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thegeminisage · 10 months

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its DUNGEON TIME!!! finally. i didnt do this yesterday bc i was wiped and i didnt wanna teleport away with poor riju...i have no idea if she'll leave or get stuck there or what

this one looks really complicated...but i'm gonna see how far i can get w/o a guide

omg when you go up on your glider riju is like...i'll leave that area to you link! she can't fly 😭

i see mirrors up here but no light source.......MAN the nostalgia im having rn. this is so much like oot

FOUND IT....

omg wait this construct fused a mirror to its shield...mirror shield...WAHHH

oh that took me STUPIDLY long to figure out but i love that i didn't have to look it up (stopping the wheel with the stake)

apparently i can ascend into the final floor but i really don't wanna do that by myself lol

omg lol there was a hive in this room that also had constructs...they fought each other!! i kept waiting for the read to like Jump the construct but it just swung at it. do they truly not do that in this game.........

oops i accidentally warped outside of the temple with ascension...i gotta be more careful lol. quick warp back but the enemies respawned, no blood moon needed

also the puzzle reset itself :/

got the last one! i only wound up looking at a guide for one, but i accidentally read how to do another first, and then the one i was looking for i also discovered how to do while i was doing that one. so all in all a success

eugh i'm scaaared i dont wanna fight a giant BUG!!!

for once im low on food too. im gonna get my ass beat lol

NOOOOO the first half was fine but now shes SUMMONING REDEADS.....................

im not gonna get jumped im not gonna get jumped im NOT gonna get jumped!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS SO SCARY FUCK FUCK FUCK I KEEP SHOOTING THEM FROM ONLY INCHES AWAY THEY ARE SO FAST

IM NOT!!! GONNA GET JUMPED!!!!!!!!!

BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CAN'T GET ME IN THE LIGHT

elated. wow. that was so close. im never leaving this little column of light again

rip i have to. but. don't wanna.

GOT all the hives without getting jumped

GOT HER ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you CANNOT fuck me i am UNFUCKABLE im not getting jumped today tomorrow next year FUCK off

sorry to riju but her ancestor is HOT. ok im taking this seriously

wait. i just realized these expository cutscenes use the sacred realm melody from oot for just a few notes. AAAAAAAAAAAAA that makes me INSAAAAAANE

"he was our chief before he became obsessed with power and changed" HAUGH........good guy ganondorf....................im making him real in my mind palace

wait sorry hold on. im pausing this cutscene again. i was spoiled that the fifth sage was a construct. which i thot was lame cuz it shoulda been a sheikah. but im looking at this image of them - four sages with helmets, one each for rito zora goron and gerudo - then a hylian, zelda - and then a ZONAI, mineru......that makes six! just like oot! and rauru as the leader/seventh sage, like zelda in oot...two hylians in oot and two zonai in totk...THERE ARE SEVEN OF THEM. what if MINERU gets put inside the construct!!! because didn't zelda put her soul in that purah pad or whatever!!!!!! oh my god.........if this turns out to be the case i think i've earned that bingo square. it wouldn't be true to the letter but true in spirit. i've earned that!!!

damn...they way both this ancestor and urbosa feel it's Personal w ganondorf bc he is also gerudo...he's literally staining their good name...

WAAHHHH riju going "my responsibilities as a leader, as a sage, AND fighting alongside you............sounds like fun >:)" she is TOO YOUNG...so much responsibility...wah

omg you can just walk around here now? without crossdressing? did they chicken out of a crossdressing plot in this game...............smh nintendo. i know it wasn't perfectly executed in the first game but they could have just tried again

FINALLY here is mattison...idk why i couldn't find her before the shroud lifted!!!

ok, i gotta take a break and do Chores, i'll figure out what i'm doing next later!!!

#personal #loz blogging #totk lb #totk spoilers

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meganuzlockediary · 1 year

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Emerald! Gym 6!

24th February

OMG May is insane! Maybe using Mudkip was a mistake! Nah marshtomp has been great so far!

So, before I journey up route 119 I plan ahead for winona. I realise Ice type attacks are gonna do the best here unfortunately there are no ice types yet. BUUUUT I can get Ice beam and have pelliper to use them on! So I go to the game corner and gamble away (use a gameshark code because I'm fed up of the game corner grind) and buy some tms for later.

The first part of route 119 is perfect. Good training for manectric who gets to level 29 by the the weather institute where he does a great job against Shelly... I get a castform which I name Precipitate before I encounter May!

I knew she was coming but didn't know when. Fortunately I did have marshtomp in the lead so Slugma was an easy victory. Then comes Grovyle! OMG! He basically 2 shots all my pokemon so it comes down to a race of switch ins go to the yellow and switch out. I eventually switch to pelipper who can take 3 hits and use ice beam to to take it out but not before I lose manectric to get the free switch. I should have gone for exploud really but it was my last shot. Pelipper then easily took care of Lombre with a wing attack. I had no idea grovyle would do so much with leaf blade. I kinda blame me forgetting it is a special attack this generation and I have no good special defenders really but still sceptile is gonna be scary.

Losing Manectric is a real wrench in the works. He was important for a variety of reasons and losing him means I need to rely on Magneton who is a stronger pokemon but it is a real shame as now I can't use manectric in later games. Its going to make future water type battles much tougher in later games.

With that I enter the most unique place in pokemon and honesltly the most under developed place! I so wish there was more to it. But hey after a brief trip to get a Devon scope of whatever maguffin is needed and catching kecleon which I name Mango, I head to the gym.

The trainers are easy although the amount of double battles in this game is starting to get nerve-racking. They are more chaotic, It does not take long to reach winona and fortunately I manage it even with the very shallow level cap!

The battle with Winona goes brilliantly. I have a plan and it perfectly executed. I start with Marshtomp who icebeams Swablu for a 2hko. Then in comes Tropius who without sunny day is not a threat. Again a 2HKO with ice beam. Next up is pelliper and I cannot damage this enough so I switch into magneton it uses protect on the switch in and I spark my way to victory. Next up comes Altaria which is great since Skarmory is the annoying one here. Knowing exactly what is going to happen I switch to pelliper to avoid the earthquake and finish altaria with an ice beam. Last off is skarmory and after a few calculations I realise it basically cannot damage me enough so 3 hits with Ice beam takes it down. Surf would have done more but I messed up and didnt teach it to Pelipper.

Overall a resounding victory one of the easiest yet. Its quite the trek to the next gym I'm just hoping all my pokemon survive the trip.

Badges won: 38

Pokemon used: 89

Pokemon Lost: 20 (NOOOOO! Rip Manectric you deserved better)

#Pokemon #pkmn #emerald #pokemon emerald #gen 3 #hoenn #nuzlocke #nuzlocke challenge #manectric #pelipper #marshtomp

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gemraldkid · 4 years

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Analysis and speculation on Bête Noire

Spoilers for Undertale and Glitchtale. Undertale by Toby Fox and Glitchtale by @camilaart

You thought I was joking? Nope. Here it is: a mix of canon, headcanon, and speculation.

Of all the characters that people are obsessing over right now (Ronan, Jessica, Gaster, Rave, the prequel wizards), I choose to put all of my energy into making some sense of the one character that continuously reminds us that we should hate them. I could be thinking about the struggles of anyone else. I could be worried for Chara or Asriel or Asgore (he’s not dead until he starts turning to dust), but nooooo. This is what occupies my thoughts about this series.

This is basically most of my headcanon relating to Betty. I wanted to put these thoughts out there before the new episode since... well, anything could happen.

Betty’s probably gonna mostly die from hate and stuff.

Imagine if we were actually supposed to end up feeling bad for this character? Right...

You shouldn’t take everything I say here as facts.’m pretty sure I made it clear enough which parts are speculation with the amazing power of verb tenses.

I’m open to corrections about currently available facts that I got wrong.

Glitchtale is a series that I’ve greatly enjoyed watching. I believe that it is one of the finest things to come out of the Undertale fandom. It is a testament to how good a fanfiction can be.

One thing that I find particularly praiseworthy is the way OCs are handled. They manage expand on the world without hogging the spotlight for too long. There’s a good balance between introducing new elements without ever forgetting about the old ones.

Of course, among many of the new characters, one in particular stands out: the current antagonist of Season 2, Bête Noire or “Betty”.

Betty is the character I have been the most fascinated with so far. She’s been a mystery to many ever since the punch to the gut that was the ending of “Dust”.

What follows is a look into the way that I perceive Bête Noire. I am not necessarily dead-set on a single possibility. While my views are backed up by certain facts, I acknowledge that they are also based on and influenced by my personal wishes for this character. Therefore, my words should be taken with a healthy amount of salt.

Betty was first introduced to us as an innocent 13 year-old girl, barely a year older than Frisk, physically. She was a shy, happy-go-lucky kid who became friends with Frisk after the latter saved her life from a fast-moving car.

Unfortunately, things were not as they seemed. The girl never was in any real danger as the car was an illusion created by powers. The scenario was merely a set-up to get her closer to Frisk and their family of monsters.

Illusions are likely a power granted to her by her trait: fear. With it, she is able to see the memories of others simply by looking them in the eyes. This grants her knowledge of their personality and, most importantly, their emotional weaknesses. Using that knowledge, she can create illusions to throw off her enemies. These illusions can serve a variety purposes even if they don’t directly involve fear. Examples include the aforementioned car and the illusion that caused Undyne to kill Alphys.

Bête Noire originally woke up when the barrier was broken, a month before the events of “My Sunshine”. This means that she spent a month doing “something” before starting her plan. She likely spent days and nights observing the humans and monsters. Through her observations and memory-reading abilities, she judged whether the monsters were truly as dangerous for human kind as she believed. This wasn’t all she observed, however. Betty also learned the ways and customs of this new time period. After all, the only memories in her possession belonged to someone who lived over 800 years ago...

Agate Lightvale was best known as the wizard of bravery who helped seal the monsters underground. She lived in a medieval time. While she was born into a common family , she didn’t live a common life. Her twin brother, Copper, was lucky enough to be born with a soul of determination, a trait so rare that only one person can possess it at a time. It elevated the Lightvale family to a noble status.

Growing up, Agate acted like a big sister to Copper even though they were the same age. However, this changed as they grew older and trained to become wizards. Copper became more independent while his sister started to develop a few insecurities.

Agate spent most of her time training in combat. She was always looking to improve, to get stronger, to surpass her limits. Unfortunately for her, being the twin of the soul of determination meant she was often overshadowed.

Her brother was essentially a “chosen one” of sorts. As a result, he got most of the attention. Agate would execute a spell flawlessly while Copper stumbled at the same task. Yet, he would be the only one to receive praise.

