#and too be fair it's also the only one ive seen in its entirety

[saline-coelacanth]

Sonic Prime actually made me cry man ow my heart

#sonic prime #sonic prime spoilers #spoilers in the tags #so don't read the tags if you don't want to see spoilers #putting an extra buffer tag to try and hide the spoilers lol #second buffer just to be safe #ok i checked and now i need to add a third buffer #just... man the hug got to me #i love nine a lot and the hug got to me #i will say that i was getting a little bored during the middle #as there was just basically one long continuous fight scene for multiple episodes #but man that final episode was so good #overall sonic prime isn't perfect it definitely has some flaws #but it's still probably my favorite sonic show #at least out of the ones ive seen #and too be fair it's also the only one ive seen in its entirety

[sugarmaplewings-fics]

Moments

Pairing: Kirishima x reader x Kaminari

Warnings: Near-death experience, mentions of blood and bleeding, general character distress, Y/N is in a hospital, happy ending, polyandry, me not knowing how to end things also i’m sorry the first two paragraphs are atrocious hhshdjc

Author’s Note:

Here’s the final request from this batch! Sorry for the wait but thanks for requesting! I hope this’ll do it for ya <3

-Sugar

⊱ ──── 《∘◦∘》 ──── ⊰ 

⊱ ──── 《∘◦∘》 ──── ⊰ 

Life is made up of moments, each one simple and brief. Some events may feel as though they are building, tragedy looming on a distant horizon. Others happen in a mere instant, only to turn everything upside down.

In a moment, you’d seen the elderly civilian man standing just a bit too close to the battle ground for comfort. Another second; your boyfriend, Kirishima, threw a punch to the villain, knocking him off balance. You saw it, the beam of light shooting straight towards the man. You knew you still had time to move.

Rushing over, you took the hit.

It hurt. Everything hurt. Your eyes rolled back and a shriek escaped your lips, body seizing with the foreign throes of agony. You must have blacked out for a moment, because suddenly you felt yourself being held in a pair of arms.

“She’s bleeding!” a voice said above you, but they sounded miles away.

In a tremendous show of effort, you forced your eyes open. Light from the afternoon sun only brought more pain, but you just had to get a glimpse of him one last time.

Yes, there he was, in all his heroic glory. Your Eijirou. But he wasn’t looking at you. He must have been calling out for someone else. Perhaps it was your mutual lover. Either way, the pain was growing to be too much to bear. You slumped further into his chest, letting your eyes close once more.

Denki. If only you’d been able to see him again one last time….

…

Kaminari was not having a good day. Although, to be fair, it’s hard to ‘have a good day’ when your girlfriend is rapidly bleeding to death in front of you.

Everything seemed to happen so quickly. One moment, you, Eijirou and him were all out on patrol and the next, you were being attacked by some guy with a crazy force quirk. And then you were hurt.

He honestly thought you guys had won, as he secured the final blow on the villain with a shock of energy. Once the guy was effectively fried, Denki was ready to celebrate. Except, neither of his partners were there by his side.

He turned—confused, searching—until his eyes finally fell upon the hulking form of Red Riot kneeling on the ground a few paces away.

“. . . (Y/N)?” Kaminari tried, his voice barely above a whisper. He felt frozen to his spot, unable to move his feet forward nor back.

“She’s bleeding!” Kirishima called over his shoulder, and somehow that was what Kaminari needed to snap him out of it.

It felt as though he was trudging through molasses on his way to get to you—slow, difficult, unwilling to accept the fact that you could be hurt.

But you were. And you weren’t looking good either. You were slumped unconscious against Kirishima’s bare chest, face somehow peaceful amidst all the chaos around your unknowing body. Blood seeped out of a large gash on your stomach, and it looked bad. Kaminari tried to hold back a low moan of distress at the sight of it.

He sunk to his knees, taking off his black hero jacket and pressing it to your midsection in an attempt to slow the flow of blood. It was hard to see the stain on the dark material of the clothing article, but Denki somehow knew it would only be a matter of time before it was soaked through in its entirety.

A small crowd of civilians had gathered to watch the battle, and were now anxiously trying to see if you were going to be okay.

“The police should be here any minute,” a woman informed the two heroes somewhere above their heads.

“Did you call an ambulance?” Kirishima asked.

Denki glanced up to see the woman nod, pulling her phone back from her ear.

“You’re going to be alright,” Eijirou whispered to you, cradling your head and damaged body closer into his own. “Just stay with us, baby, please.”

…

Your eyes cracked open, slow and feeble. Blinding fluorescent light pierced between your lids, making you wince and shut them again. Where were you? And why did it smell . . . strange?

You tried opening your eyes again, your vision blurry and swimming until you were finally able to make out a white-tiled ceiling. Turning your head, you saw a table next to your bed, with a vase of pretty flowers resting at its center. You also noticed an IV drip leading into your arm.

So you were in a hospital. Made sense.

You racked your memory, trying to think of what might have landed you here. Ah, yes, the villain and the old man, that must have been it.

You turned your head again, this time to your left, and it was then that you saw them.

Denki laid slumped over the arm of a chair, supported by Eijirou’s chest. Kirishima's head laid against the sill of a window, which you had to figure couldn’t have been all that comfortable. Both men were fast asleep, quiet snores emitting from the redhead’s chest while Denki left a small puddle of drool on the man’s shirt.

You couldn’t be more in love.

A few minutes passed; just enough to make you aware of the white bandages wrapped around your midsection. A nurse stepped in, looking over his clipboard before he noticed your conscious state.

“Ah, (H/N), you’re finally awake,” he acknowledged with a smile.

“They aren’t,” you snickered hoarsely, gesturing to your partners.

The nurse laughed brightly, which was just enough of a disturbance to rouse Kirishima.

“(Y/N)!” the redhead shouted as soon as he saw you, jumping up out of his chair.

Denki nearly fell forward out of his own seat, waking with a start and a pop of static. “(Y/N)?”

Eijirou hurried to your bedside, kneeling down and taking your hand in his. “We were so worried about you!”

Denki nodded in agreement, settling in next to Eijirou and leaning against his shoulder. “You almost died!”

“Well . . . I guess I didn’t,” you said, unsure of how to respond.

“You were lucky,” the nurse pointed out. “Too much longer and you probably wouldn’t have made it.”

You swallowed, the repercussions of your actions beginning to weigh on you.

“No need to fret,” he reassured you. “We have some of the best healers in all of Japan here. I’m positive you’ll make a full recovery.”

Your boyfriends stepped out of the room so the nurse could finish running his tests; checking your vitals and asking you a few questions.

“She’s all yours,” he said, opening the door and letting the two pro heroes step back into your room before ducking out himself.

“The guy you saved came in here earlier to visit you,” Denki informed you once he was back at your bedside. “He was so grateful.”

You smiled. “I’m glad it turned out okay for everyone.”

“But we almost lost you,” Kirishima said, taking your hand again and pressing a kiss to your knuckles. “Please don’t be reckless like that.”

Your face morphed into a slight frown. “What was I supposed to do, then? Let him die? You should know better than anyone that I couldn’t do that.”

Kirishima cast his eyes to the floor, torn.

Kaminari put a hand on the redhead’s shoulder. “You scared us both, (Y/N). You got hurt really bad, and there was so much blood . . . . You’ve been out for two days, and Eijirou and I . . . we couldn’t help but worry that you’d never wake up again.”

Sighing, your thumb began to stroke the side of Kirishima’s hand. “I’m sorry. I know how scary that is. I can’t imagine losing one of you guys.”

“I just want you to be safe,” Eijirou said.

“Of course.” You moved your hand so you could cup his cheek. “But the important thing is that I’m alright. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Eijirou leaned forward so he could kiss your forehead, then moved back so Denki could do the same to your cheek.

“I can go get us some stuff to do together,” Denki offered. “Being in the hospital is boring, trust me.”

You and Kirishima laughed. The blond always had your backs no matter what.

And even after a moment of disaster, you were proud to say you could all bounce back. As long as the three of you stuck together, you could get through anything.

 ⊱ ──── 《∘◦∘》 ──── ⊰

Taglist: @aahilovetheatre @basicaegyo @hyunmin-1404​ @iiminibattlehero @katsugay @nabo39 @pyrofanatic @rainy-skys-and-bright-stars @sendhelpimstupid @sxngwoos-ash-box @xoxopam4

#kirishima eijirou #kirishima x reader #eijirou kirishima x reader #kirishima eijirou x reader #denki kaminari #kaminari denki #denki x reader #kaminari x reader #denki kaminari x reader #kaminari denki x reader #kirikami x reader #poly bnha x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #reader insert #request fulfilled! #sugar fics

[ronnytherandom]

I forgot to watch content all week so i wrote about games ive been playing

9/2/2021: The Truman Show

You should fear your fears but embrace them and use them to guide you into the unknown, to explore and experience what life has to offer. Fear stands between you and the fullest experience of life so you must pass through it to better yourself. Heed not the walls built about you and the chains made to hold you. Though the architects insist it will preserve your life, containment is anathema to life. Do not take in faith the benevolence of powers that be; instead trust those who would support and liberate you, guide you through fear and into life.

As best I can lay it out, I think this is the philosophy of the Truman show but there is so much more to read into it also. There is critique of systems of commodification and celebrity (i.e. capitalism) reducing human beings to a consumable good as well as encouragement to find and pursue your goals despite adversity and even sensibility which is also tied to the illusion of economic responsibility. You can’t put a camera inside a human head, you can never “know” them without being an active and intrinsic part of their life, but also there is need for reciprocation. If one half exists with ulterior motive then the entire relationship is rotten; sincere humanity is what creates real connections. Without such your world is fake. A world built around one person is a world where no one can truly live. All these actors have given up basically their entire lives for the sake of watching Truman have his life built around him by outside forces, have allowed themselves to be commodified and dehumanised for the good of one man, Christoph. The man at the top has delusions of grandeur and thinks only of his own bottom line, he cares not for his subjects but simply wants them to do as he tells them because it benefits him to commodify their lives and interactions. Even then he cannot stand to lose control and in seeking to demonstrate Truman’s “realness” he structures his life so thoroughly that eventually there’s no reality left, only a script and adverts. But the people watching still empathise with Truman because everyone in the working class understands what it is to be trapped because real life is our own Truman show and one day we must all pass through fear, step out of the dome and create a real life for ourselves outside of the system of commodification which consumes everyone’s life and removes all realness and sincerity and emotional catharsis from it.

I unreservedly love this film.

