#she would flirt with every npc also

[trainsg1rl]

If vidalas played D&D what class would she play

hmmmmm ok. i think either wizard (transmutation) or artificer (alchemist!!!!!)

#saying things #she would flirt with every npc also #vidallas #ask #tysm for asking!!!!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for killing my character and quitting a D&D game I was part of?

Apologies in advance but this is going to be rather long, I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom.

So this all started about eleven months ago when I (14, she/they/he) started getting into D&D, and joined a D&D group thanks to a friend of mine we'll call T (14, he/they). The group was made up of about five people total, but the main people in this situation are me, T, and the DM who we'll call N (15, he/him).

Now when I was making my character, T was helping me out by letting me describe what sort of character I wanted and suggesting different races, classes etc to make it work how I wanted, and what we ended up with was a Pact of the Undead warlock. The backstory of my character was that their older brother died defending them from an invasion of the village they lived in.

My character managed to make contact with their spirit in the afterlife and formed a "pact" with them, gaining power in exchange for letting him "look after them" (i.e. keep watch over them from the afterlife, protect them from harm, all that sorta thing). T told me to run the final concept past N but that they were sure it'd be allowed and that the pact idea was really sweet.

So I told N about my character and the backstory idea like T suggested and N seemed really on board with the whole thing, though he wanted to make a few slight changes to things in secret that would come up during the campaign, to make things more exciting I guess.

I told him I was alright with that, as long as nothing about who the pact was with and what it was for changed too much. He assured me that it wouldn't and that he'd get back to me on what changes he was planning, but he never did, and at the time I just put that down to him being busy.

The campaign starts, and for the first few months things are going pretty good. I do notice that a lot of NPCs, in fact nearly every non-child NPC, seems to be flirting(?) with my character, but I don't think too much of it at first, she is a young elven woman with blonde hair and silver eyes and everyone in the group has said that she's very pretty.

It isn't until one of the others who is also playing an elven character points out that they've been on the receiving end of essentially racism towards elves from NPCs who have simultaneously been showering my character with compliments that I start realizing how frequent and honestly rather obsessive it is, and as mentioned, just how many of the NPCs are doing it.

Then we get to T's character arc, exploring his character's backstory and helping them with things that come up. However, there are certain characters that are introduced that, out of character, T reacts rather negatively to, and when I ask him outside of session what's going on he confides in me that N is changing elements of his backstory that he'd told him he didn't want changing. As an example, T wrote that their character's mother was never part of their character's life growing up.

One of the characters we met was the character's mother, who was instead apparently a very prominent part of their life and cared greatly about them "not that they ever noticed". He also changed the character of T's father from "kind and caring man who did his best to raise his child alone and teach them how to defend themselves" to "stubborn, angry and neglectful father that is constantly disappointed in his son", which completely blindsided and upset T.

T also said that he'd tried talking to N about this but that the response had ended up being, to put it bluntly, "I'm the DM so I have the final say in things". This started to worry me, especially when I realized that N had never gotten back to me with his "proposed changes" to my backstory.

So I sent him a message, but because I didn't want to drag T into my own business with N I decided to say something along the lines of "hey, did you ever figure out what you wanted to change about my backstory?". He messaged back and said that he'd figured it out, but that things with school were so busy that he hadn't had time to sit down and properly write it all out to send to me yet, but assured me that he would by the time T's arc was over.

Several more months passed with no further word from N about my character's backstory, and as T's arc wraps up there's this idea that starts getting brought up, of how demons often exploit the grief of mortals to latch onto them and claim their souls by impersonating the dead person.

The others in the group all latch onto this and start speculating about how exactly the demons use impersonation to claim souls, except for T who gives me this rather worried look from across the table, and it suddenly hits me that this is probably meant to be the opening of my character arc.

I pull N aside after the game is over for the night and ask him directly if this is the opening to my character arc, and he says that it is, but not to worry because the demon thing is, to quote, "just being brought up to get the others interested". I remind him about what I told him about not wanting anything to change about who the pact was with and what it was for, and ask him again what changes he's made to my backstory.

He promises he'll have a full list to me by the start of next session, that we'll have time to sit down together and discuss it all even, and that he won't do anything I don't want him to do. Despite my concerns and the fact that he has already said several times he'll send me this list without doing it, I decide, like a fool, to trust him, even though in hindsight I had absolutely no reason to by this point.

The next session rolls around, and of course there's no list, instead a lot of NPCs who start voicing concern whenever my character brings up the fact she's a warlock, or her dead brother, especially if the pair come up in quick succession. One of the other characters figures out what's going on and asks if they can basically cast some sort of spell to determine if a demon's got control of my soul, which N agrees to, and the spell determines that yes, that's exactly what's going on.

I immediately confront N, mid-session, and tell him outright that this isn't fair, that I told him I didn't want him to change this part of my backstory, and I wanted him to change it back immediately or I wasn't going to play anymore. He started on this long-winded response basically summarizing as "I'm the DM, I can do what I want".

This is the part where I may be the asshole, because well, I saw red in that moment, and decided I not only wanted to follow through on my threat of quitting, but also do something to ensure that my point was driven home.

I fired off a quick message to T on my phone warning him what I was about to do, and while the others were talking about what to do to help me I loudly announced that my character was stabbing herself through the heart, which N had previously ruled would be an instant method of death if carried out.

Silence falls over the group. N tells me that I need to roll to see if I even hit, which I argue (with T backing me up) that if my character is willing to get hurt then it's automatically a hit. N tells me that I need to roll to see if I even pierce my heart. Okay, fine, I roll, and as luck would have it I roll a Nat 20. N attempts to send me just to death saves, but I remind him (again, with T backing me up) that he'd ruled that this was an instant death.

So then he tries to have an NPC cleric show up and revive my character, but T brings up that the soul has to be willing to return to life for that to work, and I immediately say that my character wouldn't even be able to consent to that if her soul was held by a demon, nor would she even be willing if she could. Then I tell N directly that he can consider this my official resignation from the group and walk out, and T follows along behind me after a few minutes.

Ever since then N's been blowing up my phone, fluctuating between begging for me to rejoin the group and promising that he'll do things differently this time, and calling me a selfish bastard for "ruining the fun". T still goes to sessions occasionally, though I think now it's just to spectate, and he's said that maybe things went a little far with the character death in hindsight. And honestly, I'm not exactly proud of how I acted now either.

TL;DR -- I joined a D&D campaign where the DM has made unwanted changes to my character's backstory, despite my attempts to communicate with him, so I retaliated by killing my character mid-session and refusing to let him revive her before quitting. AITA?

#aita #am i the asshole #suicide cw #not sure if it's needed for a dnd character death but just to be safe

[shrowded-eng1ma]

Sagau with a creator that has My personality (I need something to up my non existent ego, lol)

CW;Sagau, cult Au, blood, murder, Religious Themes.

Reader; Reader is gender neutral

——

Mondstadt

The people of Mondstant think your nice. Your not overly energetic but your not overly inactive

They also find your presence calming (as everyone else does in sagau) you don’t demand much of anything from them, just some food and a place to stay.

If you live in Mondstadt, you’d have at least TWO knights protecting you at all cost, along side Diluc of course.

People love you, some even begin praying to you directly. And you need to adapt to it. As much as you tell them ‘You can stop, it’s not necessary’ they’ll just keep going. So you suck it up.

You hand around vision holders most, the NPC’s are very jealous. Why them? Is it their visions? Did they pray harder or offer more things to you?

Really, it’s because you know more about them then you do the others, and your introverted by nature so it’s pretty hard to socialize, not to mention your inability to pick up on normal social clues.

You always deny people walking with you or sticking beside you all day long, it’s draining enough to just talk you don’t need to make idle chat with.. well I guess your ‘Followers’

You handout with Diluc the most, he resembles your personality the most and understands your major dislike for peoples attention.

Your least favorite person is klee. Mostly because she’s SO fucking energetic, it drains you just being around children.

