#i read the first few pages of Dune maybe ill read that next

[c-kiddo]

finsihed reading jonny appleseed by joshua whitehead last night 😢 wtf do i do now .

#v good book . i liked it a lot + recommend #kiddo say #i read the first few pages of Dune maybe ill read that next #ooor finissh a book i already started? pff #jus wanna read punchy good messy fiction #like i love a short fiction book that attacks and bites you and is also v tender + a little surreal + deeply rooted in the authors life #im v tired i need to do funding application -_ -

[katsukisblackteddy]

The Warrior Queen & Her Pharaoh: Part II

Part II: I Want a Rematch

Pairings: pharaoh! god! Bakugou x warrior! queen! Reader Warnings: none Description: xxxxx

*Extra Info: I’ve taken creative liberties in this, meaning I know that some/most of it will not be historically accurate

𓂀 PART I 𓂀 PART II 𓂀 PART III 𓂀

"Katsuki?” (Y/n) broke the silence between the pair, the girl having been moved into the newly renovated quarters and from her old bedroom where she was placed when she first arrived.  

“What?” The blonde questioned, glancing at the girl from where he sat in his chair quietly reading some book that didn’t interest the girl.

“Your father and mine drafted our marriage agreement two days ago.”

“So?”

“We’ve been married for the past two days then, right?” (y/n) questioned looking at the art on the wall. Katsuki raised an eyebrow at the girl, letting out a sigh before he shrugged. 

“Why do you care?”

“It was a question. Can you relax?” The black girl momentarily glared at the blonde before rolling her golden eyes in annoyance. 

“Don’t tell me what to do if I can’t tell you what to do.” Katsuki remarked before flipping the page and continuing to read. 

“Do you plan to entertain consorts?” The girl questioned, her golden eyes boring into his crimson ones.

“I don’t know.” He stated simply, only pausing a moment later to look up at the girl with narrowed eyes. “Do you plan to entertain other men?”

“I don’t know.” She responded sarcastically, flashing him a smile as a frown appeared on his face. 

“That’s not an adequate answer (y/n). Do you plan to entertain other men?” He repeated it slower this time, the book long forgotten and set to the side, his full attention on the black girl with the dark braids. 

“Just as your answer was not adequate to me, mine isn’t to you.” (y/n) smiled. “Why do you deserve an answer when I didn’t get one. We are supposed to be equals aren’t we?”

“What? Are you jealous or something? Is that what this is? You’re jealous over the thought of me even having consorts.”

“That’s furthest from the truth.” The girl scoffed. “Are you ill, Katsuki? Should I call for the doctors?”

“Oh shut up.” He rolled his eyes. “Is everyone as dramatic as you where you come from?”

“I’m not dramatic Katsuki.” (y/n)’s eyes narrowed as she frowned. “My mother is dramatic along with trifling and two faced, and maybe a few other things but I don’t believe I’m allowed to say those things, lest I be punished in the Afterlife.”

Katsuki laughed lightly at the girl he now called his wife. “What’s so bad about her? Your father spoke highly of her.”

“My father is bordering on senile. He isn’t to be taken seriously. He’s simply a puppet in my mother’s hands, a toy to be played with to her.” (y/n) frowned thinking about her mother. “My mother schemes...just like she plotted to bring me here under the guise of a trade deal, though I suppose my life was simplified down to one for her.”

“Aren’t children supposed to love their mothers?” Bakugou asked incredulously, (y/n) flashing him a sideways glance and crooked smile.

“I suppose so, but then again, mothers aren’t supposed to plan out the death of their child, just as a wife is not to orchestrate the death of a husband...she’s done both though.” (y/n) revealed before lying back on the bed and staring at the ceiling. 

“Your mother planned to kill you?”

“Yes, I was only a child but I don’t think a failed poisoning attempt is ever to be forgotten.”

“She’ll face retribution, if not by my hand then by those in the Afterlife.” Bakugou said nonchalantly, his eyes flashing with anger.

“By your hand, Katsuki?” (y/n) perked up slightly a shit-eating grin growing on her face.

“Is that all you got from what I said?” He quirked an eyebrow at the girl, an annoyed expression on his face though the faintest blush covered his cheeks.

“You would fight for me?” (y/n) asked as Katsuki shrugged. “You know that I can fight for myself right?”

“Of course. I don’t associate with weaklings.” He scoffed.

“You called me an extra.” (y/n) deadpanned.

“Well I didn’t know who you were.” He fired back.

“So you think I’m strong?” Katsuki shrugged in response as she laughed lightly. “I bet I could best you at chariot racing.”

“You wish.” The blonde scoffed, confidence shining in his crimson orbs. 

“I don’t mean to brag but I am considered the best in my tribe.” She replied as they both stood deciding wordlessly to settle this once and for all.

“Well I’m the best in this entire kingdom.” Katsuki replied back as the two rushed to the common areas outside, seeing their friends talking quietly amongst themselves. 

“Chariot race now!” Katsuki and (y/n) said at the same time to their friends, only pausing for a moment to look at each other before looking back to their friends. 

“You better not give me the lame horses either, Katsuki!” (y/n) called back as they rushed back to their separate bathing quarters to get ready. 

“Don’t think so little of me, Woman.” He called back before disappearing into his own bathing quarters. 

The black girl appeared a short time later, her hair braided with gold and silver thread, gold plated armor placed onto her shoulders connecting to a chest plate and a metal skirt that was placed over a fitted tunic. A large green jewel set into the chest plate. A simple golden headpiece sat on her braids, matching the black and gold eyeshadow and black eyeliner she wore. 

She walked down the steps and towards the chariot that sat waiting for her. Mina and Jirou standing beside the chariot under the shade of a nearby tree, their eyes brightening when their new friend approached. 

“I hope he looses.” Mina said under her breath as she took her place on the side next to Kaminari, Kirishima, and Jirou. The four nobles stood under the shade of a tree as Bakugou and (y/n) stood in their golden chariots. 

The ash blonde ruler smirked at the girl that he now called his wife, though he still thought she was more annoying than anything else. “He’ll win...like he always does.” Kirishima mumbled back, still not over the fact that he had most recently lost against Bakugou. 

“Not this time, Kirishima!” (y/n) called as she held the reigns in her hand, ready to take off at the moment’s notice. Bakugou stood in a similar position, his crimson eyes ablaze as he stared out over the sand dunes in the distance. 

“We’ll see about that!” Bakugou called as Jirou yelled ‘Go’ and they were off. The ash blonde had taken the lead from the start, his all white horses with gold and silver harnesses thundered through the sand, their strangely black eyes focused only on the landscape in front of them.

(y/n) snapped her reigns again, her own all black horses, running quicker than they were a moment before, easily running in time with Bakugou. (y/n) glanced over to her right, a large smirk on her face as she waved at the blonde before her horses ran faster, passing his chariot altogether. 

“I win!” She announced, hopping off of the chariot when they both crossed the finish line within the same second. Bakugou rolled his eyes, scoffing as the girl danced around. “I guess I’m the best chariot racer in all of the land.”

“I want a rematch.” Bakugou stated sourly, shooting a glare at the girl, though she could tell he didn’t mean it since there was a playful glint in his eyes. 

“Another time. We have to get back to the palace. You have duties to attend to.” Kaminari chimed in sheepishly, before spinning around and glaring at the three others who stood avoiding eye contact. He always hated having to be the one to ruin the fun, this time loosing the bet to Kirishima, so being the bearer of bad news was his punishment.

“What duties?” Bakugou questioned, his eyes narrowing as he thought about having to do actual work when they were all having fun. 

“Well, you have to go visit the worksites and make sure everything is up to par, and then you have to visit the shop in the marketplace.”

“The marketplace? I’d like to come! I’ve never been before.”

“Well you won’t be going today. I’ll take you another time. You have things to do with my mother anyway.”

“What things?”

“I don’t know...girl things.” Bakugou retorted before walking off with Kirishima and Kaminari, leaving the girls behind with a simple half wave of his hand. 

“He can’t tell me what to do! I want to go! He can’t keep me locked away here.”

“We have a lot to do today anyways. You have a whole new wardrobe to be fitted for!” Mina cheered, clapping her hands together as they headed back to the palace. 

(y/n) watched from the palace entrance as the royal chariots seemed to disappear from view before she went back inside, heading to find Mitsuki and her ladies.

“What about this one?”

“No.” (y/n) denied quickly with a shake of her head, not even bothering to entertain the idea. “Why must I wear these anyway? I don’t find them appealing at all.”

“They aren’t for you to find appealing.”

“I won’t be using them around Katsuki, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“He is your husband, child. You’re expected to birth an heir eventually.” One of the older woman said, looking through the different linens to find something that you may like.

“I will not lay with a man I barely know. We’ve only just started sleeping beside each other.”

“There’s only one bed in the room, (y/n).” Mina said, blinking her eyes. 

“I’m well aware.” 

“You didn’t make him sleep on the floor did you?” Jirou giggled, as a few women looked at you with a dumbfounded expression. 

“No...he offered, but I told him so long as he not touch me, we could share...so we do.”

“But this morning, you both were wrapped in each other’s arms...Kaminari said that we should’ve gotten papyrus and sketched it for safe keeping, but we didn’t have time.” Mina sighed whistfully.

“You watched us sleep?” (y/n) questioned, staring into her friend’s eyes with a slight laugh.

“No...” Mina said, but not very convincingly. “Anyways, you should wear something this shade. I’ve noticed that he seems to like it.” She pointed out the orange fabric. “Then you both can match!”

“Whatever...it’s fine.” (y/n) finally agreed, thankful to finally be done with the wardrobe fittings, at least for now. 

The girls wandered around the large palace for some time before Bakugou and the two boys came back, Mina and Jirou telling the girl to go and change so she would be ready for when Bakugou would arrive. 

She walked into the room at the exact moment that the explosive blonde walked in, his red eyes locking in on the girl with dark skin, the orange toned fabric matching nicely with her complexion and making her golden eyes stand out. 

