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aquaticalay · 4 years

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Siren .Chapter Four.

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Bucky Barnes fancies you, a singer who performs at a local bar every Monday and Friday night. After a few months of attending your gigs, Bucky finally got the chance to talk to you. One problem: you are New York's sonic screaming vigilante. And the avengers have been trying to figure out who you are for months. (Post-Endgame)

Warning/s for this chapter : cursing, a teeny tiny bit of violence

Warning/s for the series: cursing, violence, eventual smut (which you can skip)

Word count: 1500+

Disclaimer: I do not own the Marvel characters.

Note: I'm a day late, I know :') and I'm sorry. I didn't have any connection last night, but here ya goooo

I will post a new chapter every two days. Let me know if you'd like to be on the taglist!

You didn't remember a time where you would stay up late texting. It seemed a little too cliche, like what a teenager would do in some cheesy romantic comedy on netflix. You didn't think you would ever do it, but here you are, almost midnight, texting with a man who was supposedly trying to arrest you. You talked and talked for hours, and neither of you were willing to stop the conversation. At first you didn't have the heart to, but you were just enjoying the time.

You found yourself chuckling at the fact that one of the world's mightiest heroes was such a modern hopeless romantic. You didn't even expect him to be able to text. He was a century year old man, after all.

'Anyway, when's your next gig?'

You read a bubble of text pop up.

'The day after tomorrow,' you typed mindlessly, and sent it before you could process what you did.

Your heart dropped. Shit, you thought to yourself. Shit! He wasn't supposed to know!

A million scenarios ran through your mind. What if you had to put on the suit, what if you had to be the Siren while he was in close proximity. What if you have a mission tomorrow night? And if your friends saw who came, the would freak. If they saw him, and if they knew you were the one who told him where you'd be, they would kill you. Well, maybe not literally, but you'd never hear the end of it. Besides, you were putting your mission, and your identity as a vigilante at risk.

Before you could unsend it, he already saw it.

'May I know where?' He texted.

'No,' you replied bluntly. It wasn't intentional, just instinctual.

Great, now you just sound like an asshole. Paranoia hit again. What if, by not telling him where your gig is, he becomes more suspicious of your identity?

'You're a spy right? Why don't you take a guess?' You texted back quickly, deciding that teasing was the most natural of playing it off like it was no big deal. Besides, wasn't playing 'hard-to-get' fairly common nowadays?

"Oh, so that's how it is?' Bucky texted back playfully.

Soon after, you ended the conversation, deciding you needed sleep. You've been a little out of focus lately. You needed rest, and perhaps tomorrow you could be more level-headed to think, unlike the whirlwind your mind has been going through today.

The next day, you woke up at eight. That was considered a good night's sleep, since you usually wake up at the break of dawn. You would've woken up even later if it wasn't for Lando, who called you to let you know of a mission.

"I found the buyer, the person who bought the vox formula," he told you, "He'll be out of his apartment in Brooklyn tonight. You can break in and try to find the formula."

Breaking and entering, huh? How fun.

You agreed, and set up a meeting in your Brooklyn safehouse.

At dusk, Lando was briefing you on the target apartment blueprint, while Luna and Vince prepared you arsenal of knives.

Knives might seem shallow for a couple of genius weapon engineers like Luna and Vince, but you knew that these knives were made for precision and to perfection. They've calculated the curvature of the blade, aerodynamics, as well as the friction. Every inch of those knives were a product of mathematical precision and excellence.

After Lando was done briefing you, you took the knives and sheathed them. There were three in total, two on the sides of your thighs were throwing knives, while the one strapped on your belt was a dagger, used for combat.

You put on your hood and jump out the window and to the roof of the five-story apartment building.

The target's apartment wasn't far away, actually, just a block away. You were lucky the only light source was a small crescent moon, or else it would've cast an alarming shadow.

You opened the standard window lock by sliding your dagger through the gap at the bottom. Easily, you slid inside. There was a small bedside lamp in his otherwise dark bedroom. You decided not to turn any more lights as it might be noticeable from the outside.

It was a small one bedroom apartment.

Wandering about in the space, you didn't find much personal belongings that might give away the identity of the person living there. There were no wallets or documents, not even photos in frames. The kitchen didn't have any knives or forks, just a few spoons. The pans and the stove looks brand new and unused. The TV wasn't even plugged in. The only thing that seemed functional was a computer that was built into a desk, situated in the very far corner of the room.

Focus. You're here for the formula, not for anything else.

You didn't see anything out in the open, so you checked under furniture. You checked for creaks on the floor board or inconsistencies in the drywall, in case this person had a secret concealment. You still found nothing.

"I can't find anything," you told Lando through the earpiece.

"Have you checked the floor? Walls?" You heard him. "Yeah, nothing," you replied with absolute certainty.

"Well, what do you see?"

"Literally, nothing," you emphasize, sighing in frustration, "there's not a lot of interesting things. All I see that might have any information at all is a computer."

"A computer?" Lando asked, an idea in his head, "Do you still have the microchip in your pocket, from last week's mission?" He asked.

