, of course. He has a reputation to maintain, after all

● But in the safety of his own mind, he replays it over and over, trying to remember every detail of how your arms had felt around him for that brief moment

● Boy was hooked on you even more than he had been before

● But it's not like anyone can tell. Bakugou's good at that. No one would ever be able to tell he had any feelings towards the incident at all, negative or positive

● Even after his friends bombard him with questions after class, he gruffly brushes them all off. He acts so uninterestingly about it, they don't even bother asking him about it again

● Bakugou hopes that this will all blow over within the next few days. He'd surely stop thinking about you all the time, right? Maybe somehow, if he ignored these thoughts, his eyes wouldn't trail after you on their own accord, and his mind wouldn't jump at every opportunity to think about you

● For weeks, he told himself this, and time passed to nearly two months. He avoided you at all costs, refusing to speak to you or even make eye contact

● You felt horrible, blaming it on the dumb mistake you'd made to hug him that morning. No matter how hard you tried to approach him to apologize, he'd turn you away, and soon enough, you'd given up

● Until one night, he couldn't take it anymore

● He had just been fantasizing about that moment again, and tentatively wondering how it would feel to put his arms around you while he was out in the dorm hallway

● Even through the haze of his thoughts, he was quick to notice your head of hair about to turn into the hallway to your room

● You. Bubbly, bright, overly touchy and friendly you. Fuck you.

● You were always hugging everyone, right? You didn't really mean anything by it, right? It was no big deal when you hugged other people. So, maybe if he were to just ask . . .

● "Oi."

● You froze in your tracks. You'd caught sight of him in the hall, but you knew better than to try to attract his attention. He was dead set on avoiding you, and you'd pretty much accepted that by now

● Turning, you met his fiery red eyes for the first time in weeks. "Yeah?"

● There was something . . . apprehensive in his expression. You weren't sure if you'd ever seen anything like it on his face before

● "Get over here, I want to ask you something." He shoved his hands in his pockets, shifting his glare to the carpet below him

● Uncertain of what might be going on, you cautiously made your way to him

● "What is it?" you asked, a little annoyed with how he'd been treating you lately

● "I, um, well—remember that thing you did a while ago?"

● You blinked at him, slowly. "I do a lot of things. You need to be more specific."

● You'd never seen him look so flustered. It was almost . . . cute

● "You—um, you hugged me. Remember?"

● Of course you remembered. That was what had made him hate you in the first place, right?

● You sighed and crossed your arms. "Look, I'm sorry I did that. I know it made you uncomfortable and I'm sorry it affected you so much. Really, I was just goofing around, and I'm sorry it got out of hand."

● He blinked at you. You were apologizing? Oh, maybe it did make sense, now that he thought about it. He had been being an ass to you

● "Is that what you wanted?" you asked. "I tried to apologize a long time ago but you wouldn't even look at me—"

● "Could you do it again?" he cut you off

● ". . . apologize?"

● "What?! No!" Bakugou's face reddened and he scanned the surroundings for a potential audience. He dropped his voice to a scarcely audible mumble. "I . . . —dammit, I want you to hug me again."

● You blinked at him, this time in surprise. You had, in fact, heard him, but you could barely believe it. You only knew that you'd understood him correctly by his posture, and how uncharacteristically flustered he was

● "You want another hug?"

● He scowled. "Don't make me say it twice."

● "So you liked it the first time?"

● "I never said that!"

�� "Uh-huh."

● Even with your annoyed teasing, you felt as if you might be able to understand a little. Everything seemed to make more sense to you, and you were beginning to catch onto the bigger picture. He'd been embarrassed that he liked it, and that was why he'd been avoiding you

● "So do you want a hug now or—?"

● "Not where anyone could see!" Bakugou's eyes nervously darted around again. "We could . . . go in my room or something." His voice had dropped back to a mumble

● You snorted and rolled your eyes. "Secret hugs, huh? I didn't know I was in such high demand."

● "Shut up, dumbass. Just follow me."

● You do that, letting him lead you into his room. After he shuts the door behind you, you stand there awkwardly for a second

● "So . . . you just wanted a hug?"

● He shrugged. "Yeah."

● You closed the distance between you and took him into your arms

● He stiffened a little at the contact, heart pounding away in his chest. It was even better than he had remembered, and now he noticed even more things; like the way your chest felt pressed against his body, and how your hair smelled like shampoo, and—

● "Relax, idiot," you whispered beside his ear. Bakugou tried to let out some of the tension in his shoulders and even tried looping his own arms around you

● You snickered internally, until a thought struck you

● When you finally pulled away, you looked at him inquisitively. "When was the last time you hugged someone?" you asked. "Other than me."

● He frowned, still a little flustered. Then he shrugged. "I don't know. It's probably been a few years."

● You couldn't help but feel your heart pang a little bit for the boy. You knew how he felt about interacting with people. You'd seen how adverse he'd seemed towards physical interaction, even among his friends

●Touch starved, you thought. It was an awful thing to experience. Bakugou probably wasn't even aware of what he was missing

● You sighed. "We can do this again if you want," you offered, wondering if the proposition would set him off to ignore you again. "I won't tell anyone."

● "Better not," he muttered under his breath

● "Do you want me to come back or not?" you asked

● He shrugged. "S'whatever. Do whatever."

● You frowned right back at him. "Yes. Or no?"

● "Yes! Yes, come over here and hug me or whatever shit! Just—just leave now."

● You rolled your eyes at him, turning and twisting the doorknob. "Just ask when you're ready," you said before walking out of his room again

● Bakugou stared at the door for a long time after you'd left

● His chest felt like it had little explosions going off in it, and he couldn't help but feel ridiculously giddy

● What was he doing? But it had felt . . . amazing. And you'd offered to do it again, whenever he asked . . . .

● . . . You proved to stand by your word

● Sure enough, he'd catch you alone every few days and sneak off to his room for a quick hug. In return, he'd help you go over your notes for class

● Before long, you couldn't help but feel closer to Bakugou. Even with his harsh nature, you noticed how he could really be. Coupled with the moments of vulnerability he'd let you in on while you hugged in secret, your liking for the boy only grew

● And it did seem to have some effect on his mood. He wasn't so easily set off, and he yelled a bit less. Your fellow classmates didn't bring up the change, but they had certainly noticed it

● Even though no one was allowed to know about your shared moments together, Kirishima would often join you for a study session

● During those days, you'd wait until he left before going in to give Bakugou his hug

● Until the inevitable happened

● It was just you and Bakugou in his room. You'd gotten all your stuff packed up for the night and you were giving him one last hug

● He'd gotten better at it over the past couple of weeks, and he'd learned to relax more into your hold

● Of course, that was right when Kirishima came back in

● "Sorry, dude, I left my—" He froze at the sight before him

● Bakugou jumped back from you, trying to look as though it wasn't obvious what he'd just been doing

● "Sorry, guys!" he said, hovering in the doorway for a moment as he debated whether or not to grab whatever he'd forgotten before dashing back out. Ultimately he decided to go emptyhanded, slamming the door shut as he whisked back into his room

● You looked at Bakugou, trying to gauge how he'd taken this turn of events. He looked angry and flustered (a look on him you were starting to get used to), but he definitely could have looked more outraged

● You patted his back. "Are you okay?"

● The blond seemed speechless for once, unable to take his eyes off the door

● "It's just Kirishima," you assured him. "He'd get it. He's understanding."

● Bakugou wasn't so sure

● A few minutes after you left, there was another knock at Bakugou's door

● "What the hell do you want?"

● Kirishima poked his head in, making sure the coast was clear. "I just wanted my notebook back."

● Bakugou picked it up from his desk and launched it at Kirishima's head, which he barely managed to catch

● "Thanks, man." Even with his originally sought after item, the redhead proceeded to step into his friend's room. "So what's going on with you and (L/N)?"

● There it was, the question Bakugou knew was coming

● "Nothing." At least it wasn't a complete lie

● "No, you two were doing something," Kirishima smirked. "Are you dating in secret or something?"

● "What?! No! It's not like that! And besides, it's none of your fucking business."

● Kirishima shrugged. "That's fair. But if you're not dating, why was she hugging you?"

● Bakugou tched. "She hugs everyone, you know her."

● "Yeah, but you were hugging her back."

● "She just gives really nice hugs!"

● Kirishima pouted. "You never hug me."

● "That's because it's different!"

● "So does that mean you like her or something?"

● Bakugou froze for just a split second too long. "No."

● Kirishima gave him a look. "She might like you back. Just ask her out on a date."

● "I already said it wasn't like that—"

● Bakugou's friend shrugged. "Well, if it was . . . couldn't hurt to try."

● Once Kirishima was successfully kicked from Bakugou's room, he took a moment to think. Could he actually . . . like you? Maybe that would explain some of the things that he'd been feeling lately

● But what about you? Could you like him back?

● Bakugou rolled his shoulders. Of course you'd like him, what part of him wasn't perfect? But still . . . .

● One night a few days later, you were alone with Bakugou again in his room, doing homework together

● You couldn't help but notice that his vibe seemed off, and it looked like he was having trouble concentrating

● "Are you alright?" you finally asked him

● "Yeah," he snapped

● "You seem stressed," you commented.

● "I'm not fucking stressed," he said, refusing to meet your eyes as he glared at his notebook in front of him

● "Okay, then," you muttered, rolling your eyes to yourself and attempting to go back to your own notes

● You watched Bakugou fidget from the corner of your eye, but decided not to pay it any mind anymore. It wasn't long before you noticed that he hadn't turned a page in his book for the past several minutes

● Bakugou was, of course, internally raging

● Why couldn't he ask you a simple question? Did he even know what kind of question he wanted to ask, though?