“Woah...you look beautiful.” Jirou smiled widely, high fiving Mina as Kirishima and Kaminari nodded in agreement. (Y/n)’s gaze quickly shifted to the strangely quiet Bakugou, confused as to why he wasn’t saying anything when all he usually did was talk.

“You look...nice Dumbass, now come on.” He stated gruffly, quickly turning from your view so he could hide his pink tinted cheeks from her. She followed him outside to where a large Sedan was waiting to take them to their destination, though (y/n) was still unsure as to where that would be.

“Where are we going Katsuki?” The girl wondered, glancing at her surroundings before focusing back on the boy. 

“You’ll see.” He answered cryptically. A short time later they arrived at the secret destination, Katsuki exiting the sedan first, then extending his hand out to the girl as she jumped down, her sandals hitting the cool sand with a soft thud.

“It’s just over here.” He stated, grabbing her hand and pulling her along when she began to walk the wrong way. He led her over to a large colorful mural, bright flora and fauna bordered the people in the middle.

“Is that..us?” She questioned, pointing at it with her free hand. Although he no longer needed to, Katsuki had yet to release the girl’s hand, but she wasn’t complaining. He nodded at her question. “It’s beautiful.”

“I thought you’d like it...” He shrugged. “I was planning on showing you earlier, but Kaminari thought you would like it more if I showed you when it was finally completed.” Katsuki noticed the way the girl’s eyes seemed to remain on the painted version of herself, the boy growing slightly worried that she wouldn’t like it...he had painted her himself. “Do you not like it?”

“N-No! It’s not that! It’s just...she looks like me...like actually looks like me...” The girl trailed off, her eyes wide in wonder and shining in the dim light of the setting sun.

“Is that a problem?”

“Usually that doesn’t happen.”

“Well I did it myself...I wanted it to be accurate and no body else is good enough anyways.” Katsuki replied, his usually cocky attitude resurfacing and ruining the gentle moment.

“You painted it yourself?” He simply nodded. “You’re really talented.”

“Why do you sound so surprised? I’m not just devastatingly handsome, you know.”

“Yeah right.” (y/n) scoffed, nudging him with a laugh as he smiled softly at her, his eyes going down to her full lips more than he would like to admit. 

“What? Is there something on my face?”

“No.” He stated, while continuing to stare, ignoring the confused expression of the girl in front of him. “Can I do something?”

“Y-yeah.” (y/n) said softly, noticing the way he stood impossibly closer, the boy standing a few inches taller than her. His large hands gripped the sides of her face softly, before he looked at her again.

“Can I kiss you?” The girl nodded before mumbling out a soft ‘yes’, Katsuki not wasting any time before bending slightly and taking her lips with his own. His lips were soft against her own, surprising her since she had expected him to be rough about everything, it just seemed like that was his nature.

Apparently not though, since the kiss, though short, was soft and sweet. Their lips moving in sync against each other’s before they finally pulled apart, only far enough to breathe, their noses still touching. 

“Your lips are soft.” (y/n) remarked out loud, causing the boy to roll his eyes. 

“Just because I’m aggressive, according to some people, doesn’t mean I’m a heathen.” He stated as the girl laughed. 

“You are aggressive.”

“Well you don’t seem to mind.”

“I never said it was an issue.”

“Well that’s not what your tone said.”

“Do you just enjoy ruining moments and starting arguments?”

“You’re the one who started the argument in the first place. This isn’t even an argument.” He stated back as they walked around with each other, their guards making a perimeter, while allowing them space.

“Whatever...I was going to let you kiss me again, but since I start arguments...”

“That’s not what I meant, (y/n).” Katsuki mumbled shortly after, causing the girl to bite her lip to hide her smile.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” (Y/n) smirked as Katsuki rolled his eyes again with a scoff.

“Get over yourself.”

“Says you.” (y/n) called back, running a few steps ahead as Katsuki chased her, the empty area the perfect place to goof off without having to maintain royal appearances.

Tags

@that-chick212 @bakugous-mamas @chefakari

#katsukisblackteddy #pharaoh bakugou #warrior princess reader #bakugou x black reader #Ancient Egypt AU #bnha x poc!reader #bnha x black reader #in honor of black history month #Ancient Egypt #TWQ&HP Mini Series #i don't know how many parts I want to write for this yet #black history month 2021 #mha x black reader #mha x poc!reader #pls i love mitsuki #part 2 yeeeeee

[todragonsart]

Oasis

This is my Art-trade piece from November I totally didn’t have time to post here yet :’DDD <3 It’s written for the lovliest Cero! I knew she enjoyed it, haha. 

About 16 pages of Maverick/Nomad, it’s sweet, I swear! <3 Hope you enjoy!

Erik Thorn struggled with sleeping for most of his life. His problem wasn’t insomnia, or some mental illness, it was just his brain functioning as it did. Starting from a very young age, most of his nights were one of these two: either sleepless tossing and turning, or strange dreams about emotions, colorful storms and a few times even nightmares. It would have been strange or even scary for anybody else, but for Erik, it was just… life.

During the day, his brain was working on high; during the night, it needed a fast and efficient way to store all the information he received - and for a boy who was barely allowed to leave his backyard, the amount of input was- surprising. Being homeschooled for most of his childhood, never having a chance to explore, make friends or just learn to climb a tree- it was not an easy way of living for a kid, especially when the child in question was energetic and interested in everything.

Being closed in and supervised, shielded from even the wind with such a lack of stimulus would have made any grown up go crazy. Having all the time in the world, and still nothing to do, no way to process, could push the brain into overdrive; and in order to protect one’s sanity, the mind would try to tire itself - mainly with asking every question, or opening every trauma; thinking about things a normal person doesn’t have time to think about on a regular day.

Experiencing something similar for just a few months made adults develop depression and other issues, so it was expected that a child would not be able to bear with years and years of the same cabin fever. But Erik - being as resourceful as he was - developed a way to manage. Instead of trying to escape his prison all the time, he decided to store these desires in his heart for later use. He was a smart boy and he knew more than enough that his parents wouldn’t be able to shield him for all his life, so he turned to learning. And by learning, he meant books, and by books, he meant all the books he could put his hands on, not caring if it was about tales, science, culture, languages, geography, animals or history - he wanted to read all.

And since he had all the time in the world, with nothing to do, he did indeed read all the magazines, plays and books he could reach. When other children were hanging out in school, he was reading about space and stars. When boys his age were playing hide and seek on the streets, he learnt about ancient Greece; and when they were making friends, he was making plans. After all his parents were able to keep his body in one place, but they had no power over his mind wandering to the fantastic castles of Russia, the beautiful seas of Australia or the endless deserts of Africa.

Books gave him so much inner freedom he was able to completely shut out the fact that he had never experienced a true childhood, and he was happy. At the age of 15, instead of chasing girls like a normal boy would, he spent his days reading and learning about everything, and during the night he lied restlessly, dreaming about the places he wanted to visit, things he wanted to see, goals he wanted to achieve. The images were so vivid in his head, he sometimes thought he could just reach and touch them.

He read all about the wonders of the world and, while patiently waiting for his turn to decide, he planned fantastic journeys to places his parents would never even dream about. He locked all these desires deep into his heart until he finally became old enough to choose his own path, and by the time he got asked ‘What do you want to do with your life’ he already had an answer ready.

He knew his parents wanted to keep him safe, that they wished him to become a lawyer, stay close to them, have a peaceful career, with a silent family of his own and die after a long, successful and very boring life - so of course he did the exact opposite!

Signing up to military training was his way to rebel, and soon he discovered that it was the best decision he ever made.

By the age of 25 he was able to travel to countless countries and cities with the army. Becoming an Intelligence Officer was the most suitable for his abilities and desires, and after learning Dari and ending up in Afghanistan he finally - for the first time in his life - found his place and purpose. For a while. He had all the time in the world to explore the colorful culture, the traditions, the good and also the bad sides of Kabul, and he fell in love with the city in no time. He could say that he was finally living all his dreams, but Erik still struggled with sleeping.

He was busy with all the work, all the information, all the responsibility day after day, yet it was just not enough for his brain to get tired - or this time maybe it was too much. During his childhood, the lack of input kept him awake; when he was a teenager, the fantastic future was not letting him have his rest. And when he was just fulfilling the dreams he always had, working for greater good and helping others and living in a different country, it turned out to be a bit too much to handle. It was without a doubt pretty ironic.

As the situation in Kabul grew more and more tense, he got less and less sleep. He needed to work 48-72 hours in one go, and when he finally had a few hours of peace, he fainted. It was sleep, but not rest. Both his mind and his body were strained to their limits, and as the tension collapsed in the city, so did he. He arrived at a crossroad, and in order to survive, he took the harder path and cut every connection that tied him to the outer world.

After he escaped Kabul for the first time in 8 years of active service, he felt- hopeless. Lost. Weak.

Relieved.

Relieved?

Relieved like a man who just cut all the chains that held him down would be. For the first time in his life, he had nobody to tell him what to do. No parents, no commanders, no nothing. When this realisation washed over him, he felt exhausted and energetic at the same time.

For a few days, he had been wandering close to Kabul to see if anybody would come after him, but when nobody arrived after two weeks, he understood the gift that fell into his lap.

It wasn’t simply about shaking all the chains of command off himself, but it was true and total freedom. He had the power to forget his original culture, his ways of living, his career, his belongings and even his name. He got the chance to peel every layer of paint, and start with a blank, white canvas if he wanted- and oh he wanted! He wanted to escape from his previous life.

The next day the first thing he did was to sell every item he owned, even his watch. He got so drunk on the newly discovered freedom, he allowed himself to get lost in time as well. With nothing but the money he got, a small backpack and water, he started his aimless journey around the country, and for two whole years, he didn’t even look back. Without doubt, that was the happiest time of his life… or so he thought.