"No, I don't think—" you started to reply, checking your back pocket, but stopped talking when you felt something there. You fished it out, and sure enough, the microchip was there. "Got it," you reported to him.

"Great," Lando sighed in relief, "Insert it in the computer, and I'll walk you through it."

You complied to his words, taking as much information as you can from the device.

"Hey, Buck," Sam urgently called, storming into the gym. Bucky was in the middle of a work out. He stopped the treadmill and gave Sam an inquisitive look.

"I just got a report," Sam told him, "Some lady in Brooklyn saw a hooded person break into the apartment next to hers."

Bucky's eyes widened, "Is it the siren?"

"Looks like it," Sam confirmed.

"Send me the coordinates now," Bucky demanded, running out of the room to change into his suit.

You had successfully transferred all the data into the microchip. You didn't waste any time getting out.

You returned to the safe house, giving Lando the microchip to decipher. You soon changed, and told your friends you were going home. You stuffed your suit inside a large backpack, and started walking to the nearest subway station.

When Bucky got to the exact address, he was certain that the Siren had already left. There was almost no traces of breaking and entering, except for the open window, and the broken lock on it.

"Shit," he cursed. He was too late. Had he been here earlier, he would've caught the person who had been able to break a super soldier body with a scream.

He decided to scout around the block. He could look for more clues. Besides, if the siren had been here, they can't have gone too far.

As he was walking around the block, he heard footsteps coming from around the corner. It didn't sound like the person running, but it sounded fast— like the person was in a rush. In panic, maybe.

He took a dagger out, preparing to strike. He had his back up against the wall.

As the footsteps approached, he thrusted the dagger away from his hand, and on to the person approaching. He did not strike to kill, but instead to assert a warning. The dagger was placed just inches in front of the person's throat. And it was…

"(Y/n)?" He asked, making sure if he was seeing right.

"Hi?" You managed to say, nervously smiling.

"What are you doing in Brooklyn?" He asked, pulling the dagger away.

You had one second to think of a lie.

"I… just got back from a record store a few blocks down," you decided to say. You looked up and down, and it was clear that he was wearing his combat gear.

What was he…

Then, the realization hit you like a truck.

Someone must've seen you enter the apartment. Someone must've called the Avengers.

"You look like you're busy catching bad guys here," you slightly teased him, trying to ease the growing tension.

He scratched the back of his neck, "Uh, yeah."

What are you doing? Bucky thought to himself, stop getting distracted!

"Well, I better not interfere," you faked a chuckle, "and I better get home. It's late. See you around?"

"Yeah, of course," Bucky breathed out, and you continued on your journey. You didn't look back.

As Bucky watched you walking further down the street, he could've sworn he saw a knife sheath hanging around your hips.

He shook his head off the thought. He must be imagining things.

Stop getting distracted, dammit! He scolded himself.

@thejourneyneverendsx @ispepeagain @magykal-777 @sfxsucker @moli1497 @justanothergirlwithdemons @ciochesono @allonszassbutt @hennessy0274-blog @chubby-dumplin @talk-geek-to-me @sebastian-i-stan @iwishthatiwasbuckysgirl @thelureabove @womanontheedgeofnothing @snugglemedaddy @perrythefrickinplatypus @missursulacalmet @angryknightstatesmantrash @tintinnabulary

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khtrinityftw · 4 years

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The Good, The Bad, and the Cards - A Brief Look Back at KH: Chain of Memories

It’s been 15 years since Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was released, and while I adore this game, I want to look back and highlight 7 specific elements worthy of praise that still hold up to this day and 7 specific elements that aren’t so good and helped derail the KH franchise going forward, the “Franchise Original Sins” as it were. So without further ado, here they are:

Positive: The Card Map System - I really love the usage of cards when it comes to exploring each world. Through the different cards, you get to create your own customized dungeon to crawl through, and the incentive to battle in order to collect cards you need to progress further in the level is a good one.

Negative: The Card Battle System - Unfortunately, using cards in combat isn’t done nearly as smoothly, and they complicate battles way more than they should. This is especially bad in the original GBA version of the game, where the cards are hard to make out on the small screen and the tiny, cramped arenas that you fight in make it all too easy to get backed into a corner while trying to shuffle through or reload your deck. This game could’ve done better.

Positive: Sora’s Story - The main scenario of the game is superbly written by Daisuke Watanabe. Like I said in my video review, he took what he was given, which was virtually nothing, and turned it into something. Sora’s character has never been explored in as much depth as it is here, with all of his raw strengths and weaknesses on full display. His bond of friendship with Donald and Goofy, his strong romantic interest in Kairi, his tortured clashing with “Riku”, his animosity toward Organization XIII, and the interactions he has with Namine toward the end are all handled perfectly. It really reminds you of just why you love this guy.