In addition to being the rarest trait, determination is also the strongest. Agate was confronted with the reality that, no matter how hard she trained, she could never surpass her brother.

Still, it didn’t stop Agate from being a kind and respected individual. True to her trait, she was know for her bravery in the face of danger and resistance to physical pain. In addition, she and Copper both stayed strong for their younger sister, Amber, who’s birth resulted in the death of their mother. Agate and her siblings were extremely close.

After the war between humans and monsters ended, she, her brother, and five other wizards created the barrier, trapping the monsters underground.

After a certain amount of time, Copper proposed the idea of releasing the monsters from captivity. He believed that humans and monsters could still live together. Agate opted against this. She believed it would be better for both races if they lived separately. The discussion got extremely agitated to the point where Agate spontaneously challenged Copper to a duel that would decide the future.

If I may break the flow of information a little, this part seems a tad off to me. I find it notable, at the very least. In the official depiction of this moment, Agate looks smug, as if she knows she is going to win. Isn’t that odd considering what we know? I believe there was more riding on this duel than the fate of two races.

Recall that Agate had a bit of an inferiority complex with her brother. Isn’t it possible that she also challenged him to prove she was stronger, to finally break out of his shadow by defeating him in front of the entire kingdom? If this is the case, I believe that the “confidence” she showed might not have been entirely sincere. Surely, a part of her knew that she couldn’t win. Yet, she still instigated a fight.

I think it’s possible that challenging Copper was not an act of hubris on Agate’s part; it was an act of desperation made in the heat of the moment.

Ultimately, she lost. Her brother was victorious. Agate was overwhelmed by her loss. While she had an abundance of physical bravery, she lacked it emotionally. Due to these factors, she lost her trait then and there. Completely humiliated, she fled to parts unknown. Still under the intensity of the battle, Copper didn’t think to go after her.

During this period of her life, Agate made many poor life choices. She searched for a way to break her limits more than ever before. She came across at least two forbidden spells. She used one of them to reverse her souls trait from the orange of bravery to the dark orange of fear. The process completely eradicated the last shred of sanity she had. After being absent for an unknown amount of time, Agate rejoined her family, who welcomed her back in spite of the changes she had gone through.

Driven by her obsession for victory, Agate furiously demanded a rematch from Copper. He refused, knowing it wouldn’t bring about anything good. Seeing that he wouldn’t move on the issue, Agate threatened the life of Amber, her own sister. Copper attempted to protect her, but was ultimately forced to watch as Agate stabbed her through the chest. This horrible sight caused him to lose his trait, allowing Agate to easily finish him in the same manner. She relished the victory as all life left his eyes.

Unfortunately, she would soon be forced to join her siblings. Inverting one’s trait is immensely stressful on the soul. With her time running out, Agate performed another forbidden spell to ensure that her will lived on: the Bête Noire spell.

The Bête Noire spell consists of creating a powerful, nearly lifelike golem called a “bête noire”. While the golem itself is powerful, a bête noire’s true strength lies in its longevity and ability to form complex thoughts.

Most spells typically act in very basic ways. For example, a simple fire spell will simply follow a chosen path or pattern before disappearing regardless of whether it hit its target or not.

Bêtes noires, on the other hand, can not only accomplish much more complicated tasks, but also think about how they will go about doing so. They are even be able to improvise if things don’t go their way. In addition, they can exist for several weeks before fading. However, if they have a way to replenish their magic (such as harvesting it from souls), they become virtually immortal. A bête noire is essentially a living spell.

Of course, to craft such a being, the cost is extremely high. It requires the caster to use their own soul for the conjuring. Then, they must also have a vessel other than their own body that can be merged with the soul to create the golem.

Agate was willing to sacrifice the life she wouldn’t have for much longer and she had two perfectly good vessels. Still spiteful towards her brother, the wizard chose Amber’s body over Copper’s. Her soul turned pink as it absorbed Amber’s body. With the deed done, Agate lifeless body fell to the floor.

The soul remained sealed and hidden for over 800 years until the barrier was broken. At that moment, it awoke, transformed into the being that would be know as Bête Noire.

Bête Noire knew her purpose from the very start as she possessed some of Agate’s memories as she possessed some of Agate’s memories. Unfortunately, the goal her “mother” left her with was no longer as good-natured as it once was. In Agate’s twisted mental state, it had gone from “Keep humans and monsters separate for both their safeties.” to something akin to “Kill all monsters so that they will never live in peace with humans. Do so by any means necessary, even if it means killing humans who oppose you or using the power of hate.”

Gathering hate is stated to be the universal purpose of a bête noire. It’s fitting when considering the name. “Bête noire” is a french term that literally translates to “black beast”. Black is the color (or lack there of) of hate. In addition, the term “bête noire” is used to indicate a person or object that someone particularly dislikes.

I originally found it ironic that Bête struggled to keep her hate under control, but the solution is simple. She likely only struggled to keep it under control because she wasn’t in her complete form at the time.

Nonetheless, I can’t help thinking that maybe bêtes noires are supposed to succumb to the hate they collect. Perhaps they are meant to serve as vessels for the stuff. After all, Betty still requires a large surplus of magic to keep it at bay. One would think a creature made to collect hate would do more than just resist it a little better than others.

Yet, if bêtes noires are supposed to succumb to hate, why has this one been shown fear it? Perhaps because, as a creature made purely of magic, it would be akin to death, something that she fears because fear is built into her nature.

In order to accomplish her mission, Bête had to gather information on both her enemies and the era she was in. She separated herself into two beings in order to hide her monstrous appearance and blend in with the humans. She dubbed the part she separated from herself “Akumu”, the Japanese word for “Nightmare”. Under the nickname “Betty”, she spent a month observing and planning.

It should be noted that she must have done so 24/7. Bêtes noires don’t need to sleep. It could also be for this reason that she is so unfamiliar with the concept. Agate’s knowledge about sleep was mostly omitted because it had little relevance to the mission.

As previously stated, Betty used her power of fear to look into the memories of the monsters. From the information she gathered, she judged that monsters were in fact deserving of death. This may seem strange to many since, as seen in Undertale, most monsters are innocent and kind-hearted people. How could she possibly think so poorly of them even after seeing their past? Is she blind?

I believe so. Betty may, in fact, be blind to certain degree.

Any normal person would most likely have seen that monsters didn’t deserve what was coming to them. Why didn’t Betty? Because she isn’t a normal person. Highly advanced or not, Bête Noire remains a spell, and spells exist to carry out the will of their caster. They are tools.

If magic bullets could miss because they took pity on the opponent, few people would use them.

Keep in mind that Betty isn’t just a bullet that uses up 0.001% of the caster’s magic. She’s a bête noire. People had to die for her creation. If a person poured all of their life force into a spell that would carry on their will, they would be pretty upset to learn that they failed because the spell didn’t want to do the one thing it was created for.

All this to say that I believe that Betty is unable to go rogue either physically or mentally. She has no choice but to believe she is in the right. After all, if she realized that her only purpose for existing was objectively wrong, it could make her a less effective weapon.

When she looked into the souls of the monsters, it is likely that she was never going to come to any other conclusion than “They are dangerous.”

She did see some of the good in them, but most of what she retained were parts that would prove her right. These included Asgore killing the 6 humans (even though it was the only way to save his kingdom), the horrors Asriel committed as Flowey (even though he was soulless at the time), and Frisk’s many resets (even though they aren’t even a monster). These actions were obviously horrible, but there were nuances that made them more understandable. Context was important.

Betty, who I believe was unable to pick up on such nuances, may have simply taken the most basic message from this. “These monsters did bad things, therefore they are evil and the same must apply to all of monsterkind.” She is blind to anything that doesn’t fit into the way she is supposed to see the world.

(Of course, this doesn’t mean she is unaware of Papyrus or Undyne’s heroic and selfless acts. It just means that can’t see them as proof that monsters are good people.)

As such, Bête may not be wholly responsible for her actions. Some of her malicious acts can be blamed on her creator. After all, her contradictory objective of killing humans to protect humanity was given to her by Agate, who’s mind was far from clear at the time.

However, other aspects are harder to justify. The pleasure she seems to take in her victims’ emotional suffering could have come from Agate as the wizard displayed something similar shortly before casting the spell.

The fact that Bête wouldn’t care if the world ended as long as it was by her hand definitely makes her seem incredibly hypocritical (which she is) and entitled, not to mention evil. I suppose that by annihilating everything she would technically accomplish her goal of killing all monsters. With her one purpose in life fulfilled, she would have no more reason to live. The idea of ruling humanity afterward is likely more of a bonus. Assuming this is the case, it’s a testament to how much important the mission is to her.

Finally, I would like to bring up the debate of whether Betty and Agate are the same person or not because, if they are, most of what has been written here will be completely pointless. There are two ways to look at this.

This post tells us that Agate is technically Betty, but it may only refer to them in the physical sense. Betty’s body is physically Agate’s soul. The debate is about whether they are mentally the same.

This comic is likely the largest piece of evidence to support this. To my knowledge, it is still canon. In it, Bête finds the remains of Agate’s body. Her reaction is quite interesting because she acts and talks as if the body was once hers. She also has to reassure herself that she “can’t die now”, implying that she was once mortal. She also mentions ensuring “our race’s survival” in reference to humanity. For that sentence, she includes herself with the human race. This implies that she was at least human at one point.

This evidence certainly appears conclusive, and it very well might be. However, it directly contradicts this conversation which, to my knowledge, is also still canon. Here, she refers to Agate as “mom”, indicating that she thinks her as a separate being. Why is this? Is one of these sources outdated? Possibly, but I have another proposal.

Betty’s mind appears to be all over the place. One moment, she laments the fact that she is meant to be hated and, at another, she takes joy in torturing her victims. She doesn’t want to die, yet she wouldn’t mind if the world ended at her own hand. She is hypocrite. Sometimes, she believes she is Agate’s creation; at other times, she acts like she is Agate herself.

Bête Noire’s first memories came from Agate. Surely, It isn’t too far-fetched to say that her mind was likely derived from her creator’s. If that is indeed the case, the solution is clear; Betty might be insane just like Agate was before casting the spell. Agate’s insanity could have rubbed off on her creation. Thus, it’s possible that Bête’s thoughts are meant to be hypocritical and contradictory.

In the end, is Betty Agate? She may not even know herself. I believe she is more of an imperfect copy or a “simulacrum”. The things that make her “Agate” are the incomplete memories of the wizard’s life and the similar way of thinking. In my opinion, these don’t make an entirely different person, but they also aren’t enough for her to be considered Agate. She is merely a being in possession of her creator’s memories.