He spent his days wandering from town to town, exploring more and more of the rigid beauty of Afghanistan. He was living from one day to another: when he found work, he got paid, when he gambled, he lost his money, and when he couldn’t find any food, he didn’t eat. All of his previous life experiences were stripped off him, and he became a man whose only purpose was to satisfy his needs. He fought for food, water and shelter, like an animal, and it was just such an easy way of living for him that he was able to shut his brain out for a while and live for the moment.

During his second year of complete isolation, he travelled through the Dasht-e Margo desert in order to get to Lashkargah for his next Buzkashi tournament. Crossing the endless sands on foot was a challenge on its own, and he wanted to try it for so long now.

Before he started his journey, he planned his route and scheduled in a few extra days as well. He wanted to allow himself the luxury of getting lost. He packed all the water he could and got on his foot to conquer the grim dunes of The Desert of Death .

As he arrived at the Dasht-e Margo, he allowed himself a minute of silent appreciation. He knew that it was one of the deadliest deserts of the globe, and he knew that he needed to respect it. He felt that if he could cross these sands without getting lost or going insane, he could do anything, so he set foot in the desert, having no idea about the way it would change him.

The first day and night went as peacefully as possible, but the next morning he discovered a very important factor: There was nobody here to talk to . He was completely alone, with nothing but the sea of burning sand under his feet, the september sun on the sky and his own thoughts. He couldn’t remember when was the last time he only had his mind as company, and getting deeper into the desert, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to open Pandora’s box, yet it was too late to turn back now.

By the second night came the realisation of the parallel between his childhood and this desert. His body might have not been confined in a house, but wherever he turned there was nothing except the sand and the sun. It was a physical jail in a form, with his mind having all the time to think - and as a good cabin fever worked, soon he started to ask every question, open every trauma and think about the things he didn’t have time to think about in one and a half years.

By the third day, he opened up every shut door in his soul, and gave himself into the unspeakable amount of remorse he felt for his parents and the army. He knew that he was being selfish when he cut his ties, and truth to be told, he missed his previous life. He knew that everybody thought he was dead, and he didn’t go back to tell them otherwise. He simply didn’t want to. He wanted to be alone, he wanted to do whatever he wished for, so he just did that without thinking twice. He lied to himself that it was for his survival, but it really wasn’t. He just saw the opportunity to disappear from the radars, and he took it.

He allowed himself to be dead, because death meant free from the burdens, but it also meant being free from all the good he had in his life, the things he missed! For example, he missed his friends from the army, he missed calling his father on a silent sunday evening, and he missed having people ready to catch him if he was falling. He missed being alive.

Four days into the desert, he felt the worst he had ever felt in 33 years. His body was burning, his heart was breaking, his mind was ready to shut down. He couldn’t shake the memory of his own betrayal out of his head, no matter how he tried. Even worse, every time he closed his eyes, he could imagine the worried face of his father, and the tears of his mother as his colonel told them he disappeared. He knew he needed to go back, but still wasn’t ready to accept his failure.

On day five, he couldn’t take a step. He just sat for hours, looking into the mirages the sun created, thinking about his decisions, and where he turned wrong. He shouldn’t have left Kabul, he shouldn’t have learned Dari, he shouldn’t have signed up for military training. He should have stayed home, to not disappoint his family like this. He should have listened to his parents.

The sixth morning came with a short rain, and he just stood there, eyes closed, shoulders dropped as the water was sinking into his hair, beard and clothes. It was a perfect match to his also cloudy mood. He felt like the worst shit the world has ever seen. He planted his face into his hands and let himself be weak for just a second, the rain was there to hide the pain anyway.

He didn’t know where to turn or what he wanted from life anymore. He was ready to give up. The Desert of Death was getting the best of him, yet his legs were still moving, his lungs still filled with air, and his heart still pumped blood. He felt like dying, yet he kept going on, for reasons unknown.

On the seventh evening, he reached both the breaking point and the oasis. He felt the same when he escaped Kabul, only this time, it was all his fault. All the betrayal, all the pain, all the selfish decisions were on him, there was nobody else to blame.

He dropped his bag in the sand and, collapsing next to the shallow waters of the oasis, he simply pushed his head under in an attempt to calm his storming mind. Since he was here, in the oasis, he got less and less rest, and by this point, his whole body trembled with every step he took. He wasn’t even sure if he would be able to cross the desert anymore.

He pulled his head out of the water, taking big gulps of air and he just stared at the small waves he created. He wanted to fix it. He wanted to fix everything. He took a deep breath, and lied on the ground, turning towards the sky. The sun was just about to set, he could already see the first stars of the night.

He kicked his boots down, and pushed his burning legs into the chilly water, waiting in silence as the last rays of the sun disappeared. He wanted to fix it, yet he wanted the freedom. How would the two of these meet..? How could he make it work?

He knew that he needed to go back, he didn’t know how, but he knew that it was the right thing to do. But how would he still keep his independence? How would he still travel and live his dreams? He didn’t want to be stuck in the same place for eight years without change. He was still in love with Kabul, he could imagine himself living there, but not as an intelligence officer, just a native. He still wanted to travel, and explore and live his life.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He needed to solve this somehow.

He needed to let go of everything one more time, and start with a blank canvas yet again, but this time, he needed to make it good. This time, he needed to make his decisions based on his happiness, not out of rebellion or fear. He needed to keep himself and his well being in the focus, while still satisfying others.

He took a deep breath, wiggled his cooling toes and slowly, opened his eyes, to be greeted by the clearest night sky ever seen. When he was a child, and he read about space, he always wished to see the stars and the Milky Way in person, and now that he was here, he simply didn’t know how on Earth did he miss this until now?! What a fool he was.

Watching more and more stars lit up, one after another, he suddenly felt small… insignificant. His problems were gone as he was drinking up the fascinating view.

After a week of feeling down and tense, he suddenly felt calm, even happy. From this perspective, his problems seemed as small as he was at the minute. His lips pulled into a smile and closing his eyes, he fell into a gentle, deep sleep, for the first time in his life. That night, there was nothing in his mind, no storms, no emotions, nothing. He felt empty and peaceful, and he slept like never before.

It was the most fucked up feeling ever; spending seven days breaking down all the walls he built around himself just to end the terror fulfilling a childhood dream that washed tranquility over him, and the next morning he woke up refreshed, relaxed.

He sat next to the water and refilled his bottles, letting his mind wander again. This time, it wasn’t about hatred and remorse, but ways to fix this. He counted the memories from all across his years that he considered happy, and analysing them, he set foot on the sand to finish the journey.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erik spent approximately two whole weeks in the Desert of Death, and this trip on the endless sands turned to be his personal El Camino . The Erik who entered the desert died on the way, and the Erik who left was a different person. From the next day, he started to work on his return, thankfully he didn’t need to wait for too long. When Nokk found him, he was more than ready to live.

To his biggest surprise, getting into contact with the military again was easy. His knowledge and input about the country and the people came in handy, and even though he wasn’t completely off the hook because of this whole disappearance act, his help with dismantling a major insurgency operation was his testimony of loyalty, and without a doubt, he excelled. He even got the attention of a whole new circle, and when Six reached out to him, he accepted the opportunity with gratitude.

Arriving in England opened a whole new chapter for him. He never imagined living in this country, it wasn’t too appealing for him; but as he learnt more about Team Rainbow and  his new teammates, he decided it was worth every rain-soaked shoe and shitty weather. Being selected into a group with such amazing soldiers was a blessing and a curse at the same time.

Here he needed to fight to prove that he was worthy of his place, and the others kept challenging him all the time for the first few months. They wanted to see if the new guy could handle the weight or not. It was hard, but he kept pushing against them, and soon, they welcomed him in the team with open arms.

He also realised how terrible he was in social interactions. He was just so bad at making friends, he worked so much different than the others, it was madness. For the first few weeks it seemed that he always spoke before thinking, he kept hurting people, making the others mad at him. It was very similar to a bunch of kids in the playground, but since he never experienced that, he had no idea how to make it work, but eventually he started to change. Slow and steady, he learnt to listen, think and answer. The team started to get used to him, and soon he was an anchor for everybody. They came for his insight and advice, and friendships started to form.

By the time the two new teammates arrived, he had already carved his name in the marble side by side with Morowa. They had been in active duty for almost three months now, and he was satisfied with how his life was going.

Both his mind and body were equally tired most of the days, he was able to rest. It was still not the same as in the desert, but he was getting there. He called his mother every week, and he actually told her stories about the places he visited and the things they worked on. He also already had a few vacations planned to countries he had yet to visit, so all in all, it was a decent way of living. He didn’t have any reason to complain, until- until the two new arrived.

He heard a few rumours about them from Mike and Jordan. He knew that one of them is some old, experienced captain of a fortress. He also heard that the other was an adventurer, and he was already excited to hear their stories in exchange for his own. He really wanted to have a friend who would be as invested in traveling as him. He couldn’t wait to meet them.

On the morning of their arrival, he had been hanging out with Yumiko, testing a few new breaches for Jordan in the workshop. When they got back to the canteen, there were the two newcomers. The old man with white beard and a real sword tied to his side, and the other was- um...

Blinking, Erik stepped next to Jordan, to get a better look at the other newbie. He felt his mouth dry, his knees weakened. The other newbie - a lady - was just- she was so beautiful. Her darker skin, her curly black hair, her features, her everything. He never expected to see something this mesmerizing in the middle of Hereford.

Around him, everybody was moving to greet the duo, and he was just standing there, questioning the existence of God.

Jordan looked up at him and slapped his upper back gently. “You are drooling, pal.”

His eyes snapped at the man. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. Come, pretty boy, let’s greet them!”

Nodding, Erik followed Jordan, and soon he was shaking hands with both the old man - Jalal - and the woman - Saana. She even had a pretty name. That was just unfair. She also had a firm handshake, sparkling eyes and a sassy smirk hiding in the corner of her mouth. Erik already knew that she was amazing.

“Oh, are you really Erik Thorn? I’ve read about your work in Kabul, it sounded risky.”

Erik’s heart skipped a beat again as he nodded. “It was risky, yes. Especially keeping the tourists alive!”