Negative: Riku’s Story - Reverse/Rebirth, otoh, doesn’t hold up so well. It tries its best to give Riku good character development, but too much of it is focused on practically everyone but Riku, the lack of anything occurring in the Disney worlds means that the story feels too light on content, and the conclusion Riku’s character is ultimately brought to contradicts what was established in the original KH and only creates further problems down the line. What’s more, this was the start of forcing Riku down our throats as the deuteragonist of the series, which is a role he was never suited for and that he only gets worse in overtime. So yeah, not a fan.

Positive: Organization XIII - Primarily the members introduced in Sora’s story; Lexaeus and Zexion are more useful as plot devices than as characters. Not only are Axel, Larxene, Vexen and Marluxia all excellent villains in their own ways, but the villainous arc they are part of is the best-written one in any KH game. Watching them work off each other and against each other in this dark but easy to follow political intrigue plot is one of the game’s highest points.

Negative: The Riku Replica - Don’t get me wrong, this was a decent character with a decent arc, but the execution was way too over-the-top and overstayed its welcome. Between Sora and Riku’s story, you have to fight this asshole six times! That’s just ridiculous for any boss in any game! And then there’s what the whole “replica” concept he introduced was used for in subsequent games, since Nomura just loves taking the simple and making it convoluted.

Positive: The GBA Graphics - This is one of the best-looking GBA games ever, hands-down. The fact that full cutscenes with PS2-style graphics were actually able to fit on the cartridge is simply incredible, and Square should really be commended for pushing the system to its absolute limits.

Negative: Console Spread - COM marked the first time that a KH game was put on an entirely different console than before, being a GBA game released and set in between two PS2 games. This wasn’t too much of a problem back then, since COM was only needed to fully understand the purposefully confusing prologue of KH2 and it ended up getting a PS2 remake anyway. But after a while, the sheer amount of consoles that KH spin-off games that are necessary to understand KH3′s story with became ridiculous. At this point, the only way you can actually get the full KH series is to own a PS4. If you don’t, then you’re out of luck.

Positive: Disney Expansion - Because this game re-uses Disney characters and worlds from the original KH, Daisuke Watanabe got to expand on things that weren’t really delved into in that game. We get more on Aladdin’s character, more on Alice’s character, more on Peter Pan and Wendy’s characters, more on Belle and the Beast’s characters and relationship…and perhaps most notable of all, more on Jiminy Cricket’s character. The Disney worlds and characters that we saw in KH are all enriched by their memory-based appearances.

Negative: An Influx of OCs - The original KH only had four original characters: Sora, Riku, Kairi and Ansem (five if you are counting Xemnas from Final Mix). COM introduced nine new ones: Namine, Axel, Larxene, Marluxia, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Riku Replica, and DiZ. Again, this wasn’t a problem with the game back then, especially seeing as two-thirds of those characters get axed before the game is through. But it started the trend of Nomura introducing way too much OCs that come to overshadow all the Disney and FF characters. Worse still, he refuses to truly let any of them go, as all six of those dead characters end up coming back to life later on, as do the two who went on to perish in KH2. This results in an overly cluttered canvas by KH3, to the point where no FF characters can appear.

Positive: Set-up for KH2 - This game’s existence did for KH2 what the later Dream Drop Distance should have done for KH3 but didn’t: it effectively set the stage for the following game. It gave all of the necessary foreshadowing for things like Nobodies, the Organization’s true goal, Xemnas, Roxas, Twilight Town, Namine being Kairi’s Nobody, and DiZ being the true Ansem while the Ansem we knew being an impostor. It also removed five members of the Organization from the board, with the sixth slated for removal in KH2′s prologue, which left the villain roster at a much more manageable number for the game’s main scenario. COM truly feels like the middle installment of a trilogy: the shit that happens in it actually matters.

Negative: Too Much Rehash from KH1 - There is so much from the original KH that is on repeat in COM. Beyond the same Disney worlds and characters being re-used, the stories in those worlds and with those characters match the original KH’s beat for beat, except with themes of memory inserted in and all context to the larger narrative removed so that they feel like filler. Both recycling from the first KH and Disney world visits being filler were not so bad in this game, but when it kept happening throughout the rest of the series, players grew sick of it. Furthermore, beats from the first KH still transpire in the main storyline of the game: Namine is in a role like Kairi’s, the Riku Replica is in a role like Riku’s, Marlxuia is in a role like both Maleficent and Ansem while Ansem himself comes back for more fun darkness times in Riku’s story, and we get sequences of Sora being separated from Donald and Goofy (this time it’s flipped and he’s the one who turns on them), the trio making an “All for One, One for All” promise as they put their hands on one another, and Sora making a promise with Namine that has Kairi’s good luck charm at the center of it. It’s all a little too much familiarity.

Positive: Atmosphere - As much as this game rehashes the previous one, it has a markedly different tone. It’s darker, more foreboding, more eerie, more psychological and uncertain. The white walls of Castle Oblivion and the creepy music playing as you go through them floor by floor really helps to sell this, as does a lot of the dialogue, memory-based insights into the characters’ hearts, and twisted machinations of the villains. It makes COM, well, memorable.

