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#invoked is pretty high up that list too
littlest-bugz · 1 month
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current hyperfixation? (feel free to infodump!!)
YIPPEEE!!! This made my day FR!! Thank you, mutual <3
ANYWAYS
This is kind of embarrassing, but I’ve been deeply invested by my own OCverse for going on 8 years now. Its my Special Interest, which sucks because,,, im the only one who can make content of these stinkies,,,,,
I really find it hard to hyperfixate on anything else because of the fact Ive been invested for so long (except for Web Design and coding, which I wont infodump about, since its literally all for these stories, deadass).
It is not fun at times because 1) all the characters live rent free in my head and criticize how I write them in my novels [that DID life] and 2) its SO hard to make new projects and get attached to them. Ive been trying for 2 years to make a horror project out of one concept but I seriously cant get fully invested and it SUCKS. Let me make my silly little horror web series damnit!!!!! (@ my brain)
I have 3 novels and one fantasy series im working on so,,,, Infodump time >:3c
TWs: Terminal Illness + brief mentions of (mental institute) hospitalization, murder, war, and some others that I’m not 110% sure the exact tags for them (basically kind of cannibalism, but between nonhuman species). Other than terminal illness, they’re super brief mentions, but still proceed with caution.
Right now, I’m working on one of the books I’ve been writing for nearly my whole time writing. Ive been only working on it since feb 1st (it’s, like, the THIRD draft tho).
Blurb about book
Melissa is a bassist in a rock band she formed with her high school friends. Just as her, and her friends’, career begins takes off, she gets diagnosed with a terminal illness. With a month left to live, and a shit ton of unfinished business, she invokes her best friend’s patron deity who is capable of miracles, Flip. Melissa and Flip make a pact to keep her alive until her business is over, but oh no! Melissa has caught the eyes of another god, and a pretty shitty one at that. How is she going to make her last months peaceful if she’s being hunted down by a god?
The working title is called “Ensuring Your Spot In Hell” because Flip is, essentially, a demon in the universe (rules an infernal ring of hell- it means I would have to explain the worldbuilding around hell and its A LOT), but titles are!!! So hard for me!!!
A list of random facts about the book™️ because I don’t want to write full paragraphs bc I can go on forever if u ask me to:
Flip’s name is a shortened version of his actual name, Fli’pyek. Furthermore, the domain Flip rules over is that of Wrath and Violence
Trinity (Melissa’s childhood bestie, and the friend that worship’s Flip) is a hereditary witch and pagan. Her family has been worshipping Flip and practicing witchcraft for several generations! They literally have their own holy book (generational BoS/Grimoire/whatever u want to call it).
Melissa had been sick with the disease™️ since she was 16. She just neglected the shit out of her own health (me too bestie, me too). It easily could have been prevented if she went to the doctor back when she was, at least, 18 years old, max 24.
At the time Melissa is diagnosed with her terminal illness, she’s 26. By the time she was supposed to die, she would’ve been freshly 27. Has anyone heard of the 27 club theory before? Or is it just an obscure reference I made LMAO
Melissa has extended biological family that worships Flip! It gets super awkward when Melissa visits them with Flip lol
The other primordial god that Melissa finds herself in a predicament with is named Ama, the god of Cruelty and Torture. Not a swell guy to get mixed up with, that’s for sure!
Melissa has an orange and white cat named Cheddar!
Flip always smells like whiskey and freshly cut tobacco. At all times. It’s bc his blood smells like it (and tastes like it too, but why are you tasting it? /j)
Any other facts might be getting into spoiler territory, BUT!! Thats the one Im working on rn, in February. In January I worked on another book, but that one honest to gods might be too triggering for this acc for an indepth thingy like the book I just did. It’s being rewritten to not be so triggering, but bc it’s a throw up of some of our trauma, it’s not an easy task to censor it.
REGARDLESS, Here’s a rundown of ALL of my main novels (minus the one I already talked about)
The Case of Twin Woods [mystery, drama, crime] (the one i worked on January)
Chastity hates her life. She hates her shitty job, she hates her shitty friends, and she hates her shitty family. After opening up too much to an online friend about her chronic suicidality, Chastity gets taken to Twin Woods Mental Institute, the state’s mental institution. There she befriends an eccentric group of patients, then finding out something terrible might be going on with the head warden, Leon Bellamy. She takes it upon herself to find out and solve the mystery, but she may have bitten off more than she can chew.
Untitled One (but leaning towards the name of ‘Jealousy’ or somethin idk) [drama, romance, crime]
Mia has a quiet life. She works at a library, she fosters cats, and by all means, has what could be considered a ‘boring life’. One day, she gets laid off from her job under the excuse of “cutting costs”, leaving her without a job and severance. While scrambling for a job, she finds one at a local cafe, the most frequented one in the city. There she befriends one of the regulars, a cold, quiet man named Zander, and after she unknowingly helps Zander’s brother, she becomes significantly closer to him. However, her boss, a bitter ex of Zander’s, hears about their ensuing closeness and decides she doesn’t like what’s going on. One failed dinner party and murder attempt later, Mia is left scrambling to hide that she killed Angelina in self defense. Will she be successful in hiding the murder? Or will the justice system make quick work of her?
Untitled Fantasy Series (has about 2 actual novels and 3 novellas… a possible third novel too) [drama, romance]
book one
Since his birth, King Sunshine has known his fate. He is to be sacrificed for the greater good of the realm he resides, killing his oppressive father, but losing his life in the process. It’s a prophecy that has been laid out since the beginning of Racktokian history, one King Sunshine was never able to escape due to his father’s unspoken rage at his own murder. After meeting a Vurtock for the first time, a species his father only used as cattle, Sunshine finds himself quickly entangled in a plot to overthrow his own father to liberate the Vurtockian race. He knows what he has to do, but it isn’t easy.
book two
The great war tore apart the country King Sunshine called home. His father left no stone unturned from his rage, and public opinions split the people. In the rubble of his home, he builds a new country founded on the importance of the civilians, only to be elected as a King in place of his father. Living in the palace he always called home, but had tried to escape, he finds that his father keeps sending assassins to make attempts on his life. One assassin, a vurtock with nothing to lose, hits a soft spot in Sunshines heart. After deescalating the attempt on his life, he offers the vurtock to stay in his castle until they’re able to find the proper resources to help him build a life in the new country. Far away from the oppressive dictatorship of his father. Yet, as his guest begins to stay for longer than intended, he sees that yet another step in the prophecy will begin.
Despite how the second book blurb is written, it’s more from the vurtock’s point of view than Sunshine’s. I just had a total brain fart.
The novellas for the fantasy book follow the POV of other important characters, such as the ruler of the Vurtockian rebellion, the POV of other rulers. For a while I wanted to write one from Raphaël’s POV, but I decided it wouldn’t be worth writing a whole book about a piece of shit finding joy in the pain he causes. Like, no thanks, ill pass.
Theres a possible 3rd book that would essentially be an extended epilogue, since the prophecy doesn’t stop at Sunshine’s death. I just haven’t thought as far as the 2 books and 3 novellas, in terms of outlining the books and stuff.
I honestly could give TONS more info on the fantasy books because that part of my universe has been around nearly the whole time Ive been writing. I have maps of the world, maps of countries, maps of even just cities, house and castle layouts, moodboards, art. Visual references galore. Not to mention the playlists for each character + each book. I also made a document called “The Remian Bible” because it has everything about the world in it, including the alphabets of the languages, grammar structures for said languages and literally 5 holy books for the religions even tho they wont evEN BE TALKED ABOUT IN ENOUGH DEPTH (why did i do that to myself /lh j/. It doesn’t help that I still want the write the holy books in their native languages… oo,,, and imagine writing the actual novels in the native languages,,,,). It’s honestly kind of,,, surreal how much time Ive put into this world 🧍 Like??? Damn,,,,
BUT YEAH!!! Those are all the books that take place in my ocverse + some other info!!! The things that are my hyperfixation,,,, My own books and world LMAO— The books don’t include half of the ocs in my ocverse tho, so thats where the website im coding comes in. It’ll have short stories based on the backstories of various characters on it, and Yes, even the background characters will be on it bc Im fucking bonkers and fleshed them out, even though some of them are in one scene for 2 minutes.
That being said, if anyone, or u mutual (if u read this wall of text), found any of this interesting, or wants to read even just the prologue of any of these, DM me!! I’m always looking for beta readers!! Or people to talk to about it too, that’d be fantastic. I really need beta readers, so seriously. DM me if u want to read my cringey stories!! I can give better in depth tws too!!!
EDIT: I need to mention that I go through spurts of hyperfixating on only one book or series. Thats why its both my hyper fixation AND my Special Interest
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jayt23 · 2 months
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Wake up people, I replayed shadows of Valentia.
Did it on Hard/Classic too, this time, so for once I have the 'hardest difficulty' experience. I was overusing the 'I've been defeated but I can't fall here'(/retreat) mechanic to be honest but if I didn't I wouldn't have been able to do it without casualties soo...
Now, the obligatory character tier list, but only based on gameplay and not on how much I like them (except for the yellow tier ig)
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I honestly can't say too much about the characters I barely used. Like, I tried to train the Pegasus sisters but Palla and Catria did not make any impression because their damage output was pretty bad. The rest was just higher level than the rest of my units but still somehow worse so I didn't even bother.
Leon, Valbar and Clive honestly just make me feel bad because I tried to make them work but Leon and Clive kept getting one-rounded without being able to do substantial amoubts of damage and Valbar was not at all doing the tanking he should have done.
I honestly liked to use all the units in the middle tier but if I sent all of them together to defeat an enemy squad half their size they wouldn't be able to defeat them in one turn so it's really just a shame. They're still relatively good units and either deal somewhat high damage or have somewhat high defense. So they're, in one word, passable.
The orange tier consists of units that are really good as long as I don't accidentally trade away the weapon or ring they have. The mages in this tier tend to be too fragile to be in enemy range too often, Faye is too slow to consistently Nosferatu tank despite her high defense and Jesse would not do as much damage if he didn't have his 60%crit Brave sword. I could go on but to put it short, these characters are able to defeat a few enemies on their own when the situation is in their favour.
The babygurls are most accurately characterized by saying that I've put each of them into a group of enemies on their own and they have held their own, thrived even. Claire is a very consistent Mogall killer, with high enough speed to double them. Lukas has not had any encounter with a physical enemy that dealt more than 1 damage exactly to him since act one and, additionally to that, he also has high speed and attack. So really, he's good for any physical confrontation. Tobin, as my favourite character in this game (although my phone just autocorrected his name to Robin) has enjoyed a lot of training as an archer and was so much better than Python on the same level it's not even funny. He's got somewhat high defense and very high skill, reaching respectable crit chances without any support. I honestly know his crit quotes by heart so that's got to tell you how good he is. Silque is a pretty good Nosferatu tank and her invoke soldiers are good mage killers and distractions to boot.
Lastly, Alm and Celica. They got to their max level very fast and when I started using them less, I really felt their absence. They have both accomplished several solos when my other characters were too fragile to fight and are still just as crucial in gameplay even when you ignore their status as the main characters.
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homoantagonism · 1 year
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John as Card 1: The Magician
The Magician (also known as The Wizard, which G1deon literally calls John pre-res) is generally understood as a reflection of the Hermetic concept: as above, so below. This phrase can take on a lot of interpretations depending on the theological contexts, but because we’re talking about a man who just reinvented Gay Space Catholicism, I’ll only be addressing debatably the most famous renditions of this phrase, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven''. This phrase from the Lord’s Prayer is used by Christians as a means to invoke God's will on Earth, which seems fitting for a Catholic space emperor with the desire to create a universe he can bend to his will.
The Magician also signifies the creative process and the act of taking a concept or idea and molding it into something tangible. Again, pretty obviously a God thing.
Now here’s where things start to get more interesting (and potentially plot relevant? tbd). The Magician shows a potential for arrogance, feelings of superiority, a tendency to abandon projects after they’re started, and loss of focus on an idea’s original intent when sustained for too long (like, potentially, a myriad). I think the fucker is going to blow up the universe and start fresh. Great Flood 2.0. I’ve suspected this since reading all of the John chapters in NtN, which, imo, read like an epilogue to the series as a whole, or at least a sympathetic villain monologue before the villain does something monumentally evil, and his connection to The Magician would further solidify this.
Another juicy tidbit is that The Magician in reverse represents deceit. It can symbolize someone who is charming and charismatic, yet states things that don’t add up. This card showing up in a reading can mean that someone in your life who presents themselves as knowledgeable and trustworthy is covertly manipulating you. It would take another full series reread for me to be able to list all the things John lies about, but the most notable is his deception of the resurrection gang.
He paints himself as a “just some guy” god (and to his credit, he is Just Some Guy) but he absolutely uses that boy-next-door exterior to lie to and extort all his closest friends. He lies to them about their names. He hides the truth about lyctorhood from them. He leaves them to figure out lyctorhood by themselves and allows them to sacrifice the people closest to them so that they can be his immortal hand. I’m sure Mercymorn, Augustine, and G1deon figuring this out and plotting to betray him is just the beginning of the retribution he’ll suffer for this.
Alecto/Nona as Card 0: The Fool
(Full disclosure, I’m not exactly the resident Alecto expert so there’s probably a lot of things I’m forgetting or missing but just bare with me here.)
The fool represents new beginnings, having blind faith in the future, being inexperienced, and having a fundamental belief in the universe. In reverse, it represents being foolish, reckless, naive, gullible, air-headed, and several other traits that more or less describe Nona. The figure on the card has his arms flung wide, and his head held high (is this not exactly the Nona cover art?). He is ready to embrace whatever comes his way, but he is also oblivious to the cliff edge he is about to cross. The Fool is unaware of the hardships he will face as he ventures out to learn the lessons of the world. The parallels to Nona’s journey are obvious, but I’d imagine Alecto went through a similar journey from her creation to her imprisonment.
Ultimately we don’t know much about her in the earliest days, but it only makes sense that she had Nona’s personality prior to going crazy. She was also the first to have blind faith in John and the universe he crafted, and for that, she suffered immensely.
