could you do a pt2 of the zombie outbreak with ghost, maybe the zombie outbreak ends and they get used to being a normal couple? idk
after the world ends (p2)
this is part two of my ghost apocalypse au, you can read part one here!
a/n: thank you so much for all the love on part 1 and for this request which inspired part 2! i hope it's what you imagined <3 (1k words)
pairing: simon ghost riley x reader
tags/warnings: apocalypse au, fluffy, some descriptions similar to ptsd, starting a family, the ending they deserved ;')
day 154 of the apocalypse, 5 months after the first outbreak, 2 months after the second.
time creeped on slowly as the days melted into weeks, and then months. you’d become quite accustomed to life behind the fence, picking up various skills to make yourself useful in camp. the others had taught you everything you needed to know. you could now fish, hunt, cook - survival was something that came so naturally now, it was like your life before never happened. like it had always been this way. on your trips out of camp with soap, you had noticed shoots of grass and leaves sprouted up through the concrete over time and covered your city in an overwhelming green haze.
other than the odd trip outside the safety of the fence, your days were calm and laid back. you often spent them laying out by the river with simon, watching the water flow past in the warm spring air. more recently though, you’d looked after the german shepherd you had found with soap in the city, which you had lovingly named riley after your love. there was always plenty to do - things needed fixing up, whether that be the equipment or each other.
in the evenings, you no longer watched soap and ghost talking from your tent - you sat alongside them at the campfire, simon’s large hand holding yours. you shared stories of your lives before the outbreak, dreaming of what you’d do when the world turned the right way around again - if that would ever happen. and when your conversations died down, simon led you to his bed and you spent the night with your head on his chest, listening to his faint heartbeat to drown out the sounds of the infected who got too close to the fence.
it wasn’t all smooth sailing; some of the others in camp had fallen sick and the nearest pharmacy was completely stripped by other groups, leaving nothing to treat your own wounded campmates. illness spread like wildfire here and all you could do was nurse their wounds and cook hot meals to lift their spirits and provide warmth. a few lost their lives to disease or to the zombies, but most fought on, struggling through the days.
you’ll never forget the moment when you heard about the cure.
head resting on simon’s shoulder, swaying gently to the faint crackle of the radio. his hands gently gripping to your waist, holding you close like he never wanted to let you go. it was a routine that you both had for a few weeks now, after your first night together in the tent. rocking gently to the music as the sun glowed shades of pink and orange in the late evening. "my girl, i'll marry you when this is over." he'd tell you every time you held each other like this. simon had never felt so enamoured with someone in his whole life. he couldn't wait for the day you shared his last name. it was what kept him going through all this - the thought of living a normal life with you on the other side. soap sat nearby, cleaning up whatever he’d found during the day, cheesing over the action figures he found in the house he raided, watching as you and simon fell utterly in love with each other.
the music cut off and the announcer said that a cure had been developed to treat the infected. and suddenly you remembered everything that you had left behind 5 months ago.
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four years later, you sat out on the porch of your home with a cold drink, watching simon play with your daughter in the backyard. he proposed to you as soon as you heard the radio broadcast and you married shortly after normality returned, falling pregnant and buying a house together. it never really got any easier - cuts turned into scars and memories of your days in camp turned sour, plaguing your dreams. often you’d wake up in a cold sweat, fear running through you like you were still there. but simon never failed to bring you back to earth again, stroking your hair and shushing you to sleep again. soap visited often, riley always jumping up at him madly as he stumbled through the front door. your daughter had grown accustomed to calling him “uncle johnny”, which he loved and it made him well up the first time he heard her say it.
nothing would really be the same again - you had lost most of your friends and family, and the world never quite got back to the way it was before.
but in a way, that was okay. because so much good came from it.
“mommy, look!” you daughter giggled madly from the bottom of the garden. you snapped out of your thoughts, eyes landing on your 4-year-old daughter who was halfway up the tree at the bottom of the lawn.
“i- i did try to tell ‘er not to,” simon sighed, walking up to you and wrapping an arm around your shoulders, “but you know what she’s like... little adventurer.”
you couldn’t help but laugh. it definitely wasn’t the first time she’d gone up there - she climbed up it like she’d done it a thousand times before.
“reminds me of someone i know.” simon said, looking down at you in your chair, nothing but love in his eyes. he kissed you sweetly, reminding you of the first time your lips touched that night in your tent.
“i’ll start making dinner, yeah?” he finished, hand gently squeezing your arm before heading into the kitchen. you really did get so lucky the day you crossed paths in the woodland.
“can someone help me down?!” your daughter shouted, riley barking up at her playfully as she clinged tightly to the branches.
“yeah, honey, i’m coming” you replied, placing down your drink and heading down the garden.
˚✧. thank you for reading!
˚✧.please reblog to support me <3
˚✧. dividers by @ saradika-graphics and @ si-eunnis
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Merthur ao3 recs
The trouble with Daisies 23.4k words
Merlin is just settling into his new role as Court Sorcerer and trying to figure out where he's exactly standing with Arthur when he finds himself adopting a dog completely by accident.
A dog who seems to hate the king with a burning passion.
Arthur is far from amused.
---
The moon stays warped in silence 12.6k words
"What is wrong with me Ma?" asks little Merlin his mother.
"What is wrong with me?" asks Arthur Pendragon to the moon.
About monsters and their hearts and how they love life so much that it hurts.
---
Little ones 14.5k words
“Did you just say you found two children in Arthur’s bed, Merlin?” Gaius gave him The eyebrow.
Or, when two children who look weirdly similar to Merlin and Arthur appear in the prince's chambers, they have to find out where they came from. In which secrets get revealed, families founded and chaos ensues!
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Sunny in Camelot 14.6k words
"Merlin," Uther says, "For your alleged crimes, I would normally sentence you to death by fire. But, because my son has requested it… I have granted you a fair trial. All witnesses and involved parties shall state their cases, and then a verdict will be reached. Is this understood?"
"Yes sire."
"Now you will each tell me, in your own account, what on earth happened this week."
"Your majesty, it all began Tuesday…"
---
The Hunt for Red Emrys 27.9k words
King Arthur sets out to keep his promise to the spirit of the Druid boy by repealing his father's ban on magic. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, for reasons including but not limited to the following:
(1) He can't change the law until he understands magic better, but no sorcerer is willing to explain magic to him until he changes the law;
(2) The sorcerers all have some strange obsession with Merlin, which is awakening all sorts of feelings in Arthur that he really doesn't fancy examining too closely;
(3) He is starting to feel like the butt of some Druid-population-wide inside joke involving the mysterious phenomenon called Emrys; and
(4) Oh yeah, Morgana is still trying to kill him.
Thus he embarks on a journey of discovery, diplomacy, accountability, and self-improvement, and maybe even falls in love along the way.
---
Forgotten Memories 8k words
Relying on pure luck and Merlin’s inexistent ability to keep a secret was not working any longer. So, Merlin figured better to be prepared and memorized a spell that could erase short-term memories. Honestly, he’d meant it as an emergency protocol, he had no idea how he’d become so careless that he needed it so often. It wasn’t his fault Arthur seemed to be paying way too much attention to him lately. Look, Merlin was just trying to survive while protecting his prince, he hadn’t done anything to deserve all this stress!
Or the 5 times Merlin erased Arthur’s memory of his magic and the 1 time he let him remember.
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The Laughter From the Next Room 24.5k words
A small ball hovered in her hand, shining with a silver-blue light. It floated there, getting brighter and brighter before dimming again. Wisps of cloud swirled at its center. It was pure magic.
And the breath was stolen from Arthur’s lungs.
“I thought you’d recognize it. He said it was warm. He said it reminded him of home.”
It has been one year since Merlin's death when Arthur meets Morgana on the battlefield.
Somehow, between all the guilt and shame, he discovers that his sister knew Merlin better than he ever did - and ever would.
^^
( actually one of the best fics i have ever read, and it made me sob and ugly cry, my god!)
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The List (5)
Summary: When a hit list spreads around New York, Bucky’s ex-wife is the only one with any information.
Rating: Mature
Pairing: Mafia Bucky Barnes x Ex-Wife Reader
Warnings: None
Word Count: 3.5k
A/N: Not Beta’d. Thank you for all of the comments. I read them all! Let me know if I missed you in the taglist!
Series Masterlist
Previous Chapter
Chapter 5
Nothing ages the soul faster than pain. Y/N had spent the entirety of her marriage to Bucky nestled under his wing. Warm. Safe. Hidden. He had always been her protector. The second her life was threatened she fell back into familiar habits. No matter how far she jumped, gravity always dragged her back down to Bucky Barnes. A sick joke from the universe or fate? Y/N would never know. She wasn’t the same person Bucky previously married, but neither was he. When they had first wed, neither could imagine a life without one another but if the divorce proved them wrong, why were they back where they started?
Like a snake shedding its skin, the pair was forced to grow. Each new scale bound together like the armor of a knight. The protective layer of thick skin was worn with honor, displayed like a war trophy. Neither one of them had made it out of the divorce unscathed, but they had both survived it. Bucky never doubted Y/N was the one for him, their timing had just been off. Right person, wrong time. Life is like a string. The ending and beginning are always the same, people are born and then they die. It’s all the knots in between that mold people and their relationships. Y/N and Bucky hit a knot in their string. Their perfect marriage became messy and tangled but if they could unravel the knot the string could resume its course. Y/N hoped all of their time spent apart had allowed them to grow together, not apart like they had thought.
Bucky had always held the power in their relationship, but now he was a king in check, trapped behind bars. Y/N was free, free to make moves. Steve had been right. The queen held all of the power. She had been playing the game wrong all along. It wasn’t her who needed protection, it was Bucky. He had just handed her access to the board, to his men. Y/N filed her nails and sharpened her teeth. The prey had become the predator and Y/N was ready to hunt.
Dancing her way into the kitchen with a newfound confidence, Y/N skidded to a halt at the sight of Steve. A coffee mug pressed against his lips as he occupied a stool at the end of the island. He barely spared her a glance, his focus trained on the newspaper in front of him. Y/N would have found it offensive had she not known the man. He had always been more of a brother to Bucky, and she had come to see him as a brother-in-law. She respected him. That was the reason she halted. He wouldn’t approve of her decision.
Clearing her throat, Y/N held her head high as her bare feet padded across the kitchen.
“Morning,” Steve’s deep voice rumbled.
With her back turned to him, Y/N poured herself a cup of coffee mumbling her own greeting. She needed a firm hand to guide her in Bucky’s world, but she hadn’t forgotten the way Steve toyed with her. Maybe he was disappointed Bucky hadn’t left him in charge. It didn’t matter now. Bucky appointed her. At least that’s what Steve told her.
She could hear the crinkle of the newspaper turning before he spoke, “Did you give my advice some thought?”
It was now or never. Y/N clasped her mug between her palms and sauntered across from Steve. Again, he didn’t acknowledge her standing across from him, his head buried in the paper. The sound of her mug connecting with the marble finally caught his attention. The blonde’s head snapped up to face her.
“I did,” Y/N said slowly, dragging the words out.
Steve raised an eyebrow folding the newspaper in front of him. “And?” He pressed; his hands folded on top of the printed paper.
Y/N eyed him for a moment, her tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth. “I’ve decided to take another direction.” Steve shook his head, his pink lips parted. Y/N could taste the argument on his lips so she beat him to it. “You’re demoted, Steve.” The bewildered look on his face almost made her take it back, almost.
“You’re not serious, Y/N.”