14/2/2021: Assorted Game Reviews

Horizon Zero Dawn (Unfinished due to technical issues, 45 hours inc. parts of Frozen Wilds): This game is really cool and really fun. I think it is defined by its incredible setting which somehow creates a fresh feeling post-apocalyptic environment. Said environment creates intriguing alt-future lore and some very interesting environments to explore. I love the machine designs (especially tallnecks!) and was very sad to hear one of their contributing artists passed away recently but I’m glad their work lives on in this visually stunning game. I’m a sucker for Ubisoft-style open world games simply because it tickles a certain kind of itch and somehow this non-Ubisoft game has outdone Ubisoft on their own formula, which is hilarious, but also good for me as running around this world exploring and clearing map markers is engaging fun. Not least because of the combat. I have a minor criticism here that the combat feels slightly awkward on mouse and keyboard, the arrows never seem to go where I’m aiming, but aside from that the experience of fighting is a grand one. Enemies never lose their threat and I love the weak spot system the game employs which makes every tool useful in niche circumstance and rewards curiosity. It specifically manages this in a way that I feel the Witcher series could learn from if it ever returns; by making head on assault less viable and encouraging tactical hunting. I do feel this system makes hunting robots so fun that by contrast hunting humans becomes a chore however, though I noted this improves in the dlc with the addition of humans with elemental weaknesses limited in number as they are. I cannot speak for the story in entirety but what I encountered was pretty good, though I feel as if it was only just really getting going at the point where I could not continue. I find Aloy to be a compelling and well portrayed protagonist and though I can guess about her origin and the ultimate end of the alt-future apocalypse I still want to see how it plays out on screen, so will return to this as soon as I’ve fixed it.

Rimworld (122 hours. Familiar with but do not own Royalty Expansion):

Rimworld is one of those super special games that I don’t think I have a single problem with. Fair warning it can be brutal and is heavily dependent on RNG but this allows it to create truly unique and interesting scenarios on a constant basis. In the wider perspective it could be described as formulaic, with regular cycles of managing the settlement between raids and random events, but the devils in the details. Colonist traits, health and skills dictate how you play and sometimes you’ll be forced to adapt as some colonists simply refuse to perform some tasks. The depth of health particularly amuses me, in that each little part of someone’s body is modelled in a way. If you’re in a firefight you may take a single bullet which grazes your finger and you’re fine. Alternately it could pierce your human leather cowboy hat, your skull and kill you instantly and the game will tell you exactly what happened. The risk/reward element is addictive enough, and that’s without accounting for just how cool it is to see your colony slowly expand. Establishing more and more options for crafting is fun and shows off the full range of different items in the game which is fucking extensive. Between clothing, weapons, armour, sculpture and drugs to name only a few you have the opportunity to create many varied production lines either for your colonists or to trade for money and there is a lot of fun to be had here as well as it is quite satisfying to see psychoid you have grown personally become the cocaine your colonists snort to help them stay awake on limited sleep. From an archaeologist’s perspective it is especially cool to look back over your base and see the hints of how and why structures were built and remember the history of your limitations and development through structure. I think the lore of the universe is really cool too, a very 40k-esque kind of place except with far less order, somehow. But the universe does an excellent job of feeling alive and moving constantly on both a planetary and interstellar level. You can fully believe that while you build wooden shacks to shield yourself from terrifyingly low temperatures there are simultaneously rich pieces of shit living it up on the glitterworld that’s one system over. The music does an excellent job of creating the wild west frontier atmosphere the game cultivates to great effect. Ultimately, for just being a grid with a series of different numbers attached, this game does a fantastic job of creating a compelling, brutal and very real colony management experience. I dont think I can properly put into words the grandness and scope of this one. I didnt even mention the modding scene, which is expansive and tailors to basically any need you could have. The Rim is a terrifying place but theres so much fun to be had.

Factorio (86 hours, mostly 1.1): Having completed a game of Factorio I can tell you reliably that this is one of the best games ever made, thoroughly addictive and fun. If you like numbers, logistics, TRAINS, its gonna be your thing. Not to mention its probably the only documented case of a game with no bugs (so far as official forums are concerned). Strictly speaking this games combat is not the most engrossing thing but good lord do you feel it when you acquire a flamethrower. The way each aspect of the game (production, research, logistics, combat, upgrades for everything therein) feeds into the next is a really well constructed balancing act such that you must experience the full game in order to complete it and I always appreciate this kind of design. I think its one of the best tenets of factory game design especially as its something present in Satisfactory too. Beyond all of this generalised good the game is also excellent in its intricacies, the architecture necessary to build a maximum efficiency base, the level of planning and organisation that can be employed is mind-blowing. Not to mention the mod community, factorion is already an extensive experience and some mad bastards have seen fit to complicate it further, hats off to them. This really is a great moment in gaming.

 Destiny 2 (198 hours, all expansions, played some post Forsaken release, mostly Season of Arrivals onwards, spent roughly £20 on microtransactions):

This is a very interesting and enjoyable experience, but I must say it can be a bit controversial at times. What its does particularly well is moment to moment gameplay and design in all aspects. The game is stunning; between environments, cosmetics, shaders ships and ghosts there’s a vast range of incredible things to see, all rooted in the “pseudo-magi-science” aesthetic it’s got going on. The class design is excellent and you really do feel like you embody this rampaging madman / agile gunman / space wizard archetype, whichever you choose to play. The abilities, especially supers, are very satisfying. Everything has heft and power behind it which can be felt in all aspects of design; sound and animation is top notch. Movement is cool, you can feel how fast you move both on foot and in vehicles and the navigation has a little fun subtlety depending on your class jump, even if you can bounce unpredictably occasionally. But for the love of god why is the wall kick in there? It has only ever served to push me from a ledge into a bottomless pit. You're looking to remove antiquated content? Start there. Some guns are not so good to shoot but there’s such a great range of guns that are fun its like complaining about one drop in an ocean; and enemies are fun to shoot at, each faction distinct in meaningful ways and presenting an effective challenge. Speaking of oceans, that’s one way to describe the lore. I haven’t dived too deep but it keeps going down forever and everything I’ve read is intriguing. As a former Elder Scrolls lore nut this is something I could definitely sink my teeth into, though its much more of a pulpy sci-fi vibe than a pure nonsense vibe. I do think the game has a bit of a loot problem, primarily in regards to the conflict between high stats and looking good. This should never be a conflict, and yes you can apply ornaments to any purple gear but that’s not enough when I spend the entire time grinding power levels and thus must change armour and weapons on a constant basis to progress. This game needs a true transmog system and if not that, rethink how gear power level works. Perhaps rather than earning new instances of gear you always possess a version of it and the loot you acquire in missions just upgrades your instance to your current overall power level? This would serve to do away with the current upgrade system which I think is a needless additional grind. Perhaps it could be retained in using enhancement cores to empower gear as present but necessitating a whole upgrade module to keep your favourite weapon on hand is kind of painful honestly. There is also at present the issue of sunsetting gear, mildly controversial to say the least. If it’s necessary to streamline the game and make it function moving forward so be it but surely loot pools should be adjusted so you can actually get useful loot from older locations? And why sunset personal instances of gear which can be acquired at the regular power level anyway? I had to throw away my favourite bow and hunt down a new version of the exact same weapon for… what reason? I do think destination navigation leaves a little to be desired also. I get that having a physical hub world is meaningful but Destiny does not have a very extroverted community; I can count the times someone noticed me in the tower on one hand. And its not even like there’s fun activities to be found in the same sense as say Deep Rock Galactic, which really does take advantage of its hub. Perhaps for players who simply want to go about their business all of the vendors could be set into a menu system where just clicking an icon takes you to their menu from anywhere in the system rather than, per se, having to go through an entire loading screen (Which takes you to orbit and back) to reach a location which serves simply as the front for four menus. These are established player problems. As a dedicated PvE player I can say that this game is immensely fun in combat and growing in power does feel really good. It’s something I recommend getting into, there’s just some very large creases that need ironing which the Bungie should really take the time to address rather than pushing out new in game content every three months.

#the truman show #horizon zero dawn #rimworld #factorio #destiny 2 #d2 #film #movies #video games #i dont know what im doing #hzd #opinion

[pop-goes-the-sneasel]

misdreavus?

YESSSSSSSS MISDREAVUS!!!!!

Misdreavus is an absolute favourite of mine, and the pre-evolution of my current #1 favourite pokemon overall. It’s a pokemon I’ve got a long history of adoring at this point, and is also the first Ghost-type I’m reviewing, which happens to be my favourite type as well. I wasn’t actually all that fond of it as a child, though, because child me had trash taste, but it’s not atypical for kids to have trash taste so whatever. I love it now and that’s what matters!!! This cute lil spookster is gonna be gettin’ pure praise from me! It’s got a great colour scheme, great hair, and an expression that exudes the sort of chill-yet-mischievous vibes I love most in a pokemon.

Basis-wise, Misdreavus is probably the most “traditional” ghost, albeit with a bit of banshee mixed in with its title of Screech Pokemon and its propensity for startling people. It has a clear resemblance to a floating disembodied head as well, perhaps indicating an additional basis in the youkai nukekubi, a human-like being whose head can detach and fly around at night. It uses its necklace-like red orbs to absorb fearful emotions from people, which it converts into nourishment, effectively eating fear. Eating fear is a concept I’m sure I’ve seen before, but it’s a great concept for a ghost especially, since it provides an incentive for scaring people and justifies so much otherwise-baseless ghostly behaviour! Like, of course a ghost would be scary, if that’s how it eats!

The scariest thing Misdreavus can do, though, is my absolute favourite attack! Perish Song is a move that makes it so both the user and all pokemon present to hear it will spontaneously faint in three turns. The only way to avoid it is by switching out, which led to it being paired with a move that prevents switching, Mean Look. This strategy, known as Perish Trapping, was somewhat notorious in Gen II’s competitive scene and has occasionally seen fringe use since, with Misdreavus being the strategy’s best user when the technique first emerged.

As marvelous as Misdreavus is, though, its design actually took a fair bit of time to actually finalize. We know from the GS beta releases that Misdreavus was a very late addition to the games, absent from the 1997 beta and then added to the 1999 version in Norowara’s slot (a creepy doll made of straw). Its sprite was also somewhat unfinished-feeling even in the final game, with very inaccurate indigo and magenta colors. What’s really interesting, though, is that its original artwork seems intended to communicate something entirely different from what we ended up with: iridescence. Notice here how the pink bits aren’t uniformly distributed at the hair tips; they’re placed seemingly randomly. The anime was quick to simplify this to just the tips, but Stadium 2 actually left its hair a solid teal color and then gave the entirety of its body a unique pink shine effect. It’s sad that such a unique design feature ended up getting dropped when the designs got more standardized in Gen IV; I suppose consistency with the anime was just higher priority. Beyond the color, its hair also used to be much less defined, just sort of being a wavy amorphous mass. This would get toned down in XY, though, with its hair becoming a consistent seven tendrils once 3D models became a focus.

Regardless, Misdreavus is pretty much perfect, but there is a major criticism to be had: its distribution in its original appearance. I talked about this with Zorua, but one key to a pokemon’s popularity is actually being able to USE it, and nobody could have conceivably used Misdreavus in the Gen II games because it never appears until Mt. Silver, the VERY final area in the games. Sneasel was in a similar predicament in GS, but that got fixed in Crystal by moving it to Ice Path, whereas poor Misdreavus never got a proper playable role in Gen II at all. This did get fixed with Cliff Cave in HGSS two generations later (which messed up Sneasel again!!!), but by then Misdreavus had already gotten eclipsed in popularity by its evolution.