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bitebackbaby · 1 year
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just read through your clone OCs post and i just have to say, i love them, your honor. i've loved getting glimpses of them in the fox in the henhouse series, and now i need to bundle all of them up in warm blankets and make them warm beverages. thanks for sharing your lovely creations with the world <3
i have been keeping this in my inbox like it’s a blanket for my little mouse body that soothes me on these long winter nights, but i suppose i must learn to let go…
anyway IM SO HAPPY YOU LIKE MY OCS!! It might be a little early to begin discussing marriage, but im willing to start the arrangements if you are <3
for real, its super nice to hear that people are enjoying the clones i throw in my fics (here is a list with more information, for the uninitiated!) — each of them is my super special baby who is god’s weakest soldier and i love them dearly. they each have a purpose, too! i enjoy exploring what it means to be military (but not) and the weird state of martial law that Coruscant edges into even before the empire ever rises, and some oc clones makes it easy to dig deeper into different aspects of that without completely transplanting canon characters, though the canon guard members have such little screen time that some futzing doesn’t matter too much…
and i'm rambling. well! as a reward (?) for making it this far, here’s a couple of new characters that will be featuring this month as febuwhump goes on!
JUDGE: [he/him] a techie who (allegedly) works with the Senate air traffic control. this information is mostly guesswork, as anytime someone comes looking for Judge, he tends to be sitting in the break room on his comm, so it’s hard to say if he does any work at all. completely unbothered by pretty much anything, he nonetheless has a reputation around the Guard of being a complete badass because he can make any senator shut up within two sentences. he accomplishes this by being the one in charge of clearing flights to the surface, and any senate workers who invoke his wrath quickly find themselves on hold for the next two hours while he takes a long lunch.
name origin: due to his unflappable nature, he quickly became the go-to trooper to be called upon to mediate petty disputes. there is apparently no rhyme or reason for which side he chooses, but it has become an unofficial rule within the barracks that once Judge has made the final call, the party’s over.
TWO: [he/they] a member of Thorn’s diplomatic escort team, but the rest of them all try to keep Two at the back (preferably with his mouth taped shut) because despite his excellent marksmanship skills and high scores on the diplomacy and hostage negotiations sims, Two is a mean little bastard who would probably dox people on twitter in a modern au. Thorn snatched up Two very quickly, because he knew that his batchmate Moriarty was aiming for the recently-graduated cadet to join the Guard’s T&I division, and Thorn didn’t think Fox’s blood pressure could handle that.
name origin: “Two” is actually short for Two-Faced, and has nothing to do with their CT number. Two greatly enjoys getting the chance to explain this to people, and daring them to say anything about it. be careful, this one bites!
thanks for the ask, and thanks for reading this far!! if anyone ever have questions about my ocs or wants to chat about writing, feel free to hit me up!! i’ll take any chance i can get to talk about my little freaks 🥰
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bonkerlon · 1 year
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Itunes mp3 encoder
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#ITUNES MP3 ENCODER PLUS#
Not for mp3 players, but for Linux.Īnd the fact is on Linux that mp3 is not the most compatable - ogg is. You may not care about what codec is most supported, and I'm not here to argue ogg - I use aac on Mac/Windows and flac in Linux.īut the original poster, you know, the person who started this thread - said he wanted mp3 because he thought it was the most compatable. Sure - it's not difficult to work around. Until a small vulnerability is found in gstreamer and yum updates your custom gstreamer with the fedora updated library. If you add madplay and rebuild your gstreamer libraries to support mp3 etc (which with fedora isn't just a simple recompile from srpm - you have to get the source yourself because redhat ripped it out of the gstreamer srpm) etc. Who the hell cares what codec is "most" supported? is there some "most supported codec" trophy for each operating system that i've never heard of? all anybody needs is the ability to get something to work with a reasonable amount of effort. MP3 has slightly worse quality at 128k (using LAME) and for all intents and purposes both are equal when you are using Alt-presets versus high bitrate AAC - it's a matter of convenience - for good AACs you can use itunes but you need to use LAME for good MP3s. If you want it to work in iTunes, ogg is out of the picture. You may not be able to tell the difference now, but transcoding it to some other format will result in more sound quality loss than if you are transcoding from a higher quality encode. Ogg has the proven best sound quality of the bunch through double blind testing), and MP3 is absolutely the compatability leader across the board.ĪAC makes sense if you have an iPod, but then if you are going for archival, 128k is NOT the solution, and I'd recommend using at least 192k. AAC and Ogg aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so there is nothing to worry about there. Ogg does have the best linux support, and it has some hardware support too. 192k AAC would be fine, or MP3 using LAME and Alt-Preset Standard or Alt-preset extreme. It's not like we have 20GB hard disks these days. Given that 128k Ogg is in the same range/slightly discernably better than 128k AAC, 128K AAC is not transparent and hence is not overkill. Rip A Few My Way AppleScript installed, you can invoke the script from iTunes’ AppleScript menu and choose the encoder you’d like to use for selected CD tracks.That seems a like probably overkill, despite what many people would have you believe, 128 is pretty good You can also view iTunes’ Import Settings by selecting the CD in iTunes’ Source list and clicking the Import Settings button at the bottom-right of the iTunes window. Again, the higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality and the bigger the file. Select it and a new window opens where you can choose from among a variety of bit rates. For each encoder you also have a Custom option. Choose MP3 Encoder and your preset choices are Good Quality (128 kbps), High Quality (160 kbps), and Higher Quality (192 kbps).
#ITUNES MP3 ENCODER PLUS#
When you choose AAC Encoder your preset choices are High Quality (128 kbps), iTunes Plus (256 kbps), or Spoken Podcast (64 kbps). When you select either AAC Encoder or MP3 Encoder in the Import Using pop-up menu you can choose a different bit rate in the Setting pop-up menu below. (Using these encoders a 4-minute track is approximately 40MB.) The AIFF and WAV encoders maintain audio files at their original size and resolution. The Apple Lossless encoder cuts file size approximately in half without losing audio quality. In the resulting Import Settings window you can choose AAC Encoder, AIFF Encoder, Apple Lossless Encoder, MP3 Encoder, or WAV Encoder from the Import Using pop-up menu. To change the import settings, click on the appropriately named Import Settings button.
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feedslong · 1 year
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Cyberpunk 2077 requirements
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Cyberpunk 2077 requirements how to#
Cyberpunk 2077 requirements drivers#
Cyberpunk 2077 requirements update#
Cyberpunk 2077 requirements update#
There are two ways you can update your driver: manually and automatically.
Cyberpunk 2077 requirements drivers#
So, it’s recommended to keep your graphics card driver up to date.Īlso, keep updating your drivers regularly can keep your devices in a healthy state which prevent you from problems. If your graphics card couldn’t fully play its role, it will lower your gaming experience. Your graphics card plays a critical role in games, especially in this big, delicate game. Bonus Tip: Update your graphics card driver
Click the Display tab, and you’ll see the graphics card information.Ĭompare your system information with system requirements.
In DirectX Diagnostic Tool, under the System tab, you can check your Operating System, Processor and Memory.
On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key + R at the same time to invoke the Run box.
You need to check this information to know whether you could run this game on your computer. How to check system information in my computerĪ computer’s core components are CPU, GPU and RAM. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R9 Fury Note: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system Operating System The recommended system requirements represent the ideal situation to run Cyberpunk 2077. SSD recommended Recommended Specification NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 / AMD Radeon RX 470 Note: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system. Make sure your computer has met the minimum requirements. Here are the minimum system requirements for Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 requirements how to#
How to check system information in my computer.Take a while to check your GPU, processor, and ram before the game is released.Ĭheck the Bonus tip to help your computer running the game smoothly To play Cyberpunk 2077, you need to meet the minimum specifications. So here comes the question: Can you run Cyberpunk 2077 on your PC? Although the game is delayed 3 times, people are still eager to play it, and they believe this game is worth the wait. Game players have huge expectations for this game. If you want to move up to 4K ray tracing with the settings on Ultra, only the RTX 3080 will do the job - or the RTX 3090 if you’re that lucky.Cyberpunk 2077 will be released on 10th December 2020 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia (A cloud gaming service developed by Google).Ĭyberpunk 2077 is a video game that has great design features. To run the game with ray tracing on Ultra at 1440p, you’ll need to have an RTX 3070. While those modes may be pretty demanding, it’s when ray tracing is involved that the requirements really take a jump. If you want to make the jump to 4K, you’ll need to bump your GPU all the way up to an Nvidia RTX 2080S, an RTX 3070, or a Radeon RX 6800 XT. With just a RTX 2060 or a Radeon RX 5700 XT, you’ll be able to run the game on Ultra settings at 1440p. Even the “High” settings that CD Projekt Red has listed aren’t too bad. We already knew the Cyberpunk 2077’s minimum and recommended settings, which are both pretty reasonable. On Friday, CD Projekt Red announced the game’s PC system requirements and gave players plenty of detail on what kind of hardware they will need to run the game on various settings, including with ray tracing enabled. Cyberpunk 2077 is only a few weeks away and we finally know exactly what kind of hardware you’ll need to run the PC version any way you want.
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xamaxenta · 3 years
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Ooh aah just had the sweetest play versus a noble knight player
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bluefirewrites · 3 years
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not sure if u are still taking this but, celebrity/fan au for JUKEE 🤭
Okay this one's a little involved but I got you!
Rated T for mentions of sex and maybe some language
SEND ME A SHIP AND A NUMBER AND I’LL WRITE A SHORT FIC
******
Julie tugs against the rather short dress Flynn had squeezed her in, not caring for how much she looks like a glorified candy wrapper in the shimmering gold.
She feels like she's some Ferrer Roche, waiting to be devoured.
Which seems to be her intention for tonight because she's insane, and so is her bestie Flynn, because she's supposed to grab the attention of a certain someone in this club.
Her motives for tonight sound like they come straight out of a Wattpad story, but her boyfriend- or well maybe an ex boyfriend now'- forced her hand.
So a year ago, right around the time they started dating, they both disclosed their 'hall passes'. Just a list of celebrities they were both 'allowed' to cheat on their partners with. It was fun. Just to see who the other person would pick. 
It was harmless because the whole point is that these people are so famous, so far out of reach, that the odds of hooking up with them would be essentially impossible.
Nick's was the lead singer of the world famous pop group Dirty Candi. And Julie remembers drunkenly applauding the choice ("She's pretty! Wowww you like them Bubblegum Pop girls?")
They had a laugh that night and Julie doesn't really consider that hall pass conversation all that much since then-
-Until fast forward to last week when Nick disclosed to her that he ran into Carrie Wilson at an event. And then promptly disclosed to her that he invoked his 'Hall Pass' rights.
His rights?! She had exploded at him, and he claims that its no big deal. That he thought she would understand that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, a crazy set of circumstances, and that- 'Holy shit Jules, she was actually into me. Like what?'
Understandably, Julie stormed out and has been staying with Flynn for the time being. And it must have been the haze of crying and watching a lot of true crime series to cheer herself up that she and Flynn concocted this... plan.
One fueled by spite and pettiness.
Get back at Nick, make him jealous, make him feel how she did- by invoking her own 'Hall Pass' rights- 
-which so happens to be Sunset Curve frontman, Luke Patterson... 
"There he is" Flynn whispers from their corner of the club and Julie gulps.
"I don't think I can do this," Julie hisses at Flynn, when they spot him at the bar, nursing a drink with his bandmates like he usually would (they did their research). 
See, Julie’s been a fan of Luke’s for a long time. Ever since she heard ‘Now or Never’ in freshman year of high school, she’s been hooked onto their music- especially Luke and his voice and playing. 
She had their posters on her bedroom wall and had been that girl who would (when no one’s looking) press her fingers to her lips then press them against Luke’s image before going to bed. 
It was that bad. 
And Julie had probably fantasized on more than one occasion of meeting him and all the other scenarios you would picture in a typical Celeb x Reader scenario. 
And she’d like to think she grew out of it, now she’s in her mid-twenties and just casually listens to Sunset Curve, following up on their careers every now and then. 
But you can never really shake your first major celebrity crush. Hence he had been on her so called ‘Hall Pass’ list. 
(”You into rockstars, Jules?” Nick had teased her that night.)
Seeing him there, in the same place as her, is so surreal, but Flynn’s continued pinches to her arm remind her just how real this is. 
“This is ridiculous,” Julie crosses her arms, ready to bow out because what is she thinking? Why would Luke Patterson pick her up, of all people, at the bar? It’s like a supermodel runway in here, filled with girls more accomplished and famous. Her confidence is shaken a bit and she rethinks everything. 
"Nick didn't seem to have a problem when he did it," Flynn points out, “And girl, you look great. He would be blind to not want you.” 
The mention of Nick still boils her blood, which only reaffirms her plans for revenge. She’s still nervous but they both stand up from their booth and walk over to the bar. 
“You’re just saying that because you’re my best friend,” 
“No. You’re musician extraordinaire, Julie Molina! The world may not have heard about you, but they will one day. I bet that’s something you can talk to him about. Music? Lyrics?” 
Julie could use her songwriting credentials to her advantage, “I mean I guess-” 
“Quick, he’s getting up!” 
“Flynn, wait I’m not-” 
With a forceful push, Flynn sends Julie into the path of Luke Patterson, colliding into him and effectively spilling his drink all over her dress. 
“Oh my god,” Luke gapes at her, “I am so sorry-” 
Julie fans herself, shaking slightly from the fact she’s drenched and also that her freakin’ high school celebrity crush is looking at her, actually talking to her. 
But she recovers quickly, and she speaks, “It’s fine. Really. I guess I’m just... clumsy.” She shoots a glare at Flynn, who merely winks and retreats to their booth. 
Luke grimaces and takes her by the hand, leading her somewhere, napkins in his other hand, “Here, let’s get you cleaned up. Again, I’m sorry. Hate to ruin a pretty... dress.”
It’s the way he eyes her that catches Julie off guard. He’s... not talking about the dress, is he? 
Julie reels it back in tries her hand at a joke, “I wouldn’t call this a dress. I feel like fancy leftovers in this thing.” 
Luke stifles a laugh, “Okay, I mean I wasn’t gonna say anything but yeah. I guess it’s a bit tin foil-y.”
