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pm-my-hubbies · 4 years

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Who Are You Talking To | C.E

Summary: Reader is fed up with Chris not spending time with her on her week-long break.

Pairing: Chris Evans x Black!Reader

Word Count: 1.8k

Warning(s): None!

A/N: I accidentally shared this through my personal account! I apologize for any confusion if I tagged you the first time!

Chris was ecstatic when I informed him of the dates for my Fall Break.

He planned out everything we would do together. From planting a blanket in the middle of a park for a lovely picnic to strolling through farms for a pumpkin to carve and sit on our porch. He did all of that.

Yet he’s one strike away from me slapping the shit out of him. He’s been blowing me off every second and I’m due to return for work in two days. We hadn’t done any of what he promised we would accomplish together weeks ago. Instead, he handled work business downstairs for the first part of the day and followed that up with indulging in his own hobbies. I wasn’t a part of any of it.

To add on to it, his Zoom sessions weren’t successful and that prompted him to radiate negativity. Dinner time consisted of him giving me short answers or grunts and through it all, I remained optimistic. I figured being positive and not calling him out on his behavior right then would flip a switch in him to acknowledge how he was acting towards me but nothing happened.

My feet connected with the cold wooden flooring, goosebumps rising on the parts of my body that were exposed because of the tank top and pajama shorts I wore. The clock read 11:54 p.m. I’m praying Chris let Dodger out for the last time this evening.

The volume of the television in the living room increased the closer I dragged my feet to where I presumed he would be resting. Turning the corner, Dodger was the first one I spotted as he slept soundly on his stuffed animal right by the entrance to the room. Chris, on the other hand, watched CNN on blast as if he was an old man struggling to hear; his arms were folded across his chest while he laid on his side and blankly stared at the bright screen.

I rolled my eyes at the absurdity of my week spent at home. “Chris.” I called in a firm voice that was loud enough for Dodger to only blink his eyes open and instantly travel back to Dreamland.

My boyfriend only shifted his gaze to look at me. “Hm?”

“Did you let Dodge out one last time?”

“Mm-mm.”

Breathe Y/N, breathe. I let out a soft sigh as I bent down to gently shake the canine awake. “Dodger, honey. Let’s go outside.” I knew from Chris’ response he wouldn’t be letting our dog out anytime soon. The man would probably drag himself down the hall to bed as the sun rose for a new day.

Dodger simply obeyed my soft command by standing and putting on a show of dramatically stretching. As we made our way towards the back door right behind my miserable boyfriend, I made sure to cut my brown eyes at his lounging figure and hoped he could feel my glare.

Once again, my skin tingled as the cool night air caressed my legs and arms. To keep myself warm, I folded my limbs across my chest, rocking on the balls of my feet. My eyes managed to follow Dodger’s sniffing silhouette in the darkness but as soon as he began the squat for a number two, I looked away.

By now, Chris had shut off the loud tv. Finally.

“I thought you said we would be hanging out for my Fall Break?” I questioned with my back facing him as I kept my eyes on the dog.

“What?”

“I thought you wanted to hang out with me for my break. Week-long, might I add.”

“We are.”

“No we’re not, Chris. And you know it.” I sighed as I moved to slide the door closed but ceased my movement to leave an opening for Dodger in case he finished early. With my hands on my hips, I rotated around to stare down Chris. “You’ve spent every single day downstairs taking care of business with A Starting Point and work, which I have no problem with. It’s what you do afterwards that bothers me. Barely talking to me or not at all and then you sit down here to do whatever. I was trying to be positive and give you your space but now—”

“But now your little feelings are hurt, right?” he snapped. “You’re hurt because I can’t devote 100% of my attention to you on your little break? News flash: everything isn’t about you, Y/N. So, stop your whining and actually think about what I’m going through.”

This would’ve shattered a younger version of myself. But after years of reflection, I realized I was always given the opportunity to fight back instead of wallowing in my tears.

First, I glanced to my left. Then to my right. No sign of life. I grimaced at my boyfriend. “You must not be talking to me.” I indicated with a point towards my chest. “You must be talking to this goddamn wall.” I sassed, jabbing my thumb to the wall behind me.

Suddenly, for the first time in the year Chris and I have been together, his eyes were size of saucers as it dawned on him what he’d done. And how I responded.

Tonight, was his first time taking his anger out on me. Yes, we’ve had our arguments, but those moments were different. This happened to be the time where the world was against Chris and rather than rely on me to comfort him (as I usually would), he was victimizing himself. He probably expected my body to rack with sobs at the harshness of his words, but I was through with that shit tonight.

“Since you wanna pull a Karen on me, your ass can sleep on the couch tonight.” I punished him. In that moment, I felt the softness brushing against my legs. Dodger was finally in. I pulled the door closed all the way this time and locked it. “Come on Dodger, your dad is being an asshat. You can sleep with me.”

Chris was frozen in his spot as the both of us moved past him. I made sure to give him a little bump on the way with my shoulder.

While waiting for Dodger to grasp his animal in his mouth, I observed him throw Chris a quick glance as if telling him that he fucked up. Funnily enough, our dog was the first to exit the scene and hold his head high as he trekked to the bedroom.

“I’m locking that fucking door tonight. Don’t even try it. You made your bed, now lay in it.” I dictated.

~*~

Surprisingly, I slept like a baby. Maybe it’s because I finally said something to Chris about his behavior lately. The previous nights, he would slumber away while I laid awake wondering if we would even spend time together before I headed back to work. Calling him out felt right.

I took care of my morning routine before unlocking the bedroom door and calling for Dodger to wake up. What I didn’t expect on the other side was the tray we roll out for sick days to be standing in front of the door.

Dodger was planning on being difficult as he hadn’t moved from his spot. This gave me ample time to study the tray with a covered meal placed on top and a horizontally folded card with my name scribbled on it.

“You were right last night. I have been distant throughout your break and I’m sorry for ruining the plans I promised. It’s a short amount of time left with you but we’re going to get started early. Eat the breakfast I made for you and then freshen up by putting on your favorite dress. Meet me at the car by 11.”

I chuckled at the message but decided to follow his set of instructions, nonetheless.

~*~

As promised, Chris drove us to the pumpkin patch further away from where we lived for more privacy and intimate time together. We spent the whole ride discussing last night’s events and catching up on the conversations we were meant to have throughout my week in our house. When he parked the car, he suggested we snap as many couple selfies but made sure to emphasize the idea of him taking pictures of me.

“They’re for my phone.” He lied through his teeth as I raised a brow at his idea.

The truth: Chris yearned to share pictures of me on his Instagram. At least half of his feed consisted of me, Dodger, or nature and rarely ever himself. I worried he would lose followers for never updating them on how he was doing but he dismissed my worries with a kiss to my forehead and a, “It’ll be fine, who cares?”

For a while, we explored the farm with our hands linked and eyes moving about at the pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. It wasn’t until we’d reach the halfway point did I realize we didn’t have an exact clue as to which type of pumpkin we were searching for.

“I was thinking one of those big, tall pumpkins.” Chris answered after I asked him what our goal was.

“The ones that look like an orange squash?”

“Yeah.”

“Why…?”

“I don’t know, I’ve always wanted one.” He shrugged. His face held a gentle look of content.

“Well, if a squash-lookin’ pumpkin is what my big baby wants, then a squash-lookin’ pumpkin is what he shall get.”

Chris released my hand to wrap it around my waist and pull me closer to him. I felt my cheeks heat up as he placed a kiss to the crown of my head. After all this time together, he still managed to have me acting like a schoolgirl that somehow caught the attention of her longtime crush.

“Thank you baby.” He answered. “I know I already said this twice; through the note and in the car. But, I’m truly sorry for how I acted last night and the days before that. I was stupid in bottling everything up and not confiding in you like I normally do. Doesn’t justify any of what I said last night but I figured you had a lot on your plate and didn’t want to bother you with my own.”

I paused my walking to glance up at him with what I hoped was love in my eyes. “Chris, you could never bother me. As a couple, we talk to each other. Even if we’ve got problems of our own at the same time? I want you to come to me and I come to you so we can figure things out.” I stood on my toes to press a kiss to the underside of his jaw due to his towering figure. “I love you and accept your apology.

“I love you too.”

“You better. Because my ass wouldn’t be helping you find that ugly pumpkin to make you happy.”

“Hey!” he pouted before I shut him up with a kiss.

Taglist: @chaneajoyyy @daddyslittlecaptain @tantricevans @liquorlaughslove @nina-skyee @pinkgirlinablueworld @norababora @bakarilennox @rubyy98

#chris evans #chris evans one shot #chris evans x reader #chris evans x black reader #chris evans x woc reader #chris evans x you #chris evans x y/n #chris evans x female reader

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tailorvizsla · 4 years

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You didn't think I wouldn't ask for some Boba Fett though now did you? (Of course not, he is the new shiny for me iuwhei) ✨ HC Of my Choice... What about having your first kiss with Boba and he doesn't #know it is your first one till part-way through or after? Am I projecting? Yes, yes I am.

Title: HC – Boba Fett and First Kiss Pairing: Gender neutral Reader x Boba Fett Word Count: ~1700 Rating: PG-13 Warnings: Boba Fett is a grumpy bastard, but you hold your own against him. Boba also gets injured, but there aren’t any graphic descriptions of the injuries. Author’s Notes: Okay, my Angle, I’ve been thinking about this one for as long as it’s been sitting in my inbox. I’m not familiar with Boba Fett’s character, so I wanted to make sure this was good for you. So, without further ado, here we go with the Big Green Grumpy Jerk who has somehow inexplicably charmed his way into my heart with a few gruff comments.

Tagging @princessbatears because chaos? :>

📚 My Master List 📚

Boba Fett isn’t a man of many words. It’s not that he’s shy or anything – he just doesn’t like talking to people beyond what is necessary. He has worked alone his entire life, so the sound of others’ voices just sort of grates on him. He especially does not like being crowded by people.

So, one day, while doing his thing, he ends up injured. It’s not even due to combat. His jetpack just…sputters out. His beskar’gam turns what should have been a fatal fall into a very painful one. He knows he has broken a lot of bones, but Boba refuses to die like this. He crawls his way back to his bike, calls for medical aid, and prays to the Maker that someone in town will come help him.

You are the only person who does come to help him. Most other people are too afraid of the Imperial remnants to work with a Mandalorian. Others are too afraid of Mandalorians to work with a Mandalorian. You? You are not afraid of much. He is not sure if you are brave or stupid. After splinting the worst of the damage, you get him onto the bike and get him back into town. It is at this point that Boba finds himself leaning toward thinking you are stupidly caring and trusting.

You inject him with bacta – the good kind that makes him giggly, sleepy, and numb – and get to work. When he wakes up, he’s wrapped in an annoying number of casts and splints, but at least he’s still alive. However, you then give him the bad news: the fall has damaged many of the delicate nerves in his back. If he fails to undergo physical therapy, there is a real chance he may never walk again. He’s no medical expert, but when he looks at the scans you took, he knows you aren’t lying.

So, Boba resigns himself to having to deal with you on a regular basis. The first physical therapy exercises are simple, yet they exhaust him to the point where he just passes out. As the days go by, he starts putting up the walls to keep you out. (Spoiler alert: you manage to find your way through the cracks in the wall, annoying him with barely any effort on your behalf.)

Now, under ideal circumstances, this shitshow would end with Boba Fett getting back on his feet, paying you handsomely for the amount of time you have spent getting him put together, and going back to bounty hunting, never to think of you again. But of course, the universe throws an even bigger wrench into his carefully thought-out plans. Someone finds out that you’re taking care of him and a whole bunch of angry townspeople converge on your little clinic. He grabs you and the two of you run. The last thing you see is your clinic going up in flames. (Boba can’t believe the shortsightedness of these people – they’ve driven off their only competent medical professional. What are they going to do next? Kill their only competent mechanic? Di’kute, every last one of them.)

And so, the two of you go off on a merry adventure, annoying the absolute shit out of each other on a regular basis. Boba especially is concerned at how easily you have managed to find every single weak point in his defenses – physical, mental, and emotional. You are a fair shot with your blaster, so when he got fresh with you that one time, telling you that your ass looked downright edible in the trousers you had borrowed from him, you drew your blaster and fired a shot off at his feet. He laughed so hard his bucket nearly fell off. (You are not sure if you are disturbed that he finds being shot at amusing. He does scold you a bit, but you do notice that he does not talk about your ass anymore.)

With your knife? You’re lethal, and he learns that the hard way when he fails to announce his presence behind you. One moment Boba is reaching to touch your shoulder and the next moment, he’s got your elbow in his face and your penknife embedded in his flak vest. Fortunately, the blade’s too short to cause serious damage, but he does not let you forget that you kriffing stabbed him when he was only trying to ask you what you wanted for dinner.

Even though Boba would rather cover himself in tiingilar sauce and crawl back into the sarlacc pit headfirst than ever admit it, the two of you make a damn good team. He goes off to hunt bounties, you stay in town to provide your medical services for a fair fee. Sometimes, when your services are not needed, you’ll hang back at the ship and do some basic accounting to keep him within his budget.

Boba grumbles when you ask to accompany him on a hunt, but he figures you really do need to learn how to defend yourself if anything should happen to him. When the two of you were surrounded by goons, you naturally fell into place behind him, your back to his, covering his shebs while he provides the heavy firepower. When the numbers are thinned to something more manageable, he sets you loose on them, letting you practice your knife skills. And by the Maker, he is impressed with how much you have improved since the last time you stabbed him.

Between hunts, you get his shebs back into fighting shape. Hell, he thinks he’s even better than he was before. The exercises you insist on forcing on him have made him more flexible than he was before, and his bones no longer creak first thing in the morning. One particularly hot, muggy day, you try to make him drink that vile green vegetable concoction you call a smoothie. Smooth his shebs, there are chunks in that liquefied animal feed. Sometimes he wonders if you’re trying to kill him on purpose.

(You don’t know this, but Boba has already arranged for everything in his possession, ships and banking accounts included, to be transferred to you in the event of his death. Hell, he has even started negotiating with a friendly Tribe to make sure you have a home to go to and your pick of their warriors for marriage, should you be interested. Boba justifies it this way: the last time his jetpack mutinied, he ended up several hundred thousand credits in debt to you by his estimation. By ensuring you have a safe place to go, and a family ready to welcome you, he can offset the immeasurable debt he owes you. It hurts to think of this, but Boba genuinely cannot bear the thought of you being alone in this cruel galaxy, the same way he had been when he was a child. So, if he ever does piss you off to the point where you off him in his sleep, you’ll be fine.)

You keep pushing and pushing, insisting that he needs B-vitamins or some other bantha-shit he’s sure you’ve made up for the sole purpose of annoying him. When you start going on about macronutrients and essential vitamins, Boba loses it. He tosses his cutlery down and goes stomping off toward the cockpit. You follow him, blathering on and on about the last blood panel you had pulled – HDLs, LDLs, and a whole slew of acronyms later, he loses it. Rather than snap at you, he shuts you up the only way his poor sleep-deprived brain can come up with.

Boba pushes you up against the wall, gently to avoid hurting you. You don’t seem at all phased. In fact, you start waving the paper at him as you try to draw his attention to his sodium levels. Boba leans in and presses his lips to yours. You finally stop talking, your entire body going stiff in response. He takes a moment to nibble along your lower lip before parting your lips with his, tongue probing a bit deeper in, and you still aren’t responding. Boba draws back and stares down at you. You’re wide-eyed and clearly in shock.

He leans in again. This time you respond clumsily, your hands clutching at that stupid piece of paper. He gently wrestles it out of your grasp and crumples it up. Then he tosses it over his shoulder, not caring where it lands. He cups the back of your head and deepens the kiss. Still, you’re not responding the way he wants, so he draws back.

“What, never been kissed before?” he asks.

Before he can say anything else, he realizes that that was your first kiss. While Boba has never wanted to be anyone’s First Anything, he realizes that he wants to make an exception for you. There’s no one in this entire galaxy who can annoy the shit out of him in one breath and then worry about his health in the next. You are his little baar’ur. After you have wormed your way under his plating and so selfishly made yourself a fixture in his life without his permission? Oh, no, no, you are not going anywhere.

He cuts off your stammering with another kiss. He takes this one slow, moving your hands to where he wants you to touch him – one at his nape, the other at the small of his back, right over that spot that makes his knees weak.

This time, you respond. Slowly, hesitantly, but as you grow more confident, your hands begin to stray. You worm your fingers up the back of his shirt and dig your nails into the sensitive skin there, making him gasp in pleasure. Then you dig your fingers into his long hair and tug lightly, earning a low growl from him. You freeze and stare up at him with wide eyes until he leans back in.

Fortunately, your big smart science brain learns his likes and dislikes very quickly. When he finally pulls away, he finds that he really likes what he sees – your shirt’s rumpled, your hair is sticking up, and your lips are red and swollen from his kisses. Then and there, he makes a vow to make sure you always look like a mess.

(Spoiler alert: quite a few more of your firsts happen right here in the cockpit.)

#star wars #boba fett #boba fett x reader #boba fett x gender neutral reader #boba fett x you #first kisses #implications about first times #asks #my angle is so good to me #i love this grumpy green butthole already

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mimiswitchywrites · 3 years

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Not A Burden: Chapter 5

TW: SH references, attempted s****de and references, child/s***al a**se references (not graphic but enough that could be triggering). Vague r**e scene at the end.

Master list or read on AO3

2.2k words

If you want to be tagged for updates, message me or comment!

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Lancelot sat on the cot with Miriam (at an appropriate distance, of course) as she ate her soup. She had been in Camelot for a week, most of that time spent sleeping. She would eat and drink some water whenever she woke, and then Gaius would give her a sleeping draught and she would fall into another restless slumber. She was bored of it and Lancelot could tell. If the way she took her time between mouthfuls and asked questions about anything she could think of wasn’t a clear enough sign, the way she exclaimed “I can’t fucking do this anymore” certainly was.

Over the days she had been in the physician’s chambers, the two had talked a lot. She enjoyed his stories of adventures past, and he enjoyed the sarcastic comments she would butt in with. She rarely talked about herself still, and that frustrated him though he did his best to hide this fact. He could understand not wanting to talk about events that brought pain and, if what little he did know of her was anything to go by, most of her life brought her pain.

And so, he decided to help her create new memories that didn’t affect her in such a manner. How he would go about that was still yet to be discovered, but he was determined.

“I have a proposition, if you care to hear it, My Lady?”

The way he referred to her like that still brought a smile to her face. She turned to him, trying to figure out the proposition from the look in his eyes. “We are going to raid the royal vaults?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “You wish to cut replace all of the king’s clothes with common fabric, so he is itching for days?” He laughed harder at this, wondering how long she had been thinking of that one.

“What a cruel woman you are, must I arrest you for scheming against the crown?” She giggled at this – a sweet, melodic sound – and leant against Lancelot’s shoulder, putting her bowl down on the bed. His cheeks warmed and he looked to the wall opposite him, hoping she wouldn’t notice. She didn’t, too caught up in listening to his breathing.

“What was your idea?” She looked up at him and he turned back to her. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes.

As night fell and the castle grew quiet, Miriam sat up. She had rejected Gaius’ offer of another sleeping draught, declaring that she felt she could sleep on her own for now. It was a lie, but a necessary one. Gwen had lent her two of her older nightgowns on the day she arrived – her dress being soaked in blood, sweat and a little bit of vomit. She pulled the light blue gown off, checking Gaius still slept first, and shimmied her way into the moss green one. It was slightly thicker and had a small amount of floral embroidery on it that Gwen had done when she was bored one week. Miri smiled at the thought. She took one of the blankets from the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders as she tied her boots.