Unfortunately, Misdreavus is also one of those pokemon cursed by a pukey green shiny, but it’s not like it was gonna improve upon such a fantastic base colour scheme anyway. Teal with pink is just too good to beat, y’know? It was more of a chartreuse in past generations, having some bright citrus vibes, which I think was superior even if less ghostly. Wish XY didn’t arbitrarily decide to make some shinies worse.

But yeah, I absolutely love Misdreavus. I vibe with its nefarious trickster demeanour more than nearly any other pokemon, and whilst it’s kinda been usurped by its evolution as my #1 favourite for awhile, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart. There’s really no improving upon this precious perish baby uwu

You fainted/10.

#pokemon #pokemon reviews #swsh #pkmn #misdreavus #mismagius #ghost-type #johto #gen 2 #heinousactszx

[mattgambler]

Phoenix Point and why I want it to live

No TLDR this time. I said in the past that I could write pages over pages about this. I guess its time to see how many pages we are actually talking about here. Phoenix Point is currently rather mediocre. From the soundtrack to the many bugs and rather rough implementations, the missing features that were envisioned in the kickstarter campaign, the 5 scheduled DLCS, the epic store exclusivity, the inferior graphical polish in comparison to Firaxis’ XCOM reboot, the inferior complexity in comparison to Longwar, probably even the inferior Idontknow in comparison to the very first XCOM games from way back when, I didnt play those. If you are looking for something to hate in this game, you dont have to look too hard, there is something here for everyone. The reason Ive been a determined defender of Phoenix Point is not simply because I have a different taste in games than the mainstream however, but because I feel there is a way deeper underlying problem at work here. I’ll come back to that later. Btw starting now, when I say XCOM, I mean Firaxis’ XCOM. Personally I want more games like XCOM. More games like Battlebrothers, Mordheim: City of the Damned, Invisible Inc, hell, even Bloodbowl, even though I dont dig the sports angle. Games with permadeath, nameable characters, dynamic overworld systems and missions and situations that are created ideally by circumstance, not by simply playing mission 1, then mission 2, until you reach what the devs decided to be the last one they would make for the game. I thoroughly enjoy that concept of progression and many turnbased strategy titles just dont do it for me because they are too linear, even when they are otherwise nicely crafted experiences. Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest is a nice example of this, the game looks nice, sounds nice and is very well made, but it lacks the one thing I enjoy most in all the games I mentioned earlier. Along comes Phoenix Point and the moment I look at this game I know that it is all about scratching that specific itch. Not only that, it also brings with it a variety of creative features to even improve the established turnbased squad tactics formula. I didnt lie when I said I think that it is in many ways better than XCOM. Just that... WHAT?!?! ...the overall game doesnt compare well if we look at the sum of their parts at the moment. YOU CANT BE SERIOUS!!!!! About Phoenix Point being better in many ways? Sure, let me make a list. 1) Aiming In XCOM you aim, you have an x% chance to hit, you either hit or you dont. While widely accepted because of the quality of the overall games, its a pretty simple system that becomes especially frustrating when your guns model on screen is touching the enemies forehead and you still manage to miss. Or when a flashbanged and suppressed sectoid crits you in full cover after rolling a natural 20. In Phoenix Point bullets get simulated and trace a path from the barrel of your gun to a target that they then either hit or miss. Smaller enemies in Phoenix Point are hard to hit not because the game designers arbitrarily decided so, but because smaller enemies are simply smaller. In comparison, in XCOM you roll dice. 2) Modular enemies Similar to Battlebrothers, Phoenix Point has you encounter the same brigand thug (crabmen) over and over again. The enemy itself doesnt matter as much, its more about the number of different variations you can encounter. Brigant thugs can come equipped with simple helmets and/or armor as well as different weapons that have different abilities. They also have different faces on top of that. They are by far not the only enemy in the game, but even if they were, by the time you encounter the exact same thug a second time you wont be able to tell anymore because you have seen so many others inbetween. The same goes for most enemies in Battlebrothers (with a few exceptions), it becomes way more about your opponents equipment than about his actual type or class. Phoenix Point goes for the very same approach, but falls short because of  a variety of reasons. To name just one, the first time you encounter New Jericho as a faction, you fight four New Jericho soldiers and all four of them have the same armor, the same weapon and even the same face. To hammer it home the mission also always takes place on a variation of the exact same map. It is an absolute travesty. The ambition is there and in random encounters on the map you can see where it is supposed to go, with every enemy type in the game being designed in a way that allows for as many variations as the devs can think of, from paralysis tentacles and bloodsucking arms to mist generators and everything inbetween. The possibilities are endless and from the standard crab to the giant bosses every enemy is designed with this modularity in mind. In XCOM in comparison, you have a variety of different enemies, but for the entirety of the first month (what is that, 3-7 missions?) you only fight the sectoid. Or maybe the drone too, I havent played vanilla in forever. Longwar tries to spice that up by using preexisting models and assigning new abilities to them, making some models bigger and giving others new abilities, but at the end of the day the sectoid looks the way the sectoid looks. I love what it looks like btw. But modular enemies are decidedly cooler. 3) Scale In XCOM you control 4, later up to 6 soldiers at the same time. In Longwar it goes up to 8, or 12 in that one mission. In Phoenix Point you start out the same way, but to my knowledge you can bring as many soldiers to any mission as you can get there via aircraft. Meaning that as soon as you get a second manticore you can theoretically have up to 12 soldiers in a mission, or 18 with a third. Naturally you would probably want to split your forces instead and be in 3 places at the same time (and you can), but this sort of thing being possible, both the 18 soldiers in one mission as well as the 3 different squads doing missions in 3 different places of the planet, is something XCOM simply does not offer.  4) Other features Be it vehicles, giant enemies, diplomacy or the amount of control you get on the overworld map, Phoenix Point does (or attempts to do) a huge number of things that in XCOM are simply nonexistant. In XCOM you dont get to decide were to fly, missions are simply spawned in popup fashion, the skyranger is on autopilot, “diplomacy” is managed by talking to top secret bald guy representing the council and by sometimes fulfilling a councilrequest. The only opposing faction apart from the aliens is EXALT which can be regarded as more of a separate mission type with human enemies and not really as a faction that contributes in any diplomatic way. Dont get me wrong, I dont think XCOM needs diplomacy in order to be good. XCOM is already good, fantastic in fact. But if we compare based on features alone and not the quality of their implementation, then Phoenix Point is doing A LOT of things that XCOM never even touched. This is in no way me trying to trash XCOM. I love XCOM, especially Longwar. However for the sake of an at least somewhat fair comparison the only games we should compare Phoenix Point to at this Point are XCOM Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, both at launch. Bringing Longwar into the mix is something I do for the sake of providing a third angle, not because I am blind to the fact of how ludacris it would be to compare a newly launched game with an extensive overhaul mod that was in the making for years after the vanilla game and even its expansion were already released. As I was saying, along comes Phoenix Point doing all those very ambitious things. And it gets DESTROYED. To quote Beaglerush, the probably best known XCOM streamer out there: “But honestly, for anyone with experience in the XCOM genre, anyone who likes XCOM games, and anyone particularly who likes XCOM games at a harder difficulty or likes to obviously, like, play well, I do not think it is possible to enjoy this game unless you are getting a big paycheck and you are a good actor.” To be clear, I didnt watch the entire footage that made him come to that conclusion and I dont want to comment too much on what “playing well” means, but i have played Longwar on the highest difficulty in ironmanmode for 2000 hours (without beating it, but also always with Training Roulette active) and I have beaten XCOM 2 on highest difficulty in ironman mode. I do consider Longwar as one of my favourite games of all time and I do consider myself as someone who has experience with the genre, likes games and likes to play them “well”, or at least on highest difficulty. I dont agree with Beagle (duh), but I can of course see where he might be coming from. In its current state Phoenix Point is not finished. Playable, but even for an early access game its still pretty rough, with many mechanics not or only sometimes working (leanout, aim and aimsnapping, end turn, details, you get the point), features missing, performance issues, lackluster soldier customization, lackluster diplomacy options, a rather simple skilltree, questionable balance, etc. Don’t look at me like that, if I wanted to I could jump that hatetrain any time! But if I was to do that, where would that leave us? The XCOM genre, as Beagle calls it, is a niche genre at the best of times. Not only regarding the playerbase but also regarding game developers willing to invest time and money into creating something new. Xenonauts 2 is a year or more behind its originally panned release date with not much news to speak of, Terra Invicta is a distant memory of a game that will maybe one day still be released and Im still waiting for the XCOM 3 announcement and who knows if it will even come. Especially after we, the players, completely demolish Phoenix Point to the point where I would just cancel the 5 planned DLCS right now if I was in charge of the devteam. The main reason I defended Phoenix Point was not because of what the game currently is but because of what the game could be after 5 more DLCs. Ive played every backerbuild of the game and statements like “the game is still what it was 2 years ago” are simply and factually false. Especially between backerbuild 4 and 5 there was a huge jump in quality and between 5 and the release version that same jump has ocurred again - with an entire game that is now playable and completable. Yes, it could have more voiced lines instead of text, yes, it doesnt have the sexy “alerted sectoid” animation sequence when you run into a new enemy pod (pods dont exist in PP but you get me) and sure, the epic exclusive sucks I guess and I dont care much for the soundtrack. But after Backerbuild 5, who knows where the game will be after the next DLC? And the next? If you compare XCOM Enemy Unknown with XCOM Enemy Within, the difference was breathtaking. And here we have a game that has so much work already done, so many assets created, so much code already in place, and we, the players, punch them in the face and shout “NOT GOOD ENOUGH!”. You wanna go back to the drawing board, have somebody else start fresh on something that could be better in a year or two if we are lucky? Ive been looking for a game like XCOM for literally years. Battle Brothers was the closest I found. Tens, if not hundreds of others inbetween failed hard, from “Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus” to “Legends: Viking” to “Wildermyth” and basically everything inbetween. And here we have a game that seems to have the right idea, the right amount of ambition and a good amount of the work already done and we are bitchslapping them left and right just so we can go back to getting hyped about the next mediocre linear story experience. Sure, them releasing already is a shame. But if I was the one to decide, I would give them the same amount of money again and triple it and tell them to finish the job instead of spitting in their face when they come to us and lowkey tell us that they ran out of money. And I would send them flowers and tell them that Im sorry. Anybody can polish a game with extra cash, but getting the core idea right is something that even Firaxis almost failed to do with XCOM 2, as far as Im concerned. I said earlier, that there was a deeper underlying problem here and that I would come back to it and here it is, ladies and gentlemen. Modernday gamers are an ungrateful, hateful bunch of whiny spoiled brats, who think they are entitled to only the best of the best while in fact they “deserve” nothing. The entire concept of a kickstarter campaign is that you provide funds and trust so a bunch of people can try to realize their vision. If you dont like the outcome, then that doesnt mean they betrayed you, it means you have poor judgement. Notice how I say judgement and not taste. You dont have poor judgement because you dont like the outcome, but because you gave them money in the first place. I should maybe add at this point that my anger is mostly directed towards the public reaction and the phoenix point subreddit and not towards my own viewership. (hello) Phoenix Point is not the first game that has had me feel like the entire gaming landscape is slowly spiraling out of control. 5 years ago I thought quality means sales. At this point Im worried that a high marketing budget means sales. And I dread the possibility that 5 years from now I might be convinced that a high marketing budget means quality. Some of the best games this year were literally destroyed by players. Artifact wasn’t only boykotted, but actively brutalized, with people at some point purposefully streaming porn and torture under the Artifact tag on Twitch. Pathologic 2 had the devteam almost go bankrupt after poor sales and unfavourable reviews by people that barely grasped the basics of the game. All the while people feed money to the ginormous immortal that is Magic The Gathering and praise Hideo Kojima for his “unique vision” for Death Stranding. I didnt play Death Stranding and Magic can be pretty fun, but does nobody see the smothering double standards in play here? Im not saying that Phoenix Point has no problems right now in terms of quality. Some of the issues player encounter are in fact inexcusable, at least longterm. But XCOM 2 also had a bumpy launch with long loading times and tons of bugs and then they were fixed and today there are people that think XCOM 2 is better than Longwar. Incomprehensible to me how anyone could think that, but time and some postlaunch fixes did clearly change peoples minds. I think the main reason Phoenix Point got so much hate on launch in comparison to XCOM 2 (which also released 3 DLCs ,or was it more) is because its drastically different and more ambitious in many ways, not because it is half as bad as people make it out to be. XCOM is just like Phoenix Point, just dumbed down I guess. Kappa. (I hate it when people use the term “dumbed down”. This is a joke. Ffs why do I have to explain this)

