#set between por and rd

[serenlyss]

Bittersweet Dream of Summer

Fandom: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn Rating: General (festivals, dancing, fluff) Relationships: Ike/Soren Word Count: 3423 Read it on AO3: Bittersweet Dream of Summer

Ikesoren week encore is here!! I've been preparing fics for this week for literally months at this point off and on hahaha and I'm super excited to finally be able to share them. Special thanks to the tellius discord gang for cheering me on, I think I've written more words this month than I have over the past three months combined. I hope you all enjoy my entries!

#ikesorenweekencore #ikesoren #tellius #fe9 #fe10 #serendipitousfics #fluff #slow dancing #festivals #set between por and rd

[enbyleighlines]

Leigh plays Tellius prt 8

It's time to get everybody's favorite racist uncle Shinon back on our side! I only had to restart this map once, and it was because I forgot to bring Volke to open the chests. Otherwise, it was pretty smooth sailing.

Never change, Ike.

There he is... I honestly have such conflicted feelings about Shinon. He's one of those characters that I hate as a person, but at the same time, I appreciate him as a character. He adds a very important element to the Greil Mercs, in that he creates conflict, because he's an instigator by nature, like in the beginning when his values conflict with Titania's. Plus, the Greil Mercs call themselves a family, and you can't have a family without at least one racist asshole, right?

And okay, yes, his relationship with Rolf is cute. Apparently his support conversations with Janaff are really interesting, but I've never read them. Maybe I should do that sometime.

I don't plan on using Shinon in PoR, though. Rolf has exceeded my expectations, so he's going to remain my one and only archer. I'll probably use Shinon in RD, though, at least in part 3. I doubt I'll be bringing him to endgame, but we'll see.

Shinon said "give it your best shot" and Ike said "okay" and killed him with a critical hit on the first try.

I love this little contest these two set up, and I also love how we never hear about the conclusion, because we all know who came out on top in that 1v1 fight. And I just love Ike's growing confidence!! He's really growing into his role. This interaction is such a contrast from that battle in chapter 4.

Ahhh!! The confrontation between Soren and Nasir!!! This scene always hurts me to read.

I know that Nasir apologizes to Ike, but I believe he also owes Soren an apology for this. Threatening to out Soren if Soren doesn't agree to look the other way? That's so cruel. Nasir, I love you, but wtf.

Fuck, I always forget how dumb Homasa looks. At first glance, it looks like he has short hair, but no, his hair is actually long in the back. Like, what is that supposed to be? A mullet? Why doesn't the hair from the top flow into the hair that goes down his neck? Why does it look like he has two separate hairstyles going on at the same time? The game wants me to be intimidated by this high-crit rate swordmaster, but then they make him look like this.

Jill and Mist's A support! I know I said I wanted the Mist and Boyd A support, and I am going to do that in RD, but I decided to go with this support in PoR. Why did I make this choice? I guess I was paranoid about Jill deserting, even though I know she doesn't unless you have her talk to her father.

Anyway, I know Mist is saying this because of her own issues regarding her recently deceased father, but man. Knowing what I know about Ashnard, this line hits different.

Why are mandolin and manicotti the two first words that come to Ike's mind? I had to google what manicotti was. Apparently it's a type of Italian pasta.

Reading this conversation, I was struck by how closely the laguz's approach to leadership aligns with Ashnard's whole philosophy about strength determining a person's worth. I wonder if this inspired or at least influenced Ashnard's worldview at some point? Perhaps it was something that he discussed with Almedha, back before their friends with benefits situationship turned sour.

The major difference, I think, is that laguz society don't expect obedience from its people. If they think the leader is worthy, then they will follow. Or so Ulki seems to imply. I wonder what happens when an unfavorable leader becomes king?

Hmmm... much to think about.

Anyway, that is part 8 over and done with. Next, I need to get the knight ring from Naesala.

#leigh plays tellius #fire emblem path of radiance #path of radiance #fe9 #tellius

[glowingbadger]

Okay I had this lovely request for a fic like the Seteth "in heat" one I did a little while back, but for Tibarn, and I'm SO here for that, but I lost the request and like several paragraphs that I'd already written .-. life is suffering

Anyway, let's try this again Time to get unironically submissive and breedable

Tibarn (FE: PoR & RD) x AFAB Reader

("Queen," but no pronouns)

CW: in heat, mating, breeding kink

NSFW 18+

Tibarn has sent for you, which is rare enough on its own, as he'll generally come find you himself, always wearing that charming grin when he catches sight of you. You'd been hurried to see him, attendants insisting that he'd called for you to be brought to him in haste, and you can't help but wonder what could require your presence so urgently.

The throne room of Pheonicis' capitol is far less ostentatious than those of Begnion and even Crimea, if descriptions and illustrations of such places are to be believed; yet the worn wood and practical decor suits you just as well. You see your lover from across the hall the moment you arrive, seated with comfortable dignity, as though the old oaken throne were made of solid gold. He's flanked by Ulki and Janaff as per usual, and deeply engrossed in lively banter with a number of high ranking tribe warriors surrounding him. He doesn't look to be in any serious distress... what could he have wanted you for?

You've always admired the warm camaraderie between Tibarn and his countrymen, and so you make yourself inconspicuous so as to not disrupt their shared tales of daring hunts and past battles both won and lost. Unsurprisingly, Ulki notices you regardless. He probably heard your footsteps before you even reached the throne room proper (he says that you have distinct "firm, beorc footing," for whatever that means), and he nudges the King's arm and directs his shrewd eyes toward you. When Tibarn's amber gaze levels on you, there's something arresting about his expression- something that makes your heart skip, though you couldn't name it if you tried.

"Ah, Y/N, come," he says, and catches you around the waist the moment you reach him. By now, you're accustomed to the more blatant affections of the Laguz, so despite the company, you smile and lean into your lover's embrace. But then, he pulls you down onto his lap, his arm firm around you as he supports you on one muscular thigh.

"Hey, Tibarn-!"

Over your half-hearted protests, he addresses the other hawks before they get too wrapped up in bawdy comments on the scene before them,

"And you all," he speaks with the firm authority he wields as naturally as his own talons, "Go make some use of your time and your wings, understand?"

While his two loyal aids immediately turn to depart on his orders, the others linger for a time, caught up in the remnants of conversation and barely disguised glances toward you. Held firm against Tibarn's warm body, you feel him exhale, clearly displeased.

"Come now, can't a man have a moment with his mate?" he says more firmly above the jokes and commentary. The hand around your waist has begun to slide down the curve of your hips and upper thigh, squeezing soft flesh in his grip. By his expression, you wonder if he's even aware of his own touch. Either way, you can already feel your face burning up, try as you might to borrow Tibarn's dauntless confidence.

"You heard your orders- get moving," Janaff finally prods the group, wings twitching irritably behind him, "Bunch of chattering sparrows, the lot of you..."

They finally begin to file out, and your posture slackens just a little, glad to be free of the excess attention. Yet before the last hand has left the grand double doors, Tibarn's lips are at your neck.

"Finally..." He growls, his teeth nipping insistently at tender skin while his free hand sets upon removing your clothing. Your body tenses and arcs against him.

"Tibarn-!" You try to sound admonishing, but it's impossible when he drags his tongue along your neck, fiery love-bites marking you everywhere he can reach. You feel a familiar ache at your core as he sucks a punishing bruise to your throat, his hand gripping the swell of your thigh and holding you in place.

"Beorc are so sensitive," he murmurs with evident amusement, his breath hot across your skin. He's already pulled your boots off and it's now tugging your breeches down your legs, effortlessly maneuvering you on his lap in his strong arms. Tibarn is always a confident and unabashed lover, but there's something different about today- something almost compulsive. He's acting like he needs you, and it's all you can do to try to keep up with his pace. Before long, he's repositioned you so that your back rests against his hard chest and your knees are slung over his thighs, legs spread open as his hands greedily wander your body. Immediately, your attention is drawn to the hot, hard sensation of his manhood throbbing and rutting against your ass.

"Right- right here...?" you murmur in disbelief. Light-hearted and yet deadly serious, he replies,

"I'll have my mate wherever I like, little one."

One large hand runs up your torso, pushing up your shirt until he has unfettered access to your breasts. He fondles them hungrily, indulging in the soft flesh in his palm and tugging stiffened nipples until you're panting, arching back against him. Then, you feel the other hand sliding two fingers between your plush lower lips. You gasp aloud as he quickly finds your clit and begins to massage it steadily, stroking you over and over as you tremble in his arms.

"What's... got- gotten into you-??" you moan the words into the empty throne room, and he gives a low chuckle that flutters through your hair.

"Ah, that's right. Beorc don't experience it."

His touch leaves you just long enough to work open the front of his trousers, and immediately, you feel the impossibly hard length of his shaft rubbing between your soaked folds. You feel the tip run across your entrance, coating him in your juices, though not entering you just yet. You're surprised at how quickly he'd managed to make you as eager for it as he clearly is.

"It's my Heat," Tibarn says simply as he begins to position you both , with one hand at your hip and the other aligning his towering cock, "The Laguz drive to mate. To breed," his teeth graze the shell of your ear as his tip begins to spread you open around him, "And I won't be satisfied until I've filled you with me."

He drives into you in one steady motion, his hold at your hips pushing you down onto him as his hips thrust up to meet you, and for a moment, your breath and your thoughts leave you. Tibarn is always considerably larger than most men, but something about this "heat" must bolster even his size. You feel your inner walls strain around him, squeezing the full length of his cock while you pant and shiver against his sturdy torso. His wings furl around you both, protectively flanking either side of the throne. Elongated nails dig almost painfully against your thighs, leaving red divits in their wake, sure to remind you of Tibarn's claim for days to come.

The moment he begins to move, thrusting his member deep into you with your own body weight pushing you further onto him, you let out a pathetic whimper in an unfamiliar voice. Tibarn's pleasured grunts in your ear only spur you on to be a good mate and take him, to relieve his heat no matter what he demands of you.

"Long ago... the King's Heat meant that his chosen mate would be impregnated before an audience in this throne room," his voice is low and graveled in his chest, and his words cause you to moan aloud, your cunt clenching hard around him, clinging desperately to his length. The thought of Tibarn taking you in full view of his people, of a crowd watching you squirm and whimper as your gushing pussy takes his cock... it's far too filthy and far too wonderful to put out of mind. That you could be filled with his seed in full view of the crowd, that they would then know that you were carrying the King's child-

Suddenly, a rush of tingling pleasure erupts at your core and spreads through your body. You're gasping and moaning out your lover's name as your over-full cunt spasms and coils around him, and he fucks you through your climax. Your knees feel weak, but you rally your strength to keep yourself in place for him, even as your legs tremble with the aftershocks of your orgasm. Tibarn groans and holds you tighter against his muscled frame,

"Mmm... you like that idea, do you? Ungh- keep squeezing around me like that and I... won't be able to hold back..." His pace quickens, his thrusts harder, deeper, sending a jolt of aching pleasure up your spine each time he buries himself in you.

