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aknolan · 1 year

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i saw your post and wonder... what penny so diffrent then pyrrha? Why penny would return twice but pyrrha stay dead? (I jusk asking this is not a rant)

It's a fair question, yeah. The shortest answer I can give you is another question, why do you think Pyrrha will stay dead? If the fairytale can bring back the dead, who knows, maybe we will see Pyrrha getting brought back too!

Ignoring that possibility though, there's two differences between Penny and Pyrrha. There's the difference between who they are, and between the timing of their deaths.

Pyrrha's trajectory was kind of always set in stone. Her allusion of Achilles, her title as the invincible girl, the way she's held up as The Best Huntress(tm). It's not a coincidence that Cinder used her for the fall of Beacon. Pyrrha was perfect to show just how bad things could get. If the best student was a failure, what did that say about everyone else?

Pyrrha dies for the same reason that a lot of stories have the mentor dying. She dies for the same reason that Beacon falls. The point is to make everyone ask, if Pyrrha can't succeed, who can?

And, ultimately, she was doomed by her choice to go alone. She's a bit like Summer, in that sense. She also gives us the question, "if the best huntress can't do this, who can?"

The answer to both is that they were doomed by going at it alone.

Penny isn't built up as the strongest fighter, and she's not our sign that everything has gone horribly wrong. And it's important to keep that in mind for later.

So what was Penny's trajectory? Is that one set in stone? Was she doomed from the moment she became the winter maiden?

So the thing is, a lot of volume 8 is spent on making sure that Penny lives. Because she's the winter maiden, yes, but also because she's Penny. It's not just about the powers, when she asked Ruby to kill her so the powers would be safe, Ruby refused. Instead they came up with a plan that could have killed everyone if it went wrong.

So while it's possible that she's just really incredibly doomed and nothing can save her, that also seems a little depressing.

Pyrrha doesn't make it out of five murder attempts just to die to the sixth because she became a lot more fragile due to attempt five. The first time someone tries to kill Pyrrha, she dies.

But Penny has like, three near misses where she very much could have died but was saved by her friends.

The idea that everyone did so much to save Penny, went for the riskier plan multiple times because losing her wasn't an option, and then she still dies? That's just depressing. And yeah, sometimes stories are depressing. What if Penny's story is just meant to be depressing?

Let's get to timing.

Pyrrha's death happened at the fall of Beacon. This is an event that drastically shifted the tone of the series. Sure, things had been building up for a while and it was clear something heavier was coming. But it's still very much the turning point. It's a landmark for the story.

Before the fall of Beacon we have fun adventures at school, and after it all the characters carry the burden of knowing that one of the safest places on Remnant was destroyed. The strongest student that everyone looked up to was killed. It's when everything goes wrong, and the story gets serious.

Pyrrha doesn't come back for the same reason that Beacon can't be restored. Sure, the in-universe reason is that there's a giant Grimm attracting more Grimm, but out-of-universe it's because the story can't go back to what it was before the fall of Beacon.

Beacon is a scar on Remnant's map, and Pyrrha is a scar in JNR's team.

So we get to the fall of Atlas, and the characters already know everything can fall, they already know their friends might not make it out alive. The audience knows that too.

And there's really no need for a sign that everything's gone horribly wrong, because there's already several of those. Salem has the lamp and the staff, Atlas and Mantle are gone, team rwby fell, a bunch of citizens died, and the ones that survived are under attack in a sandstorm.

This is the darkest hour, and what's needed now is hope.

Ruby broke. She fainted when she heard Penny died, and while she might be able to keep up with the idea of "let's go to the tree and get back home" well enough... she doesn't have a reason to fight right now. She doesn't have a reason to want to get back right now.

Where's she going to find a reason to go back to Remnant?

What better way for Ruby to regain her hope, than for her to find out it's still possible to save the person she loves?

There's a third thing. It's about Salem.

Once upon a time, Salem loved someone dearly, and he died. And then he came back. And then he died again, and Salem broke.

Once upon a time, a woman pleaded with the gods to give her back the man she loved, and they decided to punish her by making her immortal. Forever separated from the person she loved, in a way she otherwise would not be since the afterlife seems to exist. They lecture her about selfishness and arrogance, when really anyone grieving for a loved one taken from them far too soon would do the same as her if they could. And when that didn't beat her down, they killed everyone on the planet so she would be alone forever.

This was cruel.

The brother gods pile cruelty on top of cruelty, and now Ruby is faced with the same situation that Salem once was. A loved one brought back to life, only to lose them again quickly after.

If Ruby just accepts Penny's death then what's the message there? Ruby's better than Salem somehow because she can accept the death of her loved one? Salem should have listened to the god of light the first time around?

"We must live with balance, but balance is blind" is what the intro says. The world is unfair, balance means that people who don't deserve it get hurt. And then I think back to volume 1, "this isn't a fairytale" "that's why we're here. To make it better." Balance is blind, and aren't they here to make it better? When you can save someone, shouldn't you try?

Bringing Penny back to life, and more importantly having Ruby make the choice to do that? It's a refutation to the cruelty of the brother gods.

They're in a fairytale now, if there's ever a possibility to save the recently deceased, it's in the Ever After.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #penny polendina #ask #anon ask #pyrrha nikos

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thegeminisage · 9 months

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ok, i'm shifting into zelda mode. i have until friday to finally beat this sucker which i think has actually wound up being a good thing - i was playing less and less of it and less and less often, partly because of time, partly because of brain chemistry, but mostly because i was getting tired of the like. grind. koroks shrines lightroots etc. i don't really want to burn out on totk, so i think if i stop and play pikmin, it will be a nice little break and motivate me to come back to zelda and actually enjoy it instead of just. going through the motions. which is great because i do enjoy this game and i want to remember that i enjoy this game, and also it means i have more of it to enjoy later - at WORST, i will come back for 100% when the inevitable dlc comes out. map fatigue of doing botw twice (nearly 100%ing it the first time, doing it all the way the second time) has been my biggest problem with totk, and it's possible that i will never play either game again (or if i do it will be a very, very, very, VERY long time from now, like at least a decade), so ultimately i'm not mad about stretching it out to make it last longer than just one summer. it's going to be a REALLY long time before we get another zelda. as in, i could very well be in my 40s by then. might as well shorten the wait if i can

anyway the first order of business is to go back and finish the mineru quest. i wanna enjoy actually having her in my party for awhile before i take her to the final boss fight - i should have done it ages ago lol

oh yeah i quit bc of a hinox lol but he was super easy

deeply unfortunate: found several enormous piles of minable rock. which i felt compelled to break all of even though it wasn't fun. the good new is one of them was made of zonaite somaybe soon i can upgrade my battery again

another giant pile of zonaite. im thrilled to have the mats but like...please let me do something else now lol. even mineru's arms have durability. i need my weapons. i've used like 40 bombs. i can't do this with yunobo over and over

also love and light to mineru but she is straight up in my way, and at this point in the game i can't dismiss her. like she wants to be close so she can kneel so i can piggyback and the mech is awesome when im in the mood for it but i am trying to do something. and she makes so many noises also. i think the sages, controlswise, are my least favorite gameplay element of this. they are SO. ANNOYING. i wish there was a limitation where only one could walk around with you at once and the rest were mapped to buttons lol

ok, got it mined. now to the actual spirit temple

aww i like the music here. i like the little lightroot piano cue. i wish i had an actual lightroot lol my hearts have been decimated

little bit worried about this boss.

oh shit i was exploring the arena and fell into the water while riding the mech and now i cant find her?! is she ok......................

oh whew there she is. rip i wanted to go get that big poe...i guess not. i'm sure after the fight i'll be teleported out and even if not it is so much swimming in the dark

oh SHIT evil construct?? DARK MINERU??? why can we have dark mineru but not dark link???

aaaah the old electrified fence arena

i wish i hadnt had to use a rocket to get in here. this fight feels slow and clunky without the benefit of a fan on mineru's back

FOUR ARMS?? OH SHIT WE GOT GENERAL GREIVOUS OVER HERE

GOT HIS ASS

oh my god it's MINERU like it was mineru but now she looks like a person and not a robot

oh god is she gonna give me a CUTSCENE?

like we just got one but am i gonna get another memory

THE

MURAAAAALLLLLLLL

this is breaking so much lore.

NOT THE HYRULE CASTLE THEME

oh a man of great evil here we go show me the boy it's been too long

SCREEEEAM THERE HE LITERALLY IS!!!!!!

oh my god the theme from that very first announcement trailer

THE SHOT FROM THE TRAILERS!!!!!!!

HOLY SHIT ZELDA USING RECALL BABYGIRL YOU ARE SO COOL

YOOOOOOOOO

rauru sealing ganondorf with the fma scar movement. he threw his whole body weight behind that fist 😏

this is gay

IM LOSING MY WHOLE ASS MIND. REMEMBER THIS NAME: LINK. AND THE MAIN THEME STARST PLAYING

AND AT THE BEGINNING. IN THE VERY FIRST CUTSCENE. I REMEMBER SCREAMING OUT LOUD BECAUSE HE RECOGNIZED US. HE REMEMBERED. THE NAME

holy shit. holy shit!!! they literally are just frozen like that just like in my movie pitch <3

ANOTHER cutscene?? i am literally eating

WAHHHH fi's theme

oh im wailing she and mineru love each other so much...neither of them wants to lose the other bc theyve already lost sonia and rauru :(

GOD ZELDA BEING WILLING TO DIE FOR LINK...girl they said you WONT be able to change back ik bc of spoilers that she does but AAAAAA

idk why all the zonai are so long and wiggly. like kaminoans. i don't like it

"even if my body should perish i will be with you in spirit" zelda about to lose mom #4 :(

oh NICE i have unlocked some cool zonaite shopping options...which i refuse to use until i max out my battery, lol

wow. i even got to get those poes

popped out of the spirit temple and was able to grab a lightroot. perfect stopping point bc now i have stuff i have to do lol

#personal #loz blogging #totk lb #totk spoilers

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imagineitdearies-old · 1 year

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I tried to leave a comment on your new Duty & Sacrifice chapter via ao3 but it wouldn’t go through so I’ll leave it here instead:

Such a good chapter as always.

“Inwardly, Aemond decided Dragonstone had to be much farther than the maps depicted—or else another world entirely.”

This was my favorite line this chapter! I love when writers write. Like crafting such a lovely sentence to show how differently Aemond & Lucerys think, as well as their polar opposite upbringing.

I’ve commented before that Alicent & Aemond’s mother-son bond is my favorite thing about this fic and was my main draw (and this is still true!) but I can’t help but feel that Alicent’s tears are wasted on Aemond. Helaena is the one Alicent should be crying for and on her knees begging forgiveness from for forcing her into an abusive marriage since she was only thirteen. I like how it’s clear in this fic that Helaena is uncomfortable with her mother for asking her about Aegon’s whereabouts after she forced her to marry him.

I couldn’t feel anything in the face of Alicent’s remorse because all I could think about was her other child who is suffering a much worse fate than Aemond, and who doesn’t even have half the doting and affection Alicent showers on Aemond. Alicent says herself that she tried her best to shield Aemond from suffering a fate like hers, but she never tried for Helaena before forcing her into marriage and motherhood when she was even younger than Alicent had been when she wed Viserys.

Also I like how you showed that there was a moment when Aemond wished his father loved him. By the time Duty & Sacrifice began, Aemond felt nothing for Viserys so it’s interesting to me that that was not always the case.

thank you so much for the kind words anon 😭 i enjoyed writing that sentence (and even more, editing it before posting so it sounded good, lol) so it's super cool it stuck out to you :)

in regards to alicent, i did want to clarify that i've aged people up in this timeline a lot, so helaena definitely wasn't 13 when she married aegon. probably 17ish--though yeah that doesn't change the fact she was married to *aegon* who for sure isn't a great guy in d&s either.

idk if this will ever get brought up in the fic (tho maybe in an alicent pov one day), so I'll just tell you, in my 'verse i imagine it had more to do with alicent being unwilling to let helaena get married off to some distant noble. knowing that aegon had zero interest in his sister, and given that alicent *does* have some control over her son still, she knew she could protect helaena better this way. this on top of strengthening the bloodline, which viserys was all for.

and indeed, in d&s aegon and helaena only have the twins, who were conceived on their wedding night 😂 besides then he's made a pass at her a couple of times when extremely drunk, but that's about it. so even though by our standards it's a sucky awful marriage, given how irresponsible and rude aegon can be, by alicent's standards this was the best choice for both of them. (funny, but i think helaena would agree with that, and it'd be aegon who would disagree)

now, why didn't alicent just marry aegon and aemond? because she guessed (correctly) aegon *would* have interest in his little omega brother, and that terrified her. aegon in general scares her. plus, aemond was already decently protected from getting married off by the time her kids were of age and alicent had to consider all this (aegon 19, helaena 17, aemond 16), because of his scar and general un-omeganess. obviously that didn't hold up forever, and she knew it wouldn't, but alicent views helaena as someone who could be broken very easily vs. aemond as someone who could weather dealing with any situation (regardless of how true that is)

all this to say, it was definitely a calculated thing alicent did, but in this 'verse it wasn't just for the sake of usurping rhaenyra like is implied in hotd canon. hopefully that makes sense! and thanks for the ask, it was fun to explain a piece of how the d&s verse played out inside my head :) aemond's head is very limited lol!

#fic: duty & sacrifice #why did i age them up?#bc fuck grrm lol #also apologies im answering on my phone and it has autocorrect off #so no capitalization today folks #ask me shit

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recapcrew · 1 year

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Week 27 Transcript

Vídeo

Intro

Extra extra, read all about it! Welcome to the Empire’s Recap, and today we will be going over the chaos and drama of our (somewhat) respected rulers!

This week is the end of something special to us all… no, not 2022! The crossover! But first we must go back in time a bit, to when the Emperor's first crossed over to Hermitcraft.

Joey

Avast! Fashionably late, Pirate Joe is finally showing his side of the Battle of Fort Riffless, though I’m not sure he properly understood the Battle part. He was sad to watch his new crew leave with hardly a second thought, and the missile shot at Grumbot could’ve blown up his new concrete maker!

Thankfully, it didn’t, and the open Rift provided a…convenient opportunity. Miss Shelby was having some trouble deciding whether to go through the portal or not, and well. Joey “helped”.

With most of Empires to himself now, Pirate Joe did what pirates do best: raid! He cleaned out Hermitopia of all its valuables, storing them in a secret room inside of his secret basement with greedy glee. They don’t need them anymore!

But if the other Emperors were going to be gone for a while. Well.

It’s pranking time. And Joey knows just who deserves a little pranking. Someone who was definitely on the other side of the portal.

Joey’s first visit to Evermoore in a while gives him a chance to marvel at the massive frog Shelby left behind - would she notice him missing?

Well, hopefully she will notice the change in her storage. A little pirate “magic” has replaced all of her valuable and important items with pieces of coal!

It even hit her shop - good luck making back the diamonds with no potion ingredients, miss Witch!

But what’s even more piratey than stealing treasure?

Burying it with a treasure map, of course! And Joey chooses Dawn as his X-marks-the-spot; if Shelby thinks it was Gem who stole her things, the two of them can fight over it, and that’s a show he wants to see!

Shelby

The missing emperors aren’t all that missing, and their arrival onto the Hermitcraft server is heralded by chaos, shown by the many ways people got out of Grian’s very inaccessible rift cave. One of those methods is death - demonstrated quite nicely by Shelby Shubble.

Rescue Squad Scar shows up with an elytra and some teleportation cookies, and then Shelby meets up with Oli so he can show her the Christmas village everyone is building in!

New King Sausage is working at the village and Shelby gets herself appointed as Court Magician, and Oli as Court Jester, of course. Cub visits for some fun and Shelby gets a bootleg wand for while she’s on Hermitcraft.

[SHUBBLE] Ok but whenever anyone wants a potion to do something like, crazy and funky, I do it for free!

[SAUSAGE] She turned me into a zombie one time!

[SHUBBLE] Yeah that was free!

[SAUSAGE] Yep! I didn’t pay anything for that one!

[SHUBBLE] And I’d do it again for free too!

[NARRATOR] Nothing wrong with that!

Sausage leads Shelby on an adventure for nether wood, with a perfectly normal reaction to their nether hub, because honestly? The hermits are actually insane

[SHUBBLE] These people are rich rich.

[SAUSAGE] Yeah these are real nether stars, each one of these is a nether star. That’s one wither kill per star, and they’re everywhere. Yeah mhm.

[SHUBBLE] Man, I’m feeling, uh, very inadequate all of a sudden.

[SAUSAGE] Yeah, these guys are built differently, it’s ok, we can’t all…

[NARRATOR] Jevin visits their humble abode with some Christmas hats, really taking on the role of Santa.

She builds her home in the Christmas village, but she doesn’t get to live in it for long when Oli comes by yelling about the rift closing!

A final goodbye to the Hermits and Shelby arrives back in empires with Tortoise back on her head. She travels home through a village where she comes across her own wanted poster.

At least she’s worth quite a lot?

Scott

Scott’s feeling a bit homesick, and with the rift shrinking day by day it’s probably time to check out and head back home.

In return for Scars hospitality while Scott’s been on Hermitcraft, Scott does some “community service” around Scarland, fixing a few things that were broken and adding in a few hidden lights to make the place more Scar Safe.

Showcasing his love for cats, he builds Jellie a cat tree in the hotel! She’s a hard worker, she deserves a gift as well.

Since Scott can’t light up the whole park with hidden lighting, the next best thing is a security force - that answers to Jellie, of course.

The last, final, best gift - if you’re a little bit of a narcissist - is Scott leaving statues of himself around the apartment.

Scarland will forever have a touch of Scott Smajor when Scott heads home…

Which he has to do quickly, as when he turns up at the rift it has shrunk quite drastically and is now just one block. He leaves a note and heads through, to the other side of the rift.

A wander through the abandoned Hermitopia yields some goodies, and when he checks his Llama outpost, Bdubs has left him his Secret Santa!

But he can’t be wandering about forever, so back to Chromia he goes! It looks a little more orange than when he left it, and to say his reaction is dramatic would be understating it.

[SCOTT] Chromia, a place to dye for! Lets go home. Home sweet--- WHAT—

fWhip

[NARRATOR] With fWhip still on the Hermitcraft server, we discover that Mr. Cuddles still owns fWhip’s apartment in Scarland before heading over to the Holiday Village.