Also, these hints might still be relevant today.

“Steven Universe logic”? You mean the show where almost every problem is solved by talking and all the villains end up becoming good? Sure, that could just be referencing Sans and Asriel getting talked out their states, but you never know. Maybe Betty’ll regret her actions too before dying. Eh? EH?!

“Never assume things”? No kidding. Words to watch by.

#bête noire #glitchtale #agate lightvale #Speculation #undertale #glitchtale betty

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thatsjustsupergirl · 6 years

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3x16: I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS

Cookie Girl was a nice fakeout for the people who didn’t get spoiled on Pestilence’s identity, RIP Cookie Girl

Imra is borrowing Alex’s murder eyes in this episode and boy oh boy do I love a good ideological conflict

I give Imra major props for pushing back against Kara since we know she admires her a lot

“That’s not normally how I operate, either.” ... oh look, foreshadowing

Brainy’s sad little admission about how he had to hide so he wouldn’t scare people, and Kara’s bemused “huh” in response, was a subtle touch on the passing/not-passing topic that’s come up repeatedly since S1

Lena just casually has equipment for electroshock therapy laying around in her lab and I have so many questions

🎵 hello darkness my old friend... 🎵

Nice detail with having Kara not wear a respiratory mask and J’onn choosing to hold one to blend in with the humans

Mean Doctor never actually touched Winn???

“You, I believe.” Thus continues the trend of very powerful aliens correctly assessing Alex Danvers as either an equal or a threat

Way to not incite a panic, Imra

I give both Sam and Lena lots of points for their determination, but I take points off for how VERY FUCKING SKETCHY this all is

Imra after she finishes her transfusion before Mon-El: “You always were a little bit slow” WAY HARSH TAI 😂😂😂

Look at this nice Danvers sisters scene talking about how Imra’s being irrational, it’s like they want us to make some kind of connection here 🤔

Alex to J’onn and Kara after they realize they haven’t found the suspect: “It’s Winn.” POOR CHOICE OF WORDS, KIDDO

oh my god the part where Winn messes with Brainy while Kara and Alex go along with it and giggle in the background is my new favorite thing 😍😍😍

J’ONN IS KIND OF LAUGHING TOO??? SPACE DAD OMG

and then Alex steps in like the responsible big sister she is and puts an end to the joke before it can turn mean, what a good

And here we have another episode poking at the "surrender” theme, which also came up in 3x14

MY FAVORITE ALIENS ARE MAKING JOKES ABOUT A SPACE MOVIE

oh look, the plotline with J’onn and his father is still relevant

“You break through the impossible every day.” SPACE DAD IS THE BEST DAD AND I LOVE HIM

um, I also love this marital spat that is both about Mon-El’s feelings and not about him at all? This argument was nicely set up and actually shows not only how well Mon-El and Imra know each other, but how much they genuinely care about each other too

Why is Brainy wearing his disguise on the Legion ship

ALEX!!! 😱

btw J’onn did you really have to say “keep holding on”

J’ONN AND JAMES FIST BUMP

This conversation between James and Winn both hurts me and makes me love it because how often do you get to see dudes express sad emotions and talk about their friendship and cry like this on an action show

I have watched this phone call between James and Lena three times now and I still can’t decide if she actually knows that “sick” means "dying of alien plague,” because she sure didn’t seem too concerned

Sam believes in Supergirl toooooooooo 😭😭

Whoa there, Ms. Only-I-Can-Save-You

Like, her fear about people going all Cadmus on Sam is reasonable, but the fact that she won’t even trust her own friends is a little worrying

Social media is a short-lived trend, say our aliens from the future, to which I say: SURE HOPE SO

ngl, when I realized Pestilence was planning to take down insurance company executives I was about 54% willing to let her

Grace: NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

Also this surgeon god complex does not bode well for Lena’s attitude earlier in the episode, whoops

Imra’s powers are pretty darn cool

“Stronger together” clearly setting up to be our theme of the season

KARA IS WORRIED ABOUT ALEX! ALEX IS WORRIED ABOUT KARA! ALEX GOES STRAIGHT FROM BEING WORRIED ABOUT WINN TO CALLING HIM A SUCK-UP AND I LOVE THESE KIDS!

That Space Dad hug and adorable kiss on the head plus tucking Alex’s head under his chin OMGGGG 😍😭😍😭😍😭

lack of J’onn and Alex scenes was like #1 on my list of criticisms from last year and if this was not among your favorite moments in the episode why are you even here get out

The scene with Kara and Imra discussing whether or not Kara’s taking the right approach here is fab and sowing the seeds for Kara to experience the self-doubt that Jindah prophesied in 3x11

which was intentional, since Imra specifically brings that episode up when she explains what she saw when Psi got into her head

IMRA’S SISTER NOOOOO RIP PREYA

“I would probably do the same thing if Alex were gone.” “No, you wouldn’t.”

I love that this comes right on the heels of Kara saying that she always follows her instincts, and yet *SOME PEOPLE* don’t believe that she means what she says here... 👀🤔

LMAO LENA’S GUILTY-AS-FUCK FACE IN THE BACKGROUND AS KARA REALIZES THAT HER LAB IS SOME KIND OF WEIRD MEDICAL EXPERIMENT PRISON

Kara could see the funky invisible forcefield thing! NICE DETAIL

Uhhhh, how exactly does Lena have liquid kryptonite to just run into Sam via special IV and why is she not concerned about the potential toxicity of it?

All the people whining about Mon-El being “too powerful” or whatever bullshit should really either watch the show properly or shut up, because they deliberately showed him being knocked down by the Worldkillers multiple times in this episode while Kara and/or J’onn were perfectly fine.

Huh, so Purity doesn’t really hurt J’onn, but Reign does. Interesting...

Oh, look, this whole screw-up with Lena, Sam, and Kara is exactly what I said would happen because it’s the plot of Wicked and they’ve been running Wizard of Oz parallels this entire season

Coming up next: DOROTHY NEEDS THOSE RUBY SLIPPERS!

#i just have a lot of feelings #supergirl #season three spoilers #long post

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archonreviews · 6 years

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The Archon’s Review of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a modern fantasy role-playing game developed by Troika Games and published by Activision. You play the role of a newly sired vampire in 21st century L.A. Your sire is executed on the orders of Sebastian LaCroix, Prince of Los Angeles, and you are then forced to do LaCroix’s chores. Thus begins an adventure through the seediest parts of Los Angeles as you attempt to recover a mysterious sarcophagus, fight off the attentions of the violent Sabbat, and decide where their loyalties lie. Oh! Also, don’t murder too many “innocent” humans, or you’ll turn into a monster or something.

Man, I wish this game got at least half the love it deserved from... well, from everybody. Or rather, I wish it had received more love from Activision and the public, and less from Troika. After all, it was Troika’s excessive design scope, combined with Activision’s apparent indifference and callous deadlines that made this game far less than it could have been. It’s been more or less left to fans to improve and even in some ways “complete” the game after its release.

All that said, however, the game as released is quite good, especially in the writing department. The story has you navigating vampire society, completing various missions for the clandestine Camarilla organization (not to be confused with Kaiser Wilhelm II’s circle of advisors headed by Otto von Bismarck), and more specifically Prince LaCroix, and has you eventually picking a side in a decades-spanning conflict between the rebellious Anarchs, and the Camarilla itself. The world is rich and enveloping, with characters that feel like real people even if you only speak to them for a little bit.

Before I go into greater detail about the story and writing, let’s talk about the mechanics of play, which are... ehhh-but-kinda-okay??? I’ll talk about your vampiric abilities first. Basically, as you increase in power, you’ll acquire greater powers as you attain higher levels in “disciplines”. Each vampire clan has a set of three disciplines at its disposal, ranging from superhuman strength and speed, to invisibility and extra-sensory perception, to literal magicks and the ability to afflict other people with madness. As you level up and put character points into those disciplines, either you get new powers, or the power of the discipline itself becomes greater. For example, more points in Thaumaturgy (otherwise known as Literal Blood Magick) gets you additional spells to cast, while putting additional points into Potence (otherwise known as Swoleness) makes the affect of the discipline greater when used. All of that, that being the character progression and the gradual increase in power over the course of the game, that all works pretty well. You can actually feel your character’s increasing power over the course of the game.

(Pictured: Me trying not to get wrecked by a surprise boss. Punching it worked well enough.)

However, I will criticize a couple of things. First, when selecting disciplines to use, the default is using the mouse wheel, which is fine, I suppose, when selecting guns in a first-person shooter. But when trying to sift through ~7 abilities, each of which does different things, it can be something of a bugbear. I died at least a couple of times when I was trying to select the spell that makes nearby enemies barf their blood vessels out, and I accidentally selected the power that makes everything glowy for a bit. I only found out that you could (presumably) assign disciplines to the number keys very late in the game.

Second, combat difficulty can be a bit wobbly. Against human opponents, the difficulty depends almost entirely on whether the enemies have high-powered automatic guns. If yes, then it becomes a game of getting the enemies to come at you one-by-one for strategic beatings. If no, then feel free to run right into the middle of them and beat on all of them. Make sure to save one human for feeding though! Feeding regenerates your health and powers your blood gauge, which acts as a sort of mana bar for your disciplines. And since you can feed freely in combat areas, there’s no reason not to kill every human enemy except one, then get all your health and blood back from them.

(Omnomnomnom...)

Against other vampires, however, it’s a different story. Most vampire battles are boss battles, so it makes sense for them to be difficult. But the battles against regular vampires can also be nightmares if you’re not careful, and even if you are. Here, you have to be a bit more conservative with your disciplines, because for some reason, the game prevents you from committing diablerie (which I feel perfectly entitled to), so you can’t get your blood or health back from them. One thing I would recommend when fighting other vampires: use edged weapons. Even if your edged weapon and your blunt weapon or gun supposedly do exactly the same damage, even counting lethality ratings, you always want to use edged weapons against vamps. For some reason, edged weapons always do more damage to vampires, and stagger them more often.

(Fighting this motherfucker was... unpleasant, but it taught me that even if my punching stat was higher than my weapon stat, I should just use an edged weapon anyway.)

