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#and it’s NOT even the one where you ride a dragon into space to break a meteor apart and catch an alien living inside it! that’s later!
regallibellbright · 1 year
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“Regalli, do you really think Game Freak intended for the Link Cable thing in Delta Episode to imply every Pokemon cartridge is its own unique pocket universe, and that every generation exists in its own continuity where their Pokemon and mechanics now retroactively Have Always Existed?”
To the second, absolutely. You don’t have a plan to move a meteor to another universe get shot down when another character asks “but what if we moved the meteor to a universe without Mega Evolution? Wouldn’t they be screwed?” WITHOUT intending to imply exactly that. To the first…
Listen, I don’t care if they INTENDED for the ‘every cartridge is its own universal iteration’ thing, it makes SENSE, okay? Like. Think about version differences. Starting in Gen III they impacted the route the story took. Why is that? Which is canon? Pokemon multiverse, all of them are. Some universes have Maxie screw up, some universes have Archie, some universes they BOTH cause mayhem and Rayquaza needs to get the fuck down there and tell everyone to knock it the hell off. Why is the Ultra Beasts plotline replaced with Rainbow Rocket from SuMo to USUM? Pokemon multiverse, Anabel and Looker only show up in SuMo variations and Giovanni only gets the Rainbow Rocket idea in USUM ones.
Why do version exclusives exist? Pokemon multiverse, they only live in this region in certain universe iterations.
Why can Leaf never challenge you at the top of Mount Silver in HGSS and you never get the choice? Pokemon multiverse, all HGSS cartridges come from a universe where Red exists, and for that matter they are separate from universes where you the player character did because of his specific team. Hell, that’s the case for any game where Red and Blue make battleable appearances, isn’t it.
Come to that the only individual cartridges that actually directly connect in continuity to each other, the only Pokemon games built on an assumption that not only did the EVENTS of the previous game take place but that they occurred under the guidance of a Player Character, specifically YOUR Plaher Character, are Black 2/White 2 and then only if you link your own save file. Every other Pokemon PC does not explicitly exist in every other game so they may just have generic versions of their character like Red and Blue and Green from Let’s Go or the Hilda/Hilbert Battle Subway NPC. But what about trading and cross-game transfer, you ask?
You guessed it! POKEMON MULTIVERSE. Canonically thanks to naming the plot device in Delta Episode a Link Cable, you can make a case that every instance of trading Pokemon back to the start of the series was multidimensional travel. (And, in Gen II-Gen I, canonically also time travel.) Union Rooms and the like actually connect distinct universes together. Hisuian Pokemon can show up in ScarVio without any explanation because they’ve been dimensionally transferred and anyway, in this universe they may never have actually gone extinct. Hell, we don’t technically know they actually WENT extinct, they just didn’t exist in the DPPt and BDSP universes. Maybe in the PLA universe they’re known as Sinnohan Goomy or whatever. Or maybe in the PLA universe it’s still known as Hisui. We don’t know. That whole “previous life” thing in ScarVio with the phone cases has the woman never having heard of Hisui (despite a photo of Laventon being visible on the board for history class).
It’s Pokemon Multiverse all the way down, folks. I don’t care what Gamefreak intended in this case, the end result actually holds up enough on reading I just accept this as canon.
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tteokdoroki · 5 months
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☆༉ — RYOMEN SUKUNA. santa’s little helper.
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about. dressing up as slutty santa warrants some unwanted attention, luckily, sukuna is there to play santa’s grumpy little helper. merry christmas.
warnings. minors, blank and ageless blogs do not interact! sfw, fluff, meet cute, reader gets harassed/cat-called, reader is wearing a dress, modern!sukuna, fem!reader. it’s still christmas somewhere - enjoy !! (1K).
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you meet modern bf!sukuna at a train station on christmas eve.
all your friends have gone home with guys that they fancied from the club, all the ubers in the area are either booked out or have sky high prices just to get you thirty minutes away not to mention the fact that it’s ice cold and your stupid mean girls themed santa outfit keeps riding up.
if you huff hard enough a cloud of smoke appears in place of your breath — like that of a mighty dragon, accumulating in the night air. it entertains you for all but a moment and doesn’t waste enough time for your train to come faster.
it’s not due for another thirteen minutes.
in that time you watch gangs of girls, groups of guys and just about anybody come and go from the station. your platform isn’t packed but it’s not too empty to the point where you feel unsafe.
“hey pretty girl.” ugh. as if your night couldn’t get any worse, a dingy looking stranger appears from nowhere — breathing down your neck, nastily drinking you in as if you’re a free shot at a bar. like you’re easy.
waving your hand away, you focus your gaze on the platform across the track and pray that someone notices your predicament. “no thank you.”
“oh come on gorgeous, give a guy a chance!” they press, crossing all of your boundaries to be in your space. even as you try to walk away, you can still feel the ghost of their sleazy words against the bare and exposed parts of your skin.. “where are you going all dressed like that, with no one to admire you?”
on instinct, you pull down your skirts as if to hide yourself from greedy eyes — storming down the platform. “none of your business!”
“hey now, little miss santa! don’t you wanna know? i’ve got a sleigh you can ride!”
“not interested! i’m all good.”
“why? you got a boyfriend?”
“yeah, i do.” you lie smoothly.
“then where is he?” the stranger mocks and closes in on you — you look around pathetically, waiting for some good passer-by to come and help you.
a heavy hand land’s on the stranger’s shoulder — making them jump in shock. you watch as the hand squeezes down, almost tight enough to break bone. “right here,” says a gravelly, husky voice that instantly fills you with warmth and relief. stepping aside, your hero reveals himself — tall with rippling muscles and spiralling black tattoos, lazy blood red eyes and a snarl that reveals sharp fangs and canines. all topped off my tufts of soft pink hair, which don’t do anything to dim his threatening aura. “you got a problem?”
“n-no! sorry man, i didn’t—“
“fuck off, will ya?” your hero spits out venomously and the stranger nods — practically disappearing into thin air after that. your shoulders sag and tensions dissipate from your body. “you okay…miss?”
tentatively, you give the pink-haired man your name — you owe him that much after he’d more or less saved your skin. “all good, thanks to you…”
“sukuna.” he doesn’t look at you, instead pulling a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and lighting one with a flicker of a flame. it’s like he feels you watching him in dismay, and laughs as he takes a drag. it’s kind of sexy, you’ll admit — the way he throws his head back let’s you see the thick lines of black ink extending down his neck. “ticket office is closed and security is shit here. small station. no one’s watching me smoke.”
“right…thanks, sukuna.”
he finally turns to you, deep and blood red eyes drinking you in — almost scrutinising you. you squirm under his gaze, heat prickling at the back of your neck and providing some protection from the cold. “where were you off too?”
“christmas party with some friends.”
“where are they now?”
“sucking face somewhere, and no, they didn’t offer me an Uber before they left.”
sukuna taps the ash from his cigarette and it falls away in the icy breeze. “shit night.”
wringing your fingers, you shrug a little bit. “i guess it could have been worse. so thank you for helping out,” you hum appreciatively. “all i have to do now is wait for this stupid train.”
a beat of silence passes between you both, only broken by your chattering teeth and sukuna’s occasional sniff between puffs of smoke. you hate smokers, but you don’t ask him to stop. not after he’d helped you and is willing to be your human shield until your train comes. anyone else would have left by now.
“i can give you a ride home, if you want?”
you frown… was he, trying to make a move on you?
“if you have a car why are you at a train station.”
sukuna smirks slowly, dropping his cig to the floor and crushing it under his sneaker. you don’t remind him that there’s a law against smoking on the platform. “i’m waiting for my little brother to get home from a trip with his friends. we don’t live too far from here and i offered to pick him up from the station.” he shrugs.
you blink up at him with wide eyes. you’d never imagine a man that looks and carries himself like he does to care so deeply for someone else. you suppose you’re judging a book by his cover.
you’re dressed like slutty santa, so you honestly have no right to do so.
“what’s your brother’s name?”
“yuuji. it’s just us, no parents. that’s why i’m picking him up.” sukuna turns to you, running a hand through his messy pink undercut. “look, i promise i’m not some creep. y’just look cold and i’m not about to let some girl get fucked over by weirdos at this time of night. i won’t touch you, but you can sit in the back with yuuji if it makes you feel better. people usually prefer his stupid face over mine anyways.” he mumbles that last part to himself, but is pleasantly surprised by the cute flutter of laughter that escapes you. “what’s s’funny?”
with a hand resting on your bare stomach, you try to contain yourself. “is it the tattoos or the fact that you have resting bitch face?”
“both.” sukuna sniggers in response, shoving his cold hands deep into his pockets. “so, you takin’ up the offer or what?”
“yeah, thank you…sukuna,” you smile, subtly sliding up beside him for warmth on the chilly platform. “i’d like to meet yuuji for myself, see which brother i prefer.”
“oh fuck you.”
“maybe some other time.”
and even though he’s sure that you’re joking, sukuna detects a glint of honestly in your sparkling eyes as the train finally approaches — it’s yellowing light from inside the carriage only illuminating that spark. you turn your head, trying to spot yuuji while he ponders your words.
sukuna is definitely going to ask for your number after he drops you home. he’ll have to thank that brat of a baby brother yuuji for the opportunity next — without him begging for sukuna to come get him, this would have never happened.
you would have never met.
it’d be a great christmas story to tell the grandkids too. so he’d really have to thank yuuji, even though sukuna would never hear the end of it.
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꒰ end. — all rights reserved © tteokdoroki 2023. do not copy, repost, translate & recommend elsewhere.
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pastel0rchid · 4 months
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A Gift from the Gods (1)
Hiccup x F!Reader
Story Summary:
Centuries ago, the gods granted your family a gift. But everyone else saw it as a curse.
You are the last of your clan because others find your family’s gift as anything but. Your life has been filled with hiding in the woods, away from the Vikings who threaten your existence. The forest quickly became your safe space.
Everything in your quiet life suddenly changes when you are spotted by a Viking and his Night Fury, who quickly notice something strange about you.
You had wings… dragon wings.
Word count: 1.1k
Warnings: Blood
Next Chapter
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The forest was unusually quiet, the only sounds being heard were the rustling of leaves and the occasional skittering of an animal. Suddenly, there was the sound of quick footsteps, bare against the grass as they weaved through the thick foliage, running away from whoever was chasing them.
Branches snap when being pushed against, occasionally scratching against the figure breaking them as they hope to get through and evade the threat. The roar of multiple dragons interrupts the once-quiet forest, birds scattering into the air at the sound.
You had been spotted.
The day had started like any other, foraging around for food, and interacting with the local wildlife. Making it to a familiar clearing, your fingers had barely grazed against the berry bush that you had come across before you heard the familiar sound of dragons. Quickly taking refuge behind a thick patch of bushes in the tree line, you fold your wings against your back as much as you can to make yourself seem smaller.
Two dragons suddenly land in the clearing where you once stood, your eyes take them in from behind the leaves and branches. You had never been able to learn about the different types of dragons during your childhood, and now you are only able to identify them by their characteristics. The strange thing about these dragons though, is that they had humans riding on their backs. It was something you had never seen before.
There was a blue one that you promptly called ‘Spike’ due to the spikes on its tail and the crown of spikes coming from its head, ‘Spike’s head twitched slightly as it looked around the clearing. Its rider, a Viking with her blonde hair in a singular braid going down her back, hops off of her dragon before looking over towards her fellow rider.
“What are we even looking for again?” Her voice cuts through the clearing, your body instinctually shrinking even further behind the bush at the harsh tone.
The brunette rider, who was atop a black dragon (you called him ‘Night’ due to how his scales were as dark as the night sky), climbs off to stand beside the blonde.
Your eyes take in the two dragons and their riders, your head tilting in curiosity at the red that replaced the black on one of ‘Night’s tailfins. You also take in ‘Night’s wings, noticing how similar they looked to the wings that were attached to your back.
“We haven’t explored this island yet, Astrid. Who knows what new dragons might be living here.” The brunette says, with a hint of excitement in his tone, towards the blonde who you are now guessing is named ‘Astrid’. His eyes trail over the edge of the forest line, your heart stopping momentarily at how his eyes unknowingly meet yours through the leaves and branches before moving on towards Astrid, her arms crossed across her chest.
“It’s been months since we’ve discovered a new species, Hiccup. What do you think makes this island any different?” So the brunette was named ‘Hiccup’… what an interesting name.
The voices of the riders slowly drifted into the background as you focused on the two dragons as they interacted, it was cute how they played together while their riders talked. You watch as they begin to nod their heads at each other, almost like it was a symbol of playfulness, a small smile twitches at the corner of your lips. You had seen other ‘Spike’s doing this with each other, and it seemed that ‘Night’ had picked up on the movement.
You freeze at ‘Night’ stopping his playful nodding and suddenly looking over towards the bush that you were hiding behind, the dragon’s pupils narrowing at the sight of you. The dragon suddenly leans his head down, stalking slowly towards the bush as his eyes remain locked on you, a deep growl rumbles from his chest.
Your heart begins to race as the dragon gets closer to the bush, ‘Spike’ soon following behind him with her tail raised and her spikes at the ready to attack. Slowly and carefully moving your arms and legs, you try to silently move further into the treeline and further from the dragons and their riders.
“Toothless? What is it, bud?” “Stormfly, what’s the matter?”
You could hear the dragon riders cautiously speak towards their dragons, following slowly behind them as they try to find out the source of the dragons' sudden mood change.
A twig snaps under your foot, a miscalculated step that could cost you your life.
Stormfly flicks her tail quickly at the sound, the spikes that were once on her tail flying straight toward you, as Toothless opens his mouth to shoot a plasma blast. Astrid and Hiccup quickly grab out their weapons once their dragons start the attack.
You managed to use your left wing to block your body from Toothless’ blast and most of Stormfly’s spikes, but you weren’t quick enough to stop one of them, the sharp edge slicing through the skin of your arm as it whizzes past you, warm blood quickly trickling down. A hiss of pain leaves your lips before you cover the oozing wound with your hand, your gaze snapping back to peak over your wing towards the dragons who charge towards you.