The Holiday Village being the Empires crew’s home away from home and all, fWhip needed a tour. During this tour, fWhip hands out presents from Scarland which are all the blocks that accidentally lagged into his inventory. Sausage also continuously tries to get fWhip to remember his lore life back on Empires but fails, even with some odd-looking ears.

fWhip later checks in on the impending closure of the rift where he discovers it is definitely time to go locate where Sniff and Gary disappeared to. Sniff is the first to be successfully located, closely followed by Gary. With both Sniff and Gary back home, fWhip follows them through, where he finally remembers his life as a goblin.

Back in the Goblands, Sniff is reunited with his brother, Snort and Gary is escorted to temporary housing. fWhip decides that if Gary is to remain in the Goblands, there needed to be a hospital for Gary. Our goblin king goes scavenging for materials in the old Hermits’ home away from home for this hospital. A frog doctor is hired for the new Gobland facility. Thus, Gary is moved into the back-alley hospital in Gobland to heal before officially returning to Animalia.

Sausage

Mythical Sausage spends his Christmas break with many people. Starting off with his wood Papi Keralis, he shows Sausage the mini Sanctuary down below, decorating the new wood farm. After that, Sausage helps his thunder daddy decorate the new tree in the Christmas area. With the new balls he adds, it looks fantastic.

Pearl takes a tour around his new house, which fits her theme very well. With news of the Rift shrinking, Sausage introduces his new child Sunny.

Speaking of which, once both members of Hermitcraft and Empires congregate around the Rift, Pearl and Sausage have a small moment aside from the rest. They talk and are both thrown back into memories.

Sausage remembers the tragedy that is the season one finale. Pearl dies in his arms, so he's filled with the need to get her back.

[SAUSAGE] The days turn to weeks. The weeks turn to months. And the months turn to years. Pearl could never be saved. Now I’m just an old man, defeated, but something interesting happened…

[NARRATOR] After travelling the multiverse, he meets Saint Pearl as an old man, who throws him into Afterlife as a way to relax. After dying, he ascends back to heaven, from which he takes a nap and is thrown into Empires season two, where we are now.

Having had his vision, Sausage jumps through the portal with a final wave. It's clearly not the end for this man, it’s a beginning.

Outro

And with that, join us next week for more chaos and shenanigans! Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing, and thanks to everyone helping with the project, check them all out below!

#empires recap #empires season 2 recap #transcript

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recallback · 3 years

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WTook me a hot second, but I finished the refset for Rosemarie finally! Really, shouldn't have taken me this long to get one for a major character, but aspects of her design were harder to pin down than other characters.

But hey! She's finally here and she's great! Queen shit.

#original character #my ocs #laid out in lavender #rosemarie shaw #not a lot more to tag there #but yeah shes very fun it was fun to get to map out her scars too #elbow one took a sec bc i had to get the Look right #but eventually got it #also yes she IS transed gender #u think im making either of my protags cis? u god damn fool?#cis people have had their time #the dawn of cishet is over #recallback draws

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sepublic · 3 years

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Through the Looking Glass Ruins!!!!!

…

SO! Onto other things first…

WRATH IS BRAXAS’ FATHER!??!!? HOLY SHIT, Wrath is a canonical dad, I’d always expressed my… OH MY GOD WRATH IS DAD! And of BRAXAS, that sweetie… How is Braxas such a sweetie with a father like HIM, also-

Wrath was in casual wear? Either he has a day off, or he got fired by Belos/Kikimora after drawing Luz a map to Eda in Young Blood, Old Souls! Either way this guy has a sudden new level of NUANCE that I am reeling from, and yes I checked, that really is Wrath according to the credits! Dang this puts everything in a WHOLE new light…!

AMITY HAIR OHMIGOD IT LOOKS SO ADORABLE SHE’S SELF-ACTUALIZING I AM FUCKING SCREAMING HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, it’s PINK and not green… They acknowledged it, Emira did! And they CHANGED IT I AM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND OVER THIS-

She looks so BEAUTIFUL and I love the kind of foreshadowing with the bookends of our first shot of Amity having her hair down, and now it’s changed! And she looks adorable and EMIRA AND EDRIC BEING GREAT SIBLINGS I LOVE IT SO MUCH! This… THIS is everything I wanted! I was resigned to not much of them but HELL YEAH they’re being good siblings and we get a look at their rooms, we see them doing MAKEOVERS together this is everything from my favorite fanon content and MORE,

Also Edric has a date?! Emira says ‘their’ mom… Unless the Golden Guard has a mom, DARN! Not gonna lie, I half-expected a big twist at the end that Edric was dating the Golden Guard, who was doing some sort of reconnaissance as his unrecognized normal self and/or screwing around with the Blights even further, but in a GENUINE sense… But then who knows Kikimora could be posing as GG’s ‘mom’, this is a stretch anyhow-

JUST HELL YEAH Blight Twins! Blight Twins being sweet and mischievous and supportive of each other, Blight SIBLINGS being siblings, Emira being an older sister and giving advice! And AMITY, Amity mentioning how much Luz has changed stuff, I love that they acknowledge it openly how her life has completely shifted, and now… NOW…!

No necklace! Red leggings! PINK HAIR?! Is this why Amity in the intro hasn’t been updated yet… She was getting TWO updates, so the animators decided to only animate a change after this final update?!

King and Gus are also friends it seems, and they even recorded some fun together! I’m surprised at how much Bria and the others mock Gus’ illusion skills… Obviously Belos is kinda terrible but like; I don’t think he’d set aside an entire subset of magic into Illusions without reason! Also that nightmare trip… I LOVE IT, I love Gus applying the creativity of illusions in their ability to completely warp and distort someone’s sense of reality! And I called that dragon-thing being an illusion!

A graveyard… I wonder if the Gallderstones (is that how it’s spelled) have any relevance or if they’re just neat? I hope Mattholomule and Gus help hide the Looking Glass Graveyard… Damn, that’s another Death reference with Gus, huh! Is it culminating in his respect for the dead, or will it continue further with Gus being a necromancer, or an Oracle who can commune with the deceased, and he has their respect as someone who treats them properly?!

Also not to get dark but… What if all those Illusionists are dead because of Belos? I’m JUST SAYING…! And not gonna lie, every time someone insulted Illusions, I kept imagining the Illusion Head just suddenly waking up and feeling like there’s a disturbance in the force, as well as a weird compulsion to beat up some Glandus kids. It’d be even funnier if he had beef with the Construction, Plant, and Abomination Heads as well!

Speaking of which, more confirmation on Construction Magic being related to earth! Glad to see Bria give us a look into that, which furthers my idea of Belos using construction magic… Also dang, Bria and the Glandus Kids really are the parallels/foils to the Detention kids! You’ve got the short ‘nice’ girl, the tall lanky kid, the furry… But the Glandus Kids start off looking nice and cool, but turn out to be rather nasty!

Meanwhile the Detention Kids seem like bad news and delinquents, but no! They’re just demonized and actually very kind and chill! The Detention Kids are looked down upon, the Glandus Kids are appraised… The Detention Kids are dual-track, the Glandus Kids are singular; Glandus Kids from, well, GLANDUS, Detention Kids from Hexside… One’s ‘mischief’ is actually very neat and cool, the other’s is literal grave robbing.

I guess that’s how the bleeding statues got past the censors- It’s technically just an illusion! Also more insight into how Glandus works with its Survival of the Fittest mentality, I wonder if we’ll get confirmation on which coven heads came from there, how that might influence them as adults…

What is Glandus like, is it more whole-heartedly accepting of Belos’ rule, hence its harsh ideals? Was it made after Hexside? Does Bump hate it for being so cruel like that, or is it just school bias? And dang poor Mattholomule, I always had a feeling he sort of felt and knew that he wasn’t much, so he accepted and compensated by deliberately doing whatever he can for power…

They confirmed he’s from Glandus, and I appreciate this new look at him! This new leaf turned… Hot take but he’s honestly not as bad as Boscha, his stint with Gus was a one-time thing that Gus was able to live with! And that seems pretty good to set them up as friends! Speaking of Boscha, Willow was injured by pixies? And the last time we heard of pixies, they belonged to Boscha and caused the school to get shut down… Did BOSCHA DO THIS I SWEAR SHE IS DEAD TO ME-

(Also she’s mentioned in the credits for this episode but I don’t remember hearing her? I might’ve gotten distracted with so much other things.)

Gus! I like the insight into his relationship with Illusions, and I appreciate how he’s considering other forms of magic… But this hesitation might just serve to reaffirm his believe in Illusions, which is okay! It’s all about choice… And yeah, it seems Gus also has a case of impostor syndrome like King, no wonder they get along so well! I love the glimpses into Gus’ house and the confirmation that he has a library card, no Perry though alas…!

I appreciate how Gus feels overlooked, like he has no real substance, which is how his Illusions reflect a desire to draw attention, but also the idea that there’s nothing real beneath them… Again, very much like King! And Gus, he’s not a powerhouse like the rest, he’s SKILLED and smart, but strength isn’t his forte, it’s not brute force he operates on, but cleverness! Trickery, I like it…! It’s a nice callback to his last A-plot episode, SVSF, where instead of fighting Mattholomule physically, Gus’ solution is to think outside the box and pull the alarm!

You go kid, not relying on brute strength but showing that some clever tricks and thinking are just as valid! Kinda wonder if this episode is lowkey a discussion on masculinity for young boys, especially with Gus growing older with puberty, though the latter is mostly because his actual VA grew… But maybe the writers rolled with that and incorporated it, or it’s just a very neat coincidence! Also, it is me or did Mattholomule’s voice change? And the gag that Gavin’s dad looks identical to him, even moreso because he’s NOT supposed to have a moustache… That’s great!

Malphas! Love this reference to a classic demon, I wasn’t sure if Malphas was the librarian with glasses whom I’ve always headcanoned as a father figure to Amity… But maybe it’s actually this bird dude! He seems adept in Bard magic, and I love the reveal of his true crow appearance… Guess those theorists were right that the one-eyed figure is from the Forbidden Stacks! Also Malphas NOT COOL with Amity, but I’m glad Luz changed his mind, and I wonder how that adventure looked…

Which- DAMN, the RSD with Luz! She looks so UTTERLY BROKEN when Amity mentions doing stupid things, and she didn’t mean it like that, but Luz just looks so completely shattered and you can tell she wants to cry but instead she bottles it up and tries to take it in stride, and that plays into her trying to overcompensate for her mistakes AGAIN… SOMEONE GET IT TO HER HEAD that she doesn’t need to! I’m scared for Luz, and I was SO scared this episode would end on a bad note…

BUT DOAHLDdFAEONDKFHN LUMITY KISS LUMITY KISS! ONE-SIDED BUT THEY FINALLY FUCKING KNOW AND AMITY IS LIKE WHAAAAT AND I WAS WAITING FOR IT AND I COULD FEEL IT HAPPEN AND GAY KISS! GAY KISS ON-SCREEN!!! And the way Luz just FLOPS to the ground on her knees AAHJJFFKHGGK and no Alador nor Odalia to ruin this, UTTERLY PERFECT and the twins WATCHING OOOHHHHGGGG YYYEEAAAAHHH-

This is EVERYTHING I ever wanted!

��What an AMAZING episode with wonderful characer beats and reveals! Again, Amity’s growth as a character, that brief insight into how Luz as a person is very chaotic and sometimes frustrating for Amity and forces her to reevaluate, but ultimately it’s good and Luz DOES try her best, and Amity clearly wanted to make things up for Luz and apologize, they’re BOTH doing things, just the little moments!

Also, Alex Lawther voices Philip Wittebane! He has long hair and a vaguely british accent, he’s… He’s Belos isn’t he? And they got a new VA because having him voiced by Matthew Rhys would be really spoiler-y right? He’s got the long hair and he’s a nerd… And with how he talks of finding a way back home, maybe Belos really DOES just want to return home, after all? He talks of making a way back home…

And we see a glimpse of the Portal, so it might’ve brought him there? Or did Philip succeed in making it, and that was his blueprint designs? Did he arrive by Titan’s Blood? What happened to the portal if it brought him there, or if he made it? Why the scar, why near Eda’s house, partially buried?

Was it lost before he could finish his work, and Philip got side-tracked into something else… Perhaps going on a crusade, on behalf of a curse/demon that possessed him? A demon that killed King’s father…? Was the portal broken and he had to discard it, but then it naturally healed- Or did it just need to recharge, maybe Philip DID make it back home, WHAT IS THE ANSWER?! Is there some sort of doppelganger for Philip, is BELOS his doppelganger?! What is THIS WHAT-

WHAT AN EPISODE!

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queenxxxsupreme · 3 years

Note

I 've recently found your writing and I'm so glad I did!! You're incredible, and I absolutely love the way you write Arthur in an established relationship. There's so much fic about the excitement and will-they-wont-they of a new relationship, but it's so sweet to see a dynamic with Arthur and someone who just knows him so well. New love is fun and world shifting, but there's nothing like the old comfort of a love that it backed by time <3 Idk if you still take requests but consider this one!

A/N: I wasn’t too sure if this was what you meant or not, but I did an established relationship with Arthur. This is just fluffy morning softness with him. If this isn’t what you meant and I completely got it wrong, please let me know! I’ll definitely get to work on a new one! It won’t hurt my feelings at all if I did interpret it the wrong way and you would like another one! (I love writing for Arthur he makes me happy)

***

The sun was just beginning to shine through the thick treetops that surrounded Horseshoe Overlook. Birds chirped in the trees and a few squirrels scurried around just to your left in the bushes.

You sat at a table with a cup of coffee and one of your favorite books in hand. It was early in the morning, far too early for most of the camp to be up but a few of the older members such as Mrs. Grimshaw and Herr Strauss were awake.

Over the years, you’d grown accustomed to waking up bright and early with Arthur Morgan. You liked to see him off on his busy days when Dutch or Hosea had him running half away across the state for a job. And on the days where he wasn’t needed immediately, you enjoyed sitting with him for breakfast or coffee.

“Good morning, Y/N.” Hosea greeted you as he passed by your table to get to the pot of coffee.

“Morning, Hosea.” You gave him a smile.

He migrated back to his tent, choosing to sit at the table nearest to the tent while he looked over a map. You silently wondered if whatever it was he was planning would involve Arthur.

The sudden feeling of something big behind you almost made you jump. But the hands on your shoulders let you know exactly who it was. He rubbed circles into your shoulders with his thumbs, leaning down to kiss the top of your head.

“Mmhm. Your hair smells good.” Arthur hummed.

You tilted your head back to look at him, a smile coming to your lips.

“Good morning, handsome.”

“Good mornin’, pumpkin.” He dipped his head down to kiss between your brows. “How’s the coffee today?”

Arthur began to reach for your cup of coffee sitting on the table.

“You won’t like that.” You tried to warn him, but he was already taking a drink of the hot beverage.

He cringed, placing the cup back on the table and bringing the back of his hand to his mouth.

“Now you know very well that you wouldn’t like that, Arthur.” You looked up at him. “I put sugar in mine.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t like sugar.” He muttered, pulling a chair around the table so he could sit closer to you. “I was hopin’ after all these years you’d come to your senses.”

“And drink that bitter shit you drink? No thank you.” You giggled. “You want me to get you a cup?”

“I’ll get one here in a second.” Arthur shook his head, looking around camp. “Who’s awake?”

“Strauss and Susan are up and chatting over by the cliff.” You nodded towards the north end of camp. “Hosea’s over there at the table and earlier I saw Dutch come out of his tent for a minute but I think he must’ve gone back to sleep. It’s been pretty still all morning.”

Arthur nodded.

“You didn’t sleep much last night.” He spoke quietly, leaning forward on his elbows. This put him closer to you.

“Tossed and turned a lot.” You closed your book and picked up your coffee.

“I know. I could feel the bed move every time you threw yourself around.” He chuckled a little. “What kept you up?”

You shook your head, not wanting to bother him with your worries.

He reached over to take your coffee from you, gently prying it out of your hands.

“Come on, pumpkin. What was it?”

“You know how I get.” You shrugged your shoulders. “When Dutch mentions his ideas and plans at night, I don’t sleep. Don’t think neither of us really do but I…. I just…. Since Blackwater, I haven’t been able to sleep.”

Arthur’s brows were furrowed together softly as he looked at you.

“I’m worried about us, Arthur.” You admitted.

He stayed silent, lips pressed together in a line.

“I got a bad feelin’ in my stomach. Blackwater was bad, Arthur.”

He nodded a little and reached over to take one of your hands away from your coffee. He brushed his thumb over your knuckles, eyes focusing on a scar that ran across the back of your hand.

“Blackwater went sour, but sometimes that happens, pumpkin. Sometimes jobs don’t go how we planned. You remember that job we did back in Montana in ‘82?”

A small smile crept on to your lips.

“That was ages ago.”

“Sure feels like it.” Arthur chuckled. “We found a rancher to steal from.”

“If I remember correctly, I found a rancher to steal it from. You messed it up.” You poked his chest, your tone teasing.

“I know. I know.” Arthur muttered, adjusting his hat. “Just ‘cause you had to flirt with the old bastard didn’t mean I was gonna sit by and let him about you like you were some saloon girl.”

You spent a week flirting your way into the pocket of a rich rancher in Montana while Arthur played an up and coming rancher from out of town. On the night that you were supposed to rob the mark, Arthur went out for drinks with the rancher and you while you accompanied the rancher as his date. Soon, the rancher and his friends were drunk and their gentlemanly charm had vanished. The second they started practically harassing you, Arthur dropped the act and start throwing his fists.

“You walked out of there with a broken nose” You reached over to cup his face, brushing your thumb along the bridge of his nose.

“And somehow, you managed to get that scar on the back of your hand and another on your arm.” Arthur sighed. “Didn’t mean for it to happen like that, but sometimes jobs go sideways and we can’t always see it until it happens.”

“But Arthur, that was back when it was just us and Hosea and Dutch. Now we have three times that many people to worry about and look after.” You furrowed your brows together. “Dutch has got to see it ain’t all about the money. Sure some of us may not have much more time left on the clock, but we got some young people too. Jack, Tilly, Mary-Beth, Lenny, Karen, Sean, and now Kieran too…. We need to think about how what we do will affect them in the long run.”