Let us get back to the writing, which is the game’s strongest point. VtM:B has extremely good writing, like, possibly the best out of any game I’ve ever reviewed on this blog. First off, I want to talk about the characterization. Even the minor characters get personality injected through them in every line. Every character feels like a real person, and I found myself relating more to them than to people in real life. Even when a character has aspects of a racial stereotype, the layering of their personality traits and motivations made them into composite humans whom I could get behind. The reason I mention racial stereotypes specifically is because of one character in particular: Fat Larry. He’s an overweight black man who sports an afro, wears a basketball jersey, speaks in jive, and deals in illegal goods. When I first encountered this character, my first thought was “Ohhh, nooooo.” partly because A) the obvious caricature, and B) I knew I’d have to talk about him. However, after talking to him, it became readily apparent that his character extended beyond the stereotype. He’s aware of his weight problem, and to quote “[He] don’t give a fuck”. He has a hand in running a large corporation, and has interactions with people from the local street gangs, all the way up to the Chinese Mafia. He likes steak. As for selling illicit goods; well, most shopkeepers seem to be selling the same kind of illegal goods, that is to say, guns. This pattern holds true for many other characters who seem flat at first, but then, as you dig just a little, they flesh themselves out until you have a wonderful tapestry of colorful characters.

(Ah, Fat Larry. I will never forget you.)

One more major writing point I want to talk about is the game’s use of horror elements. The game as a whole can best be described as a sort of RPG with heavy leanings of horror. However, when the game decides to use these elements, they are used to interesting, if not great, effect. The first such instance takes place in a haunted hotel, which is basically a homage to The Shining (one in a looong series of classics I have yet to check out). There are no enemies to fight, but goddamn if I didn’t have my weapon drawn the entire time. The sound effects and scare timing are perfect, and while the visual effects are a bit dated, they get the job done. I especially liked the whispering, indistinct at first, but increasing in clarity as you trek through the level until it sounds like someone’s whispering directly into your open earhole. Unnerving. The second horror-type location is a venerable house, opulent and imperial. Except this one was inhabited not by festering abominations, but by regular people driven to madness by the owner of the manor, an old-school psychologist who’s lived for centuries due to his vampirism. This guy loooved his insane asylums and it shows; the level plays like a combination of a haunted house and a haunted asylum; and I was never sure if an inmate was going to stand still and mutter or if they were gonna attack me. The audio logs kept on archaic recording devices further added to the atmosphere, detailing owner’s descent into paranoia as the voices that plagued him increased in volume and number. Next, we have zombie plagues! Zombies actually appear twice in the game, and both times they’re used to convey a sense that you are surrounded on all sides, as they spawn from areas you thought were cleared out, and have a nasty habit of appearing just around corners. The first time you encounter them is in the home of a blasphemous preacher who is... over-enamoured with disease and pestilence. Context and previous experience convey the idea that these zombies were formerly people, and that this preacherman’s sickness has touched far more people than expected. The second time zombies are encountered is in the basement of a deadly-decadent family mansion, and in this instance, there’s a sense that you are right in the middle of enemy territory, except the enemy wants to moan loudly at you and grab and eat you. Whereas in the first zombie-quest, you were trying to fight your way through the hordes to a definite end, in the second zombie-quest, it feels much more like you’re trying to escape a fucked situation, even though you’re again trying to get to a definite end. The last instance of horror is one wherein, again, there are no enemies, but there are still scares aplenty. It takes place in an abandoned hospital, and while the happenings seem to be spectral, in the end, it turns out that it’s all being caused by a cannibalistic vampire, who happens to have a quest for you. The end of the hospital is gruesome, and trek there is filled with tight corridors and gory killings observed too far away to do anything about. Oh! I almost forgot to talk about body horror. Yes, there are a couple of levels that indulge in quite gruesome body horror, once in a cliffside manor, and again in a sewer system. The sounds the afflicted enemies make as they announce themselves is far more horrifying than their actual assault, and when you learn that these monstrosities were once human, your sense of revulsion will tinge with pity and additional horror.

(There are also werewolves, which are unkillable and grant the player the additional horror of being chased and hunted down. Good stuff, that.)

So the game knows how and when to use horror elements, but on the other side of its lawn of atmosphere is a gritty, seedy weed-field that pervades the entire setting. Apparently, Los Angeles is going through some shit at the time the story takes place, with gun-hustlers on every street corner, cops shooting to kill for any given offense, and sex work being the industry of choice among young white ladies with bob-cuts. Everybody’s dressed to the 90′s. And worst of all, there seems to be a massive homeless problem that hasn’t even been remotely addressed. It’s not just always night, but it’s always gloomy to boot. One half-expects the Punisher or a similar personage to pop out of the plasterwork and start waxing philosophical about the inherent degeneracy of humankind of some such rot. But make no mistake, the atmosphere thus conveyed is not an unwelcome one; indeed, the gloomy, gritty feel of the game enhances the experience and really lets you feel the oppressiveness of the “something in the air” that the other vampires go on about without giving you a mechanical indicator. You’re clued in organically that something isn’t right by the low state of the general populace and of the city itself.

(Of course, the sex workers are there to provide the player with a way to non-suspiciously feed. I mean, it’s probably fine; I paid them after all, so it’s fine, right? Right?)

Of course, there some points about the game that may turn some people off from a sensitivities standpoint, and such concerns not without merit. First off, there’s the aforementioned ethnic and racial stereotyping, which for some people can’t be fixed even by all the characterization in the world. And it doesn’t just hit black people. Oh, you haven’t heard? Los Angeles has a Chinatown. In addition, a lot of the female NPCs, and even a female player, are clad in, by default, skimpy dress; and I’m not even talking about the sex workers. A more nuanced weirdbad thing occurs in the system by which certain victims give you more blood than others. Basically, while rats only give you a little blood and humans a lot, this makes sense. What makes less sense is that homeless people give less blood than upper class people when fed upon. Certain characters imply, or even outright state that the quality of a person’s blood is directly tied to the kind of life they’ve led. A PhD is worth more blood than a regular dude, who’s worth more than a homeless person. Attaching objective worth to a person’s standard of living is classist, if nothing else, and the implications made me uncomfortable. However, I think this comes from the source material, White Wolf’s Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop game, so I don’t think we can blame the game devs for this one specifically.

So do I like VtM:B? Yes, I should think so. Even if the gameplay’s a little janky at times, and the game world’s a bit gloomy, I liked the strength of writing and fleshed-out characters quite a lot. Will I play it again? Well, let’s just say that this is one of the few games I managed to finish in time for a review (for obvious reasons), and I already started another playthrough. For your information, I started with a Tremere, and in the second run, I’m trying out a Nosferatu.

(I should note that yes, this is exactly how all white people dance. Also note the lack of a band in the background. Yep.)

#archon reviews #review #video games #video game #vampier the masquerade bloodlines #dark fantasy #modern fantasy #vampires #rpg #vampire the masquerade

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darkmatterxafricanempires · 6 years

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There’s this older dude in my life, never met him he’s more of a mentor-figure. Was introduced to him through an uncle, he’s like a family-friend uncle (black ppl you may be familiar, random adults introduced in your life from childhood and beyond and they’re your play uncles and aunties more so out of respect versus a familial obligation).

Anyways, he’s a nice guy, we only chat through what’s app, he’s a professor at a university. I’ve been kind of lost on what I want to do for a career (had a plan, saw plan through, did not like end game...twas public relations, and it just wasn’t my jam).

I talked to him on the phone first, he suggested public administration, lots of transferable skills and fulfilling job opportunities. I check out some programs, and do some research and I’m like cool, I think I’d like this. Mentor-uncle helps me with my application, revising, editing and making suggestions. I apply to the program and I get in.

FF about a year later, (present-day ish) the program is near the end and I’m still unclear on what to do professionally. I know what I don’t want to do, but my exact vision is unclear (it’s not that it’s unclear, it’s just unconventional, and I’m still conceptualizing how to execute it).

Mentor-uncle doesn’t live in close by, he’s about 5hr drive and 1hr plane ride away. He’s visiting where I live for a board meeting. My mother suggests I meet up with him to discuss more career aspirations, I’m like “nah.” He’s done a lot to help me, but I feel like he doesn’t have much to offer me now.

He reaches out to me directly and lets me know he’s going to be in town, I already knew this of course, but I felt obligated (guilt induced by being child of immigrant parents, whatever) so I offer to pick him up from the airport, grab a bite to eat, and drop him off at his hotel.

Kinda going above and beyond, I know, but he really helped me w/ my shitty application, and I’m 92% I would not have been admitted to my program without his help. So it’s my own way of saying thanks, and balancing the playing field, and repaying this debt to him I’ve created in my head.

So everything’s set, I’m gonna be his uber driver for a lil bit. Signals get slightly crossed, he’s arriving at an airport that a lot further out of my way but closer to his hotel. I’m running a bit behind (leaving from school which is north-er, his airport is downtown a lot more south), so to avoid missing his check-in time he calls a cab, and takes that to his hotel. Annoying (bc I arrive the airport 5mins after he leaves) but understandable bc he wants to secure his room.

He asks me meet to him at his hotel instead, we can grab dinner and part ways from there, cool. Meet him at his hotel, for the first time in person. All is well, he’s nice in-person. He grabs his stuff we ask the ppl at the front desk for a suggestion, bing bang boom. We end up at this cute 24-hour cafe restaurant. Dinner is relatively nice, he’s a middle-aged, well-educated african man, a little self-involved and pompous but not obnoxiously so.

Not to toot my own horn, but I have a great sense of humour, a lot would say I’m funny in fact. And I can be a little bit of flirt, but more in a compliment you on a random aspect of your life kind of charming way, like some pg-13 flirting maybe G, not the AA and/or rated-X kind. Unless I’m trying to go that route yaaaaaa dig 👀👀.

Anyways, dinner was IMO quite platonic, plus mentor-uncle has a wife and a kid back in the motherland, so there are no romantic or sexually driven thoughts or feelings running through my head at alllllllllll (plus I’m maaaad gay, so nah).

Red flag #1

I think (there may have been others, but I’m not sure). I’ve parked my car right across from his hotel, in a green p (toronto slang for a paid parking garage, not really slang bc that’s what they’re called). We walk past this green p and continue onwards to his hotel (retrospect: should’ve taken that moment to just say bye, go to my car, and dip home)

We’re walking into his hotel, my internal dialogue is on overdrive (I’ve done my good deed for the night, there’s really nowhere else I see this evening going). We get back to him room, I go sit down in one of the 2 chairs by the tv and he lays down in his bed. (red flag #1.5)

Red flag #2

he says, “why don’t you come and lay down with me and we can talk here.” I’m like, “Nooooo.” Pretty insistently, because, no. He keeps probing, saying it’s a king-size bed there’s plenty of room for the two of us to just lay down and talk. I’m still very strong in my no’s and I say I’m fine where I am.

So admittedly I should’ve taken this opportunity for to make a swift exit, clearly he thinks this evening can end with us in bed, and there’s no way I’m letting that happen. So there’s bit of a silence and I’m thinking of all the ways I can leave abruptly without being extremely rude (and I hate it so much, that I’m concerned with being rude, when he’s being the penultimate rude boy inviting me to his bed to “talk.”