Negative: Convoluted Writing - That’s right, it all starts here. The writing for the original KH was smart enough to not actively dwell on the more ponderous elements of its story, keeping the narrative to a simple presentation while leaving the deeper lore as stuff for the player to think and speculate about it on their own. But in this game, it starts getting pushed to the forefront. Memory and darkness are the central themes of Sora and Riku’s story respectively, and yet neither of them quite make sense the way they’re explored. Memory is repeatedly said to be an aspect of the heart, to the point where removing it altogether would shatter a person’s heart completely. Except that this is not only confusing to basic logic that says memory is an aspect of the mind, but it gets contradicted by the following game, KH2, where it states that Nobodies that have no hearts act upon the memories of when they had hearts. Then we have Namine’s powers and how it relates to memories, which is nebulously defined here and ends up ballooning to ludicrous godlike degrees in order to make certain plot turns happen in later games, and you end up retroactively questioning why she didn’t just fuck with the Organization’s memories and shatter them in order to escape captivity all by herself.

Meanwhile, darkness is completely rewritten so that it can be a good thing if Riku isn’t afraid of it and uses it for a good cause...except that this is literally what he did in the first KH and it corrupted him. Darkness was unambiguously bad and something that should not be used in that game, but now it’s being revamped just to make Riku into a special snowflake with uber-awesome darkness powers. Future games continue going back and forth on darkness on whether it’s good, bad or neutral, whether it’s a natural force that needs to co-exist with light or whether it’s the source of all evil in the universe. And I again must remind you that this is only the start of how convoluted the series gets with its stories! By KH3, the series has become an absolute clusterfuck where nothing really makes sense or amounts to anything. There’s no real depth anymore, just pretentious nonsense that Nomura confuses for depth.

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kinsbin · 4 years

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As I Walked Through the Woods

Title: As I Walked Through the Woods Ship: Orais/Alexys/Cyril [Self Insert/OCs] Word Count: 2094

Summary: Alexys, C, and Orais travel back home to Eden’s Gate. When Alexys gets hurt along the way, the two men choose to put aside their differences and make sure to help her.

A/N: Another comm for @space-sweetheart with my two OCs!!! They’re so in love with her its ridiculous and I hope all three of them stay HAPPY AND GOOD ;3;!!!

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The forest was quiet. The echo of the group’s footsteps was dramatic against the nothingness and the soft breeze that accompanied their walk. Alexys felt the dry air sting at her lungs as she inhaled, looking up to admire the scenery of the towering pines around her. It smelled like mulch and baking stone, clay under the heat of the morning hardening against the banks of rivers and an endless curl of bark against its treetops. The forest always felt so magical like this, she decided with a quirk of her lips as she admired a little while longer, powerful and old and filled to the brim with secrets she knew it would take to its grave. To be one with this forest would be something unique, she decided. Maybe if she ever died she would be able to be buried here. To let her body mold with the mulch. She imagined roots curling in her bones and sighed shakily, as if she could feel them on her lungs as her shoe dug a little deeper into the earth below her with a smile.

“We’re going the wrong way.”

“No we’re not. We always go this way!”

“No, we always follow the SUN, which is THAT WAY. I’m telling you, it’s WRONG.”

“YOU’RE WRONG!”

The sound of her boyfriend’s arguing behind her boomed across the landscape, subsequently shattering the quiet around them as they yelled their opinions at one another. Alexys took in a deep breath, allowing it to escape from her lips in the form of a sigh as she adjusted the coat on her body and turned around to face the other two with a raised eyebrow painted on her face.

Cyril’s mask was on, his muffled voice displaying only slight frustration behind its normally monotone presence outside of his preaching. Still, Alexys could practically feel the glare radiating from behind it. She had gotten good at reading the assassin. His body language spoke wonders where his words failed and she could tell he was TENSE. The way his shoulders hunched against him, the clutch of his gun between his white knuckles fingertips as he shook in an effort to control himself in front of her was something impressive. Against the side of his scarred cheek that showed itself away from the mask, the muscles of his clenched teeth could be shown. Outlines of bone on pale flesh as he stared forward at the figure in front of him.

Orais had actually decided to wear a shirt today, the tank top riding low and exposing the pale flesh of his torso just a little despite it. A near hour of her begging and gazing up at him with worry had made him finally relent to the outfit of a shirt and pants and combat boots, holstered along his belt with a knife and gun though he didn’t need them. Eden’s Gate made it a point to keep their members armed and manageable at all times. Whether or not Orais was an actual member of the cult or not, however, remained to be seen. Still, though he complained that he didn’t get cold or need to wear anything in defense against the Earth’s natural elements, he did look hot. The tank top defined the lines of his arms as they curved into obvious musculature. She only half missed the impressive set of abs he was hiding underneath his broad form, but the other half knew that he would get tired of the shirt and take it off eventually.

If he didn’t kill C, first.

“Babe, tell him we’re going the right way. I’m right, right?” Orai’s turned his head to face Alexys with an incredulous look plastered across his face. The way he gazed made his scars stretch out, the shift of the disfigured skin a cute wrinkle on his chin as he waved his hand at C, who stared placidly back at him with his hidden expression.