Her heart was beating fast at the prospect of sneaking out. She didn’t know her way around the castle as she was unconscious on her way through it the first time, but Lancelot had explained the path to her. She took a deep breath, smoothing her dress and fluffing her hair slightly, and made her way through the door. It creaked lightly behind her and Gaius’ snoring hitched momentarily but resumed soon after. Safely out of the chambers, all that was left was to navigate a large, heavily guarded castle that she wasn’t supposed to be exploring. How hard could it be?

Very, it seemed.

After what felt like an hour (but was likely only ten minutes) Miri found herself looking out into the courtyard with no idea how to get down there. The moon lit it softly, along with torches glowing through the lower windows. She could see a figure that she could only assume was Lancelot, waiting for her. She considered calling for him but quickly disregarded the thought: it wasn’t worth waking those in the rooms near her, just so she could have a midnight picnic with a friend.

Deep in contemplation, Miriam didn’t notice a new figure sneak up on her. It had been watching her from the end of the corridor for some time now and, deciding that she wasn’t going to move, it approached.

Mimicking her stance (arms resting on the railing, weight on the one leg as the other rocked on its toes), Arthur looked out. He could see The Rising Sun from here, and a few of its drunken patrons stumbling home to the lower town. They stood in silence, Miriam glancing over at him briefly before looking back down at the courtyard below.

Taking a calming breath and saying ‘fuck it’ to himself in as much of a kingly manner as one can, Arthur did something odd. Arthur apologised.

Kind of.

“I am glad to see you are well enough to leave your room.” She made no sign that she heard him and so he looked over to her and started again. “I have been thinking about our last encounter and talked it through with Sir Leon. He is one of my most trusted knights and friends and he suggested – that is to say, I thought it best that – I talk to you. I regret the way things went.”

She turned to him, glaring but with little passion behind it. “How heartfelt of you sire, I truly feel your remorse.” Her words were laced with sarcasm. It didn’t sit well with Arthur, was that not heartfelt?Being Uther’s son meant apologising was not something he had much practice of, he thought he had done a pretty decent job. Time for a second attempt.

“I am unsure what stories Lancelot and Merlin have told you but there is a growing trend of incidents in those woods. All too often we find people hurt and we take them here, to safety, and they exploit that. I have trusted people, and, in turn, they have hurt those I care for.” Her eyes softened as she listened to him. He stared ahead, refusing to make eye contact as he made himself more vulnerable than he had in some time. He didn’t appreciate the way a lump grew in his throat.

“My father was put under an enchantment by a troll trying to take his throne, a woman that I thought I was in love with tried to drown me, Merlin—” his voice cracked, Miriam pretended she hadn’t heard it “has been poisoned, ambushed, burnt and shot at. The knights too, but at least they signed up for that.” He took a deep breath, watching the way she processed the information. “I couldn’t let you do the same thing. I couldn’t stand by and watch you hurt them as others have. When I followed you, you were completely gone and I worried that maybe, maybe you had magic. While my views on that are not what they once were, it made me…” He faded out, not able to finish the sentence.

She stood straighter and gently placed her hand on top of his, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“I understand. My reaction was not as it should have been either.”

“You don’t need to justify yourself, Miriam. While my experiences of your situation are few and far between, I can’t imagine you were thrilled to find people attempting to heal you. Your reaction to my wielding a sword at you was appropriate, it is okay.” She took her hand back, wiping away a rogue tear as subtly as she could.

“Now, I believe you have a lucky gentleman down there expecting you. Is there a reason you have left him waiting so long?” She let out a sudden laugh, wet with held-back tears and explained her situation. He bit back a laugh of his own and graciously offered her an arm. Hesitantly taking it, they made their way through corridors and spiral staircases until they were down at the large stone entrance steps as she had been days before. Letting go of Arthurs arm, she gave him a slight curtsy, and skipped down the last of the steps.

He watched her go, a smile forming on his face as he shook his head at her retreating figure. He was glad to be on the path to resolution with her. She seemed like a good person and he was glad that she was making Lancelot happy: the man had been down since discovering his affections for Guinevere were one sided, but Miriam was pulling him back if the smile on his face in training the previous day was anything to go by.

Lancelot was getting worried. After he and Miriam had talked through their plan earlier that morning, he had set off to put it into action. He made sure he wasn’t needed on patrol that evening and then went about gathering what was needed for a perfect picnic. First, he went to Guinevere’s to borrow one of her baskets (this was a short and awkward visit) and then he visited Juliana – a laundrette that Gwaine had been in a somewhat relationship with from Samhain to the Solstice – and asked for a sheet for them to sit on. After hearing what he needed it for, she also gave him some napkins and candles that she had spare. He made a note to show his thanks with some flowers and maybe some bread from the market when he returned everything the next day.

His final stop was to the kitchens. He had put this off for as long as he could, not wanting to see Cook unless he truly had to, but the time had finally come. He waited until she ducked out for her break and then made his way in. He started with the bread, taking a sad looking loaf from the back of the tray, knowing Cook was likely to throw that one to the dogs anyway. Next, he took a few slices of meat (it was Thursday which meant pork), and a small bunch of grapes that looked like they were on a plate waiting to go to Arthur. He won’t miss them. His final stop, a rushed one as he was sure he could hear approaching footsteps, was at the desserts. He took two sticky rolls and a small raison loaf that was falling apart.

Feast ready, he returned to his chambers to get dressed into something nicer and wait until the twelfth bell.

As he waited in the courtyard, he played over the instructions he gave her. He was sure he had made it clear how to get from the physician’s rooms, through the west wing and down the main steps. Maybe she had changed her mind, or worse, fallen ill again. Watching her growing so pale and hot, drenched in her own sweat, made Lancelot’s heart ache. He had got attached to the girl impossibly fast and seeing her in such a state brought him more pain than he could imagine.

He began to pace. Should I go and search for her? Maybe she’s gotten lost or stumbled and hurt herself? This led to another anxious spiral, not only at the idea of her being hurt but also for how he would explain such a thing to Gaius. His head would be on a spike in seconds, he was sure of it.

Heart racing faster than the King’s steed, lip thoroughly chewed, he settled on a plan. He would wait five minutes and then go in search of her. Just as he finished the third round, he heard the gentle patter of boots on the cobbles. He looked up and saw Miriam and, curiously, another figure that looked a lot like Arthur, who stood at the top of the stairs.

She made her way closer, and he took in her appearance. She wore a familiar green gown which looked scandalously similar to sleep clothes (he blushed at the thought). Her pale skin was tinged red from the cold which led to the chivalrous knight pulling off his leather coat to give to her when she reached him.

Miriam, looking over her shoulder to give Arthur a small wave, tripped over a raised stone. With arms tangled in blanket, she could do nothing to slow her quick and likely painful decent. But no crash came. Instead, she found herself wrapped in Lancelot’s arms as he pulled her close, steadying her.

“It’s nice to finally see your face as you lean against my chest, my lady.” Her face flooded with embarrassment and she did her best to stutter out her thanks. Her hands had landed flat against his chest, his grasping her waist. She looked up at him, their eyes locking. She blushed again and began to take a few steps back, wrapping her arms around herself. He let her go, smile plastered on his face and twinkle in his eye.

He lifted the basket which had been placed on the ground next to him as he waited, “Shall we?”. She nodded, took his arm, and walked in pace with him as they made their way through the castle grounds.

#merlin #merlin fanfiction #merlin fic #bbc merlin #merthur #gwen x fem!oc #queer gwen #gwen #lancelot #lancelot x oc #gwen x oc fic #merlin oc fic #arthur #arthur pendragon #merlin pendragon #gaius #gaius merlin

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idk-my-aesthetic · 5 years

Text

isle kingdom au

so i’ve had this idea for an AU for a little while, but i don’t wanna actually write anything for it until i’m done w/ my current descendants wips, but i also wanna talk about it lol so ig im making a post? please send me asks about it i wanna talk about it.... anyway

**tw for child abuse and semi-graphic descriptions of violence.

basically the premise of the au is that even though he tried to get it passed at first, ben never went through with pulling the vks off the isle. he kept meaning too, but it just kept being pushed to the back of his list of priorities bc he was so busy w/ being king and never happened

so bc of this, the core 4 stayed on the isle and never got off it. if you’ve read the stuff in my keep them close series u probably have a better idea of my hc of the isle, but the basics of it are that 1) most of the parents are really bad and abusive + the conditions are disgusting 2) none of the kids are really evil and 3) the vks are all kinda frenimes/rivals and will work together to keep eachother alive even if they act like they hate eachother or will even hurt eachother

so, in the ‘canon’ timeline before going to auradon the core 4 are a gang and slowly gaining power. they’re already the top of the vk gangs and are like gaining on some of the adult ones.

bc they never go to auradon, they just kinda keep doing what they already are and gain more and more power. but, as they gain power their parents start becoming afraid of them and acting like more abusive in attempts to keep the core 4 under their control

ok bare w/ me for this next bit bc it’s gonna sound real ooc for like a sec then make sense

so, as they’re gaining power and their parents are haveing more and more trouble controlling them their parents are becoming more and more violent.

im not sure on the order yet, but basically cruella, jafar, eq, and malifacent all do something like really really bad to their respective kid, so one of the other core 4 kills them bc like. yeah.

i have some vauge ideas of what each of them could have done and i don’t really know if i want to say them or even use them tbh bc they’re like.... bad, like real bad. which they kinda have to be, you know? bc like.... none of the core 4 would turn to killing if they didn’t have a real good reason, and their parents continuing the abuse that they always have woulden’t be enough, so the parents would have to do something really really bad for one of the others to justify killing them

its important to mention that none of them kill their own parent. it’s always one of the other 4, im not sure who kills who just yet, but none of them kill their own parent. They’re saved from their parents by each other and they never really have any confrontation with their parents (which will change l8r 👀👀, let me explain)

Even tho they didn’t kill their own parents, everyone kinda assumed they did in order to take their places/gain power. A handful of their friends know the real story, but it’s mostly kept under wraps and it’s like general “knowledge” that they killed their parents for power. They’re not really hiding it or anything, I mean they did still each kill one of the 4 most powerful villains so it’s not like anyone is gonna be less afraid if they knew the truth. ppl just make assumptions and never really question them and they just let ppl think what they do

So bc their parents are dead and they let everyone assume they killed their own parent they very easily climb up the ranks and end up in charge of the isle bc atp they’re seen as the most ruthless/evil/powerful

So now that they’re in charge of the isle they start like..... actually making it a livable place. Ofc at first they try to make a version of Carlos’s machine to break the barrier, but they can’t get it to work so he just modifys it to steal magic from the barrair for them to use. (Another idea stolen from my keep them close series but like I like the idea lol)

And when I say they make it a livable place I mean they start doing stuff like building water purifiers, making like safe houses, establishing some kind of working economy, taking control of the barge drop offs and how everything is distributed, fixing broken electricity, etc etc

A lot of what they do is based off of Carlos’s machines and designs, which like obvi other ppl are helping him gather materials and for and build, since he has power bc he’s like one of the ppl in charge. And he like teaches other ppl how to do what he does and fix anything that goes wrong

Evie kinda puts herself in charge of setting up like medical centers + homes for kids and stuff. Also some kinda way to grow food. B4 they’re in charge nothing can really grow but they use the magic they steal from the barrier to make stuff grow. And evie can use it to make like lots of healing items and such

Jay ends up mostly in charge of like collecting and distribution of their recourses. At first like the barge is kinda a hugeeee problem to deal with bc ppl are fighting over the like moldy food and destroyed clothes and stuff. But eventually they get it organized and have stuff sent to the respective place it should, like clothes and scrap fabric are sent to a place that repairs and sells them, parts and electronics are sent to Carlos or his helpers, etc

Other minor vks like Celia, dizzy, the sea three, Diego, etc are all in this two but this is already really long so just know they’re like helping and like pretty high ranking/highly regarded. Send me an ask with questions please

Mal is kinda regarded as the ultimate leader/queen of the isle ig even though the other 3 have basically the same amount of power. Mostly bc her job ends up being keeping the adults who dislike them inline and keeping their power as heads of the isle

Most ppl are just kinda chill w/ them being in charge, especially a lot of the ppl who were banished for minor crimes. A few of the adult villains try to fight them and end up dead lol, and anyone caught doing especially bad things, like r*pe, hurting someone they shouldn’t have, being a child abuser, etc will end up killed by mal or one of the others. They don’t kill u for like every crime obviously only the like inexcusable ones. Stuff like stealing or mental illness or w/e they basically just help you work through

They’re aren’t any like real laws ig but they deal with issues as they go and give harsh punishments if needed. It serves to keep themselves seen as strong/evil/powerful despite all the good they do and helps keep others too afraid to challenge them. Like frollo isn’t going to challenge them if Ursula tried the same thing and got killed. (The fact that she abused uma and her siblings obviously had nothing to do with that,,,,,,,,,,,)

So yeah! They basically turned the isle into a inhabitable place in the years that they spent as its leaders, and it functions as its own kinda kingdom despite its harsh and confusing laws/rules

But we ain’t done yet, lol

Basically everything I’ve just explained is.... mostly backstory? Kinda? It’s the type of thing where you slowly find out about all this stuff while they actual story goes on, but I figured it’d be less confusing to explain it first :3

So the Actual story starts a few years after when Ben originally was supposed to take the vks off the isle. He, all the other princess/princes he want to school with, the core 4, the sea 3, etc are all in their mid to early 20s.

Auradon has basically no clue what’s the deal w/ the isle. They’re only interaction w/ them is through the like goblins that bring over the trash barges, but those guys are chill and basically don’t tell the aks anything lol.

So Ben is ruling his kingdom, and the core 4 are ruling their own, both sides are doing pretty well and ignoring each other, but then! All of a sudden there’s these sudden deaths/fires/some kinda terrorist attack on the outskirts of the kingdom.

I haven’t thought through this part too much, but basically he knows that they’re is some kinda threat, but he doesn’t know excatly what it is. All he does know is that the villain that is attacking is demanding to speak to the children of malifecent, jafar, cruella devil, and the evil queen.

He basically rounds up the heroes of those respective stories bc they’re all being threatened in some way or another. The mystery villain continues to do more damage and seems basically impossible to beat, and has given them a time limit b4 they’ll go and start destroying more

They discuss their options and decide their best plan is to go to the isle and convince them core 4 to help, bringing along the heroes and some of the main aks w/ them

Obviously it doesn’t go well bc they show up and mal basically has them arrested lmao

Again I have more in-depth ideas for this part but this post is already wayyyy to long so I’m trying to hurry and finish up

The talk, vks meet their respective heroes, everything is from ak/hero POV so as they explore the isle and talk to the core 4 and other vks they slowly find out about all ^^^ that stuff up there

The core 4 are eventually agree, and they go to face the villains only to find out its their parents who have been resurrected!!!! Fuck!!!!

Idk how or why just yet lmao but I will soon

Parents are obvi pissed, core 4 face their own parents and finally get like some kinda closer or smthn idk I feel like y’all get the gist

in the end auradon agknolages the isle as its own kingdom and the core 4 as its leaders and open trade/remove the barrier so the isle can continue to grow bc it’s been struggling due to lack of recourses

And that’s like the basic outline of my au! I wanna write it eventually but tbh I’m expecting eventually to be like 3 years from now bc of how much other stuff I have so for rn I’m just gonna blog about it. Obviously there’s a lot of other stuff/plots/emotional arcs etc I didn’t talk about bc like This Post Is So Long I’m So Sorry, So please please please send me asks/questions/comments/even your own ideas!!! Please. Everything about this will be tagged with “isle kingdom au” :3

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lailannajacobs · 5 years

Text

Just Dumb Luck: Epilogue

Pairing: Loki X Reader

Warnings: Simply fluff!

Word Count: 1.7k

Summary: A little extra reader and Loki!

A/N: Thanks again for all the feedback everyone! I still can’t believe anyone wanted to read this but I am so thankful you have! Although this story is complete, I’m always welcome to feedback and requests! <3

Complete Master List

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“What do you mean?” You ask, “You’ve never done this before?”

Loki shakes his head. “No.”

“How have you managed to live for this long?”

“By getting other people to do it for me.”

You laugh and place Loki’s hands on the shopping cart. “You can start by pushing, Mr. Fancy Pants.”

Loki had startled you by appearing out of nowhere while you were in the veggies section of the grocery store. He had only been gone about a week but you couldn’t believe how giddy it made you to see him. Judging by the flamboyant, albeit slightly dramatic, entrance of his, the feeling was mutual.

You walk down the aisles in easy silence, Loki stopping every once in a while to look at something particularly perplexing. You don’t think you’ve ever spent so long trying to justify cheese strings to someone.

“How often do you have to do this mundane activity?” He asks, putting a can of soup you had pointed at into the basket.

“I don’t know,” you examine the jars of tomato sauce across the aisle, “once every two weeks maybe? Some times more often?”

He looks around deploringly.

Before he has the chance to complain, a cart rams into his side, driven by a blonde, curly haired boy, barely tall enough to see over the handle. Loki peers down at him, unamused and slightly bored. You’re trying your hardest to stifle a laugh and judging by the look he slides your way, not doing a very good job at it. Just thinking about who he really is only makes everything ten times harder not to make a sound.

“Well, aren’t you going to apologize?” he demands.

The boy mimics a look that rivals Loki’s.

“I’m sorry that you’re in the way mister. Watch out next time.” he says before promptly pushing the cart around a very stunned Loki.

When the boy turns the corner you can’t help but burst out laughing.

“Enjoying this, aren’t you?”

You shake your head, squeezing your lips together in a poor attempt to keep a straight face.

“Somehow I find that hard to believe.”

You stop your giggling long enough to answer, “oh come on. It’s funny. You should have seen your face.”

He shakes his head, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly, “What am I going to do with you?”

“I should be asking myself the same thing,” you counter, teasing. “I have so many things to teach you about our mortal ways.”

“I’m hoping there are other, more interesting, non grocery related mortal things you can teach me.”

His eyes have that familiar mischievous glint in them that sends shivers down your spine. To anyone else, he appears casual - his hands stuffed in his pockets, head tilted slightly. But you know better. You know the tilt in his head is a silent dare, wondering if you’ll take the bait, here, in a grocery store.

But you don’t. Because that would mean admitting defeat.

You have’t pressed your lips to his since he got here but it’s all part of the game: to see who can hold out the longest. You finally managed to tie him on the last round, and you intend to pull ahead. Yet you know that as soon as you make it back to the elevator of your apartment building, you’d take the loss just to get close to him.

He sends you a look that seems to say Why don’t we just cut to the chase love, so you wink at him and push the cart along.

The next time you stop and pick up a frozen pizza, he comes behind you, peering over your shoulder so that your bodies are so close, you can feel his breath tickling your ear.

“Are you doing it on purpose to take your time?”

You turn your head so that your lips are almost touching his, “my, my. So impatient.”

He brushes your hair away from your neck as if to kiss it and you tilt your head unwittingly to give him better access but he moves away, “I believe you were just talking about yourself (y/n)?”

“Sure.” you chuckle.

You’ve finished paying and are walking out the door, grocery bags in each of your hands, when you hear a high pitched shriek. Your head whips to the sound. It’s the little boy who bumped into Loki and his grocery bag is on the floor, its contents spilled everywhere.

