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write-orflight · 4 years

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Songs to Play While Hunting a Killer: Chapter 2

*Gif not mine*

Prev -> Next

Pairings: HotchxReader, Enemies to lovers

Rating: M

Words: 1.8K I know :(

Warnings: None right now, eventually will be smut

Request: OPEN/CLOSED

Summary: Y/N is a Bounty Hunter who always runs. Aaron is the Agent that stays behind, it was no mystery why they didn’t get along. When the two are called to revisit an old case together it’s no wonder old feelings revisit too.

A.N: I know this chapter is short which is why I’ll be updating this again Thursday. It just felt like a good stopping point.

Chapter 2: Hold the Line by Toto

You and Hotch drove in silence again, Toto now playing softly in the stereo as you made your way to George Foyet’s. Your left leg propped up so your left arm could rest on it, your fingers drummed lightly on the steering wheel while you drove. You didn’t notice but Aaron was watching you. God, he hated how you were always like this, carefree and blatant disregard for the order of things. It reminded him of when he first saw you.

Hotch watched the woman sat a ways in front of him, leg propped up and sunglasses on in class. She was obviously hungover and not paying attention, taking the time to balance a pencil on her nose. Hotch rolled his eyes as he saw you check your pager and phone, he couldn’t stand people who joined the academy only to not pay attention to lessons.

“Can anyone tell you the difference between a trigger and a stressor?” the instructor called out looking to the class. He levels his gaze on you on your pager. “Ms. L/N? Since you want to check your phone, perhaps you want to call your dad and ask him for the answer?” He laughs, snottily.

Hotch watches you peel your sunglasses down to look at him. “Not necessary.” You turn to look at your peers. “A trigger is something that makes one think directly to abuse/trauma, they often lead to flashbacks or intrusive memories. While a stressor is an event or situation that creates a sense of threat or stress and causes someone to lash out or change behavior and sometimes even have a psychotic break.” You say with a bored expression. “Would you like an example of a stressor?”

“Oh, do you have one?” The instructor asks.

“Yea. An impending divorce is actually a great example of a stressor.” You say looking him in the eye. The instructor looks a bit shaken. “You’re wearing the same suit from yesterday but it’s pressed, which tells me you spent an unexpected night in a hotel and whenever your wife is mad at you, you take it out on your female students. Especially when she pages you during a lesson which is why you took your anger out on me, a woman checking her pager. I do suggest calling her back though, before she actually is an ex wife.” with that you pushed your sunglasses back up, returning to your pager to your pocket.

That was the moment Hotch decided he didn’t like you very much. You were smart and skilled, sure, but you were also arrogant to a fault.

Your phone ringing took Hotch out of the memory. He watched you pull it out of your jacket pocket, smiling at the name before answering.

“Hey, Seanie.” You croon into the phone. “Yea, I was in Mass last week. Now I’m back, your brother asked me to work a case with him.” Aaron instantly sits up at the mention of his brother. “Yea, I know I said I was going to visit after my bounty, work never sleeps you know that.” You’re smiling at the phone for a second, listening to Sean talk. “Well I can make my way up to New York once we’re finished here if you’re buying drinks.” Hotch watches laugh again. “Alright talk later, kisses.” You say hanging up. You loved when you got the chance to talk to Sean, of the two he was definitely the more fun Hotchner. You looked over to see Aaron leveling you with a stern look.

“What?” You say.

“Are you going to be able to focus on this case?” He says.

“Relax Hottie. I only answered the call because we hardly get to talk. I work too much.” You shrug.

“And what exactly is your relationship with my brother?” Aaron asked, a little too sternly but he knew your reputation.

“Your tone suggests you already have an idea of what our relationship is.” You roll your eyes.

Aaron brings a hand up to his forehead. “Please tell me you’re not fucking my brother, Y/N.”

You look at Aaron incredulously. “Jesus christ, no. Why would you say that?”

“I know how you were in academy--”

“You mean when I was in my 20s? Some of us were actually having fun. Not everyone was trying to salvage an already failing relationship with an engagement ring!” You say, you knew it was a low blow but Aaron was basically trying to call you a whore. “And FYI, No, I’m not sleeping with your brother, and even if I was, it'd be none of your business since we’re both consenting adults. But no, He and Katie, the girl he’s been dating for the better part of a year now are just really good friends of mine. And you’d know all this if you ever called.” You angrily threw the car in park. “We’re here.” You say, instantly jumping out the car, leaving Hotch behind.

--------------------------------------------

After leaving Foyet’s (Who thankfully provided you with his other known addresses and aliases) you and Hotch headed back to the FBI Boston office with the rest of the team working on the bare bones profile Hotch already made. There were still a couple things that gave you disconnect. Like why the 911 call was only made for one victim, and the change of M.O when the victims were young women. You didn’t say anything about your thoughts, you always were a speak when you can prove it kind of girl. You ignored Hotch the rest of the day after his comments in the car. You knew you and Hotch weren’t cut from the same cloth but at least you respected him. It was clear he did not do the same for you.

After working for a while, Hotch sends you and the rest of the team back to the hotel. You sat in your bed still working before you realized Hotch would probably still be up too. You put on your slippers before walking the short hallway to his room. You knocked twice before Aaron answered the door. If there’s one thing you missed about academy days it was the way Aaron looked in regular clothes, not the Armani suits. You looked at the way his broad chest fit tightly against the white t-shirt he was wearing. He was still pretty fit, you focused a bit too long on his biceps before you noticed the eyebrow raised at you expectedly.

“I was working on the case, figured you’d still be up doing the same.” You say, holding the file in your hand up. “Two heads might be better than one.”

Aaron thinks for a moment, before sighing and moving aside to let you in the room. As much as he didn’t like you he couldn’t argue with your logic.

The two of you look over the cases silently before Hotch speaks up. “What do you think?” He asks.

“The change of M.O has been bothering me.” You say.

“Change?”

“Yea, he usually stabs female victims multiple times. But this one he shot in the head once, just like the males.”

“Could’ve been a time thing.” Hotch says. “He was impersonating a cop, can’t do that for very long.”

“Or… It’s an age thing.” You say. “All the girls he stabbed were young. I think he’s a Hebephile.”

Hotch nods. “That’s…. actually a good observation.”

You roll your eyes. “Thanks, I’m full of them.”

Hotch opens his mouth to say something but the phone rings. You both look at each other in confusion. Who could be calling this late? He gets up to answer it.

“Hotchner.” You watched Hotch's demeanor completely change. “Who is this?” You sit up at that, watching Hotch have a very angry and incredibly vague conversation. Not before long, Hotch is hanging up angrily.

“What’s up?” You ask.

“The Reaper just offered me the same deal as Shaunessy.”

“And you didn’t take it?”

“Of course not.” He scoffs.

“So what does this mean?” You say, looking him in the eye. He looks back at you, solemnly.

“I don’t know.”

——————————————————

Later that night when you’re finally back sleeping in your hotel bed, you hear a loud rapping at your door. You answer it sleepily to see David Rossi standing at the other side.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s been another killing. Get dressed.” He says, turning to leave your doorway. You yell down the hallway at him.

“Why are you getting me and not any of your actual team?”

“Hotch told me to specifically get you.” He shrugs.

Hotch asked for you?

Weird.

The scene is gruesome. You’re used to seeing dead bodies in crime scene photos because of Academy but never in person and certainly not this many people.

The Reaper had killed a bus full of people. 6 people plus the driver made 7.

To make matters worse, he scrawled a sequence of numbers on the windows in the blood of the victims and you still couldn’t figure out what they meant. You and Rossi were discussing theories when you saw Aaron turn angrily down an alley. You and Rossi watch him go for a second before you signal with your hand you’re going after him. Rossi nods, opting to talk to the lead detective.

You jog down the alley to see Hotch, running a hand through his hair frustratedly.

“Hottie, what’s wrong?”

“This is my fault. I hung up on him and then he turns around and does this. It’s my fault—“

He has tears in his eyes. You haven’t seen Hotch cry since that night-

Don’t even start to think about that, Y/N. You think to yourself.

“Hottie...” You say, he’s still looking down. “Aaron, look at me.” He looks up at that. That’s not surprising. You never call him Aaron, at least not since academy. It was always Hottie or Hotchner. “This isn’t you, okay? You didn’t decide to kill these people. A serial killer did. Because that’s what they fucking do! They keep killing people and that’s why there’s people like you to catch them.” Hotch is looking you so intensely in the eye that you can’t help the flutter you get in your stomach. You guys need to solve this case fast, before these old feelings try to come up from the woodwork.

“So do you want to catch a killer or not?” You ask, Hotch nods. You punch him lightly in the shoulder.

“Thanks, Y/N.” He says, sincerely.

You shrug. “I’m charging you for the next one. Only the first pep talk is free.” You smile.

You can’t help the swoon of your heart at the small smirk Aaron gives you.

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xxcureangelxx · 3 years

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5, 9, 10, 13, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 30-35, 38-42, 44-46, 50, 52, 54, 60-62, 66, 71-74, 86-91, 96, 100! 😊

okay I literally have no clue how old this is and if I'm even taking the questions from the right post but here goes I guess? 🙈

5. What is your favorite Color?

PURPLE

9. How tall are you?

about 1,70 meters or 5'7"

10. What shoe size are you?

size 40-41, I think that's about 8 in US sizes?

13. What talents do you have?

uhhh good question... not sure if it counts but I guess I'm quite good at a lot if things but can't do anything extraordinarily well?

20. Are you religious?

Absolutely not. Due to family history and a lot of other things I'm actually against it a lot but people can do whatever they feel like is right for them as long as they don't harm others with it.

21. Have you ever been to the hospital?

Yes, quite a lot actually. practically grew up in hospitals as a baby because of kidney issues, broke both my legs with 4 years old, had to revisit for tests a lot during my childhood because of the kidney issue. it calmed down afterwards until I was back in hospital last year because of my terrible mental health and I'm currently in a rehabilitation clinic for it as well.