Saana’s lips pulled into a wide smile hearing that, and that was the end of Erik. He felt his hands shake so he let go of Saana’s hand and looked away. He felt his face warming up. It was- it was the most embarrassing thing ever. He was 36 years old, the Afghan ladies loved him, and he had plenty of experience with them, but this- this was a whole different deal. He felt like a little boy all of a sudden. He felt so stupid. Thankfully Saana didn’t seem to notice, or she was decent enough to pretend not to notice his obvious longing. She looked up at him once more, and stepped away, to greet Mike instead, leaving Erik just enough time to slap himself in the face mentally.

He hoped that this sudden interest in Saana would fade after a few days, that it was just the excitement of something new, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. After bumping into the woman in every goddamn place possible, he realised how small Hereford base really was. His life turned into a hot mess and suddenly he missed his good old hermitage very much, thank you.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Saana - it was the exact opposite. Erik found her fantastic. Sanna was not only very attractive in appearance, no! She had the audacity to be smart, funny, interesting, gentle and on the top of it an excellent soldier! She got the hostage out, she solved the team dynamics, she was flexible and confident, and she was everything Erik has ever wanted to be. Saana made life look so easy, but Erik knew that it wasn’t, even for her. He has heard about the adventures of the woman, and he couldn’t imagine how hard it was to keep everything in order, but Saana made it work and he just wanted to learn from this amazing woman.

He found himself wanting to be around Saana, not just in the terms of friendship. He wanted to show her Kabul, and he wanted her to guide him through all her own adventures. He wished to be by her side, but he had no idea how to approach somebody so perfect. He was afraid that he would mess it up, so he didn’t do anything for a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His lucky day -or maybe lucky night- came on a stormy Friday in early March. The base was still freezing, and he couldn’t for the love of god fall asleep. They had a big mission going on soon, and he was lying in bed, eyes open, thinking about the new triggering mechanism for his torch, when the first lightning hit the ground. It was so loud he winced in his bed. He looked out of the window as the first drops of rain started to fall. This weather reminded him of his childhood; during storms his mother always made a cup of tea for him, and they stayed up late, cuddled in a big blanket, talking.

He scratched his beard and glanced at the other bed, where Olivier was sleeping peacefully. With a small smile on his lips, he got to his feet and put on a sweatshirt. A cup of tea sounded nice, especially in the cold. He left his room and headed towards the cafeteria. When he turned into the corridor that led towards his destination, he was surprised to see light inside. Shrugging it off, he walked to the door. His hard guess was Ryad or Timur wandering around, or maybe Dominic trying to steal some of Adriano’s delicious biscotti. Without thinking twice, he pushed the door open and stepped in, only to be greeted by Saana, hunched over something at a table.

Blinking a few times, he bit his lips. Nobody was around, just the two of them, he wasn’t even sure if that ever happened before. “Good evening!” he greeted gently, but when no answer came, he stepped closer to the woman, to notice how her eyes were shut. She fell asleep on top of her papers and notebook, hand still holding the pen. He couldn’t hide a smile. Oh, so amazons still needed rest.

He watched her sleep for just a few seconds, and went to the kitchen to put up a kettle of water to heat. Then he left into the common room, to get a blanket from one of the armchairs. Arriving back, he made two cups of tea. He placed both mugs on Saana’s table, and unfolding the blanket, he gently covered the woman with it. To his touch, Saana winced and looked up at him. Her face was wrinkled, hair messy, eyes tired. Nobody was in their best form two seconds after waking up, but Erik still found her perfect.

Saana rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulder. “Thanks. I was working on our next mission, but I guess I fell asleep.” she smiled. “Thank you” she took the mug Erik offered her, and when the man gestured to the place next to her, she nodded.

Sitting down, Erik smiled at her. “Do you always work during the nights?”

“Only when I can’t sleep!” Saana smiled and glanced down at her work.

Erik lifted an eyebrow and followed her gaze to the maps, and weather forecasts and notes. “You sure take this seriously,” he said in amazement.

Saana nodded. “I have never been to this side of Chile, and we are approaching a fortress in the mountains. I just want to make sure that we will come back in our original packages.”

“And I thought I did my homework!” the blonde snorted. He then looked at the leather covered notebook by Saana’s left. “Can I?” he reached out and with an approving ‘sure’, the woman handed him the book.

Erik opened it gently and started to scan through the pages. There were notes and amazing sketches about the places Saana visited before. He couldn’t hold back a smile as he slowly shook his head.

“What?” Saana asked, embarrassed.

“It’s just- I’m just wondering, how are you even real!”

Blushing, Saana placed a hand on her chest with an almost offended smile. “Excuse me?”

“Oh nothing, nothing! It’s just that you exist only to selfishly humiliate us, normal human beings, with this amazing, sassy elegance you have!” Erik smiled at her.

With mouth falling open, Saana rolled his eyes. “I- I will take that as a compliment!”

Tilting his head, Erik smiled. “Good. It was a compliment.”

“Oh, so you compliment every lady like this?”

Erik stuck out his bottom lip and shook his head. “No, not at all. Just the special ladies!”

With a soft giggle, Saana placed her hand on the notebook, trying to pull it away from Erik. “You are horrible!”

“Oh no, no, no! Please! I will behave! Please let me look at your amazing pictures!” Erik did not let go of the notebook just yet.

Saana shook her head. “Okay, okay, fine! But only with one condition.”

“Which is?”

The woman let go of the book and instead, she pointed gently at Erik’s tattoo. “I would like to hear about Afghanistan a bit more.”

Erik glanced down at his tattoo, then back at Saana. “Well… if you want to hear everything, one night is not enough time. I’ve spent ten years in the country.”

With a cheeky smile, Saana nodded. “I don’t think that we will be able to get rid of each other soon anyway.”

His lips pulling into a smile, Erik said. “That is true. In this case, I would like to hear more about your adventures, starting with how you lost your fingers.”

Saana looked down at her hand, and up to Erik again. “That is a gory and disgusting story.”

“I’m all ears!”

Saana poked his side with her elbow gently. “No! You owe me a story about Kabul for now!”

With a resigning sigh, Erik nodded. “But Kabul might not even be that exciting! You can’t build up my interest like that, and then leave me hanging!”

“You are such a- so we are playing mind games now, hm? Emotional blackmailing, hm?”

Erik glanced in her eyes with a pout. “Only if it's working…?”

A good hearted laugh burst out of Saana, filling the canteen with life. “I can’t believe this! Okay, let’s make a deal. You will tell me a story about Kabul now, and then we will go to have some sleep, and tomorrow, I will tell you the story of how I lost my fingers during dinner?”

The blonde shut his mouth immediately, looking the other in the eye without blinking. He considered every possibility and outcome thoroughly and started to nod furiously. “Yes, I would love that very much!”

Satisfied with herself, Saana produced one of those fantastic, bright smiles. “It’s a date then. You pick the restaurant.”

Now it was Erik’s turn to get flushed. A date-a date-a date- adate . He felt his mouth open, but the sound didn’t come out. He was shocked. “A date?”

Saana smirked at him. “You didn’t think that I would invite you to steal food from Adriano and eat it surrounded by the others, right? So it’s a date. If you want it to be a date too!”

Erik looked at her, and started to nod furiously yet again. “Yes, I would love that very much!”

The woman next to him laughed again, and turning towards Erik she waited patiently until the man’s head cleared out just enough to start one of the Kabul stories. He didn’t plan this to be so easy, but he was undoubtedly happy with the sudden turn of events.

The next day, they accidentally stayed at the restaurant talking and exchanging stories for so long, the main chef needed to warn them that they were about to close. Erik knew he would remember that day until the end of his times.

During the dinner, Saana mentioned that she never visited a planetarium, and Erik discovered that despite his undying love for space, he neither set foot into one before. With that, their second date was decided.

They spend the third date in one of Maxim’s hunting huts, eating cereal out straight out of the bag, talking about their life in the army. Erik asked what was the worst thing that happened to Saana, and in exchange, he told her about the day he disappeared. He felt insecure at first, talking about his biggest shame, but Saana just lied there next to him, in the dirt, and listened to his every word without a single word of judgement. When he finished, the woman propped herself up on her elbow, and touching his face gently, she kissed him. It was the best date of all his life, and he already knew that he wanted more. He wanted it all.

For the fourth date, Erik planned a trip for them to Arthur’s Stone, which was just about 20 kms away from Hereford. When they began their journey in the morning, the sky was clear, the sun shining bright, but in a few hours the weather turned upside down, bringing an earth shaking summer storm with it. They were in the middle of nowhere when it hit, and both of them were soaking wet in just a few minutes. He was so angry and disappointed, he could shout. He knew that there was a National park near the Stone, and Saana loved forests, yet they were stuck on a plain field, drowning in mud.

When he opened his mouth to say his apology to Saana, the woman just hugged his neck and gave him a kiss, getting him even more wet, than he was before. She then smiled at him, with that amazing, bright smile of hers and pointed at a barn in the distance. “I bet, you can’t outrun me, Erik!”

She let go of him, starting her race towards the destination, and with that Erik’s anger was gone.

They spent the night in the barn, accompanied by a few horses, cuddled close to keep each other warm, talking about the places they wanted to visit. Until this point both of them planned for only themselves, but soon, their separated trips merged into shared ones. Saana - with all honesty - told him that even though she would never want to leave Erik behind, there were still a few places , like Antarctica, where she wanted to go alone. Understanding what this meant to Saana, Erik obviously accepted her decision, and asked if he could wait for her at the end points of those trips.

With sparkling eyes, Saana put her head on his shoulder, caressing his cheeks with her gentle fingers. “Yes, I would love that very much,” she whispered.

Erik smiled at him, and hugged her close, planting his face into her naked shoulders. “I will wave you goodbye, and I will greet you again, after the 50 days.”

Saana chuckled. “You mean 52 days. The first guy who crossed Antarctica on foot took 52 days.”

With a smile, Erik looked at her. “Saana, I think both of us know that you will never be satisfied with a second place.”