The mother is shaking her head, bent over picking up the cans and you can barely make out the words he’s saying, so you’re not sure you’re actually hearing them right, “but mom I swear! I saw a snake, I’m not kidding!”

Other people have stopped to help so you keep walking but you look up at Loki to find a faint, wolfish smirk on his face.

“Did you have anything to do with that?” You demand, stopping him with a hand on your hip.

It doesn’t look as intimidating as you would have hoped, with the grocery bags hanging off your hip as well.

“It was just a little fun.” He shrugs, unable to look ashamed.

You smack him on the arm, “he’s a kid!”

“Everything is fine.” he chuckles, “And I have done much worse to my brother and he is in perfect health.”

You shake your head but you’re unable to completely hide your amusement. “I don’t even want to know what you did to him.”

His lips peel into a wider grin, “I don’t see why not. They were actually quite clever.”

You’re about half way to your apartment when you see her, breaking off your conversation with Loki about another baseball game you’re hoping to go see.

“Amelie?”

She turns around at the sound of her name, blowing lose strands of hair out of her eyes. There’s a large cardboard box in her hands labeled ‘kitchen’ in cute swirly writing, and her eyes light up in recognition.

“(YN)! Loki! How are you guys?”

You glance up at Loki, a faint grin on his lips, and you feel a sense of calm wash over you. It’s a feeling that never seems to go away and you definitely don’t want it to. “Good. We’re good.”

“And what about yourself?” Loki tears his gaze away from you to actually look at the person he asked the question to.

“Oh, you know.” She shrugs, readjusting her grip on the box. “I’ve realized some things and I’m ready for a change.”

Looking down at the box again, you can’t believe it’s taken you this long to piece together what she’s doing. “You’re moving?”

She nods, a grim smile on her face, a poor attempt at her usual perkiness. “I figured I needed a fresh start.”

“Where to?”

“Boston. I got a new job.”

You rack your brain, trying to figure out what it is that she does. She must have told you at some point but nothing is coming to mind. It’s not hard to figure out why though. You’d been so absorbed with your whole scheme you forgot to take a second to actually listen to her. Regardless, it’s no excuse. Amelie had been nothing but kind to the both of you so you don’t have the heart to ask her what it is she does.

“Where?” You ask hoping it sounds like just another question.

“The Boston Globe.” She replies, perking up a bit.

You find yourself smiling brighter just to cheer her up, “That’s huge! Congratulations!”

“Congratulations.” Loki parrots, shooting her one of his more genuine smirks.

“Thanks, it’s a little terrifying moving to a new city but I’m actually starting to get pretty excited!”

“I’ve found the things that are terrifying are usually very rewarding.” This time Loki doesn’t speak the words Amelie but keeps that intense gaze on you.

You shiver.

“I’ve found so too.” You murmur, only having eyes for him.

Amelie chuckles, “I’m so glad you two have sorted things out, you’re adorable.”

On anyone else there would have been spite laced through her words but you know hers are genuine. You hear no malice behind them.

“Do you need any help,” Loki gestures to the box she’s adjusted her grip on for probably the tenth time since you’ve started the conversation, “With those I mean.”

“No, no, I’ve got it. But thanks anyways! Not to be rude or anything, but I’ve really got to get going, if I want to get to my new place before dark.”

“No worries.” You shift your bags to one hand and place a hand on her shoulder, “It was really nice running into you again Amelie. Good luck with everything.”

“It really was! Don’t be a stranger (y/n), you have my number!”

With her true smile returned, you turn and head toward your apartment.

“Did you have any idea that she was a journalist?” You ask once she’s out of earshot.

“I actually listened to her when she was talking.” Loki sasses.

You shove him playfully with your shoulder. “My mind was preoccupied.”

He raises a brow.

“No need to be full of yourself, they weren’t all thoughts of you.” You laugh, “But I just can’t picture her as a serious journalist. She’s so…cheery?”

He gets a little closer, “I think there’s more to her than she lets on.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“It happens more often than you would think.”

You roll your eyes, “sure.”

“It has everything to do with the fact that I never lose.”

“Except when we play pool.” You correct.

You stop at a light and he looks down at you, his eyes gleaming with mischief. “I’m willing to bet that I’ll win the next game.”

“I’ll take that bet if you promise not to use any of your,” you wiggle your fingers in the air, “magical voodoo.”

He shoots you a deadpan look that never fails to make you laugh. You’re not sure you’ll ever get used to the amount of sass he can put into one look.

“Come on Loki, no bet until you promise.”

“I promise.” He dips his head slightly, conceding.

You jut up your chin, “what do I get when I win?”

He shoots you a wolfish grin that makes your toes curl, “You’ll have to see when we get home.”

Tag List:

@lokislilcaribbeanprincess @lokixme @casualminiaturetimemachine @tony-sassmaster-stark @artsymeadow @crescent-night @wrappedinlokisarms @lemonie2 @thatkidofwarandpeace @jessiejunebug @bbcsassdeadass @perceptorxbrainstorm @laufxysn @bilesxbilinskixlahey @grey-stardancer @thathedonistgirl @fyeahlitaajpunk

#Loki Laufeyson #loki #loki fanfiction #loki fanfic #loki x reader #MCU fic #MCU fanfiction #fan fiction #marvel fanfiction #fanfic

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kylosupremeimagines · 5 years

Text

Kylo Ren X Reader: Do I Want To Know? {Part One}

Request 1: I'd like to request an imagine based on Ben's official transition into Kylo Ren under Snoke. Also, the TLJ visual dictionary mentions that Snoke had another apprentice at the same time as Kylo and it would be interesting to see how that relationship would have gone down. Thanks.

Request 2: Hi! Can you please do a one shot about the reader training with Kylo? please and thanks.

Master List

A/N: I’m doing this with the reader being the other apprentice! And for your outfit, I found a photo reference that I thought was really nice. The headpiece is optional. I thought that these two requests would go great together to make a short series. Probably about 3-5 chapters. I hope that’s okay guys! And sorry if this chapter is a little short, the next one is going to definitely be longer.

It had only been a few months since Kylo had burned down the Temple. His past. The haunting image of the flames as they reached the bodies of each fallen padawan, the screams of his fellow peers following them being cut down. It just wouldn’t seem to leave, only coming back and tainting his dreams - or rather nightmares - every night.

Kylo’s mind ceased to stop pulling him right back to that night, forcing him to face doubt that it was even the proper decision. With the numbing, dismal emptiness in his stomach, there were moments that it was all he could really think about. Was he truly justified? Part of him said no, but what was he going to do about it now when there was no turning back?

Sitting on the end of his bed, a hand ran through his raven black locks, detangling a few knots with such ease. The contemplation only grew, questioning where his future would take him; not just what would happen a week from then, a year, but in the long term as well. Oh, what was he to become?

His one true anchor was his grandfather, a person in which he could look up to in admiration. Everyone else he cared about failed him, from his parents being absent for parts of his childhood and pushing him off to the side, right up to the most recent events of his uncle coming close to killing him.

Luke, when Kylo figured out their relations to Darth Vader - Anakin Skywalker - he questioned why he wasn’t good enough. If Luke refused to kill his own father and even was able to redeem him, why was he prepared to kill his nephew? Was there really no hope from him?

Clenching up his left hand, he balled up the soft fabric of his sheets in his fist. Luxury was most certainly something that came along with joining the First Order. He actually had his own private chambers, and not some measly hut, where he finally had a kitchen that did not just consist of a flame and a pot. And finally, a bed to sleep on, with luxurious bedding and sheets to enjoy.

His favorite change had to be all of the food he now had access to. Since he was the Supreme Leader’s apprentice, Kylo had full access to the High Command kitchen. But of course, he always went with ordering his own ingredients to cook for himself rather than having a meal prepared for him. One of his comforts was getting to cook his own food.

Kylo’s chestnut brown hair flickered up to observe the star through the window to his room, admiring the luscious beauty that came with them. It astonished him how much there was out there, after spending the longest amount of time out in space. Always on the move, the start of his training took place in Supremacy, considering that Snoke spent the majority of his time within the colossal ship.

His gaze glanced to his nightstand with a buzz of his datapad. Using the Force, he brought the small device over to him and bit his lower lip upon acknowledging it to be a message directly from his Master. Much to his surprise, it was a request for his presence, instructing Kylo to meet with him immediately. Very rarely did he see the Supreme Leader for purposes other than training, and he already did his usual rounds for the cycle.

Reluctantly, he slipped it into his tunic pocket and stood from the bed to let out a heavy sigh. As he always carries his saber, Kylo clipped the weapon to his belt. The door closed with a hiss just as fast as it opened. What in the galaxy was he needed for?

As per usual, he paid little mind to the other officers around. Considering that the was not too immersed within the Order itself just yet, not many even acknowledged who he was. If anything, none of them respected him all because he was, what they may call, Snoke’s lap dog. To Kylo, they just didn’t know the importance of having someone like him or the other Knights of Ren working with them.

The Force was always such a powerful tool and something pushed back in many societies. After the Sith and then finally the Jedi were wiped out, the Force being brought up as something of high importance became less of an occurrence. Just from what he knew, it as a mysterious source of power that none should ever dismiss.

His nose crinkled for a moment as he approached the doors to Snoke’s Throne Room, waiting a moment before pushing them open with the Force. Praetorian Guards stood all around, nearly blending in the with blood red of the surrounding walls. “Ah, I see that you finally join us, young Ren,” Snoke spoke, voice booming throughout the room.

As Kylo grew closer, he took notice a black-clad figure kneeling before the Supreme Leader and an instantly Force connection he had never once felt, even with his time on the Supremacy. Just as always, he too knelt before Kylo, right beside the new entity. Glancing over, his eyes locked with your (E/C) eyes, noticing your brows raising a bit. “What… is it that you summoned me for?” he inquired, gaze returning to Snoke.

“I thought that it was about time that I had you meet someone,” Snoke explained, leaning forward and gesturing to you with his right hand. “you aren’t my only apprentice, as this here is the first I ever took in, only but a couple of years ago,” For the first three months Kylo was learning under him, Snoke never found reason to reveal it to either of you about one another, leaving not just him in surprise but you as well.

“Master, why am I only finding out about this now?” you had to break into the conversation.

“I did not believe it was appropriate for either of you to know about the other’s presence just yet. He needed time to get used to the transition amongst our ranks. But now, you two are ready to start your training together.”

“How am I supposed to work with him if I’m only finding out about him now?”

“Do not question me!” he spat out, standing up from his throne to approach the pair of you. “the likes of you two are the only beings in the entire First Order in which I recognize as full-fledged Force users, the only two in which I willingly train. You will learn to work together and prove to me and the rest of the galaxy you are forces to be reckoned with. It does not matter to me how you feel about having an equal but you will learn to work as one, upon my orders.”

“Of course, Master,” you and Kylo responded in unison.

“Good, good,” a smirk formed across his pale, deformed features, stopping before you and gesturing for you two to rise. Obeying his command, Kylo stood up the moment you did as well. “Kylo Ren… (F/N) (L/N)... I will mold you two into the perfect soldiers, two of the most powerful beings in all of the Galaxy. So, as I mentioned, you are now to train with one another, as equals. Where one of you lacks, the other will fail to thrive unless you catch up to the other’s ability. You are to trust each other with your lives and work together to grow in strength. I can only take you so far, the rest is up to you to discover for yourselves. Individually is one thing, but together? You will be able to accomplish so much for the First Order.”

“What should we do to start training?” Kylo wondered, unsure of where things would even begin. With dozen of thoughts racing through his mind, he wasn’t entirely sure how to take things in or what to make of it all. Another apprentice? He was lead to believe there was something important about him, so was that not really true.

“I believe that you must have a better sense of each other’s Force Connections, so I will not be having you go right into training,” he told you. “instead, I would advise you to get to know one another, considering you will be working very closely,” when it came to all the Knights, he was not opposed to them sharing personal connections since it made for better cooperation, a flaw that he saw within the Sith before who would be at each other’s throats for even the littlest things.

Kylo shared yet another gaze with you, both frozen in place for a moment before he nodded. “As you advise, Master.”

“Now go, do as you please. Just remember that your training will be joined from now on, you will be informed of your lesson and training for tomorrow later in the evening.”

Without saying another word, Kylo turned on his heels to make his leave of the throne room, shortly followed by you. Once you two were out and the doors hissed closed behind you, he turned to face you. The corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly before turning in your direction. “I know it’s a little informal, but why don’t we talk with some lunch?”

There were some doubts that played at your thoughts, a bit skeptical when it came to the idea of having what you could call competition for Snoke’s approval. But if you were to work together, what would be the harm? “I don’t see why not.

Tag List: @scheherazades-horcrux @alladeline @attorneyl @babybluelukex@glitzescape @dancewaterdance02 @celiholland @crkylo @celestiaelisia@lyraeluna @peacefulwizardfox @twdlover2000 @cs-please @xultraviolet@xfeathered-serpent @fizzywoohoo @topsykretts92 @ayatimascd@delicatelyherdreams @ddriveringg @littlegirlsdontplaynice @yymmaarr@darlinguris @bellaren18 @queenofheartsmegs @themauvemage@starlingmehdarling @anti-climactic @Mollmoll01 @toytalababy @programlyfe @Msperlalapin

#Star Wars #Kylo Ren #Kylo Ren Reader Inserts #Kylo Ren Headcanons #Kylo Ren X Reader #Kylo Ren Imagines #Star Wars Headcanons #Star Wars Reader Inserts #Star Wars X Reader #Star Wars Imagines

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trisscar368 · 6 years

Text

30 Questions for Artists

Do you prefer traditional drawing, or digital? Digital nowadays, it’s a lot easier to fix things and I am married to the layers function.

How long have you been drawing? Off and on for years since I was... probably 7 or 8.

How many classes have you taken? A few in highschool and college, but not that far into any programs.

Do you have a DeviantArt, personal website, or art blog? Yeah, my DA is over here; there’s nothing on it currently that isn’t on this blog though. I also stash all my art on @artrisstic so I can find the damn stuff.

What’s your favorite thing to draw? Girls are really really pretty >.>

What’s your least favorite thing to draw? Hair

How often do you use references? Always always always. I’m not much of a concept artist, I need my refs.

Do you draw professionally, or just for fun? Just for fun, I’m years away from having the skillset to do anything professional.

How much time do you spend drawing on an average day? Me? Do anything regularly?

Are you confident about your art? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm a musician. I got over stage fright and figured out how much to trust (and ignore) a general audience years ago. I guess I’d say I’m a realist: I know where my skillset is, I know where I need work, and I know where “publishable” is for my level.

How many art-related blogs do you follow? I have no idea, but my tumblr network is made up of a lot of fandom artists at this point.

Is it okay for people to ask you about your process? ... I cannot guarantee any good answers, but sure?

Do you prefer to keep your art personal, or do you like drawing things for other people? Not exactly sure how to answer this lol. I publish most of what I make right now, but I’m making it for me. Even if I decide “hey this corner of the fandom needs art,” it’s something I’d enjoy making, and I honestly... aim more for a few people cussing me out in the tags than I do widespread art.

Do you ever collaborate with others? I haven’t yet, no.

How long does an average piece take you to complete? I honestly don’t time them, I normally get a little lost in what I’m doing and then realize I was supposed to be asleep hours ago. Jo took me a week.

Do you draw more today than you did in the past, or do you draw less? More. Fandom’s finally given me subjects I actually want to work on, so I’m drawing without deadlines and with my own prompts. Which is actually pretty new.

Do you think you’re justified in giving other people art advice? Not currently. There’s a lot to be said for how much explaining something helps you understand the process yourself, but that sort of requires you know what the hell you’re doing first.

What are you currently trying to improve on? My concept art skills, because right now they basically don’t exist. Composition and planning backgrounds. Hitting emotional cues is also on the list - I’m getting pretty good at putting all the pieces together, but they need to mean something still :/

What is the most difficult thing for you to draw? I realllllllllly hate doing backgrounds/landscapes, because perspective is a bitch and I lack the general patience to fight with it.

What is the easiest thing for you to draw? Fabrics? We’ll go with fabrics.

Do you like to challenge yourself? ... realistic challenges? lol Generally I enjoy things that make me stretch, but I try not to walk into things that are so challenging that I’ll rage quit

Are you confident that you’re improving steadily? Yeah, my general technique is getting a lot better, which means I can start playing with the rest of it

Do you draw more fanart, or more original art? Right now, fanart.

Do you feel jealous when you see other people’s art, or inspired? (Be honest!) Inspired. Sometimes I’m envious of the amount of time other artists have spent working on things - the head start they’ve got. And there’s occasionally a “damnit I wish I’d thought of that,” but honestly... ideas are everywhere. Creativity can be learned, technique can be improved, and an individual style can be studied.

Do you like to draw in silence, or with music? I can’t concentrate with random noise or people walking through my workspace, which happens a lot. So unless it’s 3 am, I’ll probably have music up on youtube.

For digital artists: what program(s) do you use? I’m learning PS right now, but most of what I post is done in Gimp. (I’m still fighting with PS to get a comfortable blending/smudge tool set up, it’s driving me craaaaazy)

For digital artists: how many layers does a typical piece require? Bg, sketch, main, and then between 2-10 for texture and hair and high/lowlights.

For traditional artists: what medium do you like most? (Pencil, charcoals, etc) Chalk pastels

For traditional artists: How do you usually start on a big piece? (Light sketch, colored lead, sketchpaper, etc) Light sketch, normally on a grid

What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist? *squints* I am... avoiding the desire to stare at the wall for the next hour going “what is an artist,” because to answer that one I have to chew through “what is art” and we haven’t answered that one in a few centuries, no matter what your teacher says >.> Again, I was a musician first. I play because I enjoy music; I enjoy the creation and the end result, and provoking emotions from people. Art’s the same way. You’ll never stop growing and learning and refining, but you have to be able to play before you can make an audience cry. If I improve, I can evoke more emotions, I can tell better stories.

Tagging... @thedogsled @dmsilvisart @pimentogirl @dragonpressgraphics @winchester-reload and @deannamb

#tag game #not spn #art is hard #long post

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artificialqueens · 7 years

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A Cat's Intuition (Shalaska) 2/4 - Lunaska

A/N: So, here she is.This fic, like most things I write, is a slow-burn, so be patient with me. The waiter/bartender as described in this chapter is probably ridiculously inaccurate, but it’s how I need it to be. This chapter was fun to write and I hope you like it as much as I do. Please leave me some feedback!

Aaron’s ears were red.

And his neck.

And his face.

And probably everything else too.

In his haste to get rid of the small colony of underwear that had settled on his living room rug, he had made some poor decisions.

First of all, walmart shopping bags are good for many things: acting as small trash can liners, handy helpers when you have to pick up the shit your neighbor’s dog keeps leaving on your lawn, and the classic “i’m staying at a friend’s house and don’t want my dirty clothes to touch the rest of my clothes.”

One of the things walmart shopping bags were not known for is their stealth.

Being mildly transparent, flimsy, and noisy, they are not the best at keeping secrets.

Another important thing to take into account is that when you want to keep the contents of your grocery bags hidden, you should probably tie them shut.

Needless to say, Aaron’s decision making skills were proving subpar.

But, his lack of knowledge in the art of the covert didn’t stop there.

On his way to drop his bag of underwear off in the big trash in the parking lot, he made a crucial error: being a distracted son a bitch.

Aaron wasn’t sure the quarter he bent over to pick up was worth the embarrassment of having his bag full of underwear spill out all over the concrete.