●Go out on a date with me— too forward, it didn't sound right to him in his head

●For some reason, I think I might like you— no again, that wasn't right either

● His mind rolled over various phrasings, trying to figure out how to put his feelings to words. How was he supposed to do that?

● How could he iterate this weird burning mess he felt clawing in his chest every time he looked at you and touched you? How could he say that he wanted more than what you were doing? How was he supposed to get the reaction out of you that he wanted?

●Be fearless, he told himself. He'd faced worse than this before. He'd been through situations where his life had literally been on the line. How come you, of all people, made him feel more frightened than ever before? Why did he care about your opinion of him so goddamn much??

● He had to start somewhere. Maybe once he got going it would be easier

● "Oi," he said, straining to keep his voice steady and nonchalant as you looked up at his averted eyes

● "Yeah?"

● "I was . . . I was wondering if maybe you wanted to . . . study somewhere else sometime."

● You blinked at him. "Like . . . where?"

● He shrugged, just a bit too jerkily. "I don't know. There's this café a few blocks from campus."

● You squinted at him. "What's wrong with staying here?"

● He scowled, his eyes finally darting up to meet yours before dipping back down again. "I just wondered if we could maybe—do something together. Something a little different."

● A hint of realization dawned on you, causing a smile to alight on your lips and your eyebrow to quirk up. "Different like—a date? Are you asking me out on a date with you?"

● He shrugged again in the same manner, still scowling as he muttered, "Only if you want it to be."

● You considered for a moment. He was a decent enough guy. If you were being completely honest with yourself, you might say you'd developed a bit of a crush on him, actually. You'd never paid too much attention to it before, but now that he was asking . . . it couldn't hurt to try

● "Of course I'll go out with you," you said, breaking into an easy smile that Bakugou still wasn't certain if he adored or hated

● He immediately relaxed, a small smile of his own appearing on his face at your agreement

● He was glad it was you. You were the only person he felt comfortable being vulnerable around. He could already tell that he was growing to like you more and more with each passing day, and he could only hope that you felt the same

● You put up with him, and you were strong in your own way, and by goodness, he was beginning to fall for you so hard

● And maybe, if you agreed for him to be your boyfriend, you'd let him cuddle with you. It wouldn't be awkward, because that's what couples did. You'd be his and he'd be yours, and he wouldn't have to bottle up these annoying feelings anymore

● But that would be decided at some later time

● Even so, he couldn't wait for that day to come

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Taglist: @basicaegyo @fourteenow @iiminibattlehero @katsugay @nabo39 @pyrofanatic @sendhelpimstupid @xoxopam4

#bakugou katsuki #bakugou bnha #bakugou imagine #katsuki bakugou imagine #bakugou katsuki imagine #bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #reader insert #request fulfilled!#sugar fics

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vemuabhi · 3 years

Text

One Piece Boys Valentines Special!

Soulmate + One Piece AU where whatever happens to your soulmate will appear on your wrist.

Pairing : One Piece Boys X GN! Reader

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

A/N : I was listening to I need you by BTS (Clickable). It gives the love vibes. Do listen to it if you want to! You wont regret it. the feels are just everyting!

Note: in this Story it can be with any one piece boy you wish for. It can be Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Ussop, Law, Sabo, Ace, Killer, Kidd, anyone you admire. anyone you like. for some charecters it maybe OOc but, I tried to make it as close to them as possible. It will be in his POV

“This is in His POV”

As the sun rays hit my eyes, I slowly open my eyes. I grunt as I rolled to the other side of the bed. I took a deep breath and as the usual morning routine I bring my wrist close to my eyes and see what is going to happen to my soulmate today. It said, “Falls down while taking a walk and takes the attention of the complete crowd”.

Most of the times it is small normal everyday life stuff. Once it was, “Studying for Test all night”, for which I felt Super proud and other time it was “Crying because messed the exam”, on that day I was also sad because they were crying and did hard work. Once it was “being called names” and other time was, “Moving away from that place”. Not gonna lie, I was furious because they had to go through bullying.

Most of my mood depends on how my soulmate is doing that day. If I see that they are happy and cosy, I feel happy. If they are sad because of someone, I get super angry. If they are depressed, I feel sad. But yes… I fell in love with them without even noticing. I know neither their name nor face. But I do know one thing for sure. I got one hell of a person. They are amazing and I’d love them no matter what. I’m pretty sure they also like me. Because sometimes I read that they were depressed and crying because of the injuries and problems I was having. Well they could also read what was happening to me because it’s how the world is. In those times I do feel relieved and happy because they do care about me and my heart fills with that fuzzy feeling.

I let out a chuckle as I read todays happening. I know it’s wrong to laugh when someone falls down but… I couldn’t help it. “So adorable”, I say to myself as I looked at my wrist and kiss the sentence. Then I lazily woke up from the bed and continued my routine for the day.

After lunch my buddy asked me, “Man… you sure are smiling today. Something happened?” I nodded and said, “It’s just that my soulmate will be super embarrassed today, so I can’t help but laugh”. He chuckled and we talk about the upcoming works to do. That night I go to my bed and plop myself on it. I think about how my soulmate is as I smile and sleep.

The next day I see that, “Getting a crush on the new boy next door”…. ‘Wait what? Did I read it correctly?’ I thought to myself as I reread the sentence for at least 10 times. ‘Oh lord… Imma kill that jerk’, I say to myself.

I know that crushes don’t last long and yeah I know that my soulmate loves me but…. what the hell?! I can’t allow that! “IF I SEE THAT JERK IMMA BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM”, I scream out loud making the people around me give me the weird look. I am so much pissed today that even the smallest things are pissing me off… ‘Is he that handsome?’, I thought to myself as I run my fingers through my hair. ‘Oh lord this jealousy doesn’t suit me. I hate this feeing’, I thought as I continued being moody for the rest of the day. I couldn’t sleep properly that night so I just stare at the night sky and keep thinking about them as I pout. I look at my wrist and whisper, “I am the only one for you. Get it to your head you idiot”.

I kept looking at my wrist and then I feel a slight sting on my wrist and I continued looking at it. Then I see that a new sentence was being formed. I have seen it many times but every time this happens it makes me so excited like a small baby. It is so magical. I read the new sentence on the wrist and blush hard. ‘Damn it’, I think to myself as I cover my face with my hand. I then again open my eyes and look at my wrist and read the sentence. ‘Continuing to be super happy because Soulmate is jealous’. I chuckle reading that sentence as my cheeks still remained pink. ‘So happy that Im jealous huh.. you little... tsk... still cute though.... Well at least now I know that you are smiling because of me’. I say and plop onto my sheets and close my eyes with a smile still lingering on my face.

After some days of normal peaceful happy days, with me and my soulmate being cheerful, I go to a new island with my buddies. It was a bright beautiful day. We explore the island, eat food and drink alcohol. Just like that the day was close to over and I was alone, walking in a park with the night sky beautifully lit with stars. Then I felt a slight sting on my wrist. I look at it waiting for the words to appear. Then, I see the words that I never expected but was waiting for the most to show up on my skin. I almost forget to breathe when I look at those words. My eyes wide open and heart beating faster than ever.

‘Meeting Soulmate’, was written on it. My eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing. I take deep breaths and sit on the bench beside me. I was speechless. I was amazed by this. ‘but.. how am I going to recognise them? how are they going to react when they see me? Would they even like a person like me, who always gets into fights? who has lots of scars.. would they accept me? what if they reject me?’, insecurities build up with in my heart. ‘Or worst… what would happen if we don’t even recognise each other?’, I couldn’t keep my thoughts in control. the only thing Mattered was them. ‘I'll search for you. I'll confess to you. no matter how you look, no matter what your gender or pronouns are, I will try my best to find you’, I say to myself and run around the island. That was a sleepless night. I ran around all the places to find them. Asked many peoples if they were meeting their soulmate that day, but every single time I got the same response.

“No, I’m sorry”, said the person whom I just asked.

‘Where are you?’, I thought and continue to search for them. it was already evening, but I couldn’t find them. The complete day, I didn’t feel like stopping for even a second. But now…. I got to the same park again after running around the island. I had no luck finding them. ‘Where are you?’, I thought as I again sit on the same bench as yesterday… all alone still... ‘Did you see me but didn’t like me? Do you like someone else? If you did I’d know by now… where can I find you? Where are you?’, I placed my hand on my head and my elbow on my knees. ��Did I not notice you even though we met?’, I thought some of the worst case scenarios as my tears began to fall down my cheek. I couldn’t help but sob silently. I was immersed in my thoughts then I saw a person crouch down before me with a kerchief in their hand. “Sorry to ask this when you are crying but, are you by any chance looking for your soulmate?”, they asked. I.. I was speechless so, I just showed my wrist to them, and they smiled and showed me theirs, it said, ‘Meeting your fated in the park’.

I didn’t know what to say. It was the first time I saw those shiny bright eyes and beautiful face. That was my soulmate. They got up and wiped my tears then, they said, “I’ve been waiting to meet you for a long time.”

That moment, I lost my control. I swiftly got up and pulled them into my arms. I buried my head in the crook of their neck and nodded. I felt their arms wrap around me as they rubbed soothing circles on my back. “I love you”, I confessed as they gasped.