You brought your phone and Nintendo switch into the world of Teyvat. And since genshin is a game, in your phone, you have unlimited battery and access to download any games or dlc’s to your switch or phone.

If your able to clone your phone you’d give it to your most trusted people, in this case it would be Diluc, and Jean.

Your relationship with Venti is surprisingly normal. Venti is an archon, he’s devoted his life to you and knows what you like and hate, so he’d be more quiet around you but still fun.

Venti would probably try to convince you to drink alcohol, but you always deny.

Liyue

Liyue is probably the most devoted to you.

Anything you want they’ll be damn sure to get it, Food? How much you want? A house? Shit you can take one if there’s. Clothing? You’ll get the best fucking clothes Teyvat has ever seen.

If your a woman, Ningguang is willing to lend you her expensive and comfortable clothing. A man, go to Zhongli, your most devoted follower to exists.

Zhongli most likely has everything you’ll ever want, he’s been alive for 6000 years. He knows every spec of you.

He’s your most ‘normal’ obsessed follower. He’s willing to kill anyone who seems to irritate you, he’s willing to lend you his clothes, anything you want, he’s your man.

Your bodyguard is Xiao, Yelan, and The entire liyue Qixing.

Your favorite person in liyue is Xiao, as in your words ‘Xiao knows how to shut up… he’s also just pretty to look at’

Xiao watches you from the distance while still killing demons. Yelan stays beside you and probably ‘Flirts Respectfully’

Yelan herself would like to train you to fight, if you don’t know how to. Others believe you shouldn’t stain your hand with the filth of those who dare attack you.

Ningguang has a special room made for you on the jade chamber, before she destroyed it. But she’d most definitely make another jade chamber specifically as your home in liyue.

In short, if you want a easy free life with low expectations, go live in liyue.

Inazuma

Inazuma treats everything you do as royalty.

If you walk, everyone will move out the way for you, if you breath, people stop breathing in fear of taking your precious air, if you sit down in a restaurant others might move away from you, fearful of angering you or some might try to talk to you.

Ei herself becomes your bodyguard, while the shogun is busy with political and military affairs, she’s beside you, making sure no one even breaths the wrong way in your presence.

And your fine with it. Ei is an introvert herself and doesn’t ask stupid questions. That and she’s pretty to look at.

You have a room in the Tenshukaku, the only ones who can enter it are you (obviously) and Ei

Ei makes sure you have the most comfortable furniture in inazuma, along with the best view of the city. She’s not only your bodyguard, but your maid.

You want a massage? She suddenly knows how to give them. You want food? She bought a mountain of ingredients and the best chief in inazuma (It’s Thoma) someone’s bothering you? She kills them.

If you believe Zhongli was obsessive you’ve seen nothing yet. Ei acts like a overprotective Yandere, she never wants you to leave inazuma, but why would you leave? What do the other nations have that inazuma doesnt?

You have a archon practically kissing your feet. You have everyone’s respect, your have the best view of the city. Why would you want to leave? Has someone annoyed you that much? Who? she’ll end them!

She’d try to convince (manipulate) you to stay. She’s terrified of losing you, she lost her friends and sister she couldn’t even bare the thought of losing her beloved Creator.

Her obsession is driven by fear of loss and just pure devotion. She’d do anything, literally anything to keep you in inazuma.

Ultimately when you leave, she extremely sad and disappointed within herself. What did she do to make you leave? She’s completely fearful that you’ll perish despite knowing that no one would dare attack you. Give her a break, she has trauma.

Once you return to inazuma she wants to hug you from pure relief, just throw herself onto you, but she just sighs and says ‘I’m glad you came back your grace’

If your able to see her, touched starved attitude you’d hug her and allow her to hug back. She’s been really nice and good to you, it’s only fair right?

Sumeru

Sumeru is the most normal.

They don’t overprotect you, just above average protection.

You don’t really have a bodyguard here. You just have admirers and follower’s. Except Cyno, he’s your bodyguard.

Nahida is your tour guide, wherever you wanna go she’ll point you at the right direction.

You’ll possibly be milked for information about where you were before you descended to them, they’d be very interesting by the idea of ‘Television, and Video Games’

Besides that, Sumeru is quite literally normal, their driven by their logic not feelings.

#gender neutral reader #female reader #male reader #genshin impact #yandere sagau #genshin sagau #cult au #liyue #inazuman #sumeru #mondstadt #fatui harbingers #Senzhyana

[athelyna-silverspell]

Opinions No One Asked For™️: Palia NPC Edition

Auni: I love this kid. I want him to think of me as a cool older sister or cool aunt. I bring him bugs every chance I get

Ashura: I want him to be my dad. Genuinely love him. Serious contender to be my Shepp

Badruu: He really turned the puns up to 11. I love him. Also want him to be my dad. And possibly my Shepp

Caleri: I wasn't too sure about her, but after getting to know her, I feel like we have quite a few similarities. Definitely want to be her friend. Could she be my Shepp? 👀

Chayne: I find him so calming. He also feels dad-like to me. 100% want him as a support figure/father figure regardless of who I choose as my Shepp

Delaila: Love talking to her. Really want to get to know her better at this point (but 100% want her to win all the prizes at farmers markets/festivals)

Einar: Absolutely adorable and I love him. Only platonically tho. I will give him as many Gils and shiny rocks as he wants

Elouisa: I wasn't sure at first, but I LOVE her unhinged theories. I want to be her best friend. I will investigate all the paranormal things with her. Contender for my Shepp. Girl let's go ghost hunting

Eshe: So snobby. So bougie. So bitchy. I wish she could be my Shepp 😫 (if only because it would be entertaining)

Hassian: First impressions? What an asshole. After some time, I am...intrigued. I want to figure him out. I want to know why he is the way he is. Also fucking love Tau, the gooodest boi

Hekla: Honestly... she freaked me out a little for a long time. I'm slowly coming around though

Hodari: Listen, I get it. I see where you all are coming from. But man's just not my type 🤷🏻‍♀️

Jel: Oh Jel, my beloved. I'm not exactly subtle about it. This man is my husband. Sad, skinny, pathetic, dramatic, goth guys are My Type™️. Would marry him like, yesterday 🥀😫🪡🖤😍

Jina: At first I wasn't sure, but the more I talk to her, I'm like, "Jina, my bestie." I'm a PhD student. I feel you. Also, WOMEN IN STEM, HELL YEAH!!!! I have a feeling we're gonna be great friends

Kenji: Not a fan of your extremely privileged life ("Have you tried inheriting property?" 😐😐😐) or the invasive chapaa situation... but I also don't dislike him as much as I thought. I feel like he's playing a role he doesn't really want to, but still enjoying/expecting the high life for little to no effort

Kenyatta: She should be my best friend. I was put off at first, but she is the coolest. I see quite a few aspects of myself in her

Nai'O: I feel like he's the sweetest boi ever. I'm both like, "He deserves better than Kenyatta" and "Kenyatta is good for him." Perhaps the most wholesome NPC

Najuma: I also want to be the cool older sister and/or cool aunt that she never had. This kid is a badass and smart as hell. I wish my friendship with her was better already

Reth: This man. I love him. I'm not sure if it's platonic or romantic yet. All I know is he's one of my favourite NPCs to talk to. He's funny, he's flirty, he's got a Tragic Backstory™️. I'm here for this soup boi whether he wants it or not

Sifuu: Two words: Bad. Ass. It's a crime that we can't romance her. I really want to ask her to be my Shepp, but I'm not sure it's a good fit

Tamala: I'm sorry, Tamala besties, but I just don't like her 😭 I really wanted to like her so bad, but her aggressive flirting paired with her unwillingness to consider me a friend/equal just rubs me the wrong way

Tish: Absolutely beautiful person. I want to be her bffl. That is all

Zeki: Crime Cat, my beloved. He is the most entertaining Shepp option (imo). He's got an eye patch, a gold tooth, and shady practices. I find him amusing. I want him to like me. Share his (dubiously acquired) riches with me. Please accept me into the black market. I won't tell, but I can't promise I'll participate (I probably will 👀)

#palia #palia auni #palia ashura #badruu palia #palia caleri #palia chayne #palia delaila #einar #palia einar #palia elouisa #palia eshe #palia hassian #palia tau #palia hekla #palia hodari #palia jel #jel palia #palia jina #palia kenji #palia kenyatta #palia nai'o #palia najuma #pali reth #palia sifuu #palia tamala #paia tish #palia zeki #palia game #singularity 6

[cod-dump]

After rewatching the dnd movie, I can't stress enough how much I need the 141 to play it. To everyone's suprise, soap is the DM. Price plays a oathbreaker paladin with a few levels in warlock and it turns out he is a total nerd. Nobody knows why they are suprised.