The way he said it made her jaw tick. It was a statement rather than a question. As if she wasn’t capable of being serious. As if he didn’t take her seriously. He was the child, not her. Pressing her palms into the marble countertop, she leaned forward. “You may have been right yesterday but what you did was childish. You may have Bucky’s best interest at heart and be Bucky’s best right-hand man, but you are not mine.” Steve opened his mouth again, but Y/N held up a hand. “I get it, Steve, really, I do. Bucky is your friend. It was you picking up the pieces when I moved out but that doesn’t excuse your methods with me. I love you Stevie, but I need someone who is going to be upfront with me and not play these games you and Bucky orchestrated. I need my best right-hand man, not Bucky’s.”
The stool screeched against the tile floor as Steve stood. “You’re making a mistake, Y/N. Bucky will be out soon and when he is, he will undo everything you change.”
Sipping her coffee mug, Y/N smiled. “Then it is my mistake to make. If I fail, you win. Enjoy this demotion. Take a break, go on vacation.”
“Lives are at risk Y/N, it is not the time to experiment,” Steve growled.
“Then Bucky wouldn’t have appointed me.” Y/N picked up her mug ready to exit the kitchen. “Effective immediately, Bucky will report to me.” Exiting the kitchen, the conversation was dismissed.
A nagging feeling in the back of her mind warned her she was making a mistake. That she should listen to Steve. He was in the business longer, he knew better. Y/N shook the feeling away, her feet carrying her across the house in search of her right-hand man. Bucky trusted her. She knew the enemy better than any of Bucky’s men. She hadn’t made her decision on a whim; Loki knew where Bucky was and was expecting Steve to take over. It was the logical thing to do.
“Hey Y/N, where are you off to in such a hurry?”
Y/N smiled at the familiar voice. Exactly who she was looking for. “Hey, Sam. I was going to head to the prison, but I wanted to get your opinion on something first.”
Sam crossed his arms across his chest. “Shoot.”
“How would you feel about a promotion?”
Strumming her nails against the cold metal table, Y/N counted down the seconds the inmates would stroll through the door. Bucky was finally able to receive in-person visits. Her chest tightened at the thought of finally feeling his hand in hers, his arms wrapped around her, his lips against her own. Being so close yet so far was torture but she wasn’t here for Bucky. At least not yet.
Sam sat at a separate table a few feet beside her. He was just as eager to see his boss, his friend, but he had mastered controlling his emotions. Sam had been in the business for years. Prison wasn’t anything new to him. He visited plenty of people, even he mentored some of them before he joined Bucky. Sam was no stranger to visiting friends in prison, but visiting Bucky in prison was new. Steve had been Bucky’s primary contact since his arrest. How would he take Y/N cutting Steve off of him? Sam’s mind swirled with a million possibilities of the kind of man that would walk through the door. Would he still be the boss he knew or worse? The answer was neither.
A buzz rang out alerting the visitors of the arrival of the inmates before the door opened. Each visitor rose from their chair in unison fighting to make their presence known in the same way one would when picking up an individual from an airport. A sea of orange piled into the room followed by the rattle of handcuffs. Despite the matching uniforms, one person stood out amongst the rest. Bucky. His 6-foot frame towered over the other men. The white sling across his chest stuck out like a sore thumb.
Sam couldn’t help but scoff at Bucky’s appearance. Steve had told him Bucky was doing well but Sam had expected him to look rougher. A wolf in sheep's clothing; a true chameleon. Bucky was able to blend in anywhere, prison was no exception.
Bucky shuffled into the gray room one foot in front of the other. His shoulders squared as much as he could with his injury. The entire prison was dull, including the visitor room. It made sense considering the prisoners were dressed in one of the loudest colors imaginable. It made it easy for the guards to keep track of everyone. Bucky was shocked to have received a request for a visit from Sam. Steve would have at least mentioned it to Bucky the last time they spoke.
Bucky came to a standstill as the men in front of him stopped. Waiting for his turn to be guided to a table, Bucky held his head high, scanning the room for Sam. Given his height, he was able to see over everyone, easily spotting Sam. Feeling another set of eyes on him, Bucky’s eyes drifted around the room. It was possible Loki had sent someone reckless to take him out with guards around. He wouldn’t put it past him. Bucky would rather overestimate the man and be prepared rather than underestimate him and be dead.
During his scan, Bucky did a double take, his eyes landing on Y/N. Curiosity ate away at Bucky between Sam’s visit and Y/N being here. He wasn’t expecting her; she hadn’t requested a visit with him.
Y/N held Bucky’s intense gaze. She could tell he was confused, his eyes pleading for answers, but she would let Sam handle that. She had a more important task at hand. She saw Bucky’s jaw clench before a shadow towered over her.
“Y/N Y/L/N,” a cheerful voice called out, pulling her eyes from Bucky.
Y/N turned to the man beside her, uncuffed with his arms outstretched for a hug. His soft green eyes stared at her like a lost puppy, and she couldn’t help chuckle as she embraced him. “Scott Lang. It’s been a while.”
The brunette’s chest rumbled beneath the orange fabric as he pulled away. Motioning to the steel chair Y/N had been previously sitting in, Scott invited her to join him at the table which Y/N gladly accepted.
“So, what brings you to my neck of the woods? Sorry, I didn’t know you were coming sooner, I would have spruced the place up a bit,” Scott joked.
Y/N had met Scott on a trip to California after her split from Bucky. He too had been recently divorced. Unlike Y/N and Bucky, Scott and his ex-wife had a daughter, Cassandra, so they were in frequent contact. Y/N had wondered if she and Bucky had a child would they have been as civil as Scott and his ex-wife? Maybe they would have worked it out and wouldn’t have divorced at all. Maybe they never would have lost contact.
Y/N laughed, ignoring Bucky’s glare as he passed her. She forgot how goofy Scott was. He always made his daughter laugh. He was a good dad. Unfortunately, his career choice kept him from her. A regret he kicked himself over time and time again; however, no matter how illegal, it did support her. That was all he wanted to do, provide for his daughter. Y/N’s heart went out to the troubled little family. She couldn’t imagine having a child with Bucky while he was in and out of prison.
“You’re a long way from San Diego. Had I known you were here I would have come to visit sooner,” Y/N smiled softly.
Scott shrugged, “Judge thought a change of scenery would do me good. Little does he know; he just gave me access to more connections.”
Y/N hummed. That was the exact reason she came to visit him. Scott was an extremely personable guy, and he knew everyone in the wrong business. “Actually Scott, that is what I came to talk to you about.”
Scott clasped his hands together on the metal table, leaning forward. “I’m all ears.”
Clearing her throat, Y/N whispered, “I need to track someone down by the name of Thor and I need it to be done as discreetly as possible.”
Scott slammed his hand on top of the table, the bang ringing around the room. Everyone’s eyes shot to the pair. Realizing his mistake, Scott held his hands up at the guards who began to approach the table. Scott began to fumble over his words explaining he wasn’t being violent, but Y/N tuned him out. Staring at Bucky who kept his murderous glare locked on Scott, Y/N turned to Sam who looked equally as furious.
“Ma’am,” a guard called, snapping his fingers in her face.
Y/N jumped, tilting her head back to face the guard.
“Are you okay?”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Y/N nodded. “We’re fine.”
“Keep it down over here.” The guard eyed the two of them for a moment before turning on his heel.
Once the guard disappeared, Y/N waved a hand at Sam dismissing him. Then she reached across the table and flicked Scott in the forearm.
“Ouch,” he began rubbing his arm, “What was that for.”
“For causing a scene. What part of discrete did you not understand? Isn’t discretion part of your job?”
Scott gestured around the room. “I never said I was good at it.” Clearly or he wouldn’t have been caught several times. “Anyway, you’re looking for Odinson?”
Y/N nodded leaning back in her chair.
A dopey grin graced his face, “Well, you’re hot.”
Y/N’s eyebrows raised, “Excuse me?”
“The hot and cold game. Me and Cassie play it all the time.” When Y/N didn’t respond, Scott waved his hand. “Forget it.” He leaned closer, “Thor is here.”
Eyes widening, Y/N pressed her palms against the edge of the table steadying herself. “In the prison?!”
Scott nodded, “Apparently royalty isn’t above the law. At least not overseas anyway. Boozie one he is.” He began to mimic a drunken man passed out.
“Well, can I meet with him?”
The man tilted his head pursing his lips. “Thor is in solitary confinement for fighting the guards.” Y/N frowned. Her plan had been a dead end. Steve was right. She should have listened to him. “But I know a guy who can get a message to him when he gets out.” Scott offered. Y/N perked up nodding enthusiastically. Scott jerked his head to his left. “They frequent the same circle. He could get the message to Odinson.” Y/N followed the direction his head pointed and snorted. Bucky.
“He’s a cool guy. I think you’d like ‘em.”
Y/N held back a laugh at the irony as she glanced down at her ring. “Thanks, Scott. Can I give Cassie a message?”
“Actually, just send her one of those creepy dolls she likes so much. She’ll know it’s from me.”
Y/N rolled her eyes before squeezing his hand. “Will do. Thanks, Lang.”
Scott raised his hand signaling the end of their conversation. In a matter of seconds, he was escorted out of the room leaving Y/N alone at the table with her thoughts. In chess, the king wasn’t useless, he could still take pieces out and make moves. He was just limited, like Bucky. It was his turn to make a move.
Y/N stood, approaching Sam and Bucky. Without a word, Sam rose from his seat sending Bucky a nod before moving to stand to talk with one of the guards. Y/N was grateful that he chatted with the guards to avoid them making a fuss over her and Bucky not having an appointment.
Bucky would have stood and waited for her to sit if it wouldn’t draw attention to them. He yearned to hold her in his arms but that wasn’t going to happen, at least not now. Instead, he let his eyes shamelessly roam her face and body. Y/N blushed under his gaze and didn’t hesitate to grasp his open palm, outstretched on the table. Bucky squeezed her hand, his eyes admiring the ring on her finger.
“You got the ring,” he observed. Y/N hummed in response. Bringing her hand up to his mouth, his lips grazed the back of her hand. “I can’t wait to get out of here so I can fuck you wearing only this,” he growled, pressing his lips against her knuckle.
“Bucky,” Y/N gasped.
He sent her a sly grin adjusting the ring on her finger. He knew just what to say to make her squirm. “Sam told me you’ve been making some big changes. Good to know you haven’t changed that much.”
Y/N narrowed her eyes, “Why didn’t you tell me what you had planned?”
Bucky didn’t need her to elaborate on what she meant. He knew she was talking about putting her in charge. For a long moment, he said nothing, his chest rising and falling with each breath he took. Y/N tightened her grip on his hand, reminding him of the question he had yet to answer.
Bucky exhaled, thumbing the ring on her finger. “I told you the conversations on the phone were recorded.”
Y/N bobbed her head, “We’re not on the phone now Buck. You promised to be honest with me, to let me in.”
His left shoulder slumped. “Steve and I speak in code sometimes. Makes situations like this and speaking in front of enemies easier. We’ve known each other so long that some things don’t need to be said out loud. Sometimes a look is enough.”
Y/N felt a pang of jealousy strike her heart like lightning. Bucky had always been close with Steve. They shared a bond that not even Bucky and Y/N had. Her ex-husband never let her fully in and it was the downfall of their marriage.
“You asked for my protection. Steve and I agreed that wouldn’t change no matter what, but I had to make sure you were all in before I handed you the keys to the castle.” His thumb stilled on the diamond. “Steve is mean sweetheart because I asked him to be. Not with words but I know he understood. He knows it would kill me if something happened to you. Hell,” he huffed, “it nearly killed me the first time. I already lost you once, I can’t do it again.”