Arthur chuckled softly, looking down for a moment.

“What are you laughin’ at, Arthur Morgan?”

“You, pumpkin. I think it’s adorable when you play mother hen.” He kissed your forehead. “Pumpkin, they’re young but they are grown ass people. They can make their own decisions.”

“Just like you did when you were their age?” You raised your brows. “Look where it’s gotten you, Mr. Morgan. Sitting in a bum camp living like someone who ain’t got nothin’ to live for.”

“And look who’s sittin’ right beside me in this bum camp.” He tapped the outsides of your thighs. You laughed softly, knowing you walked straight into that one.

“I’m sittin’ here ‘cause I followed some fool with blue eyes and a heart of gold all the way from out west” You muttered. “Ended up findin’ the love of my life too.”

Arthur gazed at you for a few moments, his chest warming up with your words.

“Anyways, I wouldn’t change any of the choices that I made when I was their age.” He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his nose and crossing his arms.

“Oh yeah?” You stood up to get him a cup of coffee. “Why not?”

“‘Cause I found the biggest pain in my ass in the whole damn country when I was their age.” His eyes followed you.

You handed him the cup of coffee, warning him that it was still pretty warm. Before you could move back to your seat, his hand took yours, keeping you by his chair.

“My pumpkin….” His eyes focused on that scar on the back of your hand again. “She’s been with me through thick and thin, and even when I haven’t been so kind to her.”

“We all make mistakes, Arthur.” You reminded him. You knew he was talking about the few times you two had broken up and he started a relationship with Mary Linton. “Only thing that matters is you came back to me.”

You took his hat off of his head so you could kiss his forehead.

“Love you, pumpkin.” He spoke quietly, letting your hand go so you could return to your seat.

“Love you more, Arthur.” You gave him a smile, replacing his hat on his head.

You sat down and picked up your cup of coffee to take a sip.

Arthur’s eyes flickered over to Dutch’s tent. Molly was pinning the lapels back, meaning that the two were waking up.

“We’re gonna be just fine, pumpkin.” Arthur told you, nodding his head a little.

“I know. We always are. Just doesn’t come easy sometimes.”

Taglist: @doggone-cowgirl @winterwolf @lauramb7 @caraqas @bluscryn @krenee1drful @zodiacaldust @nonodino @gabstaroc @cal-lifornication @thefirelordm @sargeantsea @sokkasdarling @thecollection @mayday1284

If your name is in italics, it wouldn’t let me tag you :(

#arthur morgan x reader #arthur morgan x reader fluff #arthur morgan fluff #arthur morgan fluffy fic #arthur morgan #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #arthur morgan ask #kacey answers

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bump1nthen1ght · 3 years

Text

Deep Blue Sea (Shark Merman x Reader) Chapter 3

Pairing: Gender Neutral!Reader/Shark Merman

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Soulmate AU

Warnings: Slight mention of scars

Word Count: 3122 words

Summary: You and Cruz go for a morning swim in the reef

*Cross-posted to ao3*

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

That Friday, you stay up late, not drinking or binging a new Netflix special, but fruitlessly trying to decide between your athletic shorts are your more revealing swim bottoms. In a stroke of genius the only ever occurs to a person late at night, you wear the shorts over your swimsuit, topped off with a swim shirt.

With your water-proof swim bag, you sit at the tidepool and furtively lather your legs in sunscreen, waiting for Cruz.

Cruz swims up to the edge of the tidepool, pulling himself up and over the rocks before motioning you over.

“Okay, the cool stuff is just less than half of a klick away, I’ll be carrying you on my back the whole way, but some of it’s underwater. Would you-” Cruz stammers, “Would you mind if I took you down with me, to see it?”

You feel that involuntary smile creep up on you.

“I would love that.”

--------

It’s an odd sensation, sitting on Cruz’s back. You had worried yourself and all your gear would be too heavy, but Cruz barely seems to notice the extra weight. You're placed on the bottom of his torso, right before it connects into tail, but you can still feel it’s movements as he swims through the water. It feels almost like a python, muscles pulling and contracting, his arms reaching out occasionally for a large stroke to gain a temporary boost of speed. He’s not moving so fast that the wind or splashes of water hit your skin, but you can still feel the waves pushing over your feet and thighs. The view is breathtaking and you have a nice time looking at Cruz’s ripped back as well.

When you see some small rock outcroppings by the shore that Cruz stops and raises his head out of the water, adjusting you on his back like one would carry someone in a piggyback ride. The tips of his claws brush against your thighs. You are for sure blushing.

“We’re here. Do you remember the signals?”

You nod, responding with the Okay hand signal.

Apparently Cruz had self-taught himself scuba-diving signals, although he initially had thought they were limited to human “ocean-spies” trying to steal precious fish from the pod (“That’s what the older kids in my pod told me! Stop laughing!”). You yourself were a certified scuba diver, and had gone many times with your mother during college.

With a nod and a hand motion, you two submerge, a bloom of color all around you.

Your arms lang loosely around Cruz’s shoulders, chest pressed against his backside and legs hiked up around his hips to give him maximum mobility. A particular bright hydrocoral catches your eye amidst the rainbow, your heart leaping at the sight. You point urgently in it's direction, unintentionally clenching your legs in excitement. Cruz’s chest rumbles with a giggle, bubbles popping through his mouth and gills. He shrugs his shoulder to bring your body closer to it.

The purple stretches across the rocks in circular bunches, with the occasional starfish interspersed in between. With a good look, you can see the tiny spines and tiny perforations on it’s surfaces. You tap Cruz’s shoulder and throw your thumb up.

Once out of water and properly breathing, you fingers tap eagerly against Cruz’s shoulder blades.

“Cool, right?”

“Yeah! I’ve never seen that kind of hydrocoral up close before. I’ve heard the California corals were beautiful but wow, those were gorgeous. And that patch was so big, it must be- I don’t even know how old! They grow extremely slow, you see, and because of excess-”” Your eyes glance over your shaky fingers, fidgeting and dancing across Cruz’s as the words fall out of your mouth. You forcibly still them. You gulp. “They don’t have those where I’m from. Sorry, I talk too much.” You force out a giggle.

You peel your fingertips away from Cruz, picking at your fingernails as your neck tints red. The heat makes you pull your arms into yourself and away from Cruz’s slick skin. Your thighs lock tight around his waist to stay on.

“Does it have a name?”

“They just call it California Purple Hydrocoral, since it’s so localized. Nothing too fancy, even though it’s so unique.” Typically, to calm yourself down, you fiddle with your clothing or whatever you have your hand on. With Cruz’s body so close by, your first compulsion is to trace shape alongside his back, map the muscle and bone’s topography. But just the idea of such intimacy sends your head in a swirl.”

“What makes them so unique? Just where they live?” Cruz playfully scoffs, “Because I’ve lived in one area for years and you don’t see me getting any trophies.” You chuckle, Cruz arching his neck to smirk at you.

“Well not not only are they super old, but most corals lose their color when they die and California Purple Hydrocorals don’t. The pigment is so deeply embedded in their skeleton, it remains even after they’re gone.” You float your eyes downwards towards the sea, in the direction where you get merely a glimpse of the bright purple mass. “It’s kind of their legacy, hence the name. That color is so intrinsic to what they are, not even death or time could take it from them.”

The water is cool and the sun is hot, beating down at the exposed skin on your neck and back while your feet mindlessly kick back and forth. Cruz’s muscles shift as he turns his head farther back towards you. Your eyes are lost at sea, caught in the coral possibilities. There’s an absentminded smile on your face. It brings one to his.

“You’re really fun to talk to, ____.”

You’re snapped back into reality, eyes yanked out of the water and back to Cruz’s own. The inky black stares back, serious and focused.

“Wow, thank you. That’s very sweet of you to say Cruz.”

You avert your eyes in a polite gesture, rubbing the back of your neck. Cruz keeps staring. You can feel it tingling across your cheeks.

“I mean it. You’re really smart.”

“Oh, well, I just study a lot-”

“And-and you shouldn’t have to apologize when you get, y’know, into it.”

Cruz looks away, jaw clenched. “Not to anybody. Not to me, especially not to me, because you’re so-so….” He struggles with his words, chin shaking with unreleased energy, “You love it so much and that’s-you should be able to talk about it whenever. Because it makes you happy and any assholes out there shouldn’t ruin that for you, and I-” His chest heaves as he stutters, blue flushing his skin, “I-I like it, when you’re happy, I mean.” Cruz’s breaths are short and quick, his cerulean blush painting the back of his neck and crawling up to his ears. “Does that make sense?”

Words escape you at this moment, like Cruz sucked up all the energy in the moment. In a good way, he’s pulled the rug out from under you. Your eyes wander, brain turning over his words.

But Cruz can’t hear your inner thoughts, he can only feel your still muscles and the lull in the conversation.

“I-Shit, I didn’t mean-”

Your body jerks back to life as you lean over Cruz’s shoulder with a quick motion, eyes squinting in the middle distance. Cruz jerks.

“Cruz, submerge real quick!”

“What?”

You jerk your thumb down and shakily put on your goggles and snorkel with one hand. “Quick! It’s going to notice us!”

Cruz, befuddled, tightens his grip on your thighs and submerges. His head swivels back and forth, looking for what has gotten you so fussy. You extend both of your arms, pointing about 10 feet away, to the side of a bunch of coral. You then close your hands horizontally, interlocking your fingers into your signal.

Turtle!

Besides the small rock is a large Leatherback Turtle, blissfully unaware of the two creatures not too far from it, taking a leisurely swim. Your right arm wraps around Cruz’s clavicle as you lean over to get a better look, enchanted by her beautiful shell. Amidst the reef, she looks like a dolled up grandma, wrinkled and taking an afternoon continental in the garden.

Cruz ducks behind another rock as she swims closer, trying not to scare the turtle away. Your arm tightens around his shoulder, eyes never tearing from her.

You don’t notice, but Cruz feels himself falling deeper when he looks at the wonder in your gaze. Never before has he ever felt so jealous of a turtle.

She cruises along, Cruz dodging just out of her sight but close enough to give you a good view, all while giving you a spare breath whenever you gesture. As she swims back towards the open ocean, Cruz takes you both up and out of the water.

You whip off your goggles and snorkel, taking a long breathe in.

“That was- wow, that was incredible.”

“She was so pretty I didn’t think about eating her for like, forty percent of that time.”

You smack Cruz on the shoulder, but it’s light, half-joking, and an unflattering snort leaves you. Cruz shoots you a toothful smirk.

A light sea breeze rolls over you two, abating the hot sun, although just a bit. The water has thoroughly sunk into your swimsuit bottoms, pulling down with extra weight on your lower half, but you’ve never felt lighter.

In the tranquility, you rest your front on Cruz’s back, head now tucked into the nook of his shoulder. The smell of salt and a slight tang of fish immediately washes your nostrils. Cruz’s shoulders and deltoids stiffen for a millisecond and slowly relax in another.

“Hey, Cruz?” You whisper, almost mumble into his skin.

“Y-yeah?”

“Thanks.”

----------

Your muscles slightly ache from the long swim this morning, and boardwalk food is the perfect level of unhealthy to abade it for a bit.

As you walk back to the tidepool, arms cluttered with overpriced boardwalk food, Cruz’s eyes light up. You struggle to sit down easily, but manage to crouch down to Cruz’s level, motoning for him to grab the hotdog from the crook of your elbow.

He does, but Cruz’s eyes are locked on the two Cotton Candies which you hold in a tight grip; The water laps at your ankles and you don’t want the $7 you spent to go to waste.

“Trust me, this will be best after a full meal. Don’t want you getting nauseous.” Cruz lets out a facetious, over-dramatic sigh, but with one bite of a hot dog, his eyes alight once more. He devours the thing quickly, almost with one gulp, whipping his head around to the cotton candy. He wiggles his eyebrows and you sigh, motioning for him to come closer.

Cruz seats himself up on the rock next you, pupils sparkling as you hand him the cotton candy stick. He takes a large bite and is immediately overwhelmed by the sweetness and how quickly the sugar melts in his mouth.

“Is that supposed to happen?”

You chuckle, taking a much tinier bite out of your own cotton candy.

“Yes, it is. It dissolves in liquid, hence the ‘no water’ thing.” Cruz nods, spun sugar strings stuck to his lips as he attacks the cotton candy like a toddler. You smile, taking another bite.

The two of you continue to snack in silence. The end of Cruz’s tail flicks back and forth, stirring tiny ripples in the pool, extremely cute and reminiscent of an excited dog. After licking away the rest of your cotton candy, you lean over to the trash bag to drop off your paper stick. It’s then do you see them.

With your face up close to Cruz’s tail, you notice lines of discoloration, streaks of white, which pepper Cruz’s tail. Your eye catches one, then another, and another. By the time you pull back, you notice quite a few all near his pelvic fins, the tip of a larger one stretching to the bottom side of his tail.

Holy shit. How did I not notice those?

On the side of his tail, three marks stand out to you. Their pink, freshly healed, and rake along his skin for 2 inches.

“Uh, Cruz?”

“Yemf?” He asks, amidst another big bite of cotton candy.

“Did you accidentally cut yourself on some coral?”

About 20 pieces of coral, technically?

Cruz hesitates mid bite, sweet spun sugar and some sort of excuse on the tip of his tongue.

“What do you mean?” Cruz’s voice, same octave, is somehow quieter, devoid of emotion.

“It’s just, you have all these marks on your tail and…” You pull back and turn your back to him. Cruz averts his gaze, but the look he gives his tail is frustrated and simmering. “I got worried, that’s all.”

“They’re nothing, it’s nothing. You wouldn’t understand.” His intonation, like his furrowed brow, bristles with a hostile energy. You turn your whole body towards him, now a bit peeved yourself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I said it’s not a big deal. I just did something stupid, went somewhere I shouldn’t have. That’s it.” Cruz still refuses to meet your gaze, knuckles clenched white around the cotton candy stick. Your eyes dart back to the littered scars.

Who did this to him? Was it those mermaids I saw?

“Does that happen often? Wouldn’t your pod-”

“Can we just fucking drop it? It doesn’t matter anyway.” Cruz bites back, almost a yell but not quite. Your eyebrows furrow.

“Well it matters to me. If you’re getting hurt then-”

“Then what? Why the fuck does it matter if I get a few scrapes now and again, why do you even care, huh?” Cruz’s glare burrows into your skin, you can feel your eyes go wide. Something deep, something heated and bitter, stirs in your gut.“You don’t have to do anything. Just because we’re soulmates doesn’t mean you have to pretend shit. I’m not so pathetic that you have to force yourself to-”

“Can you stop putting words in my mouth for one fucking minute!” This time, you actually do scream, which echoes off the water and the rocks. Cruz’s eyes widened, stopped in the middle of his tirade. Whatever burns inside boils over, released in hot breathes and the steam under your skin.

“Is it so hard to believe that I might care about you?” Your voice cracks with lost breath and the fast pounding of your heart. You pinch the bridge of your nose and with a deep inhale and exhale, you continue.

“My whole life, people have expected this one thing of me, and I spent so long doing everything I could to be the exact opposite. But I want-” You gesture your hands to yourself and Cruz, “-this. I want to get to know you, I want to hang out and eat expensive seafood and talk about bullshit! But I can’t do that if you won’t talk to me.” You take a deep breath, Cruz not even taking the moment to jump in. “And I get that it’s hard, that we don’t know each other yet. But I want to trust you. I want you to trust me.”

A wave breaks against a rock, the noises drowned out in the chasm of Cruz’s gaze and the beating of your heart. You can’t read the emotions on his face, what with a thousand thoughts flitting across it and the emotion welling in your eyes. The smell of brine seeps into your skin. You tuck your hands into your elbows, hoping that will stop their shaking.

“I just-”

“I-”

You both pause, caught in the middle of your thoughts. Cruz sputters.

“Sorry, I interrupted you, you can go.”

“No, no you can go.”

There’s another pause, each of you waiting for the other to go. Cruz finally steps up.

“I’m sorry for accusing you. I was making assumptions and-, and that’s not fair to you.” He expounds in one quick breathem sucking another in before continuing. “Since we met I’ve been….going through some stuff and I think I wanted to let it out. But I shouldn’t-I shouldn’t have, not on you, not for shit that’s not even remotely your fault, damn it.” Cruz laments, pressing his face into his hands. He takes a deep breath in, then out, and pulls his hands away. “I’m sorry.” He sighs again, scratching nervously behind his ears.

You let the sentence hang in the air a bit, trying to consolidate your mind and think hard about what to say. It’s far from easy, trying to find the words and express them properly. But it feels good. It feels right, cathartic almost.

“Thank you. And you don’t have to tell me everything if you don’t want to. We can take our time with all….this.” You untuck your hands and wave towards the air. Cruz laughs and this time, it actually settles the butterflies in your stomach. “I just want you to know that I’m here for you, whether to talk it out or even distract for a bit.”

Cruz hums in agreement, rubbing his fingers over his knuckles.

“Thanks, for that. And I-I’ll be here for you too, i-if you need it. I mean, you know where to find me.” You giggle, a bubble of exhaustion popping out of your mouth as Cruz joins you. You feel infinitely lighter. A wave brushes against your ankle, the ocean slowly eroding the thick stress in the air.

Cruz and you stand about 1 foot apart from each other, your leftovers discarded in the plastic bag by your side. Cruz fidgets with his fingers some more, eyes glancing back and forth between you and the rocks.

“Can I….Can I hold your hand?” Cruz murmurs.

You don’t respond, just nodding and lifting out your hand. Cruz slips his in.

His skin is damp, slightly cold, and he relishes in the heat of your palm. His fingers dwarf yours as they intertwine, his long claws just barely grazing your skin, careful not to actually cut the back of your hand. You brush your thumb over his knuckles and up his palm. His hands are soft, although his palms are dotted by small calluses. Cruz scoots closer to you, both of you looking out at the ocean. With a full belly and your muscles still quite sore, you rest your head on Cruz’s shoulder. You feel his muscles tense to jerk away, but they forcibly relax as he grips your palm tight. You rub his knuckles once more.

It may not be much, but it’s a start. And you think you quite like where it is heading.

#my writing #monster romance #shark merman #monster x reader #merman x reader #shark merman x reader #monster/reader #reader insert

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starcrossedkaiju · 3 years

Text

Kingslayer AU: Chapter Five

If you remember that post I made about the Red Resistance you’re a real one.

