#seven and nine of swords were the best ones. i kinda wanted them to have different suits but its ok | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

malachi-walker · 3 years

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Happy birthday, Mal! I love your fics, they evoke so much emotion in me and have made me cry many a time. I don't often reread fics, but i've reread multiple chapters of Rhythm and Blues because they're stuck with me so much. You capture the emotional pain of their trauma and the catharsis that comes with their growth so beautifully. You also write some brilliant meta and just consistently post some fantastic thoughts. Also your love for swords is very appreciated. <3 have a lovely day!

First of all, my apologies for not replying sooner. I was making my mind up about something that would definitely require the use of a read more and thus necessitate dragging myself to desktop (which I hate because my laptop predates the dinosaurs.)

But seriously. Thank you so much. This is honestly one of the sweetest comments I've ever gotten and definitely made my already pretty sweet bday even better.

So about that read more. In honor of you, @metalesbo, my friends @n7punk and @jem-jarrett and everyone else who sent me well wishes or just really loves my work... Here's the opening section of the next chapter of R&B. Enjoy. It's a long one.

Adora Eternia is about two months shy of her fourteenth birthday when she first realizes she's in love with her best friend.

Though--if asked--she would hasten to explain that it wasn't when she fell in love. But trying to pinpoint the exact moment is an exercise in catching mist: the more she tries to grasp it in her hands the more it spreads out and covers everything. It just is: pure and simple and very, very complicated.

It's the beginning of December and the whole town is covered in a thick blanket of snow. Winterfest will be here in a few weeks, so to help out the kids who want to get gifts for their friends the Right Zone administration has shuffled around the groups that usually take their monthly trips on the third and fourth Sundays of the month to double up with the other two. As part of group three, she and Catra got the first week (the other three members of their crew are week two folks anyway and thus outside the reorganization.)

It's still kinda weird to think that: their crew. For so long, it was just Catra and Adora. Adora and Catra. One unit bound together, just them against the world. But there's also something nice about being part of a small cluster, their "scrappy little lone wolf pack" as Catra had once put it with a wry grin before Lonnie shoved her over with an, "Excuse you, I'm a great people person when I'm not busy making sure you idiots haven't set yourselves on fire!"

They all got a good laugh out of that one.

But regardless, the holidays are coming up and this is the first year that any of their group has felt like actually doing anything for it, aside from wrangling together a sleepover and seeing if they can convince the kitchen staff to slip them some leftover eggnog.

They made each other promise not to go too extravagant and keep each person's gift to ten dollars or lower. Even though their quarterly stipend has increased from three hundred to four hundred to match with inflation over the past eight years, it still isn't a whole lot for three month's worth of expenses, especially when they also have to budget regularly for clothes to keep up with the seemingly endless growth spurts.

There's also the usual budgetary concern of keeping her and Catra's first aid kit well supplied...

Adora shakes her head to dislodge the intrusive thought and continues marching onward through the snow. This trip is a good thing. She won't let all the awful realities of their life taint it.

With so many kids running around and wanting to shop on their own to surprise their giftees, Right Zone had to negotiate with both the local police and whatever other civic authorities they could get ahold of to come out en masse and keep an eye on them all. The kids had still come with their usual teachers, of course, but doubling the load and also splitting up was a logistical nightmare. Which is just a convoluted way to say the town is positively crawling with uniformed officers, off duty members of the fire brigade, emergency personnel, and other such authority figures quietly keeping watch and making sure no one tries anything.

Adora knows that somewhere in the press of bodies, Grizzlor's busy wrangling two new "brats" (seven and nine, respectively, and definitely not friends.) Somewhere, a certain Magicat is probably grumbling over the indignity of being forced to wear shoes and kicking every snowpile she can, like she can send a direct message to whatever cosmic force is responsible for her current frustration.

On an ordinary month she and Catra--being old enough to be allowed a bit more freedom to do what they want--would buddy up to watch each other's backs while they did their shopping. But this isn't an ordinary month, so once they'd each gotten gifts for the other three they'd split up on opposite ends of Main Street with an agreement to move clockwise to avoid running into each other. Afterwards, the entire group would rendezvous at the small clock tower in the park a block over before heading back to Right Zone.

Ten dollars wasn't a lot to work with, but Adora had done her best: a new stress ball for Kyle, some moisturizing oil for Rogelio since the early winter shed had wiped out his supply and he'd been too busy to pick up some more, a twelve pound kettle weight for Lonnie now that their shared exercise routine was getting a bit too easy for her... Utilitarian choices, to be sure, but she's been paying attention and that has to count for something.

Catra's the difficult one, of course. Partly because Adora doesn't want to just get her something practical, but also because they share nearly everything between them already. About the only thing that is definitively off limits is Catra's guitar, and she's told Adora enough about her time with Tao over the years that Adora wouldn't even ask. Beyond that... Well, there's a reason why most of Adora's day off hoodies have small strands of orange fur stuck to them.

Still. I want to get her something that's hers. Something she'll like. Something she doesn't have to share with anyone, not even me.

In the end, she nearly walks past it. In one of the artisanal shops that dot small towns like liver spots, she finds a display of hand stamped necklace pendants, with a design sheet beside it. There are a lot of the usual nature designs and such, but the one that catches her eye is a treble clef with the five staff lines bleeding out from it. They ring the edge of the pendant in a half circle, and scattered haphazardly along the lines are the other music notes.

The lack of proper order would drive Adora insane. She understands that it's just meant to look pretty, not be an accurate representation of musical notation, but still... She knows her own (broken) brain well enough to know that.

It suits Catra, though.

"Hey," Mismatched eyes looked down at Adora as her head draped backwards over the back of their desk chair, the throbbing behind her left eye threatening to escalate into a migraine. "Guess I don't have to ask how the composing's going."

"It sucks," Adora groused back, sitting up and gesturing Catra over. She jabbed at two particular spots with the half chewed off eraser end of her pencil, two hard jabs each, like she was filing a complaint. "Most of it is just what I'm going for, but these two places here... They aren't sounding right. I've been going back and forth over structure all afternoon, but nothing I do helps."

"Hmmm..." Catra stroked her chin and nudged Adora over so she could sit on the arm of the chair (they'd never gotten around to requesting a second, mostly because Adora didn't want to risk Shadow Weaver suspecting they were getting too chummy.) "Got any scratch paper?"

Adora pointed to the pile of half crumpled notebook paper she used when making adjustments and Catra snorted. "Ok, dumb question. Just let me see here..."

Grabbing a pen, she quickly inked a fresh set of staff lines and copied the notes Adora had already put down, making sure to leave space to work. Glancing between the two, she drummed her fingers on the desk, playing along in her head.

"Hmm..." Catra murmured, worrying at her lower lip with a fang in a manner that was... Oddly distracting. "Ok, how 'bout this?"

Adora jolted, tearing her gaze from Catra's face to look at the sequence of notes scribbled onto the scratch paper. She paused, brow furrowing as she played them over in her mind's eye. It was a little unorthodox, veering away from the path she had carefully laid out... But also blending well with the next part. Almost like the notes took a quick detour and then lead the listener back to where she wanted them.

"Yeah..." Adora replied thoughtfully, the tension all over her body starting to smooth out. "Yeah, that could work."

"Awesome. Let's take a look at the next part."

They ultimately ended up spending several hours going over the entire piece, sussing out every place where Adora was having even the slightest niggle of unease. She didn't accept all of Catra's changes and Catra didn't push the matter, but the ones she did...

They felt right. More right than they had ever felt when it was just Adora running circles around herself.

When they finally finished up she looked over at Catra, tail waving sedately in that way it got when she was simultaneously engaged but relaxed, and asked, "Umm... Do you want to learn with me? I like doing this."

'I like making music with you.'

Catra paused, looking over at Adora searchingly, almost like she couldn't believe the question had come up. No matter how many years had passed between them, that look never really went away, and every time she saw it Adora's chest ached in a way that was hard for her to process.

"I'd like that."

Catra's composing style is very different from Adora's. More wild, more willing to bend and break the rules if it means maintaining audience engagement, but there's always an underlying order to the chaos. To her surprise and pleasure, Adora found herself learning just as much from Catra as Catra was learning from her. Their styles brought out the best in each other.

The jingle of a bell kicks her out of the memory. Mind made up even though it's nearly double her budget, Adora scans the stand of necklaces for the one with the treble clef pattern.

It isn't there. Adora swallows down the disappointment, though she can't help the sigh. Of course. The town was well aware of the large population of music students a short drive away and catered to them accordingly. But there are also dozens of kids out on the street tonight. It isn't that big of a surprise that the design sold out.

Not surprising, but disheartening nonetheless.

She's just begun to turn away when a voice calls from the back. "Hang on a sec there, little miss."

Adora jumps, but remains where she is as a large Taurian man with a massive snow white beard trundles out from a door behind the counter, wiping his hands on his apron. "Was there a particular design you were interested in?"

Adora points at the treble clef, hope rising. "This one. But it looks like it's already sold out."

"Hmm..." The man scratchs at his chin. "Well with Winterfest coming up, I'm out of blank pendants-"

Adora's shoulders slump.

"-But," The man continues with a smile. "I can double stamp it onto the back of another. Ordinarily I'd charge extra for that, but it's my fault for not ordering enough blanks. Rookie move. Besides, it's the holidays. Now would that be all right by you?"

Nodding frantically in case he changes his mind, Adora scans the other designs, quickly alighting on one in particular. "That one!"

"The claw marks? Bit of an odd combination, but the customer is always right," The old man winked as he reached out to take the necklace from her. "My jig and press is in the corner over here if you wanna watch."

Adora was glad he specified, because as nice as the man seemed there was no way in hell she was going into a back room with a stranger. But she stood next to the window beside a display of miscellaneous knick knacks and puzzles, watching him carefully place the pendant in a cushioned stand to avoid damaging the already printed side and tighten it into place before moving beside the machine.

"You're gonna want to cover your ears," He tells her, patting the machine with one massive hand. "Had to switch to a steam press when the arthritis caught up to me. Used to do it all by hammer. This boy's okay, but he gets loud."

Adora nods, glad for the warning when he bellows "Clear!" and the machine's hammer comes down once, twice, three times with a sound like the ringing of an enormous bell. Once the machine is stopped and carefully turned off, the old man removes the pendant from the press and hands it over to Adora for inspection. "What do you think? Does it pass muster?"

Adora runs her fingertips over the impressions in the metal, memorizing the feel of it, the leftover warmth of the impact. "Perfect."

"Good. Now let's get you rung up."

Counting the five dollars she attempted to surreptitiously slip into the tip jar (the old man winked as he turned back around, so stealth fail) Adora went very over budget, but the others would have to put a gun to her head for her to admit it.

Besides, it's Catra. They already know she's the sole exception to all of Adora's carefully maintained rules.

With everything finished, she continues trudging through the snow toward the park, breathing a sign of relief as she moves away from the shopping district and the people thin out; no one wanting to go to the park in the middle of such bleak weather. Angling around a clustered group of bare trees, she spots the small clock tower in the distance, as well as the figure already standing beside it. Grinning, Adora picks up the pace a bit until she can see Catra clearly and--

Her breath catches.

Since her only experience with this kind of thing has been through books, Adora always expected this moment would be more dramatic. Like back to back in the middle of a fight, or eyes locking from up on stage. Something spectacular, like fireworks, lime explosions, like the feeling of playing a song without a single mistake for the first time. It's always seemed like such a big deal in the stories, and in a way, it is.

Because there's Catra, lost in her own world as she gazes up at the streetlight that's just come on, her left hand extended to let the snowflakes fall into her palm and the light catches the orange of her fur just right to make a blaze of color against the black of her coat. She looks so small, standing in that space all alone on a cold winter's night, but Adora knows deep down that she could never be that small, not when she's Catra, not when she means so much...

Pretty much everything about the past hour--about her entire life since they met if she's being honest--snaps into crystal clear focus.

Oh. I get it now. I'm in love with you.

It's a bad idea. Adora knows that. Shadow Weaver is enough of a menace while believing Catra is simply her roommate, her sometime tool--and Catra had ended up being all too right about the torture not stopping, even after years of Adora trying to direct Weaver's attentions away from her. If the evil old bitch figures out Adora's feelings run deeper, so much deeper...

Her heart beats double time. This whole thing is an unmitigated disaster.

But it's still the best worst thing that's ever happened to her.

She must make a noise, because Catra's ear twitches in her direction, snapping her out of that distant contemplation. She turns her head and looks at Adora, lips curling in a lopsided grin. "Hey, Adora. Wow, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Adora blinks, coming back to herself and mumbling the first excuse that springs to mind. "... Just cold."

"Well no shit. C'mere."

When she closes the distance Catra glances around warily, making sure they're the only ones around, before reaching up and retying the scarf around Adora's neck, patting it once when she's done. "There. I know I make it look good, but you don't have the advantage of fur like me."

Adora looks down at the thin AC/DC t-shirt that Catra's wearing beneath her half open coat, the line of her collarbones and neck, and makes a snap decision. "Is it okay if I give you your present now?"

Catra blinks, a little thrown by the non sequitur. "I mean... Sure? Do you want me to give you yours?"

"I'm good with either," Adora shrugs, trying to ignore how fast her heart is beating, how much she wants to do this before this moment slips away. "I just want to."

There's a long moment of silence as they each examine the other, equally searching. What Catra's looking for, Adora doesn't know. She isn't sure she wants to know.

"Okay."

Breathing deep, Adora reaches into her pocket and pulls out the necklace on its leather cord. Careful to keep the pendant hidden in her hand, she passes it over, fingertips sparking as it's taken. Catra brings it close to her face, running her fingers over the four parallel slashes on the side facing her.

"Why the claw marks?"

Adora laughs, nervous butterflies positively rioting in her stomach. "Because you're a badass. Duh."

"True," Catra smirks, flipping it over and squinting at the other side. "And this?"

"Badass, loves music with all your heart. Not mutually exclusive concepts," Adora says, trying not to give away how much she thinks about this, how much she wants to take that hand in hers. She settles for a playful shoulder bump instead. "Plus we all know you're secretly a big softie."

"Excuse you, I am all sharp edges," Catra giggles, lightly elbowing her before transitioning into a soft little smile. "... Just not with everyone."

Oh God oh God oh God. That smile will absolutely be the death of her.

Swallowing past her horrible awareness of that softness, Adora asks, "So you like it?"

"I love it. Good luck ever getting me to take it off," Catra laughs, then frowns, flexing her fingers. "Hands have gone a little numb, though. Help me put it on?"

Adora.exe promptly crashes to desktop. But she still somehow manages to move, helping Catra hold back her mane so she can slip the leather cord over her head and tuck it beneath her hair. If she hesitates a moment too long in letting go, at least Catra only shoots her an amused glance. "How's it look?"

"Great," Adora manages to croak out, trying to swallow past the sudden dryness in her throat. "You look great. Umm... Happy early Winterfest, I guess?"

"Well, I'm gonna hold onto yours a little longer," Catra laughs, playfully sticking out her tongue before reaching out. "C'mere, you big dork."

Adora shuffles closer, mind and heart both screaming as Catra draws her into a hug, nuzzling her head against the side of her neck. A little whisper. "Thank you."

Adora swallows again, even harder. "You're welcome."

Between them, the necklace rests, the music side pressed right up against Catra's heart.

----------

Fun fact: the shopkeep is based off a cool old dude selling machine pressed necklaces I ran into at a Scottish festival when I was 13, and he made such an impression I never forgot him. Anyway, happy Valentine's! Have a Big Gay Realization!

#answers #rhythm & blues #the catradora rockstar au #featuring adora's big gay realization #and also fantasy christmas

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lara635kookie · 3 years

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Ranking the best The 39 Clues books(First season because the other ones just aren't canon in my mind).

SPOILER ALERT!

If you're a Clue Hunter and is reading this post, when you finish it reblog it and do your ranking of The First Season books(please I need to know I'm not alone on this fandom)(Please someone tell me I didn't get to this fandom too late). Also this is only my opinion. If you think different feel free to share your thoughts(respectly). So let's go:

My Personal Favorites:

10-Beyond The Grave(Book Four written by Jude Watson):

Honestly this book is overall good and I really wanted to go Egypt but that's only in this place because Ian and Natalie don't show up in person, they're only mentioned by Amy and Dan sometimes. It may seem like a stupid reason but Ian and Natalie were the biggest enemies of Amy and Dan, arch-enemies since the two understand themselves by person and their appearances have always been so iconic, the chases, the talks, the fights, the teasing so the fact they weren't in this book just didn't feel right. The Cahills and the Kabras have a lot of chemistry, both as enemies and as much something more(if you get me, lovers cough cough), and the Kabras have been sorely missed in this book(at least by me).

9-The Emperor's Code(Book Eight written by Gordon Korman):

I don't know compared to the other ones, this one just look kinda forgettable. Maybe because Amy and Dan spend a good part of this book apart. But of course the story has its good moments which are when Dan gives an autograph for a girl (D. Cahill is priceless), when Dan tells the Wizards that he is a Madrigal (as we say in Brazil: Iconic, Memorable and Timeless) (Dan was very amazing in this book, if you disagree, disagree in silence) and when Amy saves Ian(aka Love of her life) from falling off Mount Everest.

8-The Viper's Nest(Book Seven written by Peter Lerangis):

I love that one but the other ones are just better. I like the ending with Isabel(and everyone) thinking that the Clue was Diamond and It wasn't. I also like the scenes with Kurt because I wanted Ian to meet him and Kurt make Ian jealous of Amy(don't judge my dreams). Another thing that I really like is the history. I really like studying history and I learnt so much about Shaka Zulu. And was also with that book that I realized that Isabel had arrived to stay and that she would be the Main Villain in the end somehow. Maybe That's another reason why I don't like much The Emperor's Code:Isabel didn't show up and I thought she would appear in all the other books after In Too Deep. Natalie on Storm Warning said that Isabel didn't trust Ian and her to handle the Hunt without Isabel anymore since Russia so that just doesn't make sense. Maybe she didn't appearead to give Cora Wizard the spotlight but anyway let's continue.

7-The Black Circle(Book Five written by Patrick Carman):

I love this one so much. Probably because in this book we see that Ian is also in love with Amy. On Book three he seemed to like her but then he and Natalie let Amy, Dan and Alistair locked on the cave and we only see Amy Side of this story. Her sadness. But we didn't know if Ian was sorry, if he regreted his actions. And when they come back on this book we see Ian still likes Amy and the fandom goes crazy. I mean even if you are a Jamy/Carian shipper or shipps another shipp you probably shipped Amyan before because they were the only promising couple on the series(at least on series one). Back to the book I Love The Holts defeating the Kabras and Amy and Dan doing an Alliance with Hamilton(Dan envying Hamilton for driving a Kamaz will be Forever iconic). Also this book was when I realized Irina wasn't bad. I didn't like her in the other books and I didn't notice much of her but everything changed on this book and I started to love her. * sad sigh * Moving on!

6-The Maze of Bones(Book One written by Rick Riordan):

Uncle Rick(we call him like that on Brazil, in portuguese is Tio Rick) did a really great job on this one. For a series that has several authors writing, the beginning is very important and it is a great responsibility for the first author because those who will write later have to understand what you wanted to convey in the beginning to make a coherent continuation. Rick Riordan did it flawlessly. We can identify ourselves in the characters and we get really connected to the plot, the history, the riddles about Benjamin Franklin and after finishing the book we wanna know more about what happens next. So Rick Riordan absolutely slayed this introduction and no one can tell me otherwise.

5-One False Note(Book Two written by Gordon Korman):

This book is just unforgivable. I love this with all my soul. Probably because It talks about Mozart and his history and I really love arts. Also because the writing of this book is so satisfactory and so well done. I mean I really thought Fidelio Racco was a real person. What I also love about that book is the fact that every character get to shine. Amy and Dan are the Main characters but the appearences of all the other characters are really remarkable so yeah That's it. Deserves this spot on the Top 5 for sure.

4-In Too Deep(Book Six written by Jude Watson):

Going now to the four horsemen of the apocalypse from the best books of The 39 Clues. In Too Deep It's just something so perfect It's inexplicable. Something I don't like much about In Too Deep is that when Isabel was fighting to Irina and Ian and Natalie were watching Natalie was like:Irina is going to get Shoot on the head, That's gonna be so good. Like she wanted Isabel to do this, like she would be disappointed if she didn't, like she was used to seeing this type of thing. Then, In Storm Warning she was soft like:Not blood. It's so repulsive(several authors series problem but the series is good anyway). About that book I love the start, I love the middle, I love the apex and If It wasn't for Irina's death in the end this would probably be even higher than already is. Why Irina, Jude? Also:Why Pony? Why Erasmus? Why McIntyre? Why Alistair? Why Lester? Why Natalie? Why Evan? Why everyone? Why not Jake or Cara? Back to the story Jude Watson is Just a genius for transforming a dream(or a nightmare) in Isabel Kabra and adding her to the book. I don't wanna cry today so I'm just going for the next one.

3-The Sword Thief(Book Three written by Peter Lerangis):

If this book was a part The Plastics of Mean Girls, The Sword Thief would be Karen Smith of The 39 Clues, because let's face it:Amy and Dan were really dumb of accepting an alliance with Alistair and the Kabras. Principally with the Kabras. I mean they already were kinda used to temporary alliances with Alistair but not Ian and Natalie but they should have expected that It would have been bad on the end. I mean yes they needed Ian's coin to open the cave to find the clue but they look so surprised when Ian and Natalie leaves them on the cave and they shouldn't because that was obvious that they were going to betray them in the final. So they should have accepted the alliance but being more distant to the Kabras and preparing themselves in case they try something(which was obvious they would). But at the same time, I'm glad they didn't because AMYAN IS JUST MY ENTIRE LIFE(And even a little bit of Danatalie this book is Just a masterpiece). Just like In Too Deep, I love everything about that book, except the end. And I am a Kpop fan(not the cringe obssessed type) and I really like to study about North and South Korea and their history but South Korea's caves just left me depressed. I'm gonna cry so let's change the subject.

2-Storm Warning(Book Nine written by Linda Sue Park):

I love everything about this book. Literally everything. The start, the middle, the apex and the end. I love this book mainly because Natalie got the spotlight that she deserved. I don't know why I like Natalie so much since the start. Maybe because when I started Reading the books I was eleven, just like her. And Maybe because she was pretty, rich, savage and sassy wich I always wanted to be. But there is something more that I don't know how to explain that is really relatable about Natalie even with my reality being too different from hers and this book was the confirmation I needed that Natalie would be my favorite character Forever. I Also like it because it happened on Bahamas and Jamaica(two places I really want to go in the future) and It got a lot of revelations and twists in the end(wich I love more than everything on a book). If Storm Warning was a person and slapped my face I would probably say:Thanks, Could you do that again?

1-Into The Gauntlet(Book Ten written by Margaret Peterson Haddix):

I usually don't like the endings of books because I'm sad that it's over and as all the other books were good I usually demand a lot from the endings, even more than the beginnings (for me the final impression is the one that stays, not the first). I generally like the endings but I've never looked at a ending book and said: This one overcomes all the other books. I normally like more the start or the middle books. But man Into The Gauntlet caught me off guard. DoD is already a trash ending, comparing to Into The Gauntlet, DoD(fanfiction-forced-canon) seems even worse(if That's even possible). Everything about that book It's just top-notch, high quality, god tier, flawlessly perfect. Stan Haddix. We believe in Into The Gauntlet Supremacy.

It's going to have a part 2. Bye.

#the 39 clues #39 clues #39clues #book ranking #season 1

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chronicallylatetotheparty · 3 years

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Watching (the Adventures of) Merlin season one on Netflix

Episode One: The Dragon's Call

. . . I feel like going to the capital of the kingdom indiscriminately slaughtering magic users wasn't the best idea.

Why? Well, that guy did just get executed.

And now his mom is mad. You tell that sorry excuse for a king, witch lady.

I don't like Uther, in case it was unclear.

Wait... if you could teleport why not just grab your son and ditch before he loses his head? Literally.

Oh, wow. Arthur is a dick.

Morgana. We have no choice but to stan tbh.

Dragon, you're really rubbing me the wrong way.

That's right Merlin! We need more than Because Destiny Says So!

Where did the spiderwebs come from? That sleeping spell gives me Sleeping Beauty vibes.

Ah, yes. The old drop-the- chandelier-on-the-villain trick. :(

If she went after Uther instead of Arthur I would have no complaints.

Manservant? You call that a reward for saving your son?

Episode Two: Valiant

Snake!Shield

Oh, he's gonna- Yup, dead. That's what happens when you deal with knights who cheat.

Where did that guy even get a magic shield in the first place?

Is there a thriving magic black market or something?

I love Guin.

. . . I feel like Sir Valiant didn't think this through. If bite marks are visible.

Ugh, you're the worst Uther.