Laughing, the woman nodded, giving him a kiss yet again. “I guess you are right!”

Erik placed a kiss on top of her forehead and hugging her waist closer, he closed his eyes. During that night, in a shitty barn, surrounded by horses, cuddling naked next to one other, Erik found his deep slumber again, just like back at the oasis.

The next morning, he thought it was just one occasion. He was most surprised when, during their fifth date, he fell asleep just as easily as the last time, with Saana pressed against his back, hugging his waist.

They had spent the day in a small Welsh village, exploring the history of it together, then they had dinner in a fantastic little restaurant, and arriving back to their hotel room, they spent the next hours making love to each other. He planned all these outcomes, but he was sure, he won’t be able to sleep, so waking up in the morning, to Saana’s ice-cold feet pressing against his upper thighs, was both a pleasant and an unpleasant surprise. He opened his eyes with a loud yelp, and when he turned to the woman, she just smiled at him innocently. “What happened darling? A bug bit you?”

He wanted to make a smart remark, but before he could open his mouth, he decided to look the woman up and down. Her hair was messy, her eyes sparkled, she was covered in the soft sheets of the hotel, and he knew his future was next to her. So instead of commenting on her being a mountain troll, he gently cupped Saana’s face in between his hands, and gave him a soft kiss. Giggling, she hugged his neck and pulled him closer. As they parted, he pressed his forehead to the woman’s, eyes closed, caressing her arm and that was it. He never looked back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Slowly their relationship got stronger and stronger, and they spent more and more time together. Erik found true rest only with Saana sleeping next to him, and couldn’t have been more grateful for it. It was clear as day that they were happy together, and as he discovered more about Saana, he fell deeper into the pit.

It wasn’t easy all the time, there were days, even weeks, when both of them were stressed from work, and he started to see how Saana - despite being a goddess in his eyes - was just as human as him. She was messy, she spent way too much time working, and when she was stressed she sometimes took it out on him. He soon understood her struggles with always trying to be the best and that she often forgot that she could count on him as well.

To his greatest surprise, the biggest discovery was that he didn’t mind any of this. He wanted to be there for Saana, even if his only job was to make her a tea and cover her in a blanket, when she worked. He never asked her to change, and just as easily as he did, Saana accepted his own strange bits as well. She was by her side, when he was angry, when he was broken, when he was weak, always holding him together with all the love she could give.

Both of them listened when the other needed them to, and they knew how to help. They were not afraid to ask for help and let the other close, because both of them knew that they were just meant for each other, and that after the storm, there will always be able to see the clear skies again.

Their days together turned into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years, and they never stopped to love and support each other.

Erik was there, when Saana was shot during a mission, sitting sleepless next to her hospital bed until she woke up. She was by his side, when his father got sick, holding his broken pieces together, shielding him from the world. And, as he promised, he was the last one waving goodbye when Saana started her journey across Antarctica, and he was the first to greet her by the goalline.

When Saana was not next to him, because she was on a mission alone, he tended to go back to his old habits of lying in their empty bed, thinking about his previous life. He got himself remembering his childhood, the early years of the military practice, Kabul, his two years long runaway, and that first date with Saana. He found himself smiling, because after all, every struggle he ever had was worth it in the end. He was happy, he loved like never before, and he was loved just the same.

He sometimes got himself thinking that what if it will be over one day? What if, Saana will get to her sober senses and just leave him behind. He wouldn’t blame her, he was not a Prince Charming on a white horse. He wasn’t rich, he wasn’t perfect, he still didn’t know how to say her mother’s name correctly, and he always left the toilet seat up. To his luck, Saana didn’t care about any of these, and she was not afraid to tell that to him over and over again, if she saw he needed it.

Saana had an inhuman sense to read his mood, even when he turned inwards. She always knew what he needed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For example, now, on the evening of the 6th of May, mere minutes before midnight, just as his insecurities were about to rise in him about their wedding tomorrow, Saana sensed his distress and waking from her sleep, she placed her hand on the sides of his face. “You are not sleeping, my love,” she whispered.

With a low chuckle, he pressed a kiss in her palm. “Yes, but you can rest, I’m all good.”

Saana yawned and fidgeting, she rolled him over gently to be able to press against his cooler back with her chest. She hugged his waist, pushing her warm cheeks against his skin. “You are not, I can tell. Let me guess… You are afraid that my father will not accept you in our family. You are sad, because your dad can’t be with us tomorrow. And you are thinking that after eight damn years of strong and stable relationship, I still deserve more than what you are able to give me.”

Erik bit into his lips, listening to Saana with a wide grin on his face. “You know me.”

“Of course I know you. And I know that my father will love to have you as his son-in-law. I also know that even if your dad will not be able to be here physically, he will be looking down at us from Heaven and he will be pretty damn proud about your sexy little wife. And for the last part- Erik, I know you love me, you keep telling me every day. Not with your words, but with your actions. For example how after eight years, you still bring my morning coffee to bed in my favourite mug. How you only fill the rows of the newspaper crosswords I have no idea about but leave the rest for me because you know that I love them. How you suppress your muffled screaming every time, I press my cold feet against your skin… These are small and insignificant to you Erik, I know! Trust me, I know! But I also know that I would never want to press my feet against anybody else. I will press them against your skin for the rest of our lives, and if you have any complaints, I don’t care!”

Erik closed his eyes, listening to Saana, biting the inside of his mouth to hide a soft sniffle. He lifted one of the woman’s hands to his lips and pressed a kiss into his palm. “Have I ever told you about the Oasis in the Desert of Death?” he whispered.

He felt Saana’s lips pulling into a small smile against his back. “Only a few hundred times, why?”

“Because you are just like that Oasis.”

At that, Saana propped in her elbow to get a better look at his face. “Elaborate, please, my love.”

Erik looked up at her, with a soft smile on his face. “When I arrived at that oasis, I was nothing more, but a broken man. I was depressed and weak, I was barely able to stand. I just realised how big of a fool I was for running, how wrong I was. I collapsed on the sand ready to die, but by that oasis I found a piece of myself I lost during the years. I was just lying there, looking up at the sky, and I suddenly felt light and calm. By the water, I realised everything I did wrong, and the ways to fix it. That oasis gave me new life, and you are just the same. You are always there to help me, always there to catch me, always there to remind me why I want to keep going on. You bring me peace and rest, and for that, I love you more than I have ever loved anybody else. You are my present and you are my future.”

Now it was Saana’s turn to hide a sniffle. She rubbed her nose, and took a deep breath glancing away. After a few minutes of silence, Saana looked back at him and clearing her throat, she smirked. “If this is not your goddamn wedding vow for tomorrow, I’m going to be very disappointed!”

Laughing burst out of Erik, as he hugged Saana close to himself, pressing soft kisses on her neck and skin. Shaking with laughter as well, Saana hugged his neck and pulled him into a deep, loving kiss. Parting, she placed her hand on Erik’s face and smiled at him. “I love you so much Erik Thorn. I would not give you up for anybody or anything. You are mine, and I’m yours. And nothing can change it.”

The man looked up at her, eyes sparking with love and hope, and after a gentle kiss, he hugged Saana close to himself. They fell asleep, holding onto each other like they usually did, and that was it. That was true happiness.

#dragonwrites #dragontries #r6s #rainbowsixsiege #fanfic #fanfiction #r6s Maverick #r6s Nomad

[trip-downtheriverstyx]

BDRPWRIMO: A mock application- disclaimer that I did this as an exercise for my OC story aha but it’s still connected enough to Swynlake so!! 

OPAL ACHERON;; 

ABOUT THE CHARACTER; NAME: Opal FACE CLAIM: Mackenzie Foy PRONOUNS: She/her AGE: 18! SEXUALITY: Straight-ish. True Generation Z Straight, aka she mostly likes boys but won’t rule out ever liking a girl lmao sexuality is fluid JOB/SCHOOL: Pride U—Theatre! Scriptwriting at this moment. RESIDENCE: Belle’s house! WHY YOU’RE APPLYING FOR THIS CHARACTER (5 SENTENCES MINIMUM):

I’m just gonna use this space to talk about why I love Opal. She’s such a bright, upbeat, artistic character who has lots of dimensions to her. She’s driven first and foremost by an intense love and delight for life—for making each day unique and figuring out how to express herself or “make her mark.” She’s had a happy childhood with parents who love each other and are very passionate themselves, and that passion rubbed off on her and onto everything she touches and does. Because she was taught early on to never give up and to tackle problems head on (very Hades and Belle truly), she isn’t a pessimist or a cynic. She wants to find solutions to her problems. She wants to succeed and triumph. And so when her illness strikes, it never really occurs to her to be depressed about it. I mean, sure, that’s part denial right there but it also speaks to the iron of her will. She’s resilient and why wouldn’t she be? She grew up in Swynlake.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR CHARACTER CAN ADD TO SWYNLAKE (5 sentences minimum): She is the kind of girl to get into trouble and bring people along with her! She hears about something mysterious in the forest? Absolutely she wants to check that out. Student body elections? You betcha Opal wants to run. She’s more of a ‘leader’ than a follower, though at the same time, I think she operates in this middle space between “mom friend” and like, I dunno, cool aunt friend—like, part of Opal getting into trouble will be on behalf of some of her closest friends sometimes. (If you’re thinking to yourself, is Opal a Gryffindor??? I don’t know. I’m between Raven v Gryff v a very friendly Slytherin because I think she gets attached to persons over groups but I’ll let u know where she lands lmao.)