Alexys bit her lip as she looked around the forest. She hated getting involved in their debates too much. Choosing sides was never what she was about in the middle of their relationship. She was an anchor to them (or so they said). A tie to a world that kept them manageable and together despite the fact that they would rather die than travel like this. Choosing a side in any scenario would never make the other rhappy and, thus, she was content to keep her mouth quiet most of the time. This time, however, she felt the words fall from her lips despite herself.

“I think,” She spoke carefully, “We should probably make a camp or something if we’re gonna be out here for the rest of the night. You remember Jacob’s stories about this place, don’t you? We could get eaten… Or eat each other.”

“If we eat each other,” C spoke lightly, “I vote we eat Orais first.”

“Jokes on you,” Orais sneered, “I’d be able to eat you first. That’s the one fucking speciality I might have over you.”

“Oh, so you admit you don’t have any others?”

Orais’ growled, a sound that reverberated against his chest and pulled itself from his throat in the most inhuman way possible. Its noise sent birds fleeing the cover of bushes as they screamed their shocked caws. Animals rustled under the cover of underbrush to run away. It was a momentary cacophony of sounds that sent Alexys whirling in surprise before she stepped back, blinking into the sky around them before her foot caught on something. She gasped as she felt it slip back behind her, her body twisting an unusual angle and sending a pain through her ankle before pushing her down with gravity.

“Shit-!” She cursed out loud as her back hit the mulch of the earth, the grunt leaving her voice flittering into a pained whimper.

C and Orais were by her side in an instant. Hands touched her body, keeping her steady as they helped her off of her back and onto her butt, where she readjusted herself. She sound of C’s mask being discarded echoed, a clatter to the forest floor as his cold eyes gazed across her body.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” His tone was a desperate, genuine worry that filled her stomach with warmth and pain to hear as Orais’ hands gripped her cheeks and made her face him as his cold red eyes gazed into hers, checking for any signs of internal damage or a concussion.

“Woah, Babydoll,” Orais laughed, all teeth as he smirked, “I know I said that I loved it when you fell for me but I didn’t mean it like that.”

Alexys laughed despite the pain as she winced and tried to move her ankle, feeling a swollen punch hit her and make her stop breathing for a moment.

“Don’t make jokes at a time like this,” C’s voice was muffled under his face mask and his glare was sharp at the other, scarred face and brows now visible to show just how angry he was, “She’s hurt because of you!”

“Me?” Orais snarled back, “If you had just listened to me and we had gone the direction I said we wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with! You’re such a fucking bitch sometimes I swear to-.”

“Guyssss, don’t argue.” Alexys groaned as she reached up and pat Orias’ shoulder gently, shifting arms to pat C in the same way, “I just fell wrong and sprained my ankle a bit, I’ll be okay once I get some rest.”

“That depends on us getting back first.” Orais laughed bitingly, eyes angled towards C in a glare as he frowned, “What do you think then, Jesus Boy?”

Alexys, though she did not approve of the nickname, was grateful for Orais’ question. A question from him meant that he was going to listen to your opinion. It meant that he was willing to hear C out for once in their relationship and, to her, that was something far better than she could have expected. Even C seemed surprise, his eyes widening slightly before narrowing his brows again as he thought of an answer.

Slowly his arms extended from Alexys’ shoulders and down her body, finding her hurt ankle between his hands and slowly leaning down to push the end of her jeans up. She winced as the material rode up on the sensitive flesh. C paid careful attention to her movements, wincing whenever she whimpered or tensed and uttering a soft ‘sorry’ to her until he could finally expose enough of the ankle to examine it. It was already starting to bruise, the hot red muscle bulging in comparison to the other. It looked twice as bad as it felt and, Alexys worried, it hopefully wasn’t more than the sprain she had thought.

“She’s not going anywhere on this,” C stated with a sigh, “If you put any pressure on it, it’ll only make it worse.”

“Want me to kiss it better?” Orais’ saw was upturned in a smirk as he leaned forward. Before Alexys could say anything his lips found hers, a hot and rough kiss consuming her soul as his growls and chuffs of pleasure coursed through her mouth. Orais’ kisses were always like this. Hot and sweet and filled with all of him. It was all or nothing in his entire being and he mimicked it perfectly in the way he kissed her. For, to him, she was his everything. The thought sent a blush spreading on her cheeks like a wildfire as Orais pulled away, that curved smirk against his scarred face glimmering in the daylight.

A hand reached out, C’s fingertips finding Orais’ face and shoving him backwards as hard as he could. Orais grunted and laughed through it, grinning wider, “What’s up, Jesus Boy? You jealous?”

“I’m annoyed,” C’s voice was short with anger, “That you’re wasting our time like this when we could be walking back to base by now.”

“Oh so kissing her’s a waste of time now?” Orais snorted, “‘Sides you said so yourself, right? She can’t walk at all! What are we gonna do?”