Notes: this one is very short. It’s just to move the plot along and blah blah blah. Next chapter is a good one I think.

The next time Scott showed up to the Red Desert it was for a petty fight that Scar had instigated by trying to steal directly from the Renchanting base. The situation made Scott face palm, and he contemplated not even showing up. However, when Jimmy offered to go in place of him, he told him not to bother. That he would be back in less than a day and night cycle.

Scott walked into the meeting just as the Red Army crested a hill. Which they stayed on. Scar yawned exaggeratedly and trekked up to his opponent, who was wearing a bandage on his left arm.

Cleo was also there. She seemed to be focused on drawing shapes in the cracked sand with the tip of her sword. Most likely feeling bitter about her former ally, Tango, joining Dogwarts. Everyone was paying as little attention as possible while Scar fired off false promises and white lies. Grian busied himself with apologizing to the nearest members of the Red Army for Scar’s embarrassment.

Scott was nearly falling asleep on his feet when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Tango.

“Hey Major, you got a minute?” he whispered.

“So many,” Scott responded, gesturing to the desolate state of their meeting.

The two of them quietly excused themselves from the group to speak in private. Scott didn’t know why he didn’t tell Tango to just leave him alone. Maybe it was because Tango had a certain air of reluctance about him, Scott was certain he pulled his punches. Maybe it was shear boredom.

“So, nice weather,” Tango observed the arid desert sky.

“Uh huh..” Scott provided, unimpressed.

Tango stared at him blankly. Awkwardly.

He cleared his throat, “so I heard about your battle with Skiz and Ren. Impressive,” Tango said.

“What is with you people and beating around the bush? We’re not friends,” Scott pushed Tango away by the middle of his chest, “Tango,” he reminded.

Tango looked hurt for a second, “ouch Major. Fine, I wanted to ask you to join me,” he said.

Scott burst out laughing, to which Tango scolded him and shook him by the shoulders. That shut him up, it also earned Tango a slap.

“Don’t touch me,” Scott ordered.

Tango put his hands up, “no touching here! But be quiet. I brought you over here alone for a reason,” he pointed out.

Scott glanced at his allies. Blissfully unaware of the possible treason he may have been about to commit.

“Nobody knows this yet,” Tango whispered, “but I’m spying on the Red Army,” he said.

“What?” Scott asked rhetorically.

“Yeah, I have a plan. It involves you,” Tango responded.

Scott paused to consider if he was really about to entertain whatever was about to come out of Tango’s mouth.

“How do I know you’re not just trying to get close to me and then kill me on behalf of him,” Scott pointed at Ren, who was rolling his eyes at Scar and animatedly conversing with him about something Scott forgot about a long time ago.

“You remember the cow farm right?” he said.

“Yes,” Scott nodded suspiciously.

“I let you take my cow, on the promise that you and Jimmy wouldn’t tell anyone,” Tango recited.

“And we didn’t,” Scott said.

“Exactly. I know I can trust you, and I can’t trust them, Etho tried to kill me remember?” Tango pointed at Etho and Ren.

“So I want you to join me. Not the Red Army, me. Impulse is doing the same thing,” he concluded.

“Didn’t Impulse actually kill you?” Scott pointed out.

Tango waved his hand, water under the bridge.

Scott drifted off into contemplation. Everything about joining a coup against the Red Army screamed danger. More than usual. Dogwarts was a force to be reckoned with. They had superior gear, defenses, players, and alliances. Maybe Scott could cheap shot Martyn and Skizzle, but he could not promise that same luck against Etho or anyone else for that matter. The thought of even trying made his stomach turn.

And then there was Jimmy. If their plan didn’t work, what would happen to Jimmy? The Crastle? Or the Red Desert for that matter? The target on their backs was large enough. Scott had to take a step back. Since when did he get himself involved in a war?

Since he started defending himself, his mind provided.

Since he started standing up for his own freedom. For their freedom.

“Okay,” Scott said.

“Really? You’re in?” Tango’s eyes lit up, his joy was a bit loud for Scott’s new predilection for secrecy.

“Shh!” Scott put a finger in front of his face, “that’s not what I said…” he averted his eyes.

“I want to, believe me, I do,” he said, “but I can’t.”

Tango’s smile faded instantly, his red eyes grew disappointed, “Why not?” he seemed hurt.

“I have too much to lose. I can’t risk this,” Scott held the charm of his necklace up, it’s gemstone still shimmered bright green.

“Scott, I admire your devotion, I really do; but this is a bit bigger than that,” Tango said.

Scott’s expression fell into shock and reproach.

That seemed like enough of an answer for Tango, who backtracked as he realized he’d struck a nerve.

“I mean!” he corrected, “I mean nothing will happen to Jimmy. Cross my heart, he will be under the Red Resistance’s finest protection,” Tango stood up straight and crossed his heart.

Scott decided that was satisfactory. He made a face that said the opposite though, just to make sure Tango’s pride wasn’t too uplifted.

“Fine. I’ll join you Tango, but if I get even the slightest inclination of funny business, I’m out,” Scott cautioned, but he agreed.

“Terms and Conditions, I get it. The Red Resistance will not indenture any of its members,” Tango responded with a gleeful grin.

“You guys and your red themed names,” Scott teased, but held his hand out. They ought to make it official before everyone stopped snoring.

Tango shook it enthusiastically. The two called it done and Scott returned to his side, and Tango returned to the Red Army.

*****

Scott traveled back home that day. No fighting had taken place, although Scar had decidedly talked himself into a hole and ended up giving Ren access to any sand Dogwarts and their affiliates needed for the next week. It was no skin off Scott’s back, he didn’t care. Not his sand.

Wearing so much armor and standing in place for two hours gets on ones nerves. Taking off his heavy diamond chestplate felt like enough liberation for the day. He expected to hear from Tango or Impulse at some point, preferably soon.

Jimmy asked him how the meeting went when he returned, holding out a cup of coffee.

Unsure of whether or not to tell the truth, Scott lied, he said nothing happened and made fun of Scar for running his mouth so much. He said he was tired.

*****

“Scott? That you?” Tango’s voice came through a small door in his abandoned cow farm. It wasn’t needed anymore.

Scott pointed his torch towards the voice, illuminating a door, which Tango had crafted into the side of the underground farm.

“Yes it’s me. Why’s it so dark in here?” he asked.

“I don’t want people to know I’m still using this place, that’s why,” Tango motioned for Scott to come to him.

Tango silently listened for any sign that Scott had been followed, then pushed a stone slab in front of the hidden door with a silent thud.

On the other side of the door was a short hallway, then a very small room with some pillows on the floor and a table. A map of the server that included all the structures and members was pinned up on the wall. There was also a well loved notebook on the table.

“Where’s Impulse?” Scott asked, sitting down on one of the pillows.

“Ren needed him for something, he’ll probably be here next time,” Tango explained. He sat down and lit a candle to make more light.

“I thought we would start by going over the basics today,” Tango picked up the notebook and flipped through some of the pages absently.

Scott looked away and then back, “okay, shoot,” he said.

The “plan” centered around infiltrating the Red Army, convincing them (mainly Ren) that Scott had decided to switch sides. Then, him, Tango, and Impulse would eventually build their trust. Somewhere in there they would convince the Red Army to stop messing with people and come to an agreement with the rest of the server. Something about working together instead of against each other.

“We still have to work some stuff out,” Tango concluded with confidence.

“That’s the plan? You really think this’ll work?” Scott crossed his arms.

“If you can insult Scar convincingly enough, yes,” Tango said.

“Oh this’ll be easy!” Scott laughed, mostly to cover up his nerves.

Tango chuckled with him, then became serious once more, “I’m glad you have a sense of humor going into this. Even after what they did to you,” Tango said.

“I’m sorry about that, by the way,” he apologized.

Scott’s hands stung a bit in response, but he nodded a silent “thanks”.

They were quiet. Scott nervously fiddled with the hem of his coat, lost in thought, mostly regret.

Impulse did show up the next time. He arrived just after Scott did. Everyone sat awkwardly in the little room for a while and Scott was wrapped in nostalgia for a similar time. A time where the only threat was an obscene number of phantoms.

Over the course of their meetings, Scott observed his teammates and their actions. A far cry from who they used to be, including him. Scott’s hair had grown past his ears and turned purple at the tips, and he’d become rather paranoid about always wearing armor.

Tango spent much of their interactions lost in thought. The ghost of whatever was eating at him weighed visibly on his shoulders in the way his head was always bowed in a perpetual staring contest with the ground. He was irritable.

Impulse was a wild card to Scott, they’d never really met before; but it was clear he’d been changed as well. Illustrated by his long “mining” trips, which he only returned from to attend their weekly meetups with no resources to show for it, and a general aura of depression.

His mind was drawn back to the picture Cleo had taken of almost all his server-mates, together in front of the Vibe Machine. He’d studied everyone’s faces countless times. Mostly wondering where everything had gone wrong.

Had they ever truly been friends in the first place? Or was camaraderie a comfort when everyone else was just as weak as one another.

#finally. the end of act one.#also the end of me having to select from my notes app because #up until now I wrote EVERYTHING in the same document #never. ever do that.#kingslayer au #scott smajor #tangotek #impulsesv #3rdlife #3rd life smp #cas types #mcyt

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yodawgiherd · 3 years

Text

End of an Era

It was fun while it lasted guys :)

>>>Read on AO3<<<

And one night, without any warning, the last piece of the puzzle came. The dream told her everything, ran over the entirety of her life, and when the old and wrinkled soldier Mikasa closed her eyes for the last time, she woke up with unshed tears brimming in the corners.

Next to her, the devil she decapitated slept peacefully, with no marks or scars under his eyes. She didn’t want to wake him yet, as there was another person Mikasa needed to talk to right now, so getting out of the bed carefully she located her phone.

“M-Mikasa?”, a yawn, “It’s four in the morning, why are you calling me?”

“I’m sorry Armin, I have to ask you something.”, Mikasa whispered, keeping her voice low not to wake Eren, “please…”

“Sure, just…” another yawn, this time even longer, “Give me a second so I can collect my brain from the dreamland.”

Mikasa could hear the phone being put down and then the rustling of bedding on the other side as Armin was most likely stretching and fully waking up. She waited patiently until he picked the device up again, speaking in a much clearer voice.

“Ok, I guess I’m functional now. What’s up?”

“In the book you are writing, does the main pairing gets a happy ending? Do they get together?”

“I… Uh… Is that why you woke me?”

“Armin, please. It’s important to me.”

In truth, the blond had no idea why Mikasa was suddenly so interested in the ending of his story. Sure, she read it during development and said that it was good, but there’s a difference between that and calling at four AM to grill him about the ending she didn’t get to see yet because Armin finished it about a week ago. Then again, her voice was completely serious and while Mikasa did like some fun pranks from time to time, this didn’t sound like one at all. So, following her wish, Armin gave her an honest answer.

“No, they don’t. The girl is forced to kill her love interest to save the world from him, but it's sort of bittersweet because their friends get to live a happy life after.”

There was a gasp on the other side as if he confirmed some of Mikasa’s suspicions.

“Why?”

“Well, people like angst, and giving everyone a happy ending is a bit of a cliché, no? I mean…”

“Why her though, wasn’t she the heroine?”

“Yes, but she can move on in time you know, forget about him and whatnot.”

There was a bit of silence on the other side before Mikasa spoke again, this time in a small and sad voice.

“Could you change it? Please, for me.”

“How?”

“Just make her happy…”

Running a hand through his sleep-tussled hair Armin puffed out air, turning the possibilities in his head. It wouldn’t be that hard to make Mikasa’s wish come true. He had a lot of supernatural going on in his book, monsters, and gods, a simple resurrection wouldn’t break the story. Plus it was rare to hear Mikasa beg like this, she was usually the “cool and stoic” type, and it tugged at Armin’s heart.

Hell, why not.

“All right, I’ll do it somehow.”

“You will?!”

“Yeah, but you’ll owe me one.”

There was happy and relieved laughter on the other side.

“Of course, I’ll do anything Ar, thank you so much!”

With a click, the call ended and Mikasa let out a long breath, rubbing the unshed tears from her eyes. It would seem that Armin wasn’t writing a story, more like remembering it, but unlike the one that happened this one would get a different ending.

Mikasa told Eren everything over breakfast, hugging a warm cup of coffee with both hands. He didn’t say anything while she spoke, just listened, his green eyes taking all of her in, both words and gestures. Only when she finished did he let out a long breath, one that felt like he was holding in for an eternity.

“This is a lot to take in.”, he said, “Especially at once.”

“I know…, you don’t have to believe me but…”

“I believe you. Every word.”

“Just like that?”

A firm nod.

“You believe it, and I see no reason why I should not. Past lives and other-universe memories can exist, it's not like the entire human psyche has been mapped.”

He looked away for a second.

“The Eren you described, he is so different than me, yet so terrifyingly similar in some aspects. I can sit here and say that I would never cause the apocalypse but in his place…? I just can’t know for sure.”

“I guess we are lucky that we don’t have to find out.”, Mikasa offered, “This life is so much better than whatever they went through...”

“For sure.”

“And that’s not all.”

“What do you mean?”

“I… I think I married someone… Jean maybe? Had kids with him too.”

“Oh my god.”, Eren threw an arm over his face dramatically, “Out of all people, why him?”

“I… I don’t know if it was him but….”

“Please Miki, I get that I died, and you wanted to move on, but didn’t your past life have any taste ?”

“Hey! Jean is nice.”

He peeked at her from under his arm.

“Nice huh?”

“Yea, nice. You know what, if you die I’m going to marry him here too.”

The fingers that were till now peacefully resting on her hip curved and dug into her flesh, a dangerous flash in the emerald that stared at her.

“You’re just trying to rile me, is that it?”

She fought the grin, not wanting it to reveal the joke.

“Maybe…”

However, Eren’s grip weakened as his face grew distant, the classic “philosophical” look entering his features.

“Would that be fair to him though? Jean is… okay I guess, and you treating him like an afterthought, a second choice? Not nice.”

Mikasa’s smile faltered when she realized that, and Eren was not even done with his speech.

“Then again, if I’ll be dead then I guess I have no agenda in telling you what to do. Plus I think I’d be happier if you moved on and had a family instead of mourning me forever. You are too young for that.”

These words hit way too close to Mikasa’s dream, and she could feel the sadness rising in the chest again. To battle it, she took hold of Eren’s chin and tugged it down until their lips were touching.

“Hey, not more talk about death, okay?”, she ordered, “I had enough of that while sleeping.”

“Yes ma’am.”

When she kissed him, Mikasa’s sadness melted away again, chased away by Eren’s warmth against her. Maybe her other self had to settle for something else, but not her. She was here and she had the love of her life right in her arms, in her bed, and she couldn’t be happier about it.

Eren mulled the facts over for a time, putting them together in his head. It was a nice day outside, and while he did all the math Mikasa simply watched him with a faint smile on her lips. It was almost noon when he came to her with a new question.

“So let me get this straight – I didn’t achieve anything In the end? My island was still nuked and the monsters…”

“Titans.”, Mikasa corrected him.

“Right, titans. Those are still around? Man, I guess I was turned into a clown at the end.”

She didn’t know how to disagree with any of those points.

“And the point of it all was nothing? That no matter how hard you struggle to save something you hold dear it will end up destroyed anyway?”

“It does sound hopeless when you put it like that.”

He snorted.

“Guess I was a certified clown then – oh well, now you see what zero pussy does to a motherfuc…”

“No, no, oh my god.”, Mikasa interrupted him, “Why do you keep making fun of it, I swear you are such a kid and…”

“W-What?”, Eren had trouble speaking because of the laughter, “It’s true! I died for nothing in your dream, I was a joke.”

“No… It wasn’t like that.”

“Take it as you will, but all my nightmares became reality and…”

Eren tapped the table a few times, most likely trying to wrap his head around it all.

“…you married Jean.”

“Well… yea, that was a bit weird.”

“Was it? I mean, the guy had a crush on you.”

She blinked at him.

“It was just a tiny one if there even was one at all.”

“Oh c’mon Miki,”, Eren’s grin was wide, “You couldn’t be that dense.”

“I-I mean…”

Jean? A crush? It reminded her of that night, not that long ago when she found out that most if not all of her female friends would like to have some sort of intimate experiments with her.

“Doesn’t matter.”, she blurted, “He’s a good friend, and I like him a lot, but not romantically!”

“He will be heartbroken…”

“He will?”

“Nah,”, Eren chuckled, “Jean got over it, he and Hitch are happy together, as far as I know.”

“That’s good, a crush is hardly a good base for a real-life relationship.”

“Then I guess we can be happy that you guys married in a dream only.”

“Indeed.”, she reached over the table to gently touch his face, “Here I have you.”

Eren mirrored her gesture, letting his thumb stroke the scar on Mikasa’s cheek.

“And I have you.”

“Forever.”

“Sadly.”

“What was that?”

“Oh nothing baby…”, a devilish grin, “Yes, forever.”

With her dreams done and finished it was time to return to civilization, to leave the cabin life behind. Eren told her that he got this, very courteously, most likely still worried about her mental state.

“Just take it easy,”, he said, kissing the top of her head, “I’ll pack.”

He did as he said, fighting with the baggage to the best of his ability. Mikasa was left to wander around aimlessly, and for whatever reason her steps took her to the big tree sitting there, overlooking a vast plain of grass. Taking a deep breath of the fresh air she leaned on the tree, but then her eyes caught sight of something that almost made her jump out of her skin.

There was a ghost sitting there, a ghost of her, dressed in a simple skirt and shirt, the scarf still around her neck. The apparition was about the same age Mikasa was, maybe a bit younger, but they looked almost the same. Her hair wasn’t short, it was long and pulled into a ponytail and there was no red highlight decorating it. The ghost looked up, her eyes meeting Mikasa’s, and a faint smile crossed her lips.

It was her perfect copy, down to the scar on the cheek - albeit the ghost’s was even more faded than hers, long years washing over it. She must have gotten her cut as a teenager. And there was also something about the eyes – it would be a lie to say that Mikasa had an easy life, but what she saw in the ghost’s eyes was something different altogether. The sitting girl saw hell and more, and it showed in her face.