I continued, “I know… I don’t even know your name. But… I love you. I love every single thing about you. Your kindness, your nature, your behaviour. I love how you are passionate about small things. The way you jam to the music everyone thinks is weird. The way you still be strong even after being bullied. I admire them so much. Those little traits of yours are mesmerising.", I stop and snif, then continue, "I never saw the guy who lives next door to you but I hate him with all my heart”. Then for the first time, they let out a very adorable giggle. ‘Oh... music to my ears when you laugh’, I thought.

Then we slowly pull apart. I see that their cheeks are flushed pink which was also too cute. They slowly reach up to my hand and kiss the place where the writing was making me blush. Because.. I do that many times and now, they kisses my wrist. They look into my eyes and said, “I also love you”. this made my heart flutter with happiness.

They sat down on the bench and I too obliged. We talked about all the things that we wanted to talk about and trust me my heart was about to burst when they leaned on my shoulder and continued talking with me. Thank you for being my soulmate, Y/N.

XOXOXOXOXO

I hope you enjoyed it! Happy Valentines Day! Celebrate your valentine's day with One piece boys!

Did you like the story or the song. Tell me how you feel by giving me a Like, Comment and Reblog. Thanks for Reading!

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havingamentalbreakdowneveryminut · 3 years

Text

Secrets: Chapter 1

I watched as Dina switched seats with Bradley, subconsciously cursing her for leaving me and Syd alone with Bradley Lewis.

I watched as Bradley smugly took one of Dina's fries. Dina has got be kidding with this guy.

I reached for the straw of the milkshake me, Syd, and Dina had been sharing, only it was the same time as Syd reached for it. My head immediately turned to look at them, just to see they were already looking at me-- Oh yeah I forgot to mention I have little crush on one of my best friends...

Okay, so maybe it's not little, but can you blame me they are like really attractive. The only problem is they probably don't like me back.

Right now we are at a diner that Syd's mom works at, because Dina had some news, she said it was good news. But, dating Bradley Lewis is never good news.

"So--" Bradley said, watching as me and Syd's heads snapped in his direction.

"Dina's just great isn't she." Bradley said, smiling sweetly at us.

"Yup." I said, giving Bradley my fakest smile turning to Syd for help but they had their head down and were mixing the milkshake with the straw. I bit my lip, looking around the diner. Only Dina would leave us with a douchebag and take her sweet time to get the ketchup as she spoke to one of waiters.

Bradley chuckled realizing Syd still hadn't said anything. "Jesus. Do you ever smile?" he said, still scarfing down Dina's fries. I turned to Syd not really expecting a reply, they glared up at Brad continuing to play with the straw, not even gonna lie it was kind of hot.

Only a couple seconds later Dina came back sliding into the booth next to Brad, I was relieved for about 30 seconds, until they started talking to each other.

"So what have we decided?" She said, happily. Putting the ketchup - that she was taking 1 decade to get - on the fries. Brad smiled, chewing before replying.

"Whatever you want babe."

I think I just threw up in my mouth.

I looked at Syd from the corner of my eye to see them staring at Brad with irritation and anger. I knew it was best not to bother them when they got like this, so I took a sip of the milkshake trying to ignore the couple flirting in front of me.

"Oh shit!" Brad exclaimed, making me look up from the milkshake to see Dina and Brad trying to quickly stop the bleeding coming from his nose. I don't understand why they were acting so dramatic it was just a nose bleed and they were acting like he just got shot.

I didn't miss Syd's scared reaction though.

------

Once Bradley and Dina got the bleeding to stop, I turned to Syd giving them a soft look they stared at me with an 'I'm sorry' expression for a little bit, before getting up arubtly mumbling "I have to go" before rushing out of the diner.

I watched them go, with a sad expression that Dina must have caught because she gave me an apologetic expression, I gave her a small smile, before standing up and grabbing my backpack.

I turned to Bradley. "Brad." I said, bitterly. Before turning to Dina with a smile "See you tomorrow Dina." Before walking around the table and whispering in her ear.

"If he hurts you, I'll kick his ass." Causing her to giggle, as I walked out of the diner.

------

I walked home with music blasting in my ears. I loved music there is never really a time where I'm not listening to music-- well except when I'm with Syd and Dina. Syd and Dina were my only friends in this shitty town, that I've lived in since I was 3.

Not only do I live in a shitty town but I also live with shitty parents, they both work at a company that pays them A LOT of money, they work in the company with Bradley Lewis' parents. Which sucks, because that means we have to have dinners with them and listening to Brad explain why he is the most popular guy at school isn't exactly the best way to end your night.

I sighed as I finally reached my house, it was 2 stories tall and I live here with my mom, dad, little sister, and older brother.

I walked into my house, hanging my backpack up on the coat hook, being caught by surprise when my little sister runs out of her room and hugs my legs.

"Y/n, you're back!" Lea said, with big smile on her face. I smile down at her, "I am." I chuckled, before bending down to pick her up.

Lea was 4, but she was very smart and mature for her age. She was the first person I came out to as genderfluid, and even though she didn't quite understand it, she tried her best to respect it unlike my parents--

"Y/n?" Speak of the devil.

"Yup!" I said, looking up to see my mom standing in front of me with her arms crossed, as she looked over my outfit. I rolled my eyes at her, before turning back to my sister.

"Go find Leo and see if he wants to play with you." I smiled at Lea, as she ran down the hall to go find my older brother Leo. After I knew that Lea was gone, my smile was immediately gone.

I avoided my mom's glare as I walked past her and into my room, I could hear her footsteps following me but I ignored them as I walked over to my book shelf and picking up a book to read, before turning around looking at my mom with an annoyed expression. "What?" I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me, "Why are you dressing like that?"

I looked at my mom with confusion before looking down at my outfit.

(You can choose one of these two outfits if you'd like)

I looked back up at her, "Like what?"

She sighed in frustration. "Like-- like one of those goth people!"

I stared at her for a moment, before putting the book down and making my way downstairs I really didn't want to listen to her lecture right now. I opened the fridge grabbing a bottle of water, getting ready for yet another fight with my mom.

"Y/n, you do not walk away from me! Especially, when I'm talking to you!" My mom exclaimed pointing her finger at me as I drank my water looking at her with a bored expression.

"I know why you're doing this to me." She said, matter of factly. I glared at her. Oh, does she?

"You know you will always be a girl right? Nothing you do or say is gonna change that. You have the body parts of a girl, the mind set of a girl. You even look like one. You are a girl and you are gonna start acting like one. I don't care about all this internet stuff about the-- nonbinary people. You. Are. A. Girl." She finished. I looked back up with tears in my eyes, not daring to let one slip.

"Fuck. You." I said, getting up and speed walking to the front door, and running out of it. I walked and walked and walked, until I finally stopped and ended up at my favorite spot it was in the forest, it had a big rock right in the middle, that I liked to sit on and think away, from everyone and everything. I finally let the tears slip, knowing I was alone and I could finally let go inviting the darkness of the forest in. I had never really been scared of the dark as I always found comfort in it.

I got up and start wandering the forest touching the trees, I know it sounds weird and impossible but it felt like I had this weird connection with nature, I sometimes come across animals while in the forest, I don't walk up to them - I know better - instead I just admire them from afar.

I spotted a wolf-- Wait. A wolf? They don't even live in Pennsylvania. I stared at the wolf in confusion, and only a few seconds later it turned it's head to look at me. I stared into it's brown eyes, it looked like it was trying to tell me something.

"Y/n?" I heard someone say my name causing me to jump in surprise and look around in confusion. "Over here dumbass." The same voice said again, I slowly turned. No way. It can't be the wolf. There is no fucking way.

"Yes there is a way." The voice- wolf said.

"How the fuck are you talking right now." I said, in disbelieve.

"Okay, I know this probably freaking you out, so I should just take my human form." The wolf-- voice said. Human form?! What the fuck was this thing?! A fucking shapeshifter? I felt a tap on my shoulder that pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see a person a little bit taller then me, they were wearing a loose oversized plaid lapel jacket, with skinny jeans, and turtle neck underneath, and combat boots on it's feet. They looked pretty warm to be honest.

"What. The. Fuck." I said, backing away from the so called person.

"Hi." It said in a cheery voice. Why the fuck are they so happy? I'm freaking out.

"You are y/n y/l/n right?" They asked. How the hell did it know my name?!

"...yeah. Who wants to know?" I said, in a nervous voice. Dammit! Come on y/n you have to be tough.

"No you don't. I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm Jamie." They said, in a softer voice, holding out it's hand for me to shake. I slowly shook it's hand looking at them suspiciously. They pulled their hand away happily, sighing in content.

"So!--" It said, causing me to jump. I watched as they looked around the forest. I stared at it with a blank expression. "Well, you gonna show me where I will be staying?" They asked, stating it as if they expected me to.

"Huh-- what, I don't even know you." I exclaimed, furrowing my eyebrows together. Jamie gave me a confused expression.

"...I just told you my name like 2 minutes ago-- Man, do you even listen?" It chuckled, getting distracted by a bird, leaving me confused in my thoughts.

What. The. Fuck. Is going on?

Okay so that was the first chapter I hope it wasn't too bad. I feel like I'm going to like writing this fic a lot. Since I actually took the time to think and write these characters correctly. By the way Jamie is agender and they use they/it pronouns. Just in case you didn't catch that. Syd’s POV will most likely be in the next chapter. I will write y/n povs first and then Syd’s POV of what happened if that makes any sense. - Dove <3

#sydney novak x reader #i am not okay with this #genderfluid #gender nonconforming #fanfiction #lgbtq #dina ianowt #nonbinary

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nerdynuala · 3 years

Note

hc/ oneshot of levi coaching hanji bc they were about to fight w the mp bc someone was making fun of them?