24. Baths or showers?

Shower's because we don't have a bathtub

25. What color socks are you wearing?

currently none, I love going barefoot, but usually I wear white, gray or black. I know... I'm a bad gay.. no rainbow socks (;ŏ﹏ŏ)

28. What type of music do you like?

you know.... I hate this question with a passion even though I love music so I'll just throw in my yt-playlist here and everyone who's interested can look through it to get a picture xD not sorted in any way and not a conclusive list at all, I just add songs as I find them

30. How many pillows do you sleep with?

mostly just one at a time but I've got two different ones. one is the normal fluffy kinda pillow, the other is made of some kinda foam material and rather thin.

31. What position do you usually sleep in?

I'm always lying on the side! have been doing that since I was a baby too.

32. How big is your house?

compared to what? 🙈 I'd say decent size for 5 people to live in, would have space for 1-2 more if rooms were used differently but definitely not enough to comfortably live with 12 or even more people like my family used to. we've got like 3 proper sleeping rooms (one of which is the attic so not very nice in terms of heat and the staircase is smack in the middle of the room), a kitchen, a dining room, a big living room, a tiny bathroom that barely fits a toilet and shower, and the basement is a mix of storage, electrics and stuff, washing room/utility room and it's got another smaller room that's been turned back into a small workshop but used to be the room of my brother and later my grandmother.

33. What do you typically have for breakfast?

I guess this is where it shows that I'm german but we usually just eat bread (preferably whole grain) with cheese or slices of salami or ..meat sausage? is that a proper translation? 🤨 idk... it's rather simple really. on the weekend maybe buns and boiled eggs. on the occasion that I'm too tired for it or don't have enough time I eat cereals but it's not very common when I'm at work/school

34. Have you ever fired a gun?

No, and I don't want to

35. Have you ever tried archery?

Yes!! I did last year when I was in the hospital and it was super fun! was quite good at it as well, even for my first try 😤

38. What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep?

I think about 3 days? if we count "barely unconscious for a few hours" as sleep that is... otherwise no clue...my memory of the bad sleepless time is quite hazy lol

39. Do you have any scars?

yeah, quite a few tbh. got 2 huge ones from surgeries due to my kidney issues, well they look like 2 but it's actually multiple ones since they simply cut open party of the old ones again, tiny hooman apparently have very little skin. then I got some other ones here and there from accidents, general dumbness, etc, like when I cut through my sunday morning bun and almost cut half of the tip of my finger off because my mother sharpened the knife and didn't tell me or that time as a kid I couldn't wait for my ironing pearl pictures to be done and burned myself on the hot iron, mostly stuff like that.

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?

I mean.. if they're a secret... how would I know? ;) not sure if it counts that it took me months to realize I had a crush on my best friend and the feelings were reciprocated and I was too blind to see the signs?

41. Are you a good liar?

Nope. People actually think I'm lying more often than I lie... so.... :/

42. Are you a good judge of character?

I'm.. honestly not sure what this one means? like, am I able to judge what kind of character a person has after barely meeting them or smth? if so, I'm terrible at it

44. Do you have a strong accent?

in german? nope. in english? hmm hard to judge since I rarely hear myself speak. I think the stuff I do know how to pronounce is mostly okay but since I learned it through reading I'm simply unsure of a lot of pronunciations. 'also'.... I can not for the life of me pronouns that word no matter how many times I hear it... it's kinda become a quirk after some classmates pointed it out to me and I'm incredibly aware how terrible I say the word but.... just can't get rid of it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

45. What is your favorite accent?

I.. actually really love the way my best friend talks? 👉👈 they're french btw. just... typical me for struggling to understand them though, already terrible at it in german too...

46. What is your personality type?

honestly, I don't think I can answer that. I'm big on self loathing and everything's pretty shitty so, no thanks

50. Left or right handed?

Right handed. but does it even count id I'm bad at doing things with that hand too? lol

52. Favorite food?

hmmmm tough question... not the biggest fan of food in general a lot of the time... probably Züricher Geschnetzeltes

54. Are you a clean or a messy person?

Definitely messy. my allergies did not like this post trying to clean and tidy up more often though. my depression does not like this post either

60. Do you talk to yourself?

sometimes. quite a bit when watching movies or if I mess stuff up

61. Do you sing to yourself?

barely. got a lot of bad experiences with that so i keep my singing to a minimum. my shower is a great listener though

62. Are you a good singer?

I was in a choir for a few years when I went to 'middle school' and I had like one solo part once but other than that I can't really say because I barely ever sing in front of people

66. Do you like long or shor hair?

this question is currently my absolute nemesis.. I've got suuuper duper long hair and have had it ever since elementary school and I used to be super happy with it and sometimes I still am happy with it but other days, depending on where I'm at genderwise, I absolutely hate it and I just want to take the closest scissors and cut it all off... currently haven't had the guts to look for new hair styles though... but in other people? or women more specifically? I love long hair 🥺

71. What makes you nervous?

Or the shorter question: what doesn't make me nervous... I'd say pretty much everything has got the potential to make me nervous. I'm an overthinker, anxiety is a big thing for me and ptsd makes me scared of almost everything. so.. yeah... sucks to be me sometimes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

72. Are you scared of the dark?

Yes, very

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?

I try not to but sadly I sometimes do, even if it's not my place to. I really don't like that part and hope I'll be able to learn not to sometime

74. Are you ticklish?

Yes and I hate it 😭

86. What are you allergic to?

again, easier question: what am I not allergic to... it's... a lot... like, really a lot. with the test on the skin of my arm I reacted to every single substance and the more thorough blood test lead to much of the same result. the absolute worst are birch trees (pitty, love those), then the usual pollen of pretty much every tree or flower, all animals with fur or feathers, dust and... yeah list goes on and on, you get the picture... :/

87. Do you keep a journal?

no.. have tried to multiple times in the past but never made it more than a week... too depressing to write and read... the therapist at the rehab clinic is currently forcing me to try a positivity diary for the millionths time, can't even get that done each day even though I'm doing it on my phone and get notifications to do it each evening...

88. What do your parents do?

making my life hell lol.. okay on a serious note, my father was a car electrician, he's retired by now, my mother is a housewife, she used to work different jobs before her first kid, later on she took care of my grandmother who was suffering from dementia, got some money and retirement points for that too.

89. Do you like your age?

I-... I don't know? it's weird because I both feel a lot younger and a lot older than I am rn....

90. What makes you angry?

another tough question... I actually have anger issues in that way that I'm barely capable of feeling anger... used to be worse but I already worked a lot on it in therapy so there's at least some there now... in the past I simply started to cry and felt overwhelmed by sadness whenever I was supposed to feel anger... so I can't tell very well what makes me angry because I first have to realize that I'm feeling anger or more like should be feeling it....

91. Do you like your own name?

Not really, no, but I guess I finally figured out some reasons why.. I've recently started going by a bit of a different name too but only my closest friends know so far and I'm not sure if I'll be using it irl at all..

96. How did you get your name?

I'm still trying to get my mother to admit that she named me after this song but she keeps denying it.. she's a fan of this band so it would have fit.. but she keeps saying she just liked the name, no long thought process behind it..

my chosen name is a bit of a different story. an ex friend I got to know through yt gave me that nickname almost 10 years ago after I complained that you can't make a shorter nickname out of my birthname and it's also the name of s character I like, especially his voice, and... idk it just feels more gender neutral and I simply feel comfortable with it. it just fit.

100. Color of your room?

same as question 5: Purple 🥰 or... well half the walls are purple, the other half is white

phew... can't believe I made it through all of these....

in case people haven't noticed yet, I'm currently kinda getting back into tumblr? I think I've already stayed a lot longer than any times I tried getting back before. it mostly started because we've got super bad wifi at the clinc I'm at rn and reddit takes up waaayy too much mobile data and... idk, I guess I just missed the vibe of tumblr

I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stick around but we'll see

#ask game #answered #I really really do not have any clue how long this has been sitting in my inbox...#the og post was somewhere around december if I saw that correctly (๑•﹏•)#oopsie...#just hope posting goes through snd my 3 hours of hard work weren't for nothing....#edit; posting worked but tumblr messed up the formating...#I'm not gonna bother fixing that because it's late and I need sleep 😭

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1stunseeliefaelass · 4 years

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Darksiders Arthurian Tales Revisited

Chapter 13: The Hunt Begins

Strife immediately panics and goes looking through his inventory to find a crystal. Death however grabs him by the shoulders.

"STRIFE! Calm down, Miriam should be fine. Uther likely won't pay attention to her. As far as he's concerned, he's probably among the group that doesn't view her race as people."

"Still worth checking on her, you know? I do not want tiny getting punted." Strife states.

"She can actually avoid getting stepped on you know. I taught her a spell to make herself taller. A better disguise than her running around in country bumpkin dress."

"Ok she can do a whole lot more than just country bumpkin, I know, I helped" Strife tells him annoyed.

"Right, and you have such a good style." Death remarks sarcastically.

Strife rolls his eyes before calling Miriam up finally. Miriam meanwhile is reading another romance novel as per usual in the city library. She ends up hearing her crystal go off and quickly hops down from her powder puff for a bed. From there Miriam hopped across a thin line with decorative lanterns on it, using said lanterns as platforms. Once across the line she gets down to the table her crystal is on using a bucket for a elevator. Finally upon reaching it she answers the call in a very cute, high pitched voice.

"Hello there?"

"Miriam you alright?"

"Mmhmm, you know I am my big gunslinger. What's cooking?"

Death suddenly busts out laughing in the background, "Did she just utter the expression 'big gunslinger'!?"

"Oh go sit on Harker's dick Death!" Miriam shouts in a mini explosion.

"Uhm no thank you. Ahem."

Then Puck walks in, "Already did it for him."

"Wait a minute.....Strife did you get into trouble at another bar?" Miriam asks.

"No no not at all my Sugarplum Fairy." Strife tells her gulping.

Puck looks at him funny, "Wait are you and her an item? I didn't know you were into shots of hard alcohol."

As Death continued to try and die of laughter, Strife retorted to both of them, "First off, she's a shot of Jaeger. Second off, you, shut up."

Miriam is of course squeeing at the comment, "Awwwwwwwww. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

"AH! Sugarplum you're gonna crack the windows, tone it down a peg. Anyway, I'm calling to ask if you're alright."