There was a stony silence and Alexys swore she could FEEL Cyril’s smirk under his mask. Reaching for the discarded full face mask, he tucked it on his belt before re-adjusting himself. She barely had any chance to ask what he was doing before she was scooped up, bridal style, and held close to his chest.

His body was warm. Under the coat he wore as his outer layer, she could feel his heat radiating across his chest as his heart beat thrummed underneath him. The fur on his collar’s trim tickled her face, little licks of fuzz biting at her eyelashes and making her smile as they tickled her. There was a shake of his chest to indicate that he, too, had laughed at her own smile. When she looked up, his eyes were staring down at her. Icy blue orbs with brows knitted together with such affection that she felt isolated under them. That she felt like she was the only one in that gaze of his that meant anything. She blushed despite herself and looked down at the ground below her, remembering how tall Cyril truly was.

He was strong, too. It wasn’t the first time he had carried her like this but each time was a surprise as she dangled her legs from his arms. Her fingers found the front of his jacket, where they curled up into the fabric to create an easier hold on something, in case she did fall off for any particular reason. She knew, deep in her heart though, that C wouldn’t drop her. He would never let her go.

Behind them, Orai’s snorted.

“You’re a fucking show off, ain’t you?” He sneered at the other man, “If you get tired, I’m always happy to take my turn carrying our little princess~.”

“Shut up.” Cyril snarked back as he began walking, the movement careful as he adjusted her in his arms and whispered softly into her ear, “You can rest now. When you wake up, I’ll have you home.”

And then a form appeared at her side, his lips finding the top of her head with a laugh as Orais hummed, “WE’LL have you home.”

Alexys shut her eyes and smiled, snuggling further into the arms of the men she knew she was safest with.

Around her, the forest sang its song of silent appreciation as they walked on.

#self ship #self shipping #writing commission #oc self ship #kinley writes

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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Planet’s Edge: Two Seasons

The Moonbase commander congratulates us on retrieving one of the eight artifacts.

As several commenters have noted, Planet’s Edge has shaped up to have a real Star Trek feel, with the quest titles obvious analogues for episode titles. In fact, it’s safe to say that without budget constraints for things like costumes and special effects, Planet’s Edge‘s scenarios are considerably more imaginative and innovative than the typical Star Trek episode (particularly the Original Series). Like their counterparts on Starflight II, the authors here clearly don’t believe in convergent evolution. We’ve seen aliens based on birds and plants and lizards, some with no mouths, some with multiple arms, although all exhibiting fairly human-like personalities and flaws. I just wish the game had given us more portraits for these creatures; there’s only so much you can tell from the icons.

I remarked last time that their stories were “a bit silly and trite,” and I’ll back off a bit now. At the time, I was thinking primarily of the princess looking to escape her arranged marriage, but the subsequent stories have been a little more interesting.

But while I concede that this game could be fun and interesting, I still don’t like it. There’s nothing in it that I particularly like about RPGs. A certain quality of narrative and variety of quests are important to me, yes, but only when accompanied by meaningful character development or tactical combat. Still, I think the thing that bothers me most about Planet’s Edge is not what it lacks but rather a particular quick unique to me: I don’t like to know exactly how long something is going to last, or exactly how much time I have left. When I have to do a long, boring chore, I typically find a way to hide the amount of work I have to do or how much time I have remaining. For instance, when I decide to walk on the treadmill for two hours, I put a magazine over the display so I never know exactly how much time I have left. If I have to clean 200 data records, I’ll write a process that feeds them to me one at a time without showing me my overall count. I prefer the unknown even when making it unknown makes a task longer or require more effort. If I have to drive somewhere, I’ll often take a longer route with an unknown time rather than stick to the empirically shortest route. Yes, I know I have issues. Irene tells me all the time.

Planet Edge’s sin was telling me that I had to recover exactly eight pieces, then giving me a map that shows the galaxy divided into eight roughly-equal sectors with similar numbers of stars, so that I know each part is going to require about the same amount of time–and that means a 40-hour game at least. I want to know I’m facing a 40-hour game at Hour 37, not Hour 10. This is why I always insists that quests that are about assembling n parts of something always vary the length and difficulty of finding each part. Some you should just be able to walk up and grab. Ultima VI did that particularly well.

I had to get rid of all my weapons just to get six cargo units on board.

My final complaint, though, is that I don’t particularly enjoy blogging plot-heavy games. It’s a bit exhausting. If I ran The Adventure Gamer, I probably would have given up already. There’s always a question of how much I should include and how much I should summarize. Challenge of the Five Realms was a recent challenge; in blogging that game, I erred on the side of describing nearly every plot point. Other times, I’ve tried to summarize large sections of plot. My readers don’t seem to have a strong preference either way. I’ll try to take a middle path here.

When I left off last time, my crew was in Sector Algieba, where we managed to get ourselves appointed as emissaries from the Magin to President Ishtao. The president was on Ishtao station, orbiting Algieba, and I couldn’t even scan the planet until I’d paid 6 cargo units to the orbiting platform. I had to go back to Moonbase, remove all weapons from my ship, and load up with cargo.