#XCOM #Phoenix Point

[jflashandclash]

Traitors of Olympus IV: Fall of the Sun

Forty-Two: Calex

A Boycott on Falling

             All of them acted at once. Euna wrapped a vine around the avatar’s shoulder like something out of Tarzan. She swung down, taking Phobetor off guard and kicking him in the face. Quite an alright sight, if you where to ask Calex.

           Calex jumped off the avatar’s shoulder, holding his breath to see if Thalia followed through on her side of the bargain. It would be right rubbish if he made it through Tartarus and all this madness only to flatten into a Shrove Tuesday pancake.[1]

           Sure enough, as he dove towards the ground, he could see the huntress of Artemis lunging off the other shoulder. She had both her hands outstretched and—

           And her eyes were tightly shut.

           “GRACE!” Calex shouted at her.

           As he said it, a blast of air exploded out of her hands. The gust hit the mashed strawberry field and flooded up toward him. His descent slowed so, by the time he blundered to the mud, he could do a break fall without shattering his body.

           Not exactly graceful, but not dead either.

           Without losing momentum, Calex rolled into a sprint. He fumbled to withdraw his pencil pouch so he could assemble Soul Pain.

           “Did you just do that with your bloody eyes closed?!” Calex couldn’t believe he was using that tone with the Lieutenant of Artemis, but recent events left him a bit more willingness to defend his right to survive long enough to snog Merry.

           “No! Shut up!” Thalia snarled. Her face was paler than he’d seen in their entire trip through two underworlds. “Giant snake. Destruction of camp. Focus!”

           This was almost as angry as he felt when Euna explained her plan to capture Kaos while they were ascending out of Tartarus—the trial their group called The Eternity of Tortuous Stairs: The Nightmare of a Couch Potato. Then, Euna explained that she had intentionally made shorter vines to snap when he and she were falling towards oblivion, to decrease the burden of deceleration towards Kaos’ pit, and conveniently forgot to tell Calex that they were supposed to snap, leading Calex to believe they were in an uncontrolled fumble towards death.

           Now, while Calex dug his trainers into the mud, he grumbled, “Being a demigod: taking life one unnecessary heart attack at a time.”

           Calex didn’t dare look back to see how cat-avatar-Axel and Reyna faired. [2]They had other worries.

           They raced toward the cabins, where the world darkened without the proximity of the Roman field lights. Now that they were beyond the horrified mass of ghosts, he could better see how massive a problem they had there. Despite the darkness, it would be hard to miss the destruction.

           When Calex had seen Python inside of Howe Caverns, he froze up. All he could do was drag his friends to safety when they got knocked out. Then he hadn’t even seen the entirety of Python. However, after saying a quick, “How do you do?” to Kaos, the sight of Python in her whole was much easier to swallow.  

           The drakon’s body was enormous, her diamond shaped head at least twenty feet off the ground. Her serpentine form balanced atop the totaled Apollo cabin, wrapped several times around the central hearth to consume the flames, then crossed the cabins to rest atop of a pile of silver rubble. With the flick of its tail, it smashed through the walls of the Athena and Demeter cabins.

           One of its eyes was swollen shut. The other—

           Calex averted his gaze, remembering something Joey and Pax had discussed right before Joey had stabbed the drakon’s eye like the crazy hero she had been. “Don’t look it in the eye. It’ll—”

           “—paralyze you. Duh,” Thalia said, giving Calex an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.

           “We can’t let it destroy the rest of Hera’s cabin,” he said. Though he couldn’t see much of the half-wrecked structure, he hoped Joey’s statue was safely standing. If there was any hope of changing her back, he assumed the statue would have to look like a proper Greek statue instead of a post modern one.

           “Hera’s cabin isn’t really high on my to-do list right now,” Thalia snapped.

           “Right,” he said. “Let’s just crush the snake fast.”

           At Python’s tail, he could see several small forms darting around. Miranda Gardener and another one of Euna’s sisters were trying to unsuccessfully restrain the tail with a few vines.

           By the head, they could see a group of Greeks armed with scattered weapons and PJs, all ducked behind a gigantic metal shield where the Hephaestus Cabin once stood.

           The drakon snapped its jaws at the shield, hissing in frustration. Whatever the material was, it was strong enough to hold up against a direct bite, and it was large enough that Python couldn’t get his jaws around it. The drakon either was too thick to think of going around the side of the shield, or the shield was enchanted to confuse it.

           Dead ahead, the sickening greenish glow of the Cloven Terror’s eye sockets bobbed as Alabaster’s figure approached Python, far closer than Calex and Thalia.

           “Mad bloke is going to get himself killed,” Calex muttered after his quick glimpse of the helm. Although he knew how powerful the child of Hecate was after seeing the fight with Phobetor, this fight seemed a bit different in magnitude.

           As Calex finished assembling his bow, Thalia handed him one of her Artemis arrows. They closed in and Calex saw more movement that made his stomach drop.

           It was from the rickety, old cabin at the edge of the original twelve.

           If Calex counted right, there weren’t many of the original cabins left standing on this side. Poseidon’s was still fine, but Ares’ bunker and Apollo’s cabin were in shambles. Next was the shield left in Hephaestus’ place. Last was the Hermes cabin.

           And five figures were sprinting out of it towards the shelter of the Hephaestus shield.

           Calex almost choked.

           Camp Half-Blood’s three youngest campers, Harley, an energetic child of Hephaestus, the daughter of the sea storm goddess, and two tiny Hermes campers were scurrying behind a slightly taller figure. Drew Tanaka ushered them along in proper Auntie Drew fashion.

           “Oh my gods! I know you little thieves and brats can move faster than that!”

           Calex could barely hear her. But, Python definitely had.

           Calex understood the gamble. If Python was making her way down the cabins, the Hermes cabin was next in line for destruction, and they’d put their youngest in there during all the insanity earlier. But could they make the run to the safety of the Hephaestus before—

           Python’s tongue flicked out towards the children and a horrific laugh filled the air. She reared her head back to strike.

           Those children would be helpless.

           “You don’t want to smash us! We’d be icky to get off your scales or pick out of your teeth! We don’t taste good!” Drew shouted. “Harvey farts A LOT.”

           For a disorienting moment, Calex full-heartedly agreed that the running campers were quite nasty and would be difficult to pick out of scales if Calex had scales.

           Python also hesitated.

           Calex shook off the charmspeak enough to aim an arrow and fire.

           Thalia followed half a second later.

           Their arrows clinked against Python’s forehead scales and ricocheted off. Python barely seemed to notice.

           It dove at the four children and daughter of Aphrodite.

           Calex frantically snatched another arrow from Thalia’s quiver, unsure what good it would do. He’d forgotten those scales would be so thick.

           Regardless, he and Thalia took aim.

           The children screamed.

           Something hissed and gleamed through the air, intercepting Python before she could snap her jaws around the campers.

           It thunked into the drakon’s good eye.

           Python shrieked and recoiled.

           The ground rumbled as the drakon withered.

           The children and Drew raced into the shelter of the shield.

           “Nice throw, Kal—” Calex began to reflexively shout, until something glowed green by the drakon’s head and reversed spin towards the Cloven Terror. The monster—the Alabaster kind of monster, not the serpentine one—caught the discus as it went past, spinning with the weapon’s trajectory to decelerate it.

           Horror sank Calex’s stomach to think what could have happened to Kally for Alabaster to have her weapon.

           When Python made another horrific hiss, Calex could see its other eye was now tightly closed.

           “We should get to that shelter. We’re sitting ducks out here if its hide is too thick to pierce with these arrows. Let’s see how we can back them up there,” Thalia said.

           “Right!” Calex agreed.

           They continued to race towards the shelter.

           Calex’s mind raced alongside with ideas.

           When they fought Python last time, Kally had used some kind of solar explosion to ward Python off, and the drakon might have only let them go to fulfill the first part of Eris’ plan. From what he remembered of Annabeth’s monster fighting courses, it took Apollo’s full quiver of arrows to slay Python.

           Currently, the sun was down, Will—one of the most powerful children of Apollo—was probably still dead and nearby Nico’s semi-solid body, Phobetor had killed Kayla, Calex hated to know if there were any Apollo children inside the cabin when it got smashed, and he hadn’t seen Kally since they got here—what? 10-45 seconds ago?

           Had Python been methodically destroying the few campers that could put up a proper resistance?

           For the moment, Python appeared to have forgotten the Hephaestus shield. Its tongue flicked towards the Cloven Terror.  “I smell no demigod here! You have the scent of a monster and not that of the foolish Cyclops welp—”

           A burst of hope spread through Calex’s chest. Cyclops welp? Was Tyson still here somewhere?

           Whatever reason Alabaster had to keep throwing himself into the front of battles, Calex was cheered they could at least use his stupidity as a cover. He and Thalia were close enough to the shield to see several campers frantically motioning them closer.

           “—why do you help defend this camp?” Python demanded of the Cloven Terror.