“Not your style?”
His gaze drifts over to her one last time, “Well, any way to take a meal back home is fine by me. I mean-” Luke scrunches his nose, wincing, “I didn’t- I didn’t mean it like that. Shit. That was too... much. Are we-” he laughs nervously, “Are we still... talking about food?”
“Unless you just called me a meal. Then no.” 
The look in his eyes say that he’s absolutely mortified, “...yeah. I think I did. I was hoping that was a nightmare.” 
“Nope, it definitely happened,” 
“Feel free to slap me,” 
Julie giggles, somewhat delirious because she hasn’t tried to flirt with him but here Luke is, flirting with her. Or trying. And failing. Like a far cry from the suave rockstar she had pictured him to be. 
“No need. Just, can you-?” she points to the napkins he’s holding hostage. 
“Oh yeah. Here,” They stop in front of the coat check, and he hands her the napkins so she could try herself off with the best she can.
Suddenly, a weight falls onto her shoulders, she looks up and sees Luke draping a jacket over her- his presumably. 
“You looked cold,”
Julie wraps the jacket tight against her, relishing in the warmth, “Wow, thanks.”
Luke smiled and stepped back, “Just so you know, if I made you feel weird in any way, I’d like to throw out my third ‘sorry’ of the night. Nothing has to happen though. So, just say the word and I’ll leave you alone.”
Whew. Um, okay. Julie stands there, faced with this decision. 
The compliments aside (she will revisit those later), Luke’s giving her an out. Any reservations she has about moving forward with this plan, this is her chance to leave. 
She could just treasure these amazing few minutes for the rest of her life. This could be a story to tell friends at a dinner party, about the time a rockstar lent her his jacket. Would be up there with the time Jack Black passed her on the street and said “Nice hat!”. 
But-
Maybe she wants to see where this goes. 
“All this talk about food is making me hungry though...” she says and Luke lights up, “I could go for a bite to eat.” 
Luke snaps his fingers, “I know just the place.” 
*******
Half an hour later, Julie and Flynn are in a smelly alleyway with the guys from Sunset Curve, in line for a street dog cart just a couple blocks away. 
“An Oldsmobile?” Julie gawked after hearing Luke and the guys describe the delicacy, “Are you trying to poison me?”
“I swear by it,” Luke insists, taking her hand and moving them up in the line. Flynn sees this and doesn’t comment, but Julie’s starting to get used to Luke doing that, “You have to try!”  
Julie doesn't know when she got over her initial starstruck, but by now its so easy to treat Luke like a regular person.
Well, celebrities are all regular people in the end, but more so now that he and his friends, have their sleeves rolled up, smiles wide, ready to dig into what may be the most disgusting hot dog she has ever seen.
Julie takes a bite out of hers and her eyes widen. Wow. It's not terrible.
"Ayy! We got another one, boys" Reggie laughs, noting her reaction.
"Told ya" Luke needles her sides and she giggles, ticklish. Her knee jerk reaction is to playfully shove him, but in the process accidentally smeared some mustard onto his face.
Luke goes to lick it off with his tongue, making funny faces as he did which amused Julie even more.
"Here," she takes a napkin and wipes at his cheek, "Now we're even."
The whole group gets to talking over by the couches, while Flynn chats up the other boys, Julie and Luke are sequestered in their own corner, and yes, eventually the topic switches to music.
"Wait, so you know Rose and the Petal Pushers?" Luke chokes out, "Like everyone I talk to hasn't heard of them!"
"Yup. Have their record actually" Julie beams proudly, censoring out the part that its her mom's band and hence she has one of the few records ever released.
Luke is floored by that and continues to poke her brain for music and Julie finds that their spiels go on naturally, that she could probably talk with Luke for hours and hours.
Which ends up happening. Flynn had already made her escape, having texted her to come home safely, the boys had gone too, leaving them in the nearly empty lot.
When the food truck closes down for the night, they end up taking a stroll down the streets of L.A, talking and getting to know each other.
Julie learns so much about Luke, things she's never heard about from the press- like his songwriting practice, that he cries at Finding Nemo, and that he can do a cartwheel only when drunk.
And in return Julie shares with him her crazy college stories, how she misses her mom sometimes, and that she is encyclopedia of commercial jingles (a fact Luke exploits by rapidly quizzing her at random moments)
Somehow they end up near the beach, with Julie pointing out the different stars she could see, but finds that Luke isn't looking at the sky.
"Hey, Julie..." He gets her attention, "I had a really good time tonight."
"Me too"
"So... would it be alright, if I kiss you?"
Julie's mouth parts, speechless. It happened. Holy shit it happened or... is happening. She has Luke exactly where she wants him.
She could only nod and Luke takes it as the sign to lean in, but just as his lips is about to brush against hers, she freaks-
"Wait" she steps back. Luke opens his mouth, "No. No more 'sorry's from you. This one's one me. I'm sorry but... this- this" She sighs, "I have to be honest with you."
Then she tells Luke everything- Nick, The Hall Pass, her plans for tonight- basically admitting to using him.
When she's done, she expects for Luke to get angry, to leave in a huff and never want to see her again.
That's not what happens.
"This Nick guy sounds like a piece of work" he says.
Julie nods slowly, "Yeah... I guess he was. So maybe that's why I did it. But I don't think I could have gone through with it. Like I don't think we're together, me and Nick but-"
"You wouldn't want to do what he did. Because you don't want to hurt people," Luke surmises, understanding, "And by doing that, that means you're a better person than he is."
"I guess"
"No Julie, you're a good person" Luke insists, "Man, I think that makes me like you even more."
Julie laughs, "God, if my high school self could see me now..."
"You were a big fan?"
"I'm not having this conversation right now with you,"
"Okay cuz now you got me curious-"
Julie swats his shoulder but it doesn't deter the guy from snickering.
On a more serious note though-
"I think..." Julie hums, "I think this means that I got some stuff to work through. Before I could start considering... this."
"I understand"
"But thank you... Luke. For tonight"
"It's been real, Julie,"Luke smiles and pulls her in for a half hug, "And you should keep the jacket. Looks better on you anyway."
****
Julie goes back to Flynn's that night and her bestie's still awake, wanting all the deets. But there's not much to tell. Nothing happened.
She shrugs off the jacket and resigns to the couch, not caring that her makeup is still on. She's about ready to pass out.
Her phone dings.
She pulls it out and sees two notifications.
luke_patterson is now following you
luke_patterson is requesting to message you.
Curious, she accepts the request.
'here if you want to talk, Tin Foil :P'
Julie rolls her eyes and collapses onto the couch, sleeping with a smile on her face.
She doesn't know it now, but the oncoming years would be filled with more messages back and forth, meetups with their friends for more shady street food, building a solid foundation of friendship and eventually, when Luke asks again if he could kiss her, Julie would eagerly prop herself on her toes to close the gap.
Yeah, Julie's high school self would definitely be screaming...
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heatherstyles · 2 years
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Books I've read during my break
here's a tiny rec list and also a personal book diary for myself✨ (ranking them by order too)
1. The Folk Of The Air series : 100000/10000
The Cruel Prince
The Wicked King
The Queen Of Nothing
Literally hardcore enemies to lovers you can't even imagine how hardcore it is. I definitely do not read enough fantasy books and this is my sign to read more. The sexual tension and the mutual pining ohmygod🔥. Lots of politics by the way but it's also really interesting. It makes me want to read more and really spins the wheels in my brain. I have been captivated by this series ever since I picked up the first book. Fantasy is just so thrilling agghh. I'm doomed lmao. Jude Duarte my queen!!!🖤🖤 She could step on me and I'd thank her for it . Better yet I wish she would fight me or smth lmao. Carden is such a simp for his wife I do not know what else to do with that lovesick fool. Anyway Jurdan supremacy!! I love them so much!🖤
1. The Deal (off-campus series) : 100000/10000 PERIODT (now i have started this series I have to read the rest)
fake dating trope, popular guy + quiet girl, tw//rape* and also feels like friends with benefits to lovers. Basically it's two people who run in totally different circles striking a deal which leads to more. Rating it high because its totally my type of book💖 I love romance novels like these that gives me the excitement and adrenaline as if I'm the main character. Hannah is such a lovely character she's the type of pretty girls that normally don't catch people's attention but when you pay attention she's the most incredible person ever. It's pretty sweet and oh very hot ngl. Okay but Garrett Graham>>>. Please he's so cute when he's simping over Hannah. Ooh bonus because he punched another dude for her and also invoked a CAMPUS WIDE HANDS-OFF RULE🔥. He's definitely on my top 3 best fictional boyfriends😩💖
2 . The Love Hypothesis : 9/10
the grumpy + sunshine trope and fake dating trope I love so much. Its so obvious he has a thing for her at the start and god their interactions are all so so adorable. It's a super fluffy and adorable romcom. It's heartwarming and funny it makes me teary sometimes. I've been so engrossed with it because the author's writing is reaaalllyy good. Adam is such a softie for Olive awww. There wasn't much angst in it but I loved the ending either way. They make such a cute couple💖
The End
I'm at the point where I'm so obsessed I made playlists for those 3 couples because WHY NOT and I love them so much. Anyway thank you so much for reading. Would love to talk abt these books if anyone has read them or wants to haha. My break just ended and it's back to classes tmr so I'm sad and about to hide under my blankets and cry lmao. Bye have a great week ahead. Xoxo
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grailfinders · 3 years
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Fate and Phantasms #196
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Today on Fate and Phantasms we're building the last of the Three Goddesses Alliance, Ereshkigal! (It took her long enough to show up.)
Eresh is a Grave Cleric for relatively obvious reasons, as it lets her do pretty much everything she does- raise the dead, care for the dead, raise the dead properly, cause earthquakes, and start pandemics. Maybe don't do that last one right now, we're kinda busy with one already. It's a shame Soul Cage is a wizard spell, but pobody's nerfect.
Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!
Next up: Now all of China knows you're on the naughty list.
Race and Background
Ereshkigal is part chthonic god, part human thanks to being a pseudoservant, that means Fallen Aasimar is a pretty good choice for her. You get Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, Healing Hands to heal with your hands, and the Light cantrip to help the mortals with their dumb mortal eyes, using Charisma to cast it.
She's also the Three Goddess' Representative on behalf of humanity, trying to squirrel some away to prevent them from being entirely wiped out. This gives her proficiency with Intimidation and Religion, as well as an extended spell list we'll go over as it comes up. If you're wondering about the Intimidation: Yes the fandom thinks she's cute now, but you have to remember she's still a god of death. Most people aren't going to be as chill with her.
Ability Scores
Wisdom is first, Ereshkigal spent millennia honing her art alone in the underworld, so either she has a super high wisdom or an incredibly low one. But high wisdom works better for the build, so we'll go with that. Second is Charisma- some people love you, some people are terrified of you, those are both charisma. Your Dexterity is also solid, because your armor is not. Your Constitution is above average because while we don't need it for the build have you SEEN her HP stat? Your Intelligence is okay. You're not dumb, we just need other stuff more. Finally, dump Strength. You're a bit awkward with that spear, but we'll get some stuff to make it work later.
Class Levels
You're 100% Grave Cleric, so we'll just get into it. Starting off in this subclass gets you proficiency with Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as Persuasion to show off your awkward charms and History because you're literally older than the written word. At first level you also enter the Circle of Mortality, so your healing spells automatically heal for max HP on creatures with 0 HP, and you get a suped-up version of the Spare the Dying cantrip that uses a bonus action and has a thirty foot range. You also get Eyes of the Grave, meaning you can sense undead creatures within 60' of you if they're not behind cover. It won't tell you about their identity though, so make sure you don't pick a fight with Strahd, you're still only level one. You can do this Wisdom modifier times per long rest. Starting in a spellcasting class also gets you Spells, surprise surprise, and having a Ravnica background gets you even more. Being a grave cleric gets you Bane and False Life for free, giving you easy access to curses and HP boosts early in the game. Something I want to bring up about the ravnica background before we move forward: I misread how these backgrounds work before. They add spells to your class' spell list, not your spells known. That means builds where you pick spells every level only get the opportunity to learn those spells, they don't just get all of them for free. Clerics can prepare spells from their spell list every long rest anyway so it's not a big difference here, but it is something I'll have to go back and fix for the other members of the alliance and Ishtar. Anyways, you get Illusory Script added to your spell list, not exactly something you'll probably use. For spells you can actually choose, grab Resistance for a goddess core that adds 1d4 to your next save, Thaumaturgy for when you need to get dramatic with extra magical effects, and Toll the Dead to do just that for some necrotic damage. You can also choose to prepare spells like Command to flex your authority and Protection from Evil and Good to flex on your sister.
Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest in two flavors. Turn Undead takes care of undead that fail their wisdom save, and Path to the Grave will clear out anything else. Spend your action to curse a creature, giving vulnerability to the next attack that hits it. Rules as written you can't target a mountain with this, and you definitely can't get the bonus for an Earthquake spell, but I'd allow it for the cool factor. Alternatively, you can Harness Divine Power to spend one use of Channel Divinity for an extra spell slot which is a level equal to or less than half your proficiency bonus. You can do this once per long rest, but that will grow as your Channel Divinity uses do.
Usually your third level doesn't get you much of anything as a cleric, but since you're a fallen aasimar you get a Necrotic Shroud, spending an action to get really spooky for a minute. Mechanically, this is your big ghostly form, and it'll frighten nearby creatures that fail a charisma save, and for the minute you're transformed you'll deal an extra bit of necrotic damage once per turn. You can go ghost once per long rest. You also get second level spells now, including your freebies Gentle Repose to prevent people from rising back as zombies and Ray of Enfeeblement, which weakens a creature's weapon attacks for up to a minute. They can make a constitution save to shrug it off, but not until the after the spell's already hit, so at least you'll get your money's worth. Thanks to your background you can also learn the spell Enthrall, making it harder for people to notice anyone but you. As someone who's existed in this fandom for any period of time, I can confirm Ereshkigal definitely has this ability. You can also prepare spells like Spiritual Weapon to have a spear that actually hits good and Protection from Poison for more goddess core shenanigans. Finally, make sure you pick up Silence. I'm still not entirely sure how we'll build Tiamat, but that should help shut off her immortality.