First off, I'm so so sorry anon I really took my sweet time with this one.

The thing is I don't usually write anything beside very random headcanons when inspiration hits lol

I've been debating whether to try this or redirect you to a fanfic writer's blog since I'm not confident about my writing and my English is kinda rubbish imo.

But yeah, in the end I gave it a try. Also, sorry Anon but I'm not sure if I got exactly what you were asking for, and I went full MP huge fight mode. And it's kinda turned into vets stuff. I still suggest you ask a writer to do this, there's many cool blogs out there who can do a much better job in half the time lol

Anyway, if you wanna read my poor attempt at writing, here it is.

Warning: just some swearing, she/her pronouns for Hange

"Look, if it isn't the crazy bitch from the Survey Corps" a man with a raspy voice barked.

Hange dreaded those meetings with the MPs, no one in the Survey Corps could stand them, to be honest, but still, they had to put up the façade and feign some civil behaviour for the sake of the Scouts and the funding. Hange was well aware she had trouble controlling her temper most of the times, and experience taught her that she couldn't stand the Military Police talking badly about her comrades.

She knew that Levi and herself together managed to make a few scenes before, and Erwin particularly stressed it every time before one of these meetings. "And please, please I beg all of you to refrain from making scenes or even talking back to anyone. We're there to make a good impression, we need funds and fo heaven's sake the last thing we need is for them to have an excuse to think even less of us and undermine our funds" he said every time, with a pointed look directed at Levi and Hange.

She turned and stared right at the Military Police man who was talking about her. She smiled and waved, "Yes, that would be me, it's a pleasure to meet you!".

Levi snorted at the facial expression the idiot made. He hoped that Hange brushing him off like that would settle it, but he had been to enough meetings to know it wasn't over at all.

"She probably didn't score high enough to get into the good Corps. That's what they do isn't it?" the man nudged a colleague in the chest, gesturing towards Hange.

"Aye, scoring shit and then ending up in some titan's mouth. They're replaceable anyway" the pug-faced man joined the teasing.

Levi could sense Hange tense next to him. He knew what she felt, he loathed hearing comments about his comrades just as much as she did.

She laughed it off, though. "Maan I would love to watch the insides of a Titan! What do we have to lose? Another cadet will score shit and they can take my place. Unless some of you feel the thrill of bravery once in your life and decide to join" she shrugged. "Who knows".

Levi knew this could only get worse. He tugged her sleeve. "Hange, come, let's join Mike and Erwin".

"My, my, if it isn't humanity strongest!"

"The underground scum you mean"

"No, no, he's a hero now, isn't he? Should've been thrown to prison and was rescued by Smith like a fucking stray dog"

Both men laughed, while others were gathering around.

"Shut the fuck up all of you!" Levi admitted to himself he would have snapped just like that, but Hange had anticipated him. His eyes went slightly wide for a moment, but then his lips briefly curled up in a small smirk upon seeing the fervor in Hange's brown orbs.

He would have loved to join her and teach a lesson to those morons, sure, but they promised Erwin.

He tugged again at her sleeve. "Oi, it's not worth our time, let's go".

The MPs laughed. "Only thing that's worth the time or your sorts is getting minced up by some stinky titan's mouth".

Hange tensed and she opened her mouth to strike back, but Levi gently made her turn to face him.

"Let's not get into trouble", he said, staring directly in her eyes.

"But Levi you should-"

"Yeah I want to break their fucking noses as much as you do. But we promised Erwin" he tugged once more.

The MPs laughed again, louder this time.

"Erwin Fucking Smith keeping his lapdogs tamed!" roared the pug-faced one.

"No wonder he needs to tame them" laughed another one with an annoying high-pitched voice, "look at the kind of lapdogs he got himself! One's a nutcase eager to step into a Titan's mouth, the other one is a pint-sized thug fetched straight from the filthy undergound" they all laughed. "I think we're missing one..." he feigned thinking hard, with a hand on his chin.

"What did you expect from the Survey Corps and Fucking Smith? That's the best he could get, to be fair" a black-haired man joined them.

"Not that he particularly cares..." he added with an unpleasant smirk "these are just chunks of meat he is more than willing to feed to titans, anyway".

That was it. That was just what drove Hange over the top and Levi knew it. He could feel her clenching her fist under his hand, he felt her muscles tremble. He looked at her, she was clenching her jaw, a fiery light in her eyes, cheeks slightly flushed. She briefly looked at him, and he didn't need words of any sorts. He let go of her arm and nodded.

Hange launched herself at the black-haired man and punched him on the jaw.

Everyone was shocked.

"Do you idiots have anything else to say?" She challenged them. "You can talk shit about me all you want, I don't give a damn, but show some respect to my comrades, people willing to DIE for your fat asses"

Levi watched her. She was scary, definitely scary when angry. He briefly smirked to himself, she had used one of the moves he taught her while sparring.

She suddenly grabbed the collar of the pug-faced man. She lifted her fist and the man flinched.

Levi approached her but he just glared at the MPs. "I won't restrain her, you called it".

He turned towards Hange. "If you punch him in the nose like I thaught you, you'll knock him out and fuck him up, but not enough to kill him".

"I know" she growled, but she clearly was trying to control her impulse to strike him.

The man had the courage to smirk. "Did Smith manage to tame the thug but not this nutcase of a weirdo?".

Hange hit him on front of his nose with the heel of her palm. He passed out instantly.

It was chaos, the other two men launched themselves against Hange. Levi announced "I've got your back, Hange" and the fight started getting bad. Levi's eyes were checking Hange all the time, he knew she could handle it but he resolved he would avoid risking her getting hurt.

Erwin, across the enourmous room, paled. He heard shouting and suddenly a group of people were hitting each other. Levi and Hange had been gone for a while, and he had a gut feeling they were right in the middle of it.

He was speaking to an important old man who may just want to fund the Corps if he worked him correctly, he couldn't leave him. Not now. Erwin subtly excused himself and fetched Mike, without getting more than two steps away from the man.

"Stop them" he whispered close to his ear.

Mike's eyes travelled to the corner of the room and took notice of the fight. He didn't see Hange and Levi since there were a lot of people gathered around, but he didn't need to see them to know they were there.

He stared at Erwin. "The two of them?" he whispered back, "You think I can stop the two of them? Are you nuts?".

"Just do something, please. I can't leave this one, he's going to fund us with some good amount of money" he clapped Mike's shoulder.

Mike sighed. "Fine" he said, murmuring something along the lines of "wish me luck" while he made his way to fetch his friends.

He sure had to admit he didn't think it was this bad. Hange was clearly having the upper hand and she was the one who was hitting the most.

He grabbed her from behind and lifted her up, gesturing to Levi to stop the fight and keep the opponents away. She kicked around and ended up elbowing him on the temple.

"Fuck" he hissed, gripping her waist tighter "Hange stop! It's me!".

Suddenly, Levi was on his side.

"Let go, Mike, I'll show them" Hange was struggling to get out of his arms, hitting him in the process.

"Levi do something! What the hell" he hissed again, getting frustrated.

Levi caught Hange's wrist and she looked at him. "That's enough, Hange" he said calmly and she sighed and tried calming down.

Hange's gaze lingered on the mess she and Levi made. Well, it was mostly Hange's doing.

Feeling her relax in his arms, Mike released her and let her again on the floor.

"Erwin's gonna kill the both of you" he looked around. His eyes stopping and widening as he took notice of the limp man on the floor, two of the MPs were lightly slapping his cheek. "Is he-?"

"Just passed out" Levi interrupted.

Mike sighed and rubbed a hand on his face.

"There's the lapdog we were missing" the man with the high-pitched voice chimed up. "The sniffing weirdo".

Mike smirked. He put a big hand on Hange's shoulder and turned her aroun. "Let's go, Hange. Levi" Levi nodded and started to follow him, when the man with the black hair spoke up again.

"I've always thought he is involved with Smith"

Mike laughed. "I sure love that man, but I don't think the nature of our relationship is any concern of yours"

"That explains why he's been around for so long. Smith doesn't want to feed him to a titan like the fucking rest of these idiots"

Hange turned around vehemetly, but Levi stopped her before she could speak. "That's enough, Hange, they weren't even worth our time to begin with" he said in merely more than a whisper.

Mike stopped in his tracks.

"I'll have you idiots know he's been around for so long because he's fucking capable of staying alive and keep his squad alive. I'd love to see some of you out there" Mike was surprised Levi interjected to defend him, but the insults towards his capability wasn't really what had bothered him.

"Listen here" he said, turning around to face them. "You can say all the shit you want about myself, but not a word about my friends or Erwin for that matter-"

They laughed. "Isn't it funny how they fucking defend him and the coward is just throwing them to their deaths instead?". The black-haired man roared with laughter "Fucking idiots".

Without warning, Mike punched one in the face and Hange punched the other on the nose, the loud crack all too telling as to what happened to the bones.

Mike sighed. "I guess Erwin can't kill the three of us in one go".

Levi walked closer to Hange. "You okay?".

She nodded and stared at him. "Thanks for trying to stop me. And for understanding I didn't-"

"Want to be stopped" he finished for her. "I get it. I'll always have your back, Hange, but let's be more careful next time. They weren't worth it and I don't want to risk you getting hurt".

She smiled. "I got carried away, but you saw I actually learned your moves?"

Levi smiled. "Yeah, we should work on them".

She nudged his arm "That's not true, they were perfect and you know it".

"Yes, they were perfect".