It's only the second episode! Did you forget who saved your son already?

Stop being a jerk Arthur.

Lol. Merlin bringing a dog statue to life in order to practice for the Snake!Shield.

Bye Valiant!

Episode Three: The Mark of Nimueh

Whatcha up to with that egg, new witch lady?

You gonna poison the water of all of Camelot? Seems like a jerk move.

Dang that's a lot of dead bodies...

No, I like Guin's dad!

Yes! Cure him Merlin!

No! Stop arresting Guin, Uther!

You tell him, Morgana!

That plague monster that hatched from witch lady's egg is creepy.

Dead monster!

Arthur is kinda oblivious to Merlin's magic ngl.

Yay! Guin's free!

What do you know about witch lady Nimueh, Uther? Hmm? Why she want you dead? Besides the obvious reasons.

Episode Four: The Poisoned Chalice

Wow, Nimueh really doesn't like Merlin saving the day.

Wow, Nimueh really orchestrated an entire diplomatic incident in order to kill Merlin while also ensuring Camelot is destroyed by its neighbor. Impressive.

I really like Merlin and Guin's friendship.

Dang. Merlin really drank poison in order to save Arthur.

Merlin saved Arthur's life, Uther! Let him return the favor!

Oh, wow. Arthur really disobeyed his father in order to save Merlin's life.

I didn't know Merlin could cast spells while deathly delirious. And several miles away from him too.

Uther you b****! The antidote is right there! Let Arthur save his friend!

Putting your own son in a cell is such a jerk move.

At least Arthur and Guin manage to sneak the antidote to Merlin.

Quick aside: Internet spoilers say Uther needs to die for Arthur to complete his himbofication- I mean character development. So, if you could get on with that? Thanks!

Episode Five: Lancelot

Wow, that's a very CGI griffin.

Lancelot is so precious- Uh, I mean effective! Saving Merlin and all.

I know, Guin. I know.

Always thought it was a stupid rule to only let nobles be knights.

You're really going to commit magical forgery for someone you just met, Merlin?

I mean, Lancelot is earnest, hardworking, modest, kind despite his tragic backstory and it's his childhood dream to be a knight...

Yeah, I'd commit magical forgery too.

Lol, knocked you on your ass didn't he Arthur? (The second time at least)

I don't remember griffins being man-eaters!

Uther stop arresting people! Ugh, you're such a classist.

Let Lancelot help fight the griffin, Arthur! You need all the help you can get!

Well okay letting him go was nice of you.

Lancelot-Merlin tag team!

Wow. Lancelot really strode in with Camelot's singular braincell by figuring out Merlin has magic.

(The bar is low, okay.)

No, don't take away the braincell! Stay! The griffin was a team effort!

Okay, Lancelot's lawful good tendencies are a little annoying but, hey, nobody's perfect.

Episode Six: A Remedy to Cure All Ills

Edwin, no. Leave Morgana alone.

Oh, beetles! Curse beetles! That's not creepy at all.

Gaius how do you know Edwin?

What diabolical plot are you hatching Edwin? Oh, you're replacing Gaius in the royal court. That's kinda rude.

Merlin's so happy meeting another magic user that isn't trying to kill him (yet).

Le gasp! Uther's purge killed Edwin's parents? WhO cOuLd HaVe fOreSeEn tHis!?

But seriously. No wonder Edwin wants Uther dead.

I know Edwin blackmailed Gaius with exposing Merlin but he also wants to kill Uther!

That gives him a pass in my book.

Gaius no. Let Uther die.

Edwin stop trying to kill Gaius! You're going to-

Yup, here comes Merlin and-

Edwin's dead :(

Well he was trying to overthrow the kingdom. That's... bad... I guess.

Episode Seven: The Gates of Avalon

That title is misleading. It's more of a natural portal/magic lake type thing.

Arthur saves a father and daughter from bandits (Which they hired but shhh)

And they immediately try to put a love spell on Arthur

For human sacrifice purposes of course

Idk why the Sidhe want a human prince's soul -look at him, you don't know where he's been- but that's the price for readmission

I wonder how the dad killed one of his own kind? Was it an accident or...?

Exiling the daughter too makes me suspicious of Avalon's justice system

Evil laugh is a bit out of place for someone who is trying to restore his daughter's immortality

(They are so whiny about being mortal. Hey, we put up with it all the time!)

The fairy-like Sidhe moving in accelerated time so they just look like tiny orbs of light was an interesting touch. The blue faces and razor sharp teeth is not a good look for them, lol

They make Arthur ask to be married ('cause it takes a while for the love spell to go into full blown mind control or something)

Prompting Uther to threaten to kill both of them

(I feel like they didn't think this through)

Morgana admonishes Uther for being the worst

He replies that first love rarely lasts and that Arthur is inexperienced in such things. Plus that Arthur only met the girl yesterday

... I can't believe Uther is the voice of reason this episode

He doesn't get any points though. Due to the whole "threatening to execution his son's 'crush' " thing

The daughter is having second thoughts about using Arthur as a human sacrifice

Dear old dad puts those to rest and they try drowning Arthur in the lake that is/is the portal to, Avalon

Merlin's really leaning into the whole "Cool motive. Still murder.", thing huh?

Like, he did NOT hesitate to blow up both of them

Episode Eight: The Beginning of the End

Why do magic users keep going to Camelot!? The king is trying to KILL YOU!

Wow, this grown ass man is threatened by a literal child... I hate Uther so much

Morgana is the MVP of this episode. I love her

Protect that druid kid!

I feel like you're being paranoid Uther

You tell him Morgana!

Dragon, no. Stop prophesying death and destruction.

Wow, this grown ass dragon is threatened by a literal child...

Aaaand Morgana got caught sneaking the kid out of the city :(

Uther she is your adopted daughter! Stop putting people in cells!

Arthur is gonna sneak him out now?

While Morgana distracts the king?

Yes, excellent. What could possibly-

Merlin stop listening to that destiny dragon! Hearing his voice in your head is no basis for trust!

Cutting it close... Yay! They made it!

Mordred!? MORDRED!?

THAT little boy is Mordred!?

... Okay, I'm more inclined to believe the destiny dragon now

Still think letting him die would be a dick move

Episode Nine: Excalibur

What're you up to with that tomb Nimueh?

Oh! It's some kind of undead knight. Yes.

Throwing down the gauntlet. Pfft! Always thought that was a stupid idea.

Also: that Black Knight literally crashed your party!

Ugh, knights.

Nimueh if you can just teleport into the heart of Camelot while Uther is alone why don't you just stab him? Grab one of those pointy things he likes so much and stab him in the back. Easy peasy!

Stealing this joke but Don't do evil magic kids. It fries your brain cells.

Wait, the Black Knight is Uther's brother-in-law!?

Arthur's mother died in childbirth!?

Uther asked Nimueh to use her magic so he could have Arthur!?

Equivalent Exchange!?

Uther went on a genocidal rampage because he didn't bother with the instruction manual of ancient and powerful magic!?

Actually, that last one is not surprising at all.

I can't believe they're using the Wife in the Fridge trope. That appliance hasn't even been invented yet!

Ooh, Merlin's going to use his magic to destroy the Black Knight so Arthur doesn't have to fight him

As he's killed two knights already

Aaaaand, yup, he's still there. His cloak didn't even catch fire...

Arthur stop being a bastard. It doesn't suit you

Dragon forged sword! DRAGON FORGED SWORD!

Only Arthur can wield it. Yup, got it. How could this possibly go wrong?

Uther drugged Arthur and took his place in the fight... I have mixed feelings about this.

Wait, the dragon was very specific about only Arthur using that super special sword! Oh, snap.

Well at least the Black Knight is dead. Again.

Oh, dragon is not happy.

I know the dragon said "where no mortal soul could find it" but are you sure you wanna throw it into Avalon, Merlin?

Those people were gonna suck Arthur's soul out of his body

Episode Ten: The Moment of Truth

The way this episode title just lies to your face like that...

Oh, you're Merlin's mother! Thought we had an anime protagonists type thing going on

I... would like to say Uther is being unreasonable when he decides not to cross borders to get rid of some bandits. But I can totally see everyone hating him so that's a no go.

Lady, you were in a whole different kingdom. Why for the love of Merlin did you send him to Camelot!?

We're off to save the village! Morgana and Guin are coming too!

A wild Arthur appears!

Morgana better at swordplay than Arthur confirmed!

Merlin! I didn't know you had friends!

Granted he's a bit rough around the edges but

Okay. If it were literally anyone else besides Arthur. I'd say he was right about lords and knights being useless snobs.

Actually. He's right about lords and knights being useless snobs. Ah, that felt great.

Wow, the homosexual subtext is strong with this one.

The girls can tell Arthur came for Merlin.

But get your foot out of his face! I don't care how royal it is!

Look at Guin over here calling out Arthur for being a dick

And talking him into letting the women fight. She's on a roll

Aw, Merlin's friend died. :(

And he took credit for Merlin's tornado (so Arthur wouldn't find out about Merlin's magic)

Episode Eleven: The Labyrinth of Gedref

Lol, that unicorn could use a haircut.

No, Arthur. I said a haircut not an arrow to the chest!

Bad things? What kind of bad things Gaius?

Uther what's the point of having an expert in magical lore if you're not going to listen to him!

And all the crops are dead. Fantastic.

I know it's a magic thing but stating outright that the blight only targets edible plants is still really unsettling.

And the water's turned to sand. Great.

Who're you and how come Merlin is the only magic user that can't teleport?

What kind of tests mister Keeper of the Unicorns, sir?

Arthur I know you don't want to believe it's your fault... But it's totally your fault.

Uther no. People are starving.

You tell him Arthur.

Oh, the "theif" was a test!

Aaaaand he failed the second one. :(

Merlin's got a lot of faith in Arthur.

It's interesting how the Keeper can only direct the curse caused by the unicorn's death. Or rather the trials surrounding the curse, but can't break it himself.

Unicorns have some powerful magic.

The Labyrinth was barely on screen for five minutes! Surely something with Unicorn in the title would be more appropriate?

Arthur drinking a poisoned cup so Merlin could live?

That's some strong parallels right there.

The Keeper of the Unicorns is such a troll! Sleeping potion, hah!

The day is saved, Arthur lies to Uther's face about killing the Keeper and the unicorn resurrects itself.

Still needs a haircut though.

Episode Twelve: To Kill the King

Whatcha up to Guin's dad?

Oh that guy isn't suspicious at all.

You didn't think it was shady when he asked to meet in the middle of the night!?

Philosopher's Stone!?

Wow, the guards found him quickly.

What- No! Don't arrest Guin's dad!

Uther, he's a blacksmith! Stop being paranoid!

Will you stop executing people!? That inn keeper didn't know that guy was a dangerous sorcerer!

No, nononononono! He surrendered! Why did you do that!? Guin's father was important to Morgana!

That's why she gave him the key!

Dragon has his priorities straight.

Shut up, Merlin. You literally blew up a father and daughter for trying to kill one(1) person. (No really, you could see their hands flying off.)

Morgana deserves a little murder. As a treat.

Yes! Get him! Kill the bastard!

No! Why would you make GUIN say that!? Who are you and what have you done with Guin!?🔪🔪

UGH, he literally committed genocide!

The "that would make me as bad as he is" DOES NOT APPLY!

What- Oh, he still has the fairy's staff.

No. Stop it! Let Uther die!

Oh, God, Uther is such an abusive piece of GARBAGE!

Stop! Don't fall for it Morgana!

*sees dagger being pushed closer to Uther's "heart"* Yes! Yes! YES!

*Morgana saves him* NO!

NO!

NOOOOOO!

*inarticulate ranting in the background*

Episode Thirteen:

Okay, the cgi might be getting a little better 'cause the Questing Beast is freaky

Old religion? What is that? And how come it's conveniently absent from the previous episodes?

Dang, they really here just casually gaslighting Morgana like that 😡

Merlin you know Morgana has visions! You couldn't have been a little more careful? She warned you. Now look at Arthur, he's got the heroic death disease

Granted that thing does seem like a handful

Why do you only act like a father when it's a matter of life and death? Why can't you be a father literally any other time!?

"The old religion is the magic of the Earth itself."

Well that sounds fascinating, dragon. Are you going to elaborate? No? Later then?

Soooooo, is the old religion actually a religion or is it a magic? It's really unclear...

"You will be a better king than your father could ever hope to be." Guin, you're back!

I expected a place called the Isle of the Blessed to be less... creepy

Nimueh! Whatcha up to girl? Plotting the demise of a kingdom? Not today it seems

Oh there some Equivalent Exchange type nonsense going on is there?

Arthur you were supposed to be in a coma not listening to Guin!

Oh. Oh, no.

Merlin saying goodbye as he prepares to trade his life for his mother's is 😢😭

Wow, that dragon really knew Nimueh would give Merlin's mother the curse and didn't say anything. The little b*****!

No wonder Merlin's mad at him. Stop breathing fire at him! It's your own fault!

Gaius, no! Not the dead mentor trope!

"You stood by and watched as our friends died." Damn, Nimueh isn't pulling her punches.

Merlin vs Nimueh! Ready? Fight!

Anime protagonist power up! Dang, Nimueh's dead... I feel like that wasn't supposed to happen.

At least no one else is dying. Since Nimueh's death appeased the Equivalent Exchange laws of the old religion.

#bbc merlin #bbc arthur #bbc uther #bbc morgana #bbc's merlin

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a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan · 3 years

Text

LinkedUniverse Fanfiction Ch. 17: Swords, Shields, Arrows

Stop! You’ve Violated the Law!

So, you’ve stumbled upon this original post for my Linked Universe fanfiction. That’s okay, it happens to everyone. As of March 2021, I’ve uploaded the entirety of this fanfic to my Archive of Our Own page. Along with finally giving the story a name–Oops! All Links: A Linked Universe Story–I made substantial edits to some of the chapters. These range from minor stylistic revisions to fixing a gaping plot hole that kinda completely broke the character conflict in the earlier chapters. I also renamed and renumbered (but not reordered) the chapters. Specifically, this is now Chapter 19: Please, Don't Scare the Customers

The AO3 iterations of these chapters are the definitive versions. So, if you would like to read this fanfiction, please do so on AO3, right here. With this embedded link. Hehe. Geddit? Link?

Note: My screen name on AO3 is FrancisDuFresne. Yes, that is me. I am not plagiarizing myself.

Anyway, for posterity’s sake, the rest of the original post is below the cut.

In this continuation of my @linkeduniverse fan narrative, Wild and Four go on their own errand to find weapons to replace the resident amnesiac's busted sword and unwieldy Stalfos shield.

Word Count: 1482

Twilight and Wind had already left Madame Viliafore’s shop by the time Four and Wild had located an armorer. The town of Selggog was even busier in the late morning than it had been the previous evening. The sights and smells bombarded the two young heroes. Wild glanced down at his companion. The Hero of the Four Sword had to walk more briskly to keep pace with him, on account of him being a good deal shorter.

Four had planned to help Wild pick out new weapons once they had found an armorer. That was the main reason Warriors sent the two together. The moment they’d entered the store, however, Wild gravitated toward the higher-end swords. He picked a sword, tossed it between his hands, twirled it, shook his head, and chose a different one.

Four looked at the shopkeeper as Wild repeated this routine. The burly man behind the counter eyed the young knight warily. Four guessed his customers didn’t often test his weapons inside the store, if at all. Wild slowed his motions. He grasped the hilt of the sword he had been swinging with both hands, lowering it from above his head. When his hands were at waist-height, he stood still a moment. He took a deep breath.

The shorter of the Links watched in anticipation. The taller released his left hand’s grip and picked up the sword’s scabbard, then fit the blade easily into its place. He looked at Four and nodded. He strode to the shields, grasped an iron heater shield about half his height, fitted it on his left arm, and shook it a few times. He shook his head and tried a few more.

Wild stared at one shield for a moment before tilting his head to one side. He suddenly took off at a jog toward the opposite wall. He jumped, threw the shield to the ground, landed on it, and skidded a meter before he hopped off again. The shopkeeper had had enough. “Hey!” he growled, crossing his arms. “This isn’t a soldier’s barracks, kid. You’re scaring my customers!”

The young hero picked up the shield and checked the face of it for scratches. Content to find none, he faced Four and nodded again. Then he cast a glance around the shop. The Links were the only customers to be seen. The two of them exchanged a quizzical look. Wild turned to the shopkeeper. “Sorry, sir,” he said, “I’ve found what I want.”

The Links strode to the counter. Four passed a shelf with bundles of ten arrows each. He grabbed all fifteen of them. They placed their selection before the shopkeeper. The man scrutinized them. “What are two kids like you going to do with a knight’s weapons and my entire stock of arrows?” he asked.

Four looked up and stared the man in the eyes. He knew he was only fifteen but still didn’t like being called a kid. “There are actually nine of us,” he explained with a very slight edge to his voice. “We’re travelling a long way. Between monsters and bandits, the roads are dangerous.”

A few seconds passed before the shopkeeper cracked a grin and let out a bout of hearty laughter. Before either Link could recover from his confusion, the man planted his palms on the counter and continued. “Hell, whatever you say. So long as you’ve got the rupees, you’ve got the weapons. Let’s see… two hundred for the sword, three hundred for the shield, and three-sixty for the arrows… that comes out to eight hundred sixty.”

The Links winced at the number. Four shot a glare at Wild. Wild shrugged. He didn’t want to show how embarrassed he was that they were dropping five hundred rupees just because he needed new weapons. Thinking back to his conversation with Sky and Hyrule the previous night, he decided to try haggling. The young knight imitated Hyrule and put a forearm on the counter. He looked the man in the eyes. “Four hundred,” he declared boldly. Four saw the mistake immediately and shook his head.

The shopkeeper laughed even harder than before. Wild’s half-baked cocky expression faded. “Oh, boy,” the man said when he calmed down, “I know what you’re trying here, kid. Word of advice, huh? Never insult someone by offering less than half the starting price.”

Wild gulped. “I… um…”

“Save your breath, I can tell you have no clue what you’re doing. Let’s say seven hundred and call it even.”

Eager to avoid any more awkwardness, Wild just nodded. Four opened his wallet and withdrew three silver rupees, four purple, seven red, nine blue, and fifteen green. After placing them on the counter, he looked back in his wallet to find it almost empty. He sighed then stuffed the arrows in his pouch. Wild grabbed his weapons and the young adventurers went to leave the store. Four shot off a quick “thank you” before the door closed behind them.

Wild quickly fastened his new sword and shield to his baldric. “Right,” he started, “now to the café.”

Four sighed again. “You’re lucky that guy’s well-humored. That could have gone really badly.”

“How was I supposed to know what to offer?”

They started walking. “I dunno, but definitely not less than half.”

Wild’s shoulders slumped. "The Captain is gonna be on my hide for weeks.”

Four gently nudged his partner’s hip. “Don’t worry about it, he’ll probably appreciate that you picked such quality weapons. I saw the way you tested each sword. Where’d you learn that?”

“Part of knighthood is being able to choose the equipment that will keep you and your wards safe.” Wild went silent a moment. He remembered how the Master Sword had nearly fallen apart from the abuse of the Calamity. “When I’m out in the wilds, I take what I can get. Give me a choice and I’ll take the best I can find.”

“You didn’t pick the most expensive ones, though,” Four pointed out.

“I didn’t like the most expensive ones. This one,” he tapped the pommel above his right shoulder, “was weighted and sized the best for me. I know my abilities and my limitations. I can kill with virtually anything you give me, Four. Still, my own skill only carries me so far. My gear needs to pick up the slack. As the knight sworn to protect the princess of Hyrule, I’m most valuable when I’m at my most lethal.”

Four had to give it to him, that was solid reasoning. When he himself had forged the Four Sword, he put care into every strike on red-hot metal. In a way, he viewed the sword more as a piece of art than an instrument of violence. Wild had a point, though: Before everything else, a sword is meant to kill. Still, something bothered Four about his partner’s phrasing.

“Wild, your value isn’t just in your ability to slay evil,” Four said, careful to avoid the word kill. Wild looked down to his companion. Four couldn’t identify his expression, so he continued: “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. You’re kind, caring, and humble to a fault. You had the weight of the world thrust on your shoulders, and nearly died protecting the princess. You lost your memory, but you still soldiered on and saved Hyrule. And you were able to wield the Master Sword, which is a testament to the purity of your soul.”

The shortest Link looked skyward and smiled. “Just look at all of us Links. We share a love for life and a sense of justice that drives us to protect the light. That’s what binds us, what summons us whenever Hyrule needs us most. I’d bet all four of my lives that we aren’t the only Links there have been or ever will be.”

A few seconds passed. Four glanced at Wild. The Hylian Champion seemed lost in thought, as if he were walking on autopilot. The young smithy had had to make sense of four fragmented personalities to achieve his full potential. He still couldn’t make sense of Wild sometimes. He figured, as the other Links had, that Wild came out of his adventure the most psychologically damaged of all of them—even more than Time.

Wild was shocked out of his reverie by a little girl shoving past him trying to chase her friends. The sights and sounds of Selggog rushed back to him. He stopped walking and shook his head to clear it. Four waited a few paces ahead. “Sorry, were you saying something?” Wild asked, still a little dazed.

Four walked back, reached up to put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, and smiled. “Not really, no. Let’s head back to the café and meet up with the others. They probably picked out some good food.”

“Yeah, sounds good. I’m down for a second breakfast.”

“Hah, you always are.”

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #my own #my writing #fanfic #zelda #the legend of zelda #creator content #linked universe fanfiction #swords shields arrows

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pokeexehasstoppedworking · 3 years

Text

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch6 The Entrance Ceremony

(Notw: I am aware that Piers also appears in Pokemon Masters EX and Pokemon Masters will be canon also to the story line but not until after the Sword and Shield story line.)

You perhaps should've seen it coming when Hop's excitement was reignited when he heard Leon left him a present and you gladly handed over one of the bags to which he opened up in a hurry but looked utterly confused at all the healers and camping food until you explained the reasons why Leon got them all for him. Which he understood with a nod. And after a moment more of resting you decided to walk back with him towards the road, but the two of you ran into another familiar face in the form of Gloria. Or more like she almost ran into the two of you as she ran into the train station as you got up from your seat. Your sobble still sore over how many times he already fell from your shoulder and so resorted to gripping your shoulder sleeve harder.

"Geez Glory!," Hop commented raising a brow, "What's gotten you in such a hurry? I thought that was my thing."

"Sorry," she apologized leaning over to look around you and Hop at the station, "Did Leon leave yet? You said somethin' about stopping him so we could say good bye."

He again sighed and slouched a big bag in his hands. "Yeah he's gone back to whatever he was doing. I suppose I can't catch a train after all." ...He gave a small smile though. "But I guess I can't complain! He's the Champion! So of course he's gotta be like SUPER busy! We'll come face to face again soon enough!"

Gloria smiled back and nodded in agreement. "YEAH! Besides, maybe we'll see him at the Opening Ceremony tomorrow!"

You nodded at them. Although you knew he wouldn't be there as in game if the current events kept up, but you didn't want to break their hearts or anything so soon.

"Are you two endorsed trainers?," a man's voice asked from behind the three of you turned around to the man in the small store like stand in the train station. His smile widened as he nodded to his side where a stack of books was settled. "Would any of you three be interested in joining in our charity dex events?"

"Charity dex?," you asked obviously confused.

And the man nodded again gesturing to the two different book stacks one smaller than the other. "Yes! For just five dollars you can purchase one of two dex books and enter the dex challenges to win a variety of prizes! All proceeds goes towards the power crisis fund raiser."

There was that mention again about the power crisis. You wondered how dire it was exactly. Gloria seemed to take interest in it though and walked right up to the stand staring at the books. "....What's exactly the challenges?"

"Well there's the Poke-Dex challenge and the Curry-Dex challenge?" He explained holding up one of the small books, it had a picture of a plate of some kind of food etched into it. "The challenge is too take a picture of every labeled curry, or pokemon, on the pages and when your albums are fully completed, you turn in into your local pokemon center to claim your prizes! And there's no time limit. It's all for charity and you get a neat scrap book out of it. We already sold a few to some people on their way on the train. Would you be interested in joining one of the dex challenges?"

"I dunno. Sounds like a scam to me, Glor," Hop commented glancing at the books. "I always thought photography was Victor's gig. And we're already got the gym challenges ahead of us tomorrow.......Glory?"

Dexes?? As in completing the entire pokemon dex for this game?? Was this how it was manifesting in this game? You guessed so. It WOULD be weird if Gloria just discovered her pokedex had a limit of numbers in order to 'complete' it like a game's challenge. but a curry dex?? You faintly remembered there being some kind of food challenge in game but you couldn't remember it too well.