LIST THREE GOALS THAT YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH WITH  THIS CHARACTER/THAT THIS CHARACTER WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH:

None of these are gonna make sense to you guys here we go— 1. Come to terms with her chronic illness—her ghostliness is sort of a metaphor for this. Opal desperately wants to be normal but she isn’t normal. She needs to accept she has certain limitations…but those limitations don’t have to necessarily LIMIT her “life” experience. 2. Have a YA-worthy romance probably—Opal is definitely too romantic for her own good, while simultaneously being pretty sensible about it and probably a little persnickety. She’s definitely had boyfriends in the past, but does fear true commitment in a way because of how much she values independence and doing things her way. She’s like her mum in that sense ahah. And I’d love for her to really learn how to be in a relationship. 3. Hijinks with her brothers related to “fixing” her condition—which maybe culminates in a visit to the underworld?! Mostly because I need a fucking plot for this thing. But it would be funny if Hades is still Lord of the Underworld and this is like the equivalent of going out to a 21+ strip club or something lmfao.

WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S VIEW ON MAGIC? (3 SENTENCES MINIMUM):

Opal grew up around magic so naturally she loves it. She also depends on magic to make her life livable. While magic is vilified by others, magic lifts up Opal’s own life—and so she sees lots of good with it and is a true magic advocate. She also realizes she’s in a really unique position (like a lot of white upper-class kids with a chronic illness) in that the nature of her family’s magic means she GETS the care she needs, even if that care is through magic. BIOGRAPHY (300 WORDS MINIMUM, 3RD PERSON):

Opal Acheron is not dead yet. Opal Acheron is a lot of things besides dead (ish.) She is the daughter of Belle Acheron, a very successful Magick Rights Lawyer, and Hades, the ambassador to the Underworld. She’s an artist. She’s an actress. She’s a big sister who takes that job very seriously, even when her twin brothers annoy her. She’s a wicked horse rider and she also plays a mean game of chess, taught by the Lord of the Dead himself. And when she was just 12 years old, she scripted her first petition with the help of her mother, advocating for an Undead Appreciation Day. She is a Swynlake Native and it’s in her very blood. She wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. And yes. She’s just a touch dead. Soon after Opal’s eighteenth birthday, she developed a very inconvenient heart tumor that would certainly lead to her untimely end. But her father intervened before her soul could pass through the veil. He bargained with the Fates—Opal would live frozen in time, a ghost during the day, and a girl at night, for as long as she wanted…or at least, until the Acherons found some kind of solution, magic or medical, that might give Opal more time. Now, Opal has to learn a different way of living, a life between things, and just in time for her first semester of university. But Opal considers herself a very optimistic girl, even if she’s a ghost one. She’s determined not to let her condition get in the way of her dreams. Why should she— Opal Acheron is not dead yet.

ROLEPLAYING SAMPLE (500 WORDS MINIMUM, 3RD PERSON): 

Opal sees a cute boy.

He sits in the back of Hatter’s café, trousers the colour of mustard and rolled up so she can see his ankles. She likes his ankles best of all, or at least, she likes them best from where she stands next to her brother who is waiting for his peppermint mocha. She wants to get closer to decide about those ankles. And whether or not those glasses he wears—the thick, clear plastic kind—are real or just a fashion statement, and what she thinks about that, too. Either way, she knows he is cute enough to ask.

Unfortunately, she’s a ghost, which makes these things slightly more complicated.

If she were still alive, Opal would not hesitate to go over and introduce herself. If she were alive, she’d already have made eye contact with him across the room-- like in her favorite classic movies, with women in splendid pin-up skirts and perfect curls, who flirted over the tops of books, speaking whole poems with a flutter of their eyelashes. If she were alive, maybe she’d even entice the skinny-ankled stranger to buy her a coffee too. But because she is not alive, she should turn away and mind her business-- her flirting days behind her now.

But that sounds terrible. So instead, she informs her brother, who is a medium: “Bell, I see a cute boy.”

Bellamy is reading and not paying attention to cute boys. He doesn’t look up from Frank Herbert’s Dune, only turns a page and says, “Good for you.”

She presses her lips together. “Bell, you’re not even looking. I need you to go over and talk to him for me.”

“No thank you.”

“That wasn’t a request.”

 “Ah, well, then you should say please.”

 “I said it wasn’t a request.” Opal stares owlishly at her brother, who has officially started ignoring her, as though she is little more than a gnat buzzing around his ear. Well, she can buzz much louder if she really wants to. Opal has no qualms about being an annoying older sister. In her opinion, being annoying is in the job description of an Older Sister, and especially an Older Sister Who Is Also A Ghost.

And so she reaches out with those ghosty hands of hers and levitates Dune right out of Bell’s hands. A few eyes in the queue slide their way and follow the book as it floats above her brother’s head. Bell stares at his hands still, like nothing happened.

“This is rude,” states Bell with his eyes on his empty hands.

She wiggles the book in the air, pages fluttering. “Please,” she says.

He finally looks up and regards her with a blank face. “You’re so immature.”

“I’m a ghost—emotionally stunted by nature,” says Opal. “Now, please, talk to Cute Boy for me.”

PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING ABOUT THE CHARACTER (MINIMUM OF THREE WITH 2-3 SENTENCE EXPLANATIONS): FAVORITE (OR LEAST FAVORITE)… COLOR(S): “It’s not fair to the other colors to have a favorite.” WEATHER: She loves thunderstorms. They’re so dramatic and she likes to pretend to be scared or like it’s gonna blow the house down. MUSIC: Musicals of course! Lots of classics and old jazz singers. She does like pop music too but only a tune here and there. MOVIE(S): oh OLDIES again! Musicals! Black and white classics! Got really into silent films at one point. She also loves old historical dramas and she wants to start in an Austen revival. Loves Shakespeare theatre. Sexual awakening when she saw DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet SCENT(S): Um…flowers. Understated scents, probably doesn’t wear perfume unless for special occasions. BEVERAGE: is she an ice coffee bitch—Yes also flavored lattes and herbal teas. FOOD(S): vegetarian :3 She really loves coconut in things. Her favorite meal is probably like a vegetarian coconut curry or something—kinda sweet n spicy at the same time. She loves Indian food for that kinda reason too. Oh and vegetarian sushi like with avocado and mango and stuff. ANIMAL(S): Horses! Belle would have Opal start riding as soon as she can walk (despite Hades probably being overprotective.) Opal would be a true blue horse girl. She’d read all the horse books and goes to feed Philippe with her mum and probably wants her very own horse too! Horses are the best! 100 percent horses! Also, the humble caterpillar. OR 3 HEADCANONS (3 sentence mimimum): -Opal has one of those weird girly phobias about cutting her hair. She only ever trims it and she loves it as long as it can go. She also taught herself how to do extravagant braids and updos—definitely self-taught when it comes to that and also make-up, all through Youtube tutorials, since Belle isn’t exactly savvy herself. (I bet she’s done Belle’s hair tho isn’t that cute.) - Despite absolutely loving to dress up, her day to day look is pretty practical. She likes boots because they can be cute but she can still go trudging through Enchantra and they don’t get too uncomfortable.

#bdrpwrimolauryl

[leigh-kelly]

But I Can Dream, Can’t I?

#Brittana #starlight!verse #1940s Fire Island #Fire Island Brittana

[twistednuns]

October 2019

Looking up the etymology of archaic words. The witches' dialogues in Macbeth are a gold mine when it comes to finding the nicest words... Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

Kitchen stories: making the best Thai curry in a long time. Bread with butter and jam. Making my favourite pizza multiple times: capers, black olives, onions, mushrooms, peperoni and mozzarella.

Micha sending a cute, smiley picture of him eating deep dish pizza in Chicago.

A hedgehog crossing my path one night. I love the way they move.

Spending an evening with Andre at FLEX. Hanging out on the big black sofa in the corner. Cuddling, my head in his lap. He's got really soft forearms.

Touching my own forehead really lightly and slowly with one finger when I have my eyes closed. And yeah, touching other people's foreheads and forearms. I'm weird like that.

Reading a picture book. The sound of turning pages (really nice, thick paper), looking at all the detailed illustrations.

Playing board games with Frank in his kitchen. Movie nights on his sofa.

Buying a Ficus Lyrata at Pflanzen Ries. Managing to get it home in an IKEA bag dangling from my handlebar. I actually have a favourite lady at the garden centre now. We sometimes chat when she doesn't have too much going on.

Lying in bed when it feels sooo good.

Going sailing with the students in the Netherlands. I loved staying up late with Lauritz, Stina and Leoni. Playing stupid drinking games. The view, the air, the sun. Chatting with Dutch seamen. Playing semi-violent bell games. Our day on Texel was my favourite. I took off my shoes to walk into the sea, took pictures with the girls. I actually saw real dunes for the first time, I think. We had rented bikes to ride to the Ecomare, a shelter for ill/hurt sea animals, mainly seals. Later we walked through Den Burg, a beautiful little town on the island. I got a midnight blue velvet pencil case. Best souvenir.

The STEK concept store on Texel island blew me away. Such a pretty interior and amazing offers. Posters, flower pots, rare plants. I finally found a Begonia Maculata cutting - for just a few bucks! And I managed to bring it with me to Germany safely.

Thornhill by Pam Smy - a gorgeous graphic novel.

Returning to yoga class with Lucy. I'm incredibly out of shape and too heavy for a shoulder stand at the moment but I'm willing to work on it.

The big grey cat I startled the other night. He climbed up the tree in front of our house and it took him forever to come down again. The next morning I saw him sitting in front of the entrance again. Catspotting ist the best.

Building a giant Twister game with Yanic for Lena's and Christian's wedding.

Writing the seating chart on a black board with chalk markers.

Getting a space-themed 'maid of honor' dress.

Buying whole bags of flowers with Lena one day before the wedding. Accidentally making the shop assistant think we were the actual couple.

And yeah, the actual wedding. I was stressed out of my mind that weekend but obviously there were some amazing moments. Secretly taking a picture of the couple holding hands on the car ride to the ceremony. Being the hostess and in charge of the games made me anxious but honestly, it was fun, too. Well, maybe not the speech, but the rest. I had a good time with Tobi, Maike and Barbara. And Matthias. That man. Oh my. I've never met a more fascinating guy before. I LOVE talking to him. Dancing with him. Just staring into his handsome happy face.

Drinking hazelnut schnapps with Michi at Oktoberfest.

Making Kaspressknödel.