"Don't hold back... I- I want it...!" you gasp out between moans, still half dazed from your climax. He snarls between gritted teeth, the harsh bucking of his hips bouncing you on his lap. Aided by your overflowing juices, he forces his massive cock into your cunt again and again. Bulging veins and the swollen head drag along your inner walls, the friction and overwhelming size of him enough to cause your eyes to roll back. He's close- you can feel his manhood twitching and throbbing deep within you. By now, he's seized complete control of the pace. His powerful hold on your hips tugs you down against him in time with his thrusts, and it's all you can do to keep yourself from collapsing in his arms as he chases his release.

Tibarn lets out a roaring groan of pleasure, muscles tensing as he pulls you down onto him, then holds you mercilessly in place. He's buried in you to the hilt, and his lips find the crook of your neck once more as he begins to fill you with his cum. Dazed and tingling all over, you surrender your body to your lover and simply allow him to spill inside of you. A sudden lurch of his hips urges a helpless whimper past your lips, as the thick mass of his cock forces his release as deep into you as he can fit- as though his instinct commands him to ensure that his seed claims you.

Then, at last, you feel his body relax around you, and a heavy exhale against your skin. Tibarn slumps back against the throne, pulling you back with him and cradling you to him, all while his member remains nestled in your over-full and aching pussy. For a moment, you're quiet together. Yet despite having carried most of the physical strain of your coupling, your lover collects himself enough to move before you do. Gingerly, he lifts you up off of his still semi-hard length, and turns you to rest more comfortably on his lap with your head on his shoulder. A finger urges your chin up towards him. Slowly, tenderly, he presses a deep kiss to your lips, to which you can only offer a happy, contented sigh.

"Well done, my Queen," he murmurs, barely parting from you. When your hazy eyes focus on him, you expect to be met with his usual smirk- but the smile he wears is warm and openly adoring. Curling up against him, you rest your head on his chest to enjoy his warmth and his scent just a while longer. Soon, you'll need to make yourself more or less presentable, and Tibarn says that he'll have a warm bath drawn for you. Though it's not long before you learn that the time to recuperate is invaluable. Your mate will require your services again before night falls, and often after that, until his heat subsides.

#tibarn #tibarn x reader #fire emblem #feh #tibarn fire emblem #fire emblem path of radiance #fire emblem radiant dawn #fire emblem x reader #fire emblem imagines #tellius #fe9/10 #fire emblem smut

[owakoblack-portspa]

(PortSpa Fanfiction) Letters Written in 1808

Disclaimer: This is Hetalia fan fiction. I do not own anything.

Pairing: Portugal/Spain

For convenience, I use human names for nations in this fiction. Portugal is Pedro, Spain is Antonio, Arthur is England, Francis is France, and Miguel is Brazil. The story background is at the beginning of the Peninsular War (1807–1814). These letters are between Antonio, Pedro, and Arthur.

Special thanks to (in alphabetical order):

Portuguese beta reader: Alice

Portuguese and Spanish translator: BA

Spanish beta reader: soyuncalimero

English beta reader: shark

Madrid, 26 de marzo, 1808.

 Estimado Pedro:

 ¿Cómo te va recientemente? Ha sido un tiempo de inquietud, y espero que todo esté bien contigo. Se dice que antes de que el ejército de Bonaparte invadiera Lisboa, ya te habías ido con la familia real portuguesa a Brasil con éxito. Espero que esto sea verdad, porque el lejano Nuevo Mundo es mucho mejor que la península, golpeada por la guerra.

 Por favor, perdóname por haber perdido el contacto contigo por tanto tiempo, y cuando recibas esta carta, por favor, no te burles de un tonto como yo. Te escribo esta carta únicamente por dos razones: te ruego perdón, y quiero decirte cuánto te echo de menos. Debes odiarme inmensamente por unirme a Francis para invadir tu país. Éramos vecinos y hermanos, pero ahora nos hemos convertido en extraños y enemigos.

 Sin embargo, antes de enfadarte de tal manera que te haga lanzar esta carta al fuego, te suplico que sigas leyendo con paciencia, para que puedas entender el motivo por el cual te traicioné y me uní a Francis Bonnefoy. Tal vez aún recuerdes que hace dos años, en un baile de máscaras celebrado en el Palacio Real de Madrid, a pesar de que sólo tú habías sido invitado, trajiste a Arthur contigo. Ibas vestido como el rey inglés, Carlos II, y él como la princesa portuguesa Catarina de Braganza. Probablemente pienses que en el baile nadie os reconoció, pero ocurrió que yo también me vestí de reina (Isabel de Castilla), así que fui capaz de reconoceros inmediatamente entre la multitud. Sabía que siempre habías querido ser un gallardo caballero, así que me disfracé de mujer para ser tu pareja de baile y, al mismo tiempo, mantener a otras damas lejos de ti. No obstante, para mi gran decepción, fuiste acompañado por Arthur de principio a fin, y bailaste exclusivamente con él, ignorándome por completo. Al ver a mi viejo enemigo pretendiendo ser una chica del mismo modo que yo, con la diferencia de que él era capaz de acercarse a ti mientras yo no podía, me sentí mucho menos que tu "amigo para siempre" del otro lado del mar, aunque siempre había sido tu hermano vecino desde nacimiento.

 Esa noche, mi corazón se llenó de celos y frustración, lo que me hizo perder la cabeza. Corrí hacia un jardín, donde me encontré con Francis. Me consoló, criticando la ciega Diosa del Destino que suele elegir los amantes equivocados para las personas, porque tú y yo habíamos sido hechos el uno para el otro. Agregó que como este amante erróneo era su enemigo, él debía ayudarme a alejarte de Arthur. Por un tiempo, Francis fue ciertamente muy amable y fiel a mí. Además de ti, nunca he conocido a nadie que me entendiera tan bien y se preocupara de mi con todo su corazón. Finalmente, atraído por sus dulces palabras, acepté unirme a él.

 ¡Ay, qué tonto fui! Lloré mi corazón delante de él, porque no podía ganarme tu corazón. Fue la primera vez que mostré mi debilidad a alguien aparte de ti. Aun así, por esta inesperada excepción, acabé aprisionado en la trampa tendida por Francis. Hace dos días, el ejército francés asaltó Madrid; nuestro rey se vio obligado a abdicar, y creo que el hermano de Napoleón pronto llevará la corona española en su lugar. No es hasta ahora que al fin me doy cuenta de que, aunque Francis me había prometido su asistencia en ganar tu cuerpo y alma, lo único que deseba en realidad era la totalidad de la Península Ibérica — quiere una administración unificada del continente, para poder derrotar la nación al otro lado del Canal. Usando España como trampolín, Francia puede obtener Portugal sin mayor obstáculo. Era demasiado tarde para darme cuenta de que Francis no fue realmente amable conmigo, porque sólo tiene a Arthur en mente.

 Espero que estés en Brasil ahora. No te culparé aunque el pequeño Miguel esté ahora mismo en tus brazos, porque la situación en toda la Península es realmente terrible: las plagas y los desastres naturales están por todas partes; las personas no tienen alimentos que comer ni ropas que llevar; uno de los ejércitos era tan pobre que ni siquiera podía permitirse el suministro militar más básico, como un conjunto completo de uniformes. ¡A penas puedo imaginar lo difícil que debe ser tu vida si es que sigues en Lisboa! Lo más probable es que actúes como yo: a pesar de que sólo quede un pedazo de pan en casa, cuando veas niños hambrientos pasando por debajo de tu ventana, se lo darás sin dudarlo.

 Como naciones, no tenemos más remedio que estar siempre al lado de nuestro pueblo, porque la voluntad de la gente es nuestra propia voluntad. El pueblo español consideró al ejército francés como invasor cuando Murat asaltó Madrid, y creo que pronto las revueltas contra los franceses se extenderán por todo el país. Voy a unirme a mi gente para luchar contra Francis. En lo profundo de mi corazón, sé que me encuentro en un estado miserable para combatir, pero he decidido pelear con mi gente hasta el último suspiro. No te preocupes por mí, Pedro — soy una nación, no caeré fácilmente.

 Si realmente has leído mi carta hasta el final, entonces gracias a Dios, espero que ahora hayas entendido las verdaderas razones por las que te he traicionado e invadido Portugal. Sinceramente ruego por tu perdón, si no, me mataré por las tonterías que he hecho. Sabes, la causa de todos estos eventos es porque te quiero tantísimo que no quiero que nadie te aleje de mí. ¿Estás sorprendido por mi repentina confesión? Después de todo, desde el final de la Unión Ibérica, nunca te he llamado mi "hermano", y nunca me has reconocido como tu "irmão". Sin embargo, siempre he sido capaz de sentir el vínculo entre tú y yo que hace que mi vida no pueda prescindir de ti, y en un momento tan vital, me hace extrañarte incluso más.

 Mi querido hermano, por favor perdóname.

 Cordiales saludos,

 Antonio.

 P.S. Por favor, envía mis saludos a Miguel y hazle saber que le ruego que te mantenga en Brasil. Puedo manejar la situación en la Península solo.

  Lisboa, 3 de Abril de 1808

 Caro António,

 Acabei de ler a sua carta. Na verdade, eu estive sempre em Lisboa nestes últimos dias. Felizmente, o carteiro é um conhecido meu, caso contrário a sua carta teria circunavegado o mundo antes de me ter alcançado.

É verdade que já não nos contactamos há muito tempo. Não é de admirar que você não saiba muita coisa sobre o meu paradeiro e que eu pouco saiba da sua situação atual. Fiquei surpreendido quando me contou na sua carta o quão miserável está mas já que teve algum tempo para me escrever e mostrar que tem saudades minhas e que sente a minha falta, não acho estará assim tão mal. Tem de aguentar. Encontrarei uma solução.

Infelizmente, não me deu outra alternativa a não ser ter de o perdoar. Nem toda a gente tem a pouca sorte de ter um irmão mais novo tão parvo como você.

 Sinceros cumprimentos,

Pedro

    Lisbon, April 3rd, 1808.

 Dear Arthur,

 How are you? Is the weather in England getting better? Spring has arrived earlier than Easter in Lisbon, but I have no mood, or rather, no place for flower appreciation. Last time when you visited me, you told me that you liked the golden daffodils in my backyard, for they reminded you of William Wordsworth’s poem. However, I was unable to keep them for you. This year, shortly before the flowers could come out, I gave the daffodils including their roots to hungry street urchins. Please forgive my messy handwriting, for I cannot resist my hand from shaking when I am writing this letter. I cannot continue describing the terrible situation in Lisbon after it has been occupied by Napoleon’s army. What makes me even more worried is the worse situation in Spain.

 Just now, I received a letter from Antonio. Although Antonio and I are brothers and neighbours, out of a misunderstanding, we had lost contact for a long time. Yet now he has got off his high horse to write to me for my forgiveness, which means that the threat is hanging over his head. In his letter, he frankly admitted his faults: he desired me so much that he was caught into cunning Francis’ trap. He finally realized that Francis’ true purpose is not to help him to gain me, but to occupy the whole Iberian Peninsula. Once the whole Continent is under the control of France, Francis will obtain enough power to defeat you. As for the final purpose of Francis, I have never doubted, for, as far as I know, he has been always against you.