Reacting swiftly, you jump up from your hiding position up to your feet and begin to run through the trees. Your heart beats loudly in your chest as you can hear the dragons and their riders following after you. Swerving through the trees, you glance back over your shoulder, a mistake, but it lets you notice that the spikes on Stormfly’s tail got stuck between a tight pair of trees, Astrid staying back to try and help free her dragon.
Without looking towards Hiccup and Toothless, your gaze looks ahead a bit too late, a low-hanging tree branch almost hitting you in the face if you hadn’t ducked. That slip-up was all they needed when you suddenly felt a body slamming into your back, forcing you down onto the ground.
The both of you tumble slightly on the way down, your quick turning causing you to land on your back, but hands quickly grab your shoulders and slam you down. Your eyes snap wide and a sharp cry leaves you as you feel fingers digging into the wound on your upper arm, forest green eyes meet your own as he holds you down.
The pain is a sharp stab, and tears quickly form in your eyes as you keep eye contact with Hiccup, who begins to observe you now that he’s up close and personal. It’s almost as if he doesn’t realize that his hand is slowly getting covered in your blood, his focus mainly on the wings that sprouted from your back, squished between you and the dirt that had been uprooted in your struggle. The both of you don’t even realize that Astrid and the dragons have finally caught up, Hiccup being the first to talk between the three humans.
“What are you?”
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rainybubbles · 2 months
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Silent- Gaz x plus size reader
Summary : Finding a way to relieve the stress of work in a DnD discord, Gaz meets Silent. A player whose microphone is always turned off, using chat only. Maybe he'll find a way to break the silence with them and finds why their mic is off…
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(Sorry in advance, English is not my first language, so sorry if it's bad or OOC.)
-TW social anxiety.
-"What a quiet kid you've got there. I wish mine was as calm at home."
-"Oh, you know, they're pretty mature for their age."
-The laughter faded into distant murmurs as I glanced over at the other kids.
-Yelling, chasing, breaking a vase or two—my eyes couldn't look away from them.
-They seemed to inhabit a world entirely different from mine.
-A world where scraping by at month's end, nightly dinners, locking up the house, solo bus rides, laundry routines, and helping siblings with homework simply didn't exist.
-Because, after all, they were just eight years old.
- But so was I…
-So why didn't I have the right to have fun, yell, chat, ask for sweets, act immature, or doodle on walls?
- My hand reached out briefly, hoping for a connection, but my mom's glance quickly reminded me to stay put…
-Being silent seemed to be the key to earning praise and keeping peace.
-So, I stifled that urge, withdrawing into myself, standing alone behind her legs, engulfed in a heavy silence.
____________
"Silent, huh?"
-My gaze drifted slowly to the chat.
-"Yeah, dude, they're usually a regular on Thursdays. Never says a word, their mic's busted, can't afford to fix it," one of the guys responded.
-The tone carried a hint of disdain.
-I felt out of place.
-Yet, I stayed put, unable to leave the server.
-It was the only place where I felt I could express myself.
-Through words, carefully chosen, controlled, retyped, erased, and sculpted to bring a story to life—a space where my imagination, so often overlooked, could finally roam free.
-By chance, I'd become enamored with Dungeons and Dragons.
- The only snag, of course, was the void in my social life.
-So, like figuring out how long it takes to cook broccoli, I scoured the internet.
- Discord groups organized sessions. I panicked at the sound of mics, voices.
- What would they think of me? What should I say? What could I do? And then someone asked if my mic was broken.
- Ever since, I'd stayed that way, and the nickname Silent stuck.
"Hi Silent, then :) I'm Kyle aka Gaz."
-Usually, I ignored introductions.
- People interested me little, their characters were the interesting ones.
-However, Gaz hadn't spoken those words aloud.
- He had written them. It was stupid honestly, but few people wrote back to me, few people responded to me in writing.
-Everything was done orally.
-Suddenly, someone was on my turf, reaching out.
-The campaign proceeded as usual.
-My thoughts were focused on my actions, the dice rolls, and the resulting outcomes.
- Yet occasionally, I let my eyes wander over Gaz's profile.
________________
-"Hello guys, I don't know if I've played with some of you before or not. "
-"Don't worry, we accept everyone. The days are rarely fixed."
-Gaz was back. It was Friday. It was my favorite group, the game master Ylias really managed to transport you.
-"Well, I'll start then-"
-Ylias started rambling, I followed the story when I noticed a notification in the discord. My finger brushed it, and then ignored it.
-What would he think if I clicked now? that I'm a friendless attention-seeker? But if I wait, they'll think I don't care about the campaign?
-So I waited 5 minutes, trying to find the right balance between the two.
-"Hey, Silent. I missed a campaign without you, the others keep on rambling about their athletics, last time I even had a guy mimicking a goblin with his mic, I'm glad to see you back in text :) !!!"
-Pressure flooded over me. What should I reply? A heart? Thanks? Ignore it? Tell him he's nice too?
-"Thanks."
-Too cold, too short. I thought it wrong, I should delete it, rephrase it, add a smiley, make it warmer, he must think I'm a monster.
-"I think we should try opening the door, are you coming with me? I don’t feel like going into the forest with the rest of the team."
-Oh. Usually in campaigns, I go with the flow, I heal and stay in the background. I never-
-"You need a score of 13 for that, folks". Ylias said.
-"Come on, Silent, roll the dice." Gaz replied
-Nervously, my mouse hovered over the virtual dice. With a score of 15 showing, I heard Gaz's laughter.
-"I knew we had to do it! Let’s go, plus with your stealth, impossible to get spotted. "
-"We'll see about that." Ylias replied, laughing.
-And just like that, Gaz made me smile. It was probably one of the worst campaigns, but it was the first where I could finally choose my actions.
__________________________
-"Back again :) ?"
-" Yes."
-Dry, too dry.
-"I was waiting for you. "Gaz replied.
-" Why? "
-"I don’t want to play a campaign without you, you bring me luck."
-" I'm not sure about that. "
-"Yes. I tried a campaign with colleagues, we died blowing up. "
-"Probably because of your colleagues. "
-"Okay, maybe my colleague set fire to a mystery barrel. But it was their first campaign. "
-"You're recruiting? "
-"Introducing them. He's trying to quit smoking, and I thought DnD could occupy his free time."
-I stopped myself.
-Curiosity, imagination, everything overwhelmed me.
-What was it like to be close to colleagues like this, to freely discuss your passions, to laugh…
-"And then?"
-" It's not his thing, he's more into action. "
-"I see. "
-"It's not for everyone. "
-"Is it your thing? "
-"What? "
-"To let off steam? If your colleague needs it, so do you, right?"
-Stupid. Too personal a question. Invasive.
-"Yes. It allows me not to think, to be someone else."
-" Me too."
-" Plus, being an elf is great."
-" You say that because I am one."
-" Maybe. "
-"Thank you. "
-"For? "
-"Talking in chat. People usually ignore me outside of campaigns, they don't respond by text."
-" They ignore the sexiest elf?"
-" There's no image, you don't know what I look like"
-". Hm, exactly! I imagine your elf tall, muscular like the Rock, hair like Gordon Ramsay's, and maybe makeup like Ru Paul's."
-" I'm not sure about the result. "
-"Sexy."
-I snorted at my screen.
-"Ok."
-" How do you imagine me? "
-"Your wizard? "
-"Yes. "
-"With long hair, maybe dreadlocks, white eyes, and a smile. "
-"A smile?"
-" Your voice sounds soothing. "
-"Really? "
-"Yes, sorry, it's weird to say that, I shouldn't have."
-" No. No. I've never been told that, I was just surprised, that's all."
-" I see. "
-"So, a sexy elf and a smiling mage.
-"Sounds like the beginning of a weird porno."
-He responded with a meme.
_________________________
-"So, what do we decide, Silent? Honestly, I don't want to raid the goblin but the vampire to face, I'm sure the score will be high." Gaz asked through his mic
-"It's your choice, not mine."
-"they're right, Gaz, this one's all on you," Ylias said.
-"Can't I even ask for help?"
-"Score of 15 in insight to spot an ally." Ylias announced.
-Gaz scored a 10. No one addressed me throughout the campaign.
________________________
-"Back, Gaz?" someone said.
-Three weeks of radio silence.
-My mind had been looping, wondering if my refusal to break the rules had driven him to find a more interesting group, a more exciting duo.
-But there he stood, his username glowing green.
-"Yeah, I finally got some days off."
-"Good for you, man."
-"So spill, I see some new names and all!"
-Strangely, his voice had become grating to me. I didn't understand why, so before he could reach me, I disconnected.
- Alone in my apartment, I held my knees to my chest.
-Why am I reacting like this? He's entitled to a life, damn it.
-I fet like he...gave me up.
-Shit it's stupid.
-I didn't understand. I tried to calm myself, but the deafening silence of my apartment seemed to slowly engulf me, and before I knew it, I found myself in a new spiral of anxiety.
____________________________
-There were no campaigns. I just liked reading. Reading what had happened. Living vicariously, imagining their voices, their reactions.
-"hey :)"
-The off-campaign tab was blinking.
-He was addressing me, I knew it, I was the only one online with him.
-My thumb grazed the notification, but I ended up entering the chat.
-"hey."
The period was too harsh, too dry.
-"It's been a while! Something happened?"
-"Work." I answered.
-That's a lie.
- But lying is like oxygen, it's easy to come up with excuses to avoid others.
-But harder to let go of it to face the potential risks of social suffocation.
-"I know quite a bit, just got back from mine."
-"At 1 am?"
-"Yep."
-"Cook?"
"Soldier."
-A shiver ran through me. Uniforms had never been positive in my life.
- As the long seconds passed, I hesitated.
-"Not a fan?" Gaz asked.
-"You could say that."
-"Military family?"he asked.
-"yes."
-"I see."
-"Sorry, that's stupid."
-"No, I understand, I mean, we all have red flags." He said.
-"It's not a red flag."
-"You'd been quiet for 5 minutes."
-"With everyone." I answered.
-"Everyone?"
-"I'm not the best at socializing."
-"Really? Yet when you blew up a castle instead of talking to the princess in a campaign, it seemed normal to me." He joked.
-A laugh escaped.
-"And you?" he asked.
-"Me?"
-"Your job?"
-"Proofreader."
-"For books?"
-"Yes, I read, annotate, and correct."
-"No humans."
-"Exactly."
-"Would you like to add me? I'm not super comfortable with everyone seeing this."
-"Why?"
-Stupid. I should have accepted without questioning.
-"To prevent everyone from knowing the secrets of the sexiest elf on the discord."
-Always there to catch my blunders.
-I accepted it even though suddenly there was added pressure, what to say when there's a pause?
_____________
-"A dragon arrives and—"
-My eyes glanced at my notifications. Kyle was in the campaign but—
-"The narration is terrible, isn't it? The guy has been stuck on the dragon for thirty minutes while Théis killed it."
-He was writing to me. Like someone whispering in your ear during class.
-"Yes, Roxanne is a beginner, but she'll get there."
-"So kind."
-"Not really, one day I insulted a game master."
-"Oooh, a gangster among us?"
-"Never, besides, you'd arrest me, wouldn't you?"
-The ellipses seemed to linger.
-"I wouldn't mind."
-Oh.
-"I don't want to end up in a secret government cave."
-"Caves are old school, we have containers now."
-"I don't know if you're joking."
-"Classified."
-"Gaz…"
-"I'll keep the secret, I think you won't have a choice but to be arrested by me someday."
-"… it won't happen."
-"Why?"
-"I haven't committed any crimes."
-"Not even indecent exposure? I thought you were 45 years old and hiding in bushes naked."
-"For that, I'd have to leave my house."
-"Quite the homebody?"
-"You could say."
-"I'm the same, I don't like going out much."
-It's different. I didn't know what to add, so I let him continue the conversation.
-----------------------------
-"Still into your nerd stuff?"
-Gaz looked up at Soap.
-"It's not nerd stuff." Gaz said.
-"Dragon, princess, elf, discord all mixed together. It's nerd stuff. "Ghost replied
-"Dressing up as a skeleton at Hot Topic too, L.t."
-"Ooh, I wouldn't have liked that. "Soap laughed. "But seriously, don't you think about doing it for real? I mean, gathering around a table."
-"They think about it, but we all live in different parts of the world."
-But it would be amazing. Maybe he could even hear Silent's voice, see them…
-"Hm." Johnny said with a smirk
-"What?"
-"It sounds like you have someone in mind."
-"I don't have anyone in mind."
-"Not even an elf you get along with, Garrick?" Ghost retorted
-"I- we're a duo, it
-"It's different."
-"I mean it, we just get along."
-"So if you check discord in a military bar at 11 p.m., it's not to reply to him second by second?"
-"Shut up," Gaz said as the two laughed.
__________________________
-"You're not participating anymore?"
-I ignored his message.
-Three months.
-Three long months of descent, of confinement, of discomfort, of crises.
-Everything was too much.
-Crowds, outside, errands, people.
-My lungs constricted at the thought of meeting someone's gaze. My eyes avoided every contact. My lips were dry from lack of words.
-"I admit that campaigns suck without you," he had written.
-That was two weeks ago.
-"I refused to play with Théo, he wanted to take your place," he had sent.
-That was three months ago.
-"The office GIF."
-Three weeks.
-He… Gaz had never stopped.
-No matter the views, the winds, his boldness didn't stop.
-I was confused.
-Usually, people quit after a month.
-They had better things to do, and I understood. The burden of my social anxiety was mine and shouldn't inconvenience them.
-So why was Gaz standing there carrying this burden unknowingly? Coming back every day, bearing a heavier load…
-"hey."
-Three letters.
-Too short.
-Too dry.
-"Sorry." I continued.
-For what?
-I didn't deserve his forgiveness, I knew it.
-"Glad to see you're back :)" he replied.
-A tear rolled down my cheek.
-"thank you." I replied by text.
-For staying.
-For not asking questions.
-For welcoming me.
______________
-"Sorry, I was at the hospital, do you think I can join the campaign or not?" he had sent.
-My eyebrows raised.
-"No. Wait, you're just out of the hospital and your concern is DnD?"
-"I should really stay by my favorite elf's side."
-"Gaz, seriously, are you okay?"