Buying a new Dieffenbachia on my way home from school. I just needed a treat.

Cheese fondue and tapas night with Barbara, Maike and Lena.

Reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood on the subway one morning when I discovered that the man across from me was reading The Handmaid's Tale. I LOVE coincidences like that.

One of the last really warm and sunny days of the year. Walking through the Nymphenburg castle grounds with Lena. Discovering the lake and the Amalienburg. Walking along the castle wall, chasing the geese in the orchard.

The last scoop of lemon ice-cream before the ice-cream parlours close for this year.

Playing Monarchies of Mau with Steffen, Sophia, Em and Maggie. It was my first time joining a pen and paper round. So many (un)intended puns, lots of mystery and fun. In the end we even ordered pizza from downstairs.

Going on a little hike with a llama/alpaka herd - a birthday present from Lena and Christian. My alpaka was a real hillbilly - some straw hanging out his mouth, constantly touching the others' butts with his snouts... but he made the cutest little blök-sounds and he's sooo fluffy.

The Bitchface paintings at artMUC.

Drawing a jungle picture for the sixth-graders. It turned out so good and I had very much fun drawing it.

Autumn putting a colour gradient on the wine leaves growing up the walls at school.

The book A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Finishing it (it's very good but it's got more than 1000 pages...)

All the plant cuttings turning my apartment into a jungle.

Halloween: Frank's Jesus costume. Dressing up as a dead Goth Barbie with incredibly long soft pink hair. Seeing my first Burlesque show in Germany with Andre, Margit and her friends (who wore wrestler costumes, so cool). The woman in androgynous clothing won my heart. And I met a student's mum there. Making out with Andre here and there. Past midnight pizza snack across the street from Beverly Kills.

Making a really cute and kissy GIF with some Halloween snapshots.

#things i love #october #2019 #october 2019 #present perfect #personal

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 43: Enchanted Island (1979)

Sorry Greg, it only required a fraction of my cunning.

Okay, so I screwed up.  Remember a few posts ago, when I said that I had the order of the Greg Hassett games screwed up?  And that my next game would not be Enchanted Island but would instead be Sorcerer’s Castle Adventure?  Well, I forgot to change my notes, so I ended up playing Enchanted Island anyway.  This is my completely nocturnal quarantine brain in action.

Enchanted Island is technically the sixth of Hassett’s text adventures, and it’s the fifth one that I’m playing for the blog.  They didn’t start out all that great with Journey to the Center of the Earth Adventure, but his later efforts like Voyage to Atlantis have shown signs of improvement.  All of them have scored pretty low on the RADNESS Index though, which makes me question why I have such an inordinate amount of fondness for Greg Hassett.  The fact that he’s about thirteen years old around this time certainly has something to do with it.  But the more I think about it, the more I realise that he’s pretty much exactly what I wanted to be when I was that age.

I went to uni to study IT (an ill-fated decision) with the intention of getting into the games industry.  I wanted to make games!  Unfortunately, I didn’t want to make games in the system that was around in the late 90s and early 2000s: I wanted to be a solo creator, or part of a small team, not one cog in a huge machine.  So I dropped out, bummed around, and eventually picked up a job in a library archive.  The sad thing is, I could have had what I wanted in the 80s and maybe the early 90s.  I could have had what I wanted from about 2010 onwards.  I just happened to reach adulthood around the time where doing that was pretty much impossible.  (Eh, who am I kidding anyway, I never would have had the drive to be a success at it.  I just slept from 10am to 1am.)

What does my sad life story have to do with Enchanted Island, you ask?  Well, uhhhh, they’re both set in Australia?  (That was a segue, folks. I didn’t spend three years studying professional writing for nothing.)

So, Enchanted Island.  Like Hassett’s other games, it was originally released through Mad Hatter Software for the TRS-80.  There was a later port for the Apple II, but I couldn’t find it, so I’m playing the TRS-80 version.  If this post at Gaming After 40 is anything to go by, the version I found is a revised one that was written in assembly language rather than BASIC.  I’m not entirely happy with that, but I couldn’t find anything else so this is what I had to work with.  (I did find something that I think approximates the original version, but more on that in Ports of Call below.)

As I mentioned above, Enchanted Island is set in Australia, or more accurately speaking, on an island off the Australian coast.  That’s what the opening of the game says, anyway.  The description on the packaging says that it’s set on an island in middle of the Pacific Ocean, which isn’t quite the same.  For all that it matters, I’ll go with what the game says.  The goal of Enchanted Island (surprise, surprise) is to scour the island for treasure.  It’s a beacon of familiarity in these uncertain times.

Crikey mick, I’m on a flamin’ island!

The game begins with the player standing on a beach.  There’s a sign that tells you that dropping any treasure found here will increase your score.  I do appreciate a game that does this outright, rather than making me figure out where to drop things on my own.  Checking my inventory I discovered that I was carrying nothing, and typing SCORE I learned that I needed to earn 140 points.

There’s also a warning not to go south, so of course that was the first thing I tried.  I ended up in the ocean, where I drowned.  (Wouldn’t you think I’d turn back when it got to chin height or something?)

After a restart I headed north along the beach, and eventually to a thicket where I found some tasty food.  Remembering that just about every second puzzle solution in Hassett’s games involves FEEDing something, I took the food with me rather than eating it myself.  East of the thicket was a rocky flat and a cave, but it was dark inside so I decided to go elsewhere to look for a light source.

East of my starting location I found a green bottle in the sand, but I couldn’t open it so I took it with me.  Further east I found an oasis, with a single palm tree.  I climbed up the tree, and there I found a vulture guarding a golden feather.  The feather was denoted with + symbols, meaning that it was one of the treasures that I needed to find.  I fed the tasty food to the vulture, which flew away, and I was able to claim the feather and take it back to the beach.

I can’t imagine that hand-feeding a vulture is much fun.

Heading south from the oasis, I found a dusty book half-buried in a sand dune.  Reading the book gave me the following clue: MAGIC BREAK WORD BOTTLE “BIMBO”.  This looked like two clues jumbled up to me.  I tried breaking the bottle, only to be told that there was nothing hard enough here.  I also tried typing SAY BIMBO, but nothing happened.  The game definitely recognised BIMBO though, so I was on the right track.

I followed a winding path around from where I’d found the book, past a waterfall (with no secret room behind it, what a rip), and to the edge of a cliff.  There I found a lighter, which would definitely come in handy if I ever found a light source to use it on.  North and east of that I eventually came to a place called Spyglass Hill, where I encountered a deer.  Nothing I tried to do worked, not even KILL DEER, so I left this for later.

South of the deer I found a shady spot, where a warlock was guarding a silver key, the second of the treasures that I needed.  Much like the deer, the warlock didn’t respond to anything I did, but he also wouldn’t let me take they key.

This was all looking very similar in structure to Voyage to Atlantis.  That game had treasures scattered around the map, most of them guarded by creatures that served no other purpose than to act as obstacles to the treasure they were guarding.  Solving the game was a case of finding the solution to getting rid of each creature, and if memory served a lot of those solutions would involve food.  I’d already found one that backed that up.

The only other place to explore was east of the oasis, which led me a large rock with writing on it.  The writing read: “WARLOCK SLIP. HIT DEER”.  The first part of that didn’t look like something I could act on right now, but I went back and tried HIT DEER.  I was told “I’ve no weapon, so I’d rather not.”  Something else to remember.

I went back to the rock and tried breaking the bottle.  The rock was obviously hard enough, because the bottle shattered and revealed a note inside.  The note read: “HOLY SMOKES, A TIGER! BARBS LIKE BAN…” The rest of the note was too faded to read.  I hadn’t encountered a tiger yet, nor had I met a “barb”, which I figured was short for barbarian.

North and east of the rock, through some tall reeds, I found a depression with a lantern on the ground.  This was the light source I was looking for, and with the lighter I was able to ignite the lantern and start exploring the cave.  Thankfully, the lantern doesn’t appear to ever run out.

The caves were almost as big as the rest of the island I’d explored, but only a few locations had items of interest in them.  In a “sacred chamber” to the north and east I found a gold ring, the first unguarded treasure that I’d found.  West of that, in a dead end, I found an emerald embedded in the wall.  I mustn’t have had the right tool on me though, because I couldn’t get it out.

A little bit north and west of the entrance I found a cell, with a human skull on the floor.  South of that was another dead end, with a “mammoth ruby”, another unguarded treasure that I gleefully pocketed.  I’d thought its implied size might cause me problems, but it didn’t.

North of that I found a strange cave, where a medicine man was guarding a crate.  As with every other living thing in the game, he was non-responsive to all of my actions except trying to take that crate.

At this point, I’d explored every part of the island that I could find, and none of the inventory items I had were obvious solutions to the obstacles before me.  I needed something that could make the warlock slip, a weapon to hit the deer with, and a tool to pry the emerald from the wall.  As for the medicine man, I didn’t have any clues as to how to sort him out.  There was nothing for it but to retrace my steps around the island and make sure that I hadn’t missed anything.

I found the first clue to what I was missing at the top of the oasis palm tree.  The description there said that I could see a jungle to the south, but I couldn’t see a way to get there.  This put me in the mind of the passwords from Colossal Cave Adventure and its variants, so I tried SAY BIMBO again.  This time it worked, teleporting me to a dead end in the cave.  This didn’t seem all that helpful, so I tried it again, and this time it teleported me to the jungle I had seen from afar.

If I say this word one more time I’m going to get cancelled.

It took a little while, and another death, to figure out what I had done to make BIMBO work.  It turns out that you need the ruby in your possession.  There is a clue to this in the game, although I never found it: if you type OPEN BOOK rather than READ BOOK, a hollow voice tells you that “the ruby was Bimbo’s”.  I’m not sure why you’d try that once you’ve read it, but it’s not the first game I’ve played where the two commands give different results.  Usually, it’s that there’s a note or something hidden between the pages.  Anyway, I worked out the solution through process of elimination, by trying the magic word every time I picked something up or did anything else noteworthy.