"As I said I'm fine. Why so worried?" Miriam inquires gingerly.

"Uhm just uh...telling ya....uh....if anyone bad mouths my brother, keep your head down. Don't speak up about it ok?"

"Oh sure, but what's he done this time?" Miriam asks.

"Uhmmmm.....I may have pissed off a King, again."

He hears a tiny facepalm, "Really?"

"To be honest, I was trying to stop him from harming an innocent person." Death expresses.

Strife adds on, "Yeah, he's got on crush on her too."

"Zip it."

"Hey you make fun of my love life, I make fun of yours. This is the game we play brother, this is the game we play." Strife states.

Suddenly Miriam hears the bell above the front door ring and glances over, "Oh, I gotta go now. May need to help with this customer. It's how I earn my keep here you know."

"Right right, just stay out of trouble. Swear to me you'll be safe ok?"

"Of course honeybuns, talk later." Miriam says before ending the call with a smooch. She then scurries to the front desk where a rather scary looking pirate is. The old librarian is noticeably concerned upon meeting them.

"Uh ah.......Mr Ding.......uh-uh I mean Captain Leatherbeard. What brings you to my humble library? A romance novel perhaps?"

"Heheheh haha....Nah nah, you know I'm not into those books. They're nowhere near realistic, or worth my taste." The bald man said simply. His 'beard' lived up to his name. Scarred tissue and calloused skin that when touched was comparative to leather. He had no true hands, as one was replaced by a massive anchor. The other looked like an unfinished prosthetic, that is unless it morphed another tool. A constantly changing piece of work that could become multiple things, using the mechanical parts mixed with a good dose of magic. Course he hadn't expected to hear a sudden small voice pipe up next to him.

"Actually sir, the romance novels can be very realistic."

He glanced over to the small Pixie Elf girl, "Hmhmhmhm....how so?"

"They just are, I assure you." Miriam insisted a bit flustered.

"Heheh....and have you experienced any of those things in your books?" The Captain inquired, getting closer to her.

"Why would I be so inappropriate as to tell a customer such things?"

"Heheh....I hear it's inappropriate to call a customer 'wrong' on a subject."

Miriam gulped, "Sir it was only an assurance."

"Oh assurance was it? So, you're saying this poor lonely soul of mine could find love? Have a peaceful life? Could have someone accept me for the way I look? The way I talk...heheh? For the way I act? You're saying I can find love? So naive. So filled with hope in this cruel dark world."

"I have love, and he appreciates me for who I am. Never judges my little stature." Miriam states.

"Heheheheh....Well I mean you are quite a pipsqueak but, I've seen smaller. And besides, how tall is your great prince? Is he as tall as me? Or is he as tall as my beautiful first mate here?" Leatherbeard asks her whilst pulling his first mate over, a female surprisingly.

"Shorter than both of you actually, but I still love him very much." Miriam says all dreamy.

"Oh well then, since there is a small height difference, you mind telling me how you get all 'snuggly' with him?"

"I'm afraid I can't say, it's private." Miriam states firmly.

"Hmm, we've already gone this far? Why can't we go any further?" Leatherbeard questions before suddenly snatching her in his fist. Squishing her big time he inquires further, "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't pop you? What makes you unique enough for me NOT to SQUEEZE?"

Miriam finally utters the spell under breath, which knocks Leatherbeard back slightly. As the light from the spell clears, he sees she's taller now. Slightly taller than a halfling, lithe, and actually rather 'blessed' as well.

"Hohohoh....now I can see it. Hahaha." Leatherbeard says before putting his hands on both her shoulders, "Now I can see why someone as tall as him could find someone like you pleasurable. Mind if I take a peek?"

"I'd rather you didn't....." Miriam says backing away like a frightened fawn. Her black doe eyes certainly don't help her image.

"Oh come now, you already gave me one good peek. What's wrong with seeing the whole show, as it were? I'm sure your, man, won't mind. He isn't here to give any trouble now is he?"

Miriam began looking around frantically and finally just forced herself through a window. Naturally she was cut by the glass but in her terror she paid no heed to her bleeding arms and feet. Scurrying away like there was no tomorrow. Only for Leatherbeard to pursue her. He takes a shard of glass, and upon sniffing it, "Got ya. Run run as fast as you can, nowhere to hide from me."

Miriam kept running, leaving a trail of even more blood as she went on in her fear. Meanwhile the librarian takes the opportunity to call Strife, "Strife you need to get down here, Miriam's in trouble."

Strife freezes and asks, "Wait what do you mean by trouble? What's going on?" Suddenly he hears the poor man being choked out and yells, "What's happening what's happening!?"

The first mate then picks up for him, "Captain's about to get himself a new gift. Thank you for her, honestly. Captain's been feeling a bit antsy today."

"Bitch where's my girl?!"

"Look honey my time is short, so if you know what's good for ya, let this happen. Or you can just get yourself killed, your choice buddy. Either way, this one's on you." She tells him before slitting the librarian's throat and ending the call.

Suddenly Death gets his own call from a very scared Miriam, "DEATH HELP ME!!"

"Ah! What's going on, and please speak calmly if you can?"

"Just get me out of here! Please!" Miriam screams at him.

"Merlin, get a portal ready! Miriam you need to keep running, who's chasing you?"

Suddenly Death hears a yelp and a voice he never thought he'd never hear again, "So your name's Miriam eh? Heheheh...and I can hear your friend there. Hello there Death, been a while. Hahaha ha..." Leatherbeard tells him before singing the song Oh Death.

Course he's interrupted by Strife, as he explodes whilst hearing Miriam whimpering on Death's crystal, "You motherfucking son of a bitch! Fucking damn you, you goddamn monster! I won't let anyone I care about become one of your playthings! No matter how demented you are, so come at me you bitch!"

Leatherbeard actually looks impressed, "Strife? Heh, last time I remember you were just a squirt. Heheh...been a while, been a while indeed."

"What the hell are you on about? Last I checked, we never met!" Strife yells at him.

Death notices Morgen looking a bit scared again, and inquires quietly, "Do you know him?"

"He's one of Uther's privateers." Morgen says in her fear.

"Shit. Strife you need to cool it." Death tries to tell Strife before they hear Leatherbeard singing that song again.

He then actually lets Miriam go surprisingly, and menacingly calls after her, "Keep running, just...keep...RUNNING.."

From there everyone hears the painful transformation that Leatherbeard undergoes. His 'screams' of pain more like moans that slowly become a strained hissing sound. The bones snapping in place, limbs and teeth growing. Every visceral detail and bloody pop they hear on the crystal. Finally a low hiss is all that's heard next before the crystal is smashed to bits. The wereshark has begun his frenzy. Strife begins having a panic attack, imagining whatever twisted being he fears Leatherbeard may be now. He can't get the image of Miriam being devoured by some twisted amalgamation out of his head. No matter how hard he tries.

"Shit fuck....shit!"

"Calm down calm down, Merlin get that portal ready damn it!" Death shouts.

"Working on it working on it! I can't keep a good lock on it when she's running around as fast as she is!" Merlin shouts back.

"Then let ME find her! My crystal's still intact so you can track me with that right?" Strife tells him.

"Riiiiiight." Merlin says.

"Be careful, he's a vicious monster and you still don't know what you're going into." Death warns Strife.

"I think I got this." Strife states confidently.

"Don't be cocky."

"Bitch please, I know what I'm doing. He's a Therianthrope, magic can still work against him right?" Strife questions.

"You have no idea who or what he is. That's it, I'm going with you in case you get yourself killed."

"I have this covered." Strife insists.

"Now is not a good time to argue. If you want to save Miriam, we need go now. Merlin get that portal ready!"

Merlin shouts back, "I already got it ready, now stand in the circle!"

As they do so, Miriam turns into her normal self. Letting a loud little shriek as she does so. As the glass still stuck in her scratches her up more. Miriam then slowly climbs up a wall pipe and after getting comfy she slowly begins losing consciousness. Course Strife heard her shriek of pain and immediately bolts in that direction. With Death running after him in worry. Miriam's extra blood however, brings Leatherbeard's attention all the more. Eventually Strife finds the blood trail Miriam left, and he and Death then hear Leatherbeard breathing nearby.

"You go get her, I'll take care of this guy." Death tells Strife before taking a stance for combat.

Strife nods and hurries on, finding the blood trail has led to the pipe she's hiding in, and it's practically leaking out of the pipe. He panics and quickly whispers up the pipe, "Miriam, you alright in there? Miriam I need you to say something."

He doesn't get much of a response, beyond a sudden rapid group of little thumps going down the pipe. Finally Miriam falls out of it, covered in her blood and scaring Strife shitless.

"Miriam!" Strife shouts in his panic whilst trying to patch her up. Even ripping her clothes off to get to her injuries better. As he's working on getting the glass out and wrapping her up quickly. Occasionally he nudges her with a finger and each little moan she lets out gives him the reassurance he needs. All of a sudden, Death is sent flying through a building. Landing conviently right beside his younger sibling.

" What the fuck?!" Strife shouts before looking behind him. Seeing a massive wereshark staring him down.

"Heheheh...three birds, one stone." Leatherbeard says in a low, hissing voice.

Strife pulls out Redemption and uses charge shot on him. The first shot sends him back a ways. Leatherbeard looks at Strife, then at where the bullet hit him, and laughs. Strife then realizes, the bullet didn't even penetrate through that thick bastard.

"The fuck?"

"Heheheh, cute." Leatherbeard laughs before flexing the bullet off of his skin. It left a dent, but nothing more. Not even blood.

As Strife is trying to think something to do, he feels something grasp his hand. Looking down he sees Miriam hugging his hand as tight as she can in her state. Shaking a little bit as she does so. Strife then hears Death behind him getting up.

"Nnngh...try the electric shock and run!"

Strife does so and hopes for the best. Using his electric shock on Leatherbeard seems to be somewhat effective. The electricity slows him down and it pumps through his body. Strife then immediately takes the borrowed time to try and help Death up.

"Go! I'll be right behind you!"

"I'm not leaving you behind!" Strife hollers before getting Death on his shoulder. His other hand grasping onto Miriam still. From there he hurries as best he can to get himself and the others out of there. Suddenly Leatherbeard forms his prosthetic into a massive anchor flail and then slams it down in front of Strife.