#ask box #prompt #sorry anon this took so long #and it's not even good lmao #poor writing #i tried #levihan #vets #mike zacharias #erwin Smith #i had to insert them because i love them too much

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cedric-stories · 3 years

Text

The Ball (Cedric x reader)

Word count: Around 1,700

warnings: fluffy fluff fluff, and idk, they kiss? LOL

Reader pronouns: he/him

Plot: You just got hired to work as a waiter in the castle. (I’m crap at summaries, lol)

Author’s note: This was a request from @pap3r-fl0w3rs . It was my first request ever and I about fell out of my chair when you gave it to me, lol! Thank you so much for asking! I enjoyed writing this so much (even if it took forever for me to finish it, lol). Hope y’all enjoy it!!

The Ball

You were so excited. It’s the first day of your new job at the castle. You had seen an ad in the paper by chance about a waitering job. You didn’t ever think you’d actually get it, but next thing you knew, Baileywick was giving you an interview for the position. It had been a rough few days though. You had to move all your stuff up to the castle by noon yesterday. You were unpacking till 3am. Even though you were sleepy, it was worth getting the extra things done before getting started on your real job.

Orientation started at 8am and lasted till 5pm. Yes, 9 hours of sitting in a plastic chair listening to a gray old man rant about policies was tiring. The only good thing that came out of it was meeting a new friend.

“Hey, can I sit here?” A blond, slender young man asked. He had his arms crossed and looked rather uncomfortable.

“Of course,” you grinned, trying to seem as friendly as possible, “I’d love to have the company.”

He sat down quickly. “Thanks,” he paused then leaned in next to you. “Are you nervous?” he whispered.

“Oh yeah. I’m shaking,” You laughed, lifted your arm up to show him.

He looked comforted by your agreement.

“Yeah. So, what’s your name?”

“I’m y/n, what about you?”

“I’m Tyler, I came from the village.”

“So did I! Where at?”

You two continued talking till the lecture started. After, you walked out into the ball room to begin setting up.

Forks, napkins, plates, and tablecloths were flying everywhere. It was a race against the clock to get everything ready for the big night. Before the actual event started, you had to get changed into something more formal.

Running back to your room, you ripped open your wardrobe to find an outfit. The castle staff had certain clothes you were able to wear for formal events, and since this was going to be one of the biggest balls of the year, you had to follow this exactly. Grabbing your newly ironed, black pants, you slipped them on along with your white button up shirt. You ran your belt through the loops and slapped on your suspenders. You were about to run out the door when you remembered your bow. Grabbing it out of your drawer, you snapped a raven black bow around your neck, fixed your collar, and ran for it.

When you got back to the ballroom hall, you took a left into the employee doors. Fixing your hair, you tried steadying your breath and walked into the kitchen, trying not to appear too winded.

“Once the royal sorcerer sets off the ceremonial fireworks, we will begin serving drinks. We will not start bringing out food of any sort until 11pm. Alright, let’s get ready.” The manager of the serving staff shouted over the clanking of pots and pans.

…

“Everyone, I’d like to thank you for being here,” The King began, standing on the golden ballroom stage.

Your heart was wildly pounding. This was it. This was your big chance to impress the King and staff by how well and efficient you could work. You could actually learn to love this job and living in Enchantcia’s castle would just be the cherry on top. Roland continued on and you were zoned out until you heard the word ‘fireworks.

“My wonderful royal sorcerer, son of Goodwyn the Great and Winnifred the Wise, also known as Cedric the Sensational, will be lighting the ceremonial fireworks with magic this year.”

As the crowd cheered, you saw a figure stepping out behind the curtain. He was average height and had dark hair. You could see he was wearing a long, plum robe with a large, floppy bowtie. His light bangs swayed as he walked up to center stage and his narrow shoulders were slightly scrunched together. Shaking, he took out his wand and said something quietly.

Within seconds, lights spewed from every corner of the room. The Enchantcian colors filled every eye and the guests cried out with joy. One, then two, then the whole room began to applaud in the fireworks’ honor.

Even though the room lit up like a candle, and the fireworks were clear and bright, the only thing you could focus on was that still-shaking man on the stage. You could see him running back and forth, making sure everything was going as planned. He looked to the King with his eyebrows raised and eyes big. King Roland gave him an approving nod in return, and you saw Cedric stand up a little taller. He was adorable.

You noticed him look your way. You caught his glace and locked eyes with him. His eyes were kind and full of a questioning look. You felt your cheeks heat up and you put your hand to your face to hold back a giggle. Suddenly, the fireworks began to crack and rumble.

“Cedric! What is going on?” The king yelled over the crowd’s fearful screams.

“I-nothing, sir! Let me fix it!”

You were horrified and ran to the backroom.

Once you got there, Tyler noticed your concerned look and the way you were gripping the table.

“Dude, are you okay?”

You looked up with a pale face.

“Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“First off, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Second, you were running for your life.”

You looked up at him.

“Well,” you hesitated, “I was looking at the royal sorcerer and- “

“Wait, like looking like ‘oh, he’s lighting off fireworks’, or looking like ‘oh, that guy’s really sexy’?”

You felt your cheeks heat up again and Tyler laughed.

“It’s okay, we all think people are hot. Okay, now go on.”

“Okay, well, I was checking him out when he looked back at me. We made eye contact for a minute then the fireworks started going nuts.”

“Oh,” Tyler paused, “well, maybe he got distracted by you.”

“What? No-I mean-he’s so him and I’m just a server. We don’t even know each other.” You laughed nervously.

“So? You should try to talk to him.”

“Try to…okay, I will.” You said, nodding your head.

“Good luck.”

Next thing you know, you’re out serving to the guests.

…

You continued to serve guests for around an hour. You reached a group on young women and waited until they had stopped talking to politely interrupt.

“Hello, would any of you care for some drinks?” You asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.

They all looked at each other and smiled. As conversations normally go, two went to reply at once. This stopped both of them from replying and led them to get into a quiet “go ahead” “no, you go ahead” fight until finally they all started too giggle, and all declined the offer. You were about to walk away when you heard footsteps behind you.

“H-hello, I’m Cedric.”

Your shoulders stiffened. Turning around, you saw the same man that was on the stage a few hours ago.

“Hello,” you answered, “my name is y/n y/l/n.”

Cedric stared at you for a moment before saying anything. That moment felt like it lasted a year. His eyes were tightly fixed on yours as you began shifting.

“Are you the same man that was standing by the servant’s doorway? During the fireworks.”

“Yes, I am. I didn’t know if you saw me or not. I was just-um-I thought,” you paused, unable to formulate your sentences correctly. He was so handsome, you had to try your hardest not to get too lost in his looks. “I thought you looked very attractive up there and I guess I was just staring.” You laughed, regretting how forward you had been.

Cedric looked shocked.

“You thought I looked- “

“Yeah.” You cut him off, sighing.

“Y/N! Why aren’t you serving guests? Go back to your job!” You heard your supervisor yell, marching over to you.

“I’m sorry, sir. I was just- “

“I could fire you over this!” He shouted, giving you a menacing scowl.

“Please, I’ll get back to work right away- “

“Actually,” Cedric interrupted, “I think he’s done enough work for the night.”

Your supervisor shot Cedric an infuriated look.

“Cedric, he is my employee, he was employed to work for me.”

Cedric cocked his head.

“Yes, I understand that, but I am above you in my services to this kingdom, so I think you, in a way, are my employee.”

“Cedric- “

“So that being said, you are letting him off for the rest of the night. Understood?” He asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Fine.” The supervisor said, waving his hands in the air and walking off.

You didn’t know what to say. You just stood there, frozen in time.

“Mr. y/l/n, would you care to dance?”

You smiled.

“I’d love to.”

The night was filled with dancing and talking. You began to get to know the sorcerer quite well.

You had guided Cedric out the door towards the gardens by the end of the 2nd hour of the morning. The two of you broke apart and you decided to walk towards the beautiful greenery.

Walking along, you noticed his hand down at his side as you two walked.

“Cedric,” you said in a questioning tone.

“Yes, y/n?”

“Can I hold your hand?”

Cedric’s eyes widened.

“If you’d like to.”

Without waiting another minute, you reached down and slid your hand around his. It was a weird feeling. You didn’t expect his gloves to feel cold and apparently, they were made of leather.

Finally reaching a lush, secluded place, you stopped walking and looked up at Cedric.

“So, is it just me or is there something between us?”

You laughed nervously.

“Well, I don’t know,” you slid your arms around his waist, “you tell me.”

Cedric leaned in closer to you, pressing his body against yours.

“It would seem that maybe the two of us have some kind of- “he was cut off when you closed the gap.

A soft kiss began, slowly continuing as you lifted a hand up to meet his cheek. You felt him shift, repositioning your other arm to wrap around his neck. Things began to heat up when you opened your mouth to see how he’d react. He was hesitant as first but gave in to letting your tongue enter.

A few minutes had passed, and now you two had found a spot on the ground, you are hovering on top of him.

Breaking the kiss, you looked into his hazel eyes and smiled.

“I think this should become a new habit of ours.”

He leaned up to kiss you again.

“I believe that’s a wonderful idea.”

Author’s note: so funny story. I don’t have someone to read any of my fics before I post them. This one meant a lot to me, so I decided I’d try my best not to have so many problems with my misspellings and grammar. To help make sure it flowed, I decided to turn on the read aloud setting on my document (I use Word to write my fics), and it was read to me in such a choppy, dry voice I was laughing my head off the whole time! Think of the most boring teacher reading a Cedric x reader fic! I think I’m gonna use it more often. It helped with the flow, but it also gave me a little happiness in the middle of these trying times. Love y’all! Hope you liked this!