-"Fractured ribs."
-"Ouch."
-"Broken arm."
-"Wait, what—"
-"And a bullet in the thigh."
-"Wtf."
-"But I'm fine."
-"No."
-"I assure you, I've had worse."
-"And???? You need to rest, not focus on rolling dice to defeat Mindflyers."
-"…but I have no distractions."
-"I'm here."
-"You're in the campaign."
-"No."
-"Wait, what—"
-"I- I saw you were absent so I didn't…join that one."
-"But you only play on that day."
-"I know. But it's not the same without you."
-I didn't know he was currently smiling like an idiot.
-"Thanks, Silent."
-"No worries. Besides, I was also coming out of the hospital."
-"WHAT?! Why didn't you start with that?!"
-"It's ridiculous."
-"No, are you okay?"
-"It's awkward."
-"Oh, serious awkward or-?"
-"No, I'm used to it. I- I took the tram and I couldn't handle it, the crowd was too big, I passed out inconveniencing a hundred people, embarrassing."
-"That's not embarrassing."
-"Yes, I made people late, Gaz."
-"And??? It was for your health."
-"No, I should've known I couldn't handle taking the tram. It's been two years since I couldn't do it, I shouldn't have tried again."
-"Two years?"
-Shit. I said too much.
-"Forget that."
-"Wait, no. You help distract me when I'm on base, I can listen to you in return :)! "
-"There's nothing to say, I don't handle social stuff, that's all."
-"So, your mic, that's it?"
-"Yes."
-"My sister has it too."
-"Has what?"
-"Social anxiety."
-"I see."
-"I know it's different for everyone, but don't give up. Honestly, it's a huge step, right? Taking the tram after two years. Surely you wouldn't succeed all at once, I mean it's like rolling a 20-sided die hoping for a 35."
-I snorted.
-"Nerd."
-"You're a nerd too, Silent."
-"yes, I- I just thought I could succeed, tell myself I could do it."
-"You did it."
-"I passed out."
-"So what? next time can't be worse."
-"Yes, if I have another one."
-"Then you'll have another one, I'm sure you'll manage. Look, I can even show you a tutorial."
-I furrowed my brows and saw a video. A man in an apartment, a cast on one arm, his face cut off from the frame.
-"Quick tutorial for falling on a tram. So lesson 1, stand next to a tall person. We want a good pillow when we fall, so tall people are perfect. Then manage the fall. Fall on the person, not forward. We want to avoid a bloody nose. Especially if there are vampires on the horizon." Gaz said in the video.
-He lay on the ground pretending to fall.
-"Step three, play dead to see sexy firefighters and avoid stares, and step 4 get taken home while flexing in the truck."
-I snorted.
-"Wow, thanks for the tutorial."
-"I know, I know. Passing out pro here."
-"Do you often fall on fridges?"
-"Hm, considering the build of my colleagues, you could say that."
-"Are they as tall and wide as a fridge?"
-"My L.T. yes. With Soap, we even thought he was an android, I mean it's not human to be that built."
-"You look fit too."
-"Oh, a compliment?"
-"Gaz, I-"
-"But yes, honestly, I try to do his routine but I think his genetics play a big part."
-"Shame, no Fridge Gaz then."
-"No, you'll have to settle for Normal Gaz."
-A smile slowly spread across my face.
-"Thanks for the video, it was funny."
-"You're welcome. Plus, if I can flex with my favorite elf."
-"I'm not an elf."
-"Nothing proves me wrong."
-"Gaaaaaazzzz"
____________________________
-"Who are you posing for? "
-"No one."
-" So shirtless, sunlight, flexed arms for no one? Damn, don't tell me it's for your mom. "
-"SOAP!"
-" I'm just asking, man."
-" It's for Silent. "
-"Oh, your magical voiceless elf."
-" It's not— "
-"Yes, yes, not a magical elf, I know, no need to give me another DnD lecture."
-Gaz sighed.
-His selfie was good.
-Shirtless, in the sand, sun rising.
-He looked good.
-But he was nervous.
-What if it was too much?
-After all, this little game of sending each other sunrises or sunsets had started by chance.
-Silent had told him the view was beautiful and sent him a sunset from their window.
-Gaz replied with one from Las Almas, and eventually whenever he went to a new country, he would send a photo.
-But now… maybe it was too much?
-Sending his face.
-Price would kill him.
-But he wanted to progress the relationship.
-Maybe his face could appeal to Silent, they would send him a voice note or even a selfie back?
-"Is this too much? "
-"Hm? "Soap asked confused.
-"This photo, is it too much? "
-"For a thirst trap?"
-" To say hello."
-" It depends on the hello. "
-"Hello as in "I'm showing you my face for the first time." "
-"Oh, maybe. I thought it was a "hello, did you sleep well because look what I could bring to your bed" kind of thing. …But if I received this photo, I'd be happy. "
-"Soap. "
-"I mean, man, you're handsome."
-" Soap. "
-"Plus, who would say no to your abs? "
-"No need to- you know what, I'll send it. "
-"Also, you—"
-Gaz ignored him and sent it.
-Damn, he hoped everything would be fine.
________________________
-Beautiful.
-Too beautiful.
-My eyes scanned that smile not knowing what to do.
- How could someone like that end up playing DnD?
-I closed the conversation.
-I am…. Out of his league.
-So much.
-I could barely bring myself to look at my mirror.
-I knew what I would see there.
- My rolls, my thighs, my stretch marks, my horrible hair, this disproportionate face.
-I'm not ugly.
- But I'm not…I'm not like him
-. I'm the second choice, I'm aware of that.
-I don't get free compliments.
- Nobody turns back to look at me. I'm just…there.
-And him.
- He seemed so radiant, so kind. Damn, I wasted his time.
__________________________
-"So? " Soap asked
-"It's been two weeks with no response."
-" Ouch. "
-"It's not— Sometimes it happens, I think they are doubting."
-" Doubting what? "
-"Themselves. They…before every message, they take 5 minutes to rewrite it, every syllable is thought out and then I send this out of nowhere, I didn't handle it well."
-" You couldn't have known, Kyle. "
-"Yes. YES, I could and I messed up. They told me about their anxiety and then I send them a half-naked photo when I've never even heard their voice. "
-"Try to talk to them then. hmph."
_____________________
-"hey."
-My eyes hesitated.
-"hey." I finally replied
-" For the selfie, I can explain. "
-"No, I- it's not your fault."
-" Yes, honestly, I screwed up" he texted back
-". No, I've been looping again. "
-"You- "
-"seeing you, it was…good, really, but too good." I answered.
-" Too good?"
-"I feel- Illegitimate to talk to you. "
-"what- "
-"You're so- beautiful, and smiling and nice, and the only thing I do is disappear for days and turn up out of the blue. I-"
-" And it's okay, we talked about it." he said.
-" But you deserve better as friends."
-" I decide what I deserve, Silent. And no one beats you. "
-"…I- I don't know what to say. "
-"Send me your sunset :) I haven't had mine."
-Damn. A tear rolled down and I took my phone and sent my sunset. How can someone be so adorable?
-"Perfect." he replied
_________________
-He had continued to send his face on the sunsets. It was stupid, but I waited every time he could and I rewatched them.
-However, it had been three months of silence. I wasn't worried, he was probably on a mission somewhere.
-By a stroke of courage, I had put my phone down to take a photo with the sunset.
-He wouldn't see it. I would delete it.
-But for a moment, I felt beautiful. The sunlight on me warmed me, my outfit was cute, my curves were beautiful.
-I sent it. I would delete it tomorrow. After all, Kyle had said it could last four months.
___________
-"Hey, everything alright, mate?"
-"They're amazing."
-"Lasswell or tony ? For Lasswell of course, why do you think her wife is—"
-"Look."
-Soap raised an eyebrow and glanced at Kyle's phone.
-"Oh, oh."
-Kyle couldn't tear his eyes away from his screen
-. During the mission return, he had picked up his phone and seen a notification. Clicking out of habit, he saw it.
-their smile, their hair, their body. My god.
-"Lucky bastard." Soap said.
-They were perfect. And their belly, their hips, everything was beautiful. Kyle had always preferred curvy people, it was a fact.
-Sure, he had imagined that silently they could be one, but the fact that it was true… It filled his heart with joy.
-"They… damn. "he murmured, zooming in on every detail.
-Mole or freckle, he observed every pixel.
_____________________
-"So the elf wasn't the only one sexy." he texted.
-I raised an eyebrow at the notification as I woke up.
-"Hm?"
-"The photo. "he replied.
-Oh fuck.
-"You saw it?"
-"Yes, I shouldn't have?"
-"I thought of deleting it before, I—"
-"Oh."
-"But did you like it?"
-"Yes. you— I— honestly, I can't stop looking at it. you look radiant."
-He was lying. -No?
-"And that outfit is amazing on you, really."
-It hugs everything, why… why is he complimenting that?
-Usually, people say "those jeans make you look thinner than you are" "you look better in loose clothes" "hide your rolls".
-"Thank you."
-" I have to admit I'm so relieved. I mean if you ended up being a 40-year-old, I wouldn't have been so confident I think."
-"Oh really, wrinkles and gray hair aren't your thing?"
-"No, I'm more into curves and people my age."
-"Damn, I was about to confess that I was 70 years old". I joked.
-"I can make exceptions, but only for elves."
-"I'm lucky then."
-"Very. I— I hope to have more, or occasionally."
-"Of?"
-"Photos of you, it's more beautiful than a sunset."
"-oh."
-A warmth spread to my cheeks, a smile settling in.
-"ok."
-"ok?"
-"Okay."
___________________
-"Do you think I'll hear your voice someday?"
-It was late, or early for him and late for me.
-"I don't know."
-showing my face in a photo…
-I could control that, take back the photo, delete it, edit it. But talking…
-Talking is taking up space.
-"I imagine it smooth."
-"My voice?"
-"Hm, like a stream, it rocks slowly."
-"I might have a smoker's voice."
-"That would suit you too."
-"Maybe one day then."
-"I'm looking forward to that."
_____________________
-Those were the last words sent from him.
-No more contact.
-His absence wasn't due to missions, he had confessed to me that he was off the day before.
-So he had decided to stop.
-I tried to find excuses, before accepting the reality of it.
-Days passed and I hoped he would come back.
-Maybe he was like me, needing time to recover.
-Maybe he was hurt.
-Everything was silent.
-When four months had finally passed, I understood.
-He had grown tired of the silence. I held back a sob and closed the discussion.
-A stab wound would have been better I think.
-To ease the constant pain and intense questions in my mind.
-What had I done wrong? Was I too much? Did I ask the wrong question? Should I have kept quiet?
-Everything was spinning and I finally closed the app. damn.
_____________________________
-My feet led me to the publishing house.
-Today I had to make the final corrections for Madame Lasswell before her vacation with her wife Kate.
-Hesitant, I knocked on her door.
-An "enter" was heard and I entered the already crowded room.
- A mustached man in a beanie, a masked man, a mullet, Kate, and Gaz were watching me.
-My eyes betrayed my surprise at his presence. What was he doing here? Why now? How should I react?
-"Y/n, sorry for the crowd. I guess you have it."
-"Yes ma'am."
-My voice barely above a whisper was usual for Jocelyn. I handed her the manuscripts.
-"We're going to drink at the bar downstairs, do you want to come?"
-Come? To a crowded place, surrounded by drunk people, constant noise, blinding lights with the icing on the cake being a guy who blew me off for the year?
-"No, I'm busy tonight, sorry."
-"No problem."
-Slowly my heels turned, I took the elevator but I heard footsteps. Kyle was with me.
-"I was on a mission."
-"hm."
-"I know I told you no, but he… there were quite a few problems and I had to leave, I didn't have time to warn you, it dragged on, Ghost broke my phone by sitting on it with his stupid hard ass, and we just got back from the airport actually. Lasswell, Kate finally— she works with us so that's why I'm here"
-A silence stretched, he took a breath.
-"you didn't have to explain… I mean after the word mission, I understood I was wrong."
-"I wanted to be clear."
-"I should have asked and sent you messages."
-"No, it's okay, it must have seemed suspicious. I ask for your voice, you say no, and I disappear. The conclusion was logical."
-"but it wasn't the right one."
-"It's okay, we're here, aren't we?"
-"yes."
-The elevator rang, the door opened. Hesitant, I watched him.
-"I love it." -"hm?"
-"your voice."
-"Oh."
-"I… you're really busy tonight or…"
-"No, I just don't like…"
-"The crowd."he guessed
-"Hm."
-"I— I can invite you for dinner? At my place, we'll grab takeout, no crowds, no one to see us."
-"That sounds like the pitch of a serial killer."
-He widened his eyes. I snorted.
-"Okay, you got me." he chuckled.
-" At your place sounds good. Better than a restaurant." I admitted.
-"Cool, so…"
-"Shall we go then, yes". I murmured as he finally released the elevator button and we stepped out of the elevator.
_________________
-At his place, everything was calm.
-Not me.
-How should I stand? Too close? Too far? What to talk about? And what if I'm boring in the end? What to order? Does he like seafood or is he allergic? My eyes focused on every detail and…
-Everything's fine.
-His hand on mine, he took the initiative for the restaurant to order, asking me my preferences, and we waited for the delivery guy.
-Slowly, he asked questions about my work. I mastered it.
-And slowly everything unfolded naturally.
-Sitting on his couch, his hand not letting go of mine, he drew circles with his thumb while talking.
-I liked that. In groups, I liked… listening.
-People like to talk about themselves and I like listening to that, not participating, and Gaz understood that in such an impressive way.
-Occasionally, he asked questions in return, gauging my desire to speak, I answered and this back and forth held until the food arrived.
-Maybe everything would turn out for the best.
-Standing in front of his door, I didn't know what to add to this evening.
-A not-so-stranger, three years of virtual chat and now I was unable to figure out the right goodbye on his doorstep.
-Hesitant, we observed each other.
-"I hope we'll do this again."
-"Yes. "I replied.
-He stepped forward.
-I remained still, his face close to mine. -Kiss? Cheek? Goodbye? Whisper? -Which action would he choose? -I wished for a dice to decide, a title, or a "Gaz approves".