"No more running boy. Heh....you grew up big and strong. Compared to the pipsqueak you were when you were young. Absalom didn't see your potential, while THAT ONE on your shoulder nearly smothered it out. Heheheheh...."

"Last time I checked, if there's one thing my brother taught......don't give a shit about what others think. Give a shit about what you think. And personally, I think you're an asshole." Then he set Miriam in Death's hand pulls out Mercy, and aims at Leatherbeard's dick. Using a lazershot he continues, "And just for you scaring my lady, prepare to lose your dick!"

Strife begins firing, whilst Leatherbeard pulls his anchor back to deflect the shot. He succeeds in doing so to Strife's anger. Strife brings out his daggers but sees even those seem to not affect him. As unfortunately his silver enchantment doesn't work as he'd hoped. He's then bitch slapped backwards into the square, hitting a fountain at the center. Strife then gets up with some effort and fights on, only to get slammed in the ribcage by the anchor. He spits out blood briefly and Death meanwhile finally searches his mind and finds Crom.

"I need a little bit of your power, that's it."

"A small bit, in return for your time later." Crom states to Death's confusion.

Death suddenly feels a surge of power in him, like a rising flame, a burning sensation as vines begin growing around him. He then shields Miriam in a small bubble before going on the attack. The vines catching a flame and wrapping around Leatherbeard as Death begins floating in midair. A raged fuelled fire consuming him, slowly eating away at his sense, as he begins burning Leatherbeard. Even thorns form eventually that hold Leatherbeard in place as he burns within the vines' grasp. The shield bubble housing Miriam soon harmlessly bounces towards Strife, who's looking at his older brother in horror and shock. As the vines are also wrapped around him and burning him as much as they are Leatherbeard.

Scooping the bubble up he shouts at Death, "That's enough! We've got her let's go!", Strife then hollers out, "Merlin we've got her! Get us out of here now!"

Death however gives no indication that he's hearing him. Fighting the power as much as he is using it. Unable to do much else beyond attacking and fighting for control of himself. The pain making it even harder.

He thinks he can hear Strife shouting at him, "Death snap out of it! Merlin pull us out now!"

"If Death's like that I can't! He'll pose a danger to others! If I bring him here he'll probably burn this whole place to the ground, try and snap him out of it!"

Strife then yells at his brother one more time, as he can see Leatherbeard smirking. Healing from the flames as fast as Death could burn him, "Dude it isn't even working on him, stop!"

"I.....must burn...." Death shouts as he begins to lose control of himself, then in Strife's mind he tells him, "Douse..me.....now!"

Strife nods and sees the broken fountain spewing water. He only needs to redirect it. Strife takes a manhole and tries redirecting the water towards Death. The water hits Leatherbeard at first but isn't doused. Death however is then hit square in the chest and is doused. Death reacts quickly by throwing an attack at Strife, being under the influence of the power still. It misses luckily and Death grabs his head suddenly. Finally coming to his senses with effort, and realizing he is massively burnt. He begins healing and gets over to Strife, only to turn around as he hears Leatherbeard snapping the vines. Death takes off towards Strife despite his extreme pain, then shouts,

"GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

Merlin then finally does so," Got it got it, it's on its way."

"We're low on time! Death's hurt bad and Leatherbeard's coming right at us!" Strife replies.

The circle then begins forming around him, and Death manages to get into the circle. However his achilles tendon is suddenly scratched by Leatherbeard's prosthetic hand, which he morphed into a harpoon gun. Just as the group finally teleports away, Leatherbeard picks up the bloodied harpoon bolt. Death meanwhile is screaming in pain as the adrenaline shuts off, he can feel the burns all over his body and his injured tendon. War immediately grabs Death, throwing him over his shoulder.

"Gah! Could you please be gentle!?"

"Sorry." War says simply before hurrying to find a medic.

Strife meanwhile stays behind with Miriam after getting her out of the shield bubble. Merlin is about to ask but Harker comes in and does it for him, "What the hell's happening here? Why is your brother screaming bloody murder?"

Strife only shook his head, "Leatherbeard....nnngh....", he then holds his side as the adrenaline rush in him dies down too.

"You, sit down. I'll take care of your girl as best I can. Ok lassie, geez what'd ya do to yerself in order to cause this?"

Miriam shakily explains, "I was big at first....and broke through a window....got glass in me though. Me going small again.....well you can probably guess what happened...."

Strife then looks at her, "Seriously, you shrunk down with glass in you?"

"I was scared......but it was even scarier while I was hiding......I thought.....I thought......" Miriam begins to say before sniffling.

"Take it easy, he's not after you right now. Plus he doesn't know where we are, and he can't find us." Strife tells her whilst nuzzling her with his finger.

Then everyone freezes as they hear Leatherbeard call them up and begin singing Oh Death once again. Harker drops to the floor, screaming, "NO!", over and over again. Having a full blown panic attack. Miriam hugs Strife's hand right away and begins sobbing into his palm. The taunting singing goes on until after the third or fourth time Harker screams no.

"Ah Harker, I didn't know you were here. Heheh I'm on my way to wherever you land lovers are. And Harker, keep yourself warm for me. I don't want it to be too hard on ya."

Harker immediately hides in his serpent form inside an empty pot. Muttering gaelic swears to himself in fear and occasionally uttering things that suggest pleading. Eventually they hear him having what sounds like a PTSD flashback in there. Death comes back into the room with help from War and Morgen, having heard the commotion.

"What's going on? I heard Harker screaming." Death inquires with a slight hitch to his tone.

Strife points at the pot, "He's having a....'moment' in the pot there. Might want to go check on him."

As Death goes to do so, Leatherbeard has one final thing to say to Strife, "So, how often do you use the cocksleeve?"

"You son of a...!" Strife goes to retort before the crystal hangs up. He then notices Miriam looking extremely hurt by that. Naturally he scoops Miriam up and brings her close to him. Gently placing her to his face after removing his helm. She of course hugged his nose for being so sweet to her, a gave a teensie peck to it's bridge. His warm smile gave her a big reassurance as he oh so tenderly returned the kiss to the side of her head.

"Sugarplum, I love you more than anything. You're so much more to me than a cocksleeve. You give me what matters, you accept me just as much I do you. And that's just fine by me, in fact it's perfect."

"Awwwwwww.....you always know what to say." Miriam replies blushing hard.

"And she's completely red, you sure she's bandaged correctly?" Death states sarcastically.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure I patched her up just right. And uh what did Leatherbeard mean by he'll see us soon, he has no idea where we are? Right?" Strife inquires of him.

He thinks back, and remembers how effective a shark's sense of smell is. And both of he and Miriam have bled profusely between themselves, "He has both our scents. Damn it!"

"How the fuck did he do that?"

"He's a shark! Think about it." Death growls at him.

Both Strife and Miriam get a horrified look, and Miriam in particular begins having a mini panic attack. "Don't worry, I won't let him get to you. I'm gonna find a way to kill this bastard, you hear me?" Strife tells her calmly whilst cupping her in both of his hands.

Death then remembers Harker and checks on him inside the pot. "You in there?" Death asks tapping the outside of it.

Harker then comes up from the pot and is now in a smaller version of his true form. Being about the size of a house cat once he comes out. He then hops into Death's arms and begins to make a slight purring noise.

"Seriously?" Death asks before petting him like a house cat.

"Thanks Death. I know it's......probably not the best....time right now but.........thank you." Harker expresses slowly.

"Don't mention it. I'm only doing this to calm you down." Death states.

Harker sighs before telling him, "Thanks anyway, it helped."

Death notes his depressed and hurt tone, and can't help but say something, "Sorry if my cold, callous nature is making itself too apparent. Just trying to handle all that's happened."

Harker perks a bit at that and questions him, "How's Miriam? Is she alright?"

"I daresay she's probably about as scared as you are. Perhaps it'd do her good to hear from a person who knows how she feels right now." Death tells him simply.

"You think so?"

"Yes, I do."

Harker thought a moment before deciding to make his way over. Going into his serpent form and floating over in a flowing motion. He lands on the table near Strife and coils up into a circle before asking him, "May I speak with you and Miriam by chance?"

"Yeah sure." Strife responds before revealing Miriam from within his hands. She looks over to Harker and waves a bit despondently, "Hello Harker."

"You doing alright?"

"Better now, just still not great." Miriam replies snuggling her man's hand.

"That bastard. He just knows how to get inside your head, and mess with you." Strife adds on in anger.

"Yeah he gets inside your head and messes with you, real bad." Harker responds simply.

Miriam lays down on Strife's hand and tries to fall asleep, course Strife has a better idea for her. He stands up and thanks Harker for the brief talk, even suggesting they continue another time. For now he takes Miriam to his room, placing her on his bed and breathing heavily as he removes his armor. Still in pain all his own, but masking it as best he can for her sake. Wanting nothing more than to make sure she's fine. He soon has his armor off and checks himself in the mirror. Making sure he's not hurt too badly as he looks over his massive bruising.

"Damn, he really did a number on me. But it's worth it. Nnnnngh." Strife says before hissing as he turns around, looking at his back next. Covered in scrapes and bruises from the fountain.

"Ah damn it!" Strife hisses out when scratching his head, right where a bump happened to be.

Strife ultimately sighed to himself and laid down at last. Seeing Miriam all curled up on the bed was both warming and adorable all at once. Gently he stroked her teenie body up and down with his finger, only for her to hug it. He couldn't help but continue to let her hold him that way. Falling asleep slowly as he watched her keenly. The next morning Miriam woke up and seeing Strife asleep with his finger in her grasp made her truly happy. Gushing and squeeing on the inside, Miriam gently kissed his finger before carefully maneuvering around so as not to wake him up. Granted it was easy, given that she was barely the size of his hand. Eventually she made it to the floor and made a pitter patter sound running along it. Miriam upon reaching the door placed her tiny hand to her chin and began thinking of a plan. She wanted to test to see if it was locked. She found some long wire and formed the end into a hook shape. From there she tried to place it on the door knob, which took a few attempts. Once she finally hooked the door knob, she began to shimmy up the wire. Once all the way up it took some effort to balance herself on the knob. But after managing this, she hopped from the knob to the latch lock. From there she checked it's position and saw it wasn't locked, so she thusly latched it that way. She heard Strife stir with a light groan but he didn't wake up. Miriam then sighed with relief before hopping onto the hook wire and sliding down it to the floor. She then went behind the room's partition and decided to borrow a chair cushion to sit on the floor. Her grabbing of the cushion's tassel was enough to pull it down surprisingly, but it landed on her as well. Causing her to get smothered a little before she made her way out from under it.