“You are me.”, Mikasa finally pushed out.

The ghost looked at her curiously, tilting her head to the side.

“You… you can’t speak, can you?”

The ghost shook her head.

“I wonder why….”

The sitting girl shrugged, not understanding this any more than Mikasa did. She was just about to question her further when something else caught her attention. The ghost wasn’t sitting there on her own, there was something next to her – a tombstone with a very familiar name written on it.

Eren Yeager

Mikasa already had a suspicion, but this confirmed it – the sitting girl was the other Mikasa, the one she had dreams about, her past life. Following her eyes the ghost saw what she was looking at, her smile replaced by a look of deep longing. Gently, she caressed the stone, her eyes shining with tears.

“So the dreams were right, huh? You had to kill him.”

The ghost nodded solemnly.

“You saved the world, everyone, but you had to give the love of your life up.”

The apparition didn’t react, eyes trained at the cold tombstone.

“They say that if you love something, you should let it go.”, she told the ghost, “But I can’t do that….”

Looking over her shoulder at the man she loved so much, Mikasa let the words spill freely.

“I guess I’m selfish but I don’t want to lose this love we have, no matter what kind of symbolism it is. I want to wake up next to him every morning and spend ten minutes getting out of his hands because he holds me so tightly when we sleep. I want to see him yawn and wish him good morning and share a cup of coffee. I want him to be there for me when I come back so we can talk about our days and cuddle on the couch together…”

Her hands intertwined on the abdomen, gently stroking the fabric of her shirt.

“I want to have children with him, family, kids that will combine my and his looks and attitude. Is that selfish? Is that too much to ask? Is that…”

Lost in her speech Mikasa stumbled over the words and fell silent, letting out a short laugh after.

“I’m selfish and I don’t care. I’m never letting go simply because I don’t want to and damn everyone who disagrees with me. I deserve this, I deserve to be loved.”

As soon as those words left Mikasa’s lips she realized how insensitive those were towards her other self, the poor girl who, for all her bravery, for the act of saving the world itself – got nothing.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”, she apologized to the sitting copy of herself, “I know that you never got to experience any of that with him.”

The ghost’s face fell and she buried her face to the scarf, eyes moving towards the headstone next to her. Seeing the longing written in her features, Mikasa couldn’t help but wonder.

“Did you… did you learn to let him go? Did you come to terms with his death?”

The pain in the girl’s eyes was all the answer Mikasa needed. It resonated within her, the suffering because she could imagine how it would feel. Maybe it was because she experienced it in her past life, maybe it was because of all these strange visions but she could do it and the pain and emptiness were terrible.

“This is not fair,”, she blurted, “You did everything you could, you saved the world and this was your reward? You’ve sacrificed… everything… and….”

She was crying now, Mikasa realized, her tears matching the ghost’s. Falling to her knees next to the girl she tried embracing her only to realize that she can’t touch a figment of her imagination.

“I’m so sorry for how the universe treated you, you deserved more, so, so much more….

More flashes- this time of a child, a faceless husband, grandkids too.

“This, all that… Did it make you happy?”

The ghost girl gave her a small enigmatic smile, and Mikasa realized one thing. It wasn’t for her to know – maybe she was happy with the other family, maybe she wasn’t, that would remain an enigma.

“But still, you kept visiting his grave,”, Mikasa’s eyes moved over to the headstone and the flowers there, “You never let his memory fade.”

A nod from the other girl.

“Still, it wasn’t fair to you. You could have been, no, should have been so much more…”, this time the raven’s eyes moved to where her Eren was, “You deserved to have a happy future with him too.”

“Yet you didn’t, and I did – you got the pain and I have the rewards you fought for. I swear, I will not let it go to waste.”

Standing up, she offered her hand to the ghost.

“Please, come with me, experience all that you bled for, struggled for so much. Let me show you how the love you wanted feels in full bloom.”

But the girl didn’t move, simply looking at her. And that was when Mikasa realized….

“… you don’t have to come with me because you are already here. You are me, I am you, we are the same person.”

It was strange, realizing that this was her- this old, tired soldier, a woman broken by a war Mikasa couldn’t even comprehend. A tragic hero who sacrificed her greatest love for the greater good, being left with nothing but a memory. A girl who was thrust into a cruel world and treated unfairly, no matter how hard she tried to change it, to save those she held dear. Tears in the corners of her eyes, Mikasa clenched her fists.

Not anymore.

Now there was no war, no titans, no apocalypse over their heads. Eren wouldn’t go to commit a global genocide to save his country, only to have it destroyed anyway. She wouldn’t marry another man and have children with him, bring her family to his grave, and plant flowers with pain in her heart. No.

Mikasa wasn’t a soldier anymore – she was an MMA fighter, a professional athlete, a model. Her life wasn’t filled with a constant struggle for survival. It was dreamy- filled with everything she could wish for, whatever it was spending her time with friends, goofing around with Eren, or training her pole dancing. She didn’t care for horses or sharpen her blades.

Eren wasn’t a hopeless maniac, driven to war by the sheer necessity of survival – he was a doctor, a surgeon, helping people in need not killing them.

Most importantly they were together – an engaged couple that loved each other so much that they couldn’t put it into words correctly. No tragedy would befall them.

Keeping her hand outstretched, Mikasa talked to the ghost again.

“We are one, but I am the lucky part of us, of me. I am love, I am the nights and lazy mornings spent in bed, I am all the kisses and hugs. You are my sadness, my sacrifice, my longing and pain, my unfulfilled and tragic fate.”

She stretched her fingers closer to the girl.

“Please, take my hand and experience it all with me, learn that there is beauty in this cruel world.”

Not hesitant anymore, the ghost held her hand towards Mikasa.

When their fingers made contact a chill ran down her spine and she gasped, blinking several times. The girl was gone, so was the grave, only the tree remained and gently swayed in the wind. And in her heart, in her soul, Mikasa felt different – different yet same because now she knew everything and the pain in her heart resonated.

It would always be a part of her, or rather it always was, but Mikasa wasn’t feeling down because of it. Now she knew that she had to feel everything, every touch and happy emotion that she experienced with him because it was what her past died for. If anything the full realization of her suffering made Mikasa appreciate it even more – she was living this life not only now but for the past too.

He was her Eren, she was his Mikasa, and in this world, nothing would tear them apart. And the tears the began to appear in her eyes did nothing to deny that fact.

“Miki? Why are you crying, what’s wrong?”

Refusing to answer Mikasa crossed the distance and hugged him, burying her face into Eren’s chest. Understanding that she didn’t want words now he stroked her back patiently, waiting for her to come back to him.

“Eren, you won’t ever leave me, will you?”

“Never.”

“I mean, I couldn’t do it even if wanted to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t think I love you anymore, it’s more like fascination, adoration maybe.”

“…Eren…”

“Hell, I’d do anything to stay with you, you want me to bark for you? Cause I will..”

Despite her sad mood, Mikasa felt the smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

“Stop, come on.”

Ignoring that, he pressed his face into her hair, a quiet bark leaving his lips.

“Woof.”, he nuzzled her gently, “There, I did it.”

She giggled at that and Eren smirked, glad that he made her smile because that was his mission in life – making the beautiful angel he was, for some reason blessed by, happy.

It made her reflect on the whole story, now that she had it whole. Eren kept silent while Mikasa was deep in thought, his fingers gently stroking her hipbone in small soothing circles. In her mind, she recalled as much as she could, brought it together and….

Mikasa took a shuddering breath.

“It makes no god damn sense.”

“What doesn’t?”

“The whole story, It… it doesn’t add up at all. You dying for nothing, me moving on so quickly I… The whole world….”

She was pouting now, that adorable expression that made Eren want to kiss it right off of her face, but he held himself back. Mikasa was talking.

“It had such a nice build-up, but in the end, it collapsed completely. I don’t understand why….”

“Well, that is the thing with dreams.”, he mumbled next to her, “They often don’t make much sense once we wake up.”

“But still..”

“Mikiiiiiiiiii…”, unable to resist her cuteness anymore, he pressed a string of soft kisses all over her face, turning that pout into a breathless giggle, “Stop overthinking dreams so much.”

Grabbing her hand he intertwined their fingers, raising it so the sun slid over their skin. It highlighted the contrast between them, how his tanned shade complimented her pale one, just as perfectly as they completed one another in life.

“This. This is important.”, he said, “This is real. You may be a broken titan slayer in your dreams, but here you are… well, still a titan slayer but one that is happy… I think.”

His voice got even deeper when he directed his question right at her.

“Are you happy with me?”

Mikasa was nodding her head before she even realized what was happening.

“Yes. Gods yes, I couldn’t be happier.”

“See?”, the flash of white teeth revealed his grin, “Then focus on that. Here, in this world, I’m not going anywhere, and I’ll stay with you as long as you’ll have me.”

“That might be a very long time Yeager, are you sure that you want to do that to yourself?”

“As if I had a choice.”, his fingers danced over her hip, “You bound me to yourself with black magic, remember?”

“Good to see that you remember that. My Dark Knight.”

The kiss Eren gave her was interlaced with a smile, and it was one of the sweetest Mikasa ever got in her life. He was right, after all, her dreams, past self, it was a tragedy that befell her, but it was so jumbled at the end that she had a hard time taking it seriously. The “ending” of her past didn’t make sense, no matter how much she tried to see the point of it. It all looked like such a tragedy, but in the end…. was it maybe a comedy? A twisted image where all the sacrifice and pain they went through amounted to nothing? Where several characters were made to be worthless, and their struggle amounted to nothing? A parody of a terrible conflict that couldn’t be solved by anything else by an annihilation?

But... why dwell on it?

She had this- this life, this Eren, and this happiness that they built together, and she loved every second of it.

And there was nothing else that the past could show her anymore.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“You sure? Didn’t forget anything?”

Mikasa looked at the tree where the conversation with the ghost took place, smiling. Tightening her hold on Eren’s hand, she felt more content than ever before, finally having an explanation and ending for her nightmares. It all made sense, and she would live her life to the fullest with the love of her life – not only for herself but for the other Mikasa too. She deserved to experience it, every second of it. After all, they were one and the same.

“Yes. I have all I need right here with me.”

#eremika #fanfic #:)

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sapphic-loser16 · 3 years

Text

I just realized I never explained what Chiaroscuro is. (Or even posted the first chapter lol) For those of you who get wildly confused when I drop random chapters of a story I never talk about otherwise

This is my baby, Chiaroscuro. This story has been rattling around in my head for the past six months, and it is a coagulation of my maladaptive daydreams and headcanons that I spew onto the page. It follows the next hero in the reincarnation cycle, as well as a host of other original characters. Since I’m getting into the habit of being more active for my followers I thought I should drop this here. Please go give it a read, I’ve worked really hard on it!

(Chapter one below the cut )

The rain feels like fire on his back. He runs, faster, faster, faster. They can’t catch him, Hyrule will fall if doesn’t get away. His mind is blurry, the world is blurry. The only thing that registers is the pain that courses through his body like lightning and the golden light thats pours from his left hand. He tries his best to push through the pain and mental fog. One thing is clear though; whispered words spoken to him only hours ago, as a guard unlocked his bloody chains

Run.

Run as fast you can.

Hope is not lost.

The resistance has a base in the Lost Woods.

They will help you.

Now run, and save us all.

The rain pours down even harder. Lightning flashes as he skids to a stop. The magical woods loom in front of him. Mist swirls around the branches, beckoning him into their safe embrace. He hesitates. The legends say that any who dare step into the sacred forest shall be lost to time. A sharp stab of pain interrupts his musings. The scars on his back have split open. Blood cascades down his back. If he doesn’t make his choice soon he will die steps away from freedom. The woods whisper to him, call him into the trees. The golden light on his hand pulls him foreword ever so slightly. His choice is made, then. He breathes a quick prayer, and limps into the fog.

___

A cheerful voice rings in his ear.

“Get up ya lazy bones!”

Not now, Wind, Sky thought, rolling over. It’s too early for this.

He jammed his sailcloth into the side of his head to try to block out the youngest Link’s chipper voice. A kick on the the back of his knees sent a jolt through his body.

“Up an ‘attem bird boy.” The sailcloth was ripped away by Legend’s blurry hands blinding Sky in the morning sun.

“Pinky’s right,” called Warriors from his side. “You slept through an entire switch.”

Wait, what?

Sky bolted up into a sitting position just in time to see Warriors receive a sound slap to the back of the head courtesy of Legend. He slept through a whole switch? He rubbed his eyes to clear some of the morning fog. He could see the others packing up their things and Twilight dousing a campfire.

“How you do that is beyond me, and I slept for a hundred years,” smirked Wild, throwing him a bun, apparently the leftovers of breakfast.

“Who’s Hyrule are we in?” Sky asked.

Wild responded with a shrug.

“Don’t know. It’s not any of ours.”

“And that means new people, new Zelda, and new hero,” Hyrule said.

He stopped packing his bag and turned to face Sky.

“Are you ok? He asked softly. “You seem a bit dazed.”

Sky rubbed his face again. That dream was like something he had felt only once before. If history was any indication, the group needed to know.

“I think I had a dream.”

“So?” Legend scoffed. “We all dream, bird brain, nothing new here.”

“Hush,” Twilight said, pushing him away. “It must have been bad if its bothering you this much. What was it about?”

Sky pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to force the details back.

I-I don’t know, its all a bit hazy. I don’t even know if I could call it a dream, more like vague impressions. It was raining hard. I couldn’t even see any They were running…away from someone, I think. They were injured badly.” He looked up. “I could hear their thoughts, something about a Resistance.”

Twilight’s eyes went stormy.

“A Resistance?” He asked in a hard voice.

“Yeah, they were told the Resistance would help them,” Sky said, intrigued by Twilight’s sudden intensity. One last detail swam through his mental fog.

“They had the Triforce,” he said quietly. “Hyrule would fall if they didn’t get away, I think.”

The quiet rustle of the camp stopped. The Links shared looks with each other. That clearly wasn’t a good sign. The Triforce could only mean one thing.

“A new hero,” Time mused.

“Did you see where they were going?” Four asked from the far aside of the camp.

Sky thought hard. As he was the first in the timeline, his Hyrule lacked most if not all of the landmarks that made some of the others stand out. Heck, he hadn’t even known there was land below the clouds until a year and a half ago.

“Some sort of forest,” he started, trying to call back the details of the fast fading dream. “There was magical mist, if that helps.”

Wild thought for a second, then snapped his fingers.

“Lost Woods is what they were running to, no doubt. Magical mist keeps people with ill intent out. In my time, the Master Sword rests there. They could have been going to pull the sword.”

“That could be why the Resistance has a base there,” Warriors spoke up. “The Lost Woods offer protection, and they are able to protect Hyrule’s most powerful weapon.”

“But that still doesn’t explain the need for a resistance,” Twilight said, a bit on edge.

“Either way we’ll find out eventually,” Four said. Our best move would be to go to the nearest village and get a map.”

Time nodded, and motioned for the rest to pack up the remnants of the camp. Legend adjusted the last of his things and started to walk out of the woods they had landed in.

“Lets go before Hylia smites Sky with anymore visions.”

—

Wild had to admit, the land was beautiful. They had dropped into a forest at the top of a huge valley. As they walked down, he could see villages clumped together. A river ran through the valley, and the afternoon sun bathed the whole valley in a golden light. In the far distance beyond the valley, a castle loomed. His fingers jumped and twitched at the thought of exploring a whole new land. He bounced up to Hyrule, who was practically vibrating. They made excited eye contact. Twilight caught sight of the exchange and sighed loudly.

“No, you cannot go wandering off,” he admonished to the two wanderers. “I am not taking the chance of loosing y’all in a land as big as this.”

Wild stuck his tongue out in Twilights direction.

“You’re no fun,” Hyrule huffed playfully.

In truth, Twilight was a bit on edge. The last time he had encountered a resistance things had not gone well. He leaned over to Time, who had been quiet amongst the chatter.

“Do you think it’s…” Twilight didn’t dare finish his sentence, as if the very name could summon him.

Time closed his eye, and nodded,

“We have to be prepared for every possibility,” he said quietly.

It shouldn’t be possible, Twilight thought. He had killed him. He remembered every detail of that awful day. How could he forget? Twilight hated admitting it, but every now and again he would wake up screaming, reliving every single agonizing second of the last battle.

“Pup?” A soft voice pulled him out of his thoughts. They had arrived at a bustling town. Time’s eye softened.

“Are you ok?”

Twilight considered it for a second.

“I think I’m ok. Just a bit overwhelmed.”

Time nodded sagely.

“Cub,” he called to Wild

Wild looked up from the intense conversation he was having with Hyrule.

“How’s our supplies?”

Wild’s head dipped down for a second to take inventory on his Sheikah Slate.

“Food wise we’re all set, but we need more potions,” he called back.

Time touched his protégé’s back.

“Go with him, and clear your head. It will do you some good. The rest of us can get for directions.”

Twilight huffed.

“You just want me to make sure he doesn’t burn down the town.”

A sly look passed across Time’s sharp features for a moment as he herded the rest of his boys to a bar to find someone to tell them where the Woods were.

Twilight sighed and let Wild drag him to the nearest potion booth halfway across the square. It was a good think they were stocking up now, Twilight thought. The last monster battle had completely blown through all of their medical supplies, with Hyrule having to resort to his magic.

“Excuse me, could we buy some of your potions?” Wild asked the shopkeeper, who’s back was turned.

“Just a moment sir,” the shop keeper said, tidying up in the corner of the booth. She dusted her hands on her apron.

“What can I get for y-“ she stopped abruptly, eyes wide.

Twilight shared a confused look with Wild. Wild, just as confused, stared back. He turned to look at the shopkeeper. The woman was opening and closing her mouth, like she wanted to say something but couldn’t get the words out.

“Ma’am?” He asked softly, reaching out to touch her. “Are you okay?”

She flinched at Twilight’s attempted contact. Her hands shook as she pointed to Wild’s weapon.

“Y-you’re Yiga.” She gasped.

Wild flinched. Him, a Yiga? There were Yiga here? Admittedly that probably should have been his first thought. They should have been in the future, right? This couldn’t have been the era of the hero before him, there were no Divine Beasts. He killed Kohga, the Clan should have died out. This couldn’t be the future, right? Wild’s hand absentmindedly went to the handle of his Windcleaver.