Y/N frowned, “That doesn’t excuse the childish games you two play. This is why I demoted Steve. He’s not loyal to the mob, he's loyal to you.”
Bucky removed his hand from hers to brush a strand of hair behind her ear. “Oh, pretty girl, you don’t get how truly important you are.”
“Steve suggested we use the wedding as bait.”
Bucky leaned back in his seat. “What do you think?”
Y/N shook her head. “I met with Scott to discuss an alternative route.” Buck nodded, glad to have some light shown on why Y/N had been talking to Lang. “He said you run with the same crowd as Thor. He’s Loki’s stepbrother.” Bucky’s eyes widened. “I need you to talk to him. Tell him I sent you. Tell him the whole story if you have to. We need him on our side.”
Bucky stared at her as if she was crazy. “The guy isn’t stable Y/N. He lost his eye in a fight. He’s in solitary confinement. The guy could snap if he learns that his brother has a hit list on us. He could kill me.”
Y/N chuckled. “Don’t tell me New York’s big bad mob boss is afraid of a big oaf. Thor is nothing like Loki. He’s a good guy. He wants to help Loki.”
Ignoring her comment, Bucky pressed, “And what do I tell him when he asks how we're going to help him? I don’t think he’ll take well to us planning to kill his brother.”
Glancing around the room for anyone listening, Y/N leaned forward hissing, “We are not killing him.”
Bucky winked, “Got it.”
“I’m serious, Bucky. If we can get Thor to help us, we can lure Loki out and Thor can take Loki home to get help.”
“And if he refuses? If he gets away?”
“I need you to trust me. I know this family better than anyone else on our side.”
Bucky signed. “Should I be worried about the number of men you know that are sitting in prison?”
“You’re in prison,” Y/N pointed out.
The brunette nodded, running his fingers through his beard. “I trust you.”
“Good, because you report to me now. Not Steve, not Sam, not Peter. Me.”
Bucky groaned, “Careful darling, keep talking like that and I might not be able to wait until I get out of here.”
Next Chapter
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a sneak peak at orange juice 2 (title tbd)
a/n i am on a social media sabbatical but am here just to share this snippet of orange juice 2. i've been procrastinating on starting it because i'm unsure how i want to take this story and i feel so out of practice writing this style. but am really excited to keep going! For a [virtual, nonexistent] dollar, find the noah kahan reference 💵
icymi: this is the opening of the sequel to orange juice, my angstiest work yet
(tw for slut shaming, aka two old women at church speaking ill of sex workers)
AUGUST 1987
It’s been three months since you returned to the land of the living. You’re not taking it well.
Surviving in the Upside Down meant constantly being in fight-or-flight, scrambling to find food and clean water while avoiding demo-creature attacks. Thankfully, without Vecna’s evil influence, the animals weren’t so bloodthirsty—but they still needed to eat.
You were able to avoid them, surviving yourself off disgusting canned food from the Upside Down’s version of the Big Buy and whatever houses you ransacked. It wasn’t very appetizing. It made the meal you were serving up today seem like a 5-star, 5-course delight.
It was neither of those things. It was for a church potluck that your mother had a hand in throwing. Lots of casseroles and carbs. She dragged you along to volunteer in hopes to get you out of the house.
Ever since you left the hospital in May, you’d only ever left the house to go to doctor’s appointments, therapy appointments, and Steve’s place. Your parents wanted to encourage more of a well-rounded life and schedule, and although they’d never admit it, you figured they hoped you’d turn back to your normal self. To the person you were before it all happened.
You think she might have died.
As you plate some macaroni and cornbread for your next patron, you sense eyes on you. You glance over and see two women at a table a few feet away. To your chagrin, they’re gossiping about you.
“I mean, it’s appalling,” an old bat named Shirley hisses. “She claims to have lost her memory after the earthquake and gotten lost, but it’s obvious that she just ran away.”
“Probably thought she was grown up, that she knew better than her parents,” Mildred says with a sniff, adjusting her too-big glasses.
“I can’t believe she left poor Steve Harrington high and dry,” Shirley adds.
Your heart clenches at the fact that these women see you as a villain, as an irresponsible idiot who up and left everyone who loved her out of spite. If they knew the truth…if they knew the nightmare you’d survived…
It only gets worse from there.
“You know what Cynthia told me?” Mildred says. “That her cousin’s roommate’s friend’s brother saw Y/N working a street corner in Manassas. It's just shameful.”
Anger burns through you, hot like hellfire. So you’re a slut now, too? What happened to loving thy neighbor and forgiveness and all that shit?
“Can I get some more of that?” an elderly man says.
It snaps you back to your task at hand: dishing out food to hungry churchgoers.
“Ah, yeah,” you say. You dump macaroni on his Styrofoam plate. “Sorry. Here you go.”
The man smiles and ambles off. You take a deep breath and try your best to tune out the whispers of the chattering hens.
Your mother must notice the scowl on your face. She makes her way to you, practically floating. She’s as graceful as ever. She’s totally in her element. She deserves a daughter who doesn’t clomp and stumble her way through life. Who doesn’t jump at every loud noise and sleep with a hunting knife under her pillow.
“Doing all right?” your mother asks you, giving you that sympathetic look that you think you might despise by now.
You muster up a smile of your own and nod.
Your mother can’t tell its fake and beams.
“See?” she says. “I knew getting you out of the house would turn that frown upside-down!”
She doesn’t know about the Upside Down. She thinks you got injured in the earthquake, stumbled through the Indiana woodlands, and got found by cops two states over. That you couldn’t remember where you came from due to amnesia, that since they pronounced you dead no one assumed you were the missing girl from Hawkins until your memories came back.
So you let her comment slide and continue to fake a smile and figure that it’s better to pretend you’re fine than feel it all.
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Cora-san Lives AU
My sister and I were re-watching Law's backstory when I discovered the perfect little detail that if modified could create a "For Want of a Nail" AU where Corazón survives and Law still gets the Ope Ope no Mi, without making the fic unrealistic or out-of-character at all!
Click the :readmore: if you're interested...
—
First, let me recap the sequence of events that took place on Minion Island which ultimately led to Cora-san's untimely demise:
***[ Skip to the bullet points for a TL;DR since the numbered list kind of drags on, going into an unnecessary amount of detail... ]***
Cora-san and Law arrive at Minion Island. Cora-san at first tries to leave Law on the boat by himself, but Law stops him and makes sad eyes at him until he relents and takes Law with him—but not all the way. Cora-san leaves Law in an abandoned house in town, where Law wanders out onto the steps and falls asleep as snow rains down on him.
Cora-san attacks the Barrels Pirates and makes off with the Ope Ope no Mi. During his escape, he trips and falls and winds up surrounded by Barrels Pirates with guns. He gets away alive, but not before being shot several times.
One of the pirates—a kid with an X-shaped scar on his chin—flees the scene.
Cora-san heads back to Law with the Ope Ope no Mi.
When he finds Law asleep on the steps, Cora-san—for whatever reason—picks him up and carries him off somewhere before waiting for him to wake up to force-feed him the Devil Fruit.
Cora-san collapses. Before he can lose consciousness, he passes Law a capsule cylinder and tells him to deliver it to the Marines.
Law goes off on his own, trudging his way through the snow. He chickens out on approaching the first group of Marines that pass, but works up the courage to approach the next—Vergo—when he sees that he's alone. But before Vergo can leave, he begs him to come with him to perform first aid on Cora-san.
Vergo goes with Law, and when he sees Rosinante he immediately attacks him before reading the secret message and then brutally beating him; Law gets kicked around as well. With them down for the count, Vergo calls Doffy and relays the situation to him.
While he's distracted, Cora-san uses his Calm Calm Fruit to sneak away undetected. He hides Law in a treasure chest and uses his fruit to silence him and anything he touches.
Doflamingo and the rest of the Don Quixote Pirates descend on the island and begin to hunt Cora-san and Law down after Doffy creates a Birdcage for the first time.
The child with scar on his chin manages to get far enough away that he's clear of the Birdcage when it comes down. Afterwards, he is found by Marines and taken aboard their ship.
Cora-san makes himself bait and gets chased down and beaten while Law listens from his place trapped in the treasure chest. They hold back from killing him so Doffy can interrogate him about the locations of the Ope Ope no Mi and Law.
Cora-san tells him that Law ate the fruit and was promptly taken into custody by the Marines.
Almost immediately after, Baby 5 and Buffalo inform Doffy that they overhead a Marine transmission about finding a boy and taking him aboard their ship, thus convincing Doffy that Cora-san was telling the truth.
Doffy shoots Rosinante repeatedly. As he lay dying, the Don Quixote Pirates make off with the treasure chests.
With Law on the other side and Rosinante permanently down for the count, Doffy takes down the now seemingly pointless Birdcage.
As they are loading the treasure onto their ship, Tsuru shows up and chases them off the island forces them to hurry up and leave. Unbeknownst to them, Law sneaks off in the chaos.
Law escapes to the neighboring Sparrow Island, presumably with the small sailboat he and Cora-san had been traveling in.
...OK, I'll admit I went a little overboard with the details there, so allow me to quickly recap:
***[ TL;DR ]***
Rosinante and Law arrive on Minion Island.
Rosi wants to leave Law on the boat, but he refuses.
Law is left in a house instead as Rosi steals the Ope Ope no Mi.
Rosi is caught and heavily injured but manages to get away.
He returns to give Law the fruit before collapsing.
Law is sent off to deliver a message to the Marines, and he returns with Vergo who beats him and Rosi and contacts Doffy to spill everything.
In the background, Rosi quietly sneaks off.
Doffy arrives and puts up the Birdcage, forcing Rosi to take desperate measures to ensure Law's freedom and survival.
Rosi hides Law in a chest and uses himself as bait, convincing Doffy that Law had already escaped with the fruit in his belly.
Doffy kills Rosi and takes down the Birdcage.
Before he can loiter, Tsuru shows up to chase him off.
Law escapes on his own to the closest neighboring island.
Got that? Good. Now, here's how we can quickly and easily fix things so that most of the bad stuff never happens:
In the very beginning, Cora-san originally intends to leave Law on the boat while he gets the fruit, but Law stops him.
What would've happened if he hadn't?
With his sickness, Law has been in and out of it, often falling asleep. What if he'd been asleep when they first arrived and, rather than wake him up, Cora-san chose to leave Law a note telling him that he'd be back soon with the Ope Ope no Mi.
Law would have no way of following him had he eventually woken up, since Cora-san had to climb a very long rope to get to land.
As Law was not only sick and dying, but also far smaller than Cora-san, it's fair to say that he would have absolutely no luck trying to climb that rope.
Now, since Law is in the boat rather than in town, Cora-san's next destination after obtaining the Ope Ope no Mi would be to head back to the boat immediately.
I assume the reason he took Law to that broken wall in canon rather than feed him the fruit in town was because he was worried about being out in the open whilst the Barrels Pirates were all hunting him down—but he would have had no reason to do so had Law still been in the boat since that was far more hidden than some random half-wall could ever be.
...Plus it also had the potential for a quick getaway considering it's literally a boat.
Now let's try that scene again, but this time with Law and Cora-san in their little sailboat:
Law wakes up to a smiling Cora-san leaning over him with the Ope Ope no Mi in hand. Cora-san force-feeds him the fruit before collapsing. He then passes Law the capsule cylinder with the secret message, and tells him to pass it on to the Marines.