I want to post again soon, but honesty I don’t know when. I had a few things in the works that I really couldn’t connect to. I have new ideas, but I haven’t even written outlines yet

#Cedric the sorcerer x reader #cedric the sensational x reader #Cedric the sorcerer #this was so fun #new writer still #probably needs editing #x reader #love you guys #fluff #fluff fluff fluff #i love the fluff lol #i cant click the post button #i will come back and edit again #this is how i learn lol

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jazajas · 4 years

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okay so i finished love, victor a while ago and i saw some other reviews and thoughts about it here so now i've got a pretty good list on my thoughts and feelings.

tl;dr: it has some issues, yes, but im gonna hold out and hope it gets better later on because the same thing happened with the first few eps, i wasn't that into it but then it got good, and nothing is ever great with the first season, because at that point we're getting used to those characters.

⚠️caution: spoilers ahead (im on mobile, i cant get an under-the-cut)⚠️

1. while a leah on the offbeat movie would have been amazing movie sequel (even tho i havent read the book yet, im just here for the wlw content) i am kind of glad we got this instead. mostly because I've seen book series where one movie was good, so they decide to do the rest, turn out bad (hunger games? divergent? percy jackson? the hobbit?) because so much was cut from the book-to-first movie writing, that other scenes wouldn't make sense to future movies if they had those in while cutting others. however, i am sad that i didn't get to make the choice of deciding whether what was cut was wrong etc. about future movies, but i'll take what i can get.

2. LGBTQ+ POC as a lead! that's amazing! as a ace/bi lantina that's close to home (it also is great that victor's from texas and so is ya gorl) and even then it's a mixed latinx family! i think pilar mentioned that at least the grandmother left Colombia and i saw the Puerto Rican flag in victor's room. also the salazar's are definitely from small town texas, even without knowing the name. (church barbeques, the use of the words "such a diverse city" in regards to atlanta)

3. a lack of actual lgbtq+ main storylines (so far) is kind of sad for a show like this. i was getting serious bi/pan vibes (as a lot of other people) from victor from the beginning, and when it was implied that victor was actually gay (while great, not shaming) as it has been brought to my attention, there was a lot of looking at a lot of straight relationship problems (please let us know more about benji)- edit 6/18: upon further consideration, it very much is a show about questioning your sexuality, I'm speaking about the other straight relationship issues, not mia and Victor's, its just the first season.

4. let us talk about cheating for a sec. never okay, in any circumstance. i feel sorry for mia that she saw victor making out with benji and the fact that he was doing any of that in the first place. victor made a choice to lie about the espresso machine and then kissed benji at the hotel and then when benji was fighting with derek, basically confessed his love and mistakes, then proceeded to makeout with benji after he broke up with derek, he built that grave and now he must lie in it. i get having feelings for a guy when you are in a relationship with a girl, and not accepting yourself enough to end that relationship but you really want it to work so you can be "normal". really, he should have told mia after he got back from the trip tho. i get being in highschool and doing stupid stuff and making dumb decisions, but for a show aimed at teens i think we should also remind said teens to make good choices even if we have to lose some realism within the character choices.

4. pilar and her decisions based off her brother pissed me off. because i honestly think that if she'd kept her mouth shut about what she knew or confronted victor about it in the first place we could have avoided a LOT of mess. did she not learn from snooping around her mother's business about her relationships that going behind a person's back doesnt end well? i did, however, like the pilar/felix friendship and was really kind of hoping that they'd get together during their coffee hangout (although now im glad that didn't happen) because they had a deeper understanding of each other. same with wendy/felix, although they do seem to much alike to work out in the long run but i still feel bad for wendy.

5. i don't know how i feel about lake and andrew, as people separate from each other. both seem to be the way they are from their upbringing (not confirmed why andrew is such an ass, but if his comment about his dad is anything to go by i bet it's got something to do with attention) but andrew seems to be less, idk, superficial? like he turned down mia because he didn't want to be a rebound, he didn't out victor, he actually stood up to early teasing the other dudes in the lockerroom were doing at victor (with teasing of his own obviously but that interaction had him on my nice list until much later). lake? lake. i honestly don't have an opinion of her? not really. i mean after hanging out with pilar i was hoping felix wouldn't go back to lake. is her name laken? i feel like her full name is laken. but they also played the "im only like this because my mom is really superficial about stuff and i do like the geeky nice guy but appearances" to "actually screw the norms im gonna makeout with him infront of the whole student body". i honestly thought she was gonna be bi because she kept hitting on mia when she was helping set up for her "date" and "big night" and there was one point where i saw her face fall at something mia said in relation to her and idk i was hoping she'd be bi (i figured early on that victor/mia wasnt gonna work and was like "oh mia/lake would be cute" but now idk.

6. okay on to the "big night", i have one word. NO. i didn't like the peer pressure into having sex. i agreed with felix when he said "your body your choice" but im also disappointed that victor made out with mia and when lake was talking to felix after victor left he didn't try to stand up for victor.

7. on to age gaps because i hadn't really thought of this at first. we'll start with benji/derek: WHAT GRADE IS BENJI?! because that determines my thoughts. if he's a sophomore that meant that he and Derek started dating benji's freshman year and thats eugh, don't do that, don't care if its a gay couple that shouldn't be happening because the maturity of the two characters is DRASTICALLY different (this is also a reason i am not a fan of cmbyn) but that would explain why they were so rocky. hoping the event at the gay bar was open to anyone not just for drinking, but not liking that fact that not one of the adults with victor were like: hey, this is a 16 year old, that's kind of wack when that dude was hitting on victor. that made me question some stuff. although i figure it might be making up for the lack of a gay bar scene in love, simon. but even then, in svthsa it's a restaurant with a bar that some people go to just to drink at, it wasn't just a bar, simon could be there but should NOT have accepted drinks from college kids, not matter how attractive.

8. i loved how bram and simon and their friends helped victor out though. i like how bram was like: hey i know my friends are a lot so here's a gay basketball league becaue there's no one way to be gay. i like how Simon talked about needing help himself just to help victor and how he said his friends were cool with it because it's a community. i like of justin(?) mentioned how being what his parents wanted was putting on a mask and pretending, not him doing drag. my favorite lines from that ep are: "and before you ask my pronouns are they/them/theirs" "'they're all gay? even that guy? he's like [insert really tall number]' 'yeah. you should see him in heels'" "or in simon's case: really unathletic" "and also because bram said that if i wore [the jean jacket] one more time he'd burn it". also katya was there. and the group hug too!

9. the back hand homophobia in relation to family is sad, but realistic and i sincerely hope his parents are kind enough not to be too harsh on victor because of it. anything they say that isn't positive or supportive of victor is bad but i hope they realize that there is more to him than that and that they can come to terms with it because it's not always that hard to be a part of that community and super religious. i am biromantic and catholic. and while there are some things i wont agree on my mom with, i know that it's more of a strike against God for kicking out gay kids from families than it is to be gay, because those parents were given trust by GOD to love those kids no matter what, and be good parents. so in the end, the parents are wrong and harmful and in the case of christians against jesus's teachings to love everyone.

10. this is fan speculation but dont think simon/bram are going through a rough patch? i honestly think it'd be a little cruel to the characters to have on of their actors be producing but then not have that relationship stay. and while it's not set in stone and obviously things happen in the real world, we have no proof script wise about there being a rift. all we have are bad photoshopped ig photos and scenes where two characters are never standing next to each other probably beccaue schedules never link up correctly for minor characters. who knows, maybe nick robinson was filming for a movie where is does have an even more major role than victor's gay guru in a series about victor so his filming time was around that. im gonna keep hope that things are okay.

11. that being said: we need more mainstream wlw content, because someone said it earlier and it really does seem to be catering to straight girls. i'll admit i did freak out when benji played call me maybe which is something i associated with him and victor but then kissed a guy because who wouldn't? we get that serenade and sweetness and then it'a ripped from us. but i did mellow out. if i flipped later it was because victor was making dumb decisions and i had to give myself a moment of compsure before i continued.

in the end, i'd say that there is a lot of growth this series needs to go through, but i also know that some people just aren't going to like it and i get that. but i also know that sometimes the best of stories have rocky starts, nothing is ever perfect from the beginning. and besides, further seasons are on hold until we figure out this covid thing, which means that you bet they're gonna be looking at our feedback. they saw what we thought before, they can do it again

i really did like it but we need more ACTUAL lgbtq+ relationship stuff from this series and better decisions on what we are teaching the younger generations, as well as what we want to focus on and realism within characters. i'm giving it an 8/10, because there is always room for growth and i really hope we get better things out of this than what we have been given in season 2.

edit: someone mentioned it really seeming like it was meant for Disney+ and i felt that. also to anyone who reaches the tags agter reading ALL OF THIS: i am sorry

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shmuzzieheart · 3 years

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This is just going to be me rambling about weird gender confusion don’t mind me~

I always liked unisex or guys’ t-shirts, and I know that in of itself doesn’t say too much about a person’s gender. Guys’ shirts are usually bigger and have cool stuff on them, so I just like wearing them. They’re not super clingy and make up a bulk of the shirts I own.

Now, I’m noticing I like going to the guys’ section of clothing store websites. That’s not some huge tipoff for gender, either. But, I kind of feel like I’d enjoy dressing more masculine than feminine. I don’t like skirts and I haven’t worn dresses in awhile, and I’d like to keep it that way. When I try to look up styles for like dark academia (I like that sort of look, don’t have enough money to really get into it of course), the bulk of people wearing it are women with like skirts or more feminine looks, which is fine, but I’m not really into that.