Underwear that wasn’t even his.

To top all it off, it was in front of the new guy who lived right next door.

As he stared at the brunette sitting on the ground in front of him, he tried to think of any possible excuse he could use to justify what was happening.

He didn’t want to be the neighborhood weirdo.

“I’m really sorry, I was just, uhm, doing some spr-”

“Is that my fucking underwear?” The other man interrupted. Though, he didn’t seem as angry as he did shocked and confused.

Aaron tried to swallow the huge lump that had just formed in his throat, but it wasn’t going down.

He decided to stop trying.

Choking sounded pretty good right now.

xxxx

Justin was just trying to have a normal fucking day.

Instead, he was standing across from his new neighbor, who seemed to have a penchant for stranger’s undergarments. The man was sitting on the concrete with his scruffy blond hair in his hands. The bag that once contained the underwear was gone with the breeze, leaving only its previous contents to color the sidewalk.

Fucking walmart bags.

He really didn’t have enough time to process the scene before him. Even if he did have all the time in the world, he certainly didn’t have the patience to deal with whatever this shit show was going to entail.

The blond was now rubbing at his eyes, albeit a little too harshly.

It’s really a shame that all the cute ones at this apartment complex are absolute psychos.

But he had to admit that he would pick Brian, “Do you want to come over and watch Contact with me and my cat Trixie?” McCook over the weirdo stealing his underwear.

But, back to the situation at hand.

“All I want to know is if that’s my underwear?” Justin said, gesturing to the messy pile decorating the sidewalk. “And if it is mine, why do you have it?”

The blond looked up at Justin, looking absolutely hopeless.

“Uh…I don’t know.”

Justin walked over to the undergarments in question and knelt to get a closer look. It took him less than ten seconds to know that this was his missing underwear.

He looked up at the blond who was currently running his hands through his hair, pulling at the ends like he wanted to rip them out of his scalp.

He was starting to feel rather bad for embarrassing the guy. I mean, we all have our kinks, right?

He quickly looked away from the other man. He couldn’t show sympathy for someone who was actively stealing his underwear, doing God-knows-what with it, and then throwing it away.

“Look,” Justin said pointing his finger at the other man, “I don’t care what you get off to but just don’t take my shit anymore, okay?”

The blond nodded.

The guy was pretty cute, especially looking all guilty.

He steals underwear, Justin.

Focus.

He pushed off the ground with a groan and a final mildly angry look at the thief, then stalked off towards his car. With one last look over his shoulder, he yelled

“and I want my socks back too!”

xxx

Aaron couldn’t find any damn socks.

He’d spent both of his days off cleaning his entire house and looking everywhere for them and found nothing but $3.78 in change and an old beanie that Cerrone had clearly taken his claws to.

He was already pissed that he didn’t get a chance to explain himself and now the other man was going to think he was still stealing from him. He was hoping he’d find the socks along with the answer to why he was mysteriously receiving all of his neighbor’s underwear, and maybe a couple thousand dollars.

But, no dice.

Oh well.

He couldn’t afford to dwell on his odd relationship with his neighbor, or his lack of spending money.

He was scheduled to work tonight and he really needed to make some good tips or his car was gonna have to run on imagination instead of fuel. So, as he walked into his uncle’s dusty bar and grill that evening, he tried to gather some energy. The dark blue walls of the poorly lit restaurant were slowly becoming comforting, almost homey. Waiting tables wasn’t glamorous, but it kept Cerrone’s food bowl full and Aaron’s fridge stocked with PBR.

Sparing a final grateful thought towards whoever created his drink of choice, he tied his apron and got started.

A few hours in, Aaron felt right in his element as he settled into a practiced rhythm. With the kind of grace that can only be learned over time, he juggled his tables, feeling confident in the service he was providing. He had waited tables since he was sixteen, bouncing from restaurant to restaurant learning new things every time. And now at twenty four, he felt that he could do this job in his sleep and still make more money than his co-workers.

Extra napkins for table five.

Table eight needs refills.

He was about to go get one of his tables their check when he was flagged down by a customer who wanted a drink from the bar. He quickly made his way to the bar area, grumbling under his breath. The way this restaurant handled it’s drinks for tables was inconvenient, and that’s being generous. The waiters had to go all the way to the bar and order the drinks themselves.

As he grumpily made his way to the bar for the first time that evening, he took in the unfamiliar figure of the man behind the counter, who currently had his back to Aaron. They had hired a new bartender who he had yet to meet, but word around the kitchen was that he was funny. And something else his coworkers had mentioned? Was it ambidextrous?

Whatever it was, he just hoped it helped him make good drinks.

He leaned against the bar and patted the counter yelling a quick, “Hey, can I get a Long Island for my table, please?”

Aaron felt a little rude yelling at the back of the new guy’s head, but he didn’t have much of a choice.

As he waited for the bartender to acknowledge him, he took notice of all the people sitting at the bar. Most of them looking towards the new guy with amused expressions, others closer to him were laughing. He must be as funny as everyone said.

Putting a couple of drinks in front of his small audience, he grabbed a cocktail shaker from behind the counter and turned towards Aaron with a wide smile that melted as soon as the two made eye contact.

When Aaron met his eyes he wanted to evaporate on the spot. If he had a drink, he’d have done a spit take. And if he’d had more money to his name and a more conveniently placed exit door, he would’ve booked it out of the restaurant so fast, he would’ve broken the speed limit.

It was his neighbor.

You know, the one who thinks he’s a panty thief?

The one who probably thinks that Aaron has some sort of shrine dedicated to his briefs? The brunette probably assumed that Aaron had some sort of weird underwear fetish.

Aaron had always been both gay and weird, but he’d never been an underwear thief.

At this point, he chalked most of his problems up to bad karma, or maybe he’d accidentally been rude to a witch one day and now she was ruining his life. Either way, the amount of bad luck he was experiencing was ridiculous.

Aaron’s neighbor, whose name tag read “Justin,” was staring at him in shock. The shaker in his hands had stopped moving and the brunette stood stiff as a board in front of him. The atmosphere had gone from lighthearted to tense in a matter of seconds and Aaron had no clue how to fix it.

So, he just looked back at the other man, waiting for him to to say something.

Anything.

But, the seconds passed, feeling like hours, and he knew he had to get back to his tables or his wallet would suffer. He took a quick, shaky breath and looked the other man in the eyes.

“So, uh, my name is Aaron,” He gestured to the name tag pinned onto his uniformed chest.

“It’s nice to, um, see you. So, yeah, a Long Island Ice Tea for table fifteen, please.” With that, he mustered up an unconvincing smile, turned on his heel and went back to his table. When he came back for the drink, his bartending neighbor was at the other end of the counter again with his back turned towards him. He quickly grabbed it off the counter and walked away with a sigh of relief.

Luckily, the rest of his shift was uneventful. He only had to make a couple more trips to the bar that night and all of them were less awkward than the first, and for that he was thankful.

As he rolled silverware with a couple of his co-workers later that night, he thought back on his previous encounter with Justin. Both times Aaron had been mostly silent, not even bothering to clear his name or give the other man an explanation. Everything had happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that all Aaron could do was just stand there.

He didn’t want to have an awkward relationship with someone he would obviously be seeing a lot of, so it was in his best interest to try to clear things up, and maybe even be friends with Justin.

He was determined to make things right.

Or at least make himself look less creepy.

His thoughts of redemption stayed on his mind till he clocked out that night. During the drive home, he considered what he would say and even planned a couple comebacks just in case an argument broke out, but the moment he turned the street corner that led to his apartment, all he could think of was getting home.

He sighed as he pulled into the familiar parking lot of his apartment complex.

It had been a long ass day.

All he wanted was to get home, take a shower, and watch a movie on his couch with Cerrone on his lap. He turned off his car almost giddy at the thought of having a relaxing night in.

But, the possibility of that scenario fizzled out as he got out of his car and saw Justin pull into the parking lot.

He knew that he would never get another opportunity to talk to him at work. He had already spent hours thinking about what to say and there was no time like the present, right?

Aaron pushed his door open and pulled himself out of his beat up toyota. He walked closer to where Justin was parking his car, hoping to catch him as he got out.

Justin got out of his car ungracefully and slammed the door behind him. Obviously not expecting aaron to be standing a couple feet from him in the middle of a dark parking lot.

Okay, not his best idea.

“Were you waiting for me here?” Justin said with wide eyes and a shaky voice. He had a hand over his heart and was obviously trying to catch his breath.

Aaron once again realized that this probably wasn’t the best scenario to try to convince someone that you aren’t insane or trying to stalk, kidnap, or murder them.

“Uhm, no. I just saw you pull in and i’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while,” he said, nervously combing through his hair with his fingers, “ So, I thought now would be a good time.”

Justin visibly relaxed a little, but still seemed nervous.

“I already said we’re cool, dude.” Justin said, “We all have weird kinks. I just can’t afford to keep losing shit; I’m sure Brian two doors down has some great pieces for your collection, though.”

Aaron sighed nervously, “No, let me explain. I didn’t take your underwear. It just…” he started pulling at his hair again, “Kind of appeared in my living room.”

“Oh, I see. It appeared in your living room?” said Justin, clearly unconvinced.

“Yes. I don’t know how it got there.” Aaron knew it was a terrible argument from the second it left his mouth, but it was the only one he had to work with.

“Have you considered magic? Maybe David Blaine is playing a very long, overly involved magic trick on you,” Justin said, bitingly sarcastic. “And maybe I’mDavid Blaine, after all! I’m in a mask filming this whole thing just to embarrass you, right?”

Justin took a deep, exasperated breath, clearly about to continue his list of impossible scenarios, but Aaron quickly put his hands up in surrender.

“I know it doesn’t sound very-” Aaron stopped suddenly, almost positive that he heard… meowing?

“Cerrone?” he called into the darkness of the empty parking lot.

Justin was obviously confused, but also looked around trying to find whatever the blond was searching for. Suddenly Aaron’s cat sauntered out from behind Justin’s car, going straight towards his favorite person.

“What are you doing outside?” asked Aaron as he gathered the kitty in his arms, “how did you even get out?”

He rubbed his cat between the ears and Cerrone purred. They were both wrapped up in their little love fest until a cough from Justin’s direction brought Aaron back to the situation at hand.

“Oh, sorry!” he looked down at the cat in his arms, “do you maybe want to talk about this at my place? I really need to get him inside.”

While he really did need to get Cerrone back home, he was also hoping that maybe showing Justin how normal his apartment was would help strengthen his argument. And after being at work for so long his feet were fucking killing him and he really wanted to sit down.

Justin shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, obviously apprehensive.

Aaron tried to muster a friendly smile, but quickly realized it probably just came off weird, so he slowly let his lips drop into their normal position.

Justin seemed to think it over for a few more seconds. With hands still in his pockets he kicked at some nonexistent rocks at his feet before uttering a quiet, “Okay.”

Okay, this was progress.

Aaron nodded, grinning excitedly before leading the way towards his apartment. The whole walk was awkward and as he struggled to unlock his front door with one arm, as the other was holding Cerrone, he could see the hesitance on Justin’s face.

As the key turned and he pushed the door open, he only hoped for one thing

Please don’t let there be a huge pile of this guy’s underwear sitting in my living room floor.

#shalaska #sharon needles #alaska thunderfuck #lunaska #rpdr fanfiction #m/m au #a cat's intuition

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edorazzi · 6 years

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After the saga of the month-long Miraculous Christmas calendar review, it feels right to come back for round two with an Easter-themed treat!

(The alternative title is I Really Wanted The ML Easter Egg And Figured I Could Justify Buying It For Review Purposes, but thats a bit of a mouthful.)

I bought this from Amazon UK for £14.90 - you can find the listing for yourself here, but it’s currently out of stock! I guess I picked it up at the right time.

On opening the box, I’m already seeing shards of chocolate. I suppose that means the egg is a goner. I think I’m gonna have to complain about that - trying to ship a fragile chocolate egg is tricky enough (I was prepared for some damage, what can ya do), but it was crammed into a very small box with no extra padding to at least attempt preserving it.

I don’t mind too much, but for almost £15 I think I deserve something that actually looks like an egg, and I’m already suspecting this one won’t. Call me picky.

Here it is! Looking pretty battered and worse for wear after unpadded shipping, but still alarmingly cute. I’m excited to get into this.

Ladybug and Chat Noir share the spotlight (pun fully intended)! Ladybug’s still front and centre, but this is a much better balance than the Christmas calendar. Interestingly she boasts her CGI model while Chat Noir retains his 2D promotional art - the different images look a bit disjointed up close (not least because Chat Noir’s art is much higher quality), but at a passing glance it’s not too weird. I definitely get the impression of them being a close duo, at any rate, which is my favourite marketing angle.

Here’s the full display card, if that’s something anyone was interested in (naught to three sad onions). It’s clear this is European packaging, selling the egg in French, Spanish, English and... Portuguese? Huh. The ingredients/warnings are only in French and Spanish - good thing I took both languages at school or I’d have no clue what I was getting into here, this egg could be anything.

One thing it certainly is is gluten-free, and that’s really cool! I’m sensitive to wheat, which tends to get into all kinds of unexpected foods, so at least I can trust this egg to treat me gently. Thanks, Ladybug (and Chat Noir)! I’ll live another day!

Without the display card, our Easter goodie bag starts looking like more of an ominous sack. It looked a lot better on the website, but if you’re getting something shipped from Spain in an UNPADDED BOX I guess this is about what you should expect.

It’s taped up at the neck, and from trying to pry off the Amazon product label I noticed the foil print is liable to come off with the stickiness, so I spent an inordinate amount of time snipping the tape away to avoid more damage. I can already tell it’s cute paper, but let’s wait till we can spread it out.

And oh boy, does it spread out! Time to zoom the camera away. There’s a huge swathe of decorative foil included in this egg and I love it.

It’s really difficult to get a good picture with the lighting, but there are at least ten different pictures in use here - seven that I can count for Ladybug and three for Chat Noir - and all flipped around to make a total of 20 “unique” images. There’s so much to look at, and while Ladybug may have more variation the clear prominence of Chat Noir is really satisfying! This packaging is definitely selling them as a duo and I love it.

This is my favourite image. I’m not actually sure where this Chat Noir is from; it’s not one of the standard marketing images the designers recycle over and over - I’m actually not totally convinced I’ve even seen it before. New or old, that’s a really cute little smirk. I want to pinch his cheeks.

I’m definitely keeping this foil. I don’t know what I’ll do with it, but I’m keeping it. It’s lovely.

Now it’s time for what we came here for - chocolate! And... uh, well, that sure looks like it could have been an egg once. Hoo boy, someone at Amazon is getting a stiffly worded email.

Fortunately it looks like the egg wasn’t anything special, just the standard crazy-pavement design. I wasn’t expecting (eggspecting?) it to have a Miraculous design, and considering it got absolutely slaughtered on the way over that’s probably a good thing.

Unless it’s supposed to be a Carapace design. Oh my god, they finally bring out some Nino merch and it just gets destroyed. That’s cruel.

The chocolate itself actually tastes better than I was expecting! It’s got that standard “generic inexpensive cocoa” flavour, but instead of that slightly bitter/plastic taste I feared it’s a lot gentler and milkier. I could eat this and enjoy it. Nicely done, lads.

Something else lurks in the cup. This must be the “Surprise/Sorpresa/Surpresa” the front of the packaging warned us about.

What a haul! Don’t eat these, kids.

I’ll admit from the product listing I assumed this set came with a Ladybug and Chat Noir bracelet, but the rubber ball is different to the advertised design too, so I suppose what it means is you get a random selection. Either that or the reason my egg is shattered is because Astruc broke into the packaging and stole the Chat Noir bracelet to knock my level of satisfaction down a peg.

I wonder if these were inside the egg or just in the bottom of the cup? I guess we’ll never know. We don’t have the “no inedibles packaged with edible foods” law here (which prevents Kinder Eggs and similar gimmicks in the US) so it could have been either. Breaking open the egg to find these little things inside would have been cool!

The bracelet is teensy, but it does actually fit me, little baby wrists that I have.

Now I held off on yelling about this as soon as I saw it so I could get the bracelet out of the way, but-- aaaaa. AAAAA. AAAAA.

This is actual Chat Noir merch. Not Ladybug and Chat Noir, just Chat Noir. This disproves Astruc breaking into my Easter egg because there’s no way he would have overlooked something like this. From the product listing I could see they have other designs for these - Ladybug and both heroes together - so I’m counting myself exceptionally lucky to have landed the solo Chat Noir one.

It’s a rubber ball, if it’s unclear. But does it bounce?

IT SURE DOES. What a fantastic addition to my Shelf of Interesting Adriens.

So that’s that!

Was it cute? Yes! Was it worth the price tag? Absolutely not! Am I satisfied? Moderately!

It’s a nice product (when it doesn’t arrive in smithereens) where the main draw is obviously the show itself, and I’m far more satisfied with this than the Christmas calendar in terms of design, marketing angle and the quality of the little toys included. I adore that Chat Noir bouncy ball!

The price tag was absolutely not worth it - especially when it only comes with one bracelet, rather than two as I initially thought - but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt in assuming Amazon’s marked it up a good bit, and hopefully I’ll get at least a partial refund for it arriving in the state it did which will balance things out. I’d expect to see this on a supermarket shelf for about £6.99 tops; at the cheaper end of branded Easter goods.

Overall, I had fun with this! I wouldn’t recommend it at the current price, but if it makes the rounds again more cheaply it’s a nice little thing to pick up if you’re into collecting Miraculous stuff. The chocolate tastes better than expected, the toys are cute (and especially cool if you get your hands on a Chat Noir one), and you’ll get a gigantic swathe of decorative foil to use however you please. I’m thinking I might line my shelf of Miraculous merch with it.

(LATER EDIT: Amazon responded and refunded me the entire cost, no returns necessary, which is absolutely wonderful! It might be an obliterated egg, but it’s a free obliterated egg, with the cute packaging and toys to boot. How lovely!)

Happy Easter! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

#josie talks about things #miraculous ladybug #ml easter egg #the true meaning of easter is MIRACULOUS CHOCOLATE and we all KNOW this #it's looking like adding a Read More to posts is messing with the apostrophe/speech marks coding #so i DESPERATELY HOPE it looks okay under the cut #i'm terribly sorry if it doesn't

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mister-69 · 7 years

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Why I fell in and out of love with the Tales Series

Ah, Tales. I am both glad and bitter that they are now successful and popular today. They're still pumping titles every now and then, and all of them are being localized, which is great for the fanbase outside of Japan. I still enjoy their older games like Rebirth, Destiny R, and Symphonia, but I hate touching anything released after Vesperia. They did so many things right and their games had elements no other JRPG had, but they were even better at going downhill and ruining their series.

This is a historical account of my experience with Tales. What I loved about it, where things started to go wrong, and where I finally let go of a series I once loved.

Like many of the western fans here, my first exposure to Tales was Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube. I walked into a GameStop with my brothers, and on their demos I saw the opening of Tales of Symphonia. My first exposure to Tales was also my first exposure to an anime RPG. As someone who enjoys both video games and anime, it was an easy choice to buy this game.

I quickly popped it in and played with my brother and it was an experience I will never forget.

CHARACTERS/SKITS:

Tales has a unique cast of characters in the sense that they have way more dialogue and lines than your average RPG-- and therefore come off as having more personality and life. This is thanks to a staple trademark of Tales called Skits. Skits are optional dialogues throughout the entire game-- all you do is press a button and watch them interact.