I feel like Soap would be a chaotic DM, has the most intense storylines, well thought out NPCs, detailed locations- There is no fucking around in his DnD sessions, he has a story he needs everyone to play out. Laswell would probably be a good DM, too, and I know she has some damn good campaigns hidden up her sleeves.

What I think their races and classes would be:

Nik as a Dragonborn barbarian: Sometimes roleplays but switches to being his usual self because he forgets to roleplay. His character is just named Nik as well. He's happy to be here.

Soap as a human eloquence bard or artillerist artificer: Becomes deranged quickly into the game (either as bard or artificer it doesn't matter). As a bard he flirts with everyone. Other players, NPCs, the enemy- No one is safe. Is here to cause mayhem, that is number one priority next to trying to seduce everyone/thing.

Ghost as a Shadar-kai rouge: Man gets deep into roleplay, just embodies his character. Ghost is not there anymore, he's Cronothos the Fallen and he will have his vengeance!

Gaz as a Elf paladin: Talks in a 'fancy' accent the entire time, even when not roleplaying. Has made out with Alejandro for a bit in the game but now they're having their characters romance each other. Has a in game beef with Price.

Price as a Fire Genasi oathbreaker/or Oath of the Watchers paladin: Would be an excellent DM but he would rather play. Has all his shit together and has a notebook with his character's story, skills, strength and weaknesses- Man is prepared. Has a romance going on with Rudy and has a whole page in his notebook dedicated to pick up lines and pet names that flow with their campaign.

Alejandro as a Leonin paladin: Is called 'furry' throughout the campaign by Valeria and Graves, Ghost sometimes joining in. Is romancing Gaz, is trying to see if he can kill Valeria, is also narrowly avoiding getting punched by Ghost. Has in game beef with Price.

Rudy as a human war cleric: Trying not to lose his shit because everyone won't stop goofing around. He later, also, starts goofing around. Like how Alejandro and Gaz have a romance going on, Rudy has a romance going on with Price. They're competing to be the most dramatic romance with Alejandro and Gaz.

Valeria as a Tiefling assassin rouge: Her and Ghost get up to mischief. Loves to fuck over Alejandro at every given opportunity and has made it where her character hates Alejandro's.

Graves as a Half-Elf warlock: Actually gets really into roleplay and has a really thought out backstory for his character. Actively trying to romance one of the NPCs (a orc shopkeeper) and has threatened to fight Soap for her hand.

Laswell as a human Circle of Stars druid: Her and Graves actually getting really along while playing which is a shock to everyone. Supports Graves' romance with the orc shopkeeper and is his wingman.

#dnd #call of duty #cod mwii #modern warfare ii #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #john price #kyle gaz garrick #valeria garza #alejandro vargas #rodolfo parra #phillip graves #kate laswell #ask #thanks for the ask <3

[solaneceae]

grief

a team bolas oneshot (read on ao3) written before green team was split between red and blue, so in this they all died. angst with a side of family comfort. tw: blood and gore, temporary character death, self-inflicted burns

Pac wakes with a deep ache inside his chest and at the back of his mind — like a fresh, open wound that’s still bleeding. He reaches out, for the comforting hum of his soulmate’s sleeping mind on the other side, and finds nothing.

He doesn’t understand. But he also does. He’s surprised he’s not immediately breaking down screaming, but maybe he’s been broken for a long time and just didn’t notice until now.

He finds Pierre and Bad, busying themselves at the anvils. And he asks.

(Nothing, he has nothing, Richas missing, Cellbit insane and on the hunt for him, Forever dead, Mike dead, Bagi dead, Felps still MIA.

Fit.

Fit’s gone. Fit has died hating him.)

“I see,” he says, numb and empty.

And he draws out his sword.

When Red Team wakes the next morning, some of them are still holding onto hope. Hope that it was all a lie, hope that Green would merely be dissolved, its members assigned to the two remaining teams.

Hope is a cruel, fickle thing. And it dwindles fast in the minds of team Bolas as the hours start to trickle by, with no sign of any green-tinted name popping up on the global chat. Even faster when Carré comes back from recon, reporting the disappearance of Green’s spawn barrier as well as their mission NPCs.

The silence within their cave is deafening, only broken by the sound of a hammer hitting red-hot metal over the anvil. Some of them just check their comms obsessively, fraying minds tethering between denial and a complete breakdown. 

Cellbit hasn’t moved an inch since he woke up, sitting up at the center of their shared nest with absolutely nothing in his icy, blue slitted eyes as they stare at his commlink. At the last messages he’d sent to Roier, still unanswered. (His husband is gone. His sister is gone. His best friend, his President is gone. He has nothing left, and his tongue tastes like unspilled blood.)

Phil is looming over a crafting table, mindlessly placing and removing materials with no rhyme or reason. (Étoiles is gone, his best friend and brother in arms, his devil-may-care attitude, his humor, his fearless smile. Fit’s gone, his shameless flirting and unwavering determination. Forever. Forever. Kristin is eerily silent.)

Jaiden sits in a faraway corner, sharpening her sword until the edge can slice the very empty space between atoms. (Roier taught her. He taught her so much. She would make him proud.)

Charlie is off near the ovens, baking bread after bread after bread in a compulsive act of self-soothing that doesn’t quite work. (He thinks of his bitch wife, and hopes he’ll be smart enough to stay asleep today.)

Baghera’s shaking, huddled close to her fellow avian and mentor as she watches him work without really processing it, the crow’s hand occasionally tapper on her arm to keep her from ripping her feathers off. (She thinks of her brother. Her stubborn, annoying baby brother and his cursed bleeding heart. His hair had been cut so short, she’d been wanting to take a moment to even it, maybe style it a little even. She thinks of Pierre, and feels hatred. She thinks of Badboy, and feels betrayal.)

Foolish straightens up, rolls his shoulder as he admires his handiwork. (He thinks of his adopted son, and remembers why Bad always told him not to get attached to mortals. But Foolish never listens, and never will, despite how much it hurts every single time.) “It’s ready,” he drones out, catching the attention of everyone present. Phil turns to him, expression set in stone and unreadable. “Let me see.”

Team Bolas congregates around their leader, slightly bowed in something like reverence as he walks past them towards the shark-totem. Foolish grins, mirthless and cold, as he hands him a metal stick. The head of it is adorned with a strange shape, still reddish from heat. “Good job,” the Angel of Death nods, eyes and hands stained black as a few stray plants and roots wither away under his feet. His flock shivers like a single entity, all of them fastening their masks over weary, tear-streaked faces. Foolish whistles, spinning the branding iron like a majorette would their stick. “Thanks, Crowfather sir! Wanna do the honours?” Foolish chirps.

Philza Minecraft nods, silently letting his robe fall off his shoulders, exposing his naked back. “Let’s do it quick,” he says, looking over each of his fledgelings, who bow their heads in unwavering loyalty. “Today, we don’t let them rest. Not for a second. Doesn’t matter how many times they kill us, we swarm them, again and again. We, teach them pain.” He feels the heat of the furnace on his back as he sits before it, Foolish humming a cheery tune as he pokes at the blazing inferno inside. “Baghera, how many chainsaws did you make?”