Red-flag #2.5-3

He gets out of his king-sized to sit in the chair next to mine, by the TV. He doesn’t read too much in to my rebuttals, instead shows me the agenda for his board meeting the next morning, *yawn*. He’s wondering what’s on TV, it’s late-ish, we’re watching Stephen Colbert with Anna Wintour and some next guy looking at ancient catholic artifacts, in relation to the met gala.

Whatever, it ends we’re now watching James Corden. He’s got Zlattan on as a guest, some really famous arrogant european soccer player. So I’m just plotting my polite exit strategy in my head, and after some fortune teller segment, I’m like “So I’m going to leave now.” He’s all like “it’s sooo late, you don’t have to leave. Just the spend the night, I’ve got this king-size bed...there’s plenty of room” etc. And again, I’m like “Nooooo that’s fine, I’m going leave.”

He’s really pushy on me spending the night, I’m equally pushy saying no that’s fine. He goes on to say, “So you’re really going to leave me here all alone, all by myself.” Some super manipulative bullshit like that, and I’m like “Yes, yes I am going to do exactly that.” The vibes were never threatening or violent, just persistent, creepy and overbearing. So he accepts my answer and was like, “Can I least get a hug since you’re leaving me.” And I know sooo many women, probably even some men even have dealt with this reverse-psychology mindfuckery. And again, I should’ve declined but I felt bad, strangely guilty even though I had no real reason to be.

I obliged gave him a hug, I was super tense. And it was pretty short, then as we’re exiting the room, he asks for a real hug, I again stupidly oblige, still super tense and it’s this horribly long uncomfortable hug where he proceeds to feel up my back and sides. And I’m just horrified, feeling so frozen and gross, but perfectly able to end this one-sided grope session. I can see our reflection behind him in a mirror, and I look disgusted with him and myself for continuing this for no good reason.

He pulls back, looks me in the eye and leans for a gross closed mouth uncle kiss, I tense up, and deer in headlights just allow this unwanted kiss to happen, my mouth scrunched up in utter disgust. He pulls a back again and repeats, and again I just allow this to happen. “Whyyyyyyyyyyy!!???!?” I’m screaming at myself in my mind. Finally this awkward ass embrace ends, I feel even more disgusted, again with myself for non-verbally consenting to this shit through my inaction. And with him, at thinking this was okay at any point in time ever.

He gives me a smile, I know I’ve got some kind of grimace-y forced smile on my face, and I’m super expressive especially in my facial reactions so theres no way I look okay/content/happy.

So he walks me to my car at the green p, and insists that we need to see each other again before leaves. I, still being the well-mannered, respectful, “gracious” young lady, say “probably not, but we’ll see” bc we’re both busy the next day, and he flies out the following morning. In my mind screaming at myself, why are you still keeping up appearances with this fucking piece of shit garbage face man.

We say our goodbyes, I speed off and that’s it for our encounter. I’m driving home, sad AF, just really really really disappointed in myself for letting it even get that far. So i’m just casually crying and driving home and that’s the end of that tale.

I just felt so stupid, and gross, and just like I got played. And I’m just so upset with him for even trying that bullshit on me. Our exchanges have been the utmost of platonic, and for him to suggest or assume anything otherwise is just so predatory and gross.

I suppose I’m really thankful because this whole situation could have sooooooooooo much worse, like a lot worse if he was a violent man. But strangely (and fucked-upedly), if he was more aggressive I would have felt so much more justified in acting more brash, maybe being more of a bitch, and really actually standing my ground wholeheartedly.

I dunno this happened just last evening, like just over 24hrs ago (May 10th), so I’m still processing but I do feel a lot better about the whole situation, but still uber gross.

This is a super long post, so 3 cheers if you made it through. 🙃

I journaled about it too the night of and that kind of helped. And I debriefed with my dad the following morning. He was surprisingly supportive and very understanding. I love my dad, but he’s the same guy who believes men should have multiple wives bc what’s a husband to do for sex after wife #1 has a baby...

But he made me feel better when he told me he hates when ppl especially men do things like this, and take advantage of women/the situation. With everything going on with the #metoomovement you’d think men in positions of power would be more cautious, he even stated this.. Although, he did ask me if I gave any signs or signals to encourage his behaviour (and I ran through the entire situation myself in my head, several times, thinking the same. Did I give off any vibes or behaviour to promote this? And I truly didn’t. Besides being friendly, naaaah. Which is still no excuse for him at all).

My dad said I should confront him, and tell him how he made me feel. I just wanted to block him and pretend like he never existed. I found a happy medium and told him via what’s app, that he made me feel extremely uncomfortable and said that it was in no way my intention to lead him on if I had. He tried calling me back immediately after a few times, but I wasn’t ready to talk, so I ignored the calls.

I tried calling him back several hours later (roughly 11ish hours later) bc 1) I’m kinda petty AF and wanted him to stew in his feelings like I had for hours 2) bc I did deserve an apology and maybe just some perspective on WTF he was thinking and where or what was he acting from.

He didn’t pick up and I’m high-key super grateful he didn’t, bc although I’m not horrible at it. But confrontation isn’t my strong suit.

TL;DR: mentor figure betrays trust through unwanted sexual advancements and suggestions

#text post #sorry for the tldr #tldr i know #personal post #super personal post #abuse of power #mentorship gone wrong #disappointed #tw harassment

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whybaddecisions · 4 years

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To the one that got away:

It was winter when she first came to picture, I was just an ordinary guy that worked abroad didn't know what to do no goal, ambition, or even dreams if I can consider it, Was making money but I can't feel satisfaction while doing it soulless and partially lifeless in the process, before I came home I was in a long distance relationship with someone from France and everything worked out just fine but eventually we lacked personal intimacy, to the point that were not even trying to communicate with each other just went with our days without even saying "Hi" or "Good morning" to be honest I thought that she would be the one for me and I'll be the one for her, I was greatly mistaken to have thought that, because if u truly wish someone to be with you till your last breath it must have the right amount of perseverance, the strive to push forward and not to quit and fight! One day we came to an agreement that the thing we have isn't working out anymore, so we broke up decided to be friends, just like that in a snap of a finger she was gone and so am I.

I know that it's rough on both of us but on the other hand it felt that the chemistry wasn't there anymore so it's better to leave that be.

After a month I decided to focus more on my career first since I'm waiting for my agency to call and kick me out of the country again but with a new job on a cruise ship around Us and Europe, while waiting i knew that my brother knows a lot of people here in the Philippines that has a company related to my forte so I asked him

"Man do you know anyone in the industry looking for a waiter?"

He told me that there was one here in Batangas and she was a good friend of his.

"yeah I know a place just a 5 min drive from here"

So I was excited cuz I'm going to work my ass off and forget what has happened.

So there it was "TRICIA'S" name of the workplace my brother told me about, and on December 17, 2019 I started there as a waiter, it was an open house bar kinda rowdy but in a good way but damn do these kids party hard! My shift was from 4pm to 4am and it was messy as hell always but I had fun in the process.

Then that faithful day came to place, all the stars were aligned and the soothing falling of leaves was upon me, I didn't expect any less from that day than any day cause for me it was just goin to turn out as an ordinary day, but then u came and I saw you with my best friend. 🙏 well I couldn't care less at first if u talk to me or not, but the first time you shut me down is when you were passing by my side I thought that u are going to get a menu off the bar, and I was psyched and told myself "now's my chance to like give her the menu and make small talk" Then u said "No" off the bat cuz u were just going to grab that box of tissue, boo me assumer! Then I remembered u were with my best friend so time to show off I think? Like provide them with the best service possible, bring the drinks on time, food must be hot, bucket of ice must be full all the time, no delay in anything like to the fullest service a server can give them, after all was served I was shocked that u said Hi and Hi again and again complimented my cologne called me by my nickname which wasn't really needed, I was shy just making a grin of my mouth just to show her I'm not bothered, but I'm to the fullest extent cause I already asked for ur name, checked u out on Facebook through my best friend that's why I was shy.

The u guys left. And I asked my bff

"should I add her on FB? What ya think?"

She replied with so much enthusiasm

"Gooooo! Add her, she wants to be friends with you also"

And boom it hit me like the biggest meteorite just punched through earth, I was so overwhelmed and cannot wipe the smile of my face that morning.

I'm not normal I can say that proudly in a good way of course, but if someone overwhelmed already with the thought of his/her crush wanting for them to be friends and then out of nothing she says that do you want me to bring you coffee, that would be the most awesome thing that would happen to you, you'd probably be smiling for the whole day like legitimately smiling at everyone with the upmost feeling. For me coffee is sometimes is more important than people but for what she did LFU!!! And she brought me my coffee that morning and she insisted on bringing it , on that day she already got me.

Time passed and things were going accordingly, perfectly some bumps along the way, but we were happy and contended to what we had and a few dates, I remember on the night before Christmas I was supposed to give u your present and you stood me up because of a party your family held and I understood that situation of yours, kinda sulk tho that we didn't get to meet but one of my favorite memory is when you asked me out on a date and it was Christmas, you got to meet my parents also sorry if your hills was soaked in water cuz it was pouring heavily that day. We ate at "Romantic Baboy" a Korean restaurant with unlimited pork skin, chicken strips and cheese on the sides, and you know what's my favorite part of that particular day? Is when I took a picture of you smelling a rose and thought to myself that I don't want this to end may the universe hinder us from us but I'll fight with my last breath to preserve what we have and what else will happen. Then I fucked up.

Scribbled words, nauseated, anxious, crippled, out of way, bothered, stressed,fretful,fretting, disturbed, agitated, irritated, apprehensive, to the point that I don't even want to look at myself in the mirror so disgusted to what I did, execute me if the universe wants to, the feeling of overly doubting my self worth was inevitable, brought to me by my own decisions that messed me up entirely.

Wondering what happened haunts me in the most gruesome way possible. So here it goes, I lied to her big-time which I didn't know that it was possible since I did it already not multiple times but only ONE THAT GOT ME REAL FUCKED! Is when I received a message from my longtime best friend from way back as kids, 20 years to be exact . On the message she told me

"when are you going to show urself I haven't seen u in forever"

Then I was shocked cause normally she wouldn't Pm (Private Message) like that in the past, then I told her.

"one of these days when I'm not busy cause of work"

Then she asked about my love life and u were the first in my mind so I told her about you.

"there's this girl that I'm seeing, my other best friend introduced me to her and she already met my parents last Christmas then we ate outside and we had a great time"

That's what I said then I also told her to help me find a perfect present for you.