Now what does Law do? Does he go on the island to find a Marine? No! The kid is dying and can barely walk; Why would he do that when there's a perfectly good Marine ship parked just a little ways away? Especially since there's no way he'd even be able to climb that rope to get onto the island anyways, not unless Rosinante yeeted him up there or something.
Now, instead of running off, Law struggles to row the boat over to the nearby Marine ship. There, he is spotted by the Marines, the secret message is passed over, Rosinante's identity is verified, and Law is taken aboard the ship—for real this time.
In this scenario, Vergo is on the island when Rosinante and Law board the Marine ship. Maybe he hears a transmission about a boy and a heavily injured man being taken aboard, or maybe not. Maybe he identifies the man as Rosinante and reports it to Doffy, or maybe not.
It doesn't matter either way since they're now in Marine custody, under Marine protection, and there's nothing Vergo can do about it without breaking his cover.
In the meantime, considering the Marines' original reason for being there in the first place, the ship would undoubtedly be stocked with medical supplies and medics themselves, so that Rosinante would be able to receive prompt medical treatment—on Sengoku's orders, if nothing else.
Sengoku would likely command the ship to head straight towards him wherever he is, seeing as they most likely would have had to contact him personally to confirm Rosinante's identity.
Maybe he'll return to Sengoku and resume working as a Marine, or maybe not.
And seeing as he only had a few bullet holes in him at this point—which he was canonically able to run and jump around with, only really slowing down after Vergo and the other DonQuixote Pirates had beat the hell outta him and Doffy had shot him several more times—he should be able to recover just fine.
—
Before he died, there was a scene in canon where Rosinante had mentioned wanting to travel the world with Law once he was cured... Maybe in this AU they'll do exactly that.
Seeing as how Rosinante technically betrayed the Marines, it's entirely possible that not even Sengoku will be able to completely sweep it under the rug. At that point, it's not completely unbelievable that Rosinante and Law might wind up as pirates—for real this time—traveling the world and having adventures together.
Maybe they'll even drop by Sparrow Island for a bit, maybe pick up a kid or two...
...or a polar bear, even. You never know.
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orv ocs from lime? 👀 gimme gimme!
i've got them visualized in my head but i've barely got anything down about them besides a few sketches. got a little group together. not very good at names so some of them just don't have one yet 🥲
these ocs are american, living in the state i currently live in - new york - because i'm the most familiar with this area. however, as it's not a capital, most of these incarnations joins the scenario later on, after the 10th main scenario had already passed. something about seeing how the world progresses outside the domes... what happens if you have family trapped in the dome? what about the people who just don't believe the scenarios are real? it's really interesting to think about.
also, domes. it wasn't elaborated on how the domes are made outside of 'capitals', but in the side story we learn that extra domes are created based on population. the korean peninsula has a population of about 75 million with one dome, so assuming 75 million per dome, the united states would have 4 or 5 domes. we only know of the dc and las vegas domes in canon, so i'm assuming new york city ends up as a dome here. anyway, the incarnations:
arin, sponsored by the philippine goddess of lost things anagolay. she a matching skill and a stigma, dubbed [lost] and [found] until i can think of better names for them. [lost] is a stealth skill, which masks your presence / makes people 'forget' about your existence temporarily, while [found] summons things that have previously been lost (the type of item can be influenced, e.g 'weapon' or 'trinket', but the specific item is random. more probability spent generally means a better item.)
arin has a brother, who is actually sponsored by anagolay's husband, dumakulem, a god of the mountains/hunting! he was caught in a dome while traveling over there, and has managed to survive until the domes are freed and is now trying to get back to arin
a teenage incarnation with kind of hypnosis / control skills. she has (again, temporary names) [suggestion] and [command], with [suggestion] being used while talking to subtly influence the other party. on the other hand, when [command] is used the other party is notified through a system message, but the power of the influence is way stronger. i found it interesting to explore how much a character that you know could be manipulating you can be trusted
a girl sponsored by sherlock holmes. she has a skill that's something like a weaker character list. she can 'investigate' an incarnation, learning their sponsor, a limited amount of attributes/skills, and basic information.
elio and esmeralda. esme is an old lady who was in a nursing home, and elio her nurse, who paired up after a particularly bad first scenario. elio is a more supportive incarnation, and he's able to reinforce an enclosed space to block people who aren't allowed in. esme is sponsored by the grim reaper, and wields a scythe.
a dokkaebi! asong (아송), a mid-grade dokkaebi who isn't actually a streamer, but a dokkaebi who takes care of a museum of rare items collected from particularly famous incarnations who have died, or donated by their sponsors who liked their incarnations for showcasing after they died. she's shocked after an item is summoned out of the museum by arin's [found], and hunts her down to get her item back
there's a few more, but they're still just ideas and i don't have enough on them to list yet.
as these incarnations are in america, they do run in with anna croft and the zarathustras eventually. yoo joonghyuk is out there doing his own thing, but this world is set in a regression where he dies before he can impact the world too much. i think about these guys a lot... my own little kimcom. i really encourage everyone to make their own orv ocs it is so fun
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Plot Foils: On Ace, Robin, Marineford and Enies Lobby
Thought I'd put together a short lil meta on how Ace and Robin in the arcs of Marineford and Enies Lobby mirror each other within the plot, and what that thematically implies since I can't stop thinking about it and since any tradgedies immediately trigger my trap card of Write Meta Frantically. Also, note that there are spoilers for up to the time skip.
First, I'll start with the similarities between both Ace and Robin, and the arcs of Enies Lobby and Marineford, which can be laid out on the flow chart chart below, which I'll go into detail below, before digging into the themantic implications:
Parent figure involved with poneglyphs
mass violence by government in response to threat
survival of the character but widespread demonization of them
struggle with survivors guilt and suicidal inclinations
Acceptance into a found family, and who they are no matter their demonization
testing of the acceptance by capture of the World Government
resounding yes and declaration of War against the World Government by found family
do you want to live?
rescue/failure
1 and 2: Parent Figure and Mass Violence
Both Ace and Robin are survivors of violence from the government at a young age; Robin with the genocide of Ohara, and Ace with the hunting down and killing of babies in Baterilla after the execution of Gol D Roger. This violence by the world government is a response to both their parents being involved with poneglyphs, which threatens the power of the government (I also understand that Gol D Roger in his status of King of the Pirates was it's own impetus... but that's also intertwined with the poneglyphs in a way). Interestingly, both the parent figures desperately try to protect their children through denying or hiding the children away from the government as a form of protective love.
3 and 4: demonization, survivors guilt and suicidal inclinations
For both of them, their parents (or people's) demonization is transferred to their own lives. Robin quite literally becoming called a demon child and scorned by the world, while Ace is more round-about-ly called a demon child when talked about theoretically. Actually, even Dadan, who does love him, at one point calls him the devil's spawn (or some other variation, I can't remember exactly). As a result of the violence occurred by the government they both carry the feelings of survivor's guilt; and with their demonization, this guilt over being mere alive is compounded as the world repeatedly tells them that they should not exist. As a result, they both struggle with their own existence and suicidal ideology, unsure of what the world really tells them is true especially as both their parents are dead and cannot validate their existence. Also, as they are demonized, they are isolated from society, and other forms of love and acceptence from adults which could reassure them against such internalization of their demonization aren't really forthcoming. Although Ace has Luffy and Sabo for a good chunk of his childhood, and so is not entirely alone and rejected by everyone, he still clearly struggles with being alive and being accepted by others, especially adults and parental figures; this evidenced through his anger issues and his talk with Garp in which he asks if he should have been born (gonna fucking strangle Garp for being like 'Well I don't know' to a fucking KID who is asking if he should be alive or not). Robin on the other hand, is clearly alone and acutely lonely the majority of her life as she has to continue to be on the run, as she has a bounty placed on her head, and even kind people cannot accept her for long without the threat of the law.
ID: Ace asking Garp as a kid "would it have been better if I was never born?"
5: Acceptance
For both of them, their internalized suicidal thoughts and doubts becomes suppressed when they become incorporated into a family that accepts them wholeheartedly, breaking the stigma of their demonization. To Robin, this occurs when she begins to sail with the Strawhats who accepts her pretty quickly, not caring about her being a 'demon' in the eyes of the general populace and forgiving her for her previous transgressions against them; accepting her for who she truly is for the first time in her life since her very early childhood. Luffy, of course, I would bet sees the similarities between her and Ace; something that we the audience during the first read/watch though are oblivious too, but contextualized later make immense sense for why he has such strong feelings about Robin and suicidal characters. But I digress. For Ace this becomes suppressed when he is accepted into the family of Whitebeard; who is the first adult to not care about who his father is and still accepts him whole heartedly, to the point of seeing him as his own son. Again, Whitebeard and his family, like with the Strawhats and Robin, forgive Ace for his attempts of violence against them. This acceptence of them even spite their demonization, even in spite of them previously attempting to hurt or actually physically hurting the crew, allows them to begin to undo their internalized suicidal ideologies.
6, 7 and 8: capture, declaration of war and confessions
This acceptance by their found families ends up being tested as the World Government gets involved; for Robin in the Enies Lobby arc and with Ace, the Marineford arc as they are both captured as a result of them caring about their found families. For Ace, it is guilt over not recognizing Teach's dangerousness who was in his division, and the need to avenge his brother; for Robin, it is to ensure the survival of the Strawhats. As they are captured, the acceptance and love of their found family, in the face of both their demonization fully explained and having to fight against the World Government, is put to question; will their family declare war against the World Government and risk death to save them? The answer both times is a resounding yes. Yes, their found families love and care about them, those who have been told time and again by the majority of the world to be better off dead or never born at all are worth so much to their families that their families are willing to put their lives on the line to save them; in an ultimate display of acceptance and love. Both Ace and Robin initially refuse the attempt to save them, desperate for those they love to not get hurt, especially as they partially believe that they don't deserve to live, let alone be worth dying for. However, under the insistence of their found family who wants to save them, they both confess and cry out in desperation that they want to live, even after everything, even after questioning their own validity in being alive. However, here is when things begin to change in their parallels; compared to Robin's cry in Enies Lobby, Ace's cry is a lot more bitter, coming from the fact that Ace is already seeing those he cares about die before him to save him, such as Oars Jr. . Meanwhile in Enies Lobby, when Robin is asked if she wants to live, she has not already seen one of her crewmates die before her.
ID: first image of Robin crying as she declares she wants to live, second of Ace with his head bowed and crying saying 'why do I suddenly... Want... To live?!!!"
9: Rescue/failure and thematic implications
From here, it diverges further. Robin is saved in the end in Enies Lobby; there is no devastating death, and the Strawhats survive facing and declaring war against the World Government relatively without any negatives. Robin is told she is allowed to live, that she is allowed to want to live, and lives. The narrative of Enies Lobby showcases that the government will respond to potential threats to its power by mass violence excused through demonization of people or people groups; this dehumanization causes those who survive the initial violence to struggle with their mental health and the understanding of the value of their own life, as their life devalued by the world. In response to that, Oda displays and reminds the audience that no matter your perceived demonization, there will always be people who will accept you and love you for who you are and are willing to stand along side and fight for you to be recognized; no person is born illegal or wrong, that you are allowed to not only want to live but also to live, no matter what the world might say. This is directly implied with how Jaguar D. Saul tells Robin there will eventually in the future be someone that accepts and cares about her.