 And now my little Brother is badly hurt. Last week, Madrid was invaded by the French army, the King was forced to abdicate, and Spain is enslaved by France. Antonio told me that Spain had already been tortured by plagues and natural disasters for many years, economy was severely damaged, people are without food and clothes, and yet what little is left is pillaged by the French army. My Brother stands with his people, trying desperately to fight against their enemy. Nonetheless, they cannot even afford a set of military uniform, let alone guns and cannons.

 Arthur, my dear Friend, you have brothers too. Even though frictions could hardly be avoided among family members who live together under the same roof, family members are family members after all. If we do not love our family, we are incapable of loving others too. Antonio and I are not merely brothers, but also twins. Believe it or not, we have telepathy since birth. No matter how far away, I can somehow sense both his pleasure and pain. When we were small children, one day Antonio broke his leg, and I was able to feel his pain from miles away, which made me unable to walk for a whole month. Now my writing hand is shaking again--Antonio must have been injured in the battle of Madrid against the French. He did not tell me about his injury less I might get worried, but he can never conceal anything from me. I have only Antonio as my twin Brother--I am Antonio, he is always in my mind--if I lose him, I will lose my own being.

 Even if you do not sympathize with my Brother for the sake of our ‘forever alliance,’ please think about yourself: if the power of France continues to spread all over Europe, it would be too late to sustain him. Since the beginning of this year, the Spaniards all over the country have shown their courage and competence in the fierce battles against French invaders, many of them having witnessed the return of the brave Antonio during the Age of Discovery. Being the brother who understands him best, I believe Antonio will defeat Francis, and turn all the French invaders away from the Peninsula. Such future will surely be realized. What he is in need is just a little help from a foreign friend in the aspects of human resource and finance, for even King Arthur cannot win a battle without the aid of his Knights of the Table Round, and Spain needs help to face such a strong enemy.

 Dear Arthur, I know that my little Brother had offended you before, it was all due to his childishness and thoughtlessness. Please, for my own sake, forgive and help my poor little Brother. All he needs is just a little help, and I promise you that he will win the war against France. My dear old Friend, you are the only one that I can rely upon, otherwise I can find no solution for helping him.

 I can only send some small gifts to you in a hurry. I will pay your kindness wholeheartedly in the near future.

 Looking forward to your reply.

  Yours sincerely,

 Pedro

  London, April 10th, 1808.

 My dear Pedro,

 Thank you very much for your letter and your gifts. I appreciate Portuguese wine--they are always with high quality. And the painting, titled ‘Allegory to the allegiance between Portugal, England and Spain,’ is stunningly beautiful. Aren’t there three of us in this picture?

 The English weather is still bad, not suitable for a stroll on the seaside at all. In London, it was sunny in the early morning, but when I went out, it suddenly hailed, making passers-by scurry into shops--this was quite ridiculous. The English enjoy talking weathers, for the English weather is too bad, and therefore we all long for warm and sunny places. For me, Portugal is the heaven on earth. During the long, cold winter, every time when I think of the soft golden sand in Lagos, my heart will be filled with comfort and pleasure. What makes me miss Portugal even more is the delicious food you usually make for me: I could sail for Portugal anytime only for food.

 However, after reading your letter, I suddenly realized that everything is past. I can hardly imagine that my chef and old Friend has nothing to eat, and his beautiful homeland is destroyed by war. It saddens me deeply.

 You asked me to help your Brother, which I accept, but I have a condition: you must let me help you first. For I know, your situation is no better than your Brother’s. Your King abandoned you to escape to Brazil, which means the Portuguese administration is shifted from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, and you become Miguel’s colony. You asked me to save Antonio instead of worrying yourself--I totally understand how much you love him, even though you always deny it. However, this time, I really worry about you--please let me help liberate Portugal from that villain.

 In addition, if England wants to fight battles on the Continent, the English army must have a standing point first. Please allow our army to land on Portugal so that we can proceed to a larger battle.

 I am going to discuss the plan further with Duke Wellington. I will write to you later.

  Yours faithfully,

 Arthur

#hetalia #hetalia portugal #hetalia spain #hetalia england #PortSpa #iberian brothers #aph iberia #APH England #aph portugal #aph spain #hws portugal #hws spain

[prhyst]

Serenity/Biorhythm

AKA my explanation for why Rhys is able to march with the mercenaries in PoR/RD despite a history of being ill for long periods of time and why in TOA he’s able to fight.

Rhys appears to have something like chronic fatigue syndrome along with other bouts of illness that the best I can do is chalk up to having a weak immune system. Being generally tired easily, feeling especially drained from anything with a physical toll be it exercise or as feh would describe, getting a sunburn and then needing to let that heal, are all issues that would make it sound like Rhys would probably not make it through long marches in the heat or snow. At the start of the game Rhys had just finished being in bed with a fever for a week, and in a Rolf support Rolf refers to Rhys has having been previously ‘barfy all the time’, but it seems like this has changed enough to allow Rhys to be a playable unit (most?) every map.

Narratively, I think it makes some sense that although CFS doesn’t just go away overnight and Rhys still has low stamina, his immune system might be getting stronger as he grows up. In my own life, I used to miss a month of school every winter as a kid, but as an adult I can go a year or two without getting sick even while working with the public. Doesn’t work that way for everyone, but I use that as part of Rhys’s ability to bounce back a bit better from getting sick, though he still does get sick.

Mechanically, most of this was probably handwaved for the sake of gameplay. However, he has a skill that’s almost unique to him as a starting skill called Serenity. Units in Tellius have a biorhythm that gives them either stat bonuses or penalties depending on where they are on their own personal wave. For example, this is Rhys’s:

His natural biorhythm is set almost exclusively between two extremes, but his skill Serenity negates half of the stat bonuses or penalties effects of his biorhythm. On one hand, he never has the absolute worse penalties; on the other, he loses his best stat streak. Serenity would make his curve in actual gameplay flatten out.

This skill also lets me say that perhaps this is why Rhys has enough fortitude to be on the roads and battlefields with the mercenaries. It’s not clear to me if Serenity is magic or not since it’s difficult to directly translate stat effects, though I sort of suspect it is (Devdan can have it but shhh he starts with some mag stat at least). Rhys passively adapting to his extreme lows by letting his biorhythm curves even out seems like his own ambient faith magic is working to keep him steady, even if his energy is generally going to be lower than other people’s. That, or it could just be his internal serenity letting it even out, though I don’t feel like biorhythm is something people can really use willpower to manipulate.

I just think it’s neat that a game mechanic can explain why Rhys narratively feels consistently strong enough to march with everyone, and it was something that bothered me for awhile before I actually looked at his skill. Biorhythm is sort of weird and not something most players I’ve ever talked to pay much attention to, so it was easy for me to miss when I first stated musing him.

Anyone can access any weapon in TOA, and I’ve kept Rhys mostly to magic. However, with the stat mechanics being as they are here, he may branch more into physical weapons and be written as not the best with them/still prone to overexertion, but able to use them to an extent. Magic staffs are outright said to not be able to cure illness temporary or chronic so it’ll certainly never be wand waved away (and it’s a big part of his character so I wouldn’t want to anyway to be clear, and also magicking away this kinda thing is just eurgh not what I’m about), but I think he can try and train a bit with new things with support and be kept IC. Though this post was mostly about his in game skill Serenity, Renewal, which he has in TOA, could also be fudged a bit to excuse him training for a bit without injuring himself. Either way, I really want to both keep him IC and also let him explore classes <3

This got long but thanks for reading!

Extra note: Rhys seems to have low biorhythm during January events. Thanks Death Maiden kdasjfglfgeufhuqoa

#ooc #about the muse #meta

[maykitz]

only read if you want to be bored to death

sacred stones invented branching classes and multiple story paths and got a lot of shit for it back in the day i remember. correct me if im misinformed but i think they were the first to do that anyway. things that are now series staple that no one wants to miss. (even to the games detriment lol. 3h suffered so bad from the forced 3.5 branches it hurts. i dont even wanna touch their inability to keep facts straight cuz they insisted on opposing rather than complementary routes like ephraim and eirika)

i could lay awake all night thinking about all the qol/otherwise massive improvements tellius introduced that literally just disappeared. and im not talking about having a good story. i mean stuff like bonus exp which instantly fixes npc units exp theft (i cant believe i had to worry about that shit in fire emblem fucking 16 when 9+10 had fixed it), also allows the option to reward specific gameplay (usually fewer turns) and balances unique scenarios like a stealth mission (yes path of radiance has a stealth mission) or leaving alive innocents which would normally mean missing out on exp from killing them. which means theres an actual reward for being a good person in a way that makes sense and works in tandem with the story.. they give you some basic options to control npcs at least somewhat usefully. one character can summon reinforcement ally units bc she’s a commander. so many new objectives besides rout/capture while still being 100% turn based on-map gameplay. set those supplies on fire. there’s one map where a bunch of horses get their own turn and you can set them free if you want. theres always something new. jill is the one and only character in the entire series who can be recruited, then could defect back to the enemy, and can then possibly be re-recruited and it is so engaging. i played her on the map in her hometown and attacked a random npc not expecting anything and he said “lady jill why??” and i was like oh my GOD.................... the dawn brigade had some issues (a lot) but the idea of playing both opposing armies and having characters switch between them at your choice was so interesting. until the greil mercenaries absolutely decimate you. but even that was intended given that the dawn brigade IS fighting a losing battle there and youre supposed to get utterly crushed and barely escape with your life. you literally do get the exact feeling of “god i cant win this”. literally no one has the range of micaiah “lure a child into an ambush and pour oil on her entourage to set them all on fire but im also a miracle performing sweetheart who heals people with my bare hands like jesus” daein. hell the entire concept of turning the “bad guys in black armour” formula on its head by making occupied daein the new setting so that the “daein” label on all the faceless enemies you killed in por becomes more than just The Evil Country invading Goodkingdom. no one else in fe gets grey morality because rd had it all. beast shifters as a whole (tellius furry rights) and their transformation gauge which wasnt just some stone functioning identical to any weapon (altho it sucked lmao). dragons transform without dragon stones but they do have dragon stones and those work like walkie talkies. rds primary and (especially) the secondary villain left me bald as a newborn. top notch chefs kiss writing like i read these battle convos on the reg especially the one he has with s*****. and speaking of. BASE CONVERSATIONS.

5 games from now they’ll rediscover these and be like omg this rules i invented this. please give me back base conversations

#metro station shake it

[emotionsofthesoul]

Chapter 19 _ 303

Juliana had been looking forward to the end of the week in order to go apartment hunting with Valentina. Valentina on the other hand did not want to look for an apartment for Juliana because that meant she would be leaving the loft soon. She knew and understood that Juliana wanted her independence and didn’t want to rely on Valentina’s money for that but the thought of Juliana leaving the loft still made her upset.

“Okay amor I have a list of a few apartments near the shop so I think we should start there. They’re actually a little more economic which is great since I can’t afford rent anywhere in Pocket or the downtown area.” Juliana said circling her first choice with a red market.