Then on December 27, 2019 I told you that I'll be visiting a long time friend with a kid and I didn't tell you if it was a girl or a boy cause I don't want you to get angry at me but then again I should've told you that in the first place. When I was there at her house since we were long time friends we had a great time also with the kid in the picture, happy and overwhelmed at the same time, then her mother came down gave me a hug and greeted me welcome home or back to the phil, cause she hasn't seen me for over 4 years I think. After the the greetings my best friend told her mom that I'm seeing someone which is you. Well I didn't expect that she would be sly about it and drop your name so casually, so I just came right through it and said yes I'm dating this girl and she's wonderful, but her mom told me that r u taking things way to fastly you just got out of a relationship, I told them that also I was off with someone before I met you. So after they told me not to deepen anything with anyone yet, assuring that I would not get hurt cause for them I'm family also, cause her dad was the godfather of my brother that's why our families was close still to this point they are.

Then the next day came I went again to her house because I was having fun playing with her son and missed talking to her a lot, because in the longest time I had a crush on her and knowing me I couldn't seal the deal from before, but this time I thought to myself maybe this is it when she'll notice the man i have become, and you passed my memory, in me saying that I'm dating this girl and why should I break her heart? Did u deserve to be treated that way Nooooo! In fuckin million years no! But I did anyways. Without even consenting my best friend, myself and most importantly God. I messed up 😭

So then it happened the happiest'sh and the worst'sh decision in my existence trampling over someone that didn't deserve any hardships cause you were the most beautiful soul ever seen. Yeah I misunderstood the fact that she'll replace you over and over again because of the thing we had in the past like 20 years of friendship over something that just happened recently was a very wrong thought to even deliver in a person's mouth crippling fear came over me I didn't know what to do my life was in chaos lost in the path, I part take wishing it all away silently murmuring to myself that if had the power to change it all I would, I was blinded really blinded by that stumbling and staggering in every situation possible, even with work I wasn't happy anymore so I left, it's not like me to leave unprofessionally but I did cause it broke me down to my core knowing that I did something to hurt the most, I don't know if it's faith that we met or just me knocking on the door of heaven praying and longing for someone to bump in my life and there you was. But I was too blinded by the fact that I thought that she'll be the one to save me but you were there standing without flinching and with the unyielding love that a human person can give to another and I wasted it all away. Knowing that we were supposed to go to an amusement park, and guess what? That Jan 3 was the day destiny punched me in the face for me to tell you what I got in stored deep inside the dark and deep corners of my heart which was hard to let it out, but I was willing to get out of my comfort zone, break boundaries and say what I really mean.

But then again it didn't happen because of me. But why is that I don't have a perfect checklist of good things in life and almost all of it is on the bad side, really looking inside I didn't have any intention of hurting you, but when I came to see you coming from manila was one of the blurriest decision I've made cause I was going to fix everything but was still blinded, so I did see you but what I said that day when we were inside the car was all true, you mean the world to me but how dumb can a human be maybe I'm the epitome of that, knowing her and thinking she was the one was greatly poor on my side, some people are worth suffering for and I'll suffer for you anytime of the day, week, year or anywhere.

Saying this honestly you are the one with a pure heart on the other hand she also has but like only in a normal state and I thought she was a diamond but day by day she turns to coal slowly breaking and burning me in the process I don't blame her for that but knowing her I didn't expect that a shallow river is bound to drop over me and drown me, because in your eyes I saw a girl swimming in a vast ocean with many things to look after but was calm about it, and composed in a way that anything can turn out good and without harms way. Simply saying that u r different really different in a good way of course.

The self realization made it clearer than the brightest day, clarity filled up inside,b the blindness was cured and I can see far from what I saw before straightforward only walking in one path never turning right or left staying on a pace that'll last, growing abundantly in each other's presence. point here is i really know that u are the perfect illustration a right decision

I hope and pray eventually time will get us to see and feel that something happens for a reason, it's not just the way it was given but on the way it ends and begins again, hoping,praying, begging, pleading, that when that time comes even if it's on a reciprocal I will greatly cherish it and give it as grace without asking for anything in return like a river splashing water on the ground with the little weed sprouting through time, it doesn't have to be the entire ground but the important parts only, perfect timing, right alignment of stars and even if the wind blows strongly or a single rain drop I'll always bring you close by my side and wanting you to stay beside me. I just wish in time we would see each other in our arms again.

And to the one that got away.

Looking back to those days we were so happy I really wanted to tell you how much you mean to me, and the simple things u did, like looking at me with those mesmerizing eyes and the captivating depth and clarity it shown, the way you cling was warmth beyond any parka or furred jacket I've worn before saying slowly while you hug me that you'll never let go. And the way you pull your hair back showing roaring waves but calms me up to the core while the strands of your hair graze my face tingles my curiosity to kiss you in the forehead. And I never felt an urge every time you kissed me on the cheek and while you ask me to kiss you back was the sweetest tune my ears can imagine like angelic figures playing the harp or something like that. And the way we used to drive with ur friends feels like ecstasy having fun and in a euphoric way, I like seeing you laugh a lot, curse a lot at people, things or anything cause im not finding any wrong in that, because that's who you are and what you represent. Also the times we had so much fun singing those songs you recommended me. And to this particular song which made me see you in whole different level, cause you were the first one who dedicated something for me, those giggles that both of us shared is more important the . The unparralled and unrequited feeling that those gestures are simply producing, but what I say is the manifestation of genuine love is you.

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idristardis · 7 years

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WIP Week - Day 4: AU WIP

Hey hey, I actually got this posted before midnight today!!

Today’s excerpt comes from Chapter 1 of Your Way is the Way Home (aka the co-worker slooooooooow burn fic that came from this prompt from @bleebug). The whole fic is probably a ways off from being completed, but I have the whole thing outlined and sections of several chapters written...and I really want to get back to delving into it soon. I love this idea and I can see the whole story arc in my mind, I just need the time to actually write it.

This is the flashback that sets the scene for one of the main plot points in the story, and a little bit of the present time lead in to said flashback. Enjoy a little drunken silliness with Emma, Ruby, and Mary-Margaret!!

She glanced at the paper for a moment – it had arrived the day before yesterday and it had taken all Emma’s willpower and stubbornness (and a shot of her favorite rum) to give her the courage to open it. The contents had been a huge relief – everything had come back negative, she was clean – but that paper had directly led to the one new year’s resolution she had made. It was a resolution that she’d surprised herself a bit with – not to mention that it had thrown some of her friends for a little bit of a loop – but given her current circumstances, it had seemed to make sense. Not that Ruby and Mary-Margaret really saw it that way, she thought. Though, to be fair, it’s not like they know the whole story.

Her memory drifted back to the pre-New Year’s Eve girls’ night that she’d held a couple of days earlier, and snorted to herself as she remembered how her friends had taken her “announcement.”

-/-

“Pfft. You’ll cave. I give it a month,” Ruby said, taking a long pull from her beer and flopping back into the corner of the couch. She squinted at Emma, tilting her head in thought. “Maaaybe six weeks if you’re feeling particularly….resolute,” she finished with a smile and a self-satisfied chuckle at her own joke.

Emma crossed her arms – a bit defensively, if she were being completely honest – and frowned at her friend. “I’m not you, Rubes, I can do this.” Admittedly, the jab was a bit harsh, and she didn’t really mean it. It was just that Emma was nervous about this resolution, and a little embarrassed – or, well, at least sheepish – about the reasons it was necessary in the first place (not that she’d shared those reasons with her friends yet – and she had exactly zero plans to do so).

“Oh, the wound! It’s mortal! However shall I live with such a stain upon my honor?!” Ruby proclaimed before dissolving into a fit of giggles, slipping further into the couch cushions, her drink hovering at an increasingly precarious angle. Emma was about to say something about that, but Mary-Margaret beat her to it, taking the bottle from Ruby’s hand and settling it gently onto a coaster on the coffee table.

“Ruby,” Mary-Margaret began, “I’m sure that Emma can stick to her plan – if this is what she really wants, I’m sure she’ll be able to do it.”

“Thanks, Mary-Margaret,” Emma replied, grateful that at least one of her friends was being supportive.

“For two months, at least,” the other woman turned to face her, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Behind her, Ruby cackled and gave up any attempt at sitting up, instead pulling her feet up and stretching out on the couch.

Emma shook her head, starting to feel a touch of true irritation creep in the longer her friends’ ribbing went on. “Really?! I kind of expected that reaction from Ruby-”

“Hey!!” Ruby cried, raising her head to level a teasing glare in Emma’s direction. “I resent that.”

“You don’t really have a leg to stand on here, Rubes,” Emma said, “seeing as how you just gave me grief about it.”

“Oh yeah, right,” Ruby nodded before flopping back into the couch cushions. “Yup. Yeah. I totally did do that,” she executed an elaborate flourish of her hand. “Nevermind, then! Continue.”

“As I was saying, I kind of expected that reaction from her,” Emma said. “But you, Mary-Margaret? I thought you’d be thrilled I was going to be spending more time focusing on myself.”

“Oh Emma, I am,” her friend said earnestly. “I just…it’s just unexpected, that’s all.”

“Unnatural’s more like it,” Ruby muttered darkly from her nest of pillows. “If you want to focus on you, why not commit to taking up yoga? Or start a new hobby? Ooh!! Or pick up an old hobby. You could go back to doing more with photography – you were really good at that.”

“Uh, thanks…it’s a good idea, Rubes. Maybe I’ll do that too,” Emma latched onto Ruby’s comment as a bit of deflection. She really didn’t want to get into her reasoning for the resolution she’d picked – how meeting Walsh at that Halloween party earlier in the year (and going home with him after) had been fun at the time (despite his rather over-the-top monkey costume), but the way he’d unexpectedly re-entered her life about ten days earlier had been anything but.

Shaking her head to clear it, she tried to refocus the conversation away from anything touching on her recent life choices. “What about you guys? Any big resolutions this year?”

Mary-Margaret perked up, her eyes sparkling far too much for a woman who’d downed as much alcohol as she had by that point in the evening. “Well, actually yes. David and I have been talking about it, and we’ve been thinking it’s finally time to –”

“Nooooo. Nuh uh. Nope.” Ruby groaned loudly and flopped over on the couch so that she was facing Mary-Margaret. Squinting at the other woman, she pointed a perfectly manicured finger at her for emphasis. “Emma has – for reasons unknown – decided to make a very personal resolution. About her. We should make a pact, do the same – and couples resolutions don’t count. So,” she asked, with the supreme solemnness only the truly plastered could achieve, “what, Mary-Margaret, are you going to do for yourself in 2017?”