"Mmmmmph.....mmmmnnngh....eeh! Whew. Ok. Now to wait." Miriam whispered to herself before getting on top of the cushion.

Strife then curled his hand up and realized Miriam wasn't there. He bolted up, "Miriam, agh........damn! Knew I was gonna be sore in the morning. Uh Miriam, you here? You alright?" He goes to get up but is way too sore to move.

Miriam however finally answers, "Over here honey! Behind this big, tall.....thingy! I wanted to surprise you with something."

"Oh ok, whew."

War however comes on by and tries the door. Seeing as it's locked, he can't open it normally. So he knocks and calls out to Strife, "Is it alright to come in?"

"Yeah it's alright, none of us are doing anything. You can come in now."

"The door's locked." War states.

"Well I can't exactly get up!" Strife retorts.

As War begins searching for a key, Miriam calls out, "Sorry, was hoping to surprise your brother with something. But, I guess it can wait.....want me to unlock the door?"

War laughs, "Uh yes, I need to check on him. Make sure he's able to move."

"Dude, I'm having a really hard time moving my arms, my legs.....just nope." Strife informs him.

"I could do without the mocking, but I'll unlock the door." Miriam states before going the through her earlier process all over again.

This time Strife is awake to see what she's doing. Naturally he can't help but give some comments and encouragement, "Doing pretty well, although one thing would make this easier and better. Try swinging, it makes it easier. We practiced on your landing remember?"

Miriam sighs and begins swinging like he says to. Course she ends up going in circles and in her little panic forgets to let go. "Aaaaaaaaaaahhhaaaaaaaaahhaaaaaah!"

"Let go let go let go!" Strife shouts at her.

War meanwhile hears the commotion and readies his fist to punch through the door to catch her.

Miriam finally lets go and has her eyes shut the whole time. Strife then let's her know, "You're fine, if you kept your eyes open you'd have gotten a 9.5 landing. That's an 8.5."

"Hmmm? Oh....ok whew. Also, zip it." Miriam retorts before hopping to the door's lock from the knob and then unlocking it this time.

War settles down at this and then opens the door. Seeing Strife stuck on the bed and letting Miriam hop onto his massive gauntlet hand. He then lets Miriam down onto the bed and begins checking Strife over.

"I've never seen you this fucked up. Even up against Moloch."

Strife gains an grumpy face, "I would flip you off, but I can't seem to move my fingers."

War shakes his head, "You're probably just exaggerating.", then upon seeing all the welts and massive bruises he has when removing the covers, "By the nine hells, what happened? Next time you go up against him, I'm coming with you."

Strife then told him, "He punched Death through a building! This guy then bitch slapped me through a fountain, and he threw an anchor at my chest! Who the fuck brings an anchor to a fight!?"

"Oh my gosh! Is that why these look so bad?! I'm so sorry." Miriam says before cuddling Strife.

"Not your fault, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ow." Strife assures her.

"What would win, his anchor or my fist?" War inquires.

"Depends, how close are you going to get?" Death questions from behind War, whilst on crutches.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Strife immediately asked.

"A harpoon to my achilles tendon doesn't bode well for me. Although the question you asked me is one I have to ask you. What the hell ha-?"

"Anchor to the chest, and being smashed into a fountain too. Yeah be happy you're able use crutches. I can't do shit." Strife tells him.

Miriam meanwhile curls up onto Strife's neck and snuggles him a little. Course Death has an idea.

"I have some ointments that can help heal....all that. But I'm not doing it, Miriam, if you'd be so kind. I'm going to get check on breakfast, War let's give them some privacy."

"Why must we?" War inquires.

"Do you really want to our brother naked?"

War immediately shakes his head and follows a snickering Death outside the room. Once it's closed Miriam taps Strife's face to get his attention.

"Yes Sugarplum?"

"Think I could show you that one thing? Since we're alone now, and because it might make things easier." Miriam suggests.

"Yeah go ahead and show me."

Strife then watches as Miriam goes behind the partition again after using the blankets to climb down to the floor. Then after a moment he sees a flash of light and hears her speak again. But her voice sounds a smidge lower now,

"Are you ready?"

"As ready as I can be."

Strife then sees Miriam step out as a nude short woman. With long black hair and quite the 'blessing' for such a small girl. The curves she has aren't that bad either, in fact it's a welcoming sight. Only her eyes remained the same, pure black like a raven's.

"How do I look?"

"I'm glad that one muscle's working." Strife smugly remarks.

Miriam's giggle makes him smile warmly as she walks over to him to get the ointments on. "Guess that means you like it then? I was worried you might not..."

"Miriam, all I need is you."

She gushes and does her best to hold in the squee before finally beginning to get the ointment on him. Being as gentle as possible so that he doesn't feel pain. She hears a few pops and feels them too as things go back into place. Strife groaning and moaning all the while.

Meanwhile Morgen began tossing in her sleep again. She could hear that one voice again, in that ever dark void. Immediately she screams for Death to help her. But is taunted by the being for the effort.

"Why scream for such a man who cannot understand us for what we are? My sweet Ilona."

"Please Death, if you can hear me, help me....please." Morgen continued to beg, ignoring the voice as best she could.

Suddenly she heard a brand new voice, one just as terrifying though, "Let the poor girl rest. She needs it after all. Don't you have anything better to do, other than tormenting children?"

The voice from before answered, "You know as well as I do, this is no mere child."

"What is going on? Please just....no more....Let me go..." Morgen begs the two voices in her fear. One presence tries to pull her away, another however keeps her in place.

"She must stay." The voice spoke up.

The other however explained angrily, "I will not allow her to remain here. Release her now or else."

"Or else what?" The original voice laughed from beyond the haze.

Death is using the crutches to get around, and catches a sudden dizzy spell. Nearly toppling over but catching himself with the strength he's got left in him. He then hears a creepy, grandiose voice speak in his mind, "Prepare yourself for an unexpected trip."

"I'm not exactly in the best condition for...oooh" Death begins to warn him before completely faceplanting on the floor.

He comes to in a darkened plane, one with a swirling blackness that he can't begin to make sense of. He hears the screams of several men, women, and children. Then he hears a familiar voice from within. One that he recognizes above all the rest in that void,

"Please stop.....please...."

"What the? Morgen? Morgen?! Is that you?! Where are you?!" He shouts into the void.

"Death!? Death please help me!" Morgen replied as a sudden light quickly bursts from her chest.

Quickly the light travels forth and finds Death after a moment. Circling him briefly before leading him along. Good thing the Horsemen's mental strength is enough so that he can actually run. Chasing the light down, and hoping it's leading him to Morgen. Luckily he's correct in his assumption, and grabs Morgen once he reaches her. Morgen naturally hugs him in her panic.

"Morgen are you alright, what's going on here?" Death quickly inquires.

"Morgen? Funny name. You're not supposed to be here."

"Neither are you, whatever this place is." Death retorts.

"It's all in my head, that's where we are." Morgen explains whilst shaking.

"Come out and show yourself coward!" Death shouts into the void.

"Coward? I find that hilarious coming from you. Given your fear."

On cue some burning worms begin traveling up Death's body. He tries swiping them off and stomping on them, only for a pile to begin forming. Morgen quickly reaches into the pile after him and searches for his hand. Course the more frantic in her search she gets, the more her light begins shining. Finally it bursts from her entire body, engulfing the worms in a bluish white light, as well as the void around them. Morgen is left dazed after the experience but pulls herself together enough to make her way over to Death. Death's on his knees when feeling Morgen's hand on his shoulder. He glances up to see her looking dazed still and the world around them is now a bluish white void instead. Only a few patches of black remain, like parasites in her head.

"What's going on?" Death asks sighing.

"I truly don't know. Either it's an evolving nightmare, or some unknown tormentor. But this has happened twice now. It horrifying each time I go through this." Morgen informs him whilst sitting down to try and manage her dazed state better.

"Are you alright?" Death implored.

"I'm fine, just dazed." Morgen replies doing her best to stand up, nearly falling down.

Death of course stands up to catch her, "Woah easy there. I have you. You sure you're alright?"

"Yes, I'm only dazed. But thank you regardless. What about you? That looked horrifying." Morgen says to him.

"Little shaken up, that's all. Now, where the hell are we?"

"My head, like I told you before." Morgen replies simply.

"Ok I must've been seriously messed up from that incident."

"Uhm so long as I wake up we should be fine, I think. We just need to find a way to achieve that." Morgen explains a bit unsure.

"Please tell me that there is no ridiculous requirements or tasks to get the hell out of here."

"I'm trying to think of something believe me. Perhaps knock me out here and see what happens? Shove me off a cliff maybe? Falling dreams do wake people up usually." Morgen tells him.

"Are you insane, where are we going to find a cliff here? Secondly why would I even do that?"

"Then let's hear yours then smartass." Morgen retorts.

"Uhm let me think let me think, let me think of something good."

Morgen looks at skeptically before she starts hearing something. Turning around she sees the black spots pulsating. They're silent, then one begins talking and starts to sound eerily familiar.

"Hello little bun oven. When you grow up you're probably gonna be all nice and pretty. Yeah your Papa's pride and joy, and other things maybe, heheh..." Morgen heard Leatherbeard say.