Clothes have no gender, of course, so wanting to style myself in more “masculine” clothing doesn’t automatically mean I want to be a guy, but thinking about it sort of segues me into thinking about other stuff I’ve noticed.

Tik tok is a big reason I’m kind of feeling confused because of the content there. This one video was talking about phrases trans people may relate to, and the phrase “I want to be feminine like how a guy can be feminine” stuck out to me. I thought of the bookish, awkward “nerd” characters I like. I usually get attached to the “smart” character that isn’t as masculine as the others, or the chaotic characters or grumpier characters who also might not fit in with typical, traditional masculinity. They were always my favorite. I’m always drawn to them. There’s also those “pictures/things that give me gender envy that may confuse cis people” videos that I don’t think I’m that confused by. I don’t know exactly how to articulate it, but I think I understand those videos. The last thing from tik tok that kind of go with this post is me always liking videos of afab nonbinary people or transmascs and their style. There are so many cool people on tik tok who have these amazing outfits and sort of vibe to them that I’d love to be able to replicate if I had the confidence. All of them are nonbinary or transmasc, though, which is why it stuck out to me so much.

Another thing is that idea that, when you ship two characters together, one is usually the person you’d like to be with, and the other is your idea of you (I hope I said that right). I don’t think that’s the same for everyone, but I do notice my enjoyment of ships where it’s a strong, confident woman with a more anxious, bookish nerd character. I’ve never really found myself personally attracted to the latter, but I haven’t explored the idea of being attracted to the former, either. And with my enjoyment of nerdy/chaotic/grumpy/etc. male characters who lack traditional masculinity, that also made me wonder about my gender.

I didn’t really think of this all that much, just in passing and shrugging it off, saying “well I’m fine being a woman, no dysphoria here and if there is any discomfort with my womanhood it’s from the issues women face in life and in the media or whatever.” This little snowball rolling down the hill and building up didn’t really start until after reading “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” actually. I really related to the idea of repressing parts of yourself and always acting a certain way for the approval of others (aka John Mulaney’s “I need everyone all the time to like me so much” bit), so I understood Dr. Jekyll’s struggle. That whole deal got me back into gothic horror and that whole aesthetic, which led to me looking for masculine dark academia looks, which of course resulted in this whole ramble of...whatever.

Then I thought about my name and pronouns. I don’t remember what brought it up, but one day I was thinking of the name “Jekyll” as a first name. I thought, ‘well that’s a nice first name, it’s a bit masculine but it’s also kind of androgynous, isn’t it? It’d be a nice first name.’ Then I considered one of my friends introducing me with that name, and a very strange, possibly positive but awkward feeling came out, and when I really noted what I had just thought and felt it felt like when a movie pauses itself or does a record scratch. What was I thinking? Why did I feel and think that?

And then the other day I was letting the dogs out and I thought about the pronouns “she/her” vs. “they/them.” I thought, ‘the pronoun “she” has a bit of a harshness to it, with the “sh” sound. “They” is much softer, smoother. It’s really nice, I think.’ There I was, stopping myself again because WOAH there what the heck am I thinking about?! It’s so weird.

Lastly we come to my own characters. I had this sort of self insert OC for a show I used to watch who looked almost exactly like me. Over time she became more separated from me, acting more like her own character in her own story, and she became more androgynous. Her hair is shorter, she’s thinner and taller (more like those non-masculine male characters I often like), and she’s flat-chested. Now, I’m flat-chested, too, but in this case, whenever I think about what she might look like under her clothes, I imagine a completely flat chest. Like a cis man. This character who used to be a self-insert looks so different now. And I wonder if she’s still, subconsciously, a self-insert.

I wanted to say, “maybe I’m still just a woman who is getting caught up in the rising number of nonbinary people and thinking that I’m something I’m not.” But, as I was typing it, I didn’t really like referring to myself as a woman. I tried to delete that and replace it with “girl,” but that didn’t fit right, either...I’m worried I’m not treating this correctly, not thinking about it right. Because there hasn’t been some big revelation, just some thing I think about but brush off and continue on with my day. So I can’t really tell if it feels right. But, I’m not sure if it feels wrong?

My family and living situation don’t help. As I write this my dad just got done watching a video of some kind and said in a really sarcastic voice, “Uh huh, black lives matter.” And my mother asked me if I’m bisexual a long time ago after talking about some people we know who identify that way, and when I said no she responded, “thank God.” So I don’t think I’m in the best scenario to have space to really think about this.

#Shmuzzie rambles #this really is a ramble huh #I was going to end this a bit more positively but my dad said that as I was wrapping it up and wow that sure tanked my thoughts

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fanpersoningfox · 3 years

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Hey, I'm enby. And I habe some struggles with this whole thing..

I am a bit scared.

Do you have any tips? 😅

Hey!

First of all, congratulations, welcome to the club 💜💛🖤 we're glad to have you!

Being scared is absolutely normal! So was I when I first came out. Hell, sometimes I still am. Gender is confusing and the world doesn't seem to have space for us and it's a whole Thing. I feel that. You're not alone.

As for tips, it's a little difficult because different things work for different people but here's what helped/helps me and what I wish someone would've told me:

1. Do what makes you comfortable and don't compare yourself to others. You are you and you are unique. This especially goes for transition-related things such as changing your name and pronouns or doing hrt or binding. Just because others do it doesn't mean it has to be right for you. Take your time and listen to your body and mind. I've been out for almost five years and I still don't know if I want to do hrt. I've got time. You've got time.

2. Get yourself some queer, preferably enby friends. Queer youth groups and organizations are great for this but online friends do the trick as well. Also, you may want to consider therapy. If you want to medically transition, you'll need it anyway, but at least for me it's helped immensely figuring things out and dealing with stuff.

3. Do a little research (I mean, you've probably done that anyway) so you have some sources at hand and are able to just send people a link to an article on the topic when you don't feel like explaining shit to them.

4. You deserve to be gendered correctly. People owe it to you to use your pronouns. You're right to call them out if they don't. - But also try to disconnect your identity from others' perception of you. The fact that they're using the wrong pronouns doesn't diminish your identity. And it's okay if you don't feel like calling people out. (And this is where friends come in handy. Ask your friends to correct other people who misgender you, especially your cis friends.)

5. When choosing a pronoun, you've got to consider two things: a) comfort and b) practicality. Obviously, you should be comfortable with your pronouns, whether they give you gender euphoria every time you hear them or you're just neutral towards them. But the second aspect is that while neopronouns may be what feels best for you, they also come with the side effect of having to explain them to everyone you meet. And what's relatively straightforward in English can take half an eternity in a language such as German. (Let alone languages like Arabic where even the "I" is gendered.) For me the neopronouns weren't worth the hassle, so I'm going by "they" in English and "es" in German, both of which people already know. Some enbies go by "binary" pronouns for this reason.

I hope these help you at least a little! If you have any specific questions or something's unclear or you'd like to just talk some more, feel free to message me or send another ask!

🦊

#fox answers #trans* stuff #enby #nb #nonbinary #fox rambles

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rekkingcrew · 4 years

Text

Campaign Debrief

So for nearly 2 years I ran an Edge of the Empire campaign with 3-4 players, mostly weekly. These last couple of months we’ve been using discord, which has gone great. I want to get down some of my thoughts about what worked and what didn’t.

This is gonna be a big wall of text and all but two bits are gonna be under the cut: system and play style.

Fantasy Flight Star Wars game system is legit my favorite system EVER. (Not to dick wave or anything, but that’s including D&Ds 2-5, Gurps, White Wolf, Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, Deadlands, and a few miscellaneous other short form ones). The system of advantages and disadvantages, and especially triumphs and despairs rather than just straight successes and failures really opens up complex narrative opportunities and gives a chance for wild story beats that just would not have happened otherwise. The fights go fast but feel meaty and there’s a lot of room to pitch advantages to your friends so you’re not just waiting your turn. Character creation is granular enough that your choices always feel meaningful, and points can be spent anywhere, so you can really specialize and shape your character.

We played very collaboratively and it made things AMAZING. Part of this is that we were all good friends and have played together for a while now. Our taste in what kind of story we want is similar- nuggets of drama scattered throughout, but mostly cutting up. A lot of the best NPCs and story suggestions came from my players rather than from me- our season one boss villain, Imperial spymaster “Uncle” Karston Severax, a pantoran ex-special forces black operative whose current public face was a Mr. Rogers-esque children’s TV presenter, for example, was someone my players started out and all of us collective “yes and” added to around the table, and he was JUST THE BEST. These kind of exchanges also gave us moments like the time our tech tried to blackmail the head of a security corporation with the fact that he was having an affair and he’d written just LOADS of incredibly cringey fanfiction; but the roll was such that the attempt ended with him finally getting the push he needed to quit a job he hated, get out of a marriage that just wasn’t working, and follow his dream of self-publishing. He even dedicated his first book to our slicer. Because it wasn’t a DM vs Players atmosphere, because we were all on the same page, I could ask my players “hey, what do you want for your triumph?” and “all right, so who is the NPC you know?” as well as just “that’s enough to finish this guy, what does this look like?” This campaign was 1000% better for sharing that world building load, and the players were all, I think, more invested.

more below the cut.

What Worked

One of the most useful things I ever did was start giving players morality pet NPCs that were their special hench people, and I’m embarrassed that I waited so long to assign one to our droid.