           Before Calex dove behind the three-feet-thick metal shield, he caught a glimpse of Alabaster doing something he’d never seen Alabaster do: hesitate.

           Somehow, the Cloven Terror looked smaller than usual, though maybe that was due to his proximity to the drakon. Now that Calex had slowed his pace, he saw something else odd. The flare of the green torches along Hecate’s cabin gleamed off something spilling down the Cloven Terror’s back: rosy-gold hair.

           Calex’s stomach knotted to ice.

           That wasn’t Alabaster.

           He skidded behind the metal shield, having too much forward momentum to stop.

           Thalia rolled in half-a-second behind him. Already, the word, “Update,” was out of her mouth.

           Calex might have tripped and fallen over had a giant Hispanic not steadied him. He looked into the dark, scared eyes of Chris Rodriguez, a son of Hermes and friend of Pax’s. Clarisse La Rue lay at his feet, clutching her leg—one bent at an odd angle. For a moment, hope flooded Calex at seeing Austin, a child of Apollo, laying beside Clarisse, but the boy was out cold, the lower half of his body mangled like a building had dropped on it. Calex frowned; it probably had.

           Jake Mason, a child of Hephaestus, was putting aerospace-looking blankets around the shoulders of the four children and Drew. Nyssa and Matthias, two other children of Hephaestus, were stationed at either end of the shield wall. At the center, there was a giant wheel crank—to move the shield wall back and forth, Calex assumed, judging off the massive rollers on the bottom and the circular track on the ground. There was a ladder up the center to a small slit in the shield, where a gigantic stun-gun-thing was positioned.

            Tyson and a child of Ares, whose name Calex couldn’t remember, were positioned by the crank, ready to turn it.

           “Do we change positions now?” Tyson asked.

           “No! He’s talking to the Witchboy. Hold up!” Matthias called.

           Calex didn’t realize the shield itself had been pivoting. That would explain why Python struggled to turn the lot of them into afternoon biscuits—well—nighttime biscuits?  After being underground for what felt like days and exiting into a starless, moonless black sky, Calex could guess the time about as well as he could guess the Queen’s favorite pair of socks.[3]

           “We have to do something! That’s Kally!” Calex said, scrambling for a plan.

           “Were you going to just let him die if it was Alabaster?” Chris asked, looking pale.

           Calex was alarmed by his own, unhesitant response. “Yep.”

           Matthias nervously tapped his fingers together. “Imagine Pax’s whining though.”

           “Matt! Eyes outside!” Nyssa scolded.

           “Yea, shut up,” Thalia said, “Whoever is outside will need our help and we need to know what’s going on.”

           Clarisse growled in agreement. “We’re not sure. I think Clovis is keeping us awake. Phobetor can’t seem to keep all of the campers asleep and puppet people as sleep walkers at the same time.”

           “Clovis is napping now. I heard he’s more powerful when he’s sleeping,” Harvey, the eight-year-old, said quickly, “So he can better take on that nightmare meanie.”

           “Pipsqueak might be right,” Clarisse said, “Last we heard, the Stoll brothers, Will, Nico, Chiron, Sherman, and Pollux were in the Big House’s infirmary by Clovis. We’re not sure where everyone else is. No one was prepared for the sun to go down early.” Her voice quivered with fury. “Stupid, overgrown snake—”

           “The sun only went down a few minutes before you showed up on… um—” Chris hesitated.

           “A glowing, giant Axel,” Thalia said.

           Chris looked even paler. “That’s terrifying.”

           After helping to shove Harvey tighter into his blanket, Drew stumbled over to Calex. He prepared—unwittingly—for her to hit on him despite the circumstances, so was surprised when she clutched his shoulder. Tears rimmed her eyes. “It ate Mitchell.”

           Calex’s mouth went dry. Mitchell was one of his cabin mates, a surprisingly shy son of Aphrodite with a good heart.

           No words surfaced to comfort his crying aunt. His mind threatened to wander to the bodies lined up under tarps in Kakata. He squeezed Drew’s hand, swallowed, then walked alongside Matthias again to peak out and see if Kally was already eaten or if they could grant her any tactical advantage.

           The Cloven Terror was still at a standoff maybe ten meters from Python. The snake’s size seemed impossible next to Kally. Somehow, Python seemed even larger since Calex knew it was her and not Alabaster out there. In the distance by the Roman barracks, a glowing avatar slashed through the ranks of ghosts. Calex didn’t see Phobetor or Euna and only noticed a blur when he tried to focus on the two giants battling outside the boarder.

           “Have you no words?” Python demanded.

           Kally took a step back, one Calex recognized as a first step to winding up her discus. “I am a child of light,” her voice rang two-toned with a deeper one. It started uncertain, but continued with a scary determination. “Here to reap the scythe of the lion’s labors. And I welcome YOU with this embrace!”

           “What trickery is this?!” the drakon demanded. “A child of Apollo—”

           Calex balked as Kally wound up and lobbed her discus at the drakon. That girl had more bollux than an unneutered bulldog.

           “Holy spirit of Ares,” Matthias muttered. “That’s not Ajax’s meep-squeak, not-girlfriend, right?”

           Kally’s discus slammed into Python’s busted eyelid. It hissed in fury, though didn’t look further injured.

           They needed to act now.

           Calex put two fingers to his mouth to make a piercing whistle. The chances were low but he should have been around—

           The drakon snapped downward towards his mate.

           A rainbow blur blasted between the drakon’s open jaws as they crushed into the ground.

           Calex whooped in excitement.  

           “What is that?” Nyssa asked from the other side of the shield.

           “The best damn unicorn you’ll ever set eyes on!” Calex cheered.

           A crimson and black blur galloped to a sudden stop about five meters from their hiding spot. Atop a magnificent stallion with a gold and silver horn sputtering rainbow sparks, Kally sat upright, her helm focused on the incoming green glow that hissed behind Python’s head.

           Her discus spun back towards them and Kally snapped her hand out to catch it.

           Calex thought he heard something crack, but couldn’t be certain when Vinyl took off back towards Python. The drakon had dislodged its jaws from the dirt and flicked its tongue towards Kally.

           Python lunged again.

           The unicorn and rider darted under the giant snake. From its blur, a golden discus spun out again.

           Once again, the hit seemed to only annoy the drakon as it withered in anger.

           “We need to help her find an opening,” Calex said. His eyes flashed around their shield and what they had. “Clarisse, you defeated a drakon before, right?”

           “I electrocuted it from the inside of its eye socket,” she growled. “If you didn’t notice, I don’t have an electric spear.”

           Calex pointed at the giant stun-gun thing mounted at the top of the shield. “It’s broken, innit?”

           Jake frowned. “Python knocked out our backup power and our backup, backup power. We’re working on getting it back online, but we would need a lot of electricity to…”

           Thalia grabbed his shoulder, giving him a grin. “How much electricity is a lot?”

           Jake’s mouth hung open then crooked into a grin.

           “You still need to find a way to pierce the hide,” Clarisse reminded, scowling.

           The hope in Jake’s eyes crushed. “The first time we tried, when Python knocked over Ares’ cabin, the prongs just bounced off.”

           Calex thought it over. After the stunt he pulled with Kaos and climbing all those stairs, his body felt weak and shaky. An image flashed in his mind: the black, metal arrow he’d almost shot Axel and Thalia with. He’d been scared to shoot them. The two dumb blokes were so naturally compatible, the strength it took to force disinterest or dislike had been horrible. But, to enhance some of Python’s utter disgust with Apollo children? An arrow like that would be easy, right? He thought about Thanatos and Kaos and his confidence grew.

            “I can make arrows,” Calex said, “that can piece into anyone’s heart. Even a primordial god’s.”

           Thalia’s face went red with rage, but she nodded to affirm this. Her hand reflexively clutched at her chest, where his golden arrow had struck her.

           Their shield wall rocked when Python smashed into it.

           Vinyl shrieked in pain.

           “That’s cool and all,” Matthias said. He’d abandoned his post by the outside of the shield, hands already fumbling with some wires on the ground. No one needed to direct his siblings. Harvey had already thrown off his shock blanket to help him and Jake and Nyssa scrambled over half a second later. “But, can we attach cables to said arrows?” Matthias asked.

           Calex already had a hand on the ladder to the turret. He gave Thalia a grin as the sparks erupted at her fingertips. “Let’s find out.”

 Hey guys! I’m getting this out before midnight this time XD Still haven’t had a chance to do proper edits on these (I’ll hope to get back to more edits later!) but, I hope you enjoyed regardless!

I’m enjoying Vinyl as a battle unicorn. What do you guys think?

Stay tuned next week for Kally’s chapter: I Get to be Python��s Piñata, where I feel like the writing gets a bit smoother for the ending XD

 Footnotes:

[1] A celebration preceding Ash Wednesday where you consume pancakes.

[2] Mel betanote: “Is she going to ride him into battle? That sounds so wrong but I meant it entirely in the form of battle!!!!”

Jack, “( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”

[3] Apparently I didn’t think Calex was British enough in this chapter.

#Heroes of Olympus #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Traitors of Olypmus #PJO #HOO #fanfiction #ssssooooooooon I'll be able to sleep #I'm so excited......

[curestardust]

if you want: military drama / (realistic?) mecha fights / very plot focused story / most importantly if you liked the previous seasons

And I’m back already with another controversial opinion. I saw the entirety of Full Metal Panic! when I was around 12 and watched anime from CD’s that I borrowed from my classmate. And yet even at that impressionable age where my sisters and I were fawning over and incredibly ecchi and weird anime, I couldn’t care less about FMP. I found it BORING (in capital letters) and from what I remember, this anime was my first introduction to “tragic romance” and tsunderes. Both of which I try to avoid like the plague even now. So here’s IV. 

There are many problems. The OST is not lackluster, it basically doesn’t exist or just plain something that came from “Copyright-Free-Music.com”. This was even more glaring when the anime played the first seasons’ opening theme at the very end which invoked some major nostalgia so there was a huge missed opportunity there. 

Second, the mecha fights are incredibly boring. Like so-so-so sleep inducing. I’m going to say this now; I’m not a big fan of mechs. I don’t care about them. But I’ve seen my fair share of mecha anime and none of them bored me as much as this. 

Next, the lack of interesting characters and lack of interaction. I just didn’t care about anybody. There were like 2 moments where the plot surprised me but that’s it. And when the plot is too boring to carry an anime you fall back on the characters. And if the those are also boring then...?? What’s left?

 Finally, I’d also like to mention the quality. The mechs are 3D rendered so nothing to say about them but the animation wavered from “WOW” to “TF am I even looking at”. It was obvious that most of the money went into the mech fights and the more important physical conflicts. Episode 10 was especially tragic in this department.