"I can't believe you wasted twenty dollars on two scrape books and camera film." Hop gave a small frown at the rolls of film and books Gloria was carrying along with the bag of goodies provided by Leon from earlier. "You don't even have a polaroid camera for all of that."

"No, but Victor does! I'm sure he won't mind if I take his old one." She waved him off. "Besides! It'll be fun and easy! Just fill up a whole book with pictures of pokemon and curries! How hard can it be?"

Hop's face deadpanned. "That's not exactly what I meant."

The three of you had left the train station not longer after that and had taken a small detour to the grocery store you were previously in that morning so Gloria could buy herself a decent amount of film rolls. It was crazy how many rolls of film you could cheaply buy in this world for a mere ten dollars, although you were sure Hop disagreed. So you decided to change the subject by asking the two a question.

"So," they both turned to you, "We're leaving for the Entrance Ceremony tomorrow morning right?"

"YEP! Bright and early! The morning train leaves at seven thirty sharp and we have to get our Dynamax bands from Professor Magnolia tomorrow! So we're gonna have to get up real extra early if we don't want to miss it. These train conductors are always on time, whether it's a good or bad thing. But those bands will be worth it to be able to dynamax and complete our Badge Circles!"

"I see. ...What's a badge circle??" You don't remember hearing anything like that from the game even when you played it way back when. "I don't think I know how these gyms and badges work."

They both gave you a confused look and for a moment you thought you goofed up before luckily Gloria unknowingly saved face for you when a look of realization came over her. "OH RIGHT!! You're not from this region so you wouldn't possibly know how the gyms work!" You thanked whatever god was listening for this great save as Gloria happily explained. "You see there's ten gyms each with their own gym leader unique to their own type of pokemon, but in order to compete in the finals at the end of the year you only need eight badges to complete your Badge Circle. A Badge Circle is like a puzzle but instead of carboard puzzle pieces you use badges to make it, then you present it to the official board who helps host the Gym Challenge. They're also the ones who's going to be checking to make sure your endorsements are legit at the Entrance Ceremony," she explained as you listened. Never knew when this info might come in handy later. "That's where four of the gyms are optional. While usually they give you they're own unique piece for the Badge Circle..Both Rock Type and Ice Type Gyms offer the same shaped badge. So does the Fighting and Dark Type Gyms. So usually you'd pick either one of the two choices, grab it, and then move on. Lots of people don't see the point of battling both gyms for the same piece as it's not required." She smirked before pointing a confident hand forward. "BUT NOT ME!! What's the point of me joining the Gym Challenge if I don't at least try out every gym at least once! We have a full year until the finals anyhow! That should be plenty of time for me to get what I need!!......Plus...m-maybe because I'm also kinda hoping to get some pictures and a few autographs. It's not everyday you get to see such famous people. Hehe."

You rolled your eyes with a smile. Just like a teen meeting a famous person but Hop sighed again. "I just don't see why you're going through all of this trouble. Won't it make more sense to just focus on one thing?"

"Hop you need to broaden your horizons a bit! It's gonna be our first times away from home! It's not just about the Gym Challenge!" She smiled widely at him. "It's about seeing new things! Meeting new people! Getting to see all kinds of new pokemon! It's...." Her smile dropped for a bit as she looked down. "It's actually a bit scary.....but I guess that's what's also making it so exciting." She smiled again. "Plus I know you're also doing the challenge so it's not like I'll be going into it alone right? Ill have my best bud going through it with me!"

Hop stared at her for a moment before clearing his throat and nodded looking away. "Y-Yeah! You're right. "

"See? Told you! It'll be fun! And I'll have Y/n as a traveling buddy anyways! So it should be fine."

You nodded in agreement as the three of you continued to walk back towards their homes, and both children mentioning the new pokemon they had been able to catch while out on their little adventure today.

"So how many pokemon did you guys catch?," you asked curiously.

And Gloria proudly answered, "NINE! And Hop caught five!"

You did a double take at the two. "Wait. You guys caught fourteen pokemon between the two of you in the few hours I was gone!?"

"Yeah! Hop's really lucky! He's got a shiny butterfree!"

Hop gave a sheepish smile and in a similar fashion to Leon raised a hand to rub the back of his head. "Well I guess I was just lucky to catch it off guard enough to catch it in the farmer's meadows."

Oh yeah. Weren't shiny pokemon a pokemon born with a rare color variety compared to most of their other kind? Wow. Well it sounded like the two of them certainly had a fun time out and about. "Wow. It sure sounds like you guys had a fun time." The three of you were coming up to the roads that split into to directions to both of the children's homes.

Gloria nodded again. "Hey! Hop! Come over to my house so I can practice my camera."

"What?," Hop's brow rose again, "Don't you mean Victor's camera?"

"Same difference! If I take pictures of all the pokemon we caught then it'll be good practice and give me a head start on the challenge! Plus who else would have a picture of a shiny butterfree?"

He sighed. "I swear you can bounce forward on anything like a ball."

You chuckled as the three of you made it to Gloria's house. Finding her mother in the kitchen cooking food and the first thing you noticed was the delicious smell coming from the kitchen stove, whatever she was cooking smelt of spices and your stomach growled. She looked up for a moment and smiled at the three of you, asking what the bags were for once she noticed, so you explained to her what had happened with you and Leon that morning as the two kids went off towards the door outside. She chuckled when you explained how Leon got lost on his way to the train in the early morning and got lost to only somehow end up back in front of his own home. Calling him 'a sweet young man for helping the kids out like that' and asking how your day went. Overall it was pretty well and you soon found yourself sitting down at the kitchen table resting yourself from all the walking around town you did. It was still fairly early in the day being only twelve something in the afternoon- You jumped when your Sobble all of a sudden chirped curiously and half climbed onto the side of your head to look towards the opposite side of the house as a flash of light came from one of the windows from outside. A minute long pause. And then another went off. A total of fourteen flashes with about a minute pause between them and while you tried to wrangle your sobble from your face without hurting it and it was enough to catch Mrs. G's attention as she stared with a brow rose.

"Gloria, what are you kids doing? I hope you're not practicing electric type moves near the house" her mother demanded. "You already almost caught your bed on fire from teaching your scorbunny Ember inside!"

"It's fine Mum!," Gloria's voice came followed by her head appearing in said window and waved what could only be described as a polaroid camera. "We're taking picture of our pokemon! Can you believe that I already have fourteen pokemon for the dex challenge!"

Her mother gave her a confused look placing a hand on her hip, "Dex challenge? What are you talking about?" She asked just as her Munchlax came toddling him yawning with another green pokemon behind him. He must've smelt the food and woken up you figured.

However Gloria's eyes lit up with a gasp! "Make that soon to be sixteen! You caught a Budew!?"

"Oh?" She glanced at the pokemon at her feet glancing up at her. "Oh yes. It was one of the two that always hangs around the flower beds. I always thought they were rather helpful for planting so I thought-" She paused as Gloria was already gon-

BANG!!

Both of you and the three pokemon jumped and turned to Gloria in the door's entrance camera in hand and scorbunny at her heels as she grinned at the Pokemon at her mother's heels before lifting the camera at them. "SAY CHEESE!!"

"Gloria! What are you-" She was cut off by two flashes that blinded you for a moment and you reached your hand up to cover your face as a white coated your vision. "GLORIA!!"

"Whoops. Sorry Mum!"

"WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING!?"

"Taking pictures of pokemon. Duh."

"I can SEE that! Or I would if you hadn't blind sided me.....Wait. Isn't that Victor's camera? What on earth were you doing playing with it!? You know that's not yours!"

You groaned and rubbed your eyes as they contined to talk. You trying to rub away the white dots that came with the flash as your sobble sat there. And you suddenly felt a small hand pawing at your face, as if your sobble was mimicking the movements you made at the attempt of clearing your vision. It was cute....But it would've cuter if you could see it.

"But Mom," Gloria pleaded, "It's for a good cause I promise. There's this Dex challenge and if you fill up the entire book with pictures when you can win something! Plus it's fun!"

"Well watch where you're pointing that thing! The last thing we need is you blinding someone."

"Yes, Mom." "Sorry Ms. G."

You finally opened your eyes still lightly rubbing them as you blinked and your vision was slightly blurry, but it quickly cleared revealing the two teens and their mother standing there as they looked at you. And Mrs. G held out a hand to you.

"Oh dear. Are you alright, Y/n?"

You nodded. "Yeah. I guess. It was just real bright for a moment." You paused as the camera was held out pointed at you by Gloria.

"Hey, Y/n. Can I take a picture of your sobble?"

A picture of your- "Oh. Yeah sure! Just lemme close my eyes for a minute." She nodded as she held the camera up to her face and you slammed your eyes shut as the words left her mouth.

"Hey Sobble!" The pokemon turned to her. "Say cheese!" Another flash of white lit up everywhere and your sobble chirped in surprise as his eyes went wide and it swayed as you reopened your eyes. Gloria smiled as the camera made a whirling noise and a moment later a perfect picture of you with your sobble staring towards the camera came out through a slot in the bottem as she grabbed it. Examining it with a smile. "Yep! That makes seventeen now!"

You gently took the sobble off your shoulder and into your arms as it swayed wide eyed, before shaking it's head and scowling towards the two teenagers, letting out a very loud squeak of annoyance at her before leaning back into your arms like a cat would still glaring at the two of them. You kinda felt bad so you ended up scratching it's back making it give a pleased sound and smile after a moment. What a cute newt thing!

"Hey Glory. Shouldn't we be dropping off some of your pokemon at the center for your rotomi boxes?," Hop asked

Gloria nodded before looking at him. "Hey. Doesn't your grandpa have a purrloin?"

"Yeah he sure does."

"Think he'll let me take a picture of it?"

"I don't see why not! C'mon!"

"Wait! What about lunch?!," Gloria's mother called after the two already running out the door. She stood there for a few moments, before sighing and shaking her head. "I swear! If those two were pokemon they'd be rapidashes for how fast they head off to things."

You chuckled at her. The rest of the day went by very quickly. You had ended up helping Mrs. G clean up after she had started cooking and she gave you some curry as a thanks. You never had this kind of dish before. It was some rice with some kind of red sauce with the same spice smell from earlier, but neither of you were complaining as you ate. It was actually pretty good. Nice to have a peaceful meal considering the past couple days with how chaotic they were. Although you did have to keep your sobble from trying to grab food from your plate and to appease it you fed it a few peices of pokemon food after Mrs. G offered. Gloria didn't return until later that evening where you assumed she had dropped off some of her pokemon with Hop. The camera secured around her neck by a strap and her hands was one of the journals you noticed she had purchased. So you asked about it and her face lit up and she showed the both of you the eighteen pictures she had taken. Some of them you had recognized. Gloria's scorbunny. You and your sobble. Mrs. G's two pokemon of course, and a couple of Hop's. Including a yamper like Sonia's. What you didn't recognize was a few new ones which she gladly told you the names of them. But the most surprising one was her phone but it looked as if it was posessed by a rotom. When asked Gloria explained that it was perfectly normal for someone to have a rotom phone with their very own rotom. She probably assumed you didn't have any of that back in 'Kanto'. Time flew by and other than Mrs. G scolding Gloria for snapping a picture of the curry she had saved her for dinner, it was pretty easy for you to follow your routine before once again falling asleep on the couch and dozing off for the night. Until the very next day of course. You were just laying there peacefully snoozing away peacefully until you felt a harsh shake on your shoulder and a light was shown on you. Of course you being asleep ignored it in favor of turning over on the couch and curling into the blanket even more. Again a harsher shake made you groan in protest at whoever was trying to kidnap you from slumberland.

"Y/N!!" A young girl's voice shouted fairly close and loud next to your ear. Startling you awake with a snort, sitting right up and blinking and rubbing your eyes at the harsh light that extended on you. "Time to wake up or we'll miss the train to Motostoke!"

"Uuuuuhhh," you groaned peeking your eyes open and blinking groggily up at the form of Gloria smiling at you. You yawned a bit. "Gloria? Wha-....*yaawwn* What time is it?"

"Six o four in the morning!," she stated happily before leaning back up and it took you a moment to figure out it was still dark in the early hours of the morning and the light was coming from the light bulb above you. "You need to hurry up and get ready before we're late! I still need to pick up my Dynamax band from the Professor too!"

"M' up," you mumbled reaching a hand out to slowly toss off the blanket from your form as Gloria backed away.

She turned as you both heard her mother's tired voice call to her, asking what was up. What you needed to wake you up was a nice hot shower so that's exactly what you did. Dragging yourself out of bed, you trudged into the bathroom and took a deserving hot shower, brushing your teeth, and opting to instead of the overalls lent to you by Mrs. G wore the black shirt with the Eevee print, slacks, and the non rubber shoes you also picked up. By the time you came out, with everything else in the gray plaid bulking back pack of yours, the smell of food was already in the air and it didn't take you too long to find out why when you look over and saw Gloria holding what could've only been described as a plain waffle in one hand obviously in the middle of eating it, and going through her big brown back pack with the other as her mother looked at her.

"Uh huh. And are you sure you got plenty of clothes?," Mrs. G asked raising a brow, "Extra pokeballs? Your region map? How about the revives Leon was nice enough to get you?"

"Yes Ma!," the teen mumbled half way through eating, "I already went through this last night!"

"Well it never hurts to double check! Especially since you can't lose that endorsement letter or else they won't let you register for the challenge at all," she looked up and noticed you before smiling, "Ah! Y/n! Good morning, Dear. I hope you slept well."

You nodded shifting the backpack over your shoulders, "Yeah thanks! ......Hey. Where's that sobble?" You rose a brow while looking on the floor. Strange the little guy wasn't around.

"He was hungry so I gave him some food to tide him over for you. And speaking of which you must be hungry. I'll get you some breakfast. You aren't starting off your trip on an empty stomach."

"But Mom! That's gonna take even longer! Hop's already waiting for me! We still need to grab the dynamax bands before we go and we'll miss the train if we wait-"

"How about you guys go get the..bands and I'll *yaaawwn* meet you at the train station?," you suggested. You weren't really in the mood for any arguing in the morning, and to be honest you were hungry and the idea of starting a long trip on an empty stomach just didn't appeal to you.

You were lightly surprised when Gloria agreed to it and after a few more moments of going through her pack, left with Hop you assumed, as her mother kindly handed you over some food. More waffles but you weren't complaining. Your sobble at some point noticed you were awake and soon enough you felt that familiar feeling of the little guy crawling up your clothes only to plop itself into your shoulders. It really liked being carried around didn't it? Your muddled mind didn't know when but sometime after you finished the pancakes you were out the door bag in your hands, one hand holding it and the other digging through it to make sure all the few belongings you did own for now were secured. Sure enough you found the non perishable food Leon had given you, the few clothes, and of course your Sobble's pokeball tucked somewhere in the bottom of it all. You decided to keep your sobble out for the time being as it seemed to enjoy being out. The early morning light was starting to peek through with the light pinks and yellows of the sunrise. Already as you made your way to the train station, you saw the farmers and their wooloos out in the fields. Early to bed early to rise you guessed. You saw no sign of the teens, guessed they were still getting the dynamax bands from the professor, even as you walked right into the train station. So you did the only thing your tired self could do. You once again plopped yourself into one of the seats tiredly and waited for the two to arrive. It couldn't have been that long(or maybe it was but you didn't notice) but you perked up at a familiar voice.

"So out with it, Glor! How many did you catch again?"

"I already told you eight! You saw me take pictures of them yesterday remember?"

"Oh right! Sorry that's just the sleep talkin'. " You turned to the door as the young voices got louder. "But look at how many you caught! You're well on your way to building a fine team! I caught myself a special one not to brag."

" I KNOOOWWW!! I'm so jealous you caught a shiny before me!" Gloria walked right into the train station with Hop right behind her.

He shrugged with a proud smile. "Well what can I say? I'll make a difficult rival."

"Where are we heading again?"

"The Gym Challenge will begin Motostoke and our train's waiting so let's go-" He paused finally looking away from her and seeing you sitting there. Upon catching his eye you smiled and waved mumbling something like 'Good Morning'. And he smiled. "Hey! Y/n you're here!" You stood up to meet them with a light yawn as they approuched. "I thought you'd be on the train already.''

You chose not to mention you haven't gotten any money to pay for the ticket entrance and waved. "Nah. I said I'd wait for you guys at the station and I wanted to keep my promise." Looking to Gloria you noticed something around her neck, so you pointed and asked. "Hey. Isn't that your brother's camera?"

"Hm?" She blinked and looked to the camera around her neck. "Oh yeah! I'm gonna need it if I'm gonna finish this Dex Challenge too!"

Hop groaned and rolled his eyes. "I still think it's a waste of time but I guess it's your choice." He jabbed a thumb to the awaiting train. "It's nearly seven thirty. We should probably get on before it takes off." He suggested and the two of you agreed. Walking towards the small gate-

"Not so fast you three!," an older but familiar lady's voice cut through the air and the three of you all turned around as a result.

Hop's golden eyes widened. "Wha-? What're you doing here, Mum?" He asked turning around just as the two mothers of the children walked right in. You were confused at first two, before seeing what they were holding in their hands and you immediately understood why they had followed you here.

"I knew this day was coming since the moment you chose Grookey as a partner, Darling," the older woman smiled fondly at him, a smile you remember your own mother used to have way back when. She held up the small rolled up thing in her hands. "You took off so fast you two didn't take any sleeping bags. Did you forget you probably won't be able to afford hotels most of the time or won't be able to sleep in one every night? You can't expect a free bed around every corner."

Both looked immediatey sheepish as Mrs. G spoke. "Professor Magnolia was kind enough call and let us know that you three would be setting out now." She held up a small looking back of her own. "So here. A little last gift to see you well set on your way. All the kit you'll need for camping! And the reason why you should always double check BEFORE you take off." Gloria made a face and looked away before her mother made her take the small kit, which consisted of a small compact tent you could carry over your shoulder and another sleeping bag, before crossing her arms with a frown. "Honestly! I swear you'd lose your head if it wasn't attached to your neck sometimes."

"HEY! I only forgot this one thing," she protested and her mother hummed.

" Ah yes. Like you forgot to tell me about how the two of you snuck off into the Slumbering Weild." In an instant she froze and you could've sworn a little color drained from Gloria's face in that moment. "And yes, I heard the news from young Leon. I'm glad someone bothered to tell me!" She sighed and her other hand was held out to you. "Here we are! A bit of pocket money for your journey. Buy yourself a little something at the pokemon center. Maybe some potions or something!"

You stopped and blinked at the small twenty bill in her hand before shaking your head. "Oh no! I couldn't possibly take your money! I-"

"Happened to save my child from a dumb idea. It's not much but something tells me you could use it anyways."

Well......It wouldn't hurt to have some money on you in case of emergencies even if it wasn't much. So you reluctantly took it from her. "I....Thank you."

She nodded to you before turning to Gloria and pointing a finger at her with a serious look. "Now. Remember that Scorbunny will battle to the very end for you so don't you go pushing the poor dear too hard! Come home to rest anytime that you need. After all east or west, home is best." She smiled. "No matter what happensout there, if you and your partner are together I know you'll be fine. Take my advice to heart Sweetie. As long as you have your pokemon at your side and the energy to carry onwards, you'll naturally find that you always have a smile on your face."

Gloria stood there for a moment before nodding to her mother and you blinked when she all of a sudden hugged the older woman, seemingly startling her too for a moment before she smiled and hugged the child back tightly like any mother would....Well except maybe yours. She was always seeming to be too busy working or making sure you worked hard to get good grades or worked hard enough to help out with the bills with your after school jobs. You didn't notice the frown come over your face as Hop mimicked his friend in giving his own mother a hug who like the other mother mirrored a smile and hugged back patting his head.

"Remember. No matter what happens out there, if you and your partner are together, I know you'll be fine."

Hop smiling pulled away and gave a big grin. "Thanks Mum! And just think of how lucky you are!" He raised a determined fist. "Mother to the first ever pair of Champion Brothers! Because I'm certain to be the Champion next! You'll see!"

She nodded in agreement but her face was amused. "Of course you will, Darling. Anyway, do have fun and take care of yourselves. And don't be too worried about not winning. You're welcome back home anytime."

Home huh- A loud train horn sounded off startling the five of you into turning to the train, then you happened to glance at the clock hanging upon the wall and noticed that it was seven twenty eight in the morning. Two minutes before seven thirty and the deadline for the train's departure. So you decided to point this out, having the two kids make a worried frown before taking a few steps back.

"We'll be off now!," Gloria explained lifting her hand a moment to give a quick good bye to the two mothers and turning to the train. "C'mon guys! We're off! Don't want to miss the train!"

You nodded in agreement tailing right after her with Hop behind you. "Wish us luck! Not that we'll need it!"

As the mothers waved good bye, the three of you went towards the gate and watched as Gloria slipped a single dollar into the slot of it. It made a ping noise and you guess it unlocked because the three of you easily slipped by and towards the train. The grey and yellow train's doors slid open with a whoosh sound as the three of you entered just as another horn sounded off startling your sobble a bit making it cling to your shoulder harder. Inside was who you assumed to be a train conductor who gestured for you all to exit through another door to the right which lead to the passenger cars and other people who happened to be on the train with you three. There was about fifthteen other people with you so the three of you had to go to one of the back seats. Yellow painted metal bars were everywhere along with Blue seats with a table between the two of them. Above each pair of seats was a small area to put luggage. You three sat down just as the train was starting off. Gloria breathing a sigh of relief from all the weight she was carrying. You assumed she was carrying more than you already along with the camping equipment she was given just a few moments ago. You ended up looking out the window and watching the station and small town of Postwick move away from your view and starting on your way. Beside you Gloria sighed and slumped into the soft cushioned seat.

"Man. We just left and I'm already feeling beat."

"Well look on the bright side," Hop suggested, "We're finally heading out on our journies! And Lee told me Motostoke is a good place as any to start off an adventure."

"Oh really? How come?," you asked curiously as he explained.

"Well besides the obvious Opening Ceremony going on there. Motostoke is surrounded by a giant piece of land called the Wild Area. It's a real sight! There's all sorts of wild Pokemon juat wondering about everywhere you look! Plus you can camp out, do a spot of fishing, and sight seeing! I don't think I could ever get tired of it!," he explained smiling widely, "But I don't think we'll be able to see it. The Entrance Ceremony's in the town not the wild. But on a lighter not! There's loads of brilliant trainers and all kinds of pokemon out there waiting for us! My excitement's running ahead of me faster than this train can go!"

"Yeah? Well it's too bad. Would've loved to take a couple more pictures." Gloria sighed leaning more against the wall of the train. " Im already starting to understand why Victor likes it so much. Like I wouldn't make it a living like he wants to but it's a nice hobby."

You nodded agreeing with her and extended your arm to allow your sobble to crawl along your arm and onto the table, watching as it curiously crawled up to the window and looked out at the world passing by. You all sat there for who knows how long chatting, the kids pulled out their phones and showed you a few pictures of what looked almost like a castle's high walls and beautiful scenery surrounding it. It was quite lovely. At one point someone said it would take at least a few hours to get to the town so all of you had plenty of time to relax but you couldn't help but let your mind wonder. What was happening back at your home? Was your mother worried about you suddenly going missing? What happened when she went to wake you up but found you completely gone? Did she call the police to file a missing person's report yet? Counting today it would've been five days that you had disappeared and that must've been worrying. And if this happened to just be a crazy dream you surely hoped you would wake up sometime soon. You were soon snapped out of any bad thoughts though. How? Simple the train suddenly slowed down out of no where it caught you off guard and you ended up hitting the table in front of you your poor Sobble chirping in shock as it was sent tumbling across said table and into Hop's extended arms as he thankfully caught the poor thing before it could splat onto the floor below. What the world was that!? Your head turned as Gloria nudged your side. you gave her a questioning look about to ask if she was alright but she pointed out the window and you looked. There was.....Nothing but nature?? Which wouldn't be strange since it was the out doors, and you WOULD have chalked it up to just being another stop on the way to Motostoke but then why did the train suddenly stop like that? Granted you never rode on a train before but you were pretty sure they weren't supposed to stop suddenly enough to ram yourself into a table. One of your hands rubbed your sore ribs where they had hit the table, surely leaving a bruise later but no real damaged luckily. So why had you all suddenly stopped in the middle of seemingly no where? Around you other people were also noticing, muttering to themselves, some getting up to peer out the windows or to take a couple steps up the alley way as to walk up to the engine car.

"Attention Passengers!," a man's voice blared from a loud speaker somewhere, "Due to some unfortunate events beyond our control we have decided to take a quick stop at Wild Station. We apologize for any inconvience and to please wait patiently while we fix the issue. We thank you for your cooperation."

"Wha- Wild Station? That's just outside the the town!," Hop exclaimed holding your sobble in one arm while staring at a map on his phone with the other. Confusion on his face. "Why didn't they just stop inside the city?"