#Darksiders Fandom #Darksiders Fanfics #Darksiders OCs #Darksiders Arthurian Tales Revisited #Death #Strife #War

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emilyblame · 5 years

Text

‘Fandom’ first listen.

well, technically, second. because first actual listen was with the lights out, headphones on, eyes closed. didn’t understand half the lyrics because Awsten can’t enunciate for jack shit, but that’s how we roll in this house. (i always listen to albums for the first time like this and in general- but no one asked me).

moving on, second listen is reading lyrics. and here goes my take on every track!

so, Awsten said each song on the album sounded like a movie. and, to be completely honest with you, Cherry Red actually sounds like it belongs in the titles of a coming of age rom-com. it wasn’t what i expected it to be, but it was a nice surprise. like, the very beginning sounds like it could easily live in the soundtrack of 1986′s “Labyrinth”, which was scored by absolute legend David Bowie, no less.

and i really love the way it connects with Watch What Happens Next, which i thought it might be my favorite from the album, but it has been kicked down to fifth, maybe sixth place?

the outro to Dream Boy still reminds me of Crave. and i still don’t know what to do with that information. loved that he recycled the pre-chorus melody of Glitter Times (RIP) for the second verse here. i think i haven’t said that before.

ok. i’m just gonna put this out there: Easy To Hate sounds like it could’ve been a Big Time Rush song and that makes me so fucking happy. i mean, obviously not lyrically, but- anyway. this song... man. you know when you hear a song that’s so good you cry and you can’t stop smiling? no? just me? holy. shit. everything about this song is so fucking good. i literally don’t know where to start praising it.

i know High Definition is the song that’s most important to Awsten, and he said he felt like it's the best thing he’s ever written. but i strongly disagree. i like the song just fine, i just don’t think it’s the best thing he’s ever written.

oh my god, Telephone sounds like everything that’s ok in the world. same feelings than with Easy To Hate minus the crying. i just can’t seem to stop smiling. it’s just-- good, man. it’s really good.

Group Chat is... definitely something. hahaha. loved that.

fuck. i hadn’t listened to Turbulent for a while, and when it came on i fangirled hard. it’s so good! it’s creepy in the best of ways and i had forgotten how much i loved that. it was the only other single (apart from WWHN) that i instantly liked. (and the acoustic version slaps so bad!)

Never Bloom Again. HOLY SHIT. i’ve tried looking for a way to say this in English but i couldn’t find the exact words, i’m sorry, pero Lucky People: la tenés adentro. this is probably one of my favorite songs from the album, like top 3 for sure. Awsten’s vocals are so heartfelt. i fucking cried my eyes out (both times i listened to it- and i doubt that’s gonna change with multiple listens.)

when they were talking with Fish about I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore, Fish asked Awsten, “Who hurt you?” kind of ironically, but like... boy! apparently e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y hurt him. who the fuck sends Awsten death threats? i just wanna talk-- all jokes aside, that’s really fucked up. i can’t believe we’re almost in 2020 and kids still send death threats to people on social media. it makes me want an apocalypse so bad. humanity needs to be destroyed- some people are too fucking mean. anyway, back to the song. i kinda feel bad for liking this song, but i think it sounds really cool. i like the way he laughs in the chorus, like he realizes how sad what he’s saying is but he’s already saying it and he’s sticking with it.

shout out to Jawn and Zakk in War Crimes, dude! also shout out to that badass bass riff in between whatever those two verses are? that’s simple but effective AS FUCK. like the song has zero structure but it works so fucking well. BOY. War Crimes is tight as fuck.

i still don’t like [Reboot]. i’m not sure what it is about it. i really enjoy the break down/interlude, though, right before the last couple of choruses. i think by the way the build up sounds, i was kinda expecting he’d hit the high harmony when the chorus kicks back in, or maybe a change of key...? mmm, that would’ve been nice. but, you know... this is me talking out of my ass. i don’t know shit.

wait! i also love that it ends with storm sounds that carry on to Worst. oh. and i absolutely love the bass they added. yes. also, love the way he gasps for air at the very end of the second verse, because i’m weird as fuck and i love it when he does that. and that “Pretty cool!” was cute as Hell too.

so, Zone Out is basically Dream Boy again... but like a ‘go to sleep’ version. i woul’ve been totally ok with them calling it Dream Boy Revisited, to be honest. when Awsten talked about a reprise in ‘Fandom’ i kinda pictured it more like Men Are All The Same by The Used, or What A Catch, Donnie by Fall Out Boy, goodbye by Billie Eilish if you’re feeling lucky. but it’s just a different version of Dream Boy’s chorus. and i guess that’s fine but also... if it wasn’t there it wouldn’t be much of a difference either...? i don’t know.

fuck. I Felt Younger When We Met. fuck. i mean... fuuuuck, what a good way to finish an album. i mean, Waterparks never had issues finishing albums on great notes, we all know that. I’ll Always Be Around and Sleep Alone were fucking gems, you just had to hit replay, because they both left you wanting more. now, I Felt Younger When We Met literally demands you to hit replay because it fucking ends where Cherry Red starts and I FUCKING LOVE THAT SO MUCH ALSJDKLASJLDAKLSJDKL. sorry for the freak out, it had to be done. it’s just so fucking good!

Overall. i really enjoyed the album. i think it’s amazing. i think it’s even better than ‘Entertainment’. and trust me, i never thought i’d say that either. i think maybe i was a little scared to listen to it because of how strongly i didn’t like the singles (except for Turbulent and WWHN) and i really wanted to like the album. i mean, if i didn’t, it wasn’t the end of the world, of course. but, i don’t know. i just wanted to like it so bad.

like, every previously unreleased song is so fucking good that you can’t help but love the album. it’s a really good album. i fucking love it. i love it. and i can’t picture people not liking it.

#and since i fucking liked it so much #can't wait for Jon from ARTV to shit on it #that guy hates everything that i like and it makes me mad #anyway. put the 'keep reading' there as not to spoil anybody #hope that helped #i mean. i kept it pretty vague but... just in case #also...#fandom

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musicoccurred · 6 years

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Album Deep Dive: Binaural

Here at Music Occurred our goal is to give you a diverse selection of music-related content to keep you discovering new bands, revisiting bands (and records) you used to love and most of all, get you off your keister and go to a show. Today we're launching a new series: Album Deep Dives. We pick one of our favorite records (it does not have to be a new or megaselling album) and go through both the production of it and the record itself with a fine-toothed comb. Hopefully it will make you dig it out of the crate (or visit your local independent record store) and listen to it with fresh ears.

I've been on a Pearl Jam kick lately, yes that's funny to some of you... I don't actually listen to them all that much, mainly around concert time and new releases. I have a couple shows coming up and I've discovered a podcast dedicated to the band so I am particularly inspired. I consider myself a superfan but there are others that have more time and money to have seen the band literally hundreds of times. In a way I'm envious but truthfully I like witnessing a variety of music to help enhance my palate. Not that I feel you have to be a superfan to do an Album Deep Dive, but my Pearl Jam pedigree is pure. Two tattoos, tens of thousands of miles driven (soon to be more) hundreds of gallons of truck-stop coffee, dozens of shows and countless hours listening to each and every record they release. You can tell a true Pearl Jam fan by asking them what they think of a new track. Their answer will invariably contain "I need to hear it live first" before they render final judgement.

Aided by the passage of time I look back at Pearl Jam's studio discography and notice a distinct pattern: their albums seem to group up as the band evolves. For example, Ten, Vs. and Vitalogy all have a conquer-the-world, angsty sound with Vitalogy giving us a hint of what's to come. Withering from the bright lights and looking to shrink their footprint a bit, the next three albums, No Code, Yield and Binaural, show a band at war with itself, TicketMaster and fame in general. These three are my favorites, mature song-writing and a band with nothing left to prove only trying to figure out how to keep it all going. There seems to be a drastic change at this point. It's like they went from rock stars to graybearded sages. In other words, they grew up. Riot Act, Pearl Jam (aka Avocado,) Back Spacer, and lastly Lightning Bolt all seem to be straight forward rock records. I took artistic liberty with my groupings, I could totally see a Ten, Vs group with a Vitalogy, No Code and Yield group with Binaural and Riot Act together but hey, it's my site.

That brings us to the album I've chosen to examine, Binaural. It's my favorite Pearl Jam record and I dare say it's at or near the top of most Pearl Jam nerds list. To me it's the birth of the modern era of the band. What we know about Pearl Jam today, starts here. Personally, the album’s release coincided with a major life change for me and the first tour of the band where I saw multiple shows in a short time. Fittingly this was Pearl Jam's first album to not go platinum. It debuted at #2 on the chart and moved a quarter-million units the first week then nose-dived. In the following 18 years (that's right Binaural can now vote) I'm fairly certain it has gone platinum at the global level. Binaural also marks the first album since Ten to not be produced by Brendan O'Brien, although O'Brien did mix a few tracks - more on that later.

Pearl Jam staggered into the studio mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. They toured relentlessly for Yield and felt they were at a creative crossroads and needed a change, exit Brendan O'Brien and enter Tchad Blake. Known for his binaural recording techniques (hence the name) he provided the band exactly what they were looking for. Recorded at Stone Gossard's Studio Litho in Seattle from September of 1999 to January of 2000 the stories from the sessions are legendary. Amps at full volume in a room with just the door cracked and the mics down the hall. Amps in trash cans and creative microphone placements are just a few. During final mixing the band found that the slower numbers were perfect for Blake's style but the faster tracks needed the touch of O'Brien. The resulting product is certainly different than any of their records before or after with a sound of its own. While it utilized the binaural recording technique it sounds fabulous on standard hifi gear. I frequently listen to it with my good headphones for the full effect.

Ask anyone their thoughts on Binaural and inevitably the word "dark" will be used. The band was facing inner turmoil as Eddie Vedder struggled with writer's block, Mike McCready dealt with addiction issues, Matt Cameron was new to the band and control of the band had permanently shifted from Stone to Ed. During the tour for Binaural there was a terrible accident at the band's performance at the Roskilde festival where 9 concert goers died. It nearly broke the band up. What's interesting to me is that Binaural sounds as if this incident occurred prior to the recording and the somber tones were a result of it. Earlier I mentioned that "what we know about Pearl Jam today, starts here," what I meant is Pearl Jam present themselves as a unified team, clearly Eddie's team, but a team of equals otherwise. At a Pearl Jam show Eddie will frequently tell a snippet of a story about the birth of a song or who wrote the music to this one. Often it will be someone else in the band. This didn't happen in the earlier albums. Ten, Vs, Vitalogy and No Code the lyrics were almost exclusively written by Ed. Beginning with Yield we started seeing more input, lyrically, from the other members. By the time they entered the studio for Binaural this new way of doing things was in full force. From this point forward their albums are very modular. With each member bringing in already constructed components and assembling them together. It may be a riff or a few lines, or it could be an entirely complete song just needing a solo from Mike or phrasing from Ed. Timing for this change was perfect. The band was nearing a decade together, they had added veteran musician/song writer Matt and Ed was mired in a horrific case of writer's block.