The duck tilts her head. He can see her red-tinted eyes through the mask, and they crinkle in vindictive joy. “More than enough,” she coos, and Jaiden bumps her mask against hers, hello, clean, flock, hello. Phil croons out a yesyes. “Good. Very good.” He beckons her over, runs his claws through her hair-feathers lovingly. “You’ve become stronger. I’m proud of you. All of you.”

“Thanks Dad,” the duck hybrid whispers, preening under the praise. “Get ready,” Foolish warns. Phil doesn’t wince, doesn’t brace himself. Doesn’t care. “Jaiden,” he says, and the conure chirps in acknowledgment. “Taunt them. Trick them. Use every dirty tactic you can think of, I don’t care, this is no longer a fight. It’s retribution. Carré,” he turns to the warrior in the cat onesie, “I trust you. Put the fear of you in their hearts.” Carré gives a salute, sword gleaming in the dim light of their den. “Charlie, Foolish, literally go apeshit. Now’s the time.” Foolish laughs, eager, and Charlie’s codified parts glitch in anticipation. “Cellbit.” and the detective perks up. Phil flashes him a cruel smile. “Do what you do best,” he declares, and the Brazilian looks like Christmas came early.

Then red-hot iron slams against the skin of his back, and Phil lets out a gasp as his flesh starts to sizzle and burn. His talons dig deep into his own thighs in an attempt to distract himself from the pain, and the air smells like cooking meat. Cellbit starts howling first, the last of his sanity breaking when the smell hits his nostrils even through the mask, pupils dilating — like a shark smelling blood. The rest of them soon join in, screeching and laughing, too loud, too high-pitched and broken. Then Foolish removes the iron, and Philza almost falls over under the mixture of pain and relief. The rest of the flock rush over to support him, glancing at the result of Foolish’s hard work with barely disguised awe.

Angry red lines, bloody and bubbling, form the simplified shape of a gas mask right between the mangled remains of his ebony wings. A symbol of loyalty, devotion, belonging. (Pack, flock, family, murder.) “How’s it look?” the crow wheezing out, somehow still mustering the strength to make a joke out of his own agony. Jaiden flashes him a thumbs up. “Nice.”

“I want to go next,” Baghera pipes up, wings twitching with anticipation. Foolish nods, letting the others help Philza wobble away to let him recover for a minute. “Alright. Get over here then, sister.”

(There is no coming back after this, they all know that. Those marks would be here to stay, because self-inflicted scars don’t get erased by respawn, as some of them had found out over time. They all count on it.)

***

The trip is like a blur, partly because of the pain making their vision go hazy and, partly because the sky is red red red and it makes their minds fuzzy and time all wibbly-wobbly.

Charlie remembers hot desert sun hitting his shoulders and colouring them an angry red, Carré taking off his hood to breathe properly. He remembers Foolish carrying them through a freezing river, ice-cold water a temporary balm against the fresh burns in the center of his chest. (He doesn’t regret it. The pain is worth it. And the code infection is so cold, cold cold, the blazing heat radiating from the brand mark is almost soothing in comparison.) He remembers Baghera, limping the whole way, yet refusing any help. Pushing herself further than she ever has to keep up with them. Refusing to be a burden, refusing to drag them down. “I’m fine,” she would say, brushing her feathers over the mark on her right hip. “I’m fine.”

The sky is red, everything is. The blood-fog rolls in, or maybe it’s the toxic gas disaster. They can’t tell, with the masks that keep them breathing and tinted lenses painting the landscape crimson. They press on, helping each other whenever one falls, because their armors might be shit still despite yesterday’s grind, and they might have nothing. But they have each other.

When they finally find Blue, it doesn’t quite feel like catharsis. Not yet. All seven of them loom over their location - Pierre, Bad, Tubbo. (A shame. A shame he was here. He’d tried, they all knew that. But it hadn’t been enough.) They can’t see Pac anywhere, but given the few death messages that popped into global chat earlier, Phil can take a guess at what happened. (Note to self: extend an invitation to the Brazilian later.) No words are exchanged (quiet, quiet, don’t get spotted), only quick glances and flexing talons and flashes of teeth hidden beneath rubber masks. The sun hits their backs (it hurts, for Phil and Cellbit, who has chosen to place his own brand in the small of his back. He’s forsaken armor for this, he wants to feel every slash and tear, he wants to feel something, anything), their shadow-cast silhouettes stark against the red skies.

(They are pack, scavengers. They are eager to sink their teeth into writhing flesh and sharpen their claws on picked-clean bones.)

Philza raises an arm when Bad spots them, immediately barking out orders at Pierre and Tubbo, who doesn’t look like much of a leader at the moment. (What a shame. He deserved better.) The flock tenses, talons and claws digging into loose dirt, eerie growling and giggling and Charlie’s eager ‘how about now? can we go, please, dad?’

The Angel of Death looks down as his children. He lets his arm fall, and six shadows take off and rush downhill in a cacophony of barks and howls and cackling, hyena-like laughter.

Cellbit can see nothing at all, blinded by burning demon blood in his eyes, in his mouth, in his hair and beard. His knife digs into something soft and warm, someone screams, doesn’t know who. Something trips him and his head hits the ground, stunning him, and a sword stabs him in the shoulder and he laughs, ripping it out to roll away, uncaring of the copious amount of blood he’s losing. He hears the revving of an engine nearby, and wipes the blue liquid out of his eyes just in time to see Baghera slice at Pierre with her chainsaw, severing bone and tendons from his left shoulder to his right hip. Blood and viscera fall out of the gaping wound as he chokes, impossibly blue eyes widening, and then his body falls and the chime of death-respawn rings out over the battlefield. One. 

“First kill!” Carré woops, blocking strike after strike from a hissing Bad. “My turn now,” he grins, feral and they all know he’s the only human here how could a human feel so much like them, and his legs do a thing none of them can comprehend but he’s behind the demon now, thrusting his blade forward and into a groove in the fiend’s diamond armor. Chime. Bad falls, dead before his body hits the ground. Two. The Argentinian Beast swipes to the side, ridding his blade of sickly blue liquid. His sleeve creeps back up his arm, revealing the bottom of their symbol. “Mejórate, noob.”

“Oh SHIT!” Jaiden cackles, busy carving out the inside of Tubbo’s ribcage like a halloween pumpkin. “Carré’s out for blood, we love to see it.”

“Where’s Pac?” Cellbit grumbles, teeth around someone’s liver. Foolish rushed back from respawn, waving at them cheerfully, and bodies an incoming Pierre to the ground to bash his head against a rock until his skull gives and splits in half like a watermelon. “Uuuuh, dunno! Why, wanna eat his other leg?”

“Maybe.”

“Be nice,” Baghera pouts, beak splattered in red as she discards her broken saw, only to summon a fresh one from her inventory. She looks down at it with motherly fondness. “He did kill Bad earlier. And he lost Mike, and my brother. I say we leave him be.”

“Mmmh. Careful, here comes BitchBoy.”

“Oh, hello,” the duck chirps, evading a strike from Bad’s scythe. “Did you miss me, Bébou?” she giggles, thrusting her saw forward and cutting through the demon’s armor like it’s butter. Bad lets out a frustrated what the FUDGE before the blades pierce through the enchantments and through his belly. Chime. “I don’t know if I missed you,” she hums, throws her machine away, summons a new one. “I’m still thinking about it.”

Jaiden howls at her, Foolish barks, and all of them devolve into throat-tearing screams as their clothes soak up all the red, red above, red below, red, red. Philza climbs up a tower and swoops in, deadly precise, skewers another Tubbo that just showed up. “You should really give it a rest, mate,” he hums without an ounce of aggressivity, sitting on the lad’s chest as he wheezes out his last breath. “You’re making this a lot harder than it needs to be.”

“Can’t—” the goat hybrid chokes, bloody foam bubbling out of his mouth as his lungs fill up with fluid. “I’m. Tina. Nikki, Missa.” The name makes Phil blink. “Can’t… abandon them.”