"Let's find out!" Gathering her things into her arms Gloria was quick to jump past you.

"WHA- Hey wait!," you called out extending an arm out to her as she darted up the car past other people.

You stared after her for a few seconds before turning to Hop who shrugged and got up to after her which you followed obviously. The two of you hurried after her as Gloria trotted up to the exit and with a whoosh the doors opened with her stepping out and the two of you followed. On the other side was another train station. Only this one had slightly different colored brick walls and there was a whole bunch of leaves and twigs scattered about. Besides the three of you there was a couple looking over a map in one corner of the station looking confused and lost, a map just sitting in the waiting chairs, and someone who looked to be in some kind of uniformed green vest.

You gave a confused look around. "Where the heck are we?"

"Ill check!'' Before you could respond Hop had already turned to the man in the vest and asked, "Hey, Mr. Station Master!" The man hummed and turned to him. "Isnt this the Wild Area? What're we stopped here for?"

The man sighed crossing his arms. "Yes....This is the Wild Area Station makes no mistakes. I'm sorry to tell you that the train is halted due to a flock of wooloo."

"WHAT?!," both you and Gloria said at the same time.

A giant herd of wooloo!? Oh great! Now what were you all supposed to do?

Hop however wasn't the least bit concered. "What's there to be sorry about? This is brilliant!"

Gloria gave him a look that looked like he just did something crazy. "What is?"

He excitedly smiled widely at her. "This Wild Area is massive!" He explained the sobble in his arms giving a noise of annoyance at his sudden movements. "There are loads of pokemon to battle here! You don't get it do you, Glor? This is the best possible place to put together the greatest team!"

"I don't think we should be taking off, "Gloria pointed out and you nodded agreeing. "We have to get to the ENtrance Ceremony soon or else we'll be considered forfeiting our sponsorships entirely!"

"They take it that seriously?," you asked lightly surprised as she nodded.

"Something about a long time ago a lot of trainers tried to sneak their way into the challenge by claiming they were late to register or something like that. Since then the rules have been pretty strict. Which is why I want to register first and then come back here if I have a chance."

"When is the deadline?"

"Midnight. And as much as I'd love to explore around...Im kinda nervous about securing that spot."

You could totally agree with her on that point Buuut- You pointed behind you. "But the train's going to be backed up for a while by the looks of it. Maybe we can walk? How fair is this Motostoke?''

"Let's step out and see. The map said it shouldn't have been too far away I think."

That wasn't a bad idea and with no objections the three of you stepped out and what you saw made you pause. As soon as you stepped out you were hit with the strong rays of sunlight making you blink but once your (f/c) eyes managed to get a hold of themelves...Well....Breathtaking was a pretty good way to describe it. A giant meadow stretched as much as you could see with a giant lake, a few scattered trees, and A GIANT WALL! A giant wall was set up with a few bridge like structures to the right and you could see a few very tall buildings/structures ahead. You saw what you thought was oil rigs movie, a giant clock which reminded you of Big Ben back in your world, a few sky scrapers, and a few other things you were too far away to make out. Over all it was a very strange but pretty sight as the wind blew through the trees.

"Look at that!," Hop said in awe pointing at the buildings which must've been a decent half mile away. "That's Motostoke way off that way! And between here and there are countless new pokemon waiting to be met!"

Gloria hummed. ".......Well it would be cool to explore somewhere we won't get in trouble I guess."

"EXACTLY!!" He pointed towards the meadow. "Im itching to just see what's out there. It's not too far away and we can probably spare a couple hours. I mean we have until Midnight right? And we left pretty early in the morning."

She hummed again. "Well when you put it that way it does sound like fun!" A smile crossed her face again. "I can take a whole bunch of pictures for my scrapebook! And catch a few more pokemon of course."

You weren't sure that was a good idea- "Well well. You two running off again?"

The three of you turned- You blinked surprised. "Sonia?," you asked. True to your word the orangedhaired professor's assistant was walking right towards the three of you with a smile. "What are you doing here? I don't remember seeing you get on the train."

"Of course you didn't. I didn't enter the train through the station right side of the station," she smiled. "Besides. I figured it'd be an opportune time for me to travel for my research." Sonia gave a sigh and looked to the ground shaking her head. "My grab gave me a proper earful in her own way. 'Those two young trainers are setting out on a journey, but what are you doing with your life?' Her words not mine."

"Ouch Professor," you commented, "That sounds rough." You didn't mean to be so blunt but you kinda understood how she felt. Your mother had asked you similar things to that while simaltaniously pushing you to study more, go to college, and get a job-

Sonia waved you off. "Ah. Never mind that. Nothing to worry yourselves over. " Her eyes lowered back to the teens next to you. "Besides I've been more curious about that pokemon you two met in the forest. I'd been thinking I should look into it so the timing works out fine! If I discover something really huge then maybe even Gran'll admit I got some talent."

Pokemon- OH RIGHT!! You nearly forgot the legendary pokemon they saw in the fog. Although you were still unsure what it was exactly. A thought suddenly struck you. In the game Sonia would uncover some amazing things important to the plot of the game. If ONLY you could remember what it was!

"Yikes." Hop made a cringe face. "Being an adult got it's own challenges eh?"

You frowned and gave a chuckle and shake of your head which made him look at you. "Oh you have NO idea."

"I said you needn't worry about it," Sonia stated a little more firmly. "I'm glad to be on the road really! It's been ages. It'll be great fun to fish and camp and rough it outside again."

"Uh huh. Well you have fun with that! Meanwhile.." He turned with a smile. "I heard there's natural dynamaxing pokemon in the Wild Area! I'm off to go stick my head in as many of those red dens as I can find!"

"Not. So. FAST! Mr. Impatient!" He yelped when gloria grabbed him by the hoodie and with the same frown as her mother stared at him when she yanked him back. "We only got here and you want to run off again into the wild??"

"Oh c'mon Glory. I promise Ill meet you up back at the Entrance Ceremony."

The young girl hummed. ".....What time is it by the way?"

"Oh." You glanced to sonia as she rolled up her sleeve and glanced at her watch. "According to this it just turned Eleven thirty in the morning."

She hummed and slowly released her friend. "Fine. But let's agree to meet at the Entrance Ceremony at six or seven in the after noon. That should be enough time for the both of us to explore and get to the town before it gets dark." She gave a concerned frown. "I really don't want you hurt or lost."

Hop paused for a moment before looking away coughing his cheeks having a light pink hue. "Um....YEAH! I can totally do that!"

Her smile returned. "Then it's settled! Can't lose my rival before I even join the challenge."

"GREAT!!" He turned again. "I'm going to battle the snot out of a bunch of dynamax pokemon and fill in the tale of my legend!" And he ran off.

"DONT YOU DARE FORGET HOP!!," Gloria hollered after him.

Both you and Sonia shared a chuckle at their childish behavior before she looked at you. What cheek. Dynamax pokemon are really on another level you know." She glanced to Gloria. "You'd better dynamax your partner pokemon too if you want to take on opponents that strong." She directed Gloria to the wild. "He's right about red dens. You'll find spots here and there in the Wild Area that emit a red beam of light. If you think you're up to it, check it out. They're usually cave openings with dynamax pokemon inside. But PLEASE be careful. It can be dangerous at times. I wish Hop would've waited for me to warn him before he ran off like that."

Gloria nodded in understanding as you looked down to your sobble climbing up your leg. Hop must've put him down when you weren't looking. "I understand Sonia! You don't have to worry about me!"

Sonia nodded to the two of you. "So with that Ill leave you two off here. The Wild Area is waiting for you. This is the start of your real adventure. Take care now."

You watched as she turned to walk away and....you weren't sure what really compelled you to say it in that moment but you reached your arm out after her. "Ms. Sonia!" She stopped and turned to you with a hum. You paused uncertainly if you should say anything. Would it affect the progress of the game's route? "I just....wanted to let you know that....You really are a great scientist already. And you're going to find a lot of things."

She blinked at you in surprise for a moment not sure what to make of your words, but settled on a smile and nodded. "Thanks. Your kind words mean a lot but we'll have to see what I actually accomplish. I wish you the best sights and experiences of Galar a tourist like you can have!" Before she turned and walked her way towards you assumed Motostoke.

"Wow." You jumped and looked to Gloria who smiled. "That was really nice of you. Even if it was a little out of no where."

You shrugged. "I guess I know how she feels a little bit. Sometimes a few kind words is what someone needs."

"Lee always says something similar, but I think he calls it 'champion encouragment'." She suddenly snapped her head forward and pointed. "Well you heard Sonia! I want to try out my first dynamaxing battle before I take on any gyms! We got about seven to eight hours to get some battling and sight seeing in so I say we give this day all we got!"

-time skip five hours forward-

You lost track of how many times Gloria pulled you along this way and that....but it was an eventful few hours.

You lost count of how many pokemon Gloria tried to battle. Key word being 'tired'. The first pokemon she tried to battle was one you remembered. An Onix. A. GIANT. MASSIVE!! AND CRANKY!! ONIX!! Probably didn't help Gloria snapped a picture of it before trying to battle it. You had to literally grab her and drag her behind you as you ran. Terrified scorbunny at your heels as it charged towards the two of you. Not the greatest start to be honest. But it wasn't as worst as her first dynamax battle. She had found an opening in the cliffside of a cave with red aura around in, one of the dynamax dens and she ran into it without a second thought with you chasing after her. Inside the dark was lit up by a GIGANTIC DIGLETT with the red-black cloud hovering over it's dynamax form. You nearly fainted then and there but when the thing ROARED you felt like you were about to have a heart attack!!! Your sobble poor thing made a small squeal of fright before forcing itself into your backpack to hide immediately. Things just went downhill from there when in the middle of the battle Gloria decided to dynamax scorbunny and all of a sudden you both were having a very hard time standing up from the shaking ground and the debry the attacks caused to the point you literally yelled that you both had to leave then and there but she couldn't hear you past all the noise and therefore barked orders to her gigantic scorbunny from her holding onto the ground. With you clinging onto the cave's wall for dear life hoping it would be over soon. Thankfully it did. It was all a blur really. You vaugly remembered Gloria somehow capturing the diglett and returning scorbunny to it's rightful size. And you two carefully climbed around disheveled cave floor until managing to get out of the cave....where the both of you collasped onto the ground.

"HOW THE HECK CAN STADIUMS HANDLE THOSE THINGS!?,'' you yelled out dizzily into the soft grass. In the game you didn't have to worry about debry being flung at you or the ground giving away suddenly. BECAUSE IT WAS A GAME!! REAL LIFE POKEMON DYNAMAX BATTLES WERE NOTHING LIKE THE GAME!!

Gloria raised a weak hand. "T-They were made a long time ago with top professors, contractors, and researchers to build them strong enough even a dynamaxed monchomp with the strength of a thousand earthquakes couldn't shake it. Dunno how but man I'm glad they did."

You could 100% agree with that! It took a minute for the both of you to recover before the two of you got up, dusted yourselves off, and went off again. Gloria managed to resume battling and taking photos of a few pokemon. Although some of the pictures were so blurry from the pokemon moving they would be no use at all and she didn't catch a lot of the pokemon she tried to battle. But she did win a few and even had two other dynamax battles within the dens you guessed Hop didn't come across. Catching one of them but not the other as you struggled to not lose your lunch or have a heart attack both times. You were not a fan of wild dynamax battles after that. At one point you even came across what Gloria explained was a wild berry tree and demonstrated how to get the fruits off them by forcibly shaking it until a couple berries fell off it. They all had a somewhat bittertaste you didn't like when you tried them tho, but your sobble seemed to enjoy up as you handed them right over when they extended their....hands?? Paws??...towards it. You couldn't remember how much time had passed before the two of you finally had a chance to sit down under the shade of a tree and have a break. Gloria took the time to go through all the pictures she took, must've been about thirty, but only twenty one were salvagable. Curious you took a peak at the pictures she showed you. The pokemon she got pictures of were a onix(of course angering it-), roselia, vespiquen, nuzleaf, vulpix, snover, bunnelby, pidove, miccino, baltou, combee, tryogue, stuffel, diglett(how did she have time to get a picture of that dynamax thing?), metapod, diggersby, hoothoot, bounsweet, noibat, and a pancham. Not a lot but certainly a decent haul for her. It was you who eventually asked the question-

"Hey. What time is it?"

Gloria responded by quickly pulling out her phone and checking the time on it. And she blinked. "It's four twenty seven! It's already been about five and a half hours!"

"Wha-" You looked up to the sky. Didn't look like sunset yet, but it was definately about late after noon. You two hadn't even noticed the time fly by. "We've been out here nearly all day!"

With a hum gloria quickly scrambled to pick up her things. "I think we better head to Motostoke now. I don't really know how long it'll take to walk there and I did promise Hop we'd meet him there."

You nodded scooping the confused sobble into your arms. The walk there was pretty uneventful as you two walked what must've been half a mile, your eyes widening the closer you got, until you finally got there......AND. IT. WAS. NOTHING. LIKE IN GAME!! The entrance to Motostoke was all bricked with a mideival ages meets industrial period kind of look. All the buildings you could see were brick other than the familiar pink pokemon center and there was A LOT MORE people and buildings than in game you remember....makes sense you supposed. This was a real world and so of course there would be a lot more people and buildings. It was so crowded you were certain if Gloria wasn't walking beside you, you were sure you would've easily watched her. The first place you two stopped was the pokemon center where Gloria went inside to heal her pokemon from todays battle and put away any new ones she caught into those Rotomi box things. You were busy marveling at the busy streets and environment around you. You had never been in a city before let alone a town like this so it was quite a shock for you to see. This place even had GIANT WORKING GEARS BUILT INTO IT'S VERY WALLS!! It was like a real steampunk town. But once she came out she.....stopped and stared around her.

"So which way to the ceremony?," you asked her gazing at a few stores lined across the street.

She looked really unsure now fidgiting with the straps of her bag and looking around her. "U-Um...I don't know."

You snapped your head to her. "You don't what?!"

"Im sorry!" She apologized looking around. "I know it's here! I just.....don't know exactly where in town."

You wanted to facepalm but decided not too to avoid hurting her feelings and looked around as well as people and their pokemon passed you two. No signs of Hop or any indication of a ceremony anywhere in sight. No other trainers, no signs, certainly no ceremony!

Gloria suddenly held up her phone. "Maybe I should call him? He might already be there waiting for us-"

"HEY YOU TWO!!" A familiar voice called out and to both of your relief you turned and walking towards you with a shopping bag in one hand, yamper at her feet was your saving grace Sonia waving at you. "Over here!"

"SONIA!" Gloria smiled. "Boy are we glad to see you! We ran into a 'Leon situation' here."

That made her laughed. "Oh really? Real ace of you to make it through the Wild Area. And a Leon situation huh?"

Gloria nodded sighing. "We're kinda lost. Do you know where the ceremony is?"

"You're first time in a city and already lost? But Motostoke is big right?" Gloria nodded and Sonia smiled. "Not to worry. Sonia is here to show you around a bit."

"Thanks, Ms. Sonia." Gloria poltely smiled at the older woman. "Could you point out where we gotta go?"

Sonia hummed. "The Entrance ceremony huh? I get a bit worked up when I think how exciting and moving it was to actually stand on a stadium's pitch for the first time." Sonia smiled off thinking of an old memory most likely. She shook her head. "Anyways. Brilliant young trainer who braved the Wild Area! Do you remember what your goal in Motostoke is?"

"I'm here for the Gym Challenge!,"Gloria shouted determined smile on her face and Sonia nodded.

She nodded. "Yep! The Gym Challenge Opening Ceremony!" She pointed behind her at the busy street. You Guess since she once too here attending the Gym challenge with leon as kids she would know where it would be. "Use that lift over there to get to it K? OH! By the way the ceremony tomorrow is being held at the Motostoke Stadium ok?"

......You looked at Gloria. "There's a stadium here AND a second ceremony tomorrow??" Gloria shrugged at you.

"Well, laters!" She waved a hand at you two. "I'm going to swing by the shops while I'm here but don't forget to register at the Stadium,k?" Gloria nodded and Sonia went to tur- She stopped. "OH! I forgot. I got you a little something." Reaching into her coat pocket and fishing around, she pulled out what looked like at first glance some kind of training card before holding it out to Gloria who curiously accepted it...And her eyes WIDENED at it.

"NO!! WAY!!" She stared wide eyed between the card and Sonia. "Is this what I think it is!?"

She giggled. "Yep. I know Leon already sent myself and Hop a couple so I figured it would be the perfect start off to your own collection."

Gloria gave off a girly teen squeal and practically shoved it into your face making you blink. "OH MY MAGIKARP!! LOOK!! I GOT A LEAGUE CARD!!" You blinked and true to her word it was a card. And on it was a picture of Leon sitting down looking off somewhere. She smiled widely pulling it from your face. "Thanks so much So-...." She blinked. "Hey where'd she go?"

You shrugged. "I guess she left. Come on. We better get going."

She nodded ad the two of you made off for this lift at the end of the street. Along the way you guys passed a few stores. A flower shop, a cafe, a book store, a record shop, a barber shop, and another clothes shop. Once you two were at and on the lift....you became unsure again.

"Um. Now what?"

"I dunno..." Something caught her eye as she looked over and pointed. "hey what's that?"

"What's what?"

"This panel has a button." She pressed it.

"AH!!" You instantly fell to your bottom and Gloria grabbed onto the small pedestol as the lift suddenly lifted the two of you up and around, until it suddenly stopped again and you groaned. Pushing yourself up...and hearing a snicker. You shot a look to the teenager who was snickering behind her hand. "Nice to see you're still standing." You muttered pushing yourself up to your feet again and looking over, in front of the both of you was a giant building with glass doors, in front of the doors was two men in some kind of uniform and sunglasses like some bodyguard and some man with.....A Pokeball head?? Was waving to a few people passing by. A mascot maybe??.....You pointed at the building. "You think that's it or what?"

She went to answer but someone already beat here to it. "Gloria! Ms. Y/n!" Both of you looked over and Hop was making his way towards the two of you. "You made it too? "

You rubbed your aching back. "Yeah. Where are we?"

"Motostoke Stadium! This is where the Opening Ceremony will be held!" He exclaimed excitedly pointing to the large building behind him. "Everyone'll be watching the Opening Ceremony for the Gym Challenge! My mom, your mom, the whole world!! It's getting me a bit nervous really." He shook his head. "Naw. This isn't nerves. I'm only trembling because I'm so excited!"

"Well I say we go it and get registered before it gets too dark," Gloria suggested.

"You're right!" He turned back to the stadium still pointing. "Come on, Glory! It's time the world knows our names!"

As the three of you rolled up to the doors one of the two men standing in front of the door held one of their hands out in a clear stop motion in front of you trio.

"Can I see your sponsorship letters please?," He asked holding out his hand and Hop didn't hesitate to pull his out of his pocket and have the letter over to the man in the meantime Gloria had slung her backpack off her shoulders and went digging through it. You hoped she didn't forget it all the way back in Postwick. The security guard carefully examined the peice of paper in his hands. Running a hand across the red unbroken seal, holding it up to the light, and then taking a small device out of his pocket. A small green light came out and scanned it for a few seconds until there was a small ding from the machine and the man nodded before handing it back to him. "Head on inside and sign in Trainer. Next!" Saying a quick thanks Hop quickly snatched the letter back just as Gloria pulled out her own (thank goodness she still had it) and handed it to the man who repeated the same process from before before he too handed Gloria back hers and allowed her to go. But when you made a move to follow them he held another hand up. "Sorry, Ma'am. Only registered trainers, staff, and authorized personal are allowed inside. You'll have to wait out here. It's the rules."

You paused for a moment before looking at Gloria uncertain who smiled. "It's alright Y,n. Just wait for us out here ok? It shouldn't take too long. I mean we're just signing in!"

"Well...Alright if you say so." You gestured to a nearby bench. "I'll just wait for you two over there ok?"

They agreed and left you standing outside the stadium as they went inside. Not that you minded waiting of course. Your feet ached and your shoulders from carrying around your backpack all day, so plopping on the bench you gave your sore body a rest before slinging your pack off your shoulders. Your sobble had decided now would be a good time to fully crawl out of your pack from where its been hiding out this whole time and you let it climb on you when you placed your bag down with a sigh and leaned into the bench. FINALLY allowing yourself to rest for a while. You waited for a little while as people passed you, going up and down the lift and and streets as the body guards still stood there making sure no one entered without permission. A few teens Hop's age excited uncluding one boy with bright white fluffy hair and a long pink coat and you thought he looked rather grumpy. At one point you thought you heard a happy yell from somewhere but ignored it as it was probably a child playing somewhere. The sky slowly turning to a light pink as it got later in the day. Eventually the two did come back out but with what looked like white work out bands on their wrist that didn't have the dynamax bands on them. You waved at them as they walked right on over to you.....and with a second boy??

"Hey you two. Who do you got there?,' you asked gesturing to the boy on the other side of Gloria.

To which she smiled brightly and hugged him making you raise a brow. "Don't you recognize twins when you see them! IT'S VICTOR!!"

You stared at the young boy smiling at you. ........THIS WAS VICTOR!! The name of the male avator that you could pick in the game if you didn't chose Gloria to play instead. Looking at the young boy he still looked the same age as Gloria and Hop next to him even if he was a little taller than his twin. How did you not recognize it sooner? He had the same dark brown hair and light brown eyes as his sister and if they had the same haircut they would've looked the exact same (other than Victor's slightly taller hieght). He wore a grey beanie like hat, a red shirt with some logo on it, jeans, brown shoes, and carried what might as well been a giant suit case on his back. And a poloroid camera was slung in a similar fashion around his neck as he smiled at you. Gloria seemed very happy to see him as she excitedly gestured to him.

"Can you believe it!? After a whole year the mysterious photographer finally appeared after disappearing without a trace," she teased making her twin roll his eyes.

"It's nice to know you haven't changed. I wanted to surprise you after the text you sent me telling me Lee sponsored you but I didn't expect you to show up with more people." He turned back to you with a smile. "Greetings! You must be the new friend Gloria told me about. Thanks for saving her sorry butt from the Slumbering Weild. I always knew she'd get into trouble sooner or later without me."

"HEY!" A frown came over her face as she pouted. "I don't get into THAT much trouble! Besides I got here without a problem didn't I?"

He chose to ignore that and you took the chance to talk. "Nice to meet you too. Are you here for the Gym Challenge?"

He shrugged. "Yes and no. I'm here to take pictures of the events as they happen. It's been years since the last Gym Challenge and certainly going to be a long time until the next one after this year is over. But I'm not competing. Never had much interest in battles."

You could understand that. You never had much interest doing a couple things too.

"Y'know Lee had a sponsorship and starter pokemon all ready for you too." Gloria almost looked sad. ''You could've competed alongside us even if you didn't want to battle it would've been fun to have you around."

"Glory, then a Champion's sponsorship would've been wasted. It wouldn't be put to it's full potential. Although I am a bit upset I didn't have the chance to tell Leon myself, but I'm sure I'll be able to thank him later considering you'll be seeing more of me around here soon."

She gave her brother a confused look. "Whatcha mean?"

"I've decided to join Hop on this little adventure If he doesn't mind."

"Really!? That's awesome! Of course!" Hop was quick to agree with a friendly punch to Victor's shoulder. "Why wouldn't I want one of my greatest pals joining me while I write my legend? It'll be grand to have a traveling buddy of my own!"

"NO WAY!!" Gloria's large smile returned! "Oh this is great! We'll be able to see each other for a while more. I haven't been able to see you since you went on a journey last year so this is totally a win win for me in everyway!"

You nodded. "Oh. How'd the registry go?"

She waved a hand. "Oh y'know. We got our Challenger Bands we're apparently supposed to wear all the time so everyone knows we're a part of the registered trainers group. Our own League cards for the challenge. And we got to meet some of the rival trainers in there too! I liked the Sherry girl. She seemed really shy."

"I heard she was sponsored by the Gym Leader Milo but I can't be too sure," Victor replied before looking up at the sky. ".....But in any case I believe we should all head to Budew Drop Inn before the actual ceremony tomorrow." He turned to Gloria. "That way I can show you all the new pictures of pokemon I've gotten. You can use them for that dex challenge thing you told me about."

They turned and you nodded in agreement standing up and grabbing your bag, your sobble grabbing onto your bag as your hoisted it back over your shoulders and followed them guessing they must've known the way.

"By the way how many pictures of pokemon did you add to your collection?," Gloria asked glancing at her twin.

"Um." He made a thoughtful face. "Well let's see. Nessa's Aquarium has at least one of every water type pokemon...and with how many nature preserves I've stayed...and with the hundreds of tourists with different regions pokemon....and trading pictures with fellow photographers from different regions at the International Photographers Expo..........Six hundred thirty four different pokemon!"

There was silence for a moment.

"........WHAT?!"