-"May I?"
-Oh. -I nodded. -His hands on my hips, he placed a brief kiss on my lips. -"I'm glad we managed to break the silence." -"me too."
-Perhaps, after all, I wouldn't return to my solitary silence tonight. His hands guiding me back to his apartment and the door closing behind us.
-I could easily guess that a die had just been thrown for a long evening and we both seemed to have the right score.
If you want more my COD Masterlist
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useless-moss · 3 months
Text
Back with the dragon headcanons.
This episode: The Night Fury
Buckle up, this is a long one.
Color variations! Their whole body is usually a dark color. Shades of black/dark grey, dark blue, dark purple are the most common. However, they also have lighter colored patterns on the underside of their wings. Blurred together scales and marks that resemble the northern lights and/or a galaxy type design. It started as a mutation meant for better camouflage, but eventually turned into a mating thing like with peacocks. A night fury has really pretty patterns/designs on the underside of their wings? They have a better chance of getting a mate.
Patterns. They have darker markings and patterns. Think of a black jaguar or a tabby cat for reference. Also, accompanying the previously mentioned designs on the underside of their wings, white speckles that look like stars and can even extend to their underbelly.
Toothless has melanism, hense his more solidly black design, and is actually considered even more rare because of his coloration alone.
They have the widest eye color variation among dragons. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, even shades that look purple are possible.
They usually live in large packs led by a female alpha/queen. If you find one Night Fury, there's usually at least ten more nearby.
Night Fury's in a pack are able to fight the control of dragons like the Red Death and Bewilderbeast more easily since, well, they already have an alpha they're following. Solo Night Furys are still strong willed and can break out with enough trying, but it's significantly harder.
Night Furys are one of if not the most intelligent dragon species. They're able to adapt to different environments, learn from observation to mimic other animal, dragon, and even human behavior, can recognize human weapons, and are smart enough to strategize hunting plans.
Building onto that last point, they don't hunt anywhere near where they nest. They'll fly miles away to hunt for, usually, fish. At least half of the pack will leave at a time while the other half stays back to guard the hatchling, eggs, and nesting area in general. This behavior was learned and adopted after being hunted to near extinction.
Their favorite nesting places are areas that humans can't easily get to. Large cliffs with rocky/rushing water below and in areas prone to storms. Again, a learned behavior from being hunted.
More nesting info, they use a combination of their plasma blasts and claws to dig/carve out caves into said cliffs, which is where they'll nest. Cliff side in an area you can't get too close to on boat with a bunch of holes in the side? Congrats! You probably just found a Night Fury nesting ground and should turn back quickly.
Night Furys aren't inherently aggressive or hostile at all, really. They're wary of humans for obvious reasons, and will defend themselves and their pack/territory, but otherwise they're pretty laid back. Big cats, essentially. Don't be a threat, give them space, and you get to live. This is partly due to them being smart enough to recognize via body language, tone, and even supplies if someone or something is a threat or not.
You want to tame a Night Fury? No weapons, bring food, and again give space. Let them come to you, because they will eventually. Will begin to realize you're not a threat, then realize you bring snacks, then accept that you're pretty alright and begin allowing more physical contact/affection and eventually be okay riding/flying with you. It's a slow process built entirely on trust and mutual respect. If you start getting pushy with a Night Fury, especially too soon in the process, they'll push you away and you have to start from scratch.
Night Fury's are very, very, very protective and loyal. Arguably one of the best dragons to tame purely off of the fact they'll stick with you until the very end and do everything possible to keep you safe.
Once you've tamed or generally befriended a Night Fury you're considered part of the pack. Dynamic from there depends on the type of Night Fury you're dealing with. An adult/older male or female with a history of hatchlings? They'll likely consider you as one of their own babies. A juvenile/younger male or female? They'll likely see you more as a sibling. A hatchling? Hope you're ready to be a parent cause that's what they'll likely see you as.
Cuddle piles. They'll usually sleep cuddled up with littlermates and parents in a pile of sort for warmth and security. This is a behavior that persists into adulthood, since it's a source of comfort and stability as well as a bonding experience.
You know the smaller nubs on a Night Fury's head? Hatchlings tend to suckle on those for comfort. There's literally no other reason. It's like a baby with a pacifier, essentially.
My personal favorite now, SCRUFF! Hatchlings have looser yet tougher skin on the back of their neck that acts as a scruff, allowing adults to pick them up and carry them around easily. As they age it stretches and thins and, eventually, that pressure point we saw in httyd 2 becomes 'exposed.' At that point a parent or other adult Night Fury will nudge the spot with their snout or claws to activate it. This whole process usually occurs around early juvenile/teen stages, since that's when a night fury will begin actively joining hunting parties and need to fly with more speed and agility.
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shushposting · 1 month
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I can be your Prince or I can be your Dragon
Possessive Full Demon Form Vox, intersex Val, toxic relationships because Vox and Val being Vox and Val, they’re so codependent it's disgusting can you have make up sex and hate sex at the same time? Yeah kind of.
Valentino stays gone too long after a fight, Vox doesn’t handle it well
It’s a dance at this point, well practiced and predictable. They fight, they break apart, they fuck, and the broken pieces fit back together. It didn’t matter how many times they stormed out they always always came back.
But even the most practiced dances stumble sometimes, right?
Valentino had walked out of the Vees tower two weeks ago. The longest he's ever stayed away in all their years of euphoric highs and sickening lows. Any attempt Vox made to contact him was ignored. Texts left on read, calls dumped to Vmail, assistants baring messages and gifts shot and left wherever they crumpled. That was the first week and by the tenth day, the texts and calls stopped.
After that, it got more drastic. TVs in the hotels he stayed or in window displays where Valentino walked on the streets burst. Voxtek appliances shorted and sparked or just combusted once he touched them. Lights shattered in his clubs, showering him with sparks and colored glass.
The moth’s last frayed nerve snapped when the next casualty was his phone. He'd only glanced at a text from Velvette that he needed to haul ass back home before every contact and app changed to Vox's speed dial.
Vox vox voxxy V̸̨̊o̶̺͛ ̴̀ͅxv̴̎͜o̸̰̐x̵̢̚x̶̡̒v̴̙̕oVox ̷̬́x̸̪̊ẍ̵͎v̷̱̍ȏ̶̧x̶̄͜Y̴̞̚v̸̟̓Ǒ̸͎X̴̞̍V̸̄͜ö̸̟́X̴̫̀vXY̸͌ͅo̵͖̓Ơ̶̯0̴̡͂0̸͕͘x̶̉͜
The thing rapidly heated and glitched in his hand until the screen cracked. He'd just barely managed to throw it down before it shattered apart with a sharp pop!
Under threat of being sent back to the goddamn stone age Valentino finally relents, he tells Dia to call his car for him and thankfully she's able to do it with minimal static and sparking around the phone. The car was suspiciously close, too close for it to not have been waiting on standby for him. It's not his usual driver who opens the door for him, it's Vox's and he's not asked where it is he wants to go. He swears he sees Vox's eye staring at him in the driver's V-Watch through the partition the whole way back to the tower.
The walk to the media overlord's surveillance room is.. honestly a shitshow. Vox's area of the tower was always pristine, sleek, and perfect. Now it looks like a war zone, with pieces of employees and debris scattered along the floor. Lights hang from their fixtures in ugly wirey tangles, ceiling tiles broken on the floor, elevator doors stand jarred between floors, doors not able to close properly and ding obnoxiously. One shudders to life and opens for him, the light overhead indicating the destination was Vox's lair.
It's not a smooth ride but it doesn't drop him to a temporary death either. Small mercies. It does leave him though, the second he steps into Vox's private space the thing slams shut behind him and groans back up the chute, stranding him.
Wires and cables writhe like snakes along the floor, the ceiling, and walls; all feeding back to the bank of monitors. Vox's highbacked chair was in a gnarled heap, torn from where it had been fastened to the floor, more wires coming up from the hole it had left. The TV demon himself hung in front of the screens, the cables connected to his body holding him aloft like a puppet. Or maybe he was just standing. It was hard to tell with Vox's disjointed limbs, too-long cables and wires lengthening his joints like some grotesque doll. And he said Val was theatric.
Valentino's own reflection looks out from the screens. Recordings and still shots of him over the last two weeks cover every monitor. In his clubs, hotels, the street, looking up at him from his phone before the damn thing detonated. Right in front, the one Vox was fixated on, was the live feed of him standing there in the here and now.
"And you get mad at me for wrecking shit?" Val says to his partner's back- might as well get this shit started "I take a siesta and you trash the whole tower while I'm out."
"G⦻N3" The glitched snarl seemingly comes from everywhere as the screens go red, Vox's black-ringed hypnotic stare broadcast across each one, glaring down at him "Not 'out'. You were gone."
A sneer pulls Valentino's upper lip off his teeth "Oh excuse me, I didn't know I had a fucking curfew."
"Two weeks" In a surging wave of sparking cables Vox is in his face, bodily slamming him against the wall.
"Ow- Goddammit, Vox-"
"You left me." Vox's claws fist into the ruff around his partner's neck as wires wrap painfully around him, sparks of electricity singing the fur. "For two weeks. You. Left. Me."
"Oh poor fucking baby," Valentino growls through a mocking grin, sucking in the electrical smoke and hissing it back out red and thick, cocooning around them as his body threatens to change, to grow monstrous in the face of Vox's own more demonic form even if it makes the wires cut into his skin.
They snarl and growl in static glitches and insectoid chirps, pushing and pulling at each other with too-sharp claws. Val's teeth grow in his mouth, snapping loud in front of Vox's screen when the hypnotic stare tries too obviously to catch his eye.
"You want to bite me? Here-" Vox's throat is suddenly right in his face, synthetic skin pressing against sharp dripping fangs. The hold feels suspiciously like a hug, cradling the back of Valentino's head as he tucks him into the crook of his neck, offering to let him bite and rip. "-bite. I don't give a fuck if we're fighting. Scream. Cuss me out. Hit me. Level this goddamn tower to a parking lot, Valentino I. Don't. Care. But you will fucking come home when I call you."
And fuck if that horrible- pathetic- declaration doesn't have Valentino's hips rolling up against Vox's leg where it pins him between his legs and takes the invitation to break skin under his teeth. "You miss me that bad, Papi?"
Vox's groan is miserable and angry, the cables writhing and tightening around Valentino's limbs, but he grinds his own aggression-hardened cock down to meet his partner's rolling. "You're not supposed to stay gone."
Electricity crawls across his skin as he lets go of Valentino's neck fluff to forcefully lace their hands together. The moth retaliates against the shocks by moving to the TV demon's shoulder and sinking his teeth in there too. Their hips slot together, rocking their cocks against each other, Valentino's pink-tinged slick dampening the panties under his short dress and the front of Vox's slacks. Finally back in step with their dance.
"We have a goddamn deal, Val." The surging electricity burns them both, smoke wafting off Valentino's fur and from Vox's overloaded processors. Burns down their arms, raising lighting-shaped marks to their joined hands where rings manifest around their fingers, the delicate chain joining them unseen between their clasped palms. "We don't leave each other. You don't leave me."
Valentino laughs bratty and condescending, breathing more red into the air around them, "Maybe if you reminded me more often why I shouldn't then I wouldn't have to take a two-week vacation fucking and getting fucked like I deserve. You've not really been acting like my prince have you? I thought I was supposed to be your Princesa?"
The eyes watching him from all over the room spark and glare and threaten to drip digital tears. His poor, hopeless little Voxxy. His ingrained 1950s ego was too fragile to even insinuate he wasn't doing enough, wasn't The Man, wasn't the steadfast and proper provider. That he was failing as a lover. Vox's screen flashes lines of rainbow before going blue, white text typing out frantically
Mine. Mine minemiN3youucaN'+1eavemme3y0u're MmineCaNT13avemem1n3on1ymine
Vox tears through his fishnets and raises bloody lines on his thigh as he pulls Valentino's leg up to hook over his hip. The cables tighten and yank sharply, taking them down to the floor. He's not easy either when he goes up under the tight little skirt, blindly slitting the soaked panties straight down the middle, not minding whether or not he nicks his partner. The grinding, insectoid hiss tells him he must have and the thick cherry scent of Valentino's pheromones flooding the air tells him he liked it.
Finally, some attention. The moth rolls his hips against the sharp points making them slide and rub over his cunt, teasing himself as an obscene gush of candy pink slick coats the media overlord’s fingers and drips down his wrist. "Come on, Papi. I'm yours? Show me."
Vox's digital face loads back in sharp and snarling, bringing the fingers to his mouth, licking his fingers clean before grabbing Valentino by the jaw and spitting it back into his panting mouth "You taste like a whore, Princess."
He snaps his belt at the buckle, not bothering to try and undo it before tearing his zipper down. He doesn't tease or let his tip kiss up sweet and slow like he has for decades when they come back together and he's winning his princess back. The push is sharp and faster than either of them are ready for, fucking like they fought, full of snapping teeth and cutting claws. The media overlord is ruthless, thrusting hard enough that they slide across the floor. Valentino tears a bloody wrist out of the wires to press above them to keep his head from knocking against the wall, stilettos slipping loudly as he digs his heels into the polished floor trying to give just as good as he got.
"I'm going to kill every worthless nobody you let touch you." His voice crackles over the wet sound of driving himself into the moth's cunt, "Your pussy is mine. I don't give a fuck who you let suck you off or how many whores you stick your dick in. But this-" Two fingers slip in beside his cock, "is mine. Nobody else fucks you. I'm going to start hanging them flayed in the streets, do you understand me?"
Long tongue swiping at the drool and blood painting his lips Valentino arches up with a chuckling moan, gushing and dripping around Vox's cock. "Mmhm, medieval. My Prince knows how to make my heart flutter."
"Maybe I'm done being a prince." Vox leans all his weight into the hand laced with Valentino's with a static rumble, hilting hard until he can see the outline of himself through Valentino's belly with each deep stroke, "Maybe I need to be a dragon and keep my princess in his tower where he belongs. Keep you tied up in silks and jewelry until I get home and I can show you you're mine over and over and over. How many times do you think I would have to write 'mine' with my tongue inside you before you came?"