Upon my return, I donated the units and the crew was able to beam down to an episode titled “Inauguration Day.”

On television, this would have been a two0-parter.

It was the best scenario so far. The Algiebians are a reptilian race fond of extra-long “s” sounds in their speech, which would normally make them evil, but they don’t seem to be here. They were in the midst of a celebration for the second inauguration of their president, Ishtao. The festivities had been infiltrated by the Geal A’nai, the Algiebian faction that had also tried to kill the princess in my previous session. They also plotted to cripple Ishtao’s space yacht and drive it into the sun, killing all of the visitors to the inauguration, and using a body double of Ishtao to give the order. It was a complicated plot. There were signs that the Geal A’nai may not in fact be the “bad guys” of the scenario, and that Ishtao had been mercilessly persecuting them, but it wasn’t fully explored. I ended up on the yacht almost immediately after entering the palace, owing to my order of exploration, but I think the events could have been done in any order. The inhabitants of the yacht were obsessed with a card game called, probably, “Chasqua.” I say “probably” because the natural speech of the Algiebians put a variable number of letters “a” and “s” in the name. It involves a group of five cards, each aspected to a particular color, which must be inserted into a number of slots in a defined order–specifically, red, yellow, green, orange, and blue. The problem is that there’s no objective way of telling which card goes with which color. They all look the same to humans, I guess. You have to show the cards to other denizens in the station and get their opinions. They look at them and say things like, “I’m pretty sure this #2 card is blue,” but they give no indication how they’re coming up with that information. In any event, they’re often wrong, so you have to take notes to whittle it down and go with the highest probability.

I’m going to get a second opinion.

In the midst of this exploration, a bomb went off on the ship, crippling the engines and the electrical system. The engineer explained that to fix the doors and teleporters, he needed a “gravity bar,” which happens to be the prize for winning Chasqua. President Ishtao’s doppelganger came over the P.A. and announced that he had ordered the yacht to plunge into the sun so that the Geal A’nai saboteurs would die, trusting everyone else would be willing to sacrifice themselves for such a noble end. The ship’s captain, shaking his head at such an out-of-character moment for Ishtao, begged us to get the ship’s engines back online and return with the command code so he could override the order. Meanwhile, the fake president demanded the command code for himself.

In due order, I figured out the Chasqua sequence, gave the gravity bar to the engineer, used the now-functioning teleporters to move around the otherwise-inaccessible parts of the yacht, and got the engines back online. Re-starting the engines involved inserting Chasqua cards in a particular sequence; one of the NPCs remarked that the game had been “designed by engineers as a mnemonic for complicated tasks.” Although a bit more of an adventure game than an RPG, at least Planet’s Edge doesn’t put you in a lot of “walking dead” moments. There’s a lot of backtracking, sure, but I’ve found that if I simply stick to an exploration pattern, talk to everyone, and search everything, I’ll eventually get what I need. There were several battles with Geal A’nai during the exploration, and combat isn’t any more exciting than it was last time. A lot depends on luck. So far, I haven’t found a battle that wasn’t easy enough to win by reloading. I’ve found a few weapon and armor upgrades, which I’ve been distributing according to skill. It also makes sense to keep a couple of different types of armor on you because certain armors defend better against certain weapons. Each item comes with a detailed item description, incidentally, which is something that few RPGs have done thusfar in my chronology.

A description of Reflec Armor.

Once I had the command codes, I tried both potential endings. If I gave them to the fake president, he continued the ship’s course into the sun, rejoicing that, “News will soon reach Algieba IV that a ship full of innocents were killed and they will believe that Ishtao was responsible!” Giving the codes to the commander saved the ship. Either way, my party was allowed to escape in a pod. I decided to go with the “good” outcome (save the ship) because it’s my natural tendency, but it occurred to me while writing this entry that 90% of players probably do that. Since I’m not really that excited about the game anyway, why not spice things up by taking the evil path? Maybe you’ll see that reflected in the next entries.

The party gets the command codes after inserting more cards in those slots.

Anyway, the Geal A’nai weren’t done. They had also infiltrated the kitchen staff and other key positions in the presidential palace and had plotted to kill Ishtao through a mechanism I completely didn’t understand. It somehow just involved pulling a lever. I found a Geal A’nai in a prison cell, and when I showed him one of the amulets I’d looted from a corpse, he thought we were part of his faction and told us where we could find the “sixth key” in a crate in the kitchen. Using it on the lever somehow resulted in the president’s death–which I tried, then reloaded.

The causal mechanism escapes me here.

The “good” path involved getting to see Ishtao by pretending to be reporters (one of his minions assumed we were and gave us a press pass). He wanted proof that the Geal A’nai had infiltrated the palace, which we provided in the form of the amulet. He then wanted us to find the sixth key, which apparently isn’t just a key, but the “holiest of relics from the ages of darkness!” Fortunately, we already had that. He rewarded us with an amulet that would grant us passage to the depository on Koo-She Prime.

The party enables the president’s self-destructive war.