Building off of Enies Lobby, the same premise of the government enacting violence and the issue of demonization and mental health arises, as Ace is shackled to the scaffold and his parentage is revealed. However, unlike Robin, Ace is not that lucky; although he escapes the scaffold, it is his own inability to stand down that kills him in the end (something framed as heroic by the narrative which--yeah no sorry I don't think it's 'heroic'). He is told, right before his death, that he is accepted, he is loved, and that he is allowed to want to and to live no matter his heritage, by those who love him--but then he dies anyways, thanking everyone for accepting him. Marineford shows that, even if there are people who will accept you and love you, sometimes that doesn't stop the world from hating you to the point it kills you. It is realistic in that; if you are going to engage with these themes and topics, then you can't shy away from realistic depictions of what these systems actually does to people. Marineford and the death of Ace is built off of Enies Lobby and Robins rescue; Oda needed to show that yes, you can be loved and saved, before he was able to show--in a good way--that sometimes even the love of others isn't enough to shield you from a world that hates you. In the end, Ace was always meant to be set up to die, both as a narrative tool to display the violence of the authority of the government, in parallel to Robin being rescued in Enies Lobby, and as an impetus for Luffy to grow as a character.
To summarize:
Ace and Robin, through their false demonization by the World Government used as an excuse for mass violence, internalize this message and question the validity of their existence. This suicidal questioning is assauged by their acceptence into a found family which validates their existence. However, their capture by the World government reiterates their previous questioning, and bares their demonization to their families in a test of their acceptence. This causes a subsequent declaration of war by their families, who affirm their love and acceptence for the characters as they try to rescue them. Their arcs both deal with the demonization of people or people groups who threaten the power of the government, which is used as an excuse to eradicate these 'threats' to the government by mass murder, genocide and martyrdom. In exploring these systems, Oda touches on how people who are subject to such demonization often struggle with suicidal tendencies as they are told they should not exist, while also emphasizing that even through their demonization, these people (or people groups) will always find others who will love them for who they are, past the accusations and demonizations; no human is born illegal. As Robin in Enies Lobby is saved, this emphasizes that those who are demonized by the government will always eventually find people who will accept and love them no matter their demonization. Built off the back of this premise, Oda revisits this in the Marineford arc, but with a more somber cast, as this time Ace is not saved but dies, even after everything. In revisiting it with a different ending, Oda recognizes that sometimes, even being accepted and loved by people isn't enough to shield you from the harm of the government. (I mean also it had narrative implications of raising the stakes and giving luffy an impetus to get stronger but nevertheless...)
Application
The thing is, this is a tactic of demonization and dehumanization as a excuse for violence is one that has been used over and over again by governments and society all over our world. It's being used right now to excuse the genocide going on in Palestine. It has been/currently is being used against queer and trans folk, against POC, against Indigenous people, against unhoused people, against people with disabilities, against addicts. It's not something that's not applicable. It's highly applicable. By deliberately showcasing it, Oda validates those who are in minorities that have suffered under such systems of violence, often to the point of suicidal actions; he says instead it's ok, you are not who they tell you you are, you will find people who will accept you for who you are, you deserve to live.
But he also, in showcasing it, asks, what stereotypes and propaganda have you accepted? After all, being part of one minority doesn't mean you aren't able to be an oppressor. Are you standing there cheering when they enact violence? Or are you going to think beyond what you've been told and help them?
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The Old Gods of CoTL: A Theory/Headcannon
When I first played through Cult of the Lamb, one line from Haro - the enigmatic owl - intrigued me:
“Eons agone, these lands were rife with gods and their adherents...Those few who remained spread roots, spun webs, molded this world to meet them and theirs. 'Twere a land of many Gods once. Hundreds.”
I was very curious about this as it meant there were once gods aside from the Bishops we know. But something happened that left only Shamura, Kallamar, Narinder, Heket, and Leshy. I wondered for a while who these old gods could’ve been and what were their roles/powers.
Well, I think Relics of the Old Faith may have given us a glimpse of who they might have been.
The main addition of Relics of the Old Faith is, well, the relics! Some of them reference characters we’ve met during the game (Clauneck, Kudaii, the Bishops, etc), but there are some names in there we’ve never seen before. I believe these might be the names of at least some of the old gods from eons ago. Now from what I can tell, relics can be made from either gods (e.g. the Bishops) or simply those blessed with power (Kudaii and Clauneck), so some of these names might not be gods but let’s go through them anyway!
1. GALVAR
So for each relic, we’ll be focusing on two things: what animal the god was, and what their role/power was. Starting off with Galvar, if we’re to believe the relic is reflecting their appearance, Galvar was a ram from the Ovis family due to their curves horns, with my person guess being an Argali due to the fact the horns twisting more than once as well as the overall thickness.
Now one might assume Galvar’s power was size manipulation due to their relic’s power, right? Well not exactly. After all, Heket’s relic doesn’t invoke anything to do with famine, nor does Kallamar’s have anything to do with plague. Instead, look at the description. ‘Famed Friend’. If I had to wager a guess, I would imagine Galvar may have been the classic gentle giant sort of character; looking big and menacing but is actually a big softy and uses their size to protect those weaker. So my guess would be Galvar may have been a god of protection or friendship.
2. LAPLACE
Laplace is a tough one to figure out from their relics. All that’s visible in their original relic is an eye and their blessed/cursed relic doesn’t help. But I can say for certain that they were a god of luck or chance. Not only are their relics dice, but I decided to look up the name Laplace and found a person born in the mid-1700s named Pierre-Simon Laplace who was a mathematician who focused heavily on probabilities. If I had to guess what animal Laplace could be, I would say a rabbit since they are heavily associated with luck.
3. FOWLER
Fowler is one of the easiest ones to guess in terms of species: a bird! But what kind of bird. Well, let’s look at the details. A fowler refers to someone who hunts birds. Also, take note that the only way to get this relic is to fish for it. With this, my guess is that Fowler may have been a great black-backed gull. These gulls not only eat fish, but also other, smaller birds. As for their role, my personal guess is that Fowler was a god of curses. They may have been the one to discover the uses for fervour and would go as far as cannibalising their own cultists to gain more. In other words, ‘drinking deep of their praise’.
4. ICEGORE
Probably one of the easiest ones, Icegore seems to be a yeti whose powers seem to revolve around ice. It’s possible that Icegore was a god of winter or just ice in general.
5. ALA
Going off the relic’s design, we can tell Ala was a predatory creature who seemed to value strength, pain, and survival. They also seem to have no qualms using it against others. But there are so many animals out there with sharp teeth so there’s no way to tell what animal Ala is, right? Well, what if I told you we may not only know what animal Ala is...but we may have even seen them in game. Think about it. A predator...no issue showing off their strength...associated with pain...and sharp teeth...possibly teeth in the darkness...
Ok here me out. I’ve theorised the Fox could’ve been an old Bishop in hiding for a long time. Not only are their eyes similar to the Bishops (black with red pupils) but whenever they show up, it’s through a black and red portal that looks identical to the ones the Bishops enter and exit through. So my current theory is Ala was the god of predators/hunting/murder who went into hiding due to their power deteriorating due to most of their followers being forced to join the Old Faith when they rose to power and was forced to hunt from the shadows to sustain themself, only making themself known to Lambert upon hearing of their crusades against the Bishops.
6. SLYTHOR
Another easy one, Slythor is a snake - specifically a rattlesnake due to their tail. According to their description, I think Slythor was a god of corrosion or decay.
7. SHUNRUE
Just like how small is opposite to big, I imagine Shunrue was the opposite to Galvar in every way. While Galvar is a friendly gentle giant, Shunrue may have been a small, selfish and cowardly creature. While one is a god of friendship and protection, the other is a god of betrayal and selfishness. But as for what animal Shunrue was...well unless he was a blob of goop, we can’t really say for certain. I would guess he would be either a rat (usually associated with selfish behaviours) or a bearded vulture (a predator of the Argali).
8. STIHI
So I did some research to see what animal’s have venomous tongue, and the most likely candidate for Stihi is a Gila Monster.
As for their domain, I decided to look up their name. Turns out a stihi is a fire-breathing storm demon from Albanian mythology. So I would like to guess Stihi is a god of storms or just destruction in general.
9. WARRACKA
...yeah, I have no idea what animal Warracka could be. I even looked up their name and came up with nothing. But due to the closed fist imagery in this and in Stihi’s description, I figured they could be a lizard like them. Specifically a cannibal lizard due to the method of gaining this relic. Therefor, I believe Warracka is an Aegean Wall Lizard - which was recently discovered to eat their own species - and the god of cannibalism.
10. TURUA
Turua seems to be an octopus based on their relic, but their description doesn’t give much of a hint as to what they were the god of. So I looked up their name and it turns out Turua is Maori for ‘twice seen’, as the New Zealand town of the same name was built on a river, and the name came from the reflections seen in the water. So my guesses are Turua is either a god of reflections or illusions, or a god of the depths (maybe they knew Kallamar? Who knows!)
11. AETHRILE
This one has me stumped. There are no clues as to what animal Aetherile could be and looking up their name only shows CotL results. As for their domain, I originally thought they were the original crafter of the relics. But then I had a thought. What if they weren’t exactly a god? What if they were more of a benefactor of gods; someone who would aid them in certain ways? ...and what if ‘Aethrile’ was only one of their many names?
This is a complete theory with little basis, but my guess is ‘Aetherile’ was the first name the Mystic Seller was ever given and they made the powder box as a way to aid gods when they needed it. Just my own little theory though.
I won’t go into the unattainable relics hidden in the game files as I don’t know how cannon those are, so that’s it for my god guesses! But what happened to these gods? How did the relics come to be? Why does Chemach have them? Well join me in the next post where I’ll share my theory on how Chemach’s desire for power indirectly led to Narinder’s imprisonment.
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[Book One of Three]
Story: 4 out of 5
Smut: 3 out of 5
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m in love with a demon. Harley Laroux did not disappoint with this book and I’m so glad there’s two more in this series!
At first Rae bugged the hell out of me because of her stupidity, but then I realized the girl was just trying to survive. As any human would. And at least Leon loved her brattiness. His punishments were… wow.
And the whole Leon giving Rae his metal scene… fucking. swoon!
Dear lord, I loved it.
I loved it all.
Now here are my rambling thoughts...
* I’m already team demon. I don’t like this pompous Kent guy. Or his children.
* Kent’s son Jeremiah is such a little bitch lol
* What the fuck is waking up that gives a DEMON chills?!
* Oohhhh. Rae found a grimoire of her own 😏
* Who the fuck is this security guard and what just happened..?
* Wait.. Leon is the security guard?! lol. Demon asshole. Okay, it’s fine then.
* “I don’t tell stories for free, doll.” // “Yeah? What’s your price?” // “You, on your knees, begging for my cock down your throat.”
* Goddamn. Leon’s bold. I fucking love it 😂
* Aw damn. Leon’s got a hot friend. Another demon? And then Victoria noticed Rae checking out Leon. Not good 😬
* Well hello, Zane. I love you already lmao.
* Oh fuck. That alley scene. Get some, Rae.
* Fuck the Hadleigh’s for wanting Rae dead.
* And he fucking lost the grimoire… Kent fucking lost the book that kept Leon bound to him. Leon’s free!!!
* I have a feeling Everly “donated” the book and that’s how Rae got it when her friend from the library gifted it to her.
* Oh hell. That creepy thing was stalking Rae. And Leon saved her. God, I want a Leon.
* She totally just accidentally summoned a demon 😂 Time to play, Leon.
* “I don’t make idle threats. If you run out of here, then I’m going to hunt you. I’m going to catch you. And when I do- when I do, I’ll make you scream.”
* Well I was gonna stop reading for the night, but Leon just showed his forked tongue. I’m intrigued.
* Aw damn. Of course they’d be cockblocked by an Eld- that creepy as fuck creature that hunts humans.