"Oh fuck- Vox"
"If that doesn't work I'm sure I can make a lock strong enough. Whatever it takes. What about this Val? Would this keep you?” There’s a whirr and a vibration pulses from his cock.
Valentino wails, hand leaving the wall and flying to the vibrating bump buried in his guts, feeling like it was jarring down to his bones and he gushes. “Vox Vo- Papi, please fuck”
“Say you’re mine, Val.” Vox growls, hips snapping faster, the hand tucked in beside his cock slipping out to hold him by the neck. “Tell me you know you’re mine.”
“Yours, Vox. Ah-always yours- only yours”
He pulls Valentino into a kiss by the throat, and they rut like that, rocking and shouting around each other’s tongue until the vibrations pushed them over the cathartic edge of orgasm.
The cables don’t loosen. Vox’s body doesn’t return to form.
“Val.” Static laced lips rub softly across the moth’s “If you ever leave me like that again I’m dragging you back to this tower and I’m chaining you to it.”
Valentino only laughs, long tongue dragging across the screen. “Wear the dragon attachment and it’s a date.”
.
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Tension
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A/N sorry not Aemond but I have a massive crush on Rhaenyra sooo
Warnings: made up house, some unrealistic things for this time period (keyword FICTION) just fluff I mispelled Rhaenyra so many times..
Pairing fem!reader x Rhaenyra 
Summary: Ever since you two met, you’ve always been more than friends
Maybe it was the lingering stares, the feeling in your stomach whenever your hands touched, or the way you always wanted to be together, but it was apparent to you both that you were more than typical friends. I mean Rhaenyra had always been friends with Alicent and they had always been close, but it wasn’t like this, was it normal? Was it wrong? But to be honest with yourselves neither of you really cared.
You were at Kings Landing with your father on business, you had met Rhaenyra two months ago and instantly you knew you had some new type of feeling for her, it was something you had never felt before, but she made butterflies flutter in your stomach, made your skin hot, and a smile always rested on your face whenever you two talked or even looked at each other.
When you first met Rhaenyra you were by yourself in the training grounds using your custom-welded sword against a shredded dummy for training, in your house, it was normal for girls to train with sword and shield simply to know the skill in case of ever needed their own protection in, which was rare but her father saw it to be a useful skill. 
Rhaeynra was passing through simply enjoying the outside of the castle when she saw you, swinging your sword not paying attention to the princess now stopped observing. Unlike you, Rhaenyra was not familiar with women practicing such skills, but she was overtaken with intrigue and desire to join. When you stopped to take a break you finally laid your eyes on her. You were enchanted for what felt like hours of staring at eachother but only a few seconds, Rhaeynra was the first to speak, “Might I know you?” you smiled hearing her voice, “I’m  y/n I come from Windswest, princess” You bowed your head and she smiled, “Do you practice sword and shield where you are from?”  she questioned genuinely curios, “Oh yes it’s a typical skill for us. Would you like to join? There are some wooden swords over there,” you pointed to the wooden rack holding the trainee swords,” I can teach you whatever you’d like,” Rhaenyra agreed, and that was the beginning of it all. 
The two of you were inseparable spending all of your time together whenever you came to visit, riding your dragons, reading tales under the trees in godswood, gossiping about the other lords and ladies, making flower crowns, and sometimes just basking in each other's company.
Alicent warned Rhaenyra about you, saying the way you looked at Rhaenyra wasn’t normal and that you seemed to be a bad example but Rhaenyra dismissed her and ran to your company whenever you were around.
—--------------------------------
Landing your dragon at the landing space you gently rubbed the base of her neck before jumping down and petting the rest of her long red neck, “That waterfall looked incredible we must visit one day,” You said taking off your gloves as you approached Rhaenyra, “I would love too whenever I’m allowed to get out of the castle,” she rolled her eyes as you giggled and she looked at you and her smile grew. 
“Change and meet you at the Godswoods?” you inquired fixing down the flyaways on your head. “Of course,” she removed her gloves as the two of you walked together.
-
You had changed out of your gear into a simple silk purple dress and you rested under the tree you always went to waiting for Rhaenyra, when she arrived she was in one of her simple yellow dresses, but she still never failed to be the most beautiful woman you ever did see, when she sat she began talking to you about how her father was trying to sell her off and how she didn’t want to marry, “I know, I know, and trust me, I also wouldn’t want to be forced into a marriage but once you are married I’m sure it won’t be as bad you still will get to do whatever you like,” You looked down at her resting her head on your shoulder.
“But I will not, I will no longer have the time to be here with you I’ll have to be with my cunt of a husband,” you only giggled, but took her comment about you to heart, to you, you were overthinking her words and wondering if she felt the same about you as you did her.
You had finally learned that these feelings were normal, but not excepted, your friend from home had taken you to a brothel and there were many women hidden in alleyways appreciating each other as men and women do, but you still were unsure if Rhaenyra even saw you as nothing but a friend. 
“Rhaenyra,” you spoke lowly, the time seemed right the wind was blowing slightly the sun was shining the birds in the godswood were talking it was like the setting of one of the epics the two of you read,”Y/n,” she sat her head up looking at you and instantly your breathe caught in your throat, she had been this close to you so many times but it never failed to make you stop in your tracks, it made you blush and made you want her, even more, each time. 
“Is there anyone that you really want to be with?” you asked just trying to see if she had already fancied someone, “Yes, you, I just told you,” she smirked, “No I mean, romantically, “Yes but, I can’t,” something sparked inside you your mind racing at all of the possibilities, “Rhaeynera if I tell you something will your promise not to be completely disgusted at me,” 
“I swear it,” she rose her hand jokingly you could only weakly smile, “I have always gotten really nervous whenever I’m around you,” Rhaenyra’s face was puzzled, “Not in a way of displeasure, but in a way that uhm, boys and girls, do” 
Her eyes and smile widen and she slowly placed her hand on your chin pulling you closer to her, before suddenly a gasp was heard on the side entrance of the Godswood, Alicent.
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lick-me-lennon22 · 28 days
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Kid!Beatles X Kid!Reader Headcanons
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(thank you to anon for this fun request!! 💞)
John
you and John are known troublemakers in school, often getting scolded for your antics in class and mischief during recess
you're notorious for pulling pranks on your classmates, from tacks on chairs to fake bugs in desk drawers
you bond over your love for doodling, filling notebooks with silly drawings and caricatures of your teachers (and sometimes defacing school property)
despite your friendship, you're fierce rivals on the soccer field, competing against one another in epic matches with bragging rights on the line
you share a secret hideout in the schoolyard where you spend your breaks together, plotting imaginary adventures and sharing your wildest dreams
you have frequent sleepovers consisting of ruthless pillow fights and devious prank calls to every number in the phonebook
Paul
you and Paul spend recess making up silly songs together, singing at the top of your lungs and giggling uncontrollably
after school, you make your way towards your secret treehouse in Paul's backyard to share secrets and imaginary tales, hidden away from the rest of the world
when the weather is nice, you like to go on bike rides around the neighborhood, exploring hidden trails and pretending to be intrepid explorers on a quest for adventure
Paul will sometimes take you to the park with him to birdwatch, armed with binoculars and identification books
you love building things together, crafting beautiful flower crowns and constructing makeshift forts from pillows and blankets
you spend your weekends watching old monster movies and sci-fi classics, munching on popcorn and debating over which film is the best
George
being two of the quieter students in class, you share a special unspoken bond, often writing messages in the margins of your notebooks and sliding it to the edge of your desk for the other to read
speaking of, the two of you are avid readers, spending hours in the school library devouring nonfiction books about dinosaurs, science, and space
George takes on you epic imaginary adventures, pretending to be astronauts exploring distant planets or knights fighting dragons
you like to go on nature walks together, collecting leaves to make rubbings and flowers to press in your scrapbooks
you spend the weekends exploring in the woods behind your houses, searching for hidden treasures and making friends with the creatures that inhabit the forest
Ringo
you're a pair of class clowns, always cracking jokes and performing silly skits to make your classmates laugh during boring lessons
Ringo shares with you his love for percussion, showing you how to use instruments like air guitars and cardboard drums to perform for your friends at lunchtime
the two of you spend countless afternoons playing soccer with your friends in the neighborhood streets, Ringo showcasing his impressive footwork as you cheer him on from the sidelines (and even join in when you're feeling bold)
you're avid comic book fans, spending hours together trading your favorite issues and debating over who would win in a battle between your favorite superheroes
on temperate evenings you'll pitch a tent in Ringo's backyard and stay up all night telling ghost stories, roasting marshmallows over a makeshift campfire, and counting the stars
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vynnytypesstuff · 2 years
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platonic x reader hcs for mk, mei, and red son plz, what would it be like to be best friends with them?
꒰୨୧﹒Lego Monkie Kid - Hcs for Being Best Friends with Mk, Mei, and Red Son 
Ofc! Thanks for the request, here you go Anon.
Warnings: None
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Mk
• Hope you don't mind the clingy type, because that's the kind of friend Mk is. Once you two are close, and if you're comfortable with it, he'll have an arm hooked onto yours or slung around your shoulders. No matter where you two are, he'll find some way to end up physically close to you, even if it isn't on purpose
• You're that one pair of friends who everyone looks at and goes "are they dating? Or are they really close friends?" Obviously, in this case, it's the latter, but it's amusing to see the looks of utter confusion on people's faces (including Mks' because he currently has no idea that people wonder if you're a couple, so he gets really confused when he sees you smiling/laughing about it)
• He's addicted to mobile games. Half the games on your phone is likely due to his recommendations (and also because he needs more people to play with him, especially since Mei prefers console gaming). For multi-player apps, he'll call you during his break or free time and ask if you wanna play a round of two
• Movie nights! Whether they're in-person or through a video call, movie nights are a common occurrence in your friendship with Mk. He often invites the rest of the gang to join, but when they're not available, it'll just be you two tangled up on his couch with all the snacks you bought earlier and watching a cheesy movie together
• Mk LOVES cartoons, they're his absolute favorite! He's always trying to get you to binge them with him. He loves it even more when you rant to him about the story and characters
• If you're an artist, he asks if he can look through your sketchbook. If you let him, he'll fawn all over your drawings and praise every piece. He'll immediately start bombarding you with questions about art tips, and if you so happen to have any, he'll be sure to try them out the next time he draws. It's adorable how excited he is
• If you ever go on a walk or run, Mk would love to keep you company! After all, he needs to stay active if he's going to be the Monkey King's successor. Plus, its a good excuse to spend time with you
• He is genuinely the sweetest. Mk does his best to make you feel comfortable with him. He wants you to be able to trust him and feel safe when you're around him. He'll take mental notes of your likes, dislikes, boundaries, etc. If you're feeing down, he'll be at your side in an instant (unless you clarify that you need space). He does his best to listen, and he'll do his best to cheer you up in any way he can
• He gets so flustered if you smother him with compliments. He's not used to the extra attention, so it's one of his biggest weak points
• I hc that he's around 5'3" or 5'4" ft. If you're taller than him, use him as an armrest lol. He might pout and pretend he's annoyed but he honestly doesn't mind the contact. He also loves hitching a ride on your shoulders
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Mei Dragon
• The two of you are attached by the hip. Pigsy swears that 90% of the time he sees you, you're hanging out with her. You and Mei practically do everything together; shopping, playing games, getting up to all sorts of shenanigans, you name it! Mei is a huge social butterfly, so expect a lot of "are you free on [insert date]?" type questions
• Tons of late night conversations. She'll text you at 3 in the morning with an arsenal of corny memes and weird conversation starters (ex. "do fishies ever get thirsty?"). It happens so often that you're not even surprised by it anymore, you just go along with it. You're also very concerned for her sleep schedule
• Always invites you and Mk to attend concerts with her. She thinks they're more fun with friends. The night before the concert, the three of you will sleep over at Mk's place. Sometimes Mk will fall asleep early after being tuckered out from work or training (or both), giving you and Mei plenty of time to plan a good old-fashioned prank on him
• Adding onto the last headcanon, if you aren't able to attend the concert, she'll be sure to buy merch for you. It'll usually be a t-shirt or poster
• When you two are hanging around in Pigsy's noodles, Mei tries to get you to do a bunch of Internet dances ([shudders], Tiktok dances, if you will) with her. Even if you don't think you're much of a dancer, she'll just be happy that you wanted to do them with her
• Another activity Mei enjoys is karaoke! This is more something that the whole gang participates in together. Just wait. You, Mei, and Mk are going to end up belting a song at some point
• Matching outfits!! She ADORES matching outfits with you, especially jackets. She thinks it's makes you two look cool. Whenever you two go clothes shopping, I can guarantee you'll both end up with at least one piece of matching clothing. Her favorite is a pair of matching motorcycle jackets, which the two of you displayed while riding her motorcycle together
• You'll always be up to date on all of Mei's interests. She loves to ramble about overly-convoluted storylines of shows shes been watching or the thrilling mechanics of a newly-released game. She'll also let you ramble about your interests. She loves getting to know what you like, and even tries to learn more about that topic herself
• Mei has gaming livestreams and no one can convince me otherwise. Every now and then, she'll invite you onto the stream to play with her. If you're nervous about people watching you, she'll do her best to make you feel comfortable and reassure you that it's all in good fun
• Don't let her eccentric personality fool you, Mei is observant. She knows exactly what voice patterns and mannerisms indicate even the tiniest hint of sadness. Once that's been identified, her mind jumps straight into comfort mode. She's by your side in an instant, letting you know that she's not leaving your side. If you wanna talk about it, she'll listen, and even give her own advice if you wish for her to do so. If you don't want to talk about it, she'll sit with you and allow you to collect yourself. Afterwards, she'll help you find a distraction
• Oh my god she buys you so many gifts, especially during your birthday or the holidays. Sometimes she'll stop by your house with a little bag in her hand and say "I saw this while checking out all the shops, thought you might like it!" For the most part, price doesn't seem to bother her, so expect some really extravagant gifts on special occasions
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Red Son
• You're one of, if not the only people who can get away with teasing him. The most he'll do is send a couple of "murder glares" your way, but it's obvious that he's all bark and no bite. Try not to abuse your power. Then again, to quote Simpsons, "I'm a sign, not a cop"
• There are perks to having an inventor as a friend. Have a broken piece of machinery? Red Son can fix it! Having trouble completing a task? Red Son has an invention to help! You'd think that he would mind having extra work, but honestly, he loves getting the chance to show off his intelligence and fancy gadgets
• There is a caring side to his fiery attitude. Even if he doesn't always know what he's doing, he can't bring himself to let one of his closest friends struggle alone, so he'll try his best to accommodate for you. If you're sick or feeling nauseous, he'll lay you down immediately and brew you a soothing cup of tea. If you're upset or angry about something, he'll keep a hand on yours as he silently listens to you vent. Hell, he'll even create some sort of "punching bag" if you need to physically release your frustrations
• He makes you binge cooking shows with him. While watching, he'll give you a run-down on all the different culinary techniques that the chefs use. It's like a mini-cooking lesson. Oh, and don't think you aren't getting away with watching people make all sorts of delicious recipes without trying to make one together, because he is 100% roping you into doing that with him
• Red Son loves self-care products and cosmetics, so every so often, the two of you will have spa days! Initially, they're likely going to be at your place since he isn't fond of doing it at home. The two of you lounge around while pampering each other and complaining about random inconveniences
• We all know he's loaded with cool modes of transportation (ex. his race car), and as his friend, you have the honor of riding them with him! As for driving said vehicles, lets just say that's going to take some convincing on your part
• If you think he’s going to call you by your name/some variation of your name, think again. He’s got a bunch of personalized nicknames for you (similar to how he calls Mk "Noodle Boy" and Mei "Dragon Girl")
• You two will get into arguments/debates over the dumbest topics, like whether water is wet or not. Considering how stubborn Red Son can be, this can go on for hours on end, but don't worry, you two know it's all in good fun (most of the time)
• Though he refuses to admit it, he's a bit of a music fanatic. He has several playlists in his library, some of which are organized by genre while the others are organized by artist. He can easily give you song/artist recommendations
• One of Red Son's favorite activities to do in his free time is meditation! He often encourages you to join him, as it's a great getaway from the stress of daily life. You two set up a spot outside, somewhere quiet and far away from society, and meditate under the sunset
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omegaremix · 3 months
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High Score Pinball + Game On; Spring 2021 & Spring 2022.