The woman’s frantic voice yanked him out of his thoughts.

“Please, please sir,” she whimpered, eyes downcast. “ I-I didn’t know, I never would have put you off like that. It wont happen again, I swear it.”

Wild’s eyes went wide. He quickly dropped his hand back to his side. What in the name of Hylia was she talking about?

“Ma’am,” he tried, reaching for her again.

The shopkeeper gave a small scream and stepped back so quickly Wild thought she would fall. Tears were running down her cheeks. Wild could feel small ones prick at the sides of his vision.

A small touch on his shoulder. “We need to go,” Twilight murmured in his ear

Wild stood rooted to the spot. He couldn’t just leave, the poor woman was terrified of them. Plus, they were still in desperate need of medical supplies. Something was definitely wrong here, and Wild was going to try to fix it.

A puff of smoke appeared behind him. He could feel Twilight stiffen. From behind him walked a Blademaster.

Twilight’s eyes went wide. The woman whimpered even louder. The Blademaster strode between them and leaned over the counter ever so slightly, hands planted on its rough-hewn surface.

“This filth bothering you?”

It took a minute for Wild to realize the cult member was talking to him. How did they get here so fast? What in the world was happening? He could feel his hands shaking and his breath getting quicker. He didn’t dare look over the Blademaster to Twilight. The Yiga apparently took his silence as a positive answer. He tutted and shook his head back and forth.

“Oh, Maira,” he said, faux sadness dripping from his voice. “What a poor decision you have made today.”

The shopkeeper, Maira, was shaking now, tears pouring from her eyes. Her hands were clutched close to her chest.

“I-I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I didn’t know.”

The Blademaster shook his head again. It had occurred to Wild that the village had gone completely silent. He could feel the eyes of the villagers bore into the back of his head. Where were Time and the others?

The Blademaster leaned even closer to Maira, their foreheads almost touching.

“You know the punishment for detaining a soldier of the crown,” he growled. Quick as lightning, he grabbed her wrist and slammed it down on the counter. She screamed and tried to pull away, but the Blademaster was to strong for her. Using his other hand, he drew a wickedly sharp Windcleaver and set it at her wrist. He lifted it high, the blade glinting in the sun.

The blade never made it down.

The soldier was thrown back with a clash of metal on metal. Twilight lowered his weapon down to his waist . He took slow, deliberate steps and planted himself in front of the stand and Wild, never breaking eye contact with the soldier. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the rest of his friends exit a bar. He caught Time’s horrified eye as his gaze went from Twilight to the Blademaster. Twilight claimed a fighting stance, daring the soldier to make a move.

The Blademaster considered Twilight for a second, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Twilights tense shoulders sagged.

“Lets go,” he whispered with gritted teeth. Wild didn’t need to be asked twice. Twilight started towards the rest of the group.

A cloud of smoke bloomed in the corner of his vision.

Someone screamed Twilight’s name. (Was it him, or Time?)

Twilight wasn’t fast enough. The Yiga drew his sword, and thrust it through Twilight’s torso. A wet gasping noise escaped his lips as he fell to the ground. A scream ripped through the silence. Time, sword drawn, charged at the Yiga. Their swords clashed, and all silence was shattered. Screams filled the air as more Yiga materialized in puffs of smoke. The rest of the group drew their weapons and plunged into battle. Wild snapped out of his own stupor. He made a beeline to where Twilight laid crumpled on the ground, blood pooling below him.

“Twilight,“ he gasped, voice barely audible above the din of battle.

Blood trickled out of the side of his mouth as he tried to speak. Wild put a hand to his mouth.

“You need to save your energy.”

Twilight could only nod weakly. Wild screamed for Time, who was currently fighting off tow foot soldiers at once. He was loosing blood too fast, they would never be able to save him at this rate.

“Wild!”

Wild turned to see Warriors behind him, parrying a soldier with his shield.

“You need to get Twilight out of here,” he commanded. “Go back to the place where we started. Four and I can cover you. We’ll meet you there.”

Four, who was fighting at Warrior’s back, gave a firm nod, violet eyes locking with Wild’s blue.

Wild could only nod numbly. He wormed one arm under Twilight’s and pulled him up. A small scream escaped his bloody lips as his wound was stretched. His head lolled against Wild’s neck. He half dragged, half carried Twilight to the entrance of the town. To Four and Warrior’s credit, not a single Yiga engaged them on their way out. We’re almost there. Wild thought. Just a few more feet Twi. You have to stay with me. The going was slow considering Twilight was a good six inches and seventy pounds heavier than he was. Finally, finally, Wild was able to drag Twilight into the woods. He threw a quick look behind them to make sure they weren’t followed. He laid Twilight down on the dirt, trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

‘Cub,” Twilight coughed wetly, forcing his eyes open. “I-if I don’t make it, could y-.“

If Twilight wasn’t so close to death Wild would have slapped him across the face.

“Shut up,” he said through gritted teeth. “You are going to be fine.”

He gave a weak laugh, then fell silent.

Wild set to scouring his slate for something, anything, to help him. To his horror, he only had one fairy and a few bandages in his entire slate.

Stupid stupid stupid. This is all your fault. Thats all you’re good at, killing your friends. If you hadn’t equipped that Windcleaver like an idiot Twi wouldn’t be on death’s door in a foreign forest.

Tears gathered in Wild’s eyes. He would not be responsible for any more deaths. He had already caused enough to last a lifetime. With grim determination he set to work tending his brother’s wounds. The fairy from his slate tinkled with healing magic. Wild surveyed the damage after the fairy worked her magic. The wound was no longer immediately life threatening, but without proper medical equipment he would succumb to his wounds. All he could do now was wrap his wounds and pray for the best.

“Wild.”

He whipped around, hastily wiping tears from the corner of his eyes. Time, Sky, and Legend stumbled into the clearing.

“How bad is it?” Shy whispered, holding his shoulder.

Time ran a critical eye over his protégé’s still body.

“He’s alive. Barely.” Time murmured.

The bushes rustled again, this time producing Wind, who was lugging a very unconscious Hyrule.

‘He used too much of his magic,” gasped Wind, blood trickling from a cut near his hairline.

Sky moved to take Hyrule from the sailor, who promptly collapsed.

“Where’s the captain and smithy?” Time asked while looking Wind over.

“They were right behind me,” Legend said, trying to hide the obvious concern in his voice. “They should have made it out, right?”

A tense silence filled the clearing. No one wanted to acknowledge the possibility that two of their comrades hadn’t made it out alive.

“I’m sure they’re fine. Warriors and Four are both capable swords men who can hold their own.” Sky reassured. “For now, we need to focus on Twi. Does anyone have any more healing items?”

To the group’s collective horror, the only thing they could produce was half of a red potion, courtesy of Legend. Wild took it and held it to Twilight’s lips. He drank all of it in one gulp and a sigh, and closed his eyes. A hand touched his shoulder.

“Let him rest, cub.” Time said, voice soft. “He’s going to be fine.”

Wild tried to ignore the blatant lie and let his shoulders slump. There was nothing more anyone could do now. The others were trying to busy themselves with menial tasks, like resetting the camp and gathering wood, anything to distract them from Twi’s shallow breathing. Legend had taken to pacing around the camp, mumbling to himself. No one had the heart to stop him. Almost an hour had passed before the bushed rustled again. A very dusty Warriors limped into camp with a bloody Four in tow.

“It’s just a surface wound, don’t worry,” Four said, trying to reassure the group. “It looks a lot worse than it is, trust me.”

Warriors let out a sigh as he plopped down in front of the fire Wild had started. Legend stopped dead in his tracks and whipped around so violently it gave Wild whiplash just watching it.

“You aren’t going to say anything, Pretty Boy?” He screeched. “You were gone for an hour, and thats all you have? Damn it I thought you had died, you cant do that!” He stomped. “Where were you and Four?”

He looked up, eyes blazing. “What do you want me to say?” He bit back. “Four and I were fighting those bastards so you could get away. We let Twi get run through by an insane cult member. He’s on the verge of death, and you’re suddenly concerned about me?”

Legend’s eyes went wide. “Well fuck me for being concerned about you,” he sputtered. He turned to Wild. “I though the Yiga were supposed to be gone,” he yelled. “You killed their leader. Why are they here?”

“I don’t know!” Wild exploded back jumping up from his sitting position. “I don’t know. I just stood there and watched like an idiot. All I could do was watch, Legend!” He screamed. Legend flinched. “All I could do was watch and now he might die. Because of me. All I can do is kill people.” Wild took a shuddering breath and hid his face in his hands, tears flowing.

Silence once again settled on the group like a thick fog. The only things they could hear were Wild’s muffled sobs and Twilight’s shallow breaths.

“Excuse me?”

Wild’s head snapped up, hands flying to his sword. The rest of the group followed suit, forming a circle around Twilight and Hyrule, who was still unconscious.

‘’Who’s there?” Four called out. If Wild didn’t know any better, he could have sworn the trees themselves were speaking. Given that he only knew one talking tree, that seemed highly improbable. The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“Oh gods, I’m sorry,” the voice said. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just thought that given your situation you could use some help.”

Well that was unexpected. Wild and Four shared a confused look.

“Why would you want to help us?” Legend called.

“Isn’t it obvious?” The trees answered back. “Your friend isn’t looking so hot. By my estimate he’s got a good thirty minutes before he and Hylia have a face to face. And besides, I think you could help me.”

“Why would you want us to help you?” Time scoured the trees for some kind of indication of a speaker.

“Well given all the shit that just went down at the village I think you guys are pretty capable fighters.” The voice laughed. “And your friend Wild claimed to have killed the Yiga leader. Which, by the way, is completely incorrect. But still, that claim has to have some merit, and I’ve never seen a normal person have the courage to impersonate a Yiga, much less stand up to one. That takes guts. Stupid guts, but guts nonetheless.”

How did the tree voice know his name?

“You were there?”

The voice laughed again.

“Of course I was there, how would I know about it if I wasn’t?”

“Are you a healer?”

This prompted a laugh so loud the trees shook.

“Oh sweet Hylia if I was a healer, I would kill someone. How ironic would that be? A healer killing someone? I’m not a healer, but I know a really good one. 150 percent care garunteed. If I’m going to help you though, I’m going to have to ask you to put away the swords” the voice almost sounded apologetic.

Wild weighed the options in his head. On one hand, they could let the crazy tree voice who somehow knew his name help them. On the other hand, they could watch Twilight die. Putting it like that, the answer was more than obvious. He looked over to Time. He gave a slight nod, motioning to the others to put their weapons away.

“Excellent.”

With a rustle of leaves, a green-clad hooded figure dropped out of the trees in front of them. A mask covered the lower half of his face, accenting blue eyes that sparkled in the twilight. He took quick steps to where Twilight laid. Gloved hands rummaged in a bag at his hips, producing a vial of a pale looking liquid, bandages, and red potion.

“See, the first mistake you made was not carrying antidote with you.” He said. “A Blademaster always coats their sword with poison before a fight. Thats why your fairy didn’t really work.”

The implications of those three sentences worried Wild. Firstly, it meant Twilight had been poisoned. Second, it meant that the tree voice had been around when he used that fairy almost three hours ago.

The figure uncorked the bottle and tipped Twilight’s chin up slightly, pouring the contents of the vial into his mouth. Twilight gulped the unknown substance, apparently unaware a complete stranger had fed him it. The tree boy then went soaking the bandages in red potion, rewrapping Twilight’s wounds. Satisfied, he stood back and admired his handiwork.

“And there you go,” he said cheerily. “Now he wont die of poison.”

“You mean he might die of something else?” Legend practically screamed.

“Well, I mean yeah. Do you know how many things out here could kill you?” He started listing things off his fingers. “He lost a lot of blood, he might die of exhaustion, and spontaneous combustion is always on the table. Do you know how terrifying that would be? One minute you’re here, the next your body gets relocated to the Sacred Realm via a fiery demise. Honestly, how are more people not worried about it?”

That was an unexpected tangent, but Wild had to admit, he could see Twilight breathing quite a lot easier. He turned to the tree boy.

“Do you have a name?”

He laughed merrily, blue eyes dancing.

“I sure hope so. I’m Link.”

Shit.

Shit shit shit.

Legend honestly didn’t know what he had expected. Hylia just loved throwing them curveballs, and a crazy tree person who happened to have a whole infirmary’s worth of medical supplies at the exact time they needed it could have only been a Link.

They were all sitting around the campfire now, crazy tree Link included. He was wiry, but small, barely grazing Time’s shoulder. Wild golden curls tumbled down his back, secured with a band. Some ringlets escaped to frame a face containing the most freckles Legend had ever seen on a living person. Link had explained to Wild that he had followed him out of the village because he wanted to help. He stayed in the trees because he couldn’t figure out if they were hostile or not. Thats how he was able to figure out his name. Satisfied with that answer, Wild hade made them all soup, and he was happily slurping it down. Hyrule had woken up a while ago, and was wildly confused at the sight of another person who definitely hadn’t been there when he passed out. Time had explained the whole strange situation. Twilight had also woken up thanks to the pale potion and bandages, and was sipping soup slowly with the help of Sky.

Warriors cleared his throat.

“So, Link,” he said, putting emphasis on the name. “ Can you explain to us what the hell happened back at the town?”

“Well there’s not much to say there. You guys pissed off the Yiga and they retaliated. Honestly, you guys need to be more careful.”

Warriors sighed.

“Thats not what I meant. I mean why were they there.”

“Thats also pretty self explanatory. You waltzed into a Yiga occupied village. Are you guys ok? How do you not know any of this?”

“He means why are they here. In Hyrule. Now. How long have they been here? And why hasn’t anyone done anything about it? Shouldn’t the princess know about this?” Wild leveled an intense stare at Link.

He set his spoon down, staring down into his bowl.

“Wow, you guys are really far behind,” he said quietly. “The Yiga have been here for almost twenty five years.”

“Twenty five years?” Wild gasped.

Link nodded. “They took over when my parents were kids. From what I can piece together, a powerful warlock invaded Hyrule and all the major settlements with the help of the Yiga Clan. A lot of people were killed, including most of the people who were in the castle,” he finished quietly. “They’ve been here ever since.”

Ganon. Legend thought. That bastard pig was at it again. It was becoming clearer by the minute why they had been called here.

Wild started hyperventilating.

“No, that cant be right. They were supposed to be gone.”

“What about the hero?” Sky asked. “Surely they should have done something.”

Link’s eyes went stormy. “You think the ‘hero’ could possibly help?” He said with an edge to his voice.

“The hero, if they exist, was probably killed twenty five years ago. And if they are alive, they’re a coward. I’ve been in this fight since I was practically born, and they haven’t even made their supposed existence known. The hero is only a bedtime story for people who have lost hope.” Link finished with a growl.

That did not bode well. Where was the hero? Could he be dead? That wasn’t possible. They’re had to be a hero, right? Maybe the kid in front of them was just a Link by coincidence. Hell, he didn’t even believe in the hero. Legend started to wonder how many of the people in this Hyrule shared the same sentiment.

Now Sky was hyperventilating along with Wild.

“But someone should have taken up the mantle. What about the Master Sword? Surely someone should have pulled it by now.” Sky’s voice trembled.

Link finally looked up, eyes dark.

“Wow.” He whispered to himself. “You guys must live in a hole.”

“What do you mean?” Time said, voice grave.

Link locked eyes with Time, eyes just as serious.

“The Master Sword doesn’t exist. It was shattered twenty years ago.”

#linked universe #chiaroscuro fic #sapphie writes

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goldeaglefire1 · 3 years

Text

so uh

that post I made about OSFE heights is doing well

soooooo I'm going to give y'all some random thoughts on Terra! why Terra specifically? well firstly she's fun to play as, and secondly I ended up generating a lot of thoughts on her at one point for a one shot

more specifically I once attempted to write a OSFE oneshot to try and explain how a Terra pacifist route would work from a story perspective, because the logistics of why this utterly ruthless character would spare everyone and how Terrable is a separate entity in a Terra pacifist route were fascinating to me. buuuuut I never got close to finishing and uploading it before deciding "okay yeah this is way too ambitious honestly" so it's dead in the water

the ideas still bounce around in my head though so might as well get them out

note: the following is all just conjecture and headcanon based on what little lore the game gives us and also the concept documentation (this is where I got the heights from btw) so uh

yeah. also it's under a read more because this post is long as is

- You know that Yami spell you get in the Genocide routes? The one that is ultimately what lets you win against what is very clearly the most powerful being in the OSFE world? Yeah that hypothetical usage wouldn't be the first. For reasons unknown to the general populace, it ended up getting flung into a highly populated city...and whereas in the Genocide route the Yami spell pours all its energy into killing the nigh-unkillable Serif, it didn't have a target that could take that much power on its first use. As such, the result ended up being less of a single-target spell and moreso, uh. Magic death nuke. The ensuing devastation created the area we as players know as the Ruins...and Terra

- See, Terra was a perfectly normal civilian once. Nothing particularly noteworthy about her, just a woman with a well-paying office job. And then she got caught in the aftershock of the Yami spell. To be more specific, Terra was the closest one to the blast to have survived - but not without a few scars. Because for one moment, when she got caught in the aftermath, Terra saw. She saw the deadly and incomprehensible forces that powered the Yami spell. She saw them...and she knew they were hungry. To make matters worse, part of the Yami spell latched on to her, granting her incredible magical power, most notably her Terraform beam

- As you might expect, both of these factors caused Terra to snap. She forgot about her old life and it's mundanities, with who she was losing all meaning to her. All that mattered was what the calamity had made her: Terra, the Unbreakable. Terra, the Conquerer. Terra, Emissary of Death. As the apocalypse rolled around, Terra gathered the sparse few similarly effected by the Yami spell and inducted those similarly-minded (and a few who weren't by force) and became the leader of a fierce and crazed cult, turning into one of the main terrors to be feared by survivors and adventurers alike

- Then she heard about Eden, and in Terra's twisted mind, this little beacon of hope was a threat to her "rule" over the twisted land made by the apocalypse. As such, she set out to conquer the city and turn it into her stronghold...though, upon turning into Terrable in the other pacifist route, this motivation ended up turning into "wipe Eden off the map entirely." Why? Well...