The four of you made it down the street and over to the six story building that certainly looked like a fancy hotel. Along the way the children explained that the Chairman had not only endorsed as well but apparently paid the hotel in advance to allow all the trainers to stay the night before the actual ceremony took place the next day and the challengers were officially given the go ahead to start their journey. But a small surprise awaited the four of you yet in the hotel when you walked in and you looked around. There was a couple potted plants, two pairs of stairs leading up to another level with furniture, a sign in desk, and an elevator like a regular hotel but the thing your eyes were drawn to was the golden statue. It reminded you of those knights in ancient fairy tales. The golden man stood with his sword held up to the sky, a gleamering shield on his other arm in defense, and his face one of determination to not fail. Quite the craftsman ship. And standing right in front of it with a small yamper at her feet was-

"SONIA!" Gloria loudly greeted startling the poor lady and making her turn around.

Upon seeing who it was she sighed and smiled. "Oh it's just you guys. You gave me quite the jump scare there. But it looks like you both got yourselves registered." She nodded to the arm bands before her gaze drifted to Victor as she blinked. "....Oh. Hiya! I don't think we've met."

"This is my brother, Victor. He's gonna be with Hop for a while. But what are you doing here? I thought you were going out to study."

"Yeah." Hop chimed in. "What are you doing at our hotel?"

"Oh!" She shifted the many shopping bags in her arms. Guess she did go shopping while here after all. "I'm researching the mysterious pokemon that are said to be in the Slumbering Weild. I reckon if I look into some of Galar's lengends I might figure something out. Care to join me?" She gestured to the statue. "You're here already anyways."

"SURE! It'd be fun!" She turned to you."Hey. Y/n new to Galar. I don't think she even knows the legends."

"That's perfect then! While you're doing that, Im gonna go stand in that long like up there and secure a spot for us ok?"

"But I-" You raised a hand as theVictor turned and walked away leaving you with sonia and the other two...and you sighed. "I don't think I was that way when I was fourteen."

Sonia chuckled. "We were all like that at one point or another. But would you like to hear one of the legends? A newbie to Galar like you might enjoy some foriegn tales."

"I'd like to hear too!"

You stared at her for a moment before shrugging. "Why not? I was just cast out from the little tribe."

She chuckled even more before she turned towards the statue. "Alright then. I'm sure you've seen the statue then.''

"Yeah." You rose a brow looking back up to the handsome man's golden face. "Who is he anyways?"

"It's a statue of the hero who once saved the Galar Region. I can run through the legend right quite if you fancy?" You nodded and that was all she needed to continue. "Long ago a great black storm covered the Galar Region." She gazed back to the statue. "People called it 'The Darkest Day'. The land was assaulted by gigantic pokemon but they were defeated by a single young hero bearing a sword and shield. This statue here is meant to depict the young hero of that legend. We still don't understand what kind of sword and shield the hero actually had. And what this 'black storm' is supposed to be is just another mystery. Whatever it was, it blotted all the skies across Galar. I suppse that tracks with it being 'the Darkest Day' but still..."

Hop blinked blinking at the golden statue's face and scratching his head. "Huh...I suppose that hero must've been about as strong as Lee then. Looks like you're going to have your hands full with plenty research though, Sonia. Black storms and swords and shields and all..."

"You'll be alright Sonia!"

She chuckled. "Heh. Thanks. I'll muddle through somehow. Don't you worry." She shook her head. "But legends aside. You three are staying at the hotel tonight though, right? Shouldn't you check in?"

"Probably so. Victor's holding our place in line." With a smiled similar to Leon he smiled widely at her. "And we'll look out for you too, Sonia! If we hear anything about any hero or whatnot we'll tell you!" Gloria nodded with a hum.

Sonia bowed her head in thanks to the two. "Thanks so much. Even if you don't find anything the thought's appreciated." As the kids said good byes and walked around her to a stair case you paused as she lifted her head and gazed at you. "I hope you enjoyed my little tale."

You smiled and nodded. "Yes. It was really entertaining. Thanks for telling me."

She nodded. "And thanks for taggin' along with the kids this far. I know we're practically strangers but there's just....I don't know....really good aura about you." You chuckled. You? Really good aura? That certainly was a first. "I'm sure Lee appreciates it too. He's always so worried about Hop. He practically raised him after all-" All of a sudden it was like a switch flipped off in her mind and her happy smile went to a sudden shocked face. "Oh no. I didn't mean to mention that. Please forget I even said that."

Your brow rose confus- "Y/N! C'MON! We got our room key already!"

You looked up to Gloria's call before back to Sonia before waving good bye and leaving. Wondering what the heck that was all about. Oh well. You had bigger things to worry about- Like the the fact that the three kids had gotten into a fight with four punk rockers!! You had just walked up the stairs and instantly was face to face with the three teenagers up in the faces of four people who dressed in black and red from their face paint to their outfits shouting something about they're going to cheer someone on and no one could stop them. You couldn't tell between the seven people shouting at one another and the front desk clerk trying to calm them down. THANK GOODNESS FOR THE YOUNG GIRL WHO STOPPED IT ALL!! She walked up the stairs and stopped next to your shocked state. A look of shock coming over her own face for a moment before she sighed and that snapped you out of your trance long enough for you to look at her. She was a teenager same around the same age as the other children with black hair tied back in two ponytails by red ribbon, a pink dress, with a black leather jacket and boots.

"What are you lot doin' here?" She had asked in what sounded what a brittish accent but you were sure Britain wasn't a thing in this world. Instantly the fighting stopped from the punk rockers as the they looked to her shocked like a couple toddlers caught taking candy. One shouted what you assumed was her name. Marnie you thought? As they stuttered out excuses. "I know you all are terribly curious 'bout the other gym challengers, but you gotta show a bit of restraint." Well it was nice of her to settle them down before she apologized. "Sorry 'bout them. They're just a bunch of my fans. Call themselves Team Yell and follow me around. cheerin' for me. I think they've let it all go to their heads a bit.....Come on you lot. Back home with you now!" She sighed as they guiltily slunk away past you down the stairs. "They're just so caught up with wantin' to support me and all that they tend to get a bit shirty with other Gym Challengers. Sorry if they caused you any trouble."

With that she simply walked past the lot of you, got her room key, and just walked away like it never even happened. You were still in a bit of shock but shook it off in favor of getting to the room you'd be bunking in with Gloria and have a small break from today. The inner workings weren't too different from the hotels you've been to before and was more than eager to plop yourself down and have a rest. The rest of the afternoon was a blur. At one point all three kids were sitting around the bed helping sort through Victor's collection of photos and helping Gloria glue in quite a lot of them into that small book of theirs. Hop mentioned about calling room service and Gloria suggested the four of you order each a different curry to help her fill in a bit of her curry challenge book as well. Which you had no problem against. It was free room service and you were interested in trying some of this world's curry since it was supposed to be world famous as Sonia told you. You ended up randomly chosing Sweet Curry as someone phoned it to the front desk and waited for it too arrive. It was pretty good. But it wasn't too different from Mrs. G's curry you had tasted other than the sauce on the rice tasted a mildy hot enough to be sweet. Of course that didn't stop Gloria was taking your curry's picture along with Hop's that had a massive egg in what was call a bitter boiled egg curry, Gloria's was a dry smoked tail curry(you hoped that wasn't an actual tail, and you think Victor's was leek curry with some kind of veggies decorating the plate. You ended up letting your sobble finish what food was leftover after you ate and soon you two found yourselves bidding the two boys good night and went to finally rest for the night. After getting a quick shower you decided it was best to go to bed since the actual Ceremony was tomorrow. Gloria had gotten the bed and you borrowed the sleeping bag Mrs. G had given Gloria. As the darkness slowly consumed your vision as your eyelids drooped you vauguly regstered your sobble climbing on one of the shelves.

.........

CRASH!!

Both of you were startled away in the dark from a giant crash and a couple panicked chirps before you were tackled by an invisible spooked sobble burrowing under your arm as Gloria turned on the lamp to reveal the pokemon's mess.

"Y/n! Your sobble knocked over the shelf!"

"Uuuuuuhhhhh!!!"

#piers x reader #pokemon piers x reader #pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon piers #reader x piers #pokemon swsh #pokemon sword and shield #Reader

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boyy-wonder-grayson · 4 years

Text

Seven

Pairings: JJ x Reader

Warnings: angst kinda, mentions of abuse.

A/n: this is my first time writing for jj so hopefully i did some justice. This is based on the song Seven from Taylor Swift, ever since i’ve heard that song i coudln’t stop thinking how much it fit jj, so i tried to write something for it. Feedback is always nice, sorry for any mistakes and thanks for reading! (italics means it’s in the past jic)

*pics mine*

The warm breeze blew among the tall trees, signalling that summer was already settling in North Carolina. The two little kids were running around the woods, trying to find the tallest tree in order to climb it, much to their parents chagrin and warnings to be careful. They didn't care, they were young and full of life. Their laughs echoed through the empty lands, not a soul could be found in the deep end of the woods. They both have heard stories about this part of the town, about how the ghost of an old witch haunted those places, and how she enjoyed tricking kids into following her for them to never be seen again, but they didn't care. Not while they were together.

Seven year old Y/n and JJ ran across the dusty trails that led to their favourite spot under the biggest tree in the island. It was an old oak tree. According to her father that tree has been there for as long as he could remember, he told them that the three was there when he was a kid too,so it was probably a really old one.

A few years ago Y/n's father had set up a swing in one of those trees so the kids could play. Competitions were held against each other. Who would be the one to reach the sky when swinging? It was JJ. Of course he was the one who would always win. Y/n was scared of swinging too high and not being able to come back down. It was a stupid fear,but nevertheless she never tried to beat him. She liked the way he smiled when he came down from the sky smiling triumphant when he realized that he had won yet again.

"You need to go higher Y/n! You can even see the creek from up there!" JJ would beamed at her, but the girl would always shook her head no, too scared to fall, too scared to be able to come back down, but JJ always reassured her that it wasn't like that and that if she were not to come back down, he would simply go up with her.

"Cross my heart and hope to die" he'd said placing a hand over his heart. The girl would smiled and do the same. She loved her best friend.

She snapped out of her trance when her mother called her name. She was supposed to be cleaning her room when she found an old picture of her and JJ under that oak tree. They were probably eight. Both with big smiles, she was missing a few teeths and JJ's hair was blonder than ever that summer. She smiled fondly at the picture letting it take her down to memory lane, only for her mother to interrupt her. She sighed putting the picture down and throwing the box aside, going downstairs to see what her mother wanted. She didn't speak too much during dinner that night, too engrossed in the memories of her best friend. She went back upstairs eager to see what else was inside that old box she'd found at the back of her drawer. Before going upstairs she poured a glass of sweet tea her mother had made earlier that day, she took a sip and sat down on her bed and started rummaging through the box and found an old drawing from JJ:

'Love you to the Moon and to Saturn' she read at the bottom of the drawing. She smiled remembering how did they came out with that phrase.

JJ grabbed a red pencil and finished drawing what was supposed to be a dragon. The girl laughed at her best friend idea of a dragon and picked a blue pencil to finish the sky she was painting. Her mother looked at the kids fondly from the kitchen, she was preparing something for them to eat. Sandwiches and sweet tea. JJ's favourite.

"What's that?" She asked pointing at a weird circle in the boy's paper.

"A planet duh" he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What planet?" She asked genuinely curious awaiting for the answer.

"Saturn" he said nonchalantly. For some reason JJ was obsessed with astronomy at the age of eight. His favourite planet was Saturn. He'd said that it was the coolest planet because it was one of the biggest and also his rings were super cool.

"And what about the other planets?" She'd asked forgetting about her own drawing.

"There not there because they're not as cool as Saturn" he answered with confident. "Like me" he added.

The girl laughed a little making the boy laugh too.

"You're so dumb" she said laughing harder now.

"You're dumb!" He retorted for lack of a better come back. "I'm the coolest, just like Saturn" He'd said smiling proudly.

"Nu-uh you're dumb, but I you're my best friend and I love you" she'd said a little shy this time. It wasn't rare for them to be affectionate with each other but she was always shy while sharing his feelings unlike JJ who was loud and boisterous.

"You're my best friend too and I love you more" he'd fight her. Making the girl frown. It also wasn't rare for them to compete with each other about every single thing.

"No! I love you more! I-i love you to the moon and back!" She screamed proudly knowing that she had won this time, but JJ was quick to shut her response down.

"Well, I love you to the Moon and to Saturn, which is way further, so I win!"

The little girl shut her mouth, not being able to say anything this time. He had won, again.

Y/n put the drawing down and picked her phone up, snapping a picture at the phrase and upload it on her Instagram. She then looked for JJ's profile. They were following each other, even though their friendship was taking a break of sorts, they still kept in contact with each other once in a while. A 'hope you're doing okay' text that would lead to mindless conversation every few weeks was all that they had now. She didn't mind though, relationships were strange.

She smiled when he saw that he had liked the picture. She put her phone down and kept looking inside the box. She found an old pirate eye patch, it was from Halloween when they not dressed as pirates.

Y/n's mother had finished applying the last touches on her costume while JJ wait patiently on the couch, admiring his plastic sword.

"Done!" Her mother said letting the nine year old take a look in the mirror. The little girl laughed when she saw how cool she looked with her eye patch and her pirate hat. Her white shirt was underneath a red jacket while JJ wore a blue jacket over a white shirt too. Both looked adorable as pirates; her mother did not understood the sudden obsession the kids had about pirates, so when her daughter told her she and JJ wanted to go trick or treating as pirates she didn't think twice before making two costume one for each kid.

JJ's mother had been gone for a year and the kid had been not himself lately. It was hard to live a life without a parent, but it was harder when the only one left wasn't a good one.

Y/n did not understand much about what was going on inside the Maybank residence so she didn't ask. Her mother explained to her how things between JJ and his father were a little rough now that his mother was not in the picture anymore. She explained that Mr. Maybank needed JJ to stay home a little more now than before and that even though the girl didn't like not being able to play all day with her best friend she nodded at her mother's explanation and didn't ask any questions.

It was one of those rare days were Mr. Maybank was in a good mood, so he allowed JJ to play with Y/n in his backyard. His good mood didn't last too long. After a call, in which his father let a string of curses come out of his mouth, the little boy sighed knowing that when his father was in a bad mood nothing good could happen.

"I think your house is haunted" Y/n said one day after JJ dragged her into the woods. They were walking towards the oak tree when she spoke.

"What do you mean?" He asked looking at her confused.

"I think your house is haunted" She repeated "my dad and I were watching this show about ghosts, and the man in the show said that his son was always angry and that it was because they had a ghost inside their house. So you must have a ghost too!" She said making the boy look scared.

"I don't have a ghost in my house, that's stupid" he said annoyed.

"But the man in the TV show said that, and it was just like your dad. You always tell me that he's angry, and that you always hide from him because he'd yell at you. Maybe he's possessed or something?" The girl asked with genuine curiosity.

"I...I don't know, maybe you're right!" He said thinking it through. "I don't want to have ghosts in my house,I don't like them" he said trying not to show how scared he actually was. Luckily for him she didn't notice.

"Well you can come live with me! And we would have sleepovers every day! And my mom would help is built a fort and everything!" She said jumping up and down with enthusiasm. "And then you wouldn't have to hide anymore, because we don't have ghosts in my house" she smiled proudly at the fact that a supernatural creature was not living in her home.

Y/n smiled sadly at the memory and how innocent they both were. She wished that she would still had that innocence that would protect her from the horrible truth about JJ's father. She found out a few years later when they were both fourteen. He didn't mean to tell her it just happened.

Black and purple bruises covered the boys chest, leaving little to none skin left uncovered. Y/n wanted to cry and the sight of her best friend. She wanted to scream,to punch something, someone. But she knew that whatever she'd said she would need to be careful. JJ was a ticking bomb that was about to explode at any given moment. And he eventually did, but not in the way she thought he would. No. He cried in her arms that night, revelling how truly awful JJ's father was. How much of a piece of shit that man was. A coward actually,to beat his son up because he could. She couldn't understand how someone as sweet and genuine like JJ, could go through something like that. She held him until he cried his eyes out. Until he didn't have any more tears. And he told her everything.

"Maybe we could run away" she said in a whisper looking at the boy laying on her bed. He was looking at the ceiling, not showing any emotions,but turn his head around when she spoke.

"What?" He asked.

"I said, maybe we could run away. Leave Outer Banks" she repeated with conviction, which made JJ chuckle.

"Yeah? And where would be go?" He asked amused at his best friend proposal. He would be lying if he said that the idea sound promising but they were fourteen, no real job,no money. How the hell would they achieve something like that?

"I don't know. India" she said smiling a little, that made JJ chuckle.

"Why India?"

"I don't know, we were talking about it today at school and it sounded cool" she said laughing.

"Okay, well go to India then" he said pulling her closer to his body and cuddling her. Her head rested on his chest and she could hear his heartbeat. It was calmer than before.

"I love you JJ. To the moon-"

"And to Saturn" he finishes for her kissing her forehead before they both fell asleep embracing the other.

Y/n wipe a tear that fell from the corner of her eye. She didn't realize how much she missed JJ until now looking at the old photographs inside the box. Of course she missed him but right now it fell as if she figured it out that she missed him more than she wanted to admit.

She sighed and looked at the hour. It was half past two, she picked everything and put it back into the box that once again went to sit at the back of her drawer. She opened the window letting the faint summer breeze enter the room. She climbed into bed after changing into her pajamas. She was too focused on her on thoughts that she didn't hear the knocking on her window. The second time she did. She got up frowning when she saw a figure outside of her window.

"JJ" she breath out not believing that her former best friend was now standing in front of her.

"Hey" he said a little awkward. It's been two years since they actually saw each other face to face alone. He didn't know what came to him to leave his house and walk all the way to hers. But he didn't regret it after seeing the look on her face.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in a small voice, trying to fight the smile that was slowly making its way into her face.

"I... honestly don't know" he chuckled scratching his head. "I just-i saw that picture you put on Instagram and I just, I don't know I wanted to see you, I guess" he didn't know why he was being so honest with her. Maybe it was because he missed the way he was around her, or how she made him feel safe enough to speak what truly was on his mind.

"I'm glad you came" she said shyly "but my mom is probably gonna kill you if she see you here."

"Your mother loves me, I don't know what are you talking about" he said nonchalantly.it was true,her mother loved him like a son.

"You wanna come in, or are you gonna stay on the other side of the window all night?" She asked the boy. He entered her room, and looked around. Nothing changed that much over the last years. Her bed was still in the same place,the colour of her walls was still that pale blue he always liked, and the only different thing inside that room was her. She looked different, more mature. More beautiful that JJ remembered.

He stood awkwardly in the middle of her room while she positioned herself in the bed.

"Are you coming or what?"she asked as if it was obvious that he was supposed to join her in the bed. JJ was surprised at how chill she was with the situation. I guess nothing has really changed.

They spent a few minutes without speaking. Both looking at the stars on her ceiling. They were glowing.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to come back, I just- I wasn't having the best of times" he admitted ashamed.

"It's okay I understand" she said softly turning her body so she was now facing him. JJ did the same.

"I guess i was scared" he didn't seem to mind how the words kept coming out of his mouth.

"Of what?"

"Of you not feeling the same way that I did for you. That I do" he confessed.

"You're always been a dumbass JJ" she said smiling brightly at the boy. "You know my mom always told me that you were in love with me since we were kids, but I refuse to believe her."

"You should have, your mother's wise" he said moving closer to her. "I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out, but when I saw that picture o couldn't just not do anything. I needed to at least be honest with you. You've been my best friend since forever and I owe you that" he said caressing the girls face. The look on his face was painful. Y/n could see the vulnerability underneath the strong facade that he would always put up. She could see the sincerity of his statement and the love that was hidden inside of him, trying to come to the surface but not being able because of his fears. She knew he was scared to drown himself in the love he was feeling. JJ was so full of love for everyone, even for the one who had wronged at some point. He didn't have malice in his bones.

She grabbed his face and pulled him for a kiss. An innocent little kiss.

She smiled before she said: "I love you to the moon"

"And to Saturn."

#jj maybank x reader #jj x y/n #jj outer banks #jj maybank #obx fanfiction #outer banks #obx #fanfic

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tomatada-witch · 3 years

Note

hello, can I ask for a future career reading? like possible job, enviroment, challenges etc

Thank you for doing the reading, it helps people and also me a lot. Cause I'm kinda worried about my future career life/path. No one besides me is supporting me the path I want to choose. 💚 -Chi

Hellow there Chi! First of all, thank you/ for asking me to read a spread for you, and I want to apologize for the delay! Before I start reading I just want to say that the best picture would be our family and friends supporting us on the path we choose but most of the time that won’t happen but don’t let that bring you down. It’s not them that have to decide what you want for your life, keep fighting and you will get what you want no matter how many times we fall! Just have faith in yourself, the rest will follow! With this being said-

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Order of the cards:

Seven of Chalice

Ten of Swords

Nine of pentacles

The star Reversed

Seven of wands Reversed

Well, We have the Seven of chalices and this one isn’t giving me much of a /what is/ your dream job but how do you feel about it? But I will keep writing what comes to mind- So we have the seven of chalices and this one is talking about a lot of opportunities you have to follow this dream or opportunities you have with this job- but the thing is you also have a lot of dreams and illusions and it’s hard to pinpoint what is the reality and what is an illusion. You may pass a lot of time dreaming and thinking how amazing it would be but when it comes to the work you aren’t making anything to archive that. This can happen because you have so many ways to reach there that you don’t know how to reach or you can’t see what path is better because your judgment is clouded. For this job to take place you have to be ready to take action and to fight for it, you will have to commit to it. You might have a great plan on how to make this happen but it’s not that grounded with reality and it might not even work. You might be stuck on the idea phase but when it comes to bringing them to the life you stop. What is best here is for you to see all the options you have, see the pros and cons and even write them down if needed!

Next, we have the ten of swords, which means this will be hard on you. The ten of swords is something that we can’t predict and it’s something you can’t stop. You will feel that the world will or is crumbling on you, you are in pain with the lack of something, and this will bring you down enough to start questioning what you actually like or if it’s all worth it. You might even feel somebody stabbed you and now it’s hard for you to trust, you weren’t expecting any of this but now that you’re here you are completely lost. But not everything is a bad thing, the Ten of Swords also speaks about the final straw, as in yes you went through hell but that is that, you won’t be suffering at least from what brought you down. When this time comes, cry, scream, let the feeling sink in order to move forward, it’s not going to be easy but this pain won’t last forever, you will rise up from the ground and think about what happened and you will learn from this, when this happens you will be more mature and all that you suffered won’t be in vain.

We have nine pentacles. Finally, we can breathe, right? Nine of pentacles is all about pampering yourself after hard work. Right now you finally are stable, this might be the job you were after. You are financially stable and since this card talks about harmony, I think those who didn’t agree with you finally understand you and support you. Tho what brought you here /wasn’t their support/ You couldn’t rely on them so you independently raised yourself up, you trusted yourself, you worked for it and now you can relax and enjoy how far you reached.

The Stars Reversed, Remember the options? In the first reading? Maybe you didn’t go through that well and went with the illusion one where everything seemed right and even though you were happy and content, now you feel tired and exhausted about repeating the same things over and over again, you loved what you did but now something is missing, you lost faith in something, you don’t find motivation. This might not also be about your work but your personal life that is affecting your worth but overall you feel you are disconnected from everything. It is important for you to see what truly matters for your soul and well-being. This can also mean that you should take time for yourself, maybe this job isn’t as bad as you think but you are so tired of doing the same over and over again that you aren’t even taking a breath. You should invest in your soul, in your spiritual needs, from a warm bath, reiki massage, anything that helps you feel relaxed once again

For the last card, we have The seven of wands reversed, so basically, this is reinforcing what the stars reversed said. You are feeling pressured, and tired, you feel everyone now is judging you with your choices because you seem like you can’t handle what you dug down and you are even self-doubting yourself and everything you worked for and you are even ready to give up. This card helps tell you to not give up! You have fought until this point, stay strong and keep close your beliefs because it was them who helped you in your way and no one else! You also may be drawn to criticize yourself and compare yourself to others, don’t, the best you can do is be yourself. You might even feel a lot of people aren’t on your side- well this card also helps you remember that you won’t be able to please everyone and that is ok, it’s your own life, you are the one that has to be happy, so don’t change yourself! What you have to do is rebuild your self-esteem- and work on yourself. And remember to always see if your pain is worthwhile.

Ps: Whenever I have a ...not so good reading, I always say that you can mold your own future independent of what the cards say. They are only here to serve as a warning or guide and it is you to decide on what to do and nothing else. So stay strong, whatever happens, keep moving forward!

Kapuff!Witchout!