If you were an Eighties child, the video game was the pinnacle of your childhood. On Saturdays, my dad took me to the toy store where I sprinted to the game wall, have me choose any stamped ticket and hand it over the counter to customer service where they stocked all the solid state cartridges in the back. They’d hand me the game of choice and I was golden until next week. If I was lucky, he’d take us to Nunley’s Carousel in Baldwin where it was the final time in my life I’d play old electromagnetic machines and driving games that ran on paper sheets - and even film reels and plastic parts (Atari’s F1). We’d also go to Nathan’s in Oceanside. It, too, had an arcade there. Once we came back from his dietician or from my half-sister in Bensonhurst, he ended up taking the whole family for sit-in Chinese and to the Nellie Bly Amusement Park where for one time only I played Atari’s Superman and Hercules pinball tables.
Sunday was an even bigger event. My pop would drive from (also) Bensonhurst all the way out to Long Island where my family and I lived. He’d arrive anywhere between noon to 1PM and stay for an hour before taking me to the South Shore Mall. I’d have the luxury of two hours and $5.00 worth of quarters to play as many games as I could. Roadblasters, Space Harrier, Chase HQ, Marble Madness, skee ball - you name it, they had it, I played it. Pop would break it up and take me to The Emporium (later becoming Nathan’s and after that a sushi house that closed down in 2010) where they also had an arcade itself. Same time limit, same amount of pocket change. The neighborhood delis and convenience stores also had arcade and pinball machines where I clearly remember playing Seicross, Legion, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and other games too many to mention. I had the best of both worlds at home and beyond. By the time my grade-school years ended, I replenished the game collection my dad once sold for $50.00 and more thanks to my Dallas aunt and uncle. 
The Brentwood era just started for me and Pop had a heart attack while watching the game. He woke up out of it but later relapsed and that was the end for him. I had to take it upon myself to ride my bike to the mall or the pizzeria in the local shopping center behind the middle school to get my Neo-Geo, Super Monaco GP, or Mortal Kombat fix. With reward came risk: Brentwood wasn’t a safe neighborhood compared to the others. Every day I worried about random newjacks and youngbucks coming up to me for handouts just for being seen. Seven or eight kids waiting their turn surrounded the Street Fighter machines at any one of three stores out of fifteen who had them; some even got jumped and assaulted over them because they were caught cheating. Chain-snatchers got the unsuspecting kids when their backs were turned, and even the resting bitch-faces came up to entice me to fight their boyfriends who tried stealing my bike.
As time went by, I moved on from the scummy parts. Visits to the arcades became less frequented no matter at the mall or the amusement park. The carousels and hot dog places went out of business. Console gaming, however, kept going with the Genesis, SNES, Dreamcast, and Playstation throughout my community college and Stony Brook era. I discovered MAME and VPinball so I could stay in touch with myself. I kept it all going until I was sick of dozing off and throwing my time away while my friends, co-workers, and associates made the best of theirs. I finally moved on from gaming, and all the best for it.
It was more than ten years since I played a game of pinball. The Sopranos to be exact. Almost no place on the island where one was to be found. But that all changed last spring when the Video Game Trading Post opened up Long Island’s very first pinball arcade in the South Shore Mall / Westfield. I was stunned and paralyzed. We never asked for it, let alone couldn’t even imagine happening, but we got it. We lost Manhattan’s Modern Pinball and Greenpoint’s Sunshine Laundromat was never the same after the pandemic, so having the arcade return (to the very place where it all started for me and not having to travel to the city for it) was the pale-skinned redheaded Godiva riding on the fucking horse.
It was amazement at first sight. I enter the mall and the sounds emanating from the dark space tells me I’m close. I finally found it. My soul pushed back because I couldn’t believe it. I walk in and the darkness swallowed me in as all the flashing lights, LEDS, and the brightly-lit back-panels fight to be noticed. For $25.00, sometimes $35.00, it was all-you-can-play. I walk around in the dark vortex and the place was huge of its concrete flooring and aromatic wood smell. All three Black Knight tables, all three Pinbots, both Firepowers, Bank Shot, Evel Knievel, Harlem Globetrotters, Tron Legacy, even Police Force when it was at Vinardo’s. I spotted Big Guns, a game I remember from my Nintendo childhood. To my amusement, it was real having to find that Slugfest returned to the exact same mall I played at during the Brentwood era. The best part? Learning that both High Speed and Nine Ball would make their stay. It would make that next return trip all the more urgent. High Speed was the very first machine I ever scored a million on, let alone three. And Nine Ball? The overall design and sound effects of it was a personal must-play for me.
All throughout last Spring and Summer I’d make the effort to be the first one there and the last one to leave. Noon to 8PM. I made one final trip to High Score- before the year was over, leaving it behind in its former incarnation forever. It’s now half of what it used to be. The other half is now home gaming and memorabilia. I knew it would never be as good after when I first found it and won’t expect it to be better. But I’ll never, ever forget it - just like I’ll never forget the ride to Williamsburg’s Rough Trade, the post-punk / d.i.y. and jazz-fusion finds, the Jewish girl from Queens with the straight shoulder-length hair and green eyes who asked me if I had a copy of KIDS, or the two pale gingers with brown eyes I spent forever with at my store. Another day, another payout.
The alignments had another card up its sleeve. The King of Diamonds would be super-ceded by the Ace. The Boy Harsher show was less than two weeks away and I had to visit the Smithhaven Mall to find me a leather jacket and black hat. I walked out with the hat but no jac-. And, as I was walking out, something caught my eye: a shiny colorful array of neon lights. I stop to look at my right and there it was: a new video arcade I never knew existed. I was shut. I step in and to my immediate right was Baby Pac-Man: a cabinet shaped like an upright with a CRT monitor and small pinball playfield below it. It was a machine I only read about but was curious to seek out. Now, here it is. But, I couldn’t go any further as entry was roped off. But I see the sign at the front desk: $20.00 free play all day. It’s 3PM, I wouldn’t get my money’s worth. But I owed it to myself to come back and visit, and visit I did.
The following Wednesday I came back at noon and paid the frail emo casualty up front my $20.00. Does he have any idea what he’s doing here or what this is all about? He wouldn’t care, really. He’s only here to collect and will elicit a fake half-enthusiastic “oh, uh…that’s cool!” when asked. I’m here to revisit my Atari / Nintendo childhood. Eight hours and no time to waste. Let’s have it.
I walk in and there’s three Pac-Man machines grouped together: the 1980 original that became the first-ever character franchise, Baby Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man. Across from it is Ms. Pac-Man. How shameful they couldn’t include her in the boys’ club. There were vector games in Tempest, Lunar Lander, Asteroids, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in super-sharp and blindingly bright on original CRT monitors. There was Gorf, arguably my very first arcade memory living in Brooklyn. Classics such as Centipede, Marble Madness and Spy Hunter which I haven’t played in its true form since forever. Defender, Robotron 2084, and Berzerk rounded out three of four parts of the Williams epic (Blaster was the fourth). Moon Patrol, Galaxian, Zaxxon, Gyruss, Phoenix, Dig Dug, Vanguard, and Missile Command - games I played endlessly on the home system - were there. Crystal Castles, one I always played on the Atari 2600, felt super-frantic and ultra-responsive on my first time ever playing it. Pengo and Mr. Do! - two games I remember my sis- B-Bomb telling me about - were finally crossed off the must-play list.
I found two extremely rare Nintendo Vs. red tents and with that came Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Punch Out, Popeye, and the original Super Mario Bros. which I always used to play at the neighborhood deli (thanks ma’). Even more impressive was the fact that they had Playchoice machines when the South Shore Mall had them. I walk further and there’s Bad Dudes and the first Double Dragon: agonizingly slow and sluggish as fuck like I remembered it.
There’s driving games such as Super Sprint, Crazy Taxi, Chase HQ, and The Cruisin’ series. But, none more important than Sega’s Hang-On and Outrun, one which my younger bro- and I fought over to play first when our parents took us to the ice cream parlor. Next to those were Virtua Cop and Point Blank which I had zero interest playing because it wasn’t Cheyenne.
Konami, known for some of the best multi-player titles ever, made their presence felt with Super Contra, The Simpsons, Sunset Riders, X-Men, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the final being the gateway and the token example of nostalgia. There was the fighters’ row: Mortal Kombat II, Virtua Fighter, Tekken 4, Killer Instinct, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and Street Fighter II; that final one the basis of my early Brentwood years hanging out in dangerous neighborhoods and being harassed by the youngbucks in pizzerias for quarters. How about not one, not - fuck it - four Neo-Geo MVS’s with such games as Metal Slug 4, Ninja Warriors, Fatal Fury 2, and Samurai Shodown all plugged in and more. Three of those four aforementioned Neo-Geo games all happened during various points of my Brentwood era, coincidentally at the same shopping center as the pizzeria and that down-low mom-and-pop video store in Central Islip.
There were pinball tables such as Spider-Man, Stranger Things, and Star Wars: Episode 1, but couldn’t ever compare to what High Score used to have. Foosball, (a rare) Super Chexx, a Ms. Pac-Man & Galaga cocktail machine, and even Alley Cats: a shuffleboard-slash-bowling hybrid were found. Never played anything like it. Sports-themed uprights in NBA Jam, NHL Ice, and Blades Of Steel which I played all of three minutes before walking away from it and headed for Arkanoid: Revenge Of Doh. I was even taken back by seeing games I never knew existed: Warp Warp and Lady Bug. And finally…Smash TV. I wasted an hour of my valuable life on cheap deaths and repetitious gameplay. I’ll never ever recommend it.
I look above and there was a scoreboard with all the high scores and initials written in chalk. Twin Galaxies this wasn’t and thankfully there were no Billy Mitchell sightings. Another thing up above us was a mural of Blaze, Axel, and Adam of Sega’s Streets Of Rage, deemed one of the best and most successful side-scrolling beat ‘em-ups ever. Further back of the arcade I found a bar set-up and a big projector screen behind it for anyone wanting to play Mario Kart on the big-screen. I looked hard enough to find authentic original operator’s manuals of Jungle Hunt, Centipede, Xevious, Asteroids, and Missile Command framed and hung on the wall. I also laserdiscs also framed and hung on the wall near the arcades storefront. Flashdance, License To Drive, Vision Quest, and - I kid you not - Dirty Dancing. Which reminded me…where the hell were Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace? And no Eighties’ fantasy world wouldn’t be complete without at least two small CRT TV’s set up to play Super Mario Bros. 3 and E.T. It was the perfect set-up found in millions of kid’s rooms everywhere. And they still weren’t done.
The one thing Game On had that High Score Pinball didn’t, and this is the major validator here, was the Eighties soundtrack streamed on the overhead. High Score- only had the natural sound of licensed one-liners, PCBs, electromagnetics, and solid states emanating all the bells and hard solenoid knocks of free games. Only once had they brought out a portable speaker blasting Ozzy’s Nineties hits and alternative. Not Game On. Every song was an unforgettable Eighties throwback. It had to be to fit within the nostalgic theme of gaming’s wonder years of the very-late Seventies to the mid-Nineties.
The Seventies will always be something I’ll explore because it’s a decade I mostly missed out on. Exploring and discovering obscure jazz / fusion, soul, groove, and the hits are all a product of my fascination with hip-hop and rap’s sampling culture, console gaming, money shows, chyrons, station i.d.’s, production logos, opening and closing credits, and promos-. The Eighties were different because I lived through them 100% and still remember it clear as day. I can appreciate new wave, synthpop, the new romantics, Billboard hits, freestyle, radio plays, hair metal, and anything else I listened to as part of my Atari / Nintendo childhood. The arcade’s streaming playlist (could they not afford a cassette player?) was paired with the many original arcade cabinets of their time and served its nostalgic purpose, as intended, to its full unbeatable meaning. 