- Terrable, in the context of every pacifist route save for her own, is the corruption of the Yami spell seeping further into her mind, twisting her even further and removing what little inhibitions she had left. See, Terra on her own is exactly what you'd expect from her lines in-game - cold, calculating, ruthless, and very prideful in her control and magical strength. And that last bit has led to Terra absolutely despising the very idea of being pitied. Which, to her, is getting healed after battle (much to her annoyance during the pacifist route), or being spared after being rightfully defeated. And, wouldn't you know it, the latter happens in every pacifist route save for hers! She's not really in a position to retaliate when it happens (one hp and all), so she just leaves without trouble, but the resulting anger and resentment the act causes is enough to give the lingering magic from the Yami spell an opening to get further in and turn her into its merciless agent

- Thankfully, beating Terrable is enough to snap her out of it, and even begin healing and returning back to her old self once she gets into Eden. Speaking of - that is actually fairly close to how a Terra pacifist route goes down! Going into that now...

- During her encounter with the first boss, when Terra has them at her mercy, something they do is enough to trigger a distant connection in the part of her mind buried by the insanity brought on by the Yami spell. And that is enough to get her to hesitate. Not quite realizing what's happening, Terra is able to come up with a reason to spare them, and does such, walking away (though probably planning on killing them later). Then, as her journey continues, more and more of her old self starts to come back, and she starts to lose her murderous urges and the need for dominance and control that once defined her. They don't go away entirely, though. Indeed, the part of her still under the influence of the Yami spell becomes more and more sickened by her continued displays of mercy, and eventually splits off from her entirely, along with a chunk of her magic, resulting in the Terrable that Terra fights at the end of her pacifist route

- Should the player elect to spare Terrable on the Terra pacifist route, Terra decides that she needs to owe up to her actions done while under the influence of the Yami spell, and accepts Terrable as part of her, absorbing Terrable into herself

#one step from eden #osfe terra #rambling

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fireemblems24 · 3 years

Text

Chapter 16 Battle

Below is my random thoughts playing Ch 16. I may or may not have gotten embarrassingly emotional playing a certain route.

I'm playing all 4 routes as my "first route," so please no spoilers beyond this point.

Crimson Flower

As much as I'm absolutely dreading killing Rodrigue and Ingrid, I'm going to relish taking Cornelia out.

My very first move this battle - Felix kills his father. RIP Rodrigue. (Felix used the Crest of Fraldarius first, then crit him. Damn, I hope he's nicer to Ingrid).

Rodrigue and Felix's battle dialogue though :(

Oh, God, Ingrid's chosen to fight for Dimitri till she dies. I'm surprised how upset I am having to fight her. I mean, I always liked Ingrid, but I think I like her more than I even thought I did.

Linhardt just said "is any of this worth it?" Me too right now, buddy, me too.

Time for Felix vs Ingrid. She dodges his bow, then hits his ass with her batallion on EP. I'm proud of her.

God, you have no idea how happy I am that Ingrid called Felix out for betraying everyone - that she didn't forget Glenn. Because, I mean, Felix IS fighting for the team that killed his brother.

His rebuttal was so weak too. "You don't understand." No shit, Sherlock, that's why she asked.

Shit, Ingrid's dead :( that sucked.

God it felt good to kill Cornelia after that.

I really am not ready for Fhirdiad. Ingrid and Rodrigue were hard enough. I'm so not ready for Dedue and Dimitri.

But I think this is my last Crimson Flower level until I'm ready to play the last two back-to-back? I don't know about that. I may just want to get the next chapter over with.

OMG Felix was my MVP. His "motivation" is maxed out after killing daddy and Ingrid and preparing to off Dimitri. That's so cold blooded.

Silver Snow

Time to kill criminally underused dragon lady.

A rare sight - Lysithea having to hit something - twice.

Ok, so does my CF team suck? Or is there a steeper difficulty curve because it's shorter? CF Ch 16 wasn't hard, but everyone in SS is easily killing everything. Like this level is a legit joke to my SS team, but in CF I at least had to be cautious.

You know, I've talked about my SS!Ferdinand before, but my Lysithea and Sylvain are also both absolutely terrifying.

Oh no, Lorenz! He was one of my core SS units 😭(before he betrayed us).

Didn't people say he comes back if I kill him with Byleth or something? Not sure I need him anymore.

Should I? Just? Kill him? Because I can? Or be nice? I'm not even sure killing him with Byleth will work.

Anytime the enemy uses that firey wagon batallion and it misses it's so funny.

Oh, man, Lorenz was told fight for the Empire or die? He sounded so sad about fighting Byleth. I can't not try to spare him after that. Not sure if this is going to work.

OMG OMG IT WORKED! I don't have to kill him!!!! I can't, not after learning he thought he'd die if he didn't join the Empire.

This is the first chapter Ferdinand has actually been dancing. And the second I unleash him, double crits against an armored night. Man is bloodthirsty.

"Defeat boss" when the boss moves and is on a dragon sucks. Because every level is always and forever - route enemy.

Annnnd . . . . that's it. Killed everyone but Ladislava and only Bernie and Anna used their turns, so now it's just a matter how picking who gets the kill.

For the record, Linhardt got the final blow. I always feel bad making him kill, but he needed the experience points so . . .

Seteth just prayed for his enemies 😭

Verdant Wind

I already have Lorenz, so I don't have to "kill" him with Byleth this time.

Oh, wow, Ferdinand's on the map. Didn't see that at first.

Even if he wasn't an enemy commander, I'd kill him. Kill 'em all is just too much fun. I'm also less upset about killing him than I thought I'd be. I thought he'd be a much bigger deal than he actually is. He's a good boi and all, but I'm just not emotionally attached, and I thought I would be.

OMG, Claude. He's like - naw, just kill Acheron. He's a nuisance.

Acheron is really a meme though. He show up in some paralogue (I don't remember) and yeah I don't think we're supposed to take him seriously.

I find it mildly amusing that every noble who sides with Edelgard in the Alliance and the Kingdom either a.) have lands close to the Imperial border or are b.) the corrupt nasties.

Man, I even danced Lorenz so he could reach Acheron and no unique dialogue.

Lysithea is dumb. She one-shotted Ladislava.

Sometimes I think I forget just how hot Claude is.

RIP Ferdinand. At least his dialogue didn't make me feel guilty like Ashe or Ingrid did. His motivation was just inflating his own ego and his petty one-sided rivalry with Edelgard. He grows into a better person if he's recruited.

It's funny the last man standing was the Lorenz replacement lol.

Lorenz was my MVP, seems fitting.

Azure Moon

Alright, so a few people seemed hyped to see my chapter 16 reactions, and nothing worth hyping happened in the other routes (sans killing Rodrigue and Ingrid, but I've already made my feelings known about that). So it's got to be something in AM, but I kind of expected that.

Why does Rodrigue get dialogue, but I don't get to use him as a unit 😔

My AM gameplay every. single. time. Have Dimitri draw as much aggro as possible. End turn.

OMG.

😭😭😭😭😭😭

HE'S BACK.

OMG, Dimitri knows he's alive now. I can't.

OMG he got so hot. That hairstyle is much improvement. And those scars. And he's so tall. I forgot just how tall he is.

OMG he's going to be in the Monastery again. I'm spending every single fricken Professor Point tea timing him.

And all his supports. I finally get to see his A supports. 😭😭

He's got new quotes and everything 😭😭

Dimitri and Dedue fighting side-by-side again. 😭😭

It's been like since December when I last saw Dedue. 😭😭

And his first level up got like 6 points, including speed!

His "I will Break You!" quote is INTENSE.

Oh, right, Lorenz. I'll try to kill him with Byleth. Should be easy. My AM!Byleth is a pegasus knight so.

Lorenz's battle quote is so much more polite than Ferdinand's. I know I want to do a "kill em all" but I just can't after hearing Lorenz say that.

I am DYING to see what Dimitri and Dedue's dialogue is, but it's 12:13am, and I still haven't showered, and I gotta get up at 6am for work 😭😭

OMG lol looking at these. Everything else is so organized and AM's is just crying emojis and Dedue gushing.

#StanDedue 😭😭

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem 3 houses #fe3h #fe16 #😭😭#dedue molinaro #my boi is back #and he's okay #and hot

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headcanonsandmore · 3 years

Text

“Fell In Love With A Girl”, Chapter Three

Summary: As Ginny and Luna touch down in Brazil, they discover the thrills of Rio itself, but also the dangers awaiting them as the investigation deepens.