* Holy shit. The way he ate her out and then fucked her… yeah, she’s totally giving up that soul of hers.
* Aw fuck. Why did Everly steal the grimoire? If she didn’t “donate” it, then how did it end up in the library? And please don’t let her father know she has it.
* Aww. Poor Cheesecake. The Eld snatched the car up and Leon’s totally risking his life for Rae’s cat 😂
* Rae is starting to piss me off. Just listen to the demon!
* Serves you right. You wanna argue, not you gotta squirm through your classes.
* …and now she’s invited him inside to patch up his wounds 😩 Just give him your soul!
* “I was like you once. I think I envy you, to still look at the world with such fascination.” // “You can still. Why not?” // “If you live in the dark long enough, you’ll forget what the light feels like.”
* I knew they were gonna fuck, but goddamn that was… intense lol.
* After everything, this bitch STILL wants to ask the Hadleigh’s for help?! I fucking hope they sacrifice her now. She’s so stupid.
* Now you’re trying to bind him and command him to protect you? Rae, you’re fucking up. I hope Leon makes you pay.
* And punish her he did. Goddamn.
* “I want you. Irrevocably. But I can’t settle for less than all of you. Body and soul, Raelynn. We demons, when we see something we like, we need to possess it. It’s in our nature.”
* Told you, you should have given him your soul. Now he’s gonna leave and the Hadleigh’s are gonna sacrifice your ass.
* Well shit. Everly has the grimoire and has an Archdemon protecting her. This is going to end swell.
* Goddamn. Callum the Archdemon fucked up Leon 😂
* Awww. Everly gave him his sigil back.
* Oh my fucking god. Did you really go to the Hadleigh’s for a party? You’re so goddamn stupid, Rae.
* Of course Jeremiah is gross enough to roofie Rae. I knew this party was just a ploy to get their next sacrifice. Thank god for Zane and “Sam”. And now Leon is here. Yay!
* Fuck. Kent was waiting for them 🤦🏻♀️
* Leon pierced her nipples. Why was that so hot 🥵 😂
* Whoa. Kent’s dead? A little anticlimactic, no? But which psycho will have after Rae now? The God has a Kynes, a Hadleigh, and now It just needs a Lawson. Rae is so not in the clear.
* Fucking hate Jeremiah.
* Oh my god 😭 Leon saying goodbye before he takes on the Reaper. I’m not okay. Fuck this.
* Oh my god… no matter that she’s marked for the God, she still carved Leon’s name into her flesh and gave him her soul. HE’S ALIVE!!!
* Omg I’m so happy. They both lived and she gave a big middle finger to that God.
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2023 wrapped: webtoon edition!
my final 2023 wrapped post for the year! unlike previous ones, this list is every series i read this year vs. ones that started this year. previous lists for this year:
cdrama edition
kdrama edition
ranked from least favorite to most favorite, which doesn't mean objectively best, just ones that hit me more. ones that are completed series will have a * after the title
15 my deepest secret*. omfg i hated this webtoon. the twist was asinine and frankly ignorant. none of the characters were likeable by the end. hate quit this one with like 5 chapters left to go i just couldnt
14 my second husband. seemed promising at first! i was hooked for the first 40 chapters or so but then it just started getting weirdly paced, had big plot holes, and nothing ever felt like it was getting resolved. the ML had like 0 charisma as well. dropped.
13 to love your enemy. this one was REALLY fun until the cult arc hit and then it was the biggest wtf is happening. dropped it shortly after
12 i dont hate us*. i liked this one until the timeskip ending, where then everyone and everything just felt really off. the second female lead gets a special mention because i HATED her at first but by the end she was my favorite character <3
11 romance 101.* this was okay. the art style was really cute and i loved the FL. but there never seemed to be any chemistry with the main ship to me, and the plot became really focused on the app/programming club which bored the hell out of me. dropped this one around chap 100
10 shadow bride. nothing bad but nothing particularly noteworthy for me. fluff read.
9 high spirits neoma. im not very far into this webtoon yet, or it'd be higher up the list im sure. im around ch 5 and finding it really charming and i love the color palette for it
8 dreaming freedom/freedom in dreams. although the art style isnt my cup of tea, i really enjoyed this fucked up high school revenge/romance webtoon but where im currently at (ch. 111ish) it's starting to feel a little circular. hoping it goes back to what it does best which is Unsettling Shit
7 my reason to die*. man this would've been in my top 3 but the ending arc is just. really boring??? like i dont want to watch them search for a pot farm for 10 chapters. i havent finished this one yet, but ive been putsing getting back into it ever since post reveal. the drama is very pretty though and the reveal chapters hit me like a truck in a good way
6 operation true love. i borderline hated this webtoon when i first started, but the reviews had me wanting to stick it out and im so glad i did!! around ep 10ish it really finds its footing and just keeps going for it! very kdrama in flavor and endearing FL.
5 unholy blood*. a fun, dark, and nostalgic webtoon about vampires and vampire hunting that brought me back to my tween years in the best way. the character designs are really awesome. it's a little lower on the list because the ending felt a bit rushed, but it's a really solid horror/action comic with a lil romance
4 surviving romance*. this one's complete but i got about 10 chapters left. it's a really fun horror comic (NOT romance, dont be fooled by the title) that reminds me of extraordinary you but if the plot was focused on the metaphysical horror of it a little more. fun characters and relationships. a little lower just because the second "return" arc feels tedious/unneeded so far. we'll see. TEAM RINA.
3 maybe meant to be/fate found by chance. ive found that i tend to gravitate toward darker webtoons, so this is my c-c-combo breaker! cute, funny, quirky, and really endearing. standard contract marriage plot but between two delightful weirdos
2 purple hyacinth. this series is everything. the art is gorgeous, it has its own OST built into the reading. the characters are nuanced and complicated and omg it's a ride and a half so far.
1 olgami/trapped*. INCREDIBLE characters and such an intense look at enemies-to-lovers. the drama starts as a psycho-thriller about gravedigging for a vampire and ends up about two leads who have never learned how to love willing to try it with one another in their fucked-up way. dysfunctional. hot. SO GOOD. the art evolution for this series was great as well
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Cryptoid Seeker SS courting Megatron by bringing him his enemies (injured from capture, not dead. Still fun to hunt).
I imagine seekers having a specific ritual for non-seeker mates. Maybe zooming around, doing general Arial feats, bring their mates the injured enemies as an offering (similar but dulled down version of the seeker to seeker wing offering)?
Btw, the zooming and offering thing is found in Falcons. That, or they bring them Shiney things. But eh.
I also feel like cybermorphs courting would be super stupid. Like a wasps. Like, sitting on the ground, staring right at their desired mate, making a very specific buzzing sound kind of stupid. That, or maybe something like a white pufferfish (who draws weird geometric patterns in the sand to attract a mate). Imagine both. Megs draws a circle thing, sits in the middle, and stares at SS. That'd be hilarious.
Maybe some hidden horror with some mantis like behaviors? But combined with some wasp behavior, resulting in a bite to the neck cables that numbs the mates senses, making them unaware enough not to hold back? That'd be fragged up.
Or even? Some hidden secret that only seekers get affected in a different way than most. Like, they end up with seeker eggs that hold the cybermorphs eggs inside? And when the eggs do the explody thing, the cybermorphs are the squishy inside, having already combined with the seekerling to make this super parasitic version that makes housing one 10x worse.
Sorry for the long rant. I love the cryptiods.
Do not ever apologize for going on long rants, they genuinely make my day so much better 💖 first of all I love everything you've put here, but BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE!
I need to know more about the seekerling-cybermorph crossover. Tell me everything. Like the inside of the eggs, I wanna know every little detail about it. When you say the explodey thing, do you mean the cryptid seekerlings rupturing from their egg sacs early and seeking host in nearby fuel tanks? Cuz that's not always what happens with them, and is in fact an emergency defense mechanism to maximize survival chance. Usually they just carefully break free of their shells when their development is complete. So, tell me about these eggs, squishy cybermorph filling, I need to know! Gimme every. Single. Detail 👀 cuz like. All my mind is envisioning is like. A two layer egg, whetein the baby cybermorph is the center, kinda like the yolk, and an individual baby seekerling is in the outermembrane, and. Obviously that's not what's happening 😅 but super parasitic babies that are 10 times worse? I need to know!!
Also just, hear me out 👀 I love all these courtship ideas, but I'd like to pitch something to make it even funnier. Cybermorphs are very recent development on Cybertron in the grand scheme of things, and have only been around for a handful of generations (probably less than 5). Megatron is from the very first gen, so consider: even he doesn't entirely understand courtship. It's entirely instinctual and the logical part of him doesn't understand these weird urges. Like... what about this weird vibration/frequency he's giving off is attractive? The weird geometry, why is that considered attractive? He's a stranger to his own biology--the entire planet is, really--and secretly he's rather frustrated and embarrassed about it. He tries to match Starscream's energy, but what can he do for someone that can cross the entire planet in only a few megacycles? He can't just leave his hive and go gallavanting around just to impress the potential sire of his future children. Maybe he turns to tactics and battlefield prowess to impress him; it's a good thing too, because Starscream loves some good bloodshed 🤭
I'm also super down for the numbing bite. Cryptid seekers already spit venom, and the cybermorph biology is largely underdeveloped, so honestly either of them could. Maybe Starscream is venomous, Megatron is poisonous XD maybe he produces some kind of intoxicating pheromone that dulls the senses or hypnotizes, as a queen variant 🤔 or maybe it's a toxic, addictive aphrodisiac? Maybe he can produce multiple varieties! Something that releases inhibitions and makes his partner go hard, fast, and uncaring, with fertilization being the only important thing
Regardless. Terrifying parasitic Megatron and Starscream being fuck buddies that coparent? I love it
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Deep like water: Chapter 5 – Letting go of Mystra
Two years after his faux pas, Gale had found some type of normality again. He could draw from the Weave again, but it was a sorry imitation of what he once had been capable of. At least, he could conjure portals again. This helped him and Tara on their travels to hunt down magical artefacts to ease the Orb's hunger. Gale's mistake had been huge and the consequences memorable. Now, he had to put things straight again, and after succeeding, he wanted to seek out Mystra's forgiveness. Maybe, she'd have mercy.
After pulling some more all-nighters, Gale decided to travel to Baldur's Gate. The city was rife with magic, wizards, scholars, and perhaps solutions. Maybe, there, he would find someone who could help him with the ticking time bomb in his chest. Gale got excited, new hope flickered to life.
"Are you for certain you want to go without my company?" Tara asked. "You haven't been on your own in two years."
"I know, but I need to do this on my own," Gale explained to her. "I need to prove myself that I'm still capable of taking care of myself."
Tara sighed, but let him go. Gale thanked her by leaving a huge pile of Beholder jerky behind. He knew it was her favourite.
"Gale," the tressym said as he was about to leave their home. "Please, the beard. Get rid of it."
The addressed chuckled.
"I will as soon as I get back. I promise."
He walked outside – and then, everything went down the drain. Again. To his horror, Gale was kidnapped by a mind flayer ship, infected with an illithid parasite, and crammed into a holding pot. He couldn't make out much what was going on outside of his prison, but there were more pods with more people inside. Gale didn't know how long he was stuck there, but it was almost a relief when the ship crashed. The wizard whirled through the air and used up all his strength to call upon the Weave to conjure a portal. Of course, he got stuck in it. Gale was more annoyed than worried about it. After a while, someone strong took his arm and pulled him through the portal. Gale flailed and landed on his knees. He got up with a groan, dusted himself off (he's mother had raised a gentleman after all) and then looked at the short but broad, androgynous human with a tasteless hairstyle. They were accompanied by an elegant pale elf, a reserved cleric, and a sour-faced githyanki.