At fourth level you get your first Ability Score Improvement, which won't actually be improving your ability scores. grab the Eldritch Adept feat for the Armor of Shadows invocation so you can cast mage armor on yourself for free. You also learn how to cast Friends to make it easier to make friends and terrify your enemies.
Fifth level clerics get third level spells, including your freebies Revivify and Vampiric Touch. You're the god of the dead, so people should only really die when you want them to. Alternatively, you can Animate Dead to summon some skeletons for your own uses. You can also use Spirit Guardians to get more ghostly defenses. They'll slow down creatures of your choice in your area, and if they fail wisdom save they'll take radiant and/or necrotic damage, with it getting halved if they succeed.
At sixth level you get a second use of Channel Divinity per short rest, and a second use of Harness Divine Power per long rest. You also become a Sentinel at Death's Door, shutting down a critical hit near you as a reaction, turning it into a regular attack Wisdom Modifier times per long rest. Sure, you can bring people back later, but this is way less expensive.
Seventh level clerics get fourth level spells, like Blight and Death Ward. It is really hard for flowers to grow in the underworld. You can also use Leomund's Secret Chest thanks to your background, or you can prepare Banishment to throw Tiamat back where she came from, use Guardian of Faith for more ghosts, and leave an Aura of Purity around you to give your allies the blessings of Kur.
Eighth level clerics get another ASI, and this one will improve your ability scores. Kinda. We're grabbing another feat, but being Shadow Touched will improve your Wisdom by one point. It lets you cast Invisibility or Disguise Self once per long rest for free, or you can cast either spell as if it were a normal spell on your spell list. Now you can really make yourself look ghostly, if a bit undersized for your boss fight. Your destroy undead also bumps up to hit CR 1 creatures, but that'll blow up your skeletons as well, so be careful with it. Finally, Potent Spellcasting adds your wisdom modifier to your cleric cantrip damage. Nobody can toll the dead harder than the god of the dead.
Ninth level cleric, fifth level spells. Antilife Shell prevents anyone from getting too close to you, though it also means you can't get close to them without breaking the spell. It's almost poetic. Anyway, you also get Raise Dead, which is like revivify but with a more lenient time frame. You can also instigate your very own christmas event now with Contagion! This spell poisons a target, and at the end of each of its turns it has to make a Constitution save. After succeeding three throws, the spell ends. If it fails three throws, it gets a disease for the rest of the week. The closest thing to Sumerian Flu is probably Filth Fever, which gives disadvantage on saves, checks, and attacks that use strength, but there's all sorts of diseases you can give people. Technically this isn't a contagious disease, but talk to your DM, I'm sure you can work something out. You can also use Hallow to turn your room into a little slice of the underworld, shutting down your sister even further.
Tenth level clerics can invoke Divine Intervention with a 1 in 10 chance of getting a free favor from your god. Your god is you, technically, but it'll make more sense later. You can use this once per day, but it takes a week to recharge after it actually works. You can also cast the Light cantrip now. You could do it before, but now it's stronger.
Destroy Undead grows to hit CR 2 undead, and you can cast sixth level spells. Create Undead makes stronger undead for your army. Sadly dinosaur skeletons aren't available, so you'll just have to settle for ghouls. At higher levels you still won't get dinosaurs, but you can get ghasts, wights, and even mummies! Just be careful you don't stop recasting the spell, mummy rot can be rough. You can also summon a Heroes' Feast for more blessings from Kur, and you can take on an Otherworldly Form for another ghost transformation. This spell makes you immune to fire and poison damage as well as the poisoned condition. You can fly 40' per round, get +2 to AC, and you can attack with weapons using your wisdom twice per attack action. You're stuck with the UA version of this spell, so it takes an action, but on the plus side this just gives you an excuse to use Spiritual Weapon more.
Use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for more health. Health gets added retroactively, so you get +12 HP now instead of just +1. It's pretty nice.
Seventh level spells! Resurrection further cements your control over death with a time limit of a century, and you can also Plane Shift yourself (or an enemy) into the underworld.
Destroy Undead hits CR 3 creatures now. Not even mummies can stand up to your power!
Fifteenth level clerics get eight level spells. If silence won't keep Tiamat down, Antimagic Field should do the trick. The one problem there is it's only a 10' sphere around you, and you rely on magic way more than Tiamat does. You can also cause Earthquakes, turning a very large area into difficult terrain, disrupting concentration, knocking creatures prone, and destroying structures in the area. The one problem here is that you can't fly, so be careful where you're pointing that thing.
Yet another ASI. Use this one to finally max out your Wisdom for super strong spells and better protection from crits.
If you make it to level 17, you get the super powerful ninth level spells. Also, Destroy Undead hits CR 4 creatures, and you become a Keeper of Souls, stealing away some of a dying enemy's soul to heal an ally based on the creature's hit dice once per turn. Right though, ninth level spells. True Resurrection brings someone back even if they've been disintegrated 199 years ago. It's expensive, but you can always grab some gems from your sister if you're pressed for cash. The benefits of sharing a body.
At eighteenth level you get a third Channel Divinity and another use of Harness Divine Power. Really get those paths to the grave filled, it's kind of your thing.
Use your last ASI to grab the Tough feat for 38 HP now and another 2 next level. You have one of the highest HP stats in the game, this only makes sense.
Your capstone level is an improvement to your Divine Intervention. You know how I keep bringing up multiclassing as a con when we include cleric levels? This is why. Your divine intervention now always succeeds. Period. I mean, it makes sense. You are the god giving you power. But yeah, you get guaranteed god-level power freely given as an action. You truly have the power of god and anime on your side.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Clerics have a good variety of spells, and you take it even further with your background. You can heal but you're not completely hosed on your own like Medea Lily, you can deal damage and still do stuff outside of combat unlike your sister, and you have utility without your build being dominated by it like Hundred Personas.
You might not be good in a one on one fight, but you don't get into those that often thanks to your skeleton army. If you just dedicate harnessing divine power to keeping them in line, you can have nine extra bodies on the field to turn the action economy in your favor.
Even when we're not talking about spells, you're still really supportive of your team. Shutting down critical hits and stabilizing your allies quickly will seriously improve the longevity of your party.
Cons:
Dabbling in so many areas of magic means you're unfocused, so you won't excel in any one. You won't heal as much as Medea, deal as much damage as Ishtar, or be a skill monkey like Hundred Personas.
You also rely on magic completely for combat, which means stepping into an anti-magic zone can be deadly. This is especially bad for you, since an anti-magic zone will probably be the best way to deal with Tiamat.
You might have an undead army, but your best spells are area of effect and you're a cleric. Destroy Undead is kind of a big deal for you.
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enha-woodzies · 3 years
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➸ CHAPTER 9 | " THE SPACE BETWEEN US "
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starring: enhypen ft. i-land daniel
pairing: jungwon x fem!reader x sunghoon
genres: royal au, romance, angst, slowburn, 18th century setting
warnings: very mild swearing; brief arguments
word count: 2.5k
taglist: @serendipitysung (betareader) @en-sun @affectionaterainoflove @renkiv @softforjungwoo @jislix @gyeraniee @fluffi @stxrryemxlys @jungwon-luv-bot-pt3 @lost-lepord-beanie @hyunsunge @hooniecore @thenoceurgirl @thonkingdeepo
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[ PREV. CHAPTER ] | [ M. LIST ] | [ NEXT CHAPTER ]
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START OF PARK SUNGHOON'S POV
I stood there at the side, leaning against the arched entrance. I never meant to eavesdrop in the conversation you were having with the firstborn of the Yang family. It piqued my interest upon hearing your troubles and impulsively decided to help you. To pass time, I guess… or to stall my father into giving me his magnificent title of a duke and have me marry some lady I don’t even desire to have.
Without any significant bargain in the offer, I suggested anyway with the thought that maybe this could help me look at myself the way everyone did before I made history with your brother. The physical bruises and scars we both afflicted on each other faded with time, but the torturous memory continues to haunt us. I may look fine around his presence, but he never had the slightest idea of how I curse myself every single night knowing I not only ruined him and his tender affections with Yena, but our budding and steadfast friendship as well.
I was heinous then. But I swear with my whole heart, I don’t ever intend to hurt you now the way I did with your brother. The moment I let myself drown in your alluring gaze under that brightly lit moonlight, I told myself I won’t take another girl for granted. Not just because I owe it to Niki, but because you were the first person who looked at me without judgment despite knowing your brothers detest me with the entirety of their souls.
I’ve been courting you for over a month now and I’m completely aware of the things we’ve agreed upon about the ruse; needless to say, one might catch feelings in the aftermath. I know this was all a show to give Jungwon a headstart for his own game, but why am I gravely pained every time his name slips out of your lips? Why do I keep myself up on most nights thinking about this lingering question of who do you love? Why do I want to hold you even closer to my side every time he looks at us in dismay?
I’ve come to know that I had myself caught in the middle of whatever this is between you and him; that I’m just the fuel to the fire that’s already been there, left neglected within time. But I can’t help but feel like I need to protect you from him; from whatever hurt he might cause you over time. Although I know my place in all of this and where I stand, it still stings thinking that it isn’t in your heart.
Why would it be, anyway? I’m only just a page you couldn’t keep; a filler in your romantic novel who had the part of the villain origin story but couldn’t fight your hopeless hero. Sadly, Jungwon’s five steps ahead of me. So much for telling the ton there was us in the making, but you weren’t even mine to begin with.
Your mother invited me and the Yang family for dinner a sennight ago. She said it was to properly introduce me as your husband-to-be to your family, that includes your lover’s sitting across the table discussing the recent blow from the Daily Tattle, which was, of course, us.
“Jungwon, dear, have you wished your friend, Y/n, luck on her future wedding with the duke-to-be? Need I remind you that she’s going to need some of it from her best friends.” Lady Yang gently nudged her son who was busy tapping his spoon and fork upon the table. “Jungwon here is finally courting someone, have you heard of that, dear? Lady Choi, daughter of the-”
“The ever famous cheese merchant of our city, Viscount Choi, whom without, we wouldn’t be eating this opulent cheese on the table right this very moment.” I finished, which made the two mothers impressively smile in my direction. Realizing how uncomfortable you become at the very slightest mention of Jungwon’s new lover, I figured butting in could end your agony; seeing that your man is stupid enough to not read the situation in front of him. He seemed more occupied with the utensils than your disheartened state.
As predicted, you excused yourself, and it went without saying that Jungwon followed after you as you rushed out the dining hall and out to your garden. Your brothers and his soon left the hall and went with their casual discourse on the parlor, leaving his and your mother exchanging wedding plans with the company of champagne bottles and cheese. I held my head up high as I walked into the library to reflect on matters that kept me wondering at night. Until Niki strode in, with a pocket watch in hand.
“Riki, I’m-”
“Save your breath, Your Grace. You’re going to need it in case you piss the hell out of Jungwon and he lands his knuckles on your pretty face again.”
“Why don’t you do it then? Can’t get your hands dirty for your sister yet you can for Yena?”
“Do not fucking tempt me, Sunghoon.”
“Too bad. I’d love to see you try, though.”
“And I’d love to see your little mouth shut, Your Grace. You’re impressive, but I’m sure you’ve always been told that. For a moment there you really had me thinking you were about to apologize to my brother. Turns out you’re still the coward that you’ve always been.” Jay walked in unannounced, slightly scaring me. He’s like a lion ready to hunt for prey, even though he’d just sit there looking unbothered. I’ve always deemed your eldest brother with veneration. All I did was drop my head low when he threw me those harsh words, though I completely agree as they embody me in so many ways possible. I hate it.
“A wedding, huh? Don’t you think you’re going too far, already? This ruse is nothing but a shame to both our families. Heed me while I’m asking you nicely to end this foolishness you’ve invoked on our sister.”
“Forgive me… but I’m afraid I can’t.”
Fortunately, Niki was quick enough to grab a hold of Jay when he was about to come at me. I must say this now before it’s too late, and better be in front of your brothers than your lover.
“I will take full responsibility for Y/n. I will be a man of worth to her and a word of honor, I will end any future causes of grievances upon us both. I will protect her from it, just as I’m doing now.”
“You’re doing nothing but stall her from her fate with Jungwon!”
“And how do you know she still cares for him? Haven’t you seen the look on your dear sister’s face whenever Jungwon’s name is brought up? Haven’t you seen that man strolling around the town with a fancy girl in hand a week after breaking your sister’s heart? I thought so. But you just want things to go your way. I’ll respect that. For now.”
I dashed out of the library after giving them a piece of my mind. Though I had planned to apologize to Niki, Jay’s words got the best of me. I headed towards the garden to look for you, but before I could have your attention, Jungwon already did.
END OF PARK SUNGHOON’S POV
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 Jungwon rushed to the garden, following Y/n’s quick pace in an attempt to block out any possible thoughts about her lover. Basking under the bright moonlight, Jungwon grabbed her by the wrist, making her turn and crash against his jabot-clad chest.
“Y/n, please-”
“Really, Jung? God! You totally had me fooled that day when I thought we were having a moment!”
“We did! But-”
“But what? You can’t hold yourself accountable for the things you left me with so you squander your way with another lady? Tough blow, don’t you think?”
“Please, Y/n, I just need you to listen to me and-”
“I’m tired, Jung. All these years, you let me wait for you for five years just to have you run back and hurt me again. I’m tired of you making a fool out of me, and I’m dumb enough to always let you. Because I love you. I love you so much, it fucking hurts. I have so much love for you yet here you are, always welcoming me with fleeting bliss and leaving me with endless torment. But the damage has been done and I’m out. I love you, but I guess I’m going to have to leave it like this.”
“You still do?”
“God! I poured out my heart for you and all you could say was that? Jung, how can you be so dense?! I wouldn’t have let you hold me that day in the forest if I don’t love you! I asked you for a new start but you ran off and a week later you’re traipsing around Northumberland with Lady Choi! Right in front of me!”
“You were with that man that day too, in front of me! You look at him with so much admiration with your hand hanging on his arm. How do you think that made me feel?!”