#mytarotreading #tomatad-witch #tomatada-witch tarot #tomatada-witch tarot reading #tarot #tarot reading #tarot comunity #witch

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vera-simik · 3 years

Text

About my witcher kiddo

I was tagged by @lenkalost and @edenorisshitposting & I want to apologize this took me forever to complete 😅

LAYER ONE : THE OUTSIDE

Eye Color: Golden (sky-blue before mutation)

Name: Weron

Hair Style/Color: honey blonde, usually worn in a low bun, sometimes in a high ponytail

Height: Cca 170 cm

Clothing Style: Anything that’s practical and comfortable

Best Physical Feature: Freckles, eyes, and hair

LAYER TWO: THE INSIDE

Fears: Losing those who are dear to her. Already happened a few times, though...

Ambition for the Future: To live as happy life as possible, to help those who need it, never giving up on trying to find a way to "repair" her damaged memory... And she's also open to a possibility of settling down somewhere in the future, with someone who would like to share it with her (preferably someone with pointy ears... come on, a girl can dream)

Guilty Pleasure: Colorful and patterned mugs and socks/shawls/blankets... She knows she already has too many of them, but... one more CAN'T hurt, right?

Biggest Pet Peeve: Ignorant people & know-it-alls

LAYER THREE: THOUGHTS

First Thoughts Waking Up: “Five more minutes...”

What They Think About the Most: Her thoughts are usually all over the place, but mostly it's reminding herself to do [the thing which is important at the moment], not forget to eat/go to sleep already, what would her grandpa/uncles do [at this situation], oh, this blanket is really pretty...

What They Think About Before Bed: "If dopplers' clothing is part of their body, can they... get undressed...?"

What They Think Their Best Quality Is: She can get along with almost anyone easily.

LAYER FOUR: WHAT’S BETTER?

Single or Group Dates: "Single, of course. I like to talk with the other person without being interrupted by someone else."

To be Loved or Respected: “It certainly isn’t bad to be respected... but I’d prefer to be loved, thank you.”

Beauty or Brains: “Brains, I already AM beautiful... haha... ha... am I the only one laughing? Ok...”

Dogs or Cats: “I don’t like dogs and cats don’t like me. Well... this is a though one...”

LAYER FIVE: DO YOU?

Lie: “I’m trying to lie as little as possible. It’s easier when you don’t have to remember what you said.”

Believe in Yourself: “Sure I do. You know, someone has to...”

Believe in Love: “It certainly isn’t bad to be respected... but I’d prefer to be loved, thank you.”

Want Someone: "Uhh... NEXT QUESTION, PLEASE?"

LAYER SIX: HAVE YOU EVER?

Been on Stage: “Nah, never. I don’t think I could memorize my lines, hah.”

Done Drugs: Never

Changed Who You Were to Fit In: She tries to be true to herself most of the time (although, if the situation calls for it because of tactical reasons...)

LAYER SEVEN: WHAT’S THEIR…

Favourite colours: Dark blue, yellow, lavender purple, crimson and cherry red...

Favourite animal: Owls

Favourite book: Various bestiaries and history books (as well as some cheap romance novels, but that’s a secret)

Favourite game: Gwent. She's not good at it, but enjoys it nonetheless

LAYER EIGHT: AGE

DOB: She doesn’t know, in fact no one knows (but the Creator says it’s more or less half a year after Ciri was born)

How Old Will You Be: 20/21 during the events of TW3

Age You Lost Your Virginity: 17 (it was in Wyzima, with an elf... and it was kinda nice, even if a bit awkward)

Does Age Matter: "Ehh... this really depends on context. Is it about old people finding love? Then the age doesn't matter. Is it about someone making disgusting suggestions to a person several decades younger than them? Then it does & die by my sword, creep."

LAYER NINE: FINISH THE SENTENCE

I love: “My friends and my family... and warm blankets... and that special coffee uncle Eskel makes... and...”

I feel: “Constant curiosity”

I hide: “My diaries. It really ISN’T funny when someone reads them OUT LOUD, right, uncle Lambert AND Ciri?!”

I miss: “Uncle Coen... and all those days everything used to be a lot easier...”

I wish: “All the best to those who are dear to me.”

I should tag someone, right? Well... it's been so long since I was tagged, so I don't know who already did this...

Ok, enough of this, I'm tagging... @akishito & @wackylurker (if you want to, of course 😄)

#weron #witcher oc #the witcher #my ocs #my art #tagged

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mcsmmafia · 3 years

Text

MC:SM Mafia - Round III 🍪

THE 3RD ROUND OF MAFIA

Story written by Mari

A group of nine village folk were out catching butterflies on a beautiful blue day. One of them saw a pretty butterfly, catching the rest of the humble villager’s curious eyes. The folk left cookie crumbles to make sure they don’t get lost. The butterfly lead them to a big gingerbread mansion, with cookies, cake, and all sorts of sweets! The group looked at the sweets, absolutely famished. The group followed the butterfly into the dining room, finding a beautiful and grand chocolate table, cake scented glowstone, sugar pumpkins, and the most beautiful grand vanilla doors. The group, astonished by all this candy, broke apart the delicious candy covered furniture, as the butterfly floated away. As soon as the winged creature fluttered away, a voice was heard in the walls.

“Come one, come all, for this candy house is free for all, have a feast, what a treat, but in the shadows will emerge a beast.”

The voice was angelic, yet something wasn’t right about it. One of the 9 village folk rushed to the door, only to find the outside cracker paths covered in candy cane wielding zombies. “We’re trapped! What shall we do?”

“Well this is a house covered in delicous food!”

“But but good sir, listen listen! The voice in the walls said a monster will intrude!”

Humble villager folk, it is time.

To find.

THE EVIL WITCH OF THIS MANSION! 🎩

thunder roll

🌑 Results of Night 1:

Radar skulked off to the kitchen to sleep.

Stella first stayed in the entrance hall, but quickly came to the conclusion that zombie had a very loud voice, so she sneaked off to the attic to sleep.

Jesse also stayed in the entrance hall, staring at the zombies outside, waiting that they would slowly but surely eat their way into the house. However, they were dumb and didn't eat straight on one spot, so at dawn they still haven't made a breakthrough. Maybe it's safe in here.

Dan read some edible pages (the font was made of frosting) with his roommate in the library and enjoyed a sweet sleep afterwards.

Harper showed to be an altruistic redstoner who would disable all the traps in the kitchen.

Mevia did the same as Dan.

CASSIE ended up all alone with the candyfloss pillows in the bed chamber... well, dangit. There was nothing else to do than sleep on the gingerbread beds. On the bright side, it was still fresh, so that wasn't too bad.

Stampy spent a bit more time in the entrance hall, but then sneaked off to the attic to have a safe sleep.

☀ Results of Day 2:

Nobody had the guts to vote someone to at least get locked up. Death awaits them...

🌒 Results of Night 2:

Radar just... ate the wall in the attc. Partially. And then went to sleep. I- I don't even wanna ask.

Stella lingered around the living room for a bit, but then went to the attic for the night.

Jesse took the safety route and hid in the attic for their sleep.

Dan huddled up in the sweet sugary candyfloss of the bed chamber. And probably ended up being very sticky. No, I'm not talking about the bed... soon, a giant mass of sugar just fell on his head to bury him! It's a traaap!! Oh well, we'll keep him in sweet memory!

Harper stayed in the kitchen, ate a cupcake or two and went to the land of dreams afterwards.

Mevia was freaked out about Winslow, so she fled to the... dining room. I mean, why not lol. Surely something you wouldn't exspect!

CASSIE sneaked into the secret passage way and set off a trap or two in the bed chamber, and a random one in the gallery. Then she had her killer beauty rest.

Stampy just hang out in the kitchen, feeling sneaky eating a whole cake in just one second where PAMA was not looking, and eventually, je fell asleep. Or he went into coma because eating so much so fast... I'm not sure.

Dan has died!

☀ Results of Day 3:

Stampy made a trade with Stella and gave her an iron sword.

Stella was being quite the detective! Together with Jesse and Mevia, she was able to narrow down a few suspects. For tonight, CASSIE and Mevia were sent to the closet to be guarded by Jesse. And, I guess the rest just settled to ALL go to the KITCHEN!? 😂

🌓 Results of Night 3:

Radar had to move on to the kitchen because he'd otherwise eat a leak in the roof. And it's probably not so comfortable to sleep under the open sky with this storm going on.

Stella was eager to craft a copy of Stampy's iron sword in the kitchen. It took a while to gather all the materials, and she had to be careful to not disturb the others in their sleep. She eventually got finished a few hours before dawn, but just couldn't fall asleep because of the excitement!!

Jesse kept a very close eye to their prisoners, warily clutching their sword. They would not let them doze off for one second.

Harper stayed in the kitchen, not minding the company, and went to bed early.

Mevia also watched her guard Jesse narrowly, effectively spending the whole night on a staring contest.

CASSIE kinda just went with being locked up and forced to stay awake. At least she still had food.

Stampy was not okay with Harper being in the kitchen, so he fled to the attic.

☀ Results of Day 4:

Stella made a trade with Stampy and gave him an iron sword. Jesse gave the Flint & Steel to Radar. Mevia and CASSIE were sent to the closet to be guarded by Stampy.

Seems like they've agreed on two main suspects! Though CASSIE is in way stronger suspection by multiple people. Also... Could y'all stop assembling at one place!?! ��😂

🌔 Results of Night 4:

Dan's ghost popped up from nowhere in the middle of the night and threatened Cassie a fiery doom, like a horror ride, in Night 5!! Cassie, seriously, you better watch out!! 😮👻🔥

Radar thought about writing a list again, but then realized it was kinda useless since literally everyone was in the attic anyway. So he only went to sleep.

Stella went to the attic to safely theorize about everything. She was still in thoughts as she slowly fell asleep.

Jesse allowed themself a restful night in the attic.

Harper was paranoid of everyone being in the attic with her, and chose to stay awake just in case.

Mevia was salty at her guard for having to stay awake again. No sugar could ease her mind.

CASSIE quielty accepted her fate of becoming a living zombie in the closet.

Stampy showed mercy to his prisoners and only forced them to stay awake... Although the thought of killing them both was sweet.

☀ Results of Day 5:

Mevia has been sent to the closet to be guarded by Stampy.

Discussions were going on... emotions have been raised... perks revealed... but most of the guests still won't commit to either Mevia or CASSIE. So Stella, Stampy and Mevia voted to throw CASSIE out, but they were short by one vote! Sooo annoying!!

🌕 Results of Night 5:

Radar fell safely into the sugary clouds and rested well in the bed chamber.

Stella followed her suspect CASSIE to the kitchen. Ominously, Lluna sniffed diamond nearby! Stella instantly had bets on a diamond axe, so she let Lluna steal it... then she chose to stay awake. However, the night would not go by that easily; it must've been around midnight when Stella abruptly felt a cold hand covering her mouth and throat! She tried to fight back, but the surprise and darkness weakened her mind, and soon, she passed out... Only to awake one more time, and find herself surrounded by calio cats. Not one, not two... three... five, seven, nine!? HOW MANY ARE THERE, HOW MANY, THIS CAN'T BE REAL, THIS MUST BE A BAD DREAM, A NIGHTMARE... a... night... nightmare... in her head.

Jesse went for the bed chamber, but actually wanted to observe the hallway to the gallery, though not having a bow or an arrow. It was... not very eventful.

Harper felt very safe being alone in the attic with PAMA, and took a long nap.

Mevia had to stand the closet imprisonment one more time - and definitely wasn't happy about becoming a regular here. On the bright side, since she is so used to it by now, she fell asleep even though Stampy tried his best to not let her.

CASSIE saw her probably last chance, and took it - she sneaked up behind Stella like a cat, and instantly covered her mouth to prevent any noise. Then she slowly strangled her to unconciousness, and dumped her in the basement. Now the cats would take care of the rest.

Stampy laughed at his prisoner, and tried to force him to stay awake. However, Mevia was mega-tired, and nearly instantly doze off despite standing.

The Last Day ☀

Finally, the guests had a clear lead! After ages of locking up poor Mevia and Stella being captured and terrorized by cats, her pet Lluna stole the solid evidence: A diamond axe, which belonged to CASSIE!! 🪓

They immediately had an emergency meeting at breakfast to discuss how to get rid of CASSIE the safest way. Then, CASSIE showed up for breakfast too - and one single moment of mutual gaze said a thousand words. Everyone stood up as fast as they could, but CASSIE was already running away - and Stampy, Mevia and Jesse rushed after her! (Without Stella, they stayed at the table because they felt a little labile from the nightmares still.)

Mevia swang her diamand axe and sprinted ahead, full of anger and bloodthirst to take their vengeance on Dan. Stampy was following right behind- oh, a CAKE!! Yum-yum!!! 🍰

For some reason, Sea was fleeing so super fast - oh, right! She didn't have her diamond axe on her anymore... Oh noo, she’s gonna escape the mansion before we can even grab her!! 🙁

Quickly, we need to corner her- Jesse tried to shoot ahead, but they were too tired - CASSIE's already at the front door, nuu- but then- CASSIE opened the front door and found Reuben already waiting for her, ready to push her down! In a matter of seconds, Mevia was there, ready to homicidally eliminate CASSIE herself. However, Jesse yelled to throw them out like planned, as they would not be any better to split Cassie in two halves. Mevia sighed grumpily.

They both dragged CASSIE to the center of the front yard, with the help of Reuben. Arrived, they gave CASSIE a deadly stare; Jesse asked if she had any last words. In fact, CASSIE had:

“LONG LIVE MY CATS! Wait, can someone feed them when I-", Mevia pushed her into the zombies, "TAKE CARE OF MY CATS”.

Then they left CASSIE to her fate.

As Jesse hustled to head back inside, they suddenly heard a splash - which sounded nothing like water. They turned around... Mevia was not behind them. In fact, she was in the back, having pulled out her axe which was now bloody. Oh welp... she really wanted to revenge Dan.

Right before the guests left the mansion for good, they found a small paper on the table. It showed where the cats are and what times to feed them. Nobody would give a damn.

(Worst ending ever... 😿)

The guests have won the game! 🍪

#mcsm #episode 6 #mafia

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suffering-and-happy-about-it · 5 years

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Two broken hearts, a man and a woman (Some big ol' Samuel Drake headcanon story)

A/N: I am not broken-hearted, don't take it as such. I don't even have a relationship and most likely a heart. This is for my dear friend who is through that shit. She asked for this, so I am only delivering.

Mood for this: Shallow and Always Remember Us This Way by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, bcs I'm not over that fucking movie even after a month I've seen it.

❕If you're sensitive, be aware that this doesn't have a happy ending, alright?❕

Let's start from the begging, not from the end.

You haven't met by a coincidence, to be honest.

Your friends were far too clever for that (those little bitches).

You've been single for a long time and they were like:

"Ah, that Drake boyo is a dreamy one. Funny, charming, nice..."

"Shut up, Carmen. Not interested."

But they didn't listen tho. They arranged a concert of some not-so-known couple in a pub near to your home. So you couldn't say that I can't come bcs I would get home late and I'm actually working, Carmen, one of us must be the adult one, ya know?. Sly foxes, those friends of yours.

And then, all of a sudden, there that man was.

Maybe he was a bit too much older for you. Maybe more experienced. Maybe more sympathetic than you were. But that was something that attracted you to him.

He told you that his name is Sam, but a sweet little princess like you can call him Sammy. (And you chuckled, didn't you? Don't lie to me. I heard you.)

So you sat on those bar stools, drank beer and listened to those sweet ballads that were sung by the couple for the other one.

"They're kinda sweet, I'm not gonna lie," he said.

"Yeah. I feel how I am melting because of their love."

He was drinking beer in a sexy manner as well as he was smoking his cigarettes. You didn't mind that he's a smoker, because one of your exes was. He spoke in a sexy manner... Girl, you were into him big time.

Carmen was right apparently.

He walked with you to your home, covering you in his denim jacket, because it was raining heavily. You laughed and run through the streets, laughing like two children.

That's when you told yourself that you didn't see him for the last time.

And fuck, that kiss at your door. He held your face in his palms tightly as he tried to make-out, your breath away. Your tongues danced in a weird manner because it was your first kiss.

You had to learn a lot of things about each other. How to kiss each other, how to make him laugh, his routines and strange addictions and so on.

At the end of that kiss, you both laughed as crazy and you actually rose your hands up and danced and sang in the rain.

Your old neighbor wasn't glad.

"Can I see you again, miss Y/N?"

"I think I can arrange that, somehow. You know, I have a lot of work and I am a bit busy these days."

"So you're a busy and a bossy woman, I see. I kinda am into that, just to let you know."

"Go!" You cried out, laughing. He was unbelievable. "Go or you'll miss your bus."

Later you realized that you kept his jacket.

And you smelled to it all night long, even tho it was so wet that water was dripping from it.

And so, you were falling in love again. And it felt so good.

He was really funny and charming. And even tho he looked like the biggest womanizer of them all, he was actually a sensitive and romantic soul.

Him playing on guitar for was a sure thing. (Maan, just imagine him singing Shallow for you as if it was meant to be sung only for you... Gee.

His voice mesmerized you and you always curled up into a ball when he started to sing, smiling at him and running fingers through your hair. Your eyes were shining as you watched his fucking long fingers smoothing the guitar.

You had your spot under a tree on a cliff above the town, where you sat and sung because you thought that no-one will hear your terrible voice there; but to him, it was angelic.

He even sang a song that he wrote for you at that place for the first time. You cried like a little girl.

He bought you a bouquet of flowers for every chance he got. Your birthday? Yep. Your name day? Of course. Something big happened at work? A beautiful bouquet of sunflowers was a sure thing. When he couldn't think about anything else than you? Expect some delivery service dropping off flowers at your door.

When he felt like it, he cooked for you.

He must help your hand every time you were out in public together.

Sometimes he disappeared for a month or two, because of his work, but you could expect some darn expensive stuff coming by mail almost every week. And a ton of calls and sweet texts, images of the surroundings... He couldn't think about anything but you. He was into you just as much as you were into him.

And his kisses were deeper and much sweeter when he got home.

You guys moved together after a year of dating (Camila yelled Finally! when you told her.)

He had a lot of things and even though you joked that maybe he'll have to throw out a lot of them because you hadn't the space for that, it finally felt like home. You weren't alone at all and it felt right.

He tidied up after himself, his clothes were neat and he was the dishwasher of your home. Those were the ground rules.

Only after he moved in, you started to make love to each other.

He didn't want to rush at all. Just... When you felt like sleeping with him, then you two started to love each other physically.

He was a really tender lover per se. He was ghosting over your skin when there was a rainy night and you two couldn't fall asleep. He loved to kiss you gently on those sweet spots on your chin and shoulders.

Most of the times, you were the one touching the stars in the end, because he lived for the sight of your body trembling and your lips whispering his name like if you were praying to god.

But when you felt like, he was into everything you wanted. When you were curious and wanted to try something new? Let's do it!

First I love you came about after a year and a half of your dating.

You were just sitting on your balcony, playing with your hair and reading a book when he came with an ice-cream in his hands, slowly licking it from his spoon.

"I am in love with you," he said and you shot your look at him with your opened as if you misheard what he said. You loved him as well, sure thing. It could be felt within your touches and laugh, he was making you happy. You felt like if you were flying in the clouds when you were with him. "You know that, right?"

"Samuel, I-I... I love you as well, hope that you're aware of that, baby."

"Lovely!" He exclaimed as if it was one thing off the list and even tho you saw the joy in his eyes. He couldn't be more excited and the joy just brightened him up instantly. "You up for some Brooklyn Nine-Nine?"

"Sure thing."

You two were something that everyone wants to find in their lives.

You were the funny and dork couple who laughed and joked around a lot, but even tho, could be seen that you're so madly in love that nothing else mattered when you were together. He was caring and you were empathic, he had a lot of crazy ideas and you just agreed. It was like if you were just made for each other.

Almost every one of your friends loved to spend evenings with you two. You even weren't that much of kisses and touches in front of people, you kissed only once a time and he was hugging your shoulder, that was the most intimate you got in society, leaving the rest to your flat.

Maybe you were the favorite couple because you didn't make others awkward. Who knows?

If I say that his family loved you, then I'll not be using the right words. They adored you.

Especially his younger brother Nate, who was still a lot older than you, and his niece Cassie, who even started to sleep over at your place.

He played with her on a knight who killed dragons and sometimes they were pirates.

He kissed you a lot when they were running through your place and Cassie was yelling her lungs out.

"Let that innocent woman be, you dirty dog!" Cassie yelled at him a shoved the tip of her wooden sword to Samuel's leg as he was hugging your waist, kissing your neck and whispering you about how you two will be playing when the night comes and Cassie finally falls asleep. You were laughing and that made his heart jump happily.

"Oy, I can't, I think she's that red big X on my map."

"Let her be, you sea rat!"

"Cassie, for a British soldier, you know a bit too much of pirates' slang."

Nathan became your best friend more than a brother-in-law. He was more of an outside person, more than Samuel - the couch person, so Nate took you on trips on the bike, roller skates, hiking and visiting some old places. His wife Elena usually went as well; you let Cassie on Samuel's neck.

But he was totally ok with it.

On your second anniversary, he took you to the pub where you met - and this time, you were the couple who was singing. He played his guitar and you were shy from the start - but you totally rocked in the end. (YOU DEFINITELY SANG SHALLOW.)

And since then, they let you sing there every month. You built a friendship with the workers who were there and this pub became your all-time favorite.

Around seven months later, he started to act weird. He didn't look as happy as always, he was working a bit too much, leaving early and coming back late in the night.

So one night you have just waited for him:

"What's happening with us? Are you tired of me? Are you tired of this? Of us? Speak up your colors, Samuel Drake."

"Y/N, are you even listening to yourself? What's gotten into you?"

"You tell me, you aren't at home all the time, you stopped calling me during the day, you pretty much don't cook, I feel like I'm living here all alone. You just come home at night, you let me suck your dick and then you go to sleep - and then repeat."

"Y/N," he inhaled slowly and sat on the opposite side of your table, taking your hand in his and looking directly at you. Your stomach shrank and you were about to cry because of how afraid you were. "I was just wondering about something and you don't have to be afraid at all. I love you, you remember? Good. We know each other for almost three years now, but it feels like forever. I want you to become one of the Drake's, to be mine, to become my wife."

And so you were engaged all of a sudden. You couldn't feel happier, you loved that man, cared for him deeply and there was no one more important than him.

And he felt the same way as well. He was sure that you were the woman who he was searching for all the time. He was sure of it. He knew it. You were the first thing he saw in the morning and the last person on his mind every day of his life with you. He wasn't sure if you would agree and he was so worried that you wouldn't that he couldn't be at home - but it was alright after that.

He bought you a beautiful diamond ring which suited your hand as no one before you.

All got into the same point you were before - but now, he was your fiancé.

Life felt the same, loving and sunny, but the wedding was quickly approaching.

Then it started - his alcohol addiction.

You told yourself that it is a phase because he was a free man; that he must've been nervous because he was about to become only yours. You told yourself it was pre-wedding stress.

But it was way worse when you started to prepare the details of your big day (dress, theme and the church was already booked) and you prepared it with Nathan because Samuel was constantly almost poisoned with alcohol.

He woked you up in the middle of nights because he wasn't even able to go home on his own feet.

You sat next to him, holding his hand and smiling at him, helping him to vomit, cleaning his face with a wet towel, hoping that it'll be over soon.

You were seriously in love with him even after all the drunk escapades he had and after all that public humiliation he caused you. You were blind, so blind.

About your wedding day - it was a catastrophe. He didn't even come and you became one of the brides, who were left in the church all alone only to cry their eyes out.

You couldn't find him after that, running the downtown in those snow white princess dress with your make up smudged. You were crying all the way home - and he sat there on the bed with his face in his hands and completely red eyes.

Nathan just nodded at you, mimicked that he'll be behind the door just in case that Samuel even started to take some drugs.

"You stupid, selfish, ignorant cock. You left me there, waiting for you two hour in front of that dumb altar and crying my eyes out. Where, for fuck's sake, have you even been?!" You yelled at him, throwing the bouquet of white roses to the corner. He looked at you, looking like a kicked dog with eyes red from crying, a hand in front of his mouth.

"I think that we have to talk, princess," Samuel smiled at you sadly and he was about to cry again. He was even sober and you almost couldn't believe your eyes.

"I'm listening, my love," you kneeled in front of him and you smoothed his chin in a gentle manner. Your heart pounded heavily as you were afraid of what he's about to say.

"I didn't come today, because of one reason. I think that you don't need a selfish, idiotic, ignorant utter cock in your life. I'm sure of it. You're a perfect woman who is funny, lovely, so hot and so intelligent it isn't even possible and I don't want you to waste your life with a dick like me. You shouldn't be kneeling, because you're not going to like the things that I'm about to tell you, lovely floweret," he stood up and left you on the ground as you started crying like a child.