#ouat ff #cs ff #wip week #captain swan #my fic #eventual captain swan #sloooow burn #bleebug #i really wanna get back to writing this

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zaggitz · 5 years

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My Top Ten Video Games of 2018

Well, here were are again, my friends. After the non stop roller coaster thrillride of VIDEO GAMES 2017, can 2018 live up to the hype??? I’m gonna go ahead and say no right off the bat, but while every single week wasn’t filled with a new incredible genre defining experience like last year, we still had some genuine certified bangers in the mix, many of which I think will remain important to me as the years go by. It should be noted this is the first year since 2014 where a Trails game hasn’t hit the market, so for the first time ever since I started writing these lists, a Trails game will not reign victorious at the end. Scandalous! Impossible!! Shit year tbh, but we’ll get by.

Outside of games this year is maybe the best year of my entire life?? I got out of a years long slump, started an actual genuine career path, and then somehow managed to fenegle falling in love into the whole mix. These lists have always come from some greater sense of yearning to reach out and communicating how I feel about things I love to anyone who will listen, but right now all I can think of is about how happy and lucky I am for my life to have taken the turns it did this year. 2019 is gonna have to try real hard to break my stride.

If you’d like to read my previous rambly lists, here they are:

2015

2016

2017

Anyway without further ado, here’s ten games that aren’t Trails of Cold Steel 3(WHEN??):

10. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

This one is only at the bottom of the list because I didn’t have time to finish it. I loved getting to jump into the world of the witcher again. The world is dark and gritty and the choice are morally grey and the writing is impeccable and gwent is even more fun to play as a main mechanic than it was in the Witcher 3 as a minigame. I can’t wait to dive back into this one come the new year.

9. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

One of the most well written and executed time-travel-based JRPGs I’ve ever played. It’s a story about trying to fix mistakes, about different perspectives trying to understand each other instead of fighting over differences.

It’s got an overall theme of realizing how important you can be to the world around you despite seeming insignificant that really resonated with me, an amazing cast of characters and it also just happens?? To be really fun to play??

8. The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence

That I didn’t play the first game the year it came out is a damn crime, this series of gothic tragedies has such special, meaningful and important themes of redemption and sacrifice and finding the people who will survive the world with you no matter what. It tackles mental illness, lgbt topics with an immense amount of respect and tells some of the most heart wrenchingly real and gutting stories, but it all culminates in the most viscerally satisfying way.

This sequel delves into one of the most unspoken parts of the original while also offering promising and hopeful glimpses into the future. It’s absolutely a must play if you in anyway liked the original.

7. Wandersong

Now here’s one that came absolutely out of nowhere. This game just oozes joy out of every pore. You play as a dandy bard who can only interact with the world via music trying to save it from being destroyed. Heavy themes of pacifism and the internal struggle of doing your best when you know for a fact your best won’t be good enough cover this thing like sprinkles on the most delicious and colorful donut.

Another thing I love is how every single chapter of this game plays differently, one will be a pirate adventure where you steer a ship with pirate shanties, the other will be a Majora's Mask still town sim, it goes on like this, and it never once gets boring. This game will make you smile the biggest smile from start to finish.

6. God of War

Remember Kratos?? He’s back, in open world action-RPG form. I sort of grew up with the original GoW trilogy and am of the opinion that they aged about as well as I did(which is fuckin not gracefully, teenager me was a fuckin mess). God of War is out of its edgy teenager phase now, and just barely squeaking out of its holier than thou college student phase into a game that actually has a few things to say, fun characters, an amazing world, and a paternal relationship that is kind of actually a joy to watch unfold despite everyone making fun of the game for it.

This game is like twice, maybe three times as long as the original trilogy which hilariously kind of makes those games feel like a prologue to this one. I suppose the real ironic thing is they kind of are?? They were shallow angry games with nothing to say but their existence created a character that, under the right light, under THIS light, could actually be extremely compelling and fun to watch grow alongside his boy. This series went from one I was glad to see gone to one I can’t wait to get more of.

5. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life/Yakuza Kiwami 2

It’s absolutely insane that Yakuza is popular now. I got into this series 10 years ago and at the time every single new yakuza release was a blessing and a curse; blessed because holy shit they actually put out a new Yakuza game and cursed because oh god it sold like shit and they probably won’t localize the next one why did they localize the zombie spin-off it almost killed the series nooooo don’t localize that give us the samurai games instead.

So anyway, this year I finally finished my journey playing through all 7 mainline Yakuza games. The journey of Kiryu Kazuma has come to an end and I have seen every step he’s taken. Yakuza 6 itself had kind of a really rough new engine that Kiwami 2 ended up refining, and from a gameplay perspective these games are basically the same, for the most part(Kiwami 2 is just better). Neither of these games come close to touching the masterful highs of Yakuza 0 but from a story perspective I think the respect and love this series has for its protagonist is unmatched, and while I was sad to see him go, I will never forget that big good crime boy and his whacky antics.

Ganbare, Kiryu-san...sayonara!!!!

4. The Messenger

This game fucking rules, I really don’t know how to do it justice, I played it on a whim and fell in love with it for the time it took me to beat it in a way that I haven’t done with a game in a long time. The gameplay is fluid and fun, the writing is charming and legit hilarious at times and the soundtrack, oh baby the soundtrack, if this wasn’t a year where Celeste came out this game would win every single award for OST of the year, I would fight anyone who disagreed.

The main gimmick of this game once you reach the halfway point is being able to shift between the 8 bit past and the 16 bit future, and every time you do the music will warp to fit those aesthetics and the game does this so freaking seamlessly, it’s amazing. The final level in particular meshed the music so well with the narrative that I was like fist pumping the whole way through the final sequence of the game.

It rules extremely hard, play it. Yes, you, you reading this right now, play this game so these people will make more for me. Please?

3. La-Mulana 2: The 0th Body, The 9th Spirit

Chalk this one up for game of 2018 I most can’t wait to replay and do a bunch of quick runs of. The original La Mulana is one of my favorite games of all time and this sequel delivers more of all the stuff I love while streamlining a lot of the more obscure and obtuse solutions. The music, the bosses, the world, all of the best things about the first game were all just as on point in this one.

The game evokes a sense of mystery you can only really achieve in a sequel to a game like the original La Mulana by constantly making you question the lore you already knew from the original. This all culminates in a sidequest that for a game as inscrutable as opaque as LM2, I still ended up getting really really emotionally invested in.

I don’t think there will ever be a La Mulana 3, and if that’s the case I’ll be able to leave this series happy, these two games complete each other in such a huge way, and will remain some of my favorites for years to come.

2. Celeste

I swear to god, this game was my Game of the Year for 9 whole months. I have never in my life played a game with this much precision perfect game design. This is maybe the tightest most consistent feeling platformer of all time. It’s like basically perfect on a gameplay level. That it meshes it’s gameplay with it’s themes so well is what truly makes it stand out and transforms it into not only a viscerally satisfying, tough but fair game, but an emotionally resonant masterpiece that will stick with me for years to come.

Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain. Celeste is a game about overcoming depression and anxiety and learning to cope and better yourself. These things are not interchangeable, the challenges you face as a player in this game all tie in perfectly to the main character, Madeline’s struggle to just fight through her self doubt and self loathing. It’s an extremely real tale, despite how fantastical the visuals are. It’s a game about fighting and screaming and clawing at that fucking Mountain to give you a way to have your heart again, and it’s absolutely wonderful.

The game is difficult, but every personal triumph accompanies one in game, and it lets you truly feel the feelings the game is trying to evoke alongside it. This is the kind of game that only comes once or twice a decade. I’d be extremely surprised to see anything hit this level any time soon.

1. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

This is the gold standard for all JRPGs now as far as I'm concerned. There are series that go deeper, that go harder, that go all the way in with their music but no game out there exists that is so confidently just the classic all encompassing idea of a JRPG like this one. This game is pure comfort food, it knows exactly what it is and what it is is a fun heartwarming and charming classic JRPG “chosen one gets the cool sword and fights the dark lord” tale and damn it if it hasn’t been a while since we had just a good one of those.

Haha, just kidding.

A third of the way through, this game takes a dramatic shift and flips everything on its head in a way that hasn’t been really seen or executed this well since FF6. Suddenly the comfortable is taken away, the world is scary, bleak, and the themes you missed, that were simmering in the background since the start of the game start to boil over to the surface. The world is darker but the people in it are warmer, they hold themselves together until the day comes, and the game will find ways to make you cry you would never expect from a series this traditional. These themes all culminate in a super satisfying finale that, while not entirely happy, at least leaves the world in a better place than it was before, with it’s people that much closer.

Now what if I just didn’t write any of that and told you why I really love the game.

Credits roll, and the post game, that is to say, the final third of the game, begins. What if the shift never came, how would the world be different? How would these characters acrs resolved? Who would live? Who would die instead? What does this happening mean to the world? What does this new future hold?

In one simple moment, you answer all of those questions, and Dragon Quest XI becomes a prequel to Dragon Quest III (which was a prequel to DQ1 but that’s less important).

All of a sudden this entire series has lore, everything is connected in a way it had never been for 30 years, and it fits so seamlessly and perfectly that it could only have happened in a series like Dragon Quest, which has had the same writer across all 11 games. As a fan who had played all the available english games this was such an insane rewarding moment. I struggle to really compare it to anything else outside of maybe like…

Oh shit.

OH SHIT.

Outside of goddamn Trails.

Ya’ll know what that means right?

That’s right, Trails wins game of the year once again. STILL THE KING BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

#game of the year

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ruffsficstuffplace · 7 years

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The Keeper of the Grove (Part 20)

Warning: As mentioned in previous chapters, Ruby and the others are going to fake Weiss death. There's going to be fake blood and a faked execution, and believe me, things WILL get very dark and intense soon.

Your heart pounding so fast, liable to stop dead at any moment from sheer terror. Icy claws wrapping themselves around your chest, piercing your lungs, making it impossible to breath. Every muscle in your body paralyzed, your eyes affixed to that nightmarish face, feeling those red orbs plunge into your very being, killing you little by little from the inside.

Weiss clutched Eluna in a death-grip, cold sweat pouring down every inch of her skin, her mind screaming at her to look away, away from the face of her impending doom, her body unable to do anything but stare.

“Weiss...?” Ruby asked. <Oh crap--!>

She grabbed the mask on Qrow’s face, pulled it off, and shoved it underneath her cloak and out of sight.

Then, just as suddenly as the most vicious, visceral panic attack Weiss had ever experienced started, it stooped.