“More than the damage you did to me? What a load of nonsense, Jung! And here I thought you already knew that Sunghoon and I were just fooling around to get to you.”
“Well, I’m here now, Y/n! I’m all yours now!”
“No, you’re not. You just can’t bear the truth that you lost me to him. At the end of the day, it will always be your pride. It always has been. I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I’m apologizing but I still will. This ends here, Jung. I wish you well.”
The entire time that Y/n and the young lord were arguing out the garden, Jay and Niki were carefully listening from the library’s window; Niki figured it was finally time to spill the truth to his sister.
Niki followed Y/n to her room, taking note of the soft sobs and sniffles she emitted. She turned around when she felt her brother’s footsteps trailing after her.
“Riki…” Niki was suddenly enclosed by Y/n’s tight embrace, dampening his jabot shirt with her tears. He returned the warm hug as he gently rubs her corseted back, feeling the constant huffs from her crying.
“I’m sorry about Jungwon.”
“He doesn’t deserve me.” The lady muffled against her brother’s chest.
“Maybe you’re right. And neither does Sunghoon. Listen, Sister. There’s something I need to get off my chest. Come.” The two entered the lady’s room and Niki carefully shut the door tight, locking it in the process. He sat atop the neatly arranged bed while patting the space next to him, gesturing Y/n to sit closer to his side.
“Jay isn’t happy with the sudden announcement of your engagement, and neither am I. But always know that I will always have your back, just like how you always have mine. I’ve seen how Sunghoon made you smile and laugh like how you used to with Jungwon back in the day. This day feared me but we’re here now, and I must tell you the reason why we’re all against him courting you in the first place.”
“Remember Yena? The girl I told you about in the letters? Sunghoon… he deceived her. He made her cheat against me, fed her with lies, and tricked her into thinking our love was nothing but a hoax. I saw them one day in his father’s garden, I followed them, curious enough to see how he made her happier than when she was with me. Until he kissed her. He took her first kiss when I thought we’d be sharing it with each other. And she kissed him back... like I wasn’t even someone to reckon with. Needless to say, I attacked him. The boys went against him afterward. Jungwon was there too. With all the lies he wired into her brain, Yena never looked at me the same after that day. And the many days that followed. She and Sunghoon just suddenly stopped seeing after the fight that erupted between us.”
“The thing was, sister, Sunghoon never loved her. He was young and didn’t want to let the opportunity pass, that’s what he told us when I had his collar by my clutch. That was the only excuse he could ever give us. The asshole that he is.” Niki clicks his tongue while dropping his head low, gaze fixed on the carpeted area on the floor across them. “Fuck. I would still have Yena if he didn’t try to treat things like we were playing a game of who could get the girl first. Thinking about the time he wasted on nothing genuine, Yena could have spent it on me instead and I would have had her here, introduced to Mother and the ton.”
Y/n placed a hand on her brother’s closed, shaky fists. Niki let out soft sniffles, trying his best to keep himself from cracking. “I’m sorry, Riki, I didn’t know. He told me it was all in the past and that he desires to make amends now.” Niki jerks up, eyes fixed on his sister’s eyes. “You’ve only heard his point of view, you never heard mine. Sunghoon’s made a whole record in university, Y/n. He goes around the grounds breaking hearts like he owns them. Girls would swoon over him and he would gladly oblige. What an ambitious, cunning little prick. And now he has you wrapped around his fingers, the same way he did to Yena.”
“I’m sure he means no harm now, brother. He’s been nothing but kind and gentle to me. He makes me utterly happy; the part of my romantic story where I used to want Jungwon to be consistent of.”
“You know, I’ve always been considerate of your choices and aspirations, sister. But I will not lose you to Sunghoon like this. I’m afraid Jay and I will have to be very uptight with you seeing him from now on. I’m sure by now you’ve come to understand why Jungwon’s scared of surrendering you to him. He means well, sis, Jungwon…”
“I will not settle for someone whom I have to spend a lifetime second-guessing whether he wants me in his life or not.”
“But he’s been missing you a lot lately, hasn’t he?”
“I’m afraid him missing me is far too different from him wanting to marry me.”
Niki only sighs before planting a soft kiss on his sister’s temple and fixing his fit to present himself back to the lobby. Y/n was left in her room, fidgeting with her fingers while anxiously biting her bottom lip in deep contemplation.
Sunghoon may have stolen her attention from Jungwon, but she had to admit, she never regretted it. She has felt safe with Sunghoon the past months they’ve been together. Jungwon did nothing but torture her constantly with every chance he got. Although they hadn’t been sticking around their ruse’s ground rules lately, she feared the time between her and Sunghoon would be up soon and she wouldn’t feel his comforting presence around her anymore.
Sunghoon may have gotten her used to their dilly-dallying that time apart from each other could make her feel miserable. Not to mention the embarrassment that would come with it considering she is foretold to be Northumberland’s next duchess after all.
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ㅡ © ENHA-WOODZIES, 2021
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thetypedwriter · 3 years
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Lore Book Review
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Lore Book Review by Alexandra Bracken 
Lore by Alexandra Bracken was one of 2021’s most anticipated YA novels and it's easy to see why. The plot summary itself is enough to pull you in with the intriguing concoction of calling it the combination of The Hunger Games and the Percy Jackson series. 
What’s not to love when you fuse the illicit danger of Katniss Everdeen with the mythological enchantment of Rick Riordan’s masterpiece?
Turns out, quite a lot unfortunately. 
Before I get into why this book didn’t live up to the insurmountable hype it built up, I’ll attempt to give a basic summary. The key word being attempt as a good portion of this novel’s plot was a mind boggling and convoluted mess. 
The book takes place in modern day New York which Bracken likes to remind you every other paragraph with small snippets about how the city that never sleeps smells like sewage and is yet still the best place on earth apparently. 
Don’t get me wrong, I love New York as much as the next person, but the pandering to the Big Apple got annoying after awhile. 
Within the cantankerous city lives a girl named Lore which we are introduced to by means of her kicking ass in an underground Chinese restaurant’s fighting ring. 
Pretty strong start. 
Lore’s world (and the reader’s frankly) is tipped upside down when Lore’s long lost childhood friend, Castor, reappears to warn her that he is looking for her. Terrified, Lore is then at first unwillingly thrust back into the world in which she was born-a world dominated by violence, bloodlines, and the Greek gods who are very much alive and out for vengeful retribution. 
In a very exposition-dump heavy conversation, we learn that Lore is the last of Perseous’ line with the rest of her family having been horrifically murdered, that a week long event called the Agon occurs every seven years in which the original nine Greek gods or their reincarnated selves become mortal for seven days, and that a series of killing often happen because if you kill a Greek god you then become that Greek god as well as inhabit their powers, abilities, and immortality. 
Well, until the next Agon that is. 
The currently reincarnated God by the name of Wrath is attempting to end the Agon by killing all the other Gods, but in order to do it he needs to wield a special weapon called the Aegis. 
Unfortunately, only the Perseides can wield this shield (for some reason) and thus, Wrath is out to get his hold on Lore as the last of her line so that he can bring this eons old competition to an end with himself as the sole victor and only remaining God. 
Confused?
I’d be surprised if you weren’t. 
Now, I love Greek mythology. I’ve read the classics and would say I’m fairly up to date on the stories, the legends, the gods, and the stories they represent. I’m not an expert, but I would say I’m  knowledgeable on who the major figures are and what they stood for. 
I genuinely think this book would have been miserable for anyone that didn’t know anything about Greek mythology.
 Bracken does a terrible job of explaining what the hell is happening at any given point, and she often throws out allusions and references to Greek mythology without bothering to explain a single shred of information about it. 
In addition, after this laughably and poorly explained world and plot at the beginning, it is almost never explained again. It’s brought up, as are names and titles and weapons and relationships, but it’s never explained in a way that’s feasibly understandable. 
At the beginning of the novel Bracken lists who all the important characters are, their bloodlines, and their titles.
 I soon figured out why, as every other sentence a name like Wrath or Reveler or Tidebringer or whoever was brought up, and it was impossible to keep track of so I didn’t even bother. 
Even Lore brings up that the names are ridiculous, which I appreciate, but the meta moment of clarity doesn't make it any better. 
Also, what Lore and her friends get up to over 90% of the novel is a muddled mass of bewilderment. 
Why do Lore and Castor and the others need to find Artemis? I don’t know, but sure, whatever, sounds good. Why was Lore the last of her line again? Oh yeah, right, okay, I guess. Wait, Castor died? Oh, he didn’t? Why not? Oh, we’re not going to explain it. Sure, sure. 
Throughout this entire novel, what the characters are doing and what is happening is almost impossible to follow with the way it's presented and the way Bracken developed her world. I think this was a really cool idea that had very poor execution. 
Points for the originality and the inclusion of Greek mythology, but all of the positives were taken away when that originality was flushed down the drain with a lack of explanation and logic. 
Lore very much reminded me of a shoot-em up, bang-em up action movie. Almost every other chapter was some sort of super intense, super climactic fight scene, chase, theft, break-in, etc. 
Now. I do think action scenes are hard to write and I think Bracken actually did an incredible job of writing action in a way that was entertaining and thrilling. 
However, when the action takes place every ten pages it gets really old, really quick. Towards the end, I downright started skimming the fight scenes, because they lacked so little depth and stakes and we had read so much action at the end point that it had lost all vigor and vitality. 
Continuing with the action movie metaphor, most action movies focus solely on the bright explosions and the crazy fight scenes as their selling point of the whole movie, often to the detriment of the characters, plot, and development. 
Now, some people like this. I am not these people. 
I find action movies boring as most of my enjoyment from consuming media comes from the characters and the developments they undergo. 
My biggest criticism with Lore, other than the astonishing storytelling, is by far the characters. I just...didn’t care. About any of them. 
Bracken tried to make Lore come across as a strong, opinionated, fierce, angry female character and while sometimes she succeeded, more often than not I found Lore temperamental, aggravating, impulsive, selfish, and shallow. 
Bracken very much invoked the tell-not-show strategy that makes any book hard to get through. While there were some decent moments of showing instead of just stating, more often than not, Bracken would tell us that Lore was strong by having other people say it or others calling her weak. 
I appreciated Bracken’s feminist agenda and how strongly Lore felt about gender inequality, even if it was a bit heavy-handed at times. Still, I did appreciate this inclusion of civil rights on this front, even if some of the circumstances to incite it were ridiculous or over the top. 
In addition, I hated that there was all this backstory that we were just told but not shown. Like in my last review of Wilder Girls, Lore suffers from an intrinsic failure of getting me onboard with these characters and their relationships by telling me how I should feel about them instead of exposing them through action. 
I was told:
Lore and Castor haven't seen each other for seven years, but my gosh, Castor is just the best and is so beautiful. Ensue obligatory YA romance. 
Lore has a best friend! Yeah. Her name is Iro. Here she is! Um. Okay. Why was this necessary?
Miles is just the coolest best friend ever. Like, look how cool and chill he is. How funny is it that he has no idea what’s happening? Really not funny at all. He was a useless character used to build empty stakes. 
  The list goes on and on, but Bracken will throw out some sort of fact or relationship and just expect the reader to go “Okay!” Which. I didn’t. On any of those occurrences. 
Often Bracken would do this in the use of flashbacks at the most inopportune times (during a fight scene, after someone was injured, right before a huge revelation, etc). These flashbacks were the worst. I do not care for adolescent Lore and child Lore was somehow even worse. 
The romance in this book, much like an action movie, is off to the side and really only there to fulfill the trope of having a romance. 
Lore and Castor are boring. I don’t know what else to say. Castor is too perfect to be likable and Lore is the opposite. Nothing about their romance was unique or well-crafted. 
The kiss between Van and Miles I also saw coming a hundred miles away. I also thought it was pointless as Van and Miles had known each for six days and had had maybe two conversations. So. No. I didn’t care at all about the romances. 
It actually made me laugh and scoff simultaneously at the end when Lore is looking at Van, Castor, Iro and Miles and smiles because she realizes that these people are her family. 
Ummm. Sorry?
Castor disappeared for seven years and you’ve been reunited for seven days. You’ve hated Van your whole life until this week. You also haven’t seen Iro in seven years and she tried to kill you at least twice in this book. Miles is...fine, but again useless. I don’t even know why Bracken included him except to make Lore worry about him which she only did about half of the time. 
Phew. 
I know this review has come across largely negative, so this might be surprising, but I didn’t hate it. It lacks substance and depth, but it was entertaining. 
Just like an action movie.
 If you want some hyped fights and a plot that really doesn't matter and characters that won’t stick with you, but a fast-paced narrative that keeps you on your toes nonetheless, then you would probably enjoy this. 
It’s like the equivalent of watching a James Bond movie or one of the millions of the Fast and Furious. Bracken tries to develop the characters, but at the end of the day, most of the story is made up of cool fights, magic, and weapons. If that’s your speed then you would probably really love Lore. 
Recommendation: Action, action, action. If you want some high intensity, get-your-blood-pumping enterprise then this is your novel. The writing is fluid, the adrenaline-inducing scenes are non-stop, and everything else falls to the backdrop of external fights and villainous monologues. If action is not your preferred genre, then your best left to get your Greek mythology needs from Percy Jackson or the Song of Achilles instead.  
Score: 6/10
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2manyfandoms2count · 3 years
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I love you (not) - Chapter 11
I'm back! Almost a month late, but exams got in the way of @marichatmay (how inconsiderate of my uni to hold them at this time of the year, really) The updates should be more frequent again, especially since I've got at least a couple of chapters planned that combine two prompts! Hope you enjoy this chapter xxx
First | Previous | AO3 | Next
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Chapter 11: In which, to quote Taylor Swift, dancing is a dangerous game
Marinette hummed happily as she inspected the dress on her mannequin.
Without tooting her own horn, it really was some of her best work; she'd chosen an asymmetric cut for it, slightly shorter in front, so the silk fabric teased the top of her knees. It was light enough that it could expand like a corolla if she twirled, but the shape of the skirt prevented it from hitching too high (one had to remain classy).