"Samuel, what's wrong? I love you so much, are you even aware of that? Now you are scaring the living hell out of me." You whispered in a broken voice as you watched his back. He always smiled at this - but not this time.

"The problem is that I am completely aware of your love for me, Y/N. And I just can't live with it anymore, I can't live with myself when I am lying to the woman whom I love," he took a glass and smashed it on the ground. "The truth is that I fucked and I am fucking another woman. I swear to you that it is not emotional, at least not for me. We fucked once a few days before I decided to make you mine and mine only. But now... She's pregnant." He smoothed his face and you stopped crying. You weren't even breathing. You were shocked as you tore the dress from your body, you threw the high heels far away and you put on some old shirt, you didn't know if it's his or yours and jeans, leaving immediately.

What hurt the most? He didn't try to stop you. He didn't run after you. He wasn't calling your name. He hasn't done a single thing.

He knew he fucked up so much that you were not able to ever forgive him. He dug is own grave when he let that bitch lure him into her bed and that pregnancy? That was the last inch before falling off the cliff.

And he hoped that the alcohol will scare you away. But you stayed even tho because you were just so pure and so in love.

So he had to break your heart ultimately for you to realize that he is a selfish dick who just poisoned you and with whom you lost almost three years.

You run away that evening to the woods even tho it was raining, still having that beautiful braid on, sitting under a tree and looked over the town, crying your eyes out.

Sully nor Nathan couldn't find you, because that was your place; now it was only yours.

You came to Nate's place when it was midnight, almost froze out because of the rain, you slept in the living room, quietly kissing the engagement ring and slowly drown in the pain.

The other day you went to your place - and he was already gone. His things all gone- from his toothbrush to his trainers. Only the smell indicated that he visited that place. You just stood there and cried to your very own palms.

You were all alone again. That flat felt empty and you did as well. For a solid week, you didn't leave it, just laying in your bad, eating sweets and watched some romcoms.

Carmen and Nathan took care of you and they promised it will be better with time, which you didn't believe. You felt like shit.

But after a month or two... Your life was back on and you were able to talk and smile, even tho your heart hurt still. But you slowly started meeting new people, new places, you slowly became a normal human being again, still wearing that ring, only wore him on your right hand.

You didn't love him anymore, but it kept sweet memories, just as your photo collection you loved so much. You and Nate went through it a dozen of times when all of it happened six months ago. He was your love for three years, maybe he was the love of your life. You had some fond memories with him which made you laugh.

The baby wasn't his in the end. It was some black-skinned senator and she just wanted Samuel to be to one bcs the senator did not want to be seen with her or his child.

You didn't have any relationship ever since you just wanted to be free and careless.

When a year passes by, you were a new woman. You changed your hair by cutting it down, you completely changed your wardrobe to more racy and tight, squeezing your body right and you exercised a lot. You felt as good as never before.

And somehow, you found yourself in the pub. I mean, THE PUB. You didn't even realize, but Carmen knew. It brought only the best memories and Carmen cracked when you tell them to her.

All of a sudden you felt guitar movements so crawled under your skin, that you wouldn't change it with anyone else's style of plucking. Carmen knew all along because he never stopped the monthly visits.

He looked like a broken man, with his thick beard and long hair. He had some silver in it. He aged almost ten years since you broke up. You weren't disgusted, he looked sexy even after all of that, but you felt pity in your heart.

And then he plucked the right strings and your world stopped. You looked at him, almost freaked out, without breath and you felt your heart pounding happily. He closed his eyes and sung that duet from that Bradley Cooper movie he loved. You always sang it together. So you smiled, even more, got up and went to him.

You smiled at the faces you known a year ago, and they even had a problem recognizing you with such short hair. You looked like someone else. But as soon as they figured it out, everyone started clapping a whistling loudly, which made Samuel get from his inner space as he watched the high heels on your legs.

You smiled to your hand and waved at everyone, looking at Samuel after that. He stopped playing, putting the guitar aside and inviting you with his look.

So you sat on his knee as you always did, hugging his shoulder tight and smiling as your mood slowly lowered to a romantic one. You put your right hand on his messy beard as you supported guitar with your thigh and started to sing her part as he started playing.

It was very intense. You held him like a lover holds lover, your stare didn't leave his the whole time and his body felt hot as his dick got completely hard because of your presence. You still did some magic to him.

You almost kissed Samuel when he was playing the last chords like you always did before. But you stopped a few centimeters from his lips as you felt the beard scratching them. Instead of that you smiled lazily, lowered his head with your palm and you let your lips kiss his forehead as he gracefully leaned into your body. It was almost like if he dies and God let him to heaven. Everyone was almost crying because you hugged him tightly, you played with his hair and then he kissed your long and beautiful neck as thanks.

But you were his heaven. Heaven that forbidden entrance for him.

There was no need for words after that as you smiled and stood up from his lap. You smoothed his hair behind his ear and smiled, opening his hand for you.

You slowly got the engagement ring off your hand and gave it to him, slowly closing his palm. Then you walked away. And he felt like everything ended.

But then you looked at him again when you were leaving with Carmen and he knew the language your eyes spoke.

Maybe you damned and you'll never be able to love him again. Maybe he fucked it up too much. Maybe this was the end.

But you encouraged him with a witty smile and shining eyes because you felt that connection when you sang as well as he did.

So he kissed that ring and hid it on a safe place, thinking about his next move.

#uncharted #samuel drake #sam drake #hell yeah #uncharted fanfiction #a thief's end #have a lovely day #samuel drake x reader #samuel #samuel drake headcanons #uncharted 4 #i love him #i love

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imissthefire · 5 years

Text

General Winter Headcanons

Okay, so I never thought I would write anything about this character, but damn. I got sent two anons (one of which I accidentally deleted before answering it, the other I’ve been keeping in my inbox so that I’m constantly reminded that I need to write this) and they asked for some backstory on him and what his life is like. I just gotta say, huge thank you to whoever sent those because I went ham on these. I also will have probably at least one other set of HCs for him coming out in the next week or so (I didn’t want to post all of it at once because it was way too long for my liking, and it also kinda felt better to make them two seperate sections)

A quick thing I wanted to mention before we get into this, since we don’t know what his true faerie name is, I just refer to him as Winter throughout this just so that it’s easier to follow along rather than making one up. Okay, now without further ado, here we are with General Winter’s backstory and where it all began.

· He grew up in the earlier days of King Arawn’s rule

· King Brahm had just passed on the throne to Arawn when Winter was fairly young

· Winter wasn’t always pledged to the Unseelie courts

· In fact, Winter grew up in a small village on the outskirts of the Seelie lands

· Winter’s parents were both artisans, masters in their crafts

· His father was a smith and wood worker, his mother was a seamstress

· They were both in high regard with the Seelie court and many of the lower courts of both sides

· When Winter was growing up, he was always very studious and had an appreciation for beautiful things that his parents would make

· His mother often made dresses for ladies of varying courts

· His father forged weapons, but occasionally using his metalsmithing to make some decorative pieces as well

· They were both masters in their craft, Winter always knew he wanted to master whatever it was that he would take on

· When he turned nine, his father gifted him a halberd, the staff carved with intricate filigrees and vines, the head a leaf-blade

· He was growing up quickly, but was always a kind child

· Around this age, many children of the fae would go off to practice and hone their craft and begin apprenticeships with different Folk

· He never had much desire to stray too far from his family, they got on well and they were of high regard—he didn’t want to lose that

· So, he started to train with his halberd, testing out various weapons forged by his father as well

· Even though he was young, this age back in his day was a pivotal time in a Faerie’s life

· He soon decided that he would take up work with his father, working in the forge

· He and his father had a super close relationship, and their working together brought them much closer

· At this point, there wasn’t too much tension between the Seelie and Unseelie courts—King Brahm had recently passed the throne onto his successor, and The Seelie Queen had yet to wage any war against the new King of Unseelie

· Since this was a relatively peaceful time in the lands, there wasn’t much need for new weapons

· But, Winter and his father still would think up new designs, trying to optimise functionality as well as the aesthetic of the weapons

· Winter would test different concepts and see how they could improve—this made him very capable to fight using anything

· Another few years go by, and his family expands, welcoming a baby girl

· With his mother needing a bit more time to care for her, Winter’s father steps back to help raise their daughter and allows Winter to be the main man in the forge

· Yes, by the age of eleven (as it’s been a few years at this point), he’s working the forge mostly independently

· As much as he loves spending time in the forge, he’s sure to take time to hang out with his little sister

· He always loves showing her the beautiful pieces he makes, and as she gets older, sneaking her out at night to the forge to show them off to her

· She’s just as amused by them

· Of course, he doesn’t let her near any of the weapons or potentially dangerous items

· They make a habit of this, every few nights, they sneak out and head to the forge

· Winter doesn’t always show off creations, many nights the pair of them go to the roof of the forge and watch the stars, talking about different ideas and enjoying each other’s company

· By the time his sister is about seven, tensions are rising in the courts

· Though she’s still a bit young, she’s taken to helping out with sales and orders for the business

· She and Winter are the best of friends; however, like any sibling-relationship, they have their fights and their petty grudges every now and again

· But in a time like this, there’s more fights to worry about than their own

· Faeries are disappearing without reason, some rioting; royal guards are becoming more and more needed to protect the higher courts from other courts

· Winter begins noticing a slow but steady increase in the demand for weapons—but not just simple ones

· People need things to fight, to kill

· He doesn’t want to give them a hand in murder, but he knows that they need this business, they can’t fall out of respect for the courts—especially at a time like this

· He’s also lowkey created many swords and daggers in trying out various carving and smithing techniques, so it isn’t like he doesn’t have anything for them

· His sister is reluctant to help him move sales, she wishes they could get by without bloodshed as much as he does

· But a battle bigger than either of them is brewing, and they hardly have much choice

· He starts learning of a divide in the people of the lower courts—the call for unity only divided some of them further, and leaving some of them lost in between

· Meanwhile, as they belong to no one specific court, they’re stuck somewhere between all of this mess

· However, having been in high regard in the Seelie court, it’s no question that his parents are strongly siding with the Queen during all of this

· They hear that she is taking this time of a new Unseelie ruler as an opportunity to try and unite the courts under her rule

· Winter also hears the Unseelie Court is demanding to unite all courts under their rule

· Wishing for the simplest of unity, follows his parents to side in the Seelie Court, obeying their queen and supplying them with weapons of destruction

· His family, having been in high regard by the Queen and many of the courts that sided with her, is graciously welcomed

· The ruler of the court of Blossoms, a lower court falling mostly under the reign of the Seelie Court, has become the Seelie Queen’s right hand man

· He makes a vow on behalf of the Queen to protect them should they continue to assist them in the battle

· The family, of course, agrees to help

· So, Winter and his father work together on weapons

· His mother works on armour and gear that can better protect their soldiers

· Winter’s swordsmanship is constantly being improved day by day as he helps forge and test out different weapons

· He studies ways to make blades so powerful that even a small slit from one can cause a death so painful—but finds it too harrowing to even consider

· He instead settles for making poisoned blades—ones with a less horrific death—and painfully works through making iron arrowheads, burning his hands to affix them to rowan wood shafts

· This battle is building, and before they know it, an all-out war has begun

· Winter always is sure his sister is well protected in the court

· She’s young, she’s trusting, and kind

· But despite all that, as with many of the Fair Folk caught in this war, she’s terrified

· Some Folk are taking their young ones away to mortal realms in hopes of avoiding conflict

· Others are running into the deepest woods, hoping to never be found

· But that leaves them vulnerable to knights scouting out more recruits for their armies

· And the knights are scouting out more and more Folk as their armies slowly fall against the Unseelie court’s

· It isn’t long before they recruit in Winter, deeming him in peak physical condition to fight, dragging his father in as well

· His father manages out of it, using his place as weapon-maker as his escape from being thrown into the battlefield, saying how he’s too valuable to lose

· Winter, however, couldn’t do the same

· They’ve seen him practice with every weapon under the sun and know he’s damned good with whatever he chooses

· He splits his time training with the royal guard as well as working in the forge

· Winter’s skill with any weapon is astounding

· He’s a warrior by mistake, he never wanted to use his skills for harm

· He’s not yet to be sent out to battle, but they’ve begun a plan of attack on the Unseelie court

· Their general, Cadwalader, notices Winter’s expertise with many and any weapon he may choose, but encourages him to pick one to specialise

· That night, when he’s back with his family in their little home, he brings up the topic of selecting a priority weapon

· His sister, having sparred with him—though at the time, it was only for fun—suggests the swordstaff, saying how he’s always excelled with it

· He takes her suggestion to heart, knowing that though their spars were merely for fun, he always did subconsciously favour the swordstaff

· By his next training session with Cadwalader, he’s declared his weapon of choice and is soon practicing with other specialists in it

· Training and perfecting his combat was something he managed with ease

· He tended to play it more defensive, but was soon finding that fighting more offensively worked better for him as with his long range, he managed to get an upper hand on most of his sparring partners

· After some months, Winter is called into Cadwalader’s war room

· He’s being deployed in a part of the Seelie lands to hold down a fortress being overwhelmed by Unseelie soldiers

· He has a day to get prepared, and will be sent out with a group of four other soldiers to an outpost at dawn

· He’s forged many swordstaff before, but he puts extra work into one for himself

· He’s been practicing with a less-than-perfect one for the past few months

· Knowing time is limited, he keeps the pole, re-forging the blade and running a small vein through it, allowing it to be filled with poison that will seep from the tip of the weapon

· He wastes no time getting everything he needs in order

· He’s running through the tiny home that’s shared between the four of them, going back and forth to their forge

· Since his back-and-forth leave to the army, his father took on a new apprentice to help him keep up with their weapon stock

· His mother was taken in with a group of other seamstresses and jewellers to make various chainmaille and leather armours, using her advantage of having access to the forge to help with other armour pieces

· Though his parents are deep in their work, they all share the evening together to wish Winter their best and have a small celebratory “go kick ass, kiddo” dinner

· Before they bid a goodnight, Winter’s mother gave him a bag that she had made for him

· It was enchanted to be able to hold much more than it appeared

· She insisted he use it and take extra precaution and bring more weapons and supplies than he initially had set aside

· With a tearful smile, she wished him the best, kissing his cheek, commenting on how her little boy had grown into such a strong warrior

· That night, knowing sleep is beyond him, Winter leaves out to the forge

· He grabbed a few extra knives, daggers, a sword, and an extra head for his swordstaff

· Heading out to the forge past sundown wasn’t a new thing for him

· He’d done this for the past few weeks when he couldn’t sleep—head out to the forge, reminiscing to when he was younger and would watch the stars with his sister

· As if on cue, his sister comes out to the forge, asking if he really ought to leave

· During the time of forging weapon after weapon, going back and forth to training, he managed to carve out time to work on a necklace

· He knew eventually he was going to be sent out to fight, but just never really processed that it would happen when it did

· He wanted to give it to her, and today, potentially being the last time he may see her, was the perfect time to do so

· He pulled it out from behind one of the work benches, showing it off to her as it dangled in his hand

· The necklace is on a titanium chain, the pendant being a delicately carved heptagram made of the wood from a hornbeam tree

· He tells her of it, saying how the chain is of the strongest metals—nearly unbreakable; and how the wood, often referred to as iron wood, was among the strongest as well

· He gives her this and tells her it all to remind her that no matter what happens, that they are strong, that she is strong

· He says to her that the heptagram is to remind her of who they are, and also that if she finds herself missing him to just look up at the stars and know he’s under the same ones—wherever he may be—looking up at them, too

· She allows her big brother to drop the necklace over her head, freeing her hair from it once it rests on her collarbones

· In silence, the pair of them climb out to on top of the forge, lying down on the roof, watching the stars as though they were children again

· Breaking the silence, she asks him to promise to come back

· But he knows that he can’t make that promise

· She knows it too

· He says the next best thing that he can, telling her that he promises that he will lie down with her again and watch the stars with her the next time he sees her

· By sunrise, he was already gone, headed to the meeting spot that Cadwalader had given them

· He along with four other soldiers went off to check out the status of a fortress that had been ravaged by Unseelie knights

· They had an outpost a distance away, hidden in a thick copse of trees where they set up basecamp

· In turn, they would as swiftly and silently as possible skirt around the outside of the fortress where they couldn’t be seen, watching and trying to gather as much information as they could

· They remained at the outpost for nearly two months, a messenger arriving every nine days to gather information to return to General Cadwalader

· From what Winter had gathered, the Unseelie troupe would take as many forts and huts as they could, and plan a raid once they had the Seelie Courts blocked in

· Four days after the messenger had last met with them, he was back

· Winter had greeted him at the edge of the outpost, asking of his unusually early return

· He said he was simply there to alert them that they were to return promptly, their mission being fulfilled

· They had never heard word of how long their mission would be, but they somehow had expected it to be longer, or at least more eventful

· Upon their return, the Queen of the Seelie Court had asked an audience with Winter

· This set off several red flags in his mind: the Queen never asked an audience with anyone, and if she did, there would be much trouble to follow

· Cadwalader led him to a barren room, only the Queen and the light of a flickering candle casting shadows in the room

· Winter kneels before her, his voice calm as he asks what he may do for her

· She is dressed in a delicately embroidered gown, it sweeps the floor as she walks back and forth before him

· Her jaw is set, her back is arrow straight

· She wears an unreadable expression on her face as she scans Winter up and down

· “Son of our head weapon-maker and one of our beloved seamstresses, I must inform you of events that took place several days prior to your return”

· Winter, still kneeling, looks up at her as if asking she continue

· She meets his eyes and ceases her pacing

· “Your parents have been murdered”

· She breaks eye contact with him as if allowing him a moment to himself before she continues to pace and speak

· “They were killed by a group of Unseelie knights that broke in one evening and burned down your dwelling”

· Winter is furious and terrified

· “My Lady, if I may speak”

· She simply nods

· “You swore to protect my family in return for our assistance in your battle. Why were they left defenseless?” he asks, treading as lightly as he can with his accusation

· At this, she lets a small smile ghost across her face

· “I did no such thing, boy”

· Before Winter can get any words out, she continues, turning to pace in the other direction

· “Sir Molaff of the court of Blossoms, my advisor, told you this, correct?”

· “He did, My Lady”

· “And did you know that Sir Molaff is half mortal? That he can speak untruths?”

· The smirk on the Queen’s face is half hidden by the shadows in the room, but Winter still catches a glimpse of it

· “You betrayed us,” Winter growls, “you conniving, treacherous tyrant”

· “Molaff is a treacherous tyrant, I am but who he answers to”

· Before Winter can get his rebuttal, the queen cuts him off again

· “Now, you and your family swore to obey me in witness of Molaff,” she stops her pacing and turns to him, eyes burning as she locks eyes with him, “you will obey your queen and return to where you left off before Cadwalader recruited you. I am hereby removing you from his garrison, you are no longer to be within an hour’s walk of him or his army”

· Despite Winter’s detest to have joined Cadwalader and his army, he had grown used to it, almost as though he may have enjoyed it

· “You will return to what is left of your forge and double the production of weaponry with the apprentice that worked alongside your father”

· He’s fuming, clenching his teeth and staring daggers at the Queen, but trying to keep somewhat of a decent composure

· At this point, the Queen steps back from Winter, her arms behind her back

· Winter’s eyes drop to the floor

· But in all of this talk, he’s yet to have heard a word about his sister

· She was just to turn nine shortly after he had left, and now there was no word of her

· He was afraid to ask about her, perhaps she didn’t even know about her

· But he had to know that his sister was safe

· Grinding his teeth and blinking hard, he looked back up to the queen

· “What of my sister?”

· The Queen took a breath, shaking her head as she met his eyes once again

· “She disappeared in the incident. Her body was nowhere to be found”

· He lets out a breath he had been holding in, she wasn’t dead for sure

· Though this wasn’t exactly what he’d wanted to hear, he knew it meant that there was still a chance that she was alive

· “I will tell you this, I surveyed the scene. There is no mistake of it. I give you my words in honour for the promise to serve that you made me the year that your family joined our forces.”

· Winter was biting the inside of his lip, trying to keep from his still simmering anger

· “You will now honour that promise you pledged to me and return to the forge at once. You are no longer recognised as a knight or a soldier of Cadwalader’s army. You are allowed two days to grieve, and will be expected to continue your work in the forge once the sun has risen by the second day”

· With that, Winter was taken out of the room by two guards and escorted to the burned remains of his home

· He walked through it, finding nothing but ash and flowers

· He had the bag his mother had given him, he emptied it of many of the extra weapons that he had on him, grabbing some of the few surviving items

· Among those items were three notebooks: one being his father’s, two being his mother’s

· They each contained plans and research for their respective fields of work, ways to enchant garments for optimal protection, methods that would create stronger blades and bows

· He then walked into the forge, seeing it only partly torn through

· He sat on a work bench, swinging his legs as he went through one of his own notebooks on research for poisoned blades

· He rethought of all the words that the Queen had said, trying to figure out what his options were

· Yes, the Queen had commanded him to return to the forge and create more weapons for destruction, but she could only command him to do so under an oath that he had sworn to her

· Winter’s parents had pledged their allegiance to the Seelie Queen, vowing to serve for her, that much was true

· But Winter never did

· The Queen was ordering him to honour a pledge that he never made

· He was not tied to her orders

· On top of that, he had been stripped of his rank, and he hadn’t been instated as a smith since his call to the army

· He wasn’t tied to these lands

· He had no reason to stay here

· As much as he hated Molaff for betraying them, he felt a deep satisfaction in Molaff telling the Queen that he had sworn allegiance to her

· Not long after pondering his options, Winter stuffed as many old scrolls and notebooks full of plans and research of weapons that he deemed important enough

· He felt a sting as he held tightly to the bag his mother had given him

· It was her parting gift to him, but the circumstances that proved today were opposite to what they had been before

· They thought that Winter would be the one to die in his leave, not them

· With a final scan through the forge, he spots a notebook underneath one of the benches

· Picking it up, dusting it off, he opens it

· Winter recognises the weapon design

· It was one he had found a few years ago, so complex that it took up a third of a book of notes

· The weapon, in its complexity and horror was one that he never dared to make

· He swiftly closed the book and slid it into the bag

· It was full of notes, books, scrolls, and a few weapons

· He wouldn’t leave these plans for anyone

· He wouldn’t let anyone cause this destruction

· Winter went to the furnace, lighting it up for the final time

· He gathered armfuls of wooden weapons, setting them alight in the flames

· He took armfuls of the metal weapons, throwing them deep into the fire

· This court had betrayed his family, this court let them burn

· He would let their supply burn in his leave

· When he exited the forge, it was impossible for any passerby to notice anything amiss

· The forge was always smoking from the chimney above, it was always burning and melting materials to be wrought

· Nobody would suspect a thing

· It was late evening, many of the Folk would be settling in for sleep or awaking soon

· More simply said, not many Folk were out at this time

· He stole away then, casual in his depart as to not alert any suspicion

· He went in the direction of the training tower he used to frequent

· Knowing he was forbidden from being near Cadwalader didn’t stop him, he knew that the Queen’s advisor would be there as he often was

· Sir Molaff often would arrive to check the progress of General Cadwalader and his fighters

· Surely enough, when Winter wandered by, he spotted him

· He was dressed in a velvet doublet with the insignia of a the Seelie Court embroidered on it

· He was walking down the trail from the tower, his point in the path near the treeline that Winter was walking through

· Carefully, Winter pulled his swordstaff from the bag, creeping silently towards him

· He knew Molaff knew he was there, but if he had a care of it, it didn’t show

· Winter had never felt such a bloodlust in himself until this very moment

· He sprang into action, barring Molaff against the trunk of a honey locust tree with his swordstaff, where no one could see them

· “You let them die, you betrayed us”

· Molaff laughed at his accusations, his face amused by Winter’s words

· “You are a disgrace to this land,” Winter spat, feeling his heart thundering in his chest

· He pushed Molaff harder into the tree, the thorns of it pricking his skin as it began to bleed

· Molaff’s laughter ceased as he realised what was happening, his visage remained amused despite the fact

· “I may be a disgrace to this land, as you claim, but I am not nearly as disgraced as you will be for killing your Queen’s personal advisor”

· “Who said she was my queen?”

· Molaff’s eyes went blank in the moment, as though truly seeing the bloodthirst in Winter’s eyes

· Winter held Molaff fast against the tree at his chest with one arm, the other dropping his weapon and drawing out a dagger with a toothed blade

· “If you are to kill me, young smith, perhaps allow me a fair duel to keep the remaining shreds of your dignity in tact?”

· “What fairness should I offer you?”

· Winter rested the blade on Molaff’s shoulder

· “The same fairness that you gave my family in a false oath of protection?”