Track by track

Binaural opens with “Breakerfall” a punk inspired run through Eddie’s metaphorical lyrics in a tight 2:19. Side note: Pearl Jam are incredibly thoughtful about their records. They control every aspect of production, track sequencing and packaging. This album is no different, the tracks fit together perfectly. Next up is “God’s Dice” that begins with a rapid fire Matt Cameron drum roll and jams along with a rapid pace that belies the quieter songs later. “Evacuation” has an odd timing signature (hello Matt Cameron!) will strike you as a new sound from Pearl Jam but if you listen to later records you’ll find that some of their new sounds originated with this track. “Evacuation” also serves as a transition into the slower songs on the record. “Light Years” is where the album really begins to shine, music by Mike McCready, it has the classic Eddie story arc. You feel like you’re on a journey with the protagonist, anecdotally, it’s about a friend of the band, Diane Muus from Sony Music who had passed away a couple years prior. “Nothing As It Seems” showcases the binaural recording. Jeff Ament’s bass sounds like it’s behind and below you and Mike’s guitar is sitting on my right shoulder. This slow burn of a song really comes to life at concerts. “Thin Air” is a light acoustic style track reminiscent of college radio classics being played around a beach camp fire. Soulful lyrics, lush background harmonies make you reach for your own guitar. “Insignificance” is likely my favorite of the higher tempo songs. A meditation on war, it features a style of music that’s unique to Pearl Jam, they vary tempos like no other band I’ve seen, slow burn to full on rock all inside of a single song. Next up is “Of The Girl,” if you’ve never been to a Pearl Jam show, they typically open up with a quiet song with the lights down low, then launch into a rocker. Of all of them, my favorite is “Of The Girl” the clean riff with Mike’s lead lightly picking over the top. Eddie’s soft singing really settle you into a groove. I’ll post a video of it as an opener below.

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Shifting gears back into the noisier stuff, “Grievance” is inspired by the protests at the WTO summit in Seattle. It features that signature start-stop rhythm that showcases what Matt brings to the band. Beginning with Vitalogy Pearl Jam can get weird on you from time to time. “Rival” is probably the strangest song on this record. It begins with what sounds to be a pig eating an apple. The music is pretty standard Stone Gossard riffs but with the vocals layered on top.”Sleight of Hand” begins just with a single lead guitar and drums with Ed singing over the top. When the bridge hits the full band joins in only to abruptly go back to the single guitar and drums. It’s a very hard song to describe but sounds great. “Soon Forget” is a short ukulele song that doesn’t seem to fit the album (more on that later) fortunately for us it foreshadows a full album released by Ed a few years later. The album closes with “Parting Ways” an epic closer with a sitar sounding guitar and big tom tom rhythms.

Member by member

Ed had the music for what would become "Grievance" and "Insignificance" two songs that shine in concert by the way. But he had no lyrics and had even given up the guitar. Thankfully he discovered the ukulele and began plucking away at it. This would explain why "Soon Forget" is included on this record despite not really fitting and displacing several other great tracks. It marks his conquering the demon that is writer's block. This, coupled with releasing the somewhat strange "Nothing As It Seems" as the lead single dismisses any notion that this is anyone else's band. In typical enigmatic Ed fashion, the album ends with a hidden track called "writer's block" that is just the sound of Ed pounding away on a typewriter for a couple minutes.

Aside from the music on “Light Years, ”Mike McCready did not write any of the songs on Binaural but he "McCreadys it up" on most of them. Mike is quite possibly one of the most under-rated guitarists of his generation he can absolutely shred but more so he has an instantly identifiable tone. On "Nothing As It Seems" his feedback laced guitar solos are so brilliant that I've personally witnessed the crowd chanting "Mike" so forcefully that Ed had to stop the show so Mike could take a bow. His battle with Crohn's Disease and subsequently prescription medicines certainly took their toll on him. Thankfully he overcame it and is healthy.

Stone Gossard, so aloof in concert but seemingly an engaging person in conversation is really the mastermind behind Pearl Jam. In the beginning it was his band, he wrote most of the music and knew what he wanted it to look and sound like. As mentioned previously, that leadership role shifted over to Eddie Vedder. It's not certain exactly when that happened but my opinion is around the Vitalogy/No Code era. For Binaural, Stone wrote the lyrics and music for "Thin Air," "Of The Girl" and "Rival." He also co-wrote the music for "Light Years."

Jeff Ament is widely known as Ed's best friend in the band. His songs are usually some of the strangest with eclectic phrasing and timing. He wrote "God's Dice," "Nothing As It Seems," and the music for "Sleight of Hand." Jeff is also a very talented visual artist and plays a hand in the album cover/packaging of the records.

That leaves us with Matt Cameron. Now many people have strong opinions on who is the best Pearl Jam drummer but my vote goes to Matt. He has the pedigree of his time with Soundgarden but more importantly his steady hand gave the band a stability they didn't seem to have before, an energy even. Pearl Jam went through several drummers in their first 7 years but Matt has been behind the kit for them for 20 years now. That is no coincidence. He wrote the music for "Evacuation" on this record. One bone to pick, most casual fans will say Dave Abbruzzese is their favorite Pearl Jam drummer. While Dave is certainly a very talented drummer, he was simply the first drummer most people saw in the videos from Ten, they likely don't realize he wasn't the drummer they were hearing on the record. For what it’s worth, his work on Vs and Vitalogy were stellar, the dude can drum.

For all that's included in Binaural, what's left out is just as important. As I've alluded to before, Pearl Jam is a fan's band. Their shows are legendary and each setlist is mostly unique and contains tracks selected just for that venue, crowd and city etc. Ed is effectively Bruce Springsteen Jr so the shows started getting longer and longer, break out the B Sides! Pearl Jam deep cuts are mainstays of the concerts and Binaural has several. "Sad," "Education," and "Fatal" have all become fan favorites.

If you’ve never listened to this record all the way through or if it’s just been a while. Pick it up and drop the needle.

-JS

#album #Pearl Jam #musicoccurred #binaural

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bearpillowmonster · 4 years

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Kingdom Hearts 3 Full Review

Here I am 6 years later and I've beaten Kingdom Hearts 3. Was it worth it? What did I think of it? This will be an extensive review. So bare with me because I'm going to cover almost every little detail however I'm going to try and keep it spoiler free in terms of story! (I'll nod to the people who finished it with vague comments as you already know what happens) I spent a lot of time on this review so it will work out to fully explain my thoughts on this game without hesitation, I don't want to hold back from criticism even though it's my favorite franchise and the most long awaited game for me.

I will say this to both people who haven't played the games and casual fans. DON'T COMPLAIN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE STORY. The negligence of some of these reviews is appalling because they haven't played the past games. Square Enix has went out of their way to go and rerelease all of the games ebfore the release of this one, put up a summary video, put nods in the intro to the game. As well as put seperate summaries in the menu of the game, so I don't want to hear the whining, if you want to play it so bad, play the other games first, that's all there is to it. Yes it is confusing, but make an effort to understand it.

There are no more pesky text boxes like the other games, this is all cutscenes baby! So it may seem like a lot but think how many text box scenes were in the previous games and translate those into full cutscenes.

Let's talk about the menu. Yes, the menu. It's BRILLIANT. I love the transition from the past games, you look at the first two games, Sora with that fish in his mouth looking to the side, then the second with Sora turning slightly but with a sea salt ice cream, and now we have Sora turned all the way around with a paopu fruit. The way the music is presented is excellent, I couldn't get enough of it. In fact a lot of the music is great, both Utada songs are top notch despite me not originally seeing why she made those songs specifically, they make some sense now. Now the actual battle themes and stuff were instant classics for me in KH2, I would unintentionally hum some of the tunes, in this game I might have to get used to them though and familiarize myself. I'm sure if I heard the theme out in the open, I would recognize it though.

I worked my way to try each of the keyblades a decent amount (about one world each and that don't need unlocked through version exclusives and Ultima weapon yet but I never get ultima weapon anyway) The fun part about that is that each keyblade has a different ability and a different form so no more drives. I especially love using all of them in the Monsters world because it changes the color of Monster Sora.

I'm not going to talk about all of the worlds but just the ones revealed through trailers because I want you to experience them blindly or to their full capacity without the knowledge of what's ahead so I won't mention anything in any particular order either. I'm going to refer to the movie they are from and not the actual world name, to make it easier on you. Let's start with Pooh since that was the shortest. The minigames are just eh, I mean I love Pooh as a character and I like the idea that he's in the games but I've never really found his actual world all that because it's just minigames, I can't really bash it because that's what they did in the past games. Also at the end of Winnie the Pooh, why was that happening? Was something made to throw us off?

Now let's talk Twilight Town. I love Twilight Town, it is my favorite non-Disney world to explore in Kingdom Hearts 2 and when I saw we would return and see the characters we love, I got all excited. This Twilight Town however seems kind of condensed because it's just a section of it. You don't get to explore as much of Twilight Town as I would have liked but they do make references to it through the townspeople such as mentioning Seifer. There's a certain group of characters we saw a lack of but after the secret ending I'm starting to understand story-wise.

Frozen. We all saw it coming and I can say to you that it's not a rhythm based world. YAY. They do sing at times but you don't play those parts. I just think Frozen is ok as a movie so this world wasn't too hyped, I did like seeing Marshmallow though, that part is fun in fact any part you fight an actual Disney character I just adore. As for the actual landscape, it's different than I would have imagined, the heartless are interesting but there's no draw back to make me want to go back to that world. This, technically Pirates, and Tangled are the two world that just follow the movie plot, the others have their own new plot.