She was so pleased with the result. She'd fallen in love with the velvet lining of the cherry blossom pattern fabric when she'd stumbled upon it at the Marché St Pierre over a year ago, and had bought it on a whim. It had been safely sitting at the back of her fabric case ever since, for lack of a worthy project. She’d looked at it longingly every time she opened the box, hoping inspiration would strike.
She didn’t know if it was the upcoming class party, her strangely giddy heart, or the lovely late spring weather, but something in the air had titillated her creativity, and here she was, the proud owner of a beautiful dress, perfect for any occasion.
And what an occasion the class party was turning out to be. What had started out as a lowkey plan to celebrate the approaching end of the school year and the end of the brevet, had developed into something much bigger when the class had started discussing where to hold it, and Chloé had ended up suggesting the Grand Paris restaurant with a seemingly exasperated sigh. Marinette had seen her small smile when everyone had thanked her, though, and had made a mental note to suggest that they found a small present for her before the party.
Alya had been shocked when she’d voiced the thought aloud, asking if Marinette was feeling feverish, but her friend had shrugged the comment off. She just felt very light and breezy for some reason, and nothing could knock her off her air path.
She sighed contentedly as she put her pins away and opened a window to let the warm spring breeze in. This would do nicely. Even if she wasn't going to directly pursue Adrien, she was sure he'd notice the quality of her garment. And then, if he asked her to dance like the last time they’d been to a party at Chloé’s...
Oh, but what if we do dance like last time , she froze at the thought. I haven't made any progress in dancing, and even though I managed to not faceplant in front of him last time, I'm not sure that my luck will withstand a second time - what if I step on his feet? What if I knock into him and break his nose? Then he will hate me, his whole modeling career will be ruined, and Gabriel Agreste will make sure I never become a designer, and Adrien and I will never get married, have our house, three kids and our hamster named-
The lack of oxygen from her hyperventilating made her lose her balance and she caught herself on her desk. She breathed out slowly, relaxing as her eyes met Chat’s on their picture from the Café des Chats. She needed to stop catastrophising. It wouldn’t be a good idea to dance with Adrien, not while her “relationship” with Chat Noir was still "going strong”. She caught herself wondering how out of place it would be to invite him along to the party (it would definitely give her an excuse not to dance with Adrien), but promptly waved the thought away.
She went up to her computer and pulled up a dance tutorial to get her mind off of things. Just to be on the safe side.
"One two three, one two three..." She tried following the waltz steps, pretending to hold someone in her arms.
She felt a little stupid, but quickly brushed the feeling away. It wasn’t like someone was going to see her. She closed her eyes and let herself be carried by the music, picturing the movements in her head. It was easier this way.
“I must say, Marinette, you have excellent taste in music. Oh! Whatcha doing?” Her eyes flew open at the sound of a familiar voice and she stumbled backwards, crashing into her mannequin. Had she somehow invoked Adrien? A quick glance at her window and the smiling, masked face dangling upside down from it answered her question. "It really drags a cat- woah there, careful Princess!”
Chat leaped inside as his smile melted into a concerned frown.
“Would you stop sneaking up on me like that?!” She cursed as he helped her up, not admitting that she was actually kind of glad to see him. It had been a while. She immediately straightened her mannequin and started dusting off the dress.
“But where’s the fun in that? You’re cute when you’re dancing.” He felt his cheeks pinken, on par with hers at the compliment.
“Yeah, well, um…” She stammered, occupying herself by frantically checking for any sign of damage. “You could have ruined my dress!” She huffed.
“Ooh, is that what you’ll be wearing at Chloé… Bourgeois’ party?” He caught himself before he could sound too chummy about Chloé, but his face lit up as he turned around the mannequin to inspect it.
“What do you know about that?” Marinette crossed her arms and squinted suspiciously at him.
“Oh, nothing much,” he gulped, remembering how attentive to detail Marinette was. “I just heard about it through the grapevine, you know? I kind of keep a tab on events involving the Bourgeois, they tend to be at high akumatisation risk.”
“Clever kitty,” Marinette whispered under her breath.
“What was that?” Chat smirked.
“I said, that’s fair.” She cleared her throat.
“Right.” He nudged her. “Anyway, this dress is gorgeous, you’ve done an ameowzing job on it, Marinette.”
“Thanks.” She bit back a giddy smile, and cleared her throat. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“I…” Chat hesitated. He wasn’t sure, really. He’d been relaxing in his room, gazing at his ceiling, when he’d suddenly felt an irrepressible longing to see Marinette, and had promptly been on his way. He wondered if he could invoke his right to want to see his girlfriend, but decided it probably wasn’t for the best. They hadn’t seen each other since their encounter at the flower shop (well, of course they had, but she hadn’t been aware of it), and the part of him who was still hellbent on ending this absurd arrangement was convinced that a bit of progress towards a potential breakup had been made; blurting out defining relationship terms would definitely not help go down that road. “I was just in the neighbourhood, so I thought I’d pop in and say hi! I’ve missed you.” He felt the tip of his ears warm up at his words.
“I’ve missed you, too.” She looked at her feet bashfully and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Both remained silent for a moment while the waltz music kept playing in the background, unsure what to say next. The silence was interrupted by a loud ad for Tsurugi cars on Marinette’s computer.
She jumped and went to close the tab, but Chat Noir caught the name of the video before she could do so.
“A dance tutorial?” He tilted his head inquisitively, and she froze. “What’s this for?”
“Well, I know it sounds stupid, but… I’m a little worried about the dancing part of Chloé’s evening.” She admitted, knotting her hands together.
“But you’re a great dancer!” Chat’s exclamation came out like a cry from the heart. “I mean, I suppose. How could you not be? You’re Marinette Dupain-Cheng! You can do anything.”
“Thanks, Chat.” She flashed him a bright smile, making his heart skip a beat.
“I’m only speaking the truth.” He bowed, and decided it would be for the best for him to change the subject, before he went down the ‘Marinette is amazing’ rabbit hole. The rant could easily last for a long time. Thankfully, the video came to his rescue. “You know, though, I hear kids these days don’t really waltz anymore,” he said conspiratorially.
It was true; even though his father had been adamant about him taking ballroom dancing lessons, claiming every respectable young man knew how to dance, Nino had been almost uncharacteristically mocking about how he’d danced with Marinette at Chloé’s first party when they’d discussed it later (he’d had to gush about how great it had been to dance with his good friend), advising him to update his dancing style. Adrien had therefore looked it up, and had found out that Rock’n Roll dancing seemed fairly popular still, and his father had approved the suggestion to add it to the acceptable dance list. He wondered if Marinette also knew how to dance it.
“I know people who still waltz,” Marinette replied, defensively crossing her arms in front of her chest. “And so what if it’s a little old-fashioned? I don’t see what’s wrong with it.”
“It’s just not very twenty-first century, is all.” He shrugged, although he wanted to scream that he agreed with her. He was mildly afraid that she’d see that two of the people she knew who appreciated waltzing were blond guys with green eyes, about the same height and build, and absolutely fantastic, funny and well-dressed, and that she would connect the dots. He wasn’t sure Ladybug would be very pleased if his identity was leaked over a dance, no matter how trustworthy Marinette was.
“Oh yeah? And what would you suggest, then?” Marinette cocked an eyebrow.
“Ever heard of Rock’n Roll?” he asked.
“I don’t live under a rock, you know.” She rolled her eyes. “Pun unintended.”
“And do you know how to dance it?” He took a step forward.
“I know the basics.” She shrugged.
“Would you like to practise? Just in case it turns out to be useful at Chloé’s…” He trailed off, trying to hide how excited he was at the prospect of dancing with Marinette again.
She wrung her hands together and pondered her options. It would be pretty stupid not to seize the opportunity, plus, she’d always kind of wondered what it would be like to dance with Chat. She didn’t know where the idea came from, although maybe their late night patrols in the moonlight played a part in it. “Are you sure you don’t have more important things to attend to?” She looked up at him.
“I’m free as a bird.” He grinned.
“Okay, then.” She found a playlist and launched it. “Show me what you’ve got.”
Chat Noir extended his hand and she took it. He pulled her in a little closer, twirling her in and back out before swinging their hands in rhythm with the music.
“The real pros trace little hearts to the beat, because your heart rate actually changes to match the tempo of a song,” he confided, before taking her other hand.
They met chest to chest a couple of times, then lifted their arms over their heads, letting go of one hand. Chat’s gloved hand hovered over Marinette’s arm as they moved just out of reach of each other, giving her goosebumps. Her breath hitched slightly, and she was fairly sure her complexion was now a couple of shades redder. Chat didn’t notice, or pretended not to, twirling her again, then taking her other hand again to go through a series of passes.
Marinette was impressed by how smoothly he led her, how natural it seemed to be for him. He smiled casually as they danced and she relaxed, effortlessly falling into rhythm with him.
As the end of the song approached, Chat got more confident that she could take more complex moves and picked up the difficulty. Marinette was slightly dizzy from all the twists and turns and was thankful for the pause he gave her after a string of moves. They stepped to the rhythm, her back to his chest, for a couple of beats longer than was traditional. She wondered if he’d sensed that he’d reached her limit.
“Hey, Marinette?” Chat’s breath tickled her ear as he whispered in it.
“Yes?” She looked up at him. Their faces were mere inches away; his gaze had an intensity she’d rarely seen him sport. She couldn’t deny it was a good look on him.
“Do you trust me?” His voice was slightly hoarse from the exercise.
“With my life,” she breathed, her eyes mindlessly landing on his lips. “Why-aaaah!”
She yelped as his hands dropped to her waist and he picked her up, then flipped her in the air.
He caught her before she landed, but her surprise made her fall more heavily than she would have with more notice, a loud thud echoing with her pulse in her ears as the song finally came to an end.
“Hmm, you should really rehearse that last move before the dance, you weren’t very light on your feet…” Chat bit back his laughter.
Marinette was about to punch his shoulder and yell at him to never pull that kind of thing on her again, unless he wanted to become cat food, when Sabine’s voice sounded from below.
“Marinette? Is everything alright?”
“Ah, er, yes Maman! Everything’s fine, I just knocked over my mannequin again!” She called out, frantically starting to push Chat up her stairs, towards her skylight. “You need to go, she can’t know that you’re here,” she added in hushed tones. If Sabine found him there with her… Well, Marinette had managed to convince her after the very first lunch that Chat and her wouldn’t work out, and she knew her mother had taken her word for it; she wasn’t so sure how she would react if she discovered that things were serious enough that he came around and danced in her room with her. Not that it was romantic in any way, but she knew what it could look like from the outside.
“Okay, okay,” he chuckled, “no need to be so pushy.”
“Consider it your punishment for almost giving me a heart attack,” Marinette shook her head. Her next words reassured him that she held no grudge. “See you later?”
“I’ll definitely cat ch you around, Princess,” he winked as he quickly kissed her hand. She rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. “By the way, I’m sure you’ll do great, whoever you dance with.”
“Thanks, Kitty.”
As she returned inside, she reflected on their synchronicity, and wondered if it was all down to the couple of years of fighting side by side, or if something bigger was at stake, allowing herself, for the first time since it had happened, to think about her first kiss for a little more than a couple of seconds.
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kingsuckjin · 4 years
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Just Smile -2
✷Paring: joker!jk x reader, robin! jin x reader, bts x reader
✷ Genre: bts batman au
✷Description: Description: All you’ve ever wanted was to help, that’s all. When you landed a job at Arkham asylum (possibly unjustly), you thought maybe you could help the poor souls locked away there. You were apprehensive about meeting one in particular, the worst criminal of his time, the infamous Jeon Jungkook, well known around Gotham as the Joker. But what if this man isn’t what the rumors and his records say he is? What if he saw you as the one needing help? You only had to do him one small favor and he could make every dream you’ve ever had could come true, he could take all the pain away and you would never want for anything ever again. Could what he offers be the truth? You can’t say you weren’t warned about him.
✷ Warnings: mention of kooks facial scars and self harm, the security isn't nice to kook, talk of mental disorders, talk of violence, depression, self loathing, idk if I forgot something please let me know
✷Words: 3.9k
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--Series Masterlist--
"Jeon Jungkook: age 22, displays sociopathic behavior, physically aggressive."
The last two words were ones that no therapist wanted to read, it was intimidating.
You thought about just closing the case file and just thinking about how to approach this. 
You were told you had to see this guy every single day, more than the hand full of others you were assigned to. You thought maybe your new boss was giving you the toughest case first just to see if he could break you, get you to quit.
You sighed as you glanced back down at the file of Jungkook on your desk and urged yourself to read further, it was important that you knew what he's done and what he could do. 
The lists of things he had done read like a novel and was probably just as long as one too. "Sentenced to Arkham Asylum by pleasing insanity under the sentences and accusations of: poisoning the city's water supply, which was considered an act of terrorism. Also thought to be involved in causing the disappearance of over forty people." the list just kept going on and on. 
You felt sick at your stomach making you close the file.
You wondered how you would even go about making a treatment plan for a man this vicious. You decided you couldn't, not until you met with him first. Meeting with him would be most of the battle. Would he try to snap your neck on the spot? Would he yell and scream at you?
To be honest, you were afraid. But all you could do was suck it up and act like the professional you were. 
"He's ready" a member of staff poked his head through the cracked door of your new office. You knew who he was talking about, you knew who was ready, but were you? 
You plastered a fake smile across your face and stood from your seat.
"Okay- I- I- um. That's great!" You tried to act as cheerful as you could given the unsettling feeling you had in your stomach.
"I'll be taking you to where you'll be meeting with him. You've had time to look over his files, right?"  He asked as you left the office with the hospital staff and walked out into the too brightly lit hallway. 
"Yes, of course." but you felt as though “barely” would have been more accurate reply.
"So you've seen the list of what this piece of shit has done." 
"I-I-" it was hardly professional to be calling a patient a name like that "I have." But you agreed anyway.
"Just making sure, you really need to be warned about this guy. Last week he tried to bite another guy's finger off and he's been in isolation ever since." 
"Oh." Left your mouth as your thoughts blanked out with it, all but one which was”
Dear god, what did I agree to?
"Is locked up though, on his meds, and there will be a guard in the room just in case." 
Well that calmed your fears somewhat.