· He sliced across Molaff’s chest, the teeth of the dagger tearing his skin

· He went wide-eyed as he stared at Winter in utter horror

· “The dignity of a man so willing to betray a humble smith and seamstress?”

· He drew the serrated blade down again, cutting across his cheek

· As his blood poured and his the ground, blood-red blossoms grew from the grass

· “We share the same dignity, you and I; but the only difference?”

· He stepped back from Molaff, his arm no longer holding him against the wall

· He fell to the ground, clutching at his chest

· Winter wiped the bloodied dagger off on the soft mossy earth beneath them, picking up his swordstaff in turn

· “The only difference is that I have nothing left to lose”

· With that, Winter drove the bladed staff through Molaff’s heart, watching him bleed out into the grass

· His blood trailed down into the ground, more blood-red blossoms sprouting in its wake

· With Molaff dead, he began to seemingly melt away under the forming flowers, Winter took a step back

· He just killed somebody

· And the worst part of it?

· He felt no remorse

· He fled from the place of the murder of the Queen’s royal advisor

· The sun was nearly set, the light was fading quickly

· Winter felt powerful

· He had never felt so much power, the adrenaline was coursing through his veins

· Winter made way running through the Seelie lands

· He had to get out of there before anyone saw him standing at Molaff’s dissolving corpse

· He also knew that when the Queen found out Molaff had been killed, she would almost certainly know he was the culprit

· So he stole away to the in-between lands, the land of the Wild Fey who refused to pledge themselves to the Seelie or Unseelie Courts

#general winter #gabe writes #tda #lm #los #qoaad #headcanons #headcanon #headcannons #headcannon #scheduled post

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serendipitybutterfly · 5 years

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Yoongi’s Birthday Tarot Reading

Happy Yoongi Day!!!

So... I’m not going to lie, what I got in this reading was kinda unexpected (idk what I was expecting tbh but it took a different turn than I was thinking it would) and I ended up using more clarification cards than I usually do cause I wanted to be sure I was getting the right message.

*All my usual disclaimers apply... this is just to put positive advice out there for the members on their birthdays and maybe help any of you who read this who might be going through similar things in the year ahead too. The future isn’t set in stone and someone’s mindset can change everything. This is simply a projection based on the current moment.

Anyway, on to the reading... Like I said, I ended up having to use more clarification cards than usual because I wasn’t really expecting the message I got and therefore was kinda confused by it at first. Because I used more cards, in order to stop this becoming way too long, I’ll try to be more succinct in my summary of the message.

First of all, the significator cards I got were the 5 of Cups and the Knight of Swords in reverse. Within the context of the whole reading I was confused because the year ahead seemed mostly positive overall for Yoongi yet the 5 of Cups and Knight of Swords indicate some unexpressed despondency or (and as I looked at the 5 of cups this sprung to mind) a feeling of “missing out” on something. The Knight of Swords being reversed told me that this feeling is not something he’ll actually want to talk about to anyone.

So the first two cards I pulled for the bulk of the reading actually ended up causing me the most confusion... I got the Queen of Wands and Knight of Swords and looking at the rest of the cards I was just like... who are these people? I felt very much that neither of them were Yoongi himself so I was confused as to why they were coming together and what their significance was in this reading... but I’ll get back to this..

With the next two cards the message was more clear, The Queen of Cups in reverse and the Nine of Pentacles in reverse I felt very much WERE talking about Yoongi himself. The message here seemed to be that he will soothe his feelings of emotional discontent with accumulating material possessions. This became more clear looking at the other cards.

Next were Judgement and The Emperor which I felt were very positive. I felt like these cards were saying that in this year Yoongi really will come into his power as a man. He’s reaping the rewards of all the efforts he put in the past. This was also reinforced by the last two cards of the reading (the Ace of Wands and Seven of Pentacles) which seemed to be a weaker echo of this same message with the additional message of this being in reference to his creative, artistic career (the Ace of Wands).

So I was like... in the year ahead Yoongi will come into his own as a man and feel very powerful and satisfied materially, creatively and in terms of career and the respect he gains socially... So what is the cause of his discontent? Is there even a cause? Of course, as an ARMY, I am aware of Yoongi’s struggles with depression and anxiety and I know that there’s not always a straight forward “reason” for flare ups of that kind. That said, my intuition was telling me there was a cause and I saw it in these cards; the Nine of Cups in reverse and The Lovers. “Oh,” I said. “He’s lonely.”

The Nine of Cups upright is one of the main “happy” cards of the deck. It is the wish fulfillment card and indicates being blissfully happy and content. In reverse, at least for me, it indicates that there is a wish or desire that is not being fulfilled and in this case, paired with The Lovers, it was clear... it was the desire for love and companionship. Yoongi is a grown 26 year old man now... it must be getting hard not really being able to date and experience romance in his life and it’s this that starts to get a bit depressing for him in the year ahead...

So back to the mysterious Queen of Wands and Knight of Pentacles... I firstly wanted to ask for clarification on what the message of these two cards was in the context of this reading. So I asked, and the Seven of Wands in reverse came out.

“Oh,” I said. “Defensiveness against something?”

But who was being defensive, and who or what was being defended and how?

I was still very confused as to who these people were and how they were related to what’s going on with Yoongi in the year ahead, so I asked for some clarification on this Seven of Wands from my Earth Magic Oracle Deck (Steven D Farmer) and got the Crystals card (Focus) and the Music card... My intuition told me that the defense against whatever this issue is will be literally to focus on his music... that simple. Ok... but I was still confused about who these people were because I still felt like neither of them were Yoongi himself so, to confirm that, I decided to consult my Archetypes deck (Caroline Myss). Who is this Queen of Wands and who is this Knight of Pentacles? The Femme Fatale card flew out for the Queen and The Mentor flew out for the Knight.

At this point, I knew we were definitely dealing with a literal male and female (note: the court cards don’t always definitely indicate the gender of a person but can simply indicated something about their personality or emotional or mental state eg:- in this reading the Queen of Cups in reverse came up to indicate something about Yoongi’s emotional state). However I wanted to ask for confirmation again that this “Mentor” isn’t Yoongi himself, because it was possible (although I wasn’t getting that impression) that Yoongi could be mentoring this Femme Fatale. So I asked again who this Knight of Pentacles was and if it was Yoongi to give me a card from the suit of Cups (as he is a Pisces and usually is indicated by the Knight or King of Cups for me). The Heirophant flew out... another card that indicates an older male mentor.

So now I’m getting a clear picture... To summarise... I think this year will be very good to Yoongi in terms of his career, making money, getting social recognition for his talents and working creatively on his music. However, he will probably at some point start having feelings of loneliness and despondency thinking about how difficult it is for him to have a relationship (and probably thinking about his desires for the future in terms of love and marriage and wondering if his career is at odds with these desires)... enter this Femme Fatale. It seems some kind of seductive female will enter Yoongi’s life at some point in the year ahead and there will be some temptation to get involved with her. However, and this is important, it doesn’t seem like she is good for him or that it would be connection like what Yoongi really wants, “The Lovers”, but rather something more materialistic and physical.

Luckily, it seems that this year he will meet an older male friend who will act as something as a mentor to him and help him through this situation. This person will encourage him to focus on his music and creativity in order to get through the feelings of loneliness rather than seeking comfort in this woman... who kinda seems like she might be bad news for him. I think this mentor is someone who understands exactly what Yoongi is going through... maybe an older male idol? And as they become closer he will be a really good guide for Yoongi so if he wants to talk to anyone about his feelings this person would be a good guy to go to rather than just trying to deal with it on his own.

So advice for this year for Yoongi... I really think if he opens up to this friend that is coming into his life he’ll be ok and this person will help defend him from anyone coming in to try and take advantage of his loneliness (Yoongi really is quite vulnerable emotionally...). There is a bit of a risk of him overspending in an attempt to fill the void of a meaningful romantic relationship in his life... but then a lot of money is coming in for him too and he’ll feel financially secure so it’s not too bad once he keeps himself in check. The numerology of this reading is 77, a higher vibration of the number 5 which represents Freedom. 77 indicates an expansion of consciousness, divine awakening, gaining knowledge from people from all walks of life and backgrounds and being open to it all and coming into one’s personal spiritual freedom and also sensuality.

I do feel from what I saw in the cards that this will be a year in which Yoongi really comes into his power as the man he’s going to be in this life so that resonates. However, the “dark side” of 77 is related to how the freedom to follow one’s impulses and curiosity can lead to reckless behaviour and getting overcome by physical desires. So... be careful of that naughty Queen of Wands character who seems like a bad influence I guess...

Overall, I think this will be a good year for Yoongi... he’ll just start to feel a bit emo over being #foreveralone and be tempted to indulge in a shallow relationship to fill the void but a sensible friend will advise against it... typical mid twenties stuff tbh. He’ll be fine. All the best wishes to Yoongi in the year ahead! You’ll have a great year! See all the positive! You’ll find love when the timing is right! 🙏✨💜💜💜

#min yoongi #Yoongi birthday tarot reading #yoongi tarot reading 2019 #happy birthday Min Yoongi!!!#this feels like a really long one... but I wasn't expecting to get hit with Yoongi longing for romance... it threw me off #honestly... same Yoongi #bts tarot reading

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dongerquest · 5 years

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- Are you sure about this? You better drink your beer first... Hey, don’t give me that impassible face, I get that enough from my bartender. All right, all right, I’m not taking your time!

- Ever heard about the stereotype, that goblins reproduce like bunnies? Well it has some truth behind it. I had eleven siblings. Eleven. Those who are bound to old customs, often end up with big families. Following the tradition, the newborns get named after the order of birth – cute, eh? -, and we pick our own name as we get older.

- I was named Seven, if you’re wondering. I can’t recall much from my childhood, expect that they packed us in a room and made us build little toys. I wasn’t aware at that time, but we were running a manufacture of bombs. And that went on and on and on, every bloody day.

- You still with me? Good. The only person that made the dull hours bearable was my little sister, Nine. From all of my siblings, she was my only, and best friend. When we found out that the bombs go BOOM!, they became our plaything. Heh, I can tell from your expression you know what’s coming.

- We snuck out of work every night to play with the smaller ones by an abandoned guard post. The rule was simple; we had to pass the bomb back and forth until the fuse ran out, and the one who held them longer won. That made the game exciting. No, we weren’t just throwing them away wildly! We both had a knife to cut down the cord. But… there was an accident. I had made a mistake.

- I… I knew the fuse was running short, and I should have dealt with it. But I wanted to win so badly, I shouted „Catch!” and threw the bomb to Nine… KA-BOOM. It shredded her face to a bloody gore. I couldn’t even wince. I stood there dumbfounded for god knows how long. Then I screamed. I screamed as loud as I could, and ran away crying. But I didn’t return home. I couldn’t.

- Big deal, I know, a little childhood trauma and such always happens on the drek of these streets. Take a sip, we’re only going deeper in this mess…

- Needless to say I was lost. I had never wandered too deep into the city before. Helplessly looking for shelter I spent two or three days on the streets, when a strange figure appeared before me. Blue skin, short horns, bat wings. It was an angel. Everybody in town knows Godswill takes care of orphans, and I was lucky enough that she had found me.

- So there I was, living with other brats in a dirt poor place, hoping every day we get something to eat (really, it wasn’t much different than before). We all gravitated toward Godswill like flies to honey; she has always been a kind, caring, wise and brave person, so of course that attracked everyone. But she wasn’t the only one.

- At first I wasn’t paying too much attention to it, the older kids tend to come and go like stray cats. But a small group had always seemed to form around a teenage orc named Clay. For a long time I adored her as much as Godswill – dare I say, I was in love with her. Clay had the wildest stories ever which seemed simply unbelievable, but every time someone doubted her word, she showed us evidence – a scar, a stolen pouch, a broken knife - that ensured they were true. I wanted to be like her.

- I try not to bore you with too many details, but believe me, the punchline will worth the wait.

- When I told Clay that I want to be her friend, she tried to trick me. I couldn’t blame her, she probably got a lot of admirers. Thus to take my enthusiasm away, she gave me impossible tasks to complete that would prove my worth. You’d think that turned me down, but no. I was determined. „Bring me a vial of dragon tears!” So I stole a glass of perfume from the market. „I want a king’s sword!” Hence I took a drunk man’s shortsword when he was lying unconciously on the ground. After a few deeds Clay finally took me under her wings, told me that I’m very talented. My „career” has begun at that moment. Next to how to survive on the streets, Clay taught me two important things: the art of lie and thievery.

- Sometimes we still visited the orpahange to get food - of course Clay stood in the spotlight as always, but I got my share of the stories too from time to time, which made me proud. Godswill… well, she never approved of Clay’s lifestyle to say the least, and when she looked at us, I could see disappointment in her eyes.

- Let’s get off track for a moment. Do you know Bayli, the gang leader? He and his crew had taken over the defence tower at North-West of the city. It happened around the time I was living in the orphanage. The streets were a mass chaos, I remember that Godswill locked us in the buldings, because soldiers were marching off to stop the attack, but all in avail. The rumor spread quickly „The tower fell to the goblins!”, people were in shock, and speculated what could have gone wrong. According to a few survivors, Bayli’s crew used an incredible amount of bombs. I find this very intriguing.

- Do you want another pint? Hey, Nabura! Oh, you’re already here. See? This is why he’s a professional. Thank you, handsome.

- Where was I… ah yes! So you might think my life wasn’t so bad with Clay. It made me more adept, and I had good company too… heh, I guess I don’t have to be prude about this. Clay helped me to explore my body and to know better myself. And she was the one who gave me my real name too: Brexit – which I think is just jumbled up letters, but Clay insisted it means togetherness. But after a while – or maybe she was like that from the beginning? – she got very possessive.

- It started with when I was visiting Godswill with a nasty disease. When I returned to Clay, she threw a tantrum. She forbade me to go to the orphanage again, and threatened me that she would abandon me if I had done so. I got very scared so I obeyed. And she began to use that tactic on every petty thing. „Where are you going? Are you trying to leave me?” „I thought you love me. I did everything for you.” „I don’t deserve this. I’m doing this for your own good.”

- Pay close attention now, becasue we’re getting to the best part.

- Still got Bayli? One day Clay had a brilliant idea. She told me that since I’m a goblin, I could easily suck up to him, and become a member. We were in a tight spot at that time; the city guard had became more vigilant around us, and we needed money and food. So the plan was to join the gang, and steal supplies.

- Easy enough, right? No one would have noticed if a few rations and silver pieces were missing, it was basically nothing. Clay on the other hand wanted more. She wanted to leave the city, but we needed a lot of gold for that. So after weeks of planning, we were ready to steal Bayli’s stash. I cleared the path to the vault, so that Clay could come too and pack as many valuables as possible.

- As we were getting our hands on the money, we got ambushed. Goblins jumpd out of the shadows and held weapons to our throats. And he was there too, the big man himself. Bayli walked up to us and… ahhah… and he said… ahhahah… he said „So, I finally meet the puppeteer. I’m kinda disappointed if I have to be honest. But then again, I was never fascinated by creatures who prey on the weak.” Then he turned to me „Any lost goodbyes to your girlfriend?” So I said „Have fun overseas” and smiled. The moment Clay had realised what was happening, she began to laugh hysterically. Two goblins grabbed and escorted her away, but I could still hear her manic laughter echoing in the corridors. They took her to a slaver’s ship and sold her for 500 gold pieces. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

- Heh, you think I’m a monster, don’t you? Or just smelled something funny. But you know what? I would do it again.

- Are you getting tired? Becasue I am. With all this bullshit piling up in my life, I try not to care too much. But when you’re left alone with your own thoughts… Nevermind. Let’s just finish the story.

- So after the incident, I continued to work for Bayli. I wasn’t actually in his debt, but I kinda was. This is what happens when you ask a favor from a mob boss. My life wasn’t so bad though. Took some odd jobs here and there, just what you expect from your average outlaw, and my skills piqued Bayli’s interest real soon. Guess I was talented after all.

- Bayli sent me to the Thieves’ Guild, because they had more well paying jobs to offer, and of course I had to give a fair share of that money to good ol’ uncle. He told me to find a goblin named Stalx (remember that we pick our own names? His was very unambigous), who would train me in sword fighting and other things.

- When I had met him I… I can’t even put it into words. He was so charming and suave, I immediately melted away. I was genuinely in love. And he showed obvious interest in me too. Everything happened so fast…

- Sorry, I trailed off there a bit. The Thieves’ Guild is serious business; even though we try to avoid confrontations, it’s important for us to fight like an assassin. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve killed people before, but they were mostly clumsy idiots and I was never alone. Here I learned real physical pain, my scars were stacking up day by day. Stalx was a harsh but fair teacher, he beat discipline into me, which is essential in our line of work; one small mistake could cost your life. One small mistake…

- As time passed, I had partaken in more and more quests with Stalx, varied from petty thievery to kidnapping. Heh, you thought we only steal money? Anyway after a while I wanted to be involved in more serious business, so Stalx introduced me to his team who were under Bayli’s supervision as well.

- There was Liang: I was told she came from a different land, and I find it interesting she ended up at Bayli’s gang - though we goblins tend to stick together, so maybe it’s not that strange. Liang moved soundly as a cat and striked as such, she even surpassed Stalx! And she liked to try out different poisons and mechanical do-dads. So I can safely say that she was the most skilled in the group, but she was a more ”loner” type, and wasn’t meant to lead.

- Then there was Wrigs: now that guy had an attitude. Every conversation with him was a battle of wits to see who’s tongue is the sharpest, and Stalx occasionally had to intervene before it broke into a real fight. But I respected the guy; he was a trickster who had some really useful spells that bailed us out from a few sticky situtations. He helped us out a lot even with his sodding manners.

- And of course we had Stalx: my mentor, our leader. My lover. People who underestimated him quickly ended up at the end of his dagger. He was very good at decepting others, so people would exploit their weak spots. I’m still not sure to this day how it happened, but he lost his right eye a long time ago, and whenever I asked about it, he came up with a different story every time, and they all sounded believable.

- But Stalx was nothing like Clay. I had never felt vulnerable around him; I could do anything and go freely anywhere I wanted to without him following my every move. We trusted each other, and that’s something big to say in this world.

- I know, you’re itching to ask the question „Oh, Brexit, what went wrong this time? Because Stalx clearly isn’t here.” Hahha… Life just won’t give me a break, huh?

- It was no coincidence Bayli had us work in the Thieves’ Guild. This was all a setup to worm into West and East Lannwrill’s network system. Why? Because he wanted us to steal something powerful.

- The story where Stalx’s gang walked into the capital’s paladin headquarters was legendary. They forged official papers claiming that they were sent by – and I’m shitting you not - Lyyn Martins to be the new liutenants. And the paladins fell for it. Stalx bluffed their way to the chamber where artifacts are sealed away for various reasons, and they had taken a magical dress with them.

- Sounds a little weird, right? It’s crazier that it was a dress worn by dancers (it’s very tight in certain areas) and Bayli wanted to wear it. Have you met uncle before? Believe me, you don’t want to imagine him in a dress at all.

- However, the outfit worthed zilch without the proper set. There was a wand somewhere hidden, curiously in another paladin station in West Lannwrill. This operation needed more planning and precaution though; pulling off the same tactic twice would have been reckless, the artifacts weren’t locked away by the paladins by accident.

- When everything was set, we took a smuggler’s ship and sailed off to West Lannwrill’s port city. Our arrival was expected by the local Thieves’ Guild: they provided us maps of the paladin HQ’s layout and showed us different passages that could lead us there. We had to move quickly though, because we were supposed to take the same ship back to hometown, so the paladins would lose our track.

- Everything was well-thought out, yet I felt very anxious. You have to understand that I was still a rookie in the team, everybody else was more skilled and experienced than me, they were way out of my league. I wouldn’t have been much use in a fight, this whole mission was more like a test for me.

- The way to the artifact chamber was surprisingly easy; someone in the Guild told us that the station was built on an old fort, and they sealed off passages that spread between the new walls. We tread carefully though since – as expected - they set up traps for the unwanted visitors. But honestly it was no challenge for the others; they disarmed the traps so expertly, I practically just had to watch and follow.

- The hardest part came after this. When we had finally reached the room, a handful of guards were patrolling among the shelves. Each of them looked really tough, so it was wiser to just avoid them and quietly get the wand. Luckily the labyrinth of artifacts and furnitures were on our side, and the little pathways gave us enough space to hide. Wrigs had the potential to locate the wand, so he lead us to a cabinet where it was sealed away with other trinkets.

- A guard was stationing nearby, so Wrigs used his cantrip to lure them away, and Liang was staying alert if they or anybody else had came by before we could finish our business. When Wrigs broke through the magical barrier around the cabinet, Stalx reached for the wand to take it and… and…

- Hell broke loose. Stalx fell to the ground and screamed in agony. I was so confused and scared I-I didn’t know what to do, he kept squirming on the floor. I could almost feel his pain… The shriek drew attention to the paladins, and even though Liang and Wrigs were ready to take on that one guard, it was impossible to fight all of them. We had to get out as fast as possible, so I dragged Stalx with me, while Liang and Wrigs were taking care of the guard. Then Liang grabbed Stalx by his legs to help me carry him, but it was a mistake…

- One mistake, as I said. It had started when Stalx was too reckless to make sure the wand was safe to touch. The first domino piece fell, then Wrigs was left alone to protect us, but three more paladins were already catching up with us. A wizard threw a powerful spell at him, and pierced through his body with razorsharp icicles, and a warrior straight up chopped his head off. Liang was smart enough and threw a poisonous smoke bomb at them to buy us some time.

- „We have to leave Stalx!” she ordered. My mind was racing, so much had been happening at once, I didn’t have time to come up with any solution… But she was right. We wouldn’t have survived if we tried to save him. But I couldn’t just leave him there either, so I… I…

- I killed him. Slit his throat. Blood sprayed everywhere. I instinctively grabbed the wand that had lost it’s effect, and dashed after Liang back to the secret tunnel. We were running for our lives.

- …Hm? Yes, I’m fine… No, I don’t need anything. As much as I’d like to drink a bottle of brandy, I’ve already had my share for today.

- Only me and Liang survived. I don’t remember how we ended up on the ship, I only know I was standing by the rail and was crying uncontrollably. Liang was quite pissed at me. She slapped me and told me I have no right to griev this much, while she was fighting to hold her own tears back. And she was probably right. The team was her only family, and she had lost them over one night.

- When we landed, Liang told me she’s not coming. She decided to take another ship, and I didn’t ask where. I went back alone to Bayli and gave him the wand. „I’m done” I told him, and left. I repaid his hospitality ten times more with my loss.

- There wasn’t much opportunity left for me. I am still a member of the Thieves’ Guild, so I could have started everything all over, but the wound was still fresh. For days… weeks… I just cried and cried at home. I have even tried to kill myself. Not once…

- I needed guidance, so I seeked out Godswill to help me. She has always been there for me, I don’t know how can she put up with all my bullshit. Anyway, she suggested that I should work again (it wasn’t a secret for her that I was a guild member) because that would distract me, and to be more sociable. Well the second part was more harder for me to achieve.

- So I had visited the bar more regularly to ask for quests. Sadly it only lead me to drink instead. I thought I could find solace in alcohol to forget, but it made me depandent. After a while Nabura got irritated and restricted me to drink past a few mugs. It made me mad, so one day I thought, „Screw the bar! I can buy a beer anywhere else in town!”

- I ended up in the port’s tavern and got drunk. Very, very drunk. But that’s not all. They had a gambling table, where big guys were playing cards. By big I don’t mean figuratively, they were literally huge. And guess what stupid lil’ Brex had thought? To join the hunks and cheat them out of their gold. Funny story: it worked. They were so oblivious, I even felt a little remorse. Just a little. You’d think they wanted their money back, but they were more busy debating who was more stupid…

- That wasn’t so bad, was it? With a hundrad gold pieces in my pockets, I cheered for my own victory. Believe it or not, I wasn’t planning on sticking around for too long, but then… then that elf came by. They played me, and we hooked up for one night. And I got robbed. They stripped me from everything. They had stolen all my money, my armor, clothes (even my favorite boots!), not a copper was left. I remained alone, naked in an inn’s room.

- I won’t tell you how I managed to get home, even though I know you’d like to have a laugh. But my lesson was learned. Ever since the incident I’ve been working on to restrain my drinking habit. I asked Nabura to supervise me. He… helped me a lot. In more than one way…

- And now, here I am. Tomorrow I’m going for a quest with a new team. Improvement, huh? Maybe they won’t kill me the moment I open my mouth.

- Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to talk about some important matters with my bartender. Nabura! I came up with a new business model you could use. No, it won’t be like with the crabs, don’t look at me like that! This would even kick Jill to the ground. Imagine: a live performance by Grabby. We need a small top hat, a stick for cane

#dnd #goblin #Brex #player #Norris writing #writing

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