“Suit yourself,” the Crowfather shrugs, then plants his blade into his former protégé’s neck with nary a sound. Chime.

Chime. 

Chime. 

Chime. 

They don’t always win, far from it. Chime . But they don’t care, losing themselves in the cycle of fight-kill-die-respawn-run-fight. Chime. Even when their resources run out, when they have nothing left but their own hands to fight with, they still come, again and again, moved by the collective desire to make them pay. They get less and less kills, armors and weapons gone, their own bodies piling up in a grotesque display. Chime. Chime. Chime. Blue Team tries to run and hide, but Jaiden and Foolish sniff them out like a pair of bloodhounds, always on their tail as the rest of the flock follows. The hours trickle, too slow yet too fast, and Blue is now winning because they kill them a lot more often than Red kills them, but they don’t give a single shit about that stupid bar made up but a stupid eyeball thing that they are done entertaining because THEIR FUCKING FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE DEAD.

They rip, and tear, and bite when nothing else works anymore. Everything hurts, repeated respaws and the brand mark making their bodies stumble and fall and shake and seize against the cold dirt, making them easy targets. But they keep fighting.

Cellbit starts crying at some point, tears washing off the blood in twin lines on both his cheeks, and he repeats his husband’s nickname like some fucked up mantra as he stabs into Pierre’s chest over and over again, the engineer long dead. Yet he still keeps going, until Phil gently tears him away from the body to press his own bloody forehead against the Brazilian’s, letting him cling to his robes like the crow’s his last anchor to the mortal plane. Foolish and Jaiden come back, huffing, saying they’ve lost track of their target, and everyone stands still for a moment.

Phil’s commlink buzzes. He glances at it, spots something blue, turns it off. No more parlé, no more talks. “I think they’re done for today,” he sighs, helping Cellbit to his feet. “Let’s go back.”

“To the den?” Charlie asks, ripping off his mask to shake off stray pieces of viscera before putting it back on. His entire body is soaked in red, but Phil can spot some green beneath it. His code arm glitching erratically, but he barely seems to feel it. 

Philza nods. “To the nest.”

“Can we burn?” Baghera asks. Her voice is shot, just like after an intense session of karaoke. “I don’t wanna walk back. I wanna burn.”

“Me too,” Jaiden raises her hand, Charlie following suit. “Oooh, we should all do it,” the conure gasps, already piling up dead wood and whipping out her flint and steel. “It’s like a warpstone! But crispier.”

Maybe Phil should discourage that. But his bad knee hurts like a motherfucker, and what’s a little more agony after today. “Sure, fuck it.”

The pier lights up their surroundings as they dance their way into the flames, hot coal burning the soles of their feet. They briefly wonder if this is what witches did back in the day, before their last hearts are drained and they fall into the space-between-spaces, respawn mechanic spitting them out the other side and into the damp coolness of their cave-home-nest-den.

Their wounds are gone, as always. But not the brand, still pulsing with dull pain on each of their bodies. They all put ice on it, mechanically, minds already far away as their timer nears its end for the day.

None of them bother to clean up before it hits zero. The pack huddles into the nest together, blood-sticky and shaky and Cellbit is still sobbing, Jaiden’s arms around him while she croons and chirps, avian words eaten up by her own hiccuping sobs ( help, sad, sad, flock) , Charlie rubbing soothing circles into the cat hybrid’s back as he wails. Carré whispers praise and fighting tips to Baghera’s who’s only half-listening, wrapping up Dad’s sprained wing in a makeshift splint. Foolish sits close, humming absentmindedly as he finger-combs the knots and bits of flesh out of Jaiden’s long hair. “...You guys wanna move to Eggxile with me?” Charlie asks, drowsy and sluggish, Baghera’s hand-wing in his code-infected one. “When we go back. You can- you can take care of Flippa with me, if… you know. If this shit doesn’t work out.”

Jaiden laughs, wet and unstable. “I’d love that actually.”

“Your house has fumes in it,” Cellbit adds, so quiet it’s hard to make out. “I like that. It’s homey.”

“We can keep the masks there, it’s perfect,” Baghera approves, and Phil finds himself considering it because Charlie’s ramshackle house might be turning into code shit, but at least it’s far away, safe, away, away, and he doesn’t know if he can trust anyone outside his flock after this. Not stay on the wall, where everyone and their dog can show up unannounced. “Maybe,” he says.

Then their comms buzz, darkness claiming them quick.

#qsmp #qsmp purgatory #team bolas #tw blood #tw gore #fanfic

[syn0vial]

Oh, the wise one of the wise ones!

First of all, I want to say, that I hope you're feeling better now (you wrote, that you are worring over earthsquakes in your recent post).

It's nice to see, that you too consider Zam a literall gem among sw characters! I have three questions for you, if you don't mind :) :

Is there any more about her daughter? Beyond her name (was it Sone?)? Is she changeling too?

That's a complex question - do you think she would be proud of adult Boba (in canon/legends, doesn't matter)? What would she think of him?

What were her "deeper feelings" about Jango? By that I mean who did she really consider him? A friend? Partner in crime? Is there any part with her Pov. about him?

PS: It's my first time sending an ask, hope you are honored!

hello hello! :D thank you for your kind words and fun questions about one of my fave star wars characters; i'll do my best to answer!

sadly, if there is any more existing information about sone wesell, i haven't found it. sone was actually "introduced" not as a fully-fledged character, but as a footnote in a source book for wizards of the coast's star wars roleplaying game. it seems likely to me that descriptions of her were intentionally vague so that GMs could more easily fit her into their campaigns if they chose to feature her as an NPC. that said, given that both zam and sone's father are said to be clawdites, it is likely that sone would have been born with at least the capacity to shapeshift!

i'll be honest: i've totally imagined the conversation that would happen between zam and a grown-up boba should they ever meet. (my favorite daydream scenario is that there's a malfunctioning inter-dimensional portal that intermittently spits out people/characters from various points in canon into a massive space-station-city where they all then have to reconfigure how they relate to each other and rebuild their lives, but uh, anyway.) personally, i think that if zam met any version of (legends) boba over the age of 18, she'd just be really sad for him. for one, she's known boba since he was just 5 years old or so, so i think there'd be some inevitable sadness in finding out how much he'd suffered after her death. there's also just the shock of seeing how much that suffering transformed him, how this sweet, funny kid who loved animals and bad jokes and novels about friends going on adventures became a man whose life is so devoid of joy, connection, or compassion that his kneejerk response to genuine kindness is hostility or aversion. zam might be a bounty hunter as well, but she never lost her sense of playfulness, expressiveness, or affection, so i think it would hurt her to see boba take that path. that said, if she met boba much later in the timeline (like, post-yuuzhan vong), i think she'd feel some hope and relief seeing him starting to try for connection again!

we do actually get some of zam's PoV as it regards jango in the novel the shapeshifter strikes! i think it's pretty clear that their relationship went beyond being simply partners-in-crime (jango trusted zam to basically babysit boba, for crying out loud) and they have flirty banter in virtually every piece of media they appear together in. boba himself refers to zam as jango's friend and even considers if she might be his mom at one point (though he ultimately comes to the conclusion that this is impossible bc he's read in books that moms don't shapeshift). zam herself definitely enjoys jango's company and especially flirting with and teasing him. that said, even she is occasionally shocked or disturbed by jango's more callous moments, such as when he's willing to let a terrorist group target millions of civilians on coruscant, or when he uses a cloned child's body to throw other bounty hunters off boba's scent. my personal reading of their relationship is that she genuinely really likes and is even attracted to jango, not least because of the risk he presents (she is a thrill-seeker after all), but that she ultimately trusts him not to do anything to really hurt her. and honestly, not unreasonably! we see from their dark horse comic series that even when they're working as rivals, they do try and look out for each other and keep the other from any serious harm. so, in that sense, she misjudged him; she thought that being his friend and having this history with him would save her from being expendable in his eyes. in the shapeshifter strikes, zam even asks jango if he'd ever really kill her and when he answers quite honestly, "only if i had to," she laughs it off with a quip ("you say the sweetest things!"). so, in sum, i'd describe zam's "deeper feelings" for jango being genuine friendship, affection, and even attraction, along with an unfortunate overestimation of just how indispensable she was as his only friend. which isn't to say that she wasn't truly his friend—we get multiple indications that jango did genuinely care about her—but ultimately, that wouldn't prevent him from sacrificing her once he deemed it necessary.