Half of the time, they react to recent events in the storyline and the other half they're having light-hearted conversations about anything. The topics of these conversations wouldn't normally be brought up in a main storyline, so you find out about your characters than an average RPG.

In most RPGs, characters don't talk as much except during cutscenes and this can sometimes make the adventure seem lifeless. But the skits are like banter you have with your friends on the way to a restaurant. It gives the feeling that your characters are hanging out during their adventures. There's a life and personality to Tales characters normally not found in other RPGs.

Skits is a concept that was ahead of its time. Most Tales characters fall into some archetype which is not a bad thing, it's just unavoidable. But skits allow Tales characters to branch away from their categories by giving them more personality, development, and background.

As a gamer, it's easy to become emotionally attached to these characters and sympathize with their struggle. It's also why fans favor Tales characters over other RPGs. Whether Tales characters are better RPG characters in the genre is something I will debate against, but I can see why many others believe so.

BATTLE SYSTEM:

The absolute biggest draw of the Tales series is their battle system- characterized by their trademarked LMBS (Linear Motion Battle System). In all of their Tales games, 2D or 3D, Tales characters are controlled in real time combat.

Players can move, block, attack, or cast magic at will. This is a huge deviation in the JRPG formula, in which most of the combat is turn-based. Furthermore, Tales was way ahead of its real-time combat rivals because of how developed their LMBS are. Combos can be strung together, Skills added depth and options for each character, strategies can be set for AI-controlled characters, and guarding options all make the game more than just a button-masher.

In most of the Tales games, up to 4 party members can be deployed on the battlefield. And this meant multiplayer was possible-- which meant that for once, an RPG can be finally played with someone else! I played the early half of the series with my brother (and sometimes our cousin). It was run to riff on funny parts of the game but even more fun to play with someone else. Multiplayer made Tales even more of an enjoyable experience and I am sure many others can relate.

Unlike most video game series that upgraded the same battle system, Tales was pretty daring and significantly changed up the formula. Rebirth had 3 lines and cooldown timers for Arts, Destiny R had aerial combat, and Xillia introduced tag team combos. Even the sub-systems such as skills, learnable Arts, movement options, and combo system changed.

At the end of the day, each battle system shared the same concept of free-styled combat and that's what mattered most. The ability to string together your own combos and strategize your party members made the games endlessly fun to play.

WANTING MORE OF THE SAME:

After Symphonia, I craved for more of the same and imported the rest of the Tales games on the PS2: Destiny 2, Rebirth, Destiny Remake. I even imported the PS2 version of Symphonia because of its extras over the GC version. We imported Abyss because at the time, its localization was uncertain.

Even if I didn't understand the storyline, there were entire translated scripts of the game that we read while playing the game. But more than that, we played for the battle system and there were no regrets whatsoever.

For the first time, I joined a forum for Tales games and interacted with other people, joined in on speculations, had embarrassing (but high-level) debates, and constantly tried to keep up with the next Tales game.

Over time however, the Tales series changed in many ways and so do did my love for the series. Changes in management, business practices, and development gradually transformed the series into something else. I couldn't get into the characters anymore, or enjoy its battle system, and eventually I stopped playing the series altogether.

RECYCLING/REUSING CONTENT:

One of their earliest hallmarks of disappointment was how often they used the same material repeatedly. At first, they used to be a nostalgic reference to a classic Tales character but when you do it again for the next 3 games, it becomes obvious that it's just laziness at this point.

The earliest traces of this low budget tactic begins with Abyss. In Tales, Mystic Artes were ultimate attacks with amazing visuals. But in Abyss, many of their Mystic Artes were similar in visuals-- a circular glyph that deals a radius of damage.

Although it was not a huge deal at the time, it was the beginning of a trend. Namco re-used Abyss' aesthetics for the Radiant Mythology series, Tales of VS, and Tales of Innocence. DLC costumes that were first used in Vesperia are still being used 4 games later in Berseria. And instead of coming up with new Mystic Artes, Namco just slaps on old ones onto new characters even if they didn't suit the character.

What used to be nostalgic references to classic characters now became a cheap and lazy way to add content to their newer games. Ordinarily, there is no problem with a nostalgic cameo but when they are used repeatedly, game after game, then it's just obvious laziness at this point.

DECLINING SUBSTANCE:

After Vesperia, their games started to become hallow in both nature and substance, riddled with poor game design, or both. Recycled content was only one of the many factors. The bigger concern was cutting out traditional content in the games and selling them off as DLC.

Although Vesperia was the first Tales to have DLC costumes, they had the most in-game costumes of any Tales game to date. DLC costumes were not a controversial issue until Graces, which only had 2-3 sets of costumes for each character. The majority of available costumes were sold as DLC. This DLC trend went into full force with Xillia, which only had 4 costumes total. The traditional swimwear set were absent from the game and with that, the staple comic relief swimsuit scenes.

To make matters worse, these costumes were developed before released but were released on a schedule. So even if players wanted to pay for DLC content, they wouldn't have access to them right away. And finally in Zestiria, they took it to the next step and made DLC out of Artes, Mystic Artes, and Skits. Rather than providing meaningful and additional content that players were willing to buy, Namco instead decided to hide in-game content behind a paywall. Nothing about these tactics are fair or justifiable. It's just a greedy money grab at the expense of fans and quality of their games.

STORY/CHARACTERS:

I figured, okay fine the costumes are DLC now and there's a lot of recycled content. At least I can still enjoy the characters and story... Right? Wrong. Following Vesperia, the quality and writing of Tales took a nosedive of incoherent writing, falling deeper in cliché archetypes, becoming so full of itself as a series, and losing touch with their fanbase.

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES:

Graces marked the beginning of this trend, and thus the first steps to Tales' downfall. Let's start with the character archetypes, shall we? You have the goody-two shoes protagonist Asbel, ignorant of female affections, always wanting to do the right thing regardless of consequences, and all about protecting his friends.

This sums up 90% of your JRPG protagonists and some of the Tales protagonists can also fall under this description. But Stahn is a lazy stowaway with no ambition, Lloyd has his silly Dwarven Vows and questionable mathematics, and Senel is a loveable jerk whose lack of awareness can be attributed to his marine background.

Asbel on the other hand, has nothing other than his background that sets him apart from his archetype. His only motivation in the game is to protect his friends and nothing else. It's supposed to be beautiful and amazing because he would even sacrifice himself for his friends, but he's not that different than robot programmed for a single purpose.

Sadly, most of the characters from this point on have more or less the same amount of depth and personality as Asbel. You have some gems like Leia who fought tooth and nail to defend a hopeless Jude from Alvin, but you realize her character is wasted on Jude because it revolves around him. Instead, her character can be better spent finding someone else who deserves her.

Then you have Alvin the traitor, who is arguably the worst traitor of any JRPG series to date. At least Kratos was disguised as a mercenary. Sure he had his mysterious past, but nothing that would indicate he was a freaking Angel working with the organization that’s been chasing after you. Then you have Raven whose shadiness can be attributed to his silly antics, perverted nature, and propensity to drink. But one would never guess he was also a Captain of his own brigade!

Then you have Alvin who saves Jude from his predicament and then forces his mercenary services onto him, a wanted criminal. On top of that, he uses a gun which is technologically not possible on the planet he is infiltrating. You'd think a spy would make an actual effort blending in. So obviously, characters like Milla catch on and when confronted, Alvin makes a poor effort to refute her accusations which basically boils down to "I know you know but you can't prove anything." It's a complete mockery of the betrayal plot twist that the series has come to be known for.

So we have the same archetypes we've always had-- the oblivious protagonist, the childhood friend, and a shady traitor. Except now all they're doing is fulling a quota on a checklist. Yes, they each have their own stories and backgrounds but none of them are fleshed out with the same depth as the characters from previous games.

INCOHERENT WRITING:

Now, let's talk about the incoherent writing and my gosh there are so many examples of this. Let's continue with Graces and Asbel— whose friendship with the rest of the cast is as hallow as the games. The story downplays the impact of what 7 years can do to friendships.

The game doesn't address why Asbel never kept in touch with his friends over the course of 7 years. He never wrote to them or visited, and despite being the same city as Richard, the two never crossed paths for 7 years! In fact, the only reason Asbel comes back to his hometown is because his father passed away. If he didn't, who knows when Asbel would return.... if he ever thought about returning at all. In fact, Asbel brushes off the 7 years as "Oh it went by so fast." It’s as if Asbel was playing his own game too, experiencing the time skip the same way a player would.

Under those 7 years, he trained under instructor Malik so the two have a close relationship. But that's the thing, everyone's closeness with each other is supposed to be accepted by the player. It's not unbelievable that Asbel can reconnect with his childhood friends, but at this point they have all become different people.

So in many ways, it's like getting to know someone for the first time again. But the game doesn't do any of that. It just tosses the 6 characters together with the same old banter you're used to. But you don't understand what makes any of these characters close. What makes Asbel and Malik get along beside their relationship as master and student? What makes Asbel get along with Cheria and Hubert besides being childhood friends?

In Vesperia, you can see how the irritable Rita softens up to Estelle and the others. Yuri becomes an older brother to Karol. Everyone makes fun of Raven but they love him for his antics. And Judith is the sultry woman that playfully teases everyone. None of these characters except for Yuri and his dog Repede knew each other beforehand. There are no childhood friends here—these are 7 strangers who come together and become a family. When playing the game, you can see how these characters grow close.

I don't get that from Graces, or any game that follows it. What I get instead are a cast of characters who are stuck together and make do with it. There is no emotional investment between anyone and the impression I get is that they can just walk away from each other's lives without a care in the world. Any closeness just comes off as forced, because the writers stopped putting in effort to make a convincing cast of people who are supposed to be friends.

Moving on, let's revisit Alvin the traitor. So after the party finds out he's a traitor, guess what? Nothing happens! The party is upset with him but he just worms his way back in and shrugs. The party does nothing about it, and so they carry on awkwardly.

And not awkward in a way that's amusing to the player, but awkward in that the player can't even begin to comprehend the situation unfolding in front of them. Alvin obviously still has his own agenda intact even after coming back, and the betrayals continue happening. So it's not a single betrayal, but a recurring event in the game, and it makes no sense why the party allows this to continue.

I stopped playing the series after Xillia, but the general consensus about the next game Zestiria is that it is even less comprehensible. Scenes are so poorly directed and just happen without explanation. Characters ignore a problem when an actual person would just be like "Wait, what is going on? I demand an explanation."

SKITS:

So we have a declining quality of storyline and characters... How can it get worse? Oh wait, what about the skits that added to the characters and background? Nope, they ruined that too, and it started with Graces.

Remember how half of the skits were about the storyline and the other half was silly banter? Well, now they have become too silly and gimmicky. You now have random splashes of images invading the skits which tries to convey the scene of the game. I thought I was listening to a skit, not reading a visual novel. If you want to make this scene cinematic, then make a cutscene instead.

The topics have changed from ordinary topics that trail off to funny banter, to nonsensical gibberish that laughs at its own jokes. It's as if they were catering to meme culture and hoping that it would spread to the internet and blow up or something. It's as if, after several Tales games and years of development, the writers are writing skits for the first time again.

On top of that, most of the skits stopped making sense in context or flow of conversation. In Graces, most of the skits are triggered by standing at a Discovery Point. Sometimes the conversations are about the actual location, in that the characters talk about something they are reminded of. But most of the time, they talk about something entirely unrelated to the Discovery Point and it makes you wonder what was the point of having skits based on location.

In Berseria, I listened to a skit between Laphicet and Magilou, except Velvet was there randomly too. Ordinarily in skits, only the portraits of the participants are shown. Even if they are not originally part of the conversation, their portrait would be off to the side, to show they are eavesdropping. And if they leave the conversation, then their portrait disappears.

In the conversation between Laphicet and Magilou, Velvet appears out of nowhere and speaks her mind. She doesn't speak for the remainder of the conversation, but her portrait remains. But the remainder of this conversation only happens between Laphicet and Magilou. You can't tell if Velvet is listening in or not. If she's not there, why doesn't her portrait disappear. And if she is there, then why isn't she saying anything?

All these annoyances about the series would be minor in their own capacity, and the games would still be bearable. But all of them are present at the same time and collectively become an unbearable experience. It just proves that the Tales series is declining as a JRPG series.

BATTLE SYSTEM:

Okay, so what about the battle system? You imported a good amount of the games just to enjoy its battle system right? Yup, even that is ruined believe it or not. For some strange reason, Tales suffered a series of questionable design choices ever since Vesperia.

Traditionally, attacks have been divided between normal attacks and Artes. You attack with regular attacks and then use Artes to complete the combo. Graces changes this formula by getting rid of normal attacks and turning everything into an Arte. Normal attacks are now the new Artes button, and the Artes button is a different branch of Artes.

This sounds like a great idea at first, especially when it was originally advertised as Style Change LMBS. But in reality, only Asbel's fighting style changed between the two trees of Artes. For magic casters, their second Artes tree were just spells. For Melee attackers, they were just different Artes. In the end, it was just a different way of sorting the Arte tree that ultimately did not add anything. Graces had positive battle system changes but this was not one of them.

Xillia returned to the traditional format of attacks but they unified the Overlimit and Symphonia's Unison Gauge into a weird tag team function. In Xillia, characters can be tethered together and provide mutual support. The player can activate the Overlimit gauge to unleash devastating tag team attacks.

However, Overlimit required two characters to be tethered in order to activate and have access to Mystic Artes. In other words, a character cannot fight alone and go into Overlimit or use Mystic Artes alone. In adding a team functionality between characters, Tales marginalized the role of an individual character. It was a sacrifice that didn't need to happen, and this is because of poor game design.

POOR GAME DESIGN:

Fast forward to Zestiria, which attempted to introduced seamless battles. Before, characters were transported to a field of battle upon encounter. Now, enemies are fought in the fields or dungeons encountered with no transition. Upon victory however, a transition still exists for characters' win poses. Obviously, these had to stay in Tales which only made seamless transitions pointless. In fact, seamless transitions became one of the most criticized elements of Zestiria.

First of all, Namco did not accommodate for the camera angles being obstructed by objects, walls, or other obstructions. Traditionally, battlefields took place in a flat area with no obstacles and within a large radius. The camera can zoom in or out depending on the player's settings and number of enemies son the field. The player's perspective in Zestiria however, was constantly being blocked by trees, walls, or even the enemies themselves.

Second, there were no environmental interactions which is what players were hoping for since they existed in Vesperia. For example, using hazardous flowers to stun an opponent or taking out bridge switches to prevent enemy reinforcements. One would think this primitive form of environmental interactions would be present in a game whose battlefields were shaped by terrain and geography. But this was not the case, which begs the question... why even have seamless transitions in the first place? It goes back to Namco not knowing how to use good ideas.

THE ALISHA CONTROVERSY:

When discussing the flaws of the Tales series, it is impossible to leave out the story behind Alisha and Zestiria, the biggest controversy of the series. It was so serious that Hideo Baba disappeared from public appearances and ultimately left Namco. This controversy illustrates a problem bigger than any that I have mentioned thus far— which is that Namco has become so full of itself that it produces what -it- wants rather than what the fans want.

When Zestiria was revealed, the first two characters shown were Sorey and Alisha. They revealed figures for both of these characters, and there was also an Alisha cosplayer on the scene to further promote the event. JRPGs typically have a male and female lead, so these must be our hero and heroine right? And the first characters shown are always the lead protagonists, right?

Well, according to the producer Hideo Baba, if you thought Alisha was the heroine then you made an incorrect assumption. That's right folks, Alisha was never the heroine of the story and in fact, only a temporary party member for a small portion of the entire game.

Despite being part of DLC costume sets, being the first female Sorey comes across, and the character responsible for initiating Sorey's journey, she is not the heroine or a permanent party member. When fans expressed their outrage and confusion, Baba only responded with "We never said she was the heroine."

Then why was she one of the two revealed characters when Zestiria was announced? Why announce her at all, release a figure for her, and include her in DLC costume sets? This character received promotion and attention and fans were excited to play a lancer, of which there are very few of in the series. For Baba to say "we never said she was the heroine" is a mockery to all of the fans he misled up to this point.

Namco will never come out and say it but what really happened was that there were last minute changes to the story that replaced the intended heroine Alisha with Rose. It turns out that Hideo Baba was smitten with Rose’s voice actress at the time, so much that he abused his authority as producer to shift focus onto Rose. This major change in heroines affected the rest of the storyline, and writers simply did not have enough time to rewrite the story to accommodate for this change. The end product resulted in an incoherent storyline that felt incomplete and full of holes.

In an attempt to appease fans, Namco released a (temporarily) free DLC chapter focusing on Alisha after the events of the game. However, this does not change the fact that Alisha was shafted because of Baba's personal interference so the DLC chapter did very little to please the fans. And Hideo Baba was never heard from again.

This incident provides us with insight to the management responsible for calling the shots in the making of Tales games. These are people whose desire to create a Tales game are out of alignment with what fans want. Business perspective and economic thought cannot be applied to explain their behavior. The only difference between their games and fan made projects is that they are making the same garbage but within the company.

Sure there are still fans that eat up everything that Namco serves them but nobody is asking for a Tales-themed cafe, a Tales of the Abyss musical, a letter from Richard to Asbel as a bundle exclusive, or an anime of a game that was just released. These are products that Namco is throwing out there because this is what they want to exist.

It's sad how Namco is mishandling the Tales series so badly. Aside from God Eater, they don't have Go Shiina composing any music. They have a trademarked battle system that no other company can replicate. And there are so elements and quirks to the Tales games that cannot be found anywhere else. These wasted resources can be better spent giving fans what they actually want like…

REMAKES:

Namco realizes the value of the past Tales games, that's why they ported Destiny 2 and Rebirth onto the PSP, Abyss to the 3DS, and Symphonia and its sequel to the PS3. What Namco should really be doing however, are remakes of older Tales games. Specifically, they should replicate the success they had with the popular Tales of Destiny Remake.

Destiny Remake's assets were made from the ground-up. It introduced an entirely new battle system with aerial combat and an alternative to the traditional TP system. Its story and skits were fully voiced and redone. Its graphics kept 2D sprites complete with beautiful animation and effects. It will go down in history as one of the most satisfying battle systems in a Tales game.

And yet this success has never been replicated ever since. Fans were hoping that these remakes would be the beginning of a new trend. New fans would get introduced to older games with modern designs. Older cans relive their older favorites in a new way. And fans outside of Japan could get a second chance at localization.

But instead of remaking the next entry in the series, Eternia, Namco decided to remake Innocence and Hearts on the PSVita. These titles are nowhere close to being the most popular titles in the series, but Namco wanted to remake them because the DS' hardware limitations prevented them from putting in everything they wanted. Therefore, they were remade on the VIta.

The quality of work put into these remakes comes nowhere close to Destiny R's. Although voicework and scenes were redone, the character models were mediocre and the battle system was largely the same with a few improvements. They did however, retcon in new characters— a trend that Namco seems to be fond of since it was done to Vesperia and Phantasia.

What's even more bizarre is that Namco introduced the concept of the Triverse Gate, which connects the worlds of Innocence, Hearts, and Tempest. However, this Triverse Gate is only present in the remakes, not in the original games. It's a very interesting concept to make a connection between 3 unrelated games, but it only serves as an end-game dungeon. Even in the remakes, the Triverse Gates have no bearing on the story whatsoever. So what was the point of connecting these games in the first place? The only thing the Triverse Gate has done for the series is make fans wonder why there hasn’t been a Tempest R.