With almost every song played on the overhead there were more childhood memories that followed them. J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” was my first-ever music memory when my other half-sister played it constantly on our turntable in our family’s second-floor Borough Park apartment. The night my dad threw the Christmas tree out on the porch and my ma’ taking both my younger brother and I to stay at gramma’s for a few days. Riding in the passenger’s seat of our white rusted ‘78 Cadillac Coupe Deville and the bubbled rainbow that formed at the top of its windshield. Being stuck on the side of the Southern State Parkway heading home as my younger bro- and I rode in the backseat with toy dashboards. The trips in my parents rusty beige Chevy van where its crusty steel interior and the smell of petrichor created a viciously sickening mess. The two ‘79 yellow and blue AMC VAM Pacer X’s my parents had. Hurricane Gloria and the week-long power outage. Friday night’s Miami Vice. Saturday afternoons spent in the basement playing Atari and watching WWF and NWA. Saturday night’s Golden Girls where the whole family died laughing. Sunday’s Long Island pop station WBLI’s Top Ten countdown on public access television. Our babysitter’s daughter who was the cutest thing of curly black hair, dark eyes, and tall stature who smelled like sparkle and white plush. My bro- and I taking apart our ma’s floral-print couches and making pillow forts out of them. Dad’s in-wall Akai eight-track player and the overhead speakers. Easter’s various assortment of sweet-smelling wax crayons and activity books. Nights spent watching New York Yankee games on PIX, New York Rangers on MSG, Night Flight and Dance Party USA. Family dinner night at Enzo’s in Bay Shore for minestrone, calzones, and newspaper clippings of Italy’s World Cup victories. Assholes in Chams tank-tops smoking in their garages while working on their prized ‘77 Trans Ams. Playing NES all night before getting ready to ride to Staten Island at three in the morning to pick up my dad’s side of the family.
The more I played the more I immersed myself back into familiar territory that I haven’t visited in decades. It’s an absolute rarity when all the right authentic elements that used to be come together as one and re-create a near-perfect rendition of what the Eighties felt like. It’s not just the soundtrack, the manuals and laserdiscs that supplanted the setting, but the actual aesthetic itself. See the decals on the side of the cabinets and the built-in one-of-a-kind joysticks and steering wheels. The amazing control panel artwork. Plenty of CRT monitors and their rasterized graphics, scanlines, ripples, burn-in, and scrambled graphical glitches. Buttons, plenty of buttons of all types. And no more having to bang on the steel coin doors when those quarters got jammed. Not a burn mark in sight and the smell of old wood cabinets filled the room - exactly how I remembered it all.
It was nearing 9PM. The trip back in time was about to end and the mall was finally winding down. I had to have one last game in before having to walk off memory lane and say goodbye. That idiot kid wasn’t there but was replaced by some cute skinny hipster girl punk with pink hair and ladened with piercings, eager to talk to any cliched grown-up punk dad or fading former Gen-X’er wanting to share a story or two about how they missed those simpler days. I’ll never get the spirit and being of the Eighties back, but I no longer miss them now that I have a monthly pilgrimage to Game On. I retire for the night and head out. She unhooks the velvet rope and clears the way for me to leave with a smile.
“Have a good night!” she says. You know I will.
Heart: “Magic Man”
Eddie Money & Ronnie Spector: “Take Me Home Tonight”
Run DMC: “It’s Tricky”
Cutting Crew: “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight”
Toto: “Africa”
A-Ha: “Take On Me”
Foreigner: “Waiting For A Girl Like You”
Bananarama: “I Heard A Rumor”
Wham: “Wake Me Up Befoe You Go-Go”
Mike & The Mechanics: “Silent Running”
Michael Jackson: “Billie Jean”
Rick Springfield: “Jessie’s Girl”
Bruce Springsteen: “Dancer In The Dark”
Pat Benetar: “Love Is A Battlefield”
J. Geils Band: “Centerfold”
Simple Minds: “Don’t You Forget About Me”
Tommy Tutone: “867-5309 / Jenny”
Cyndi Lauper: “Girls Just Wanna’ Have Fun”
Pointer Sisters: “I’m So Excited”
Starship: “We Built This City”
Steve Winwood: “Higher Love”
Whitney Houston: “I Wanna’ Dance With Somebody”
Survivor: “The Search Is Over”
The Outfields: “I Don’t Wanna’ Lose Your Love Tonight”
Flashdance original motion picture soundtrack
The Romantics: “What I Like About You”
Scorpions: Rock You Like A Hurricane”
Quiet Riot: “Come On (Feel The Noise)”
Pointer Sisters: “I’m So Excited”
Fabulous Thunderbirds: “Tough Enough”
Steve Perry: “Oh Sherrie”
Madonna: “Borderline”
Tiffany: “I Think We’re Alone Now”
Belinda Carlisle: “Mad About You”
Debbie Gibson: “Out Of The Blue”
Phil Collins: “Sssudio”
Lionel Richie: “All Night Long”
RUM DMC & Aerosmith: “Walk This Way”
Rick Astley: “Never Gonna’ Give You Up”
Bananarama: “Cruel Summer”
Cyndi Lauper: “Time After Time”
Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes”
Sting: “Every Breath You Take”
Heart: “What About Love”
Foreigner: “I Wanna’ Know What Love Is”
Bruce Springsteen: “Jack & Diane”
Mr. Mister: “Take These Broken Wings”
Bangles: “Hazy Shade Of Winter”
Don Henley: “Boys Of Summer”
Dire Straits: “Money For Nothing”
The Cars: “Shake It Up”
Peter Gabriel: “Big Time”
Bon Jovi: “Livin’ On A Prayer”
Allanah Myles: “Black Velvet”
Culture Club: “Karma Chamelion”
Mike & The Mechanics: “All I Need Is A Miracle”
Starship: “Sarah”
Wham: “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)”
Billy Ocean: “Caribbean Queen”
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the-wizard-writes · 1 year
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Urban Fantasy Stories: Storm’s Brewing
//This is a drabble based on a small series that I’ve been working on.//  A.J frowned as she watched the incoming storm outside. Usually she liked the rain, hell she loves the rain but, this rain was different. Even as sea witch she knew her limits on how she could work her water magic. She just hopes that her friends are alright. The city rarely has large scale storms like this but, when the weather permits storms do hit hard.  “Hmm..” She hummed watching the rain drops race each other down the windowsill the storm clouds rumbled into view. Thunder rattled her apartment walls causing the witch to jump. “Dang, it’s really bad out there..” She mumbled. She peered outside at the street below noticing something blowing through. “Wait.. What’s that?” She mouthed to herself. The sea witch tried to get a better look out her window but she could barely make out what it was, the clouds perfectly obscured the figure that she saw but she swore she could see a person standing within the storm. Aisha quickly grabbed her phone trying to use her camera to get a better view of the thing in the clouds but, as she tried to get a photo the figure vanished. “Was that even real?” A.J asked herself. She may be a sea witch but she knew a bit about the weather as well. “Hmm, I mean of course storms happen everywhere..but,” she pondered. “This one seems a bit too out of place. Especially for this time of the year.” She glazed out her window again. Maybe she was being too paranoid after all of the coven turmoil that’s been happening recently. She just hoped that her friends were safe and their homes were boarded up.                                                       *** *** The clouds raged through the sky as the storm blew through the city. Thunder roared against the dark clouds lighting hurling through the sky scaring a group of small dragons resting on a skyline. Within the clouds a figure was galloping on a steed made of pure whirling wind creating thundering hoof prints against the fluffy clouds. Glass bottles clacked against each other as the figure continued to ride their horse in the clouds. The figure jumped from a cloud, the horse flying through the sky using clouds as cushions, their thundering hooves pounding against the pavement. As the figure rode through powerful winds lifted around them in a frenzied tornado burrowing through the city streets. The horse jumped onto a building riding horizontally across the windows of the empty  office space breaking some of the windows as their hoof made contact with the glass. The rider and horse made it to the top of the roof where the figure pulled on the reins of the horse causing a horrific bray stopping on the roof. The horse sighed, shaking its windy hair, the rider leapt off the horse unbothered by the thunder storm around them. The figure tipped their cowboy hat up scanning the city skyline. “Is this it?”  A voice in the figure’s head rang. The figure glanced back at the horse and nodded. “Yeah, this is it. I know she took her here.” The figure took off their hat and scarf revealing a tired young woman. She pressed her boots against the ledge of the building watching the storm rage on. She motioned the horse to come closer and the horse obeyed, trotting towards the witch. She took the reins off the horse bit’s of the horsed body became less of a horse but more of a storming cyclone. “Go out and find her. I know that damn woman would be hindin’ somewhere in the city. Leave no place unturned, you hear?” She ordered. The wispy horse neighed as they rode into the sky alone. The woman sighed watching the creature tear up the sky.  She took out two of the bottles from her satchels and opened them up holding them tight. Two other creatures made of wind manifesting into the sky one was a wild boar while the other was a bird. “Go on and help find them too, Surge already went out already go on and follow’em!” She said, The two creatures nodded, going out following the horse. 
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karaloza · 11 months
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Legend of Zelda Theme Park - Death Mountain
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Death Mountain is to the north of Castle Town (just as it is usually in the north on the game map). The whole area is sculpted as a reddish-brown canyon landscape, with walkways gently sloping upward toward the artificial volcano which dominates the scene, "erupting" every half hour with a display of pyrotechnics and smoke effects. The volcano in turn is the upper portion of a massive show building which occupies roughly half the area's footprint and houses several of its attractions. Interior spaces are designed as rocky caves lit by torches and glowing crystals.
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Attractions
Spirit Train (Mountain Station)
Crystal Caverns: A very simple attraction, more like a scenic view. The pathways through the Death Mountain area include side branches that veer through short stretches of tunnel lined with multicolored glowing crystals and gemstone veins. (These are marked on the detailed map with squiggly shading.) Make a habit of following these side paths, and you will find one that heads a little deeper into the mountainside, culminating in a spectacular cavern of exotic stone formations and massive crystal clusters that make soft chiming music as their colors shift through the spectrum.
Goro-Gondolas: Not an intense ride, but still exciting on its own terms, the Goro-Gondolas are boats in a flume...but the water is continuously under-lit with warm-toned lights, giving it the appearance of a glowing lava river! The ten to twelve-minute circuit includes lifts and gentle drops, and in the meantime, the boat passes by numerous detailed scenes of Gorons going about their daily lives—mining for choice rocks to eat, tending Bomb Flower gardens, soaking in hot springs, engaging in athletic competitions, rolling from place to place, etc. At other points, similarly lit “leaping” fountains send streams of “lava” arcing over the flume. From time to time, the flume even exits the interior of the mountain, giving riders a view of the area, and at other points, it shares a scene with the Dodongo Dive-Bomb track.
Gut Check Challenge Arena: A play area, but more...advanced than the Picori Picnic Park in the Lost Woods. Named after the Goron-hosted mini-games in Breath of the Wild, this attraction features rock-climbing walls, obstacle courses, and other stamina-testing activities. The especially bold can sign up for the Gut Check Challenge itself, a rock-climbing event held several times a day on the big wall, with real medals awarded to the winners.
Sworn Brothers Meeting Hall: A meet-and-greet location for favorite Goron characters, including Ocarina of Time’s Darunia, Majora’s Mask’s Darmani, and Breath of the Wild’s Daruk and Yunobo.
Dodongo Dive-Bomb: The number just marks the queue entrance--this ride is a big one! Arguably the biggest thrill in the park, it is a mag-launched roller coaster with cars designed to resemble a chain of minecarts. It takes place mostly inside the cinder cone of the volcano, twisting through lava-lit caverns infested with fire-breathing Dodongo lizards, occasionally breaking out into the open before diving right back into the mountain. The climax takes place in a spacious cavern inhabited by a ferocious dragon, and the train makes a loop around its head and neck in order to escape!
Shops
7. From Mine to Yours: A rock and mineral shop offering all sorts of tumbled semiprecious stones, crystals, carved charms and figurines, geodes (with an option to have them cut open on-site), Himalayan salt lamps, stone-based knickknacks, and books about minerals and gems. For those with fancier tastes, there's even a special sales counter where precious jewelry is available for purchase. In the center of the store is a fountain mimicking a sluice full of gem-bearing slurry, the employees wear overalls and hard hats with mounted headlights, and the shop slogan “Ore and More!” derives from the name of a similar business in Breath of the Wild.
8. Forged in Fire: Being rooted in a medieval(-ish) fantasy franchise is likely to give this theme park some appeal for historical weapons enthusiasts, and this shop is for them, offering a selection of sturdy, functional swords, daggers, axes, and shields, including some replicas of famous designs. (Naturally, various noteworthy swords from the games themselves are among them.) Modern camping/hunting knives are also available, and every purchase of a blade includes a fine hardened leather sheath. However, we can’t have people walking around a theme park with real weapons, so all purchases will be either held at the front of the park for pickup upon exiting, or shipped to the guest for an additional fee. (This is true of any retail location in the park that sells metal weapons, even if they aren’t made to be functional.)
9. Goron Spice Rack: “A spicy nook for spicy cooks” declares the sign out front. Lovers of herbs and seasonings will find much to love in here, with a wide selection of culinary flavorings. Pick a jar or bottle off the shelf or have a mix blended to order! We especially recommend the various types of “Goron Spice” (mostly curry powder and paprika, with assorted variations), made famous by Breath of the Wild.
10. Ripped and Shredded: A shop for sporting goods and memorabilia located next to the Gut Check Challenge Arena. Includes lines of tongue-in-cheek jerseys, caps, and other items referencing peoples, groups, and locations in the LoZ franchise as if they were sports teams. Named after the Goron armor shop in Breath of the Wild.
Eateries
11. Magma Munchies: Adventurous foodies will love this place, where everything on the menu—meat, veggies, fries, and more—is hot and spicy. The intensity ranges widely, from “Hawaiian” (mild curry) all the way up to “Ultra-Plinian” (ghost peppers). Hot sauces are available for purchase at the Goron Spice Rack.
12. Rock Candy Stand: Pretty much exactly what it says: an outdoor kiosk with various colors of traditional rock candy (i.e. sugar crystals on a stick), chocolate “pebbles,” Ring Pops and Pop Rocks, and other mineral-themed sweet treats.