#thank you for the ask! i am honored to be your first recipient <3 #zam wesell #jango fett #asks

[cookie-waffle]

here are my new Zelink totk theories with added context from minor spoilers:

- The American localization is gonna cut out/change a LOT of the more explicitly romantic subtext because american parents are pretty notorious for getting super easily offended. Directly implying that Link and Zelda share a bed is probably not seen as a big deal at all in Japan, but I can def see some of the more conservative american parents having a problem with it.

- Zelda is NOT gonna have any kind of pregnancy reveal at the end. Not just for the aforementioned reason, but also because it would heavily imply that Link is assigned male and Auonuma has actually stated in an interview that he doesn’t want to 100% confirm Link as male. (it’s why we don’t see Linkle in the mainline games)

- NPCs are gonna be referencing/gossiping/teasing Link about the relationship at some points. Link may even get dialogue options stating that he’s taken or likes someone else already when he gets flirted with.

- I do not think Nintendo is likely to blatantly just say in the game that they’re an item. They’re likely gonna rely heavily on obvious subtext, even in the Japanese vers.

- If I’m wrong about the last one…. ya know, I had this VERY low on my “likely to happen” list, but, the fact that they’re sharing a bed means that them kissing in a cutscene is not off the table.

- Link is either gonna show MUCH more emotion in this game while interacting with Zelda, or, Nintendo is gonna chicken out and have him stand around like 🧍again in every single cutscene because they don’t wanna disappoint fans who don’t ship zelink. (Usually I’d sorta understand but, they REALLY wrote themselves into a corner here. If Link isn’t at least visibly comfortable with her then that’s just shit writing)

- No, they aren’t gonna bone. Nor will there be any sort of reference to sexual contact between them. But, I also think a lot of teen and adult players might just sorta automatically assume that it happens because not only are they living together domestically, but they’re also around 23-24 yrs old now. Lot of time has passed. More than enough to, ya know…. “do stuff”

- There are likely more of Zelda’s diary entries you can find that give additional context to the relationship. Maybe she has another secret one in Hyrule castle or hidden in Hateno.

- Zelda’s room in the castle might be renovated now. And if it is, it’s very likely that it’ll be built to accommodate Link as well. There may even be some very cute easter eggs in her room like in Skyward Sword.

- Paya is gonna have some shit to say in her diary FOR SURE lmaoo. Probably something like “I’m so happy for them!” *you see what look like water droplet stains on the pages*

-The two thrones in the castle may actually have some subtle implications behind it. But I’m still not super confident that we’ll see Link become king. I mean, it’s pretty obvious that it will happen. But I’m just not used to Nintendo being so on the nose about their relationship. Them sleeping in the same bed is EXTREMELY out of left field for this franchise.

- There’s gonna be a musical reference to, or perhaps even remix, of “Romance in the Air” from Skyward Sword. And you know what? I’m gonna scream and cry and fucking explode because oh my god that is so romantic.

- No, Zelda is not gonna die. This franchise practically spawns money directly into Nintendo HQ. They are not gonna kill off the character who’s bloonline ensures more Zelda games.

#zelink #totk spoilers

[wepsi]

Obey me brothers playing Stardew Vally!

Another day another fanfic, as someone with 500 hours in stardew I love this game and would love to imagine the om bros playing it with you! Part 2 up now

He would prefer just playing with you and him, he doesn't need to deal with his brothers outside of reality.

Spends his time either in the mines or fishing because it's relaxing.

Will slay monsters for you in the mines, and protect you.

Gets mad if he ever dies, it hurts his pride.

Always got mad at Levi for yelling at his game too loud, well...now he gets it even if he never will admit it.

Takes good care of his dog, names it Cerberus and never lets his water bowel go empty.

"Don't worry my dear, these pathetic slimes will not harm a hair on your head."

Will be ALL OVER THE PLACE in the game, boy has energy for years

Will do any and every aspect of stardew that even remotely made money.

make sure your money is separate or he will spend it all!

Even with all his money making activities he still somehow find a way to be glued to you.

Excitedly tells you how much he made from the shipping bin (please tell him he did a good job)

Never sells straight to the store will always put everything in a shipping bin to see all the cash rack up at the end of the day.

Will definitely get married with you in game and have kids <3

"AHAHAHA The great mammon made 30,000 today, aren't cha proud of me?"

Levi probably has a ungodly amount of hours in this game and know every single thing about it, at this point he's just seeing how fast he can finish everything.

Won't spoil the game for you but will give you hints to the right direction (green is lucky bet on that color).

Good at every aspect of the game, mining? fishing? foraging? farming? ranching? he's got it all.

You honestly don't even need to try in this game he will spoil you and shower you in whatever you wanted.

His favorite character is Abigail, purple haired gamer girl yes please, whom he always romanced before meeting you.

When you get jealous and upset after learning that, he shyly presents the wedding ring he grinded the mines for (prismatic shards are hard to come by!).

"Um... here's a wedding ring. Nononono I'm not proposing this is to get the last stardrop in the game I swear! (blushes madly behind the screen glad you couldn't see him)"

You know this man will be obsessed with his pet cat, petting it every day and making sure the water bowel is full like his life depended on it.

Dies of cuteness everytime the cat snuggled with him in bed.

Waiting for that [pet]loves you note to appear and it makes him so happy.

Spends most of his time looking for books and reading them in game at the library.(who actually reads those in game? he does!)

From reading all the wiki he knows literally everything about the game as well, will spoil the game.

"Did you know in the fair if you bet on green you will have a 75% chance of winning?"

Spends his time befriending and chatting up all the npcs, so confusing why they don't like him from the get go because of his dazzling beauty!

Will spends YEARS on character customization

Also spends his time getting all the clothes and accessories, because he has to change up his beautiful look every now and then!

Will marry you to constantly give you a bunch of kisses!!! <3

Will also do the unspeakable with you every night XD thankfully you can only have two kids in stardew.

Somehow becomes best friends with emily and the wizard to change his look whenever he wants (befriending sorcerers is just his thing ig.

If he wasn't dating you he would be flirting with every npc until the fateful scene lol

"Hailey is so mean to me! >:( She must be jealous of my mesmerizing looks! Now never mind that my darling come give me a kisssss."

You had to get Solomon to open a portal to the kitchen cabinet so he doesn't constantly get up to go eat

The only brother beside Levi that actually farms so he can get ingredients

Gets the Kitchen upgrade first thing and cooks and eats all day in the game even if his energy is full, eating in game also makes him hungry in real life EVERY TIME

Hangs out at Gus all day, probably eating Gus out of his business as well

Gave his character a mouth so he can eat (haha so cute)

Will want to play with Belphie and you and present you guys with new recipes he cooked.

"I cooked 2000 survival burgers today would you like some?"

Why sleepy?because it rhymes with Belphie! Actually he mistyped when he feel asleep halfway through the customization and went with it.

Only playing because you and Beel asked him

Wanted to wear matching outfits with Beel, or is he too lazy to pick his own we will never know

Will nap all day in game and in real life as well, you keep having to get up and go to his computer to hit ok for the next day

The times he is awake he will probably follow you and Beel around to cheer you guys on whatever it is that you're doing

His favorite part is when you snuggle in bed with him at the end of each day in game.

"Come and snuggle with me...actually just turn off the game and snuggle with me in real life I'm getting lonely here."

Check out my master list for more content!