Toy Story. I have to say that I like the Toy Story 2 game and I really like the idea of exploring the Toy Story world, even just exploring Andy's house. I knew we weren't going to see the whole house like TS2 but it was still fun to see everything there as I remember it. Galaxy Toys is a new area though, pretty cool to play through because it's not hard to navigate, there are 3 floors and you go through all the stores, interact with objects, and get this really cool and interesting mini boss. There are these mech robot things that I've come to love and each color has a different ability, making it just that much more fun to play around in. I particulary like the purple one because it's the fastest but even when you're in a keyblade form the mech will change colors with you (usually a bluish green in my experience) but that was a cool little tidbit I noticed. The story just surprised me with how involved it became with it's characters especially Woody.

Pirates. This opens so nice, it begins with Sora being excited to be brought back and then we eventually get a mini-boss (there are quite a few compared to the other worlds) where you can ride the heartless, that's really cool. We get some ship gameplay where you can shoot down other ships and basically sail around all the islands, they aren't all required so exploration is pretty vast. A really cool idea is that with the shotlock command you can shoot on over to wherever it can lock onto, that way instead of making your way all the way back to the ship then trying to find a way to climb back up it, you just use the shotlock and boom you're back!

In the Tangled world, it takes the time to show you some of its great design with Rapunzel pointing things out such as how nice the grass is and how when you use Aero on the dandelions, they fly all over the place, then you can splash in the water, it's her first time experiencing it but it's also a nod from the developers showing you the amount of work they put into it and it's well deserved.

Monsters Inc. I mentioned about how the forms change the color of your monster and I really adore that. You can actually go into Roz's place! There are some places that would be interesting to see but wouldn't do much for story, just be to explore so I can kind of see why they aren't in the game, same with Big Hero 6. This is where the railriding really comes into action and I must say is pretty fun. There is also a dive option when you get up to a certain height then it will have you free fall and you can press X to dive bomb, it's all over the place in this game but it's just another good addition.

Olympus. Not the Colessium, we saw that before. This is brand new ground and is quite a joy to explore, I would be disappointed if Greece didn't actually look like that. I beat it the first night I had the game and I've revisited multiple times for other content, this was essentially my first impression of the game as well as everyone elses and it delivers. This as well as Tangled have a town full of people. I love hearing the little conversations they have and even going around and interacting with them. There's a side mission to collect these Golden Herc dolls (I finished after the game) that reminds me of the odd jobs at the beginning of KH2 that I actually have come to love, however those were mandatory, these are optional.

The Gummi Ship system is awesome, I mean I don't see any multiplayer coming to this but it's fun. I like being able to customize my own gummi ships and unlock new parts to put on it. The only complaint I have with it is small and that's when you're creating a gummi ship, it's not always easy to know which way is up considering you can change all different angles, so you may end up building your gummi ship upside down if you don't pay attention when you start. I've saw this problem quite a bit in the community as well as experienced that mistake myself but it's nothing too major, can probably be fixed in a future patch to just have a little note pop up that says "This is the front". Big Hero 6 is the best world in my opinion. I love all the worlds in their own unique way but this has momentum. A lot of the worlds have their own original story but this one seems to use that to the best effect. This one has an atmosphere that is open and easy to navigate, it's all one big area. You can fly with Baymax during a certain part which I would have loved to do that all the time but then what would be the point in using your fly ability you get at the end of the game?

At a certain part at the end we see some of the heartless move slower, like the framerate is down. It does not affect your gameplay and the thing I'm talking about is only visible stuff, but once you reach that part you will understand why it's like that. Voice acting is pretty good, they didn't get all the same voice actors for some of the characters such as Buzz and Woody, Mike and Sully, etc but they got a pretty decent amount of the characters their original voice actors and I respect that. The ones that are standing in, do a really good job though to the point I had to actually listen to try and find faults that differ from the originals. Old man Xehanort also has a new voice actor, I mean nobody can beat Leonard Nimoy but this guy seems to do a different take on the way the character sounds so it might take some getting used to but it's nothing bad just different I guess. I think they should've given you more space in your camera because there's a whopping 90 hidden mickeys and 100 slots, so you better make those 10 extras count if you want to get that secret ending. (However you can delete pictures so I don't know if the hidden mickey still counts if you delete it but I wasn't risking it) If you try to take a picture of a character (mostly any character) they will pose or smile, I love that.

Kairi doesn't get enough. I'll be honest. We don't get enough Kairi, she was great in this game and we see her grow, in fact I'll argue we probably see her more than the other games but they could have given her more spotlight.

The final battle is interesting, I like how it turned out but I will say you take on a lot at once. I liked the change of pace, but at the very end with the final 4, I say you should have taken them one by one. I also expected a different order because (we all knew this was coming so it's not a spoiler) but I thought they were going to make us fight Xemnas and Ansem then Old Man Xehanort because if we beat Young Xehanort first then wouldn't they all disappear? I mean it does work out in a way that makes sense but I just would have liked that way too.

Also aging, we can see visible changes to Sora, Kairi, and Riku from age but what about the rest? Will it just continue like nothing ever went wrong or…I mean they left a few things open for future games but don’t think they ended it on a cliffhanger to where you feel cheated in any way. It’s not like that, it still makes you want to play future games without cheating you of the full experience. I know that’s a concern for some people. Critical mode doesn’t make an appearance but that’s fine, if they end up releasing it in a patch or something I might play it but it’s nothing bad, just some people complain about it and say that they left it out on purpose for DLC but I highly doubt that and even if they do put it in a DLC be rest assured that won’t be the only thing. I don’t know Square Enix to cheat fans, you get what you pay for and DLC is a new avenue for KH if it decides to go that way, if it does I’ll be there for it but I think it’s fine without it. Look at FFXV for example, they put out full episodes based on the side characters with new gameplay, story, and various weapons and skins, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal and if I get far enough in the game I might get it and I’m not one who buys DLC at all unless it comes with the deluxe edition. So stop complaining about that, you don’t know what will come of this game.

I love the recovery command, I never used it in the older games (inexperienced noob) but this is more or less my first experience getting strategic. As well as the kupo coin where you get one last shot after a fatal blow. I can't tell if I actually got good at the game or it's just that easy but because of that Kupo Coin, I only actually died once or twice.

I cried. Once (before all the soras ;)) and of course at the end and even just thinking about the end afterwards. They throw back to one of the most well known gameplay parts in KH2 and in my opinion made it even better. Goofy is the smartest one in this game, like I found myself surprised at how aware he was. I knew the Big Hero 6 keyblade would be my favorite the moment I saw it in the trailer, I was right, I played with it until the very end and upgraded it (The monsters keyblade is a close second along with the one you get from Classic Kingdom). However...the snowball is the most powerful weapon hands down.

Flowmotion is fixed, but the shimmer effect doesn't need to exist. The sparklies that indicate that you just hold the control stick in that direction and they'll parkour it wasn't always as functional as you might like, I found myself just jumping my way up whatever villain had it some of the time, but again it's no big deal, it gives you that freedom to do whatever you want.

The attraction flows are fun but what threw me off is that you get more or less all of them from the start, you don't progressively unlock them. This led me to think that they will get repetitive but no they really weren't, I ended up skipping some of the events from time to time just to challenge myself but I never found myself bored with playing with any of them. I will say that once the command pops up, there can be another one above it and there's a time limit for each of them, I actually didn't know that you can choose between reaction commands (using L2) until after I finished it...so that happened. As well as learning that you can change keyblades on the fly just using the D-Pad.

My favorite attraction is either the teacups or the Buzz Lightyear blasters because the train is awesome but you only get to use it in certain parts of the game. The worst one is probably the carousel in my opinion just because it's more rhythm based and overall doesn't seem to do much damage. Some of the finishers get stuck or caught and I think that's a little bit of a problem, like the Pegasus chariot that you get with the Hero's Origin keyblade; I wish you could actually control that rather than Pegasus doing whatever and you just press X but there's such a variety of them so there's bound to be a few that aren't as good.

This game reminded me why Sora was originally my favorite character. You can look at him as naive but it's part of his character, I actually want to be friends with this dude in real life. All of them really but Sora has that vibe where he'll accept just about anything and find a way to work through it. You can play as a few of the characters and they all feel different to me, I like the subtle differences in gameplay but having the same core, it's very fun which makes me wish there was more of us playing as them.

How does it stack up versus the rest of the games? Well it's hard for me to say because I love them all, KH2 is my favorite game of all time and this is actually giving it a run for it's money. I do like this better than KH1 though (KH1 is my second favorite KH game so it's better than the rest too)

The graphics are impeccable, like I literally can't say they could have made this look any better, even going farther into the game it almost looks better than the rest (given there are more higher quality cutscenes such as the end of the Disney worlds just because of their importance) I was a bit worried about a few of the characters from the trailers such as Xemnas and Young Xehanort. In the earlier trailers they looked just eh but in the actual game they look way way better. Mickey even has fuzz on the top of his head but just by the secret ending alone, I was blown away by how real it looked for a cartoonish styled game.

Speaking of the secret ending I mentioned earlier, it took a hot minute to realize what it meant exactly, until I found a post on tumblr (on reddit too) about it. I won't link it or anything but just know there's an explanation/theory out there if you end up watching it. It makes me give it more credit for what it's worth.

Now the big part...how long was it? I won't tell you how long it took me to beat but I will say it logged more hours than any of the other games. I knew this was coming, because no matter how long this game was, I was going to want more, I'm actually going back to play through some stuff since it lets you keep your stats and puts you back before the final bit, so I will keep playing it and I will more than definitley play it again. I've played the beginning of the first game so many times, just haven't beaten it as much, same with KH2 (though I always end up farther in KH2 than 1) . I want to challenge myself, I want to take on hard mode, see how far it goes since I beat standard already, collect the secret reports, get ultima weapon (first time in a KH game if I can beat this stupid Frozen minigame). I kind of see where they changed some stuff from its original state, perhaps way back from the conception in 2013 but still to see the growth and adaption makes me feel really connected to it.

I will probably post updates to the review whenever the DLC comes out or once I get level 99, ultima keyblade, etc. so take what you will with it. It is currently up there with my favorite games of all time which isn’t so easy to get to.

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