You passed door after door, some with yelling and screaming behind it, another with creepy singing, some patients just beat on the metal door with no regard, some were silent.
You saw two armed guards standing beside one of the doors just up ahead and you just knew that this was your stop, sure enough, the security man pulled out a card and ran it in front of a small box by the doorway, it let out a single, short, high pitched beep.
"You should get one of these soon" He told you as he opened the door and showed you his  key card, but you couldn't concentrate on anything else but the man that was revealed to be inside of the stark white room. He sat at one side of the table in a cheap folding chair by a wall. The more you looked, you could see that he was handcuffed to a metal bar, bolted to the white concrete wall. His head, with a mess of  toxic bright green hair, was tilted downwards, looking at the table and not you as you walked in. Hair was wild and stuck up in random places as if he had just rolled out of bed. 
Your eyes flickered to the guard standing directly behind him, a tall muscular man with a large gun held across his broad chest, ready if needed.
The metal door shut behind you and you admittedly jumped just a little at the unexpected sound.
You walked slowly over to the table, wondering when your new patient would look up at you. Even without him looking up you could see that his skin looked a pasty white shade and you thought maybe he hadn't been outside in a while, that being inside here had done this to him.
You had a seat in the chair across from him and cleared your throat and did your best to sound not nervous although your palms were covered in sweat.
"Hello I'm Doctor y/l/n" 
He didn't answer or say anything for a moment, you thought he might be asleep.
"I know" His voice was calm, yet he still didn't look at you. The sound of his voice was much more peaceful  than you expected, more soothing, velvety sweet like his vocal cords had been dipped in honey. You had expected a gruff deep voice that would invoke fear upon hearing a single word.
"What's your name?" You did your best to try to make conversation, you'd take what you could get at this point, you just had to get him talking, but you weren't sure that he would, judging by his demeanor and opposition to look at you.
"You know my name." His voice continued to stay calm, and he didn't seem upset at all, he just seemed to point out a fact.
"I do, but introductions are important. I would like to hear your name from you." You urged gently.
"Jeon Jungkook, patient 2354" he complied nicely with you, even giving you his patient number that you recall being beside his name in his file.
"Jungkook? Why don't you want to look at me?" You asked hoping that if he did then maybe he would feel more connected with you
"Skipping to the straightforward questions already?" his head bobbed a little as he let out a huff of amusement that wasn't sassy, but actually seemed like he was a little surprised by your basic request.
"You don't like that? Would you prefer to talk about other things?" you wanted to be careful just in case you had read him wrong, you wanted him to feel comfortable, you wanted him to know he could switch topics at any time.
"No, that's alright, I figured you'd ask, they all ask me to eventually." 
 You didn't know who he was referring to, they as in other therapists or staff or what. You were confused, but you decided to let him continue to speak other than asking more questions.
"My face... is... you haven't heard about my face?" He seemed so apprehensive to speak about it.
"No, I've only read your file, and it said nothing about your face." You informed him.
"It's pretty scary." 
"Well that's okay. I won't judge you. I don't mind at all." You did your best to reassure him. "But if looking down makes you comfortable I'm not going to-"
"You promise you won't scream if I show you?" He cut you off. It seemed like he wanted to show you.
"I swear." You were sure of your words.
You watched as he slowly lifted his mossy colored head up until his brown eyes met yours. He had a strikingly beautiful face, his eyes wide and brown almost deer-like, a strong jaw but gentle curves on his face that told you he was young. He had a few tattoos that you could see, a sad face with X’s for eyes on one of his cheek bones. The second was a few words near his collarbone that you couldn't quite read due to it being mostly obstructed by the collar of his white patient jumpsuit. To be honest, the tattoos suited him and his rather odd but soft features.
"I see nothing but your nice brown eyes." You were honest, his other nice features seemed to draw attention away from the not so nice one.
"Don't lie to me." He still didn't seem angry or upset or like it was a warning at all, just disbelieving of your comment.
You did however do your best not to look at the jagged scar of marred skin coming from the sides of his mouth to his mid cheeks. It looked like it had been cut so roughly, so carelessly, almost ripped. You did feel the very slightest urge to reach out and touch it, run your fingers along the long healed rugged scar, simply out of curiosity of what it felt like. Of course that would be inappropriate, and you knew better than to put your hand near the mouth of a man who almost bit someone’s finger off of course.
"I'm not going to scream, I'm not judging you, I'm not disgusted by you or anything you might think." You told the truth once again. "Do you want to talk about it?" 
"Sure, I don't mind." He gave a shrug and the chains that bound his wrists slightly jingled with the movement.
This was not at all how you expected the meeting to go. He seemed so quiet, calm and gentle. His current attitude was almost jarring compared to all the awful things you had read about him. You still weren't about to let your guard down thinking he might switch personalities at any moment to a more violent one, you were waiting for it just in case. In a way you wanted to see it, see what he might be like at his worst. You wanted him to match up with what you read in his file, but you were also very terrified of that.
"Do you want to tell me how it happened?" You asked and he gave a small nod.
"I-uh-I did it to myself." He was being so honest and open, yet his muttering and stuttering reflected his apprehension in talking about it, but you were still glad he was.
"Why? How?" You continued to prod, to see what he would and wouldn't answer and feel out his boundaries.
"I was tired of not smiling, so I took a knife and I cut my cheeks into a permanent smile." 
You had to will your eyebrows to not raise at his answer in slight shock or furrow with worry.
"You seem ashamed to show people, is that why your head was down and you didn't want to let me see?" 
He nodded.
"I don't enjoy looking like this anymore, especially not in front of someone seemingly so flawless. "I regret it." 
You were aware he had just insinuated you were flawless, he had complimented you, but you decided to say nothing about it and move on.
"What was going on in your mind at the time? Do you want to explain your thought process behind it?" 
"I-" he took a deep breath and once again looked down at the plastic grey table top. "I was younger, eighteen I think… eighteen is when it all happened. I was in an accident, hence my skin and hair, it- it really altered my mind. I was doing horrible things, and my mind… well it wasn't in the best state, I just kept falling further and further into a dark dark hole. My skin was ruined, my hair was ruined, my mind felt ruined, I was depressed. I thought no one would want someone like me- someone who looked this way. I was tired of being sad and in a bit of a psychotic rage, I cut the sides of my mouth into a permanent smile. Do you like it? If its not scary is it at least surprising to you?”
"Well,” you began with a playful tone, “I don't know if I can be surprised much anymore, especially by my line of work. Do you like surprises?"
"I do." He smiled a genuinely sweet smile and you could see his two front teeth were just a bit more prominent than the rest.
"What kind?" You wanted to keep him talking and any conversation going, and this seemed like a pleasant one, but to your dismay he gave a shrug. He almost seemed a little shy now, and that was once again very different from the violent man’s case file you had read.
"Well what else do you like?" 
"A lot of things. I like pretty things." He looked and you "and I like... I just miss the outside world."
"Did you find beauty in the outside world?” you genuinely wanted to know what he liked about being free.
“I do.I like the least expected things, those are the most beautiful, the chaos. Busy streets, hives of bees. There’s beauty in chaos I suppose, people don't like it but it’s underrated. So are imperfect things, imperfections are beautiful, unique, interesting.” 
His answer spoke volumes about him, it seemed to begin to tell you why he did the things he did, but you were sure it was only the tip of the iceberg of reasons why he was the way he was, and you now found yourself more than curious about the whys and hows of him and what made him tick. He seemed so soft spoken,calm, and so open but you knew there had to be another more violent and brutal side of him.
“Tell me about how you grew up.” you clasped your hands together on the table until you thought better of it. Somehow thinking that your arm freedom would be like rubbing it in his face that he was bound by chains and limited in mobility.
“Hmmm, I’m not sure what there is to tell, I grew up like any other kid in the suburbs of Gotham… at least I believe I did… I don't know things are blurry before the accident.”
“Accident?” you urged him to continue noticing he had mentioned this just a few moments ago but had not elaborated on it.
“The chemical accident.” you noticed him stare down at the table once more, his jaw seemed to clench. It seemed hard for him to talk about it, but talking about things was good, it was the only way to get breakthroughs. For a moment you didn't think he would go into it, you were about to change the subject and come back to the question at a later time in a more gentle way.
“I fell… into some chemicals… I was an employee, my first job. A janitor. It didn't pay much, I felt like I never had any money and it was hard with… I just couldn’t…” he stopped himself and struggled. 
“Take your time.” you said gently.
“It wasn't making ends meet. I started to steal things, burglarize homes. I never hurt anyone, I didn't want to, it was never my intent. I just had to find a way to make money for…” he let out a sigh “I just needed the money. I don't remember much from my childhood or teenage years, if I played a sport in school, who I was friends with, hell even my parent’s names. I do remember the struggle I went through right before the accident.”
“That's alright I-”
“Times up.” The big man from behind him boomed cutting off your sentence. You felt like he was really opening up to you though and it was only the first meeting.
“Five more m-” you wanted to barter with the man, but he cut you off once more with the same phrase. 
You scooted out your chair and stood in defeat.
You didn't even flinch when Jungkook also stood quickly and attempted to reach out a shackled hand for you to shake. 
Your hand went towards his but in a matter of seconds he had stumbled backwards onto the floor. You looked at the chain in the guards hand and assessed that he had pulled it, sending Jungkook to the floor.
You felt a tinge of guilt, especially when the man dragged him to his feet and back into his chair by the deep green hair. You just stood there gobsmacked with wide eyes at the abuse you had just witnessed. The man still had his large fingers in Jungkook’s shaggy hair.
“It was nice meeting you.” he said as he grunted in pain at how tightly the man held him by the hair. “I don't know when I’ll see you next… or the condition I’ll be in” he threw in making the man twist his fingers in his hair earning a series of ouches from Jungkook for the smart remark that might have hid a secret fear. “But I look forward to it.”
You were unsure of what you could do, it was obvious you held no power here.
“Yeah…” you scooted in your chair “I-me too.” 
All you could do was turn and walk out, hoping the guard would release his hair once you left.
----------------
The way he was treated bothered you, even long after you were home. You had showered, tried to eat but you couldn't shake how he had been treated. It wasn't your place to say how things were run there though, which is why you flopped onto your sofa and flipped through Netflix to try to forget or at least ease how upset you were with the movie.
That was until a pretty, velvet bag had caught your eye on the coffee table. It sat in the same place where you had haphazardly thrown it last night, untouched and forgotten.
Suddenly you were lunging out of your seat for it and dumping its contents into your lap.
You couldn't believe you had forgotten about it, that weird cat man could've given you anything, drugs, stolen jewelry, human teeth. What fell out onto your lap though wasn't any of that though.
"What the fuck?" You whispered in awe as you looked down at the thick stack of rubber banded together stack of cash that had fallen into your lap.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?" You thought out loud. You had never seen so much money in one place at one time, you couldn't even pretend you knew how much it might be.
All you could do is stare until your phone buzzed from its spot on the couch cushion beside you. You directed your eyes away from the obscene amount of money you now possessed, and glanced at the name "jinnie" surrounded by hearts popping up on the screen making you sigh. You wanted to answer it, you wanted him to ask how your first day at work went, you wanted to continue to pretend last night didn't happen, pretend he felt the same way about you like you had before. But he lied to you, he led you on, he broke your heart, made you cry, you were never anything real to him and you refused to forget that now.
You let the phone ring as you stuffed the money back into it's nice bag and contemplated taking it to the police department. You thought hard about it, but if it was stolen from the party would you be arrested? You had been at that party, you were seen with the stranger, you could be seen as an accomplice. You picked up your now quieted phone and headed to your room where you tucked the money neatly into a shoe box under your bed before getting in.
In your mind Seokjin had once again ruined another night.
You drifted off thinking about Jungkook being tugged by the chains to the floor, unfortunately leading to dreams you're the one stuck in that white room, being hurt by the big guard with the gun. Feeling so trapped, dragged by the hair, knowing there would never be a way to leave and see the bees and hear the sounds of traffic out your apartment window ever again. You were thrown to the floor over and over and it seemed as though the sound of it grew louder and louder until you woke up and sat up in bed only to realize there was knocking at the door.
You reach for your phone on the bedside table in the darkness as you throw back your comforter with the other hand. The time reads thee in the morning as you head into your living room, but pause.
The knocking had stopped.
You were still curious and irritated at who would be knocking on your door this early in the morning, so you once again head towards it, unlock it, and throw it open to see absolutely nothing, no one, not even a stray cat.
You stepped out to look around a little and your bare foot stepped on something that was not the concrete of your front porch.
You picked up what looked to be an envelope and took it in, making sure to lock the door back up behind you, just to be safe, before flipping on a light.
The envelope was a bright green and had one of those very old fashioned smooth looking, red wax seals binding it closed, within the wax was the shape of a question mark.
You opened it to find a short but very neatly written note.
"People make me, save me, change me, raise me, what am I?
I believe the cat has given you something that doesn't belong to you, a terrible burden to put in your hands. So smart not showing him where you live, but I'm smarter. Peek-a-boo, I found you. Don't worry, I don't wish to hurt you, on the contrary, I simply wish to pardon you from your involvement in this. Leave it in your mailbox at midnight tomorrow night."
You thoroughly read the note a few times before your sleepy brain figured it out. 
"The money." You whispered to yourself. The note felt a little foreboding despite the promise not to hurt you. Nervousness began to wash over you as you just stared at the note now with eyelids heavy from not enough sleep. This money was definitely someone else's and that someone else knew where you lived.
"Thanks cat boy." You sarcastically muttered to yourself as your feet dragged your exhausted body back to bed. 
No matter how tired you felt, you were unable to sleep. The nightmare combined with the note and all the thoughts you had before bed had left you in a permanent state of unease despite having to get ready for work in just a few hours.
With very little sleep, all of the strange things happening and your broken heart, tomorrow was bound to be a bad day as well.
"Mind over matter" you said out loud "it's only going to be as bad as I let it be."
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raeynbowboi · 4 years
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How to Play as Rayla in DnD 5e
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This is one of the builds I was requested to make, so let’s dissect her powers, skills, and abilities and figure out how someone would go about playing as Rayla. I will be taking into account Unearthed Arcana. They may not technically be official yet, but it’s DnD stuff, and if it exists, I’ll use it.