Regardless, Hearts R and Innocence R performed terribly. Even their combined sales don't come close to Destiny R, which sold over a million units. In fact, both of the remakes sold less than their original releases. This failure is actually quite an accomplishment in of itself, and again proves that Namco is out of touch with their fanbase.

CONCLUSION:

After reading this, I hope you can understand why I once loved Tales and why I hate it right now. It's like a relationship that worked out perfectly fine- distance wasn't a problem, money wasn't a problem, approval from friends and family wasn't a problem. But Tales just couldn't be satisfied staying the same and wanted to be something different for no reason, and in ways I could not accept.

I don't think I am asking for much here. I just want Tales to be good like it used to be. It doesn't have to take after Vesperia, Symphonia, or the legendary PS2 trinity. I just want the battle system to be fun again, for the characters to be less gimmicky and try-hard, for the content to actually be there, and for the storylines to make sense.

I don't want Tales to do open world when they can't. Or for them to make a mockery of skits and post-battle victory screens. Or to buy a Rutee and Leon for the 5th time. Just give me a complete game that's fun to play and has likeable characters like the good ole days. Please.

#tales series #namco #jrpg #hideo baba

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wrestlewriting · 7 years

Text

Insolence, Pt. 6 [Adam Cole]

Title: Insolence, Part Six of ? (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five)

Characters: Adam Cole/OC(Brenna, because it’s easier for me to write with names in stories)

Genre: Angst. Regret. Resolve.

Length: ~4,200 words

Warnings: Cursing.

Summary/Inspo: Aftermath (n.) - Consequence. Result.

@catie-kaboom @libby-rose-2016 @legitlunatic @valeonmars @barbelly28 @danapotterwwe @alexahood21 @rollinstrash @covergirlcollarbones @thedeboniardevistation

If you want to be added to the tag list, just let your girl know! :)

(This chapter brought to you by the musical stylings of Chris Stapleton.)

I fucked up.

You stared down at your phone as the bar moved across the top of the screen, indicating the message was being sent to Candice. It was late morning, and you were sprawled on your back on your bed in your hotel room, fully dressed for the day and packed to leave. But you didn’t feel ready to do that, given the amount of feelings running through your mind. You had thought about messaging your best friend at home, Lauren, but you felt given Candice was more familiar with Adam, she was the best friend you needed to seek out in this moment. You’d tell Lauren everything later.

When you initially woke up, you had a minor headache, which after some ibuprofen and water was finally soothed. You at first hadn’t lucidly remember last night…and then you had. It all came crashing back down on you. There were some blurry edges around parts of your conversation with Adam, but you clearly remembered all of the actions. Him touching you, you touching him. You initiating the kiss. Him letting you…then stopping you. His words to you.

You don’t want this.

Who was he to tell you what you wanted? You didn’t even know what you wanted! You certainly hadn’t wanted to make up with him only to then make out with him. Yet, here you were, the morning after, all of that having happened. Because in the moment last night, you had in fact wanted to kiss him. Apparently? You still weren’t sure what motivated your actions honestly.

He was just there, being so sweet, and you had been drinking, though you weren’t drunk, and something just made you want to do it. A clouded judgement call because he was kind of pretty? A craving for intimacy that you hadn’t had in months? A stupid decision as a stupid attempt at further reconciliation? Hey Adam, instead of yelling at you, let me put my tongue down your throat, you mocked yourself in your own head. Dumbass.

Your phone ringing brought you back to the present. It didn’t surprise you to see it was Candice calling, and after swiping on the screen, you pressed the object to your ear.

“I fucked up,” you reiterated.

“I got that,” she replied. “What did you do?”

“I kissed Adam.” You figured straight to the point would be best.

“You WHAT?”

“I kissed Adam,” you repeated, before groaning and throwing a hand over your face. For some reason saying it out loud to your best friend brought a new side of realism to the situation.

“You said kissed right? Not killed? Kissed?”

“Yes, Candice, I kissed Adam, OK? Please stop making me say it. It doesn’t feel right saying it,” you emphasized.

“…why?”

“For real? Uh, first off, maybe because, it’s Adam?”

“OK, and…?”

“Candice, you’re fucking with me right?” You couldn’t understand why she was suddenly less shocked by the situation, as though who it had happened with was somehow logical to her. It shouldn’t be. It wasn’t to you.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, yes you kissing Adam is completely unexpected. But you kissing anyone would be unexpected to me right now, to be honest,” she explained.

“It was unexpected to me too,” you assured her, just short of resentfully. “But did it have to be Adam?”

“What led to it?”

You went on to give her a brief summation of the night; dinner where he ignored you, you confronting him, him exploding, which then led to the discussion in his hotel room. Your apologies to each other. The scotch and wine. His cryptic statements to you about being different and also his disclosure to no longer being in a relationship. The TV movie. His reassurance that things would be just fine for the two of you now. Your actions.

By the end, you felt even more confused than you had before. Nothing in your narrative seemed to tell you why you had kissed him. Replaying it back to Candice, you had hoped some part of it would stick out, as if to say ‘yes, THIS is why you did that’. But nothing did. You again told Candice about your lack of understanding of your own actions, especially given the history you had with Adam.

“You guys are comfortable with each other, right? He’s not some stranger. And knowing you, moving on from Evan…it’s not going to be with a stranger. And I’m not saying like you and Adam are going to have a relationship now, but I get why the first person you kissed since Evan was someone like Adam, someone you know. It’s like he’s…safe, I guess?” Candice words made sense you supposed, but they didn’t bring you as much relief as you had hoped.

“Whyyyyy did I push to reconcile with him?” You bemoaned, closing your eyes. “I should have just let him ignore me and ignored him back. But no, I had to have answers and now here we are, no better off than before!”

“I dunno, I think kissing someone is better than punching them.”

“That’s because you’re pure and innocent and kinky things don’t matter to you.”

“OK, but…not what I meant by that,” Candice giggled.

“Seriously, I punched him a few months ago. He was one of the people I wanted to see least up until, shit, until last night practically,” you realized. “Why the hell did kissing him make sense to me last night? I wasn’t that drunk, I know I wasn’t.”

“Well…he’s not exactly the most unattractive man in the world,” your friend highlighted. “And you had been drinking, however little or much, so you weren’t 100% on the defense. And you guys were being all emotional and close and ya know, it’s really not as far-fetched as you think it is. He’s pretty much the only guy I can think of in our lives where it’s not like it would be incestuous or just weird or wrong for you to kiss.”

“But it IS weird,” you argued. “I feel weird.”

“Do you feel weird because you kissed Adam? Or because you think you aren’t hating what you did overall as much as you should?”

“Both?” You were guessing, at best. “I mean, I know I can move on from Evan, logically I’m sure I will, but I hadn’t plan to at this point.”

“I don’t think you can plan those kinds of things, hon,” Candice replied, her tone gentle. “You can’t just be like ‘OK, and on this Tuesday is the day I will no longer miss my husband and I will start being interested in someone else’.”

“I know that,” you sighed. “I just mean…I kind of, I guess, had it in my head that it’d be at least a year before I even contemplated it? Like, I still miss him, every day. Because the most random things make me think of him. And who he was to me, that can’t just be replaced. It just…I don’t hurt the same, but it aches a lot.”

“Of course it does. That’s part of the healing process. It doesn’t happen just over night, and I’m sure for years to come, you’ll still have that ache in some ways. But Brenna, telling yourself you have a timeline to handle your grief and move on, that’s just setting yourself up to fail.”

You knew she was right, deep in your soul you knew it, but it didn’t feel OK to you entirely. How could you justify being with a man for nine years, and moving on from him in under one? Granted, it was now 11 months ago you’d lost him, but even so. It wasn’t a year.

“And again, it’s not like you slept with Adam last night. You kissed him. That’s pretty low-level stuff right there honestly. Not saying that if you had slept with him it would be make you the devil, but just kissing him definitely doesn’t make you the devil,” Candice guaranteed.

“How do I face him after this, Candice? Like seriously. We’ve been at each other’s throats for weeks,” you pointed out.

“Not last night you weren’t. You were at each other’s mouths.” You could hear the smirking pride on her face in her voice.

“You’re not cute,” you declared coolly.

“I’m adorable,” she argued cheerfully, before becoming serious again. “Bren, listen to me, I know Adam. He’s a downright jackass to a lot of people, and he means it. And he’s been a jackass to you, but he never meant it. He wanted to make things right with you for a while, and yea, maybe he’s gone about it the wrong way, but then so have you. You both have done things that haven’t been the smartest or the best or whatever. But this kiss? I can promise you, this isn’t going to be the final straw for you guys.”

“How do you know?”

“Because, you both want to be in each other’s lives too much. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have spent all this time fighting and what not.”

You were vaguely upset at how much sense Candice was making now. You couldn’t argue her point. Clearly you cared about Adam, about his friendship, or else, she was right, you wouldn’t keep confronting him and fighting him and demanding explanations. If you didn’t care at all, after that first confrontation, you would have left well enough alone.

“Maybe all this fighting was just foreplay for you both?” Candice considered, causing you to roll your eyes.

“…I take back my earlier ‘innocent’ comment about you.”

“Oh, shut up. And also, Joey Ryan, kind of one of my best friends. I know things that I cannot un-know thanks to him,” Candice stated, and you could envision her shuddering, making you laugh.

“Yea, he’s a wealth of filthy knowledge,” you agreed. “Also, the internet. Scary place, yo.”

“For real,” your friend giggled with concurrence. “Look, just, don’t work yourself up, OK? This will be fine.”

“I don’t believe you, but sure,” you responded. “I guess I should just go face him and get it over with.”

“Stop acting like you’re going to your death,” Candice chided. “Just, please take this piece of advice: do go face him and don’t let this not get talked about. That’s how you guys got yourselves in this mess to start.”

“Yea…communication, not our strong point.”

“Oh, yea, no,” she agreed quickly. “Definitely not.”

After saying your goodbyes to Candice, you laid on your bed for a moment longer, trying to feel at all settled in the situation. But you didn’t. So you supposed it was just best to get on with it.

You grabbed up your bags, and checked out of the hotel, before getting in to a cab. The Briscoes had offered to wait for you, but you had sent them on their way earlier. It was nothing against them necessarily; you just wanted as much time to think and be and plan by yourself as possible.

The cab got you to the venue much quicker than you had anticipated. After paying and getting your items out, you walked in to the venue with your suitcase rolling behind you. Finding the girls’ locker room was easy enough, and you set your stuff in a corner. Taking your phone from your purse, you took in a deep breath, and set out to find Adam.

It didn’t take you too long to navigate the backstage area. You passed many people you knew, saying quick greetings to them, but continuing on your way. When you didn’t locate him, you wandered out in to the actual arena part of the building. And sure enough he was standing around in a group, talking and laughing amongst themselves.

You watched Adam for a moment, knowing this was what you had to do, no matter how worried or nervous or scared you were. Doing your best to have your head held high, you walked over to the group. Greetings were exchanged amongst all of you, with some brief chit chat and smiles. You gently set your hand on Adam’s arm, causing his blue eyes to come to yours for the first time since you had walked up.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Yea.” His response was short, curt, and led to you both, without further words, walking away from the group. You walked side by side with him, though you were the one leading the two of you along. You wound your way through the hallways, further back in to the event center, until you saw an empty room that didn’t look like it would be occupied any time soon. You walked in, Adam following, shutting the door after himself.

There wasn’t much in the room, a longer table, a couple of scattered chairs. You didn’t feel like sitting, too wired with emotions. You kept a few feet between yourself and Adam, who had taken to leaning back against the wall beside the door. He was regarding you, his face without expression, which didn’t help you feel any better either. You couldn’t read anything about him in that moment; was he just as unsettled by last night as you were? Did he not care at all?

“What’s up?”

That was his opening question? You started to realize that maybe he wasn’t bothered by last night like you were. Maybe he didn’t even remember it? Oh god, did he not remember it? Were you the only one who knew what had transgressed between the two of you? Should you just not say anything then?

“I just…wanted to talk about last night,” you explained, a noticeable lack of conviction in your tone.

“Alcohol is a hell of a thing, Bren. It’s OK. And I know you didn’t truly…want to do that with me last night, it was just a thing that happened.”

So he did remember. That was good to know. But you couldn’t help but get irked at the fact that he was, once again, telling you what you wanted. What right did he have in doing that? Why did he get to make judgement calls on your behalf now at all times?

“Can you please stop telling me what I want? I’m sick of you thinking you know what’s best for me.”

“I’m right though!” He argued back, stepping away from the wall, so he was standing upright, though there was still distance between you both.

“How the hell can you know that?” You challenged, your hands going to your hips.

“Because I know you,” Adam said. “And I know that right now, this isn’t what you need with me.”

After his statement, he appeared to deflate some, the angry tension leaving his posture. You watched on curiously, his words not making much sense. Need with him? You observed him as he ran a hand over the top of his hair, before crossing his arms over his chest. He seemed to close in on himself in this stance.

“How?” You inquired again, but this time with your voice having lost most of its own heated edge. “What does that even mean?”

“How many years have we known each other?” He countered, switching the topic quickly.

“I don’t know. Five? Six?”

“And that whole time, you were always with Evan. From the day I met you, you were in a relationship with Evan. We all knew it, everyone, and it just…it put you in this…different category for all of us. We could only see you as friend, or little sister, or whatever. It took away any of that confusion or choice in the matter.”

There was that word again. Different. Different. Why were you always so different to him?

“Adam…I don’t understand…”

“Come on Bren, yes you do,” he argued, practically pleading with you, his arms dropping to his sides. “You’re not new to this business, world we live in. You know how it plays out with women around here a lot of the times. But you…you got to transcend all of that bullshit. We didn’t have to try to figure you out, how’d you be. It was obvious you were just here for wrestling, and making friends and family. No one could try to sleep with you or any of that shit either because it just wasn’t an option.”

“OK? Is there something wrong with that?”

“No, no, of course not,” Adam insisted. “But that was…then.”

You knew you had to ask what he meant, but you dreaded doing so. This conversation had taken such a sharp turn. He had clearly come prepared to speak with you, had gotten his thoughts in order. And you had a feeling you knew where this was headed, but you weren’t positive, and you definitely weren’t ready to handle it if you were right. You wanted to be wrong, didn’t want any more inconsistency around the two of you. Taking a shallow breath, you pushed on, because ignoring things was what got you in this chaos in the first place basically. You had promised Candice after all.

“…and now?”

“Now…you’re my friend, Brenna. … But for some fucking stupid reason, I can’t just keep you in that box the same way anymore,” he said, sounding mad at himself about this. “Without Evan…that wall, that distance we’ve always had to have just because…is gone. And now you’re not… Look, I told you before, you’re not just one of the guys, Bren. You never were really, and you’re just…definitely not now.”

Your head was spinning, you felt jittery all over. Had he really just told you that? What was he really trying to say? What was going on right now? You weren’t prepared for this conversation. You had come to him, thinking you just needed to smooth over some weirdness from a kiss, laugh it off, move on. You hadn’t even at all entertained the idea that this discussion would go so off the rails for you.

“I don’t like this, this lack of control I have with you. That’s not me. I’m always in charge, I always have a plan,” he declared, appearing to take your silence as a need for more clarification. “But with you…I never know what I’m doing, what you’re doing. It bugs the hell out of me that the second I see you, I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

“To be fair, neither do I really,” you spoke quietly, and a smile twitched on his face.

“I figured as much,” he replied.

You chewed at your lip, finding it harder and harder to keep looking at him, wanting more than anything to just hide into yourself right now. This was just too much. You had no idea what to say. You still weren’t even fully understanding his intent at this point either. It was a bit ambiguous whatever his aim was in telling you all this.

“I’m not trying to come at you and overwhelm you,” Adam stated, seemingly not oblivious to your body language and reaction. “And I’m also not saying I have some like, long-standing unrequited crush on you. Anything that this is, it’s because of recent events. So what I’m saying is, when it comes to you and being just your friend, this is new territory for me and I don’t know what to do because everything is just so different now.”

“Stop saying different,” you requested, your distaste growing for that word more and more each time it was used. It didn’t tell you anything concrete, it just made you more unsure each time. And that was getting on your nerves.

“I’m sorry? I don’t know what else to call it though. Because that’s what it is,” he explained. “You, your world, you in my world, anything between us…it’s different now. We can’t pretend it’s not.”

“I know it’s not,” you asserted. “Believe me, I’m well aware my entire life isn’t what it was a year ago.”

“Then you have to understand, in some way, why I’m having a hard time figuring you, us, out,” Adam reasoned.

“I mean, yea, sure. It’s not like last night, the last few weeks, haven’t confused me and made me question everything too. But I just…I didn’t think it ran as deep as it apparently does,” you said, uncertain and dazed.

“Things changed in Atlanta for me,” he admitted, looking at you, almost with guilt. “Before that too, to some extent. The way you are to me…I don’t know. I’m not sure how to be around you anymore. You weren’t a part of my life for so many months, and then you were, and it’s just been…crazy. And kissing you last night…”

“Do you regret it?” Your question cut him off, and his face changed to one of surprise. He clearly wasn’t thinking you were going to ask him that.

“…Yes? …No? I mean, I know I should…” He trailed off, just watching you, almost helpless in his inability to give you a direct answer.

“…but you don’t.” You finished for him, your voice a whisper. You didn’t know why his words, these words, affected you so much more than the others. You thought you regretted the kiss, in some ways at least. You had to. It hadn’t been premeditated. It hadn’t been an idea you had until it happened. It certainly had not been a part of your life plan.

“Not entirely.”

His admission made your heart rate increase more than it was already was. You had not expected any of this. You had expected Adam to be on the same page as you, slightly puzzled and weirded out, and just trying to move past last night’s events. You had not expected it to mean anything to him, beyond a drunken-at-best mistake. You certainly hadn’t expected him to have any type of muddled feelings for you that weren’t exclusively of the friend variety.

“I liked kissing you,” he murmured, causing your breath to catch even further. “I hadn’t wanted to stop it last night.”

“…you did though?”

“Because I had to,” Adam stressed. He sighed, looking down to the ground for a moment, before taking in a breath of his own, and looking back up to you. “We haven’t been able to, not once, be together without something…eventful happening lately. You…no matter that it’s been almost a year, you’re still in a lot of ways getting over Evan, I know that. And I can’t…both of those aren’t things I can ignore.”

He paused, his gaze gentle as he looked you over. It took all your resolve to look back at him. You were uncomfortable; not because of what he was telling you necessarily, but because this situation was so surprising and so foreign. He was right in saying that since you had accosted him in December, things hadn’t been calm in the least.

“I just…I had to stop it last night,” he reaffirmed. “What I think of you, whatever that is, I can’t let that be important right now. I’ll figure it out myself. But while doing that, I’m not going to let you put yourself in a position for more problems to handle. You don’t need that.”

Despite him telling you want you needed again, this time it didn’t rub you the wrong way like it usually did. Somewhere in you, you appreciated his sentiments actually. You appreciated he was cognizant of your on-going healing heartbreak. He was trying to look out for your best interest, and was putting your mental wellbeing above his in a way. Despite his own confusion, desire, wants, what have you, he was putting yours first.

“Look, let’s just, try to be the friends we have been literally fighting to be for weeks now, OK? We’ll just hang out, be around each other, let things settle down a bit. I think that’s what we need right now.”