“You know I don’t like the idea of you leaving…but as long as it’s not in the dangerous areas I’ll be on board.” Valentina said grabbing her jacket from the couch.

Juliana rolled her eyes as she got up from her chair at the table going towards the door to get the keys and proceeding to grab Valentina’s hand as they walked out the door towards the elevator.

“It’s south Sacramento babe, relax it’s not that bad.” Juliana told Valentina as she drew circles with her thumb on the hand she was holding.

Valentina turned to look at Juliana. “No offense Juls but you haven’t been here long enough to see how bad it is…”

Juliana didn’t argue with that fact but she had been on Florin Rd long enough to see how different it was from block to block on that street alone.

“I’ve lived in the south since I arrived Val, I lived right by the tracks and Burbank High, so I think I’ve got a pretty good idea. 65th St. & Stockton Blvd don’t seem as bad as where my parents live so I think I’ll be okay babe.” Juliana said trying to relax the situation.

As the girls got in the car Valentina continued. “Juls you really don’t have to go though we can just stay at the loft. Together.”

Juliana smiled at the thought and at Valentina’s pouty face.

“Baby you know I love you and I love living with you but I think this is something I have to do. I appreciate your dad and Lucia letting us, letting me, stay there but I don’t want to take advantage. Plus that’s your family’s loft for when they need to stay in the city so I don’t want to make things uncomfortable for them by being there. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.” Juliana said as she pulled out of the parking lot.

Valentina had not realized just how serious Juliana was about this and how being there was affecting her, until now. “Hey, no, Juls it’s not overstaying your welcome. My dad doesn’t mind and neither does Lucia. Don’t feel like that, please. I know my sister has made you uncomfortable and has said you don’t belong but you do, you belong with me. I know you are not trying to take advantage of me and I know you don’t see me like the rest of the world, as this naive kid that doesn’t know any better. You see me for who I am and I trust you.”

Juliana parked next to the rose garden on 15th and turned the car off in order to talk with Valentina face to face. “I know they don’t mind but I do. I don’t like feeling like everyone thinks I’m using you for a place to stay because I’m not… I love you and I respect you so much. I don’t want this to interfere with how things are going between us. I love you Valentina, I really do and I don’t want to mess this up.” Juliana finished looking down at her lap feeling completely vulnerable in the moment.

Valentina gently placed her index finger under Juliana’s chin lifting it in order to meet her eyes. “Hey. Look at me Juliana. I love you. If this is really what you want and need to do then let’s do it. I know you’re really independent but sometimes you have to let yourself be cared for a little more okay. I want to take care of you. Not in a ‘sugar daddy’ type of way but genuinely take care of you as the girl who loves you and wants your well-being.”

Juliana gave Valentina a small smile and said, “Gracias amor por entender y cuidarme.” Followed up by, with a playful smirk, “& while I’m not looking for a ‘sugar daddy’ you would definitely be my first choice because damn have you seen yourself.” She said trying to lighten the mood.

Valentina let out a laugh as she threw her head back. “Only you can go from a deep conversation to that.”

The girls shared a laugh as Juliana turned her Mustang back on and began driving once again. Valentina connected her phone to the car’s stereo and began playing Thinking Bout You by Frank Ocean. Both girls sang along to Valentina’s song choices as they held hands.

When they arrived to the first apartment complex they received the tour of the location and were shown apartment options and price ranges. After looking at about 5 apartment complexes Juliana found one that she truly liked and felt comfortable in. It was on the corner of 47th Avenue and 65th St in what seemed as a calm area with not much traffic. It was perfect. They began the process of applying to see if she qualified and after two hours she was approved and given the key to her new home. Apartment 303 on the east side of the property.

As the girls walked to the two room apartment Juliana smiled in excitement at the knowledge that this little apartment was hers and she could decorate it as she pleased.

Once inside the empty apartment Valentina picked Juliana up and spun her around before setting her back on the ground and leaning her forehead against Juliana’s saying, “I’m so proud of you baby. When you set your heart on something you do it and you’ve done it with this. 303 is yours. All yours to do with it as you please, make it as you as possible.”

“Gracias mi amor. 303 is mine, I still can’t believe it. I qualified on my own… I’ve only been working for like a month… This place has like no restrictions. It’s like it was meant to be mine. I think it’s time we go shopping. I heard the Sears on Florin is closing, we should go check it out, see what deals we can get.” Juliana said as she sat on the kitchen counter that was behind her.

Valentina walked forward in order to stand between Juliana’s legs and held onto the girl’s hips as she began talking. “You do have really good credit and make almost double the minimum wage so that definitely helped. Now come on let’s go snag those deals.” She said as she began pulling away.

Juliana wrapped her arms around Valentina’s neck pulling the girl back towards her. “Hold on.” She said as she pulled Valentina in for a kiss. They kissed for a while before finally deciding to head to Sears. 

Once in the store they ran into Juliana’s father who was shopping for work jeans. He was told the news of the new apartment and he offered to buy Juliana her bed, the sheets & blankets, and the bathroom towels. Juliana refused at first but Chino insisted until she agreed. They shopped until closing time and by then they had picked out quite a few things for the apartment. They left satisfied and with a date set for the bed to arrive. Juliana invited her father to see the new apartment the next day for dinner with her and Valentina.

The following day Juliana went to a furniture store near her job and picked out a dining table for her new apartment and placed her order. Then she headed to Walmart to pick up a foldable table and foldable chairs for the dinner she had planned with her father and her girlfriend. On her way home she stopped by to a local Chinese restaurant to get their dinner.

As she began setting the table while waiting for Valentina who was going to come help her set up an hour before her father’s arrival there was a knock on the door.

When Juliana opened the door she could not believe who it was.

#juliantina #juliana valdes #valentina carvajal #Forever #juliantinafics #forever update #forever ch19

[voidfishersong]

Pirates of Tellius AU

I'm back at it again with another niche Tellius AU no one but me will ever read!

this is some sort of weird IkeSoren/IkeRanulf hybrid but like. better keep it open ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

basically it’s ‘what if I stuck Tellius characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean universe, smashed both the plots together, and made it slightly gayer (but only slightly because tellius is pretty gay)?

It starts out more following the plot of PotC but I assure you that is only superficial and also gets drowned pretty quickly

also you can see where this post started as brainstorming and eventually became actual fic so. please read it

Ike is obviously Will Turner - I mean, this is textbook, right down to his dad having Secrets™️. sword boi runs into trouble.

Soren is Elizabeth - but raised by Almedha (hence a background in dangerous things when he was young, but now very sheltered by his parent).

and Ranulf is the suave but kind-of-stupid pirate because I have no self control and JUST IMAGINE RANULF IN THE HAT. THE HAT, GUYS.

it gets gayer I swear I’m pushing a Soren/Ike/Ranulf agenda y’all

Ike and Soren, childhood friends, Almedha doesn't like Ike coming over, Soren’s got some sort of arranged marriage Ike has many swords but dreams of greater things than the smithy. the rest of the Greil Mercenaries are the people from Ike's area of town - Titania's the only one I struggle to think of a job for, but she lives next to the smithy and Mist has a bedroom at Titania's as well as above the forge (Ike has a bed there too, although he rarely uses it). Oscar and his brothers are a bakery/butchery hybrid, Rhys is the apothecary, etc., Shinon and Gatrie are probably still mercenaries lbr

the only thing Ike knows about his father's death is that he was killed by the pirate captain of the Black Night (haha I regret everything), a mythical ship that appears and disappears at will - but only at night.

Lethe stole Ranulf's ship, crew, and weapons (he'd be so proud if he didn't currently lack a ship), which I don't have a name for yet, anyway so Ranulf comes in to the port, people lose their shit, he escapes, but he really needs a forge to get these handcuffs off. oh, the Greil smithy! nice. duel! jail :(

Ike is kinda sad because Soren has to do Noble Things which currently just means "sucking up to the princess" Elincia - and he thinks his mother might be planning a marriage at this rate.

One night, one of the Mad King's fleet ransacks the town. Ranulf sighs, knowing enough of these beorc pirates by reputation, but hey, he's in jail.

The pirates kill the king and go after Elincia to throw Crimea into chaos. Unfortunately, she's not alone - but fortunately, Soren can talk his way into any situation and gets them a parley. bonus points if he pretends he's the princess and Elincia is a servant.

Ike's world is upside down - his town's burning, Soren's been taken, what does he do? Titania tells him he can go - she'll help rebuild, keep the town order, and Mist can run the forge. Just - you know that sword, Ike? the one your father hid under the floorboards and told you to never touch? take it. you might need it.

so he does - but might need some help, too. who better than a pirate who knows the way of the sea?

they steal a ship and go. Ike yells about pirates, Ranulf offers to throw him into the sea, but they resolve it quickly because Ike understands there's more to the world than he knew. Ranulf's got an uncanny sense of direction and he knew Ike's father, but there's something else he feels he's missing. Greil was a pirate, Ike learns, and one of the finest - Ranulf might've left Gallia if he'd asked.

but their ship isn't meant for two - they need a crew. Ike soon learns Ranulf has a reputation five miles long, lovers in nearly every man and woman on land, and can outdrink anyone when they stop at an Outpost to pick up everyone you recruit in PoR. and then they head for Nevassa Cove.

I'm throwing the plots of both stories out the window now. also, the laguz? they're staying - in a slightly different form...

Ike and Ranulf’s crew don't make it to Nevassa quickly, though, so who knows what Elincia and Soren are doing in the meantime. bonding, probably. Elincia's no idiot - she's heard the rumors about Lady Almedha, her mysterious background, her ever-present veil - and the Captain of the Mad King goes on about what lives in the water. She starts to question the fables of her childhood, full of sirens who would sing you to the depths and creatures that could topple flagships. Soren's planning, but he's got to keep up the Princess pretense - but he's noticing, too.

Ranulf's crew comes across some of their own myths when their ship is blown into a coral reef. Ranulf and his first mate (originally had this as Kyza but I want to save her for the eventual RD-inspired sequel, and Ike's role onboard is kinda undefined) know better than to go outside here, but Ike doesn't, and so he meets his first mermaid - oh, he didn't mean to offend, he didn't know they were called laguz. Kurthnaga is kind and offers the assistance of his friends to unmoor their ship, and Ike learns their form is not limited to the kind he saw in paintings of beautiful merwomen. Ike tells Ranulf, and Ranulf admits he knows more of the sea than he let on - there are different clans of laguz, all below the water, and the sea dragons are only one (although they are where landwalkers got their idea of the kraken).

the next tribe they find as they cross the canyons of Phonecis and Kilvas, known as a ship's graveyard. there's something about Ike, Ranulf muses as Ike speaks to King Tibarn about the Mad King's destruction and their explosives which threaten to ruin even the ocean floor. Tibarn listens, even with a siren at his side (one of few, Ranulf thought them all dead), and when Tibarn not only lets them pass but offers assistance, Ike welcomes them.

"I thought I was the captain around here!" he calls, earning a smile from Ike at the helm. He can feel Reyson about to speak, to ask why he is a captain of a beorc vessel at all, so Ranulf interrupts with a call to the crew and they depart, singing out of tune but merrily.

Tibarn's laguz follow in the water, save Tibarn himself and his white siren, who stand on deck and could almost pass for humans. Ike wonders about this - Kurthnaga and the dragons didn't have quite this human a form; are Tibarn and Reyson special, or is there even more to the laguz than meets the eye?

He asks Ranulf as much, when they're sitting below deck having a drink. "Laguz have three forms," Ranulf answers. "One for the water, one for the land, and one in-between." He fingers the brim of his hat, an item Ike wishes he'd take off when they're dining like this, away from the rowdy crew.

"How do you know so much about laguz?" Ike asks instead, ever focused on the mission. He doesn't get an answer, though, because the bell is ringing and the crew is clamoring and they see Nevassa Cove in the distance.

"Good find, Ike," Tibarn congratulates him with a slap on the back.

"Ranulf found it." That's Reyson, with something in his tone Ike can't quite place.

"Good find, Ranulf," Tibarn repeats, casting an amused smile to his companion.

They board smallboats and row to the cave under cover of darkness. The plan is cast aside, however, when Ike watches the Mad King's captain unsheath a rapier and advance on Soren. Ashnard won't tolerate their game of role-play any longer, but Elincia jumps in front, waving her arms wildly and yelling to get in the water, Soren!

Ike doesn't listen to whatever Ranulf is or isn't saying; he jumps from behind a cave wall, waving Ragnell and shouting hellfire on Ashnard.

"Well, well, little pirate boy," he mocks, and Ike realizes how massive this captain is in person. "Are you worthy to set foot in Nevassa?"

Ike raises his chin and Ragnell and meets Ashnard's eyes. "My father was Captain Gawain, who sailed that ship long before you destroyed her planks with blood, Ashnard," he says. "You aren't fit for the sea!"

They fight, slipping on sand-dusted rocks and breathing in blood and sweat and the dank smell of the cove, swords ringing like broken bells. Ranulf waves his hand and the crew - Ike's crew, really, if he's being honest - swarms Ashnard's, Tibarn's laguz fighting from the water and dragging pirates to the depths. He crosses to Soren and Elincia and motions them to an underwater tunnel. "Ike's ship is waiting for you," he tells them. "Go!"

"I'm no laguz, Sir Ranulf," the princess protests, but her eyes speak defiance rather than fear.

"It's Captain Lay, Princess," he says with a smile. Then he pushes her into the water, angled so she falls back on Soren and sends them both splashing. "Hold your breath!" And Ranulf dives in, relishing the feel of his shifting form only for a second before he pulls Elincia down, down, up, up through the tunnel and they emerge on the outside, Elincia sputtering and gasping and clinging to him like a lifeline.

"Swim to the ship. Reyson will be waiting."

She lets go but doesn't move. "Soren - he's still in there - you'll go back - please, Captain, return and -"

He cuts off her growing politeness when thrusts his hat at her chest and spins around. She's right, her companion didn't follow, and Ranulf has a sneaking suspicion why, if Ike's many stories of his friend are true.

"Damn," Ranulf says. He goes back.

Ike can feel his arms straining and he regrets never using Ragnell until a month ago. Ashnard is stronger, but at least Soren and Ranulf got away, he thinks. Of course, that's when a knife embeds itself in Ashnard's forearm. Ashnard turns. Ike turns. Soren is there, half in the water and hair dripping wet, holding another knife. Ashnard opens his mouth, and Ike strikes - brings Ragnell straight down and cleaves the Mad King's skull in two with a precision Ike didn't know swords could have.

Ike stands there, staring at the body and his blade, for a full minute, breathing heavily and shaking from adrenaline. When he moves, Soren is staring at him. Ike drops Ragnell and runs to the water, and Soren - Soren moves away, backing against the cove wall.

And I don't want to write Angst™️ but you know where this is going. (Half laguz have two forms, but that's still one more than a beorc.)

Ranulf interrupts the moment, because, hey, I'm glad you're safe but there's a battle on outside and I'm pretty sure the Royal Navy's here as well so let's go!

Ike is still holding Soren, whose face is curled into his neck and hair brushing across Ike's back like a blanket of seaweed. He looks at Ranulf, eyebrows high as he takes in Ranulf finally without that hat and decides his ears are cute. "Is every person I know gonna show up with a tail now, or is it just you two?"

"Just us, I think." Ranulf grins, then sobers. "Still a battle on, Ike," he chides. Ike nods and turns to Soren, who nods in affirmation. "Hold your breath, Ike," says Ranulf, and then they're streaming through the tunnel and Ike never, ever wants to go swimming again by the time they break the surface.

The Royal Navy is there, and they're impounding Ranulf's ship. Ike's ship. Whatever. They haul Ike out of the water, which he accepts because he isn't a laguz and he's more of a chance of surviving in prison than in the water. The guards bind him for piracy - unfair, because he hasn't actually stolen anything (Ranulf stole the ship, technically). Ike tells them as much - yells it, more like, along with a string of curses and proof that he just saved the Princess and killed the Mad King Ashnard - but when Elincia's voice rings out a call for silence he's just as affected as the Navy.

"Sir Ike," she begins, ignoring the whispers of her guards and one commander who tries to tell her he's a pirate and shouldn't be addressed personally, "you have saved me and my kingdom from destruction. For that, you have our gratitude. You will remain a free man, and all charges of piracy against you shall be dropped. I offer you a place in my Navy, Sir Ike, as it would be an honor to have you beside me."

His motley crew, hands tied behind their backs in the center of their ship, stares at him; Elincia's Navy stares at her; and no one moves for a moment.

"Thank you, your Majesty," Ike says, the title an honest mistake but he doesn't take it back because it's true now. "Thank you, Elincia," he continues, "but my place is on the sea. My father sailed these waters before me, and it's time I lived up to him. Besides," he offers her a crooked smile, water dripping into his eyes from his lashes, "I think the sea has companions to offer me."

"Of course," she says, a smile playing at her lips. She removes her arms from their position across her chest (Ike had thought it a ward against the seeping chill of night air on wet clothes) and lifts something up above Ike's head. In the moonlight, he catches a glimpse of a familiar hat, its wide brim decorated with strings of beads and feathers, before Elincia places it on his head, soaking his hair even more. "We shall leave you to your ship, Captain Ike," she says with eyes alight, and turns away with all the grace and poise of a royal.

After a great deal of spluttering and critiques from the Navy quickly aborted by a mere glance from Elincia, Ike's crew is released and the Navy returns to their ships with Elincia, who hands Ike an envelope and a hug before departure. Ike stares after them, adrenaline entirely spent and confused how he just got named a pirate captain by the Queen.

"Well, well, well, congratulations!" comes a familiar voice, its figure moving across the deck. "The hat suits you, Ike," Ranulf grins, clapping him on the shoulder. "Lethe might've stole my other ship, but you've earned this one well." He pauses, just for a second, winks, and then says: "Captain."

Ike smiles, but his attention is quickly caught by the shadows behind a mast. It's Soren, as he knew it would be. Ike puts an arm around him, a gesture he finds awkward for anyone else, and runs his fingers through Soren's damp black locks. "I think I've got a position open on this ship," he offers. "If you'd like."

Soren looks up, and Ike thinks his red eyes are beautiful in the moonlight. "I would." It's almost inaudible, but Ike hears it anyway. He holds him tighter.

They return home first, and his crew laughs through the streets and fills the inns and taverns with gold and merriment, undoubtedly spreading rumors of the battle with the Mad King that will grow into something ridiculous, but Ike doesn't stop them. When he knocks at Titania's door, Mist throws herself at him and she's crying and Mist's crying and Ike might be too.

When they've told each other all that matters between their family and Mist is asleep on Titania's lap from exhaustion, Ike makes tea for him and Titania and sits across from her. "Were you my dad's first mate?" he asks, unprompted except by the companionable silence of being home.

"I was," Titania replies, nostalgia twinging across her face.

Ike nods and sips his tea. He knows the rest of the story, and if Titania would like to spin her own tales he'd gladly listen, but he'll also listen to Mist's soft breathing and relax.

"Who is yours?" Titania asks instead.

Ike starts, almost dropping his tea. "I don't - I'm not sure. There's - well, there's Soren, and Ranulf, and I don't know..." he trails off.

Titania smiles, a glint in her green eyes. "You don't have to know. One day, you'll know, though. It might sneak up on you, so watch out." She knows something, Ike thinks, something about me but more than that, she knows something about the world and the sea and the captains that follow the wind and their hearts.

"Okay," says Ike, because he's home and he doesn't have to say any more. In a few days they'll head out again on that wind. Ike doesn't know where it'll take him, but he'll be ready.

#y'all i just want to push my a) potc obsession and b) ikeranulf agenda #path of radiance #radiant dawn #fire emblem #fe aus #fe por #fe rd #fe9 #fe10 #also reyson and tibarn are definitely a thing in this verse because ike is probably ace and i gotta get my mermaid kinks somewhere #we get the black knight in the sequel. they go to begnion and shit too altho i havent decided everything yet #lethe's also gonna be in the sequel and so is the dawn brigade once I get a handle on. anyone besides micaiah and sothe lmao #i need a name for ranulf's-turned-lethe's ship tho #yes they're both laguz yes they're pirates don't @ me you know ranulf would #lethe is probably just like. idk trying it out for fun? idk gallia is super chill and also the clan most often spending time on land #I CAN'T DECIDE HOW THE SPECIES WORK THO LIKE??? WINGS??? FUR?? IDK MAN THEY'RE ALL JUST MERMAIDS NOW #this started because of titania in a pirate hat look what it's become. titania isn't even a pirate in it #but ranulf and soren are mermaids and ike's boyfriends and that's all that matters

[kimium]

So I realise I take my life in my hands by asking this... But in a hypothetical situation where I wanted to investigate the Fire Emblem series... Where should I begin?

OH HO!!!!

Okay, well to preface this I have to say I have only played (technically) six Fire Emblem games. Also, all the recommendations I can give are for console.

For beginners I think the best option is Awakening. Yes, it’s the standard answer, however Awakening brought in many mechanics into the game play that are very helpful to new comers to the franchise. The maps are fun and with the choice between classic mode and casual mode, it’s a fun middle ground for difficulty setting. The story in my mind is great and I really enjoy the characters.

(If you don’t want to try Awakening, another option is Fates. Now, Fates is a bit tricky because it has three different stories. If you want to try Fates out I recommend you play IN THIS ORDER: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations.)

(Also, if you’re wondering about Heroes, it’s best to have some background before trying the mobile game as it has MASSIVE SPOILERS with some of the units/ descriptions.)

But basically I think the best option is Awakening. Of course, I’m not as familiar with the older titles to Fire Emblem. My neighbour did play Radiant Dawn/ Path of Radiance when we were kids and I do remember those titles being a little harder. Also, those are Game Cube/ Wii games so…

**EDIT: ALSO!!! You need not know the other games in the franchise to enjoy them (apart from some rare games which are sequels to each other, as the before mentioned RD/PoR). Of course there is some lore thrown around, but it’s more fun Easter Egg stuff.

#personal #replies #also if you play awakening you'll know why obscure and i scream over odin selena and laslow

[gascon-en-exil]

A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

#Fire Emblem #Mostly serious but not entirely

[four-loose-screws]

Oscar / Astrid C-A Support (PoR Lost Support #3)

This is an original support written by me, not a translation.

The transition between PoR and RD wasn’t the smoothest. A lot happened in the time skip, and it wasn’t all explained. One such example is Astrid’s enlistment in the Crimean Knights... How the heck does she go from saying she will return to the Begnion Knights in PoR’s epilogue, to becoming a Crimean knight? Well, I can’t patch that up fully in supports that happen during the events of PoR, but I had fun using this support as an opportunity to bridge the gap a bit.

Enjoy!

Astrid / Oscar C Support

Astrid: Let’s see… If I put the cups here, and the plates there… I’ll be able to carry all of these easily! ………Oh no! Ahhhh!

Oscar: …Astrid, are you alright? What happened!?

Astrid: I-It’s nothing! I’ll clean everything up right away! Don’t worry about me!

Oscar: Please, I beg of you, don’t move. You’re surrounded by glass shards. One wrong move and they could get embedded in your skin.

Astrid: Eep! O-Okay!

*screen fades out and back in*

Oscar: …There. It’s safe for you to get up now.

Astrid: Thank you so much! I’ll get back to work right away!

Oscar: I can wash the remaining dishes, so please rest. You still look pretty shaken up.

Astrid: I-I don’t need to rest at all! See? I can move all my limbs just fine!

Oscar: …Alright, but let me know if you need anything, okay?

Astrid: I will. I promise!

Oscar: …If you don’t mind me asking… What were you doing with so many dishes at once? Even I would only carry a fraction of those at one time!

Astrid: I… I was hoping to prove that I can pull my own weight around here. I feel so worthless. My only real skill is in looking pretty.

Oscar: Hey, don’t worry so much about your background. The Greil Mercenaries is made up of people from all walks of life. All but two of us were totally lost when we first started fighting in this war! Titania and I got four hours of sleep a night because we had to give everyone crash courses on how to be a soldier in a moving army. And every time I thought we had a handle on things, Ike would announce that we had someone new…

Astrid: Whew, I’m exhausted just hearing about it! But wait… that means you were a knight!

Oscar: Yes, I was one until several years ago.

Astrid: Wow! A real knight! An ex-knight, but still! You must teach me everything you know, so that I can become a full-fledged knight of Begnion when I go home! ...Oh… um… I’m sorry. You just finished saying that you’ve done more than enough of that for everyone else…

Oscar: Don’t worry about it. Of course I’ll teach you. I’m surprised that Commander Ike hasn’t sent you to me already, actually. He must have thought that you would be okay enough, having at least some experience as a knight.

Astrid: Oh, Sir Oscar, you are perfect! I can’t wait to get started!

Oscar: I promise that you’ll be feeling more comfortable around here in no time!

Oscar / Astrid B Support

Oscar: Okay, the targets are all set up! Get into position!

Astrid: Yes sir!

Oscar: Ready your bow!

Astrid: Yes sir!

Oscar: Fire!

Astrid: One… two… three… four… five!

Oscar: Amazing! You hit the bullseye every time, even while your horse was moving at a full gallop. Your skills are already quite competent. I’ll help you train for as long as you wish me to, but you’ll do great in battle once your nerves start to settle.

Astrid: Thank you for the compliment, sir! I’ll practice on my own after dinner as well, sir!

Oscar: Not necessary, but if you want to, then go ahead. Also, you did an exceptionally good job with your chores earlier as well. You are quickly improving in everything you do! Just don’t be afraid to ask for help from whoever is working with you, and you’ll be more than fine.

Astrid: Thank you again for the compliments, sir!

Oscar: …I do have one request, though.

Astrid: Anything, sir!

Oscar: Please, don’t be so formal with me. I know I used to be a knight, but after all this time as a mercenary, it sounds silly to me now.

Astrid: …But being casual with someone like you is so unnatural to me… I suppose that I’ll never be able to separate myself from my noble upbringing.

Oscar: What we learn as a kid tends sticks with us forever, for better and for worse. Just don’t push yourself.

Astrid: I understand. I’ll be myself.

Oscar: That’s the spirit! …So how are you doing?  War seems to be taking its toll on you most of all.

Astrid: I know that I look pathetic next to all of the hardened soldiers and mercenaries around here, but I’m actually really happy! I want to work hard and get used to this life! I finally feel alive! Getting stronger and improving yourself is freedom! …Don’t you think so, too, Sir… er… Oscar? Just Oscar.

Oscar: Well, helping others and caring for my family is all I need, so I can’t say that I think the same. But I do know what it’s like to find the lifestyle that fits after years of questioning.

Astrid: Thank you for your kind words and understanding, as always. For one such as I, even this grueling life is a dream. I’m so happy to be here with you all!

Oscar: For as long as we fight together, I will do whatever I can to make sure that you continue living the dream. But for now, get some rest. You’ve more than earned it.

Astrid: Thank you again, Oscar! You are the most dashing ex-knight in all the land! See you tomorrow!

Oscar: …She really wants to continue on as a knight, but knowing her situation… there’s no way she can return to Begnion… Her family would interfere with her plans for sure… Well, my ex-captain will probably be mad at me for never writing to her after all these years, but it’s still worth a shot…

Astrid / Oscar A Support

Oscar: I apologize for the sudden change in plans, but we’re not going to start training right away today.

Astrid: Hm? Is something the matter? Oh Goddess… Did… did… something happen to… one of your brothers…

Oscar: No, it’s not bad news! Far from it, in fact. I have a letter that I wish to give you. You can read it now if you’d like.

Astrid: Hm? A letter? But why did you receive a letter written for me?

Oscar: It’ll be easier for me to explain once you’ve read it.

Astrid: I understand. ………… Oh, wow…

Oscar: My platoon captain always thought that I would change my mind one day and wish to come back to the knights, so she left me with her address. However, I knew that the decision I made was the right one, so I’ve never written her. But I figured that if there was any time to take advantage of my one remaining connection to the Crimean Knights, this was it.

Astrid: Really?! But I’m from Begnion! Surely it’s not appropriate for someone to fight for another nation! Who would trust my loyalty? Especially considering the strained relations between Begnion and Crimea!

Oscar: I can assure you that my ex-captain would never turn down a hard worker. However, I certainly don’t expect things to go smoothly for you. Who knows what everyone else would think? Still… this sounded like a better option than returning to Begnion and risking your family’s wrath, so I wanted to present it to you.

Astrid: I… I don’t know what to say… This is too much. I cannot accept it. Here, take the letter back.

Oscar: Hey, like I said before, you don’t need to be formal around here. Just do as us mercenaries do. Allow yourself to owe me, and in return, save my life sometime.

Astrid: I… I understand. Thank you, Oscar… I shall always know you as my knight… er… mercenary in shining armor!

Oscar: I hope things will work out for you, Astrid. You took a huge risk by leaving home, and deserve to have your amazing bravery rewarded.

#oscar #astrid #fire emblem #path of radiance #nintendo #gamecube #lost supports project #support #conversation #fanfiction

[radiantxhero-moved-blog]

Meta topic: how do you think LOSING to the Black Knight would affect Ike's pride, and opinion of himself in comparison to his father?

send me a topic to write a meta about my muse on

[Under read more for length, as well as any spoilers to those who have not beaten or watched a play through of Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn]

Well, if we’re talking PoR, that final clash with the Black Knight was pretty pivotal for Ike. 

Though he later discovers that he never really beat the Knight back then, at the time, it was a fulfillment for him – not only avenging his father, but proving his skills and worth, as well as defending his sister. It had been what he was ultimately training so hard to accomplish. 

While completing the task Princess Elincia had originally hired them to do was, of course, of the utmost importance – freeing a country would naturally take priority. But after witnessing his father’s death, killing the Black Knight becomes something of a driving obsession for Ike. He’s not only intent on slaying his father’s killer, but claiming the only chance he has at proving he could have succeeded Greil as a swordsman if he had lived.

Ike loses several times to the Black Knight in PoR. Every loss is an enraging, irritating reminder of how little progress he’s made personally in his skills. He might be making more progress as a commander, of leading battles with his men. But, one on one, going up against strong opponents – someone strong enough to defeat his father, using some of Greil’s own techniques – Ike feels like he flounders despite his efforts. It all feels like he’s being pandered to by the Knight, humored – like he’s still just a little boy, playing at being a warrior. If he manages to land a hit, it does nothing; if he avoids getting struck, it only feels like he’s being allowed to until the Knight decides to put him down like some upstart pup.

While he grudgingly takes these exchanges as training, and sets every attack, every block, every move that was made to memory, it’s frustrating as hell for him. Ike steps up his training – both against others in the Mercenaries or the Crimean Liberation army, as well as his solo sessions where he goes over the techniques and style left to him by his father.

If Ike lost that last confrontation in PoR, it would have been devastating. The Black Knight still would have left him alive, because he wasn’t up to par with Greil at his prime, and so killing Ike wouldn’t be worth it yet. The fort would still have been rigged to fall, and Nasir likely still would have shown up to intervene – giving Ike, Mist and Ena a means to escape.

But that loss would have festered in Ike deeply. Once throwing down Ashnard and restoring independence to Crimea, Ike might not have even stayed as long as he did in the court to see the restoration along as far as he did. He would have immediately gone into hunting down the Black Knight once more, now fully able to devote his time and energy to it now that the war was over.

As far as RD goes, there are very few clashes between Ike and the Black Knight.

But, if Ike had previously lost to the Knight in PoR, going up against him in the Tower would be intensely more emotional. Ike has had three years of searching, training, and letting these feelings of failure, self-hatred and hate for this man root in him. He not only wants to kill the Knight for what he’d done, to prove his abilities once and for all, but also to get out the decidedly unsettled issues he has towards Greil as well.

It would be a fight fueled by emotions on both sides, and losing would be – if not fatal – something that would break Ike. He’d come all this way, to the very feet of a God, and he still couldn’t beat this one man. It would be a severe blow to his already damaged self esteem, and if Ashera was still defeated in the long run, it would likely lead to Ike just….giving up for a good while, just numb to things as he tries to comprehend just how he could have lost. 

Ike would never fully give up on beating the Black Knight, or, as he would know him at this point, Zelgius. But it would take a few years for him to get back on track, to resolve his own internal problems, before training up again and making another attempt.

All in all, losing to the Black Knight would be incredibly damaging to Ike on so many fronts. He’d never fulfill that need for revenge for his father’s death. He’d feel like he not only failed his father and Mist, but the entire mercenary group as well. He’d never feel like he could succeed Greil, either as a warrior or as leader of the company. It would feed into his already damaged self esteem, and bring him to the lowest point possible.

It would fuck him up so, so much.

#ofinvisibleties #[bless you for sending this] #[tho it might be slightly incoherent ranting] #[because I don't think I could ever fully explain how devastating this would be for him] #[but just from the things I know of his dialogue in Heroes] #[he is a soft super insecure boy especially where it concerns living up to his father's legend] #[which we obviously see in PoR & to a lesser extent in RD] #[but it would be a lot worse if this is how it played out]

[markoftheasphodel]

Ike & Lucius for the ask meme!

Sorry for the delay… I thought I posted this and then realized yesterday I hadn’t.

Ike

(caveat: I have not finished either of his text-heavy games)

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my lifehotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous | 10/10 would bang (PoR Ike is a cute enough kid… but he’s a kid. RD Ike is not my type. Now, when SSBB came out 9 [!] years ago I thought that version of Ike was pretty damn hot.)hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff (aren’t most FE Lords gryffs?)best quality: he seems pretty sensible once he gets up and going?worst quality: mutated into Fanon Ike, who is insufferableship them with: Soren and Ranulf even tho Soren looks like a child and Ranulf’s a catboy. I do not want to think on how any of this works. brotp them with: Greil Mercs and whichever one of the above he doesn’t run away withneeds to stay away from: Black Knightmisc. thoughts: Okey-dokey. My feelings on Ike are impossible to separate from the hype around him. In SSB fandom between Brawl and IV he was used as a virtual stick by the dudebro contingent to beat on “gay” and unworthy Marth (LOL) and Roy. In that Heroes poll, the victory of Ike & Lyn somehow symbolized the old guard of FE fandom sticking it to the 3DS crowd despite Ike’s own n00b status relative to every lord prior to FE9. He gets all this cred that again reeks of (American) dudebro for being this “common guy” (despite the massive amount of in-universe privilege and specialness he actually has) as opposed to delicate poncy lordlings with manners. And then the Priam thing happened. If you strip away all the bullshit he’s quite likable but there’s a whole lot of bullshit and it’s a particularly distasteful kind of bullshit.

Lucius

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my lifehotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous | 10/10 would bang (even tho he’s an obvious trap)hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff (OBVIOUS PUFF)best quality: Genuine goodness in a bad world, I guess.worst quality: He combines the clerical brand of passive doormat with the “most faithful servant” brand of passive doormat for some supreme doormat-tery. Selfless to a fault and whatnot.ship them with: Nobrotp them with: Serra?needs to stay away from: Lord Raymond, I mean Ravenmisc. thoughts: Oh boy. So, Lucius is complicated. One, he launched the recurrent trend of FE having a beautiful blond “trap” character for the lulz & feels, which isn’t terrible because they’re good characters but still, it needs to be mentioned and it stopped being funny when Libra showed up. Two, his support chains are nice and diverse and show off an interesting and genuinely engaging character. Three… he comes with a subplot. The Cornwell Trio consist of Lord Raymond aka Raven (the vengeful son of a ruined Lycian house) his younger sister Priscilla (a troubadour with Feelings for her brother who falls neatly into the Incestuous Valkyrie lineage of FE characters), and his devoted servant Lucius (humble, unfailingly loyal, implicitly good with kids because he ends up raising Nino’s, apparently designed to hit every visual and textual sympathy button on the way down). I can’t stand Raven, I really don’t like Priscilla, and therefore Lucius is a good character whom I like set in a situation that I don’t like a bit. And Raven and Lucius have a paired ending, which in one sense is groundbreaking for FE and in another sense means he’s paired with Raven the Douche. And they all die horribly anyway.

#thelastaprilfool #tellius meta #elibe meta #meme reply #fire emblem incest/

[niquoroyal]

Today I do not feel my best. I will work through it. I will be ok. For those who stood off at d Greyhound road to hear the know that they were held for him Diddy to clarify m and move on with his child mother. As it was incor CT by blood and truth. Do so again family Heed. $50.00. would you accept that Friday m the hidden for a shirt or a blouse. Cause sometimes you have to set examples. As the bitch claim the sit in my mansion of his.Minor. The word Rd was Chris Brown the in between Hell No the child. He is mine child as it was since birth.

What's my last name. It nearly feel like there are statements of me being less. Scene bullshit as Puffy to say what. Lies. I did catch it.

Who some new they said I should feel ashamed with many more of that receive something not. Not even a hidden face. Nor a painful walk. Nor a small home hine.. still with more complaints. They pain I sleep with who? How arrangements and more bullshit.

Laughter of chuckles. Who fix. Hummm. Meaning many things now return to colored look. They family ok. Alot done seen No me. Who the fool ownership covered my back with brown eggs. Crucifix Who name the one who said they were around my family and his treated great. As one mother told a lie. That I was her daughter as I was piss.

Since 2015. por jump in later. Hummm. He would say Bad Boy. I would say Bullshit

[emotionsofthesoul]

Chapter 13 _ Estamos Juntas

As Juliana walked out her home with her backpack and a duffle bag, she had all her thoughts jumbled up. When she stepped out Valentina began bombarding her with questions and concerns. Juliana hadn’t heard any of it she was too out of it to even notice Valentina standing right in front of her.

“Hello? Juls? Baby?” Valentina asked when she finally noticed Juliana had yet to even look at her.

“Hmm… oh um, actually can we do this later? I need time, I need space to think. This is too much right now. Please Val.” Juliana said as her mind kept going.

Alirio had brought her car while Juliana was inside with her parents. Without waiting for a response from Valentina she went straight to her car and drove off. Driving always helped her think. She left a concerned and confused Valentina on the porch.

After Juliana left, Leon told his daughter to give Juliana some space. That Juliana needed that right now and she would call Valentina later. He insisted she head home while he tried to speak to Juliana’s parents. Valentina was too worried to even think of heading home. She agreed to leave so her father could focus on Juliana’s parents but there was no way in hell she would head home before speaking to Juliana. She told Alirio to head over to Juliana’s favorite park. She couldn’t just wait for Juliana to call her, she had to know her girlfriend would be okay. She thought that if there was anywhere she would find Juliana, it had to be there.

Juliana drove around town for a while. She drove down Florin Rd heading west until she reached the end of the street. She made a left and took that street for a few miles. She reached Garcia Bend Park which happened to be in front of the Sacramento River. She decided to stop briefly to get a bit of air. After about 5 minutes she got back into her car and began driving down Pocket Rd knowing it would eventually turn into Mack Rd leading her to the spot she felt safest.

After driving for about 15 minutes she arrived to her destination. She noticed Valentina’s car waiting for her and decided to park next to it understanding it was time to face her after leaving so abruptly. Valentina noticed her right away and was out the car before Juliana even finished parking her car.

Once the girls were standing across from each other, Valentina spoke first. “I’m happy to see that you’re okay for the most part.” She said pulling Juliana into a hug.

They let go as Juliana began to pull Valentina by the hand towards the swings wanting more privacy.

“I’m sorry for leaving the way that I did. I just felt too overwhelmed by everything. That’s what I do when I’m going through something, I run. I know that’s not the right thing to do but it’s what I’m used to and I’m sorry.” Juliana said once they were each sitting on a swing, as she looked down towards the wood chips.

“Talk to me Juliana…” Valentina said in a small whisper.

After a quick second Juliana looked up and found Valentina’s bright beautiful eyes staring back at her.

“I stood up for myself against the two people who I hoped would never turn their back on me. I honestly expected my dad to react in anger and probably even move me across the country. I expected my mom to be the reasonable one. I know she’s very set in her ways and sees this as a sin so I don’t know why I expected any more from her but she’s my mom you know… I didn’t think she’s react as badly as she did. My dad on the other hand… something happened when my mom just kept throwing jab after jab. He took my side. A man who has always been against gay people, who always made fun of them. I don’t know what happened but somehow he decided he didn’t need to understand to love me as I am. I just… I don’t know how to feel about all of this…” Juliana said the last sentence more to herself than Valentina who simply held her hand and gave it a squeeze every now and then in acknowledgement.

Both girls sat in a comfortable silence. Juliana still lost in thought as Valentina observed her. Valentina took a look around the park it was a Saturday afternoon and there was nobody around, it was almost as if the park itself did not exist. There were birds chirping as they hopped around the soccer field. A pair of squirrels were running up the nearby tree. There was a lovely breeze coming from the north and had everything not happened the way it did the girls would have had lovely day.

Valentina decided to make it her mission to end this day better than it started. She turned to Juliana and said, “Juliana, I need you to come with me.”

Juliana sighed and said, “Val no. I don’t want to go anywhere, I just want to sit here with you and just not talk.”

At that Valentina smiled and let out a giggle. “We can come right back to these same swings and not talk for the rest of the day if you want but I need you to come with me. Give me an hour of your time. Please.”

“Valentina, I’m really not in the mood.” Juliana said holding onto the swing and throwing her head back.

“Okay, 10 minutes. Andale, por fa….” Valentina said giving Juliana puppy eyes.

Hearing the words 10 minutes had Juliana sitting up again in her swing. She looked at Valentina incredulously and smirked before responding. “What you wanted to do in an hour, you really think we can do it in 10 minutes. Really?” She said in a challenging tone.

“You don’t believe me! How dare you! I accept your challenge señorita Valdes!” Valentina said getting up and pulling Juliana with her towards the car. “Give me your keys. Time starts as soon as we get out of this parking lot!”

“Okay.” Juliana said getting into the car.

In less than 2 minutes Juliana found herself by the light at Mack Rd. “Estas loca! Take care of my baby please!” Juliana said referring to her car and laughing at Valentina’s serious face that held a huge smile.

“You challenged me!” Valentina laughed making a left towards the bridge going over highway 99. She made another left turn at the Stockton light. She was thankful that the green lights were on her side. She made it to the indoor flea market in less than 4 minutes.

“Come on, let’s go!” Valentina said parking the car and running to open Juliana’s door. As soon as Juliana stepped out Valentina said, “Come on, slow poke! We have 6 minute to get what we need and be back in this car!” They ran towards the entrance and she took Juliana straight to the puesto with the Mexican candy.

“Get whatever you want, you have 1 minute!” Valentina said looking at her watch as she got her own basket full of candy and junk food. “30 seconds Juliana!”

After paying for the snacks they ran back to the car with 3 minutes to spare and Valentina turned to Juliana smirking.

“I thought you said we couldn’t do it in 10 minutes! We did it 7! Come at me bro!” Valentina said smacking her chest like a frat boy would. 

They shared a laugh at Valentina’s antics and Juliana finally spoke up. “Thank you Val, I needed this distraction.” She laughed before continuing, “So was this really your plan? Just come and get candy?” 

Valentina shifted her body to be able to look at Juliana before speaking, “Honestly. No. Well, half of it was, I guess. The original plan was to bring you and walk around line after line and eventually make our way to the little dulceria.”

“Val, but wouldn’t they recognize us if we took our sweet time going isle per isle?” Juliana said seriously.

She couldn’t understand why Valentina was so relaxed about being seen with her after the news of them dating broke.

“Juls, I don’t care. I love you and I don’t care if the whole world knows. Estamos juntas en esto. I’m not willing to let you struggle with this alone because this is between the two of us meaning your struggles are mine. I just wanted to make this day end on a good note for you. Now if you want we can head back to FC Park and eat all this junk in silence. I just want you to know you are not alone in this even if I have to be dead silent just to be next to you, I’m here okay.” Valentina said putting a stand of loose hair behind Juliana’s ear.

Juliana relaxed into Valentina’s touch allowing herself to be cared for.

“Gracias. I just don’t want to mess up your life by causing all of this drama with the media and my parents. & your sister definitely does not like me. You don’t deserve that. ” Juliana said speaking honestly.

“Look Juliana. El medio… son puros chismosos. That’s their job, to be nosy. I don’t care about what they say, they don’t know me. Our parents, well that’s a different story. Our dad’s are sort of okay with it but I’m sure your mom will come around eventually. I know you don’t want to be the center of attention with the media but that’s gonna blow over soon enough. They’ll flock to the next news story when they see they can’t come between us or get any information. It’s how that world works. But what matters is that you and I are together in this and we will come out the other side stronger than before. My life was boring before you showed up, you can’t mess it up, you’ve already flipped it for the better. I want you in it, I need you in my life. Y por Eva no te preocupes. She’s just my sister, she can’t do anything to make me stop loving you” Valentina said not breaking eye contact with Juliana.

Juliana didn’t know how to respond so she simply allowed her tears to fall down her cheeks as Valentina reached over to hug her. The girls stayed like this for a while until Juliana pulled away.

“Can we go back to the park now? I’m done crying for today I just want to feel like a kid again with my girlfriend.” Juliana asked Valentina who simply smiled back at her and nodded.

Once they arrived back at FC Park the girls took their bag filled with all the snacks. They climbed the jungle gym and went to the very top. There they decided to sit across from each other and start sharing stories as they ate their candy. When they were halfway done with the bag, they took it to the car and went back to the play area. The girls spent the rest of the day playing as if they were 6 instead of 18. By the time the sun began to set they had sent Alirio for pizza and then sent him home afterwards. They ate their pizza in the car while listening to The 1975 before finally deciding to head home. Tonight Juliana would spend the night at the Carvajal Mansion and they would deal with tomorrow, the following morning.

#juliantina #juliana valdes #valentina carvajal #Forever #juliantinafics #forever ch13

[jodyedgarus]

The Next Phase Of NBA Superteam Technology: Creating One From Scratch

When healthy, San Antonio Spurs swingman Kawhi Leonard is a card-carrying MVP candidate and one of the game’s premier all-around talents. But here’s the thing: Leonard hasn’t really been healthy since the 2017 playoffs, when he landed awkwardly on Zaza Pachulia’s foot in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. Between that season-ending ankle sprain and a mysterious quad injury that sidelined Leonard for all but nine games of the 2017-18 season — fueling rumors of a growing rift with the Spurs organization — most of the recent headlines about Leonard have been over rehab schedules and locker-room turmoil, not his on-court brilliance.

Friday’s report that Leonard wants a trade out of San Antonio was the latest (and most significant) piece of news in that department yet. According to ESPN’s Chris Haynes and Adrian Wojnarowski, Leonard would prefer to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, which might help lay the groundwork for a superteam featuring Leonard, LeBron James and Paul George. These rumors were enough to cause a spike in the Lakers’ playoff futures, where they now have 6-1 odds of winning the 2018-19 title — after winning just 35 games last season. But while that development would shift the paradigm, would this Big Three really be able to challenge the Warriors for supremacy in the West? And are the Lakers even the team that can offer the best package in return for Leonard?

If L.A. does manage to reel in the trio of stars, it would finally replenish the Lakers’ supply of future Hall of Famers, a resource the franchise mined for championship runs almost continuously from the 1940s through the 2000s (before Kobe Bryant retired to become an Oscar-winning filmmaker). It would also represent a brand new kind of Big Three, one made entirely from scratch. Up until very recently, history’s top three-star arrangements came together at least semi-organically, with one (if not two) of the members already on the roster before the third piece of the puzzle was added. Even in newer cases such as the 2010-11 Miami Heat, you usually needed at least one existing player on the roster to play Dwyane Wade’s role and help recruit other stars to join up.

To illustrate this, here’s a list of just about every notable1 NBA Big Three since the ABA merger, along with how many of its members were already on the team before the final member joined:

A Kawhi-LeBron-PG-13 Big Three would be unique

Notable NBA Big Threes since the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, by year formed and number of stars who were already on the team’s roster

Year Team Star 1 Star 2 Star 3 prev. Stars 2019 Lakers (?) LeBron James Kawhi Leonard Paul George 0 2018 Rockets Chris Paul James Harden Trevor Ariza 2 2018 Thunder R. Westbrook C. Anthony Paul George 1 2017 Warriors Kevin Durant Stephen Curry Draymond Green 2 2015 Cavaliers LeBron James Kevin Love Kyrie Irving 1 2013 Lakers Kobe Bryant Pau Gasol Dwight Howard 2 2012 Clippers Chris Paul Blake Griffin DeAndre Jordan 2 2011 Heat LeBron James Dwyane Wade Chris Bosh 1 2010 Thunder Kevin Durant R. Westbrook James Harden 2 2008 Celtics Kevin Garnett Ray Allen Paul Pierce 1 2008 Lakers Kobe Bryant Pau Gasol Lamar Odom 2 2004 Lakers Shaquille O’Neal Kobe Bryant Gary Payton 2 2004 T-Wolves Kevin Garnett Latrell Sprewell Sam Cassell 1 2003 Spurs Tim Duncan Manu Ginobili Tony Parker 2 1997 Rockets H. Olajuwon Charles Barkley Clyde Drexler 2 1996 Bulls Michael Jordan Scottie Pippen Dennis Rodman 2 1994 Jazz Karl Malone John Stockton Jeff Hornacek 2 1994 Magic Shaquille O’Neal Penny Hardaway Nick Anderson 2 1988 Bulls Michael Jordan Scottie Pippen Horace Grant 1 1987 Pistons Isiah Thomas Adrian Dantley Bill Laimbeer 2 1983 76ers Julius Erving Moses Malone Bobby Jones 2 1983 Lakers K. Abdul-Jabbar Magic Johnson James Worthy 2 1981 Celtics Larry Bird Robert Parish Kevin McHale 1

Includes Big Threes formed by adding players through the draft.

Source: Basketball-Reference.com

With Leonard coming from San Antonio, James from Cleveland and George from Oklahoma City, this would be the first Big Three we could find that formed with three newcomers all meeting in a new city. Things have been trending in that direction for a while: Although the vast majority of Big Threes in the 1980s and ’90s were formed by adding a third star to a two-man core, plenty of recent Big Threes have seen two new faces joining one existing star’s squad. But this would be a new Big Three experiment that pushes the boundaries of how they can be formed even further.

If the Lakers do manage to haul in Leonard, George and James, their new team would instantly be good enough to at least give the Warriors some competition in the Western Conference next season. Let’s mix our CARMELO projections, which use historical comparisons to model out a potential career arc for each current NBA player, with the L.A. superteam scenario detailed here by my colleague Kevin Pelton. In it, he assumes the Lakers sign James and George with their cap room, and that San Antonio accedes to a trade that sends Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Luol Deng’s onerous contract to the Spurs in exchange for Leonard. Here’s how CARMELO thinks that team looks on paper:

What a Lakers superteam might look like

Projected depth chart for the hypothetical 2018-19 Los Angeles Lakers, with CARMELO player projected plus/minus

Projected Plus/Minus Pos Player Age MPG Offensive Defensive Total PG Brandon Ingram 21 31 -0.3 -0.5 -0.8 Tyler Ennis 24 16 -1.1 -0.7 -1.8 SG Paul George 28 36 +2.0 +0.5 +2.5 Josh Hart 23 24 +0.5 -0.7 -0.2 SF Kawhi Leonard 27 28 +2.1 +1.3 +3.4 PF LeBron James 34 36 +5.4 +0.8 +6.2 Thomas Bryant 21 12 -1.4 -0.1 -1.5 C Nerlens Noel 24 20 -2.3 +2.8 +0.5 Ivica Zubac 21 14 -2.0 +1.0 -1.0 Replacement-level players 23 -1.7 -0.3 -2.0 Team total 240 +3.7 +2.1 +5.9

Assumes Lakers sign LeBron James and Paul George with cap space, trade with San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard and use a salary-cap exception to sign a big man (such as Nerlens Noel).

Age is as of Feb. 1, 2019.

Source: ESPN.com

CARMELO would expect that team, with a projected efficiency margin of plus-5.9 points per 100 possessions, to win about 54 games next season, even with stray waiver-wire pickups logging 10 percent of the team’s available minutes. The team would also have the star power of a bona fide championship contender, with James arguably ranking as the best player in the league,2 Leonard capable of snagging MVP votes and George checking in as a five-time All-Star by the age of 28. There would be questions about fit — since James, Leonard and George overlap in both position and skill set — and no guarantees about Leonard’s health. But this Big Three would certainly vault L.A. back into the championship conversation, where it hasn’t resided in a while.

However, before these Laker bros start making plans for a parade down Figueroa Street next June, it’s fair to ask whether the Lakers are really the most likely destination for Leonard. Although Leonard may want to play in L.A., he’s also still under contract with the Spurs for one more season, so San Antonio still controls where he’d eventually end up landing. And if they can help it, I’m guessing Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford would prefer not to set a superteam up for the franchise that’s faced the Spurs in 34 playoff games since San Antonio’s dynasty began in the late nineties.

Moreover, Los Angeles may not even have the best package to offer the Spurs in a deal for Leonard. Our colleagues at ESPN.com put together their seven favorite potential Leonard trades, including the Lakers’ Ball/Kuzma/Deng swap mentioned above. For each of those scenarios, I added up CARMELO’s five-year upside values, which project a player’s wins above replacement over the next five seasons with negative-value comparable players zeroed out.3 According to that measure, L.A.’s deal is among the best San Antonio might be able to get — but it has competition from Miami, Toronto, Philadelphia and others:4

Who will teams offer in exchange for Kawhi?

Five-year CARMELO upside* values for selected trade packages involving Kawhi Leonard, according to ESPN.com’s Insiders

team Players tot. MIA Dragic 5 Richardson 14 Winslow 11 Adebayo 17 48 LAL Ball 37 Kuzma 10 Deng 1 47 TOR DeRozan 12 Anunoby 22 Siakam 11 45 PHI Covington 24 Fultz 8 10th pick 9 40 BOS Irving 24 27th pick 3 27 BOS Hayward 7 Rozier 14 21 POR McCollum 12 Rd 1 pick 4 16

* CARMELO’s “upside” measurements are a version of our ratings in which comparable players who project to have a negative value are zeroed out instead.

Numbers may not add up because of rounding.

Source: ESPN.com

Injury status notwithstanding, superstars like Leonard don’t come up for grabs on the trade market often, and where they end up landing can often shape the destiny of the league. If Leonard does ultimately team up with James and George, the resulting Big Three would indeed reshape the NBA championship picture for years to come. The financials of such a deal are tricky, though doable. What’s unknown now is the desire of Leonard, James and George to play together — a necessary component, since the latter two are free agents — and whether the Spurs would be willing to trade their star to a rival team in the West. In other words, this Big Three is unlikely as the situation currently stands. But just the same, we’ve seen stranger things than this happen during the NBA’s summer silly season. Stay tuned.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-next-phase-of-nba-superteam-technology-creating-one-from-scratch/