The zero session was absolutely invaluable in setting the tone of the game and the relationship between characters, and I will bang this drum until I’m fucking blue in the face. Don’t meet in the first session. Sit the players down and say “how do you know each other, why do you stay together, what are some of your past adventures?” It’s just so much better.

Cameos and ties to our other games, in what we’ve been calling “The Drax Kreiger Expanded Universe” have continued to be welcome pretty much every time. People were delighted to have a moment or two to slip back into old characters.

I was able to identify what each player wanted and give them that. Brick’s player wanted quiet scenes with big character emotion, like his one on one pit fight the character didn’t want to have, or the letter from his mother telling him how proud she was of him, or the time in training where he tapped into how angry he really was and it spooked the character and everyone on the ship. Nyla’s player wanted a big epic, but also difficult space journey of good vs. evil, and so Nyla got a padawan whose parents she had possibly killed when she fought for the empire, she dug up the grave of her clone teacher’s order 66′d jedi for the crystal for her lightsaber, she got to cleanse a temple that was trapped in a fruitless struggle between light and dark, and a climactic lightsaber battle that was about possibly sacrificing herself for the good of others. TK’s player was deep into star wars trivia and space stuff, so he practically squealed when Verpine shatter weapons showed up, and he seemed to get a kick out of the Evocii, and also that time they put on wing suits and dove the atmosphere of a gas giant. It’s worth noting nobody was actually all that interested in the thing that turns my gears: complex mysteries with a lot of clues and investigation, and once I let that shit drop, things ran a lot smoother.

Some of our best stuff was non-combat challenges, like climbing the cliffs of Naboo or navigating the deep undercity of Nar Shadaa. The guys reliably failed anything social, but environmental challenges were always appreciated.

I always tried to make sure there was more than one way to do things. For any given mission, especially early on, I’d try to brainstorm at least three ways something could be accomplished.

My party split up a LOT, but we found a sort of cinematic cutting back and forth to be really useful. When there was a big crit, or a goal accomplished, or something like that, we’d jump to the other party even if the fight wasn’t over. Sometimes that was only just, like, Brick and the guys doing drunk karaoke and saying to no one in particular “MAN, I hope Nyla’s having as fun a time as we are!” but it kept everyone involved and it wasn’t just people waiting their turn for 20 minutes at a time. Also people chimed in with fun advantages and disadvantages.

I had everybody write backstories and whenever I could, I incorporated in things from what they’d written. Our second season was basically TK tracking down the guy who’d made him, a Thackwash alien with the same sort of shifting personalities he had. TK’s player hadn’t written much about the guy except that he’d been a salvage mechanic who constructed TK for protection when he got in trouble with the local mafia. Giving that guy complementary personalities for each of TK’s really helped stick the landing on that one, and the player really enjoyed having actually completed his character’s goal.

It’s worth saying, we took some time at several points during the campaign, either individually or as a group, to talk about what we liked and didn’t, what we wanted more of, where we wanted things to go, possible directions for characters, mechanical issues, how to have a better game, group dynamics, all sorts of stuff. In a way it’s like sex: people have this fucked up expectation that you’ll just be good at it without communicating, and man, fuck that. Talking to my players was ALWAYS worthwhile.

I was always adamant, because it was a thing that bugged me when I was a player, that if a character had spent the points to be good at something, they got to be good at it. That made some things difficult, but I think it was the right decision. It took me a while to tailor fights right, and honestly a lot of times, splitting up the party was the best way to balance fights, but I never said to anyone hey that thing you spent all those points on, could you please not do that?

My players were excellent about encouraging each other to have serious dramatic moments. TK was completely ready to die in a fight, and when he lost a significant chunk of his programming, the way he chose to play it was really heartbreaking. Everyone came inside and had tea with Brick’s mom. No one stepped on anyone else’s fun when it was time to be serious, and everybody was great about cheering each other on, whether they were being funny or being dead serious.

I FUCKING FINISHED A CAMPAIGN. IT HAD AN END. So much stuff petered out over the years, I was adamant I wasn’t going to do that.

What Didn’t Work

Boy, my players had pretty much all the trouble trying to remember to use “they/them” pronouns for NPCs with neutral or alien genders.

No one is interested in falling damage. Sigh.

I did not keep good track of money or ship fuel or anything. The campaign didn’t end up relying on it too heavily (I was honestly expecting a much more Cowboy Bebop setup than where we drifted), but that was an area I kind of fell down.

We never really got obligation working correctly and in the end we just ended up abandoning it. We kept doing the force morality because the lone force player was very into it and it was a huge part of that character’s journey, but for the rest having people show up to collect on obligation was sometimes not possible in the story- or if it was possible it was pretty cumbersome. Campaign did obligation by arc, and I think that’s a pretty useful way to do it- roll at the end of the arc for what’s coming next.

Early on, I made way too many assumptions about what was an adventure hook for my players and what was an annoyance. Honestly, bits of this lasted pretty late. At one point I gave my players a spy for the larger rebellion they could totally talk to- he was even working with their resident bothan spy- but they looked at the senatorial assassination he was doing and literally said at the table “I think it’s best if we just walk away from all this.” And so they did. Which was frustrating, but, you know, it is what it is. They also never much cared about the hutt gang war.

I let a lot of things drop that I would have liked to bring back before the end, but in all honesty, I think we were all running a bit out of steam. I would have liked to put in Brick’s old mentor, or follow up with the imperial governor that was a falleen in a human skin suit, or see more of the bounty hunter’s guild, or have a nice end thing with our bothan spy, or any of that. But I do think it was time to end it. And we followed the threads people liked.

I had way too many NPCS.

What sort of worked

I had like 200 npcs and they were not all bangers. In particular, I let the party design their own ship, which I wish had played a bigger role (though it did really set the tone), and I let them design 2 npc crew who would fill in any party roles they didn’t want to play and guard the ship so they could go on adventures without worrying about it. The devaronian scoundrel was with the party to the end though I never really got him to be more than a joke, but the bothan spy kind of fell off, and while she made some appearances, she didn’t really have as big an impact as I would have hoped. She kind of got replaced by Nyla’s padawan, a hench mon calamari called Nezrene, who was a better fit with the party. But, you know, players will do what they like.

Factions. In the first bit of the campaign, my factions were a fucking life saver, because I could design scenarios with a sort of “what is each faction doing/ which faction hurts from this, which benefits?” By the second season we’d kind of abandoned them to go to the core, and by the third my group was solidly rebel, so the hutts and bounty hunters fell a lot by the wayside. I still think having a couple of broad poles of power, and having the players know them and their leaders, is a good call. But they do seem to kind of organically pare down on their own, and it’s easy to get caught up too much in them. Useful sorta?

There was definitely a point where my players just were not challenged by conventional challenges. We ended up doing most of the later fights that involved a lot of minions in montage. I’d have them roll their fight skills unopposed, just to see if they got any interesting advantage/triumph set ups. I still had boss fights that were mostly challenging, but there just was no point in throwing storm troopers or low level gangsters at them. Not when they have soak 8 and autofire, and that one talent that lets you kill every minion in a combat. Designings fight got a bit tricky, and in those big high level combats, despairs and triumphs come up a lot more and really sway the fight, which I like, but also it’s very hard to plan for.

Mass combat was tricky. I did a lot of it toward the end because my players were generals in a rebellion. I always had them do the rolls and some of the narration, but that wasn’t always enough to make them feel like things weren’t very arbitrary.

I personally love the rule that if you roll a despair shooting into an engaged combat you shoot your friend. Nyla, who got shot twice this way, does not.

We started the game with a tech character who dropped out. Toward the end, we picked up another tech character whose player couldn’t do their regular stuff because of covid lock down. Neither of these characters could fight at all, and both were very differently oriented than the rest of the party, and that was tricky to manage. Additionally, the dude coming in at the end had like a year and a half of in jokes he did not get and there were 200 goddamn npcs. I tried to give him the lowdown on what he might have heard about the party, but it was a combination of too much information and not that much player interest. He did get to break a star destroyer though, and I think he liked that.

I offered players XP to write backstory stuff, and later goodbye notes others could find if they kicked it. Not all of them did. In the end it made a negligible difference, and I still think offering the bounties on this is basically a good idea.

What I would do different next time.

Three ring binder that opens and closes so I could move fucking NPC stats around. I filled two goddamn school notebooks with notes for this campaign and there were so many goddamn times I was like “I KNOW I wrote this down, but where?!”

Players felt a bit aimless when they didn’t have a specific villain. I’d planted a few in, but they took finding, or they were too easy to avoid. Next time I would have a few more people who were actively on my player’s tails.

I would keep better campaign notes and/or ask one of the players to do so. I used to do recaps for the games when I played Rek. There’s stuff I KNOW I’ve forgotten, and more I’ll forget as time goes on, which is a shame. It’s a weird, ephemeral medium, but possibly I’m just spoiled by living in an age of easy reproduction and enormous storage where data is concerned.

Better book keeping in general, really.

When I did a mystery short, I wrote up a list of all the clues people could find but not where specifically they were, so that I could just jam them anywhere they seemed like they’d make sense whenever a roll called for a player to find something. I think I’d try to do that with player’s personal stories so they could be woven in a little better. I did a lot of flying by the seat of my pants.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it went, and I’m ready to get back to playing for a bit. I loved DMing, and I more or less DMed the game I would have liked to play, but man, doing this all the time, or being the only person who does it? After a while, that’d be a lot, and I’m looking forward to the break.

#star wars edge of the empire #Edge of the Empire #tabletop rp #i dmed

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