#obeymeboys #obey me scenarios #obey me shall we date #omswd #obey me #shall we date obey me #lucifer #mammon #leviathan #satan #asmodeus #beelzebub #belphagor #lucifer obey me #mammon obey me #obey me leviathan #satan obey me #asmo obey me #beel obey me #obey me belphie #stardew valley #gn reader #obey me gn!reader #obey me gn!mc

[hazmatazz]

i had a fic idea when mikhailgate was happening where mike's dming and he decides not to have a player character (which is common so the dm doesn't fuck up what the character should know or not)

anyways the party is super displeased with this outcome so within like a hour they find this random npc that they try to make join their party so mike would be forced to have a character

in honor of mikhailgate, this character is named mikhail (which the party finds hilarious)

how they persuade mikhail/mike to join? well previously mike went to robin for help with his sexuality after she came out and she learned that he had a massive crush on will. this campaign they also invited robin to play so...why not use mike's weakness to their advantage?

robin convinces will to flirt with mikhail to get him on their team. will rolls a mediocre roll and the party argue about if it should count. mike, trying to end the argument in his favor (that it shouldn't count), challenges will to come up with a flirt on the spot. if it's any good mikhail would be persuaded

to mike's surprise will is super good at it so mikhail has to join the party

it becomes this running gag that will has to flirt with "mikhail" to get him to stay on the team or convince him of something and every time it gets mike closer and closer to just smashing their faces together right then and there

will notices how tense and red mike gets everytime he flirts and get anxious about it. once the session has ended and everyone but will has gone home will asks mike if it makes him uncomfortable because he would gladly stop if— and mike just interrupts him with a kiss

#i also had another idea so if you want that then ask. but that idea mikhail actually existed #byler #stranger things #byler au #babble

[arcplaysgames]

I finally took Kawakami up on the massage and man

man

I wish that were me. I want someone to do my back and just put all their fucking weight on my lower back, are you kidding? Kawakami, you should not be doing this shit for free. You should be charging a few hundo and getting a 50 dollar tip on top, goddamn.

Anyway.

BITCH WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU WANNA PLAY TO 701?! WHY ARE YOU DAMAGED LIKE THIS?

god i want to hold you down and shave your fucking head for this, you bastardman. fine.

D-dad.....................

Sojiro takes the family to the church to visit Wakaba's grave.

I love that phrasing. "The four of us together." It's implied a few times that Sojiro loved Wakaba. He tried to date her a few times but it seems like she always turned him down, but he stuck around. It's very easy to imagine him orbiting Wakaba and Futaba. Maybe if not for Wakaba's murder, they would have made things more official down the road, but it feels like that story was taken away from them.

Well, one: you have had extremely good reason to be distrustful of other men in Futaba's life, look at what her uncle did to her.

Two: If you ever walked her down an aisle you'd bawl your eyes out, old man.

Three: relax she's sixteen and last time someone flirted with her, she called him an NPC. I think you can chill.

Dad, that's Reverie's sister you're talking about.

Anyway, when are you adopting Reverie? Like, you've already gone through this process before, is it like a few months or....?

THAT'S HIEROPHANT!

BLOWS OUT A LOUD BREATH

So. I'm trying to figure out how this one works. At first, I thought of Sojiro as the Hierophant due to his position as a the cafe owner, the man who helms a place for adults to congregate, the person steering that little piece of local culture.

The game kind of fakes you out on him, setting him up as a proponent of the legal system and the mores of the culture and how exacting it demands your behavior to be. Then it turns out he's, like, the opposite of that by his own admission.

Now, as he stands in a church, I wonder if his 'religion' is Wakaba, this woman stolen from her daughter. Sojiro goes out of his way to keep her memory as vivid and alive as he can, feeding Futaba her mother's curry recipe every time she asks for it.

The problem is that I still struggle with him as the Hierophant at all. I still think the Emperor works better, given the extreme emphasis on Sojirio and the spaces he controls. He is the ruler of the cafe and of his own house. The moment he tells Reverie he's going to keep sheltering him despite the danger of him being a Thief, that feels supremely Emperor-y to me.

So I guess I can make Hierophant work if the secret culture/religion/spirituality he is devoted to and is in charge of teaching to others is Wakaba's memory?

It... works. I'm not thrilled with it, though, and I think Emperor would fit him better with less chafing.

Six out of ten.

Also, he's Reverie's dad now.

Oh besides that, I kicked off Haru's SLink and she's the Empress. So far she's interested in gardening, which is a good foundation for the bountiness of the Empress, but I'll shout if anything interesting happens.

#p5 #persona liveblog #cartomancy

[snowlily95]

How Zerith Ticks The Romance Genre

(This post is an organised rearrangement of our Zerith fangirling as to why we really love and appreciate their story of love. All credits go to my fellow Zerith shippers on Twitter; @eleamaya​, @sylvthea, @ZeroTwt0, @artbyshimo, @KeyToAeris, @aerithluvletter. This one’s for you guys!)

Written for @zerith-week​ Day 2 — Dating/Kisses

The rule of thumb is, FINAL FANTASY VII is not a romance story. This was accentuated by the ending of the original game where Hironobu Sakaguchi, who was the producer and created the story concept of the original game had said; "And what happened to the characters? It doesn't really matter, after all. It's their growth through the content of the game, though important. The main story of FINAL FANTASY VII is the battle for Planet. Focusing on each character would have distracted from the most important themes. Nothing is more important than a Planet. Nothing is more important than life."

Despite that, Zack and Aerith had been portrayed to have a romantic relationship from the get go. Aerith had mentioned Zack as her first love, and Zack had written to his parents about a girlfriend. Not to mention the numerous times the NPC in Crisis Core had addressed Aerith as his girlfriend as common knowledge, and Zack Fair Fanclub visiting Aerith upon the announcement of him being KIA in a mission as an act of condolences to the deceased's girlfriend. In the story compilation of FINAL FANTASY VII, we did get some love stories; Cloud and Tifa, Cid and Shera, and also... Zack and Aerith.

So how was Zack and Aerith shown to be a romance?

Tracy Wolff, a New York Times bestselling author had said; "Writing an emotionally compelling love story is all about the connection between your characters. The emotional payoff only happens when you've stoked the flames between them as high as the stakes that should be keeping them apart." And while there isn't one specific way to drive the point home, these bestselling authors had listed general rules to create this romance in stories, compiled by J. Kenner in "How to Write Romance Scenes; Ultimate Guide for Romance Authors", which had impressively projected on the love story of Zack and Aerith.

1. Start with attraction.

Even enemies-to-lovers story, there needs to be an attraction, a spark. Zack and Aerith are not an exceptional to this rule during their meet cute. The meet cute is the term for the inciting incident in a romance that sets the tone for the entire story. It had been well-known that when Zack first saw Aerith, he was attracted to her to the point of calling her an angel. He proposed a date to her not because she reminded him of someone but because he was attracted—okay, that was half joking lol. But anyway, this is really self-explanatory. Zack is a ladies-man. He’s not some kinda aloof guy who would hold back his flirting when he saw a girl he was attracted to. And Aerith is not a shy girl. She was also shown to be attracted to the guy when the game showed how her eyes followed his every movements since he doubled back up. She even admitted that she wanted to spend more time with him. Zack also tried to look cool by showing his strength against some monsters, and Aerith wasn't buying it. They share the same sense of humour that magnetizes them towards one another. We got some nice teasing and flirting scene back and forth which became the dynamic of their relationship onwards. But there was still an emotional gap between them here. When Aerith mentioned he was strong, and Zack thought about what was happening with Angeal, he felt deflated. He didn't immediately share what he was thinking with Aerith despite her asking, and that was realistic considering they have just met. Both of them are vocal about their initial attraction, even if the emotional bond has not formed yet. Not to mention their aesthetic and height difference make them look good together, but let's not go there. lol.