Whatever I say here doesn’t matter much however, as this franchise has a cult following similiar to other great oldie anime which I understand completely. If you liked the previous seasons (not the comedy ones), you will most likely like this. If you didn’t, you won’t. As for those who’re new, I wouldn’t recommend jumping in with this one as this is set between 2 previously existing seasons so you won’t understand much. [5/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: to philosophise about the big questions of life (not so much in the anime, just makes you think) / nice music / video game adaptation

Caligula is a video game adaptation. I just wanted to get this out of the way cause this is a turn off for a lot of people. Is it good, though? Not really. Ok so first off, Miu is a virtual singer, like Miku from Vocaloid. Her songs are played throughout the anime, during fight scenes and they’re really nice (including the Opening and Ending songs). The OST has some nice tracks but it could’ve used some variety.

Miu’s voice actor was incredible. Ritsu’s (protagonist) was good as well however the others were QUITE awkward during emotional scenes. 

The colour palette was questionable. The whole world is white and dull and only the fight scenes bring in more colour. I suspect this was done on purpose and while I understand the point of it, that doesn’t better that I had to stare at like 3 colours moving for 24 minutes at times. The character designs were also very meh, I liked a few of them but it was like the creator ran out of design ideas halfway through making them and said “You know what! why don’t we have TWO blonde characters who wear their coats on their back without giving either of them much of a personality! That’ll surely not confuse anyone!”

Oh and that’s where the characters come in. The game has 9 main characters. The average playtime of the game is 26 hours. This anime was 4.5 hours long. I THINK you can all see the problem here. There are maybe 4 characters we get to know a bit but for the others?? I literally didn’t even notice there was one more character in the “squad” for like a whole episode! And this is what lead to possibly the worst offense of this anime. They literally had the characters tell their tragic backstories. As in, there was one episode where they sat in a room and everyone just talked about themselves. Umm??

The setting and the ideas presented were quite intriguing however. Intriguing enough for me to check up on the game which is going to be released on PC next year. I’ll probably check it out, not gonna lie but purely because the anime left me unsatisfied with its lackluster execution. [5/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: cute girls and cute girl friendships / idol anime / (CGI) performances / lots of great and varied songs / basically to just chill after a long day

I’m not sure if writing a review on Aikatsu is even necessary as from experience I can say that like 80% of Precure fans also watch this one so...but here we go anyway.

First off, let me say that you need to be a fan of idol anime. If you aren’t, leave right now. Second, you also need to like the “monster of the week” formula. In this case we have performances instead of monsters but the structure is basically the same. And finally, you need to consider characters more important than plot cause there isn’t much in Aikatsu. 

To put it bluntly, this is an anime for kids, just like Precure but even....kid-friendly-er? There are no high stakes, the outcome is predictable 99% of the time and while that may sound boring, that IS what some people look for. Yes, Aikatsu is a great “come home from a hard day at work and just watch something nice and sweet before going to bed” anime. 

You’ll also be delighted to hear that the music is excellent. While the performances being CGI is a little weird at first, you get used to it. And because they don’t have to hand-draw each performance (jesus) the animation quality very, VERY rarely wavers which is kinda incredible when you consider that there are 178 episodes.

Lastly, I just want to mention the characters. They are driving force of Aikatsu (besides the music and performances) and every one of them is likable. At least to me, but I have a soft spot for cute girls and have a hard time hating any so my experience may be a bit biased. Anyway, only drawback is that the main cast of characters switches around and that if you fall in love with a secondary-character you are pretty much doomed to see them for like 3 minutes in total after their arc ends. So be careful! [8/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

#dusty reviews #WHY R THESE GETTING LONGER AND LONGER #WHY CANT I STFU #Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory #Full Metal Panic! IV #Full Metal Panic #Caligula #Aikatsu #Aikatsu!

[isaacathom]

also ive never mentioned a term limit so its distinctly possible one of the reasons Tahla Mohil and Olhahna are as enduring in history as they are is because they got like 3 or more terms each. Tahla seems like the sort who wouldve tapped out at some point, like ‘nah i think 9 years i plenty’, but Olhahna, who knows, its possible they were in power for like 15 entire years. pulling a fucking roosevelt. wild. also why the fuck do i know thats pulling a roosevelt, fuck you america. pulling a fuckinnnn oh my god ive forgotten his name. oh my god. the guy with an excellent headshot in his early years. the fucks his name. MENZIES! thats the bitch. pulling a fucking menzies and after they left office everyone went ‘are we 100% sure we want anyone to be able to do that again?’. i mean its different for a parliamentary democracy thingo bc only like 100k people actually vote for the pm specifically versus a Presidente who is voted for by the whole country. but you get my meaning. fucking ran shit for AGES and its like ‘woah there’. plus i think its a fair comp because fucking CHRIST menzies was in office for ages. lord. lordy lord.

so thats an idea. that President Olhahna (they need a first name, lol) was the president circa 142 AC, was in power for a long ass time, and is extremely well regarded by history. not without criticisms, NATURALLY (thats just how it be on this bitch of an earth) but you get the idea. im gonna go try and figure out president math to figure out when Olhahna was in power, and for that matter when Tahla Mohil was. i have to specify is Tahla Mohil because her like, grandson is president or some shit, i forget. ok SO if we assume this is presidente rules, wheres the vp simply continues a presidents term if death occurs and the election is always on that 3 years, Olhahna likely came to power in 137 AC, and subsequently left power circa 152. possibly like 151, if we say that they died in office, for shits and giggles (probably wasnt assassination, unfortunately, nothing so spicy)

Tahla would have come in iiiiin 326, which is a FUCK of a year, huh. wait, hold the fuck. oh wow it really did that, huh? jesus. wait, no, she’d have to have come in in 323, because i recall her being explicitly mentioned re: the sep. yea, she was supposed to have been lost to the sep but she was ill and didnt attend. she might have recently won re-election, which would make her power within the proposed Summit make sense, especially if she won comfortably. it also means she would have been, at minimum, into her 3rd term in office circa the Skarhu-Vosti War, which she would have been able to seen completed in that term. 3 would be enough for her, i think, though theres also the possibility she would try to see the Civil War out, which would get her to either 335 (a year short) or 338, for a 15 year term, which is fucking Huge. do i want to change the length of these terms?????? hold on, for shits, lets calc the 4 year vers for both, see which i like.

Olhahna - 136-150 (died mid 4th term, for 14 years total). Tahla - 320-332/336. 336 would enable her to see out the entirety of the civil war and would give her a good leg to retire on, tho she could just as easily retire off the skarhu-vosti thing. hold on did america switch pres’ during The Wars??? lemme check that shit. and australia too. hold on fuckers. we’re gonna Math.

ok. i’ve decided 3 year terms is fine, Olhahna was from 137 to 151 (died in office), and Tahla Mohil was from 323 to 335, retiring at the end of her 4th term to be replaced fairly comfortably by her Vice President at the 335 election. or, 334, i guess, if we wanna Math about it. thats fine. Im gonna make a note on these dates somewhere so I have this information. hhmmm

#story blogging #math! i loathe i #fwiw in the world wars the changes in president were always from death in office rather than an election loss #australian pms not so much? though if you ignore the coalition nonsense we only had curtin for ww2 until he died juuuust before it ended. #within like. a month? iirc? but if we're being 'fair' then weee had 4 pms during ww3 bc the menzies pt 1 and earl page or whatever #my apologies i meant fadden. earle page was the guy BEFORE that. god the coalition lads #sorry fadden bro i meant no disrespect to the sole country party pm on his own mandate ever

[lilidhshoneynutfeelios]

this weeks freeform personal post lol

so im kinda getting estranged by my mother tbh like i was quite explicitly told that im making a “lifestyle choice i dont agree with” and that she “cant recognise me” (like, my face is a different shape but what she means is that im not like, rolling over and taking her abuse anymore) and i cant be like taking hormones and using a different name and expecting to be like, part of the family yknow. and like, her partner will just follow suit and ive already estranged my older sister lmao and like, highkey im not confident i’ll get into 3rd year and like, yknow. on a triangle of ‘disowned’ ‘trans’ and ‘drop out’ im pretty sure i can only handle two and like, v v highkey i want to just like, kill myself and avoid the whole thing and like, i’m v aware that, other than this one medically induced manic episode in march/april, ive had passive suicidal ideation for like, almost my entire life and ive never done anything about it. idk im v greatful for the valid people in my life rn, im v happy that ive got like, decent people i know irl and online that just kinda, make it seem like a temporary problem? and recently ive had a lot of experiences where ive been able to like, be good for someones life, esp w like, i run the trans forum at uni right, and we’ve had a couple moments where like, people’ve got to see like, other trans people in groups, and just be like ‘huh, we’re not freaks and perverts huh’ and its been good for them and i kinda just wanna keep living for those moments and all these rly cool moments i get to have w my friends and like, ive got a lot of good books im excited about rn, and ive got some money in the bank i dont want them to get, idk. ik a lot of people in my life get really tetchy when i talk about like, suicide after like, i actually tried, and thats fair but like, for the last idk more than 10 years its just been passive and ideative and thats sad but its also like, mostly benign and i dont want people to worry about me. i kinda think im too late to get a summer internship now i had two interviews and i failed one and i dont want to work in a care home all summer and i kinda want to piss off to glasgow and stay w finn and thats not an easy option but i think it’d be good for me like idk what work i could do in glasgow but i could do some shitty job right,i dont have to do internships now i guess, idk im really tetchy about experience and esp trying to get experience where a change of name isnt an issue. yknow, like job hunting is demeaning enough without revealing a priori youre tranny, idk like, i have a zero hours job in aberdeen but i wanna move out like, asap, like i cannot be here, its just v scary to be in an environment where youre like, actively hated. idk like she didnt harbour any particular hatred to trans people before this like she knew a trans person from my school and used his name and pronouns but idk, maybe i shouldve seen it coming after how tedious she was about me being a faggot like, idk she got over that after a couple months but she just, doesnt want to budge on this, like she sees me using my name and taking hormones and having trans friends as like, an actual insult to her raising me. shes just like I Picked Your Name, I Raised You A Boy, Therein You Will Be And Anything Else Is An Insult To Me As A MoThEr yknow like, god, its not a big deal yknow, you get 2 daughters or you get 3 idc what you do with that fact. and sure, i consider it entirely her problem that she hates trannies but like, being trans AND disowned AND a dropout is just like, too much for me i think like, theres no shame in that life to me but like, theres also no dignity. like theres no dignity anywhere but idk if i can do it yknow. also like, and i hate to like bring up sex work when talking about trans hardship bc it feels like a boogyman trans girls bring up to scare eachother but, idk if i can go back to that? i hate waiting outside and i need poppers for like, anal w people i dont trust (and sometimes w people i do) and like, theyre a v safe drug but too much can put pressure on the eye and im blind enough as it is. i had enough poppers one time that i went colourblind for a moment. that was fun. i was kinda drunk too. in the summer i kinda wanna deal with presentation like learning-to-pass as a skill but like, idk im not butch right but im also like a real person who goes outside lmao. like i cycle in the rain and garden and eat with my hands and im not going to be domesticated at any point tbqh. like im not sure i’ll ever pass in like, the next so many years without like, FFS and laser or smthn, but like, idk ik two things right (1) that im a bit of a feral tomboy and im comfortable in like, trews and shirts, getting dirty and building things so long as im not like, percieved as a man and (2) that i was traumatised for like, almost the entirety of my life for doing anything feminine right. like i got beat up in the engineering club at school a lot bc i wasnt like, masc enough to be in that space lol, or even if i didnt get beat up like, there was like, idk what you’d call it like preformative beating up? like unwarrented roughhousing? like pretending to kick someone but Just For The Banter Obviously, We Weren’t Trying To Intimidate The Faggot At All Sir. yknow. and like, obvi like the usual words and jokes we usually use to talk about fem men or men who arent masc enough or whatever. and like, trying to separate (1) from (2) yknow. like thats a task and a half. and like, esp recently where im like, not feeling like a pervert and an intruder 100% of the time w like, lesbian spaces. like obvi ik im not welcome by most there right, but like, idk ik a few lesbians who are like, idk at least on surface dont seem to consider me an outsider and i kinda, get to talk about the fact i like women without like, being seen as a man and a pervert and a rapist for it yknow. and thats been like, a bit of a moment for me. bc like, idk i like women and i kinda havent been thinking about that for a long time bc i dont want to be seen as a man and like, ik ive always liked women, i just like, didnt think that i could like, engage with other women who might like me, without like, having to Perform Man and all that implies and, idk yknow, its not like im having a sexual awakening or ive discovered a two way strap on lovehoney im just like, idk, not not-welcome sometimes for the first time in forever and that kinda means rethinking a few things about where i position myself etc. and thats largely fun now that im like, idk, i have more language-tools to do it than the last few times ive had to consider who-i-love-and-how yknow. and like, idk ive mostly been playing the same fiddle as i always have with like, having this gayboi dress sense and slang and idk, maybe it’d be fun to get a bit of a more lesbian of a haircut or smthn, but like, id have to do it in one of the gay barbers in glasgow bc i dont trust any barbers in aberdeen to not cut my hair Like A Man yknow also i havent been to my usual hairdressers in months bc im growing out the sides and idk what theyd say like i need my split ends done but i dont want them to go in and speak about my hair and my bikes and my ex lmao i used to go get haircuts w my ex and also i have v bad hair and ive recently decided im ok with it being curly so im just like, idk learning what to do with that tbh idk yeah, once whoevers in the kitchen leaves im gonna make a cheese toasty bc thats what ive been craving all day