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Moon Prism Power
Rayla is a Moonshadow Elf. There are Moon variant High Elves that also get an innate talent for magic. Easy enough. As a high elf, Rayla gets +2 DEX and +1 INT, and a free wizard cantrip. We’ll give her minor illusion since moon magic is focused on illusions. While it’s true that Rayla does sleep, we can just say that Rayla’s clever enough to find a way to resist sleep spells like she did when Claudia tried to put her to sleep. Plus Half-elf’s added CHA stat would not help her build one bit.
Rayla does what she thinks is right, even if it breaks tradition or expectations. She’s also not selfish. She was okay with losing her hand to keep Ezran safe and alive. Rayla is True Good.
We’ll give Rayla the Adopted background since Runaan and Ethari took her in after her parents died, and will give her proficiencies with Deception, Persuasion, and Stealth. You could argue that as an assassin, she could be a criminal, but being an assassin doesn’t seem to be an illegal occupation in Xadia. She could be a Soldier, but whatever level she might have held in the moonshadow elf military is gone now, so it would only serve to make her skilled in athletics and intimidation.
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In A Class All Her Own
Monk     Shadow: As an assassin and a Moonshadow Elf, this was almost too easy of an option. Ironically, Moon Druid didn’t work so well, but Rayla would realistically have a pretty high DEX and WIS stat, so a monk class would be great at raising her AC. Rayla doesn’t need a lot of levels in Monk, just enough for her unarmored defense, and maybe Extra Attack and Evasion, but the later talents to become immune to disease and poison go a little too far for what she’s able
Ranger     Gloom Stalker: Rangers typically do well with archery, but dual-wielding two short swords is another option for Rangers. By level 5, they also get Extra Attack, though Monk gets that as well, so trying to avoid doubling up is something to keep in mind. Rangers also get to pick a favored enemy so you can channel your racism into super potent hate crimes against those dirty humans. You can pick up a dash action, Hide without needing to move, Hide as a bonus action with no way of being tracked or followed, fight invisible enemies, and add your WIS mod to your melee weapon attacks. As a Gloom Stalker, you gain magic that actually fits really really well for a Moonshadow Elf, the ability to ambush effectively, see in darkness and become invisible in darkness, even to creatures with Darkvision, become proficient in WIS, INT, or CHA saving throws, turn a missed attack into a hit, and invoke the darkness to make yourself harder to hit.
Rogue     Assassin: As a Rogue, you gain cunning actions, skill expertise, uncanny dodge to reduce the damage when someone does hit you, and evade all the damage you’d take if you make a DEX saving throw, which you have proficiency in. As an assassin, you get proficiencies with Disguise Kits so you can convince people that you’re Human!Rayla, and when you manage a surprise attack, it’s an instant critical. However, Rayla is an assassin who has never killed anyone, so it might not be a great fit.     Scout: As a scout, you gain an improvement to your mobility and can move away from enemies without provoking an opportunity attack, and you get proficiency with Nature and Survival so that you can know to use a rose to keep yourself from falling asleep and follow tracks easily.
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Stats and Proficiencies
As an elven assassin, your DEX and WIS scores are the top priority. You need to be flexible, nimble, and alert. A good CON stat will make sure you can shake off a kick square in the chest and run without getting winded.  Ordinarily, you’d want a good STR stat to do well with your melee weapon attacks, but as a Monk, you can treat your shortswords as Monk Weapons and swing with your DEX stat instead. and INT and CHA just aren’t super important to this build.
Acrobatics Deception Insight Intimidation Investigation Perception Persuasion Nature Stealth Survival
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Name: Rayla Race: High Moon Elf Background: Adopted Alignment: True Good Class: Scout Rogue (8)             Gloom Stalker Ranger (8)             Shadow Monk (4) Base Stats: Strength: 10 (0) Dexterity: 20 (+5) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 10 (0) Wisdom: 20 (+5) Charisma: 10 (0) Saving Throws: Strength: 0 Dexterity: +11 Constitution: +2 Intelligence: +6 Wisdom: +11 Charisma: 0 Combat Stats: HP: 151 AC: 20 Speed: 40 Initiative: +10 Number of Attacks: 2 Hit Dice: 8d8, 8d10, 4d8 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 27 Dark Vision: 90 feet Proficiencies and Expertise:    Acrobatics (Rogue)    Animal Handling (Ranger)    Athletics (Rogue)    Deception (Adopted)    Insight (Rogue)    Investigation    Nature (Scout)    Perception (Elf)    Persuasion (Adopted)    Stealth (Adopted)    Survival (Scout) Skills: Acrobatics: +17                  Medicine: +5 Animal Handling: +11         Nature: +6 Arcana: 0                           Perception: +17 Athletics: +6                       Performance: 0 Deception: +6                    Persuasion: +6 History: 0                           Religion: 0 Insight: +11                        Sleight of Hand: +5 Intimidation: 0                    Stealth: +17 Investigation: +6                Survival: +17
Condition Immunities    Magical Sleep
Equipment:     Shortsword x2
Monk Feature: Ki    Ki Points: 4
Ranger Feature: Fighting Style   Two- Weapon Fighting: Add your DEX mod to your off-hand weapon attack.
Ranger Feature: Favored Enemy    Elf    Dragon    Human
Ranger Feature: Favorite Terrain    Forest    Mountain
Spell Slots 1st (4) 2nd (3)
Rayla’s Spellbook
Cantrips     Minor Illusion 1st Level     Detect Magic     Disguise Self     Hunter’s Mark     Jump     Longstrider 2nd Level     Pass Without Trace     Rope Trick
Actions:
Primeval Awareness: Spend X spell slot, Sense creature types for X minutes within 1 mile, or 6 miles in favored terrain.
Bonus Actions:
Cunning Action: Aim, Dash, Disengage, or Hide once per turn. Flurry of Blows: After an Attack, spend 1 Ki to make 2 Unarmed Strikes Martial Arts: Make an extra unarmed strike after an Attack Action. Patient Defense: Spend 1 Ki to take Dodge Action Step of the Wind: Spend 1 Ki to Dash or Disengage, Jump distance doubles.
Reactions:
Deflect Missiles: Reduce ranged damage by 1d10+9. At 0, return to sender. Slow Fall: Reduce falling damage by 20. Uncanny Dodge: Take 1/2 damage from attackers you can see.
Features:
Dread Ambusher: Add your WIS to your Initiative, your speed becomes 50 during the first turn, and make an additional 1d8 weapon attack on that turn. Evasion: On a successful DEX save, take 0 damage. Extra Attack: Make a second attack action once per turn. Favored Enemy: Advantage at tracking and fighting Humans, Elves, and Dragons. +2 damage against favored enemies. Fey Ancestry: You fall into a trance instead of sleeping and remain alert. Iron Mind: You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws. Land’s Stride: Nonmagical difficult terrain can’t slow your movement. Natural Explorer: In favorite terrain, double bonus proficiency INT and WIS saving throws, your group isn’t slowed by difficult terrain, you can’t be surprised, you can move stealthily at normal pace, double food when foraging, and determine the number, size, and speed of creatures being tracked. Shadow Arts: Spend 2 ki to cast Darkness, Darkvision, Pass Without Trace, and Silence. Skirmisher: move up to 1/2 your speed when foes end within 5 ft of you.  Sneak Attack: Deal 4d6 extra damage when attacking with advantage. Survivalist: Gain Nature and Survival proficiencies. Thieves’ Cant: Hear and convey secret messages in casual conversation. Trance: Trance for 4 hours instead of sleeping for 8. Trust Issues: Other elves have difficulty trusting and believing you due to your family history. Umbral Sight: Increase your darkvision by 30 feet.
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How do you guys feel I did with Rayla’s build? If she learned more moon magic, a pure Gloom Stalker might have worked perfectly for them, but for Rayla who is less skilled, I had to fill out her levels with other classes and subclasses. Would you build Rayla differently? And this is the first of my many requested builds. If you have a character you’d like me to build, send me a request, and I’ll add it to the list.
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hedjblogr · 3 years
Note
If you count your Clones as your own characters, what is their preferred day to wind down after a stressful day? What kind kind day is stressful for them? If you don't, the same questions but for your sylvari. - moonlit-grove
CRACKS MY KNUCKLES this is gonna get long i am doing ALL my clones i made in GW2 not just my GW2 character ones
so in birthday order:
oh god ahah sometimes i forget i have a character called Armored Temmie. they are VERY stress when they cannot pet hoomin......... petting hoomin.... reliev STRESS!!!!! (in seriousness, being a temmie is very hard when you work at an interdimensional café and your boss is having you deliver donuts to scarlet briar in an attempt to divert the course of history. helping people out outside of work helps them wind down immensely)
Steben Uwuninu is just a lil boy! he’s a lil mans! (he’s a pre-Lapis Steven Universe AU i RP with a buddy, some tragedy in his backstory but he has the best family) sometimes he gets stressed when there’s a problem he can’t solve, and likes to unwind with video games, making music and exploring!
Tesco Value Eir (my first GW2 character clone!) is stressed out by the burden of her legend even if it’s not technically hers and likes to unwind through some lower-stakes hunting, or by doing some ice carving. and petting her many, many dogs, all of which are called garm. :thonk:
oh hey we’re getting into the Legacy of Kain clones now (the next 3)
Scion Kain gets stressed out when Raziel is getting himself into trouble (this happens often) and when things stop going to plan (this happens more often than he’d care to admit). he de-stresses by being a pain in everyone’s ass, reading and discussing ancient cultures and philosophy, going on rampages, and spending quality time with Raziel (which often just means being his personal pain in the ass)
Priestess Umah is just stressed all the time because the weight of vampirekind rests on the shoulders of a TOTAL ASSHOLE,,, but she unwinds through gentler exercise (soft martial arts type stuff), meditation and a bit of light reading. despite being fucking stacked and fighty as hell she prefers mental pursuits
Dionisie Audron is a weird one bc he’s both a clone and an OC for reasons i can’t go into 🤫 but i’ll talk specifically about the clone side of things. he finds it very stressful when people are not taking their jobs seriously and being thoughtless... and he finds massages, reading, and meditation very relaxing. also baths! he loves baths. nice smelling bath with some candles and incense and the stress just melts away
Goodwill Trahearne is my trahearne clone and while i don’t have a ton of stuff down for him, the most stressful days for him are the ones where it’s made clear just how much is expected of him - when the day’s work is through he likes to settle down with a good book, maybe pet a sylvan hound, and fall asleep in his chair because he stays up way too late and forgets to sleep until his body forces him to
Discount Canach is my canach clone, who i do have very solid answers for. his biggest stressors are when he can’t control a situation, when it’s completely out of his hands - for example, when a certain IDIOT TRIBUNE decides to RUN IN SWORDS BLAZING and NOT STOP AND THINK OF A PLAN. and he also gets stressed out when a planned controlled situation falls apart despite his careful planning. this can be something as big as a mission or as small as a half hour delay getting something/someplace on his worst days. he can be very high strung at times; the worst part is he’s very conscious of this
if he gets a chance to unwind after a day that’s just completely fell apart, one way he blows off steam is through snark actually! mutual snark is the best. it’s like a gentle venting of pressure. this man’s a damn pressure cooker, if you take the lid off too fast he’ll blow. gotta let him vent gently and slowly. he’d never admit it aloud to many but he also likes bathing, even if that means having water dunked on his head/ (people like doing this to him for some reason. something something watering their cactus.) he hates it less than he lets on. physically cooling down cools him down mentally too!
wew sorry that one got massively long but listen i have a lot of thoughts and feelings about canach specifically
OKAY next clone is Rythunk Brimstud who’s a rytlock clone... ish. i’m still playing with this idea rn but i actually had the idea that he might be one of rytlock’s younger cubs in an au where rytlock dies for some reason?? and he ends up invoking him as a spirit through the mists. and gradually uh. letting his late dad take over his body so he can continue his work because he feels like the world needs rytlock more than they need rytlock’s cub. 😥 (rytlock isn't actually super happy with this!! he's kind of pissed!! it's a constant struggle)
but yeah uh rythunk finds that whole living up to expectations thing stressful. he’s charr, and in the thick of it, and having to be both himself and his dad. every day is stress. he likes playing guitar to destress, and he’s actually pretty good at it! so a day where he can get a lot of guitar practice in is good, maybe just find a nice cliff and jam out to no one in particular
next on my clone list is Could Be Caithe... any instance where she's expected to work with others is stressful even if she's trying harder now, trust is a two way street and she's painfully aware she has not earned everyone's trust back yet and may never. and relying on others is hard.
but, if she gets to spend time exploring with no stakes, or listening to music, or any time spent with aurene - that's something very relaxing and relieving to her
Maybe Malomedies is my next clone - and to elaborate, he's somewhat divergent because he was blighted by Trahearne as a result of dying due to a series of very unfortunate events :> which is why his colours are off the shits and he looks quite different from his canon counterpart
his interests are much the same though! he loves stargazing, talking to others about the machinations of fate and the different constellations he's discovered and what they mean - in his own culture and other cultures! and different constellations other people have discovered too!
forgiving as he is, anything that brushes too close to his past trauma still causes stress. he can't set foot near inquest anything, and it's good to have patience with him if he's near or in any asuran settlements. it's gonna be a bad day if he has to deal with anything like that, or anything related to the branded for that matter. certain visions can also just set him off to a really bad start as well; he's had a habit of seeing deaths lately. :-)
and my last real clone, Precocious Aurene. she's actually a sylvari avatar for Aurene to explore relatively incognito and spend time with her family without causing a stir! and to just kind of... be a kid.
while in this avatar, it's stressful if people start getting hints of who she is or guessing - because the last thing she wants is for it to get out that she's doing this at all. and if the All is particularly loud, or an area is particularly intense with magic, it can become a little overwhelming for her
however part of the beauty of this disguise is it IS her stress relief - she doesn't have to be an Elder Dragon. she can just be... herself. she can just be a kid. she can experience the world like everyone else does, and anything she can do is wonderful
ooookay i think that's everyone! 8)
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