“Yea…OK,” you agreed, halfheartedly. You knew he had a valid point, that things had been nothing but chaos for the two of you for weeks. And whatever feelings he was having for you now, he hadn’t anticipated he’d have. You hadn’t anticipated you’d kiss him either. There was just too much emotion, too much confusion, in every interaction you had with each other lately. Maybe some respectable distance would do you both good.

“You know, this has been hard on me too. The whole, category, box, whatever, thing,” you disclosed. “In a different way than you, but it’s still changed. I mean, I was always the advice giver, the person that people trusted to keep their secrets and take care of them, and that it was OK to be human with me without judgement. And then with everything that happened…roles got reversed in a lot of ways. I was the one people had to take care of. It wasn’t easy for me to accept that.”

“I know,” he assured you sympathetically. “We all just…have a lot to come to terms with, I guess. But we’ll get here, Bren.”

“I hope so.” And you really did. You had come much too far in the past eleven months for it all to go to hell now. Even though you hadn’t predicted you’d be here in this situation with Adam, you knew all you could do now was see it through. However it turned out though, that was very much up for debate.

Y’all please don’t hate me!! It’s not the end, I promise. I’ve got a handful of chapters still planned at this point. But it’ll all depend on how the writing goes. Sometimes it takes me places I didn’t plan honestly. :)

UPDATED: Part Seven is up.

#adam cole fan fiction #adam cole imagine #adam cole fanfic #Adam Cole #wrestling fanfic #wrestling fan fiction #wrestling fan fic #wrestling imagine #roh fanfic #roh imagine #insolence

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captainnightflyer · 7 years

Text

Bear My Mark Upon Your Soul, part 4

Beware of rising gore levels, detailed tags, warnings and notes, read on AO3

Next time, Will’s dream led him to a forest clearing. Hannibal was sitting on the ground with his eyes closed, cloak in place, feathers lightly rustling in the wind. As soon as Will looked at him, his eyes opened and he stood up in one fluid motion, the cloak flapping lightly like giant wings.

“I thought something different this time,” he said in lieu of greeting. “The cabin is a pleasant mindscape, but I am curious to see you in another setting.”

“The cabin feels more like home to me, while the forest is more like home to you. It’s only fair,” Will shrugged and approached slowly, observing the trees, trying to figure out where they were.

“It is the same forest you hunt in, only a lot younger. A memory, a reconstruction, if you will.”

“You seem to dwell on the past a lot.”

A dark look crossed Hannibal’s face and for a moment Will’s vision swam as he flickered between his human form and the stag and something more amorphous, darkness with teeth and claws.

“There are things in the past which should stay there. Still, this was a beautiful forest,” Hannibal smiled. “I see that you have stopped hobbling your sight, you see me so much more easily now.”

It was true, since their talk Will had relaxed his control, but he felt the merits were dubious at best.

“With you, I see whatever you choose to show me. People, on the contrary, project too much and it pains me just as I remember, being deluged with their desires, with their little secrets and their…greed and lust and hate. I don’t like it, it tires me and my head hurts. I don’t really see what good it does.” Will knew that he sounded petulant, but in truth his… gift so far had brought him only pain and a general desire to avoid other human beings.

Hannibal seemed to disagree.

“You are good for more than reading humans, Will. Your gift is so much more than that, but still it is tethered by fear. You are not bothered by their emotions so much, are you? It is your own reaction, how you see your superiority over the mass of pigs at your feet, you see how worthless their lives are, how they are… less than you.”

He grasped Will’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. Will did his best to look back without flinching, staring at the red-tinted darkness, not quite human, but other.

“There is a beast coiled deep inside you, Will. I can feel it because it calls out to my own. You need to unchain that beast and let it guide you. Here, in the forest, it will take you to the best prey; it will help you whisper among the trees like the wind, to be one of the forest creatures. If you let yourself see the world as it is, you will have knowledge that you can use to your advantage. You will become a better predator.”

Will flinched at the words.

“I am not a predator!”

“Yes, you are. You hunt and kill for your food; is that not what a predator is? It is in your nature. You need to feed you and yours. In this way, you will better judge which animals are weaker and will be picked off regardless, and you can assume your natural place in the food chain. Let me show you!”

Hannibal’s words tugged at something deep in Will’s soul, and as much as he resented their implications, he could not deny they held a certain amount of truth.

“All right then; show me…”

***

Will gradually learned that letting go and using his sight in the forest was much more peaceful than around people. The simple feelings of the forest creatures did not distress him like those of his fellow human beings. His vision and mind both seemed sharper; between the time spent in his dreams at night and for real during the day, soon he felt very much like a forest creature himself. Every time, as their time to part drew near, Will asked if it was time yet, and every time Hannibal said no. Sometimes, Will wished they could stay in this limbo forever

On the outside, there was a subtle change to him. He was lighter on his feet, moving quietly as a shadow. He shied away from people even more than before, for their thought and feeling left him with an acrid aftertaste as ever. So he spent his days in the forest, enjoying his time with the trees and animals, hunting, respectful of every life he took. Almost all his nights were spent with Hannibal: in the simulacrum of the old hermit’s cabin, walking under the trees of the Raven’s Wood or other forests, memories conjured from Hannibal’s vast memory; sitting quietly with their feet dipped in the stream. He never got more than fleeting impressions and undercurrent from Hannibal; when he tried, he met the obsidian wall. He had never lost his composure and his control over his form as that time Will mentioned the past. Will remembered and did not raise the issue again.

***

One day Will came back from the forest to a commotion on the outskirts of the village. Everyone was gathered around an unfamiliar cart. There were two women sitting at the back, one was older, and the younger one held a sleeping baby. The man driving the cart was probably her husband, judging from the concerned looks he threw their way. The other three men were young, several years senior to Will, and each of them carried a bow, with various knives tucked in their belts.

Will slowly walked towards the gathered villagers, overhearing snippets of conversation.

“There was a flood earlier in spring; many people drowned, and now the fields have turned into marshes. We are looking for a better place. May we stay here tonight? We have travelled a long way and we are tired.”

Will could already see it; there were many empty houses in the village after the harsh winter. There was land enough to feed more people and the newcomers would stay, maybe bring more. He liked the man and his little family; they radiated only exhaustion and concern, and fierce love towards each other and the infant cradled in the woman’s arms. The other three, though, bothered him, and he was learning to trust his instinct.

Abby was there amongst the others, leaning over the side of the cart and cooing at the baby, who had woken up and was blinking sleepily. One of the men approached her and Will quickened his steps, pushing the other villagers aside.

“Well, hello. And who are you, little girl?” He stepped closer to her, their shoulders almost touching. Abby drew back a little, apparently offended.

“I’m Abby, and I’m not little!”

“Hmm… yes, you certainly aren’t.” The man’s eyes crawled slowly up and down her body and Will had to suppress a growl.

“Yes, she is! And who are you?” he snapped, standing next to his sister. The man peeled his eyes off Abby and looked at Will with a raised eyebrow. Will almost recoiled at the grimy, oily feeling that assaulted him as he allowed himself to look. Apparently his instincts had been right, and he wanted very much to wipe the leer off the other man’s face with his fist. Still, he could not explain or justify himself, after all, on the outside, the man had only been polite. The others didn’t know what hid behind his eyes. So the best Will could do was glare at him pointedly.

“No offence meant here,” the man said, raising his hands in defense with a mocking little smile. “Name’s Liam, I travel with this fine folk here.” He glanced at the rabbit hanging from Will’s belt. “Say, is hunting good around these parts? I haven’t had a chance to stretch my bow in a few days.”

Will was very reluctant to answer, but one of the other villagers piped in, “Yes, the forest to the south is full of game. Will here brings something every time.”

“That’s good to know. And what about the one to the north?”

The silence was deafening. Finally the same villager found his voice and answered curtly, “We don’t go there.”

“Why?”

“It belongs to the old gods. No hunter has come back alive from there.”

“Nobody?” Liam raised his eyebrows in disbelief and looked around the silent villagers.

“Almost nobody,” a new voice added. Matt’s mother was staring pointedly at Will, who swallowed in discomfort.

“Let’s go, Abby,” he pulled at his sister’s hand and she followed, radiating annoyance and confusion.

Abby was pretty mad at him when they reached their house.

“What the hell, Will? What has gotten into you?”

“Don’t curse,” Will admonished automatically. “I don’t like the way he was looking at you.”

“He barely glanced at me!” Abby threw her hands up in exasperation.

“Abby, listen to me! You know I… see things differently sometimes, right?”

She blinked in surprise and sat down.

“I know, but... I thought you didn’t want to talk about that. You said you didn’t do it anymore.”

“It’s not always easy to switch off, Abby. And some people… project. Believe me, that man was projecting some very unpleasant things when he was looking at you…” He willed her desperately to understand, because he didn’t want to spell it out for her “…when he said you weren’t little.”

“Oh!” Abby gasped and shuddered, understanding dawning in her eyes. “Will, really? You aren’t making it up because they are strangers and you want me to stay away from them?”

“I wouldn’t make up something like this. And please, promise you will stay away, especially from him. I didn’t even look at the others, but I need you to be safe.”

She agreed readily, wrapping herself tighter in her shawl. Will didn’t like seeing her in such discomfort, but sooner or later she had to learn that not all men were nice.

He was restless for the rest of the day, tinkering around the house and not letting Abby out of his sight. Objectively, he knew that she was smart enough to watch out for herself after she’d been warned, but he couldn’t shake the memory of the man’s thoughts and he kept clenching his fists in futile anger.

***

His hands were covered in blood. Warm and sticky, it ran between his fingers and up his wrists as he plunged the knife again and again, watching that hateful face twist in agony. In the dilated pupils he could see his own twisted image, contorted in a snarl he could barely recognize. He stuck the knife one last time, feeling the last of life and breath escape the body caught beneath his own and his reflection snarled, „Good…”

“This is quite an interesting dream. Is there someone new in your life?”

Will gasped as the last tendrils of his dreamscape dissipated and he was left standing, with no dead bodies in sight, only Hannibal’s curious voice.

They were in the cabin again, fire ablaze, pitcher on the table. Hannibal was smiling, eyebrow raised, proffering a cup of mead as if he hadn’t just witnessed Will dream about viciously murdering a man. Will looked down at his hands, devoid of any bloodstains, and gingerly accepted the cup.

“How do you know that was someone in particular?”

“What I saw was too… personal not to be someone in particular.”

Will tersely recounted the encounter with the newcomers.

“You still call it a gift. I touched the mind of that horrible man and I felt all the depraved things he wanted to do to my little sister. And I am not being overprotective; he wasn’t just admiring a pretty girl. He knew how young and innocent she was, and he wanted to defile that. Now I feel like I have filth clinging to my soul!”

Hannibal sat down and regarded Will over his own cup.

“But wouldn’t you agree that you are only stronger for it? Now you know that you have to protect her from this man. You warned her, so she could protect herself. Is that not a sufficient reward?”

Will deflated; he couldn’t deny the truth in Hannibal’s words once again.

“I feel… dirty, Hannibal,” he whispered, distraught, collapsing in the other chair.

“Is it the feeling of his base desires making you feel that way, or your own desire to hurt him?”

After what Hannibal had witnessed, Will saw no point in denying.

“Both. I… don’t want to want to hurt him. I thought I was better than that.”

“You carry a gentle soul with a great capacity for violence. That makes you righteous and wicked at the same time, a quite unique combination, very rare.”

Hannibal stood up and circled behind Will, making the back of his neck prickle under the intense scrutiny.

“Sometimes people squander the precious gift of life that has been given unto them. They make themselves less than animals, for animals don’t hurt others except to feed themselves and their young. For such undeserving individuals, is it so bad to rip away the life they are wasting?”

Hannibal made it sound so simple, so… right.

“Are you trying to make me feel better about my dream or are you encouraging me to kill him for real?”

“The decision is yours, Will. I would like to rid you of any moral objections you might have.”

“I thought you wanted me to feel comfortable. That was the point of all… this.” Will gestured to the cabin and Hannibal’s own form. “This conversation does not make me feel that, at all.”

“I think I see you better than you see yourself, Will. Comfortable is boring. It was useful in the beginning, to get you to think of me like someone to talk to, not cower from.”

“I have never cowered from you, even when you walked towards me with my friend’s body impaled on your antlers. Not even when I pledged you my life and you sliced your mark into my body!”

“This is also true,” Hannibal responded softly, his eyes shining with…pride? “So if you don’t fear me, why would you fear yourself?”

That was a question to which Will had no real answer.

***

A couple of days later Will walked through the village with his bow slung over his shoulder, heading towards the forest. Abby was instructed to avoid the strangers, especially Liam; still, for his own peace of mind, he had handed her one of his smaller hunting knives and told her to use it if she needed to protect herself. She paled a little, but wordlessly took the knife and nodded.

Will planned to shoot another rabbit or two, the meat would make a good stew and the pelts would get him some money when they went to the market next time. He slowed his steps when he walked through the tree line, relaxing, feeling the forest thrum with life. He spotted some tracks right away and followed them silently, moving through the forest like a ghost. Focused on his prey, he almost missed the crack of a branch behind him. Something inside him screamed “DANGER” and he leaped to the left, but not before searing pain lanced through his shoulder. He landed awkwardly and turned around, not surprised to see Liam and his two cohorts approach. They circled him slowly, like wolves surrounding their prey.

“Well, well, it seems that the rumors in you village are true, you do have eyes on your back.”

Will tried to sit up, but the pain in his shoulder stopped him short.

“Is that what they say? I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I heard you. I don’t know how you hunt with the racket you make.”

Liam snarled and kicked him in the ribs. The other two lingered behind Will and kept quiet. It was clear who the ringleader was.

“I heard some other interesting things. Everyone praised what a good hunter you are and how well you take care of that sweet little thing, your sister, and then admitted that you give them the creeps. Especially after someone let it slip that you went and came back from the other forest, after another boy got gored for his trouble. I wonder if there are really monsters, or you just killed him like the little freak you are!”

Liam drew closer, crouching but still outside Will’s range. He wondered if he could draw the knife from his belt quickly enough, but his shoulder hurt too much for him to try.

“Everyone thinks you are some kind of witch. We had a witch in our village once, do you want to know what happened to her?”

Will really didn’t want to know, but he was furious and it had always been more difficult to reign in his sight when he was upset. So he resigned himself and stared for a long moment at Liam. Then he blinked, trying not to throw up.

“Nobody knew you set that fire, did they? Did you feel like big men, burning alive an old woman and her animals?”

They stared at him in surprise, eyes suddenly frightened and unsure. Liam was the first to recover, aiming another kick at his side, which sent him prostrate on the forest floor. He blinked slowly. Maybe his head was woozy from the pain and blood loss, but he could swear the ground was trembling. Yes, the others sensed it too, and it was getting closer. A familiar hum started in Will’s mind, accompanied with the sound of thundering hooves. Will smiled again, spitting and flashing his bloody teeth at the men.

“Thinking I am a witch, knowing that I went and came back from the Raven’s wood unharmed… do you think it was wise to follow me and shoot me in the back like cowards?”

They stood petrified as the ground shook stronger and stronger, until the trees parted and with a leap the stag landed between Will and his assailants. Hannibal was glorious, taller than any real stag, his feathers ruffled, his eyes two burning coals. There was foam at his mouth and frankly, Will expected him to breathe fire any moment.

Will shivered at the quiet, icy fury emanating from Hannibal. He lowered his head and thundered “HOW DARE YOU TOUCH WHAT IS MINE?” From their horrified faces, Will supposed that they could hear him too. They finally found their feet and tried to run, but they were no match for Hannibal’s wrath. In the blink of an eye, he was upon them trampling them with his giant hooves, heedless of their screams. Will distantly wondered if he should be repulsed by the gurgling and sounds of broken bones; he only felt vindicated. He was the one who sacrificed his life and saved their in the process. They had threatened him, threatened Abby. Suffering was all they deserved.

Liam was the only one left, backed against a tree, eyes rolling frantically and looking for a way to escape. Hannibal stood before him and stomped his hoof once, making him flinch.

“This is the man you spoke of? I recognize his face from your dream.”

“Yes.” Will confirmed, watching with fascination. Hannibal’s muzzle was almost touching Liam; he closed his eyes, whimpering and averting his face, but there was no escaping the voice in his head.

“You harm and threaten the innocent. You came here for someone who belongs to me; know that your life was forfeit the minute you started walking after him with murder in your heart. Go back now, to the earth which gave us all life, and beg that she is more merciful.”

Hannibal lowered his head and slowly, cruelly impaled Liam on his antlers. When he finally stopped screaming and went limp, the stag withdrew and walked over to Will. Will looked up at the giant beast.

“Hey,” was all he could muster, dizzy from the pain.

The stag shimmered and was replaced by Hannibal’s human form, breathing heavily, eyes still burning.

“Let me tend to your wound.” The tone was brisk, but the hands which probed and tugged at his shoulder were gentle. Will hissed, trying to twist away, but the hands held him firmly. “Stay still, it will be over quickly.” Hannibal deftly snapped the arrow in two and pulled it from Will’s flesh with a sickening squelch. Will howled, blinded by the pain, but strong arms pulled him in and held him, a gentle voice humming in his ear, “Hush now, the worst is over.”

Hannibal pushed his ruined shirt aside and carefully touched the wound. He swiped through the blood trickling down Will’s chest and brought his fingers to his mouth. Watching his tongue as it cleaned off every last drop, Will’s breath grew short and heat pooled low in his stomach. Hannibal looked beautiful, wild and feral with blood smeared on his lips, Will’s blood. He opened his eyes; they were dark, pupils blown wide. Will squirmed a little, feeling how Hannibal’s thighs pinned him to the ground and flushing at the realization how intimately they were pressed together. Moreover, this was not a dream, Hannibal was actually there, for the first time since that fateful day in the Raven’s Wood when Will’s life had changed forever.

“You taste as exquisite as I remember, Will.” Hannibal’s voice was a low rumble and his expression was hungry. Images flashed behind Will’s eyes of him leaning closer and that tongue licking at his wound, like the stag had soothed the cut on his stomach. The thought made him want simultaneously to squirm away and to press closer and he closed his eyes with a low moan, not knowing what to do with this feeling of wrong-right.

Hannibal’s hand settled against the wound, warm and rough. He started humming something low in his throat, something that made Will’s ears buzz and his vision swim. There were sharp pulling sensations in his shoulder, but no pain. He felt the vibrations through Hannibal’s chest and couldn’t help but burrow closer until the humming abruptly trailed off. He looked up and tried to move his arm. There were slight twinges, nothing more. He could not see the wound well, but he was certain that it was next to healed. Hannibal looked satisfied with the result.

“Being beholden to me has its advantages, Will.”

“Nobody but you gets to kill me?”

“Yes.” His eyes flashed and Will wisely remained quiet

Hannibal stood up and walked towards Liam’s crumpled body. He reached his hand into the gory mess and tugged. His hand came away bathed in blood, holding a heart, Liam’s heart. Will tried to look away, but he couldn’t. “I thought you wanted me to kill him.”

“I merely encouraged you to follow your own urge. He was certainly deserving of this fate. I was quite happy to leave you to deal with him, until he decided to harm you. Then, his death was mine.” With these words, Hannibal brought the bloody heart to his lips and his wicked teeth flashed before ripping into the raw flesh. Will stared at the blood flowing freely down Hannibal’s chin and waited for the horror and revulsion that simply refused to set in.

“Will you partake in the flesh of you enemy, Will Graham?” Hannibal proffered the dripping heart and Will shook his head, scared of how tempting it seemed suddenly, like it was his due.

Hannibal continued chewing, eyes smoldering. “You are not ready yet, I see.”