[fntstory-blog]

Jaws of Neptune (pt VII)

In which some questions are answered. | chapter I | pt i | pt ii | pt iii | pt iv | pt v | pt vi

Haru made his way to Berek’s cabin, as bidden. He would have liked to stop by his own first and clean up, change into more appropriate garb, before meeting the lord, but apparently that was not to be.

“Enter.” The voice was Berek’s, eternally cool and collected. The nobleman was spoken of as a ghost by most aboard the ship and for good reason. He never seemed to participate in the day to day operation of the ship, though he still knew all that happened on every deck. As Haru opened the door he could see a three course meal in the midst of being laid out, with Tom Lannigan seated at the table. Both men stood as he entered.

Upon seeing Lannigan, Haru’s mood and spirits lifted, demonstrated by the smile that lit his face. He should have known that Owen would not have tarried in putting the idea of a meeting with the sailor in Berek’s mind. The lord himself was met with a formal bow though the display was somewhat at odds with his current appearance.

“Glad t’ see yeh walkin’ about, Mr. Haru,” Lannigan said, tilting his head. “… Are yeh thinkin’ o’ pitchin’ in with th’ work?” He indicated Haru’s new garb with a nod of his dark head.

Lord Berek, for his part, looked interested to hear the answer, though he intoned, “You may sit. I was thanking Mr. Lannigan here for saving the life of a most rare friend of mine …”

Haru’s place at the table was set with a number of the small silver tools Theans favored. At least three of the pronged forks, of varying sizes, a dull and sharp knife, two spoons and all set on a snow white napkin. One of the serving men, a sailor he had seen before, poured glasses of wine for them all. Berek cleared his throat, lifting his glass. “To camaraderie. May it always triumph over base villainy.”

“‘ere, ‘ere,” Lannigan echoed, lifting his own glass.

To Lannigan’s question as to his clothing, Haru said, “Captain Hayes and I were of the same mind; keeping myself sequestered for the entirety of the voyage …” He shook his head. “We agreed it would be for the best if I learned, well, as much as I could as to the running of the ship. Mr. Beckett had started me on unknotting a rope and tomorrow I’m to get into the rigging … And that I am here, up and walking, is thanks to you, Lannigan-san,” he added with a deferential inclination of his head. “Your intercession saved my life and that is a debt I will not forget.”

Tom Lannigan nodded, though he seemed somewhat perturbed by the notion of debts. “Aye, it’s hard work, but th’ body adapts.” He took a halting sip of wine; Berek smiled in a clandestine manner over his own. “Think nothin’ of it. We all should look out fer our own. Besides, an Inishman can’t abide a fight tha’s not fair.”

“Inish …? Oh, Inismore! To the … north of Avalon, yes?” Haru happily repeated what little he knew, glad to have, for one, retained the knowledge and, also, to have an opportunity to speak on it if only in the most limited of terms. “Captain Hayes made for me a very crude map when I asked about Avalon,” he continued. “In any event, I do not mean to put you in an … uncomfortable position, Lannigan-san, but it is no small thing you did. I would gladly have you at my side to face any danger or foe.”

Tom Lannigan nodded. His face, like Haru’s, had begun to heal from the pummeling it had suffered. Beneath the bruises and broken nose, he had an earnest sort of face, handsome almost in its roughness. The broken nose seemed to suit him and, indeed, it had the look of being broken many times before. “Ah, think nothin’ of it. Between you ’n I, though —“

Berek cleared his throat, a polite warning for his uncouth guest. “Dinner before pleasantries, please.”

Lannigan nodded and returned to his meal. Haru had the good grace to look somewhat abashed before turning to the lord and speaking. “Apologies for my … current state, Berek-sama. I was told to come directly to see you, else I would have put more care in my appearance.” He shifted slightly in his seat, obviously self-concious for his battered face, reddened hands, work clothes and bare feet.

“Think nothing of it. Here at sea, we are bound and stuffed like pickled herring. I suffer the bonds of the ship gladly, under my Queen’s command.” Berek waved his hand and bread was brought forth, along with small fish. “Speaking of herring, it’s odd that sailors don’t eat much fish. I happen to like them quite a bit.”

Lannigan shrugged and grabbed a roll with a commoner’s gusto. “Too small, m’lord. One bullock feeds a good spot more …”

“And smells the equal of a ton of the sea’s bounty,” Berek snorted.

Lannigan grinned heartily, taking a bite of the roll. Berek sat patiently as the serving hand spooned a white sauce over the fish; the smell was an intriguing one, surprisingly light for all the apparent heavy cream. “Belchamel sauce,” he explained, peering over to Haru. “A Montaigne sauce, from the lands to the south of us. We are, of course, at war with them though they could unite all of Thea with their cuisine.”

Lannigan seemed dubious, dunking his roll into the sauce and taking a small taste of it. “Aye, well … It’s no gravy,” he bemoaned. Berek scoffed, though not in an unfriendly manner.

Fish and sauce looked and smelled divine; Haru had despaired of ever having fish again, the Avalonian diet seeming to be full of nothing but beef and pork. Berek’s comment about war brought another thought to mind. “There was some … tension between Owen and Marco-san on our undertaking to reclaim the compass, but they seemed to be able to overcome their differences in the name of a common goal. Marco-san himself proved to be a most stalwart and boon companion … He shared a dish with us, one evening, that was quite delicious; noodle and red sauce! My companions and I were quite taken with it.”

Ignorant of his linguistic faux pas, Haru began eating the fish. He remembered, from their last meal, that utensils were used outside in and the napkin was meant to be placed on the lap. Though, as he picked up fork and knife, he still felt as if he were doing something wrong; that his hands were still red-raw from the rope work did not help in his already clumsy grasp of the foreign utensils. Still, the seafood was quite good, if not what he was accustomed to, and he counted himself a fan of this sauce as well.

“Avalon, Mr. Tanaka, is at war with nearly everyone, or has been at some point in time. Our little patch of the world is a tumultuous one. However, bargains can always be struck in unique times.” Berek smiled, cat-like. “Pasta y Mariana, I believe the pairing is called. I find that it only gives me heartburn.”

Though Haru was embarrassed by his faux pas, he took some comfort in the fact that his companions didn’t seem to think any less of him for having made it. That the Theans had no concept of Face and, therefore, put no value on saving it, was a liberating thing. Not to say there was free reign to be thoughtless or rude, but small missteps, mistakes, were more easily overlooked and forgiven. He found himself also liking their more direct way of speaking even if he himself had not quite adapted it, yet.

“Thea … That is the name for all your lands, yes? Avalon and Inismore and Montaigne?”

“Yes. Thea is the name of the lands in our section of the world. There are several others, of course, but the nations stand with old and fine names … Avalon, Montaigne, Vodacce, Vendel or Vesten depending on who one is speaking to, Ussura and Castille.”

“I had no idea there were so many other places … Have you been to them? What are they like? Is Avalon at war with all of them? Will we be sailing close to them, close enough to see —“ He stopped himself, eyes dropping demurely. “Apologies, I do not mean to ply you with so many questions …”

Berek chuckled and held up a hand. “I’m sure that all of those questions will be answered in time. Perhaps in another meeting, Mr. Tanaka. I myself have been to Montaigne, Castille — ahh! I had nearly forgotten the lands of Eisen — and Vendel.”

Lannigan bobbed his head again. “I’ve had a disagreement with everyone from at least one o’ those countries.”

Berek laughed. “Mr. Lannigan, I don’t doubt it. He’s pugnacious as a ferret, you see.”

The Inishman grinned, pleased with the comparison.

“A ferret?” Confusion showed plainly on Haru’s face. “What’s that?”

Lord Berek raising a questioning eyebrow. “You do not have them on Rokugan? They’re lithe little mammals, lengthy, with sharp teeth.”

“Harris, the marine, he’s got one,” Lannigan added. “It hunts some o’ th’ rats; eats some weevils sometimes too, so it does. He’s named th’ fuzzy thing Bastard.”

Haru shook his head, taking a sip of the wine. It was more bitter than he was accustomed to, but not alltogether unpleasant, and the more he had, the more he liked it. “So this animal, it’s like a … a fox? A cat? That seems a cruel name to bestow on such a useful creature …”

Berek chuckled. “A mixture of both, perhaps. They call it such an awful name because it bites.”

Lannigan laughed, grinning. “Aye, nearly took Pierce’s toe off one time; he stepped on it in th’ dark, see …”

Berek covered a smirk with another swallow of wine.

“Frightened boys and small animals, Pierce has quite the combat experience,” Haru noted haughtily as he finished his wine.