What an unusual cheery bunch, the wizard mused.
"Hello, I'm Gale of Waterdeep," he introduced himself then, shaking the other person's hand. "Apologies. I'm usually better that this."
"No need to apologise. Are you all right?" asked the woman (at least, they sounded like one, but Gale didn't want to assume).
"A bit shocked" he replied, trying to sound cheerful (how did one speak the right way to others again to be liked?), "but, friend, it's a a relief and pleasure to make your acquaintance. – Say, but I know you, don't I? In a matter of speaking. You were on the nautiloid as well."
"Yes, I was. We all were," she told him, gesturing at her companions. "I'm Tav, by the way, and these are Astarion, Shadowheart and Lae'zel. It seems like we all survived the crash of the mind flayer's ship."
Gale hummed, nodding.
"Then, I can only assume you too were on the receiving end of a rather unwelcome insertion in the ocular region."
Tav made a face, muttering: "Couldn't have phrased it more repellently myself, but go on."
"This insertee we speak of, this parasite. Are you aware that after a period of excruciating gestation, it'll turn us into mind flayers? It's a process known as 'ceremorphosis', and let me assure you; it is to be avoided!" explained Gale. Then, he eyed Tav up and down, adding: "You don't happen to be a cleric by any chance, do you? A doctor? Surgeon? Uncannily adroit with a knitting needle?"
"I'm afraid not, I'm just a humble travelling bard," she replied. "But Shadowheart's a cleric and she said it's futile to try casting spells."
The addressed squinted at Gale, suspiciously.
"You seem to know enough about our condition to realise that it's beyond most clerics' skills."
"Most? No doubt. But I find myself hoping to be in the presence of the few. You don't happen to be one of them?" the wizard blurted out before he could stop himself from seeming rude.
Shadowheart glared at him and Gale suddenly found the thought of biting off his own tongue rather appealing.
"I don't think anyone of us can heal us from the parasites," Tav remarked.
"As we established, few enough can. It's not exactly a common affliction," Gale replied. "We most certainly need a healer – and soon too. How about we lend each other a helping hand once more and look for a healer together?"
Tav smiled at him.
"Sounds like a plan. You're welcome to join us. Lae'zel thinks a nearby hidden githyanki crèche holds the solution to our problem, and since we're all desperate to get rid of our unwanted passengers, we'll try anything that sounds reasonable."
The wizard nodded, but it didn't escape him how Astarion eyed him judgingly, Shadowheart kept glaring at him, and Lae'zel tsked disapprovingly. But none of them said anything. Gale forced himself to sound optimistic again.
"Most excellent! A parasite shared, is a parasite half. Or, uhm, something to that effect."
He cringed about his own words and Tav bit back an amused laugh.
"Oh, but before you think you're about to embark on a journey with most ill-mannered a man; thank you for pulling me out of that stone." Gale gave a little bow to emphasise his words of gratitude. "It was an act of foresighted kindness, I assure you, and I have the feeling ample opportunities will present themselves for me to return the favour."
Tav nodded at him, still smiling, and said: "Come on then, let's go."
Gale followed the group uphill. The Orb in his chest pulsated menacingly and he straightened up.
He was Gale of Waterdeep, son of Morena Dekarios, dearest friend of Tara the tressym, former pupil of Elminster Aumar, and Mystra's former lover, prodigy, and Chosen. If anyone could solve these problems, then it was him.
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Well I'm taking you at your word, then!
Round 1:
How did you come to do what you do? Was it a sudden impulse/ jumping off the deep end, or a slow and steady march into it? Have you always wanted to hunt nuisance animals for money or did you come by it while pursuing something else at first?
In short: How did Blu become bushie? *chin hands*
It was 100% a result of me losing my mind and going off the deep end.
FUN STORY TIME.
I don't like people. In this kinda way.
"EW. PEOPLE."
People are strange and cruel and nasty and sometimes they'll kill lizards in front of you when you're in year 4 because they know you like them. People do mean things to other things just to hurt someone they don't like, so I don't like people. And there's a fucking lot of people everywhere. There's a lot of people in Alice Springs. There's a LOT of people in California.
And I don't like people.
I'll admit that I got into my own head a lot (still do; I zone out often). And I got this idea, right? The Swagmen of Olde. They lived in the bush with a lot less, er, support than what we have now. Modern day swagman. Revive an old Australian tradition. So I was say fifteen and we got out for I think the term 1 holidays, aaand I was officially a missing child for a week because I packed my swag and disappeared into the Outback. I lived off bottled water, native wells, and my scroggin ran out on day 2 so after that I survived off quandong and witchetty grubs (note to readers, don't go into the Outback without a machete because trying to dig out witchetty grubs with a knife will blister your palms). Basically stayed alive by making my own shelter from shit my dad taught me, or things I read about in books.
Anyway the NTPF eventually put out a chopper for me and dragged me kicking and screaming to civilisation (I was so feral they put me in the fucking divvy van) and it sucked (also I made the newspaper, not the point). But in the 5 days I was gone I just... found some inner peace, I suppose? I was talk of the town and over the next year there were three or four additional attempts to return to the Outback until Mum (and the NTPF) got tired of me trying to dehydrate myself to death and brought us both back to California.
And my California town is bigger than Alice Springs. The town has a population of ~80,000 and there's people fucking everywhere and I hate it.
So I did the same thing I did in Australia and routinely went walkabout to the point our local sheriff knew me by name. It got to the point the LOCALS knew me by name. Half would call in and report me when I was out walking on behalf of my father, the other were of the wildchild mentality and had an unspoken agreement of "Do not send Blu back to that house." (My parents aren't abusive or anything, the locals were just of the idea that at 16 I was finding my own way in the world like kids did back in the 50s, which... Yeah, I was.)
I was given an ankle monitor because I was a flight risk, and I stopped leaving.
Anyway I left high school, got a job working part-time graveyard at Dad's insistence on doing something with my life, and on the side I started talking to the neighbours who know I'm one hell of a shot (courtesy of me recently winning a county sharpshooting competition). And they get this bright idea, right, they've got a lot of coyotes on their property trying to lift their sheep. So I start killing coyotes. They're proud of my work, they tell their neighbours, I start getting paid $25 per pig I kill on their property so long as they keep the bacon. Fine deal for everyone involved.
Between pest control and graveyard and some other odd jobs I made ~$15k over 6 months and I still had this niggling idea in my head of going bush permanently. At 18 I bought my FIRST ute and went east. And that ute was fucking old. Not a '99 Ford, an '87 Ford F-150 with over 300,000mi on it. I figured I'd get to somewhere around New Mexico before it'd cark it because that poor bastard didn't sound right from the get-go.
And cark it it did! But I also learned a few things from my dad, and so I jerry rigged that cunt (which consisted of removing the faulty ignition and replacing it with a fucking screwdriver). I got it started and working again. Got it to Texas, got the ignition fixed, and took jobs in the southwest for 6 months.
And then I got sick of the southwest. I saw the towns I frequented become gentrified. They lost their personality. The mum and pop stores shut down and were replaced with Targets and Walmarts and the land started seeing construction and in six months I'd lost all hope for it.
So I said "fuck this shit" and decided, for the fifth time in my life, that I was going to the Outback. I went back to California, got my passport and all my necessary identification, had a MASSIVE argument with my parents because they didn't want me to leave, but I left anyway and sold the ute and I took a bus to San Francisco, got lost, ended up sleeping in an alleyway at some point which isn't important except to remember that I fucking hate cities, but eventually got my way to the airport with about $10k in cash and debit and I got the first flight to Sydney.
All without a fucking mobile phone.
And I spent every dollar I had save for $2000 on a '99 F-150. And my first night I bought a bottle of plonk (strange buying booze at 19 years old). I smashed it in the bush over my ute's roo bar and I christened her Matilda, my steadfast companion who will come waltzing with me. And I drove her up to Brisbane, and then to Cairns, and while in Cairns I was stopped and detained because of my rifle, and then that was confiscated for a month until I got my firearms licence, and then I had to go BACK to Brisbane to pick it up again but before I did that I met a bloke and spent my last $2k on a camper for Matilda.
So now I'm stuck in Australia with not a dollar to my name, no means of getting money on account of not having a rifle, and a new-christened ute with a camper but no way to pay for petrol.
So I drive up the track, end up heading west until Matilda ran out of petrol, then walked 2km or so to the nearest station who happened to have cattle. Aussies take care of our own. Told the bloke there the story over tea and supper, he says I can help muster if I know how to ride a horse.
Boy, do I.
So I do that for a few months, say hooroo to him after he helps me siphon petrol into my tank, and I return to Brisbane and get my rifle back. I make my way back through QLD, stop for a week in Longreach, then get another job as a stockman. For maybe a year I was a full-fledged stockman and met my heart horse and I met the first girl I ever loved, but then I stopped being a stockman, worked at sea on a fishing vessel for a few months, come back, and ended up getting a job working some pastoral land near there dealing with a small pack of wild dogs who'd been lifting the bloke's sheep, and I start making a name for myself again as one hell of a sharpshooter. And then I got my commercial shooter's licence.
Rest is history!
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skill, diamond, leveling, and background for sigrun!
Skill: Do you prefer RP, combat, or something else? Is there a part of the game you consider yourself best at?
Oh I absolutely love both of them when they're at their most Dramatic. RP is of course wonderful for building relationships, progressing the story, developing your character, etc., but I think combat can do all of those things too!! Plus, I love being a rules lawyer, in a "TECHNICALLY, with this interpretation of the rules, I have proof that I should be allowed to this batshit thing, jeremy crawford said so, etc."
If there's one part of the game that I consider myself the best at, it's the venn diagram intersection of RP and combat which is: being the distraction. The havoc I can cause with access to the minor illusion cantrip and a familiar is unparalleled. Please let me cause more distractions im SO good at them PLEASE --
Diamond: Have you ever participated in a character resurrection (for your own character or someone at the table)? What happened?
Oh there's been many deaths across several campaigns, but my main table doesn't use the Resurrection Ritual rules (unfortunately. i love them and the Risk but other people don't and i'm okay with making my characters more survivable lol).
One very fun resurrection happened to Iris! She was trying to sneak into a house where the aasimar mafia was located, and unfortunately got stabbed so good she died Instantly. and then her NPC friend immediately FREAKED, dragged her outside, and we found out he was a divine soul sorcerer when he brought her back to life. It was SO good and now Iris has a very sexy I Died But Got Better scar
Leveling: What’s your ideal starting party level? What leveling system do you use? What level are your currently (or did you most recently) DMing for?
OBVIOUSLY we use Narrative Leveling, im NOT doing math to figure out EXP
Ideal starting level: anywhere between 3 and 5 for my generic answer, but obviously it Depends on what kind of campaign you're running and what you want the vibes to be at the beginning. The first games I ran all started at level 1, but then as my players got better with the rules and wanted to try out more complex builds I started them out higher. Currently I'm DMing two games, one where they're all at level 10 for a heist (xoxo) and another where I just let them all level up to 14 as we head into the Fight The Stars Endgame Zone
Background: Does your PC get up to anything that you don’t narrate often? Any background habits, activities, plots? Do you share these through other avenues (e.g. a group chat, table cross-talk, posting online)?