I had originally thought I would finally find the sector’s quest item–Algiebian Crystals–at Koo-She Prime, but they actually turned up as the result of an innocuous side quest in the presidential palace. One of the rooms housed a museum of Algiebian history–each of the exhibits making that history sound all the more brutal. The curator hinted that she was thirsty, so we bribed her with a bottle of wine we’d received from a bartender. She wandered away from her post, allowing us to throw the switch that controlled the force fields over the exhibits. By now accustomed to searching everything, I searched each exhibit and serendipitously found the crystals in one of them. To solve this quest if you already knew where the crystals were, you’d just need to beam down, get into the palace, and kill the curator.

Search everything, kids.

Koo-She Prime kicked off an episode called “Solitaire.” Shortly after we arrived–and got in with the presidential amulet–we tripped a trap that caused three of the party members to get beamed away and held in stasis. William had to solve the area by himself, some of which required referring to clues from random NPCs back on Algieba. There were a lot of traps, hostile beasts, and reloading. After puzzling his way through a series of caves, he arrived in a science facility, where he had to switch bodies with a four-armed creature to operate four levers at once. Ultimately, he released his friends and found some technical plans that allowed for better weapons and ship parts back at home. Back at Moonbase, Commander Polk congratulated us for getting the Algiebian Crystals and suggested we explore Sector Kornephoros next. I was unhappy with being told where to go, so after I scrapped the Ulysses for an upgraded ship–which the game named Calypso–I headed for Sector Caroli for no other reason that it was clockwise from Algieba.

Outfitting my second ship.

Caroli had a lot more stars than Algieba, most with absolutely nothing to do, not even elements for my higher-capacity starship. One planet–Zavijava Prime–had an orbital platform occupied by those goons again, and it was here that I fought and (badly) lost my only attempt at ship combat this session. I stumbled on the sector’s quest at Alula IV, in an episode called “Desolation.” It soon transpired that Alula IV was the agricultural planet of a species called the Eldarini. I never found a description of them, but the species apparently goes into hibernation for long periods of time and then awakens ravenous, killing and eating anything nearby if there’s no other obvious source of food. Alula IV and its “Iozam” grain was supposed to be that food, but both the harvester and the transport ship had broken down. The place was also swarming with hostile carnivores that we had to kill.

The alien explains what’s going on with his species.

We had to get the local boss, Agricol, to take us on as field hands before we could explore the place. This involved a puzzle where he put us in a room with seven items and said they could all easily fit into a pack, but I should select the one that he wouldn’t want to take with him. They were an industrial badge, a levitator, a stone, an assault laser, a gold wire, ceramic armor, and a rifle. I chose the stone because it was the only item that had no real utility, and it turned out I was right. I’m just not sure I was right for that reason. As he welcomed us aboard, he gave us tickets for the “life gallery” on Merak I. Solving the quest required us to go to two other planets–Denebola IV and TK–for the parts for both the vehicles. Denebola IV was the Eldarin homeworld, and its episode was titled “Forsake the Wind.” Exploring the area, we had to be careful not to brush against sleeping Eldarins, or they would wake up and try to kill us. The surface of the planet was filled with hostile sandworms erupting from pools of lava. They occasioned enough reloading that we were definitely here a bit too early. Still, I pushed through.

These worms were no fun at all.

We had to solve a variety of navigation puzzles not worth recounting to get the part for the harvester. Returning to Alula IV, we fixed the harvester, which promptly went out of control when we turned it on and bashed through a fence. This allowed us access to a new area and ultimately the station commander, who gave us the requisition form to take to Oortizam Labs on Cor-Caroli Prime.

The next episode.

Cor-Caroli Prime’s episode was “A Small Matter.” The core part of it involved the party being shrunk to microscopic size and having to navigate our way through the circuit board of some computer while battling hostile nannites. I either missed or didn’t record the encounter text or NPC conversation that explained why or how this happened. We had to switch a couple of computer chips and pull a lever to get out. When we did, one of the items enlarged along with the party was the Gravitic Compressor, needed for the Centauri Device.

Navigating the circuit maze.

Eventually, we were able to get the requisition form notarized, at which point an engineer gave us the “ComNav” needed for the ship on Alula IV. We returned, got that ship repaired (thus saving the Eldarins from famine), and were given a note to give to the supervisor on Denebola IV. He in turn allowed us access to the “rare treasures room” and suggested he’d look the other way if anything went missing. The room held two more sets of technical plans.

Good. My newly-evil party is going to need better weapons.

Overall, Sector Caroli’s quests were the first that didn’t seem to have any “evil” or otherwise alternate options, except I suppose just killing everyone instead of actually solving the quests. Before I ended this session, I was interested in checking out this “life gallery” on Merak I, also in the Caroli sector. But when I visited, I found it guarded by hostile blue aliens who killed me when I resisted, so we went back to Moonbase with our tail between our legs.

His assessment of our capabilities was, alas, accurate.

Expect a change in tone in future entries as my party loses patience with this increasingly hostile and irrational universe. Time so far: 15 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/planets-edge-two-seasons/

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