Berek frowned, rolling his glass between his fingers. “Do not judge Pierce for his current predicament. You know, on the late Captain Kerrigan’s first command … Ahh, what was she called? Yes, the Stalwart … They were ambushed by Vestenmannavinjar.”

Tom Lannigan cursed, before knuckling his forehead. “Ah, sorry, m’lord. Savages, they are.”

Berek made a dismissive gesture at the salute. “Quite. The fight for the ship was joined by two more of their raiding vessels. The Stalwart’s crew was outnumbered at least two to one; fighting men two heads taller and armed with fierce weapons. There were only two survivors who managed to drift the ship south to Avalon. One was Captain Kerrigan, the other was Mr. Pierce. Kerrigan would have died there if Pierce hadn’t defended him against a horde, armed only with that little axe of his.” He peered at Haru, driving his point home. “Some men fall on hard times. Pierce has merely lost his way, but that does not mean that he is *not* worthy of our respect.”

Lannigan made a queer noise, halfway between a whistle and grunt. “… Hard as a coffin nail, he must be …”

Haru listened quietly, attentively, to Berek’s words, eyes lowered and regarding the glass between his hands. “I was not aware of the history he shared with Kerrigan and I admit my dislike of this man is … personal.”

Haru looked to him and continued, quietly, “I almost lost Owen to the Shadowlands. It was not men we faced there, not such as Pierce and Kerrigan faced, but demons, and I cannot say how I would now … hold myself if that had happened. Apologies, for my hasty, unthinking words.”

“He is not a marine for his abundant social graces, Mr. Tanaka,” Berek pointed out with a curt nod of the head.

The next course came forth, a light soup made with vegetables and chicken. More wine accompanied this course, the lord apparently dipping into his personal reserves. Lannigan immediately fell to; there seemed to be no bottom to the man’s stomach.

“And Thea is also the name of your deity?” Haru looked between Berek and Lannigan. “Apologies if that is incorrect, but it sounded very similar when the doctor said the name …”

Berek made a pithy gesture matched with a tired groan, which earned him a quick glare from Lannigan. “I am not the best to speak to about matters of the, err, immaterial. Doctor MacMorgan would be a better participant, I’m afraid. My apologies, Mr. Lannigan.”

Lannigan bobbed his head. “S’alright, m’lord.”

Thea’s religion, what little he knew of it, intrigued Haru greatly. It appeared to him that they only revered one god and one devil, a concept wholly foreign to him and his faith which recognized multitudes of gods and spirits. “I had a mind to invite the doctor to this meeting as well; after all, I owe him a debt, too, for my health. However, I was … advised against it for the sake of harmony.” Haru glanced to Berek, hoping he didn’t offend in speaking so freely.

Lord Berek’s face twisted a bit, as if at the repulsive memory of a foul odor. “Doctor MacMorgan is … a very religious man. I don’t see eye to eye with him. His inclusion would have made for a very memorable argument, I feel.” For all his momentary annoyance, though, he didn’t seem angered or offended by Haru’s remark.

“Oh. Well, I would very much like to know more about your theology … In Rokugan, my role was not just limited to the court; I trained, and acted, as a priest. I spoke to the gods and spirits. Is there a similar role in Thea?”

“For those questions, I’d advise the doctor as well. Priests tend to cater to issues of faith and there are many different faiths in our Thea. However, we Avalonians have the good folk to consider,” Berek said and Lannigan swept some crumbs on the floor.

“Aye, aye, they’re th’ goodly folk indeed.”

“The goodly … Oh, fairies, yes? That’s why Captain Hayes keeps a penny in his shoe … And why one was put in with Barrows’ body? Are the crumbs for them, too? Are they only in Avalon? Do they live nowhere else in Thea?” Despite his near-constant questions, Haru did find time to also clear his plate. He had thought his hunger satisfied, but the appearance of the next course set his stomach to rumbling all over again. The soup was much to his liking, as well, and another dish that had him thinking of the home he had left behind.

Lannigan sucked in a breath as if Haru had stuck him with a pin. “Mr. Haru, if’n yeh please; th’ goodly folk. It doesn’t do well t’ upset ‘em.”

Lord Berek nodded at the wisdom. “It is true. Their wrath is sharp and burns quick, but they forgive just as quickly.”

“Always be wary, ser, lest yeh find yourself on the wrong end o’ th’ glamour.”

“They do not even technically live on Avalon,” Berek continued. “But on the enchanted isle of Bryn Bresayle which moves, or so I am told. However, it is by their grace that Avalon remains and while Queen Elaine draws breath, so too does Avalon.”

“So … The goodly folk, they are on the ship? What is glamour? Do they attach themselves to favorite places or people?” Looking to Lannigan, Haru added, “In Rokugan, we have kami, spirits, who are somewhat similarly revered and respected; they can be placated with prayers, made to manifest and work magic. I had an air spirit who was much attached to me; when I left Rokugan, it followed me to this ship and granted me a final gift of fluency and literacy …” Then, glancing between the two men, “I mean no disrespect by my questions, it is innocent curiosity only …”

“Aye, it’s said there’s always one of th’ goodly folk about … Though to be pursued by them is said t’ be more interestin’ than sittin’ at th’ right hand o’ Foul Weather Jack …”

Berek made an amused sound. “Foul Weather Jack … A folkhero for sailors.”

“Just because m’lord hasn’t met ‘im …”

A course of fruit was put out, along with more of the bread and some sweet-smelling spreads. Lannigan liberally smeared his roll with the jelly and Haru mimicked him. It was rather unexpectedly messy leading to thumbs and fingers being delicately sucked clean.

“Foul Weather Jack … Is he a strom-bringer? Does he work in concert with - with the goodly folk? Is that where he gets his powers? If they’re said to be about, should I leave offerings for them?” Haru’s wonder and curiosity were child-like and, surely, Berek and Lannigan had not gotten such a barrage of interest from someone not still in primary school.

Berek laughed, shaking his head. “I am not a tutor and neither is our Tom Lannigan, Mr. Tanaka. These things you will learn in time.”

Lannigan shrugged, seeming to have a disagreement in mind, though he didn’t bother to voice it. After the jam was finished, the steward whisked everything away, bringing forth a single bottle of scotch. A measure was poured for each.

The scotch was slowly, thoughtfully sipped, a ritual that put Haru to mind of the drinking of sake even though the two were nothing alike. Growing contemplative, he said, “I am leaving everything I know behind. I *have* left everything behind. I will be a stranger in a strange land and all I can do to arm myself against the … The vastness of this truth is to ask questions and try to learn. I do not fear hating Avalon; I think, rather, I will love it. My fear is that I will be, that I will become, a source of ridicule and embarrassment. I want to be worthy of —“

Though he stopped just short of saying it, no doubt Berek could suss out the remainder of the thought; he wished to prove his worthiness of, and to, Owen Hayes.

“I have a feeling that you’ll adapt well. Already you’re starting to see thing that some would shut themselves off from. One never needs to turn one’s back on their home, but in a strange land, customs will always be absorbed.” Berek smiled a fox’s smile and it seemed to Haru that he knew exactly what had been left unsaid.

Haru took some comfort in his words. Though their situations were far from identical, surely the diplomat knew what it was to leave home behind for unknown parts and the fear and doubts that came with such a journey.

Some minutes of silent drinking drifted past, the trio now beginning to feel the full effect of a meal and quality drink. Once their glasses were low, Berek took a moment to stand. “Gentlemen, I believe our time has ended.”

Lannigan stood as well, offering a salute to the lord, while Haru also came to his feet and offered a bow. Straightening, his head swam, making the room go on a tilt that had nothing to do with the strange sea they sailed through.

“I shall take my leave of you both; good night.” With that, Berek retreated to the secondary door of his cabin, leaving Lannigan and Haru to exit of their own accord.

“Well, bloody lovely supper t’was,” Lannigan remarked, opening the door for Haru. “’n good scotch, besides.”

“It was bloody lovely,” Haru agreed with a nod as he passed by Lannigan. “A … bloody lovely end to a bloody awful few days. I’m glad you were able to accept Berek-sama’s invitation,” he continued, as if the sailor would have been able to refuse the lord even if he had wanted to.

Though not overly so, it became readily apparent that Haru was intoxicated. He bumped into Lannigan more than once as they made their way from the lord’s cabin, across the deck and down to where the men slept in pitched hammocks belowdecks.

“Ah, listen t’yeh - We’ll have yeh speakin’ like a sailor in no time,” Lannigan laughed, steadying Haru with a sturdy hand. “Have no fear when ye’re about decks; I’ll be watchin’ yeh. Y’remind me o’ me lil’ brother. He, ahh, he was a gent’l soul. Poet, yeh know. Theus ’n he wrote such beautiful verse …” He cleared his throat, once then twice. “Must be stuffy down ‘ere.”

Haru grinned up at the Inishman, beatific in his alcohol-induced happiness despite the hair hanging in his face and the unconscious slight swaying of body. He tried to picture Lannigan as a poet, a sensitive soul, swapping rough sailor’s clothes for silken finery; the image wouldn’t form. Pushing troublesome hair out of the way, he regarded the sailor with a kindly, affectionate eye. “I would like to hear about him sometimes; if you know any of his verse, I would like to hear that, too …”

“It’s not somethin’ I like t’ speak about. Maybe next time - When we’re in fer earnest drink. I prefer a strong beer meself.” He offered an apologetic smile; it was clearly a subject of some sensitivity.

They stopped at the entrance to the space belowdecks, hammocks hanging across the bulkhead and support in tightly packed rows. “Tonight’s me last night o’ light duty. I’ll likely see yeh about yer work t’morrow. G’nite.” He offered Haru a calloused hand.

“I know you’ve got my backside,” he said, getting the phrase only a little wrong. “I’m glad to have met you, Lannigan-san, despite the circumstances, and am honored to count you a friend.” He took Lannigan’s hand and shook it, despite not being overly familiar with the display, showing a surprising strength given his lithe frame. “Good night, Lannigan-san.”

Lannigan laughed at his parting sentiments. “B’careful, Mr. Aaroo. Backside’s a good way t’ mention yuir arse.” He laughed again, in earnest jest. “Aye. Sleep yeh well.”

Once above decks, Haru took the time to again look at the strange silver sky and sea, leaning against ship’s railing as his eyes traveled from one end of the self-same horizon to the other. He maintained his thought that there was something soothing in the sight, though he knew it set most of the crew on edge. Hayes’ voice, clarion in the stillness as he called for one of his lieutenants, broke into his reverie. Haru turned his head, taking in the sight of his captain-lover in his element. Pleased with the picture presented, he left his post and made his way to his cabin. There, he stumbled into bed, fully clothed, where exhaustion and spirits soon pulled him into a deep sleep.

#fascinating new thing #fntstory #7th sea #l5r #seventh sea #legend of the five rings #original fiction #fanfiction #fanfic #oc #ocs #my ocs #haru #owen hayes