2. Building chemistry and dynamic.

Someone once commented that Zack and Aerith fell in love within ten minutes and then they only had cute moments with no development. This is false. The attraction and spark were there within the first ten minutes. The bond was built through time. Through each scene, their observations of one another get deeper and more intimate in a non-high-five way lol. But as I pointed out earlier, FINAL FANTASY VII is not a love story, thus the proportion of the romance being told becomes secondary or even tertiary to the plot. If you’re expecting a love story, FINAL FANTASY VII is not your game. However, we are still being fed with how Zack and Aerith gradually get to know each other. They went for a walk-turned-date, and Zack learned that Aerith loves pink ribbons and scolds people who stepped on flowers. She opened up about being scared of the sky. Zack also learned that Aerith is actually people-smart when she told him that the kid who pick-pocketed him didn't do it without reason. Aerith learned that Zack is actually troubled beneath all the jokes he cracked. And how he was willing to listen to her insecurities when she mentioned her fears. Subsequently they spent time together, getting to know each other better. They also called each other frequently to the point that she interrupted him pre-fight amidst missions. You see, Aerith didn't fall in love with Zack because he was cool, or because he was a perfect prince charming. She fell in love with him because he was a messed-up goof, non-judgemental, and way too caring for his own good. Zack fell in love with Aerith not because she was a Cetra or a Gainsborough or whatever privilege she possessed. He fell for her because she was a quirky girl who likes flowers and ribbons who empathised and helped around the kids in her sector. They chipped off the outer layer of each other and dug deep into their most vulnerable selves—Zack when he opened up to Aerith during his lowest point in his life never caring about being a cool guy, and her with her fear of sky and her insecurity of being different. That's when they finally fell in love. Aerith did not wait for 5 years and wrote 89 letters because of a guy she had a crush on. She did all that for a guy she had learn to love over the course of 18 months, whom she finally revealed the most vulnerable wish she could bravely entrusted to him; her 23 tiny wishes, all so that she gets to spend more time with him.

3. Emotional/internal conflict that build the tension.

Conflicts are important in story building. This includes hinting at any emotional wounds or baggage, and showing how falling in love might heal them. In romance, there are two main conflicts that make up good stories. One of them is Internal Conflict in which would build the tension between the two partners. Aerith and Zack are not normal people. Aerith is a Cetra. Zack is a superhuman SOLDIER. They both had eccentricities, Aerith probably more than Zack. But it was her Cetra heritage that held Aerith back. Her traumatic experience of watching Ifalna getting suspicious drugs and doing shady things to get them out of Shinra had her built up a defence mechanism to avoid the glaring problems right in front of her eyes. It manifested in their relationship in a way. There was this awkward push and pull on Aerith's side the first time they met because she was hesitant if Zack would accept her for who she is. It was a highlight of Aerith's insecurities that made her long for Zack but wary of his attraction at the same time. But she grew out of it while being with him. Slowly but surely, she expressed herself more, she gets bolder; her fears, her kind of wagon she wanted while still being mindful of him. She attempted some carefree conversation for a bit when Zack cried—her usual defence mechanism—but they showed how she knew him enough to recognise that wasn't what he needed, and she proceeded to give him a hug. They supported each other through their fears and lows. Their love healed each other. She was the best version of herself when she was with Zack. Caring, outgoing, sassy, but still empathetic. Zack, on the other hand, found out about Aerith's internal conflict from Cissnei. Aerith never told anyone about it, because she had been lying to herself to seek comfort in normalcy. Interestingly enough, she didn't need to. The minute he found out, he was only like "okay, so, anyway—". For Zack, she was still one of a kind, Cetra or not. It is the kind of scene where, in the case if Aerith finds out about it, her love for him would only deepen. It is his understanding and acceptance that makes their love that much sweeter. If this reveal happened earlier in their relationship, it would probably create a wedge between them. But their bond had been cemented, no ancestry was relevant to how they view each other by this point. Behind those walls, they were just Zack and Aerith, two ‘normal’ people who love and support each other unconditionally, giving comfort and hope for freedom and future, with no ulterior motive. And that was how their relationship grew as the game progressed.

4. External conflict that separated the lovers.

External conflicts work as the actual reason the lovers became separated. A realistic obstacle outside of the relationship that keeps them apart, driving the actions and plot of the two characters. The factors that keep the characters apart are important to make people root for them to get together. Most of this external conflicts for Zerith came from Zack's side, in contrast to their internal conflicts which mostly were Aerith's. Angeal's death, Zack reprimanding Tseng for tailing Aerith after knowing she was a Cetra, that foreboding when Zack had to be deployed to Nibelheim... Aerith asked when he'll be back and if she could call Zack during that mission even if it was constantly her routine in previous missions and it had never been a problem. The foreshadowing of their tragedy; building flower wagons and selling flowers, as if to savour every last seconds they had together. We have this bittersweet but equally heartbreaking scene when Aerith told Zack that she had fun even if they weren't selling well because he was there with her. Zack, too, entrusted Aerith to Tseng despite his vocal complaint about it before. The build-up of their separation was imminent. And then it happened. They were separated for good. What's unique and beautiful about Zerith's external conflict though, is the fact that neither of them were at fault for the separation or miscommunication. Aerith tried to reach out to him. Zack tried to get back to her. They both did their parts to their very best. It's just that their external conflict was too huge, it prevented their message from reaching each other.

5. Happily ever after.

This one is a bit tricky. Because we all know that Zerith is a tragic couple. However, here's the thing. Even a tragic romance has some sort of a happy ending—something to follow through the 'Downfall'. It is called the Perspective/Reflection. The story needs to put the tragedy into perspective, not let the Downfall go all the way down. The best example I could think of is Nicholas Sparks's romance novels, such as "Best of Me", when they had spent the time they lost and had their closure, the hero accepted the fatal fate he should've gotten earlier. And the heroine, despite heartbroken, becomes a better mother, better partner, and she moved on with a bittersweet memory. There is a hopeful glimpse of the character moving on or a montage of memories as they reflect on the loss. It should not end by making the living lover go around flower fields to take commemorative photos endlessly—okay, that referenced joke was uncalled for, sorry. But this is what Zerith had in spades. The Downfall of their romance was their separation, the failure to reunite, the grief that Aerith would never see her lover again. But what is the perspective after their tragedy? What is the resolution or reflection of their relationship? And this had been answered beautifully in Advent Children, bringing the romance story between Zack and Aerith into full circle, completing the criteria of writing a love story. The fact that they had reunite, walking out of the church together, with a full knowledge that they accepted their fate, and they stayed by each other's sides in the Lifestream, always. Later accentuated by Aerith’s yellow flowers blooming on Zack’s resting place, and Zack’s Buster Sword placed in the Sector 5 church where they spent the most time together, as if to tell us they have the eternity together.

Conclusion

In a way, Perspective/Reflection is the tragic romance's version of happily ever after, not in a fairy tale way, but more convoluted that leaves us satisfied with the culmination of the romantic relationship, in an odd way. The type that wrenches our hearts and keeps us thinking about them for days even. Ending on this note however, I do believe that the developers are not actually done with the Zerith's Perspective/Reflection. They had their Downfall—their fate was predestined to be separated, to be star-crossed. But such is the mystery in Remake, something they enunciated to be something to look forward to in Rebirth.

So is Zerith poorly written?

I'd say, according to the standards of the New York Times Bestselling Authors, they're pretty damn well-written considering FINAL FANTASY VII is not a love story, and they're not even the main pairing. But the important plot points and pivoting events to bring their relationship forward are included. They got their own beginning, their own conflict, their own dynamic, and their own ending. Their love and passion are explored from the superficial attraction down to the deep subconscious connection that made us turn our heads just by having them passing by each other.

In short, they ticked the boxes of romance recipes authors go for.

And with that, I wish a Happy Zerith Week 2022 to all Zerith nation. With Crisis Core Reunion and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth coming soon, let's rejoice and celebrate this well-written romance and buckle our seatbelts for more of their tear-jerking adventure!

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