The jungle was a pretty small area. To the west, I found a hut with a barbarian guarding some rare spices.  To the north was a tiger guarding a priceless giraffe skin.  And to the east, I found a bear guarding some Cuban cigars.  I also found a bamboo pole, which I took with me, but nothing I was carrying seemed to have an effect on any of these three.  (For old time’s sake, with Adventureland fresh in my memory, I tried SCREW BEAR.  Nothing happened.)

The only other avenue to explore was a dark marsh, this game’s obligatory maze.  Since this was a marsh I didn’t think that leaving inventory breadcrumbs would work as a mapping tool, as I expected them to sink into the bog.  That didn’t happen though, and mapping this small maze was no hassle.  I found a bunch of potentially useful items in there as well: a jewel-encrusted coconut (another treasure), a glowing glass ball, a banana, and an iron pick.  I also wandered out of the swamp and into the ocean for another ignominious death, but in a game as small as this it was a minor setback.

The first thing I tried after scooping up all of this stuff (which required multiple trips due to this game’s six item inventory limit) was to break the glass ball.  This caused yet another death, but one that came with a vital clue.

This isn’t necessarily a game over, you can BIMBO your way out of the Land of Lost Adventurers. You can’t win without the glass ball though.

I’m not sure how I feel about this.  Should vital clues come from failure?  On the one hand it breaks the narrative immersion.  On the other hand, playing an adventure game isn’t really like experiencing a narrative at all, particularly in these early days.  It’s more like unravelling a puzzle, and repeated failure is a part of that process.  I can see why people have a problem with this sort of thing, but I think I’m okay with it.

I was pretty sure at this point that I had the tools I needed to solve the game.  I started by feeding the banana to the barbarian, who took off and left the peel behind.  I took the spices and the peel, and went to the warlock.  GIVE didn’t work as a command, and THROW gave me the message that I could only throw the ball.  So I tried DROP, and sure enough the warlock slipped on the peel and vanished.  (I assume he teleported away out of embarrassment.)  I took his key, and went to deal with the medicine man.  Trying BREAK BALL here results in yet another death, but when I tried THROW BALL the wizard instead took his wrath out on the medicine man.  With the key I was able to unlock the crate, and inside I found another treasure, a golden chain.

“I had the cure for the plague of the 20th shentury and I losht it!” That’s some obscure Sean Connery for you oldies out there.

From there it was a simple matter to pry the emerald out of the wall with the pick, and hit the deer with the bamboo pole.  This causes it to bound away, leaving golden antlers behind.  How this is done by an explicitly female deer is anyone’s guess.

So far I’d gathered the following treasures: a golden feather, a silver key, golden antlers, a ruby, a gold ring, an emerald, a golden chain, some rare spices, and a jewel-encrusted coconut. There were two other treasures to be procured – the Cuban cigars and the giraffe skin – but both were guarded by the bear and the tiger respectively.  Based on earlier clues I guessed that the cigars would get rid of the tiger, but that meant I still had to deal with the bear, and nothing in my inventory looked helpful.  The only item I had that hadn’t served a purpose yet was the skull, but the bear wasn’t interested in eating it, and I wasn’t able to throw it either.

This is where I got stuck for the longest, and I considered hitting a walkthrough for the solution.  This time my patience held out for once.  I just kept trying different things on the bear until I hit on the solution.  It ended up being a little bit annoying.  Trying HIT BEAR gave me back a message that I didn’t want to, because the bear might hit back.  But when, in desperation, I tried FIGHT BEAR, I got the following result.

And I did it *bear*-handed.  That’s it. That’s the joke. Wacka-wacka.

So I’d already found the solution, I just hadn’t worded it properly.  The same thing happened to me recently with Mystery House, where CLEAN ALGAE hadn’t worked but WIPE ALGAE did.  At least in that game, it happened with a verb that the parser didn’t recognise.  With Enchanted Island, it recognises HIT, FIGHT and ATTACK, which are ostensibly the same action, but only the latter two let you kill the bear.  (Incidentally, trying FIGHT or ATTACK on the deer gets you killed, even if you have the bamboo pole.)

With the cigars now in my possession, I went to the tiger and typed LIGHT CIGAR.  This didn’t work, but SMOKE CIGAR did, and I was able to claim the giraffe skin.  These were the final two treasures, and I took them back to the beach and claimed the full 140 points.

I won, I guess?

Somewhat disappointingly, there’s no victory message when you win.  I wondered briefly if there was perhaps something else that I’d missed, but my score suggested not.  I confirmed later by playing an earlier version of the game that I’d found everything, so it seems like Greg Hassett either didn’t want to congratulate the player or just forgot about it.

This is the full treasure list, and the amount of points that each one is worth:

Golden Feather – 15 points

Ruby – 10 points

Gold Ring – 15 points

Jewel-Encrusted Coconut – 10 points

Rare Spices – 10 points

Emerald – 15 points

Silver Key – 10 points

Golden Chain – 15 points

Golden Antlers – 15 points

Giraffe Skin – 10 points

Cuban Cigars – 15 points

And this is my Trizbort map of the game:

Wooaah, the clicks’ll make it bigger.

Enchanted Island isn’t bad, but it’s a pretty slight experience.  Much like Voyage to Atlantis, it’s a perfectly competent game that does what it does in the most adequate manner possible.  I didn’t love it, but it’s a perfectly fine way to fill in an hour or two.

RADNESS INDEX:

Story & Setting: The treasure hunt set-up doesn’t earn it any favours, but I was intrigued by this game being set on an island off the coast of Australia.  It doesn’t follow through on that at all though, featuring a number of things that do not exist in or near Australia at all.  We don’t have tigers (although we did have Tasmanian tigers, but those are different); we don’t have bears (although we do have koalas, even though they aren’t really bears; and I suppose there are always the dreaded, deadly Drop Bears); and according to the internet we don’t even have vultures.  I’ll give Hassett the warlock, but “medicine man” isn’t really a title that gets used for our country’s indigenous elders.  It’s much more of a generic hodge-podge of jungle stereotypes, and not all that interesting. Rating: 1 out of 7.

Characters & Monsters: As with Hassett’s other games, Enchanted Island doesn’t have living creatures or even the digital representation of such: it just has obstacles.  Rating: 1 out of 7.

Aesthetics: Silent, text-based, terse. Rating: 1 out of 7.

Puzzles: The puzzles are simple, and not all that clever.  Only two of them presented any difficulty, and the solution to the bear puzzle is really not solvable without simple trial-and-error. Rating: 2 out of 7.

Mechanics: The parser is a basic two word affair, which has its own set of strengths and limitations.  It does pretty much everything it sets out to do adequately, and there was only one place where I had real parser trouble. Rating: 3 out of 7.

Challenge: A game that I can knock off in under two hours definitely gets lumped into the too easy basket, but it didn’t present me much in the way of frustrations.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Fun: There’s not a lot of enjoyment to be gleaned from this one, but as I’ve said before I always have time for a short game.  Rating: 2 out of 7.

Bonus Points: 0.

The above scores total 12, which doubled gives it a RADNESS Index of 24. That puts it equal 34th overall, and equal 20th out of 27 adventure games.  It’s sitting level with Burial Ground Adventure and Hassett’s own House of Seven Gables.  In terms of the other Hassett adventures I’ve played, Journey to the Center of the Earth and King Tut’s Tomb are two points below, and Voyage to Atlantis is four points higher.  That’s probably because I ranked it pretty early into the blog, but then again it does allow you to shoot a manta ray with a cannonball, which is definitely worth some points.

PORTS OF CALL

I couldn’t find the Apple II version of this game, nor could I find a version for the TRS-80 that was earlier than the one I played above.  But on this web-site I found a web-based implementation of Enchanted Island that has a number of differences.  I’d say it’s pretty clearly based on the game’s original release, or at least something a lot closer than the TRS-80 version that I played.

I’ll run through the differences below:

There’s no warning at beginning of the game about heading south into the ocean.

In the same location where you find the tasty food, there is also some green liquid.  I never found a use for it.

Opening the book no longer gives you a clue about the ruby belonging to Bimbo. That clue comes from the skull in the cell, and is given to you upon entering that room.

The warlock doesn’t just disappear when he slips on the banana peel, he slips and breaks his neck.

The clue in the book is slightly different, and comes with a plug for Hassett’s five previous adventures.  Instead of saying “MAGIC BREAK WORD BOTTLE BIMBO”, the clue after the advertising reads: “BRE BOT MAGIC WORD: BIMBO”.

The clue written on the rock is also different.  Instead of “SLIP WARLOCK. HIT DEER”, it reads “SLIP WAR. HERACLES’ THIRD LABOR”. This is hitting some pretty obtuse territory, requiring the player to have some outside knowledge of Greek mythology.  The third labor of Heracles was to “capture the Ceryneian Hind”, a deer so fast that it could outrun an arrow. There are different versions of the story, with different accounts of how Heracles caught the deer, but in none of them does he take a swing at it with a bamboo pole.  It’s no surprise that Hassett changed this one in a later revision.

I TOLD YOU, I WOULD BREAK, YOUR F*CKIN NECK!

Probably the best difference, though, is that this version of the game actually has an ending.  I got my congratulations after all.

I do love the old-school TV aesthetic on this site.

I can’t really rate this version on the RADNESS Index, because I’m not sure where it’s sourced from.  I think it’s authentic, but there’s no way to know for certain, and I don’t know what release of the game it represents even if it is genuine.  It’s not quite different enough to get a changed score anyway.

NEXT: I’ve been checking in on Futurewar periodically to see if my problem has been fixed, but no luck so far.  The next game on my list promises to be a more substantial undertaking than some other games I’ve played recently.  It’s time to drop back to 1978 and play the 430-point version of Colossal Cave Adventure, which I see was written by Don Woods himself.  I suppose that makes it an official sequel of sorts, or perhaps even the definitive version of the game.  It’ll be interesting to check out.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-43-enchanted-island-1979/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost