#I have neither the resources or the skills

[bardolatress]

Okay, look. I love the romantic gifs and thirst posts from Anyone But You as much as the next person, but what I REALLY want is a series of gifs that show the parallels between the film and Much Ado About Nothing.

I need Pete and Roger’s bad acting in the gulling scenes. I need the direct quotes. I need all the Shakespearean antics.

Y’all, I’m asking for a friend (It’s me, I’m the friend).

#anyone but you #much ado about nothing #Shakespeare #I have neither the resources or the skills #I make this request to the good people of Tumblr

[thrythlind]

Procedural Generated Urban Fantasy Game

So, the appearance of Wildermyth on the market has opened up the idea that proceduraly generated stories can actually be done. Granted that Wildermyth's generated stories aren't the deepest and while the pre-written campaigns with their story events can hit some very moving notes, those are still pre-written campaigns. But within the tight confines of a short campaign stretched out over many generations, Wildermyth is amazingly successful.

So, this gameplay genre can definitely be applied to other narrative genres and I have actually two variations of this idea in mind. Once again, I lack either the skills or resources to make this happen, but it's fun to put you out into the open in case someone picks it up.

As a note, some people have encouraged me to build a pitch to put forth to a company, but I'm doubtful since I'm sure they always get tons of suggestions. Then again, if I don't put it forth then I'm just self-ruling out. Something to think about between projects.

Anyway. Let's go to the ideas

The Generational Horror Game

This one cuts closer to Wildermyth in style, so we'll start here.

In this case, we'd start with a story somewhere in the past. 17th or so century.

Now, let's get this out of the way.

Tilesets

One of the strengths of Wildermyth is that it's range of stories allows it to focus on a mostly unchanging world so that technologies, villages, and architecture remain unchanged, allowing them to use the same pool of maps and map elements for their procedurally generated combat maps.

But having a game that goes between 17th century style to 21st century is going to involve the world map and map styles changing from one chapter to the next, which does mean requiring a much larger collection of maps and tilesets.

Also, if I'm honest, I'd look to employ world designers to build architectural styles borrowing from various influences, not ruling out euro-inspired, but not necessarily focusing on that either. Something uniquely and alt-universe that blends cultural bits for a unique feel.

In any case, assuming a 3-chapter or 5-chapter build style, we'd need tilesets and backdrops for:

cities of varying time periods

small towns of varying time periods

various businesses (farms, factories, cubicle farms, etc)

rural settlements of varying time periods

ancient ruins

possible cultural variations on all the above

Which does get into some of the exoticism and orientalism of a lot of Horror stories from the past of fear coming out of interacting with the other, and to be honest, I don't REALLY trust a procedural generation to not do something really in poor taste that the developers didn't foresee, but we're talking ideals here.

Generational split

Wildermyth splits time between chapters of between 1 and 12 years. With the generic stories tending to be between 9 and 12 years and the shorter pauses being limited to the pre-written games. For Horror, I think a longer split is probably possible.

Perhaps have a downtime of 20-50 years between chapters.

In this case, the first run of heroes will mostly not survive to be involved in the next adventures. So part of each chapter will probably include someway to pass on warnings to the next generation. Keeping a journal for instance, or passing on knowledge to a family member.

So, next generations might be able to get further ahead than those that came before them through these sources.

This could be a procedural thing actually. When Chapter 2 pulls up it could be a list of possible carry ons such as:

wizened member of chapter 1 survivors helps new heroes out of a jam

chapter 2 survivors find a journal that helps them out of a jam

chapter 2 survivors include a descendant of the chapter 1 survivors

This would be along the lines of such horror stories where the heroes find that other people have dealt with the same threat. The issue being those past heroes aren't usually ones you saw until a prequel comes out.

It would create a less connected thread than the way Wildermyth follows the same team with retiring being rare.

Transformations and Artifacts

Okay, one of the major facets of Wildermyth are the transformations and artifacts that players can acquire over the course of the game and these are also a key element of horror and urban fantasy.

The transformations in Wildermyth are already fairly horror adjacent and some are legitimate nightmare fuel, but would like to see some things like a traditional vampire or a shapeshifting werewolf like figure as well as figures touched by eldritch weirdness.

But then again, one of the strengths of Wildermyth is that it doesn't exactly map to real world myths. So a way to do a vampire, demon, angel, cthulhu, or other such aesthetic while still being weirdly unique is something to look into.

One thing to note in the comparison of Horror vs Fantasy though is in focusing on the isolation and alienation of developing transformations as well as the potentially dangerous aspects of magical artifacts.

As a personal flavor, I'm not in favor of moving evil from a matter of choice to a matter of circumstance, but this doesn't mean that you can't have an artifact that is powered by something that calls for a heavy price... and presenting the option to pay that price in a way that passes it on to someone else, whether they want to or not. For example, spells that require a lot of energy and either you can build up that energy slowly and methodically... or you can do a human sacrifice to do it right away. In this case, to option to do evil is there, but it's not something you have to do.

Likewise, I'm not in favor of vampirism=evil outright. D&D true vampires are evil because they made a deal to get to that state of being. Vampire spawn are predominately victims and mind controlled, so whether they're truly evil or not is clouded. WoD vampires, by contrast, are not innately evil. They are cursed and have a shit existence, and their powers make it easier for them to give into their worst impulses without worry of immediate consequences, but the choice to do evil is there own and most of them are vampires due to things out of their control.

So, anyway, horrible, monstrous transformations and dangerous artifacts feel like appropriate elements of the genre but Wildermyth already does this fairly well.

But something I'd like to note is the idea of some transformations allowing a particular hero to stop aging so they can potentially appear in all the following chapters.

This feels like an option that should be sparingly used or accessible, however.

Legacy Characters

Here's where we have another problem with the game splitting over a period where the world changes swiftly from a bit past medieval... or even medieval if we decided to have stories go back even further in time and stretch out the time between generations even further... is that you can't just plug a hero generated from a modern period into a medieval period.

So, the procedurally generated backgrounds for different characters would have to be designed such that it fits all the time periods. Wildermyth has eventually implemented ways for you to look at multiple versions of different characters, so this could similarly be a thing for the backgrounds. Where if you look at a Legacy character you might see different time-appropriate backgrounds for different characters.

Alternately, you might have Legacy characters tied to particular time periods.

Betrayal

One thing that is more common in Horror type stories is the concept of former heroes joining the side of darkness. This can be done such that they are more victims, such as the victim of a vampire becoming a thrall.

In general, I think the way Wildermyth handled this with the Thrixl campaign and the Unresting Ones is the best option. Where the player controlled heroes were never in danger of becoming such thralls, but they did face the corruption of people they cared about or were trying to save. But I suppose we can't rule out the idea of a hero from a previous chapter coming out as a villain in a subsequent chapter.

Classes

As with Wildermyth, three classes seem best.

Hunter

Expert

Scholar

It's basically warrior, hunter, mystic renamed... people coming from Wildermyth might be a bit confused at Warrior > Hunter, but it still feels that "Hunter" is a more appropriate title for horror style fighters.

Then again we can take the Monster of the Week track and replace "Hero" with "Hunter" so all the player controlled characters are "Hunters" and then use the following.

Soldier

Expert

Scholar

In this case, the scholar might not have much innate magic per se the way a Wildermyth mystic does, but instead rather knows methods to leverage enemy weaknesses and simple warding methods.

In this case being a warlock or witch would be a transformation.

Another alternate way to do this is to skip classes entirely and just have a pool of skills. However, this becomes harder to find a good enjoyable experience since such freedom in a TTRPG benefits heavily from GM involvement that will be lacking in a CRPG environment.

Enemy Forces

As with Wildermyth, five seems a good number here. Wildermyth had the following:

Cults and human corruption in the Deepists

Ancient beings from forgotten days in the Gorgons

Hordes and dragons in the Drauven

Transhumanism and necromancy in the Morthagi

Eldritch aliens from outside in the Thrixl

Similarly, a horror themed procedurally generated set of enemy forces should hit horror tropes.

Human Cults

Demonic and Angelic beings

Undead entities

Eldritch abominations

Consequences of human greed and arrogance

To be honest, a lot of the base level of enemy forces would be corrupted humans and animals. Slashers, cultists, zombies, etc. With deeper and more eldrtich entities further on, so each of the above would be more stages than factions.

So

Tier 1 basic enemies, indoctrinated humans and animals that are ... off

Tier 2 enemies, first clearly inhuman and transformed monsters

Tier 3 enemies, pure forms of the eldritch line

Tier 4 enemies, further variations of the tier 3, revealing tier 3 are the common sorts of the lot

Tier 5 enemies, bosses and sources

In this case I think the enemy sorts would be:

Religious entities

Death

Alien entities

Human hubris

Natural forces

Scale is a connected matter and this is already a bit well handled by Wildermyth... however...

A lot of modern horror, the scale is intensely personal. Isolation is a heavy part of the horror experience and modern settings of horror often work to keep the protagonists isolated in a crowd.

While zombie and similar apocalypses are legitimate horror environments and should be a potential story thread in a game of procedural horror, there's a lot of other cases where the battle against an eldritch force that has been going on for generations starts out far more public than it ends.

So a horror where the final chapter has the disbelief and interference of the common populace becoming a factor is definitely something that could happen in some story arcs.

It's the difference between, say Call of Cthulhu and Dawn of the Dead. One is a hidden ongoing situation that spans the world unknown to most of the populace and the other has killed most of the populace and is a very public PROBLEM. Both have their own flavor of horror.

Anyway, I'll wrap up on this idea here.

#video game concepts i have neither the skill nor resources to do #horror #wildermyth #procedural generation

[andhumanslovedstories]

Does anyone have advice for getting over the embarrassment of speaking a language you aren’t good at with other people? I’ve studied Spanish, I know a little bit of Spanish, I am trying to learn more Spanish specifically for healthcare providers, but when I’m faced with an actual primarily Spanish speaking patient at my job, I get so nervous and tongue tied I’m like “maybe ‘buenos noches actually means I’m gonna kill you with morphine….i better stick entirely to English.” I know it’s the embarrassment! I don’t wanna sound stupid! And because so many of my patients understand a little English, I can usually muddle thru basic conversations relying on them. Which sucks! I feel bad about that! I’m like “I don’t want to talk in a language I’m not fluent in, so I’ll make them talk in a language I’m not fluent in.”

Also to be clear, this is all for stuff like “do you need the bathroom” or “do you want a pepsi from the kitchen.” I will always use an interpreter for anything more complicated than basic needs. But it’s a pain in the ass to use the interpreter ipad, and no one likes it, including the patients. It’d be nice to use it less and to be able to have more of a rapport with my patients. The foundation of my whole nursing practice is casual small talk with patients to learn more about them and their needs, and my Spanish speaking patients don’t get that.

(Neither do my patients who speak Russian or Taishanese or Vietnamese or but like. I don’t expect myself to learn every language in the world. Right now I just want to learn the language I theoretically kinda learned.)

I’ve been really working on pushing myself to try to speak more Spanish, at least a little bit, but I just have this mental block that I can’t push thru. It’s like all the social anxiety I’ve learned to otherwise cope with or moved on from settled entirely in my insecurity about my language skills. It’s nuts. Then I feel guilty about it which makes the block bigger which I feel guilty about, do you see the pattern here. Has anyone have any advice or resources? Not just for learning the language—I would also really appreciate those—but specifically dealing with this language embarrassment?

#nursing tag #language learning #spanish #it’d be cool to be fluent in Spanish and to use it for things besides basic questions at my job #but bare bare minimum I want to be able to be like te duele la cabeza? #learning spanish

[skaldish]

odd question: did the norse people ever worship or venerate the warriors of Valhalla? or was it just a goal to aspire to?

The Old Norse people worshipped their ancestors, some of which went to Valhalla, and some who were definitely heroes. But I don't think they worshipped "the warriors of Valhalla" as an archetype, or as paragons to emulate. Valhalla wasn't even viewed as a goal to aspire to. Rather, it was a consolation prize for dying far from home.

Prior to the Viking Age, the Norse people believed they rejoined their family and ancestors after they died. However, this was dependent on the fact they would be buried in the family grave or barrow.

But going a-viking meant risking death far from home, and this death would most likely happen while out at sea or during a skirmish.

In order to reconcile the question of "Where do we go if we can't be with our families?", the Norse people concluded that if they died out at sea, they went to Njord's hall, and if they died in a skirmish, they went to Odin's or Freyja's hall. This way, they had the comfort of knowing they would still be with their gods and people if they perished far from home.

It's important to keep in mind that the vikings were not exactly a warrior class; as in, "being a warrior" wasn't their job. They were pirates. And like all pirates, their goal was to retrieve goods, either by trade or by raid. Most vikings had every intention of making it home alive, and just like being a skilled sailor improved these odds, so did knowing how to put an axe through a man's skull.

Dying while going a-viking was honorable for the same reason that successfully returning home with goods was honorable; it's the fact that a person risked their life to travel very far away and gather resources for their family and community. It's an honorable deed.

But just because this death was honor-worthy doesn't mean it was a goal.

First of all, let's consider the practical aspect here: In a pre-industrial era, no one in their right mind would waste an entire ship on a crew that didn't plan to come back in it.

Secondly, "dying gloriously on the battlefield" only has widespread cultural importance in imperial nations; nations motivated by dominion, conquest, and establishing their widespread rule. Not only were the Norse societies not imperial, they didn't even have a centralized military, let alone the manpower to fight the rank-and-file wars we associate with the term "war."

So I guess the short answer to your question is "neither." Heroes were definitely venerated, but the notion that becoming ulfhednar makes someone the worthiest of all worthies is a retroactive interpretation.

#vikings #norse paganism #ulfhednar #norse heathenry #asatru

[feyhunter78]

Among The Sun

Description: The Conqueror, the Ravager of Lands, He who deals in blood and war. Emperor Miguel and his armies have scoured the land, and now they have set their sights on your kingdom. Will you fall to the Demonborn's blade, or will a strange connection between you and Miguel turn the tides of fate? Ch 2

The castle is abuzz with gossip and fear, words passed along in secret, gates closed, doors bolted. You press your back to the wall, the heavy curtain hiding you from the servants passing by. No one will tell you anything, simply bid you to dress and make yourself presentable as if there was to be a banquet, or a ball, not a potential siege.

“I’ve heard he’s coming from the West, that he set fire to the River Atraites, that his men—his armies of demons marched upon the flames.” One says, her voice hushed and filled with fear.

“No, he is coming from the East, the mountains bowed to him and allowed him passage through.” Another whispers, stronger but still afraid.

The Conqueror, the Ravager of Lands, He who deals in blood and war. He would be arriving soon if the rumors were to be believed, and you are no fool, you believe them.

You don’t know much about the Conqueror, your only information comes from rumors or war reports, neither of which are helpful. The rumors come from pleasurehouses, fanciful tales of the emperor storming in, scouring the establishment and searching for a woman with y/h/c hair and y/e/c eyes. If one cannot be found, he is said to destroy the place, leaving terrifying claw marks and scorched bodies in his wake. If one can be found, the rumors say her cries of pleasure can be heard throughout the town and that she emerges from the encounter with only faint pleasant memories.

The war reports tell a different tale. They speak of him as merciless, tearing through men as if they are parchment, his armies moving as a perfect unit, no breaks, no faults, only skilled, relentless ruin. He is said to have claws and fangs, some say he has horns like a ram, and his eyes glow crimson. He is a terrifying sight to behold, half monster, half man, an abomination that has set half the continent ablaze.

You wait until their footsteps pass then slip from behind the curtain, hurrying down the hall to the throne room where your father, mother, and three brothers are set to gather. Instead, you stumble upon a horrid scene. Your father and brothers lie on the marble floor, bloodied and unmoving, your mother is draped over your eldest brother’s body, wailing wretchedly.

“Traitors to the crown, they have done this.” She shrieks, clinging to his body.

You’re frozen, staring at the carnage before you. True, you had no real fondness for your eldest brother, the gap between your ages was too far to bridge, but the others at least made an effort.

“What—what are we to do? Mother, you are queen, the Conqueror will be here, he will offer you what he offers every other window, you must be prepared.” You tell her, rushing to her side and attempting to pull her from your brother’s body.

She refuses to budge, shrugging you off. “I will not, he will not come here, we have nothing to offer.”

Your kingdom is not small, in fact it’s quite large, a port town, but your mother is right, it holds nothing that the Conqueror doesn’t already have. He has already captured the agricultural kingdoms, the larger trade kingdoms, and those who boast their stores of wealth and gems. His own lands that far-flung empire that declared him ruler after a bloody and horrid event, is rich in resources, the soil, and cities still boasting the remnants of Arcana. It is a wealthy and powerful force, wielded like an obsidian sword by the Conqueror.

“You do not know that, please, either we stay, and you take up your crown, or we flee to the ships.” You’re tugging on her arm, already formulating an escape route. But would you make it in time?

Your mother says nothing, only continues to weep and holds out her hand for her fallen crown. She has made her choice; she will doom you both to die here.

Your kingdom has fallen, the gates forced open, the crowns of your father and brothers thrown to the ground, their bodies lying beside them. There is no time to clean the throne room, you’ve received the reports, the Conqueror is mere minutes away.

The emperor is cruel, monstrous, a vile, wicked man who care only for conquest. You have heard the rumors, the whispers as his armies march across the lands, leaving death and destruction in their wake. And now he would be coming here, to give your mother the very same choice he gave to each former queen. Bend the knee, pay tribute, or watch your kingdom burn. Dozens of kingdoms have refused and burned, but your mother is not a warrior, she weeps over your father and brothers, laments their loss as your kingdom crumbles around you.

When the Conqueror comes, you fear the choice she will make, fear the rumors of the horrors that await those kingdoms gifted to the murderous emperor. You do not wish for your land to become a territory of the ravager, a sacrifice to the blood-soaked demon, Miguel the Conqueror, the Relentless, the Merciless, but you fear your mother will have no choice.

Miguel is bored, his fingers tangled in the hair of another whore as she moans, her face shoved into the pillows as she helplessly tries to fuck back on him. He has her bent over the bed, thrusting mindlessly as he starts out the window at this kingdom’s castle.

She is skilled, he will not deny it, but Miguel doesn’t simply desire skill, he desires the woman from his memories and dreams.

He lets out a long sigh and closes his eyes trying to picture you, his soulmate, his horizon, with your soft skin and stunning smile, the lilt of your voice, your tantalizing smell. He groans as the image forms, crystalline fractured fantasies, flashes of you, snatches of memories.

“Fuck, mi vida, you feel so good, wonderful, you are wonderful, my empress.” He sighs, his free hand settling on your—the whore’s hip, steadying himself before he pounds into her, picturing how pretty you’d look, grasping at the silken sheets he’s procured for you, whining as he smooths a hand down your spine.

You’d be so sweet for him, clinging to him as he fucks you, your pretty eyes fluttering closed, your lips parted so perfectly. He misses when he would see you in his dreams, when he would hold you for a moment before you disappeared like sand slipping through his fingers. Now all he sees when he sleeps is darkness, exhaustion hitting him like a horse.

“Please, Your Majesty, harder.” She begs, lifting her head from the mattress.

Her voice rips him from his fantasy, and he pulls out, tucking himself back into his breeches. “I asked you not to speak.”

She looks back at him, and he regrets not compelling her. She looks so much like you, the closest he’s found, but he shouldn’t have taken the chance.

He grabs her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You will remember none of this, only that you did your job and was paid handsomely for it.”

She nods, her shoulders drooping, eyes glazing over as his spell takes hold.

Miguel sighs and arranges her comfortably on the bed before leaving more than enough gold for her rudimentary services.

As he trudges down the stairs of the brothel, he’s met by his advisor, Lyla. She’s still in full armor except for those oddly shaped glasses that cover her eyes.

“It’s time.” She says, nodding towards the door.

Another kingdom to burn or capture, another fruitless search. Have the gods not dammed him enough? Have they not stricken him with this unholy visage, with these demonic powers, with a life of misery and death? You, you are the one he searches for, in your arms he will finally find rest, and if not, he will ensure it is so. There will be no kingdom for you to run to, no lands untouched by him, no bounty great enough to pull you from him, no powers beyond the divine will separate you, and even then, he has always desired to fight the gods.

He will offer this kingdom’s queen the choice he offers all others, waiting as they cower in fear, his eyes searching their court for you. But you are never there, and his anger only grows.

Perhaps this time will be different? Gabi would be fond of this land, would enjoy the flowers and streams. He prays that is a good sign.

TL: @not-aya, @belos-simp69, @deputy-videogamer, @sxnasbitch, @maxi-ride, @minimari415, @syndrlla97, @gejo333, @lady-necromancer

#meg's writing #miguel o'hara fanfiction #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara x you #miguel o'hara x y/n #miguel ohara x you #miguel ohara x y/n #miguel ohara x reader #new series alert #YALL READY FOR THIS #dual povs for this chapter #emperor!miguel #princess!reader

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for possibly invalidating a self-diagnosed autistic person

I (20sNB) met D (20sM) in an online server for an anime fandom we're both in. I'm a psychology student who was professionally diagnosed with autism in early childhood. D and I developed a friendship based on having similar fandom opinions. I don't remember how me being autistic came up in conversation but when I mentioned it, he described himself as "autistic as f#ck". Sometimes he would get into arguments with other people in the server and bring up his autism if he was called out on how he spoke to people. On his twitter he said his autism was self-diagnosed and he has no interest in getting a professional diagnosis but he could if he wanted to.

I have complicated feelings on self-diagnosis; I think there's pressure in the autistic community to accept every single self-diagnosed person as valid. I personally would never definitively say I had something that I hadn't been professionally diagnosed with. That being said, I understand that there are factors that would prevent someone from getting a diagnosis so some people *have* to only be self-diagnosed. I don't have a problem with it as long as people aren't spreading misinformation or being actively harmful, which is what I (and others) thought D was doing. My issue wasn't him being self-diagnosis, it was that he was using his self-diagnosed autism to justify incorrect (and harmful) claims.

I noticed a few times that he would make comments like "autism isn't a disability" and "some autistics have high support needs because of intellectual disability", which is just flat out wrong. D also claimed that if he was to get a diagnosis, his would be level 3 autism (which would be for someone with high support needs with severe social and communication deficits, generally nonverbal) but he also is a college student who's been in a relationship for over a year and he works part-time in retail. For context, my diagnosis happened when there was different terminology but my psychologist considers me to be somewhere between level 1 or 2 and I am also studying and working part time.

Another person in the server (let's call them P, also 20sM) brought up a different disorder that they'd been diagnosed with (not autism although P is autistic as well) and D immediately said "I probably have that too but I can't be bothered to do anything about it".

P and a few other people in the server expressed some frustration in a separate group chat about D's tendency to (a) say things about autism that just aren't true and (b) say "omg me too" every time one of us brings up things we have. Once D said autism isn't a disability the third or fourth time we'd had enough and I responded "D, that's not right". D took offense to that and claimed as a fellow autistic person I should agree with him. I said "D, I'm autistic and it's a disability, I call myself disabled because my autism is literally disabling". D said he felt like disabled is a bad word and he doesn't like using it about himself. I said "D, no one's forcing you to use it about yourself if you don't want to, but saying autism isn't a disability is just wrong". P pointed out that every time someone in the server talks about being neurodivergent D is like "omg me too" and P also said that D doesn't get to claim to be autistic while also spreading misinformation, especially when the misinformation being spread is ableist. D got mad at P for calling him ableist; he insisted he's autistic and self-diagnosis is valid. I said "I get that, but when the information you're spreading is flat-out wrong, it kind of makes me question your researching skills".

D called P and I both ableist, told us we were so privileged to be diagnosed (which neither of us disputed but also D *could* have been diagnosed but chooses not to be even though he has the resources to access a professional diagnosis) and we're "f#cking assholes" for invalidating self-diagnosed autistics. D's partner (20sF) also got involved and claimed we were bullying D and we both have "pick-me" attitudes. P and I both muted the server and disengaged for a while.

Later on, D messaged P and I both. D claimed his reaction to what was said was because of his autism. P had had enough and said "buddy, you don't get to say that" and D got mad and blocked P. I told D I was going no-contact and D could block me if he wanted. D called me an asshole and I blocked him.

It's probably worth noting that my autism means that I have difficulty interpreting people's messages in text form and tend to take what people say at face value. Sometimes D getting overly confrontational triggered my anxiety and caused me to feel very uneasy around him since it was in text form and there was no vocal tone to decipher (if that makes sense). The thing is, I don't think D is necessarily not autistic, I just think D has some internalized ableism and doesn't really understand the nuances of the autism spectrum enough to make a sound judgement and he should have maybe not made claims about an identity he knows very little about, but maybe P and I might have been a little harsh because we'd been stewing on our feelings for so long.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[lxvvie]

ᴏᴏᴅᴀʟ.

pairing: Alejandro x AFAB!Reader word count: 1319. cw: age gap (implied, the reader is mid to late 20s), smut/NSFW (in later installments). note: shadofireshinobi, you have called and I have answered. finally. this was originally supposed to be a one-shot but I decided to break it up because I wanted to draw out the tension some more.

oodal (Tamil) - the exaggerated, oftentimes fake anger between lovers after a quarrel.

It was 10 minutes into your arrival and you were already on edge.

You could blame it on the flight there but that would be baseless, even for you. Instead, you opt to shift blame (which is even more baseless) on their vaunted leader whose minimal tolerance for bullshit was admirable, doubly so in your case.

It wasn’t like you’d tell him, though, not with the way he was staring into your soul after your gripe session.

And thus your dance began.

It was a week into your arrival and tensions were rising.

To be honest, your temper was flaring not even a full 24 hours after you arrived and made yourself home. This wasn’t your first choice; shit, it wasn’t your choice to make at all but here you were. And here he was, assigned to protect you. Wonderful. It was a routine trip, part of the job. You could be diplomatic when you wanted and needed to—hell, it’s in your job description to be, yeah?—but with Alejandro, well…

This just wasn’t one of those times.

It was like walking on eggshells and riding the lightning. One simple conversation could end with you snarling and Alejandro talking you down placidly but you were no fool. You saw the tension corded in his neck, saw it in furrowed brows and the way he clenched his jaw; he wouldn’t back down and neither would you.

And poor Rodolfo—Rudy! He good-naturedly insisted you called him such. Alejandro’s right-hand man was caught between a rock and a hard place, doing his best to make sure your stay was as comfortable as possible while aiding his commander as best as he could. He was good at it. You could see why Alejandro trusted him so much. Rudy was the cool breeze to his solid, unwavering earth. You could admire the man for his decision-making skills if he wasn’t such a hard-ass.

Or perhaps you already did and you weren’t aware of it yet. Certainly, Alejandro thought so, too, if the look he gave you was any indication.

It was a week and two days into your arrival and you damn near pissed your pants.

You weren’t expecting this ( emphasis on YOU) but Alejandro wasn’t a leader for nothing. He had plans. And contingency plans. Some of which you weren’t too keen on.

Turns out the culprit was a rival faction, people who took offense to Alejandro’s stance on corruption. They dealt a fair good bit of damage but Los Vaqueros pulled through. You were separated in the fallout but you survived. Physically that is (your dignity is another story). He made sure of it. The drawback to this, however, was that space and resources were limited for the time being which meant you were stuck.

Stuck with him. Wonderful.

At least he was nice enough to tell you which resulted in yet another gripe session, one he immediately shut down. He didn’t raise his voice but you could hear the finality in it just the same.

And if this were anyone else, you'd shrug it off with a cool, almost derisive shrug, perhaps even a cutting remark if you had the energy for it. Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding your current predicament would put you in even more danger than you were already in and so you opted to let your eyes do the talking for you.

It's too bad it didn't work. He met your glare with an even gaze of his own and you wished like hell he was foolish enough to hate.

And no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't ignore the... thing that simmered unchecked between you two, or within you, rather.

It was a week and five days into your arrival and you were 100% certain that Alejandro would be the death of you for multiple reasons.

Or you of him, whichever one came first.

It was a small house, one of many that he’d secured in the event he and his men were attacked. You couldn’t complain though in your mind you had plenty to complain about. Alejandro made sure the place was well-stocked, the amenities were working, and that you were safe. All was well.

As well as well could be.

Alejandro the man and Alejandro the leader were two very different people it seemed like. Whereas the leader was all unbreakable, unshakable earth, you began to see the cracks in between. He was gracious at his best and distant at his worst, and part of you started to feel some… shame for the shit you put him through. And then he’d do something to piss you off and it was back to square one again.

It was as peaceful as peaceful could be all things considering, and under different circumstances, you’d think you two were a couple in the midst of a lover’s spat what with the way you two danced around each other.

And again, under different circumstances, you might have welcomed it.

It was two weeks into your arrival and the search continued.

Alejandro was ceaseless in his efforts to see to it that his men were alright and accounted for. You did your best to help him when and where you could but for the most part, you kept out of his way, and for good reason. You could see the tension tearing away at Alejandro the man. You were observant, picking up on the individual tics that signaled his growing weariness and stress.

You couldn’t blame him and you were gracious enough to limit your complaints. It did its job but Alejandro didn’t relent in his search.

Admittedly, a part of you wished that he did.

You had prided yourself on being (somewhat) self-controlled when it came to interpersonal relationships. When it came to him, however, that pride was dying a slow, agonizing death. You found yourself saying and doing things you normally wouldn’t do and today—tonight, rather—was one of those moments.

But it’s okay; you figured you could sleep through the embarrassment.

It wasn’t every day that you shared a bed with someone else and being in such close proximity to Alejandro was… something. Searing, maybe? Usually, you slept with your back to him but was still made painfully aware of the heat between you two. Alejandro was distant this time, more so than he usually is. You swore you’d never forgive yourself for being so... concerned, but you risked what little dignity you had left and turned to face him. He was on his back, staring up at the worn ceiling. Had been doing so for quite some time from your estimation. You weren’t too sure, though. Hell, you weren’t sure about a lot of things when it came to him. You sighed quietly.

There are moments in life where instinct—feelings, perhaps?—supersede logic and create moments, necessary moments, beyond understanding. You didn’t realize it then, hadn’t stopped to think what the outcome of such a gesture could mean but in that moment, it felt… right. You didn’t register what you had done until the heat was almost overwhelming and you felt his shoulder tense under your touch. You were closer to him, closer than you’d ever been in the two weeks since you made his acquaintance and ironically, it made you realize just how distant from Alejandro you truly were.

You could give yourself grace if he was a foolish bastard but…

You were all but plastered to his side. Your hand on his shoulder was meant to be comforting and to your surprise, it did the trick, offered respite if only for the moment. Alejandro didn’t acknowledge you, not how you would’ve liked him to, but he knew you were there just the same.

You felt his shoulder unburden under your touch and the eggshells and lightning bolts seemed like such a lifetime ago. Just like a lover’s spat.

But your dance continued.

And you two slept the sleep of the languished.

#call of duty #call of duty modern warfare 2 #cod mw2 #cod x reader #call of duty x reader #alejandro vargas #alejandro vargas x reader #alejandro vargas x f!reader #x black reader #call of duty x black reader #x poc reader #los vaqueros #x f!reader #call of duty x you #cod x you #alejandro vargas x you

[lurking-latinist]

I just saw this awesome post about including mobility aids in fantasy writing, and I do not want to create a tangent but I *do* want to share some things I learned about disability in ancient Greece when I was researching that paper I wrote on the Philoctetes, so I am making my own post.

Philoctetes is a mythical figure who was one of the Greek heroes going to the Trojan war. Before they got there, he suffered a wound in the foot which would not heal. The other Greek leaders were unwilling to have the noise of his screams and the stench of the infected wound in their camp, so they abandoned him on a deserted island with only his famous weapon, the Bow of Heracles. He survived there for ten years. Now the war is almost over, Troy has almost fallen, but the Greeks have heard a prophecy: they cannot win until they have the Bow of Heracles. So wily Odysseus and young Neoptolemus (the son of the recently dead Achilles) go to the island where Philoctetes is still living, still dealing with his injury. Philoctetes is eager to escape the island, but can he trust the community that abandoned him ten years ago? Can they ever make right what they did to him?

Now that’s the type of story that someone might very well point to who was arguing that disabled people have to be neglected and excluded in a “historically accurate” story. And it’s definitely not an example of casual inclusion. But what that person would be missing is that Philoctetes’ abandonment and isolation in this play was intended to be shocking to its Athenian audience. The audience is invited to identify with Philoctetes and to be horrified at how he does not receive the support from his community that real-world people with similar disabilities did receive, as we can tell from both textual and archaeological evidence.

Martha L. Rose’s book The Staff of Oedipus: Transforming Disability in Ancient Greece emphasizes this. Look, here’s what I wrote in my paper, why should I rewrite it:

Rose approaches her material “though the lens of disability studies, which approaches the phenomenon of disability by assuming that there is nothing inherently wrong with the disabled body and that the reaction of a society to the disabled body is neither predictable nor immutable” (1). In other words, it is necessary to see what attitudes and assumptions about disabilities are actually recorded, rather than projecting any of our own assumptions. ...

Also unlike today, Greek concepts of disability were not medicalized. “Permanent physical disability,” writes Rose, “was not the concern of doctors in antiquity beyond recognition of incurability” (11). This does not mean that disabled people had no resources or were simply left to perish, of course. Rather, they were often cared for within their households and their communities (28), which means that both Philoctetes’ abandonment and isolation form a shocking exception to the norm. The importance of community support suggests that Philoctetes’ joy at being reunited with humanity comes from practical as well as emotional needs. At the same time, the wide range of tasks and trades in the Greek economy meant that many disabled people were far from economically dependent (think of [the god] Hephaestus the lame smith), so that “[a] physically handicapped person earning a living would not have been a remarkable sight” (39). People unable to walk at all rode donkeys or were carried in litters, while those who walked with difficulty used a staff or a crutch (24-26).

So for writers: the ancient Greeks didn’t invent the wheelchair--but they had the wheel technology (I suspect the issue may have been with roads and pavements instead), so your Greek-inspired fantasy world totally can (which was the point of that earlier post). Or maybe your protagonist goes on their adventures with a faithful donkey sidekick that helps them get around. Maybe they are respected for their skill in a craft, making their home and workshop a lively meeting-place for customers. If you’re writing fantasy, you could be inspired by one of the myths of Hephaestus, in which he creates metal automatons--basically, magic robots--that not only support him as he walks, they also act as assistants in his workshop!

Anyway, the point of this post is basically just that I agree with the other post about including mobility aids in fantasy and I had some relevant knowledge in the back of my head. And also that you should read the Philoctetes. Look, here’s a recent free modern English verse translation: https://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/sophocles/philocteteshtml.html

Oh, and if you would like to see my term paper or the relevant section from The Staff of Oedipus, message me, I will share them.

#philoctetes #writing #I should add that Rose also has information about things like blindness and deafness in her book #I just happened to be writing a paper about mobility

[girlboss-enthusiast]

Please tell us how to get into IT without a degree! I have an interview for a small tech company this week and I’m going in as admin but as things expand I can bootstrap into a better role and I’d really appreciate knowing what skills are likely to be crucial for making that pivot.

Absolutely!! You'd be in a great position to switch to IT, since as an admin, you'd already have some familiarity with the systems and with the workplace in general. Moving between roles is easier in a smaller workplace, too.

So, this is a semi-brief guide to getting an entry-level position, for someone with zero IT experience. That position is almost always going to be help desk. You've probably heard a lot of shit about help desk, but I've always enjoyed it.

So, here we go! How to get into IT for beginners!

The most important thing on your resume will be

✨~🌟Certifications!!🌟~✨

Studying for certs can teach you a lot, especially if you're entirely new to the field. But they're also really important for getting interviews. Lots of jobs will require a cert or degree, and even if you have 5 years of experience doing exactly what the job description is, without one of those the ATS will shunt your resume into a black hole and neither HR or the IT manager will see it.

First, I recommend getting the CompTIA A+. This will teach you the basics of how the parts of a computer work together - hardware, software, how networking works, how operating systems work, troubleshooting skills, etc. If you don't have a specific area of IT you're interested in, this is REQUIRED. Even if you do, I suggest you get this cert just to get your foot in the door.

I recommend the CompTIA certs in general. They'll give you a good baseline and look good on your resume. I only got the A+ and the Network+, so can't speak for the other exams, but they weren't too tough.

If you're more into development or cybersecurity, check out these roadmaps. You'll still benefit from working help desk while pursuing one of those career paths.

The next most important thing is

🔥🔥Customer service & soft skills🔥🔥

Sorry about that.

I was hired for my first ever IT role on the strength of my interview. I definitely wasn't the only candidate with an A+, but I was the only one who knew how to handle customers (aka end-users). Which is, basically, be polite, make the end-user feel listened to, and don't make them feel stupid. It is ASTOUNDING how many IT people can't do that. I've worked with so many IT people who couldn't hide their scorn or impatience when dealing with non-tech-savvy coworkers.

Please note that you don't need to be a social butterfly or even that socially adept. I'm autistic and learned all my social skills by rote (I literally have flowcharts for social interactions), and I was still exceptional by IT standards.

Third thing, which is more for you than for your resume (although it helps):

🎇Do your own projects🎇

This is both the most and least important thing you can do for your IT career. Least important because this will have the smallest impact on your resume. Most important because this will help you learn (and figure out if IT is actually what you want to do).

The certs and interview might get you a job, but when it comes to doing your job well, hands-on experience is absolutely essential. Here are a few ideas for the complete beginner. Resources linked at the bottom.

Start using the command line. This is called Terminal on Mac and Linux. Use it for things as simple as navigating through file directories, opening apps, testing your connection, that kind of thing. The goal is to get used to using the command line, because you will use it professionally.

Build your own PC. This may sound really intimidating, but I swear it's easy! This is going to be cheaper than buying a prebuilt tower or gaming PC, and you'll learn a ton in the bargain.

Repair old PCs. If you don't want to or can't afford to build your own PC, look for cheap computers on Craiglist, secondhand stores, or elsewhere. I know a lot of universities will sell old technology for cheap. Try to buy a few and make a functioning computer out of parts, or just get one so you can feel comfortable working in the guts of a PC.

Learn Powershell or shell scripting. If you're comfortable with the command line already or just want to jump in the deep end, use scripts to automate tasks on your PC. I found this harder to do for myself than for work, because I mostly use my computer for web browsing. However, there are tons of projects out there for you to try!

Play around with a Raspberry Pi. These are mini-computers ranging from $15-$150+ and are great to experiment with. I've made a media server and a Pi hole (network-wide ad blocking) which were both fun and not too tough. If you're into torrenting, try making a seedbox!

Install Linux on your primary computer. I know, I know - I'm one of those people. But seriously, nothing will teach you more quickly than having to compile drivers through the command line so your Bluetooth headphones will work. Warning: this gets really annoying if you just want your computer to work. Dual-booting is advised.

If this sounds intimidating, that's totally normal. It is intimidating! You're going to have to do a ton of troubleshooting and things will almost never work properly on your first few projects. That is part of the fun!

Resources

Resources I've tried and liked are marked with an asterisk*

Professor Messor's Free A+ Training Course*

PC Building Simulator 2 (video game)

How to build a PC (video)

PC Part Picker (website)*

CompTIA A+ courses on Udemy

50 Basic Windows Commands with Examples*

Mac Terminal Commands Cheat Sheet

Powershell in a Month of Lunches (video series)

Getting Started with Linux (tutorial)* Note: this site is my favorite Linux resource, I highly recommend it.

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Projects for Beginners

/r/ITCareerQuestions*

Ask A Manager (advice blog on workplace etiquette and more)*

Reddit is helpful for tech questions in general. I have some other resources that involve sailing the seas; feel free to DM me or send an ask I can answer privately.

Tips

DO NOT work at an MSP. That stands for Managed Service Provider, and it's basically an IT department which companies contract to provide tech services. I recommend staying away from them. It's way better to work in an IT department where the end users are your coworkers, not your customers.

DO NOT trust remote entry-level IT jobs. At entry level, part of your job is schlepping around hardware and fixing PCs. A fully-remote position will almost definitely be a call center.

DO write a cover letter. YMMV on this, but every employer I've had has mentioned my cover letter as a reason to hire me.

DO ask your employer to pay for your certs. This applies only to people who either plan to move into IT in the same company, or are already in IT but want more certs.

DO NOT work anywhere without at least one woman in the department. My litmus test is two women, actually, but YMMV. If there is no woman in the department in 2024, and the department is more than 5 people, there is a reason why no women work there.

DO have patience with yourself and keep an open mind! Maybe this is just me, but if I can't do something right the first time, or if I don't love it right away, I get very discouraged. Remember that making mistakes is part of the process, and that IT is a huge field which ranges from UX design to hardware repair. There are tons of directions to go once you've got a little experience!

Disclaimer: this is based on my experience in my area of the US. Things may be different elsewhere, esp. outside of the US.

I hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have more questions!

#answers.txt #feel free to reblog with more advice btw

[yoonavii]

𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐀

Gladiator Prince! Eustass Kid x Reader

Story description: Y/n, a skilled ice warrior from the frigid kingdom of Nosta, and Prince Eustass, a ruthless gladiator prince hailing from the enemy nation, the Modora Empire. Their two nations have a long history of conflict and animosity. However, when a dire situation calls for a political marriage to secure peace, Y/n and Eustass find themselves bound together in a union neither desires. As they navigate the treacherous path of diplomacy, they must confront their own prejudices and the weight of their peoples’ expectations. Through adversity and danger, the icy walls between them slowly begin to melt, and they discover unexpected connections and feelings, transforming their initial enmity into a deep and passionate love of the ages.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎

In the heart of the kingdom of Nosta, the eldest members of each Nostian family engaged in a solemn tradition. With determined hands, they delicately unearthed buried vessels of fermented food from the snowy ground. The vases, each a repository of sustenance, had been carefully preserved, offering a lifeline to the families through the harsh winter months. This year’s harvest had been a challenging ordeal for the Nostians, as relentless snowstorms had battered the region without reprieve. The inclement weather had taken its toll on the land, making it nearly impossible to cultivate and gather food. As a result, the Nostian families found themselves grappling with the specter of scarcity, a challenge that tested their resilience and unity.

Amid the adversity, a glimmer of hope emerged from an unexpected source. The royal family and the council, recognizing the dire circumstances faced by their people, made a compassionate decision. They distributed a portion of their own supply of food to each family in the kingdom. This gesture of generosity transcended mere politics or duty – it was a lifeline extended from those in positions of power to those who struggled to secure their next meal. The significance of this act rippled through the kingdom. Families that had been grappling with hunger and uncertainty now found relief, their burdens temporarily lightened by the provisions provided by their leaders. The gesture carried a profound sense of solidarity, a reminder that even in the face of hardship, the Nostians stood together as a community.

as the snowy ground gave up its hidden treasures, you paced the length of the council room. The air within was thick with the wisdom of the elders – warriors, archers, and herbalists who held the weight of generations on their shoulders. Each one bore the scars of a kingdom’s struggles etched into their very beings. Restlessness gripped you as you grappled with the enormity of the situation. Your people’s history and suffering clashed with your own desires, creating a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. The thought of uniting with someone from the empire that had caused so much harm was almost unbearable.

Turning to the council, you sought answers to the questions that consumed you. Your voice was a mix of determination and desperation as you posed the question that had haunted you, “Why must I go through with this marriage? How can we align ourselves with those who have brought us so much pain?” One council member, their face etched with the lines of wisdom, stepped forward to address your concerns. Their voice carried the weight of years as they explained the rationale behind the decision, “Princess, you ask a question that weighs heavily upon us all. Our land faces a dire predicament. The relentless snowstorms have stripped us of our harvest, and the specter of famine looms over us.”

With a steadying gaze, they continued, “The Modora Empire possesses the resources we lack – food that can sustain our people through the trying times ahead. We have negotiated a peace treaty, one that hinges on trade rather than conflict. In exchange for our medicinal herbs and remedies, they will provide us with the sustenance we so desperately need.” Their words resonated in the air, carrying both the wisdom of experience and the urgency of the present. The council member’s voice softened with understanding as they added, “This is not a decision taken lightly. We are bound by the duty to preserve our people and ensure their survival. The alliances we forge today lay the groundwork for a more secure tomorrow.”

As their gaze met yours, you felt the weight of their wisdom and the empathy behind their words. The complexities of leadership were clearer than ever – a delicate balance between personal convictions and the welfare of an entire kingdom. The path you tread was one that would test your strength, challenge your perceptions, and demand sacrifices that transcended individual desires.

——

In the dimly lit chambers of your quarters, you couldn't conceal your discontent. As maids attended to you, their delicate hands guiding you through the evening rituals, you grumbled softly under your breath. Tomorrow morning marked the beginning of your journey to a new life with the enemy prince, a path you had never envisioned for yourself. Amidst your private lament, one of the maids decided to break the tension. With a warm smile, she attempted to lighten your mood. "You know, Your Highness," she ventured, her voice gentle and reassuring, "that crown you received during your coming of age ceremony suits you beautifully. You'll look absolutely regal as you wear it."

Her words were infused with sincerity, an attempt to offer some solace to a princess burdened with the weight of duty and sacrifice. The crown, a symbol of your status and responsibility, held a unique kind of elegance that complemented your grace and strength. Your grumbling softened, if only slightly, as you regarded the maid's kind gesture. In this moment of uncertainty and apprehension, a glimmer of warmth and camaraderie emerged. The challenges of the road ahead remained daunting, but the bond between you and your maids offered a reminder that even in the face of adversity, there were those who would stand by your side. You offered a gracious nod to the maid, appreciating the effort to lift your spirits during this challenging time. As the conversation continued, you couldn't help but think practically about the upcoming journey. Turning to the maid, you inquired, "Will all of my belongings be taken with me on this trip?"

The maid's expression turned thoughtful, and she replied with a tone of caution, "I'm afraid not, Your Highness. For safety reasons, it's best to travel light for now. However, once you've arrived safely at the Modora Empire, arrangements will be made to have more of your belongings sent to you." The consideration for your safety was evident in the maid's response. You understood the necessity of traveling with only the essentials for the time being. The path ahead was fraught with uncertainties, and the decision to keep your possessions to a minimum was a prudent one. You knew that, in due time, your familiar belongings would follow you to the new land that awaited. One of the other maids, as she helped in preparing you for the journey, made a suggestion. “Your Highness,” she began tentatively, “perhaps you could consider taking either your axes or your bow and arrows with you for the travels.”

As the maid made her suggestion, she glanced at the collection of weapons in your room. There, hanging on a wall adorned with trophies from your archery competitions, were your finely crafted axes and your prized bow and arrows. You surveyed the weapons with a sense of nostalgia. Each had its own history, its own story of battles won and challenges overcome. The axes, with their polished blades and ornate handles, were symbols of your strength and determination. The bow, a work of art in itself, had accompanied you on countless hunting trips and had never failed you in times of need. The suggestion to choose one weapon over the other gnawed at you. They were both extensions of your identity, and you couldn’t bear to part with either. After a moment of consideration, you made your decision with unwavering resolve. “I will take both,” you declared firmly, your eyes locking with the maid’s. “Even if I have to be discreet about it.” The prospect of sneaking these cherished companions along on your journey added an element of intrigue and determination to the preparations. It was a secret pact between you and your weapons, a silent promise that no matter what challenges awaited in the Modora Empire, you would be ready to face them with the strength and skills that had defined you as the ice princess of Nosta.

—————-

In the grand corridors of the Modora Empire’s palace, Prince Eustass’s steps reverberated with frustration. His mood was as turbulent as the storm clouds that often shrouded his kingdom. He had stormed out of the council chamber, leaving behind the imposing presence of the council members and their unsettling decree. Grumbling beneath his breath, Eustass navigated the labyrinthine halls of the palace. The news that the council had arranged a political marriage for him, set to commence as early as tomorrow, gnawed at his very core. He had barely returned from his military campaign, bloodied and wearied from the battlefield, only to be thrust into a situation he vehemently opposed.

His steps echoed through the marble corridors as he brooded, his mind filled with thoughts of the impending political union and the implications it held for his future. The weight of responsibility and expectation bore down upon him, and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of resentment. As he continued to traverse the palace’s opulent halls, Eustass couldn’t shake the feeling that his life was spiraling into a direction he had not chosen for himself. The clash between duty and personal desires waged on within him, leaving him to grumble and seethe as he contemplated the uncertain path that lay ahead.

Amidst the labyrinthine halls of the palace, Prince Eustass’s sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar figure. He called out to her, his voice carrying a hint of urgency, “Roxane!” But the glare that met his gaze made it clear that Roxane was in no mood for pleasantries. The General’s daughter remained a picture of resentment, her eyes hard and unyielding. The words exchanged in the council room still hung heavily in the air between them, a stark reminder of the tension that had escalated during the meeting. Eustass hurried to close the distance between them, his voice laced with a desperation to make amends. “Roxane, I promise you, I’ll find a way to override this political marriage,” he implored, his voice earnest and determined. However, Roxane’s response was anything but receptive. She maintained a cold demeanor, addressing him only with the formal title of “Your Highness.” Her words cut through the tension like a sharp blade as she declared, “I don’t care about the political marriage, or even you.”

Eustass was bewildered by her response, unable to comprehend the sudden change in her attitude. In a desperate attempt to understand, he reached out to grasp her hand, his voice softening with concern. “Roxane, what do you mean?” he asked, his gaze searching for answers. But Roxane didn’t linger. She pulled her hand away abruptly, her features frozen in a mask of resolve. Her words came out with a finality that left no room for negotiation. “We need to separate, Your Highness. Permanently. We can’t be together anymore.” With those words, she turned away and walked briskly down the corridor, leaving Eustass standing there, bewildered and hurt. The cold exterior she displayed masked the complex emotions within, and the decision she had just made had left both of them reeling, their connection severed in a heartbeat.

As Eustass stood there, his thoughts in disarray after Roxane's unexpected declaration, his loyal right-hand man, Killer, hurriedly caught up with him. Concern etched across his features, Killer asked, "Are you okay, Eustass?" But Eustass, consumed by a whirlwind of emotions, couldn't find the words to respond. Instead, he brushed off the question with a curt wave of his hand and a voice thick with frustration. "I need some time alone," he muttered, his gaze distant. "I'm going to my room, and I don't want anyone to bother me."

Killer could sense the turmoil within his prince, and he nodded in understanding, albeit with a hint of worry in his eyes. He watched as Eustass retreated down the corridor, his thoughts heavy with the weight of Roxane's cold rejection. The sudden turn of events had left Eustass reeling, and now he sought solitude to grapple with the emotional storm that raged within him.

—————-

As you entered your room, your gaze immediately searched for your journal. Among the few belongings you could take with you, this was one you couldn't bear to leave behind. While you would be living in the empire, you could at least document your experiences and thoughts in its pages. The journal, small and unassuming, held the potential to be a source of solace in the unfamiliar territory that awaited you. It was a private space where you could record your journey, your emotions, and the challenges you would face. Its pages were a repository for your innermost thoughts and a connection to the world you were leaving behind. With a sense of determination, you retrieved the journal and carefully concealed it within your chest binding wrap. It was a precious keepsake, a silent companion that would bear witness to the chapters of your life as you embarked on this unexpected journey, a small act of defiance against the constraints of fate. You offered Trafalgar Law a warm smile and gestured for him to sit, a silent invitation to a more casual conversation. He obliged, taking a seat at the end of your bed.

As he settled in, you let out a sigh, your expression turning slightly pensive. "Trafalgar," you began, your voice devoid of the formalities that usually accompanied royal conversations. "I must admit, I'm feeling a bit nervous about this journey to the Modora Empire. It's not just the political marriage, but the prospect of learning an entirely new way of life." You paused, your thoughts swirling with uncertainty. "I'll be expected to adapt to new traditions, new etiquette, and take on a role as not only the empire's new princess but as the future empress. It's a lot to take in, and I'm not sure what to expect."

As you shared your concerns with your trusted bodyguard, you couldn't help but feel a sense of vulnerability. It was rare for you to express your fears openly, but in this moment, Trafalgar's presence offered a comforting reassurance that you weren't facing this daunting journey alone.

Trafalgar Law listened attentively to your concerns, his reassuring presence a source of comfort. When you expressed your apprehensions about the journey ahead, he spoke with unwavering support. "Princess, you have my word that I'll be by your side every step of the way," he assured you, his voice filled with sincerity. "I will protect you, and if things take a turn for the worse, I'll do everything in my power to ensure your safety."

His words were a balm to your anxieties, but what he revealed next left you in a state of shock. "And there's something else," he continued, his tone grave. "I have an acquaintance, someone I knew from the Modora Empire." Your eyes widened in astonishment. You were well aware that communication with anyone from the empire, especially given the ongoing tensions, could be considered treasonous. The fact that Trafalgar had such a connection left you both surprised and curious.He went on to explain, "My acquaintance has already been sending scrolls of information about the empire via message birds. It's meant to give us a head start on what to expect, to help us navigate the complexities of the empire."

The revelation was both intriguing and unsettling. You couldn't help but wonder about the nature of this acquaintance and the valuable insights they might provide. Yet, it was a risky venture, and the stakes were high. As you processed this unexpected turn of events, you couldn't help but feel a mixture of anticipation and caution, knowing that this connection might be crucial in the days to come.

©𝐘𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐈— Any sign/evidence of plagiarism made from outside this name will be dealt with by whatever means necessary. Legal action may occur if non fanfiction works are plagiarized.

#eustass kid #eustass captain kidd #eustass kid x reader #eustass x reader #eustasscaptainkid #kidd x reader #kidd fluff #one piece x reader #op x reader #one piece headcanons #op headcanons #one piece fluff #one piece x black!reader #anime x reader #op x y/n #op x you #op hcs #one piece x y/n #op kid pirates #kid pirates #killer one piece #one piece fic #op fanfic #one piece fanfiction #anime fanfic #opla #anime x you #anime x black!reader #kid x reader #kid x you

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Heyy, first time asking, and first of all - I love your content!!! I'm in love with your LI characters' interpretations. Could you maybe do M6 with like a thief-for-hire sort of MC? The kind of one that sits around in Rowdy Raven and waits for a job? And is probably very good at invisibility and forget-me spells. Thanks!

The Arcana HCs: M6 with a thief-for-hire MC

~ in the spirit of the Arcana, I'm interpreting this with MC being a hired thief the way Mazelinka is a pirate captain: robbing the rich to feed the poor >:3 this is so much fun, thanks anon! - brainrot ~

Julian

He finds you so relentlessly attractive like this that it makes him short circuit

Getting to sit with you in the corner of the Rowdy Raven while you wait for a job becomes his favorite way to pass the time

He'll just watch you over the rim of his mug, slowly losing his train of thought over the effortlessly intimidating and somehow cavalier attitude you give off

Few things make him want to kiss you more than when you talk shop to him

Just casually mention that you need to repair your grappling hook for an upcoming job and he'll drop whatever he's holding

"You know MC, if you wanted something to practice grappling with, all you had to do was ask."

Of course he understands that what you do is risky and serious business

Will wait up for you at rendezvous points instead of at home so he can check that you're alright right away

Malak is already a practicing guard alert

Because you're the harder of the two to notice, rumors spread that Dr Devorak is your point person. He's ecstatic

Asra

Immediately intrigued, but won't ask too much about it right away except for when you'll be away from the shop

Assigns Faust to watch over you

Casually appears just as a job is about to go very very wrong and maneuvers you both out of it

Immediately confesses to how they knew what was going on and apologizes for invading your privacy

But he's high on the thrill of getting in trouble like this, and it's for a good cause, and there are things he knows about Vesuvia's back alleys from his own questionable childhood ...

They don't want to form an official partnership, per say, but they would love to accompany you on trickier jobs as an ally

Fascinated by the tricks of the trade, if you have gadgets or tools that he doesn't recognize you'll have to put a lock spell on them so he can only fiddle with them in your presence

Faust is the greatest secret weapon you'll ever have

*knocks out a guard with her tail* Oopsie!

Nadia

There are warring opinions within her

One adores you. You're resourceful, you have and follow your own moral compass, and you're exceptionally skilled

The other side is concerned

You're breaking the law. She is an agent of the law. Neither of you should consider yourselves an exception to the law, which is why she prefers struggling for reform instead ...

Oh, but you make breaking it look so good

She operates on a need-to-know basis. If you never confess to her, as the Countess, that you stole, then she is under no obligation to bring you to justice

She does prefer you let her know when you will not be available, and if you will be in any significant danger

Stays up for you or sends Chandra to keep an eye out if it's late or risky

The exception to her "don't tell me" attitude is when she is officially off duty as the Countess, and merely Nadia, and very in love with you and your daring exploits

"Tell me, my love, what naughty little things have you been doing behind my back?"

Muriel

Wasn't really all that impressed until it became clear that you were even better at going unnoticed than he is

Grudgingly curious about how you manage to do that

And also if you would be open to demonstrating for him, not that he's in any need of improvement

Completely on board with your modus operandi. If he had grown up to be a different type of person, he'd be doing it too

As it is, the thought of stealing is still a little uncomfortable for him, so he turns a blind eye to your antics

Though anytime you tell him of a particularly impressive job you'll notice him puffing up with pride just a little bit

Will offer Inanna's services as a lookout and guide wolf. Also as an alert system in case you may be hurt or stuck and need his assistance

Your job has Inanna's full approval. She thinks that what you do is the coolest and lords it over Muriel that she gets to spend time with you at work while he mopes in the woods (her words, not mine)

Portia

If she didn't think you were just like a character out of a novel, she does now

She thinks it's awesome

Pumps you for details on all of your jobs and offers to join you on any that she could be of service for

She did spend quite some time on a pirate ship, after all, and nobody is as well connected as she is

Loves hanging out with you in the Rowdy Raven while you wait for commissions, but not too often because she is an ambassador and that wouldn't be good for her credibility

Speaking of her job ...

Highkey struggles not to ask you to steal other countries' state secrets for her when they're being difficult

Thankfully you haven't been faced with declining that request yet

Begs you to teach her some of your skills. One cloaking spell. Just one. No, she's not going to use it to eavesdrop on visiting dignitaries! Okay fine she would, but so what if she did?

Loves reading unrealistic heist novels to you just to hear you verbally rip them to shreds

Lucio

Saw your thieving skills in action when he was still a ghost/goatman and it was one of his reasons to get on your good side at first, he thought you'd make a great minion

Until it's revealed to both of you that at one point he used to be one of the main people you'd steal from

His visible reaction is an infuriated pout, he doesn't like things being taken from him, and he's still getting used to you being better at some things than he is

This quickly gives way to infatuation. You beat him at something. He thinks that's hot

Will try to bargain you into a thieving partnership

You initially say no, but after it's proven to be an extremely useful skill set on jobs, you agree to taking stealing jobs with him

On the condition that you're in charge

He's delighted by this and it ends up being a great way to further develop his moral compass. It comes more naturally to him to focus on benefiting the greater good than to define the details of his personal ethics

Keeps forgetting that bragging about it is not conducive to getting away with it

#ask arcana brainrot #the arcana #the arcana headcanons #the arcana hc #asra the arcana #julian the arcana #nadia the arcana #muriel the arcana #portia the arcana #lucio the arcana #the arcana game #asra alnazar #julian devorak #nadia satrinava #muriel of the kokhuri #portia devorak #lucio morgasson

[thrythlind]

Urban Fantasy Video Game Concept

Time to ponder another video game concept.

Start with a first person sequence, playable prologue, length, maybe five to ten minutes. traveling through a darkened room of classical Greco-Roman columns and old broken statues and deep deep shadows, trying to avoid being spotted by something that you never get a good look at while also trying to get closer to it. Distorted voices, echoing sounds, no visible hands or legs in the character. When they get to the mark, a reflective surface starts to rise up, showing them an indistinct huddled figure hunched over a firelight.

Then wake up.

Third person perspective, focus on the protagonist waking up from the nightmare.

Most likely a specific character. Even if character generation, have a set surname (Greek probably, even if char gen results in a different presented ethnicity) and a non-binary given name (Alex, Morgan, Riley, Bryce, etc)

If character creation, default is a woman. 18-23 range but unspecified. If voiced, maybe six options, two with typical feminine mannerisms, two with typical masculine mannerisms, two without gender-associated mannerisms. Perhaps three voice actors. If tech available and doesn't sound terrible (we're doing a wishlist here so let's go for it.) then ability to pitch the voices up and down. Alternately, all three voice actors do variations of all six scripts.

Back to story.

Have character move around living space (house/apartment?) some basic interaction tutorial. Looking in the mirror (if character creation is present, this would be wear that happens... with the lead up being a first-person cutscene of person moving to the mirror and then pulling back to third-person after character creation).

Some environmental storytelling implying college life, maybe something subtle to imply that magic is not unknown in the world... or at least that the protag believes in such things. Brouchures for a fortune teller, books on occult history, etc.

Looking in the mirror trying to shaking off nightmare (maybe more confused than scared). Yawning and leaning in to wash face... close up to see eye shift from human pupils to slitted reptilian and then back again. Blink, pull back, hesitantly wash face go about the rest... shift focus to going out the door and grabbing keys and wallet at the door.

Above sequence also 5-10 minutes (+ possible char gen).

Options - if action happens all in one city, then have a "day-in-the-life" sequence showing some key locations like restaurant, shops, clinic, library, etc. Maybe hub would be the college campus.

If there is a tour section, allow it to be skippable for replays into the first encounter. However, this idea is a pretty set storyline so might be low replayability.

First encounter

The protagonist is somewhere in transit, subway station or the like. Public, but a place they travel through frequently. Gets ambushed by unknown assailants. Human, thugs. Start the fight and pause, give player options:

Option 1 - Fight them off, provides combat skills. Option 2 - Run, provides movement/traversal options. Option 3 - Call for help, provides social skills.

Whichever option is chosen produces an appropriate objective on screen and HUD options leading in that direction. (perhaps mild, immersive HUD elements like in Hellblade where her health and power ups are subtly part of her char model)

All three objectives will probably still provide opportunities to try out basic fighting, traversal, and social skills.

Fighting Option - traversal for tactical advantage, social with police or witnesses after the fight Running Option - social to get someone to open a gate for you, fighting to shove loan thug that appears ahead of you Social Option - running to get to other people, small fight with one loan thug, followed by getting help from onlookers.

Possibly the player can complete any of the three objectives... But the game won't signpost those objectives (like you'll only have an exact count on enemies if you go for fighting option) and the skills you get will make the chosen objective the easiest.

Regardless of how the encounter goes. After basic tutorial of fighting/traversal/social mechanics, have a supernatural event happen. Perhaps a monster attacks. Reactions of any witnesses will determine if this is a world where magic is known but rare or if the protag is just into weird fringe stuff.

At end, the protag's eyes switch to snake-ish eyes again, but don't change back this time.

Cue Act 1 - Trying to learn what's happening to the protag and dodging attacks. Eventually come to the conclusion that the protagonist has inherited a curse and the thugs are part of a cult or secret society that is trying to track down and capture people with said curse. Perhaps from seeking out and talking to experts or tracking down the cult headquarters and either sneaking in to get lore or else beating the head of the local group and getting info from him.

Once again, signposted objectives are based on actions taken or dialogue choices, but other objectives can be completed but aren't made obvious and choices made will add skills to make the signposted objectives easier.

Skills are gained both when completing objectives and when choices signpost an objective.

IE in first encounter, if you choose to look for help, you'll get social skills, but if you get out of the encounter by running, you'll gain a traversal skill. The signposting making it easier to find objectives tied to the choice means that you're less likely to mix and match like this within one objective but is possible.

Supernatural skills come slow and come with changes. In the first supernatural skill in each track it is going to be related to vision and provide a HUD element, perhaps ability to read enemy health (which might also cause hostiles to stand out from neutrals and friendlies) or adding context to dialogue choices or highlighting parts of terrain that can be grabbed for traversal.

Supernatural skills come when encountering supernatural threats.

same pattern though, one skill gained when you choose how you plan to deal with the encounter, one skill gained when you actually complete the encounter. Major encounters only.

Minor encounters can provide skill advance over time but not in a single event. Connect this to achievements. Optional, not particularly connected to either supernatural or mundane. More number boosts or cosmetics (or love interests)

Doing a bunch of traversal stuff to get collectibles will get you traversal bonuses on each collection completion.

Doing social stuff will get you some bonus if you play them through.

Doing combat stuff will also get you bonuses when you hit certain optional milestones.

Traversal stuff could be urban exploration, collectible acquisition, rescuing people from fires or other emergencies, etc.

Combat can be random ambushes from the cult, saving people from muggers, random appearances of monsters, etc.

Social stuff can be romance options, matchmaking (if you don't want romance yourself), a mix (if you want polyamory), normal friend stuff like board game nights, negotiating job stuff, starting a business, dealing with college professors, etc.

Makes for six total skill chains:

Mundane Combat

Mundane Traversal

Mundane Social

Supernatural Combat

Supernatural Traversal

Supernatural Social

Each supernatural skill comes with a physical transformation. In act 1 this is mild.

Supernatural Skill tree is invisible, you see the skills you have, but not what's coming up. Replay and wiki of course would get around this quickly, but build into the feeling of not knowing what's going on with your changes. Also, allows for a mix of plot-relevant skill-gains and leap-frogging the "tree" when narratively convenient.

Maybe about a 3 to 1 ratio, maybe 5 to 1. many Mundane skills vs a few story-important supernatural events.

End Act 1 with character sitting down at night after this revelation and going to bed.

Act 2

prologue, another dream sequence, first person again, hands and feet are visible, Grecian woman, aristocrat, chained to a wall overlooking a rough sea. There's something vast and dangerous in the water, maybe occasional flashes of scales and coils. storm clouds make it hard to see. Play through trying to unchain themselves from the wall. Flashes of smaller figures in the clouds and spray flying around the big monster. Again, no clear image. Player gets free and starts trying to walk down a path. Sudden sound of crashing and what looks to be a massive wall of stone crushing down at them when something rushes by and pulls them up into the sky... last view of fluttering white wings and dream end.

cue the bulk of Act 2, tracking down the cause of the curse.

more encounters with the cult, perhaps more subtle threats, people in high social status. Analyzing why the cult wants people with this curse. What their plans are, getting names, etc. Near the end of Act 2, a supernatural skill will result in the protagonist's hair becoming snakes. Have this essential to final objective (whether the character completes the final "boss" fight via a traversal obstacle course, a social dialogue-tree puzzle, or a traditional boss fight).

Give suggestion that the cult is working for Stheno or Euryale.

Act 3

Act 3 begins with another dream. The player's sitting in front of a fire with partially scaly hands and hearing sounds of motion in the darkness around them. On the initial sound, stand up with a nervous sound and scanning the darkness. Distorted greek dialogue, can't be understood (actual speech but distorted) Keeping the fire between the character and the sound, flickering shadows and light against columns and statues. Then a final sound and turn to see a young Greek man becoming visible as they take a helmet off. They're looking into a reflective shield and have a strange carved blade (the Harpe)... dream ends

Act 3 is the character trying to track down and get to the gorgons that are apparently behind the cult. In the mean time, continue the minor side plots for the minor bonuses.

Tracking down Euryale and/or Stheno and working their way into their home/lair. Reveal... they're NOT behind the cult... and the cult used the protagonist to get through some of the gorgon-only security measures. Last encounter. Again, options are social, traversal, or combat to resolve Act 3. Difficulty in figuring out how to make each of the three equally exciting and make sense... alternately, act 3 could involve all 3 regardless...

End act 3, the cult gains blood from one of the two immortal gorgons (Euryale and Stheno) protagonist escapes. Immortals may or may not escape depending on player choices and level of success.

Revelation... "Your not cursed"

Act 4

Dream sequence, switching perspectives... start as a person with scaled arms and bronze wings, traversal heavy, getting up into a Greek fortress or castle... switch to a young man with a harpe fighting many warriors... switch to a young woman giving a speech to people outside the fortress and rallying support.

Dream ends mid conflict.

The protagonist now has to deal with being a descendant of Medusa, Perseus, and Andromeda.

Also now trying to figure out who is really behind the cult and why they want gorgon blood.

Also, meet cool great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-(many more greats)-aunts Euryale and Stheno.

end act boss is Polydectus who is now an animated statue after Medusa petrified him in the ancient past but he somehow is back to being able to act. Polydectus was given animation by the real main villain... Polydectus is basically a vain, arrogant, petty serial killer. Very smart, certainly a capable lieutenant, but not a true mastermind.

Act 5 prologue should confirm that Perseus/Medusa/Andromeda were a polycule/throuple. Deals with final mastermind... many options:

Athena or Poseidon

Other Greek God

Human seeking immortality

Witch Hunter seeking to create an anti-supernatural plague

???

Overall, I think each Act should be about 1-3 hours for basic story (creating a run time of 5-15 hours... Act 1 and 5 maybe the shortest acts.) With minor subplots maybe can take that to 4-8 hours per act. For a run of 20-40 hours. I know I said low replayability, but possibly having alternative big bads (with alternative minion strategy sets) and alternative side-plot stuff means it might take replays to get 100% completion. Perhaps New Game+ will give more context to the Perseus/Medusa/Anromeda romance.

#video game concepts i have neither the skill nor resources to do #video game #pondering #medusa #perseus #polyamory #andromeda #mythic quest #urban fantasy

[mawofmeraxes]

Nothing That Will Stop Me

request: hello! i saw your recent post and was wondering if i could request a jaime lannister x reader fic, where the reader was captured (much like he was in season 2) and he kept looking for her but couldn’t find her, and she finally finds her way back to him after months. and it’s like their reunion and he’s so relieved yet concerned and he takes care of her and yeah :)

thank you and i hope ur having a good day! and ofc feel free to ignore this if you don’t feel comfortable writing it <3

summary: After enduring months of suffering under the hand of your captor, the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen, your memory and studies of the guards allows you to narrowly escape and make your way back home to the one person who never stopped trying to find you, Jaime.

characters: jaime lannister x fem!reader

word count: 3.4k

warnings: angst, fluff, happy ending, romance, reunion, captivity, wounds, cursing, imprisonment, almost death, murder, unsexual nudity, bathing scene, anti-daenerys targaryen

masterlist

In hindsight, maybe it had not been a good idea for you to accompany Jaime for the capture of Highgarden.

But you were a warrior just like he was, and neither your gender nor the expectations put upon you would stop you from participating in the fight that surely was to occur as you took Highgarden and all of its resources.

Your only regret was that Lady Olenna had to die.

While she may have seemed like a stone-cold bitch (and she was), she was also a woman that you had admired very much.

She would speak her mind with no regard or care for who was listening, got people to do what needed to be done, and even got shit done herself.

You had been suspicious over the true identity of Joffrey's murderer, as you simply knew that it could not be Tyrion who had done it.

So when Olenna had confirmed it for you and Jaime after drinking the poison, you were not surprised at all. No, you knew exactly why she had done it. For her lovely granddaughter.

The same granddaughter who was now ashes where the Sept of Baelor used to be.

Ironic, wasn't it?

Not long later found you, Jaime, and Bronn on the road back to King's Landing, watching as the carts and the men slowly made their way with the new resources.

Bronn had been paid handsomely, as was expected, and you just sat there and waited for what your lover wished to do next.

The main reason why you coming was a mistake, Jaime would later think, was that nobody thought about what the dragon queen would do in retaliation.

The Dothraki screamers were a sight to behold, and you had truly never been so scared of anything more in your entire life. Those men were ruthless, skilled fighters who knew exactly what they were doing.

And then Daenerys Targaryen herself flew in on her dragon and began burning everything in sight, and that's when you knew you were truly fucked.

You didn't foresee being captured at all. You simply thought that you would be slain in battle due to the chaos that surrounded you. Assumed that you would die while attempting to protect yourself.

Losing sight of Jaime was a clear mistake. You didn’t see him again during or after the fight. Perhaps that was a good thing, but you didn't know if that meant that he got away or if he was burnt to a pile of ashes.

When you later stand among the captured men being threatened by a dragon to kneel and submit to the new queen, you knew you could not do so. Simply for your loyalty to Jaime. No one else.

You would never betray him.

When you saw Tyrion Lannister you were not entirely shocked. Knowing that somehow you would be crossing paths with him again. And when Daenerys questioned a woman being a soldier you had simply stared at her, no words to say for the spiteful woman who had just burned so many men alive.

She was clearly ready to burn you alive as well, a look of pure rage and death in her eyes, but luckily for you, Tyrion's oh-so-smooth tongue and fanciful words about your connection to the Kingslayer Jaime Lannister seemed to sway her, and suddenly you were a prisoner.

You had lost track of time as the days went on. You did not know if it had been days, weeks, or months since you had been separated from Jaime.

You did not even know where you were at this point. Dragonstone? Where Daenerys had set up her base? Maybe you were somewhere in Essos, shipped off far away never to be found again before you die. You simply had no idea. All you knew was that you were carted off for days upon days on land before being brought onto a ship where you remained for a few more days. Before leaving the boat you were blindfolded and bound and dragged to the cell where you have stayed ever since.

You had thought about escaping of course, but you knew that your chances of surviving were slim, as all of the people in the queen's employ were ruthless and willing to do anything for her.

So here you remained. Unknowing if the love of your life was dead or not. Clueless as to whether you would be able to get out of this alive and try to find him.

But if he was alive, was he even looking for you? Was he even trying to find you?

You didn't know.

Maybe you never would. Maybe you would die in this dark, cold cell with no one even remembering who you are or what your name was.

But you didn't want that. You really didn't.

The only upside to being sequestered to the same cell day in and day out is that you've been able to just sit and watch when your guards changed, what time of day it was, how long each guard would stay for, and everything else that would help you plot your escape.

You knew exactly when the perfect time for you to attempt it was, the only problem that you were going to encounter was figuring out where exactly you were the second you got out.

Being brought here on a boat brought about the biggest problem that you would come across. If you were on Dragonstone, which would make the most sense, you would somehow need to find a smaller boat of some sort to cart you back onto the mainland.

So you hoped you weren't on Dragonstone.

-

You ended up being on Dragonstone.

Honestly no surprise there, you saw it coming from a mile away.

You could also see the dragons that circled in the sky.

If they hadn't almost killed you the day you had been captured, you would have thought them beautiful and majestic up there. But now, all you could think about was the death and fear they wrought.

Getting far away enough from the castle and using your knowledge of the maps you had studied had luckily gotten you to the single village that resided on the island. Finding some food and a boat to steal from there hadn't been any harder, and you had luckily been able to row yourself east until you hit land, rowing until you could barely feel your arms.

The plan from there was to start heading south until you would hopefully hit Kings Landing and be able to see if Jaime was there, hopefully still alive and breathing and not burnt to a crisp like many others.

When you did end up finding land, you decided that sticking to the coastline would be your best bet of not getting lost and went south for a whole day on foot until you reached Duskendale. When you asked the barmaid at the nearest tavern and inn how far Kings Landing was from there, she told you on foot it would take about a day and a half of travel.

Exactly what you needed to hear.

You spent the night at the inn using the coin that you stole while on Dragonstone.

It was honestly the best night's rest that you had had in ages. Whether it was due to the hay bed that you laid on or the fact that you knew that you were going to be reunited with Jaime soon, you were luckily able to rest through the night with no disturbances. You continued your journey in the morning.

You weren't used to walking long distances like this anymore. After your imprisonment, you were feeling weak and tired. The muscles that used to line your body were no longer strong due to disuse, and the lack of good food and water helped to ensure that you were not at your best. 

So the day-and-a-half trip that was predicted turned to two and a half days, as you rested often and refused to push your body to the limits.

No use in rushing back home if you would just die along the way.

And almost three days later when you kept walking and began to see the red keep in the distance you could have cried in relief. It would only be a few hour’s walk and then you would be home. With Jaime.

If you didn’t die in the slums of Kings Landing first.

Arriving in the city was no different than the thousands of times you had done it before. The only difference this time was that you would have to make your way to the red keep on your own, with no guards or carriages to cover you.

Luckily you were not recognizable at this point as a proper lady. Your hair was marred with dirt and tangled from your imprisonment. Your clothes were ratty and almost falling off of your back. You blended in completely with some of the poorer folks of the city, and as you continued making your way through street after street you started to become worried that you wouldn’t even be allowed in the red keep at this point.

Luckily you had spent many a moon in the castle. Which meant that you knew some of the secret passages like the back of your hand.

It was easy to find the nearest one that led to Jaime’s room again. You had never forgotten it even when you spent moons alone in your solitude. 

You had spent many nights sneaking in and out of his rooms, doing things that you shouldn’t have been doing, and going into the dangerous city when you knew it wouldn’t be recommended for a lady of your status.

But the lady of your status that you were supposed to be was non-existent, and the warrior you were captured as had much to say and much to do. Like sneaking into the city.

But that didn’t matter anymore.

All that mattered was being home.

You were walking up the last staircase now, taking your time as they took their toll on your weak frame.

Just a few more steps and the wall on the left would push straight into Jaime’s room. Opening up right behind a large tapestry that no one would have suspected. 

Luckily the sun was still high up in the sky, meaning that you wouldn’t be coming into the room while he was possibly sleeping.

If he was even here.

During your time getting back to King's Landing you had much time to think about where Jaime could be. If he had made it out of Daenerys’ attack. You hadn’t seen him when you had been lined up with the others, but that could mean anything. He could have been able to get away or he could have been burnt to ash. Unrecognizable to everyone. A pile of ash.

You had to hope that he was still alive though. That he had made it out and had been hoping, waiting, and searching for you while you plotted your escape from the dragon queen.

Now would be the time to find out if it was all for nothing.

If you were to enter this room just for him to be dead, you would have escaped for nothing.

You would have rather died in that damp musty cell than come all the way here just to have your heart broken.

At this point, you don’t even know what you'd do if you were to find out that he was gone. You didn’t want to think about it. Not now. Not while you were so close.

The door was right there now. All you had to do was push and it would lead you straight into his room.

When you did so, it didn’t feel like anything special. It was just any other secret passageway door. It opened until it was slightly hindered by the tapestry that rested against it. But you kept pushing with all of your might until there was enough room for you to slip through and push it back closed.

When you turned to take in the room it was like nothing had changed. It still looked the same as the last time that you had seen it. Lush, red, and gold, with some of Jaime’s belongings strung about.

And there, in almost the center of the room, sat Jaime.

He was at the table that you both frequently ate at, drinking a glass of wine and staring at the table as though it had the secrets of the world inside of it. He had a blank look on his face, not portraying any clear emotion.

You felt the tears start to well up in your eyes at the sight of him. 

After all these months, all of this struggle you had finally made it back to him. And he was okay. 

He was alive. It’s the only thing you could have ever asked for. Prayed for.

You stood there for a moment, taking in the mere sight of him. Absorbing it all.

It was like he hadn’t changed at all. His golden brown stair still shined the same. His rugged beard that lay on his jaw was unshaven and messy, exactly how you liked it. The only difference was the bags under his eyes. He looked restless and like he hadn’t slept in weeks.

And maybe he hadn’t. Maybe he was so heartbroken and worried over your capture that he had not been able to sleep properly the whole time.

Of course, you were right.

You couldn’t stand there any longer, you needed to hold him. Feel him. 

“Jaime…” Your voice croaks out.

His eyes widen, and his head jerks a little but his eyes remain glued to the table. Like he can’t believe he heard your voice. Like you're unreal.

You murmur his name again, and this time he turns his head to look in your direction. His eyes are wide, full of shock and disbelief. “What…” He whispers it, the sound barely heard from where you stand across the room. He stands up slowly, eyes still on your frame as though you’ll disappear if he looks away. “Is it really you?” He questions, slowly stepping towards you as though you were a frightened doe.

A smile starts to spread across your face, your eyes widening in relief. “It’s me, Jaime.” And take your own steps towards him, meeting him halfway.

When you both come together again everything feels right. His arms wrap around you as tight as they possibly can, his right arm around your waist while his left wraps around your shoulders with his hand cradling your head. Your arms come to wrap around him just as tight.

You stand there for a moment, feeling the warmth that his body emits. His breath hot as it brushes the top of your head in quick pants. You can feel the scratchiness of the top he wears.

But then you feel the shuddering that begins in his chest and leaves his mouth as a sob. He pulls you in tighter, breathing picking up as he begins gasping for breath as more and more sobs leave his body and warm tears start to fall onto the top of your head as he cradles it into his chest.

Tears have started welling up in your own eyes at this point, soon turning into sobs of your own as you both hold each other with plans of never letting go.

At this point, Jaime had thought you dead. He thought that you had been either killed in the Reach or captured by the false queen and executed for being her enemy. But here you were. Warm, whole, and in his arms again. Although you did look worse for wear. Hair tangled in knots while your clothes lay in almost tatters on your body. You were dirty, mud and dirt smudged across your face and under your nails. But it was you, and at this moment you had never looked more beautiful to him. You were alive.

He loosens his grip around you and pulls back slightly so he can look at your face. His eyes meet yours and you smile in joy when you see that happiness that reflects back at you. “I thought you dead.” He whispers, his left hand moving from the back of your head to cradle your cheek.

You move your own hand to cover his, “I thought you dead as well. I did not know if you had escaped or not.” You turn away a little bit and close your eyes at the memory of the nights you cried until you passed out in the cell. Cried at the thought of him dead forever. “I had no way of knowing if you died. The fields were ash by the time she captured the rest of us.” You turn to look back at him now, the look on his face mimics your own.

“I had hoped for so many nights that you were not dead, but the thought of you captured did not sound any better.” A scowl starts to mar his face. “Knowing that that false queen had you this whole time-” He cuts himself off and abruptly pulls his arms off of you, not taking note of you jumping in shock at the action. He then starts to pace the floors of the room, running his hand through his hair. “I will have her head for what she has done.” He continues pacing, not looking at you as he shakes his head in anger at the audacity of that Targaryen whore before he abruptly turns his head in your direction and stops pacing. “Look at you.” 

He walks back over to you, picking at the rags that cover your body. “I’ll have the maids prepare a bath for you.”

And then he’s walking towards the door, calling out to the maids for a meal and a bath.

All of the maids come rushing into the room in a flurry, and you just stand there and wait as Jaime directs them on what food and clothes he wants them to bring for you.

You only stand there waiting for a few short minutes before the bath is ready, as it’s the one thing he impressed upon the maids as most important. 

When you walk into the bathing chambers the large marble bath that rests within it is full of steaming water filled with flowers and oils. You feel all of the stress simply fall off of you as you breathe in the warm air and let it soothe you. 

Jaime walks in immediately after you, folded clothes resting in his hand for you to change into when you are done bathing. He sets them done before walking over to you, eyes wide and open. “Allow me to help you, my love.” He says and you simply nod while he begins to undress you.

He pulls off the tattered tunic that you wear, throwing it to the side before he unwraps the band you have covering your breasts, allowing you to breathe freely with no restrictions. Next, he rids you of the breaches that you wear, basically tearing them off due to the rips and holes that they already possess. 

The entire time you watch him as he works, watching as he uses his one hand to help you undress, providing one of your hands in assistance whenever he has trouble. Something that you have both long since grown used to doing.

Once you stand bare before him he lightly grabs onto your shoulder to guide you over to the tub. “Rest in the tub for a moment, love.” He helps get your weak frame into the water. You only realize now how exhausted you are. You haven’t eaten a proper meal in months and using your muscles after going so long without has proven to be a strain on your energy. You simply nod as you feel the hot water soothe and calm your aching muscles.

You don’t know how long you sit there before Jaime is asking you to dip your head back into the water to wet your hair so that he can brush through it for you.

“I never wish to be separated from you again, Jaime.” You whisper into the warm air, turning your head so that your eyes can meet his.

He looks into your eyes, his green ones meeting your own, “Trust me, we will never be apart ever again.”

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[fallout-lou-begas]

What is very interesting about the difference in Agnes Sands's and Murderfreak's in-game builds is that Agnes is high-intelligence with pretty poor direct martial skills and Murderfreak is low intelligence with almost exclusively high direct martial skills, but they both have absolutely terrible social skills (Charisma generally and Speech particularly, and in Murderfreak's case, also Barter). And so the result is that Agnes gets pretty good at a lot of things whereas Murderfreak gets exceptionally good at one specific thing (murdering, but also to the freak's credit, Survival crafting), but neither of them are good at settling anything diplomatically. It makes for a very dynamic dichotomy between the two of them as characters that I am playing as in the video game:

Agnes is significantly outmatched in most direct gunfights to where even just one guy with the drop on her is a disaster, and when outright aversion ("I am not fucking doing that") isn't an option, she has to sneak and skulk around for her life, being very careful about starting any kind of fights at all, praying that she doesn't piss any faction off enough to get hit squads sent after her, and relying primarily on lockpick, pickpocket, craftiness, exploration, terminal hacking, or big chunks of her personal finances to get out of trouble. As a result of resource scarcity, Agnes has to plan every excursion out of major settlements very carefully, and keep exceptional track of her food and water, and even has to straight up steal from people just to survive. And she has to do this very carefully, because getting caught stealing and attacked, or shunned by a community, is a great way to make things even fucking harder. However, since Agnes isn't much of a fighter, weapons barely take up any space in her inventory, so she can carry a lot of food, water, and medicine at least.

Murderfreak, meanwhile, can only thrive in direct combat engagements. Sneaking is just a means to an end, a matter of optimal positioning before combat begins. Murderfreak thinks of hit squads as random supply drops and food delivery. Murderfreak's primary method of forced entry is breaking through doors and containers with whatever melee weapons her most recent victims were carrying. Murderfreak does not "make" things, Murderfreak is a exclusively a destroyer. Murderfreak does not "hack" terminals but can get them open sometimes in four random guesses if the luck's there. Murderfreak does not carry money because Murderfreak simply doesn't need it. Murderfreak gets most of their food and healing from being a cannibal, but with all the weaponry in her inventory, they can only carry so much water, and it runs out fast.

And I love this. RPG gameplay tends to be split into roughly three distinct pillars of "Combat," "Stealth (or Exploration)," and "Speech," and the way that both Agnes and Murderfreak are complete ass at that last pillar both heightens their specializations into each of the first two pillars, and exaggerates the friction that manifests when they're forced to interface with the other ones. Neither of them have a "get out of jail free" card, ever. They handle the same situation in completely different ways by necessity, but it's a constant loop of emergent gameplay for the both of them: the stakes are constantly very high, I am constantly confronting obstacles that I am simply Not Built For, and the only way around those obstacles is either sheer ingenuity (strategy, attentive preparation, and resource management), or a mixture of good luck and brute force. Agnes is roleplay as a cunning but frail prey animal and Murderfreak is roleplay as a big dumb apex predator that's just barreling through the Mojave in a single-minded quest for more food. What I don't like as much about "Speech" (in FNV) is that it makes all of my most important gameplay decisions happen in dialogue menus, as opposed to in the moment, in the action, in my own inventory, or in the environment.

So, yeah, I'm having a lot of fun playing New Vegas again

#fallout new vegas #agnes sands #murderfreak

[molluskmirage]

The clashing contrast of Etoiles and Bad’s fighting styles are very fun as they’re on polarizing ends of the spectrum.

Etoiles is very much of the ‘bushido’ way. You train to be skilled but your skills have rules and codes and honor. Fights in pure brute to brute skill is considered both the right and the ‘fun’ option for Etoiles and lack of chance to flex these skills causes depression.

Bad is very much a hunter, in specific a ‘human’ type hunter. He uses his wit and tenacity (‘being a nuisance’) to overcome ‘prey’ much greater then himself. He thinks tactically and uses every resource to cause damage mentally, physically, and emotionally, no tool is left untouched. Points and fun for bad come from creativity.

In the ‘quiet’ moments not in combat Etoiles always eager to spar at any opportunity, playfully beating up on anyone in his vicinity. Bad always eager to discover a new elaborate way to trick or tease those he cares for.

how this plays out narratively is very fun as well for Etoiles’s fighting style and mentality it goes along with him achieving the greatest shield and greatest sword. To him only he can protect others for he has achieved the best, through his merit and skill.

for Bad upon hearing of the code sword’s effects immediately came up with a device (basically a weaponized battle backpack) of simple tools available to everyone that could counter the sword’s effects, because for bad when he hears of a challenge he lights up and schemes to overcome, never saying to himself that his weaknesses can keep him from competing.

Both Etoiles and Bad are persistent, for Etoiles it means becoming stronger for Bad it means defeating by any means by any source. For Etoiles Bad’s fighting style is considered ‘dirty’ ‘not honorable’ and ‘not fun’. Where Etoiles has high respect for Bad is that Bad is highly trained and puts a lot of effort into what he does, while an opposing end to Etoiles it still takes just as much effort to pull off in a substantial way and Bad does that, the love and passion and work put in are the same for both. Both reserve themselves against others that aren’t willing to partake in going against them in non combat settings. While Etoiles picks up on what is the same for him within Bad, Purgatory was a show of how there styles are in direct conflict with one another.

Order vs chaos.

Its very entertaining to have these two pairings as again in their respective fields they’re both very great at what they do but they both of course do so differently to one another the clash is fun.

They haven’t really had the chance to actually clash too much, purgatory being the biggest opportunity and kind of realization moment thus far but the chord that is similar is still too strong for them to have a chance at opposition just yet (I feel theres plenty of opportunity for it to happen at some point down the line which Id be happy for because I love juxtapositions particularly in ones where neither is right or wrong just different. Very cool stuff!)

#Qsmp Bad and Etoiles fighting styles

[holymaccaronii]

[Part 5/???] AU rambling: HEL-102

(The drawing kinda ate, I had to include the ihnmaims tag on this one sorry 😔. It’s not AM, this is an oc/parallel of AM for my Au btw)

I know I added this whole society of robots thingy on the moon purely because I needed a background for BE, but I also kinda wanted to practice my design skills on robots. That one chart I drew once kinda exposes how I love object heads lol. Im not that much of a fan of realistic human-looking androids tbh, I need their face to be a whole mf RADAR.

Eh but anyways, I'm also up to develop an actual background n stuff for HEL-102, even if he's just an annoying little shit that neither BE nor AM like (or anyone really). For now I'll mention the symbolism that he has in the au.

HEL-102 is supposed to be like another parallel to AM, but from a different perspective. Just as AM hates humanity for what they did to him, HEL-102 is supposed to represent the hate that humanity has for AM and disobedient/rogue technology. HEL-102 doesn't have the entire robot society configured to be perfect and non-sentient, on the contrary, he wants them to act like an actual human society would. He wants them to experience failure and be punished for it, he wants them to experience the pain afterwards, and he wants them to endlessly pursue the perfection that humans APPARENTLY have.

These robots are also constantly being switched between bodies, or as you could say, who they are entirely. They are forced to work to keep their bodies, their selves, their position and status. If they fail to climb up the ladder, they will simply he downgraded to a lower level until they reach the lowest: a random set of robotic limbs and torsos placed together meant to do the dirty work around for workers. Ironically if a unit gets to be even slightly better than HEL-102, he will just consume it for it to be part of his system lol.

This whole dynamic that he set for the society is awfully inefficient, as I have previously mentioned that there was a perfectly calibrated machine under the moon to help the humans go back to earth (and maybe destroy AM? Or just disable him just like the former survivors had done) that HEL-102 used to build his body and the other bots. He's practically wasting a lot of resources and time playing around as the king purely by the selfish and narcissistic fact that "he deserves it." He of course also focuses himself on trying to disable AM without the help of the humans, as this is him trying to demonstrate his potential. But overall: he's selfish, sadistic maybe, a bitch, narcissistic, a bitch, and a dictator.

So just like AM had his survivors to torture, HEL-102 in some way uses the society as a way to project his hatred. All of em suffer except for higher rank and 34RTH units (the units BE used to belong to). HEL-102 wants praise too of course, so the higher ranks focus more on entertaining and serving him in any way he'd like. 34RTH units were treated as the model-to-follow for the other units, as HEL-102 could be always seen accompanied by them in important public events. You could say they were his "perfect children", but he barely spent time with em.

So in conclusion: BE has dad issues as well!!!! (I'll talk about her 'mom' in another post abt rambles).

Also this design is new. Just to make him a bit bit different from the bunch of cables that AM and BE’s bodies are (computer head version) I turned him into a centipede thingy. He can now crawl and stuff with this body like the disgusting bug he is.

#hel 102 ihneaimc #be ihneaimc #hel-102 #ihneaimc #i have no eyes and i must cry #ihnmaims au #ihnmaims