Will stood up gingerly and picked up his scattered weapons. This was different, after their usual meeting he would just wake up in his bed. Now he had to make his way back to the village on foot. His wound had closed and barely hurt anymore, but the blood loss made him weak and suddenly the walk seemed overwhelming and quite impossible. His knees wobbled, but before he fell, two strong arms steadied him. Hannibal has wiped off most of the blood off his face and was staring at Will with some concern.

“You can’t go back alone. I will carry you.” He shimmered right there and Will’s hands suddenly were leaning on the soft fur on the stag.

“Climb on and hold tight.”

Will didn’t even want to argue; he was so bone-weary all of a sudden that the broad back seemed very welcoming. Awkwardly he managed to haul himself up, sparing a last glance at the carnage in the clearing.

“Don’t concern yourself with carrion. I will take care of it. Hold on now.” Hannibal slowly walked through the trees and Will leaned forward, resting his cheek on the soft neck feathers, too tired to care. There would be explaining to do, but he could allow himself to rest and not think for a little longer.

#hannibal #hannigram #hannigram fantasy au #gore

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prepare4trouble · 7 years

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Star Wars Rebels fanfic - First Steps, part 9

Okay, this is the final part of this particular fic. There is more to come though, so keep checking the ‘little by little’ tag on mine or @pomrania‘s blogs, or you can follow the series over on AO3, but we update a day later over there. Either way, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this last chapter, more is on the way.

Noisi sprung to life the instant they walked through the door. He approached them on his humming wheels from the corner of the room, where he had been waiting in sleep mode for a patient to happen by. “Ezra Bridger. It has been twenty-one hours, seven minutes since your previous visit. Although I appreciate your returning today, I would urge you to schedule and keep an appointment in future. I had been hoping that you would be here earlier, and I have spent much of the day anticipating your return.”

Ezra glanced at Kanan, and then back at the droid. “You have?” he asked. “Why?”

“One does not often get the opportunity to study such a fascinating condition in any detail. Especially not in such a remote and underpopulated locality. The majority of my patients are not even suffering from eye complaints, which is my specialty; I spend much of my time tending to broken bones, lacerations, head injuries and the like.”

Ezra folded his arms across his body and wished that he could exchange a glance with Kanan.

“As much as I offer to perform eye tests as part of the service, I am regularly turned down. Perhaps your case will serve to convince others of the importance of monitoring eye health.”

He couldn’t do this. Not right now. Maybe never. He turned to glance at the door, only a few steps away. If he bolted, he might even get away before Kanan could stop him. As his muscles tensed, ready to run, Kanan took a step forward. He clasped a hand lightly on Ezra’s shoulder as he did, stopping him in his tracks. “That’s probably enough, Enno-fifteen.”

The droid inclined its head a few degrees, and gestured to the large chair at the other side of the room with a wave of one of its limbs. “Please sit.”

Ezra eyed the chair apprehensively. There was no reason to be afraid of it. The chair itself had had no bearing on what had happened the last time he had been here, it had just been the place where he had sat. “Why?” he asked. “More tests?”

“In my experience, it is the preference of most organics to sit during occasions such as this. However, you may stand if you would find it more comfortable. I have no need to perform any further tests today.”

Ezra considered this, then very deliberately crossed to the left side of the room and perched himself on one of the two beds pushed against the wall. Noisi made an irritated sound, and propelled himself in the same direction. “The chair is equipped with both a backrest and a footrest for your increased comfort.”

Ezra shuffled back a little and swung his legs back and forth, “I’m comfy here,” he said, in a tone of voice that begged the droid to challenge him.

“Ezra…” Kanan said, warningly. He moved a little closer and leaned against the wall.

“Very well,” Noisi agreed, with what sounded suspiciously like a sigh.

It wasn’t comfortable, actually. The bed itself was hard, and Noisi was right, the chair would have been much better. He stayed right where he was. “So, why do I need to be here?”

“The primary function of this meeting is to arrange a schedule of appointments in order to allow me to monitor your condition. This could have been achieved the previous night, had you not chosen to leave before I had completed this task.”

“Hey,” Kanan cut in. “I think he’d been through more than enough last night, don’t you?”

Ezra lifted his feet onto the bed and wrapped his arms around his knees.

“It is my understanding that the patient was already aware of his condition; I did little more than confirm the diagnosis. I had no way of anticipating the amount of distress that confirmation would cause. Which reminds me…”

The droid moved across the room, opened a drawer and returned quickly, holding an object in his hands. He passed it to Ezra, who accepted it before he even registered what it was. It was soft, furry, and pleasantly squishy. He looked at the object in his hands. “Is this a loth-cat?”

“A synthetic tooka, of which yes, the loth-cat is one variety. There is a high percentage chance that given your emotional response on our previous meeting, you would require additional comfort. Please feel free to embrace it.”

Ezra stared at the droid. “I’m not a child,” he said. He started to hand the toy back, then stopped, finding to his embarrassment that he didn’t want to let it go.

“Technically incorrect, assuming the data we hold for you to be accurate; however, my programming suggests that most species of any age often prefer to engage in a displacement activity of some description when dealing with an uncomfortable situation. If you prefer, I could offer you a sheet of paper to rip into squares, or some thin sticks which can be snapped into fragments.”

Ezra’s fingers stroked the soft fur of the toy, and he shifted his position so that he could hug that instead of his own knees. He glanced at Kanan, a little embarrassed, but Kanan appeared either not to have noticed or not to care. “No, this’ll do,” Ezra said, and squeezed it a little tighter.

“Very well. Now, as I recall, you chose to terminate your appointment just as we were about to discuss the likely timeline for the syndrome. Are you prepared to have this discussion now?”

He wasn’t. He felt himself hugging the soft toy a little tighter as a vague sense of panic started to rise within him. He took a deep breath. Unbidden, from his position leaning against the wall, Kanan strode across the room and sat on the edge of the bed next to him. “Okay,” Ezra whispered. Kanan touched his back supportively and Ezra released the breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“The early onset variety of Sacul Syndrome is relatively rare, and differs from the standard variety in a number of ways. To be considered early onset, symptoms begin to appear anywhere between twelve and thirty years of age, however most commonly in the mid-teens.

“With the standard variety, vision declines over the course of twenty to thirty years, but in the vast majority of early onset cases, this timescale is reduced to a maximum of five years.”

“Wait,” Kanan interrupted. “The majority? So not always.”

Ezra felt his breath catch again, and he stared searchingly at the droid. Could there be a chance… He tried not to allow himself to hope, but if he had longer than he had believed...

“Given the degeneration already observed, as well as the patient’s description of the time of the onset of noticeable symptoms, I have no reason to believe that this case will be anything other than standard.”

“Figures,” Ezra muttered. He refused to allow himself to be disappointed. He had known what to expect already. It just would have been better if the droid had left that part out. But that was fine. Completely and totally fine.

Kanan shook his head. “Listen,” he said, addressing the droid. “I know you find this interesting…”

“On the contrary, ‘fascinating’ would be a much better descriptor. The opportunity to study this syndrome, and perhaps add to the collective understanding of it… Did you know that the cause of the early onset of symptoms is currently unknown? Perhaps a detailed lifestyle interview could assist in the discovery of that answer.”

“And that would be great,” Kanan said, in a voice that sounded calm on the surface. His emotions, communicated through the Force, were anything but. “Another time. Right now, how about we stick to the facts that are relevant to Ezra rather than worrying about things that aren’t?”

Ezra stroked his loth-cat. Not loth-cat. But it looked almost the same, and it reminded him of home.

Noisi gave an exasperated sigh, and somewhere at the back of his mind, Ezra pondered the reasoning behind whatever engineer had thought that would be a good thing for a medical professional to do. “Very well. As timescales vary, it is not possible to predict with any degree of accuracy the exact course the syndrome will take at this time; however, with further monitoring I will be able to provide this information. For now, the patient…”

“Ezra,” Kanan supplied quietly.

“Yes, that is the name of the patient. He can likely expect to have little to no usable vision in anywhere between two and three years. Following this, further degeneration will result in a total lack of light perception within a further six to eighteen months.”

Ezra realized that he was tightly squeezing and twisting the fur of his loth-cat, and made a conscious effort to stop. He smoothed the fur with trembling fingers. “I need to go,” he said, and made a move to hop off of the bed.

Kanan’s hand clamped down firmly on his shoulder, stopping him momentarily. He considered ducking down instead, sliding off the bed and fleeing, but reconsidered. If he left now, he would only have to come back again. If he could make himself stay, he would be justified in his refusal to return; it wasn’t like knowing exactly how long it was going to drag on for would benefit him in any way. From what he could tell, Noisi just wanted him there so that he could study him.

“Is there anything that can be done?” Kanan asked.

The droid hesitated. “Sacul Syndrome affects the vision in two ways. The condition truly is fascinating! The degeneration takes place simultaneously in both the retina and the optic nerve, though slower in the latter. That means that a cybernetic implant would work in the short term, but given the recovery time, as well as the time that it would take to become accustomed to the altered input from an implant…”

“Get to the point,” Kanan told him through gritted teeth, “please.”

“By the time the… Ezra… had adjusted to the cybernetics, the condition would have begun to affect the optic nerve, rendering them useless. I am sorry.”

Ezra nodded. He had known as much, though he hadn’t understood the reasons. The loth-cat sat cradled in his lap, his hand resting on its head.

“If you stop to consider it, the condition is really quite elegant, it could barely be more effective if it had been designed!”

Effective. Great. Well, at least someone was happy.

“So what’s the next step?” Kanan asked.

“Accommodation, adaptation. Rehabilitation.”

Learning how to be b… Like Kanan.

“As you are no doubt aware, I am not an expert in such matters, and under normal circumstances, the patient would have been referred to another professional for such things. However, circumstances are not normal. I have various texts which I can provide, which may be of use. In addition, I may be able to make suggestions based on my own knowledge. Outside of that, I believe that you may be the closest thing we have to an expert in that regard, Kanan Jarrus. Perhaps you would accept a referral?”

Ezra could tell, even underneath the mask, that Kanan was frowning. Slowly, he released the pressure on Ezra’s shoulder. Ezra decided to take that as permission to leave. He slid forward until his feet landed on the ground.

“When does he need to come back?” Kanan asked.

“I would suggest weekly for now, perhaps growing more infrequent over time. Please remain where you are while I retrieve the necessary texts.”

Noisi wheeled over to the other side of the room and picked a large textbook and a datapad from the shelf. He handed them to Ezra. Ezra balanced them in one hand and attempted to hand the loth-cat back to the droid.

“That is yours to keep,” the droid said.

Ezra glanced down at the toy, then up again at the droid, not sure what to do. He didn’t really want to be seen walking through the base with a stuffed toy under his arm. But, on the other hand, he did want to keep it. Finally, he pressed it to his chest and obscured it from view with the large book. He folded his arms over the book, hiding the title, and made for the door.

Behind him, he heard Kanan exchange a few words with Noisi, before he followed him outside.

“So,” Ezra said. “Never again?”

Kanan hesitated. “I know he takes some getting used to, but I think it would be helpful to go back.”

He hugged the book, and the loth-cat, tighter to his chest. “So he can start a countdown? Maybe talk about how ‘fascinating’ and ‘effective’ it is some more? No thanks. He basically said he’s not going to be any use and asked you to take over, that says just about everything.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Kanan said.

Ezra nodded. He had a feeling he was going to win that argument, Kanan didn’t appear to see any real merit in returning either.

“He’s not all bad; he did give you a tooka,” Kanan added.

Ezra sighed. As consolation prizes went, he could think of better. “That’d be great if I was five,” he said.

Kanan shook his head. “Don’t pretend you weren’t happy that you got to keep it.” He hesitated. “I still have mine too,” he added. “But Hera borrows him from time to time. Maybe don’t mention to her that I told you that, though.”

Ezra stared, trying to work out whether or not that was a joke. It had to be, right? His mind couldn’t quite connect the points to make it make sense, one way or another. He hugged the book, and the loth-cat, a little tighter still. “I’m just going to go,” he said. “Unless you want… anything.”

“No,” Kanan told him. He found Ezra’s shoulder with his hand once again. “I think I can give you a few days to…” He sighed. “Tomorrow,” he decided. “You don’t want to get into the habit of not doing it, or it’ll be tough to start again. And we need to talk about… but we’ll do that tomorrow as well.”

Ezra nodded, thankful that Kanan hadn’t insisted on doing anything there and then. He just felt… not tired as such, more like drained. Of energy, of enthusiasm, of anything. All he wanted to do was sleep. Maybe not even that. Just to sit, to grieve.

“Here.” He shoved the books into Kanan’s arms and kept the loth-cat for himself. “Do something with these, I don’t want them. I’m going to…” He pointed vaguely away from the main buildings, in the direction of his hiding spot, not sure whether Kanan was able to pick up on the gesture or not.

Well, he would start to find out that kind of thing soon enough.

He turned took off at a quick walk, the loth-cat partially concealed in his folded arms.

#little by little #star wars rebels #swr #fanfic #au #ezra bridger #kanan jarrus #feedback and comments are welcome #and appreciated

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laurietom · 7 years

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My Favorite Games of 2016

My gaming backlog is something impressive, as I typically buy a few more than I can play in any given year, and then those extras build up. The result is that I rarely play any game in its year of release unless it's a part of a favorite series, and even then, depending on how busy I am, a much anticipated game might get postponed. But I'm not adverse to playing older games. As long as the gameplay is still there I generally don't care. Maybe that's the same for you? These are the nine games I liked enough to finish for the first time in 2016, in the order I played them. Virtue's Last Reward * I enjoyed 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors for the Nintendo DS, so I intended to pick up the sequel, but took a while due to a bugged 3DS version (now patched) and not having a Vita at the time. Virtue's Last Reward is quite simply the strongest entry in the Zero Escape series. Science, pseudo-science, multiple universes, time travel, non-linear gameplay, and an incredible cast of characters made this a joy to play. I was up at 3am with tears in my eyes (on a work night!) because I had to see a particularly bittersweet sequence through. Fair warning there is a lot of reading, and the gameplay is all making choices and escape room mechanics, but if that's even remotely your bag it's worth playing. It'll mean more if you play 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors first, but the good news is that both games are coming to Steam in a remastered edition. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest I was looking forward to Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, and despite the child problems I blogged about, I enjoyed it. It was refreshing to have a game so focused on family and divided loyalties. I really liked the moral gray area that Corrin and her siblings occupied and as mentioned in my RPG Talk entry, I like that the final confrontation features Corrin standing together with her siblings rather than Corrin plus love interest and motley band of heroes. Familial relationships are usually set behind the romantic ones in games, so having family placed before everything else makes this unique. Zero Time Dilemma Zero Time Dilemma had a hell of a lot of hype to live up to, and at the end of the day I don't think it's going to be anyone's favorite out of the Zero Escape series, but it's still an enjoyable game. It keeps a lot of the same mechanics from Virtue's Last Reward, but suffers from a less satisfying mastermind than the other two. There's also a plot twist that people tend to either love or hate. But that said, it does a decent job of wrapping up the series, the escape rooms are still fun, and offers a lot of emotional rewards for fans of the previous two. Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth This is the best otome game I've played to date. I would have liked to include it in my top three games of the year, and it was a narrow miss. Otome games are usually given lackluster, passive protagonists to serve as the female player insert, but not Cardia. That girl is amazing, whether she's piloting an airship, busting herself out of confinement, or being a supportive girlfriend, because why can't one person do all of that. The boyfriends are more interesting than average, with only one route that really bored me. If there's any fault to this game I'd say it's locking Lupin's route behind everyone else's and making it so clearly the "real" route. Danganronpa: Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls Ultra Despair Girls is a little strange in that I don't think it's a particular good game, though I still finished it. It's a third person shooter, which is a strange genre jump for what had been a visual novel series. I only played it when I did because the Danganronpa 3 anime had Monaca, who originated in this game. The story isn't bad, it asks good questions and even clears up some others (like where did Junko Enoshima get all those crazy robots), but I'm not a shooter fan and I can't imagine the overlap between visual novels, shooters, and Danganronpa is enough to justify this game's existence. If you suck at shooters though, there's no story penalty for playing on easy. You can still see the whole thing. Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice I still haven't posted my VN Talk for this, but the sixth entry in the Ace Attorney series was a bumpy ride. It was good, but it wasn't great, and I think this is mostly due to character bloat. Dual Destinies had three lawyer protagonists so by golly Spirit of Justice has to too, even when the game can't quite figure out what to do with them. Unlike Dual Destinies, where the story honestly belongs to all of them, when it comes down to it, Spirit of Justice is really about Apollo, but the writing tries to showcase everyone, including several supporting characters, which results in a lack of focus. But if you like Apollo, this is the game to play as he has his best moments. This War of Mine * I waffled a lot on whether to buy This War of Mine because the vertical cut-away view of the buildings made me think of old platformers I was terrible at, but This War of Mine needs very little in the way of reflexes. I bought it for the for miserable experience of surviving as a civilian in an urban warzone and I was not disappointed. There's no tutorial, but the basics can be picked up by point and click, which feels oddly immersive, as the characters you're tasked with caring for have no idea how they're going to make ends meet either. Chances are, a first playthrough is going to be unsuccessful. People will die along the way, and you'll feel awful, which is the point. You get to put down the game and go home whereas the people who really lived this life could not. It was a sobering realization. (This War of Mine was inspired by the real world Siege of Sarajevo.) The Room This was a purchase based on a friend's recommendation because we both like escape rooms. While you're not escaping anything in The Room, the type of puzzle solving is familiar to anyone who has done escape rooms, and it's a affordable fix that can be done in an afternoon or two. The story is minimal and the atmosphere creepy, though it's manageable for those who scare easily (with one possible exception during the ending, but you've solved everything by then). I'm skipping the sequel because I react poorly to jump scares, even the ones that are so mild that most people wouldn't even consider them jump scares. Civilization V * When Civilization VI came out, I realized I wanted to play a Civ game again, but rather than getting the latest and greatest at full price, I decided to pick up Civilization V during a Steam sale, which netted me the base game and all the expansions and DLC for under $14. This turned out to be $14 well spent as I've now logged an embarrassing amount of hours on it. It's a lot of strategy and management to bring my chosen civilization to victory, but fun since the AI leaders of other civilizations have their own personalities. I had a really good tussle with Caesar in my Carthage campaign, which felt appropriate. My only complaint is that Europe feels over-represented in the number of civilizations available. There are multiple options for a continent like Africa, with Carthage, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt, Songhai, and Zulu available, which show that the game designers did put effort into avoiding a Eurocentric world, but it feels like it's not enough when 15 of the 43 civilizations are European (17 if one counts Byzantium and Ottoman, which I'm not since they're partially in the mideast), making them slightly more than a third of what's available. As I did with my book roundup, the three games I tagged with an asterisk (*) were my favorites of the year and definitely worth playing. I'd also like to mention the four games I replayed this year since it's rare that I replay anything, and four is unprecedented. Fire Emblem: Awakening (second time) Dragon Age II (third time) Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (third time) Danganronpa 2: Good-bye Despair (second time) The Danganronpa games were mostly because of the anime and wanting to relive the experience, but Fire Emblem: Awakening and Dragon Age II were purely unprompted, with the former having happened before the release of Fire Emblem Fates.

Mirrored from: The Rat’s Den

#ace attorney #code realize #danganronpa #dragon age #entertainment roundup #fire emblem #fire emblem fates #video games #visual novel #zero escape #zero time dilemma

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