Sigrun does a lot of like, outdoor survival stuff that doesn't come up all that often! She does a lot of stargazing, as a way to connect with the memory of her father and the short amount of time she got to know him. She also does a lot of hunting, I think -- rations and food don't come up a lot in our games as we travel but I like to imagine Sigrun and her horse Daisy head off and come back with a deer or something when they're staying out in the woods. I fill people in on this kind of stuff with art or in writing short stories, instead of really narrating it out in RP during the game :)
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So my brain decided to start a multi chapter fic about a character I know nothing about. Again.
When the West Was Wild (working title)
Masterlist
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
Silva x OFC (no description, a last name is given in later chapters)
Story summary: A women making her own way in the lawless West has her quiet night interrupted by a stranger in need. While helping him she finds a few unmet needs of her own.
Chapter summary: She had planned for a quiet night but you know what they say about the best laid plans...
Mentions of adultery and gun violence.
Tonight was her favourite night of the week. Not that it had much competition. Her life was quite. Far from the adventure she had expected when she had moved out west from New York. When her former husband had turned tail and fled at the first sign of trouble, she had stayed. Her heels had well and truly been dug in when she found out that her father's outrage about the whole sorry situation was directed at her. Not at the man who had swore to stand by her, yet left her to survive on her own. And survive she had, thrived even. She played her husband and father at their own publishing game. A woman of her social standing, well educated, roughing it out west? The newspapers in New York ate up her articles. It paid her a fair wage. Much more than most women could expect out her. Not without getting her hands dirty, one way or the other.
In her articles, she wrote about anything and everything. It was her honest, straightforward voice that found her acclaim. Her accounts of conversations with the locals. With old cowboys that had ridden halfway across the country. Spend countless nights under the stars, even more hours in the saddle. Veterans that witnessed horrors that she couldn't image all in the effort to build a great nation. Their thousand yard stare making her wonder if it could ever be worth it.
She wrote about her survival. How she had learned to fend for herself. How she had become friends with the women from a local indigenous tribe. She also added the atrocities they had been through to her article, that part never saw the light of day. She wrote recipes, those were very popular. The rich, spoil, elite got a kick out of read what some people would eat to survive. She even wrote all about how her husband, who upon hearing about a few robberies around their quiet little town, had packed up and left. Using what little money they had to hire a some muscle to escort him back home. That didn't see they light of day either but it made he feel a little better that at least some of his peers read how pathetic he was.
When they came out here, she was under no illusions to how bad it could get. Her mother had been a nurse in the war. Raised in a tiny cabin, much like they one she stood in now, with several siblings, the woman knew a thing or two about having a rough go of things. It was only when her mother met her father that her life got easier. She made sure her daughter knew how to handle herself. Her husband, however came from old money on both sides. He never had to work a day in his life. The most he did was throw his weight around at the printers before heading to his gentleman's club. He thought an adventure in the wild west would be exciting. More like he wanted it for bragging rights to impress the young help at his club. Who she had since found out, he had bedded several of during their short marriage. She refused to dwell on that, she was here, supporting herself and she was going to be proud of that. The past three months she had done well for herself. The cabin was ready for the oncoming winter. Between her modest wage and her newly developed hunting and gathering skills, she has kept herself well fed. After a bout of illness, she was even starting to gain a little weight back.
Smiling to herself, she set about her Friday night routine. The day was taken up with chores, that of her own and of her older neighbours. Mary and Thomas were still in great shape, some jobs were just better done with help. They often returned the favour. Thomas had helped her chop wood, the last of her chores, earlier so the night was hers for bathing and reading. The tin bath set up in the middle of the room had been her only extravagance. Bathing was one of the few home comforts she refused to give up. Bathing, reading and a shot of whiskey now and then. The whiskey would come later. Just before she settled down into her bed made for two. The extra room was usually a luxury she enjoyed, it was only now and then it gave her reason to dwell. She wasn't looking forward to being alone over the long, cold winter but she might actually be able to finish her novel. Every cloud has a silver lining. That what her mother always said.
The water warmed in the harth as she stripped down to her slip. The nights were still warm in the fall, the fire keep the room cosy. It was as she pour the first lot of hot water into the tub that she heard it. A high pitched whinny of a horse. It sounds scared or in pain. Both of those options filled her with dread. She couldn't find it in her to leave a horse in distress so she made her way to the window. Shouting joined the horses whining. Followed by three loud gunshots. Self preservation made her hit the floor and scramble for her shot gun. She had no idea what made her open the door.
The lamp light from her windows only illuminated so far. She could pick out shapes in the dark if she focused. Two horses. Both agitated. Neither had a rider. One rider seemed to be on the floor. As peered into the darkness, trying to make out the condition of the body on the floor more clearly a man appeared in front of her. It all happened so fast, she barely managed to get the shot gun up in front of her before he was right there, his broad form crowding her. One arm up holding his shoulder, blood pouring from between his fingers. The other arm slapping the barrel of her gun away. His brown eyes were wide. With fear? Pleading? She couldn't tell. She didn't have much time either as he promptly passed out in front of her, landing heavily at her feet.
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Cult of Passione AU
Back in May 2023, I made this AU for Mermay that mix Mermaids and Greek Mythology and based it solely on the Golden Wind Cast
It's also a ''Everybody Lives, Everybody Stays'' AU, due to no one dying and leaving in this AU, even though the events stays mostly the same. There are no stands in this AU, but there are some references to certain stands.
I originally started this whole AU with my Part 5 ocs, but they don't influence the main story, I'll make their own post for them
Lore under the cut
Long long ago, there were entities that were responsible for creating the world as we know it. They created its sky, land, and sea; they created day and night; and they created creatures to populate the Earth. These creatures looked up at the sky, seeing all the stars that were up there, twinkling and sparkling, and thought that it was because those entities were looking down at them. The astral beings came to be referred to as the Eyes of Heaven.
However, some people wanted to be just as great as the Eyes of Heaven. They created artifacts out of stone that could turn anyone who wore it into gods. Said creators came to be known as the Pillar Men and their artifacts were scattered across the globe for anyone to find.
One day, a man named William Zeppeli found one of these artifacts, a stone mask, with his assistants: Jonathan, a man blessed with the mark of the Eyes of Heaven —a star shaped birthmark— and his wife Erina; their friend Speedwagon; and Jonathan’s adopted brother Dio. Their goal was to find the most artifacts to destroy them, as they believed humans should not try to play god, as it would lead to dire consequences.
One night, Dio betrayed the gang by donning the mask and killing William as his first steps to becoming a God. Jonathan did everything he could to stop him. In the end, with the blessing of the Eyes of Heaven, he managed to decapitate Dio and destroy his body. However, a simple decapitation didn’t end the reign of terror Dio had started, for he decided that Jonathan’s body would be a perfect fit for him. After a long fight, Jonathan died, leaving Dio to take over his body.
Years later, we hear the news about a young boy called Giorno, who is born to a human mother who survived an encounter with the god named DIO. His hair is as gold as wheat and his eyes, green as emeralds. With the Eyes of Heaven giving him their blessing, he is set to become a Star by taking over a cult called the Cult of Passione.
The cult of Passione is a cult that is well known, and yet no one dares to talk about it. The members worship a god whose name would guarantee you a one-way ticket to the afterlife. He used to be referred to as the ‘’King in Crimson’’ due to his bloodthirsty nature. Over time, it has been shortened to ‘’King Crimson’’.
With the help of a fisherman called Bruno, Giorno works with his team of mythological creatures in order to take down the cult from the inside.
Abbacchio and Bruno
Abbacchio is a squid that has been mistreated by sea creatures and humans alike, leaving him to become very aggressive and territorial. Bruno was the first creature to ever show him kindness. Bruno has since become his light, his reason to open himself up to others.
Bruno’s father was a fisherman and his mother’s origins are unknown to him. She left them when Bruno was a child and he has never seen her again. Despite this, he feels like the ocean is calling him, beckoning him to explore it. Even though he calls himself a fisherman, he never actually hunts for merfolks, unlike the other fishermen; it is just an excuse for him to explore the ocean and meet sea creatures like Abbacchio and Fugo.
Fugo and Narancia
Not a lot is known about Fugo’s past, but one thing is for sure, people don't like his venomous nature. The only person who has seen past that is Bruno, who Fugo has come to appreciate more than anything the world could offer him.
Not long after Abbacchio has joined them, Fugo has found a harpy with half of its feathers plucked out. In a panic, he has brought the bird to Bruno, begging him to help heal the bird.
Even though Bruno isn’t that familiar with birds, he has helped the poor bird whose name is Narancia. Now, it is rare to see these two separated; they are metaphorically joined at the hips, even though their personalities clash at times.
Mista and Giorno
Life is nice for Mista. As a satyr, he is very much connected with nature and his surroundings. He is sometimes seen at night surrounded with very affectionate fireflies.
Giorno is unaware of his demigod status; however, he has the power to create life, such as plants and trees, which made Mista and —mostly— his firefly friends befriend him immediately.
Trish and King Crimson
To the surprise of everyone in the cult, a rumor spreads that King Crimson has come to the mortal realm years ago and has had a child with a mortal woman. The child is named Trish and has been given to the care of Bruno’s team in order to reunite her with her father.
Unfortunately for her, King Crimson has other plans for his daughter…
Fugo and Giorno
Meeting Bruno's team was the first time Giorno ever encountered mythical creatures and Fugo caught his interest first.
Fugo had a rough time getting along with the new kid, but less so than Abbacchio, but Giorno used his demi-god powers to be immune to Fugo's venom, allowing him to be the first person to be able to touch him.
Fugo felt something deep within them that they had never felt before meeting Bruno, and those feelings grew from trust to something more.
Bruno’s Rebirth
Bruno didn't know much about his mother, aside from the fact that she left him and his dad when he was younger, and that he never saw her again.
After an accident at the temple of the King Crimson which left him mortally wounded, Giorno tried to use his demi-god powers to revive Bruno. It worked, but also unknowingly unlocked his true nature.
Throughout the rest of their journey, Bruno's body slowly metamorphosed into that of a mermaid, due to his mother's true origins.
As a mermaid, there was nothing holding him back from accepting a previous love declaration that Abbacchio gave him on their journey, as they couldn't pursue it before, as they were a mermaid and a fisherman
Trish and Mista
After Trish was given to the care of Bruno’s team, she had a hard time settling in with the rest, as she wasn’t aware of her demi-goddess status. She had a harder time befriending Mista, as she saw satyrs as dirty smelly woodland creatures.
Let’s just say that they are friends now, after everything that went down with the two of them.
Additional information about this AU
Here's what everyone else is in this AU
Giorno: Demi-god
Bruno: Human/Oarfish
Abbacchio: Squid
Fugo: Blue ring octopus
Narancia: Harpy
Mista: Satyr
Trish: Demi-god
Polpo: Sphinx
Zucchero: Human
Sale: Human
Luca: Human
Sheila E: Fury
Cannolo: Demi-god
Risotto: Mimic Octopus
Formaggio: ???
Illuso: ???
Prosciutto: ???
Pesci: ???
Melone: ???
Ghiaccio: ???
Squalo: Great White Shark
Tizzano: Starfish
Carne: Hydra
Cioccolata: Scylla
Secco: Charybdis
Sex Pistols: Fireflies
Black Sabbath: Guardian of the Arrow
Silver Chariot Requiem: Guardian of the Arrow
Doppio: Human form of Diavolo
King Crimson/The Boss/Diavolo: God
As for how I translated Gold Exprerience, Spice Girl and All Along the Watchtower as Demi-god powers, Giorno can create plants and unlock people's true nature, Trish can melt things with her singing voice and Cannolo is hyper aware of everything that is going on around him, but doesn't let people know he can do that
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