Tagging: @cheeseanonioncrisps @lytefoot

~~~~~~~~~~~

Read on FFN. Read on AO3.

~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Ladies and gentlemen, we will be touching down in approximately half an hour. The local time is…’

Ginny dimly opened her eyes. Luna was still dozing softly on her shoulder, and the blonde woman’s weight was gentle and warm.

Yawning, Ginny blinked repeatedly, and wiped the sleepy-dust out of her eyes. She took care not to disturb Luna, but her girlfriend began to rouse herself nonetheless.

‘Morning,’ Ginny whispered, smiling. ‘Slept okay, Lu?’

Luna nodded, smiling shyly back.

‘You have a very comfortable shoulder.’

Ginny chuckled, and intertwined their fingers together.

‘Thanks,’ she said, pressing a quick kiss to Luna’s forehead. The blonde woman’s cheeks dimpled and flushed. ‘You ready for Rio, then?’

‘With you with me,’ Luna replied. ‘I could take on the whole world, Ginny.’

Tonks insisted that they all get to the hotel as soon as possible. MI6 agents had already scoured the place for bugs, and had agreed that the place was safe. However, Remus and Tonks did a precautionary sweep around the rooms before they let Ginny and Luna inside.

After unpacking, Luna and Ginny were escorted by Tonks to a room in the hotel cellar that had been made the base for operations.

Two security guards stood inside, and only let them pass after Tonks nodded at them.

The room was dominated by a large round table, upon which was the paraphernalia of paper, telephones, mobile phones, and even a few computer monitors that Ginny presumed was common for such a mission.

‘So… any developments?’ Tonks asked.

A man stepped forward. He was short, with a scar running over one of his eyes. Unlike the other people around him, he was wearing a bullet-proof vest and seemed unconcerned about his appearance as long as it was protected. A strange tattoo was on his right hand, almost like an eye with a long forked tail.

‘Ha!’ His voice was gruff. ‘We haven’t been just sat around waiting for you lot to turn up. The local indigenous groups have been in contact with us; they’ve been reporting strange activities across the entire Amazon delta for several months, but no-one took them seriously until these burglaries started happening. Typical upper-crust attitude.’

‘Thank you, Sam,’ Remus said, with a long-suffering tone. ‘Have we any idea where the activities are originating from?’

The short man nodded, and slammed his finger down on a point on the map spread across a section of table. It was deep in the rainforest, and seemed only accessible by dirt tracks.

‘A testing facility?’

‘Probably,’ Tonks said. ‘It would certainly explain why all those plants and research were being taken.’

‘Speaking of the plants,’ Remus said, turning to Luna. ‘Ms Lovegood, you said that the Amazonian Octarine-Flame was the species of plant you were being asked about, just before the break-in?’

Luna nodded.

‘Yes,’ she said, taking a step towards the table. ‘I thought it was very strange, since the plant isn’t normally kept domestically in the UK.’

‘Now, that’s a name that keeps cropping up,’ the agent called Sam grunted. ‘The locals we’ve been talking to have mentioned it about three dozen times.’

He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a cigar. He put it in his mouth and was about to light it when Remus gave him a look. From where Ginny was stood, it was clearly a look Remus had gotten used to showing.

‘Sam, please do that outside. You know the fire hazard.’

Sam rolled his eyes, and made for the door.

‘Ginny, Luna; you two should head back upstairs,’ Remus said. ‘We’ll let you know if anything else crops up; you both need some rest before you can think properly.’

‘I’ll take them up,’ Sam muttered. ‘I need to head up that way anyway.’

Ginny shot a look at Tonks, who nodded in approval. Apparently, Sam was trustworthy.

Luna slipped her fingers around Ginny’s, and the two women followed the older policeman out of the room.

‘Er… nice tattoo,’ Ginny offered, pointing at the man’s hand as he struck a match to light his cigar.

Sam smiled. The effect wasn’t much better than when he was frowning, but it was nice to know that even a grizzled man like him could smile.

‘Not a tattoo, but thanks, kid,’ he said, breathing out a large amount of foul-smelling smoke. ‘Got it on the job.’

‘Oh.’

‘These things happen in my line of work,’ he replied, conversationally as they headed up the stairs. ‘Truth be told, I needed to get out of that room.’

‘It is a bit dank, isn’t it.’

‘I’m used to dank, but yeah. Also, it’s almost six and I need to give the family a call. I’ll just see you to your room.’

He did a quick sweep of the room, and then closed the door behind them. Ginny could hear him punching numbers into a phone.

‘Hello Sybil.’ Sam’s voice drifted through the door, sounding far softer than it had done previously. ‘How is everyone back home? Good. Yes, it’s that time… can you put young Sam on?...’

Ginny and Luna had passed out from jetlag more-or-less instantaneously after their heads hit the pillow. Just before she completely lost consciousness, though, Ginny was vaguely aware of… a song about cows? Maybe it was just the jet-lag playing tricks on her. Weird.

When she eventually woke up about… how many hours later? It was the next morning, anyway.

After rousing Luna, the two (plus Tonks) grabbed a quick breakfast in the hotel restaurant, before heading to the cellar planning room.

The planning was less fun than Ginny had been expecting. James Bond certainly didn’t need to deal with stuff this dreary, she was certain. Eventually, after struggling through several hours of it, Ginny had to stifle a yawn.

‘Er, sorry,’ Tonks said, shooting her a sympathetic look. ‘I know this is a bit stuffy.’

‘No, it’s fuu-fuuu-fiiiine,’ Ginny replied, trying to disguise another yawn behind her hand. ‘I’m just…’

Luna interlaced their fingers together.

‘You don’t need me for a while, so how about me and Ginny go back to our room?’

Remus nodded.

‘I’ll escort you both back upstairs,’ Tonks said. ‘Sam, let us know if anything happens.’

Sam nodded, the scar on his hand seeming to glow in the half-light. But Ginny blinked, and it was just a normal scar again. Strange.

Still holding Ginny’s hand, Luna pulled her girlfriend out of the room. Tonks followed, at a distance.

‘You’re too much of a trooper,’ Luna said, smiling. ‘Ginny, just tell me if you’re getting bored.’

‘Didn’t want to be rude,’ Ginny mumbled. ‘It’s important stuff.’

‘So is you not feeling bored out of your mind,’ replied Luna. ‘How about we get some fresh air?’

Luna pulled Ginny out of the front lobby, and onto the streets. Ginny shot a nervous look back at Tonks; surely this was a security issue?

But Tonks instead smiled and gave a small, almost imperceptible, wink. Taking strength from this, Ginny looked back at Luna.

‘Come on, we’re in Rio!’ Luna said, squeezing her girlfriends hand. The blonde woman was giggling, happily, as the two of them set off.

The streets around them were vibrant and full of people. Stalls bustled with all manner of sounds and smells. People were laughing, yelling, and chatting to each-other all around them. There was the sound of traffic nearby, as Luna had led them down what seemed to be a pedestrianised street. Or, at least, a street where there were too many people to let cars and motorbikes through. Looking around, Ginny couldn’t see Tonks anyway, but there were so many nationalities and ethnicities present that no-one took much notice of the two women. The phrase “hiding in plain sight” was apt. She guessed they would be okay like this, at least for a little while.

‘Drink?’ Luna asked, as they approached a cafe. ‘My treat?’

The two of them ordered two coffees and sat down at a table. From what Ginny could gather, the radio was playing a Brazilian band called Fresno.

Luna lounged back in her seat, and Ginny couldn’t help her heart beating faster as she looked at the blonde. Man, her girlfriend was so lovely. It still blew Ginny’s mind that, of all people, Luna had wanted to be with a plain redhead from the country like her.

‘Ginny, you’re making me blush,’ Luna giggled, her cheeks flushing.

‘Can’t help it,’ Ginny said, stroking her hand. ‘You’re really cute. Your girlfriend must be really lucky.’

Luna nodded.

‘As must be yours.’

It was Ginny’s turn to blush.

‘I… I’m really glad you’re here, Ginny,’ Luna said, intertwining their fingers together. ‘This has been really wonderful.’

Ginny felt her heart ache with love for the blonde.

‘You two didn’t half give us the run-around.’

Ginny felt her stomach squirm with guilt. Turning, she saw that Tonks had sat down on a table nearby. Out of the corner of her eye, she could also see Remus stood a few metres further away, somehow managing to blend into the crowd despite himself.

‘Er… sorry, Tonks,’ Ginny said. ‘Honestly, it was my fault, I shouldn’t have gotten so bored earlier…’

‘As long as you’re both safe,’ Tonks replied. ‘Besides, you’re young and in love. I… I guess I can understand that.’

Tonks’s eyes drifted over to wear Remus was stood. His mousy brown hair was reflecting the sunlight.

Sounds about right, Ginny thought.

The three of them left the café. They were about to return to the hotel, when Ginny heard a very familiar noise.

Turning, she saw that a basketball had rolled over the pavement towards her. She stopped it with her foot, and picked it up.

A group of young Brazilian children and teenagers were stood a few feet away, a court behind them.

Basketball!

‘Oh, I know that look.’

Ginny turned. Luna was smiling at her, a very knowing look in her large grey eyes.

‘Sorry, I know we can’t-’

‘Ginny Weasley, since when do you avoid stuff you want to do?’

Ginny stared at her.

‘Come on,’ Luna said, encouragingly. ‘Tonks, she can; right?’

‘I… oh, alright,’ Tonks said, sounding a little exasperated. ‘But try not to stand out, okay?’

Ginny nodded, and walked over to the court, bouncing the ball on the ground as she did.

The kids stared at her, raising their eyebrows. Ginny imagined that seeing some random British tourist using the ball like a pro was a bit perplexing. Especially a tourist who had bright red hair and was barely five and a half feet tall.

Ginny grinned, and performed one of her little tricks, sending the ball up round her shoulders and back down on the ground again, before passing it between her hands.

The kids giggled, now smiling.

Darting forward, Ginny dodged several of them, and headed towards the hoop at one end of the court. Onlookers were starting to grin and clap. The kids were laughing as they tried to keep up with her.

Ginny looked over to wear Luna was stood. She winked at the blonde.

Ginny then jumped, latching onto the hoop and dropping the ball through it in a slam dunk. The crowd cheered.

As Ginny landed, the teenagers surrounded her, cheering and slapping her companionably on the back. She couldn’t understand what most of them were saying, but a couple of older kids exclaimed ‘bravo!’.

After the group had disbursed, Ginny returned to where Luna was stood with Tonks.

‘What was that about “not standing out”?’

‘Er…’

‘Don’t worry, it was good to see you having fun,’ Luna said. ‘Not to mention looking very attractive while you do it.’

Ginny blushed. She smiled around at the kids.

But something caught her eye. Or.. someone.

A figure was stood in a small alleyway between two buildings. They were dressed in black, with large sunglasses obscuring most of their face.

‘Tonks, do you…’

But the figure had disappeared before Ginny could point them out.

They returned to the hotel. Tonks took up her usual spot outside Ginny and Luna’s room, and the blonde florist closed the door, turning to face her girlfriend.

‘Well, that was… fun.’ Ginny said, stood by the bed.

‘Oh, definitely,’ Luna said, crossing the room and putting her arms around Ginny’s waist. ‘Have I mentioned you look great when you’re all sweaty from basketball?’

‘Y-you may have mentioned it once or twice…’ Ginny breathed, as Luna began to place kisses on her neck. ‘But my memory isn’t the best…’

��Well, maybe I should remind you, in that case…’

Luna placed a kiss against Ginny’s lips, and the two of them fell backwards onto the bed.

Ginny smiled against Luna’s lips. It was a good afternoon.

‘Your hair is so pretty.’

Ginny giggled, as Luna played with a strand of her hair.

‘It’s just red hair, Lu.’

‘Correction; it’s your red hair. Therefore, it’s very pretty.’

‘Oh, stop it,’ Ginny giggled, sitting up and pulling her t-shirt over her head. ‘You’re got a bit of a crush.’

‘You say that like I’m the only one.’

Ginny felt herself blush, and smiled to herself as she did up the belt on her shorts.

‘I’m just gonna talk to Tonks about something; be back in a mo.’

‘Okay, but hurry back,’ Luna said, putting her own t-shirt and shorts on. ‘We need to go downstairs and talk to Remus about any updates they’re received.’

‘Course,’ Ginny replied, pressing a quick kiss to Luna’s forehead. The blonde smiled.

Ginny closed the door behind her, and walked over to Tonks, who was stood a couple of feet away.

‘Are you absolutely sure that we weren’t followed?’ Ginny asked, after Tonks had finished talking into her ear-piece. ‘I could have sworn I saw someone looking at us in the café.’

Tonks frowned.

‘I don’t think so, but it’s always good to be cautious. Get Luna and we’ll head downstairs to-’

CRASH!

Ginny’s blood suddenly turned to ice, as she turned round. The door of the room she had just vacated had shaken on its hinges.

There was a cry of alarm from inside. It sounded like-

‘Luna!’ Ginny screamed, barging through the door. Tonks was a step behind, yelling into her own earpiece.

The room was a mess. The window had been smashed, and the chest of drawers had been knocked over.

Luna was gone.

Ginny stumbled forward, through the debris.

As she reached the bed, she saw that a piece of paper had been left on the pillow. It was written in English.

If you want the Lovegood woman alive, leave South America immediately, and stop the investigation into the rare plant thefts. Stay out of our business. This is your only warning.

There was a symbol scrawled at the bottom, of a skull with a snake intertwined through the eyes.

Ginny fell to her knees, as MI6 agents swarmed into the room. Sam was cursing angrily, while Remus and Tonks were scrambling to figure out what was going on. There was yelling and loud noises around her, but Ginny found that they appeared to be reaching her as if from a great distance. The world around her turned into a blur of muddled voices and sounds.

For the first time in a very long time, tears began to fall from the redheads eyes, and her body was racked with sobs.

She’d broken her promise. She hadn’t been able to protect Luna. And how Luna was gone.

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Thanks for reading, everyone; hope you enjoyed the chapter!

And eagle-eyed viewers may have been able to spot the cameo from a certain character not normally seen on our roundworld. I couldn't resist putting old Stoneface into this fic. 😁

#'fell in love with a girl'#linny au #alternative universe #linny #linny fanfiction #linny fanfic #florist!luna #florist au #basketball player!ginny #luna/ginny #luna x ginny #ginny/luna #ginny x luna #not sure how but this turned into a sort-of-crossover with discworld #sam vimes cameo

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Amphibia Weekly Reviews: Bessie and Mircroangelo/The Third Temple “The Things We’ve Set into Motion Cannot Be Stopped”

Hello all you happy people. It’s been a long road, with an even longer road trip, but the season’s almost over: just two more weeks of Amphibia.. and with all the build up weighing down on our heroes two things are clear: this cannot end well for Anne or anyone involved, and this is going to hurt. It’s going to hurt a LOT. it’s going to be some...

... how have I not used more MST3K gifs. Questions for later. Point is with emotional pain immient, a revolution on the way this episode only ratchets up the tension.. while also sparing some time for makeover jokes and a breather episode about snail mentorships, fashion montages and giant crabs. I do love me some giant crabs. And i’ll tell you allllll about it under the cut.

Bessie and MicroAngelo:

This episode finds our heroes preparing for the third and final temple, loading up the wagon and preparing weapons, maps, potions, all that good stuff.

We end up getting two plots out of this. The first is the titular one: so Polly can help prepare, Hop Pop gives Bessie the task of watchin gher snail and certified cutie MicroAngelo, that tiny Snail who I assumed would disappear forever after his intitial apperance because that’s usually what cartoons does. But much like One Piece, Al Ewing and that owl what watches me while I sleeps, Amphibia never forgets.

It’s some Looney Tunes style shenanigans.. not the bugs or daffy, more on him later today, kind more the “Bigger more responsible party protects the smaller more vunerable or reckless one” kind you’d see eveyr so often. Tom and Jerry also really loved this. And Amphibia wears it well, with some good gags and really cute bonding and some really excellent animation on Bessie, giving the old girl plenty of life and animation. The only part I genuinely do not like is Hop Pop blaming Bessie for.. running after micro angelo afte rhe ran off. Aka doing the job you assigned her.

Someone i’m looking at. Regardless otherwise it’s just some fun, adorable slapstick with a downright precious ending. And hop pop DOES apologize.. and wish he was a cute snail. I do not have time to unpack all the implications there nor ponder what Hop Pop would look like in a snail costume. This week’s given my brain enough nightmares.

So anyway, our subplot has Marcy trying to give Anne a Makeover... and her past attempts with Sasha have been objectively horrifying so Anne is rightly scared, though the armorer who comes to help with it has a blue crab so tha’ts where all my attention. I fucking love crabs.. they just look so neat. Some see the fact a spider crab being out and about in animal crossing as horrifying. I see it as oh look at my cool terrifying crab friend. About the only crab I don’t like is this asshole.

And even then he can be VERY funny. .he’s just also an exploitative douchebag and having worked in food service, let me tell you I.. I get why Squidward is the way he is. That said Krabbyland is a masterpiece entirely because he’s such a terrible person, so it ballances out when the show’s doing it’s best.

Point is I like crabs and I like this subplot.. though mostly because it says a LOT about who Anne and Marcy are and where there at. Part of why Marcy is so gung ho about helping Anne is she figures this is her last shot to be whoever she wants to be. But really she’s just projecting: it’s been obvious since we properly met her that Marcy.. likes living HERE more than earth. On earth she’s an outcast: her hyperfixations, her tendency to babble about things she likes, her smartness... alll things that just make people turn away from her or pick on her on earth, with only two people relaly understanding and appricating her.. maybe more but we don’t know the situation with her parents yet. As someone who is a lot of those things, I get where she’s coming from.

So ending up in a world straight out of an rpg... she florished. Everything that made her life difficult at home suddenly made her florish: her skill with RPG’s meant she could blend in easily with the courtly high class of Newtopia, gave her a love of taking on missions, and allowed her to put her hyperfixation, knowledge and enthusasim to real world use, creating massive improvments in an already ritzy city. Everything that made her an outcast in our world made her a hero there. It’s why I worry about what’s to come: to both Grime and Andrias.. she’s the perfectly made pawn: too desperate to have Sasha back to see the kinfe he wants her to plant in Marcy’s, and too happy to be accepted to see the rpg convention, the benevolent ruler turning out ot be a puppet for the big bad, starring her in the face. Amphibia’s given her her freedom.. but it’s also left her very vunerable and may leave her alone.

As for Anne.. she realizes how far she’s come: from selfish and kind of distructive to selfless and self reliant.. and still kind of destructive but hey, you can’t cahnge eveyrthing about yourself. It’s why when given heavy armor.. all she needs is the core of it.. something simple to guard her but nothing too complex. She’s fine with who she is.. and it’s why she’s in the best place of the three girls. And why she’s left smack in the middle of the war to come. A war she can’t stop and that will leave her having to choose one... or do the right , hard thing and choose neither and try and free them from the bad influences they’ve embded themselves in. Either way this is going to hurt both her and the audience.

Final Thoughts: Bessie and Mircoangelo is good classic cartoon fun with a suprisingly deep subplot. Simple, but a nice pallete clensar, especially since the next episode is pretty tense and given it’s ending and eveyrthing that’s been building this season, it’s likely only going to get worse from here, so it’s nice to have a quick and breezy break before hell comes to frogtown.

The Third Temple:

Before we get to the final temple we get a flashback showing how Sasha met Anne and Marcy. The other two were playing on the swings when two big dillholes pushed them off and Sasha selflessly and fearlessly stood up to them. And promptly beat herself up more than the bullies who dodged her and eventually got so freaked out by whatever the hell this was they ran and a friendship was born. But noticably she’s a lot diffrent 7 years ago, aproximately, than she is at 13: she’s every bit as fearless and willfull.. but the compassion she once had got buried under a need for control. It’s easy to see now WHY Marcy and Anne loved her so much: she was their friend, their protector, she cared about them.. and while she never STOPPED somewhere along the way it became less about doing the right thing for the women she loves and more about getting her way.

And now the two have had time to heal from what their friend girlfriend became.. it’s time to rip that wound wide open as finally, after almost a season of waiting, Sasha reunites with Marcy for the first time and Anne for the second.

Naturally her return is in time for her gem to be charged, though our heroes unware of that didn’t seek her out before going in. This time Frobo’s riding claw though weirdly dosen’t come inside. Which is a problem with Frobo’s addition to the cast as the whole: they’ve kept him out of any episode since his induction into the family and only properly explained it once. It just dosen’t make a lot of sense to me; Yes he is massively powerful but his childlike thought process counters that. He’s easy enough to write in but is left out becasue the writers don’t want to deal with an extra character. And I had more than enough of that shit when watching Ducktales. I don’t need it when your main cast isn’t NEARLY as large or hard to juggle. It’s just galling to have spent an entire season showing he was following them, give him a whole episode.. and then just forget about him because i’ts convient. Hopefully he’ll play a bigger role as things progress and we find out where he came from because his misuse is a dark spot on an otherwise great second half of the season.

Frobo does get to prove himself useful though and open s the temple door he just weirdly dosen’t come along. But this does leave the door open for Sasha to come in as our heroes struggle with the first puzzle: Turns out this dungeon was built by a bro, seriously the temple languge is very broey and VERY hilarious contrasted with how normal for a fantasy setting the others were, as is fitting the strength gem, so our heroes have to compete feats of strength. Unfortunately this does not mean wrestling the ghost of Jerry Stiller to the ground but instead fighting some Lava Worms, and fighting just ONE of them and lifting the provided warhammers is a challenge for Anne.. and she’s the only one who can with Marcy not having enough upper body stregnth and the plantars all de-hydrated spongebob style.

So naturally Sasha ends up being their savor, easily dispatching them and getting some help from grime who while also dehydrated, is still phsycially strong enough to be of some help. Marcy is overjoyed to see her.. and is the only one. Given Marcy hasn’t been on the wrong end of Sasha and Grime like they have, it’s understandable: while Marcy’s grappled with Sasha’s actions and grip on her and Anne, it’s been clear it hasn’t hit her as hard as it has for Anne and she likely dosen’t get the full scope of it like Anne does. To her Sasha just made a mistake and she’s back now and tha’ts what matters. To Anne and the Plantars... sasha and grime tried to kill them and Sasha then tried commiting suciide to save them. The scars of that haven’t really healed for them, nor should they.

And given Sasha has spent the season clearly blamiing everything on Anne defying her and has been raising an army based on her resentment, and given she flew into a jealous blinding rage at finding her exes were fine and dandy without her she.. wholheartdly apologizes.

Yeah she apologizes.. but tellingly while she talks about her and Grime being left homeless following the battle.. she leaves out everything after: The fight with Yuan, the growing rebellion, driving her friends away, the horrifying army Grime now commands. Something’s off.

Anne naturally dosen’t trust her to do this herself and insists on coming along sitll. The next task is juts.. asking how much you lift bro, which Sasha easily passes by lifting, bro.

The final test in Jim Crunch’s Temple of Fitness, I mean who else could’ve wrote this, is of course a big fight with a giant statue of a toad, fitting how each temple so far was built by one of the civlizations: there were frog statues and symbols in the first temple, the second was guarded by a newt and the last now has a toad guard.Though curiously.. the test itself is wholly designed for a human. Before it wasn’t 100% clear even with the hyroglyps if the chosen ones had to be human or not.. but now it’s impossible to argue otherwise. There were hints : The fact the guardian pegged her as a possible chosen one on sight , the ruins in the background of the title cards which also depict the watcher with a thousand eyes (which is what i’ll be calling him till we get his, her , they or it’s actually name. ).. but here the chamber includes a gravity increase dbz style, meaning our heroines are the only ones who can stand as the Plantars and Grimes frog and toad bodies respectively aren’t strong enough to stand anymore. And while Marcy tries it ends up falling on Anne and Sasha with Sasha being Angry Anne doesn’t trust her.. and Anne not refuting it, pointing out she has EVERY REASON not to. As she puts it “it’s not just toad tower”. For most of their lives Sasha has been controlling, caring about what she wants and not what the people she loves wants. It wasn’t just the fight there... it was simply the wakeup call to how bad a person Sasha had been.

And for the first time in the episode.. Sasha is geniune, apologizing for what she did, and genuinely admitting how she treated Anne wasn’t wrong. it was something she coudln’t admit to herself episodes ago.. but faced with both loosing two more people due to her behavior, and having plenty of time to reflect on said behavhior.. she finally relaizes it’s her. Fuck man.. what else is there to say.

Oh right the giant monster thing, which Anne trusts Sasha to finish.. and we get anothe rDBZ homage as Sasha removes part of her armor, which creates a CRATER, which lowers her weight enough to fight the thing. She gets a thumbs up and the honor of recharging it.

Anne suggests opening the box.. but Marcy is VERY quick to shoot that down and suggest talking to the king. And while her reason SOUNDS good,, they don’t want to get warped somewhere ELSE at random.. it’s very clear from her actions and how quick she tried to stop it that she needs them to get to Andrias for whatever he’s talked her into. And I emphasis talked her into: Marcy trusts the king, and was in a very emotional place when he was about to talk to her at the end of season 2a... and he knew it. He knew she was at her most vunerable, most malable and trusted him completely.. and knew right then and there was his shot at getting vengance.. for him and his master. Whatever he has planned.. it’s not good. The mechancial lovecraftian horror he keeps in his creepy basement full of lost souls is a dead giveaway from that. But I don’t.. fault Marcy for it. It’s not just because I sympahtize.. to her Andrias is a good noble king trying to help her. He’s the kindly mentor she always wanted, a person who enjoys her skills dosen’t care how much she talks and has complete faith in her, something even Anne struggles with.

But it’s VERY clear, to me at least he’s been likely using her from the moment they met: to her sh’es just an optomistic pawn, someone gullible enough to do whatever he says. I’ve always felt that her “missions” probably had some darker purpose she wasn’t aware of: getting Andrias things he needs for his army, an army she has no idea is opressing people. She’s insulated from that and instead surronded by adoring people who accept her for once. Even going to wartwood, she hasn’t yet made the connection between the toad towers and what their purpose is. I think deep down she might suspect this stuff.. but she can’t ACCEPT that the one person who every had nothing but faith in her.. is a horrible person who opresses others and somehow has even WORSE plans in store.

Sasha likewise is facing the pressure of her parental figure.. while her patching it up with Anne was legitmate... her and Grime’s own plans rely on getting in there and Grime simply sees the other two as pawns , and just like the king he wants he wants to overthrow, their use expires once his plans in motion.

But the thing is.. it’s clear despite assuring Grime she’s still all in.. her face in the last shot, as seen above.. says otherwise. Her apology was legitmate, not just an attempt to get close to the one thing in her way of power, but what she’s come to realize: she’s gone from blaming Anne for it.. to realizing it was her. But she’s also stuck: while Marcy is unaware of the strings her pupeteer is pulling her towards.. Sasha is all too aware of what her mentor is planning. And the thing was she was all too willing to go for it. She blamed Anne for what happened at the tower, blamed Anne for turning marcy against her and blamed the plantars and co for turning anne against her. But in the harsh light of day... none of that’s true. Marcy dosen’t hate her, neither does anne, they didn’t turn against her.. they were just tired of her shitty behavior and wanted the friend they found that day on the playground back, the woman they loved who’d go to hell and back for someone and not the bitter, manipultive person she became. She’s once again realized it was her fault.. the question is if that’s enough for her to do the right thing or not. And the hardest question of all is IF not reblling isn’t the right thing. Wfhile the Toad’s probably shoudln’t be in charge either, Andrias REALLY shouldn’t. There’s NO easy answers here, no happy outcome that makes everyone live’s better. There’s no easy way out, no shortcut home.. just the louder and louder drumbeats of war and one girl’s decision of whose side she’s going to take.

Final Thoughts on the Third Temple: As with the other four sasha episodes thus far, this was frogging brilliant. Shoudln’t be a suprise and it makes me both look forward and dread the war to come

Next Week: The plantars try to bury the hatchet with Sasha and Grime, the girls enter a battle of the bands, and the finale comes ever closer.

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#amphibia #the third temple #bessie and microangelo #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #bessie amphibia #microangelo #hopidiah plantar #sprig plantar #polly plantar #bro

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