She gasped for breath, still shaking. “W-What was that?!” she whispered, her eyes throbbing, a piercing, awful pain slowly spreading in her head.

“That would be the Mask of the Keeper,” Qrow replied. “Specially carved, designed, and improved over the centuries to induce screaming, paralyzing terror, and sudden bowel evacuation in 9 out of 10 humans.”

“How…?” Weiss muttered.

“Magic,” Ruby said as she was lowered back onto the floor. “Don’t know how it works, but it works! Anyway... Weiss: this is my Uncle Qrow!” she said, gesturing to him.

Qrow waved. “Sup. Qrow Branwen, but just call me Qrow,” he said as he walked over and offered his hand—or talon, as the case may have been, as his human shaped hand was covered with a rough and bony layer on both sides, and his “fingers” ended in black claws.

Weiss very carefully took it and got a good look at him as they shook.

What she assumed to be messy, spiky black hair was actually a head of sharp feathers sweeping back from his forehead. His eyes were aquiline, and the skin around his nose and mouth was covered in the same material as his hands, like a beak. Where ears would have been on a human, he only had two holes on the side of his head, covered over by more of his feathers and some fluffy down.

“You’re here to record your ransom video, right?” Qrow asked as he took his talon back. “Studio’s all set, even got a script all written up for you.” He smirked.

Weiss scowled. “There better not be what I think you put in there!”

“What do you think is in there, Weiss?” Ruby asked innocently.

“It’s not important,” Qrow said, still smirking. “Come on, this way,” he said, beckoning with his arm.

Weiss stayed put. “Does you have to be with us?”

“Yes,” Qrow replied. “It’s part of my duties as a senior Watcher, Chronicler, and part-time Keeper for all the Keeper-stuff Ruby can’t do.”

“Keeper-stuff?”

Earlier, in the underground jails of the Bastion.

Qrow was dressed up in a larger version of Ruby’s cloak, the mask on his face, and a pair of fake reindeer antlers on his head. In front of him and backed up against the wall were the survivors of the ill-fated third and fourth expeditions into the Valley.

“WHAT DID I TELL YOU DUMB FUCKS ABOUT GOING INTO THE VALLEY?!” Qrow yelled.

“AAHHHH! NOOOOO...!”

“PLEASE! I’LL DO ANYTHING! JUST LET ME GO...!”

“MOMMY! MOMMY! MOOOMMMMYYY-YYY-YYY...!”

Underneath the mask, Qrow cringed as his nose was assaulted with a fresh wave of the unmistakable scent of fear and repeatedly soiled underwear.

“Ah,” Weiss replied.

“It’s hard to believe a story where the Keeper is barely 5 feet tall without antlers,” Qrow replied.

“Hey!” Ruby cried. “I’m still growing!”

“Just keep on drinking your milk, and eating vegetables instead of cookies every once in a while, and you’ll be fine in a couple of years,” Qrow replied.

Ruby grumbled under her breath in Actaeon.

“So how many Keepers are there?” Weiss asked.

“Not including part-timers like me?” Qrow replied. “One.”

Weiss blinked, then looked at Ruby. “I thought you said there were other Keepers!”

“Yeah!” Ruby replied. “There was my mom, and her mom, and her mom—stretching all the way back to my great-great-great...” she continued on for about a minute or two “… great-grandma, Gabija!”

Weiss glared at Ruby.

“What...?” Ruby asked.

Weiss groaned. “Nevermind...” she muttered.

Ruby looked at the others, they shrugged, smirked, or showed that they couldn’t really have cared, and the group finally went on their way to the studio.

Weiss supposed she shouldn’t have been too surprised to see that it was just like any other set; the building materials and equipment may have been made out of enchanted rock, wood, or a specially-grown plant, and instead of AV drones it was birds and other small animals, but everything looked the same, from the cameras and the lighting, the sound equipment, and even what she assumed to be a green screen.

In the center of it all, directing everything through a mix of barking orders and moving things around with magic was who Weiss assumed to be Elder Glynda Goodwitch.

She was dressed differently from the other Fae, wearing especially vibrant robes with intricate designs, the patterns of vines, roses, and animals pulsing with bright magic, sometimes even moving by themselves. But even without the outfit, the aura of confidence, authority, and power she exuded would have told you she was the one in charge.

… However, Weiss found herself incredibly distracted by her animal features: a pair of large, floppy bunny ears, and a poofy, cotton-ball tail poking out from the back of her robes.

Glynda turned around, her mouth a hard line, her eyes narrowed just slightly enough to be the right mix of intimidating and cool. “You’re late,” she said, her tone level, but with an edge that warned you not to annoy her ever again.

<Our sincerest apologies, Elder Goodwitch,> Blake said cutting through between them. <We had a delay back at the hospital.>

Glynda raised her eyebrows, silently asking them to explain.

“Just a normal case of miscommunication, Elder Goodwitch!” Penny explained. “Ruby accidentally told Weiss we were going to kill her, not fake her death.”

Glynda’s expression remained neutral, but you could just feel how hard she was resisting the urge to put her palm to her face.

“And I assume this has been cleared up?” she asked.

“Yes,” Weiss said as she stepped up, “alongside the fact that I’ll be writing the script to my ransom video.”

“Oh, c’mon!” Qrow cried. “Can’t we just use mine? I worked hard on that—legitimately this time!”

Glynda ignored him. “Give me one good reason to let you do this.”

“I know my father better than any of you, and know just what to say to press his buttons,” Weiss replied.

Glynda smiled. “Good reason,” she said, before she turned around to the crews and animals awaiting filming, and shouted something in Actaeon. They soon abandoned their posts and went to a buffet table on the side or formed their own little groups to the side.

She turned back to Weiss. “Can you do it in an hour? I would like these attacks to stop before your father can mobilize another expedition.”

“Deal.”

Little under an hour later, the studio crew was back to work, getting the lighting and sound calibrated, meticulously putting make-up on Weiss to make her look the part of “poor, innocent hostage scared out of her wits,” and double-checking that her new script had been transcribed properly in the teleprompter.

They were only getting one chance to do this, since Jacques had unintentionally given them the perfect opportunity: a press conference in one of Candela’s largest auditoriums, broadcasting through all of Avalon on unsecured channels that the Fae could easily hack into.

Ruby was wearing a mask identical to the original, only without the nightmare-inducing magic. “It tends to mess up cameras of any kind,” she explained, her voice talking on a deep, ominous tone from the modulator inside.

She still looked unnerving to look with the still glowing red eyes, but at least she wasn’t inciting panic attacks from a mere glance like Qrow had earlier.

“Got the bleeder bandages and your fake scythe!” Penny said as she came up with container with green strips of plant matter and a scythe that looked almost identical to real thing.

“’Bleeder bandages’?” Weiss asked.

“An extremely common prop in both live and recorded productions!” Penny explained. “It simulates grievous wounds and other types of injuries while leaving the wearer completely unharmed. It’s filled with fake blood, you see, and the membrane is thin and sensitive; even with a dull prop like this, just a little bit of pressure is enough to break it.”

Weiss looked at the strips dubiously. “I doubt these are going to trick anyone...”

“That’s because you haven’t put them on, silly!” Ruby said as she took one of the strips and put it on her arm. Weiss watched with a mixture of interest and unease as the bleeder bandage instantly, perfectly mimicked the colour of her skin. “See?” she said, holding it up.

If she hadn’t seen it come on, she wouldn’t have had the slightest clue where it was.

The small crew manning the jury-rigged and salvaged communications tech from the expedition gave Glynda the thumbs up. “We’re ready to broadcast on your command—make it soon, that press conference isn’t going to last all day.”

“I know how long the average Avalonian’s attention span is, don’t worry,” Weiss said as she put a bleeder strip around the front of her neck. “Just one more thing—Ruby! Penny!”

“Yeah Weiss?” Ruby asked as the two of them came over.

She pointed at Ruby. “Just in case my father refuses to surrender, I want you to practice ‘slitting’ my throat.” She pointed at Penny. “You go see if she does anything that's going to make someone reviewing the footage suspicious.”

Penny nodded. “As you wish, Weiss.”

Ruby balked. “Wait, what?!”

“Wasn’t it you and Blake’s idea to fake my own death?” Weiss asked.

“Well, yeah! But like in the, in the...” Underneath the mask, Ruby's face scrunched up struggled to find the right word.

“Threatening to kill her way, but not actually going through with it?” Penny offered.

“Yes! That! Thanks, Penny.” Ruby turned back to Weiss. “Are you sure about this, Weiss...? He's your dad, he's probably--”

Weiss scowled. “Just do it,” she growled before she knelt down to the floor.

Ruby reluctantly guided her prop knife to her neck, where the bleeder strip was.

“Ruby!” Weiss yelled.

Ruby pulled away. “What?”

“Your hands are shaking!” Weiss cried. “Who's going to believe you've actually killed me if it looks like you've got stage-fright?”

Ruby whined. “This is really messed up, Weiss! Your dad can’t possibly think that we’re not serious, right?”

Weiss didn’t reply.

“Right…?”

“How about Weiss pretends to grab the handle, hold her steady whilst pretending that she’s trying to stop her?” Penny suggested.

“Let’s try it,” Weiss said.

Ruby frowned. “Weiss--”

Weiss stood up, and looked Ruby in the eyes. “Ruby?” she asked calmly.

“Yeah...?”

“You want these expeditions in the Valley to stop, right? You don’t want any more people to get hurt or killed? Or for anyone else to come sending another expedition for a good, long time?”

Ruby nodded meekly.

“Then I need you to act as cold, bloodthirsty, and cruel as you possibly can—leave absolutely no doubt in my father’s mind that you’re serious, that you’ll kill me if he doesn’t agree to a complete surrender. Can you do this for me…?”

Ruby looked down.

Weiss expression softened as tilted her head back up, gently removed her mask and looked her in the eyes. “Ruby: can you do this for me? Please?”

Ruby sighed. “… If I have to ‘kill’ you, can you do all the work? I don’t think I can get my hands to stop shaking.”

Weiss nodded.

“We're running out of time here!” Glynda called out.

“Coming!” Ruby called out. She turned back to Weiss. ��Are you sure you can’t get my Uncle Qrow to do it instead?”

Weiss shook her head. “It’s going to be very suspicious if the female Keeper of the Grove suddenly sounds like a man.” She paused, casting a glare at Qrow standing in the corner. “Plus, I have this sneaking suspicion he'll probably make a stupid joke that’ll ruin everything...”

“Sorry, Ruby!” Qrow called out. “She’s definitely right on that one!”

Ruby sighed. “Okay...” She put the mask back on. “Let’s do this.”

#rwby #fanfic #white rose #the keeper of the grove

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