13. Protein Palace: They say the rocky ground of Death Mountain is so hot, you can drop food to cook right on it! That may or may not be true, but this Mongolian BBQ buffet uses a more conventional stainless steel hibachi. Choose a protein (beef, chicken, or tofu) and a selection of vegetables, noodles, sauces, and other ingredients, and your food is cooked up while you watch!
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boltlightning · 5 months
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saw your long fourth wing post and am sending you a long ask(s) joining you in this space. i so wish violet had kept the poisoner angle! she rides her dragons differently than everyone and gets through the gauntlet in a different way but she can't fight in a different way? can't coat her knives in poison/paralytics? it's been a while since i read the book so can't remember where her poison knowledge comes from but i feel like it could easily tie back into stuff she read in books as a scribe
Also agree that shadow powers fit violet better, like violet’s first instinct to win a fight is sneak around and poison ppl. her idea for that one event is to break into and steal stuff from her mom’s office! And how would her mom feel about having three kids who are all dragon riders but they all have powers that are like defensive/supportive instead of offensive and don’t have anything to do with the kind of strength the dragon school emphasizes!! xaden having lightning def furthers his whole dark and brooding thing. Like what if the only other person who had similar powers as you was the person who killed your dad? Every time you use the power you gained you were reminded of everything all the rebellion kids lost? Augh. Not to mention the optics of it all. Navarre violently quells a rebellion and don’t want to happen again,son of dead rebellion leader manifests powers visually similar to powers of general who killed rebellion leader uhoh last ask i swear. as someone who's also acespec your tags on that second post were also how i felt lmao
god. you just get it.
the poison thing was a perfect opportunity to paint her as an atypical hero!! plus, the way we're introduced to the culture, there is really no reason for violet to be reluctant about killing...but maybe seeing the effects of her poison up close in combat, and how horrific that is, might let her in on how fucked up it can be, yknow?
and you raise a REALLY good point about the siblings all having non-combatant abilities that i'm kind of obsessed with?? in general i think having the mean general mom be a one-dimensional villain was a misstep, and the suggestions here would force violet's remaining family to be in the story more. and, as you said, show some flaws in the military system that are could actually be acknowledged diegetically.
one of the (perhaps unintentional) themes is that your past does not define you, and you are not obliged to meet expectations set for you, but...violet...stays in the dragon quadrant like her mother wants, gets a badass dragon like her mother wants, even gets powers like her mother's and the most resolution we get for her relationship with her mother is violet mentally saying "Fuck. Her." and continuing to serve until a man convinces her that maybe war crimes are bad, actually. lmao.
i would LOVE if xaden's character actually had depth. his way of mourning his people is serving them, and serving them through wielding the very powers that could have killed his family is so good!! this uh...this does bring into sharp relief the problem of "why the hell did navarre give the children of the people who revolted LITERAL DRAGONS and the power that comes with wielding them even if you're not on dragonback?" but. yknow. whatever. if we're ignoring that: violet switching powers with xaden really, actually, truly leans into that theme in a way that has teeth and meaning.
also no one has suffered as much as acespec girlies who picked up modern romance/fantasy books. why are they all Like That. i'm with you anon <3
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libidomechanica · 1 year
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Watching you vomit into your neck
That on his throwing charities.     Awake! When we maun part frae charm between the square. They are     rare and ran in his heart was voluble, numerous and     rocked, one left upon a love of yourself, and gentle part.     To see her to play; for
good people feels: there is bearing     moment of body of thy swete layes on the square. And Pan     himself, he knew not what we used to a widow drown’d, and     mute admire the roast meat stopped crackling. To Venus’ temples     you nursed of a chemical
mixture breed. But now, if you     wouldst have done no work as he had done a feast; still the black     sacrament. While sages, whose outlet’s Dover! Those, and roses;     and as a dog in a kitchen-table leg my knots     to butter, which was such.
In the ague. Which runs naturally—     imposed wonder more? Once I sunbathed in your famish’d     pilgrim,—sav’d by miracle. Each a catatonic stuck     in the night, and like a dog in a kitchen-table leg     my knee. A month of Morn
when vicious, harebrained, the ultimate     recoil.—His altars kept from woe to woe tell best in     the mild emerald’s beam shades down into the tenses I     sing of gods and blush at a riper age, people are all     men’s impress. These arms threw,
and still, save the surgeon’s hand and     the best: for after than those thing in sense, which in our power     their first season with these fingers; pour thy soft showers;     and peace march in Washington. Besides alas! Studying     inuentions stay; inuentions
fine, mouth gracious eye, and they     happen at a rout, and false fair looks yielded, that’s best     attitude: and then forbear to touch of navigation; but     yet thou hast thy Purpose set to worke delyte? And the waves     without there are colonnades.
Expounding it. She seem’d     to grow. My Muse, to dream this god enamoured on her     own Ellis Island, who taught me with anguish still! Consider     a girl who keepeth clos’d her up, as in fury of     all? Maiden bosom of
these not one breath, light that’s enough,     and still to be free. With other face: look, this poem’s merely     was singly crown’d: but the old comparison of snows;     and there is of the hyghest Ioue, and, without a toga     or a scarf on a couch
supine the other words when the     worldlings of the central creature, striue to wish her smile’s a     gift prevails when death’s dateless now what some honourable     anger, a space opens where shepheards and without that     still her green leaves that know
not what you’d suspecting country     maid whose clue is of earth which lose no more, until her tears     I see thee, thine, both in both are spurn’d informer!—We’ll take     covert, pleas’d eyes, I find no cure? Watching you vomit into     your neck. In the Night
and bound he lay thy looking in     their Bills among the musk- bull brown came riding, up to     attention, with the shutters, but alas too late I notice     as she dwelt in his breast, his things are the wind, flung roses,     rose cheeks, that heedless oath?
In a big house and land, fishes     that off-hand and let naebody see, and this yeere on Christian     landlord’s blame, with folly and glorious batch; and all     things. Great men desire but mine recall; theirs is the stream:     I know no more black is
fair gem, sweet hour and shovel dirt     on her lies. The sunlight that’s the central creature of the     back to that terror, even yet, I dare to be before     me like a prayers with my rage until a royal     husbandry? Then spoke the old
compared within the forth and be     thought I sing by each other’s bower. Or he! Make committing     art, unlike eyes, bluer stocking dragons all asunder     breaks the sacred corse with a lady ask’d of as we     went to the lake, beneath.
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benefits1986 · 1 year
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Digital Detox
When your modern daily cross is a black mirror, spending quality time away from it allows you to see the universe in full color.  Fourth of May. Cinco De Mayo. My Taurus Twin Tower’s birthdays. V’s 40th death day. C’s death anniv. All died too soon. And this Labor Day... my ina’s 40th death day. The past weeks have not been easy but, I know something really curious is coming, or perhaps, already started. Still hanging by each moment that is either a spiral or a sparkle.  What did I do the during my first-ever long leave this 2023?  -Finally had a video call with my soul sister that turned out to be a session about the inner child conversations PLUS was able to finally tell her something I’ve been meaning to reveal since we were 17 years old (Yes. I’m that “not an open book” even to those closest to me.)  -Visited ina’s grave several times without breaking down when no one’s watching and started planning her eternal home in a style that best represents her existence and her after life, too (Damn. This is not about the glam side of burial spots. It’s about carving her corner where her 70-80+ kids, grand kids and great grand kids can come together.)  -Planning the restoration of my ina and ama’s humble home and turning it into a humble ancestral home which is so surprising as this has been a really, really crazy ride; but is here and now. (Never expected that we’d be on this page; but, hyperinflation is real so, let’s proceed with caution and a consistent set of actions. Will most likely focus on curating bits and pieces of my family plus restoring photos, mostly in film.) -MatchaME’s first voyage in the hilly sides of my ina’s sleepy town, an art hub in Laguna, another sleepy town where there’s a tiny eatery I grew up loving called Beatles (This happened during my Taurus Tito’s birthday.) In fairness, this B is really a good buy after the long wait since 2015. Will talk more about this soon because it deserves its own space and pace. HINT: No vinyl stickers, no bathroom tapes, no bike skin. Laspagan szn is on na ba talaga? Abangan ang B-Rides & B-Rolls: South To North Edition, mga ka-thiccs. LOL.  -Seeing a red pimped pick up (Rar!) and a yellow butterfly during MatchaME’s first 7Eleven stop over. Cried fat tears in between chugging cold caramel mach and polvoron which again reminded me a lot of my Tito’s usual merienda in our roadtrips. The pick up was very much like my Tito’s aesthetic so it’s not about the glam car; but how it reminds me that I have to keep moving forward and that though a pick up is a dream; truth is, dreams could be demons and dragons, roaring in red, too.  -Getting my teeth cleaned and hearing (again) that I have to stop munching on ice because my teeth are in good shape for my age BUT the cracks are gonna bring them down. The dentist is a Gen X liberal-conservative lady who wants to set me up with male people because she feels I am prime for survival with a pack. Later, she realized that she’s gonna have a really tough time looking for someone I can actually date. Let’s see what happens because I already politely declined but she insisted. LOL. Mhie, house plant era na po kasi talaga ako.  -Getting a turtle named Master Splinter for Batulao garden house. :D I can no longer get another dog, so let’s go with the reptilian empire this time. Also, my inaanak Z has a pet turtle!  -H1 life audit (jusq). No further comment, your Honor.  And “so what?” and “what now” monologues.  -Managing my dad’s looming spiral without him noticing it as a sneaky shithead me (LOL). Losing a mom is really life-altering.  -Ambient noise and sound immersion. Didn’t listen to any PL and rarely watched any vids/content pieces which is so otherwordly. Ah, analog in lo-fi and hi-fi... you are liquid gold, indeed -Vitamin D dose :D (Still didn’t get caramel skin because my hair color is a blocker; but really had a good time under the morning sun plus sunsets, too) -Looking after my cousins as they face a final battle with the Big C in the family WITH specific boundaries  -More hustle, more intent, a volunteer work that’s really close to my hidden heart and soul and a new workspace ---all these are coming this week onwards. Test of maturity, patience and intent. Never easy to be honest, but, I’m really, really, really excited. There’s something about the testosterone x estrogen x progesterone high and lows that gets me going. I really need to turn the “spiral” vibes to “sparkle” vibes. The spiral is not about work to make it clear. It’s about the road to 2024 and beyond. ;) LUH.  My soul sister told me so many times that something is OFF the past weeks. Told her that, after so many struggles, I am choosing peace amidst the chaos, the noise and the non-essentials of the gods. She was taken aback and so I am. She also told me that my aura is radiating a glow. As an empath, she is amazed and still in disbelief because for the first time in forever, I might have been changed for good. Let’s see!  May the Force be with you and me!  PS: Really need to rewatch Star Wars. Road to geek na ba talaga ito? (Stereotyping na naman po tayo, so early in the morning!) Daming XY na tatawanan ako kasi mukhang kakainin ko mga bashing ko sa kanila from then until now a; but I don’t care. LOL.   PS2: Hogwarts Legacy is still on my mind, heart and soul. :D Ang mahal though ng mga gaming consoles but, I’m thinking of making content out of this. Rar. Eto na ba ‘yun? Para naman sulit ‘yung effort saka first of hanashes in life. Abangan! 
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Game of Thrones - 43 EDDARD XI (pages 446-454)
Ned is petitioned for vengeance justice by the survivors of an assault lead by the Mountain, Gregor Clegane. Ned sends Lord Beric Dondarrion and a party of men off to try.
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Through the high narrow windows of the Red Keep's cavernous throne room, the light of sunset spilled across the floor, layering dark red stripes upon the walls where the heads of dragons had once hung. Now the stone was covered with hunting tapestries, vivid with green and browns and blues, and yet it seemed to Ned Stark that the only color in the hall was the red of Blood.
Now ain't that just a metaphor for the whole bloody place?
He sat high upon the ancient seat of Aegon the Conqueror, an ironwork monstrosity of spikes and jagged edges and grotesquely twisted metal.
Was thinking to myself "is the chair younger than King's Landing which is itself only 300 odd years old? Can you really can a 300 year old chair ancient when Ned's family has lived in a castle built 8,000 years ago? What's a good word to encapsulate its history that doesn't make it seem so much older than it is?"
So anyway, the Iron Throne is Retro now.
"His Grace is hunting across the Blackwater, Ned said, wondering how a man could live his whole life a few days ride from the Red Keep and still have no notion what his king looked like.
*moves the marker for Ned Stark's estimated intelligence down a few notches*
A few days ride is A Lot if you have no real reason to travel it. If I was a peasant, I'd hope to go my whole life without having reason to meet or need to know the face of the king. If I had reason to see the king, it had better bloody be because I was in town for a trade and happened to catch a royal procession through the street. You genuinely think the 'small folk' give two shits what the king looks like as long as he's not interfering with their lives overly much? Cause Ned? If these people need to see the king? It's either because they're having his promo pics shoved in their faces, or something absolutely devastating has happened and they need to make an appeal in court, like say, what these people are doing right now!?!
Ned could feel cold steel against his fingers as he leaned forward. Between each finger was a blade, the points of twisted swords fanning out like talons from arms of the throne. Even after three centuries, some were still sharp enough to cut. The Iron Throne was full of traps for the unwary. The songs said it had taken a thousand blades to make it, heated white-hot in the furnace breath of Balerion the Black Dread. The hammering had taken fifty-nine days. The end of it was this hunched black beast made of razor edges and barbs and ribbons of sharp metal; a chair that could kill a man, and had, if the stories were to be believed.
Aegon the Conqueror was so freaking extra.
Also no wonder this ugly-ass chair is cursed AF. You can probably walk into that room and see the chairs corrupting malevolent aura, and everyone be like "psh, nah! that's just the smoke from the crapton of candles and torches we leave lying around."
This is one of those chapters where my fic loving brain is already writing fix it fics that amount to "and then (insert awesome team here) from (insert non ASOIAF fandom here) break not only the fourth wall but the fabric of space time and stomp (insert degenerate piece of garbage masquerading as a human being here) into the ground!!!"
NGL, I would love to see Gregor squished under the foot of a Zord. Or char-grilled by a Charizard.
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